"Way of Life," the next DLC expansion for Crusader Kings II, is adding new role-playing features into the game's diplomacy system. PC, Mac and Linux players will all be able to pick up the expansion starting December 16 for $7.99.
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The primary goal of Way of Life is to give Crusader Kings II players more opportunities for role-playing and to create a character for the ruler of their empire. The game's diplomacy system has been reworked to allow players to make decisions like choosing the kinds of people they'd like to court then choosing to break the relationship off when they want to move on to someone else. Is a political rival giving you trouble? Go full Aaron Burr and challenge him to a duel. Engage in a little espionage by sending out spies or discretely freeing prisoners. Being a king doesn't always mean doing the right thing.
Way of Life is also introducing Focuses into the Crusader Kings mix. Focuses allow players to assign general goals and schools of thought to their kingdoms' rulers. For example, a player can give a ruler a Scholarship Focus to convince him to focus more on research and education. A Business Focus will make a king concentrate more on filling up his kingdom's coffers with gold. There are 10 Focuses total, each highlighting a different aspect of leadership.
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Finally, the expansion adds in hundreds of new events, with some of them actually triggering only for rulers with a certain Focus. Way of Life is also throwing in 20 new event images.
As with any Crusader Kings II DLC, developer Paradox will be releasing a free update for the vanilla game at the same time the expansion goes live. December 16, then, will be an important day for all Crusader Kings II players, whether or not they have $8 to spend.