Crusader Kings III - The Sequel You Have Been Waiting For

[jztemple2]

Dev Diary #133 - Wet Nurses

Hello everyone! This is my first time writing a dev diary and I want to share with you almost everything I worked on for Wards and Wardens. Let’s set the stage first: you are a ruler and your seed is stronger than ever, flourishing with your many offspring. Children play and run around all over your court, but you have more pressing matters to attend to! Perhaps the mother of your children has become incapable, unable to provide milk for your infants. Who are you gonna call? Wet nurses, of course!

As part of our focus on children in this Event Pack, we pay some attention to the moment they become adults. Changing your societal status in such a way is a big deal even today, as seen in school graduations, specific birthdays and religious thresholds. Usually, this transition is signified by a ceremony or a ritual. I decided to look into tribal rites of passage and ended up with a decision, an amalgamation of different rituals from all over the world, with the most common or interesting rituals selected to represent the practice.

Have you ever felt that being a guardian offers little impact on the personality traits of your ward? Well, not anymore! The guardian now has access to an interaction which allows them to choose one of their own personality traits and try to push it onto the ward. The interaction is available for the player as well as an AI guardian, so choose them wisely! Otherwise, your sadistic, shy or paranoid guardian might just pass on their vile traits to your precious genius heir. This interaction is even available for wardens, letting them influence their child-age hostages.

This is all part of the upcoming Event DLC:

[jztemple2]

Wards & Wardens and 1.10.0 "Quill" Free Update - Available now!

Today marks the release of Wards & Wardens, and we hope you'll have plenty of fun wrangling unruly young rulers-to-be, managing your royal hostages, and visiting scholarly universities in the pursuit of knowledge!



As always, we want to keep updating and improving the game alongside each release - this time we've especially honed in on multiplayer stability, something that was unfortunately lacking after the last update. We've spent a lot of time hunting down annoying out-of-syncs, and we've managed to squash all of them that we could find - bar one that'll be fixed in an upcoming update (but it's fortunately avoidable; don't select Pay Homage/Petition Liege and cancel it before setting out on travel!)

Another change of note is that the AI will now purchase and manage Men-at-Arms more dynamically, especially later in the game - instead of all AIs wanting the exact same ratio of income-to-MaA. Warmonger Archetypes, powerful rulers, and strong mid-to-late-game economies will want to spend significantly more on having a powerful army, while Builder Archetypes make for excellent targets for conquests as they tend to favor buildings!

Without further ado, here is the full changelog:

Spoiler:

Expansion Features
• Over one hundred new events and event chains expanding upon childhood, guardianship, education, and more - both for young lords, parents, and knowledge-hungry rulers! Many game systems, both new and old, now have unique events and content to really strike home how it actually was to grow up during the middle ages!
o Enjoy a more lively Childhood with a host of new events for both young rulers and parents, and see the choices made early in life echo far into adulthood!
o New events for Courtly Education let you both educate and be educated in new and interesting ways, where young rulers can be led down a path of eccentricity!
o Hostages at court will mingle with your own children, be homesick, get into trouble, or even give you opportunities for both lasting friendships and gaining a new type of Perpetual Hook!
o Employing a Wet Nurse will aid the development of your heirs and increase the well-being of children at court, alongside a healthy dose of courtly drama!
o slew of new events for Childhood Regencies sees a benevolent regent aid you as a young ruler by teaching you skills, giving you gifts, or stabilizing your realm - just beware less-than-scrupulous regents!
o New events for the Meet Peers activity; play ball with your fellow children, hone your skills, or get up to hijinx!
o Experience several rare story cycles which can see your young ruler aspire to become one of the greatest builders of all time, pursue a nebulous but enticing destiny, meet new friends of esoteric provenance, reform your realm in the image of former wardens, and more!

• New interactions and decisions allow you to take a more hands-on approach to the task of child-rearing!
o Attempt to directly influence the Personality Traits of your Wards via a new interaction
o Have your children pass through Coming of Age-trials in Tribal realms.

• As a ruler with a less-than-ideal education you will now want to visit Universities! This new Activity sees you travel to any holding with a University or Cathedral in search of higher studies.
o Spend gold on books, mingle with students and teachers, and either study hard or live like a Goliard!
o Being studious will reward you with lifestyle perk points and the potential for upgrading your education - and if you’ve studied REALLY hard you could even reach the new fifth-tier education!

• New mood music to enhance your game regardless of where you play.

Free Features
• A new system for rulers giving or trading Hostages brings a new side of historical medieval politics to life - Hostages are powerful tools for ensuring peace, as they can be executed during wars to make your enemy suffer a great blow to their morale and stability. Hostages can be identified by a new portrait icon.
o They can be demanded, exchanged, or even used to bargain beneficial peace deals during wars!
o Having Hostages of notable status will reward you with both prestige and renown.
o While hostages are most often children, there’s no guarantee that their warden will send them back as they come of age… after all, they are great bargaining chips!

• The new Perpetual Hook type lies in-between Weak and Strong Hooks, acting like a Weak hook that can be re-used every few years.
• A new Adoption interaction allows certain rulers to bring in new members to their family and dynasty. Characters with the Compassionate trait or of a culture. with certain Traditions can Adopt, but the restrictions can also be tightened or removed via a new Game Rule!
• A new Eccentric personality trait allows characters with it to develop their Lifestyles with ease at the cost of public perception, as their methods might be seen as erratic and odd! Several new event options have been added for the trait, and some of the more ‘out there’ events have been updated to require this trait to fire.
• Added 6 new events to the Pet Cat story Cycle.

Balance
• Builder AI's are now less concerned with buying MaA than before, and are slower to purchase up to their ideal amount
• Cautious AI's want to spend slightly more on MaA and are very inclined to purchase up to their comfortable minimum level
• Genghis Khan now starts as an Exalted Warlord rather than a Brilliant Strategist
• Spouse-Regents can now do both jobs at the same time
• The later into the game, and the more gold the AI earns, the more they will want to spend on MaA (previously AI's would always aim for spending 40% of their income on MaA maintenance, they can now go as high as 90% with the correct circumstances fulfilled)
• Warlike AI's will now want to spend more on MaA in general, and are much more inclined to purchase MaA over buildings than other archetypes
• You can now get more than three events per Meet Peers, especially if you are the Host (up to 6)
• playdate.3008, the event where another child drowns in Meet Peers, is now only available to the players/the host, and is now on a 3-year cooldown rather than 3 months.
• The hook gained in the playdate.3008 event is now also a strong 'saved my life'-hook.
• All Abrahamic faiths are now able to restore Rome, not just Christians.
• Either Italia, HRE, or Byzantium will become the "real" Rome depending on which one is your primary title upon reforming Rome.
• The Sultanate of Rum can now be formed by either Muslims or Turkic heritage characters, but not Christians.

Interface
• Events unlocked by Friends & Foes and Wards & Wardens are now decorated with special visuals that show from which Event Pack they originate; this feature can be disabled in the settings.

Art
• Several new Animations have been added:
o Happy Teacher
o Stressed Teacher
o Eccentric
o Manic
o Go to your room!
o Playing Peekaboo
o Crying (children only)
o Clutching Ball
o Clutching Doll
o Stick Horse
o 6x Weapon Animation Variants with Wooden Swords

• Added several new Event Background Illustrations:
o Nursery
o Western University
o Arabic University
o Western ‘Inner Courtyard’
o An Indian Garden Variant
o An Indian Study Variant
o An Arabic Tavern Variant

• Added possible longsword artifact icon and model variation to swords of Late Medieval Western cultures.
• Added Toy sword, Training sword, Toy Doll, Stick Horse.
• Added Carolingian commoner clothes variants to the barbershop.
• Cloaks in general are now a bit more common for Western and Northern European characters.
• Cloaks will now sometimes be used together with armor.
• Elegance of the Empire cloaks will now be used roughly as much as the regular western royalty cloak.
• Fixed a bug where some consorts would use clothing far below their status, for example the Byzantine Basilissa in the 867 start date.
• For players with Northern Lords, Norse cloaks will now be used by more culture groups than just the Norse.
• Made it so that western royalty always wear cloaks.
• Northern Lords crowns are now also used by other Northern cultures.
• Improved skinning and blendshapes on male wrestling pants.

Game Content
• Wards and Guardians will now use the Travel system to go to their respective courts to receive tutelage.
• Most Meet Peers events have been rebalanced and updated to use new backgrounds and animations.
• Activity log entries have been added to the Meet Peers activity.
• Memories have been added for Accolades.
• Added the Saura faith, a sun-worshipping branch of Hinduism, and added the faith to some characters and counties in both start dates.
• Added new outcomes to the Sun Trial event chain, in order to facilitate its deaths if you manage to end up worshipping the sun in an area without… much sun.
• Developing a Crush in childhood now creates a memory.

User Modding
• Weak hooks can now be perpetual and used multiple times
• Add can_embrace_tradition trigger
• Add data binding macro CalculateScriptValue to calculate the named script value with designated character as root scope.
• Add data binding macro GetScriptValueBreakdown to break down the named script value with designated character as root scope.
• Add x_lifestyle_xp_gain_mult modifier that stacks with monthly xp modifiers.
• Adds new trigger for checking if a culture has more discovered innovations than another culture in a specified era.
• All trait triggers and effects can now use a trait scope as well as a database key.
• Replaced define MEN_AT_ARMS_CHANCE_EXPENSE_BELOW_IDEAL with script value ai_men_at_arms_chance_expense_below_ideal
• Replaced define MEN_AT_ARMS_CHANCE_EXPENSE_BELOW_MIN with script value ai_men_at_arms_chance_expense_below_min
• Replaced define MEN_AT_ARMS_EXPENSE_IDEAL with script value ai_men_at_arms_expense_gold_ideal
• Replaced define MEN_AT_ARMS_EXPENSE_MAX with script value ai_men_at_arms_expense_gold_max
• Replaced define MEN_AT_ARMS_EXPENSE_MIN with script value ai_men_at_arms_expense_gold_min
• Replaced define MEN_AT_ARMS_PRESTIGE_EXPENSE_IDEAL with script value ai_men_at_arms_expense_prestige_ideal
• Replaced define MEN_AT_ARMS_PRESTIGE_EXPENSE_MAX with script value ai_men_at_arms_expense_prestige_max
• Replaced define MEN_AT_ARMS_PRESTIGE_EXPENSE_MIN with script value ai_men_at_arms_expense_prestige_min
• Add any/random/every_tradition scripted list for cultures.
• Add has_tradition_category trigger that works on culture traditions.
• Has_cultural_tradition trigger, add_culture_tradition, and remove_culture_tradition effects now can take tradition as scope.
• Add free_tradition_slot trigger to test if culture can have more traditions.
• Casus belli now has an option to allow or forbid hostage exchange.
• The chance to assign specific personality, education or childhood traits for generated characters can now be set by random_creation percent value.

Bugfixes
• Fixed an Out of Sync caused by expiring Memories
• Fixed an Out-of-Sync caused by players setting Decisions to ‘notify me’
• Fixed an Out-of-Sync relating to Accolade History
• Fixed an Out-of-Sync relating to Diarchs being updated out of order
• Fixed several rare Out-of-Syncs
• Fixed crash on succession with a landed character without any titles
• Fixed a crash that could happen when opening the war overview in certain large-scale wars
• Fixed the Character Search not remembering the selected ‘Sort by’ filter between being closed/opened
• Fixed Accolade History being lost when loading the save
• Fixed Tournament event Hapless Knight option not removing jouster from contest
• Fixed animals captured on hunts not being saved properly
• Fixed crime for escaping from prison not being an imprisonable crime
• Fixed feuding house AI members being not aggressive enough
• Fixed issue with desc of war won memory
• Fixed issues with relation loc for fellow attendees of activities
• Fixed missing localization for memories of peasant and populist revolts
• Fixed missing scope loc in "lay with" effects for other characters
• Fixed relation loc for deceased spouses
• Improved presentation of Restore Carolingian Borders decision's effects
• Fix a rare case when childhood focus is invalidated
• Fix a rare case when childhood focus is invalidated and wrong education trait is given when coming of age
• Fixed "A vassal between friends" not accounting for the two involved friends being at war
• Fixed childhood personality events being largely blocked for traveling children, which resulted in some childhood personality events being way too common
• Fixed garrisons not refilling correctly after sieges
• Fixed many instances of Regents traveling with their lieges, especially during Hunts and Tournaments
• Improved tooltip why sometimes you cannot change intent during activities
• Increased maximum allowed years in activity passive phase (travel time) from 3 years to 10
• May now plan activities regardless of insufficient funds to start them
• Memory descriptions expect character memory as root scope
• Show correct regent when designated regent has been deposed by a scheme
• Characters are no longer intimidated by 0 dread
• Mercenaries and holy orders can now use MaA from culture traditions
• Swinging the scales of power will now tell you in which direction & towards whom they've swung
• Fixed unnecessarily large effect lists in Invasion casus belli wars
• Fixed bastards being born in faiths which had none
• The HRE title holder no longer needs to exist to establish the Carolingian Empire
• Champion the Faith of Country Basques decision now includes the new provinces added for Fate of Iberia
• Can now use "Grant to..." action in county view even if there's a leased out barony

[jztemple2]

Dev Diary #136 - Our Vision for Persia (Legacy of Persia - Available November 9th)

It is time to dive into the upcoming Flavor Pack - Legacy of Persia. The region has a rich and vibrant history making it both exciting and interesting to work with, not the least because it differs significantly from the regions we've chosen to cover in the past - Persia lies at the crossroads of the world, with a multitude of external influences combined with strong local traditions. Naturally while our focus has been on the Persian region itself, we've also aimed to shake up a portion of the world at large by revising how the Clan government works, so even if you're not playing in the Persian region there's something new and exciting to experience.

[Baroquen]

I really need to get back to this and play another run-through.

[jztemple2]

Dev Diary #137 - Machinations of a Clan

It’s been a while since I last wrote a DD, so a quick (re)introduction might be in order. I’m Emil, aka “Servancour”, one of your resident CK3 game designers. I’ve been on the project since way before release, and tend to mostly focus a lot on game mechanics and systemic features. Which, in fact, brings me to why I’m here today. When we settled on Persia as the focus for our upcoming Flavor Pack, we soon came to realize that this would be an excellent opportunity to revisit the Clan Government and give it a much-needed update.

This is a long article as there are a lot of changes going on with managing a clan type of government. The article discusses at length the new mechanics of Tax Jurisdictions and Tax Collectors and also House Unity.

[Baroquen]

FYI - The Legacy of Persia "Flavor Pack" is out today. And I apparently already own it as part of the Chapter II bundle. Maybe I'll start another round and see what happens this time.

[El Guapo]

$13 for a "flavor pack"?

[jztemple2]

$13 for a "flavor pack"?

If you read what I've linked to above, you'll see there's a lot of content to the pack. It is similar to the Fate of Iberia pack which adds a new Struggle.

A New Struggle, the Iranian Intermezzo

With Legacy of Persia, we are bringing a new Struggle, the Iranian Intermezzo.

This struggle seeks to represent the historical dissolution of the Caliphal authority over Persia and the ascension of new, powerful, Iranian Rulers In the 9th and 10th centuries. It also reflects a shorter historical period when compared to Fate of Iberia’s Struggle, so it is likely to be resolved more briefly and intensely.

Unlike Fate of Iberia, participant characters are clearly divided into factions. The Caliphal Supporters against the Detractors. A lot of new interactions are unlocked by this dynamic, such as convincing a character to switch sides, sponsoring turkic invasions against supporters, or waging war to install Caliphal Supporters.

The struggle has three phases, Unrest, Stabilization and Concession. The Concession phase is of a new type, a so-called Ending Phase. If a struggle gets to an Ending Phase, it will instantly trigger an ending. So, unlike Struggle Ending Decisions, where there is a dominant character that pushes the button to trigger it, every involved character can contribute to an Ending Phase by triggering relevant catalysts.

We have designed four struggle endings (three as decisions, one as an ending phase), which can be pursued in different ways, depending on the personal perspective of your character.

Will the Caliph be able to reestablish their power over the region? Will a powerful Shia ruler overtake the Sunni, creating a new Caliphate? Maybe an Iranian ruler will usher in an era of Persian dominance, forever boosting cultures of Iranian-heritage? Or, a Sunni Caliphal Detractor might oust the Caliph and take their place as head of faith?

In the Iranian Intermezzo Struggle we went for a more nuanced, granular approach, where the endings are subdivided into options that have different effects, according to your character’s culture, religion and whether they are part of the Supporter or Detractor faction.

[El Guapo]

Ah. Feels like a bad name, then, as I would think a 'flavor pack' would be content-free skins and the like.

[Baroquen]

I agree. I don't think the term Flavor Pack implies much content. I'm more likely to pass or ignore something with this label if I hadn't already picked it up with the pre-order DLC bundle.

[jztemple2]

Chapter III has been announced

About this bundle

Write glorious new sagas of military conquest and romantic adventures with Chapter III. This Chapter includes two expansions, one event pack, and one cosmetic enhancement. Enjoy new mechanics, new events, and new historical flavor to add greater depth to Crusader Kings III!

Chapter III includes:

Couture of the Capets (included in Chapter III)
Unveil a world of opulence with Couture of the Capets. Available immediately upon purchase of Chapter III, this cosmetic pack introduces new fashions and styles inspired by French royal culture in the High Middle Ages (13th century).

Legends of the Dead
Turn yourself into a figure of legend in this Core Expansion, where great feats and effective propaganda can enhance the power of your bloodline through the centuries. Direct the course of your dynastic legend through Court Chroniclers, whether building a reputation for great buildings or legendary feasts. But beware of the growing threat from distant lands, as the Black Death builds a legendary legacy of its own.

Roads to Power
The majesty of the Byzantine Empire takes center stage in this Major Expansion. Rule from Constantinople through a new Administrative Government form and experience a variety of new Byzantine themed events and flavor. Or, be truly daring and live a life where your noble reputation is not tied to the land, roaming the map as an Adventurer for hire.

Wandering Nobles
Building on the travel system introduced with ‘Tours & Tournaments’, this event pack introduces a new Travel Lifestyle and new ways and reasons to travel - incidents and stories related to roaming far from the safety of your court.

[Max Peck]

Couture of the Capets (included in Chapter III)
Unveil a world of opulence with Couture of the Capets. Available immediately upon purchase of Chapter III, this cosmetic pack introduces new fashions and styles inspired by French royal culture in the High Middle Ages (13th century).

Despite the description, this FreeLC is available without purchasing the rest of Chapter III.

Fake news...

[jztemple2]

Couture of the Capets (included in Chapter III)
Unveil a world of opulence with Couture of the Capets. Available immediately upon purchase of Chapter III, this cosmetic pack introduces new fashions and styles inspired by French royal culture in the High Middle Ages (13th century).

Despite the description, this FreeLC is available without purchasing the rest of Chapter III.

I checked this and while the DLC is shown on the main menu page, it is shown as disabled. It also does not show up in the launcher as Owned Content. Apparently it is just like in the previous two chapters, where each chapter included a cosmetic pack DLC which is only available if you purchase the entire bundle that is the chapter.

And here's a video about Chapter III

[Max Peck]

Huh, must be a glitch on the Steam storefront then. It's listed as free and it downloaded. I didn't think to check in the game launcher to ensure it was actually active though. Apologies for the alt-fact.

[Holman]

None of the other chapter 3 content is released yet. Maybe this one flips on when the first installment arrives on March 4?

[jztemple2]

None of the other chapter 3 content is released yet. Maybe this one flips on when the first installment arrives on March 4?

If you are talking about the Couture of the Capets DLC, it is available now if you buy the Chapter III bundle. It is basically a perk for getting the bundle rather than buying the three paid DLC separately.

[jztemple2]

The Couture of the Capets DLC Steam page has been updated to clarify the situation, it now shows it available only if you purchase the bundle.

[Max Peck]

I expect that there are still going to be a lot of people complaining that "free if you buy the bundle" isn't free at all.

[Blackhawk]

...which is true.

[jztemple2]

I expect that there are still going to be a lot of people complaining that "free if you buy the bundle" isn't free at all.

The new text on the Steam page says "This pack is free and is available to download when you buy the Chapter III Expansion Pass for Crusader Kings III" so at least that confusion should be cleared up as there is no longer a "Download" button on the page.

Regarding the rest of the DLCs... I never did play the older DLC Northern Lords as it was a very specifically focused DLC on an area I wasn't interested in. I did play the older DLC Fate of Iberia one time but gave up as the mechanics of the struggle felt very artificial. I was going to think about passing on the DLC Roads to Power as I thought it might be too focused on one locale like the previous two I mentioned, but reading through the description I am thinking there is enough outside of that area to make it worthwhile, although I'd have to know if selecting Administrative Government is available to me as a ruler elsewhere than the Byzantine Empire.

The new DLC Legends of the Dead sounds interesting and I might just pick it up separately rather than in the bundle.

[Max Peck]

Weirdly, the change on Steam also means that you can't (currently) purchase/pre-order any of the individual DLCs, just the entire bundle. I guess they'll figure all that out by the time the paid DLCs are released.

[jztemple2]

Dev Diary #144: Legends and Lesions

Hello everybody! Welcome to this Developer Diary explaining the creative vision behind Crusader Kings III’s first Core Expansion: Legends of the Dead, courtesy of one of our talented game designers (and resident historian on medieval plagues!)

[Max Peck]

Legends and Lesb... Oh, Lesions. Never mind...

[hepcat]

Daehawk passed out from excitement before he got to the end of your post....

[jztemple2]

Dev Diary #146 - It Started With a Cough...

Hello and welcome to the 146th Dev Diary for Crusader Kings III! I’m Matthew, the Code Owner on Legends of the Dead. From the highly anticipated Epidemics feature to the Black Death itself—and what happens after your land is ravaged and your family taken to the grave—today we’re going to be covering all things Death!

As stated in the Vision Dev Diary, we’ve wanted to include Epidemics for a long time now—doing them bigger and better than CK2 ever did.
Plagues should be an impactful part of the game, ranging from a mild illness in a localized area to the sweeping spread of diseases across continents. Not only should they cause death in their wake, but those who survive should have their trust in your rulership tested.

[jztemple2]