While both 867 and 1066 offer a lot of fun playthroughs, I think it's about time a few more start dates get added. I'd suggest only 1-5 more with these being my top picks:
The Year of the Fall of Eastern Rome
The Scottish War of Independence
Eleanor of Aquitaine's Life (any of it)
#A Few New Start Dates
maiden wave
normal bone
The Devs have said they don't want to put the effort in having to maintain the history of later start dates due to how few people actually played after 1066 dates
that being said, I'd like the return of Iron Century and Alexiad, as both were pretty balanced
naive radish
"maintaining the history of later start dates" a good deal of post-1066 history is already in the files from porting CK2 history, I'm working on cleaning up 1187 now as a side project and that date is 90% intact before I even touched it. They can at the very least add the CK2 bookmarks with minimal effort, anything outside of that yeah fair enough.
Post-1066 CK2 start dates that are in CK3 files include:
1081 (The Alexiad)
1187 (The Third Crusade)
1204 (The Latin Empire)
1220 (Age of the Mongols)
1241 (Rise of the Hansa)
1337 (Late Middle Ages)
that's 6 new post-1066 start dates that would take minimal effort on the dev team's part to add.
naive radish
Also, if they don't expect people to play after 1066 and it'll take minimal effort to polish post-1066 start dates, I say release it for free. They don't expect to make money off of it and most of their work is already done anyway. Even if people would play it, I'd still say make it free for that latter reason.
weak quail
The Devs have said they don't want to put the effort in having to maintain the history of later start dates due to how few people actually played after 1066 dates
We actually aren't opposed to start dates that are a bit later. We are very much opposed to start dates before what we have now. 🙂
drowsy spoke
Which makes sense, given that the game's system are not fit to model things before 867. Even 867 is kinda pushing it.
naive radish
Before 867, fair enough. Even though 769 also has groundwork from CK2, its much rougher around the edges and would take longer than other start dates to restore, plus innovations would be difficult to balance considering you'd be stuck on tribal for over 100 years before early medieval unlocks. Plus the further you go back the closer you get to late antiquity, which is more Imperator territory and not Crusader Kings. I still think an exception could be made for 769, but eh.
Although innovations themselves need a rework. Gavelkind is useless, arabs and persians were making and talking about armillary spheres before 867, and the french were known to use crossbows as early as 947 and 984 in the sieges of Senlis and Verdun respectively. Crossbows were even used in the Battle of Hastings by William the Conquer!
drowsy spoke
Although innovations themselves need a rework. Gavelkind is useless, arabs and p...
sounds like that should be its own suggestion. Oh, you made one for the crossbows already
naive radish
Yeah, and gavelkind has one too
mystic sandal
Before 867, fair enough. Even though 769 *also* has groundwork from CK2, its muc...
The biggest issue with 769 is that 90% of it was made up characters
naive radish
The biggest issue with 769 is that 90% of it was made up characters
867 isn't much different, plus most filler characters still have some historical basis, they just aren't actual historical characters. I.E: all of the baltic and finnic characters in both start dates have dynasties named after what tribe they're supposed to represent, and control the territory they're said to have controlled. Historical documentation certainly is a problem for earlier start dates, but its not insurmountable.
mystic sandal
867 isn't much different, plus most filler characters still have some historical...
867 is at least marginally better in Europe itself and the Middle East. Areas like tribal regions and the steppe are made up characters in general regardless of start date and always named after a tribe or clan outside the rare exceptions where there is a known leader which typically is going to be just leaders of Steppe confederations or Lithuania around when the Gediminids begin to appear and aren't at all what I'm referring to when it comes to made up characters.