The Rajas of Indie expansion for Crusader Kings II is set to be launched before the end of spring and Henrik Fahraeus, the project leader working on the new content, was kind enough to answer a number of questions regarding the game mechanics.

Softpedia: How did the PDS development team decide to make India the focus of the next expansion for Crusader Kings II?

Henrik Fahraeus: Well, we have pretty much covered the obvious things by now in Crusader Kings II; from republics to playable Muslims and Pagans. I felt it was time to do something a bit more challenging and it's always been my hope that we could extend the map at some point.

The old eastern edge of the map is fairly unnatural, cutting many important countries in half. I also think India is such a fascinating region both in terms of history, and of culture and religion; tolerant and pluralistic, where the native religions Buddhism, Jainism and the many forms of Hinduism coexisted relatively peacefully (compared to the violent suppression of heresies in the West and the Middle East) for thousands of years.

Softpedia: How much research was required to make sure that the new map was accurate and that events implemented made sense for the period?

Henrik Fahraeus: As usual, we've put a great deal of effort into this with our scriptwriters/researches as well as a huge amount of help of a volunteer group of researchers. It's taken longer than expected!

Softpedia: The Jain seem to be pacifists and very tolerant of others, will they just be easy play for aggressive nations or do they have a chance to thrive in the long term?

Henrik Fahraeus: The Jain have no defensive penalties - they are just more limited in their own conquest options. A player might want to start out as a Hindu to conquer huge swathes of land and then switch to Buddhist or Jain for a technological advantage or an extremely stable realm.

Softpedia: How often will reincarnation happen to a ruler from India and how much will a player’s experience be impacted by the events linked to it?

Henrik Fahraeus: The reincarnation events should happen once or twice per playthrough in the expansion Rajas of India. The impact is mostly emotional, although the reincarnated character can pick up traits and skills from the supposed previous incarnation.

The player has some control over this, which, combined with the fact that Indians can essentially choose their successor, can be quite useful.

Softpedia: What’s the Rajas of India mechanics that the team is most proud of?

Henrik Fahraeus: Hehe, well, each member of the team has his own favorite, but I am personally very fond of the war elephants and the way we revised the game to handle special units like that in a more flexible way.

Softpedia: Can families coming from India gain power in the Middle East and Western Europe or will the game world be more balkanized in terms of power?

Henrik Fahraeus: There will be some expansion going on, both into and out of India. Characters of the Indian religions will not intermarry much with those of other faiths, however. We have also added a "diplomatic range" to stop most interactions between extremely distant realms.

Since the AI is quite focused on maintaining a cohesive realm that corresponds to its "de jure" borders, it's very unlikely that you will see a Buddhist emperor of Britannia... unless you do it yourself, of course.

Softpedia: Are there any new features planned for Muslim and Christian rulers and the political systems used on the Western side of the map in Crusader Kings II?

Henrik Fahraeus: As you might know, we alwayd aim to release a large patch with every expansion. So now we are adding a lot of stuff in the patch (v2.1) and some of the highlights include a more severe system of attrition when your troops have been away from a friendly county for too long, a system of "unified revolts" where the faction leader has all members of the uprising as vassals rather than fighting their old liege on their own. Oh, and when close relatives ask for a title, they might now actually start a war for it.

Softpedia: Will the addition of India mean that a bigger focus on Africa other than the Middle East might be next?

Henrik Fahraeus: That is one possibility :)

Softpedia: How many more expansions can be expected for Crusader Kings II, which seems to become a new game with each piece of content launched?

Henrik Fahraeus: That is very hard to say. We will do two more expansions for sure, and after that we will have to see if people are still up for more! We have ideas and visions in abundance, so it all comes down to if gamers want more for Crusader Kings II.