Hello everybody! I’m PDX-Trinexx, the Community Manager for Crusader Kings. This week’s dev diary will be slightly different, as we’re going to cover several topics from several different authors. Key subjects are Roman Restoration, the 4th Crusade, and the addition of dynamically spawned Historical Characters once the game has actually started.

We’ll start off with the new Roman Restoration content coming with Roads to Power, so I’ll hand it over to our resident Byzantine scholar now.

► Discuss Dev Diary #155 on our forums!




Salvete! You might remember me from the previous dev diary about Byzantium. I’m Chad, a Game Designer (now turned Programmer) working on CKIII. Today I’ll be discussing one of the smaller updates we’re making to the classic Restore Rome decision in Roads to Power.

Even though they knew themselves as Romans, Byzantium was not the same as the Roman Empire that you can “restore” in game. And thoughts of “restoring” this idealized version of ancient Rome were not common during our period. If you’d like to play a grand strategy game as the Roman Empire, may I point you towards a great one called Imperator: Rome? I think you’d love it. It even recently received an update!

With that aside, however, I’d like to show off some of the content we’ve updated for reconquering pieces of Rome’s past.


[Event showing the reconquering of Tunis which is fired from the new “important locations” system]

In Roads to Power, you’ll get updated event content for conquering pieces of the historical Roman Empire. This is part of a great new feature from my colleague we’re calling “important locations” that modders will likely be interested in. You can now script a relationship between a landed title and another higher tier title and fire content when they enter and exit the realm. These can be scripted on the fly as well, allowing for dynamic content about titles changing hands.


[Script example of setting the county of Rome as an important location for the Byzantine Empire]


[Full documentation of the set_important_location script effect showing information about parameters and scopes]

We’ve updated how you can “restore” “Rome” as Byzantium with an eye towards how the Byzantines may have thought about such a thing, primarily through the lens of Justinian. With this comes gorgeous new art as well as a new decision to make.


[Event that occurs when you’ve taken the decision to restore the Roman Empire]


[First option when restoring Rome, which provides access to unique bonuses and converts your realm to Hellenism, but turns on hard mode]


[Second option for restoring Rome, which keeps the original functionality]

We wanted to create an interesting choice here. There were concerns that this increase in difficulty might be perceived as “too gamey” but we ultimately decided that restoring the ancient Roman Empire in the Middle Ages is already a “gamey” notion.

Managing a massive empire like the de jure territory of Rome should be hard and create a new challenge for players. Of course, if it’s too difficult to keep the whole enterprise together and functioning, you can opt for the historical decision to split it into East and West. Many historical emperors tried their best to maintain control over such a vast territory and failed–ultimately deciding on some variation of dividing power. Perhaps you will be the one to succeed in keeping the realm united–but as I said, it won’t be a walk in the park.


[Decision to “Cleave the Empire” which splits the Roman Empire into Eastern and Western parts and ends hard mode]

This also means that there is now a legitimate way to convert to Hellenism in-game. Upon reforming Hellenism, players have access to a new Faith Tenet called Household Gods.


[New art for the Household Gods tenet for Hellenism]


[Household Gods tenet for Hellenism which gives bonuses to conversion speed among other things]

That’s all from me today! I’ll leave you with a heartfelt parting quote from Catullus: Frater ave, atque vale. “Goodbye, brother, and fare well.”

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[CM’s Note: This section contains a lot of spoilers for the 4th Crusade mechanics. If you’re bothered by that, then please skip ahead to the next section! (ctrl+f -> "rageair")]

Uh… the 4th Crusade? God. God willed it, duh. God was so into it. And besides Him, there was the Marquis de Montferrat, Mathieu de Montmorency, Pierre de Bracieux, and many others. Maybe the Doge of Venice masterminded the whole debacle (if CK2 is to be believed)?

As far as CK3 content is concerned… I guess I’m the Doge, the architect of our lurid misadventure. My name’s Jason and I’m the most hydrated designer on CK3.

I started work on the Fourth(ish) Crusade as something small and simple. But — and no one could have seen this coming — the subject matter proved a little complex. And a little dramatic. It seemed to merit a whole hullabaloo.

So the Fourth Crusade in CK will happen regularly and it absolutely will prove a great and terrible threat to the Byzantine Empire. The Mongols are an apocalypse for all the world; the Latins are an apocalypse to the Greeks. Their empire stands tall, crumbles or is succeeded by some hideous aberration based on whether this strange fight is won or lost.


[Later artwork of the siege of Constantinople.]

In 1202, Catholic lords and knights began gathering to retake Jerusalem in a new Crusade. A number of these western crusaders chose Venice as their setting-off point. This involved a good bit of sitting and waiting for their fellow lords to show, and it soon became apparent few others were coming. But the Venetians still had to be paid in full.

The first repayment effort involved sacking the Dalmation port of Zara, and staining their righteous swords in Christian blood. There, the Crusaders were joined by the Marquis of Montferrat and, with him, a claimant to the Byzantine throne, Alexios IV Angelos.

Still low on funds, the Crusaders accepted an offer from this claimant: he promised them lavish support, money and troops for the holy cause, if the Crusaders could install him on his rightful throne. Though some dissenters instead departed directly for Jerusalem, the rest of the knights got onboard for Constantinople.

Emperor Alexios III Angelos (who has the same name as the other Greek, yup) failed to fight these foreigners off. He was forced to abdicate in favor of the pilgrims’ claimant. The new Emperor Alexios, however, seeing the impossibility of making good on his promises to the Crusaders, reneged on their deal. The capital was stormed and he, overthrown.


[Now this is one salty mosaic.]

Yet another Emperor Alexios would soon meet the same fate and, after that, Constantinople was truly and historically ravaged by the Latin crusaders. When the pillaging and slaughter was over, so too was the Byzantine Empire. At least, for a time.

The sort-of Crusaders named their own Latin Emperor, divided newly-won Byzantine territories amongst themselves, and set about the business of establishing their rule.

I really recommend Geoffroi de Villehardouin’s description of these events. His is a rare medieval firsthand account, as he was one of the Crusader leaders. It offers such a fresh, direct, farm-to-table kind of bias.

Well… this is one of those cases where gamefying history means sort-of choosing a narrative; it, too, means truncating events somewhat. And — adding a bit of dynamism, as suits the sandbox of CK3.

Jason, you ask — will the Fourth Crusade happen around 1202?

No. It is most likely to happen from the 1178 start date (and, fair warning, can happen very promptly), but it’s possible from other start dates, though only once the Catholics are onto their second (or later) Crusade.

Well, it’s the Fourth Crusade though…

Not necessarily, not in-game. We’re not adding a counter that permits this story only once the # of Crusades = 4. No. In game, this is referred to as the “Crusader War for Imperial Claim” or the “Splintered Crusade.” It was hard to come up with a nice-sounding term that actually fit, I’ll be honest.

The dynamism of when this thing will strike is matched by it having relatively open ownership. You don’t have to play the Marquis de Montferrat to introduce a wannabe-Byzantine Emperor to some Crusaders; you can be pretty much any European Catholic ruler who has a relation to one such claimant at the right moment.

This has kinda tipped our hand: the “leader” of the Splintered Crusade will be the above-named champion of the Byzantine aspirant. Putting this character at the helm centralizes authority over the Latin Crusaders more than is historical, yes, but it’s a big plus for playability and agency.

Oh, and the Splintered Crusade? It isn’t actually a Crusade. This thing is a big, fat, ugly limpet sucking off the underbelly of a proper Catholic Crusade.

Let’s get into that.

It begins with a Catholic Crusade against lands east of the Mediterranean. Sure, there’s a Christian Byzantine Emperor, but he’s not involved in this Catholic initiative. Everything seems normal… and then some paltry little Catholic lord is hit with this:


[A sudden flash of purple: the opening event for the Splintered Crusade]

YOU OPT IN AND SHIT IS GONNA GO DOWN.

JUST NOT RIGHT AWAY. As you wait for the Crusade (that you will, at least temporarily, bail from) to launch, you’re waiting to see who in Christendom is down to say “You son of a Byz! I’m in.”

The Pope is first to weigh in.


[The Pope’s letter to his most misguided crusader.]

This story would be incomplete without an avaricious financier, and Venice — or the most Venice-y ruler available — fills that role.


[Your financier goes all in.]

As the months pass, other Catholics pledged to the Crusade will instead pledge to join you. And t hen the Crusade is launched, robbed of your confederates! Y’all set off on a war of your own.


[The Crusader War for Imperial Claim begins.]

The Byzantine Emperor will be fairly outnumbered, but all he needs to do is repel his attackers and this will be ended.

If he fails, though…


[The victorious crusaders must deal with their new emperor.]

Your claimant may choose to bankrupt the empire in order to properly pay off every Crusader. More often than not, though, he’ll simply offer you a bribe to leave in peace. You can accept, of course, and may then even perhaps join the proper Crusade with your well-earned reinforcements (if it isn’t too late).

Is anyone really going to leave in peace, though…?


[It’s Latin Empire time, baby. And it isn’t pretty.]

Unlike in a normal Crusade, you can choose to leave your old realm behind and gain the newly-made Latin Empire title yourself. Or you can give it to a relative. Or maybe you’ll reward that kind old selflessly helpful Venice fella, just as the historical crusaders almost did.

Below the Latin Empire title, are Greek duchies and counties distributed among the most powerful crusaders. These rulers choose new holders for their assigned title much as the Latin Emperor is chosen.


[Bye bye, Byzantium.]


[Whoomp! (There It Is)]

The Latin Empire is born; Byzantium dies. Though not cleanly, and not all at once. The collapse is scripted to prefer historicity, but it happens dynamically. The capital kingdom of the (now destroyed) Byzantine empire will go to the Latins. The Venetian Stato da Màr claims some Byzantine maritime holdings. Yet most of the Greeks do not bow to Latin dominion: some mighty governors become Administrative kings, while lesser magistrates claim feudal independence.

A Crusader trait for these first Latin lords wouldn’t be quite right. They get a new one called Despoiler of Byzantium instead, and it also makes their AI personality aggressive as hell.


[The new, rare and shiny Despoiler of Byzantium trait.]

But how does this all look to an unsuspecting Greek…?

SWEET GOD IN HEAVEN, THE FUCKING LATINS ARE-

I’m getting ahead of myself.

The Byzantine Emperor is the first to learn of the threat to come, and is given over a year to adequately gird his loins. For the rest of the empire, the cult of Rome strikes rather more suddenly.


[The Byzantine flavor on this war declaration does read just a bit different.]

Then, if the foreign invaders aren’t repelled…


[The news from Constantinople isn’t exactly good.]

This is right as everything in Byzantium is falling apart. If you’re powerful enough, you can now seize the title of Despot (king), and remain administrative. Otherwise, keeping your estate will mean pledging to another soon-to-be Despot. Your alternative is goin’ back to feudal. And landless house heads? They should find themselves under one of the new Greek Despots.

In sum: their empire is a wreck, but this isn’t game over for the Greeks. The world marches on.

The brief, tumultuous age of Latin rule in Greek lands was referred to as such.

The Latin Emperor faces some interesting choices in the early days of rule.


[The Venetians offer a quid pro quo.]


[The Greeks suggest the Latin Emperor become… Administrative?!?]

In order to achieve maximum CK3 turmoil, the fall of Byzantium unlocks a new CB everywhere in the empire: Seize Imperial Duchy. For, in this age of uncertain aftermath, any who possess Byzantine de jure land can lay claim to other such titles.


[The Latin Emperor uses Seize Imperial Duchy to expand his realm.]

And, in a broken realm haunted by armed hosts, earning victory attracts armies to your banner! This should help stronger Latins, Turks and Greeks in the region push their way to dominance.

But what is de facto dominance without de jure righteousness?


[Legitimize Latin Dominion Decision.]

Latin Emperors of sufficient legitimacy have a unique decision that lets them claim the kingdoms of Byzantium and the hearts of the Greeks, one by one.


[Expunge Latin Dominion Decision.]

And the Byzantines, when/if they manage a comeback, can claw their kingdom titles back. Should they retake Constantinople and establish themselves well enough — the Restore the Byzantine Empire Decision gives the Greeks a pretty easy means to scrub all this nonsense out.

But y’know, probably just in time for the Ayyubids or the Mongols or the Ottomans or someone else to wipe them out for good.

Kýrie, eléison :(

---

Greetings! Rageair here with a small feature coming in the free update.

Something I’ve felt the absence of for a long time are certain historical figures appearing as the game progresses. I’m not talking about the likes of Frederick Barbarossa or Mansa Musa - rulers and their kin are simulated with vast branching dynastic trees, divergences here are core to the game! No, I’m talking about the great poets, scientists, scholars, commanders, and tricksters of history - those without a lineage of nobility to back them up.

In the update following Roads to Power you will see certain well-known historical figures appear across the map, which you can employ - or in case you own RtP - set out on an adventure as!


[Hildegard von Bingen - everyone’s favorite eccentric nun!]

Characters will appear in their historical place of birth (or our best approximation), Hildegard will appear in the barony of Worms, for example. By default you will only be notified if they appear in your Domain or if they are extremely well known (and you are the liege of any vassal holding the barony) - this can be altered via game rules, should you wish.


[Game Rule controlling how Historical Characters spawn]

Now, it’s no fun if these historical characters are too static! After all, no two games of CK are the same, and in one game the barony of Worms might be… of the Ibadi faith and Baranis culture, for example, who knows! In any case, for most characters (who don’t fall into the category of a specific religious minority or proponent) they will adapt to the faith/culture of their place of birth. As an example, here’s Hildegard again, but with the setup mentioned above.


[Hildegard, in case the barony of Worms was Ibadi and Baranis]

All historical characters spawned this way (not historical landed rulers, I’m afraid) have a snippet of information attached to them, explaining who they were in real-life. This snippet can be accessed from a widget near their opinion, and from their ‘Historical Character’-trait. Of course, the destiny that they’ll have in your game is almost always going to differ from their historical one, but it’s fun to compare with nonetheless!


[Thomas Aquinas also spawns with a Book inspiration - unfortunately we didn’t have time to hook in historical book titles, so they remain random, alas]

The trait helps you find them via the character finder, should you desire to see who’s around, and what they’re up to! I like to use it in order to invite them and land them as my vassals…


[The trait allows for easy searching]

If you’re lucky enough to have one of these characters spawn in your realm, you have three options:


[William Wallace - Illustrating the options]

You can choose to ignore them, should you not be in need of their services - or you can employ them and get an obligation hook. As mentioned, you can also abandon your dynasty and set out on an adventure as them - the only time in CK3 where I think it’s fair to do so, because it’s just too cool to be able to go on an adventure as someone like William Wallace or Ibn Battuta, and it would be a crime not to offer you that opportunity!


[Ibn Battuta will set out on adventure if dismissed, as he did historically!]

As the Expansion focuses on Byzantium, I took extra care to add every interesting character that I could for Byzantium and their surroundings, which does mean that an extraordinary amount of characters will appear in constantinople. At the start of 1066, no less than two well-known figures will make their appearance within a year or so…


[Michael the Stammerer was technically already at court in 1066, so his text mentions that he ‘made a name for himself at court’, rather than ‘wandering my realm’!]


[Joseph is very useful in fighting the Seljuks, indeed]

We tried to add as many interesting historical characters as we could to this new system, and we ended up with exactly(!) 100 of them, spanning most of the map! There are many very well-known figures, and some that are more obscure but that I’m sure will pique your interest when you see them. Here’s a sample of some of them:


[Omar Khayyam will also appear close to the 1066 start date]


[Perhaps you’d like to set out on a real journey as the famous Dante Alighieri?]


[Or maybe you’d like to literally take Ockham’s razor to the throat of your enemies?]


[This somewhat controversial pair will appear as lovers, and if you set out on an adventure as Heloise, Peter will join you!]


[You didn’t think we’d forget about the Norse, did you? Snorri here is the author of most of what we know about norse mythology today.]


[Many famous Jewish personalities, such as Rashi here, will appear across the map]


[And we’re not forgetting about India! Here’s Vidyapati, one of the most famous poets and scholars of the area.]


[Rumi hails from a non-Persian area in Anatolia, and instead of appearing Greek or Turkish will take his faith and culture from Balkh, as a compromise! Several historical characters hail from one place but take their faith/culture from another.]


[Alright alright, not all of the characters are 100% historically verifiable like Jangar here, but if they could have existed and are interesting enough - why not!]


[And some most certainly existed, but their stories were embellished over the centuries. Anyone from Turkey here who recognizes this funny fellow?]


[You might be familiar with a character named Varys who is a very influential eunuch from a certain popular franchise - John here is the real-life inspiration for that character!]

As mentioned above we’ve added a hundred characters (technically 101 but Héloïse d'Argenteuil & Peter Abelard is a package deal!), and here’s the full list (not in chronological order!)

Karunakara Tondaiman
Sekkilhar
Omar Khayyam
Bhaskaracharya
Joseph Rabban
Atisha
Hemachandra
Kshemendra
Akka Mahadevi
Namdev
Madhvacharya
Vidyapati
Abhinavagupta
Basava
Hildegard von Bingen
Thomas Aquinas
Dante Alighieri
Thomas Becket
Maimonides (Moses ben Maimon)
Chrétien de Troyes
Egil Skallagrímsson
Gunnlaug Ormstunga
Þorbjörg the Seeress
Erik Röde
Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen)
Ibn Battuta
William of Ockham
Geoffrey Chaucer
Roger Bacon
Aaron of Lincoln
John Wycliffe
Héloïse d'Argenteuil & Peter Abelard
Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca)
Giotto di Bondone
Leonardo Fibonacci
Giovanni Boccaccio
Christine de Pizan
Snorri Sturluson
Hrotsvitha
Ramanuja
Arnaldus de Villa Nova
Ibn Khaldun
Jalaluddin Rumi
Avicenna
Averroes
Al-Biruni
Rashi (Shlomo Yitzchaki)
Yehuda Halevi
Hasdai ibn Shaprut
Levi ben Gershon (Gersonides)
Abraham ibn Ezra
Solomon ibn Gabirol
Nachmanides (Moses ben Nahman)
Hasdai Crescas
Saadia Gaon
Yusuf ibn 'Awkal
Benjamin of Tudela
Marco Polo
Bridget of Sweden
Johannes Eckhart (Meister Eckhart)
Jangar
Zawisza Czarny
Theophanes the Greek
Nicetas Choniates
Michael Psellos
John Tzetzes
Theophylact of Ohrid
Eustathius of Thessalonica
Nicephorus Blemmydes
Georgius Pachymeres
Manuel Moschopoulos
Theodore Metochites
Michael Choniates
Joseph Tarchaneiotes
Gemistus Pletho
Arethas of Caesarea
Basil Lekapenos
John the Orphanotrophos AKA totally who Varys is based on
Samonas
Peter the Eunuch
Constantine the Paphlagonian
Peter the Stratopedarches
Basilios Bessarion
Demetrios Kydones
Manuel Holobolos
John Axuch
Mkhitar Gosh
Shota Rustaveli
Grigor Tatevatsi
Sargis Pitsak
Averardo de' Medici
Alfonso de Borgia
William Wallace
La Hire (Étienne de Vignolles)
Rabban Bar Sauma
Nasreddin Hodja
Widukind of Corvey
Roger de Flor
Regino of Prüm
Geoffrey of Monmouth

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That’s all we have for this week! As always, thanks for your time and attention.

We’ll be back next week to discuss the details of the new Scheme system coming in the Free Update releasing alongside Roads to Power. Until then, if you have any questions or feedback, feel free to leave them in the replies and we’ll do our best to address them.

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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

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!




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.]

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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.

---

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.

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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.

---

[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.

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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.]

---

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. ]

---

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.

---

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.]

---

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.

---

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.

---

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.

---

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

Our free tie-in comic made in collaboration with Dead Good Comics, Many Roads to Power, is now available! Read about the rise of Basil I “the Macedonian" to the throne of Byzantium, and then write your own conclusion to the story when our next Major Expansion, Roads to Power, releases on September 24.

This comic is available for free to all owners of Crusader Kings III via Steam, and available to anyone whether they own the game or not via our website.

---

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

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!



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.

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.


[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.

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]

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]

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


[Ayrudzi and Conrois Men-at-Arms Types]

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

1. Which team would you like to place your wager on?
   
2. 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?
   
3. 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.

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]

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]

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!

---

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]

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.

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.

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]

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.

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)]

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!

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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.

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]

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]

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]

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.

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.

Welcomes back, comrades, to Landless Adventurers Part 2! I’m Wokeg, and last week, we went over the general core gameplay (what we expect you to be doing, where your resources come from, and what you spend them on). This week, we’re gonna be doing uhhh… literally everything else.

Just like last time, everything shown here is a work in progress. Features won’t shift massively but values (and occasionally modifiers or parameters) potentially will. Costs, gains, and some requirements in particular are all undergoing active adjustment at present.

► Discuss Dev Diary #152 on our forums!



You can read the full dev diary by following this link to our forums or you can watch our video covering this dev diary below.

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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

Grab a seat by the campfire as medieval historian Eleanor Janega tells tales of some of the great adventurers of the Middle Ages, some of whom you can encounter in Crusader Kings III: Roads to Power.

Learn about the motivations and meanings of their travels, and what these journeys tell us about ourselves.

Welcome comrades! Wokeg here: I hope everyone enjoyed their window into how the other half lives with the Administrative Government Dev Diaries, because today we’re gonna be going back down into the mud with our favourite homeless wanderers — Landless Adventurers.

As usual, everything shown here today is a work in progress. Values are likely to be changed, features are final but details are not, all that good stuff. In particular, some of the adventurer contract rewards are currently a smidge high right now, so we’ll be taking those down a bit (specifically gold and prestige) pending further playtesting before release.

► Discuss Dev Diary #151 on our forums!



You can read the full dev diary by following this link to our forums or you can watch our video covering this dev diary below.

---

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

We sat down with Professor Anthony Kaldellis from the University of Chicago to talk about the Byzantine Empire, the medieval incarnation of the Roman Empire and the inspiration behind our upcoming expansion for Crusader Kings III: Roads to Power.

Learn more about the history, system of government, and religions of one of history's greatest empires!

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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!



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.



[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.


[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.

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?


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.

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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]

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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.

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!

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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!

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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

Salutations! Welcome back as we take another look at all things Byzantium and how our new government, Administrative, works. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend that you first go and read up on our previous Dev Diary and Part 1, posted last week.

As with last week, 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. 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.

► Discuss Dev Diary #149 on our forums!

---

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