Hello everybody and welcome to the second development diary about the 1.05 patch. Last week we talked about the revised crusade system and all the new features supporting it. Now we have come to discuss something that may be a surprise to some.



1.05 is introducing a concept called Dynamic Kingdoms. The original release introduced the concept of de-jure kingdoms, but they were 100% static, and each province belonged to a kingdom from the start to the end of the game. While this system had its advantages, there were some slight drawbacks to it, and we wanted to improve upon it.



The first feature of this concept is the fact that duchies can now be assimilated into another de-jure kingdom, after belong to that kingdom for at least 100 years. So if England holds Normandy for 100 years, it will become a de-jure part of England, and the crown-laws of England will apply to Normandy. This also makes the unification of Spain, as one Kingdom, a long-term practical goal



We also introduced the concept of creating titular titles, if you hold the scripted capital. Titular titles are more expensive to create than titles that have land already de-jure to them. This means that you can now create the Kingdom of Venice if you so desire..



We have also added quite a lot of kingdoms to the map from the start, so that some of the major ones like France and Germany are slightly less powerful blocks at the start of the game. Frisia, Lotharingia, Bavaria, Pomerania, Aquitaine and Britanny are now de jure kingdoms from 1066, even if they are not actual titles held by someone. If they are not created and held by someone they will eventually be assimilated.



Some changes to kingdom setup also include Galicia and Navarre being de jure kingdoms, and the kingdom of Al-Andalus is now called Andalusia and can be created by anyone in the Arabic culture group.



An interesting mechanic change is that a kingdom can only be created if you are already a king or emperor, OR you hold more than one duchy title. After all, who would respect a mere duke claiming to be a king.



Kings and Emperors can now also take counties inside their de-jure realms, as we changed how Ducal Claims work to now be a "De Jure Claim", so if you as King of Burgundy holds a province that is de jure France, France can always attack you for it.



I have to apologise for the lack of screenshot in this development diary, but I am writing it from home, as its a holiday week.



Enjoy, and you'll see more details next week.. where we may finally be more shady!