Hello and welcome to this development diary about flavor additions to the greater Iran area. That means in this diary you will get a test of many things that, while individually small, aim to increase the overall authenticity and uniqueness in this part of the world.

I will also begin with a shout out to Vaniljkaka who worked on the first draft of this DD and did a lot of the event and research work for Legacy of Persia.

► Discuss Dev Diary #138 on our forums!




One way to significantly improve the state of the game in a given start date is to look into what unresolved issues were ongoing in a specific location at the time. To a large degree that is the thinking behind the struggle system itself but and as already described in a previous development diary there is now both a new 867 bookmark start, and a struggle called the Iranian Intermezzo to achieve this.

But the struggle alone cannot cover everything that was important for a ruler in medieval Iran in 867 or 1066. We have therefore taken the opportunity to more thoroughly research the starting situation for both starts, adding new rulers, dynasties, rivalries, as well as less politically influential characters such as scholars or artists active in our time period. Existing family trees have also been significantly expanded in many cases and should also now make use of a new set of coat-of-arms using Iranian or Islamic elements.

Additionally, there has been a general go over of the cultural and religious setup of the entire region, with adjustments here and there aiming to better reflect the political realities of the time.



The biggest changes are to certain religious groups or sects that were important in 9th century Iran - the Mu’tazila, the Khurramites, the Azariqa. The rebellious, egalitarian Khurramites would be particularly suited for underdog playthroughs though none are landed at the start, whereas the fanatic Azariqa stand ready to unleash a terrifying wave of assassinations, to avenge the Battle of Nahrawan and the many slights they believe that they’ve suffered since. Both these faiths have been given new tenets to portray their unique worldviews. At game start in 867 there is also an ongoing Azariqa rebellion, which you can partake in if you want to attempt to form an Azariqan Caliphate.


[The Fedayeen tenet is shared by the Azariqa and the Nizari, and allows you to recruit and utilize fearsome assassins - fanatics devoted to slaying the unbelievers.]



[The rural, rebellious Khurramites are present in pockets all over Iran, though their great rebellions of the mid-9th century have long since been suppressed. Also featured in the screenshot is the new geographic special location of Mount Damavand. One of multiple new special buildings in the update.]



[The cultural map should be largely familiar, with some notable exceptions like 1066 and 867 now having differing setups in the region of Balochistan.]

When it comes to cultures, we have added a number of new cultural traditions, some of which add new gameplay elements such as the Qanat building line (from the Irrigation Experts cultural tradition which replaces Dryland Dwellers) or the new Court Scholar court position (from the new Beacon of Learning tradition) which can be sponsored to unlock new innovations.


[The Persians in particular have been given three new traditions to reflect all the refinement and enlightenment that made them so admired by Arabs and Turks alike.]

For the greater region covered by the update we now also have Jirga (for the Afghan, Baloch and Brahui cultures) which among other things unlock the Tribal Elective Succession form as well as new regional traditions that unlock unique Man-at-Arms types such as the Zupin (Pragmatic Creed) Spearmen or the Tarkhans (Frontier Warriors).



We are also adding historically inspired decisions and events to the region, with the aim of opening up the same possibilities to rulers in our game that historical rulers of the era would have had. This also means that some previously unlikely historical scenarios are now encouraged, for instance Turkic conquerors in general and the Seljuks in particular are more likely to show up and make a new home for themselves in the Iranian plateau, and as a rising ruler in Iran you have new ways of promoting alternate Islamic faiths in the region that are not as present yet at game start (such as the Maturidi denomination of Sunni Islam or Shia Imamism).

For the Seljuk arrival in the late 900s there is also a game rule to make their entrance more random or to turn it off entirely.
Last but not least the chaotic setup in 867 is now further improved by an early event chain about the Zanj rebellion which should add even more uncertainty and dynamism to an already quite open starting situation.

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A new type of diarchy coming in Legacy of Persia, viziers were historically many things. They were powerful private landholders, vital linchpins of the civil service, some of the most corrupt people in the world, and extravagantly dramatic party-hosts.



Mechanically, Viziers may be appointed by duke-tier or higher clan-government characters. Whilst incumbent, they grant you extra tax jurisdictions (scaled to their stewardship) and add a portion of their own tax collector aptitude directly to all of your tax collectors’ aptitudes, providing a powerful direct modifier on how much gold you get per month. How large a portion of aptitude they grant scales with how heavily the Scales of Power are swung towards them, so a more empowered vizier offers both benefits and drawbacks to their liege.



Unlike regents, being a vizier isn’t a prestigious position for a noble — you are, after all, merely a civil servant, and what’s worse one with actual work you’re expected to do — instead, landless courtiers and minor barons from your faith’s dominant gender compete for the post. Having the vizier in your pocket is still desirable, though, so prospective viziers at court will politick behind the scenes, gaining friendships and rivals with other prospective candidates, their liege’s spouses, and their liege’s stay-at-home adult children.

These relations in turn directly contribute to vizier succession score, so a candidate who’s friends with the current vizier will see themselves climb the ranking, whereas one who’s made an enemy of their liege’s spouse will see their score fall. For the same reason, prospective viziers will often learn their liege’s language, seeking to further their prospects for promotion.

As civil servants, viziers don’t have access to quite as many powers as regents. Predominantly they’ll embezzle and try to give negative county modifiers to vassals in exchange for gold, though a complacent liege who lets the Scales creep too far towards their supposedly-loyal vizier will find that they’re still capable of launching coups. Viziers are also usable in the new-ish confidant council position, which allows you to substitute them in instead of your spouse for spousal council tasks (your choice of which, naturally).

Though such functionaries can be fired at any time, removing the vizierate regardless of the status of the Scales of Power, a vizier with high swing is one who’s enmeshed themselves thoroughly, and who cannot be removed completely without consequence. Above a certain Scale swing threshold, firing your vizier will give you a severe negative economic modifier that harms your monthly income. This scales to how much swing the vizier had — so sure, you can fire them at 80+ swing if you like, but don’t think they won’t have arranged a little job security for just such an occasion.



An easier way to remove civil servants is to kick them upstairs: giving your vizier a county (or, if the Scales are really swung in their favor, a duchy) will also end the vizierate, this time without any economic fallout. Everyone loves a promotion, after all.

Finally, you may recall that I mentioned viziers were legendarily corrupt: though not always strictly true, this was generally the case, and actually a feature of the position rather than a bug. The role of a corrupt vizier was to run the realm’s finances, and it was generally understood that they’d enrich themselves in the process. It was fairly common for viziers to pay significant bribes straight to the liege to get the position — that and to capture and audit the last vizier for undeclared revenue.

The advantage to this for the liege was that, when they needed money in a pinch, rather than have to collect a special tax from the realm as a whole, force powerful vassals and governors to cough up more cash, or individually audit every petty tax collector, there was one person in the realm they could generally guarantee not only had money but had more money than they should have. Minimal overhead, maximum convenience. At least, for the liege.



In-game, we represent this through your vizier’s income and extravagance modifiers. They receive an income from positional corruption proportional to your own income (this doesn’t count towards the embezzlement secret, as it’s technically part of their official remuneration). Every so often, they’ll spend this money on character modifiers for treasure, activities, properties, or charity. Once they have one modifier of each type, they’ll begin again, spending more money on more expensive extra types of each modifier, up to four tiers.



Lieges can then mulct their viziers via interaction, fining them for their excesses. This deletes a rank of the vizier’s extravagance modifiers, liquidating them and transferring gold to the ruler that increases with the tier (and number!) of modifiers liquidated. Naturally, viziers aren’t generally too happy with this, even if the process further enmeshes them as the most important state official, but there’s not much they can do about it other than rebuild their losses. Which, naturally, makes them more attractive to mulct again down the line…



We’ve included about ~160 different modifier descriptions for what viziers are spending their money on, of which about half are explicitly historically attested (comments in the script file for anyone particularly interested in which), and another quarter reasonably probable. The remaining quarter is us trying to keep up with the lavish standards for extravagances set by history’s actual vizierates. These do vary vizier by vizier, so you should see your viziers purchasing extravagance modifiers relevant to their traits and interests.

That was all for this diary! I hope it has given a general idea of the type of flavor content that you can expect in Legacy of Persia, without spoiling all of what there is to discover.

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Join the struggle for medieval dominance in Legacy of Persia, the new Flavor Pack for Crusader Kings III, releasing on November 9.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2313540/Crusader_Kings_III_Legacy_of_Persia/

Salutations!

It’s been a while since I last wrote a DD, so a quick (re)introduction might be in order. I’m Emil, aka “Servancour”, one of your resident CK3 game designers. I’ve been on the project since way before release, and tend to mostly focus a lot on game mechanics and systemic features. Which, in fact, brings me to why I’m here today. When we settled on Persia as the focus for our upcoming Flavor Pack, we soon came to realize that this would be an excellent opportunity to revisit the Clan Government and give it a much-needed update.

► Discuss Dev Diary #137 on our forums!



Clans, as you currently know them, are very similar to Feudal. There are only two real points of difference between them. Opinion is a major factor in their obligations, meaning that a vassal’s opinion of their liege affects how much taxes and levies they will give to their liege. Secondly, they have access to and utilize vassal contracts, albeit in a slightly stripped-down version, with less available options than their Feudal counterparts.

This begs the question; How can we make Clan Government stand out? We’ve already identified one aspect above, so our first action and problem to solve is this - How do (or should) Clans manage their vassals? Secondly, and perhaps much more important, is what does a Clan actually represent? What does the name mean for gameplay?

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start with the first question, shall we? And have a look at Clan obligations.

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While we knew we wanted to add something new to Clan obligations, we had to ask ourselves how we wanted to make it different. As with all things Crusader Kings, adding a new element that makes use of characters felt like a natural fit, to give obligations some personality if you will. Meet the Tax Collector.



You’ll have access to a limited number of Tax Jurisdictions. To which you assign your Clan vassals as Taxpayers, allowing you to gain both taxes and levies from your subjects. A Jurisdiction requires a Tax Collector to function, however. So, before you can collect any taxes, you need to appoint one of your courtiers as a Tax Collector for each Jurisdiction.



With Tax Collectors, you won’t manage the obligations of your vassals directly. Instead, you manage them through your Tax Collector. Similar to a Court Position, a Tax Collector uses their aptitude to set the obligations of the vassals assigned to them. Higher levels of aptitude means that you’ll get more taxes and levies. Aptitude is primarily based on their skills, with Learning being the more important one, but their opinion of you also plays a significant part. To maximize the use of your Tax Collectors, you’ll want to find and appoint a skilled character, and then put the sway scheme to good use in order to squeeze as much gold from your subjects as possible.



While your Tax Collectors act as your intermediaries, you are still able to exact a certain degree of control of how they should manage your vassals. This is where Tax Decrees come into play. A Tax Decree is essentially how you want your vassals to be taxed, changing the obligations and providing an assortment of additional benefits.




With the introduction of Tax Decrees, it made perfect sense to move over some aspects of vassal contracts to this new system instead. For example, this is where you’ll find Iqta, Ghazi, and Jizya to use as you see fit. While you won’t have to bother with decrees if you don’t want to, they do give you opportunities to min-max in different ways. Decrees change the obligations of your vassals, either increasing or reducing them, in exchange for other boons. Take Iqta as an example. Iqta is a great option if you find yourself with vassals who are slightly upset, just enough for you to start taking notice, and if you also find yourself being at war frequently, as Iqta provides you with increased Men-at-Arms Damage based on the number of assigned vassals alongside an opinion bonus.



One thing to consider is that the modifiers applied to the obligations occur on the level as set by your Tax Collector. Which makes Decrees more or less powerful depending on the Tax Collector in question. Again, looking at the effects of Iqta, -20% to both taxes and levies won’t be very noticeable if your Tax Collector has a terrible aptitude. This makes Iqta very rewarding for the price you pay, since the gained benefit is pretty good. If your Tax Collector is excellent on the other hand, you’ll feel the impact of those 20%.


That about sums it up for how Tax Jurisdictions, Collectors, and Decrees work. With obligations out of the way, let’s go back and answer our second question!

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As the name suggests, Clans should be all about the clan itself and its members. Something that we really don’t represent at the moment. Nor does it have any real impact on how you play the game. To solve this and put a significantly larger emphasis on your House when you are playing as a Clan, we are introducing House Unity.

Unity represents the overall state of a House. Essentially the internal relationships between its members and the attitude they have towards each other. In many ways, Unity is the result of how you choose to interact with your fellow House members. We show everything regarding Unity in each Clans House view, allowing you to easily inspect your own Unity, and the Unity of other Houses.



We measure Unity on a scale between 0 and 200, divided up into five distinct ranges, or levels. Each level comes with a set of impactful rules and tradeoffs that may have a noticeable impact on how you play the game. By default, most Houses start in the middle. Essentially a “neutral” level. From there, they’ll be able to actively increase or decrease their Unity.

The levels are as following, listed from lowest to highest level of Unity:

• Antagonistic
  
• Competitive
  
• Impassive
  
• Friendly
  
• Harmonious

Thematically, having a high level of Unity means that you’ll enjoy internal stability and have House members that (generally speaking) adopt a friendly attitude towards each other. But you’ll pay for it with a reduced capability to wage wars as efficiently. CBs become more expensive to use, and you can no longer use the Invasion CB. A low level of Unity provides you with the opposite. You’ll gain a great deal of military might, allowing you to more easily conquer large swathes of land, but pay the price of reduced internal stability. Depending on your playstyle, you might enjoy a particular direction more than the other. Regardless of your own preference, having either low or high levels of Unity is meant to be equally viable.

Instead of having me ramble about the effects of each level, here are some nifty screenshots showing you what they look like:








Other than the passive effects, you also gain access to a set of unique decisions. Most of which are available only to the House Head, as they provide powerful boons for the entirety of a House. The primary currency for these decisions is Piety. Since most Clans belong to an Islamic faith, this felt like a natural fit. Besides, Piety is generally more difficult to get than Prestige, making you consider where and how to spend that hard earned Piety.

Some of these decisions make use of a completely new type of modifier; a modifier that scales on the number of landed House members. If you are like me, and like to utilize nepotism to the fullest, these modifiers can become incredibly powerful. Be mindful that the Piety cost will increase accordingly.

For all you modders out there, you can use scaling modifiers in every place you use regular modifiers. You simply feed it a value for how you want it to scale.

Let’s look at an example. If your House is Antagonistic, you can use the decision “Reinforce Army with Loyal Officers”:




Last, but certainly not least, Unity directly affects the outcome of your succession. Each level has an impact on the outcome of how titles are inherited, and the succession changes automatically as your House’s Unity changes. They all maintain a variant of Partition, meaning that titles will always be split to some extent. When you are Antagonistic, all eligible children inherit equal shares. If you are Harmonious, the primary heir inherits the majority of the titles (at least two thirds). With varying degrees in-between. At worst, this means that you don’t have to deal with Confederate Partition, and at best, you have an easier time accessing a superior version of High Partition. The drawback? While you can try to get a single heir succession law, such as Primogeniture, it will be more difficult and expensive to do so.



Now that we know what Unity does, let’s explore how it’s impacted by gameplay. As mentioned previously, Unity is all about the members of a House and how they interact. This will become apparent as you start interacting with your family members. A lot of existing interactions have been updated to also have an impact on your Unity in different ways. Whenever you are playing as Clan that is. Taking what we call “divisive” actions, such as Revoke Title or Imprison, against fellow House members will naturally reduce your House’s Unity. Meanwhile, “unifying” actions, such as Negotiate Alliance or Offer Ward, will increase Unity. Unity is therefore really a byproduct of how you and your fellow House members interact with each other.

With that said, the House Head enjoys a number of additional actions, giving them a greater degree of control in how they want to direct the Unity of their own House. The foremost of these is a decision in which the Head actively takes a stance and chooses a direction to steer their Unity. Then we also have two new interactions the Head can use on members of their House, both of which act as a double-edged sword and have some clear advantages and drawbacks.





There are of course many more interactions, far too many to list all of them here, which will have an impact on your Unity. Worth mentioning is that the immediate impact of these interactions is fairly small, but they stack up over time, especially when you are not the only one within your House who will be using them.

Rest assured that you’ll have plenty to explore as you get your hands on the updated Clan Government later this year, which will be included with the free update launching alongside Legacy of Persia!

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Join the struggle for medieval dominance in Legacy of Persia, the new Flavor Pack for Crusader Kings III, releasing on November 9.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2313540/Crusader_Kings_III_Legacy_of_Persia/

Greetings!

It is time to dive into the upcoming Flavor Pack - Legacy of Persia - giving a brief overview of the why and the what! The region has a rich and vibrant history making it both exciting and interesting to work with, not the least because it differs significantly from the regions we've chosen to cover in the past - Persia lies at the crossroads of the world, with a multitude of external influences combined with strong local traditions. Naturally while our focus has been on the Persian region itself, we've also aimed to shake up a portion of the world at large by revising how the Clan government works, so even if you're not playing in the Persian region there's something new and exciting to experience.

Co-writing this Dev Diary with me is Lucas Ribeiro - our skilled and multitalented 2D Art Lead at PDX Studio Black, who has been deeply involved with many of the features of this pack!

► Discuss Dev Diary #136 on our forums!







For starters, our data pointed out that Persia is already a very popular starting location for our players. The region is within the top ten most picked starting locations and the most popular one outside of Europe.
Despite originally not having much flavor dedicated to the area and no bookmark characters attached to it, our players were still going for Persia playthroughs. There’s no better endorsement of the interest in the region than that!

But, player data aside, all history enthusiasts know how rich and interesting Persia is, even more so during Crusader Kings III’s time period. We saw this as a chance to create very interesting gameplay opportunities.

At the 867 game start, the Abbasid Caliphate is reeling from the Anarchy at Samarra. A moment in history when many Caliphs fell victim to a deadly struggle for power while insurrectionists raged up and down the Tigris and the Euphrates, such as the Kharijite and the Zanj Rebellions. Meanwhile in the east, Iranian rulers rose to challenge the Abbasid Authority. This time period, known as the Iranian Intermezzo saw a partial revival of Iranian culture with the ascension of the Saffarid and Samanid dynasties. About a century after the start date of 867, the Iranian Daylamite Buyids came to power, subjugating the Abassid Caliphate.

This Iranian comeback is then cut short by the Seljuk Invasion. A dynasty of turkic warrior nomads take over Persia and the Levant, submitting both Arabs and Iranians to their rule. Further on the east the Ghaznavids defeat the Samanids, cementing the end of the Iranian Intermezzo and leading into the state of Persia as we see in the 1066 start. The Buyids are not playable on the 867 start, as their founder, a warrior from the mountains of Daylam had yet to leap into history. But a last holdout of the dynasty can be found in Shiraz at the 1066 start.





Since the area of the flavor pack is almost entirely made up of Clan Rulers, for Legacy of Persia, we have decided to reimagine how the Clan government works.

Our aim is to more closely represent the familial struggles of the powerful clans of the time and the bureaucratic apparatus that backed their interests.

The Clan government is now directly tied to how your house members interact with each other. Each house will have a Unity Level that can be changed by intervention of the house head and by its members treating each other kindly or badly. A harmonious clan will have a consolidated succession, while an antagonistic one, not so much!

Clan rulers employ an office of bureaucrats, their Tax Collectors, to levy troops and coin from their vassals. The competence of a Tax Collector will dictate how much they manage to extract from the vassals assigned to them. Each Tax Collector manages a Jurisdiction with an associated Tax Decree. For example: You might want to place all your non-muslim vassals in a Jurisdiction with the Jizya Decree and maximize your gold income.

More details on the Clan Government design on a future dev diary.





Persia and its surrounding areas are populated by a variety of different iranian-heritage cultures. We strived to give each one of them an original combination of cultural traditions that allow for a variety of new playstyles. The Kurds with their hard-to-convert culture and mountain cavalry, the Daylamites with their two-pronged spear wielding mercenaries and so on.
Persian culture, of course, received special attention. With new traditions about their famous scholarly pursuits and elaborate systems of water cooling and irrigation.

Iranian cultures have also received new clothes, headgears, hairstyles, beards and unit models, making them more appropriately distinct from the Arabic cultures. Also, due to their importance in the region, Turkic cultures have also received some sorely-missed assets, such as the Sharbush hat and the very recognizable Seljuk braids.






In Crusader Kings’ 3 starting date of 867, Islam has been the dominant religion of the upper classes in Persia for over a century. Still, Zoroastrian practices are still very much alive and widespread in the peasantry. We’ve done a general pass on religion in the region, adjusting provinces and characters to a more accurate historical representation. Tenets and doctrines for both Islam and Zoroastrianism have also received lots of adjustments and tweaks. Jizya, for example, has been moved to a tax jurisdiction type unlocked for muslim clan rulers. Both religions have received new decisions and events to flesh them out some more. They’re also strongly tied to the Struggle system in the region, speaking of which…






With Legacy of Persia, we are bringing a new Struggle, the Iranian Intermezzo.

This struggle seeks to represent the historical dissolution of the Caliphal authority over Persia and the ascension of new, powerful, Iranian Rulers In the 9th and 10th centuries. It also reflects a shorter historical period when compared to Fate of Iberia’s Struggle, so it is likely to be resolved more briefly and intensely.

Unlike Fate of Iberia, participant characters are clearly divided into factions. The Caliphal Supporters against the Detractors. A lot of new interactions are unlocked by this dynamic, such as convincing a character to switch sides, sponsoring turkic invasions against supporters, or waging war to install Caliphal Supporters.

The struggle has three phases, Unrest, Stabilization and Concession. The Concession phase is of a new type, a so-called Ending Phase. If a struggle gets to an Ending Phase, it will instantly trigger an ending. So, unlike Struggle Ending Decisions, where there is a dominant character that pushes the button to trigger it, every involved character can contribute to an Ending Phase by triggering relevant catalysts.

We have designed four struggle endings (three as decisions, one as an ending phase), which can be pursued in different ways, depending on the personal perspective of your character.

Will the Caliph be able to reestablish their power over the region? Will a powerful Shia ruler overtake the Sunni, creating a new Caliphate? Maybe an Iranian ruler will usher in an era of Persian dominance, forever boosting cultures of Iranian-heritage? Or, a Sunni Caliphal Detractor might oust the Caliph and take their place as head of faith?

In the Iranian Intermezzo Struggle we went for a more nuanced, granular approach, where the endings are subdivided into options that have different effects, according to your character’s culture, religion and whether they are part of the Supporter or Detractor faction.





With Legacy of Persia we are adding a new bookmark, the Persian Revival, with five Iranian-heritage characters to choose from. These were picked both for their historical importance and to provide for a wide variety of gameplay styles.

In the mountains of Daylam we see a fan favorite, Rostam Bavandid, one of the last Sassanids in the game and a secret Zoroastrian. A great character if you are going for a “Sassanian Restoration” style playthrough.

In the southern reaches of Persia, Muhammad of the Tahirids is a loyal vassal and supporter of the Caliphate. His nephew, though, rules an independent emirate in Khorasan and is desperate for help against the invading Saffarids. This character was a great pick for us, since he’s split between internal and external conflicts in the Caliphate.

Since we mentioned Saffarids, we have Yaqub, the coppersmith. This lowly peasant rose to power through extraordinary military prowess. In one of his many battles, he was swordstruck and horribly disfigured. But, despite all these difficulties, this upstart is pushing back against the might of the Abbasids. He was an obvious choice for us, since he is an interesting historical figure and a sort of folk hero of the Iranian traditions, having restored Persian as the official dialect of the region (after it was supplanted by Arabic).

Next, we have one that will be familiar to the achievement hunters, Suri of the Ghurids. Although historically Suri is mostly known for running away from the Saffarids and hiding at his buddy Abdullah Habbari’s court, his dynasty eventually grew into a huge Empire. Being Tajik and Mahayana, he’s stuck between the Muslim and the Buddhist world, creating opportunities for interesting gameplay. There’s also a lot of juicy mines in the region that Suri can go claim and fuel his future conquests. Good luck to all players out there going for the “Rise of the Ghurids” achievement!

Lastly, we have Ismail of the Samanids. Despite being distant in the line of succession, historically Ismail came to supplant all of his relatives and assume control of his brother’s Emirate. The Samanids under Ismail grew into a true empire, only to be overtaken later by the Ghaznavids and the Seljuks. An interpretation of Ismail’s likeness can now be seen stamped on the Tajikistani currency, the Somoni, which is named after his dynasty.

That's it for this time! More details will follow soon!

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Join the struggle for medieval dominance in Legacy of Persia, the new Flavor Pack for Crusader Kings III, releasing on November 9.

https://youtu.be/kwKbVALjXpE

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2313540/Crusader_Kings_III_Legacy_of_Persia/

Hello everyone! Today we're releasing Update 1.10.2 for Crusader Kings III. This update is aimed primarily at addressing balance issues with the University activities introduced in 1.10, but we also took the opportunity to knock out some outstanding issues elsewhere.

As always, if you run into issues after this update, please let us know on our bug report board on the official Paradox Plaza forums, or on our Community Support board here on Steam!

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• Rebalanced costs of the University interaction.
  
  • While remaining one of the most expensive Activities, the cost has now primarily moved onto the options; the lowest option reduces the base cost, the normal option costs significantly more, and the good option almost doubles the cost of the activity. This should lower the barrier of entry, while letting the activity remain an effective gold sink.
• Removed the extra cost for having a higher tier title from the University Activity.
  
• The books gained from the highest University Activity books option are now better.
  
• The skill point gained from the University Activity books option is no longer random, but is instead based on your education. This should make it easier to improve a skill you care about.

• The Player must now have promised a Grand Wedding in order to plan one.

• Added warning about potential hostage execution when offering to join another character’s war.
  
• Fixed University costs accidentally scaling up by almost an order of magnitude in later eras.
  
• Betrothals will no longer stop you from promising a new Grand Wedding if the old promise was related to someone who is now dead.
  
• Hostages departing toast message will no longer be doubled when Defender wins a war.
  
• Activities can now be planned even if you have insufficient funds to start them.

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Hello everyone! September 1st marks the third anniversary of the release of Crusader Kings III, and we're excited to share this day with our loyal players! You've all helped make this game what it is today through your comments, feedback, and suggestions over the last three years, and we can't thank you enough for the support you've given us and the time you've put into our game.

To help celebrate this milestone, we've prepared a special anniversary video for you, featuring some highlights and statistics of the game, as well as a teaser for what you can expect from us later this year.



We've also prepared a set of high-resolution wallpapers from our wonderful art team (no longer available!), and for those who want to see even more there's a full Art Blast article available on Artstation!

Finally, we want to hear from you! What are your favorite moments of Crusader Kings III? Share your stories (in-game or real life!), screenshots, memes, or whatever else you'd prefer with us here in the comments or on our social media channels (linked below). We'll feature some of our favorite submissions next week!

Thank you again for playing our game, and for being part of our community. We hope you enjoy the anniversary video, and continue being a dedicated player of Crusader Kings III. The last three years have been an incredible journey for us at Paradox, and we can't wait to show you what we have in store for the next three years of Crusader Kings III.

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Hello everyone! Today we're releasing Update 1.10.1 for Crusader Kings III. This update focuses primarily on resolving issues reported since the release of Wards & Wardens and the associated 1.10.0 "Quill" Update, but also targets some older outstanding issues. We hope this makes your experience playing CKIII smoother and more enjoyable!



As always, if you run into issues after this update, please let us know on our bug report board on the official Paradox Plaza forums, or on our Community Support board here on Steam!

• Fixed some problems with translated localization entries for Spanish and Korean
  
• Fixed problems with some English text being unintentionally displayed under some circumstances for localized text strings

• There is now a playable Saura-faith vassal ruler in 867, Sussala of Multan
  
• Vaticano now starts with a Grand Cathedral already built, representing the Old St. Peter's Basilica

• Added letter event when your request to Recall a Hostage is declined.
  
• Added missing description text for receiving a recall hostage request.
  
• Added missing description text for the notification message when the parent fails to influence a child’s personality.
  
• Added notification feedback of the outcomes of skill changes for the child in the event "A Ruler’s Path"
  
• Adopted children will no longer immediately send a congratulatory letter to themselves.
  
• Adopting a hostage will no longer immediately result in them leaving your court.
  
• Character Memories are now created when a character becomes an acclaimed knight.
  
• The Childhood event "A Blow, Returned" now properly notifies involved parties of the outcome.
  
• The Childhood event "A Potential Crush" will now properly use an adverb and not a definite article when referring to your love interest.
  
• Events for being neglected in prison will now properly look for if there is actual neglect going on.
  
• Petra, the Iron Pillar of Dhar, and the Doge's Palace should now properly count as Points of Interest during travel.
  
• Fixed problem in the prisoner relation text, where it erroneously tried to make claims about a prisoner's origin.
  
• Fixed the "Daring Scout" modifier having no icon.
  
• Fixed the Activity Pulse Action for Sight-Seeing (used in Pilgrimages as well as University Visits) having broken text.
  
• Fixed the Eccentric trait improperly subtracting customization points in the Ruler Designer.
  
• Fixed the Garuda court position having a lower modifier at highest aptitude than it did at the level below.
  
• Fixed the Rock story cycle not properly referring to the named rock in some cases.
  
• Fixed the text in the Wards & Wardens event "An Encouraging Friend" calling your bully by your name instead of bully's own name
  
• Fixed unnecessarily large effect lists in wars using the Invasion Casus Belli.
  
• Fixed various issues with the travel plans of wards and hostages.
  
• Grand tour orgy event "A Chance Meeting" will now display the right participants in the event window.
  
• Guardians will now once again be able to influence the religion and culture of their Wards.
  
• Horse Archer attribute for Accolades will now properly affect Horse Archers instead of Light Cavalry.
  
• Hostage event "Who Am I?" now properly refers to the name of the host's culture
  
• Hostage execution events will now display better information when you have multiple possible hostages to execute at the same time.
  
• Hostage transfers should now be available as an option in most peace resolutions.
  
• Hostages can no longer acquire the Marshal council position.
  
• If a regent has a promise for a Grand Wedding, they are now allowed to leave the court to attend their wedding in order to avoid diplomatic consequences.
  
• Infertile wedded couples are now properly described as such in game when shown in effect tooltips during Grand Weddings.
  
• It is no longer possible to kidnap your hostages.
  
• Landed rulers can now once again be Guardians for landed Wards.
  
• Resolved an out-of-sync error in Multiplayer that could occur if the player canceled travel to Pay Homage or Petition Liege.
  
• Reduced effect of reinforcement rate for same faith from artifacts since these were 10 times too high
  
• Reforging an artifact now properly depends on remaining relative durability instead of absolute durability
  
• Refusing to return a hostage upon them reaching the age of majority now damages their home court's opinion of you.
  
• The acceptance entry for hostage-related interactions is now properly colored in the interface.
  
• Children will now correctly gain the ill-trait as an outcome of the "A Sick Leave" event.
  
• The Childhood event "Lasting Heartbreak" now properly displays its negative modifier as red instead of green.
  
• The event "A Sick Leave" and its follow-up events now properly describe the court chaplain’s relation to you.
  
• The guard in the Throne room of African Royal Courts will no longer stab the character next to the throne when no-one is looking.
  
• Level 5 educations will now correctly state their bonus percentages in the Lifestyle screen.
  
• Level 5 Learning education now significantly improves Physician aptitude.
  
• Level 5 Intrigue education now gives all of its bonuses.
  
• Vassalization acceptance from the Level 5 Diplomacy education is now applied correctly.
  
• Tooltips for University locations when planning a University Visit should now be more consistent with other activities.
  
• Upon being adopted, the adoptee will now make their way to their new parents' court.
  
• When imprisoning a hostage, they will no longer take a hike back home.
  
• You no longer get two identical penalties when trying to murder a Head of Faith.
  
• Fixed a crash related to army movements.
  
• Fixed a rare situation where the event "A Murder Delayed" could end up in a loop and soft-lock the game from progressing.
  
• Fixed a text issue with the "First Words" event.
  
• Fixed an issue related to Varangians which could result in female eunuchs.
  
• Fixed an issue where children born by a hostage could, under certain circumstances, escape the court.
  
• Fixed an option that could be empty in the Child/Regent event "A Tool for the Wielding" when the regent demands access to a child ruler.
  
• Fixed bad reference to the Gregarious trait in the Influence Ward's Personality interaction.
  
• Fixed broken tooltip in "The Apple Falls" event.
  
• Fixed Cave Hermits not looking suitably destitute.
  
• Fixed confusing text in the "A Dream of Glass" trait event.
  
• Fixed Hapless Knight not being kicked out of tournament contests.
  
• Fixed issues with the decision to Unite the Spanish throne, including not including the kingdom of Toledo.
  
• Fixed Legendary hunts and Falconry having inverted difficulty modifiers.
  
• Fixed multiple issues with scopes and animations in cultural festival events.
  
• Fixed minor visual issues with the Rites of Passage event chain.
  
• Fixed miscommunicated education trait rewards at end of University Visit activity (the traits were given out correctly, but the tooltip would sometimes lie).
  
• Fixed missing icon for "Thuggish Recruiting" modifier.
  
• Fixed more issues with hostages failing to return home.
  
• Fixed multiple issues related to dying while your heir was a hostage in a foreign court.
  
• Fixed multiple misleading relationship reason tooltips.
  
• Fixed multiple presentation issues with Wet Nurse events.
  
• Fixed multiple problems with AI logic for recalling hostages.
  
• Fixed multiple text issues in the "Bully For You?" travel event.
  
• Fixed multiple text issues with the "Killer Charm" travel danger event.
  
• Fixed petition liege sometimes calling the wrong court position when trying to ascertain a suitable one.

Hello everyone! We're releasing a hotfix today to address some of the issues with yesterday's 1.10.0 update. While we have fixes for other reported/known issues coming up shortly, we felt the ones listed below were severe enough to warrant an immediate update.

• Fixed an issue where AI rulers do not marry as much as intended.
  
• Fixed an issue that removed the two buttons under the Wards tab in the character interface.
  
• Fixed an issue resulting in crashes for resumed games from older versions.

As always, if you encounter any problems not listed in our known issues thread, then please let us know about it either in the Community Support board here on our Steam hub or through the bug report board on our official forums.

We hope this hotfix makes for a more stable and enjoyable experience playing Wards & Wardens and the 1.10.0 'Quill' Update.

---

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2313541

Today marks the release of Wards & Wardens, and we hope you'll have plenty of fun wrangling unruly young rulers-to-be, managing your royal hostages, and visiting scholarly universities in the pursuit of knowledge!

As always, we want to keep updating and improving the game alongside each release - this time we've especially honed in on multiplayer stability, something that was unfortunately lacking after the last update. We've spent a lot of time hunting down annoying out-of-syncs, and we've managed to squash all of them that we could find - bar one that'll be fixed in an upcoming update (but it's fortunately avoidable; don't select Pay Homage/Petition Liege and cancel it before setting out on travel!)

Another change of note is that the AI will now purchase and manage Men-at-Arms more dynamically, especially later in the game - instead of all AIs wanting the exact same ratio of income-to-MaA. Warmonger Archetypes, powerful rulers, and strong mid-to-late-game economies will want to spend significantly more on having a powerful army, while Builder Archetypes make for excellent targets for conquests as they tend to favor buildings!

Without further ado, here is the full changelog:

• Over one hundred new events and event chains expanding upon childhood, guardianship, education, and more - both for young lords, parents, and knowledge-hungry rulers! Many game systems, both new and old, now have unique events and content to really strike home how it actually was to grow up during the middle ages!
  
  • Enjoy a more lively Childhood with a host of new events for both young rulers and parents, and see the choices made early in life echo far into adulthood!
    
  • New events for Courtly Education let you both educate and be educated in new and interesting ways, where young rulers can be led down a path of eccentricity!
    
  • Hostages at court will mingle with your own children, be homesick, get into trouble, or even give you opportunities for both lasting friendships and gaining a new type of Perpetual Hook!
    
  • Employing a Wet Nurse will aid the development of your heirs and increase the well-being of children at court, alongside a healthy dose of courtly drama!
    
  • slew of new events for Childhood Regencies sees a benevolent regent aid you as a young ruler by teaching you skills, giving you gifts, or stabilizing your realm - just beware less-than-scrupulous regents!
    
  • New events for the Meet Peers activity; play ball with your fellow children, hone your skills, or get up to hijinx!
    
  • Experience several rare story cycles which can see your young ruler aspire to become one of the greatest builders of all time, pursue a nebulous but enticing destiny, meet new friends of esoteric provenance, reform your realm in the image of former wardens, and more!
• New interactions and decisions allow you to take a more hands-on approach to the task of child-rearing!
  
  • Attempt to directly influence the Personality Traits of your Wards via a new interaction
    
  • Have your children pass through Coming of Age-trials in Tribal realms.
• As a ruler with a less-than-ideal education you will now want to visit Universities! This new Activity sees you travel to any holding with a University or Cathedral in search of higher studies.
  
  • Spend gold on books, mingle with students and teachers, and either study hard or live like a Goliard!
    
  • Being studious will reward you with lifestyle perk points and the potential for upgrading your education - and if you’ve studied REALLY hard you could even reach the new fifth-tier education!
• New mood music to enhance your game regardless of where you play.

• A new system for rulers giving or trading Hostages brings a new side of historical medieval politics to life - Hostages are powerful tools for ensuring peace, as they can be executed during wars to make your enemy suffer a great blow to their morale and stability. Hostages can be identified by a new portrait icon.
  
  • They can be demanded, exchanged, or even used to bargain beneficial peace deals during wars!
    
  • Having Hostages of notable status will reward you with both prestige and renown.
    
  • While hostages are most often children, there’s no guarantee that their warden will send them back as they come of age… after all, they are great bargaining chips!
• The new Perpetual Hook type lies in-between Weak and Strong Hooks, acting like a Weak hook that can be re-used every few years.
  
• A new Adoption interaction allows certain rulers to bring in new members to their family and dynasty. Characters with the Compassionate trait or of a culture. with certain Traditions can Adopt, but the restrictions can also be tightened or removed via a new Game Rule!
  
• A new Eccentric personality trait allows characters with it to develop their Lifestyles with ease at the cost of public perception, as their methods might be seen as erratic and odd! Several new event options have been added for the trait, and some of the more ‘out there’ events have been updated to require this trait to fire.
  
• Added 6 new events to the Pet Cat story Cycle.

• Builder AI's are now less concerned with buying MaA than before, and are slower to purchase up to their ideal amount
  
• Cautious AI's want to spend slightly more on MaA and are very inclined to purchase up to their comfortable minimum level
  
• Genghis Khan now starts as an Exalted Warlord rather than a Brilliant Strategist
  
• Spouse-Regents can now do both jobs at the same time
  
• The later into the game, and the more gold the AI earns, the more they will want to spend on MaA (previously AI's would always aim for spending 40% of their income on MaA maintenance, they can now go as high as 90% with the correct circumstances fulfilled)
  
• Warlike AI's will now want to spend more on MaA in general, and are much more inclined to purchase MaA over buildings than other archetypes
  
• You can now get more than three events per Meet Peers, especially if you are the Host (up to 6)
  
• playdate.3008, the event where another child drowns in Meet Peers, is now only available to the players/the host, and is now on a 3-year cooldown rather than 3 months.
  
• The hook gained in the playdate.3008 event is now also a strong 'saved my life'-hook.
  
• All Abrahamic faiths are now able to restore Rome, not just Christians.
  
• Either Italia, HRE, or Byzantium will become the "real" Rome depending on which one is your primary title upon reforming Rome.
  
• The Sultanate of Rum can now be formed by either Muslims or Turkic heritage characters, but not Christians.

• Events unlocked by Friends & Foes and Wards & Wardens are now decorated with special visuals that show from which Event Pack they originate; this feature can be disabled in the settings.

• Several new Animations have been added:
  
  • Happy Teacher
    
  • Stressed Teacher
    
  • Eccentric
    
  • Manic
    
  • Go to your room!
    
  • Playing Peekaboo
    
  • Crying (children only)
    
  • Clutching Ball
    
  • Clutching Doll
    
  • Stick Horse
    
  • 6x Weapon Animation Variants with Wooden Swords
• Added several new Event Background Illustrations:
  
  • Nursery
    
  • Western University
    
  • Arabic University
    
  • Western ‘Inner Courtyard’
    
  • An Indian Garden Variant
    
  • An Indian Study Variant
    
  • An Arabic Tavern Variant
• Added possible longsword artifact icon and model variation to swords of Late Medieval Western cultures.
  
• Added Toy sword, Training sword, Toy Doll, Stick Horse.
  
• Added Carolingian commoner clothes variants to the barbershop.
  
• Cloaks in general are now a bit more common for Western and Northern European characters.
  
• Cloaks will now sometimes be used together with armor.
  
• Elegance of the Empire cloaks will now be used roughly as much as the regular western royalty cloak.
  
• Fixed a bug where some consorts would use clothing far below their status, for example the Byzantine Basilissa in the 867 start date.
  
• For players with Northern Lords, Norse cloaks will now be used by more culture groups than just the Norse.
  
• Made it so that western royalty always wear cloaks.
  
• Northern Lords crowns are now also used by other Northern cultures.
  
• Improved skinning and blendshapes on male wrestling pants.

• Wards and Guardians will now use the Travel system to go to their respective courts to receive tutelage.
  
• Most Meet Peers events have been rebalanced and updated to use new backgrounds and animations.
  
• Activity log entries have been added to the Meet Peers activity.
  
• Memories have been added for Accolades.
  
• Added the Saura faith, a sun-worshipping branch of Hinduism, and added the faith to some characters and counties in both start dates.
  
• Added new outcomes to the Sun Trial event chain, in order to facilitate its deaths if you manage to end up worshipping the sun in an area without… much sun.
  
• Developing a Crush in childhood now creates a memory.

• Weak hooks can now be perpetual and used multiple times
  
• Add can_embrace_tradition trigger
  
• Add data binding macro CalculateScriptValue to calculate the named script value with designated character as root scope.
  
• Add data binding macro GetScriptValueBreakdown to break down the named script value with designated character as root scope.
  
• Add x_lifestyle_xp_gain_mult modifier that stacks with monthly xp modifiers.
  
• Adds new trigger for checking if a culture has more discovered innovations than another culture in a specified era.
  
• All trait triggers and effects can now use a trait scope as well as a database key.
  
• Replaced define MEN_AT_ARMS_CHANCE_EXPENSE_BELOW_IDEAL with script value ai_men_at_arms_chance_expense_below_ideal
  
• Replaced define MEN_AT_ARMS_CHANCE_EXPENSE_BELOW_MIN with script value ai_men_at_arms_chance_expense_below_min
  
• Replaced define MEN_AT_ARMS_EXPENSE_IDEAL with script value ai_men_at_arms_expense_gold_ideal
  
• Replaced define MEN_AT_ARMS_EXPENSE_MAX with script value ai_men_at_arms_expense_gold_max
  
• Replaced define MEN_AT_ARMS_EXPENSE_MIN with script value ai_men_at_arms_expense_gold_min
  
• Replaced define MEN_AT_ARMS_PRESTIGE_EXPENSE_IDEAL with script value ai_men_at_arms_expense_prestige_ideal
  
• Replaced define MEN_AT_ARMS_PRESTIGE_EXPENSE_MAX with script value ai_men_at_arms_expense_prestige_max
  
• Replaced define MEN_AT_ARMS_PRESTIGE_EXPENSE_MIN with script value ai_men_at_arms_expense_prestige_min
  
• Add any/random/every_tradition scripted list for cultures.
  
• Add has_tradition_category trigger that works on culture traditions.
  
• Has_cultural_tradition trigger, add_culture_tradition, and remove_culture_tradition effects now can take tradition as scope.
  
• Add free_tradition_slot trigger to test if culture can have more traditions.
  
• Casus belli now has an option to allow or forbid hostage exchange.
  
• The chance to assign specific personality, education or childhood traits for generated characters can now be set by random_creation percent value.

• Fixed an Out of Sync caused by expiring Memories
  
• Fixed an Out-of-Sync caused by players setting Decisions to ‘notify me’
  
• Fixed an Out-of-Sync relating to Accolade History
  
• Fixed an Out-of-Sync relating to Diarchs being updated out of order
  
• Fixed several rare Out-of-Syncs
  
• Fixed crash on succession with a landed character without any titles
  
• Fixed a crash that could happen when opening the war overview in certain large-scale wars
  
• Fixed the Character Search not remembering the selected ‘Sort by’ filter between being closed/opened
  
• Fixed Accolade History being lost when loading the save
  
• Fixed Tournament event Hapless Knight option not removing jouster from contest
  
• Fixed animals captured on hunts not being saved properly
  
• Fixed crime for escaping from prison not being an imprisonable crime
  
• Fixed feuding house AI members being not aggressive enough
  
• Fixed issue with desc of war won memory
  
• Fixed issues with relation loc for fellow attendees of activities
  
• Fixed missing localization for memories of peasant and populist revolts
  
• Fixed missing scope loc in "lay with" effects for other characters
  
• Fixed relation loc for deceased spouses
  
• Improved presentation of Restore Carolingian Borders decision's effects
  
• Fix a rare case when childhood focus is invalidated
  
• Fix a rare case when childhood focus is invalidated and wrong education trait is given when coming of age
  
• Fixed "A vassal between friends" not accounting for the two involved friends being at war
  
• Fixed childhood personality events being largely blocked for traveling children, which resulted in some childhood personality events being way too common
  
• Fixed garrisons not refilling correctly after sieges
  
• Fixed many instances of Regents traveling with their lieges, especially during Hunts and Tournaments
  
• Improved tooltip why sometimes you cannot change intent during activities
  
• Increased maximum allowed years in activity passive phase (travel time) from 3 years to 10
  
• May now plan activities regardless of insufficient funds to start them
  
• Memory descriptions expect character memory as root scope
  
• Show correct regent when designated regent has been deposed by a scheme
  
• Characters are no longer intimidated by 0 dread
  
• Mercenaries and holy orders can now use MaA from culture traditions
  
• Swinging the scales of power will now tell you in which direction & towards whom they've swung
  
• Fixed unnecessarily large effect lists in Invasion casus belli wars
  
• Fixed bastards being born in faiths which had none
  
• The HRE title holder no longer needs to exist to establish the Carolingian Empire
  
• Champion the Faith of Country Basques decision now includes the new provinces added for Fate of Iberia
  
• Can now use "Grant to..." action in county view even if there's a leased out barony

Additionally, please check the Known Issues thread on our official forums for a list of prominent issues in the 1.10.0 update; we're aware of the issues listed here and have fixes for them in the pipeline already.

We hope you enjoy Wards & Wardens and the accompanying free "Quill" Update!

---

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2313541

As the release date of Wards & Wardens draws near, we're taking a moment to reflect on the artistic endeavors that have brought it to life. This time our focus is on animations and some of the 2D icons and illustrations.

► Discuss Dev Diary #134 on our forums!



Hey there! I'm Nicolas, 2D artist working on this royal game CK3.

I'm pretty sure many of you checking out this dev diary must get pretty stoked about game designers writing about numbers going up and down, but as cool as it is to dive into the game's new meta, my piece of this dev diary is all about the art! Let me tell you a bit about creating game icons - in particular, how I went about creating the new icon for the eccentric personality trait!

Alright, let's break it down in a kinda rough step-by-step. First things first, the game designers sent me a short brief describing what they needed, as well as ideas of what the icon might look like. Luckily for me, I was given the idea that the icon could depict a bag of marbles of various colors. I think it’s a pretty fitting metaphor for an eccentric individual, embodying their propensity for collecting unconventional ideas and perspectives, much like the colorful assortment of marbles within the bag.

A guideline we try to adhere to when creating icons is to not necessarily create an image that literally depicts what the function/meaning of the icon will be. Instead, we want to be more figurative in our approach. For example, the icon for craven doesn't show a person being cowardly, but instead shows a frantic chicken, a symbol of cowardice.


Starting off, I create a handful of initial sketches outlining the basic composition and values. These sketches don't require fine detailing; their purpose is solely for experimentation and estimating the best read of the image.


When I have decided (When my art director decides which one he likes the most), I move on to making a more refined value render of the image. Paying close attention to the values and how they aid in the composition. For example, how the image goes from brighter in the focal point in the middle of the icon out to a much darker value on the edges, forming a vignette of sorts.



Quite a straightforward step, adding colors to the image. Going over color theory is beyond my paygrade, so let's just say that these colors of warm red/yellow and cool blue look good together!


Now it is time for my favorite part of the process - the refining stage! Now, I fine-tune the image, adding those last touches of light, textures, intricate details, and any minor adjustments to give the icon that final polished look. Make it feel like “candy”, like an old art director of mine used to say.


And there you have it: resize it to the appropriate size and slap a border on it and we have anew, fresh personality icon! Hopefully the trait is good according to the meta, so people will actually see and appreciate it sometimes!

Here are also a few interesting images of game concepts that depict the same thing, but in various styles - depending on the context in the UI.





Naturally, we are also adding some new scene illustrations. With the option to pursue education as an adult, we've incorporated a University setting tailored for your scholarly characters. Additionally, we've added a Nursery and several scenes that enrich the cultural diversity of some existing locations.


[University]


[Courtyard]


[Nursery]


[Tavern - MENA variation]


[Study - Indian variation]

For this Event Pack we have added child-related animations, such as playing with toys. Among our new props we have a ball, a doll, stickhorses, and wooden swords, which all get used in the animations.




Nothing more comforting when running a kingdom than your favorite toy!

That’s it for this time. Stay tuned for next week's update as we gear up for the release of "Wards & Wardens" on August 22nd!

---

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2313541/Crusader_Kings_III_Wards__Wardens/

Hello everyone! This is my first time writing a dev diary and I want to share with you almost everything I worked on for Wards and Wardens. Let’s set the stage first: you are a ruler and your seed is stronger than ever, flourishing with your many offspring. Children play and run around all over your court, but you have more pressing matters to attend to! Perhaps the mother of your children has become incapable, unable to provide milk for your infants. Who are you gonna call? Wet nurses, of course!

► Discuss Dev Diary #133 on our forums!



Historically, a Wet Nurse was a woman of the court charged with the care of infants in need of breastfeeding, for whatever reason there might be. However, the position evolved over time and, in some circles, the wet nurse became an integral part of the family. She might care for older children and become an influential advisor, or even a second mother. Strong bonds were created not only between wet nurse and child, but also between children that were nurtured by the same nurse. Such children were called suckling siblings and were treated on the same level as blood siblings.

[Decision to search for a suitable candidate for Wet Nurse Court Position]

In the game, the Wet Nurse is represented as a Court Position. A child ruler, a ruler with children or one holding children hostage can hire a suitable woman as a Wet Nurse. In return, she provides illness resistance to children of the court and will inform her employer about significant milestones in childhood development, like a wee one’s first spoken words or first fallen teeth.

[Example of childhood development event: first fallen teeth]

Who can become a Wet Nurse, you may ask? Any able woman that has no particular noble roots. In history, these were commoners from the court: widowed mothers or just those in need of another source of income.

[Wet Nurse Court Position tooltip]

[Wet Nurse aptitude tooltip]

As part of our focus on children in this Event Pack, we pay some attention to the moment they become adults. Changing your societal status in such a way is a big deal even today, as seen in school graduations, specific birthdays and religious thresholds. Usually, this transition is signified by a ceremony or a ritual. I decided to look into tribal rites of passage and ended up with a decision, an amalgamation of different rituals from all over the world, with the most common or interesting rituals selected to represent the practice.

[Rites of Passage decision window]

Possible rites:

• Duel: using the existing duel combat system, the child has to fight against an adult from the same culture
  
• Scarification: a facial ravaging that may result in the Scarred trait
  
• Seclusion: using the travel system, the child ventures into the wild on their own and comes back wiser and more worldly
  
• Hair-shaving: similar to the halq in Islam, the child sacrifices their fair hair for adulthood
  
• Elemental Cleansing: a baptism by either water or fire

[Rites of Passage: fire cleansing ritual]

This decision is available for any landed tribal teenager or any landed tribal parent/warden of a teenager. So it is possible to welcome your feudal hostages into your tribe and make them go through the rites. Three of the rite types will be available, the selection determined by the ruler’s cultural ethos. Each has a different effect on a child's personality, their skills, and more.

[Rites of Passage setup event: choosing a ritual]

Have you ever felt that being a guardian offers little impact on the personality traits of your ward? Well, not anymore! The guardian now has access to an interaction which allows them to choose one of their own personality traits and try to push it onto the ward. The interaction is available for the player as well as an AI guardian, so choose them wisely! Otherwise, your sadistic, shy or paranoid guardian might just pass on their vile traits to your precious genius heir. This interaction is even available for wardens, letting them influence their child-age hostages.

[Example of a successful Influence Ward’s Personality interaction for the shy trait]

[Example of a failed Influence Ward’s Personality interaction for the callous trait]

The outcome is decided by the child, so the bulk of it is left to whatever RNG gods you believe in. However, the more alike the ward is to the guardian, the more likely the brainwashing is to succeed.

[Influence Ward’s Personality interaction window and acceptance tooltip]

All features mentioned above are part of the Event Pack “Wards & Wardens”. Next week will be the last DD before the release! In it, we will cover our new, beautiful art and animations.

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https://store.steampowered.com/app/2313541/Crusader_Kings_III_Wards__Wardens/