• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

CK3 Dev Diary #33 - An Offer You Can’t Refuse

Hello everyone and welcome to the 33rd CK3 Dev Diary!

I’m Matthew, one of the Programmers on the CK3 team, and today I am going to talk to you about the overhaul we’ve done to Feudal Contracts since Dev Diary 17.

A quick refresher on what Contracts are: every vassal above baron tier has an individual contract between them and their liege which affects how much the vassal gives to the liege in terms of tax and levies in exchange for the liege’s protection. In the case of Feudal vassals, this contract can be renegotiated.

We were not fully content with the initial implementation of this setup as it did not help facilitate the drama and storytelling of the deals made between a vassal and their liege and the disagreements that could arise from that. This was a view shared among the community as well which reinforced our desire to give this feature another look, so a couple of our designers and I gave it an overhaul.

The Contract
You may have seen screenshots or videos of this system in some of the media released from our press events but I’m gonna take you through the new system step by step, so without further ado here is the new interface you’ll see when you interact with a vassal’s feudal contract.

ContractView.png

[Feudal contract negotiation screen]

As you can see there are a lot more options now to tailor the contract.

Going from top to bottom you can see that we have split the base tax and levy obligations into two separate tracks each now with five options. These are the core base of how much taxes and levies are given to the liege, the lower they are the more your vassal will like you, of course, and the higher they are the less content they will be.
When negotiating a new deal you can only move to adjacent levels of the tax and levy obligations.

Below that we have what we call the “Fine Print” options. These fine options are unlocked via various innovations and provide various modifications to the contract.
The first row being the Special Contract options of Scutage, March, and Palatinate which are available for vassals that are Dukes or Kings.

Scutage.png

[Effects of scutage]

March.png

[Effects of march]

Palatinate.png

[Effects of palatinate]

At the bottom we have the rest of the Fine Print options available, these are things like guaranteeing your vassal a spot on the council or granting them coinage rights. Some options are only shown if the vassal meets specific conditions, for example if the vassal is of a different faith to the liege. In such a case the “Religious Protection” gives them special rights to practice their faith without risk of the liege demanding their conversion or converting the faith of their provinces.

The Negotiation
When negotiating the contract a max of three changes may be made. We experimented with different values and this felt like it wasn’t too limiting whilst also letting you too wildly change your contract in one go.

With the new obligations that can be changed and enacted this allows you to negotiate a more interesting deal. For example, you as the liege may want to increase the amount of taxes your vassal gives you, but just doing that alone will be viewed as unfair by the vassal and increase your tyranny.

NegotiationTyranny.png

[a contract proposal giving tyranny]

So if you don’t want to take that tyranny hit then you need to look at what changes you can propose that the vassal will want, so in exchange for these increased taxes you could guarantee your vassal a spot on the council meaning you can now enact this deal without being viewed as a tyrant.

NegotiationFair.png

[a contract proposal with a fair trade]

Alternatively, if you have a hook on your vassal then you can use that hook to count as one free change in favour of the vassal, so you can use your hook and get those higher taxes without having to give any other concessions and not be viewed as a tyrant. Blackmailing people is surprisingly effective.

NegotiationHook.png

[a contract proposal using a hook to avoid tyranny]

It is worth mentioning that even if you propose a “fair” trade that does not give you tyranny this does not mean that the vassal will be perfectly content. There is an opinion change tied to each obligation and what status it is in, vassals will tend to dislike paying more and like paying less, and this opinion modifier will be present in the vassal’s view of their liege.

The vassal themselves can of course also negotiate the contract, they have the added restriction that they must offer their liege an even trade. So they cannot ask to pay lower taxes without using either a hook or agreeing to give the liege something they would want, be that giving more levies, agreeing to stay with only partition succession, or giving up a benefit they have previously been given such as that guaranteed council spot.

Some vassals start with contracts different to the default, in the Holy Roman Empire all vassals start with low taxes and levies to represent the internal state and the lower amount of control the Emperor was exerting over their vassals at the time.

We really wanted the interface to make this feel like an actual paper contract being signed between the liege and the vassal, thankfully we had this beautiful parchment background and wax seal shader lying around that helped spice it up.

Modding Contracts
All of these different obligations, their effects, how the AI uses them, and how they are shown in the UI is controlled in the script files so you can mod in or change existing obligations to your heart’s content.

Code:
religious_rights = {
    display_mode = checkbox

    is_shown = {

        NOT = {

            scope:vassal.faith = scope:liege.faith

        }

    }

    obligation_levels = {

        religious_rights_none = {

            default = yes

            

            ai_liege_desire = @ai_standard_liege_desire

            ai_vassal_desire = 0

        }

        religious_rights_protected = {

            is_valid = {

                NOT = {

                    scope:vassal.faith = scope:liege.faith

                }

            }

            parent = religious_rights_none

            

            vassal_opinion = 5

            

            vassal_modifier = {

                county_opinion_add = 5

            }

            

            flag = religiously_protected

            

            ai_liege_desire = 0

            ai_vassal_desire = 10

        }

    }
}
Here we have the script database entry for the religious protection obligation type, it demonstrates the various options and should be fairly self explanatory in its naming of the options.

I hope you’ve all enjoyed this dev diary and are excited for the new Feudal Contracts and the more options and interactions they can provide between vassals and lieges!

We look forward to seeing you next week, in the meanwhile if you want to chat more then I highly recommend joining our CK Discord Server as well!

Pets of the Dev Team
On the Crusader Kings 3 team we are of course very big fans of animals and pets of all kinds. So I thought to cap off this dev diary, and give you all some much needed cuteness overload during these difficult times in the world, I'd collect a bunch of pictures of all our wonderful pets, fluffy or otherwise!

Pet17.JPG

Pet1.png
Pet2.png
Pet3.png
Pet4.png
Pet5.png
Pet6.png
Pet7.png
Pet8.png
Pet9.png
Pet10.png
Pet11.png
Pet12.png
Pet13.png
Pet14.png
Pet15.png

Pet16.JPG
 
  • 169Love
  • 104Like
  • 29
  • 12
  • 2
Reactions:
There will not be any Dev Diaries for the next two weeks.
The DDs will be back on the 21st of July :)

Just out of curiosity, are you guys on vacation for this month?

The EU4 team mentioned that they were still working, since spending vacation time trapped at home didn't sound like much of a vacation anyway.
 
  • 2
Reactions:
There will not be any Dev Diaries for the next two weeks.
The DDs will be back on the 21st of July :)
Damn! And here I was thinking as the forum loaded, that there were only 8 Dev Diaries left, it turns out there's actually only 6 Dev Diaries left...
 
Last edited:
  • 2
Reactions:
I'm starting to feel like the entirety of CK3 is an offer I can't refuse. Each new dev diary is making more excited, and that's saying something when you consider all the content I was most interested in was discussed by Dev Diary #6.
 
  • 2Like
Reactions:
Do I inherit those treaties if I takeover a new Duchy or inherit the throne of France from my Greatunclo who tragically choked on an apple?

It would be a horrible micromanagement if I had to renegotiate those contracts constantly.
 
Do I inherit those treaties if I takeover a new Duchy or inherit the throne of France from my Greatunclo who tragically choked on an apple?

It would be a horrible micromanagement if I had to renegotiate those contracts constantly.
I guess they will be inherited, but under the right conditions can be renegotiated. Since both parties might have an incentive to change it to their advantage. Granted ‘Status Quo’ will be the default.
 
Do I inherit those treaties if I takeover a new Duchy or inherit the throne of France from my Greatunclo who tragically choked on an apple?

It would be a horrible micromanagement if I had to renegotiate those contracts constantly.
if you are a duke and inherit another duchy, you keep the contract, if you are a duke and inherit a kingdom, you take his contract. the prio is whoever has the highest title, otherwise whos inheriting from who
 
So all the existing contracts with the lower titles still stay no matter who gets the title itself. I can renegotiate them later of course
 
Do I inherit those treaties if I takeover a new Duchy or inherit the throne of France from my Greatunclo who tragically choked on an apple?

It would be a horrible micromanagement if I had to renegotiate those contracts constantly.
You take on the contract of the highest rank, followed by the title you held longest.

So if you're the count of York and inherit the duchy, you move to the duchy's contract. If you then inherit the duchy of Northumberland, you'd retain the duchy of York's contract. I'm not sure what happens if you somehow inherit two equal ranked titles at the same time from different sources, but presumably one of them would be awarded "first", even if just by alphabetic (or behind the scenes numeric) order.
 
So if you're the count of York and inherit the duchy, you move to the duchy's contract. If you then inherit the duchy of Northumberland, you'd retain the duchy of York's contract. I'm not sure what happens if you somehow inherit two equal ranked titles at the same time from different sources, but presumably one of them would be awarded "first", even if just by alphabetic (or behind the scenes numeric) order.
Thanks
But I was more concerned about my vassals. I had been the count of York. had my own contract witht the duke. Now I am the duke, I will inherit the contract witht the king but what with my former fellow counts? Do they retain their rights?
 
Thanks
But I was more concerned about my vassals. I had been the count of York. had my own contract witht the duke. Now I am the duke, I will inherit the contract witht the king but what with my former fellow counts? Do they retain their rights?
I *think* they retain the contract they had with the old duke.
 
  • 1
Reactions:
Thanks
But I was more concerned about my vassals. I had been the count of York. had my own contract witht the duke. Now I am the duke, I will inherit the contract witht the king but what with my former fellow counts? Do they retain their rights?

Yes, exactly, unless you change their rights so they can now serve you hahahaha o_O
 
  • 2
  • 1Like
Reactions:
Long time Paradox games player here, first post ever in Paradox Forum... :D

Best of luck with CK3, I really hope to have great fun with the game, like I have with CK2.

Cheers !
 
  • 2Like
Reactions:
Would it be possible for the contract preferences to be dynamic and modified by culture? For example, an ambitious vassal might look at the same contract as a content one differently, and different cultures might have different expectations about the obligations between the vassal and the liege.
 
  • 6
Reactions:
What might the „War declaration: Sanctioned“ option do?
I am not sure if it sanctiones a war declaration on the vassal (good for him) or a war declaration by the vassal (bad for him)
 
What might the „War declaration: Sanctioned“ option do?
I am not sure if it sanctiones a war declaration on the vassal (good for him) or a war declaration by the vassal (bad for him)

I think it refers to whether or not that vassal is allowed to declare war on another vassal.
 
  • 1
Reactions:
  • 6Like
Reactions: