Feb 1, 2022

Crusader Kings III - Nicou12313

Hello and welcome to another development diary for the Royal Court!

With release drawing nearer the time has come to show the 20 new achievements that come with the update. As with previous achievements we have aimed to have a good mix of easier to harder achievements with some focusing on new features and others on interesting challenges or starts.

► Read our Dev Diary #88: Achievements

💡 Enjoy the FAQ Royal Court and read all there is to learn about our upcoming Expansion

Very Easy

Patronage

Fund an Inspired character's Project, and receive the end result.

Easy

I Made This

Loot an artifact you do not have a claim on and pass it down to your heir

Polyglot

Personally know 10 languages

Changing Course

Create a Divergent Culture

Converging Paths

Create a Hybrid Culture

Medium

Hoarder

Have an artifact in every slot in the Inventory and Royal Court

Crème de la Crème

Reach the maximum amount of Court Grandeur

One of a Kind

Obtain an Epic artifact from an Adventurer Inspiration

Brave and Bold

Starting as the Piasts in 867, rule Poland, adopt Feudalism, and own a Famed or Illustrious-rarity regalia, crown, weapon, and armor.

They Belong in a Museum

Appoint a character with a completed Adventure inspiration as your Antiquarian

The True Royal Court

As a vassal king to an emperor, have a higher court grandeur than they do

Hard

Beta Israel

Starting and staying as a Jewish ruler in East Africa, rule a Kingdom and diverge your culture

Rise of the Ghurids

Starting as the Duke of Ghur in 867 or 1066, conquer the borders of the historical Ghurid Empire

Turkish Eagle

As the Seljuk Count in Samosata, form Rum and create a Hybrid Culture between Oghuz and Greek

Bod Chen Po

As a member of the Pugyel Dynasty, re-create the Empire of Tibet

Delusions of Grandeur

Be at least 6 levels above your expected Court Grandeur

True Tolerance

Rule a realm containing at least 10 cultures with 95% or more acceptance of your culture

Inspirational

Sponsor 30 successful inspirations in one game

Very Hard

Lingua Franca

Have every Royal Court in the world speak your Court Language

Nobody Comes to Fika

With the County of Fika as your primary title, diverge your culture and spread it to 30 Counties

That was all for today and for the very last development diary prior to the release of the Royal Court! Next Tuesday the patch notes for the update that goes along with the Royal Court expansion will be posted.

Jan 26, 2022

Pre-order Crusader Kings III NOW on Next-Gen consoles! 👑

Crusader Kings III - Nicou12313

Live the life of a medieval ruler and build history’s greatest dynasty from the comfort of your sofa, on March 29, 2022.
Pre-order now through Microsoft Hub or Playstation Store! 👑

Your Sofa Becomes Your Throne: Crusader Kings III for Console Coming in March

The noble pageantry of medieval grand strategy is coming soon to Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 consoles.

In partnership with the development team at Lab42, Paradox has adapted the dynamic and ever-changing gameplay of Crusader Kings III to a new environment, taking advantage of the unique characteristics of console play. Few other games have as rich a tapestry of strategic options, with political marriages to bind noble houses, brutal wars to enforce quasi-legal claims, personal relationships to unite a fractured realm, and even subtle scheming to undermine or eliminate rivals.

Crusader Kings III on console features an adapted interface and control scheme specifically tailored to larger screens and console gamepads. The all-new control map lets players quickly and easily navigate the game’s menus via triggers, bumpers, and quick flicks of the analog stick. The console edition also utilizes the key capabilities of the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5, like super-fast load times for a seamless gameplay experience as well as Haptic and Adaptive Trigger controller feedback. Players will be able to switch between gameplay and other applications, like YouTube, using Quick Resume, where they can consult a tutorial on how to quell a peasant revolt.

PlayStation 5 users will experience the game’s stress mechanics themselves, as their DualSense controllers physically react to in-game events as they unfold. The more stress a character has accrued, the more resistance will be applied to the DualSense controller’s Adaptive Triggers, for instance. The PS5’s Activities and Game Help also provide a platform to assist new players as they take their first steps in the world of Crusader Kings.

Features of Crusader Kings III include:

Character Focused Gameplay: Every character you play or interact with has their own unique personality. Events and options in the game are largely determined by the type of person you are.
Infinite Possibilities: Play as any noble house from Iceland to India, Finland to Central Africa, over five centuries. Interact with wandering guests, stubborn children, devious spymasters, and saintly holy men in an elaborate tapestry of medieval life.
Waging War: Rally your vassals and raise your men-at-arms to besiege enemy castles or put down rebellions. Personal prowess on the battlefield can win you great honor, but strategic planning is the path to victory.
Royal Marriages: Spread your dynastic DNA throughout the world, stamping your royal seal on the crests of kingdoms and duchies far and wide. Marry for power and raise children to press claims on new lands.
Saints and Sinners: Keep faith with your religious leaders or perform great crimes in the interest of the state. When the going gets tough, you can always embrace a heresy or craft a new religion more in line with your character’s priorities.

The console edition of Crusader Kings III can now be pre-ordered on both Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5. For more information, please visit https://pdxint.at/3H23CuK.

Jan 25, 2022

Dev Diary #87 - Royal Modding 🛠️

Crusader Kings III - Nicou12313

Hello everyone and welcome to the 87th CK3 Dev Diary!

I’m Matthew, one of the Programmers on the CK3 team, and today I am going to talk to you about a variety of improvements and changes we’ve done to modding for the 1.5 patch which will be accompanying the Royal Court Expansion.

► Read our Dev Diary #87: Royal Modding

💡 Enjoy the FAQ Royal Court and read all there is to learn about our upcoming Expansion

We’ve added a variety of mod support in 1.5 so I’m not gonna cover everything, but I will give a few big ticket items that will let mods do a lot more fun custom things as well a few smaller fun ones. I’ve also attached the output of script_docs on 1.5 at the end so modders curious about the new triggers and effects in game can get a bit of a sneak peek for the release.

The Royal Court
Of course the Royal Court itself is open to mods, it is all defined in the gfx/court_scene folder though the majority of the complex scene_settings itself is best built using the in-game editor that we are shipping with the court scene. It lets you position and change objects and switch between different settings much faster than trying to edit them all by hand.

Trust me, cause I remember the time whilst the editor was work in progress and doing changes by hand crushed my soul.

The in-game editor tool for the royal court 3d scene

I am not going to go into a huge amount of detail on the royal court modding because it is actually pretty straightforward with the editor, you position things and pick the assets you need for a configuration and then it just puts things there.

One aspect I will go into a bit more info on quickly is the character positioning, because the rest of the positioning is set within the editor but the characters are not positioned individually because of course not every court has the King of England to reference.

Instead the character positions are given a set of valid roles, and you pick a position where someone who has one of those roles may go. For example the two guards you see in the back are two positioned instances of the guard and knight role, which has a variety of rules of who it should pick.

If you have a bodyguard or champion court position appointed for example then it tries to use them as a special guard, but if you do not then it will fallback to picking any of your knights instead. You can also have some more special roles such as if you have a court jester or poet appointed then they can show up in your court too.

The script for the poet court scene role

Characters can not show up in multiple different roles and it is a “greedy” picking of first come first served in who is taken up, but you can write some fairly complex rules to decide who can go where as well as what animations they can choose from!

Same-Sex Marriage
Coming with 1.5 is support for same-sex marriage, not only just in mods either but as a new game rule alongside the Same-Sex relations game rule so you can use it in un-modded games too. We've updated a variety of AI logic and interactions and content to take that into account when playing.

Same-sex marriage between the Duke of Brittany and his husband

Mods are of course able to implement this into their different worlds without it having to be a game rule, it can be based on different cultures or anything in the game world at all.

This is something that we’re very happy to be able to put into the game and have support in the game rules for unmodded games too, it is something that a lot of the team and community wanted and we are glad it is finally going to be shipped in 1.5.

Scripted Widgets
CK3 is one of our most moddable games yet, not just in terms of the content that can be added but the system's mods can script. And our new UI system is the most open we’ve had in terms of what custom UIs mods can add and edit, but one issue it had was letting you add brand new things entirely and keeping compatibility nicely.

In 1.5 there is a new system called “scripted widgets”, what they allow for in essence is a mod to define their own brand new windows in the gui files and then add an entry into the gui/scripted_widgets folder with the name of their gui file and the main window.

For example:
gui/test_custom_widget.gui = my_first_cool_test_widget
gui/test_custom_widget.gui = my_second_cool_test_widget

Then with that simple line of script their window will appear in the game in the same way any of the windows we support in code do. Now of course there are some limitations, the windows do not have any special data context like a code one does but it can access anything that is set globally or on the local player character which covers more than enough cases normally.

A scripted widget making a new example window with a testing button

This may not sound hugely impactful, but it means that mods going forward can easily create large systems which can then more easily be compatible with other mods that add systems or if they feel brave enough even with larger Total Conversions if they do not cross over in incompatible design choices.

I am really excited to see the new UIs that mods end up making for their gameplay systems and getting to try a few different mods together. Hopefully their windows have a bit more functionality and effort put into it than my testing one…

Value Breakdowns
Another bit of UI functionality that mods could not nicely mimic is getting breakdowns of their numbers in the same way we break down a value like your prestige income or how much piety it’s gonna cost to start that war in their own UI.
In 1.5 we’ve added the GetScriptValueBreakdown UI function which lets you specify the name of the script_value you want to break down and the scope context to do it on and it gives you the exact same data as if we’d natively done it from code.

For example in my custom widget I’ve made the button tooltip give a breakdown of the cost if I were to increase my crown authority entirely separate from the usually needed button to evaluate that cost in the realms UI.

Example of custom value break downs in custom UIs

We hope this will let mods better explain their own custom values in a more clear way, be that something like your mana in a fantasy mod or custom score for a special event chain.

Events and Localization
To make life easier for our modders and designers to work with events we’ve added and reworked a few debug buttons in the event window.
Now every event has these five icons in the top right corner.

The 5 debug icons in the event window

In order they let you:

Regenerate the event contents, useful if you’ve changed something that cannot hot reload.
Toggle the data system globally, this makes most everything in square brackets show exactly what you typed instead of localizing to some output, this is available via the console commands too
Copy the event text to your clipboard
Shows you the trigger evaluation that had to be true for you to get this event
Debug info about the current scope context and how keys used to build the description

We’ve found that having easy access to these makes it a lot simpler to debug events and iterate on content.

Though do be warned that toggling off the data system can give you some truly cursed looking windows since now instead of seeing the number 4 you see the joyous underlying constructs such as this monstrosity of a window:

The character window with the localization data system disabled showing the raw function calls

In a more mechanical improvement we’ve also added a boilerplate reduction for having events on a cooldown, instead of needing to manually check and juggle flags and variables yourself you can now specify a cooldown on the event in days/weeks/months/years as some value and it will automatically handle applying a flag that will clear after that time blocking the event from being fired on a character.

Console Commands
We have added a variety of new console commands in 1.5 to help make creating and testing mods a bit easier, and instead of explaining them myself I am just gonna cheat and rip their change log entries out!

Added console command "bypass_requirements" (alias "bypass") that lets you do decisions, interactions, schemes, laws, and title creation despite the requirements not being met
Added console command "instasiege"
Added console command "save_every" and startup parameter "-save_every=x". These will make a save every x years, and ensure they do not get overwritten by normal autosaves
Added console command AI.try_send_decision
Added console command AI.try_send_interaction
Added console command Ironman.ToggleIgnore. When ignored, saves will act as if they're not ironman, including that when you hit save it'll result in a non-ironman save. This can be toggled during gameplay
Added console command ToggleShowAllKillers
Added console command complete_schemes, guaranteed_scheme_success/failure, and guaranteed_scheme_secrecy_success/failure. The success/secrecy ones only affect the player
Added console command set_date
Added console command show_regions_in_tooltip
Added console command toggle_keys_on_map
Added console commands "yesmen_instant" (AKA "ymi") and "instant_responses". The yesmen button in the console can now be right-clicked to run "yesmen_instant"

The bypass and save_every commands have been especially helpful in setting up scenarios to test scripts and make sure it works exactly as you had intended in your mods. As are the forcing the AI to try out an interaction instead of waiting for them to do it of their own free will.

Modifiers Everywhere
In 1.5 we’ve made some improvements to modifiers so if you use an invalid modifier type somewhere it will error and let you know its not going to work.

Which has been very useful as in 1.5 we’ve greatly expanded upon modifier support in buildings, now buildings can not only apply modifiers to you in general but they can also apply specific modifiers based on culture parameters which are applied by traditions. These can be used in the modifiers affecting the character, province, county and duchy_capital_county modifiers.

In addition there is a province_terrain_modifier which can apply a modifier based optionally on: terrain type, benign coastal, being by a river, and by culture parameter. So traditions can really matter in your mods and let cultures play in vastly different ways.

The script for various culture tradition based modifiers on buildings

Clock’s a ticking
Release day is coming soon and we’re very excited to see what mods are going to do with Royal Court, especially with the court scene itself which we hope in the future to see some fantastic 3D scenes especially from fantasy mods.

I’m gonna get back to the last minute release period scramble, thank you for reading and I hope you’re looking forward to Royal Court’s release and the great mods we’re gonna be able to see in the future too!

Jan 18, 2022

Dev Diary #86 - Under the Banner 🔰

Crusader Kings III - Nicou12313

Well met!

There is a possibility you have noticed the colourful banners decorating the halls of the upcoming Royal Court expansion and wondered just how they work. If so, you are in luck!

► Read our Dev Diary #86 - Under the Banner

💡 Enjoy the FAQ Royal Court and read all there is to learn about our upcoming Expansion

As I’m sure you’ve heard if you follow these diaries, equippable Artifacts are returning to the franchise in a big way, and banners are one of the types of Court Artifact which can adorn your hall.

Banners
There are currently three types of commissionable banner: Dynasty and House banners depict the respective arms of your family, while Realm banners display the arms of a specific title (generally the primary title of the commissioner). These banners are a cut above the standard colors carried by your armies and heralds; heirlooms in their own right.

You may wonder what happens if the design of a crest changes during gameplay, such as after the Norman conquest, or when using the new Coat of Arms designer to make ground-breaking contributions to the field of heraldry.

Never fear, you will not need to commission new banners every time you nudge a fleur-de-lis; the Artifact’s designs are tied to their corresponding dynasty, house, or title, and will automatically reflect the results of your questionable artistic skills.

All Courts begin the game with a House banner, and also with a Dynasty banner if the ruler is a Dynasty Head. Additional banners may be commissioned at any time if you employ an Antiquarian. You will also be presented with these banners upon gaining a Court for the first time if relevant, reflecting your new status as a King or Emperor.

You can also see above that you must be a member of the respective family or cadet branch to gain the full benefits of a Dynasty or House banner. While you may gloat by displaying the banners of other families — acquired through war or subterfuge — doing so will only improve your Court’s grandeur.

The three banner types grant different bonuses when equipped, with greater benefits from better quality Artifacts. While House and Realm banners use the same logic as other Artifacts to determine their quality (based on the skill of the weaver and other factors), Dynasty banners are their own breed.

Dynasty Banners
Each Dynasty will generally only have one banner in the world at any given time. Unlike House and Realm banners which can be commissioned at will, Dynasty banners can only be commissioned by Dynasty Heads, and only if one does not already exist within range of you.

However, House Heads of a Dynasty will always have claims on their Dynasty’s banner, allowing them to duel or wage war for them at will.

In addition, the quality of a Dynasty banner is directly tied to its Dynasty’s Renown, granting greater benefits as your family’s fame grows.

The highest tier is unlocked upon reaching Legendary Dynasty Renown level. You may be relieved to hear Dynasty banners will never lose tiers, only gain them.

To avoid unnecessary headaches, the AI knows that a Dynasty banner really belongs to the Dynasty Head, and is inclined to return it to its proper place if it ends up elsewhere, even if they are from another House (as long as they have good relations with them).

War Banners
In addition to these creatable banners, there is also a type gained only by event: the War Banner.

These captured banners can only be gained after battles, and will display the emblem of the defeated side’s primary title; perfect for commemorating your glorious victories.

Banner Relics
Lastly, there are also some historical banners knocking around, such as the Banner of Muhammad, and others of more dubious provenence may be found by adventurers.

I hope this has temporarily sated your hunger for banner information.
Until next time!

Jan 11, 2022

Dev Diary #85 - An Artifact's Life 🏺

Crusader Kings III - Nicou12313

Hello and welcome to Dev Diary 85 for Crusader Kings III!
This is Areysak, Content Designer (some of you might remember me from Imperator).

As the release date draws nearer and nearer, I’m here to talk to you about Artifacts.
Again?! - you are probably thinking.
YES, because artifacts still have more to offer! Let’s take a closer look.

► Read our Dev Diary #85 - An Artifact's Life

💡 Enjoy the FAQ Royal Court and read all there is to learn about our upcoming Expansion

First, you probably know by now that artifacts are an investment that requires time and gold. An inspired character makes them for you, but how can you make them feel like they are really yours?

… Why not inscribe your name on them!

While an inspired character is hard at work making a fancy artifact for you, they might ask for your input on dedications: do you want this artifact to preserve the glory of your name for posterity? Or maybe you want to impress your lover, memorialize your deceased soulmate, or even make the artifact testify to your faith. A dedication is forever!

Event to add dedications to artifacts in the making

Dedicated artifact

Occasionally, an inspired character might also seek your input on what functionalities you expect out of their artifact. Should your armor shine so bright that all your knights are inspired to greatness on the battlefield whenever you lead them, or should it favor practicality and make you more effective in mountain areas? You can choose an angle for your artifact that will make certain modifiers more likely to appear at creation.

Event to set the artifact’s focus

On a separate topic, artifacts don’t exist in a void, but are living items in a living world, meant to be used, exchanged, stolen… and damaged. With use and time, an artifact’s durability lowers. What happens when your grandpa’s armor gets rusty, or your sword loses its edge? You need an expert! The Antiquarian at your court specializes not only in maintaining but also in repairing your artifacts. With just a couple of clicks (and some gold) your artifacts will be as good as new!

Repair interface

Sometimes, however, just repairing an artifact doesn’t really strike your fancy… Grandpa’s armor has seen its fair share of adventures, but it’s ancient, and you have newer and cooler stuff to wear! Before you hit a flea market to get rid of it (and possibly have Grandpa curse you from his grave), you have another choice: reforge! By reforging an inventory artifact, you change it into a pedestal artifact to expose in your court. Of course, its modifiers will change accordingly - wearing armor might make you tougher to kill, but it will hardly be of any help if it stays on a stand by your throne! On the other hand, your courtiers might be impressed by its fine decoration.

Reforge interface

Reforged armor

Reforged weapon

In some cases, however, you might not care enough about an artifact to repair or reforge it… When artifacts reach 0 durability they get destroyed and disappear from the game. Before that happens, however, other possibilities might open up for you through events. Perhaps a scrap collector will offer to buy it in exchange for some gold (don’t expect too much, though, they collect scraps, not riches!), or your antiquarian might find a way to repurpose it.

Event for decaying artifacts

Event for decaying artifacts

Finally, some artifacts gain a reputation or a story through time! The sword of an often-triumphant general will be remembered as a fearsome weapon, while the crown that sat on the heads of your dynastic predecessors for generations will be recognized as a symbol of your people. But be careful, because if either you or your artifact gain an ominous reputation, your artifact might be known as a cursed item!

Crown with a reputation

Event from an artifact's life

Armor gains a reputation

An artifact can gain a reputation

That’s it for today! I hope you enjoyed this DD, and are looking forward to next month’s release as much as we are!