izigame.me

This is a review from 01/05/2025, maybe the problems I am writing about will be fixed. After 2 full playthroughs from a "count" (or whatever its counterpart is called) to the Great Khan, I think that Khans of the Steppe DLC is quite problematic. While, superficially, it is indeed a very extensive and rich in content, it poses numerous problems for the game:
- Introduction of non-playable characters, i.e., shepherds. You can play as a shepherd selecting a character, but then you cannot do anything, since they have no yurt or income. You can switch to adventurer if your culture gives you that decision, but the game then doesn't know what to do, it essentially clones your character, leaving original in place, and making its clone an adventurer. In effect, both characters have the same character ID, so if you declare a war against the original shepherd the game thinks you fight with yourself... This wasn't done well, if shepherds are really necessary (and I don't think they are), they should be clearly marked as non-playable characters.
- The nomad lands function separately to tribal, feudal, and administrative realms. If an adventurer conquers a nomadic land, again the game doesn't know what to do, and original nomadic owner of the land still has his nomadic titles tied to that land, while an adventurer has an actual ownership of that land. Again, crazy.
- Migration is handled by spawning numerous new characters who take place of the older characters. It increases the number of characters alive and affects performance, and introduces role-play inconsistencies (like 40-year-old characters having no history).
- Nomadic realms automatically change de jure kingdoms and empires, effectively removing other kingdoms and empires from the map. Any new vassal becomes your de jure vassal. When you switch to Great Khan, vassals are handled as in the regular game, no longer affecting de jure changes. In the end, you're ending up with a big blob, which is a singular kingdom within singular empire, and you have no way to give your vassals kingdoms to decrease the number of vassals or just make administration easier.
- Also all nomadic realms effectively ignore de jure map. All realms are extremely chaotic. As a larger ruler you have no easy way of dividing your land among trusted vassals to make administration easier, or just make things easier. You might end up with literally hundreds of vassals and tributaries, you cannot really change what lands they have, and there is no way to remember them.
- You can easily make an entire world into tributaries. From India to Africa, no joke. Then, if you have a herd, you can mobilize an army several hundred thousand strong. In result, the performance of the game is nonexistent, you wait like a half a minute for a day to pass (not only my problem, see Laith's video for example).
- Nomadic domains are handled differently than feudal domains, you have an extreme 2-county maximum, which is very difficult to increase, allowing for zero flexibility. If by mistake you take over the developed feudal domain, the process of changing those domains into nomadic takes multiple years (!). In general then, you're limited to steppe area, and any interaction with non-nomadic lands is totally limited. Which is not historically accurate: nomads were living alongside settled rulers in the same territories for hundreds of years, interacting culturally and politically. Same which bizarre invite foreign merchant decision: trade contacts between nomads and settled people were regular, and in game you have one per 10 years event!
- Similarly, you have a very limited way to engage with artists and make artefacts. For example, you cannot hire a local artisan. Which is crazy inaccurate. Nomadic burials show that steppes were very rich in artistic production (in the entire Great Steppe from Ukraine to Mongolia), nomads had a very sophisticated culture, with their own artistic production, made in local style, and reflecting local sensibilities and religious beliefs. That's just crazy bad that Paradox is limiting nomads in this regard.
And that just several problems which I can produce from the top of my head. In general, this DLC is good for one-two playthroughs, but otherwise it changes a game into a mess. I appreciate the effort on Paradox' part, but it should've been a bit simpler and easier to deal with, both for the players, and in terms of the performance of the game. How they're going to handle Asia expansion with this mess in terms of performance, no idea.