Sep 6, 2022

Dev Diary #106: A Fistful Of Friends & Foes

Crusader Kings III - PDX-Trinexx

Hello everyone!

Nice to meet all of you! A little background on me: I am Noodle, a Game Designer on CK3. I’ve been on this project since before the release of the game, but for most of its life I’ve been some delicious flavour of QA. Anyway, enough about me, I know you’re all here for more on our Event Pack!

► Read our DD #106: A Fistful Of Friends & Foes

Last time out Trin took you through some of the more mechanical changes, such as the memory system and viewer, the loyalty traits and some of our childhood event changes. Today I’ll walk you all through some of the flavour-driven content you can expect to find in the Event Pack, though we’ll also look at a neat little system we’ve mentioned in passing before towards the end.

We’ve been hard at work creating over 100 new standalone events for this pack, and at this point it probably behooves me to explain that when we say ‘over 100’ we mean something a little different than just counting out each individual event we’ve made. To avoid any grey areas, we count both big event chains and small, one-off events exactly the same. No matter if you’re counting a singular event or a behemoth 14-event long chain: as Gimli would put it, it still only counts as one. As such, whilst we’ve bandied around a figure of 100, you’ll all be getting quite a bit more than that!

All of the new events pertain to the relationships between characters in some fashion, meaning that all relationships - from lieges to vassals, from friends to spouses, from lovers to foes to… lover-foes - have new events tied to them, to greater or lesser degrees. I’m going to take you through some of the joyful and jocular, the serious and the sad, and of course the weird and the wacky of this pack.

Let’s begin by addressing an event or two that could bring your character happier times, shall we?

The Good

You should always be able to rely on your friends to support you not only in good times, but also in bad. Moreover, a true friend is one who will have difficult talks with you because they truly care about your wellbeing. Perhaps even an intervention, should the actions you take to deal with stress so completely consume your life:

Despite the name, it’s not just friends who come into the spotlight in this pack. Your family are an active part of your life at court. Your parents offer sage advice, your children chances to bond, and your siblings are solid confidants - when they’re not trying to take your throne for themselves, of course. Even your beloved darling spouse also has the opportunity to raise you up, praise you, and, er, ask if you’d maybe consider sponsoring his mum to make you a lovely set of jewellery:

Still, trusting your mother-in-law could have its upsides. It might turn out the old girl is quite the metalsmith!

Even when you’re looking after your family and all is seemingly well, intrigue is never too far away. The demands of a multiple-spouse marriage becomes a little more unique in Friends & Foes, as now you might be getting a few eyebrow-raising requests:

Every mother wants to see her son get ahead in life, so it’s no wonder Tamrust here is so eager to please. In my case, however, I’m more interested in getting a-head in a rather different way: seeing my rival Sholah get their comeuppance would be a mighty fine way to do a deal.

Ah, Tamrust, you shouldn’t have!

The Sad

In the game’s time period, as it is today, the death of a loved one can leave the bereaved with so many conflicting feelings. Regret over lost time together, sadness at the knowledge that the departed will no longer be around, perhaps even relief at their suffering finally ending.

In one of our new events, a visit from one person to their friend’s deathbed can go a few different ways. Perhaps you are the one bedridden, simply waiting for death. What would you desire from your friend? Or maybe you are the one visiting them, your lifelong friend, with whom you have forged so many memories and shared so much of your life with. What would you do when faced with this scene?

The possibilities here are rather wide. That third option you see is somewhat randomised and based on the bedridden person’s personality. Sometimes you won’t have a third option at all. Sometimes, as you can see above, you may even have to do your beloved friend the ultimate favour. Sometimes, as seen below, you’ll come into possession of a small gift.

Whilst seeing your friend breathe their last is desperately sad, there’s also something to be said for the brutal moments when a sibling rivalry gets way out of hand. Ambition and envy drives the closest of brothers and sisters to do the most heinous of things.

This rare event may fire if your sibling doesn’t like you, and happens to have a trait that might cause them to view you as dispensable in the pursuit of their wider ambitions. Of course, you’re not going down without a fight; the throne is yours and as the saying goes, might does indeed make right:

The young king survives this particular attempt from their sibling, but their relationship is irreparably damaged. Suffice to say, however, much nastier outcomes could well have arisen. Luck and wits will save many a monarch, but sooner or later your wits fade and your luck runs thin…

The Zany

Like the glorious sprinkles on this Medieval doughnut (which were actually a thing: there’s references in The Forme of Cury to honeyed fried dough ‘Cryspels’ which were essentially the precursors to modern doughnuts!) we of course have some of the slightly more unusual events that you can stumble across during your rule.

The subject of this DLC made for fertile grounds for such events. Interpersonal relationships are at the heart of CK3, and how you interact with others depends often on whether they’re your foe or your friend. In order for you to have a friend, of course, you must first have a person to be friends with. I know, I know, it sounds obvious, but they do say the real miracle Jesus performed was having 12 close friends in his thirties. Well, that, and also the following:

If you take your religious leader’s excitement and fervour at face value, you’ll not just acquire a friend, but also a Delicious Face of Jesus artifact:

Of course, if you dare to doubt their obviously-correct opinion on divinely-shaped confectionery, you’re dead certain to make a rival of them. Or, as you can see in the third option, there’s an even more dramatic decision to be made. What price do you put on friendship versus the chance to literally eat Jesus’ face?

Mind you, there’s some things you can find that shouldn’t be eaten. Bog bodies are known worldwide, but are particularly prevalent in Northwestern Europe. Such findings continue to intrigue archeologists, but I suspect finding one would be rather more of an unpleasant surprise for your average Medieval child:

This event ties nicely in with the new memory system; sometimes if someone in your realm dies in that particular county, they have a chance of turning up here! Now I won’t spoil any particular outcomes to this small event chain, but naturally all is always exactly as it seems.

You just found a body in a bog. These things do happen. It’s perfectly normal.

For a Feud Dollars More

Petty rivalries are an inextricable part of any Crusader Kings game. I’ve been a CK player for years, and I know exactly what I - and all of you - get up to when someone wrongs you. After all, who amongst us has not exterminated an entire dynasty for the vicious crime of their grandfather once having accidentally tripped over your dog?

Thankfully, you now have the opportunity to codify your hatred for those hated dog-trippers! House Feuds are a new system that can be triggered by a wide range of sources. It could be as simple as your House Head sharing a mutual dislike of each other with another House Head and those embers sputtering into the flames of true conflict. It could be as serious as a family member of your House being killed by a member of the other House, or as complicated as the two having competing Claims.

These Feuds can be inherited between generations, ebbing and flowing, each party exacting a toll from the other. These squabbles can escalate to horrific ends if all parties continue to seek revenge upon the other, and only the actions of calm heads can end it; but even then, often only once the debt has been repaid or one family has suffered so horribly under the other that they will surely never recover.

I was going to give you a runthrough of some of the 31 events (remember: for us, it still only counts as one!) that comprise House Feuds, but when I was playing around with Friends and Foes this last Sunday on a post-PDXCon rest day, I happened to hit upon a perfect mini-AAR to show you to illustrate exactly how these can generate organically. You join me on the steppes of modern-day Ukraine and Kazakhstan, where I am waging a war against a neighbour to expand my territory.

(A small note: I am playing with some custom gamerules including equal genders and majority-bisexual, hence why things might seem a little unusual with who is leading armies and the like. Or, if you’re one of those super cool and wonderfully attractive people who also play with those rules, high five, consider your ruleset officially dev-approved)

As battle concludes, it is with no small amount of grief that I receive the news that my knight, daughter and heir Princess Sarantay has fallen in battle at the hands of the vile and base Chieftain Malyy. And we know him to be vile and base, for who else but a true monster would snatch away my daughter’s life from the world so cruelly?

I try to put it out of my head - as much as any parent can do so with the death of their beloved child - but the flames of hatred still lick balefully at my heart. During the day it is all I can think about, and at night dreams of vengeance and retaliation poison my mind. Try as I might, I can’t bring myself to move on and let Allah enact retribution: I must pursue this myself.

Now, I won’t go too in-depth on what exactly transpired in the years this feud went on for. One such action involved seducing the enemy head of house’s wife - a fairly impressive feat, despite how sprightly I am at 68 years old - and revealing him for the cuckold he was. This disrespect was met with bared knives, and a minor member of my dynasty was struck down from the shadows.

It was an escalation I would not - could not! - ignore. House Kurgani were all too ready to unsheathe blades, but they soon found themselves on the wrong end of them. Three murders, one after the other, left them without the flower of their youth. The feud was clearly in our favour, the rival house a shadow of what they once were, and it even left me considering whether it was worth continuing. After all, Malyy was a mere chieftain, and I a mighty Khan. Surely it was time to let bygones be bygones?

Yet every time I considered it, all I could think of in my mind’s eye was my precious daughter. The feud would continue until the damnable Malyy was dead. I called my trustiest cutthroat and sent him on one final mission…

It is strange how fate works. The hired knife was drawing closer and closer still to Malyy, aided by no less than his own wife - who it seemed had grown rather fond of me, not that that’s surprising - but it appeared someone else had got there first. Perhaps he had many enemies. Perhaps, even, a member of my own house had enacted their own revenge. Either way, he now lies in the cold ground.

(Another note: This event isn’t actually part of the House Feud ones, but instead is part of a reworked couple of events when Best Friends or Nemeses die and can happen to anyone lucky enough to have their worst antagonist die on them. Suffice to say, that Vengeful option there does some fun stuff…)

The blood has been spilt, the eye has been taken for the eye. There is no longer any reason to prolong this blood feud. House Dulo has conclusively proven the dominance of our bloodline and emerges triumphant from the crucible of intra-house conflict.

I’ll leave you to discover most of the rest of the peaks and troughs of the cycle of ceaseless vengeance that signify House Feuds, but I do want to leave on one particularly interesting note. Malyy’s son, Tyueykezhut, was grateful that the bloodshed had ended, even if House Kurgani were crushed underneath our boot heel. He didn’t let go of the past, though, and the fire that once consumed my heart no doubt now consumes his; a grim reminder of how he spent his childhood raised to hate anyone who bears the name Dulo. And so the flames of open conflict die away to smouldering embers, all too ready for the right person to come along and nurse them back into a roaring crescendo once more…

That will be all from me for today! Thank you very much for reading this, my very first dev diary! Friends & Foes releases this week on the 8th of September, and I hope you enjoy your time with it.

Aug 30, 2022

Dev Diary #105: 1.7 "Bastion" Update

Crusader Kings III - PDX-Trinexx

Hello and welcome to another Development Diary for Crusader Kings 3. Today I will talk a bit about the free 1.7 “Bastion” update and what new things it will bring to the game. Today we will not be talking about [REDACTED] which will be released together with the update.

The changes to Factions and AI have previously been covered in posts by @Servancour and @rageair and I will therefore not mention them again, but I recommend checking out their diaries if you missed them before: https://pdxint.at/3PJSwhA and Let's Talk Populist Factions

► Read our Dev Diary #105: 1.7 "Bastion" Update

Character Memories

While the characters often get up to quite memorable things in our games there has up to now not been a way to keep track of exactly what, when and with whom each character has had a particular experience. What we have done in the new update in order to show more clearly how alive the game world is, is to introduce memories to characters. Characters will remember things that happened to them, from important things like the births of their children, important battles, deaths of close ones, and succession, to more mundane things like the event interactions with other characters during their childhood.

At any time you can view the memories of your character as well as non-private memories of other characters. This lets you quickly get an idea of not only what a character is like, but also how they got there. One can think of it as a feature somewhat similar to the character history that we had in EU:Rome many years ago.

One important difference to a character history though is that over time some memories will fade away, while others will remain. For player characters and characters likely to become player characters we err on the side of keeping memories longer, mostly because you are more likely to have a need of them as the game progresses.

Memories can be viewed at any time by opening the Memory Viewer from the character window, via a button in the same place as the Kill List, Inventory, and Lifestyle.

Memories are not only there as a log for the player to enjoy, however. The new system allows us to make use of memories that a character has both to trigger content and to make use of in events. This means that you may now find memories used in content that previously had to be vague, an assassin might now actually cite a specific slight you committed against their employer, for instance.

What this also means is that we are now able to create new content that is based entirely on your character having a certain type of memory or sharing a memory with another character.
Last of all I should mention that it is possible to export the memories of a character to clipboard in order to share it outside of the game for those that want others to know of their character’s exploits.

Relationship Reasons

Another addition coming with this update to further open up how things are connected in the game’s world is that we have wanted to make it clearer which characters are your friends, enemies, nemeses, etc, as well as clearer why a character has a special relationship with that particular character. This is accomplished by a new set of icons in the interface to highlight relationships.

Additionally whenever a relationship is formed the game notification will now not only say that it happened but also why it happened. The reasons for relationships will then always be visible in its tooltip: clearly telling you how they became friends, lovers, best friends, nemeses, etc. In cases where a more advanced relation (such as best friend or nemesis) exists we will show the reason for both the basic relationship and the more advanced one, so a best friend will keep track of both how you originally became friends and when you actually became best friends.

Together with character memories this should now make it more clear what has led you to the current point in your game, a small change that brings a surprising amount of context, highlighting parts of the interpersonal simulation that can right now be a bit hidden away.

Revamped Childhood Events

Another thing that we wanted to revisit in order to improve on how we deal with characters in the game world is the revamping of all existing childhood personality events as well as the addition of 12 new ones. This will significantly alter what personality trait combinations are likely to appear and will open up some combinations that were previously impossible simply due to how the old events for growing up worked.

The ambition apart from adding more content to the childhood period is to have the choices you make as a guardian be more interesting, avoiding any easy best choices in any single childhood event.

The new trait combinations that will be pitted against each other are:

diligent, gregarious, temperate
zealous, ambitious, sadistic
shy, paranoid, craven
lazy, gluttonous, compassionate
lustful, chaste
just, greedy, callous
humble, cynical, content
vengeful, deceitful, calm
generous, fickle, arrogant
forgiving, trusting, patient
honest, arbitrary, impatient
brave, stubborn, wrathful

The Loyal and Disloyal Traits

Last but not least for today is the addition of two new traits with the upcoming update. Through their actions (or indeed as they are subjected to the actions of others) characters can now gain traits for having loyal or disloyal personalities, which among other things will impact how likely they are to cheat on their spouse, join factions or plot against their liege. The traits are also integrated as sins/virtues and can be more valued or common depending on cultural traditions.

That was all for today. The new update will also bring new bug fixes, event pictures, and things that I have not brought up today but this was a sneak peak of what is to come.
Next week @PDS_Noodle will be talking some more about what the future will bring.

Aug 23, 2022

Dev Diary #104: AI AI AI! 🤖

Crusader Kings III - PDX-Trinexx

Greetings!

One of the trickiest bits about GSGs is making a good AI. You want it to pose a challenge and play well, but you don’t want it to ruin the player’s fun by acting out of character. We’ve read a lot of discussions and threads in various places across the community, and we understand that there is room for improvement. Over the summer we’ve been working on a few aspects of the AI, specifically the economy (and a little bit of diplomacy). We’ve not focused on warfare, except for one thing which we’ll get to later.

All changes outlined in this Dev Diary will be released in a future update.

► Read our Dev Diary #104: AI AI AI!

For the player to feel motivated to do well, the AI must show that it can do well alongside you. It doesn’t have to be fantastic or play optimally (in fact, that’s usually immersion-breaking), but it must be capable of progress. We want the AI in CK3 to be able to provide a good challenge and do well enough to motivate you to do even better. Also, we want it to do this without cheating.

Before delving deeper into what we’ve done, I’d like to explain some of the challenges we set out to solve for the Economy:

Economically, all AIs currently play the same. We want their personality to affect how an AI decides to spend their hard-earned gold, and on what. You should be able to look at an AIs personality traits and, roughly, be able to tell what they’re up to.
A player understands that there are certain ways of using gold that are optimal and appropriate regardless of their situation; that there are certain risks worth taking. We want the AI to understand this, employing decisions that make them prosper and are suitable to the stage the game is in.
We want the AI to build more buildings, so that the world becomes more and more developed over time. Right now, only players realize the value that buildings bring in the long run, while AIs spend most of their gold on wars.
The power of a ruler lies within their domain. The AI, much like the player, should strive to build a base of power and cultivate it over time.

…and here are some of the challenges we set out to solve for Diplomacy:

AI realms tend to fall apart, and never reform. Vast seas of counts and dukes, unwilling to accept the overlordship of neighboring kings. We want the AI to be able to diplomatically expand, much like the player is able to. New realms with great monarchs should rise out of the ashes of former empires.
A stable realm is a prosperous realm, and there are many tools for achieving this. The AI should not hold back when using available methods of stabilization, be they diplomatic schemes or underhanded council actions.
The AI should understand that Tyranny is sometimes appropriate. It’s for the greater good of the realm. Within reason, of course - personality and relationships must play a large role here. As it stands, the AI will never willingly take on Tyranny, under any circumstance.

…and for Warfare:

In real life, the Mongols were an existential threat. Currently, in CK, they are not. We want them to be. There is one pivotal change that enables this: the ability to gather armies closer to their target.

The Economy, fools!

The key to success in CK3 is a strong and stable economy, and such a thing is driven by buildings (and, partly, MaA). We’ve set out to change how the AI uses its gold so that it builds up its realm more. We’ve taken considerations to make sure that the AI does this in a way so that it, for example, doesn’t become too easy to defeat for the player. The backbone of this work rests upon a framework of Economic Archetypes.

Economic Archetypes

There are four economic archetypes that AI rulers can fall into, of which three are significant: Warlike, Cautious, and Builder. If a character falls into none of these archetypes, they will be Unpredictable and use aspects of other archetypes in a semi-random fashion.

Warlike

The Warlike archetype wants to be ready to declare war, always. This is the archetype that is most similar to how the AI behaves in the game right now. They will put their gold into a war chest before considering other options. If a Warlike archetype is at peace for an extended period of time, they will use the gold in their war chest to develop the realm - but they will first and foremost prepare for war, even in the early game.

Bold and greedy AI’s tend to be Warlike. Common traits include Wrathful, Impatient, Sadistic, Ambitious, Vengeful, Irritable, and Zealous. Tribal rulers and cultures with the Bellicose Ethos are also drawn to this archetype, as well as any character in the Iberian struggle that wants to escalate towards the hostility phase.

Cautious

Not to be confused with cowardly, the Cautious archetype wants to be prepared for having war be declared upon them. They are somewhat averse to declaring offensive wars, instead preferring a slow buildup. This archetype will save up a minimum buffer of gold, depending on their tier. When choosing to invest gold into buildings or MaA, they will evaluate the state of their military, how long they’ve been at peace, how many allies they have, and their level of dread - depending on these factors, they will feel ‘safe’ and invest more gold than they would otherwise, while keeping the aforementioned minimum buffer.

Non-bold AIs tend to be Cautious. Common traits include Patient, Calm, Craven, Paranoid, and Content. Rulers with the Fickle or Lunatic trait will never be cautious. Rulers with the Stoic Ethos or the Stalwart Defenders Cultural Tradition are also drawn to this archetype.

Builder

The Builder archetype wants to invest all of its gold into the realm. They will empty their treasury in order to build buildings and MaA as quickly as they can, and will also tend to construct more economical buildings and new holdings than other archetypes. They are bold and a bit reckless, only saving up a war chest if they are under a direct threat (such as a strong faction). This is the rarest of all archetypes.

Bold AIs with a propensity for building and no particular inclination for war fall into this archetype. Common traits include Calm, Patient, Diligent, Generous, Stubborn, Profligate, and Improvident. Where Warlike AI’s want to expand their realm, the Builder wants to build up their domain. Rulers with the Domain Focus also tend to fall into this category.

Unpredictable

The Unpredictable archetype doesn’t have a propensity towards anything in particular, and might decide upon any strategy. They can decide to boom their economy much like the Builder archetype, but they do so randomly (weighed up by traits such as Diligent or Architect), and the amount will be modified by how bold they are. Otherwise, they will want to build up their realms to a minimum degree (higher than a Warlike archetype), keep a decent buffer (lower than a Cautious archetype), and go to war at a normal pace.

AIs who do not qualify for any of the above categories will fall into this archetype.

Economic Stages

The AI divides its economic game into three stages; Capital Development, Domain Development, and Late Development. The first two of these are ‘early’ stages that should be all but over roughly 100 years into the game.

Each of these stages modifies how the AI spends its gold, which is then again modified by the economic personalities above.

Early Capital Development
The most important holding to develop is your capital, I’m sure you all agree. The AI will strive quite hard to fill all of the empty slots in its capital before doing many other things, as first-level buildings have a significantly higher return of investment than upgrades do. At this stage, the archetypes matter less, but this phase is also over somewhat quickly.

This has a quite significant effect on the AI overall. By being able to kickstart their economy earlier than before, you will see them doing much better in the mid-late game. In the current version, you see a lot of provinces with open building slots well into the late game: even places of prominence, such as Paris, can sometimes be devoid of buildings - after these changes, this will be exceedingly rare.

Early Domain Development
In the second stage, the AI wants to develop its secondary counties by constructing first-level buildings there too. Truth be told, many AI’s elect to buy MaA or keep developing their capital during this phase as the choice of what to do/construct is semi-random and weighted - but this really just results in more powerful rulers overall.

At this stage, the archetypes are manifesting, with Warlike AI’s saving war chests (albeit for shorter periods than in the Later stage!), Cautious AI’s saving up buffers, etc.

When first-level buildings are present in an AI’s entire domain, they move on to the Later Economic Behavior.

Later Economic Behavior
During this stage, the archetypes will manifest fully. Builder AI’s will constantly build up their realm. Cautious AI’s will want a buffer, allies, and a powerful military, Warlike AI’s will only invest their gold if they’ve been at peace for many, many years - and so on.

Interestingly enough, despite the AI being disincentivized from declaring frequent wars (previously all AIs were constantly gearing up for war), there are no fewer wars in the world. The wars that are declared are, however, more intense and exciting, as the AIs are generally more built up and have a stronger economic backbone.

While the Economy part of this update isn’t the only thing contributing to what you’re about to see, here’s a comparison of the Live version of the game compared to the upcoming update. The sample size is 200 years, and there are no major deviations except for the Mongol Empire not having collapsed yet in the Live comparison.

Counts+ in this context means Counts, Dukes, Kings, and Emperors.

Diplomatic Matters

One of the AI’s faults is that it underuses the tools given to it, choosing to use them only sporadically and without much direction. The AI acting out its personality is all well and good, but in many instances, personality didn’t even matter at all, for example when choosing to revoke a title. We’ve done many small things that together add up to a vastly improved experience.

Domain Consolidation

The AI is now going to strive towards having a strong capital and domain, prioritizing first and foremost the consolidation of lands within their De Jure Capital Duchy. For example, the king of France will want to hold Isle-de-France and all counties within the duchy of Valois.

In order to do this, they are now willing to take on a modicum of Tyranny via revoking or retracting, modified by their personality. For reference, the AI has never before willingly taken on Tyranny and has always waited for a revocation reason. All AIs will want their capital county and at least a small domain (3 or so), regardless of personality, but Just and Generous AIs will stop after that point. Depending on the AI’s rationality, they will be willing to take on more or less Tyranny. Wise and rational rulers will want to let their Tyranny decay completely before taking a tyrannical action again, while more irrational rulers are willing to keep their Tyranny high in order to consolidate their domain.

In order to consider revocation, the AI looks to its reserves of gold and military strength, making sure to not get into Tyranny wars it doesn’t think it can win (of course, it still happens that a ruler is overthrown via Tyranny, but it’s rarer!).

Of course, relationships are accounted for, so you won’t see the AI revoking from their friends, lovers, children, etc.

In practice, this means that the average AI ruler is much more powerful, and you won’t see things such as the king of France being content with having one single domain county in Brittany, just because they don’t have a revoke reason on the current ruler of Isle-de-France. In combination with the previously mentioned economic changes, this results in economically powerful AI rulers.

The AI has also been taught to revoke secondary baronies in the counties it owns, which is especially useful for Clan rulers, as they can hold temples. This makes it so that much of the Clan sphere has a stronger economy, especially early on, and is able to match European and Indian feudal realms which generally have more favorable terrain.

Vassalization

One of the things that we’ve changed a lot is how vassalization works and how the AI uses it. This isn’t a pure AI change, as we’ve also rebalanced all the modifiers that affect whether a character wishes to accept your overlordship or not. But, yes, simultaneously we’ve taught the AI to consider these facts and try to make their neighbors into vassals.

A sub-goal here was to make vassalization into a viable alternative to military conquest, while also dialing back the most powerful sources of vassal acceptance and adding more interactive modifiers. While I won’t go into all of the detail here, I’ll say that the modifiers from Diplomatic Court and True Ruler have been lowered, while modifiers such as Average Powerful Vassal Opinion (-20/+20) have been added to promote alternatives to only being militarily powerful. We’ve also tweaked the opinion modifiers for Clan rulers so that Feudal rulers don’t have a fundamental advantage when it comes to vassalization (by offering low Contracts).

The AI will now much more frequently check if neighbors would accept vassalization, and they will actively seek to sway or befriend neighbors if the AI considers them targets for diplomatic expansion. This means that the player does not have a monopoly on vassalizations any longer; if you take too long, AI rulers will sweep in and offer overlordship to your small independent neighbors.

In practice, this means that areas stay shattered and stagnant for less time, while also creating more interesting realms where different cultures (and even faiths) are represented in the vassal strata. As an example, you might see a great unifying Sultan appear somewhere in Persia and diplomatically sweep up the remains of a shattered Seljuk Empire.

Holy Wars

As it turns out, rulers of the same faith as the defender in a Holy War would never join in their defense, despite the game claiming they would. This is our bad: a set of triggers were looking at the wrong character, and thus no one would consider joining. This is now changed, and we’ve put some effort into ensuring that the rulers who join up against you feel right.

Protecting the boundaries of your faith is important, and the AI is now aware of this. Depending on personality and economic readiness, they will now assist their brothers-in-faith against encroaching heathens. Zealous and bold AI’s are the first to join, while you can be certain that cynical and cowardly rulers will not. Vassals of your target won’t join in, though vassals of neighboring rulers might - generally, you need only look within the immediate area as you declare wars. Extremely zealous rulers, though, might decide to join in from further away.

In practice, you have to prepare well before declaring a holy war, but taking stock of your neighbors will help you here - personalities are telling, so you shouldn’t be overly surprised when someone aids your target.

From a game perspective, this makes it much less likely for the Middle East to be completely overtaken by either Catholics or Orthodox Christians (which seemed to happen in at least 90% of all observer games that ran until the end date). Major religious upsets are now rarer, but when they happen they are all that much more likely to stick, as they’ve probably been launched by strong rulers during an opportune time.

Realm Stability

AI rulers should now be somewhat more aware of the state of their realm, and proactively try to improve its stability. There are many flavors of stability, some more underhanded than others…

Firstly, the AI is now much more likely to sway, and when they choose who to sway they are much more likely to pick important characters. For example, they will sway their realm priest, spymaster, and angry powerful vassals much more often, and also keep swaying them for a longer time. This also goes for the befriend scheme, should it be available. In the comparison screenshot at the end of the economy section, you’ll note that there are significantly more AIs with bishops/realm priests who endorse them.

AI rulers with a more… unsavory disposition will use the Find Secrets council task, which the AI previously didn’t use. They’ll tend to target their vassals or rivals, if the chance of being found out isn’t too great. They’ll then blackmail and use the ensuing hooks to improve vassal contracts. Rulers who have unlocked the Fabricate Hook scheme will also much more often use it on vassals whose contracts can be modified. Over the generations, this means that the contracts AI rulers have with their vassals tend to be much better than they used to.

In general, we’ve taken a pass on when AIs will use certain Council Tasks. They will avoid certain things completely (using bestow royal favor on vassals-of-vassals), and more proactively switch to tasks that support them in the short term (support schemes when any hostile scheme is active, Organize Army when gold is running very low, etc).

There’s a whole lot more that we’ve taught the AI to do, most of them small - but small things add up. They will send non-primary children to be educated by vassals they want to appease (it’s 15 opinion per child after all!), make their children learn the languages of their subjects to prepare them for a smooth succession, hire seneschals if they have more than one county with very low control, etc, etc. It really does add up.

All of these changes lead to AI realms being more stable and better at recovering from bad wars or messy successions. Of course, there’s still a lot of the hallmark CK3 chaos that we all know and love - it’s just not all there is, now!

Let's compare two areas, one from the Live version, and one from the upcoming update. They are 200 years from game start (in fact, these are the same saves used for comparison stats earlier in the DD).

Do note that these changes do not mean you’ll see the same realms in every game. It’s still as it’s always been, where you might have a powerful Burgundy in the south or a Wales controlling the British Isles; it’s just that, now, the emerging Burgundian and Welsh realms will be much stronger and able to thrive! Additionally, given the AI is now consolidating a larger, more centralized domain, partition splits are nicer and border gore is reduced.

Ikh Mongol Uls

No matter what changes we’ve made to the Mongols in the past, they always fall on one single point: when they grow large enough, it takes them too long to march their troops to their target, and thus lose too many troops to attrition and too much warscore to time.

We’ve taught the AI to raise their troops closer to the target of their wars. They will seek to raise in a safe county within their realm that is close, but not bordering, to the wargoal. While this is the most impactful for the Mongols, all Duke or above rulers will now do this. What this means for the Mongols: they will no longer march all the way from far eastern Mongolia after every conquest. This change alone magnifies their potential for conquest tenfold (at least). They now fulfill their purpose; they shake up the world and reshape the lands they conquer. More than ever, you must now seriously consider if you wish to submit to the Great Khan…

In addition to the new raising behavior, we have improved the way the Mongols pick their targets (making them less likely to gallop into the mountains of Tibet or immediately crash against a massively strong Byzantine empire), and we’ve changed how successor khanates work. The Golden Horde, Ilkhanate, Chagatai, etc, were never long for this world after they spawned. There were many reasons for this: they didn’t get a proper domain, no de jure lands, no gold, etc. While they still dissolve with some regularity (as they should) they now sometimes persist, and even thrive, as we’ve improved their starting positions by assigning them some starting resources, domain, and De Jure land depending on what they’ve managed to conquer.

While it isn’t overly common that the Mongols exceed their historical conquests, here’s an example of how far they can spread under somewhat-ideal circumstances (long-lived Khans).

Initial state of the world.

Some years in: note that Tibet was taken because Ü had land in Mongolia.

The newly-shattered Persia gets absorbed.

Strategically avoiding a Byzantium that is almost their strength, the Mongols go towards Eastern Europe.

After taking all of eastern Europe, they turn to Arabia and the Fatimids.

Eventually, Hungary falls after an intense war.

The Khan dies and successor khanates spawn in. Who knows how long they’ll last?

That’s it for now. The full update notes with all the details will come soon, so stay tuned!

Jun 28, 2022

Dev Diary #103: Summer Break 🌞

Crusader Kings III - PDX-Trinexx

Greetings!

Summer is upon us, and with Fate of Iberia and the 1.6.1 update(s) (note: another small fix update will be released this week), we feel confident that the game is in a good place where it can be enjoyed over the break! (As always, keep those reports up if you find an issue) Soon we’ll all be out enjoying the beautiful Swedish summer, taking some well-deserved rest, and recharging for the time ahead!

► Read our Dev Diary #103: Summer Break

As mentioned in Dev Diary 100, we have big and small plans, some of which will be revealed later this year. We’re very excited to see what you think, but we can’t say anything yet!

From this point onwards we will not have any regularly scheduled Dev Diaries until we’re all back! There may be a small dev diary here and there, but no promises. We’ll be back before the end of August.

If you want to keep discussing the game over the break, head over to our Discord. Also, note that we’ll have videos every Wednesday and Friday throughout the summer, mostly of the DevClash that wrapped up recently.

Before we leave you for the summer, did you know that we added several historical figures that can appear under the right circumstances? Here’s an overview written by Ola, known as Vaniljkaka on our forums!

Abbas ibn Firnas (~810-887), known in Latin as Armen Firman, was an Andalusian polymath. Sources claim that he made an attempt at flight by jumping from a tower in Córdoba clad in a loose cloak stiffened with wooden struts. For this, he got immortalized, and now has a statue outside Baghdad’s airport. Though Ibn Firnas would be alive in our 867 bookmark, you’ll only encounter him if the right event fires.
al-Zahrawi (936–1013), known as Albucasis in Latin, was one of the greatest surgeons of the Middle Ages, and court physician to the caliph in Córdoba. If you manage to encounter him in the game (you’ll need some luck for this, and an event about medicine…), he’ll even tell you an anecdote from his career.
Ibn al-Wafid (997 – 1074), known as Abenguefith in Latin, was a pharmacist and agronomist in Toledo in the middle of the 11th century. Historical sources claim that he was a pupil of al-Zahrawi, but this seems improbable, as al-Zahrawi died before 1013. Ibn al-Wafid is a great court physician if you play emir Yahya in the Rags to Riches bookmark.
Al-Zarkali (1029-1100), known in Latin as Arzachel, was a craftsman and astronomer based in Toledo. He fled the city when Castille conquered it in 1085. His work formed part of the basis for the Toledan Tables, a set of astronomical tables that were later translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona. He is in the court of Toledo in the 1066 start.
Joseph ibn Nagrela (1035-1066), also known as Joseph ha-Nagid, was vizier to the incompetent, alcoholic emir Badis of Granada. Ibn Nagrela belonged to a prominent lineage of Sephardic Jews; his father Samuel was a famous scholar, warrior, and poet. Ibn Nagrela was the chief victim of the Granada Massacre in December 1066, crucified by an angry mob for supposedly trying to usurp the throne. However, our game begins in January 1066, so perhaps he will fare better in this history…
Ibn Zuhr (1094-1162), known in Latin as Avenzoar, was a physician and poet, who seems to have had a dramatic fallout with one of his employers, the Almoravid ruler. This fallout was very much the inspiration for one of the events in Struggle for Iberia…
Ibn Tufail (1105 – 1185), known in Latin as Abubacer Aben Tofail, was a physician, novelist, and astronomer, among other things. He was quite keen on autopsies, as you’ll notice if you encounter him, which will require the right event at the right time.
Gerard of Cremona (~1114-1187) was an Italian translator of scientific books from Arabic into Latin, active in the kingdom of Castille. After the fall of Toledo, his work was instrumental in making Arabic knowledge available to the Western European intellectual sphere, ushering in the “Renaissance of the Twelfth Century”. Gerard can be encountered if you get an appropriate event during the years when he was active - make sure that conciliation is the prevailing mood in Iberia!
Ibn Rushd (1126-1198), known in Latin as Averroes, was a polymath and jurist and one of the most influential intellectuals of the Middle Ages, with a whole school of thought, averroism, that bears his name. In his youth, he seems to have been a pupil of both Ibn Zuhr and Ibn Tufail. There seem to be claims that he experimented with flight, just like ibn Firnas. Though he is very famous, he lived after our game’s current bookmark dates, and you’ll only encounter him with a bit of luck through an event in the right time period…
Qasmuna (11th-12th century) was a female Sephardi poet. Some of her poems are preserved, but little is known of her life. However, there is a theory that she was the sister of Joseph ibn Nagrela. I chose to go with this, since it made their family tree more interesting and allowed us to include her in the game. You’ll likely find her with her brother in the court of Granada.

We are excited to come back refreshed and relaxed after vacation, and resume working on the game that we all know and love! Until August, goodbye!