CK3 - Dev Diary #0 - The Vision

[Orinsul]

I feel people should try modding before saying how easy it would be for paradox to just add things. Making a new game is even harder than modding.

 

[Lord Hoosier]

I'm not the biggest fan of the new art style. Also of the rpg perk trees.

 

[Rakdar]

I feel people should try modding before saying how easy it would be for paradox to just add things. Making a new game is even harder than modding.

Artifact modding is ridiculously easy.

 

[Orinsul]

Making an artifact on top of their framework sure, imagine making that framework? so it fits into an all new system and character system? like, seriously.

 

[QuinnMallory]

Greetings friends!

It’s my pleasure to finally be able to talk about what I’ve been working on ever since Stellaris came out (and before) - Crusader Kings III, of course! CK3 draws on the wisdom gained over CK2’s seven long years of expansions and patches - all the things we simply could not do in that game - and represents the natural evolution of Crusader Kings. Yes, CK3 is an evolution, not a revolution; it’s better across the board and does not alter the core CK experience. That said, we did not carry over everything from every expansion and update to CK2. Rather than trying to do full justice to the less appreciated systems, we decided to go deep rather than wide.

The main design goals with Crusader Kings III were:

• Character Focus: Crusader Kings is clearly and unequivocally about individual characters, unlike our other games. This makes CK most suited for memorable emergent stories, and we wanted to bring characters into all important gameplay mechanics (where possible.)
• Player Freedom and Progression: We want to cater to all player fantasies we can reasonably accommodate, allowing players to shape their ruler, heirs, dynasty and even religion to their liking - though there should of course be appropriate challenges to overcome.
• Player Stories: All events and scripted content should feel relevant, impactful and immersive in relation to the underlying simulation. That way, players will perceive and remember stories - their own stories, not the developers’ stories.
• Approachability: Crusader Kings III should be user friendly without compromising its general level of complexity and historical flavor. It’s nice if it’s easier to get into, but more than that, it should be clear what everything in the game is, what you might want to be doing, and how to go about it.

Now, you might say: “Cool, but I took the time to master CK2, bought all the expansions, and now it provides me an enormous breadth of options. Why should I buy CK3?”

That’s a fair question! As I mentioned earlier, we decided not to carry over all features from CK2, so if you play CK2 primarily for, say, the nomads or the merchant republics (the only faction types that were playable in CK2 but not in CK3), you might be disappointed. There are likely other features and content that will be missed by some players, but, in return, we believe that everyone will find the core gameplay far more fun and rewarding! To be clear, CK3 is a vastly bigger game than CK2 was on release.

I know this dev diary was short on details, but don’t despair - they will be revealed over the coming months!

I see from the released images still no Channel Islands, not even as part of another county.

 

[guinea prince]

Ayy nice Dev Diary 0. Short, but looking forward to the rest. I kinduv already expected this to be a wholly new CK3, rather than CK2.5, but my reactionary takes so far:

Character Focus: Crusader Kings is clearly and unequivocally about individual characters, unlike our other games. This makes CK most suited for memorable emergent stories, and we wanted to bring characters into all important gameplay mechanics (where possible.)

Cool, they get what makes CK2 stand out among the other GSGs. That's promising!

Player Stories: All events and scripted content should feel relevant, impactful and immersive in relation to the underlying simulation.

Oh no, immediately worried about being too scripted!

That way, players will perceive and remember stories - their own stories, not the developers’ stories.

Aw yay, not worried about being too scripted!

 

[Nocx]

I've never really liked the artifact slot system or the way that artifacts are entirely static, I'm happy with Paradox taking the time to redo the artifact system.
As long as they do eventually add it.

 

[TheCrimsonMajor]

I appreciate the post - it's good to know where the team is thinking of taking the franchise. On the topic of accessibility, I'm all for improving the user experience but please don't remove access to the underlying stats and data. Paradox games have traditionally had a detailed ledger with a wide variety of stats and a lengthy event log and highly customizable message settings. Stellaris did away with much of this. I don't know how relevant that fact is to CK3's development, but to the extent that you are thinking of removing these features, please do not. Many players rely on them, and sometimes there simply isn't a better way to look up a relevant bit of data than using the ledger. Thanks!

 

[Terrill]

Now, you might say: “Cool, but I took the time to master CK2, bought all the expansions, and now it provides me an enormous breadth of options. Why should I buy CK3?”

I was looking for answers about CK2 full DLC owners will get some sort of discount after all.

Well, the reality is that there's a big chance CK2 player would be core players of CK3 inertially, which gives PDX no reason to throw discount on these players, as they will pay no matter what.

And that would include myself, someone who just loves to collect all DLCs regardless of any other factors. Been a PDX fan for almost 8 years, I would end up buying all DLCs again eventually, pray for a fair price XD

 

[Joel M Bridge]

And I really dislike the removal of supernatural and absurd events of the game. Just do what you did on CK2 and add the option of turning it off for those who dont like it.

I'm glad they removed it I'm kind of happy to try to make i more grounded experience again because it was really getting ridiculous. The only thing I'm a little bothered by is you can't just start a heresy also be a prophet to the new faith.

 

[Tiax]

• Player Stories: All events and scripted content should feel relevant, impactful and immersive in relation to the underlying simulation. That way, players will perceive and remember stories - their own stories, not the developers’ stories.
• Approachability: Crusader Kings III should be user friendly without compromising its general level of complexity and historical flavor. It’s nice if it’s easier to get into, but more than that, it should be clear what everything in the game is, what you might want to be doing, and how to go about it.

I feel like I have seen these promises before, and I am very scared that we will end up with a lot of "comet sighted"-style events that arbitrarily increment or decrement a variable, and a half-finished tutorial system that has been out of date for the last fifteen patches.

 

[Fofotron]

I'm glad they removed it I'm kind of happy to try to make i more grounded experience again because it was really getting ridiculous. The only thing I'm a little bothered by is you can't just start a heresy also be a prophet to the new faith.

I dont want a grounded experience.

 

[Poliut]

Will my character still be the subject of Greek plays?

 

[Xinkc]

Regarding player freedom, will there be interaction limits like in CK2? Like right now my characters cannot plot to kill their children and eat any children that are too young among other things. It would be nice if we could.

 

[mrinku]

Will my character still be the subject of Greek plays?

Only if it's low.

 

[guinea prince]

Regarding player freedom, will there be interaction limits like in CK2? Like right now my characters cannot plot to kill their children and eat any children that are too young among other things. It would be nice if we could.

It is only through limits that we can enjoy freedom from our chains. Gravity permits flight.

...


if you're offering baby back ribs, though...

 

[TinWiz]

It's better to make a deep and complex game that takes a long time to learn, and only the most dedicated to master, as long as it is fun to learn and fun to start learning right away. Of course you don't want to confuse the new player but don't dumb it down either.

 

[Pipestanius]

Regarding player freedom, will there be interaction limits like in CK2? Like right now my characters cannot plot to kill their children and eat any children that are too young among other things. It would be nice if we could.

The inability to do such things looked very dumb. So I hope they will fix it in CK3.

 

[grandad1982]

My "pet issue" is having to rebuy a new DLC for Republics when I already bought that and they ALREADY MADE THAT CONTENT. I'm sure they are already reusing a TON of code. I'm sure the new Crusade mechanic in CK2 is a CK3 feature ported over as well.

Whilst I do understand your point and will agree with it if when (if) that content is added again, it is the same as in ck2, this isn't ck2, its not the same (potential) content.

I read the lord of the rings should I be mad Ihad to pay to see the films? There are newer versions of my gfx card, sounds I be mad that I have to pay for a new one? Etc etc, products of all kinds are iterated on and we have to rebuy them why should our be different in games? Of course if features are implemented in the same or worse ways then yeah, bitch away.

 

[Dishwasher15]

This will probably get some hate but even though I bought CK2 I didn't really enjoy it. For me I thought it was trying to be a war game and wasn't as good as that as EU4. I guess if you go even more in depth with the characters I will classify this as something like the sims in my mind and change the way I look at it. Just to try it out though I will still buy it and support the company either way though.