Aug 27, 2024

Dev Diary #154: Art & Music of Roads to Power

Crusader Kings III - PDX-Trinexx

Hello!

Lucas Ribeiro here, 2D Art Lead at CKIII. I’m here to share with you the results of our art struggles to represent both the awesome splendor of the Byzantine Empire and the mud-splattered travels of medieval adventurers.

► Discuss Dev Diary #154 on our forums!

Loading Screen

Let’s start off with the first thing that will greet the player in Roads to Power, the Loading Screen. Before picking a definitive subject matter for our loading screen, we created many composition studies. We went for themes such as nautical, imperial, religious and triumphal.

1. The Emperor stands on a galley armed with a flamethrower and inspects the fleet.
2. An Imperial comitive struts through the Boukoleon palace waterfront.
3. An imperial comitive receives foreign dignitaries standing under the Boukoleon.
4. The emperor returns from his victorious campaign and receives a triumph. A one-eyed man guides an army of blinded soldiers of the defeated army.
5. The emperor is crowned
6. A religious debate between Orthodox and Catholic priests.
7. The emperor is crowned in the Hagia Sophia
8. Another religious debate.

The coronation in the Hagia Sophia and the imperial comitive striding by the docks were picked as the best ones. As a next step we created color sketches based on those chosen compositions. You can see the results here:

(Color sketches of the two favorite ideas)

After some debate, we decided that the coronation had the most unique and striking composition out of the two. But, since the team liked the imperial comitive color sketch so much, we decided to save it and use it for the bureaucratic dynasty legacy.

[Our selected loading screen.]

[Dynasty legacy based on the rejected color sketch.]

Story Event Illustrations

To mark great events that happen to the world or player characters we had originally introduced Story Event illustrations for Fate of Iberia. These dramatic splash screens would pop-up anytime something happened during the Iberian and Iranian struggles. On Legends of the Dead this format of illustration came back to represent major disease outbreaks and the black death. For EP3 we decided that these evocative images would be fitting for memorable events such as Triumphs, the Restoration of Rome and in the story of Hereward the Wake, the Harrying of the North.

Event Backgrounds

While we had generic Mediterranean background images, it felt like they were insufficient to represent the particularities of Byzantine culture. The team thus made new versions for the feast, market, throne room, study, temple and relaxing room. This allowed us to represent some Greek particularities, such as the use of lavish recliners on their ostentatious feasts.

1. A view of the Chrysotriklinos, also used as the main menu background for greek characters.
2. A Byzantine study. Governors will be pondering administrative dilemmas in this office.
3. A Greek market, full of color and exotic goods. Your traveler will probably stumble on this during their travels.
4. An orthodox church or holy site. The striped walls really give it away.
5. A Greek relaxation room. It is impossible to relax without some marble and mosaics under your feet.
6. A Byzantine feast. The reclining chairs allow for maximum decadence, albeit the back pain.

The hippodrome deserved special attention, as we have a background looking down from the stands into the track and one close down by the track directly.

We wanted to make sure you would feel in the middle of the action when the chariots were neck and neck, racing to the finish line.

Hagia Sophia could not go without receiving their own unique background as well. At first we considered having the “camera” on the walkway. Our hope was to show the scale of the edifice this way, but our designers informed us that these were normally reserved for female visitors only, so we opted for a different composition.

[The abandoned sketch]

Constantinople is the focus of many new events, both of doom and glory. Accordingly we have made the appropriate backgrounds.

We put a lot of effort into trying to get everything in the right position in the city by following reconstructions and historical references.

Our adventurers also demanded new backgrounds. Their camp life is represented by a variety of views of their encampment. By day or night, inside or outside.

Animation

In Roads to Power, our environment team and animation team worked together to give our characters even more life, with new animations and assets for them to wield or ride on. Here are some of the highlights:

[Charioteers will ride on appropriately colored chariots, according to their team.]

[The emperor flaunts his shiny stick to remind everyone who’s the boss.]

We have added around thirty new animations or variations of older animations. Some of these will be applied in place of the regular idle animation the character usually has to present their newfound situation, such as when they are incapable or imprisoned. Some councilors will also change their animation depending on what task they are assigned to at the moment. Hopefully this will make characters feel more alive than ever in Roads to Power.

We also expanded on event visual effects. Instead of using bink videos like we did for Legends of the Dead, we have opted for shaders that are a lot lighter. The new event effects include: Earthquake, heavy smoke, sand storm, rainy fog and lightning storm.

Domiciles

[Initial experiments for the estate screen.]

[Initial Experiments for the camp screen.]

Settling on a style for the domicile screen was quite a struggle for the team. At first, we meant to have them be very similar to locales (as in, the Tournament Screen). While this would make for more internal consistency in art style, for four reasons we decided to deviate from this initial plan:

First, we wanted this NOT to be full-screen, as unlike the tournament screen, we do not mean to take the player away from their plots and immerse them in the event. The domiciles (estates and camps) communicate directly with your actions in the game world, and should be convenient to navigate. This made for a smaller screen and thus, a more symbolic representation of buildings and their purpose would work better in this medium.

Second, we felt that our 3D environment team efforts were better used elsewhere, it was unlikely we could’ve created cultural variations of buildings while depending on them. Keeping the work exclusively on the 2D artists expanded our capacity to create more buildings and have cultural variety on top of it.

Third, The domiciles operate in a totally different way from tournaments, visual similarities would incorrectly communicate to the player that they should function the same way.

Fourth, the team fell in love with the mockups we presented in the medieval art style. The non-descript isometric buildings ended up paling in comparison to the charming illustrations we had come up with.

Estate buildings have different visuals according to culture. For now, we have Western, Byzantine and MENA themes.

Camp buildings are the same regardless of culture, except for the main tent, which has western, steppe, tribal and mena themes.

Besides variation of buildings by culture, we also wanted to reinforce the sense of place in the world of the domiciles by creating different backgrounds that change according to the position of the estate or the camp.

Estate Background can be:
Dry, Green, Jungle, Rough and Urban.

While Camp Backgrounds can be:
Dry, Green, Jungle, Rough, Snow and Snowy Mountains.

Coat of Arms

While the Greeks showed less propensity to utilize coat-of-arms in the fashion we observe in western Europe, they did attach to the identity of their families certain symbols on their coins, murals and reliefs.

It makes for an interesting variety that they would claim not only secular imagery, inspired on greco-roman myths, but also christian religious symbols. Their connection to the sea would also inspire many aquatic motifs.

Thus, we can see mermaids, ophiotaurus and manticores side-by-side with Jesus, Mary, Archangel Gabriel and Saint George. These might be adorned with crosses, stars or shells.

[Randomly generated Greek coat of arms.]

Character Art

With Roads to Power we had the chance to greatly expand the Byzantine wardrobe, which was historically quite distinct and interesting looking, and very notably different from surrounding cultures.

As usual our work began with collecting references, preferably from first-hand contemporaneous sources, but we also looked for modern books and other material that focus on this subject matter (a special shout-out to a book called “By the Emperor’s hand” by Timothy Dawson - which contains a lot of amazing research and conclusions!).

[A snapshot of (a small part of!) the Miro board put together by Nils and the character art team to collect references for everything related to Byzantine clothing.]

There are quite a lot of both first and second hand sources that survive from the Byzantine Empire (perhaps not too surprising considering how vast it was and for how long it survived). Of particular value to note here are the “Coptic” garments that have survived in fantastic condition through the centuries in graves from Byzantine Egypt. Actual extant examples like these provide the best type of source we can wish for, and there are dozens of them! Most of them do pre-date the game by some margin, but we can see from 9th and 10th century manuscripts and mosaics that clothing in the same style was clearly still in use by our early start date.

[Some examples of “Coptic tunics” that have been excavated from Byzantine era Egypt.]

[Here we see very similar looking tunics depicted in the “Paris Gregory” from c. 880 and the “Paris Psalter” from the mid 10th century.]

Following what we started with Western European clothes for Tours and Tournaments, we decided quite early on that Roads to Power should also include different clothes for early and late eras. This fits especially well with the new 1178 start date; Byzantine characters by that time will look quite different from those of three hundred years prior.

Since there are very few preserved items of clothing from the later time period, we based those designs primarily on depictions in manuscripts and mosaics.

[From the Menologion of Basil II, 11th century (which - as a side note - is filled to the brim with these beautiful and disturbing paintings of saints being brutally tortured and murdered, people being burned alive, babies being skewered, with everyone looking slightly bored) and the Madrid Skylitzes, from around 1150.]

Since we are depicting a lot of the Creme de la Creme of people of the time, we are always looking for suitable Bling to add as accessories to these outfits. This expansion was no exception. Again, we turn to primary sources of jewelry that have survived to the present day.

[Some spectacular Byzantine jewelry from museums around the world that we recreated for Roads to Power.]

We then created concept-art to synthesize these disparate sources and fuzzy imagery into a more concrete form the 3D character artists could base their work on.

[Examples of concept art based on our collected references.]

[And some finished clothing assets showing a comparison between the “early” and “late” eras. ]

[This might look a bit funky, but we have to create many blendshapes so that the clothes can morph along with the character as they age and get thinner, fatter or muscular.]

We were grateful for the opportunity to bring to life many memorable headgear and accessories of the Byzantine world, such as the Propolôma hat or the Imperial Delmatikion with Diadêma. Most of them have their proper (Medieval Greek) names in the Barbershop.

Overall, we’ve added 8 new hairstyles, 4 beards, 18 clothing sets, 2 armors, 3 sets of legwear, 4 cloaks and 24 different headgear. This great variety, layered on top of the original assets from the base game will make each character in the cast of your personal Greek drama be unique and memorable.

[Early and late era Byzantine courtiers dressed in some of the new clothes added with Roads to Power. ]

Patterns

Thanks to the fortunate survival of many textiles from the Byzantine times, we had our pick of the litter when it came to which trims and brocades to represent. It was more a matter of choosing the most characteristic, unique and interesting ones.

Unlike other patterns, we have used a new type of texture map setup, where the bottom part of the medium trims is used for roundels. This permitted us to have specific bits of the pattern transform from a trim to a framed rounded-ish composition.

Throne Room

The Byzantine throne room was a daunting task undertaken by our 3D environment Team. Our objective was to represent the Chrysotriklinos, the main ceremonial hall of the Great Palace of Constantinople. Unfortunately, the palace has been destroyed and there are no contemporaneous representations of the place. We had then to follow descriptions made at the time and observe other structures that take inspiration from the palace in some capacity (such as the Church of Ravena and the Palace of Aachen).

[Concept of the throne room.]

The overall shape of our interpretation is quite similar to the Palace of Aachen, but we opted to optimize the shape so that it could better be captured by our throne room camera setup, so the dome is probably a bit lower than it would’ve been at the time.

We also knew we wanted to decorate the room with many mosaics, as was the fashion at the time.

Instead of copying existent mosaics, we opted to create our own version, inspired by surviving examples. We wanted to have bigger individual mosaic bits. If we had made the individual tiles as small as they were in real-life, they’d become unreadable from a distance as being a mosaic.

[Here we can see the constituting texture maps to make up a mosaic, created by hand by our 2D Artists.]

For the trims and patterns that frame the architecture and make up the more geometric parts of the mosaic, we created a variety of trimsheets and materials.

For subject matter, we knew from contemporaneous descriptions, the apse was dominated by christ on a lyre throne. We also knew emperors, saints and angels were represented. As well as verdant fields and flowers.

When it came to deciding which figures to display, we wanted to do a nod to the fact that these mosaics were removed during the time of aniconism and then restored before our game starting date. We went with some staunch defenders of icons such as Irene of Athens and Theophanes the Confessor. We also included some classic characters such as Justinian, Constantine, St. Helen and Demetrius of Thessalonica.

From the writings of an emissary to the Byzantine court, we got reports of chirping mechanical birds and roaring metal lions.

We have done our part in emulating these marvels, as the golden lions flanking the Throne of Solomon will intermittently bang their tails on the ground and “roar”. We also added the mechanical birds and the Water Organ as a court artifact.

[Some of the new statue assets that can be found in the Byzantine court.]

Holdings and Special Buildings

Besides the terrain rework mentioned on previous dev diaries, our 3D environment team has populated Anatolia and Greece with a variety of special buildings. We had great inspirations to draw from such as monasteries built against sheer cliffs or ancient temples repurposed as orthodox churches.

Greek-culture holdings now have unique graphics, distinguished from the generic Mediterranean ones.

You can now see the characteristic warm colors, red striped walls and rounded roofs.

Byzantine Hud and Table

Our environment team created a Byzantine version of the map table to make for an even more immersive experience for our players. The lamps and silverware are inspired by surviving pieces of Byzantine craft. The sword and the bag of gold on the rightmost area of the table are a nod to the adventurer aspect of the expansion.

While playing as a Greek character, players will also enjoy a mosaic inspired HUD skin. Nature motifs are depicted by bits of colorful tiles. Some of the HUD elements have also been reworked to be modular, so it’s easier to add new buttons on the side panels and currencies on the top. Hopefully modders can make good use of that.

Miscellaneous Improvements

The UI team also dedicated some time to making the game look and feel better by improving on some older features.

Toasts have been reworked, they are now more clearly color coded so the player can tell if they failed or succeeded on an event quite more clearly. Toasts are also built in a way that they vary in size according to the amount of information to be displayed, which means you will get less hidden results marked by a nondescript “...”.

Alerts are now color coded as well, so players will have a clearer distinction of when they are being offered an opportunity (purple), if it’s something that needs their immediate attention (red) or if they have a boon they can click to collect (green).

We have also reworked all of the event headers. Icons were made crisper, their design improved. The mosaic header itself is now colored differently depending on which type of event the player is engaged with.

I will now hand the Dev Diary over to Ernesto Lopez, our Audio Director to tell us more on the audio work for Roads to Power.

Music Player

Hey everyone,

We're thrilled to share some exciting news about the latest expansion for Crusader Kings III, and today we're focusing on something truly special: the music. As you dive into the new content, we want to give you a peek behind the curtain at the fascinating process that brought this soundtrack to life.

One of the standout elements of this expansion is the incorporation of Orthodox Chants, a unique and evocative addition that adds a profound layer to the game's atmosphere. We had the incredible opportunity to collaborate with Prof. Dr. Konstantin Nikolakopoulos, a renowned expert in orthodox music. Together with our talented composers from Audinity, Yannick Süß and Robin Birner, we embarked on a journey to capture the essence of these ancient chants.

The recording process was something truly extraordinary. The team, alongside Prof. Dr. Nikolakopoulos, ventured to the Salvatorkirche in Munich, Germany, where they recorded these chants live. This wasn't your typical studio session—it was raw, unstructured, and entirely authentic. With no predefined tempo or strict direction, the music was allowed to evolve organically from the live performance. What emerged was a soundtrack that not only captures the emotional depth of orthodox chants but also seamlessly integrates the signature Crusader Kings III vibe—a blend of medieval authenticity with a modern twist.

Audinity deserves huge credit for how they approached this. They managed to maintain the integrity of the chants while infusing them with what we like to call a "modern-medieval" sound. It's a unique blend that feels both timeless and fresh, perfectly encapsulating the spirit of Crusader Kings III. The new Main Theme is a testament to this, showcasing the power and presence of Prof. Dr. Nikolakopoulos' performance in a way that is both majestic and haunting.

But that's not all—we're also introducing a brand-new music player for Crusader Kings III. This has been a highly requested feature, and we're excited to finally bring it to you. The initial release will offer basic functionality, allowing you to have greater control over your in-game music. Whether you want to cue up specific tracks or mix and match songs from the base game with those from the Byzantium Empire expansion, the music player gives you that agency. You can enable or disable tracks at your discretion, allowing you to tailor your auditory experience to your exact preferences.

We believe the music player is a fantastic addition, and we're committed to continuing its development based on your feedback. It's a significant step forward in giving you more control over how you experience the rich musical landscape of Crusader Kings III.

So, dive into the new expansion, enjoy the incredible new music, and explore the music player to make your game soundtrack truly your own. We can't wait to hear what you think and to continue refining these features with your input.

Write glorious new sagas of military conquest and romantic adventures with Chapter III.
This Chapter includes two expansions, one event pack, and one cosmetic enhancement. Enjoy new mechanics, new events, and new historical flavor to add greater depth to Crusader Kings III!

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/38036

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

Aug 20, 2024

Dev Diary #153 - Byzantine Flavor

Crusader Kings III - PDX-Trinexx

Χαῖρε! I’m Chad, a game designer here on the CK3 team. Today, I’ll be walking you through some highlights of what we’ve added in terms of Byzantine flavor in Roads to Power.

Some cursory but important notes to begin our discussion:

These images may be works in progress. We are still working away at polishing Roads to Power to provide the best experience possible.
Yes, I will refer to Byzantium as Byzantium in this dev diary. I know that the endonym is more properly the Roman Empire, but it’s our policy to not use endonyms in the game. Those of you who have strong opinions about this get a special game rule to rename Byzantium with several options.

Without further ado, let’s get into it!

► Discuss Dev Diary #153 on our forums!

Flagship for Administrative Government

Byzantium has been our main point of inspiration and the impetus for Administrative Government. We outlined this in the two previous dev diaries on Admin, but I wanted to discuss this in a bit more detail.

Essentially, all the content we’ve made for Administrative Government has been designed with an eye towards Byzantium as the model. This doesn’t mean that this content can’t appear if playing as a different admin realm. Far from it.

What it does mean is that all the content you encounter while playing as Byzantium should feel tailored and appropriate to the context. There is alternative text for other admin realms. So fret not, we haven’t siloed all the content to a single empire. Playing admin should generally feel different and exciting, but playing as Byzantium should feel special.

Improved Cultural Traditions

We’ve revamped Greek Cultural Traditions and added special integrations with Admin Government and the other unique aspects of the DLC. In the descriptions below, you’ll undoubtedly find references to features and concepts that we haven’t yet discussed, but will be discussed either later in this or a future dev diary.

[Palace Politics & Cultural Traditions]

In addition to this gorgeous new art, we’ve added loads of integrations with new content exclusive to Roads to Power. Palace Politics is a great example. Not only does it unlock the new Varangian Guards Men-at-Arms type and the Akolouthos Court Position, but also incorporates several unique bonuses to demonstrate the Greek affinity for Administrative Government.

Maiming and disfiguring characters was a primary way to take your political opponents out of the running in the Byzantine political milieu, and we’ve reflected that here with reduced monthly Influence.

We’ve added unique bonuses to Greek characters for scheming. Not only do they get special bonuses to a new type of Scheme Countermeasure, but they can also execute Political Schemes faster.

Political Schemes are a new category of Schemes that we’ve added as a central aspect to the Administrative Government experience. I’ll go into more detail about this, but suffice it to say that you can’t play in Byzantium without engaging with these new Schemes.

And of course, your Chief Eunuch will be a major player. We’ve added a new trait, called Beardless Eunuch, to differentiate characters castrated as children from characters who were castrated as adults.

[Beardless Eunuch Trait & Eunuch Scheme Agent Type]

As you can see, these characters also affect Influence. They are generally disliked by other vassals in the realm because they make for excellent Scheme Agents in Political Schemes.

Roman Ceremonies contains a slew of new features for Byzantium, including access to the Hold a Triumph Decision, the Chariot Race Activity and its associated Court Positions, and a new type of Diarchy called a Duumvirate.

[Imperial Tagmata & Cultivated Sophistication Cultural Traditions]

Imperial Tagmata unlocks the Byzantine Men-at-Arms discussed in the next section, but also provides some unique bonuses that are useful for Administrative realms.

This Cultural Tradition allows Governors with the Frontier Administration type to borrow Title Men-at-Arms from non-Frontier neighbors in the realm. They also get an additional Title Men-at-Arms Regiment slot and a bonus to their Heavy Cavalry Regiment maximum size.

Cultivated Sophistication provides a variety of Culture-related effects in addition to granting Development from building Estate Buildings. Moreover, it allows House Heads to adopt characters into their House.

New Men-at-Arms Types

The Varangian Guard

[Varangian Guards Men-at-Arms and the Decision to Found the Varangian Guard]

The Varangian Guards Men-at-Arms type is now available to the Emperor of Byzantium as Title Men-at-Arms. This means they can only be recruited for the Byzantine Empire Title. Furthermore, you can’t recruit them right off the bat if you start in 867. You must take the Found the Varangian Guard Decision first.

Akolouthos Court Position

To head up these new Men-at-Arms is a brand new Court Position: the Akolouthos. Historically, this was an office in the imperial palace tasked with overseeing the Varangians. An Akolouthos with good Aptitude will increase Heavy Infantry Toughness of your Men-at-Arms overall and make Characters with the Varangian trait both more common and better at being Bodyguards.

[Akolouthos Court Position filled by Glum]

Byzantine Men-at-Arms

Aside from the Varangian Guard, we have added 3 new Men-at-Arms types for Greeks which are unlocked by the Imperial Tagmata Cultural Tradition.

[Akritai, Skoutatoi, and Ballistrai Men-at-Arms Types]

Additional Men-at-Arms

Additionally, we’ve added Ayrudzi for Armenians and Conrois for the Normans.

[Ayrudzi and Conrois Men-at-Arms Types]

Bureaucracy Dynasty Legacy

An expansion wouldn’t be complete without a new Dynasty Legacy. This time, we’ve created one specifically for characters with Administrative Government.

[Art for the new Bureaucracy Dynasty Legacy]

All of these perks buff how well you can play within an Administrative Realm. Unlocking perks will propel your family forward whether you are aiming for the imperial throne or you wish to pull strings from the shadows of your Estate.

[Effects of Bureaucracy Dynasty Legacy Perks]

You’ll notice that two of these perks unlock unique Estate upgrades, namely the Reception Hall and the Cabinet of Curiosities. These are special internal Estate upgrades that provide powerful bonuses for your House members.

The Reception Hall provides Legitimacy to House Members who accede to the imperial throne. For every Feast or Grand Wedding that House Members host in the Barony where the House’s Estate is located, the counter on this internal building increases. Once a House Member wins the Acclamation Succession and becomes the Emperor, the counter resets.

[Description and Effects of the Reception Hall internal Estate upgrade]

Upgrading this internal building decreases the Legitimacy counter lost whenever a House Member becomes Emperor and increases monthly influence gain for the Estate owner.

The Cabinet of Curiosities, on the other hand, provides opportunities based on how many Artifacts the Estate owner puts on display. Once an artifact has been added to the Estate, it is irretrievable and only contributes to the quality of the Cabinet of Curiosities building.

[Hall of Wonders (Cabinet of Curiosities Level 2) Effects & Contributed Artifacts Breakdown]

The image above shows the second level of the Cabinet of Curiosities, which is available after you have contributed enough artifacts so the quality level is 15 or higher. You can see the breakdown of scores below. Essentially, the higher quality the Artifact is, the greater it boosts the quality of the Cabinet of Curiosities.

Upgrading this internal Estate building makes it cheaper and easier to attain higher quality Artifacts and allows you to request Artifacts from other House members. The more you upgrade this building, the more bonuses you receive to your Stewardship and Learning skills as well as your Renown and Influence gains.

Finally Bureaucracy Dynasty Legacy unlocks the Order Mass Arrests Decision, which I’ll let you discover for yourselves upon release.

Political Schemes

As we mentioned in the dev diaries about Administrative Government, we’ve created a new category of Schemes called Political Schemes which are available to characters with Administrative Government. Byzantium, and by extension, Administrative Realms, should be much more about Intrigue and Scheming than War. In these realms, palace politics and backhanded trickery reign supreme.

For example, at some point you’ll want to run a smear campaign against one of your political rivals. You can do that now with the Slander Scheme.

[The Emperor schemes to slander the reputation of one of his vassals]

If successful, this Scheme lowers the Target’s Candidate Score for Acclamation (to be the Basileus) and Appointment (to be a Strategos) Successions in the Realm and lowers their Governor Efficiency by 5% for 10 years. This combo makes them a much less desirable candidate for any position.

Another Scheme you’ll definitely want to try out is Raid Estate, in which you attempt to successfully stage a raid against another Noble Family’s Estate.

[A Noble Family Head schemes to raid a fellow vassal’s Estate]

Of course, it’s imperative that this kind of activity remains under the radar or there will be consequences. The potential rewards, on the other hand, are quite large: Gold for yourself and fewer political rivals from the other Noble Family. Disrupting your political rival’s base of operations can prove quite fruitful.

With plenty of these new Political Schemes in addition to a veritable buffet of new Character Interactions, you’ll have all the tools you need to plot and scheme your way to power in Byzantium.

Chariot Racing Activity

Byzantium would not be complete without a Chariot Racing Activity and beautiful new art for the Hippodrome. Period. Sure, the sport wasn’t at the peak of its popularity during the High Middle Ages, but it is part and parcel of the Byzantine experience. So we’ve added it.

Intents

We’ve also added a few custom Intents for this Activity that better fit its historical and political context. The default Intent will always be to Increase Influence, but you may want to choose Appease the Populace if your Popular Opinion is low. Of course, there are a variety of traditional Intents to choose from.

Of course, you’ll need to be wary. Activity Guests have an additional Intent option to Sow Discord which aims to reduce the Popular Opinion of the current Emperor and sabotage their County Control.

Place Your Bets

At the very beginning of the Chariot Race, you’ll have the opportunity to place a wager on the Charioteers competing in that day’s competition. You’ll see representatives here in a unique interface from the four traditional teams of the Hippodrome: the Venetoi (Blues), the Prasinoi (Greens), the Leukoi (Whites), and the Rhousioi (Reds). You can easily see which character is your own Champion Charioteer from the icon next to their name.

[Choosing a team to place a wager on during a Chariot Race Activity]

You’ll be approached by the Emperor’s Bookmaker, a new Court Position added in this DLC, and they will ask if you’d like to place a wager. You then have a series of choices:

Which team would you like to place your wager on?
Would you like to place your wager on a specific member of the team or hedge your bets and bet on the team as a whole?
What type of wager would you like to place?
1. Win - The character or team will come in First Place
2. Place - The character or team will come in First or Second Place
3. Show - The character or team or will come in First, Second, or Third Place

You may well want to place a wager on your own Charioteer if you’ve brought them along! Be wary, though, for if they perform poorly, you’ll gain stress. There are also chances to steal another attendee’s Champion Charioteer if you do not already employ one.

Charioteer Court Position

Every Landed and Landless title holder with the Roman Ceremonies Cultural Tradition has access to the new Champion Charioteer Court Position. If hired, these characters will travel with you to Chariot Races and compete on your behalf.

[Champion Charioteer Court Position & Charioteer Trait]

Every Charioteer is assigned a Charioteer Trait indicating which team they’re on and how much experience they have competing. The more experience they have, the better they are.

If you want to train up your Charioteer in between races, which can happen every 10 years in game, you can work on upgrading your Stables Estate Building. It has a special track which unlocks a new Court Position Task for the Charioteer, enabling them to gain trait experience outside of the Chariot Race Activity.

[Charioteer Training Grounds Estate Building]

[Charioteer Training Court Position Task]

Politicking

Before the race begins, you’ll have some opportunity for politicking and rubbing shoulders with other important people in the realm, depending on your stature. You only get to sit in the kathisma, the imperial box, if the Emperor invites you as his Guest of Honor.

[Event where the Emperor may decide to invite an additional guest into the kathisma]

The Race

Then begins the actual race – what everyone’s come to see. This always begins with the Emperor’s address, which provides special options based on Activity Intent and current situation.

[Event beginning the Chariot Race where the Emperor decides how to frame his opening address]

You can track the Charioteers and their place via the new UI element on the side of the Activity window. And, of course, we’ve added chariot animations complete with horses, which are also available in the Barbershop.

[Event in a Chariot Race where one charioteer passes another]

But now… an interlude on what happens when you have two Emperors at the helm from my beloved colleague Wokeg!

Duumvirates

I’ll bet you thought you were safely out of the Wokeg info dump mines, didn’t you? You’re never safe. Not from my word vomit.

Let’s talk co-emperors.

[Byzantium has historical co-emperors in both 1066 & 1178]

Co-Emperors? The Emperor does not share power!

You’d be surprised.

Yes, the Roman Empire was very much an autocracy from Augustus onwards, and by the medieval period, that autocracy had decided fairly thoroughly that power rested entirely in and flowed exclusively from the emperor, but the key word there is “emperor”, not “the”.

If it’s the position of emperor that is in charge, you simply appoint a second emperor. A slightly more junior emperor to the other emperor, but they’re both in charge. One is just a little more in charge than the other.

This addresses who the next emperor will be (Emperor A is dead, but Emperor B is still emperor), mollifies powerful pretenders, or even just gives your child some practical experience of rule.

It’s also an absolute recipe for petty personal conflicts, drama, civil wars, and comes with the delightful incentive to murder the other emperor in pursuit of indisputed power.

If you’ve ever wondered why the Byzantines have such a reputation for civil wars and intrigue, well, personally, I’d peg this practice as a major contributor.

Co-Rule in CKIII

So, the challenge here was to model something that caused Byzantium a lot of problems, but also make it fun.

We settled on a type of diarchy focused around settling the question of your succession, grooming your heir, and farming influence. In exchange, you get a diarch that can be helpful but who may, over time, grow too big for their boots and decide to take drastic action.

We’re introducing three new diarchies to represent this:

Duumvirates
Nominal Duumvirates
Co-Monarchies

… of these, duumvirates are a full-sized diarchy, whilst the other two are much smaller goals-focused diarchies for niche situations.

These diarchies are grouped together as co-rulership. Co-rulers do not have diarchy inheritance — when a co-ruling diarch dies, the diarchy ends — and cannot be ended forcibly except by the death of one of the involved parties (or maiming for some, which we’ll get onto).

Making someone your co-ruler always makes them your designated heir, provided they are of your dynasty.

Loyalty

Co-rulers take their loyalty first and foremost from how likely they are to inherit soon.

[A co-emperor much younger than you receives a substantial loyalty boost]

They’re happier the greater the age gap. Conversely, if you have a co-ruler for decades, they’ll start to get more and more annoyed with you not dying. We track both the years count for this, and how healthy you are vs. your age.

[Being unduly healthy, starting in your 50s and scaling up to your 90s, will cause a co-ruler to get progressively less loyal to you]

Nominal Duumvirates

Sometimes, you’re just looking to help secure the succession. Though appointing one of your infant children co-emperor isn’t a silver (sling) bullet ensuring they’ll win the purple, it does help quite a lot. Such a child can’t really wield any _true_ power, but they can start growing accustomed to the ceremonies of rule.

Nominal co-emperors have access to no Borrowed Powers. Instead, as the Scales of Power swing towards them, they become more cost-efficient to promote for Administrative offices and earn progress towards base skill points granted when they come of age.

[An emperor names one of his children as nominal co-emperor]

Basically, the more power they have when they hit 16, the more skill bonuses they get from their apprenticeship as emperor.

The older a nominal co-emperor gets, the more the natural resting point of the Scales of Power will swing towards them. To hurry the process, you may voluntarily cede authority to them.

When your little partner reaches adulthood, the diarchy type is immediately converted over to a true Duumvirate.

[A tooltip showing the potential skill rewards on offer for a well-trained nominal co-emperor]

The Long Tail
As long as you have them, both nominal co-emperors and full co-emperors boost your influence gain per month and give some directly to themselves.

If you elevate and support one from a young age, they’ll be not only a fountain of influence for you, but hopefully have a ready supply of influence themselves when they inherit.

All you have to do is keep them sweet until then.

Duumvirates

Co-emperors can be picked up in a few ways: they might be nominal co-emperors that reached adulthood, you might nominate an adult family member, or you might diffuse a faction by elevating its leader (forcibly putting truces on everyone in the faction).

They carry over the passive influence gain and Administrative office promotion efficiency we talked about in the last section. Additionally, as a full co-emperor is always an adult, provided all relevant circumstances permit, their children are considered to be Born in the Purple just as those of the full emperor.

Co-emperors have access to the standard suite of Borrowed Powers that we give most diarchs, though things like Diarch Revoke Title and Diarch Retract Vassal cannot be used against the empire’s administrative vassals. Like all diarchs, they’re also somewhat better at scheming within the realm.

Finally, they interact with their liege’s realm law slightly differently. Co-emperors can ask to have it increased, taking the blame as diarchs usually do, but may also ask to have the Imperial Bureaucracy reduced.

This reduces any strife that the co-emperor has accrued substantially, and makes co-emperors the only character other than the realm’s liege who can directly affect its primary law.

Scapegoat Counterpart
When two people hold ultimate power in an institution, petty personal spats can not only get out of hand quickly, they’re actively incentivised: you can always blame the other guy.

One of the first Borrowed Powers a co-emperor unlocks is the ability to Scapegoat Counterpart. Fortunately/unfortunately, their senior emperor can also use it back on them.

Scapegoating your fellow emperor requires you to have either higher diplomacy or higher intrigue than them. You receive influence and gain a little tyranny/strife to cause your target to gain even more tyranny/strife, and lose opinion with them.

[A senior emperor humiliates his co-emperor in order to earn influence]

Influence, tyranny, and strife gain (as well as opinion loss) all scale with your relative skill, and whether you are being subtle or obvious.

Demand Despotate
A powerful co-emperor demands their own slice of the realm to rule. First, they must actually have a governorate of their own, but what self-respecting co-emperor could be happy with a mere duchy-tier title?

With this interaction, they may demand they be given a kingdom title within the empire as their own private fief. This immediately creates said kingdom if it didn’t exist, and grants it — and all of its de jure vassals — to the co-emperor. Refusing this interaction costs the senior emperor double the influence that the co-emperor paid to send it.

There are other ways to acquire a despotate, but they generally involve more underhanded means and don’t necessarily come with an immediate grant of (potentially) many vassals.

Imperial Expedition
With two emperors, you can afford to risk one doing something a little grandiose.

This Borrowed Power gives the co-emperor a single usage of a very powerful Casus Belli: an Imperial Expedition, to be launched against realms that either border the empire or have territory de jure belonging to it. They can target all duchies that match either of these criteria and belong to the target.

Every governor bordering the defender is forcibly called to war as an ally. Non-bordering governors with martial Province Administrations are given the choice to join.

Upon victory, the co-emperor is given four choices:

Turn the conquered lands over to their senior emperor for disbursement, reaping opinion and influence proportional to the amount of land captured.
Keep the territories for themselves, losing proportional opinion with their senior emperor.
Handing over most of the territories whilst keeping the best duchy for themselves (giving slightly reduced influence and opinion).
Appointing local interim governors. This gives no influence or opinion with their senior emperor, but does give plenty of opinion with the newly elevated governors, as well as hooks on them. Perfect for producing a batch of loyal future supporters.

[A co-emperor launches an expedition to reclaim lands lost to the Turks]

God’s Perfect Vessel
God’s vice-regent on Earth understands that killing (even when justified) is a sin. It does a ruler good to show a little mercy when dispensing justice, and what is more mercifully just than sparing a usurper’s life whilst denying them the chance to look upon God’s right-hand ever again?

Co-emperors, senior emperors, and even appropriately-cultured co-monarchs have access to the new Maim Co-Ruler interaction. This allows you to choose whether you wish to cut away their testicles, eyes, nose, a leg, or an arm.

If a co-ruler maims their senior ruler, they then immediately usurp their top tier titles plus the entire capital duchy. If the senior ruler maims their co-ruler, then their diarchy ends and their former co-ruler is demoted back to whatever rank is granted by any titles they hold.

The same logic is applied on execution.

[A co-emperor maims his father (the option to cut off the nose is obscured by the tooltip for stabbing or boiling out the eyes)]

Co-Monarchies

Lastly, we’ve added in a reduced form of co-emperorship for feudal rulers, in the form of co-monarchies.

These have no new Borrowed Powers, are unique to feudal kingdoms and empires, and are primarily intended as an early game mechanism.

Since a co-ruler is your designated heir, raising one of your children as king or emperor in your lifetime allows you access to the designate heir mechanics much earlier than usual — with the advent of Choose a New Destiny and loosened restrictions on who you might play after death, this is much less of a balance concern than previous patches.

Your new co-ruler can only be deposed by execution (or maiming if you have the appropriate cultural tradition), has the same dubious loyalty mechanics as a co-emperor, etc., so consider this a roleplay-friendly alternative for putting your preferred heir on the throne to disinheriting your three eldest children to get to the fourth you actually wanted.

Instead of influence gain, co-monarchs give vassal opinion scaling with their diplomacy to the liege, and gain considerable monthly prestige that scales slightly up for empires.

[Henry the Young King is a historical co-monarch in 1178]

Okay, that’s all from me. For now. Back to your regularly scheduled dev diary host!

New Decisions

We’ve added a bunch of new decisions with associated content to make playing in Byzantium feel more unique. I’ll highlight a few of those here.

Hold Triumph

The Byzantine Emperor can now use the Hold a Triumph Decision after a major accomplishment, like winning a War. This is a chance to capitalize on your successes and reap the rewards. You may gain Legitimacy, Influence, and Prestige depending on your actions.

[Decide whether your Triumph should conclude at the Hagia Sophia or the Hippodrome]

The following events are reactive to what you’ve done most recently as the Emperor. For example, should you win the war against the Seljuks in 1066 and hold a triumph, you’ll have unique options for how to focus your speech.

[Decide how to craft your imperial speech while holding a triumph]

Prepare Greek Fire Dromons

We’re not adding Naval Warfare to CK3 with Roads to Power, so get that idea out of your minds right now. But! We have added some representation for Greek Fire, the famed Byzantine weapon primarily utilized in naval warfare.

[Prepare Greek Fire Dromons Decision]

Taking this Decision as the Byzantine Emperor unlocks a new Scheme that, upon completion, gives you the ability to harm or even destroy embarked armies near Byzantion.

[Event where the Emperor decides how to start the Scheme to construct Greek Fire Dromons]

Establish Silk Production

Taking this decision unlocks the unique Mulberry Copse Estate Building, which gives powerful bonuses. Upgrading the Building to level 4 unlocks the Commission Silk Regalia Decision, a means of acquiring a unique Artifact – one of the many perks of being Emperor.

[The Decision to Commission Silk Regalia alongside the Estate Building art for the Large Magnanery]

Terrain Changes

A while back, there was a forum post that caught our attention suggesting Terrain changes for Anatolia. With some changes, we decided to implement these suggestions. Here’s an updated Terrain map of Anatolia:

[New Terrain Map Mode changes in Anatolia]

Most noticeably, we added a bunch of Steppe Terrain, changed the Impassable Terrain layout around Cilicia, and adjusted some County boundaries in that area as well, including the Baronies of Soloi and Tarsus.

Gloss Tooltips

One of my favorite things that we have added in Roads to Power is what we’re calling the Gloss functionality. We have always wavered about adding historically niche words or phrases to the game, especially if they wouldn’t be translated.

To me, this expansion just wouldn’t feel right without adding some Byzantine Greek words and phrases. So to make this all work, we’ve implemented a new type of tooltip, which you can see an example of below.

[An example where we highlight a quotation in Ancient Greek from Homer’s Iliad]

We’ve added quite a few of these around the new content we have created and hope to include this more in future expansions.

Alright, folks! That’s all from me for today. As I’ve said, these are but a few examples of what we’ve made so as not to spoil any surprises awaiting you in Roads to Power.

Jun 25, 2024

Dev Diary #150 - New Start Date, Message Settings, and More

Crusader Kings III - PDX-Trinexx

Good day, everyone!

I'm Cordelion: we’ve not had the pleasure of meeting before, and that’s because since I joined Paradox last year I’ve been working almost exclusively on the new start date and its two bookmarks that will be releasing as part of the free update alongside Roads to Power. I’ve been closely following what you have to say about it and I cannot overstate just how happy I am to see people excited by it, and so today it will be my pleasure and honor to give you a closer look at all it has to offer.

► Discuss Dev Diary #150 on our forums!

The Who, What, When, Where, and Why

Let’s start with the obvious question that I know some of you have been asking: why choose 1178 specifically? That’s a great and very natural question; unlike our preexisting start dates of 1066 or 867, 1178 isn’t well known for any major, paradigm-altering historical events, but there are a few key factors that weighed the scales in its favor.

One of the first things we look at when adding something like a new start date is who would be alive and interesting and playable at the time; we want to give you as many options for worthy historical figures as possible. This part of the process involves a little bit of back-and-forth at first; every time you move the year forward or backward you gain some figures and lose others, so we have to decide whom we can’t live without and who we’re willing to consider an acceptable – though unfortunate – sacrifice.

We knew, for example, that we wanted to have the Crusader states and particularly Jerusalem under Baudouin IV – which gives you a preliminary range of 1174 to 1185 for his reign. Then we thought it could also be good to have Heinrich the Lion as Duke of Saxony and a rival and counterweight to the Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa, which would require a year before 1180/1181, when Heinrich was deposed. Just imagine doing this with a few more names and you should have a reasonably solid picture of the calculus involved.

However, that’s not to say that this was our sole consideration, although it certainly accounted for a healthy amount of the discussion. Another factor that heavily influenced our choice was that we wanted to make sure that any new start date would be in a good position to integrate not only the new mechanics being introduced in Roads to Power, but also a wide range of components of potential future expansions going forwards – whatever they may be.

No matter whether it’s the allied city-states of Lombard League asserting their independence from imperial suzerainty in northern Italy, or the iron men marching eastward to wage holy war at the urging of the men of the cloth, or a young man of as-yet untapped potential named Temüjin beginning to make a name for himself on the steppes, we will relentlessly and enthusiastically take advantage of everything 1178 brings to the table whenever and wherever the opportunity occurs.

And please don’t take the above as indication of any specific plans for future expansions or the order in which they may or may not appear – I’ve merely highlighted a few relevant aspects that I personally find compelling – and take it instead as a declaration of our intent to make sure that 1178 remains a vital, thriving, fully integrated, and fun part of your Crusader Kings gameplay experience from here on out.

Hopefully this has given you a bit more insight into the logic behind our choice of 1178. It’s perfectly alright if you still have more questions – in fact, I hope you do – because next we’re going to delve much deeper into the bookmarks themselves.

Call of the Empire

[Overview of the “Call of the Empire” bookmark]

Now, since Roads to Power is the expansion introducing Administrative government, let’s take a look at Call of the Empire first. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the particulars of this era, the Byzantine Empire is presently enjoying a resurgence under the adroit rule of the aging Basileus Manuel Komnenos, but the specter of his cousin Andronikos (an ambitious and reckless adventurer of preternatural charm) looms forebodingly over the prospects of Manuel’s underage son and heir, young Alexios.

Furthermore, the Byzantines have suffered a recent blow to their aspirations of reclaiming the Anatolian interior – defeat at the Battle of Myriokephalon at the hands of the Seljuk Sultan of Rum, Kilij Arslan II (whose name means “Sword Lion”, for the etymologically curious). The great-grandson of Suleiman ibn Qutalmish (the sultanate’s founder), Kilij Arslan has reigned ably in both war and peace thus far, but an abundance of potential successors (no less than eleven sons!) may bode poorly for the sultanate’s future stability.

A more auspicious future may be in store for princess Tamar Bagratuni, the eldest daughter of King Giorgi III of Georgia, and another one of those historical figures who was an influencing factor on the start date; 1178 was the year her father officially confirmed her as his successor after he’d put down the rebellion of the Orbeli family. Historically, her subsequent rule over Georgia marked her as one of its greatest rulers – to quote a chronicle of her reign (The Life of Tamar, the Great Queen of Queens), “the entire world was full of her praise, and every language in which her name was pronounced, exalted her.”

Governing along the Wallachian frontier of the Byzantine Empire you’ll find Ioannes Kantakouzenos – according to Niketas Choniates’ Historia, a man “huge in size and most courageous of heart, and with a booming voice.” However, the historian goes on to add that despite Kantakouzenos’ extensive military experience, his arrogance and impetuosity resulted in failure more often than success. As a bit of interesting genealogical trivia, the 14th century Byzantine emperor of the same name descended from a cousin of Ioannes’.

The early genealogy of the Palaiologoi is more than a little Byzantine – pardon the pun – and so I’ll clarify that our Alexios Palaiologos, governor of Bulgaria, is the Alexios Palaiologos who was the grandfather of the (future) emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos, and not his younger cousin of the same name (the Byzantines were not renowned for their innovative choice in names), who is historically best known for his association with the emperor Alexios III Angelos.

And, lastly, we have Andronikos Angelos governing in Epirus (where his illegitimate nephew Michael will one day establish an independent despotate), cousin to Basileus Manuel and grandson of Alexios Komnenos himself, and among whose sons are the future emperors Alexios III (mentioned above) and Isaakios II Angelos. Although exhibiting an authentically Byzantine inconsistency in what surname they prefer to use, the Angeloi are a sizable family by contemporary standards and well placed to stack the empire’s offices with their kindred.

Swords of Faith

[Overview of the “Swords of Faith” bookmark]

Before we get into detail on Swords of Faith, I do want to be transparent up front that an overhaul for crusades themselves is not a component of this expansion. Something of that magnitude and significance would need – and deserve – more than would be possible as second billing in an expansion with a very different mechanical focus. We know it’s important to you, so it’s important to us that we make sure what we deliver meets or exceeds your expectations.

Now, to many of you, I expect some of the names in this bookmark will seem a good deal more familiar, in large part due to Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven (and, of course, the CK3 mod of the same name). Though set a few years earlier than the events adapted by the film, here too the leprous Baudouin IV rules the Crusader kingdom of Jerusalem with immense dignity and dedication despite his dreadful affliction – although our historical Balian d’Ibelin is a baron from the beginning, not a blacksmith.

Given the nature of his malady, particular attention must be paid to his heir, his elder sister Sibylla, who is historically (and conveniently for us) between husbands in this particular year. Although historically Baudouin would be succeeded by Sibylla’s son, also named Baudouin, before Sibylla herself, at this point she was still being treated as the presumptive successor over the newborn infant. In addition, while bouncing baby Baudouin takes after his father’s dynasty at the start of the game, worry not – as Sibylla, you’ll get an event shortly to let you determine which side of his parentage he ought to take after.

Rounding out the Jerusalemite cast is Raimon de Toulouse, son of a murdered father (Nizari assassins happened) and brother to a spurned sister (Basileus Manuel happened), a regent of the kingdom during Baudouin IV’s minority who had previously endured nearly a decade of captivity in a Zengid prison. The ruler of the county of Tripoli, the future of his lands is inextricably intertwined with that of the kingdom of Jerusalem itself.

And, of course, what mention of Jerusalem could be made without acknowledging the exceptional character of Salāh ad-Dīn Yusuf, the last vizier to the Fatimid caliphs and the first Ayyubid sultan of Egypt? Of all our bookmark characters in this start date, he perhaps requires the least introduction – his victory over the crusaders at the Battle of Hattin and the reconquest of Jerusalem in 1187 would soon lead to the launch of the famous Third Crusade in response.

As an additional point of interest, I’d like to mention that we’ve made some slight adjustments to how names are structured, in that Salāh ad-Dīn, his famous honorific (meaning “Righteousness of the Faith”), is now a prefixed nickname. Previously, many such honorifics were treated as components of given names and could be inherited as such, and so in the interests of accuracy and better representation we’ve gone through and reassigned a great many of them as historical nicknames instead.

Segueing into our next bookmark character, Muzaffar ad-Dīn Gökböri is one of the preeminent military commanders in service to the Zengids, as was his father before him. Deposed and exiled from his fief of Erbil in favor of his younger brother, Gökböri presently rules in Harran but historically would go on to betray the Zengids and joined forces with Salāh ad-Dīn (even playing a key role at the Battle of Hattin) to reclaim his patrimony, which he ruled prosperously until his death on the eve of the Mongol invasions. Truly, a man with an excellent sense of timing.

Last, but certainly not least, is Levon, younger brother to Roupen III, ruler of Armenian Cilicia. Historically, Roupen III is remembered as a kind and humane ruler, but one of retiring character who abdicated in Levon’s favor – perhaps his noblest deed of all, for Levon would be crowned the first true king of Armenian Cilicia and thoroughly earn the appellation Metsagorts, which is commonly translated as “the Magnificent'' or “the Great”, but can also be read as “the Thaumaturge,” in the sense of one who performs marvels.

Various and Sundry Concluding Words

It’s been an immense personal pleasure to play a part in bringing 1178 to fruition, and I truly hope you’ve enjoyed today’s look at our new start date – because we’re not done just yet. You see, my mandate is to tell you all about the new start date, and that just means I have no alternative but to tell you all about all the other interesting parts of it, too, doesn’t it?

[Overview of England and France in 1178]

King Henry II of England has imprisoned his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, for inciting his sons against him in a significantly more literal form of teenage rebellion than is typically meant by the term. Among said sons is the athletic 12th century tournament celebrity Henry (called the Young King for having been crowned during his father’s reign), leonine Richard, smooth-tongued Geoffrey, and young John, who would go on to enjoy such harmonious relations with his vassals during his reign that they enthusiastically invited the future king of France to replace him.

In this period, the French are ruled by king Louis VII, the former husband of Eleanor of Aquitaine and perhaps better known as the Younger than the Young at this particular stage in his life. Louis’ eldest daughter is married to one of his preeminent vassals, Henri the Liberal, ruler of Champagne, who contributed greatly to the expansion of the famous and prosperous Champagne fairs. Meanwhile, in the south, the heretical Cathar creed has taken hold in the lands of Raimon of Toulouse, which would soon lead to the Albigensian Crusade.

[Overview of the Holy Roman Empire in 1178]

The formidable Hohenstaufen Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa (“Redbeard”, after the color of his…well, you get the idea) is rivaled within his realm only by Heinrich the Lion, duke over both Saxony and Bavaria – the feud between their families gave rise to the enduring labels Guelph (after Heinrich’s house of Welf) and Ghibelline (after the Hohenstaufen castle of Waiblingen). Within the empire, I’d like to draw your particular attention to Berthold von Andechs, patriarch of an interesting and mildly obscure family that rose high in both the empire and Hungary and then burned out and went extinct within only a few generations.

Some fifty years past, a young Afonso the Conqueror knighted himself on Pentecost in the Cathedral of Zamora, assembled a host beneath the banner of rebellion, and proceeded to emancipate himself from his mother and her Galician lover in near-legendary fashion, triumphing over them in the battle of Battle of São Mamede. For anyone else, this might have been enough adventure for a lifetime, but for Afonso this was only the prologue; he would soon become the first and founding king of Portugal. Now in his twilight years, Afonso has largely handed over management of the kingdom’s affairs to his favorite daughter Teresa – named, curiously, after his mother.

[Overview of Iberia in 1178]

Sharing the name of the Portuguese monarch are Alfons the Troubadour, king of Aragon, and Alfonso VIII, king of Castile. Of the two, the former has managed to expand his realm to encompass territories well beyond the Pyrenees, possessing lands of his own in the south of France as well as having seated his brother in Provence – although said brother would soon be murdered after embroiling himself in a war with the lords of Languedoc. It is the latter Alfonso, however, who will earn enduring fame as the future victor over the Almohad army at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa.

Jumping now to another corner of the map, the historically last of the Seljuk sultans of Persia, Togrul, is still a child, with true power in the realm resting in the hands of Jahan Pahlavan Mohammed, the Ildeguzid atabeg of Azerbaijan, subjugator of rebellious princes and emirs, and one of my personal favorites among the cast of this start date – his honorific, incidentally, can be translated variously as “Hero of the World” or “World Champion.”

[Overview of Ciscaucasia in 1178]

Immediately east of the dwindling Seljuk state is the realm of the Ghurids, where power is presently split between Muhammad of Ghor and his older brother, who is technically also Muhammad of Ghor – they share a given name. Of the two, the younger is the more famous, and his exploits into India would ultimately give rise to the Delhi Sultanate only a few decades later. Standing in opposition to the Ghurids is Prithviraja III Chauhan, whose resistance against the foreign invaders earned him a legendary reputation, and has perhaps had more films made about him than anyone else in this list.

[Overview of Mongolia in 1178]

Lastly, even further to the east, as mentioned earlier, you’ll find a young man named Temüjin Borjigin, who will soon earn himself another appellation, one to make all the world tremble – Genghis Khan. Need I say more?

The Almost Very Definitely Real Final Conclusion

This time, truly, we’ve reached the end – the list of those I’ve named is by no means exhaustive (I could easily name a good dozen more, and don’t even get me started on Montferrat, but if I start thinking of more names we really will be here all day), and I fully expect you’ll turn up countless more interesting figures to play as… or against!

However, there’s still one more thing the team would like to share with you today – and it’s something I’m pretty happy about, too.

A Special Message

Before we go, also coming with the free update is a small but oft requested quality of life improvement, Message Settings! You will now be able to customize the appearance of a variety of common interface messages to your heart’s desire.

[Location of the Message Settings options]

Messages are now sorted into Filter Groups. How each Group should appear is now up to you, as either a tried-and-true Toast message (banner messages that display near the top of the screen), a familiar Feed message (messages that appear in the notification feed at the bottom-right side of the screen), a Popup window (a new addition!), or simply be disabled entirely.

[Examples of Message Filter customization]

As you might have noticed, it is also possible per Filter Group to set whether the game should automatically be paused as it appears, regardless of its display type.

Note: Certain Filter Groups, integral to giving the player information about the game state or the outcomes of their actions, cannot be disabled.

[The new ‘Popup’ message window]

This is possible thanks to a new and fully moddable database of message_filter_types that may be freely edited or expanded upon, adding new types for more granularity or mod-specific needs.

[An example of how Filter Groups can be manipulated via modding]

Vassal Directives

In the last two Dev Diaries we picked up on the idea that some of you would be interested in giving your vassals orders, and after thinking about it we came to the conclusion that it’s not only a sound suggestion, but one that can help reinforce the difference that Administrative realms has over other government forms.

[Overview of the Vassal Directives menu]

You will now be able to give Directives to your vassals, presuming that they respect you! Directives are either given from the character interaction menu, or via the ‘Vassals’ tab in My Realm, the latter having the benefit of showing you the current directive. All government types can issue directives to their vassals, in the picture it’s the Holy Roman Emperor doing it.

[Requirements to give a directive to a Feudal vassal]

As you can tell from the requirements, it’s not too easy to make them follow your orders. You have to work your way to a high level of crown authority, pursue specific lifestyles, or gain significant opinion with them. If you no longer fulfill this trigger, they will not follow your directive until you regain their trust. Directives are inherited, so you do not have to worry about setting them again as your vassals die.

[Differences in Vassal Directives for Administrative vassals]

Of course, if you’re Administrative, then following the directives you set is simply your vassal’s job! They will only ever refuse your directives if they are your rival, but otherwise you’re free to set any directive you wish. They’re fully baked into the Administrative UI’s to maximize visibility. Oh, and Administrative also has access to three more directives; Improve Development, Boost Men-at-Arms, and Recruit Men-at-Arms - all significantly more powerful than the default set.

Choose a New Destiny Improvements

In previous Dev Diaries we gathered some feedback regarding the upcoming Choose a New Destiny feature, where it seemed as if a popular addition would be to add a ‘random’ mode. If you’re not interested in any of the three options, you can now choose to let the die of fate determine your destiny for you!

[Overview of the new Random Descendant options in the Choose a New Destiny screen]

We based the choices on what we could gather were popular fantasies, and added some extra for good measure!

[Several different options are available when selecting a random character]

Some restrictions still apply - such as being of your Dynasty, and keeping the difficulty reasonable (anything above Extremely Hard is, essentially, a game-over situation.)

It’s still possible to add further categories, so if you feel like you think we’ve missed something feel free to give feedback!

And that's everything for today! I sincerely thank you all for your time and attention; I hope you’ve found today's dev diary interesting, and that you’re looking forward to Roads to Power as much as I am (and especially 1178, I say with a deep and profound personal and professional bias).

We still have a few dev diaries to go ahead of the release of Roads to Power, but it'll be a bit longer until the next one - it’s now the start of the Swedish summer break, and so we'll be temporarily parting ways until the team returns in early August.

We intend to make it well worth the wait, though! When we come back, we'll be showing off another major feature that I think you'll find very intriguing: Landless Adventurers. Until then, if you have any questions about today’s topics, I’ll be here and do my best to answer.

Thanks again, and have a great summer!

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

Jun 11, 2024

Dev Diary #148 - Administrative Government Part I

Crusader Kings III - PDX-Trinexx

Greetings Crusaders!

My name is Emil, resident game designer here on Crusader Kings III. Today I’m joined by Chad, my fellow game designer and comrade in arms when it concerns all things Byzantium, to invite all of you, from the most distant governors of our great empire to the esteemed nobles residing here in the capital, to our first in-depth dev diary for our upcoming Major Expansion Roads to Power.

► Discuss Dev Diary #148 on our forums!

More specifically, we’ll be going over a brand-new government type: the Administrative Government. All of you who enjoy playing in Byzantium might wanna pay extra attention. I’ll be going into a fair amount of detail in an attempt to give you a clear picture of what to expect, how the new government plays, and what it is not.

Please keep in mind the following:

All of the included screenshots show a work in progress and do not necessarily represent the final product, as we are still heavily at work on the expansion itself.
This is especially true when it comes to several aspects of the UI, such as layouts and visuals. But that won’t stop us from including screenshots anyway, since we believe that showing what we have right now, even if not final, gives you a much better idea of what you can expect.
All values and numbers in these screenshots are subject to balancing and will likely change before release.
This is only part 1 (of 2) for the dev diaries on Administrative Government. Some of the things you might be dying to learn about (e.g. how Appointment Succession works) will be covered in part 2!

With that out of the way, let’s get to it!

What is Administrative?

First things first. Administrative (or Admin for short) is a new government type that draws a lot of inspiration specifically from the Byzantine Empire. While Byzantium isn’t the only inspiration, it is by far the most significant. Just like the historical inspiration, an Administrative realm is all about the empire itself. You have the emperor situated neatly at the top, with the many governors and noble families serving underneath. They are all small cogs, part of one big machine. They need each other, just as much as they are competing against one another. Regardless of their motives or actions, they serve the empire first and foremost. For a prosperous realm is much more worthwhile to be in.

[The Byzantine Empire and its internal structure of Themes (or governorships).]

The emperor is the ultimate authority of the realm. It is the emperor who creates new governorships and appoints the governor of a Theme. The pool of available candidates can be vast, and the emperor will have to consider if they want to appoint that troublesome nephew to keep as much power as possible within his own family, or if a member of another noble family would be a better choice. Having a more competent but docile governor might just be more useful, at least as far as the realm is concerned. Just as the emperor manages the overall structure of the empire, so too does he support and supervise his governors. He can lend them troops if needed, have them go to war on his behalf, and reward them when they are performing well to be in their good graces.

The power of an Administrative realm is very much intended to ebb and flow. When the empire is well managed, it runs smoothly like a well-oiled machine, able to beat down its opponents with ease. When mismanaged, however, it becomes significantly weaker, unable to defend itself against opportunistic conquerors looming on its doorstep.

Expect a playstyle where wars give way to schemes, intrigue, and good old-fashioned politics. Internal wars between vassals are practically non-existent, as your primary way of expanding within the realm will be to make efficient use of schemes and leverage your influence as you jockey for governorships and other influential positions. Governors are unable to create or join independence and dissolution factions, making Administrative realms excel as large and sprawling empires. While they are significantly less likely to collapse or break apart, succession is a much riskier business. Claimants won’t sit idly by while the empire’s fate lies in the hands of an inept emperor.

The Byzantine Empire will play significantly differently from how you are used to playing the game. You would normally gain titles through proven means, such as wars or marriage, but to gain lands and extend your own power in an Administrative realm, you will have to engage in politics. You’ll scheme against your rivals, leverage hooks against your peers, and make use of your influence to sway the emperor to your side.

To reinforce this new playstyle, schemes have been updated to be more engaging, and we have a new scheme type available only within Administrative realms – Political schemes. There are several new schemes of this type, as well as a swath of new interactions, that will help you manage the realm, interact with your liege, your vassals, and your peers. Ultimately, these are all tools with which you can leverage your influence to shape the realm to your will. We’ll go more in depth into these throughout this dev diary.

Byzantium is the main focus of the expansion and will be the only realm that will have Administrative on game start, trading a lot of conventional gameplay in exchange for new and powerful tools, at the cost of increased micromanagement and a less secure succession. Any feudal or clan ruler can strive to surpass Byzantium and attempt to adopt this new government type if they so choose, but more on that later.

Noble Families: The Heart of Admin Realms

Administrative Governments are unique in that they allow for the existence of Noble Families. Every House in an admin realm is a player in the vast political game, whether they hold land at a certain moment or not. All these families are jockeying for power, titles, and even control of the empire itself. As the head of a Noble Family, it is your prerogative to garner power in the form of securing appointments and positions for your house members, improving the family Estate, and undercutting any political rivals that would challenge your name.

Directly owning landed titles on the map is not a requirement for rulers within Administrative realms. If you are appointed to a title and any corresponding counties, you are there to do a job. This is not your personal fiefdom to do as you please. Admin realms should feel like a sort of proto-nation state, as Byzantium can be described during our period. As an admin governor are meant to manage the land and act publicly on behalf of the realm and your liege. That’s not to say you can’t set something aside for yourself, however… It's a tough job managing the realm, after all.

This means that you can quite easily also lose any land you hold, should you be forced to resign, unable to secure the succession, or you may even give it up willingly if you so choose (you might want to put yourself in line for a better Theme, for example). Owning land can, in other words, be seen as temporary. You can expect your House members to hold some land most of the time, but there will be times when you won’t. If that happens, you can keep playing as a landless noble within the realm. Should the empire fall, however, you shall fall with it.

While not holding land, you are still a powerful political force and can take a lot of actions to claw your way to power. Unlike the more mobile Adventurers you are still very much a part of your realm, as you cannot simply pick up your things and leave, and you will always retain access to your Estate (more on that later).

Landless nobles are made playable with a new type of title, the Noble Family title. This new title is a duchy-tier title, typically held by the House Head. You can draw comparisons to how Mercenaries or Holy Orders are set up. They exist with a duchy-tier title held by their respective leaders. There is an important caveat to mention here. This means that if you don’t have a Noble Family title, you will be unable to play as a landless noble. You will almost always be playing as the House Head. However, if you find yourself in the extremely rare case that you aren’t, we’ve made the decision to create a cadet-branch much easier for Admin. As the player, you can take this at essentially any time if you aren’t the House Head. Doing so will give you a new Noble Family title, allowing you to keep playing even if you lose your land.

[Each Administrative House Head has a new title associated with their position.]

Powerful and Dominant Families

Noble Families are sorted into Normal, Powerful, and Dominant families. These designations are based on something called Powerful Family Rating (discussed below) and indicate each family’s level of power within an Admin realm. Think of Powerful Families as a who’s who of the realm. If a Powerful Family manages to become Dominant, they have by-and-large subdued the political milieu of the realm to their will. Should you so desire, you can manipulate and control an admin realm as the head of a Dominant or Powerful Family without ever becoming the Top Liege.

Rather than having individual vassals playing a big role within the realm, it is the different Houses; the most influential of which have a greater impact on the realm at large. Powerful Families remain so regardless of the position of the House Head, who may go from being a governor to landless and back again. With this, we aim to create a sense of stability among the many and frequent vicissitudes of Administrative realms.

Becoming a Powerful Family entitles your House members to several benefits and tools. For example, only members of Powerful Families can use the new Depose and Subsume Governorship Schemes. They get a flat discount to Promoting candidates in the new Succession type (discussed in our next dev diary) and are generally better at Political Schemes. It is also easier for them to be made Co-Emperor, which we’ll discuss in a later dev diary.

Any Powerful Family that is able to also control a significant part of the realm will become a Dominant Family. This happens when they control enough governorships to cover 25% of the realm’s total realm size, so your family must control a fair amount of land in order to become Dominant.

A Dominant Family enjoys all the benefits accorded a Powerful Family, but to a greater degree. They are much more of a problem, or nuisance, for the liege. Once reaching such a position of influence and power, they are difficult to dislodge. They have a much easier time becoming governors for one thing, by significantly reducing the cost of investing in candidates (covered in detail next week) and have a much easier time requesting support from lesser families. Additionally, all members of a dominant family are even better at political schemes than other powerful families.

Every family’s rating also affects how likely the members of a House are to inherit the top liege’s title. E.g. becoming emperor of Byzantium, as a portion of the rating is added to a candidate’s score (discussed below). It will be much easier to compete for the title with a high rating, or to keep it within your family if you are already emperor.

It’s important to note that Administrative realms don't have the concept of powerful vassals like other governments do. You can still have powerful vassals, should you have vassals of other government types, as those will be able to become powerful vassals as per usual. Administrative vassals, however, cannot. This is only relevant in the case where a Feudal or Clan vassal becomes part of an Admin realm.

Powerful Family Rating

There can only be a handful of Powerful Families at any given time – 5 to be exact. The top liege’s House is always considered Powerful, and does not take up one of these 5 spots. Houses are then sorted and ranked according to their rating.

In order to become a Powerful Family, a House needs to have a rating above a certain threshold. This prevents small and seemingly insignificant Houses from becoming Powerful, as they need a certain amount of sway within the realm before they can gain the benefits of being a Powerful Family. When above the minimum threshold, it is the 5 Houses with the highest rating that are considered Powerful.

[An example of what the rating of a powerful family may look like.]

There are several factors that have an impact on a family’s rating. We have smaller factors, such as the current number of living House Members, which exists as potential tie breakers if families have a similar rating. Your Estate and the buildings you construct in it also play a central role in your rating. If the Estate is located in the realm capital, you gain yet another small bonus.

Other factors you can actively pursue is being a part of your liege’s council, where every position counts. If you can get other family members onto the council, the rating increases for each councilor. Or you can pick up the Heart of the Family diplomacy perk, which grants a small, but not insignificant bonus. The most important factor, however, is the number of governorships your family holds. Each held governorship adds to a multiplier, increasing the value of all other factors. Which means that for each governorship your family controls, the family rating will increase quite significantly.

Family Attributes

To give each family some additional flavor, they have access to what we call a Family Attribute. It’s a small set of bonuses that apply directly to all House Members, as well as a separate bonus that only applies to their liege.

A family’s attribute is only active if and when they are considered a powerful family. Since there is a limited number of powerful families, the liege won’t be able to stack these modifiers indefinitely. Instead, we hope they serve as an incentive to keep certain families around, making sure they remain a powerful family so that you don’t lose out on the bonus they provide. Dominant families are a bit special. Their House Members get to benefit from their attribute, but the liege will not.

There’s a number of bonuses available, pertaining to different scheme types, improving troops, generating more Influence, and more.

[The window in which you can set your Family Attribute, showing the benefits of the Confident Schemers attribute.]

The attributes exist to give the different families some added flavor, to give them some additional identity and character. Not all families are alike, and the attribute symbolizes what they are good at, or perhaps their origin. The AI won’t change these on the fly, so when you are playing as the emperor, you know what bonuses each family provides at all times. As a House Head yourself, you are free to change the attribute at any time. There’s no cost attached. You’ll activate a short cooldown before you can change it again, but that’s it.

All in all, Noble Families are at the heart of Administrative realms. Their members make up the body of ruling characters and they are constantly positioning themselves to grasp more power, station, and influence within the empire at large.

Spheres of Influence

Influence is a brand-new resource, which represents your political capital and the sway you hold within an Administrative realm such as Byzantium. It's about your ability to manipulate others and leverage your political standing in order to achieve a favorable outcome. In many ways, Influence is the tool that will make you successful, and gaining Influence will be key to achieving your goals. Unlike other resources, Influence is hard to come by in great quantities, and it has many varied uses.

It is the lifeblood of an Administrative realm; while a powerful Emperor or high-ranking Governor might be allowed to do what he wishes in theory, the reality is much more complex than that. This resource symbolizes how gracefully someone navigates the politics of the realm, and a truly powerful Emperor will secure their rule and might through clever use of influence - for example, by securing army support or ousting troublesome governors.

[The new Influence resource as shown in the top bar.]

[Influence has Levels of Influence, just like Prestige and Piety.]

Some Levels of Influence directly affect how well you perform Schemes within the new Political category, making a truly influential character assume the form of a masterful political manipulator.

Gaining Influence

Your monthly Influence gain very much depends on your position within the realm, your skills at manipulation, and your success with schemes. Here are a few examples of what you can gain influence from:

Governor Trait

To track just how much skill characters have after becoming a governor, we’ve implemented a new Governor trait (flavored Strategos here for Byzantium). This trait offers tiered bonuses to monthly influence gain, among other things.

Liege’s Council

Having a seat on the emperor’s council is an easy way to secure some additional influence. Alongside some other bonuses pertaining specifically to the playstyle of an Administrative realm.

[Being on your liege’s council grants some significant influence gain each month.]

Governor Duties

Governors in particular have some additional ways of acquiring influence. You are an administrator; first and foremost meant to oversee and manage the land you are appointed to. If you perform your duties well, you’ll be rewarded for it, primarily with influence, but more on this below.

Alliances

Alliances are important for every realm and government type and Administrative is no different. If you manage to secure an alliance with the head of another noble family within the realm, you’ll get influence every month. These stack, so the more alliances you have, the more influence you’ll get.

[You gain monthly influence from having alliances with your liege and the heads of other noble families. Do note that the values are currently not formatted correctly.]

Estate Upgrades

The primary building of your Estate offers compounding influence bonuses as it gets upgraded. There are additional internal and external buildings you can construct on your Estate to gain even more influence, like Guest Chambers, for example.

[The Mansion provides a flat +2 influence per month.]

[Guest Chambers provide a +4% bonus to monthly influence at level 2.]

Holding Upgrades

Constructing or holding certain buildings within your holdings also provides influence gains. For example, we have added a new Murex Fisheries building type which can be built around the Mediterranean. It provides additional monthly influence, which increases as you upgrade the building.

[Murex Fisheries Building.]

Spending Influence

Now that we know how to get Influence, the next question naturally becomes: what can we do with it? Plenty, in fact! First and foremost, Influence is a key factor in securing governorships both for yourself and your family members by investing in succession candidates (I'll come back to how this works later), but you will generally use it to climb the political ladder in different ways. For example:

Demand Council Position

Administrative vassals have the option to request a council position by spending influence. It’ll cost you a fair bit of influence, but there are ways to reduce this amount. You also have the option to demand a council position with the use of a hook, which is significantly more cost effective since you will gain some influence once you are on the council.

[The interaction to request a council position costs influence and may be refused by your liege.]

Force to Join Faction

Not having to rely solely on hooks, you can force other vassals to join your factions by spending influence. A handy tool when you just need a tiny bit of additional support for your claimant faction, so that you can push your claim for the throne.

[Force to Join Faction allows influence to be spent instead of a hook.]

Propose Alliance

When proposing an alliance, you can spend your influence to make the target character more likely to accept.

[Propose Alliance allows you to spend influence as a means of increasing acceptance.]

Petition Liege

For characters in an Administrative government, the decision to petition your liege costs influence instead of the usual prestige.

[The Petition Liege decision from the perspective of a governor.]

Bolster Governance

You can put your influence to good use by aiding and improving your governors, while also granting you some opinion in the process.

[The Bolster Governance interaction costs influence to use and improves your governors.]

Estates

We’ve shown you a preview of Estates in a previous dev diary, so you may already know what they look like. If you haven’t seen them though, here is an Estate, located in Constantinople no less, in all of its glory.

[An Estate with several buildings constructed and upgraded.]

It took us a while until we settled on the final art style. We went over a few options before we decided upon what you see above, a style inspired by medieval manuscripts. Not only does it look great, but it has a lot of quirkiness to it. Perspectives are slightly off, or people may have odd postures, etc. More or less what you’d expect from actual medieval illustrations.We opted for this art style over reusing the previous style found in the Tournament interface as it feels more flavorful and authentic to the time period, as well as being far more flexible for other locations. The buildings you construct all look different from each other, and there are different backgrounds that are dependent on the local terrain of where your Estate is located. The backgrounds provide a lot of visual variety, but we really wanted to give a better sense of location. If your Estate is placed in mountains, we want the game to reflect that. It gives a much stronger feeling of belonging and immersion. A shout out to the art team for a job well done!

In an Administrative realm, it’s the families of the nobles that really matter, i.e. their Houses. Each House Head will have access to an Estate, which is a representation of the family’s overall wealth and any small tracts of land they may own. While a noble family might not hold any governorships, they are still influential nobles that own a significant amount of real estate. The purpose of the Estate is twofold: It gives you a powerbase you can rely on at all times, acting as your home and the place where your character resides when you don’t have any other titles. Secondly, it exists as a means of progression; one that you can tailor to suit your own needs and playstyle. Estates grants you access to a whole bunch of buildings and upgrades, providing you with various bonuses, unlocking new interactions or decisions, and improving your existing toolbox in various ways. It is, without a doubt, one of the primary sources of increasing your Influence.

[The Guard Lodging building and its tooltip, showing the effects.]

Estates can become quite powerful on their own. So they are restricted to one per family, owned and controlled by the House Head. It’s only the House Head that may construct new buildings and upgrade existing ones, similar to how only the Dynasty Head can pick and unlock Dynasty legacies.

One of our primary goals is to provide you with plenty of options as to what you can build, but buildings should also have a certain degree of synergy with each other. As you consider your options and what to build, we want you to be on the lookout for how buildings and upgrades complement each other.

Buildings

There are two distinct types of improvements you can build within your Estate. The first is buildings. You have one building slot dedicated to your villa, or mansion, which is a bit special, as you will always start with this building on at least level one, and you can never demolish it. Aside from your mansion, you have six slots in total in which you can construct whichever available buildings you want. Two of these slots are available from the get go. Then you’ll unlock an additional slot with every level of your mansion. You’ll have two slots on level one, three slots on level two, and so on until you reach the maximum of six slots at level five.

There are plenty of more buildings available than you have slots, so you’ll be forced to choose what you want to build. Buildings can be easily replaced whenever you want though, so you won’t be stuck with anything if you ever change your mind. It won’t cost you anything to replace a building other than the gold it requires to construct the new building.

Your choices won’t end there, however. Some buildings (but not all) have multiple branches where you can choose to specialize your buildings further. Branches often share some effects from the base levels before it splits into separate branches, but will then go on to provide slightly different bonuses revolving around a similar theme.

[The Shrine building and its different branches and levels.]

[The Storehouse building and its different branches and levels.]

Upgrades

The second type of improvements for Estates are building upgrades. Unlike buildings themselves, these are built inside of existing buildings. For Estates, upgrades are available in the mansion. The mansion has a limited number of upgrade slots available: You’ll have access to two slots from the get go, and you will gain more slots as you upgrade your mansion. When your mansion is brought up to level five, you’ll have no less than ten upgrade slots to fill as you please.

Upgrades can also have branching building paths, but most of the upgrades do not. They also tend to have fewer levels in total compared to buildings. Buildings typically have six levels, but may have less in some cases, while upgrades tend to be closer to four levels.

All of this variation should give you plenty of options throughout the many hundreds of years the game spans.

[The upgrades and upgrade slots for your mansion.]

Building Examples

Let’s look at another few examples of what you can build, and what type of effects you can expect.

Your mansion can be upgraded with a library, in which the primary focus is on Learning Lifestyle experience. This particular upgrade has two distinct branches available. One of which ties in nicely is dedicated to education, improving your Tutor Court Position and allowing your children to get a rank five education.

[The Education Hall upgrade provides a number of useful bonuses.]

The mansion can also be upgraded with a Wine Room, which in turn is upgraded into a Wine Cellar. The upgrade unlocks a new activity option for feasts, allowing you to spend some gold to gain Influence for every guest attending your feast. Each level unlocks a corresponding level for the activity, allowing you to spend more gold for a larger amount of Influence gained. Feasts are no longer just a means of gaining prestige and opinion, but become a much more central tool as you attempt to gain more and more Influence.

[The Wine Room upgrade for the Estate serves as a potential source of generating Influence.]

The Vineyard is another great example. The building provides you with a steady income of gold, which is quite useful already, but the true value comes from also having the Wine Room mentioned above, as it increases the amount of Influence gained when you use the unlocked activity option for feasts.

[The Vineyard building, an excellent choice for when you need both gold and additional Influence.]

Modding

As per usual, you can expect Estates to be highly moddable. Changing, removing, or adding buildings is easy to do directly in script. You can add as many levels or branching options as you want. Icon and graphics can easily be adjusted as well, as you set these per building. You can, for example, see how we use unique icons for each building branch in the screenshots above.

Any character modifier works out of the box, and these are applied to the owner of the Estate. For anything more complicated, we’ve enabled the use of parameters, much like those we already have for cultures or faiths.

You can even set up new types, completely separate from the Administrative Estate, to be used however you’d like. We can’t wait to see what all of you can come up with!

That’s it for today! We are not nearly done just yet though, so we’ll be back with Part II next week; we’ll be going more into depth regarding governors, how they work and what they do on a daily basis, how an administrative realm manages its troops, and more!