Jun 15, 2021

Crusader Kings III - Nicou12313

Salutations!

Before we begin, first things first. We are working on an additional patch to fix some of the issues introduced in 1.4. The patch is still being worked on, but if everything goes as planned, we should be able to get it out sometime next week or so. We’ll let you know once the patch is ready.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about something I’m quite excited to share with you all.
As you probably know already, we’ve talked a bit about how we are revisiting cultures for the next expansion. Unlike faiths, which got a lot of attention prior to release as we made them quite dynamic and customizable, cultures can feel a bit static, and aren't anywhere near as interesting as faiths. That is all about to change!

► Read our Dev Diary #64 - Cultures Are Forever

💡 To see the images, please visit our forums or website.
💡 Enjoy the FAQ Royal Court and read all there is to learn about our upcoming Expansion

We are revising cultures as you know them. Most exciting is perhaps the possibility to create new cultures! Both for simulating historical events and to create plausible and interesting alt-history scenarios. But I’m getting ahead of myself. For now, let’s start by looking at the foundation of a culture and the different components they are made of. This is what the new culture screen will look like.

[Image of the new and updated culture interface]

Cultural Pillars
A culture has five main Cultural Pillars. These are Ethos, Heritage, Language, Martial Custom, and finally Aesthetics. Of these, the Ethos is perhaps the most significant, but all of them play a particular role in how a culture plays and how cultures view each other.

Ethos
Each ethos is framed around a particular theme that somehow ties into a fairly broad definition of what a culture is. A culture’s ethos not only provides effects and bonuses for having it, it also ties into how easy or difficult it is to acquire certain traditions (more on this further down). There are seven in total:

Bellicose
Communal
Courtly
Egalitarian
Inventive
Spiritual
Stoic

Here are a few examples of what they may look like in-game
Again, please read the thread on our forums for the images. We would also love to hear your feedback here and on the Paradox forums where our developers are most active:

[Image of the Bellicose ethos]
[Image of the Spiritual ethos]
[Image of the Inventive ethos]

Heritage
A culture's heritage can be compared to the culture groups that you may be used to in the existing system. Heritages will roughly match said culture groups. You’ll see an Iberian Heritage for cultures like Basque and Castilian, or Turkic Heritage for Turkic cultures, such as Oghuz and Cuman. In terms of gameplay, the most outstanding effect of a shared heritage is the impact it has on Cultural Acceptance.

Language
Each culture has a designated language. Languages vary greatly across the map and between cultures. Some languages, such as Arabic, are spoken by quite a few cultures. Other languages are spoken by no more than two or three cultures, or in some cases, cultures even have their own unique language. An example of these would be Basque, who really don't have any closely related languages and it wouldn’t make too much sense to group them together with their neighbors. The vast majority of cultures share a language though, as a sort of “language group” rather than a specific language.

Characters can always speak the associated language of their culture. They are, however, also able to learn multiple languages over their lifetime. Knowing multiple languages has its benefits, as speaking the same language as another character of a different culture, and county, will reduce the opinion penalty that character, or county, has towards you. Knowing the native language (i.e. the language of their culture) of your vassals is therefore fairly beneficial as a means of increasing their opinion of you.

Noble Martial Custom
The martial custom decides which gender you may appoint as knights and commanders. As you’d expect, you can either appoint men, women, or both. We always felt that having the gender doctrine on faiths decide which characters can and cannot participate in battles felt off. The doctrine is about the right to rule and the holding of titles, more so than anything else. Just because you want the Equal doctrine to allow female rulers, doesn’t mean that women would automatically lead your armies or join you as knights. Revising cultures gave us the ample opportunity to move the functionality from faiths over to cultures. Which also means that you’ll have additional options in shaping your realm.

Aesthetics
This pillar is really a collection of several smaller properties for what a culture “looks” like. It decides what type of clothes characters wear, the coat of arms style for dynasties, what architecture holdings use, and the type of armor the units on the map wear.

This is also the pillar that contains what naming practices the culture uses. Mainly what character names to use, if they use a dynasty prefix, etc. The naming practice will also be used to change title and holding names, which used to be set per culture, so as to not have titles change names if you create a new culture.

For all of you modders out there; all of these can be set individually per culture. Allowing you to mix and match the different aesthetics to your heart’s content.

Traditions
Traditions are the meat of the cultural overhaul, and provide that extra layer of variety and immersion that can have a significant impact on gameplay. An important aspect of traditions is that they give us a clear means of visualizing and explaining existing mechanics that previously just “was a thing” and never explained. Take Anglo-Saxon as an example. They have access to the Saxon Elective succession for no apparent reason other than “they do”. Instead, they now have a tradition that grants them the succession law, making it clear as to why they have it. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, traditions serve as the perfect means of giving a culture additional flavour or gameplay bonuses that add a greater degree of variety across the map.

A culture can have no more than five traditions in total, but this number will increase as you enter a new era. Most cultures will start the game with around three or four, which leaves plenty of room for you to shape your culture as you play the game. As the cultural head, you’ll have the ability to establish new traditions.

Not all traditions will be available everywhere. We have both regional traditions, as well as traditions that are available depending on your heritage. The vast majority of them can be established regardless of circumstances, but might require certain conditions, such as ‘Hill Dwellers’ having the requirement that your culture must be present in a county with hills.

Traditions cost prestige to adopt. Which will be the largest hurdle for you to overcome if you want a specific tradition. The prestige cost is dependent on your ethos. Certain traditions will be more expensive than others, if you don’t have a matching ethos. Similarly, a tradition will increase in cost if your culture, or in some cases the cultural head, doesn’t fulfill a specific and thematic requirement. An example would be a tradition named ‘Only the Strong’, which is more expensive if you as the cultural head don't have at least six knights with at least 12 prowess. The increased cost is meant to act as a softer limit and make it slightly more difficult to establish certain traditions (depending on your circumstances), but not as much as to make it impossible to do so, should you want to go and unlock a particular tradition.

Instead of explaining traditions in detail, I’ll just show you a few examples of what traditions may look like, as well as the type of effects you can expect from them.

[Image of the Swords for Hire tradition]
[Image of the Chivalry tradition]
[Image of the Esteemed Hospitality tradition]
[Image of the Seafarers tradition]
[Image of the Land of the Bow tradition]

Cultural Acceptance
Cultural acceptance can be described as how well intermingled two cultures are, and how accepting they are of each other. Which means that given enough time, cultures will dislike each other less, and culture converting everything within your realm is no longer the only solution to combat cultural differences.

The opinion penalty of being of a different culture used to be a static value. Now, it will depend on the cultural acceptance between your culture and the target culture. Each culture has an acceptance value of another culture, visualized as a percentage. Depending on the amount of acceptance, the “different culture” opinion penalty will gradually be reduced. At 0% acceptance, you’ll have the full opinion penalty. At 100%, the penalty is removed altogether. Acceptance goes both ways. So if the French have a 20% acceptance towards Normans, the same will be true from the Norman perspective.

There are two ways for acceptance to change. The first is an acceptance baseline. Which increases if two cultures share similarities with one another. There are a number of different modifiers that can increase the baseline. Such as cultures that share the same religion or faith, ethos, or language. The most impactful modifier, however, is heritage. If two cultures share the same heritage, they have a significant bonus to their baseline.

If acceptance is above the baseline, it will slowly decay over time towards the targeted value. Being below the baseline on the other hand, will not make the acceptance increase. A bad relation between cultures won’t disappear overnight.

Secondly, acceptance very much changes depending on the circumstances. Don’t expect two cultures that never interact with one another to gain acceptance. If cultures exist within the same realm though, it will increase over time. This applies to both counties of another culture within your realm, as well as vassals. Acceptance is also reactive. Taking certain actions towards characters of a different culture will have consequences on your acceptance, such as declaring war or revoking titles. This generally scales on size. While the difference isn’t huge, revoking a single county from a small culture will decrease your acceptance more than if you would revoke a county from a much larger culture. At the end of the day, if you want to maintain a high acceptance and keep your Occitan vassals in France happy, you are at least gonna have to try and be nice to them.

[Image of what the cultural acceptance between two cultures may look like]

There we go. That’s what a culture will look like in the near future. Oh! Before I forget; Best of all? The cultural rework is free, and will accompany the free update that launches alongside the Royal Court expansion!

Until next time!

Jun 8, 2021

Dev Diary #63 - 1.4.0 “Azure” Patch Notes 🌞

Crusader Kings III - Nicou12313

Hello crusaders!

We are delighted to share with you the final changelog of the Azure patch, and some news on the Multiplayer open beta.

Everything went well since the last diary so the patch will drop today as promised. It packs a mix of new features, new events, balance improvements, AI improvements, modding improvements and fixes to bugs reported by our great community.

Check the Dev Diaries below for a refresher on what has been mentioned about Azure so far:

► Read our Dev Diary #63 - 1.4 ‘Azure’ Patch Notes

Here are some highlights from the Patch Notes 1.4.0 Azure:

Faction behavior
Whoever said the life of a medieval ruler was only an infinite series of conquests? Maintaining good relations with the key Vassals and the integrity of the realm is an intricate diplomatic dance. Azure introduces changes in the faction behavior to make it more realistic and more impactful on the ruler experience. We look forward to hearing back from you and collecting your feedback on the new behavior! Our intention is to focus the CK3 experience on the complex life of a medieval ruler - full of political dilemmas - beyond painting the map.

Bug fixing
You have spoken and we are always listening! Much focus was put on fixing issues reported in the forum, so please continue helping us by posting about bugs and reacting to the ones that matter the most to you, it helps us prioritize them for fixing.

MP open beta
We are planning to roll out an updated multiplayer Open Beta on Steam soon after today’s release. The open beta will have the same functionality as Azure but will include network stability improvements that we need your support on testing. You can find more information in the dedicated open beta subforum. We want to thank you all for your continued support and please keep on sending us your very useful feedback.

In the coming weeks we’ll continue sharing more details about the Royal Court as it progresses and grows into the graphically rich expansion we are preparing for you.

Until then enjoy an Azure summer (or winter if you’re in that part of the world)!

Cheers!

=====

1.4.0 “Azure” Changelog

###################

# Free Features

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Game rule presets can be created! You can now easily switch between different configurations depending on your mood. The last configuration is used by default for future games.
Character finder presets can be created. Finding future spouses, wards, councillors,... will be easier than ever! When creating a new preset, you can save almost everything! Dynamic objects however won’t be memorized (custom faiths, specific Dynasties and Houses)
Men at arms can be raised independently of levies, either to the first existing rally point or from a specific one. It will allow you to crush small rebellions or wage small wars without calling all your levies.
At game start, rulers now start with a decent amount of men at arms already hired, based on their income. Upon becoming landed, newly landed rulers will also receive men at arms.
Dynamic garrisons for holdings have been introduced. Garrisons now have a max and min capacity. When a siege is won, the garrison is depleted and set to its min value. Each month, the current garrison reinforces until it reaches its max capacity. The reinforcement rate is improved by upgrading the holding.
Unlocked the Monarch's Journey cosmetic items for all players (Hennin, Chaperon, Jester's Hat, Wizard's Beard, Miller, Miller Highlights, Jeanne d'Arc, Pageboy, and Mullet)
- Jeanne d'Arc haircut will be used by some Frankish women
- Mullet haircut will be used by some Scottish men
- The Chaperon hat will be used by some Western mayors after 1300
- The Hennin hat will be used by some Noble women after 1300
Added new Lifestyle events:
- One for Learning: Scholarship
- One for Martial: Strategy
- An Event Chain for Martial: Authority
Added the Meet Peers activity for children. The activity allows them to forge relationships with other kids and maybe learn from unexpected situations. Explore a dozen new events for a more diverse childhood, allowing you to take control of your destiny.
Some traits have access to new Interactions and Decisions:
- Arbitrary: can remove a hook by paying prestige and gaining Tyranny
- Deceitful: can take a decision improving the ongoing hostile schemes if they are above the stress level 1
- Diligent: can take a decision that will increase the development of the Capital but increase their stress
- Forgiving: can consume a hook to lose stress and gain opinion
- Impatient: can take a decision to immediately advance all their on going scheme if they are above the stress level 1
- Vengeful: can fabricate hooks on their rival without unlocking the perk.
- Wrathful: can duel criminals to enforce the punishment.
- Irritable: can duel who they want if they are at the stress level 1 or above. It will generate dread and tyranny

###################

# Balance

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You can now hire mercenaries of your culture from further away. It will allow Iceland to have access to mercenaries.
The Norman culture now has access to the Regional innovation from the Norse Culture from the start of the game
Some traits were updated:
- Ambitious: they now gain stress when signing a White Peace
- Arrogant: they now gain stress when signing a White Peace
- Craven: added hostile scheme resistance and intrigue
- Fickle: added +1 intrigue and increased diplomacy from 1 to 2
- Generous: loses stress when organizing activities and gifting money
- Gluttonous: they have a high chance to avoid being murdered if the Poison food method is chosen
- Greedy: they have a weaker monthly income bonus but an increasing monthly income depending on their stress level
- Gregarious: they gain stress if they fail at swaying someone
- Honest: they can lose stress by exposing a secret
- Just: they can lose stress by exposing a secret
- Lazy: they have a stronger stress loss bonus
- Shy: they do not suffer from stress when starting a personal scheme anymore. BUT they have a huge penalty on personal scheme power.
Overall faction dynamic has been updated:
- The power threshold is more dynamic: it will be decreased by other factions and their state.
- There will be no factions created by AI Vassals in the first years of the game to give enough time to stabilize existing realms.
  - 1 year for Dukes
  - 5 years for Kings
  - 10 years for Emperors
- Faith modifiers are more impactful for Zealous characters and weaker for Cynical
- Intimidated characters will not be afraid of joining a faction above its power threshold
- Terrified vassals have a small chance of joining a faction above its power threshold
- Characters with an opinion of 80+ will never join a faction
Independence faction modifiers have been updated:
- Characters will join a suitable Populist faction if they exist instead of creating a new Independence faction
- Electors are less likely to join or create a faction
- Vassals that have more than 50% of their territory outside of the De Jure primary title will be more likely to join or create the faction
  - The bigger their realm size, the more likely they are
- Counts are less likely to join or create a faction
- Kings are more likely to join or create a faction
- Characters can be more motivated to join if one of their neighbour is in the faction
- Claimant faction modifiers have been updated
- Powerful vassals are more likely to create Claimant factions if they have a negative opinion
- Vassals with a different culture are more likely to join than before
- Vassals are less likely to create a Claimant if they are not a De Jure vassals. They will instead prefer to create an Independence faction
- Characters are more likely to join a faction if the Claimant is their De Jure liege
- Characters are more interested in Claimant faction concerning title above their and in their De Jure hierarchy
Defeating or dealing with Scandinavian Adventurers now gives a temporary reprieve proportional to size, with smaller realms gaining a larger break whilst larger realms become valid targets again faster
Embarkation costs can no longer be reduced more than 90%
Faiths with concubines no longer give Counts a prestige-penalty for not having them, and now only expect dukes to have 1 rather than 2
Fire and Blood event now adds loot to your raid army, not directly to your treasury, and fires a little less often
Founding the Capital of the Rus now gives a more mild development level boost, as well as a reasonably hefty boost over time, rather than immediately catapulting you to Constantinople-levels
Increased the amount of money everyone starts the campaign with by 50%
Raiders no longer take attrition when raiding next to major rivers
Scandinavian Adventurers now stagger their attacks through the year instead of ritually attacking on January 1st
Scandinavian Adventurers will now stop so consistently starving to death at sea before they reach their target
Scandinavian Adventurers' event MaA are now inheritable
The cost of mercenary and holy orders now slowly goes up based on the size of your realm
The cost of mercenary now increases with the tier of the primary title with each Era
The Tribal government now gives a small amount of prestige each month. This helps avoid situations where new rulers have virtually no prestige gain
Upped the truce time on for raid-trade events from 5 years to 10
Stress is now lost when a Rival loses a title
Updated the stress impact of organizing a Grand Blot
- Greedy and Shy never lose stress and suffer a progressive stress impact depending on who is invited: the merrier, the bigger the stress impact.
- Generous and Gregarious never loses stress and suffers a progressive stress impact depending on who is invited: the lesser, the bigger the stress impact.

###################

# AI

###################

Your children and grandchildren can now get married off by their liege if their liege is their parent or grandparent and is allowed to marry on their own
Added logic for transferring siege weapons from a subunit to the main subunit
Added small bonus to current location when selecting a target province to avoid units switching places
All vassals are now able to declare war no matter how deep down in the vassal tree they are
CB:s can now have a scripted score that is added to the hard-coded one
Changed CB base score to be title's Tier^3 instead of Tier^2
Fixed opinion of self overtaking the base score of many CB:s
Moved CB score multipliers to defines
Subunit stacks will be more hesitant to split off siege weapons
The main subunit stack will never split off its best siege weapons
The score of potential CB:s are no longer scaled with the strength of the target
Told the AI that it shouldn't be avoiding running into stronger enemies when it is explicitly trying to help out one of its own units dealing with stronger enemies
Told the AI that just because it cannot fit its entire army in a single province, that doesn't mean it should stop resupplying
Told the AI that just because its units are in a separate stack, that doesn't mean it shouldn't help out in a combat it is losing 2 provinces away
Told the AI to keep its stacks a bit smaller so that it has an easier time resupplying
Tweaked down de jure multipliers for scoring titles when evaluating CB:s
Units should ignore strait penalties and hostile attrition if helping another unit
Units should ignore strait penalties if going into an ongoing combat
Units with siege weapons will now try to relieve or help sieging units without siege weapons
Will be more hesitant pushing a claimant's CB over its own
Will focus more on CB:s that target a title of a higher tier than its current primary title
Will no longer push a claimant's CB if it targets a title the AI has a claim on
Will now hunt nearby enemy units even in hostile attrition territory if it deems it worthy
Willingness to attack a stronger target now scale the more wars the target is in
Willingness to attack a stronger target now scale with attacker's boldness
Lowered the odds of creating a Cadet Branch for Counts and Ruler serving a liege of the same Dynasty
Feudal and clan rulers will not declare war to tribal rulers if they have Tribal holding to convert in their realms
Vassals’ Holy War will be declared only to direct neighbours to protect smaller realm from the Byzantine empire bigger realms
Feudal and clan rulers will never start a Vassalization war of a tribal ruler.
Kings and Emperors are less likely to accept Faction’s demand if they are not at war already.

###################

# Interface

###################

The Declare War window has been restructured to allow for a better comparison between the two side and ease the access to the Objectives attached to a casus belli
Fixed some historical characters changing hairstyle or beard upon death
Fixed the mass prisoner actions in some cases acting on far fewer characters than they should
Fixed the "Only X Faiths" checkbox in the Other Faiths list in the Faith window being inverted
Faction members do not hide the opinion of other faction members anymore
Fixed Send Poem sometimes saying it has 0% chance of success when it actually has 1% chance
If someone is your ally in a war and your enemy at the same time, they now show as your enemy since walking into them will cause combat. This does not solve the underlying issue of conflicting wars being possible in rare cases
Fixed typing something into the newborn naming box that matches a localization key causing the text in the box to be replaced with that localization. E.G., in German typing "He" would get replaced with "Er"
Added missing tooltip when taking a concubine for the chance of children
All former spouses are now shown in the character window, not just those that are former due to death
Fixed a bug where a vassal player would not be correctly warned when their own vassals' counties had formed a populist faction against their liege
Fixed an issue that could cause numerous duplicate interaction notifications to appear
Fixed unlocked innovations in some cases being hidden due to being impossible to get if you didn't already have them. This could for instance happen to Longships when creating Norman culture
Fixed sidebar clipping with open windows
Fixed marriages in some cases giving you a notification about the other party's arranger (E.G., their court owner) getting married, rather than about the alliance formed by the marriage
Fixed the prestige breakdown incorrectly claiming that army cost modifiers apply to army prestige cost. E.G., the breakdown would say "Tribal: -50%" despite the prestige cost of armies being unaffected

###################

# Game Content

###################

Defenders of Rod now require a Holy Site without an existing special building
Game Over loc will now mention any big empire/kingdom you've formed/reformed/unified through the existing big decisions
Beating a significant amount of landless Scandinavian Adventurers now rewards unique nicknames
Challenging your Ruler for their title now uses the SCE
Courtiers who carry a rotting trophy now give off an off-putting smell
Having a trading ceasefire with a former raid target will now occasionally give both parties access to recruitable notable immigrants
Poet trait now has a runestone memorialisation
Raised Voices at the Ting Meet event now has several issues, rather than literally always being the same squabble
Scandinavian Adventurers may now be paid off or given land preemptively rather than always needing to be fought to the end
Winter commanders can now auto-win at competitive skiing
Harsh Winter now has a concept in the encyclopedia
You can now pay for a runestone your child defaced yourself, though they'll take the lesson to heart
Dynast can now enforce a divorce or ask a divorce for any member of their Dynasty within their Realm
Adding new piety icons for Zoroastrianism and Judaism
Added a follow-up event to a Stewardship: Wealth Lifestyle event which had empty options
Olympus replaces Sparta as a Holy Site for Hellenism
Added some extra events around raiders forming a trade relationship with their potential-victims

###################

# User Modding

###################

# Deprecations

GetDummyMale and GetDummyFemale are now deprecated. Modifying them in script is no longer possible. Their use-cases have been replaced with GetGlobalVariable and GetGlobalList. They will be removed completely in 1.5 to ensure script and code that is more maintainable in the long-term.

# Changes

Add CloseGameView data function so mods can close specific in game views.
Add garrison_reinforcement_factor. The param is used for set how fast current garrison size is increasing
Add GetTraitFromGroup and GetTraitGroupLevel data functions on Character.
Add GetTraitGroup( 'tag' ) and Trait.GetGroup data functions to get trait groups.
Add HasTrait and HasTraitFromGroup data functions to Character.
Add GetGlobalVariable and GetGlobalList data functions for getting data saved from script.
Add MakeScopeValue, MakescopeFlag, and MakeScopeBool to create scope objects out of primitive types directly since they are not automatically creatable via the MakeScope member on complex types like Character.MakeScope.
Add ScriptValue data function to scope objects which will evaluate a script value just with that scope object as root.
Made the Localize data function allow the key it references to also call other data functions in it like SelectLocalization does.
Add AddList data function for GuiScope, it is to add_to_list what AddScope is to save_scope_as.
Added data functions GetTraitsWithFlag and GetTraitsWithoutFlag
Added datamodel GetTraits on TraitGroup
Added defines NMercenary::REALM_SIZE_MULT and NHolyOrder::REALM_SIZE_MULT
Added effect deactivate_holy_site
Added effect remove_dynasty_perk
Added effect remove_innovation = innovation_key
Added effect set_army_location
Added effects clear_traits and copy_traits
Added effects set_age and change_age
Added list builder x_culture_global
Added modifiers army_siege_value_mult, army_damage_mult, army_toughness_mult, army_pursuit_mult, and army_screen_mult
Added trigger has_innovation_flag
Added trigger perks_in_<lifestyle>, to query how many perks exist in a given lifestyle (rather than how many a specific character has)
Building_garrison was renamed to building_max_garrison
CBs now support the "icon" parameter to have them use a different icon key
Character interactions now support the "icon" parameter to have them use a different icon key
Create_betrothal now logs an error rather than silently failing when something's wrong
Ensured that laws are always stored in database order, so that it is predictable how they will override one another
Fixed replace_path in mod descriptors having no effect
Fixed hot-reload for linux
Make_concubine now supports same-sex concubinage
Rename garrison param to max_garrison for building configs
Spawn_army will now only spawn levies if scripted to do so
The assign_council_task effect now properly errors when the old councillor cannot be fired, rather than just silently doing nothing

###################

# Bugfixes

###################

Populist factions can no longer usurp a player's primary title if it is their only title of their tier
Fixed spiritual head succession not always properly applying, leading to the spiritual head of faith passing on to temporal rulers. In rare cases that could lead to the player game-overing on death as a result of having inherited the head of faith title
Removed occurrence of game over despite having a heir
Theocratic rulers will keep their government after converting to a faith with the Theocratic doctrine
The “Return Roma” decision now always return it to the Pope
Elective heir from Primary title sets only for the title and doesn't affect others. Succession is tied to each title individually, so that changing succession in one doesn't affect other titles.
Fix a bug when temple holdings get disabled randomly
Fix an issue where on the MS Store/Gamepass version on some systems the launcher would get stuck during startup and never show up
Fix random crash/freeze when accessing the military view
Fixed a rare case where the game would completely freeze
Fixed AI being able to declare war directly on someone else's vassal
Fixed an issue that causes unavailable culture innovation can be chosen
Fixed hiring a holy order charging you piety in cases where the interface tells you it will be free
Fixed the Straight Medium Beard and Straight Pointy Beard missing from the Barbershop
Forbid a Scandinavian Adventurer to start a war against someone if they have a Truce with one of their Liege
Potentially fixed a way you could get booted into observe mode upon succession rather than getting to play as your heir
Scandinavian Adventurers now receive a loan to ensure they don't start out in debt
Securing the High Kingdom of the North Sea now requires *you* to hold the relevant kingdom titles, not just any randomer
Spouses of rulers will now once again wear clothes based on their spouse's culture
The Make Shieldmaiden interaction now correctly checks for Content and Humble traits.
Updated the localization to better explain why the "different faith" modifier is applied in the context of a Marriage acceptance
Lingering Resentment event is not triggered anymore if the kid do not have a crush
Bubonic plague will now only occur after 1346
Liege-less children can be recruited
Fixed eye skinning issue in males and females models
First of the Crusader Kings achievement is now properly tagged as impossible after the first Crusade started
Removed the list of Crusade and Jihad participants on the left-hand side of the Declare War window
Fixed a typo in the Danevirke description
Remove incorrect Courtier Left message when inviting a courtier
Fixed a case where your concubine would go to another court due to someone in their close family getting landed
Character selection list filters player is not get correctly
Concubines can always be dismissed, even when they are out of the diplomatic range
Corrected color code used by some icons to match the correct level color code
Varangian Adventurer will stop having new lovers appearing randomly
Domestic affairs task do not display the loss of crown authority as a potential negative side effect
Fixed a typo in the Hunter’s Stable description
Fixed a typo in Malcolm’s name in the Fate of England bookmark description
Partners will now be less likely to cheat when they have high opinion
The rightful liege condition now is verify the whole hierarchy instead just the n+1 title only
Added additional checks to make sure all needed scopes exists before generating tooltip about funding holy order
Arabic High Nobility will now use the Scholar's Turban and Caliphs will use the Caliphal Robes
Corrected a trigger incongruity that stopped Adventure and Pillage dynasty legacies being unlocked by valid non-Norse characters (e.g., Swedes, Estonians, etc.)
Corrected your opponent's weapon teleporting into your hand if they concentrated hard enough during a bout
Event wars are now counted for the purposes of raising runestones
Exiling a character as a nithing now causes them to hate you, not themselves
Fix console window being invisible on some startups on Linux and macOS (even in debug mode)
Fixed hiring new courtiers in a holy order always belong to that holy's order faith
Fixed map flashing on macOS when zooming between the terrain map and the flat map while advanced shader effects were enabled
Fixed the End of an Era achievement not unlocking; now unlocks a month before the end date
Fixing the issue with "Promote Culture finished" task not displaying what county was converted.
Fixed inconsistent month formatting in Simplified Chinese localization
Gift-Givers legacy now has a tooltip explaining that it makes you more likely to get trade-raid events
If an unlanded character is used in a Conversion event, they will wear the proper religious clothes
Landless Scandinavian Adventurers now correctly usurp duchies & may raise conquest runestones
The 'Spindly' Trait will not make people's limbs too thin anymore
The AI is now rewarded for fighting well/cunningly in duels even if the player isn't involved
The control rebate received when winning a Varangian Adventure now has a tooltip
Upped the likelihood for the Grandmaster of the Jomsvikings to rip their shirt off and come at you for your impiety & assorted faults
Upped the likelihood of the Jomsvikings to harass anyone who isn't an unreformed Norse pagan
The Mellow Spirit now applies opinion to parents instead of the liege
When revoking a title, the acceptance modifier from the military strength is clamped to +20
Stopped adding a weak hook on top of a weak hook if the expiration date is the same.
Vassals under the de facto claimed title holder in a war are transferred even if the holder is not the top liege.
Children cannot fight the Troll anymore, and thus cannot become Wolf/Moose/Lynx/Bear/Wolverine-Slayers
Armies won’t suffer from the starving penalty when the army is not using supplies
The Logistician traits now affect supply duration at sea and in friendly territories
The winter supply modifiers do not subtract bonus from “in friendly territory” anymore
Tutorial texts have been updated to reflect the map update
The “I need to know” event will not be spammed anymore when a character has a lot of lovers
The countdown timer for council tasks are now properly updated
A Life to Remember refers to the right character’s relationship with the deceased.
When trying to join a private server, password are not displayed in clear anymore
La Cerda cadet branch localisation has been repaired
Participants of a civil war can now all be punished without incurring Tyranny
- In case of white peace, they can only be imprisoned and their titles revoked
- In case of them being defeated, they can also be banished or executed
Avoid a notification spam of Alliance Proposal after reloading a save file
The Temple tooltip now tells Rulers with a Theocratic Doctrine that they will be leased to the Realm Priest after the construction.

May 25, 2021

Dev Diary #61 - The Royal Court 👑

Crusader Kings III - Nicou12313

Let's first dive into the namesake feature of the Expansion: the Royal Court itself + a very early sneak peek!

► Read our Dev Diary #61 - The Royal Court

💡 To see the images, please visit our forums or website.
💡 Enjoy the FAQ Royal Court and read all there is to learn about our upcoming Expansion

Greetings!

Welcome to the first Dev Diary for the Royal Court expansion! As we mentioned in a previous DD, we’ll go back to Azure patch DD’s for a few weeks after this one. But do not fear, there will be some more Royal Court DD’s before the summer holidays - and when we’re back from holidays we’ll have many, many Royal Court diaries for you!

It’s really hard to pick a topic for where to start, but we decided upon a dive into the namesake feature of the expansion - the Royal Court itself, your seat of royal majesty and power! The Royal Court consists of many features, all collected within a 3D scene that we call the Throne Room.

Here’s an early Work in Progress screenshot of the throne room - do note that it’s a very early version, but we just can't wait to show you what we have been working on!
[Image: An early WIP western-style Throne Room, not indicative of final quality]

Now, there are many things that go into the Royal Court itself. It interacts with numerous new features that’ll come with the expansion - we won’t go into detail on all of them today, if we did this DD would become much too long!

It's worth noting that this isn’t just a graphical feature; while we admit the importance of immersion, we don't want any features to feel tacked-on or superfluous. The Throne Room is there to show what’s happening; what artifacts you’ve collected, which courtiers are having a fight, etc. This allows us to place your character in a scene together with others, showing that you’re actually present in the same world! We’re trying to bridge the gap between your character and the map, all while representing a side of medieval history we’ve never previously explored in detail - the importance for a ruler to show their power, their grandeur, to their subjects and peers.

Every Feudal/Clan King and Emperor has a Royal Court. Tribal Rulers do not have one, as this feature primarily models the formality and ceremony surrounding the court, as well as the need for spending Gold, while Tribal rulers use Prestige as their main resource. If a ruler is demoted to a lower rank (through war, election, or just sheer bad luck) their Royal Court and everything therein will either stay dormant until you regain your lost status, or follow the character who now rules in your stead.

Grandeur
The key concept that enables this is called Grandeur - a measurement of your standing in the eyes of your peers. While it’s measured on a scale from 0-100, it’s not necessarily a simple system. Increasing your grandeur will lead to direct political benefits, such as increased opinions, marriage acceptance, etc. It will also unlock new Council Jobs, such as being able to peacefully demand De Jure land with the ‘Convince De Jure Territory’ job, or gain Knight Effectiveness while also decreasing enemy Scheme Success Chance with the ‘Manage Royal Guards’ job. These effects motivate you to aim for a high level of Grandeur, but naturally comes at a monetary cost. How much are you willing to spend on artifacts, amenities, or on positions within your court? You have to balance your political needs with your temporal ones, such as warfare or development. Sacrificing your grandeur entirely will cause instabilities both internal and external.

Grandeur is not really a resource, and is not actively ‘spent’ - unlike something like Prestige. It works on a much slower timescale, and is something you must balance and work towards increasing over a longer period of time. Though there are of course choices in events that make Grandeur increase or decrease, with various trade-offs.

Grandeur Effects
As mentioned in the previous section, Grandeur has several different effects and modifiers. It is divided into 10 separate levels with their own effects. For example, the very first level of Grandeur unlocks the ability to Hold Court - which is a crucial component in achieving the higher Grandeur levels. The second level unlocks a Council Task called ‘Bestow Royal Favor’, which is a powerful single-target task that increases a vassal’s opinion of you while granting them, and you, prestige.

One of the most significant effects of Grandeur is its effect on attraction of Inspired characters - the higher your Grandeur is compared to that of your neighbors, the likelier you are to have these creative travelers visit your court first, giving you an opportunity for patronage (more on Inspirations in a future DD).

Some of these levels will give courtiers who stay within it a flavorful trait, which will increase their skills and attributes based on the type of court they’re staying at. A particularly grand court might even see a more powerful trait appear, making such characters excellent for various jobs and Court Positions (more on Court Positions in a later DD).

Several Grandeur levels have effects and modifiers based on your Court Type - a type of flavorful perk for your court. Depending on your cultural Ethos you’ll get access to a few different types, such as a Diplomatic or Warlike Court. All royal courts have a type, and among other things it affects the type of trait that courtiers get (see previous paragraph). The bonuses granted from these types are varied and aim to enhance a certain style of play. The AI will tend to go for the Court Type most reflective of their Cultural Ethos and situation - for example, Indian Kings will often tend to want a Scholarly Court since many Indian cultures have a spiritual Ethos.

As an example, having a Diplomatic Court Type will grant you bonuses to Vassalization acceptance, tyranny gain, opinion, and potentially even unlock a Personal Scheme slot. A Warlike Court Type might instead see bonuses to MaA counter efficiency, knight efficiency, and the maximum size of MaA regiments. As not all cultures can access all Court Types, this is another reason to pursue Hybridization or Divergence (more on that in a later DD).

How Grandeur is Gained
Grandeur is divided in two; baseline, and direct gain. The baseline decides the ‘trend’, with you passively (and slowly) either gaining or losing grandeur over time, until the baseline is met. The baseline is affected by many things; what Court Artifacts you have, what Court Positions you have filled, etc (more on Court Artifacts in a later DD). The rate of grandeur change can be modified by many things, such as Cultural Ethoses or Traditions, but is as a rule of thumb slow. It takes time for word of your glory to spread, after all!

The most simple way to increase your Grandeur baseline is by investing in Amenities. Now, Amenities are simple and straightforward; but they’re still central to the concept of having a grand court! There are four different types; Lodgings, Food, Clothing and Servants. There are four levels to each, with each progressive level costing more gold to maintain, but giving more Grandeur baseline. They all come with a selection of flavor effects, for example; spending on food will slightly increase the disease resistance of your courtiers, but higher levels might also cause them to gain weight! Spending on clothes will increase their prestige, and will even cause them to wear fancier clothes at higher levels of expenditure (commoners will wear low nobility clothes, and so on). If your court is lacking in artifacts, spending on Amenities is the way to go.

Worth noting is that the cost of amenities is relative to your size and income; a small realm won’t have to pay as much as a prosperous one - the intent here is to allow smaller kingdoms and empires to ‘punch above their weight’ diplomatically, making choosing between expansion and consolidation a more relevant matter.

Reaching your baseline might take a long time, unless you decide to take action in order to speed it up - to gain grandeur fast, you need to Hold Court! Performing this decision invites your vassals and subjects to bring their issues, requests, and questions before you. The mere act of Holding Court will give you a one-time boost to your Grandeur, but the opportunities within the activity itself might give you opportunities to increase it further (or you could decide to lose grandeur for some temporal gain that is just too good to pass up!). The issues brought forth when Holding Court are many and varied, with many of them reacting to the state of your realm (more on Hold Court in a later DD).

Grandeur Expectations
Now, Grandeur isn’t only about reaching the level that gives the effect you desire, it’s also about managing expectations!

Depending on a number of factors, such as your tier or the size of your realm, you will have a certain expectation put upon your Royal Court. This expectation is a double-edged sword - if your grandeur is below expectations you’ll suffer increasing diplomatic penalties as people lose respect, while if it’s exceeded you might see powerful diplomatic bonuses.

These are scaled based on how powerful you are - a rather small Kingdom that undershoots its expectations won’t be hit particularly hard, while a massive empire such as the Holy Roman Empire or Byzantium will be punished much harder if they fail to live up to the expectations put upon them.

The effects of not living up to your expectations are many; reduced prestige, renown, and a hefty hit to opinion with both foreign rulers, courtiers and vassals. A large realm might easily find itself facing significant unrest unless its ruler starts spending on grandeur! On the other hand, a small kingdom that vastly exceeds the expectations put upon it might see significant bonuses to its diplomatic power, as well as renown and other bonuses.

Court Events
Now, the Royal Court isn’t all about Grandeur, of course. Another important role it holds is to show that there’s life in your court! This is done through Court Events; happenings contained within the court, taking place between those who live therein.

This new type of event uses the throne room as its backdrop, transforming the entire throne room into an event when they happen. Unlike normal events, this type of event is non-interruptive - you get notified that something is happening, whereby you can go into your Royal Court, inspect the scene, find whoever is involved, and trigger the event yourself. Usually these events are some sort of drama happening between your courtiers, which you can choose to simply ignore if you feel like you have more important matters to attend to.

These events come in many different flavors, mostly focusing on how it is to live in the court.

Some examples of court events that are being worked on currently include courtiers causing you embarrassment through their drinking or poor manners, or getting into arguments with your architect. Others involve things like rumors spreading about your predecessor on the throne, or popular and unflattering songs about you spreading within the court itself.
Court events might also be things like foreign ambassadors trying to uncover your secrets or devout courtiers shaming you and your court for your frivolous living.

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Now, of course there’s more that goes into the Royal Court, but we’ll save going into details regarding Court Artifacts, the UI and graphical looks of the Throne Rooms, Court Positions and so on for future DevDiaries! Of course, this expansion isn’t all about the Royal Court; before the summer break starts you’ll get to read about some of the other features coming with the expansion and patch.

That’s all for now!