A-rated game 'Crusader Kings 2' released on Steam!

[oldrocker99]

As soon as it goes on sale I'll buy it...$39.99? Yeah, I'm a teacher, not a CEO.

(Gulp) I had to budget for my week (fixed income) to buy it at full price. I wanted Paradox and Steam to know that Linux gaming is a viable proposition for big developers, so I took the plunge. Note that I said that I had paid the second highest price I had ever paid for a game (Dominions 3 from Shrapnel, who no longer distributes the game, was $54.95, and was Worth. Every. Penny. Now that it's $30 on Desura, it's a steal).

[ObiDamnKenobi]

I purchased it yesterday (2nd most I've ever paid for a game), and it is a wowser. I haven't yet found the reported bugs; the game seems to run fine. It will take SOME time to learn how to play, but it appears that the time put into this game will be well-rewarded. Finally, a major developer (besides Source) is supporting Linux on Steam. 2013 *may* just be The Year Of Linux Gaming.

Or it may not, in which case it will almost certainly be 2014.

So it runs fine on your PC? Which GPU do you have? AMD or Nvidia? I've had a bit of problems with my AMD6950 with FOSS drivers (proprietary is worse though). Once I got CK2 to run properly I had to turn of the water rendering, otherwise it was a slide show. (And it runs like a dream on my win7 partition..)

Debating trying do a GPU sidegrade to Nvidia, since they seem to be doing a better job with linux drivers.

And by the way this game is amazing. One of the few reasons I have to boot into windows. If CK2 and EU4 come to linux I doubt I will need it any more!

[oldrocker99]

I have a nVidia 525, which is their lowest-end DirectX11 card from last year. The main 3D map at the game's main screen is a trifle stuttery, but the game does seem to run. It'll take a couple (or fourple) of hours to get used to the game's very complex interface. FWIW, reviewers call this the most accessible Paradox game yet...

[ObiDamnKenobi]

I have a nVidia 525, which is their lowest-end DirectX11 card from last year. The main 3D map at the game's main screen is a trifle stuttery, but the game does seem to run. It'll take a couple (or fourple) of hours to get used to the game's very complex interface. FWIW, reviewers call this the most accessible Paradox game yet...

cool, thanks.
My GPU should be quite a bit beefier than yours, but the menu was totally unusably slow. So yeah; sounds like driver issues. If I'm going to do more serious linux gaming going forward maybe I should look out for a cheap last gen Nvidia then.

heh, CK2 is faily "accesible" for a paradox game. I've played EU3 and EU:rome a bit as well, but don't think the difference is huge. hearts of iron 3 is supposedly a step up in complexity..
However! The good thing is you don't need to know, and understand, everthing to be able to play and enjoy it. Pick a small county or dutchy and just muck around and see what happens. (I had good luck uniting Ireland, starting from one county.) Don't start as the emperor of the HRE.. I have 40+ hours in the game and still have "huh? what? " moments. But that's part of the fun

[mastablasta]

i hate it in EU3 (btw does it work well on Wine and latest Ubutnu?) how all structures get destroyed when you occupy a province. it just doens't make sense... it is further upsetting that you can occupy the whole country but on piece deal you can only chip a piece from it. and finnally when things go bad and you go bankrupt you have no way to control or at info about which units disbanded. siply you suddenly findthat you are missing some units....

othewise very engaging and fun game but really the most that upsets me is when i capture a province every structure is destroyed and needs to be built from start.

i like for example in rome total war how buildings get destroyed if you are not carefull with siege engines. ok this can't be done in case of EU, but at least you shoul dbe able to keep soem buildings.

oh yeah Hearts of Iron does seem complex. i need to give it a try once. it's just there is so little time for games these days...

[oldrocker99]

cool, thanks.
My GPU should be quite a bit beefier than yours, but the menu was totally unusably slow. So yeah; sounds like driver issues. If I'm going to do more serious linux gaming going forward maybe I should look out for a cheap last gen Nvidia then.

Last generation cards (like nVidia's 500 series. Or, heck, their 600 series) are where the deals are.

heh, CK2 is faily "accesible" for a paradox game. I've played EU3 and EU:rome a bit as well, but don't think the difference is huge. hearts of iron 3 is supposedly a step up in complexity..
However! The good thing is you don't need to know, and understand, everthing to be able to play and enjoy it. Pick a small county or dutchy and just muck around and see what happens. (I had good luck uniting Ireland, starting from one county.) Don't start as the emperor of the HRE.. I have 40+ hours in the game and still have "huh? what? " moments. But that's part of the fun

That's great advice. I'm wishing that the game had as good a tutorial as Dominions 3, which explained WHY to do things as well as HOW to do things. The in-game tutorial suggests clicking on buttons which do not appear on the screen, etc. There aren't a lot of strategic pointers. I think I'll start somewhere near Dublin...

[ObiDamnKenobi]

Last generation cards (like nVidia's 500 series. Or, heck, their 600 series) are where the deals are.



That's great advice. I'm wishing that the game had as good a tutorial as Dominions 3, which explained WHY to do things as well as HOW to do things. The in-game tutorial suggests clicking on buttons which do not appear on the screen, etc. There aren't a lot of strategic pointers. I think I'll start somewhere near Dublin...

Tutorials are pretty meh quality. I'd suggest some youtube tutorials/walkthroughs, at least for the early part of the game so you understand both how to do things and maybe also WHY

Apparently new linux drivers from AMD just came out. I'm excited to try them out and see if things improve!

@mastablasta
I have not gotten EU3 (steam version) to work under Wine..

[Horrid Troll]

To be honest, the tutorials are buggy on CK2 (multi-OS issue) so you don't have much choice about where you learn to play the game from (well I'm sure there's a manual around too).

Brilliant game, though you may need to take a month or two off =)

You can get it from the Paradox web shop (plus key for Steam) for 1/2 price.

[loopinaloop]

Once I got CK2 to run properly I had to turn of the water rendering, otherwise it was a slide show. (And it runs like a dream on my win7 partition..)

How did you did that? How to turn off the water rendering?

I've the same problem that everyone else writes about - extremely low FPS rate!

[loopinaloop]

I've found it in the settings.txt but although it helped, the game is still way too slow.