May 11, 2023

Crusader Kings III - PDX-Trinexx

Greetings!

Today is the day when Tours and Tournaments and the accompanying 1.9.0 Lance Update will be released! To tide you over until then we’d like to share the full update log.

► Read Dev Diary #128 on our forums!

1.9.0 Lance Update

Added regencies, so that characters unable to rule for a short time (e.g., because they're traveling) have someone to watch their realm whilst they're gone
Added entrenched regencies, so that characters unable to rule for a long time (e.g., children) can be bullied by regents gone mad with power or sedately supported by regents who just want to do right by them
Added a baker's dozen new mechanical interactions around characters becoming regents or thoroughly abusing their power whilst they are regents
Added diarchies system, allowing mod-scriptable power sharing arrangements between two characters at a time (for the sake of sanity, you're restricted to only _one_ diarch at a time, so you can't have a regent and a Custom Modded Evil Prime Minister at the same time, but you could have either or contextually)
Added the Coups feature, allowing regents to, with some effort, overthrow their liege and steal all their shinies at the low, low price of extreme risk of death or imprisonment and an unpleasant nickname
Added trilateral interactions where intermediary can veto or allow the interaction before the recipient can accept or decline. This way liege can have a say if diarch wants to (ab)use their powers
Added the Travel System so characters now actually move across the map and through individual provinces when traveling to Activities, optionally with an entourage of other characters
Added 130+ events that occur while traveling, both dangerous and non-dangerous in nature
Added the Caravan Master court position that affects travel stats and organizes the logistics of their liege’s travel
Added several Travel Options which allow for customization of travel plans (e.g. hiring specialists to counteract terrain danger)
Added travel route editor so that you can place waypoints on the map to adjust your travel route
Every character now has a bonafide location on the map
Characters Paying Homage, Petitioning their Liege, and going to Meditate in Seclusion now travel to their destination
Added Vassal Stances, every vassal now has a stance based on their personality, various opinion modifiers that previously impacted any vassal/feudal vassal now impact only vassals of a given stance
Vassal Stances have a preferred heir, when succession happens they get a temporary opinion boost with the new ruler if it was their preferred heir, or an opinion penalty if not.
Men-at-Arms can now be stationed in a specific holding, most building modifiers that previously impacted all men-at-arms now only impact the one stationed at that province.
Revised the rewards and balance of practically all buildings in the game to account for Men-at-Arms Stationing and other new changes, more details in the ‘Balance’ section.
Significantly refined the game's economy; Building Slots now increase with time, many new Buildings have been added, Building Costs have been completely revised, Domain Limits have been lowered, etc. More details can be found in the Balance section.
Adult Count+ Rulers (excluding Mercenaries) now have a chance to passively gain nicknames such as 'the Able', 'the Fat', or 'the Terrible'. The chance to gain a nickname goes up with rank, age, and prestige/piety, and the types of nicknames you can get are based in large part on traits, skills, and circumstances. For example, 'the Careless' can be gained while in a civil war of your making, if you have low diplomacy and some tyranny. When you get a nickname, an event will tell you which one you got, accompanied by a small reward or penalty.
Added 75+ new Nicknames, most of which can be gained passively.
Nicknames can now have descriptions, visible when moused over, finally allowing the use of ironic nicknames without an immense amount of explaining.
Added descriptions for most historic nicknames and all in-game given nicknames.
Added a Game Rule to control the frequency of random passive nicknames appearing on rulers
Added a Game Rule to tweak the Domain Limit of all rulers; +1, +2, +3, -1, -2, -3
You can now offer to Pay Ransom for your courtiers, vassals, close family members, dynasty members, lovers, friends, or anyone who is married to a member of your close family or dynasty
Added the Economy Mapmode, accessible from the ‘Additional Modes’ menu or by pressing ‘Ctrl-S’. It shows income on a per-County basis, allowing you to plan your conquests properly. It also reveals the location of all Special Buildings in the game, whether they are constructed yet or not.
Added the Control Mapmode, accessible from the ‘Additional Modes’ menu or by pressing ‘Ctrl-F’. It reveals the Control levels of all Counties in the world and also shows where Absolute Control is in effect.
Added a Destroy Artifact button, which allows you to destroy any Common or Masterwork artifact you no longer want in order to recuperate some of the gold cost. If you are Iconoclast you can destroy Artifacts of any Rarity, and will get Piety for doing so.
Significantly updated the Current Situation widget to be more user-friendly and useful for both new and experienced players; we’ve updated several entries with more information, added several new situations, added icons to all entries, etc. More info can be found in the Interface section.
When hiring a Physician you can now see what Aptitude they will have directly in the Event Option
We’ve added a HUD Skin Selector which allows you to switch between any of the existing HUD skins, overriding the default. This means that you can, for example, use the Norse skin from Northern Lords when playing outside of Pagan Scandinavia.
The Outliner has been significantly updated to be more useful: Pinned characters show more info (health, powerful vassal status, if they’re in a faction), Armies now have icons that show what they’re doing (moving, fighting, embarking, etc.), Armies show more general info (quality, supply status, attrition), and finally the Outliner will remember your last settings (it will start open if you had it open last game, etc.)
Canterbury Cathedral has been added as a special building with a set of modifiers, three levels of upgrades, and new on-map 3D models for each stage
Traits can now have Tiers with individual xp bars; this is in effect for the new Traveler and Hastiluder traits, but has also been added to all of the older ‘tiered’ traits such as Reveler, Hunter, and Pilgrim.
The Barbershop has been updated to be Fullscreen with a host of new tools and settings: you can select which Background you want (which comes with appropriate lighting by default), which characters should be in the shot, which animations they should use, and at which zoom level all characters should be displayed. Characters can be moved around the scene with drag-and-drop, and can be rotated 360 degrees. We’ve added quick-access character presets (self-portrait, council, family), a screenshot button, and a ‘Hide UI’ button. You can also pin characters and bring them into the scene. All drop-down lists can be searched with ‘fuzzy’ text input. Several characters can be edited without closing the barbershop or resetting your scene in between. You can add dynasty/title shields and names to the scene, as well as character names, should you want to create a family portrait or similar.
Legwear is now accessible as a customization option in the barbershop
You can now pick your hair color using a color wheel in the barbershop
The rules for who you can edit in the Barbershop are now consistent with who you can edit the title/dynasty of, which means that you can now customize your vassals and subjects.
Added an event where your Realm Priest riles up your Zealot vassals against you
Added 5 Martial lifestyle events
Added 1 Wealth lifestyle event
And much, much more

The full changelog is significantly longer than we can fit into a Steam announcement, so please head to the changelog thread on our forums to read the whole thing!

Join the conversation and connect with other Paradox fans on our social media channels! Official Forums Official Discord Steam Discussions Twitter Facebook Instagram Youtube

May 2, 2023

Dev Diary #126: Modding Activities

Crusader Kings III - PDX-Trinexx

Hello and welcome to the 126th CK3 Dev Diary. I’m Matthew, one of the programmers on the team, and today we’re going to be covering changes to modding support coming alongside Tours and Tournaments as well as how modding activities themselves can work.

► Discuss Dev Diary #126 on our forums!

Activity Modding

Activities are fully moddable, and as I mentioned in prior dev diaries they are composed of a variety of options and phases, where a phase is made up of a type and a location.

There are a lot of scripting options in activities so I’m going to also attach our info file on them for a more detailed overview. For this dev diary I’m just going to cover a handful of the bigger things.

Options

Options are one of the more simple things, they are grouped into categories with different options which can be shown and picked and it is scripted which is default. This default picking is a trigger so that different defaults can be set for different people, in vanilla we use this to make Hajj the default for Muslims so they go on that first.

Additionally every option can forcefully add characters to the entourage of the host and invited guests, it will pick from their court characters and allows a weight for selecting them and a maximum to pick from for player and AI.
These invited characters also get an invite order, which I’ll cover in more depth shortly.

Lastly one option category can be set as the “special” category, this option will be picked first when planning an activity. In vanilla we use this for the special activity types like which type of Tour you are going on. It is fed into many triggers and scripted values in the activity setup for checking.

Phases

Setting up phases can be quite complicated, mainly centering around how the location of them should be picked.

You can think of there being two types of phases: Predefined and Pickable.

Predefined phases are always present and not removable, they can be selected either by the script picking a location or automatically set to the first or last phase.

For example, in a Tour the final phase is “Journey Home” is predefined and has a scripted selection of always taking you to your capital province so you return home.

For pickable phases the player instead selects a province themselves, phases can be repeatedly picked and have a max limit so you cannot go on a Tour to visit every vassal.

Every phase also has an order in which it happens, for a simple activity like a feast where all phases are predefined this just controls the order they happen. In more complicated activities where the player can pick things the order becomes more complicated, it will respect the order you script but also if the order is matching it will be the last one the player picked.

To take Tours as an example again in the above image you can see order is set to 2, and for the pickable phases where you visit different vassals the order is set to 1.
So that means the Journey Home is always at the very end of everything, and for the vassal stops whichever you the player picked last will be towards the end of your journey.

Special Guests

Special guests can be selected in two ways, either a trigger which you then pick from all invited characters who match it or they can be automatically filled by an effect. This allows weddings to automatically set the bride and groom whereas in a feast you can pick your honorary guest.

Additionally, as you may have spotted special guests can be required or not, if required then the activity will not be plannable without them and if they decline then it will be invalidated.

Invite Rules

Every activity has multiple invite rules which control who can be invited, these rules are reusable and can be shared among different activities and are defined in their own files.

On its own an invite rule is just an effect which adds character to a list, how you get those characters from the host is up to you really.

When an activity decides to use those invite rules it can decide if the rule should be enabled by default and more importantly what order the invite rule should be applied. This comes into play when the invite rules are adding more characters then your activity can support, it will try to invite character’s based on the order and later less important characters will be skipped.

Special guests are always invited first since the activity to some degree revolves around them. Equally those you manually invite via interaction will be put to the front of the invite list.

Intents

Like invite rules our intents are defined in their own files and can be reused by different activities. The default intent for hosts and guests is defined per activity, the player and AI will pick their own specific one from there.

Every intent can optionally have a target character and they are scripted similarly to interaction targets. One thing to keep in mind when modding intents is the AI target usage, since every invited character is a target you should make liberal use of the AI target filtering we provide and put maximus on potentially very large groups of people.

Plugin Widgets

Due to the nature of activities wanting to display special information, and in the case of Tournaments basically showing its entire own window, we came up with a system of allowing the activity script to define what plugin widgets it would like inserted into the main window.

The format of these is that the left-hand side refers to the name of the plugin widget and the name of the file it will be in, similar to the event window widgets, all of which are found under the gui/activity_window_widgets directory.

The right hand side refers to the name of the widget in the main activity window they should be inserted under. We’ve got a few that we use already in vanilla but mods can expand and add more places they insert widgets and use custom widgets for their own activity information.

Leveled Traits

As shown off in some earlier dev diaries we now have leveled traits built into the game instead of needing to be handled purely in script.

Script wise they are very simple; any trait can define one or more tracks and what XP thresholds needs to be met for modifiers to apply. The modifiers are stacking so you always get the rewards of previous levels on top of them.

Any trait can be made into a leveled trait, for now we’ve done it to lifestyle traits where you can level them up. But we may apply this in the future to other things!

Currently unused in vanilla we’ve also added it so the trait XP can degrade over time which I am sure mods will be able to put to good use. The below will make the XP degrade by 5 every month, but only to a minimum of 20 so you don’t lose all your hard-earned XP.

Alongside this rework we also went through and added more documentation to traits and combined some properties that could never coexist and now give better errors.

Database Scopes

One larger rework that will be a work in progress over the next few patches is that now database types can be registered as scope types.

I’ve reworked our backend to support this better now and still keep things safe, mainly by disallowing effects to be run on these database scopes since they are not modifiable. So now for example traits and activity types are scopes which can be saved and used in script.

Currently the support is mostly in its bare minimum state, but in future patches I plan to make a variety of database types into scopes. This should hopefully improve mod compatibility and reduce down script duplication of manually checking over every single trait by hand.

Coming in the next release after Tours and Tournaments I’ve made traits fully integrated into this for both triggers and effects, so you could look for a random opposite trait of someone and then add it to your character for example.

For Tours and Tournaments we’ve mostly used this in the activity system to support alerts better, so instead of having a hard coded alert about activities you can host we can just check them like normal script.

So modders reading this I’d love to know what types you’d like added as scopes and what triggers and effects that take database keys you’d like to see take scopes. I’ve already got traits done for a future patch, so I am interested in others I can do!

Data Models

I’ve reworked the backend of how data models work, which now allows us to in gui script dynamically get sub-sections of a datamodel as well as set a datacontext to a specific item in the data model.

For example you can now limit a datamodel to the first three people:
datamodel = "[DataModelFirst( ActivityWindow.GetCharacters, '(int32)3' )]"

Or you can get the skip the first few of them:
datamodel = "[DataModelSkipFirst( ActivityWindow.GetCharacters, '(int32)3' )]"

There also exists a “Last” version of these which gets/skips the end and DataModelSubSpan which lets you do both an offset and desired size.

Using datacontext_from_model you can also get a specific item, oftentimes this will be the very first one so you can show the top scoring character, or first completed intent etc.

The index can also be dynamic so you can save a value in script and then get that character out of your data model.

Conditional Scope Change

As some of you eagle eyed people might have spotted, or if you’ve modded Vicky and see they released with our change first, is the new conditional scope change operator ?=.

Normally when you change to a scope you will get errors if it does not exist, but in many cases you know that the thing may not be set in which case you don’t want an error but to fail the trigger.
The previous way of doing that is to add an exists trigger on the line above every time as that then returns false if they are not around, but that could be quite cumbersome.

Now you can combine that together so instead of loads of extra typing it's just one convenient ? being involved!

This also works for scope comparisons where it will return false if the left-hand side does not exist. When used in effects it will just skip running the effects in that scope change if the scope doesn’t exist.

And lastly as a little sneak peek of the patch notes here is the user modding section!

###################
# User Modding
###################

Added character modifier, Men-at-arms Counter Resistance
Rename hidden_effect_new_artifact to hidden_effect_new_object
Add GetBaronyNameExplicitly and GetBaronyNameExplicitlyNoTooltip to provinces to get the barony even if it's the capital.
Add building_slot_add modifier for holdings.
Add prowess_no_portrait trigger.
Add trait modifiers based on faith doctrine parameters, analogous to culture
Added defines for simple text glow formats
Adds the hostile_county_attrition_raiding to modify the hostile county attrition of raiding armies. Will apply from both commanders and owners of armies. This IGNORES the regular lower limit of 10%, such that hostile county attrition for raiding armies can be reduced to 0. Go forth, land vikings! Pillage! Rule!
Adds the movement_speed_land_raiding to modify the speed of raiding armies moving over land. Will apply from both commanders and owners of armies.
Consistently use reference for triggered background/textures instead of sometimes duplicating with event_background.
Custom loc can now have the "all" type which lets it match to any scope type.
Interactions can now also set a cooldown on all other interactions in the same category via the 'category_cooldown' and 'category_cooldown_against_recipient' properties
Make province GetName and GetNameNoTooltip both return the county if capital.
Remove 'goto' field from 'send_interface_message' and 'send_interface_toast'
Remove GUI support for 'PlayerMessageItem' members 'GetGotoProvince', 'HasGotoProvince', and 'OnGoto'
Remove the add_building_slot effect, only use the new building_slot_add modifier.
Rework how open_view and open_view_data handle additional script provided data, the view_message field has been renamed to data and can be used in either of those effects it will now pass the additional data to the specific interface it is opening which will use it as appropriate.
The 'duel' script effect can now use multiple skills at once, averaging their value. Up to six skills can be compared.
Add diarchy_succession_character script list builder
Add effect change_diarchy_type
Add effect set_diarch
add trigger is_diarchy_successor
Per modder request, added some instructions (and a small correction) to on_actions.info to help newbie modders just getting started
Per modder request, added standardised cultural parameters for raiding overland and overseas to increase mod interoperability. Also made it easier to add dynasty modifiers, house modifiers, & cultural innovations that unlock raiding (either according to standard restrictions for non-tribals or, optionally, without restrictions)
Per modder request, replaced almost all instances of has_government with government_has_flag (and added relevant flags to each government type) to allow for easy hooking in of additional government types to vanilla content & systems, as well as better mod interoperability
Add function [Army.GetArmyStatusTooltip]
Introduce [Army.GetArmyStatusOutlinerIcon]
Renamed [Army.GetArmyStatusIcon] to [Army.GetArmyStatusIllustration].
add change_diarchy_power_level effect
add diarchy_has_parameter trigger
add diarchy_power_level trigger
add set_diarchy_power_level effect
Converted tribal imprisonment block to use a government flag for marginally higher mod compatibility
Added 'memory_creation_date', 'memory_end_date' and 'memory_age_years' triggers for Character Memories.
Add HasCharacterFlag datafunction for characters
Added IsDateAfter promote that takes a date and a target date.
Added IsDateBefore promote that takes a date and a target date.
Added IsDateBetween promote that takes a target date, a start time and an end time.
Added IsDateToday promote that takes a date.
Added GetDateAsTotalDays promote for Dates
Added promote HasFlag to the (Player) MessageType in order to allow specializations for message appearances.
Added effect start_travel_plan, which opens the travel planning window for the player and can take multiple (optional) input parameters like destination(s), companion(s), events/on_actions, et al.
New `*_neighboring_province` list can be used to efficiently get adjacent provinces in script
New `*_army_in_location` list can be used to quickly find armies in a province
The "Settings" window doesn't pop up anymore when reloading localization data
New expand auto-complete mode for console: Toggle via `settings` -> Tools -> Console auto-complete mode
Can kick out existing councillor "nicely" by using `remove_existing_councillor = yes` in `assign_councillor_type` effect
Interactions targetting artifacts can now directly open up a specific artifact
You can now actually generate a 'lowborn' character from character templates (`dynasty = none` is now correctly honored)
The PdxData data_binding 'macro' system now supported for mods too
You can attach character portrait assets to the root of a 3D entities via `at_root_of_entity` (same config location as `shared_pose_entity` / `node`)
New 'scope exists' script operator "?=" added, so we don't have to write "exist = bla bla = { stuff }" thousands of times and can just do “bla ?= { stuff }”
Scope exists operator `bla ?= {}` in effects will not execute effects inside scope if the scope `bla` does not exist
Added new 'ransomed' artifact history state
`set_location` effect now has `stick_to_location = yes` if you want to pin down someone’s default location to be different from their capital or court

Apr 25, 2023

Dev Diary #125: The Most Valiant of Them All

Crusader Kings III - PDX-Trinexx

Knights, Accolades and Glory

Hey! We’re CK’s resident gang of big, beefy, vascular knight bannerets and we’re here to talk knights! Specifically, the brand-new Accolades feature. So slap on your jerkin, grab your bodkin, strap on your slaying-sword, and don’t you dare get distracted by any damsels in distress.

Accolades are about adding depth and flavor to knight management, giving you cause to care about the low-ranked NPCs you’re sending to untimely deaths. This is a smaller feature, but it’s an excellent tie-in to the new Activity System, particularly Grand Tournaments. Activities are ideal less-than-lethal reasons to get your knights out of the house, and get them known as the budding warriors and leaders they are.

Hey, is this just adding more Knight Effectiveness?

No. But your knights will probably get a few new things to offer the battlefield.

► Discuss Dev Diary #125 on our forums!

What’s an Accolade?

“In death thy glory in heaven, in victory thy glory on earth. Arise therefore, Arjuna, with thy soul ready to fight” - The Bhagavad-Gita

An Accolade represents the special honors - the eminent status - a liege affords to a favored knight. It represents an awe-inspiring reputation passed through generations of fighters; as Accolades improve over time (and as more storied martial deeds are done), they offer more bonuses to the knights who hold them and to their liege (you).

[Image: Accolades reside at the top of the Knights Window]

By spending prestige to create an Accolade on a worthy knight, you make the character your Acclaimed Knight. They serve just as normal knights do, with no additional effects but those provided by their Accolade Attributes (I’ll get to those shortly).

Here’s what creating an Accolade looks like:

[Image: Pictured: who you can Acclaim and what’s so very praiseworthy about them]

Note that not all your knights are shown as Accolade candidates here. Only unlanded and baron-rank knights can become Acclaimed Knights. Candidates must also have at least 8 prowess - nobody wants them constantly dying of incompetence. Finally, they have to be eligible for at least two Accolade Attributes.

Accolade Attributes

“He who would tell divers tales must know how to vary the tune.” - Marie de France

Accolade Attributes reflect the traits, skills or other qualities of your knights that make them stand out. They’re the source of Accolade bonuses, which scale as knights gain Glory (a new stat: Accolade XP).

Every Accolade has two Attributes. The Ranks earned through Glory gain alternately provide one Attributes’ bonus and then the other’s. So, if your Accolade has a Mentor Attribute, you’ll gain the Mentor’s aid to their fellow knights only with every second increase in Rank.

Some Attributes simply herald an element of a knight’s personality and, while they can be interesting, aren’t particularly impressive. Others (like the aforementioned Mentor) depend on the knight being exceptional and, in return, offer potent men-at-arms modifiers, lifestyle trait boosts, etc.

Let’s check out some Attributes.

[Image: The lowest-level Outrider Attribute bonuses]

The Outrider, shown above, is mostly about boosting light cavalry. Below, you can see what its effects look like when they reach their max. If you’re interested in these kinds of Men-at-Arms bonuses: there’s more on that later in the Dev Diary, including a hot scoop on special Accolade MaA units.

[Image: The highest-level Outrider Attribute bonuses]

To be an Outrider, your knight needs the Open Terrain Expert trait or XP in the Horse track of the shiny new Hastiluder tiered trait (gained from Grand Tournament participation). Being, say, a salt-of-the-earth Thug is more common. Wrathful, Arbitrary, Impatient, Arrogant and Reaver characters all qualify.

The Thug’s is not exactly a rich lineup of bonuses. But hey, if you’re a bad guy, you might still want a Thug on your side!

[Image: the lowest-level Thug Attribute bonus]

[Image: The highest-level Thug Attribute bonuses]

Given knights are a liege’s military muscle, most Accolade bonuses are martial and army-focused. Nonetheless, for those more interested in singing chansons than cleaving skulls, there’s Acclaimed Knights like the rare Master of Revels:

[Image: The lowest-level Master of Revels Attribute bonuses]

[Image: The highest-level Master of Revels Attribute bonuses]

If you find yourself curious about Attributes, a full list with requirements and effects are listed in the in-game Encyclopedia. Have a Marauder and Thug-led gang of bully-boys backing you up, if you wish - or get yourself a Tactician and a House Paragon!

One thing to clear up: while it’s possible to have multiple Acclaimed Knights, you may only ever have one instance of each Accolade Attribute. Let’s keep the modifier stacking reasonable, folks.

[Image: An Accolade]

The Accolade View

You’ve created an Accolade. It’s visible above your knights list. When opened, you’re faced with the Accolade’s name, its Acclaimed Knight, the Successor (if one’s been found), its Attributes, and the bonuses it provides.

Note that your Accolades can be freely renamed, just in case the randomly-filled templates like “The Sword of Death” or “Senior Knight of the Polish Guard” don't do it for you.

And the track in the middle is showing… Glory? That’s XP, right?

Glory

“He who does more is of greater worth” - Geoffroi de Charny, The Book of Chivalry

Heck yeah, XP. Glory is gained whenever something happens that might make your Acclaimed Knight and their Accolade more respected, more famed and glorious, in the eyes of loyal warrior and hateful foe alike. Accolade Rank is increased with Glory; they’re what provide you with the good stuff.

Here’s a list of common Glory sources for an Acclaimed Knight:
Fighting in winning battles
Wounding/killing other knights in battle
Winning single combats
Attending Activities with their liege
Participating in/winning Tournament Contests
Their liege winning wars against higher-ranked war targets

On that last point: indeed, the feat of besting an Emperor as a Count nets the Count’s Acclaimed Knights a tasty bit of extra Glory. This amount varies based on the size of the war target and the Casus Belli type.

[Image: Glory gain on victory… should this victory somehow happen]

Some new events will also provide opportunities to increase your Accolade’s Glory. This may be the knight-iest one of all:

[Image: An imminent training montage]

[Image: Tooltip of Option A, with Accolades shown in its bottom two entries]

Glory will not accrue endlessly; it is also sometimes lost. This happens when knights lose battles, are defeated, and on Accolade Succession. The last one might seem harsh, but can you really expect a brand-new Acclaimed Knight to command the same respect as their predecessor? Give them some time.

[Image: A n00b.]

Accolade Succession

“For I have promised to do the battle to the uttermost, by faith of my body, while me lasteth the life, and therefore I had liefer to die with honour than to live with shame” - Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur

Knights die. It’s a hazard of the job. If Accolades, as a system, were about the rise of an individual knight’s personal legend, it’d necessitate a lot of frustration and loss of investment. Therefore, Accolades carry on from master to pupil, from Acclaimed Knight to Successor.

Accolade Successors are filled in automatically, but the Accolade’s liege is free to remove them and select replacements.

[Image: Successor requirements and candidates]

What if one has no valid Successors among their knights? Well, willing players can try to recruit characters who fulfill Attribute requirements, by hook (literally and otherwise) or marriage offer.

But if poring through character lists is not your cup of tea, never fear!

Seek Worthy Accolade Successor

“Your prowess, Roland, is a curse on our heads” - The Song of Roland

Worried that one day your Acclaimed Knight will be dead and gone? For a nominal prestige cost, a brand new Accolade Successor can be yours!

[Image: This Interaction is available from the Successor window]

[Image: Top-quality chivalric virtue, on demand!]

There is a bit of fine print to Seek Worthy Accolade Successor, including a fair amount of cooldown. Also, Successors will not necessarily fulfill both of an Accolade’s Attributes, and when that happens - things get funky.

Primary & Secondary Attributes

Accolades all have two Attributes. First displayed is the Primary, the core of the Accolade’s identity, which will never change. Below is the Secondary Attribute, which Successors aren’t required to qualify for. Successors must simply fulfill the Primary Attribute requirements (listed in the Successor screen) and qualify for any other Attribute.

An example: you create an Accolade with a Politicker Primary Attribute and an Idealist Secondary Attribute. The Accolade is named something warm and fuzzy like “Most Loyal of the Banners”. Then the Acclaimed Knight dies, and guess what? His Successor is no Idealist, he’s a dang Thug! Your new knight is putting his unique unsavory spin on your Politicker Accolade.

On the bright side, the mutability of Secondary Attributes allows you more flexibility with Accolade bonuses. This boon is offset by increased Succession Glory loss whenever an Accolade has to change over to a new Secondary Attribute.

Inactive Accolades

“Ubi sunt”

What if, god forbid, you fail to find a Successor for your Accolade? Fear not, sweet gamer. The Accolade isn’t destroyed, but rather it becomes Inactive. If you want to free up the slot, you can Retire the Accolade even while it’s still filled by a knight, and it’ll become Inactive.

Clicking on the Inactive Accolades button which, when needed, appears in the Knights and Accolades window will take you here:

[Image: Some out-of-commission Accolades]

These Inactive Accolades no longer provide any effects. You may Reinstate them, choosing a knight to fill them when doing so, or delete them if you wish.

But what if you have an Inactive Accolade and there’s no one up to the task of filling it?

The Restore Accolades Decision

“Are there such heroes among you / Whose bones would not crackle in my fingers?” - The Epic of Jangar

Of course, you’re free to hunt down characters who meet the requirements of your fallen Accolades manually. But this Decision exists to make things a little easier:

[Image: SOUND THE HORNS, SEND THE MINSTRELS]

Neat little aside: this Decision first looks to recruit existing characters, but if none available meet requirements, new characters are generated. The new characters’ Skills and Traits will be appropriate for your Accolade’s Primary Attribute. The individual’s culture should be both A) situated realistically near to yours, B) friendly with yours, and C) either suit the Primary Attribute or generally be well-known for exceptional knights. Basically, this just sets up Norman knights appearing as Accolade candidates all over Christendom.

Plus, if you’re Emperor of Byzantium, there’s a decent chance the elite fighting men who show up will be Armenians or Varangians. Pretty neat.

Acclaimed Knights & Grand Tournaments

Let’s switch gears and talk Tournaments. They’re an outstanding one-stop destination for all things knight. Not only do your Acclaimed Knights stand to gain Glory from competition and victory, but the Hastiluder Trait earned with the honing of warrior skills unlocks powerful Men-at-Arms Attributes. Attend equestrian contests if you’re interested in Attributes like Lancer or Camel Rider; hold dismounted combats to pursue knights like the Vanguard and the Skirmisher, and do some archery to get Archers and Crossbow Captains.

Those particularly interested in improving their stable of knights can attend Tournaments with the Recruit Intent, and improve their odds of going home in chivalrous company.

[Image: A Tournament attendee selecting the Recruit Intent]

Interested in your own tale-worthy tournamenting knight? Want an Ulrich von Lichtenstein to dazzle the crowd with skin-tight armor and miraculous skill? Well…

[Image: Reference reference]

Accolades for Everybody! No, Wait…

The keen-eyed among you may have noticed earlier there’s but 5 spaces for Accolades in the Knights and Accolades window. This is no mistake: 5 is the maximum number of Acclaimed Knights you’ll ever have simultaneously. And I’m afraid to say you’ll often have far less. Sometimes, even no capacity for Accolades at all.

What gets you from no Accolades at all to a whole squad of Acclaimed Knights? These do:

King-tier Rank
Emperor-tier Rank
Bannus (Innovation)
Knighthood (Innovation)
Renowned Name (Dynasty Legacy Perk 2)

[Image: The Knighthood Innovation, looking pretty stronk]

Who is the Most Glorious of Them All?

“This man was very rich and very proud of his bravery, courage and conspicuous lineage; for every Frank is anxious to outdo the others” - Anna Comnena, huge fan of the Latins

Some cultures’ members tended to care a little more than others about glorious feats of arms, and thus we’ve given them a boost to Glory gain. Cultures with Traditions like Chanson de Geste, Royal Army, Performative Honor: those cultures’ Acclaimed Knights have the best shot at being the greatest in all the world.

[Image: Futuwaa, with its new Glory Gain modifier]

The Chivalry lifestyle tree is a good source of Glory bonuses too.

[Image: Chivalric Dominance: a little preview of the Gallant trait]

Knight Army Modifiers

“He has many men about him and is himself the best of fighters, and is not at a loss for wise counsel.” - The Laxdæla Saga

Before closing things out, let’s take a moment to explain Accolade effects, such as the new Knight Army Modifier. Wherever you see this term, it means your Acclaimed Knight will improve an army simply by being in it. There’s no requirement for the Acclaimed Knight to be the Army’s commander.

Mouse over the Acclaimed Knight icon (helmet with the lil’ colorful scarf) on the army containing your Acclaimed Knight to see what modifiers are being applied to the army by Acclaimed Knights.

[Image: This commander’s got a bit of skirmishing backup]

Everybody Loves Men-at-Arms

When you choose a Men-at-Arms-boosting Accolade as a Primary Attribute and level it up, you’ll unlock a fun reward: special, extra-strong Men-at-Arms.

Only one Regiment of these can be recruited and they have a limited troop count. However, their high base stats synchronize well with your Acclaimed Knight’s relevant modifiers and the new bonuses from stationing Regiments in your Holdings. Furthermore, these Retinue MaA perform better in appropriate terrains, they are twice as good at countering, and some of them receive stat increases as the Cultural Eras go by.

Here’s a taste. And it’s just lowly skirmishers with bonuses from game start, because I’m an irrepressible tease.

[Image: Left: regular skirmishers. Right: skirmishers unlocked by a high-ranked Skirmisher Accolade. Bear in mind effects from Knight Army Modifiers aren’t visible here]

A Knight’s Own Dev Diary of Chivalry

That about wraps it up! I’d love to leave you with one last wise quote from de Charny, who may or may not be a greater knight than a certain Willy Marshall or Rodrigo de Vivar:

“Avoid quarrels.”

Thanks for reading!