Hello there!

Welcome back to the first official dev diary for our Core Expansion this year, Khans of the Steppe. For those who did not see it, we first talked about the DLC back last month with Dev Diary #162 - Steppe by Steppe, so I recommend reading that first.

Today we will discuss Tributaries, Confederations, and Raid Intents. All three topics were mentioned in the previous Dev Diary, but we will discuss them at length in this one, so let’s settle in like a migrating nomad and get started.

The team has gone through an intense iteration period based on both feedback collected internally and the comments received from our previous Dev Diary. Many changes have been thus made, and we are sure we are not done with it yet. However, here's a small list of some of the most significant tweaks done based on your feedback:

• A new, "base" Tributary type has been made available for non-Nomads.
  
• Concerns about the Nomadic economy have been addressed by adding a monthly income for nomads based on their Herd size (symbolizing the trade of meat, hides, etc.)
  
• A game rule has been added to include Nomadic governments in the Sahel, Arabia, the horn of Africa, Sami and Karelia regions
  
• Tweaked the borders of the Steppe and characters who should be nomadic in all bookmarks (more than I can list here, screenshots will be shared in following Diaries)
  
• We've added a Culture and Faith specific to your Nomadic Capital, different than your own
  
• Adventurers can now become Nomads if they move into a Herder holding
  
• We have expanded what we originally scoped for razing
  
• We've extended and altered the effects of some Seasons
  
• We have made it possible to grow your herd if you hold lands outside of the Steppe, giving those counties Fertility if held by a nomad

One of the new features we’re introducing with Khans of the Steppe, and the free update that goes along with it, are Tributaries. Vast nomadic realms like the Cumans, Khitans, and Khazars were not kept together by a tiered system of formal vassalage and pledges of fealty, nor were they delineated by culture or religion. Instead, the harsh realpolitik of the steppe applied - whoever could muster the greatest capacity for destruction on their neighbors proved themselves worthy of tribute, in exchange for the privilege of not being trampled underhoof. Modeling this type of subject relationship properly was the impetus for the Tributary feature.

Let's back up a bit and discuss some fundamentals first though, because tributaries aren't just a nomad thing. While Tributaries are similar to vassals in some respects, they represent a whole new type of unequal diplomatic relationship in the game. As a result, many game elements that formerly referred to "vassals" now refer to "subjects" instead. Subjects can be either vassals or tributaries, and these sub-types adhere to different rules. As with vassal contracts, there can be different types of tributary contracts with varying degrees of obligations. In most cases, these terms can be renegotiated.

Tributaries can be seen as a more independent subject type compared to vassals. While in most cases they share the map color and realm name with their suzerain, they can act and be interacted with independently, even when it comes to warfare. Most tributary types can also be created through peaceful means, by a sovereign ruler pledging tribute to a nomadic realm in exchange for a guarantee to not be attacked by them, or through a nomadic ruler demanding tribute from a neighboring realm. Agreements of tribute are (usually) perpetuated across generations, but may change in nature over time or be more easily broken when the contract changes hands.


[Marzoban Tokku and his weak backbone stands little chance against the persuasive might of the Cumanian horde]


[If some scary nomadic realm is on your border and you'd like to remain as independent as possible, you can proactively choose to pay them tribute to avoid outright conquest]


[Existing vassals can be released as tributaries, and in some cases you can even vassalize an existing tributary]

Nomadic Tributaries are what you will encounter most frequently in Khans of the Steppe. These consist of nomadic realms (or spineless herders) who have pledged tribute to a stronger nomadic ruler on their border. They will pay a part of their herd in tribute on a regular basis, and some of the prestige they gain will also be conferred upon their suzerain. In exchange for tribute, they enjoy a great deal of independence from their suzerain and will not be outright attacked or raided by them. They can even have tributaries of their own!

Settled Tributaries are non-nomadic realms (such as feudal princes, tribes, or clans) who have yielded to a bordering nomadic ruler. Like their nomadic tributary counterparts, they will pay tribute on a regular basis, but instead of herd they will provide gold and levies.

Both these types of tributary contracts are inherited across generations, but they also have quite a bit of leeway in simply ceasing payments (if they are ready to face the consequences of insulting their suzerain, that is). This is most likely to happen if a nomadic suzerain prove themselves weak in some way (and therefore unworthy of tribute, by the laws of the steppe), like losing a war or suffering a chaotic Kurultai succession. Once tributaries opt to stop sending gifts to their suzerain the suzerain can choose to attack them to recover control, or let them go try to make their own destiny without their protection. To try to keep this from happening, nomadic suzerains can either be lenient with their contract conditions, or leverage their Dread to demand Obedience of their tributaries.


[Your subject view will display if any of your tributaries are likely to stop paying you and why. Obedience plays a strong role in keeping your subjects in line, but even disobedient ones will be reluctant to stop paying off much stronger suzerains. More factors will be added before launch, such as losing a war or having chaotic Kurultai successions.]

A third type of subjugated tributary has also been added, which has no direct relation to nomads. This is a tributary type obliged to pay a lot of gold and a small amount of prestige to their suzerain in exchange for their suzerain's protection from outside invasion. If attacked, a subjugated tributary can call their suzerain in to defend them, and if they refuse their tributary obligations are annulled. Any non-nomadic realm can create this type of tributary through the Bring Under Tribute casus belli, enabling the extortion of neighboring protectorates through sheer military might.

This contract does not get inherited by the suzerain's heir upon their death, but also cannot be voluntarily broken. If the tributary wishes to break free of their obligations prior to their suzerain's death, they will have to fight them for independence.


[Even feudal realms can subjugate neighboring kingdoms to make them pay tribute, if their Crown Authority is high enough]

It's important to note that it's possible to modify the terms of a tributary contract, just like a vassal contract. For example, nomads can negotiate for protection by their suzerains in exchange for higher tribute payments. If you and your tributary are Blood Brothers, you can even negotiate a guarantee that they will follow you on all military adventures, offensive as well as defensive.


[Even the tributary can try to renegotiate the terms, but without a good relationship with (or a hook on) your suzerain this might be met with limited success]

Another aspect of tributaries of nomadic realms is that they can provide new Men-at-Arms types to their suzerain. In keeping with the flexible and heterogenous nature of steppe warfare, nomad rulers are able to recruit Men-at-Arms from both tributaries and vassals as if they were their own. Since the Men-at-Arms are recruited from other realms, rather than an additional cost of herd (to represent the development of more advanced mounted units) this costs a premium in gold to entice the foreigners to join up with the Khan's formidable horde.


[If you don’t have any subjects with access to some of the basic Men-at-Arms types, you get a little hint suggesting who might give you access to them…]

Visually, tributary realms will typically adopt the map color and name of their suzerain to clarify the relationship between them. Modders might be interested to know that this behavior can be changed in script depending on the subject contract: you can make tributary types that do not inherit the suzerain's color or name, or just one of them, as well!


[In 867, the Khazars dominate the Western Steppe while the Kirghiz control the Eastern parts. The Karluks and Ohguz are powerful nomadic realms in the central steppe region and have a lot of opportunity to compete for the smaller nomadic and tribal realms towards the northern parts.]


[In 1066 the western and central steppe regions are dominated by the Cumans in the south, with a considerable tributary network maintaining their control of the center and maintaining their power against the Karluks and Khitans. The Pechenegs have migrated west and act as a buffer zone between the steppe and the Byzantine Empire - will they manage to become their own nomadic powerhouse, or fall to either of their titanic neighbors?]


[In 1178, the Cumans remain the most powerful nomadic realm on the steppe, but for how long? The Khitans are migrating south into East Asia, leaving their old lands to the fractured Mongols to thrive.]

Since tributaries inherit all of the functionality of the vassal contract system, with a few extensions, they are very flexible and capable of modeling a great deal of unequal relationships between realms and rulers. There's a fair chance you will see more tributary types and dynamics added to the game in the future, and the system is fully available to modders to play with as well!

But how would you deal with these massive, aggressive nomadic realms as a smaller nomad who just wants to live a laid-back, peaceful nomadic lifestyle? One avenue to that is what we'll discuss next.

Brothers and sisters, do you ever tire of lusting after power? When you jump into a game as a meek little Count, do you wish friends and neighbors would stand together with you against the masters of the world? Do you want something new to do as a tribal? Say no more, my brothers and sisters - but the sacred words, the oath of confederation!

In short, Confederations are a new way for nomads and tribals to feel safe while initially building their power, playing tall, etc. It’s also a bit of an extra challenge for those looking to easily gobble up areas of the map that lack a mighty King or Emperor.


[12th c. Estonia mightn’t have looked quite like this, but hopefully this captures some of its spirit]

The inspiration for Confederations came from a visit to beautiful Tallinn, Estonia (which I very highly recommend), a fascinating conversation with a very learned scholar in medieval Baltic history, and a visit to the Great Guild Hall Museum. Therein, an exhibit asked the question — “Why did Estonia not become a Kingdom?”

It’s an interesting question, with at least a few answers. In a sense, the Estonian tribes did actually have kings, but these were temporary war-leaders or spiritual figures, and they did not serve to unite all the tribes together into one lasting polity. They are mentioned, as stubborn figures of resistance, in the Christian chronicles of conquest. This kind of defensive decentralization seemed new for CK3; I immediately wanted to represent it in our game. And, of course, there are the steppe confederations of history — the Khamag Mongol, the Kimek-Kipchaks, the Mogyërs, and so on — to consider and draw from as well. I’m also a Canadian btw, and Confederation has been a force of history around the Great Lakes for quite a while.

Let’s go through the confederating process, and discuss.


[The Decision that lays the path to Confederation]

The first step is a Decision that enables you to offer Confederation to other rulers. Its warnings are to be taken seriously — you will likely have to leave your Confederation if you want to increase your station in the world (through means like title creation, migration, Dominance) or enrich yourself by raiding/attacking your fellow weaklings.


[The requirements for starting a Confederation; you have to be something of a small fish]

Who can make a Confederation? Well, you have to be standing on your own, and you can’t be standing very tall. These same restrictions apply to all prospective Confederates.


[Additional Confederation triggers. Most of the time, you’ll need a big, scary common foe]

Confederations in Crusader Kings III will be fleeting, ephemeral things, and focused largely on deterring the depredations of powerful neighbors. Thus, they will almost always be created in response to major powers being at their borders. It’s been really cool to watch Conquerors and great kings arise and, as they do, Confederations spring up all along their underbellies like nests of rats or colonies of fire ants. There is now a third, sometimes-viable alternative to “submit or die.”

The possible faith hostility trigger also works really nicely along the borderlands between pagan tribals and reformed faiths: it means the former can often be seen making the Confederation defensive arrangement to resist the brutal tide of history.


[You’re ready for Confederation… you just need a buddy to join you]

Given Confederations are available across the map, to both nomads and tribals, related content is laced with conditional loc and effects to keep things from feeling too inappropriate. That said, this isn’t a content-heavy feature; development on Confederations instead focused on making it an effective new mechanic.


[The interaction used to create a Confederation, and also to add new members]

The character interaction Offer Confederation (unlocked by the Call for Confederation decision or by Confederation membership) is how this brothers-in-arms, last stand-style shit comes to pass. Notice that, because migration removes members from the Confederation, there are incentives to stay put for a bit longer (a positive County Fertility modifier and an immediate County Fertility boost). AI should also be more reluctant to migrate than usual, at least for a few years.


[Weights are pretty comprehensive and pretty make-or-break]

Your level of investment in your confederation can make a big difference in its strength: herd, prestige and hooks can be sacrificed to make valid members more willing to join.


[Well isn’t that nice - he accepts!]


[Note the Confederation icon and breakdown]

Confederations aren’t a title. Their closest equivalent is an alliance or truce, thus they live in the Diplomacy space of the Character view. Here, you can see all members of the Confederation.

The Kimek Confederation is a culture-based name, which happens when both the first members are of the same culture. When they aren’t, the Confederation will be named after the founder’s de jure duchy (ex. the Semey Confederation, the Kargassia Confederation).


[A handful of Kimeks have joined the Confederation (squint, it’s on the left)]

On the map, Confederations will look similar to the new Tributaries: their individual realm names are replaced by the overall Confederation and their map colors are blended towards the main Confederation color (which is based on the founder’s capital).

You may notice that the members remain rather unevenly-sized. That’s because only independent top rulers are members of the Confederation, and their vassals (if they have any) are not.


[The Confederation is attacked!]

When a Confederation member is attacked is when the organization really comes into its own. All members are automatically added as Defenders. This can result in a pretty potent nest of bees that the aggressor has just poked. Accordingly, the combined strength of a Confederation is shown when opening the Declare War screen on one of its members, and AI should be appropriately hesitant to attack strong Confederations.

Note that this applies only to members’ defensive wars. They cannot call on the Confederation when they themselves declare offensive wars.


[The Decision for when a Confederate decides it’s time to go…]

While AI will usually give the Confederation at least a few years of their time, players are quite free to strike off on their own whenever. Albeit… for a higher Prestige cost during the first couple years.

The AI weighting for this Decision is heavily dependent on circumstances. Chief among these is the presence of big nearby threats that necessitate confederation. The result is that, where confederations are needed, they should prove much more lasting and resilient. And when they are no longer needed, they should often quickly disband.


[BROTRAYAL]

And there it is, Confederations! I hope this run-through has cleared up the feature. And remember — the CK player who stands alone, dies alone. Call up a friend right now and ask if they’d FUCKING DIE for you. Post results in the comments.

We discussed raid intents in the previous dev diary, with a small WIP screenshot. It’s time to expand on what we said then.

First of all, we should talk about loot. As you all know, we’ve had loot in the game for quite a while. Gold you can take from a settlement as you raid them as a tribal ruler or a pagan, which you then bring back home to turn into gold and prestige. We haven’t changed the core mechanic of loot, but we have disconnected it slightly from purely being gold, now that you have more ways of using it. With Raid Intents, we now have ways of turning that loot into other things, to symbolize your aims as you are raiding foreign lands.



Here is the new raid intent screen (for nomads), after a small art pass and after we added some proper names. Now, let’s look at the default raid intent for nomadic rulers, Pillage.


[Note that none of the numbers are final, so they might change before the release]

It’s a fairly straightforward calculation. If you bring home 100 loot, you will get 100 gold and 150 herd out of it when you return to your borders.

Most of the other raid intents have some kind of separate side effects in addition to their base calculation, so let’s look at some of them.



Nomads were known for raiding far and wide, with the Hungarian raiders, for example, bringing home loot from all across Europe. With the Adventure raid intent, it will take a bit longer to raid each settlement, but you can carry a significantly larger amount of loot with you, and you will take no hostile county attrition.

It should be noted that within the steppe, nomad raiders will not take any hostile county attrition, regardless of raid intent, but they will regularly take attrition outside of it.



Plunder symbolizes that you aren’t necessarily just taking anything but trying to find the most valuable things to take. It will take significantly longer to raid every single settlement. Still, the loot conversion as you get home is considerably better, and you have a chance to learn innovations of a culture as you raid a settlement if they know about something you do not (though the chances are quite low).



For those less interested in the loot itself but rather other side effects, you might want to take the capture raid intent to significantly increase the chance of capturing someone as you raid a settlement. It’s great if you are looking to ransom someone.



And last but not least, you have the opportunity to destroy. It’s an opportunity for nomads to increase their prestige (as they don’t get any prestige from other raid intents) and their dread (which is more important for nomads). It also destroys buildings and development in settlements they raid.

Now, one thing to mention is that we don’t only have raid intents for nomads but for other raiders as well. Regular raiders also have access to the Terrorize raid intent, so feel free to bring destruction to your enemies no matter which flavor of uncivilized you are. They also have access to Pillage, but in a slightly different form:



Like current functionality, you simply change your loot to gold and prestige. And for Vikings, they have access to a slightly modified version of the Adventure intent.



If you want to raid your way down to Constantinople and then home again, feel free to take this to bring all that loot back home.

Now for the other side, you can destroy the raiders as they enter your lands, but we have also made one small adjustment so you can protect yourself a bit against any incoming threat.



We have increased the hostile raid time reduction in the building, so you have more time to respond to incoming threats. It now also reduces the chances of special raid intents. In other words, it reduces the improvements from the Capture raid intent, minimizes the chance of Terrorize ruining your lands, and for Plunder to find any innovation.

Upgrading the building will improve the effect and block raid intent special effects from happening outright. In other words, something to keep in mind if you experience a lot of raids in your lands.

That’s it for this week. Next week, we plan to revisit migrations and the nomadic government, so we hope to see you again then. Go forth and conquer, my blood brothers.

Hello everyone! I'm the Community Manager with Paradox Studio Black, and today we're excited to present to you the next stage in Crusader Kings III's development: Chapter IV. Today, we'll go over the themes of each piece of content that make up the Chapter, as well as give a brief peek at their features. Without further ado, let's get into it.

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The first release in Chapter IV, Khans of the Steppe, focuses on the brand-new Nomadic Government and the systems we've created to support it. Inspired by the nomadic peoples of the Eurasian Steppe, these mechanics will challenge you to adapt to a lifestyle dominated by the ebb and flow of the land's vitality, maintain your herds, and establish your dominance over the region by any means necessary.

Nomads don't live in a single static location; historically they travelled across the steppe as climate and fertility demanded, and we've strived to recreate that experience in Khans of the Steppe. You'll guide your people and herds across the region, tapping into the fertility of the land for as long as it lasts. Once resources run dry, you must migrate anew. Chieftains can roam peacefully by negotiating with neighboring shepherds, or seize new pastures by force.

Representing your horses, cattle, and overall strength within the steppe, the new Herd system becomes a cornerstone of diplomatic, martial, and economic actions. Use it to fuel your warbands, or as currency in your negotiations.

Prove your might on the steppe through Dominance, increasing it alongside your power and territory. At its highest level, you might even claim the mantle of Genghis Khan; the Universal Ruler.

Life in the steppe is harsh, affected by the changing climate and weather patterns. A White Zud could blanket the land in snow, decimating fertility and putting pressure on you to find greener pastures. Meanwhile, milder conditions can bring bountiful growth to your herds, ushering in a period of prosperity.

Khans of the Steppe releases on April 28, with dev diaries scheduled for every Tuesday until then. Be sure to mark your calendars if you're eager to try your hand at this new style of governance and rulership.

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Beyond the steppe of Eurasia, Chapter IV introduces a new event pack simply titled: Coronations. In the medieval world, a coronation was more than just a gathering, it represented the moment where earthly and divine legitimacy converged.

Coronations function as a new activity type, letting you experience the event first hand. Coordinate with religious authorities and conduct the perfect ceremony to establish your right to rule in the eyes of your vassals and subjects. Plan it wisely, because the consequences of this activity can echo throughout your entire reign and beyond.

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Chapter IV's flagship Major Expansion, All Under Heaven, is set to be the largest and most ambitious expansion in Crusader Kings history. We're completing our map of the medieval world by extending its scope across all of Asia. This massive expansion brings new gameplay, unique governments, and entirely different perspectives on life in the medieval era.

From the celestial might of Imperial China and the unique governments of Japan and Korea, to the god-kings of the Indonesian archipelago, each new area in All Under Heaven features new cultures, faiths, and flavor.

To properly represent the power and influence of China in this period, we're introducing a new tier of title above an empire: the Hegemony. This new title tier allows for further granular representation of the division of power within large-scale realms.

The fate of the imperial dynasties follows a cyclical pattern, reflecting historical eras of stability and eras of chaos. Players will struggle to maintain the Mandate of Heaven and prove that they are the right choice to navigate the empire through treacherous waters.

A new centralized treasury system for the Chinese Emperor represents the flow of wealth upward and into the empire's coffers, letting you decide how to spend (or squander) resources that could make or break the stability of the realm.

While no release date is being announced at this time, you can expect our normal in-depth developer diaries to start for this expansion shortly after the release of Khans of the Steppe, with our first dev diary tentatively scheduled for May.

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To properly prepare for our upcoming content in Chapter IV, we're releasing a broad set of changes to the game's existing content with our 1.15 "Crown" Update, available to all owners of Crusader Kings III right now, free of charge. This update overhauls multiple systems and fixes numerous issues to ensure your experience in the medieval world is more enjoyable.

The full changelog is too large to share here, but you can find it on our official forums at the bottom of this dev diary.

A more intuitive interface for appointing and managing your court's less essential roles. New court positions are introduced, while existing ones are given tasks that their holders can be directed to perform for various benefits. Additionally, you can now choose to replace vacancies manually, or set specific positions to be refilled automatically.

Focus on what's important to you while you let the AI handle martial affairs. There's also new interface elements to clarify what allied armies (or your own, if automation is enabled) are actually doing, making it easier than ever to coordinate your war efforts.

The AI will now gather its armies before striking at its enemies as a properly coordinated force. Expect more unified Great Holy War offensives, and fiercer opposition as a defender.

From quality-of-life changes to bug squashing, the 1.15 "Crown" update refines the overall experience of the game. It's also available right now, so give it a try and let us know what you think!

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For those eager to dive into Chapter IV content as soon as possible, anyone who purchases the Chapter IV pass will immediately receive the Crowns of the World cosmetic pack, unlocking various culture-specific crowns and turbans. Whether you play in Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa, you're sure to find new stylish ways to represent your royal persona.

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We want to ensure that the content in Chapter IV is the best it can be, and a huge part of that is building strong communications and relationships between us and our layers. Your feedback on existing content as well as upcoming features is vital to this effort. To facilitate this, we're collecting questions from all of you until March 19, and will publish a video responding to as many of these as we can on March 26th. Submit your questions below in the comments, or on any of our social media channels.

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Chapter IV is the most ambitious content cycle in Crusader Kings history, offering everything from the struggles of maintaining your herd as a nomadic ruler in Khans of the Steppe, to the weight of ceremony and duty in Coronations, culminating in the completion of our map of the medieval world in All Under Heaven. Whether you choose to play in the new areas being introduced to the game or your existing favorites, Chapter IV will redefine the stories you make in Crusader Kings III.

The 1.15 "Crown" Update and the Chapter IV pass are both available right now. The Crown update is available for free to all owners of Crusader Kings III, while those who purchase the Chapter IV pass will immediately receive Crowns of the World as well as all the content mentioned above as soon as it is released.

Greetings!

This Dev Diary is about the upcoming free update, which we’ve dubbed 1.15.0 ‘Crown’! Similarly to free updates of the past, the Crown update will be pretty big - it has reworked systems, new features, and a myriad of bugfixes and balance changes.

All of the changes that I’ll go over stem from the fact that we spend a lot of time updating, tweaking, and bugfixing existing systems and features as part of our parallel development track setup - depending on the status of an individual track, people from that track are assigned to what we call ‘Realm Maintenance’, where we focus on improving areas of the game that we either feel aren’t good enough, or that you in the community are asking for us to change. Usually a lot of Realm Maintenance time happens at the start of a new development track, as there are few bugs in newly developed content during, for example, the concepting or pre-production phases. During Realm Maintenance we have Improvement Days where we add as many smaller improvements and quality of life changes as we can, and some time is also used to polish promising projects from the Black Forge Jam (an internal sort-of game jam where we experiment with new CK3 features). The Crown update contains over 4 months worth of Realm Maintenance, including 200+ bugfixes.

I won’t have time to go over everything in detail, so I’ll focus on a few highlights!

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Last year we teased a Court Position rework, and since then we’ve refined it and added even more improvements. In short; the rework aims to make Court Positions more interesting and engaging, adding tools, adjusting costs, improving quality-of-life, and making the UI less of a hassle to use. The intent is for Court Positions to be more widely used by giving them new effects and tasks that allow you to deal with many different situations.


[Image - The new layout]

The new layout allows you to see more positions at once, and presents them in a more immersive way. All of the information is still there, of course: most of what you don’t need to see at all times has just moved into the tooltip. What you need to know at a glance is still visible.


[Image - Unavailable Court Positions]

At the bottom of the list we’ve added a new foldable category that reveals all positions that you could potentially have. It’ll exclude anything you cannot possibly get, such as Adventurer Officers for landed characters and vice-versa. The tooltips will tell you what you can do in order to get them.


[Image - Court Position automation]

Now when it’s more important than ever to keep certain positions filled, we’ve added the option of choosing to fill the position automatically. This comes in three flavors, depending on your preference: an event giving you the option to choose between a few good candidates in your court, auto-assign the highest aptitude courtier, or auto-assign with an event notifying you if there are no candidates. This can be toggled per Court Position, and different positions can have different settings.


[Image - Seneschal Tooltip]

A lot of court positions were never used because it was hard to justify spending gold on their salaries, so we decided to transfer part of the costs into prestige, and we also lowered salaries across the board (the salary pictured in the screenshot is from the late medieval era, roughly 150 years in from 1066). Prestige is a resource most players are more willing to part with, but as there up until now has existed very few ‘prestige income sinks’ you need to be careful so you don’t spend it all…

All of the new tasks have costs; some of them prestige, some gold, and some even cost piety. It's these tasks where the brunt of the cost will come from, but they are naturally opt-in, and you can use them to handle tricky situations, toggling them on/off as you see fit.

Most positions now also come with an interesting effect for the holder of the position, such as the 20% stewardship experience pictured above. This also means that we’ve opened up a lot more positions to be held by vassals, which is interesting because:


[Image - Request Court Position]

You can now request Court Positions from your liege, allowing you to reap some of the benefits that they convey, such as Royal Architect now reducing your build time/build cost, or the Court Poet now reducing your stress gain, general opinion, and diplomacy lifestyle xp.


[Image - Grant Court Position]

You can also grant court positions directly via a character interaction now, making it easier to, for example, appease angry vassals with ceremonial positions.


[Image - A handful of the new tasks]

There are way too many new Court Position Tasks for me to go through them in detail, but above is a small sample of what you’re going to see. Most Court Positions now have three tasks to choose from, with a few having one or two - these tasks cover a wide variety of things you might want, from Wet Nurses instilling virtues into your children, to your Antiquarian searching for rumors about locations of rare Artifacts, to your High Almoner promoting the opinion of Zealous Vassals, among many, many more things.

Many of the things you can now do didn't have any tools before; such as reducing the stress of characters other than yourself (which can be achieved via the Entertain Courtiers task for the Jester). You can also use various positions and tasks to slowly increase your Legitimacy; the Seneschal gives a small passive trickle, the Court Poet can give you Legitimacy % Gain Modifiers as part of the Write Poetry Task, and the Court Musicians Bolster Legitimacy Task (the Court Musician is now available to Duke-tier characters and no longer requires Royal Court to have!). It’s worth noting that all tasks that increase stat points, such as ‘Exercise with Ruler’, are balanced in such a way that you cannot gain skills unless the holder of the position is better at the skill than you are.

We’ve also taken this opportunity to move the entire Hunt Sighting system into these tasks. If you want hunt sightings to improve the success chance of your hunts, you now choose what your Master of the Hunt should focus on finding - this makes the system less random and gives you more agency.

There’s more that I’ve not talked about, to see the full extent of changes I refer to the full changelog here on our official forums!

Another feature we teased last year was the addition of Automated Armies, an opt-in feature where the AI takes control of your armies and fights wars for you. The intent behind this feature is to allow you to focus on other things while engaged in trivial wars, and to allow players unfamiliar or uninterested in warfare to enjoy the game more. If you are an experienced player we still recommend that you control your armies yourself, but give it a spin if you’re just cleaning up those three counts bordering your empire!


[Image - Automated Armies Settings]

Now, there are two crucial parts to this feature working well: seeing what the AI is thinking, and for the AI to play well. There’s nothing that differentiates Automated Armies from how the AI normally plays, so improving one improves the other. Both of these areas will be covered in the two sections below:

Sometimes you have an ally in a war that you have no idea what they are thinking - perhaps they’re just standing there, moving erratically, or being generally unhelpful. Quite often this is because of something that you’re not aware of; perhaps they are resupplying their armies, perhaps they are guarding a siege, etc. To make it more transparent what an army is doing, we’ve added icons with descriptions that explicitly tell you what the AI is up to.


[Image - Exposed Ally Thinking]

This is also applied to your own armies if they’re automated, giving you an overview of what they’re doing.


[Image - Exposed automation thinking]

In the above screenshot, the right army is actively besieging while the left one is guarding the siege while standing in a province with enough supply limit to support it.

There are a multitude of different states for the AI to show; moving, attacking, moving to siege, supporting the player, etc. Hopefully this’ll clear up most uncertainties regarding why they’re doing things that might otherwise appear inexplicable.

We’ve been working a lot with warfare AI in an effort to make it better. We’re not promising miracles, but we have spent over two months of programmer time in an effort to nail down bugs, improve sub-par behavior, and change behavior that, while intended, didn’t feel ‘right’.

This includes a lot of cases where the AI would be indecisive, passive, or ‘dance’ between provinces, which was often caused by various competing systems trying to avoid attrition, match supply limits to stack sizes, and edge-case bugs. These fixes in combination with the exposed AI ally logic above results in much more clear warfare where it’s easier to understand what the AI is up to.

We’ve also taught the AI about War Score, making them pursue what would give them score, rather than arbitrarily choosing actions based on a set of circumstances that were always fixed. For example; when you’re fighting a war as a player, you’re less likely to pursue battles if you know that the siege you’re currently about to finish would win you the war, and you’re also less likely to pursue battles if you’re already capped on battle warscore (usually war score for battles is capped at +50% for most CB’s). They’re now also much more likely to siege using stacks with Siege Weapons, and will try to shuffle their siege stacks around in such a way that their ongoing sieges aren’t broken.

Now, there are going to be edge cases where unwanted behavior still happens, and we’ll keep fixing bugs as we find them. Hopefully you won't notice as much strange AI behavior any more.

An area of the game where the ‘normal’ war AI does not perform as well is during Crusades, so we decided to take a suggestion from the community and give these Great Holy Wars some special treatment. The ‘one size fits all’ philosophy out the window, the AI now has a set of special procedures they follow during these grand-scale wars in particular.

Firstly there’s a set of smaller tweaks; the AI cares less about attrition and supply until they’ve made some headway, and they will try to ‘boat hop’ less often (take short sea paths). When you’re going from well-supplied Europe by boat disembarking into low-supply drylands with an army of potentially hundreds of thousands of men there’s no way you can find enough supply for all of them - the AI now knows this, and when they start assaulting the war target they will temporarily ignore attrition until they’ve gotten enough of a beachhead that they can support the size of their units, this makes the initial phase of a crusade more likely to succeed as the attacking AI won’t desperately shuffle their troops around to find supply. By ‘boat hopping’ less they will prefer land routes to their targets, avoiding the -30 advantage penalty.

Now for the meat of the changes; the attacker in a GHW will first find a ‘Gathering Area’, and then move their armies to a ‘Staging Area’.


[Image - AI armies gathering in Roma before sailing to Jerusalem]

For the first stage of a Great Holy War the attacking AI will find a good-supply area where they can gather their forces. As stacks of units are raised across a large part of the world they need some time to gather, and should do so in a safe place. In this example we have a crusade against Jerusalem, so Roma with its surrounding counties is deemed both safe and close enough to the target to be designated the Gathering Area. You will see an icon on allied AI units with a text that says where they intend to gather, so that you can follow them there. They will gather for several months before setting off to the next step of the journey: the Staging Area.


[Image - AI armies staging in Issus after having gathered in Roma]

The Staging Area is the closest friendly or neutral area to the war target, in this example it’s in Byzantium. The attacking forces will make their way there before starting their assault, which means that they will arrive as a much more unified force. This also means that they won’t immediately attack from the water, avoiding disembarkment penalties and ensuring that their stacks have an acceptable degree of supply. Instead they will most likely march in via land, taking a modicum of attrition along the way, but ultimately mustering a more successful assault.

Now, the testing that we’ve done reveals that the attackers are usually more successful, but can still lose. Though now when they lose it’s less because they frustratingly trickle in across several years with disembarkment penalties and no supply, and more because the defenders have a homeland advantage - as it should be.

The character interaction menu has received a facelift, with the intent of cleaning it up and making interactions more intuitive.


[Image - Cleaned-up interaction menu]

Several categories have been removed and merged into other categories to keep the overall number down. We’ve added colors to these categories so it’s easier to glance at the one you need.

You can now easily see if a scheme is personal, hostile, or political - with the predicted scheme difficulty shown next to it, making it easier to see what you could be pursuing without having to delve into each interaction.


[Image - Favorite button]

As we’ve moved several interactions to no longer be common and only shown in sub-menus, we’ve added a way for you to select ‘favorite’ interactions. Favorite interactions will be shown in their own category at the top of the interaction menu, allowing you to see what you think is important first.


[Image - Favorites in action]

Wherever it makes sense we’ve now added a quick-interaction button that contains a collection of relevant interactions for that context. These buttons have been added in various places, such as for your head of faith, on your Administrative liege, or on administrative governors in the theme view. If you’re a modder you can easily make more custom contexts.


[Image - Head of Faith custom interaction category]


[Image - UI for raising armies anywhere]

You can now right-click to raise your armies in a specific area, so you no longer have to move a rally point there first. This simplifies the act of raising armies and prevents the mistake where you can accidentally raise your armies on the wrong side of your empire just because you moved your rally point there during your last war… It’s not impossible that we’ll remove and replace the rally point system entirely in the future.


[image - Tooltip for Raise Armies]


[Image - Eparch]

Going hand-in-hand with the Court Position rework, a new Court Position has been added for independent rulers of Administrative realms: the Eparch. The Eparch focuses on improving your capital in various ways; the tasks are expensive, but the effects are significant! Being the Eparch is also very attractive for vassals, as they get a significant influence boost…


[Image - Eparch Tasks]

Going hand-in-hand with the Eparch is the new Capital Magistracy building, which improves the aptitude of the Eparch among other things. It can only be built in the capital of an Administrative realm.


[Image - A tier 1 Capital Magistracy building]

Not everything will be easier for Administrative realms - we also thought that it was way too easy for them to hold on to their lands, even when engaged in civil wars or otherwise weakened. We’ve added a new CB that can only be used on Administrative realms, ‘Seize Peripheral Duchy’, that allows you to take any duchy that is outside of the empire's De Jure for a very low prestige cost. This CB has 3x the Siege and battle warscore for the attacker, and a significantly faster ticking warscore, making it the perfect way to reclaim lands from an otherwise preoccupied empire.


[Image - The Seize Peripheral Duchy CB]

Alongside this we’ve also reworked the "Order Mass Arrests" decision to be a character interaction. You can now use this on all noble families, and not just powerful families, as long as their estate is located in the capital. We’ve also tweaked the options for when you restore the Roman Empire, such as offering a path to become Hellenic without activating Roman Hard More, as well as making said mode more enjoyable by tweaking event frequencies and removing parts of it that made little sense (such as increased diseases).

The Clan government is one that is both fairly underplayed (according to telemetry) and that the AI struggles in playing well (often underperforming significantly). This prompted us to look into doing something to make them more interesting and less frustrating to play - when managing Tax Jurisdictions it’s a constant battle to find competent Tax Collectors. All you have at your disposal are your unlanded courtiers and a decision with a fairly long cooldown, which leads to a frustrating time as you often end up in a combination of not having anyone to assign, and if you do have someone, they’re more often than not terrible. The various tax decrees also felt underwhelming with the vast majority of players simply opting for the Zakat (luxury tax) one as it increased your gold income.

All of this has prompted a host of changes to the feature.


[Image - Updated Tax Jurisdiction UI]

Alongside a general facelift of the UI, we’ve opened up the possibility for Vassals to be Tax Collectors - this makes it significantly easier to find tax collectors, and to find good ones. Similarly to how we handle Court Positions, landed tax collectors get a penalty to their aptitude, but on average it’s much easier to find good tax collectors because of this change.

Clan rulers now also don’t have to worry about being allied to ALL their vassals, as only powerful vassals will expect to be allied to their liege. This makes you able to focus on pleasing a select few characters in the realm without having to suffer a permanent -20 opinion with every vassal. You also no longer gain a legitimacy penalty for marrying lowborn characters as secondary wives (and to pre-empt exploits we’ve also made it so that switching to a lowborn spouse as your primary spouse triggers the lowborn marriage penalties). This means that as long as your main spouse is highborn, the remaining ones can be lowborn. The AI has been updated to always try to set the spouse with the best stats as their primary one, as long as that doesn’t trigger the lowborn spouse marriage penalties.


[Image - Updated tax decrees]

All Tax Decrees have been updated to have more interesting and modern effects, including systems that have been added since Tax Decrees were added, like Legitimacy, Danger, and Plague Resistance, and enabling systems that are logically connected to the decree, like raiding for Ghazi.

These changes match the Clan realm's more volatile nature, providing bonuses that are more relevant and interesting to choose between. They should now more closely be able to match the power that Feudal realms can muster with their Vassal Contracts.

All commander traits are now tiered traits that are leveled up by taking actions related to the trait.


[Image - A levelled Logistician trait]

Commander traits now start out less impactful, with effects weaker than they currently are. Through war, battles, and siege, you can now level them up - potentially reaching heights that were not previously possible. A fully levelled Military Engineer reduces siege phase times by 40%, a fully levelled Flexible Leader reduces enemy defensive bonuses by 80%, and so on.

To level the traits you need to do whatever makes sense: to level up Aggressive Attacker you win offensive battles, to level up Military Engineer you complete sieges, and so on. The higher the commander's Martial skill, the faster they will level up their traits. This also means that a commander with a high-level commander trait can be extremely valuable, as replacing their accumulated knowledge of warfare is not a trivial task.

The Barbershop has been updated with several new categories, and items have been re-shuffled to allow for a greater degree of customization. Many items previously not accessible has been added, such as some Byzantine and Jain clothing, and you are now allowed to freely change eye items, face items, crests, veils, and special crowns.


[Image - New barbershop categories]

We’ve made extra care to address pain points such as not being able to remove glasses or veils, while simultaneously allowing you to create combinations you weren’t able to before. More customization is better customization!


[Image - New Crests, Veils, & Special Crowns category]

Use responsibly!


[Image - a distinctly cursed barbershop creation]

Late-game culture maps are often quite boring, with the culture map gradually becoming more and more populated by small divergences. This is fine in the case where these divergences lead to interesting new cultures expanding their presence on the map, but often it is not so. We’ve tweaked the AI to be more inclined to promote their cultures under certain circumstances.

Central Germanic heritage cultures within the HRE will now want to promote culture in Sorbian-culture counties, very small cultures will want to grow (if they are below 10 counties), 'Imperious' cultures (cultures with a powerful culture head, realm of 30+ counties and King+ tier) will want to grow to a decent size (35 counties, about the size of French at 1066 start), smaller (<5 counties) divergent/hybrid cultures with no existing culture head are more likely to be promoted by other cultures (with the intent of reducing the amount of small and orphaned cultures by the end of the game). This makes the culture map more dynamic and existing, with interesting results every game.


[Image - Saxon slowly being promoted in Polabian lands]

We’ve added several new options to the Realm Stability Game Rule, based on community feedback - and a few extra for good measure! You can now set stability to only affect AI’s, and there’s an additional setting that avoids changing the frequency of peasant and populist factions as those could become too frequent or infrequent depending on your setting.


[Image - New Realm Stability settings]

For those that enjoy the occasional Scourge of the Gods Conqueror but think that 5% is too much we’ve added an additional rule; Low Random, with a 0.5% chance of it happening.


[Image - Conqueror Low Random setting]

The message settings window now has a history log of all feed messages, so you can browse through them at a later time.


[Image - Message Settings log]

We’ve also added two community-requested message settings: scheme advantages and non-dynastic courtiers coming of age.


[Image - Scheme Advantage message setting]


[Image - Non-dynastic courtier coming of age]

There are now new indicator texts and filter options for finding children without guardians in your court. This is present both in the right-hand-side Court window and in the character view.


[Image - Guardian indicators]

Two new major decisions have also made their way into this update, both focusing on forming new empires - Beth Narain for rulers of Syriac heritage, and the Empire of Hindustan.


[Image - Beth Narain creation decision]

When adding new decisions for creating new empire titles in Crusader Kings there are two different things we look for. One could be an interesting alternative history empire for a historical group or region, like Beth Nahrain, another is to look for what great empires existed during the historical timeline but which currently cannot be formed in the game.


[Image - Hindustan creation decision]

The Islamic Conquest of India is not something that happens in every game, but when it happens we rarely ever get something like the actual Delhi Sultanate. The new decision lets a muslim ruler who controls a fair chunk of the north, move his capital to Delhi or Lahore, while creating a new empire title that incorporates any held line in the 3 Indian Empires. If you have Roads to Power it will also give you the Administrative government, though one with a hereditary succession instead of acclamation.


[Image - ‘Commander by Ruler’ banner]

You can now see if the enemy war leader is in an army, as they’ll be marked with a crown banner stating ‘Commanded by Ruler’.

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That’s it for this Dev Diary! The 1.15.0 ‘Crown’ update will soon be in your hands, and we hope that it’ll be to your liking! You can find the full changelog here on our official forums!

Hello everyone! Today we're releasing our two newest Content Creator Packs, Medieval Monuments & Arctic Attire.

Please find the changelog and release trailers below.

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• Added support for Medieval Monuments and Arctic Attire Content Creator Packs
  
• Added new DLC icons and descriptions for the Content Creator Packs

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Discover the great architectural achievements of the Middle Ages with the Content Creator Pack Medieval Monuments.

Created in collaboration with the established Crusader Kings III modder PiGu, Medieval Monuments brings new varied and culturally significant monuments to the game.

• Added 20 new special buildings to the map
  
  • Drassanes in Barcelona*
    
  • Great Kyz Kala in Merv
    
  • Cluny Abbey in Cluny
    
    • Has 2 different levels, one for the Monastery and one for the Grand Cathedral. Highest level is available in the 1178 start date.
  • Duomo of Florence in Florence
    
    • Has 4 different levels. In the 1178 start date, it is at the second level.
  • Walls of York in York
    
  • Great Mosque of Damascus in Damascus
    
  • Jokhang Temple in Lhasa
    
  • Wartburg in Schmalkalden
    
  • St. George of Lalibela (Beta Giyorgis) in Lalibela*
    
  • Holy Wisdom of God in Novgorod
    
  • St Wenceslaus Cathedral in Krakow
    
  • Visegrad Citadel in Visegrad*
    
  • University of al-Qarawiyyin in Fes
    
  • Kairouan Basins in Kairouan
    
  • Ghana Palace in Al-Ghaba
    
  • Kano Earthworks in Kano*
    
  • Golden Fort in Jaisalmer
    
  • Konarak Sun Temple in Konarak*
    
  • Somapura University in Somapur
    
  • Vatapi Caves in Vatapi

* These monuments are not pre-built in any of the available start dates.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3315540/Crusader_Kings_III_Content_Creator_Pack_Medieval_Monuments/

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Brave the chill of far northern lands in style with the Arctic Attire Content Creator Pack, made in collaboration with the established Crusader Kings III modder Aj. Arctic Attires adds cosmetics inspired by Sami and Khanty aesthetics.

• New clothing and headgear inspired by Sami and Khanty cultures to the northern regions of the map
  
  • Clothing
    
    • 3 variants of male Khanty Commoner Clothing
      
    • 2 variants of female Khanty Commoner Clothing
      
    • 2 variants of male Khanty Low Nobility Clothing
      
    • 2 variants of female Khanty Low Nobility Clothing
      
    • 2 variants of male Khanty High Nobility Clothing
      
    • 2 variants of female Khanty High Nobility Clothing
      
    • 1 variant of male and female Sami Fur Coat
      
    • 2 variants of male Sami Commoner Clothing
      
    • 1 variant of female Sami Commoner Clothing
      
    • 2 variants of male Sami Low Nobility Clothing
      
    • 1 variant of female Sami Low Nobility Clothing
      
    • 2 variants of male Sami High Nobility Clothing
      
    • 1 variant of female Sami High Nobility Clothing
  • Headwear
    
    • 1 variant of male and female Sami Cap
      
    • 3 variants of male Fur Four-Winds Hat
      
    • 3 variants of male Four-Winds Hat
      
    • 1 variant of male Khanty Raised Fur Hood
      
    • 1 variant of female Sami Hat
      
    • 1 variant of female Fine Sami Hat
      
    • 3 variants of female Khanty Common Headscarf
      
    • 3 variants of female Khanty Low Noble Headscarf
      
    • 3 variants of female Khanty High Noble Headscarf
      
    • 3 variants of male and female Arctic Lamellar Helm
      
    • 1 variant of male and female Khanty Shaman’s Hat
  • Cloaks
    
    • 2 variants of male Commoner Lukha
      
    • 2 variants of male Lukha
      
    • 2 variants of male Fancy Lukha
      
    • 1 variant of female Sami Shawl
      
    • 1 variant of female Sami Noble Shawl
      
    • 1 variant of female Fancy Sami Noble Shawl
  • Legwear
    
    • 1 variants of male and female Sami Legwear
      
    • 1 variants of male and female Khanty Legwear
  • Armor
    
    • 3 variants of male and female Arctic Lamellar Armor
    • New music track: Longing for the Land
      
      • Added support for the new music track in the game’s Music Player

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3315550/Crusader_Kings_III_Content_Creator_Pack_Arctic_Attire/

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You can also save 20% off both Content Creator Packs by purchasing them as a bundle!
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/49929/

Hello everyone! We have an unusual dev diary today, in that it’s two dev diaries in one! PiGu, developer of Medieval Monuments, and Aj, developer of Arctic Attire both will give us a brief overview of the content they’re bringing to Crusader Kings III as well as the work that went into creating it.



Let’s dive right into it with Medieval Monuments.

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Hello everyone!

I’m Pietro “PiGu” Cavalli, creator of the Medieval Arts mod, and today I have been granted the privilege to welcome you to this developer diary introducing the new Crusader Kings III Content Creator Pack: Medieval Monuments!

I’ve been playing Paradox games for years, but Medieval Arts was my first modding experience.

Developed in 2021 to represent the artistic and architectural achievements of the Middle Ages, it has grown and changed many times but it has always kept to its original mission. I have grown with it, learning several skills from scratch with help from the modding community, and falling particularly in love with 3D modeling, which has now become the core of the mod. Today Medieval Arts is an expanding collection of dozens of new monuments, all with their own unique art and flavor, backed by a wonderful and supportive community.

Before delving into details, I would like to take a moment to explain the vision behind Content Creator Packs. They are meant as a nice way to support modders financially and enhance their skills, while at the same time providing the game with a product of higher quality than a modder would realistically be able to produce on their own free time, that is able to blend seamlessly into the game, and that is maintained in the future directly by Paradox.

I was first approached this summer to pitch ideas and discuss the different shapes that an “architectural” cosmetic pack might take. While initially proposing a more regional focus, we ended up opting for a broader geographical scope, encompassing the whole map. I then spent a few weeks researching and thinning out options until reaching the final version of Medieval Monuments.

To be clear about expectations then, this Content Creator Pack includes 20 brand new special buildings, each with their own 3D model, art, flavorful descriptions and modifiers.

I feel so grateful to the people at Paradox Interactive for offering me this opportunity. I greatly enjoyed working with them, and I learned so much throughout the whole process. We had an honest and clear collaboration where my creative input was greatly respected, and guided when necessary to ensure a proper delivery to a community that has always been kind and supportive of my work.

I can’t wait to read what you think!

So, let’s have a look at some of the special buildings included in the pack! As previously mentioned there’s 20 of them, but I won’t spoil them all for you here, I’d like you to search the map and find where they are yourselves ; )

One of the most difficult steps of the creative process was deciding just which monuments to actually portray. The overall “size” of the pack had already been determined previously, so I had to pick 20 out of the entire architectural production of the Middle Ages, a task easier said than done. To help make the best choice, I decided to keep a few priorities in mind:

First of all I wanted the pack to represent the whole map, to make sure that wherever you may choose to play your next game, you’d always have at least one monument relatively close by. I’ve also tried to favor regions that are lacking unique map objects in the base game. This has granted me the opportunity to be very diverse in the styles, colors and shapes of the monuments, changing with the cultures and environments.

These range from the frigid lands of the ‘Rus, where you’ll be able to construct the Holy Wisdom of Novgorod, the oldest church in Russia proper and a magnificent example of its unique art, to the humid heat of the Bengal delta, where the great university of Somapura were piously carved.


[The important church of the Holy Wisdom of Novgorod, one of the oldest in all of the Rus’ lands and inspired by the marvels of Constantinople, covered in winter snow]


[Somapura has long been an important center of learning for India, attracting scholars to the fertile delta from afar]

Furthermore, another important distinction is temporal in nature. The Middle Ages lasted a thousand years, and even Crusader Kings’ more restricted time span still offers enormous variety in styles and functions and materials. Many monuments greatly changed throughout time, some were expanded, others torn down. I have tried to strike a balance between the centuries, favoring those buildings that belonged to the game’s era so that you may have a chance to build them yourself, but also adding some already constructed at the start, and whenever a monument changed form or function throughout time, I tried to represent a synthesis of its history, even if not always entirely faithful.

You’ll therefore find buildings varying greatly in period, such as the ancient Umayyad mosque of Damascus, one of the holiest sites for the Abrahamic faiths whose millenarian story has very few equals, or the more “late game” castle and royal residence of Visegrad, which holds a very special place in the history of Central Europe.


[The Great Mosque of Damascus already has an incredibly fascinating history by CK3’s time]


[With its strategic position yet unclaimed, constructing the fortress-palace of Visegrad is sure to give even the lowest of lords a great advantage]

In two select cases, because the architectural evolution was so profound, I chose to represent them as multiple tiers. The constructions of these buildings lasted decades, if not centuries, and you’ll be able to follow them with generations of your characters!

The complex of the Duomo of Florence begins as the modest basilica of Santa Reparata, but with proper time and investment can evolve, over four different tiers, to include the baptistery, the cathedral and finally the masterpiece of the Cupola, the famous dome that heralded the Renaissance and is still triumphant over Florence’s skyline.





[The complex of the Duomo of Florence has gone from the small early Christian basilica of Santa Reparata to the colossal cathedral we see today, topped by a dome that has become symbol of the Renaissance]

Similarly, on the opposite side of the Alps, the lords and monks of Cluny will be able to expand their already considerable power base into the largest of the medieval churches, which unfortunately did not survive to our day.



[The monastery of Cluny was a powerful instrument in the reform of the Church, and the construction of its new Romanesque abbey was a testament to their great wealth and prestige]

Finally, I also wanted the monuments to vary in their function and aspect. The study of medieval architecture, especially in the West, has long been focused on cathedrals due to their scale and disproportionate rate of survival, but the world of Crusader Kings III had far more and many great works.

For example, in Tunisia you will be able to see the basins of Kairouan, a monumental complex to guarantee water to the city no matter the climate, and in Barcelona you will be able to construct the Drassanes, industrial-scale shipyards that allowed the city’s rulers to expand their influence all over the Mediterranean.


[The basins of Kairouan are an impressive feat of engineering that provided fresh water to the growing city]


[The shipyards of Drassanes were fortified to keep out intruders and protect the secrets that allowed the kings of Barcelona to rule the Western Mediterranean]


To conclude I would like to spend a few words on creative freedom and historical accuracy. Although of course no comprehensive academic survey of all these diverse monuments exists, I took the time to research each of them individually to the best of my abilities to follow the standards upheld by Paradox and the developers of Crusader Kings and guarantee proper realism in all the models included in the pack.

Sometimes I was lucky. When designing the Great Kyz Kala, an ancient fortified palatial complex in the oasis of Merv, Central Asia, I was able to draw from ancient representations and modern reconstructions, as well as of course from the ruins we see today, which allowed me to depict it with a fair degree of accuracy.


[The Great Kyz Kala is today an impressive ruin, but it used to be a magnificent palace blending Arab and Persian architectural traditions]


[The ruins of ancient Merv have long been excavated and studied, yielding important information that allowed me to reproduce the Kyz Kala in-game. Furthermore, this silver gilt dish from the State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, shows a raid to a palace that likely resembled greatly the original appearance of the palace.]

Other times I was less lucky, and I had to use my own judgement to fit the monument into the game. I understand this is by no means a perfect choice, but to properly represent cultures and regions with scattered records some compromises had to be struck, and I want to assure you they were all properly thought out. Such was the case for the Jokhang temple - the holiest site in Tibet - or some of the monuments in West Africa.

I would like to properly thank the kind people at Paradox Interactive for trusting me with this project. It was a wonderful experience that helped me improve my work considerably, and I have learned so much from it.

Finally, I want to take the opportunity to thank you all for the amazing support you have shown me and Medieval Arts through the years, and I’m so excited to share this chapter with you!

--Pietro

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3315540/Crusader_Kings_III_Content_Creator_Pack_Medieval_Monuments

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Hey hey!

I’m Aj, the 3D artist behind the Shogunate mod - and now the official Arctic Attire DLC! After months of telling my mod dev teams that “I’m busy” and that “I can’t help with compatch”, I can finally reveal what I’ve been working on (and be able to go back to work on the already compatibility patched mods completely guilt-free).

Arctic Attire takes inspiration from the previous Content Creator Packs by El Tyrannos, but instead of adding just one aesthetic, it adds two aesthetics of slightly smaller scope.

The Sámi are the indigenous people of northern Scandinavia and Kola. The Sámi garments depicted in Arctic Attire are primarily inspired by clothing of the Kautokeino region as depicted in photographs from the late 1800s, but some pieces take inspiration from other regions and are informed by research of Sámi in the middle ages.
The Khanty are an indigenous people of Western Siberia living in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra. Their traditional clothing is the primary inspiration for the Ugro-Permian set used across west Siberia.
Both peoples traditionally live a nomadic lifestyle, herding reindeer and hunting, and have historically been involved in fur trade.

I will now give a quick tour of the CCP and what is contained inside, with some commentary here and there.

The main male Khanty winter garment is the Malitsa - here are variants for men including belt accessories. These take advantage of the pattern system to vary between reindeer antler, silver, and gold. There is also a version without a belt, not shown here.


[Khanty men's clothing - commoner and nobility. Also shows dynamic lowered hood gfx when hood headgear isn't worn.]


[Khanty men’s clothing - commoner clothing, showcasing knife and belt details, and reference images - Estonian National Museum (Wikimedia Commons), German wood-engraving from 1895, Khanty belt from the British Museum]


[Arctic armor posed with reference image from American Museum of Natural History]

Ugro-Permian armor is inspired by various Siberian armors, but primarily by Chukchi armor, since it seems to be quite representative of Siberian armor in general, and there wasn’t a lot of good period-appropriate reference material from Western Siberia. Plus, it’s a really cool design. Fun fact - the oldest lamellar in the world was found in Siberia, and it was made of bone. The practice of making bone armor in Siberia continued for a very long time after that, and bone armor will show up on Ugro-Permian commoners. The back shield design is also very old - Scythian armor employed this design as well.


[Armor work-in-progress images.]


[Khanty women's clothing]

The main female Khanty winter garment is the Panitsa, or Sakh. The winter Sakh is quite elaborate and is outfitted with a lot of internal and external straps and ties to allow for a more precise fit. I chose to model winter clothing over summer clothing because it's very visually distinct from surrounding clothing styles, and I thought it would fit great with the new adventurer playstyle.


[Khanty women's clothing variant and headgear.]


[Khanty women's clothing work-in-progress images.]


Most of the assets for Arctic Attire were made with cloth simulation in Marvelous Designer, then touched up in Blender, but hard-surface details like the knives or much of the armor were modelled entirely in Blender.


[Sámi women's clothing and cloaks with reference images - hand-colored photograph from the Nordic Museum, and photo from Heimbeck c.1900]


[Sámi men's clothing, work-in-progress sculpt and reference photograph by Marcus Selmer.]


[Sámi clothing selection, showcasing the lukha, a work-in-progress sculpt next to finished clothing.]

Sámi commoners have a lot of color variety - they have a lot of undyed or only slightly dyed clothing, or clothing made from leather or fishskins - fish hide clothing was actually very widespread in the arctic for a long time, and was produced by a variety of cultures. In Sámi culture, it seems to have been an option for the lower classes, while reindeer fur was reserved for the rich. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to make a bespoke fish skin pattern, so I represented it with a grey-colored leather pattern instead.


[Sámi commoner clothing and fish-skin clothes reference - from Norsk Folkemuseum, by G. Roche]



[Posed Sámi travel coat with reference image.]


Sámi travel clothing - a big fur coat, based on some south and east Sámi beaskas.


[Posed Sámi council portrait, showing a selection of different garments.]

It’s been a great time working on this Content Creator Pack with Paradox, and I hope everyone enjoys the new accessories.

That’s all from me for now. Back to modding, I guess!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3315550/Crusader_Kings_III_Content_Creator_Pack_Arctic_Attire

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That’s all we have for today! A huge thank you goes out to PiGu and Aj both for their work on putting this dev diary together.

Medieval Monuments and Arctic Attire both release on February 25th

We’re pleased to announce that two new Content Creator Packs are coming to Crusader Kings III on February 25th! These packs introduce historically significant monuments and new clothing inspired by the Sámi and Khanty peoples of the far north, offering players even more ways to immerse themselves in the Medieval world.

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Discover the great architectural achievements of the Middle Ages with the Content Creator Pack Medieval Monuments made by the modder "PiGu", bringing 20 new varied and culturally significant monuments to the game.

This Content Creator Pack includes the following monuments:
- Drassanes
- Great Kyz Kala
- Cluny Abbey
- Maior Ecclesia
- Walls of York
- Great Mosque of Damascus
- Jokhang Temple
- Wartburg
- Beta Giyorgis
- Holy Wisdom of Novgorod
- St Wenceslaus Cathedral
- Visegrad Citadel
- University of al-Qarawiyyin
- Kairouan Basins
- Ghana Palace
- Kano Earthworks
- Golden Fort of Jaisalmer
- Konarak Sun Temple
- Somapura University
- Vatapi Caves

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3315540/

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Brave the chill of far northern lands in style with the Arctic Attire Content Creator Pack made by the modder "Aj", adding cosmetics inspired by Sámi and Khanty aesthetics.

This Content Creator Pack includes the following cosmetics:
- 8 clothing styles
- 2 legwear models
- 3 cloaks
- 8 headgear
- 1 armor set (headgear & armor)
- 1 soundtrack; “Longing for the Land” (a joik – a traditional form of Sámi song)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3315550/

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These Content Creator packs are part of our ongoing collaboration with the modding community, bringing their expertise and passion for the Medieval world into official content for Crusader Kings III.

Join us on Tuesday, February 18th for a dev diary exploring the content of both of these packs in further detail!

Өглөөний мэнд!

I am here to welcome you to a special kind of Development Diary – It's the first of a series, but the rest will come later and not in the following weeks. We're working on a comprehensive system for the Nomads of the Steppe, and while we are knee-deep in the production of the expansion, we still want to introduce you to the features as soon as possible, with the aim of collecting feedback and acting on it during our approaching iteration phase.

For that reason we are showing screenshots earlier than usual, so do keep in mind that all shown here is still a work in progress.


Therefore, some small caveats:

• Layouts, visuals, and other aspects of the UI may change as we continue to refine these systems.
  
• The map set up is also not final and we are open to feedback.
  
• All values and numbers are still subject to balancing, and some of them are mere placeholders while we work on the features.
  
• This is an overview of the next DLC. The following Dev Diaries will go more in depth about all features at a later date – we need time to act on the feedback we get from you, so dev diaries for this update will not be releasing weekly just yet.

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At the core of this update lies the new Nomadic Government. This new government type is heavily inspired by the rulers of the Eurasian Steppe, and puts a heavy emphasis on herd, might, and land.


[Initial distribution in 1178.]

But what do we mean by that?

Your cattle and horses are represented by a new currency only available to Nomads called "Herd". In the Steppe, Herd is incredibly valuable and plays a big role in how other Nomads perceive you: it can be used for ransoming, dowry, bribes and even be stolen via a scheme or raiding. It controls who the Cultural Head is and serves as a gate for increasing Dominance (we will talk more about this later in this Diary).

Herd is obtained both through the land by exploiting its Fertility and through your Nomadic subjects via their contracts, since Nomads don't have a stable income. We will talk more in depth about this in the "Land" section below.

One of the main changes when it comes to Nomads is that they do not use levies. Instead, they transform a percentage of their Herd into Horde Riders.

Horde Riders are the most basic type of Men-at-Arms that Nomads have access to. However, these Riders can be then upgraded to better MAAs types, such as Horse Archers, for a cost of gold. These numbers don't come from a vacuum, however; if I want to create 100 Horse Archers, then I will lose 100 Horde Riders as they are converted into the new unit.

Basic Horde Riders don't have an associated maintenance cost, but the other MAAs do in the form of monthly prestige.

We've opted for this change because warring was an essential part of the Steppe life, and levies did not exist per se, as every able warrior would be called when the time was needed. From a more mechanical standpoint, we wanted Nomads to have fewer, but stronger and more significant, MAAs.


The percentage depicted in the screenshot above represents what percentage of your Herd can be converted into Horde, as not all of them are mounts suitable for war. This percentage can be affected by yurt buildings, dynasty perks, character modifiers and other factors.

[Extremely WIP, we are aware of some issues like the Maintenance cost not being displayed]

To reflect the importance of your people, the names on a Nomadic map are also different from our regular naming conventions. It is the Borjigin Mongols that move across the map, not the Duchy of Örgöö.

The Cultural Head gets to take the cultural name (The Mongols), while the smaller rulers have a combination of their House Name + Culture (The Borjigin Mongols). To better reflect the dynamics of the Steppe, we have also changed the way that the Cultural Head is selected in Nomadic governments: the ruler with the biggest Herd becomes the Head instead, independently of their title.

The names on the map, as well as this naming convention using culture are still work in progress, and we are open to hear your suggestions.

[Note that we may remove the "The" to make the titles more readable.]

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In the Steppe, might makes right. Titles are not as important as actual strength, and to reflect this we've made a series of changes that only affect Nomads.

Nomadic rulers have access to Dominance, a measurement of their perceived power. Low Dominance implies a relatively insignificant chieftain, while the maximum Dominance represents the rise of Genghis Khan.

Dominance is a fixed scale, a mountain that Nomads have to climb, with each level being a hard-achieved goal that each ruler must work towards. Only those who have a Herd of a significant enough size are allowed to reach the next level.

Dominance affects things such as Vassal and Domain limits, with the lower levels having a very reduced number of both, but with higher levels offering impressive bonuses. Dominance also governs the tiers that you are allowed to target during your migration (more on this in "Land"), access to special Men-at-Arms, title and vassal revocation, settlement outside of the Steppe, flavourful decisions and more.

You'll need loyal followers if you're going to take over the world – and it does not matter by what means you've ensured their loyalty.

Obedience is a binary state – either you are obedient or not. Every character that's a subject or courtier has Obedience towards their overlord. Obedience works as a threshold; if a character is below the threshold then they will be unruly, plotting against their overlord or just having general acceptance maluses to various interactions. However, if a character is above the threshold then they will not form factions, start hostile schemes against their liege, and – more importantly – will take their side during the Kurultai succession by voting for whichever heir was your preferred one. The Kurultai is formed by special members of your Council, and having them on your side is extremely important for Nomads.

Obedience is calculated based on several parameters like the relationship with the other character, friendship, their traits and whether you have granted them a Kurultai or Court Position.

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Nomads grow their Herd by extracting Fertility from the land. Thus, migrating becomes an important part of their loop in the early stages of the game, when their realms are not big enough to accommodate the horde.

County Fertility is calculated primarily based on the terrain type. Nomads deplete Fertility of the counties they hold until it stabilises at a fixed number where the Herd can be maintained. This number is mostly affected by the domain size, but Stewardship, dynasty perks, yurt buildings and other character modifiers can affect it.



When the Domain Fertility is depleted, it's time to migrate.

Migration targets de jure titles, and the available title tiers you can target depend on your level of Dominance. A Nomadic ruler of Dominance level 2 can only target counties and duchies, whereas someone with level 3 can target kingdoms as well.

This means that smaller rulers should migrate frequently, either find abandoned lands occupied by Herders, or subjugate themselves before bigger rulers. Bigger rulers in the Steppe should, on the other hand, adopt a more sedentary way of life and demand Obedience and Tribute from rulers in their sphere.

[This panel is subject to reorganizations and reworks.]

The migration screen allows you to negotiate with the local rulers. If two or more independent rulers occupy the same de jure territory, then the ruler with the highest Herd leads the negotiations with you. You can use gold, herd, or a hook to bribe them, and their acceptance depends on their relationship with you, your Dominance level relative to theirs, your Prestige, Prowess, Herd size, their traits, and other minor factors.

If they accept, you will start a travel plan that will take you and your herd to the desired location. If the location had already been suggested by perhaps a courtier you may get some extra bonuses for following the desires of your people.



However, many nomads may refuse to give up their lands, especially if they have a high level of Dominance and find themselves pretty comfortable where they are. In those cases, one must resort to war.


[Total soldiers aren't being calculated in this screenshot. Keep in mind that this is from a development build!]

Migration wars allow the attacker to take the lands by means of force.

The targeted ruler will be either displaced to their other lands if they hold any titles outside of the de jure, or be made landless – similar to Administrative Noble Families or Adventurers. While landless, Nomads keep their yurts and upgrades but can't grow their Herd due to the lack of stable access to Fertility. They roam the Steppe in search of a new place to set up their tents.

No matter how you choose to migrate, your Obedient vassals will follow you, while non obedient ones will keep their titles and lands and stay where they were. The lands that you leave behind will be occupied by someone else entirely…

Nomads are not the only rulers that inhabit the Steppe. A new unplayable government type called "Herder" populates the map with shepherds that wander small counties. Herders replenish Fertility over time, and are extremely easy to displace, given their lack of armies. They are the ones occupying those counties left behind by migrations.

Having a Herder as a subject is still possible, however, and they will pay a small, fixed rate of herd based on their county's fertility.

One may also choose to voluntarily abandon one of their counties to a local herder, in the hopes that they will replenish Fertility quick enough for them to seize it back. The Steppe is not merciful, however, and another Nomad ruler may be faster than you.


[We indeed have several sheep variations.]

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Life in the Steppe is not easy, and being at the mercy of the weather and pasture quality is something that nomads have had to adjust to since time immemorial (up to this day, in fact). To reflect this, we've created a seasonal system that governs the general climate of the steppe.

The Great Steppe is divided into three subregions: Western, Central and Eastern, each of them with their own season.


[Another very WIP screenshot, artpass pending.]

Seasons affect the Fertility of the subregion, as a White Zud creates a thick layer of snow that prevents the animals from grazing, while a more moderate and warm weather offers the perfect climate for pastoring.

That’s not the only effect they have though, as different seasons also change the general mood within Nomads. If a ruler extorts their vassals for Herd during an Abundant Grazing season, then they will receive more than usual, and a Severe Drought will promote characters to migrate even more than usual.

The two special and rare seasons of Havsarsan Zud and the Blessing of the Blue Sky explore these effects even further, with the Blessing amply increasing the Fertility of the subregion and the terrible Havsarsan Zud allowing rulers to take a desperate stance, making all of their subjects obedient and getting an invasion CB on settled people. One of the academic reasons given for the Mongolian Invasion is, after all, the lack of pasture in the Steppe at that point in time.

Your Stargazer can also help predict the next season depending on their aptitude. More on this in upcoming diaries!

Only one character in the entire Steppe can go on to the highest level of Dominance and become the Greatest of Khans, but we will provide you with tools to stop them.

The Gurkhan is whoever has the largest Herd within the Great Steppe. They are on their way to reach the highest Dominance and are a threat to all. Confederations may form to target them, while hostile scheming and wars may target them more frequently, and the Gurkhan will have to prove that they deserve their seat.

Nomads have no buildings. Whatever they build is carried with them when they migrate. To represent this, Nomadic Holdings cannot have any other buildings than some basic corrals, but in turn they have access to a new domicile type: the Yurt Settlement.

Yurt Settlements have a main yurt that can be upgraded internally, and several other specialised buildings that give upgrades to pasture management, warfare, diplomacy, raiding, and more.


[Names and art are [b]not[/b] final]

During this Development Diary, you may have observed my careful use of "Subject" instead of "Vassal", and here is the reason why.

Tributaries are a new and looser type of subject introduced with this expansion. Nomadic Tributaries specifically have some unique qualities to them.

The Tributary Contract governs the levels of Obligations (or Tribute) that they may pay to their Suzerain. While the tribute is being, sent all is well and a truce is held between the two of them. The tributary relationship is even inherited across generations.

However, tributaries may become unruly over time, and if the suzerain doesn't look that threatening to them then they may eventually opt to stop paying tribute. To bring them back into the fold, a former suzerain can bring them back under tribute by force, pacifying them and extracting both resources and prestige to a greater extent.

Nomadic Tributaries offer a payment in herd, while settled tributaries give gold to their Nomadic suzerains.



[Art and map visualization are still in progress.]

Tributaries can be obtained through a Character Interaction to Demand Tribute or through a Casus Belli. A ruler may also voluntarily offer themselves as Tribute to a Nomadic Ruler to ensure that their lands are spared from destruction.

As with the other features covered in this dev diary, we will do a deep dive on the Tributary system at a later date.

With the rise of all these powerful and dangerous khans in the Steppe, lower-tier Nomadic rulers may decide to band together against a bigger enemy through forming a Confederation.

For those in a Confederation, an assault on one member is an affront against all members, so everyone in a Confederation joins defensive wars being fought by fellow members. This potent defensive power is balanced against checks on expansion: as long as they belong to their Confederation, members cannot increase their Dominance or create new titles.

Raiding is one of the main ways Nomads have to get access to Gold. Given the importance that raiding had in their society, we have decided to expand this feature by adding Raid Intents.

A Raid Intent allows to set a desired outcome of the raiding: you may want to raid to capture interesting characters, steal your neighbors' cattle, or simply burn their property to the ground.


[Art and names are placeholder, so are the intents themselves as we may change or tweak them.]

Some of the Raid Intents will also be available for Tribal characters, while others need specific Nomadic unlocks.

Lastly, we are adding a number of new Character Interactions, Decisions, Activity Types, a new Vassal Stance, Events, and more focused on unique Nomadic flavour. Genghis Khan's famous storyline and Mongolian specific events will, of course, also make an appearance.

Expect to see a Kurultai, Blood Brotherhoods, Paizas and Kublai Khan's famous Pleasure Dome. More on this to come.

There are many things that we have left out of this Diary because our focus is on the main mechanical features introduced with this expansion, but we will come back to all of this in more detail in the future.

Thanks for reading. We are eagerly awaiting your thoughts and feedback.

Steam's Real-Time Strategy Fest is here, and Crusader Kings III is participating! During the sale, you can enjoy the following discounts on CKIII content:

• 70% off Crusader Kings III
  
• 50% off Royal Court, Fate of Iberia, Northern Lords, Wards & Wardens, and Friends & Foes
  
• 45% off Crusader Kings III: Starter Edition
  
• 30% off Tours & Tournaments

…and more!

Check it out before January 27th to save on Crusader Kings III and other Paradox Interactive titles!

With Legends of the Dead, Roads to Power, and Wandering Nobles, we've had a captivating journey of new content, flavor, and mechanics released for Crusader Kings III in 2024. You've crafted your own legends, danced through illness, relocated camps, blinded co-emperors, and finally... took a hike. From all of us at Paradox Development Studio, thank you for a fantastic year. We're incredibly grateful to have players as passionate about the medieval era as you are, and we wouldn't trade (most of) you for the world.

With all of the content in Chapter III now released, the time is quickly approaching to retire the content bundle. While all of content within Chapter III will still be available individually (and as part of the Collection Bundle), you will no longer be able to purchase the Chapter III bundle itself after January 9, 2025.

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

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Speaking of the Collection Bundle, we've increased the permanent discount on that bundle from 10% to 20%, so it's now cheaper than ever before to complete your Crusader Kings III collection.

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/36586/Crusader_Kings_III_Collection/

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While a true ruler never gives away treasures lightly, you can take our Which Ruler Are You? quiz (freshly updated with new rulers!) to prove your mettle and enter for a chance to win in our giveaway. While we don't offer titles, holdings, or court positions, we do have some intriguing artifacts to send out to winners of the giveaway.

• 5 lucky winners will receive: 1 Crusader Kings III Displate signed by the development team, 1 physical copy of our Many Roads to Power comic book, and 1 Legends of CKIII mouse pad.
  
• 15 winners will get: 1 Legends of CKIII mouse pad and 1 physical copy of our Many Roads to Power comic book.
  
• 10 winners will receive: 1 physical copy of our Many Roads to Power comic book.

Sign up and take the quiz before January 9th, and test your luck!

Greetings!

2024 is coming to a close, and with it the conclusion of Chapter III and everything we’ve done this year - we’ve hit some big-ticket milestones, including one I’ve been dreaming of since I started working on Crusader Kings way back in 2015! In fact, back in 2017-2018, when we were planning the features for the CK2 expansion Holy Fury, I had a design for a rudimentary ‘Adventurer’ mechanic that we ultimately decided not to go with because ‘it’d fit CK3 much better’! Interestingly enough, some elements of that design survived to this day, such as the concept of officers, mercenary work, and contracts on the map.

► Discuss Dev Diary #161 on our forums!



Some of the heavy-hitting features we’ve managed to tackle this year include having the Black Death (and other plagues) ravage the world, a bespoke and truly unique Administrative government for Byzantium, and, of course, the aforementioned Adventurers roaming the map in search of fame and glory. For Chapter III we’ve focused a lot on making the map more interesting; with disease and legends spreading bloody tendrils and beams of light over the world, estates and camps representing the seat of power of powerful families or ambitious travelers, contracts and issues denoting local opportunities and disruptions, and more reasons than ever to travel with new activities ranging from chariot races to local inspections. This focus on tying features to the map is something that we’ll definitely be bringing with us in the future!

We’ve also changed and improved how we gather and work with feedback from you in the community, making sure that we’re working on the right things in the right way going forward. We moved from small and aspirational Dev Diaries (LotD) to chunky and very ‘matter-of-fact’ and ‘this-is-what-the-feature-is’ diaries (RtP, WN) over the course of the year - this allowed us to collect as much useful feedback as we could from your discussions during a time where there was still time to make changes.

But the most important thing we’ve done this year is to lay the foundation for the future, as we’re not slowing down any time soon! We’re already working on what's to come next year, and while we won’t go into what it is yet, it’s going to be big.

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Let's take a look at Chapter III, what it was, and which learnings we’re taking with us!

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Legends of the Dead and the accompanying update introduced a new system for spreading things on the map - deadly plagues that ravage development and family trees alike, and glorious legends to bolster your legitimacy and make sure your name is known across the world. We knew that you in the community had been asking for plagues for a long time, therefore we wanted to introduce them sooner rather than later - and it’d also introduce some very CK-appropriate challenge, as the perfect heir suddenly dying from an illness and leaving everything to the less talented younger brother makes for a good story. At large, we’ve hit the goal of making plagues feel immersive and dynamic, with names taken from the state of the map (Kaiser Heinrich’s Plague, French Boils, etc.) and varying levels of intensity - of course, it took a while to get the balancing right, but we now feel like they’re in a good spot (and of course, we’re always open for further feedback on this).

From the start, we knew that we wanted the plague feature to be free. We generally avoid having such features as part of feature sets of expansions to avoid a general feeling of pay-to-lose. That’s why we sat down and thought about what else could spread across the map. That's where we came up with legends—stories about an individual embellished throughout the ages, ultimately ending up as founding myths or even folklore.

During this development cycle, we had really inefficient communication. Dev Diaries presented the features in a much too embellished and flowery way, making them appear as something they weren’t. This meant that the feedback we got wasn’t really for the features that we were making, which made it difficult to apply. Most of the significant changes to the system came after the release, as the stage of development we were in during the Dev Diary phase didn’t allow for major pivots at the time.

Now, we know that Legends as a system is a divisive one, with most of you wanting to see changes to it for the legends to feel truly legendary. Without promising too much, the team who worked on the Legends feature has been gathering feedback and has proposed some improvements to enhance the immersion and player agency of the system. We’re currently looking into when we would be able to commit to doing it. For those of you who don’t already know, we develop several expansions in parallel, which means that our timelines are somewhat strict. So finding the right time to add something can take time, especially if that something needs to be done by very specific people (in this case, members of the LotD team). That said, the improvements will surely happen sometime next year!
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Contrary to LotD, our communication strategy for Roads to Power was to have the Dev Diaries earlier (allowing for harder pivots, if needed) and as I mentioned earlier make them more matter-of-fact, leaving no room for misunderstandings. This paid off in a major way - we were able to gauge what you thought about the features well ahead of them being fully finished, and were able to integrate a LOT of feedback immediately. Of course, you have to strike a fine balance as showing something too early also carries risk - you might get reactions such as ‘is this it?’ which in the worst case can deflate someone's excitement - you have to show things not too early, and not too late. This is the undoubted strategy we’ll be working with going forward!

Now, this expansion is by far the most well-received one we’ve made so far, and it can be explained in a simple way; we chose features that you had been asking for for a long time, going back way before CKIII was even released! We also chose complimentary features, so no matter who you are or what your preferred playstyle is, there was something for you - whether you enjoy creating stories of adventure on the open road or want to partake in the complex bureaucracy of Byzantium!

For the first time in the CK series we’re able to represent the administration of Byzantium, a landmark realm in any of our start dates, and the Middle Ages in general. The constant intrigue, political machinations, and jockeying for prestigious positions differentiate the Administrative government from all others in a way that hadn’t been explored until now. While we’ve done attempts to represent this form of governance in previous iterations of the game, they’ve come nowhere close to what we’ve achieved with RtP - and it feels great to finally be able to represent such an important and pivotal realm in an appropriate way. After all, the fall of Constantinople is the symbolic end of the Middle Ages, and Constantinople is the beating heart of the Empire itself…

Another first is having Adventurers roam the map in search of fame, gold, or revenge! Synergizing fantastically with the Travel system introduced last year, these characters, unburdened by land-holding, are free to go where they please, presuming they have the resources to do so… Whether you’re playing a displaced noble, a historical adventurer like El Cid, or an adventurer of your own making, you are sure to make a name for yourself in one way or another, be it by conquest, mercenary work, or kingmaking! One of my favorite aspects of this feature is that you can now create your own ruler-designed character without having to displace a real-life historical character, something that never sat right with me personally.

The advent of landless play, as an adventurer or noble family, opened up the game like never before - we were able to get rid of the most traditional of game-overs, losing your last title, and replace it with stories of vengeance and comeback. We were able to truly represent the governance of a state as complex as Byzantium, where most of the power didn’t come from enforcing a hereditary succession of land, but from political influence held by powerful families located in the Jewel of Cities herself. Not to say that this opens limitless possibilities for the future.
​
Wandering Nobles also synergised heavily with the Travel system, giving (primarily) landed rulers many new reasons to leave their capitals and set out on the road! This is the first time we’ve released a new Lifestyle, but it’ll hopefully not be the last. It’s also a highly interactive Lifestyle, with each tree unlocking a new Activity for you to undertake - be it active de-stressing via Hikes, bolstering your Domain with Inspections, or increasing your skills by Exploring distant monuments.

An interesting tidbit from the development of this one is that, because of our parallel development setup that I mentioned earlier, we realised mid-development as the Roads to Power Adventurer feature started taking form that we also wanted the Lifestyle to work for Adventurers, despite originally planning it only for landed rulers. This resulted in using the system for dynamically switching out Perk bonuses from RtP to make sure that we had interesting tie-ins that affected adventurer-specific mechanics also.

This had some fun emergent effects, the Monument Expeditions primary ‘gating mechanic’ is the fact that monuments become more and more distant (and thus you might not want to leave your realm for literally 10 years just go gain a skill point), but for adventurers it enabled a true ‘tourist’ playstyle, as they wander the world all the time anyway!

A learning from Wandering Nobles is that it’s generally better to focus on something visible and more instantly available rather than just collections of events - it’s both easier to see what you get, and enables new styles of play. It's very likely that future Event Packs will follow a similar setup.
​
With the end of the year also comes the end of Chapter III, after which the contents will be folded into the collection bundle, and of course, the individual expansions will still be available standalone. If you still want to buy the chapter with its current discount, you should consider doing so soon!

The last date for purchasing Chapter III is January 9th!

But that’s not all, we’re also increasing the discount on the Collection Bundle from 10% to 20% on December 19th!

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This year, we’ve started a new program where we collaborate with modders to release Content Creator Packs, and for this year, we’ve had the opportunity to work with El Tyranos, the lead for the excellent Community Flavor Pack, in releasing two of them! Both North Africa and the Western Slavs have new looks and attires, both well-researched and beautiful. The latter we even decided to pair with a brand new Polish localization of the game (and a big thank you to you in the community for helping us find & fix issues with it, it’s never easy to localize into a new language!).

From our perspective these collaborations have gone fantastically, we get to work with talented modders - acknowledging their skills and the value they bring to the community, and the game gets more variety of content. It’s a win-win.

We will continue to collaborate with our excellent modding community to create even more content for the game, and we have some modders that we’re excited to be working with lined up for 2025 already! While we’re currently focusing on graphical assets, we are looking into if we could expand the scope to include other things in the future, too.

One of the initiatives we launched during 2024 was the Legends of CKIII, where we highlighted a collection of characters both outside and inside of the game, making the game more approachable for new players while at the same time giving something new and interesting to existing players! We even found time to make some bespoke content for most of the characters, such as events pertaining to the marital dilemma that Matilda of Tuscany was in at the start of the game, or Vratislav of Bohemia’s conflict with his brother Jaromir.

We actually have a couple of new highlighted characters launching alongside this Dev Diary, though they will only be highlighted outside the game for now! It’s possible that we’ll make some bespoke content for the ones that don’t have any in the future, though…

See the characters HERE!

We're also giving away a ton of stuff left over from this year. Signed Displates, extra physical copies of the Many Roads to Power comic, and the Legends of CKIII mousepads. If you take the quiz here you have a chance to get one of these!

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We’re currently hard at work on Chapter IV, and have been for quite some time. While it’s too early to give any specifics on the content, it’s safe to say that it’s likely going to be our biggest year yet! While the themes are already decided, we’re of course still interested in what you’d like to see in the game as anything you mention now can be accounted for in our future plans.

All of the expansions and features we’ve made in 2024 will allow us to do so much more going forward into 2025 and beyond. Our current philosophy is that we want to create expansions that build upon and synergise with what we’ve created previously, we want to have a logical progression of features that both make sense from a development standpoint, and match with what you are asking for!

We've seen a lot of discussions about merchants lately, now, we won't be implementing them next year, but we hear you - we have some things that we want to do first, things that will make the merchant experience stronger when it eventually comes out. In the most likely scenario a mercantile expansion will be planned for the following chapter, and this is because we're seeing the many engaging posts and conversations that you are having about this topic - as I mentioned earlier we're working in a parallel development setup which requires us to decide expansion themes very, very early. What will be in Chapter IV are all things that have been requested in the past! So keep discussing what you want to see for the future, it will help us form the content of upcoming chapters.


[Image - Automated Warfare feature coming next year, WIP screenshot]

Next year, we will also aim to have a free update sometime in the first quarter of the year (probably towards the end), which we’re stuffing with improvements, fixes, and quality-of-life features. We are, for example, looking into improving the Warfare AI in multiple ways (work on this is ongoing: we’ll see what the extent of the changes will be, so far they’re promising)! We’re also looking into improving interfaces like the Court Positions, and bringing over and improving the automated warfare feature that the console version of the game has - among many other things.


[Image - Court Position overhaul - More compact, immersive, and useful with all positions having Tasks. Numbers are WIP and from a massive late-game empire so keep that in mind]

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This year has been a fantastic one, and we couldn’t have done it without you in the community. We’ve released landmark features such as Plagues, the Administrative government, and Landless Adventurers - and we’re paving the way for a future that is unbelievably exciting! Truly, I see CKIII as a game with endless potential, and next year and the years beyond will see it grow to new heights, that I say with utmost confidence.

Once again I’ll invite you all to share your thoughts about the year and what you hope 2025 and beyond brings to the game. And do not worry, for even if what you wish for isn’t what we’re doing next, it might just be what we’re working on after that - you expressing your desires is what makes us able to plan for the future!

Now that’s it for this year! We’ll see you again in 2025 where we’ll be talking more about what the free update will bring. Until then, have a wonderful winter, fantastic holidays, and a very God Jul!