... Anyone watching? No? Good.

Ok, just you and me. Great, because I've only got a few wee lil morsels today and I don't want to share them with too many people. So let's all just keep this quiet and, if anyone asks, the dev diary was about how we research thirteenth century agrarian techniques in rural France. Got it? Good.

► Read more about Dev Diary #116 on our forums!



I want you to tell me what this historical character...


... this historical character...


... and this historical character all have in common.


Figured it out? Yes? No? Waiting for someone else to scan through every character in the game before you hazard a guess? Ok, well, to be a bit fairer, it's got something to do with this:


Hint 1: The list includes all the interactions in a particular category. You would not see all of them at the same time like this.
Hint 2: :D This has nothing to do with Wards & Wardens.

Finally, none of them are directly connected to this chap:



Alright, that's all I've got for you today, but I expect to be going over that list again soon. And in detail. If anyone asks, remember: rural France, agriculture, thirteenth century, yada yada.

Till next time!

Hello and welcome to this dev diary where we will be looking into some new map visuals that’ll be added in the future. As the team grows, we’ve had the opportunity for our new artists to warm up by sprucing up the map a little. Among the things we’ll show off today, chief is the Canterbury Cathedral and its evolution over time: made by our new Environment artist Joel, who’s written about his process and the research involved.

► Read more about Dev Diary #115 on our forums!



​
When creating the first tier of the Canterbury Cathedral, which references the Anglo-Saxon church extant in the 867 & 1066 start dates, it was important to acknowledge the lack of available visual reference material. Historically speaking, the Anglo-Saxon church was burnt down in 1067, but we do have some conceptual renditions and blueprints of the estimated building layout to work from, courtesy of the archeologists (our heroes).



Sometimes luck strikes and blueprints or estimated ones can be found.

From this, I created a fairly basic interpretation of the church that serves well as the first/starting stage for the Canterbury Cathedral. Additional geometry, like pillars and an external house, was added to the building to create a more compelling in-game silhouette.


The original Anglo-Saxon church - Tier 1
​
After the first fire, a second church was built in its place, distinctively making use of the Romanesque style. As we move forward in history, more references become available, and fortunately the church foundations are described as rather similar to the church of today. The more significant differences to modern Canterbury Cathedral are, for example, the front and main towers: they are still Romanesque.


Canterbury Cathedral - Tier 2

If this happens to be your first time coming across these terms, some explaining might be in order. Romanesque and Gothic are two styles of architecture which defined buildings and churches throughout the Medieval era. Romanesque, the older of the two, emerged sometime around the year 1000 and lasted until around 1150. It’s a style arising from and defined by Germanic, Byzantine and old Roman influences, favoring circular Roman arches and a more solid-looking facade compared to later churches.


Romanesque Abbaye de Lessay

From the Romanesque emerged the Gothic in the 12th-13th centuries. In Gothic architecture, Roman arches find themselves replaced by Gothic ones; we also see elaborate ribbed vaults, towering flying buttresses, and church interiors brightened by large stained glass windows.


Chartres Gothic Cathedral

I technically started with the third tier of the structure of the Canterbury Cathedral, rather than the second tier. Because we work with modular pieces and texture atlases, I find it easier to work from the complete cathedral, then remove any additional geometry. It also meant that the last tier would have most of the same layout as the modern cathedral, minus some of the later additions.


Modular pieces used for building the Cathedral

With the modular pieces ready, it was then just a question of assembling the cathedral.


We could see in the final version of the Cathedral that a lot of areas had been raised since the time of the second, so I simply made minor tweaks to the height of some walls and roofs, while preserving the original UV. The back of the cathedral had also been extended and rebuilt, with the addition of two new structures. The south-west tower was rebuilt, but not the north-west tower as of yet: that happened later historically.



The cathedral with the towers in the front. The main tower however was a new construction past CK3’s timeline.


Canterbury Cathedral - Tier 3

The third tier takes on a Gothic style, with flying buttresses along the length of the cathedral, and it also puts a golden angel on the pinnacle of the main tower.


In order for us to be certain that our holdings will be placed correctly on the map, we extend the ‘basement’ of the mesh into the ground to accommodate for the map’s height differences.
This ensures we have no areas free flying in the air. Usually this is a bigger issue for holdings than monuments, as monuments have a single specific place on the map where they exist.


Decal texture in Substance Painter

We also create decals that show a more interesting ground variation around the structure. In my case, I painted out some roads to give life to the area. Some color variation to the grass to better blend in with the rest of the map, and darker areas where the cathedral would be located. The decal plane is on average twice the size of our building.


Anglo-Saxon church , Romanesque Cathedral, Gothic Cathedral T1 - T2 - T3

After all the buildings were done and I was happy with the progression from tier 1 to tier 2 and tier 3, I could finalize the UV’s. We use two UV maps to layout the textures: one is for the ambient occlusion that we bake in, and the other for the texture atlas. The texture atlas lets us reuse textures to save on performance. I did the baking in marmoset with a low poly to low poly set up. Normally you have a high poly to bake down to the low poly mesh, but I was only after the ambient occlusion.
​
A new set of cultural stone bridges will be added over the world, replacing some of the old wooden bridges and overall making it a bit clearer where the safer river crossings are. We will be adding a total of four standard bridge types, for Western Europe, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and Indian regions.



These bridges have been based on historical examples sampled from these regions. The Western and Mediterranean bridges are based on arched bridges from Europe, with the appropriate local flairs. The Middle Eastern bridge is based upon Sassanid designs like the Marnan and Kohneh bridge, among others, and are mostly found in the regions around modern Iran and Iraq. The Indian bridges take their inspiration from the Athernala bridge in eastern India.

Greetings!

The polls are closed, and the winner is…


► Read more about Dev Diary #114 on our forums!



Which I’m very excited about! Not only because it was the theme I personally liked the best, but because there’s a lot of interesting history to explore! We’ll definitely aim to make both rearing and playing as children more historically immersive, while also adding timeless content such as the (sometimes tenuous, sometimes wholesome) relations between parent and child.

As mentioned in the previous Dev Diary, this event pack will be worked on later this year, after the next expansion is finished. For now, we will slowly start drawing out plans of content we’d like to make, and areas that’d be fun to explore - and here you can help!

If you have a specific topic you’d like to see made into an event, or a situation you’d like to see expanded upon, please reply in this thread!

For example, a specific topic might be 'I’d like to see an event about one of my foreign wards missing their home' or ‘I’d like an event where I as a child can become best friends with a vassal child’.

Examples of situations you’d like to see improved could be ‘I’d like to have the ability to impose a specific personality trait on a ward’, or ‘I’d like if educating another ruler’s child would have more diplomatic benefits/complications’.

Finally, I’d like to leave you with another small teaser for the expansion. Last time some of you came extremely close to the truth, to the point where we had the artist of the image giggling with excitement… we’re hoping this one will throw you off a bit.

Later this year, after our next big expansion is already released, the Dev Team will begin working on a new event pack… one chosen by you! Vote now on our official forums between three different event pack themes to determine which area will become more fleshed out in the game next.

► Read more about this poll and cast your vote on our forums!







Take a deep dive into what being a child in the Middle Ages was actually like, and explore what guardianship meant in practical terms. Wards & Wardens would feature events revolving around childhood, being a guardian, children at court, and more.






Let your love life take the reins! While lovers and spouses take on a larger role in Love & Lust, explore events related to more intimate relationships, expanded seduction, married life, and more.






Leverage your fearsome reputation and learn what it truly means to be dreaded. Villains & Vagabonds will feature events embracing the consequences and opportunities of being a tyrant, while considering contrasting themes of fairness and honor.



Have ideas for how these themes could be thoroughly explored in CK3? Share them with us and the rest of the community—we’d love to hear what you think! Not yet sure which theme to choose? Feel free to discuss the pros and cons you see for each choice, just remember to cast your vote by January 27, 8am CET when the poll closes.


The choice is yours, so vote now on our official forums!

Greetings!

We’re all back, gathered from the holidays, and ready to set sail for 2023! Actually, most of us have been back for a few weeks by this point, working away on this year's big release, but we're not going to be talking about that just yet. That's not to say we're not going to in the future, but until we are ready to, we want to give you something to dig your teeth into as a community. This is the first of a small series of Dev Diaries about some more minor things, teasers, and today, about a brand-new community initiative!

But first, here’s a small teaser of something coming in the expansion:




► Read more about Dev Diary #113 on our forums!



Later this year, after we’ve released the next big expansion and before we start working on the next large project, we’ll have a period where we have the time and opportunity to work on an event pack. For the last event pack we chose ‘friends and foes’ as the core theme, as it was something practically everyone in the team felt strongly about, and something that needed more content in the game. Since then, we’ve had so many ideas for future event packs, both from within the team and outside, and this time it’s harder to choose…

Therefore we’d like to invite all of you to help us decide which theme to pick! We have three themes that we’ve curated, which means a few things; each theme has designers on the team that are passionate about them, and we know roughly what free feature we’d like to add to the update that will accompany the event pack: generally we'll be aiming for something with a similar size and impact as Friends & Foes' Memories system, which heavily ties into the events we're making but is relevant across the game as a whole.

We don’t have final names for the event packs yet, but as we enjoy alliteration here’s what we’re calling them and a very brief description of each:

Wards & Wardens - Anything childhood-related, with themes such as: playing as a child, being a guardian, handling children in court, and so on. A deep dive into what being a child in the Middle Ages was actually like, and what guardianship meant in practical terms.

Love & Lust - An exploration of more intimate relationships, with themes such as: expanded seduction, romance, married life, and so on. This would be a great time to allow lovers and spouses to take on a larger role in the game.

Villains & Vagabonds - Events and content around Dread and Tyranny, exploring what it means to be dreaded, leveraging your fearsome reputation, making dread more visible, and the consequences and opportunities of being a tyrant. It’d also be interesting to explore the other side of the coin from Dread - fairness, and honor.

Even though this event pack is something we’ll work on later this year, it’s good to get your input now - this way we can start working on it without delay as soon as the next big expansion is out! As we have a lot of talented event-crafters on the design team, we feel quite confident that we can adapt to whatever theme you, as a community, choose.

If this turns out to be a popular activity, it is possible that we will do it again in the future! The themes that do not get chosen this time will likely make a comeback, alongside some new challengers.

The poll to vote is located in a separate forum thread here. Voting will begin today and you will have until January 27, 8am CET to discuss the different themes and cast your vote. We’re looking forward to seeing which theme you like the most!

A minor Update, 1.8.1, is now live.

The main improvements are:
✔️Tooltips close as expected
✔️Height maps render correctly
✔️Heresies no longer forced on player's character
✔️Truth is Relative perk works as intended
✔️Localization in order

See the full Changelog on the forums.

Greetings!

The wintery season is upon us, and soon most of us will be joining our friends & family (or friends & foes?) for the holidays - this is an excellent time to reflect on the year that has gone by, and look at all that we’ve done. I also wish to leave you with a small teaser of things to come (nothing major though, as mentioned before that communication will begin sometime in Q1 next year!)

► Read more about Dev Diary #112 on our forums!



Early in the year, we released Royal Court, the first major expansion for CK3. With kings squabbling over who has the grandest court, impressive artifacts being crafted and displayed, court position holders scheming, and cultures diverging, hybridizing, and shifting - to name only a few things that were in the update - it’s safe to say that the game got a shakeup with lots of new things to do. We also drew a lot of good learnings from it, both from the process (which was undoubtedly troubled, seeing the state of the world at the time) and the reception. Good lessons that we’ll bring with us in the future.

The Fate of Iberia followed and breathed new life into the Iberian peninsula. With content such as bonds of friendship stronger than iron, titles changing hands over a game of chess, and the revival of lost faiths (if you’re observant enough…) The Struggle, a central mechanical core surrounded by flavor, struck a balance that was enjoyed by many - a winning formula that we’re more than likely to follow in the future.

Friends & Foes was an experiment that played to the strengths of the game - by adding dramatic content, and proved how it’s always a nice thing to have more of it! Not only did it seem to be an appreciated format, but it was very motivating for us to make. For more news on this, stay tuned early next year…

And to round the year off we released the Robe update, which focused on adding graphical variety and fixing issues. It revamped the bookmark screen, added a full set of art for tenets, and made custom rulers saveable, in addition to balance and AI fixes. We will always strive to make sure the game is in a good, healthy state.

---

Now, some of you know the above already, and want to see something new! As we won’t be back with Dev Diaries for a while (they’ll start back up sometime in January) I want to leave you with something that can be discussed for a while. We’ve seen a lot of discussions regarding Nicknames, or rather the lack of them, and have taken your feedback to heart!

In an upcoming update, we’ll be adding in a new system for gaining nicknames passively, not too unlike the system in CK2, but vastly improved (in CK2, it was just a highly obfuscated system with little-to-no fanfare at all). These nicknames can be earned at any point during the game, and will reflect your character’s status as well as they can. They can be bad or good, with most (if not all) being overwritable by more prestigious nicknames should you do something extraordinary (such as uniting the Spanish Thrones, or Uniting Africa, etc). Gaining a nickname comes with a small boon or penalty to prestige and opinion, just enough to make it matter.


A positive nickname, celebrated by a good friend.


A negative nickname, gained while in prison, with the news delivered by someone who’s not exactly a fan of yours.

This system focuses on nicknames that aren’t particularly active, it won’t give you ‘the Conqueror’ for example. It will, however, pick one of 200+ appropriate passive nicknames. These are in part existing nicknames in the database that didn’t exist outside of historical characters (‘the Fat’, ‘the Poet’, ‘the Brave’, ‘the Tyrant’, etc.), nicknames adopted from CK2 (‘the Zealot’, ‘the Lucky’, ‘the Resilient’, ‘the Strange’, etc.), historical nicknames that were never used before (‘the Desired’, ‘the Idle’, ‘the Wrathful’, ‘Longsword’, etc.), and community suggestions (‘the Navigator’, ‘the Berserker’, etc.). All of these nicknames have triggers so that they only appear where logical, for example; you can only gain ‘the Tyrant’ if you have a certain amount of tyranny opinion, and you can only gain ‘the Fat’ if your character is of the heavier persuasion. A lot of these also take your prestige or piety levels into account, so having a high prestige level can ‘protect’ you from gaining poor nicknames. There’s also a game rule that controls the frequency.


Some examples of nicknames you can get through this system.

We aspire to keep most nicknames in line with history, or what would be plausible. That said, feel free to suggest more nicknames! Who knows, perhaps you’ll suggest something that’ll make it in… just remember that they shouldn’t be too ‘active’, so no ‘the Conqueror’ or ‘the Destroyer’.

To make nicknames a bit more… spicy than they are, we’ve also added a small new feature that allows you to see what a nickname actually means! Charles the Bald, for example, wasn’t without hair but rather without a suitable crown for most of his life. By hovering over nicknames, you can now see an explanation.


Charles wasn’t so bald after all, and now you know why.


Quite self-explanatory, but still informative.

Finally, a word from our community manager Pariah about a QnA session we will be having with some of the devs on our Discord server:

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

As the holiday season approaches, we will also be holding a QnA session where you can feel free to ask any burning questions or just anything on your mind about the game. While we can’t give away any company secrets or tell you exactly what we are working on next, it will be a chance to sit down and discuss things with members from most if not all disciplines of the game!

The QnA session will be taking place on our Discord server on Tuesday December 13 from 16:00 - 18:00 CET, which is a terrific place to help supplement these Forums. The Discord is filled with tons of your fellow Crusader Kings community and always a good place to find knowledge and conversation. If you are not already part of our terrific Discord family and would like to get in ahead of the QnA, you can find a link HERE!

That’s it for this year - we’ll see you in 2023! Have a God Jul and a Gott Nytt År as we say here in the frigid north!

Hello everyone!

I’m Henrik – nice to e-meet you – I’m a crazy plant person and producer at Paradox Interactive. I'm here to let you know that we have a release coming up for you today:

1.8.0 “ROBE” FREE UPDATE

The update should be rolled out to a store near you some time during the day. I promise to keep this short because I understand you’re here for the changelog. As my dear colleague, and ambassador of horchata, Hugo presented last week, we’ve taken some time to put together an update that, apart from a couple of new features, focuses a fair bit on improved stability and bug fixes. We hope you are as excited as we are to continue the endeavours as rulers of lands and kingdoms (hopefully) both beautiful and prosperous.

But enough me chit-chatting – to the details!

► Read more about this update on our forums!

• You can now save and load Custom Rulers! Create templates you can easily re-use everywhere on the world map. All the attributes besides the Dynasty and the Coat of Arms are saved.
  
• Completely reworked the Bookmark Screen; its now reorganized to allow more room for bookmarks, and they are now sorted by the year they belong to (867 and 1066). This comes with new and improved art for elements and buttons, as well as showing which DLC you have active.
  
• Added new and unique illustrations for every Tenet currently in the game!
  
• Added 17 new Custom Faith icons for use when creating new faiths, ranging from Ankhs and Boromian Circles to Doves and Chi Rhos!

• Added support for Vulkan rendering on Macintosh hardware

• Disinheriting is now free for children with a disputed heritage or known bastard. There is however a global opinion penalty which is always applied when taking the interaction
  
• Mozarabs can now use a strong hook to force/coerce the pope into binding with rome
  
• Updated the consequences for revoking hostile Holy order, it now adds Fervor to their Faith, and potentially a negative county modifier
  
• Literalism is legal for all faiths to adopt
  
• If the game rule "strict regional heresy" is activated, the Mozarab faith will only appear in Iberia and North Africa
  
• Added additional reward to forming the Kingdom of Aragon
  
• Rulers will no longer be deposed if they happen to inherit a tyranny war from a lower tier ruler
  
• Added gold cost to the "truly special board" in the board game event “A Stroke of Luck”
  
• Breaking away from Rome now requires you to be in poor standing with your HoF
  
• Properly set low obligations on Custom Rulers who are vassals of the HRE
  
• ‘A Beautiful Specimen’ will be only triggered for lovers and soulmates now; not powerful vassals
  
• Iberian Conciliation achievement is now classified as "Hard" instead of "Medium"
  
• Auto-fire the Court Chaplain if they are excommunicated, except if you are also excommunicated yourself
  
• Contracting Assistance is now scaled by army size.

• Fixed a case where a raiding unit could not find a path to go home in case when the capital was moved. In that case the unit will be disbanded
  
• The AI will not try convert children of a vassal with religious protection anymore
  
• The AI will marry young men to old women less often: the weight of alliances and the impact of age has been rebalanced
  
• The AI will now send fewer requests for chess challenges
  
• Blocked the AI from sending two interactions simultaneously, which could cause UI issues
  
• AI characters are a lot less likely to accept a war assistance contract against you if they are allied with you

• Fixed issue with change/revert buttons in interaction lists only being responsive on a small part of it
  
• Fixed so the Army Reorganization scroll area no longer scroll to the top when unit is moved
  
• The bookmark lands of Emir Yahya now match the actual in-game shape
  
  
• Holy orders no longer cause "Grant to..." button to disappear in the county capital
  
• Offer Guardianship notification and window now use the ‘Offer Guardianship’ title instead of ‘Send Proposal’
  
• Unselectable beneficiaries will now be shown in the list with a tooltip explaining why they cannot be selected
  
• Adultery events (adultery.2001 & adultery.2002) now have improved texts for duels
  
  
• You can now always open the list of potential agents, even if none will accept to join the scheme. This can be used to, for example, plan who to seduce or fabricate hooks against to further your interests.
  
• Vassal contract modification window now warns when current liege is not the rightful liege
  
• Activated Regnal numbers for Count-tier characters to avoid non immersive lineages
  
• The "Is imprisoned = no" condition for all court positions is now hidden
  
• Court positions no longer display requirements that are the opposite of what they seek
  
• Added a section for showing the DLCs that are installed and active. It can be found in the main menu and the bookmark area

• Fixed issue where players couldn't accept/decline artifact gifts
  
• Fixed issue with event learning_theology_special.1001 where doctrines from the same group wouldn't be removed before applying the new one
  
• Fixed German court grandeur tooltip for being above expected level
  
• Fixed issue where achievements would still be enabled after creating a custom ruler and not starting the game as them
  
• You no longer get "the Thief Slayer" nickname if you already have a positive nickname.
  
• Fixed issue where artifact repair cost would show wrong value in the repair window, now shows same value as in the repair button tooltip
  
• Fixed issue where ironman would reset when going into select any ruler
  
• Fixed issue where overwriting same ruler multiple times would block achievements to be enabled
  
• Bestow Royal Favor chancellor task is now canceled if the target vassal declares war on you
  
• Fixed an issues that would cause some hedonistic sins to be incorrectly categorized as virtues or vice versa
  
• Created missing localization for threatened_by_buildup_opinion
  
• Petitioning liege in Russian now uses correct localization macro
  
• Struggle messages will now only be shown for interlopers and involved characters
  
• Fixed chinese localization doing infinite recursion on localization macro
  
• Moved the locators for special buildings in Tenerife to spawn buildings on landmass rather than in the water
  
• We now properly communicate in advance that the Subjugation war is only available once per lifetime
  
• Notifications for struggle endings are no longer sent to every single player in the lobby, instead selecting those either involved in the struggle or within a certain proximity of the region.
  
• fp2_struggle.2021.a.a is no longer blatantly misleading
  
• The tooltip of Invite to Activity displays a proper explanation when none of them is available
  
• "Desires of the Flesh" now checks what world region you are in before selecting a faith for you to follow
  
• Properly handle Duchy and Kingdom Holy Wars within the Struggle
  
• Removed duplicated check that were done for characters joining some factions
  
• Holy Wars properly deactivated after the Detente ending for the relevant cultures
  
• Fixed namespace issues with fp2_Struggle.2024 (now martial_chivalry.4001)
  
• Explicitly say that a Faith or Culture needs to control 80% of the counties to get involved within the Iberian Struggle
  
• Fixed issue where FP2 3D assets were being overwritten by their generic counterparts.
  
• We now display the right cost for the "Invite to Activity interaction"; it used to be swapped
  
• Head of Faith titles can no longer be granted to vassals
  
• Prevent players from cloning their mercenary armies
  
• Fixed localization in invitation to lieges council letter for Spanish
  
• Character info is now hidden for the thief in fp2_struggle.2009
  
• Player now receives heresiarch trait when converting to Adoptionism
  
• The Found an Empire is now blocked for Involved and Interloper of the Iberian Struggle. The new condition is however only displayed for characters with an involved Faith or Culture, and living nearby
  
• Fixed parsing issues with fund_inspiration.2080
  
• Fixed an issue where multiplayer got out of sync when a player hot joined the session
  
• Offering Relief events no longer gives you an improved opinion towards yourself. With that fixed, it's still important to remember to love thy self, you're doing good, keep it up!
  
• Expanded acceptance criteria for christian bones, christian syncretists can now display christian bones in their court. Finally allowing Basque pagans to equip and enjoy christian bones.
  
• Added the word “been” to “I have riding” to result in “I have been riding” in fund_inspiration.6001

• Updated name of "Reconquista" cultural innovation to something more historically accurate
  
• Added the Sayyid trait to some characters from the Hammudid house who were missing it
  
• Added new outcomes to boardgames
  
• Fixed line breaks in select Chinese localization keys
  
• Aragonese now speak the Oc´Romance language
  
• Set Wanda as a daughter of Krak I as it should be in 867
  
• Tabletop Warriors now has a more natural reading description
  
• Fixed the dynasty reference for the Chinese Xue Dynasty
  
• Clarified the consequences of Dissolution faction
  
• Added new localization for creating a new faith that keeps the former pope as the new pope
  
• Refresh factions against liege after player character change
  
• Fate of Iberia: the Struggle Ending Achievements now have greater clarity as to what ending they refer to
  
• Zandaqa can now be rejected when pledging submission to a caliph

-HR (Not Human Resources)

Hello crusaders! I’m Hugo Cortell, game designer and horchata drinking aficionado at Paradox Thalassic, and today I am here to present everything new and exciting with the upcoming 1.8.0 “Robe” free update.

We’ve worked hard to ensure that this update is a wonderful blend of bug fixes, refinements, and brand-new features. Since this is a “Feature Highlight”, I’ll be keeping it short and sweet and focusing on the latter two, but worry not, there will still be highlights with commentary for notable changelog entries.

Without further ado, let’s begin.

► Read more about Dev Diary #111 on our forums!



The biggest thing you’ll notice when starting a new game with 1.8.0 will certainly be the new and shiny bookmark screen, which has been redesigned to more cleanly fit new scenarios.





Everyone loves a good image collage, right?

The new bookmark screen not only looks better but it is also more streamlined: for example, the scenario information box and the character information tab become a single togglable tab once you select a bookmark character, avoiding unnecessary clutter on the screen.



To top it off, alongside the new bookmark screen we have also updated the main menu to conveniently display all the downloadable content you own and easily access any that you may be missing out on. You’ll be able to find it on the bottom left corner of the main menu screen.




To complement the new bookmark screen, we’ve also added the ability to save and load custom characters! At long last, you can finally use for multiple playthroughs that one character that you’ve spent so much time detailing to perfection.

Saving and loading is done through buttons that you’ll find at the bottom left of the ruler designer.
Selecting load will bring up a list of all saved characters and allow you to conveniently preview your selected creation before loading them into the designer itself.




Additionally, saved rulers are stored as individual files in meaning that you will be able to easily share your magnificent creations & abominations with the rest of the CK3 community. I look forward to seeing a mix of gorgeous and cursed creatures in the forums once this release comes to be.

Yes, you heard right. Get ready for art galore because our artists have been hard at work making new illustrations for every single tenet in the game that was previously missing one.



We don’t want to spoil all of them here, so look forward to seeing them in-game for yourself when the update releases. The art team did a great job making these, especially considering how tenets can have very abstract concepts, which I am sure must have taken a lot of back-and-forths to get just right.

We’ve worked very hard to fix as many bugs as possible for this release. I hope our commitment to making a high-quality product will be made apparent when you see the size of the final changelog in an upcoming dev diary. As mentioned at the start of the post, I’ll be sharing some highlights with commentary on some of the more interesting entries.
Please note that the current titles may not match their name on the final changelog.

If you have a strong hook on the pope, you can now use it to skip the requirements for binding with Rome. Though the pope will not like that.


It goes without saying that if you fulfill all requirements, but also have a hook, it will pick the regular outcome before the coercion one.

Pledging submission to a caliph will send out an actual in-game letter rather than instantly consulting the AI upon selecting the option. If you enjoy playing as a Caliph in multiplayer mode, look forward to deciding the fate of the Zandaqa players for yourself.





Alright, that is everything I’ve got to show for now. I hope that we’ve managed to excite you for what’s coming in the immediate future for Crusader Kings. Let us know your thoughts below!

Greetings!

A few weeks ago we shared our floor plan for the future, and this week I’d like to give you some tidbits from the studio itself. I will tell you a bit about the history of our studio and what we are about - interlaced with random quotes from the team collected throughout the year (courtesy of Wokeg - I think they paint a pretty accurate picture of the minds in our midst).
So if you are eagerly awaiting updates on what’s coming for the actual game, I’m afraid you will have to wait a little longer.

► Read more about Dev Diary #110 on our forums!



Firstly though, a brief introduction might be in order since I am very much a ‘behind the scenes’ kind of character (and you will rarely catch me writing diaries):
I was the Lead Producer on Crusader Kings III (until after its release in 2020). Having then spent some time with the space faring folks over in the Stellaris studio, I rejoined the CK3 team at the start of this year to create Studio Black - home of Crusader Kings - as the Studio Manager. And here we are.


Random quotes, part 1


The story of Paradox Development Studio goes back more than a quarter of a century - a pretty incredible feat in itself and a testament to the sheer talent, passion and motivation of the people working here. As we’ve added more games and grown the studio over the years, there came a point where we wanted to get the studio closer to to our games again, and at the end of 2020 PDS was divided into three sub-studios: Green (Stellaris), Gold (Hearts of Iron) and Red (Crusader Kings & Victoria). At this point, our friends at Europa Universalis had already set sail to warmer latitudes and set up Tinto in Spain.

As Victoria III was ramping up their efforts (and a big shout-out and CONGRATULATIONS is in order - the release is happening TODAY ːsteamhappyː), it was time to build a castle of our own, hence studio Black was born on February 14th (I’m sure you can figure out why I chose this date).


Random quotes, part 2


Having the right people in the right place is of course paramount to any kind of development - in our case, that means we rely on our Programmers, Designers, Artists, QA Testers and Producers to bring our game to life, with the help of central support from Audio, Engine Team, User Research, Marketing and many other departments.
Building a studio around an existing development team is quite a luxury - most often, you would start from scratch; with limited funding, resources and just a great dream (and hopefully a team) to carry you forward. In our case, it was rather the other way around (great game & team = check!), which means we can focus more on filling skill gaps and making sure we have a good support structure in place.


Random quotes, part 3


You might think that with the roots firmly planted in the dynasty of PDS, we all share the same culture DNA? You’d be wrong. Something I discovered back in the day (moving from the EU4 team to the CK2 team at the time), was how some subtle, yet noticeable, parts of the team culture seemed to stem from a very central core. This theory was confirmed as I stepped away to the realm of Stellaris for a while; the essence of the project team culture was as firmly rooted around Jeff and other shared moments as CK ever was around… keeping it in the family.
However quirky and meme-friendly each game teams culture might be, there are also some very noticeable similarities that confirms what Paradox is very much about, when it boils down to it: Helpful, Curious & Nerdy (in that ‘Hey, I’m really into cross-stitching medieval tapestry, want to know more?’ kind of way).


Random quotes, part 4


So where are we headed as a studio, you might ask? Well, we are all here to keep the legacy of Crusader Kings alive and well. We have an amazing game at the earlier stage of its lifespan, and a team of highly creative and skilled people to help realize the incredible potential of CK3. I won’t pretend that 2 years of pandemic haven’t had an impact on our work, but we are truly committed to keep making releases for CK3 that we are proud of - and that we hope you will find hundreds (maybe thousands?) of hours of enjoyment from, for many years to come!


That’s it for today folks, next time we’ll have some more game specific updates for you all!


A part of our team, having a royal blast at this year's PDXCON!