Crusader Kings III - The Sequel You Have Been Waiting For

[AWS260]

The timeline's end is fast approaching, and our Dayirid dynasty has reached a new peak (although not as impressive as our Jahan allies).



The world is overwhelmingly Muslim, primarily Sunni Ash'ari.



Khagan Saru, who oversaw an extraordinary period of growth and stability, has died at ripe old age of 76. He came to the throne at age 2(!), somehow surviving to take the reigns of his empire. I don't know who served as regent during his childhood, since the game abstracts this, but they did an amazing job.



Despite the fact that Saru was a master diplomat (huge Diplomacy stat) who rarely picked up a sword (middling Prowess), the game decided to highlight his fighting ability in his obituary. Oh well.



His second-eldest son, Belitko, takes the throne (the eldest son was disinherited for general incompetency). Actually quite a few thrones -- that's three empires and 13 kingdoms. Belitko is no genius but hopefully he'll be able to hold things together until the game ends in 1453.

[jztemple2]

[jztemple2]

Big update for CKIII: Dev Diary #45: 1.2 Patch Notes

1.2.0 Changelog
###################
# Free Features
###################
– Added a Ruler Designer where you can customize the ruler you’ll start with before the game starts. This works with achievements – but under certain restrictions.
– Added a character Kill List to the character window
– Added the functionality to attach your armies to another allied army located in the same province in order to follow the other army

I didn't paste the rest of the patch notes here as they are truly voluminous. However, I'm happy to report one change:

– Your spymaster will no longer fabricate a secret about themselves

[jztemple2]

Some funny things from the patch notes (from the CKIII forum website)

[jztemple2]

Well, it's been a while, but things are afoot in the CKIII world. A new patch is on the horizon and we're getting hints on what it will involve.

Winter is coming to Crusader Kings 3 as first details on the 1.3 patch drop

Winter, which we’re told is coming, will involve new visuals for the campaign map, as well as three season ‘flavours’ in mild, normal, and harsh. The map will change to become snow-covered, and there will be visual cues at the barony level to show what level of winter you have.

The harsher the winter, the more penalties there’ll be for things like supply, combat penalties for units like cavalry, and more ‘fatal’ casualties during combat. Some cultures will get unique men-at-arms units that actually get a bonus while fighting in winter.

The map changes mainly revolve around introducing new baronies and counties in certain areas. There’s a range of map changes the team would like to address, but the first to get some love will be Ireland and Italy. You can read more about the specifics of these new map additions at the bottom of the diary.

Poetry is coming to Crusader Kings 3, so everyone is getting a pope hat

But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? Why, it’s poetry, of course – the kind that the deranged characters in Crusader Kings III come up with, anyway. The latest dev diary for Paradox’s medieval grand strategy game explains how the poetic trait will work when it arrives, but it also informs us that everyone is getting a pope hat.

First, let’s talk about rhyming, Middle Ages style. Unlike the Crusader Kings II version of the ‘poetic’ trait, Crusader Kings III’s incarnation will involve procedurally generated verses, which can be used to impress, seduce, or even torture other characters. Crusader Kings III’s poems will be built around five themes: romance, legacy, mourning, strife, and incompetence (that last one is for when the poet is particularly vexed with someone they know doing something particularly stupid).

Paradox says at present, the poetry system takes into account characters’ biographies and then picks an appropriate theme, which it will then use to select intro and outro lines for a nice little couplet, as well as a title for the work.

And...

Poetic characters can also use their body of work as a method of torture – imprisoned characters can be subjected to hours-long recitations of the poets’ favourite passages and rhymes. The horror.

Medieval poetry torture might be diabolical, but will it measure up to Vogon poetry?

[Max Peck]

This mod will let you settle Crusader Kings 3 battles in Mount & Blade

Crusader Kings 3 is a great strategic romp that lets you play out your kingmaking fantasies of intrigue and plotting. When it comes to pulling out the swords though, wouldn't it be cool if you could actually get down on the battlefield to fight your way to victory? Hold up, there's definitely a game for that. Well several, really, but this is about Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord. An upcoming mod will let you play out your crusading wars on Bannerlord's battlefields and then send the results back to your Crusaders campaign to continue strategising.

A modder called George is currently working on the Crusader Blade mod which lets you have your crusade and eat it too. You'll need to own both games because the mod acts like a bridge between the two.

"Crusader Kings sends parameters such as the number of troops, the militancy of the army commander (game character) and other warriors, the types of troops, the type of terrain, and others to Mount & Blade through a special gateway," George explains on the mod's Patreon page. "Based on this data, a map is created and troops are placed in Mount & Blade." After the battle, Bannerlord sends information back to Crusader Kings about how many troops were killed.

[jztemple2]

From PCGamesN, as announced at the PDX, Crusader Kings 3: Northern Lords is a viking themed expansion, out next week. Vikings are a very hot item right now

It’s been over six months since medieval grand strategy game Crusader Kings 3 murdered its way into our hearts, and everyone’s been eagerly awaiting news as to what’s coming next. We’ve known today’s Paradox Insider event was going to bring news regarding the historical strategy game’s initial stab at expansion content, and the first Crusader Kings 3 DLC has been revealed as Northern Lords.

The question is, will this be enough to satiate everyone’s appetites? This first expansion is a ‘flavour pack’. You might also know them as ‘immersion packs’, or even ‘country packs’ from some of the other games Paradox makes. These are essentially minor add-ons that focus on small features or thematic content, as opposed to introducing major new mechanics or overhauls.

Northern Lords mainly introduces new thematic assets for characters of the Norse culture. There will be new character art (including new hairstyles and clothes), new music, and new 3D models for things like holdings and units. There’s also a bunch of scripted content involving new events, decisions, even legacies.

Adventurers can go settle foreign lands, and played characters can join in, and there’s a new Historically Accurate (TM) ‘High Kingdom’ around the North Sea you can try and form, for the bants.



As is tradition, there’s a free patch accompanying this DLC although even this is modest in terms of what it brings to the game. Winter is coming, as we’ve reported on before, as is ‘duelling’ which can be to-the-death, or just to first blood, with plenty of character interactions to influence the event.

[jztemple2]

From the devs, Dev Diary #52: 1.3 ‘Corvus’ Patch Notes

Greetings!

Today is the release of Northern Lords, and with it the free 1.3 patch that we’ve dubbed ‘Corvus’ in honor of Odin’s ravens! We’ve teased parts of the patch notes in previous Dev Diaries, but this time we’ll post them all – roughly 13 pages of changes and fixes, and this time there won’t be any omissions or [REDACTED] text!

There are some notable free additions we’ve not mentioned yet that we’d like to show off! Most of them would have been dead giveaways for the theme of the Flavor Pack, but as Freya’s cat is out of the bag now – let’s get to it!

The page is worth visiting as there are lots of images to see, illustrating the changes. Below in the spoiler are the actual patch notes:

Spoiler:

###################
# Free Features
###################
• Winter is coming to the map! Certain regions will now experience icy winters, ranging from mild to harsh. Snow will spread on the map, ranging from scattered patches of frost to snow-covered landscapes. Snow will blow in the wind with increasing intensity, and you’ll hear the ambience of winter adapt to the cold and harsh reality of the area you’re looking at.
o Mild Winters will very slightly increase the supply use of your units.
o Normal Winters will noticeably increase the supply use of your units.
o Harsh Winters will see supplies drain quickly, more fatal casualties will be taken, and the defender of a battle will get an advantage.
• Added the Winter Soldier commander trait, which enhances warfare when fighting in provinces affected by winter. This new trait will appear naturally on characters who reside in wintery areas, or can be acquired through events.
• Men-at-arms can now come with bonuses or penalties for fighting in Normal or Harsh winter. Cavalry will generally do poorly, especially heavy cavalry, while special units such as Himalayan Mountaineers will excel.
• A new personal combat system has been added, which allows two characters to face off against each other in a multi-stage duel. Guide your character by selecting which attacks to go for, and hopefully best your opponent without getting too injured yourself! These duels can be to the death, or to first blood.
o While this system has been hooked into several places, the most prominent change is that the ‘Stalwart Leader’ perk in the Chivalry Focus Tree now allows you to duel your Rivals. Winning/losing these duels adds stress to the loser and de-stresses the winner.
• Added the ‘Poet’ trait to the game. This trait can be acquired via events, and allows you to use an interaction to send poems to other characters. These poems have different themes, such as Strife, Legacy, Romance or Mourning. They cost prestige to send, and can increase your target’s opinion of you, should they accept. You can also send scathing poems about your rival’s Incompetence, to cause them stress!
• Enhanced the hair & beard inheritance gene system. Instead of inheriting specific haircuts from your parents, you now inherit a ‘hair type’ gene such as ‘straight’, ‘wavy’, ‘curly’ or ‘afro’. The actual haircut a character uses is now based upon their culture. This means that the King of France won’t braid his beard like a Viking just because his grandfather happened to be Norse!
o NOTE: Existing characters from save games made before 1.3 might get a new haircut or become bald, and old ruler designer DNA data will not have hair/beard.
o This system does not affect the Barbershop or Ruler Designer, where you’re still able to choose whatever hair you want.
• Added a vast number of new Coat of Arms for Norse rulers, including mechanics for having Scandinavian titles switch between their Norse and Christian CoA versions depending on the holder’s faith and culture.
• Added new Special Buildings in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, including the Golden Gate of Kiev, Danevirke, Temple of Uppsala, and more!
• Added 8 new Norse-inspired Custom Faith icons, ranging from Midgard Serpents, to Thor’s Hammers, to runic versions of Crosses and Crescents.
• Added the ‘Chin Goatee’ beard variant
###################
# Balance
###################
• Men-at-Arms, Special Troops and Mercenaries now have travel time and, like Levies, have a penalty to disband/re-raise during wars. Travel time is based on the distance to the realm capital. This should effectively stop being able to ‘teleport’ MaA across the map
• The renown cost of acquiring Dynasty Legacies has been overhauled. Instead a linear progression (1000, 2000, 3000… etc.) the cost is now dynamic. It should be much easier to unlock your first few Legacy perks, but significantly harder to unlock all Legacies in the game.
• All Dynasty Legacy perks have been rebalanced. Their effects should now be much more tangible and interesting.
• The Yearly Event pools have been restructured, and a lot of triggers loosened or removed outright. In practice this means that you’ll see more events when playing (roughly one random event from this pool every 4 years rather than every 5-6 years). This also means that some extremely rare events will now appear more frequently.
• The Infirm trait events have been moved from the Yearly pulse to the Health pulse. What this means is that all characters can now become infirm, not only rulers. It is also much more likely for elderly characters to actually get the trait.
• Increased cost for sale of titles from 150 to 500 prestige
• Increased cooldown on extort subjects from 2 to 5 years
• Hosting parties now give much more relative progress for gaining Reveler traits than attending parties hosted by others, and temperate characters do not get reveler progress for attending parties at all.
• Reduced acceptance bonus on Offer Vassalization from ‘wide difference in rank’ and ‘rightful liege’
• Reduced fascination gain from learning from +2 to +1
• Blocked joining a tyranny war if you can’t join a faction against your liege
• It is now possible to recruit children from prison as long as they’re not heir to one of their liege’s titles
• Reduced inherent health penalty on flagellant from -0.5 to -0.15
• Reduced chance of characters randomly contracting lover’s pox & great pox
• Improved the candidate selection for republican mayors: they can be of the province culture as well as their liege’s culture, will prefer to be succeeded by members of their court, and women can be selected when it makes sense
• As the Patron of a holy order, you can now hire it even if it is already hired by someone else (except another player). You pay the full piety cost to the person who has already hired it, rather than the usual hiring it for free
• Being more than 5000 men above the supply limit now causes you to lose supply faster, will scale from 5/month at 5k to 10/month at 10k
• Buildings in holdings in the domain limit grace period are now disabled entirely
• Creating a Head of Faith title now requires 1 more holy site (2 for Spiritual, 3 for Temporal). Creating a Spiritual HoF title now costs 300g rather than 50 to 300g based on your income
• Fixed Absolute Control having no effect whatsoever on levies
• Grandchildren and Great-Grandchildren should no longer wander off, following the same rules as Children
• Having a truce on someone now prevents you from raiding them
• If you’re ordering your Spymaster to find secrets in your liege’s court and you are your liege’s Spymaster and are Disrupting Schemes, you no longer disrupt your own Spymaster’s scheming
• Imprisoning and Executing characters of no particular status (i.e. lowborns) now yield much less tyranny
• Married characters will no longer wander off if they are in a realm where they are subservient to the other part of the marriage, and their spouse is in the same court
• Non-republican Barons now get married and produce a family more consistently
• Reducing the size of MaA regiments can no longer give you Fame
• Siblings now inherit ahead of parents
• The Raid Speed modifier now affects armies you command rather than armies you own
• The Witch Coven modifier now gives Disease Resistance rather than Health
• When you convert faith, prisoners are no longer guaranteed to convert. They will only do so if they’d accept if they were free. Conversion of prisoners as a direct result of faith conversion no longer releases them from prison
• When you use Grant to Low Noble, the resulting baron now gets the +20 “Received Barony” opinion towards you
• You can now Disinherit people outside your diplomatic range
• You will no longer get stress from Parents or Siblings dying of old age when they’re 65 or older (if they’re friends or lovers you might still get stress, though)
• Your own player heir being the player heir of their host no longer prevents you from inviting them to your court
• Your rival flinging a corpse at your castle now gives you an imprisonment reason if they’re your subject.
• AI rulers who form an alliance in the middle of a war now wait 1 month before calling their new ally to arms.
• Added a strait across Mälaren, between Sigtuna and Tälje.
• Adjusted the AI Acceptance for family members and vassals offering to educate their liege’s children
• Feudalizing as a Tribe no longer requires all Tribal-Era innovations, now you only need 70% (9) of all Civic & Military Innovations
• Magyars now invade immediately in 867 by default
• Moved the Argentiera Mines in the county of Cagliari to the county capital, to put it directly under the county owner.
• Paulicianism’s pluralism doctrine is now Fundamentalist instead of Righteous
• The AI’s willingness to white peace out of long wars now scales with how far in debt they are
• The Estonian culture now starts with the Longboats innovation
• The Pope is now more willing to lift excommunications, but doing so costs the excommunicated a Level of Fame
• When a Claimant Faction succeeds in their goal, they will free their Claimant from prison if they were a prisoner of the old title holder
• Gave Haesteinn the adventurer trait, made him a bit less vulnerable to old age
• Adjusted the starting event troop Men-at-Arms of some important rulers, gave some event troops where they were lacking entirely, and added a few to Leon to stop Wessex gobbling them up all the time
###################
# AI
###################
• A desperate AI will no longer ignore hostile attrition when selecting a new order target
• A unit stack trying to merge will take into account if the target unit stack is movement locked or retreating when selecting where to move
• Added a new stance for when AI is considered desperate
• All vassals are now able to declare war no matter how deep down in the vassal tree they are
• Counter-raid AI will now look at current strength rather than max strength when deciding if it has enough strength to fight raiders
• Counter-raid units will now check if their current strength is enough to attack a raiding unit
• Discouraged unit AI to switch to a new target closer by if it means heading away from current target
• Encouraged unit AI to stick with current target if being very close to it
• Encouraged unit AI to switch to a new target if passing very close to it
• Increased min strength required to fight raiders from 60% to 75%
• Lowered target selection bonus for neighboring friendly territory from 300 to 100
• Moved target score values for supporting a player unit into defines
• No longer avoids a river crossing due to threat only
• No longer avoids a river crossing if it will be defender in the following combat
• Rebalanced target scoring to focus more on continuing and lifting sieges and less on chasing after enemy units
• Removed target selection bonus for neighboring neutral territory
• Should now be more careful about nearby enemy units when selecting a target province to go to
• Target selection bonuses for friendly & neutral territory correctly added
• The AI is now better at supporting player units that lack strength to siege
• Told the AI that if it is a count and is above its domain limit, it might be a *really* good idea to create a duchy
• Told the AI that maybe it shouldn’t build more holdings while it is already above its domain limit
• War coordinators will no longer support player units that go outside of relevant areas for the war
• When declaring wars, only count an ally’s strength if the ally is at peace
• Will no longer be held up in sieges unless the units are necessary for the siege to progress
• Will prioritize adjacent targets when hunting nearby enemy units unless a target further away is at least four times bigger
###################
# Interface
###################
• It’s now possible to dismiss all notifications at once. Hovering the title of a notification will make a button appear. Right-clicking this button will dismiss all notifications, left-clicking it will dismiss that specific notification.
• Updated the Current Situation widget with a fresh new coat of paint. It’s now darker with more muted colors, and some flavorful decor.
o Current Situation entries now only show ‘X’ to close when hovered
• Hovering over the unit plate of a friendly unit now shows its full path. Great for seeing where your allies are going
• Players now receive a warning when their enemy in a war forms a new alliance
• Added a Current Situation item for hooks about to expire; it’ll tell you when a hook expires in less than 3 months
• Added a message that lets the employer know if their councilors leave because of marriage or title inheritance
• Building a new holding will now in the Domain view say you’re building the holding type (E.G., “Castle”) rather than the name of the main building (E.G., “Motte”)
• Ensured scheme success and secrecy modifiers show up as percentages in all cases
• Fixed “County of Byzantion becomes the new Realm Capital of Unlanded of”
• Fixed “Different Faith Popular Opinion” reductions being shown in red rather than green
• Fixed a case where we would show an event chance higher than 100%. Yes, you’re so good at your job that you can brag you’ve got a 173% chance of success, we all know. 100% will have to do
• Fixed clicking on units in the outliner that are in battle not having any effects. Now it’ll select the battle
• Fixed constructing a holding of a type you can’t hold not giving you a notification when construction completes
• Fixed effect and triggers being localized incorrectly when you’re observing a character, showing things like “you is” rather than “you are”
• Fixed holy orders not being included in some character strength breakdowns
• Fixed incorrect grammar in Offer to Join War for a war you’ve already joined
• Fixed it being possible to change your liege’s spouse task
• Fixed right-clicking on a toast often not dismissing it. This also fixes right-clicking a toast with an army selected causing a move order to be issued
• Fixed scheme modifiers losing their name in success and secrecy breakdowns after saving and reloading
• Fixed some dynasty-named titles leaving out their rank. E.G., “Seljuk” instead of “The Seljuk Empire”
• Fixed the “Defender Advantage” bonus on buildings having the Command Modifier icon
• Fixed the “modify feudal contract” button showing up even if you’re not feudal
• Fixed the “you’re pledged in a GHW” warning saying you’re pledged against the person you’re trying to declare war on rather than the actual GHW defender
• Fixed the Assault Fort button not having a proper tooltip
• Fixed the Assault button being visible even when you’re not the siege leader
• Fixed the Continue and Load buttons on the main menu having no tooltip if there’s no save to load
• Fixed the Force Vote window saying that you’ll use a weak hook twice
• Fixed the autosave indicator getting forever hidden until you restart the game if you open the pause menu
• Fixed the concubine buttons in the character window not being greyed out when not clickable. Fixed the concubine buttons always complaining about lack of a target. The concubine buttons now cleary tell you when there’s no one available to serve as a concubine
• Fixed the game saying your tax is reduced due to control when you’re actually getting a bonus thanks to Absolute Control
• Fixed the game sometimes showing you entirely spurious blockers about occupations in unrelated titles when you try to revoke a title
• Fixed the knight event tooltip in the battle summary being a semi-transparent mess
• Fixed the main building in the county view (E.G., “Castle”) not showing you when it’s disabled
• Fixed the main menu briefly showing the default characters when going into then back out of Load Save
• Fixed the on-map construction models disappearing after saving and reloading
• Fixed the reverse sort button in the Converting Vassals window having no effect
• Fixed the siege window showing an incorrect # of men when there’s more than one sieging army
• Fixed the sorting of the candidate list resetting every time someone votes
• Fixed the time to supply state change estimate sometimes being negative, or being off by a month or two
• Fixed the title destruction cost being displayed incorrectly when the title has laws; now it shows the full cost accounting for law removal
• Fixed the war declaration screen not always showing all blockers on declaring war. E.G., it wouldn’t tell you that you can’t declare on a fellow vassal that’s fighting your liege
• Fixed war borders not showing up when you select someone who is at war unless you too are at war
• If you’re both married and betrothed, the game will no longer refer to your spouse as your betrothed
• Improved on the interaction tooltip, especially how it looks when the recipient won’t accept. Also made minor improvements to acceptance breakdown both here and in the interaction window itself
• Included councillors to the Increase Opinion suggestion, even those who are unlanded
• Increased the # of decimals for Piety/Prestige per Dread gain to two
• Make sure Garrison tooltips don’t show decimals for building contributions
• Opening the dynasty tree now pans to the house you opened it from. It’ll center on the House Head, or if you’re a member of the house, you
• Show correct denomination of time in the tooltip when destroying a title
• Split in Half now only selects the original army
• The “Mercenary Company Contract expiring” alert now tells you when it expires
• The Create MaA type list is now sorted by base type (E.G., Armored Horsement and Cataphracts will be together) then by name
• The Domain view now tells you when buildings/holdings will complete
• The army tooltip’s supply info now has a tooltip; the same as shown for supplies in the army window
• The combat view no longer shows a “defensive buildings” note in the advantage breakdown, but instead shows the exact buildings and similar causing that advantage
• The first letter of a title name is now capitalized in the load save menu
• The holding tooltip of empty holdings now tells you about holding construction
• The marriage interaction’s “chance of children” text now has a tooltip when the chance is None explaining why
• The outliner will no longer show dead characters’ opinion of you
• Vassal contract modifiers like Council Rights Guaranteed are now consolidated in tooltips if there’s multiple vassals with them. E.G., you won’t get 5 entries in opinion tooltips saying “Council Rights Guaranteed: -2” but instead one entry saying “Council Rights Guaranteed: -10”
• Coat of arms are now visible in the outliner entries of holdings
• Moved Invite to Court Interaction to Vassals and Court Category
• The ‘Raise Runestone’ decision is now a major decision, so you don’t miss when it’s usable (both the vanilla and Northern Lords version)
###################
# Art
###################
• Replaced anachronistic pineapple with historically-appropriate melon.
• Fixed numerous clipping issues for female ‘rational’ personality animations.
• Pregnant spymasters will no longer stab themselves
• Dead HRE emperors now have the Reichskrone in their portrait. Only emperors with the HRE as their primary title wear the Reichskrone
• Ensured raised knights always wear armor and helmets. Ensured councillors who are knights don’t wear armor or helmets unless they’re raised
###################
# Localization
###################
• Fixed an issue where a doctrine text string would show up in Debug pink in Spanish
• Fixed missing loc for the Norwegian name for Oriel/Dun Dealgan
• Added Disgraced and Sinner levels to lists of prestige and piety levels
• Added elope scheme in the game encyclopedia
• Added localization for “Any Sub Realm County”
• Added missing “Traitor” opinion name
• Added some extremely important omitted relation strings, such as ‘brother-consort’ and ‘mother-concubine’
• Cleaned up some decision text in Russian
• Fixed some instances of tooltips where title names were not being capitalized correctly
• Grammar fix in one of the death management texts
• Made sure the toasts for a beneficiary invalidating makes sense
• Removed faulty space in inheritance toast
• Updated broke Holy Order tooltip localization for Borrow Gold from Holy Order decision
• Updated first person -> second person in religious doctrine triggers file
• Updated scope used for localization in GHW event
• Updated scripted value used for long pilgrimages
• Updated the Liberian witch god’s name
• We are now less excited about you clicking on important actions!
• changed Sussex name to match other Saxon titles
• text in character view no longer overflows in russian
###################
# Game Content
###################
• All formerly inaccessible Religious Clothes/Headgear are now accessible in the Barbershop. You want to wear the Pope’s hat and Steppe Pagan robes? Go right ahead!
• Norse Houses now have access to a wider pool of Motto’s, focusing on their many gods. Deceitful characters can reference Loki, brave ones Thor, etc.
• Added a small interaction to pardon a subject’s crimes in exchange for opinion.
• Added a few new death reasons for berserkers to execute in battle, such as cleaving people in half or viciously dismembering them!
• A guardian might now get a hook on their ward, should they be of a greedy/deceitful persuasion
• You can now offer concubines and consorts to other characters!
• When Offering Vassalization to a feudal ruler, you may now offer a more lenient Contract to improve their chance of accepting.
• Changed the ‘De Jure Vassal’ modifier in the Offer Vassalage interaction to ‘Rightful Vassal’ for balance and clarity
• Clarified the maximum bonus from Military Strength in the Offer Vassalage interaction
• Added a narrative event for converting to a new Faith, as well as a notification for when your liege converts to a new Faith.
• Replaced Tengriism’s ‘Sky Burials’ tenet with ‘Warmonger’ which is more accurate for the time-period
• Rulers with an active Vow of Poverty now wear appropriately drab clothing, regardless of rank
• You now get told properly when you inherit your first empire tiered title
• Your head of faith and religious peers will now care if you found a holy order
• Jakub’s pet rock stolen by parties unknown
• Added a decision for independent Norse rulers to have their realm embrace local traditions
• Norse name lists now use standardised Old Norse spellings & contains significantly fewer late period Christian names, Norwegian name lists updated to the same plus various older Christian names
###################
# User Modding
###################
• Implemented HUD skin support. Different HUD skins can now be triggered based on arbitrary triggers, such as player culture.
• Added winter_movement_speed modifier
• Added dynasty_num_unlocked_perks trigger that checks the number of unlocked dynasty perks
• The game now handles transitioning between updated map setups in a smoother way, this should make it easier to keep save compatibility between different versions, and makes it easier to update for example map mods
• Add force_character_skill_recalculation effect to immediately update a character’s skills
• Added a trigger title_held_years to check how many years a title has been held if valid
• Add save_opinion_value as and save_temporary_opinion_value_as which function like the scope_value equivalent but save the opinion of the scoped object to the target to avoid recalculating opinion locally multiple times.
• Added console command set_date
• Added console commands Log.ClearErrorLog and Log.ClearAll
• Added effect debug_trigger_event, which will like the console command print out the trigger and immediate effects of the event
• Added trigger time_to_hook_expiry
• Allow mood music tracks to have an is_valid for it they should be considered when picking the next track.
• Allow mood music tracks to weight the chance of being picked.
• Fix generate_coa giving the same result on the same object, it is now more properly random.
• Fixed adding a modifier with a dynamic duration causing the effect to say it’ll last 0 days
• Made ai_can_target_all_titles much cheaper for the AI
• Made the geographical_region trigger much cheaper
• Message types that are used by the code will now error if they are not present when initialising the game.
• Removed .dds extension in message icon paths, they are now assumed to be a .dds like other pathed texture databases.
• Split out defender_holding_advantage from defender_advantage, for use in defensive buildings and the like
• The debug_event console command now prints out the immediate effects of the event
• The effects to add timed modifiers now support a “desc” field. This is a dynamic description that’ll be resolved when the modifier is added. It’ll show in the tooltip for the modifier in places like the character window. You might still want a static description (modifier name + “_desc”) for the sake of the tooltip when adding the effect
• The hostile_county_attrition modifier now also affects the minimum casualties
• You can now right-click Errorhoof to clear the error log
• target_is_vassal_or_below and is_vassal_or_below_of no longer consider non-rulers (E.G., courtiers) to be “vassals”. target_is_liege_or_above and is_liege_or_above_of still work for courtiers
###################
# Databases
###################
• William the Bastard is now clean-shaven, as per Norman tradition!
• Nizhny Novgorod is now independent in 1066, and held by a Mari Finnish pagan.
• Made more lands in Eastern Europe pagan on game start in 1066.
• Added a few new baronies to Scotland.
• Fixed the holding setup in the counties of Miran and Kumtag, both of which had more holdings than intended on game start.
• Iceland has been updated with new baronies and counties! Increasing the number of baronies to nine, from five, spread across four counties.
• Many important and significant holdings (such as London, Alexandria, or Baghdad) now start the game with additional buildings already constructed.
• Moved out Rurik’s brothers to their own dynasty in order to avoid them floating around in the Rurikid dynasty tree.
• Overhauled the barony layout in Sapmi. A few new baronies were added, and existing borders have been updated and significantly improved.
• The Abbasids now have their capital in the historical capital of Samarra in 867.
• The De Jure capital of England is now set to Winchester in 867 and London in 1066.
• Updated Ireland with new baronies and counties for increased granularity! Certain baronies were much too large in size and have been split accordingly.
• Updated a number of counties across Italy by adding additional baronies, increasing the average number of baronies per county and greatly reducing the number of two-barony counties.
• Updated the county setup in Croatia and Serbia by splitting existing counties into new ones. A few counties had too many baronies, and these have been spread out across multiple counties.
• Vladimir & Yaroslavl are now vassals to Vsevolod of Pereyaslavl.
• Updated the traits for Robert of Apulia and his son Bohemond
###################
# Bugfixes
###################
• Children should no longer incorrectly become Lowborn if at least one of their (known) parents carry a Dynasty
• The Pope will no longer grant himself Rome every year, and gain Piety for it
• Fixed several instances of wounds being applied using the wrong effect, causing them to never heal
• You will no longer get asked to contribute to wars multiple times in a row if you joined several of your ally’s wars at the same time (paying once is enough!)
• Regiments can no longer have modifiers stacked to the point where they reach 0 toughness, as that would break the combat code.
• 3rd party or allied armies will no longer prevent you from using Station Besiegers
• Don’t show the mouse drag selection when entering the pause menu
• Ensured all the restrictions on concubinage are properly enforced
• Fixed “Different Faith Popular Opinion” having a significantly larger effect than stated
• Fixed Great Holy Wars invalidating rather than changing target if someone for instance takes the target’s primary title
• Fixed a case where loading a save from an older patch could result in the holder of a county not holding the capital barony, leading to odd issues down the line
• Fixed a case where loading an old save would result in some map names being messed up (showing Iceland or Tibet in affected areas)
• Fixed a case where negotiating an alliance would cause it to expire instantly due to somehow picking two characters who are not married as the alliance reason
• Fixed a crash that could happen due to claims on nonexistent titles
• Fixed being vastly over your domain limit outright blocking building construction, rather than simply the effects of buildings
• Fixed claims not getting removed when a title completely ceases to exist and is gone forever
• Fixed cloud saves missing in main menu save list when running the Paradox Plaza version of the game
• Fixed cultural opinions, E.G., “Norwegian Opinion: +20” doing nothing if the person with the modifier is not a ruler
• Fixed holding incomes sometimes failing to update; now they’ll be at most a month out of date
• Fixed in certain cases it being possible for units to join on the wrong side of a combat if they’re in the province when the combat starts, and are hostile to one side rather than directly at war with them
• Fixed incomes often being significantly off after loading a save or starting a fresh campaign. This in some cases also significantly increases the starting gold of some characters, especially those with special buildings
• Fixed it being possible to set a childhood focus on an adult if they come of age while you have the focus window open. Now the window will close instead
• Fixed prestige and piety gains in extremely large battles (hundreds of thousands of troops on both sides) sometimes having an overflow issue causing them to go negative
• Fixed the Controlled Territory Defender Advantage modifier only working for provinces you personally control, and not those of your vassals
• Fixed the Diplomatic Range modifier not having any effects. Now range between two characters is based on the highest Diplomatic Range modifier of the two
• Fixed the game sometimes reassigning baronies on conquest to different people when it shouldn’t
• Fixed the loss of your pet spoon removing your pet stone instead
• Getting married now only breaks your betrothal if it is to the person you’re marrying, or you have no extra spouse slot due to polygamy
• Make sure the ransom amount for the primary heir is correct
• No longer possible for two identical claimant factions to exist
• holding preview pictures are no longer distorted
• “A Reading in X” should no longer fire multiple times during a seduction and now also gives a more accurate result
• A faction will no longer lose some discontent just before disbanding
• AI Pannonian Migration is no longer allowed for Mogyer vassals of Mogyer rulers
• Added a river crossing in the county of Mantua, to connect the baronies to each other.
• Added missing scope check to hostile scheme owner discovery option tooltip
• Added spiritual head doctrine to Zurvanism
• Added two church holdings to Iceland in 1066 and made sure both rulers are tribal
• Adopt Special Succession is no longer a major decision, meaning it is not automatically suggested for you to do
• Andalusian culture no longer starts with camels
• Bookmark characters no longer have a randomized sexuality
• Characters under 18 will now hold council props
• Claim wars are invalidated in the cases when the claimant that’s not the attacker dies, leaves court, or no longer is a vassal of the attacker
• Cleaned up event about your ward switching education focus
• Directed GHWs now display a warning in the Declare War interface when on cooldown, instead of disappearing entirely
• Effect tooltip for the Sound Foundations perk will now be written in correct perspective
• Elope schemes now invalidate if you break up with your partner
• Excluded the Faroe Islands and Iceland from the Scandinavian culture conversion event
• Fixed Friendly Counsel to work in the opposite direction in the uncommon case when someone befriends you instead of you befriending them
• Fixed a potential crash in a tooltip for the war overview
• Fixed an error-spam where no portrait background would be selected for a prisoner who moved to another geographical graphic region
• Fixed an issue where vassals created additional holdings throughout a liege’s realm when becoming feudal or clan. They should now only create holdings within their own sub-realm.
• Hostile schemes are now invalidated when the target isn’t within the owner’s diplomatic range
• It is now much harder to imprison a claimant that has the support of a faction that has pressed demands
• It’s now easier to imprison your own young children if they’re unfortunate enough to be in your court
• Lake Peipus is now considered to be a lake, rather than a sea.
• Loot is now always visible in the siege window.
• Made sure title creation cost for action looks at scripted value to give correct number
• Non-hostile schemes end if target moves out of their diplomatic range
• Occupation should no longer be lost on succession due to another war targeting the same province being invalidated
• Pasture buildings of level 4 and above now properly apply the development growth bonus to the county.
• Peasants will no longer stress over bankruptcy in wars
• Removed duplications in the _character_interactions.info file
• Removed the secret tunnel between Cherchen and Gomoco, allowing armies to pass through the Kunlun Mountains.
• Removed the spouse from the list of potential fathers that may get a fathered a bastard event
• Rulers are now only blocked from imprisoning the claimant when at war with a claimant faction, as opposed to being blocked from imprisoning everyone in their court
• Seduction scheme and Befriend scheme now invalidates if you become lovers or friends during intended relationship scheme
• Theocratic vassals can no longer ask for reduced tax obligations because of how religious they are when their faith is a heretical or infidel one.
• Updated feast_default.1013 to use the correct toast in one of the options
• Updated open view effect in mercenary_contract_expiring alert
• Vassal refusing to surrender will no longer refer to themselves in third person
• You can no longer arrest people for legal sodomy/deviancy/witchcraft/cannibalism just because adultery happens to be illegal for their gender
• You can no longer be both reckless and cautious, you enigma you
• You can no longer become a double-drunkard in relation event
• You can now send your kid off to university properly and easier
• You will no longer be encouraged to raid your own liege or fellow vassals
• You will now be told WHY your vassal is glued to their council seat for 25 years
• You will now be told properly when your Right-Hand Woman/Man dies
• You will now inherit the court physician of your predecessor
• Your child will no longer be left without a personality because you tried to meddle too much
• Your sibling will no longer be seen as a bastard if your dad dies before your mom knows she’s pregnant
• added a minor cooldown to the Select Personal Deity decision
• adjusted inbreeding game concept copy to match actual effects of Pure-Blooded
• The AI can now occasionally attempt to escape from prison
• arrogant characters now fail to account for own incompetence when escaping prison
• can no longer imprison your own courtiers when they’re guests abroad
• include Bosnia in the ‘Unite the South Slavs’ decision
• it is no longer possible to Divine the Stars twice at the same time
• moved Norse holy sites in Frisia & Denmark to Russia & England respectively, slightly rebalanced power of Uppsala holy site
• selecting a personal deity now requires at least 0 piety to spend
• subjugation wars now return their prestige cost when invalidating
• tribals can now adjust tribe-valid succession laws (i.e., gender, mostly) at limited tribal authority instead of needing to reform to feudal
• Fathers of secret bastards can now realize that they are the real father even when the mother is married
• characters can now rip their shirts off without exposing their crotch
• ended the Crocapocalypse

And for those who were really concerned about this:

• characters can now rip their shirts off without exposing their crotch

[Isgrimnur]

• ended the Crocapocalypse

[jztemple2]

• ended the Crocapocalypse

Honestly I was wondering what they were talking about . Thanks for clearing it up.

Now, do I start another hundred hour playthrough of CKIII?

[Max Peck]

So I would guess that having crocodiles show up in duels must be a Peter Pan reference, of which I approve.

[jztemple2]

I last was playing CK3 during September 2020 with the epic story of my time as High King of Ireland. After one hundred hours on the game I put it on the back burner till new stuff rolled out. Now after three major updates I've decided to not wait till the Royal Court DLC gets released towards the end of this year and instead start a new game.

I'm King Alfonso VI 'the Brave', King of Leon. I'm a schemer and a trickster, which is good because my good for nothing two brothers hold the kingdoms on each side of me


I'm leading the Intrigue lifestyle, with a focus on Skullduggery. Why I want to spend my time digging skulls I don't know . Anyway I've already picked up three perks, including one where I can fabricate Hooks on other characters. Very useful!


I've already investigated launching murder schemes against my two brothers. One is rather well protected, so that's out. And if I kill the other, his titles go to the other brother, not me. So I guess I'll have to look at other means to exploit them.

[jztemple2]

Well, first things first anyway, I have to find a wife! With threats to the east and west of me, I have to choose carefully. Happily, Adelais de Ponthieu is available. And hey, her uncle approves of me and will join me in an alliance if I do marry her. Since her uncle is William II of Normandy, known to history as William the Conqueror, this seems like a really good idea as he has a huge army. So we are married!


Oh crap, I forget the year, 1066. William calls on me to join his war against England. Crap. Well, I can't disappoint my new uncle!

[jztemple2]

Things are getting complicated. My sister is also my spymaster. And she is <sigh> also my lover . I could break up with her, but do I want to break up with a woman whose strength in Intrigue is higher than mine? She's very useful, if you know what I mean

[jztemple2]

As an adroit schemer, I used my Fabricate Hook perk to blackmail my bishop. He now hates me, but I now also get the tax income from the church holdings. So who is next?

[jztemple2]

Oh dear, oh dear. My sister has given birth to a daughter who is my child. This is beginning to seem like a "Chinatown" moment.

[jztemple2]

My bishop, who hates me, announces that he has found out that my marriage is consanguineous and says I must divorce my wife! Hah! My intrigue strength allows me to prove the claim is a fake and he loses piety for that.


Not that it matters. I ask "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?" And someone does


Annoyingly the new bishop doesn't like me either

[jztemple2]

A number of things have happened since I last posted. I am now King Alfonso VI 'the Father of Spain', for I have united the three petty kingdoms of Castile, Gallacia and León into the Kingdom of León


Of course, I didn't get there without being a little nasty


To make a long story short, I let one brother conquer the realm of the other brother, then the first brother died of his wounds so his infant son inherited his now twice the size realm. Then the son met with an accident and I inherited both petty kingdom titles, making me King of León. Then I killed off my other brother so he wouldn't make trouble, and then bumped off another two vassals who didn't like me. I would be doing more with my army except I am desperately short of money and piety, which I hope to remedy by blackmailing the pope. Other than that, not much going on

[Biyobi]

I finally plunked down my dollars to get started in the game. I haven't read through the entire thread, but is there a list of must-have Workshop mods that I should look into? I'm thinking more quality-of-life mods rather than zombie invasion (those can come later).

[jztemple2]

I finally plunked down my dollars to get started in the game. I haven't read through the entire thread, but is there a list of must-have Workshop mods that I should look into? I'm thinking more quality-of-life mods rather than zombie invasion (those can come later).

I play without any mods myself.

[Jeff V]

Then the son met with an accident and I inherited both petty kingdom titles, making me King of León. Then I killed off my other brother so he wouldn't make trouble, and then bumped off another two vassals who didn't like me.

This could have been peacefully settled with a new Kings of Leon album, you know.

[jztemple2]

CK3 "Royal Court" FAQ - Developer Diaries, Q&A & Important Information

Get ready for our first expansion: the Royal Court. Immerse yourself in the life of a medieval ruler!
How will you rule when your subjects come to you with their complaints? Building the grandest court in the world may please your vassals and attract interesting people, but it also gives your complaining courtiers a place to find you. Make decisions that will smooth the troubled waters in your kingdom, while impressing visitors with your collection of masterpieces and relics.
The Royal Court expansion to Crusader Kings III adds new ways to interact with the characters in your kingdom or empire, as well as major changes to the cultural system of the game, adding greater dynamism and historical fluidity.

In this thread, we will add the recurrent Questions from the Community, and the Answers from our developers.
Keep your eyes peeled, this thread will be regularly updated with our Dev Diaries, Q/A, and other communications!

[jztemple2]

We are eight days away from the release of the new Royal Court expansion, so it's time for me to post some info. I'm planning to jump in and do another hundred hour playthrough like I did before, so that means I'll be posting impressions with an emphasis on Royal Court content.

First though, let's get some content posted. First, from the devs, an expanded and updated CK3 "Royal Court" FAQ - Developer Diaries, Q&A & Important Information. Lots of good info on the expansion.

Now, a couple of videos about the Royal Court, showing the new content in-game. The first is under six minutes, the second just over four minutes.

[Baroquen]

I finally picked this up (after dallying with it during my brief PC Game Pass days) during the most recent sale. I was really looking forward to the expansion so that's why I grabbed it.

I did play it once or twice already. The first run was an ironman go at Ireland, where I got into an unwanted war and things fell apart quickly.

The second playthrough - I united all of Ireland for my first time. My ruler was quite strong (the queen was an amazing help). Currently, he's getting to the end of his days, and I expect things will become quite a mess when he passes because of the herd of heirs he has. I'll either finish that run off to see what happens, or probably restart when the expansion drops. Either way, it's been fun thus far.

[jztemple2]

I did a playthrough as a ruler of Ireland, posted earlier in this thread. It was a lot of fun and kept me at the game for a much longer time than I expected. I found that I enjoyed it most when I role-played the character. It actually helped in figuring out how to use the game systems.

[jztemple2]

New video:

[jztemple2]

And something different:

[jztemple2]

Last video before Royal Court DLC release:

[Baroquen]

Heya jztemple2 - are you playing with any/many mods? I'll probably wait until after the DLC is out for awhile to avoid broken mods, but I'm curious if there's anything I should definitely check out?

[jztemple2]

Heya jztemple2 - are you playing with any/many mods? I'll probably wait until after the DLC is out for awhile to avoid broken mods, but I'm curious if there's anything I should definitely check out?

I don't use any mods myself at this time, although I might check some out later on after spending some time with Royal Court. I agree, there will probably be a number of broken mods for awhile.

[jztemple2]

Heya jztemple2 - are you playing with any/many mods? I'll probably wait until after the DLC is out for awhile to avoid broken mods, but I'm curious if there's anything I should definitely check out?

Well, since you mentioned mods, now you've got me thinking about it . I'm not interested at this time in mods that alter or add realms to the map, but I do like a nice utility mod, especially one that will stop me from doing something stupid. So I've installed Knight Manager

"Your heir died in battle!"
How often have your loved ones died a brutal death in battle, because you forgot to tell them that they did not have to fight?

This mod prevents their death and saves you a lot of time. The Knight Manager adds a settings menu to the knight window in which you can specify rules according to which characters are employed as knights. And of course you can manually allow certain characters to be exempt from the general rule, if you so desire.

I have in the past lost an heir or two because I didn't pay enough attention to who were my current knights. This mod sounds like a good idea to prevent that. There is also an associated MP version but I don't need that since I'm only doing SP.

I'll post info on any other mods I find useful and folks should feel free to do the same.

[jztemple2]

By the way, for folks who do not know, using mods disables achievements. That doesn't bother me, but it might some people.
I added a few more. Here are my mods in total:

• Knight Manager
• Extended Outliner I used the Outliner a lot, this mod adds more info to the window which works for me.
• Nameplates Very useful for me.
• Biography
• Fullscreen Barbershop
• Ultimate Tooltip - Framework I've also installed all the add-ons for the time being, not sure how useful they will be.
• Configurable News Feed

[Baroquen]

I'm in the same boat as you - not looking to add realms or any time of total conversion type gameplay. But utility mods are always a bonus. I'll have to check some of those out, probably in a couple weeks. Thanks for doing the legwork!

[jztemple2]

I've been playing the CK3 tutorial and extending it to get back up to speed on the game prior to the DLC release tomorrow. I've reached the year 1100, so that's 34 years of gameplay. My original character the petty king died, leaving the titles split between the two male offspring. That didn't work out well since it turned out that before I became the one son, he had tried to murder his brother so that his brother hated him. And he did indeed murder one of his vassals so that the heir of that vassal hated him too . As the years went by my new ruler managed to get involved in a war that caused him to get pounded, invaded and actually taken prisoner . I tried to escape but failed, got hurt and stressed, and finally had to spend most of my remaining money to get out of jail.

But all was not lost. I managed to conquer one duchy and then made good friends with other rulers. Once my brother had died (of leprosy! don't look at me like that!) his heir was a young child. I made that child my ward, which convinced her to allow herself to become my vassal, as long as I was willing to accept a low tax and levy rate from her. And likewise from two other rulers, so by 1100 I was King of Ireland with the whole island under my rule.

I'm stopping there, since I'm determined to start with a new ruler I haven't played before when I dig into the Royal Court expansion.

[hepcat]

It's gotten to the point in my gaming life that if I'm curious about a PC game, or suggestions for PC gaming, I come to the Video Games thread and just search for posts by JZTemple2.

[jztemple2]

It's gotten to the point in my gaming life that if I'm curious about a PC game, or suggestions for PC gaming, I come to the Video Games thread and just search for posts by JZTemple2.

Thanks! I try to pass on the excitement I feel playing a game I enjoy.

[hepcat]

you sold me on door kickers 2 last time, and that one is a blast. so keep it up!

[jztemple2]

Fair warning to folks, the new update today will break save games. If you want to complete that game you're playing turn off auto updating.

The new DLC supposedly releases at 5pm CET, which is 11am EST, which is a few minutes from now.

[jztemple2]

Reminder for those who don't have the game, posted by Paradox:

MIDWEEK MADNESS!
Crusader Kings III: -33%
Northern Lords: -20%
Crusader Kings III - Royal Edition: -10%

The Midweek Madness Sale runs from 7-10 Feb.

Also check out the bundle options.

And just released, the latest designer notes: CK3 Dev Diary #89: 1.5.0 "Fleur-de-Lis" Patch Notes. Lots of changes, some from the new DLC, lots of free content for the base game, plus the usual changes to balance, AI, interface and lots of changes for modding. Expect many mods to be broken

[Max Peck]

I was pondering whether or not I should buy the Royal Court DLC or just leave it until it's on sale due to the fact that I'll be diving into Total War: Warhammer III next week. Apparently I bought the Royal Edition when CK3 released, so it turns out I don't need to worry about it.

I suppose that's why I buy things like season passes -- by the time the DLC comes out I've forgotten that I bought it, so it's a surprise gift to future me.