Greetings from all of us in the CK3 team!

The game is finally released, and what a journey it has been! It’s truly humbling to see something that we’ve worked on for so long, and poured so much of our passion into, finally out in the wild. We’re overjoyed with the response we’ve gotten so far, it’s great that so many of you seem to enjoy the game. The amount of stories and experiences already being shared is nothing but mind-boggling, and lots of them are circulating throughout the team, putting many smiles upon our faces (especially all the memes!). We in the team wish to extend a grand ‘thank you’ to all of you for making this launch so fantastic.

In the near future we’ll be looking at collecting and addressing as many of your issues as we can. The upcoming patch (release date TBD) is a mix of improvements that didn't make it into the release (including some really fancy UI upgrades!), and bug fixes based on your feedback. Patch notes will be posted closer in time to when the patch will be released. If you have an issue, make sure to report it here so that it’s sure to be looked at!

In the next few weeks there will be no Dev Diaries, as we’ll focus our efforts on working with the feedback we’re getting from all of you. When something of interest happens, we’ll of course be back! Until then, please keep enjoying the game, sharing your stories, and shaping the world to your liking!

 

[ulix]

Paradox and good QA are, unfortunately, an oxymoron. Not the QA people's fault!
Otherwise the game is great. Maybe the QA even did a great job but was ignored by the devs and the suits, who knows.

Paradox has also destroyed (and I mean that like I say it) Prison Architect this way. It was the best magagement game ever, now thanks to non-existant QA it's an unplayable mess with constant crashes and game-breaking bugs. And you can't even revert to an older version...

 

[Taciturn Scot]

I think most of us will feel a pinch at not getting a developer diary this week but I've been thinking for a while that having them when there's nothing substantial to talk about does more harm than good. Obviously, they will be working on a big patch which will likely drop near the end of the month or early October and there's not much they can say about that. Some Forum frequenters will only get angry if the fix they want is not in and for those of us for whom the fix is in, we'll be impatient waiting for it.

So I can wait. My own expectation is that the first flavour pack will drop around Christmas this year. I want them to take their time and do it properly and not rush it out to fulfill their commitments to Royal adopters. This is the best PDS game I've ever played and I am enjoying the base game content well enough not to mind the wait. The first patch may have a 'surprise' or two as well

 

[anduls]

I'm usually a PDX Fanboi but this time I've got to call you guys out on AI Seduction!

How could you have thought it wouldn't be a huge issue to a lot of players after all the uproar Way of Life caused.

You even added a game rule to disable it, why oh why didn't you put one in CK3 as well????

So please, maybe a quick patch just for a game rule to disable AI seduction, pretty please.

Political Correctness ?

 

[Kruos]

Long time EU player here (since EU1 back in the days), and I can say that it is probably the best quality release Paradox has ever done. Congratulations guys, this success is well deserved.

Crusader Kings III is a masterpiece, thank you devs!

 

[grommile]

Political Correctness ?

I'm pretty sure none of the usual positions snarled at by the use of that phrase are particularly keen on people running around covertly shagging other people's spouses.

 

[Sh4ark]

At the moment, the AI needs some fixes, as does the combat predictions (overflow errors for large battles, and too pessimistic in general). We plan to address at least some of this in the first big patch.

Strongly agree with the ai needing patching in combat and wars in general. I've seen it wait in full stacks for months; watching allies fight just one province away and not joining in; going back and forth between counties not commiting either siege or battle... Some major decision making issues those that cost me a few wars already.

Also, pleeeease add the link armies option. Pretty please.

 

[SauronGorthaur]

I will agree somewhat that there are bugs that should have be caught. My main issues are that the game is too pretty, and the UI suffers for it, and that many basic UI features in CK2 are gone from CK3.

That said, AI not using matrilineal marriage isn't really a bug. That is really just a feature for the benefit of the player, who is constrained by only being able to play their dynasty. The AI is playing everyone else. Until we have individual AI's running each dynasty, there is no real benefit to the AI if Matilda doesn't marry matrilineally.

If the AI not using matrilineal marriages in order to preserve its dynasty is a "feature" then that would mean you're painting an even worse picture of the game than one where it's a bug caused by major oversight. Because that would mean the AI is outright ignoring the game over condition. Which would be utterly lazy design with Paradox cutting corners to the max.

The AI should always strive to make choices that are as logical as possible within the structure of the game. And while it may need some handicaps to keep up with the player, those handicaps should be kept hidden from the player. Take gold gain, for example. You don't see the detailed breakdown of AI's income, so it'd mostly fly under the radar that the AI gets some boon in that department (if it's needed because the economy is something the AI struggles with). But marriages are right there to see. The spouse of the character is the second biggest UI element of that character's screen.

And it wouldn't be just utterly lazy design. It would be a step back from the previous game. As I already pointed out, in CKIII the AI is even worse with matrilineal marriages than it was in CKII. In CKII if the AI had a woman as an heir or the ruler, it'd go for matrilineal marriage even in male preference succession. The issues only arose later on when equality, female preference and female exclusivity were added into the mix and those issues only extended to other children. Meanwhile in CKIII the AI ignores the goal of maintaining the dynasty by using matrilineal marriages even in female oriented religions.

On top of that, the idea that the AI acting this way is to the benefit of the player isn't accurate. More than that, it mirrors the above point how things are even worse in CKIII than they were in CKII. Because in CKII the biggest benefit of using matrilineal marriages correctly was when you had vassals of your dynasty for the opinion bonus and AI properly utilizing matrilineal marriages maintained that.

Meanwhile in CKIII on top of that we also have the issue of foreign realms ruled by your dynasty granting you an increase in renown gain. And having all of the effort of putting your dynasty on other thrones go down the drain whenever that branch of the family gets a female ruler is very much not to the player's benefit.

Besides, even Paradox disagrees with you on that:

Female rulers should always try to arrange matrilineal marriages, yes. This is especially true in female-preference succession realms.

 

[ulix]

I had four nieces that inherited four counties and became my new vassals. To make sure they all would carry on my dynasty, I promised them to some random dudes matrilinearily (is that a word?). Made sure box was ticked. When I checked in on them years later, when they had grown up, I was suprised to see that even though I made sure to tick the box, and the betrothals were definietely all four matrilineal. they still married patrilineal, all four of them.

So in addition to being badly designed, the whole thing also seems bugged.

Edit: I just looked through my saves and apparently the matrilineal marriage did work for one of the nieces, so maybe the other betrothals just became invalid, the betrothed died, and then they just married some other dude patrilinearily. So that part does not seem "bugged".

 

[heliostellar]

I'm thrilled with the direction of the game. Characters are feeling much more organic. We still need some tweaks and fixes here and there, but sounds like you are on the case!

 

[DominusNovus]

If the AI not using matrilineal marriages in order to preserve its dynasty is a "feature" then that would mean you're painting an even worse picture of the game than one where it's a bug caused by major oversight. Because that would mean the AI is outright ignoring the game over condition. Which would be utterly lazy design with Paradox cutting corners to the max.

The AI should always strive to make choices that are as logical as possible within the structure of the game. And while it may need some handicaps to keep up with the player, those handicaps should be kept hidden from the player. Take gold gain, for example. You don't see the detailed breakdown of AI's income, so it'd mostly fly under the radar that the AI gets some boon in that department (if it's needed because the economy is something the AI struggles with). But marriages are right there to see. The spouse of the character is the second biggest UI element of that character's screen.

And it wouldn't be just utterly lazy design. It would be a step back from the previous game. As I already pointed out, in CKIII the AI is even worse with matrilineal marriages than it was in CKII. In CKII if the AI had a woman as an heir or the ruler, it'd go for matrilineal marriage even in male preference succession. The issues only arose later on when equality, female preference and female exclusivity were added into the mix and those issues only extended to other children. Meanwhile in CKIII the AI ignores the goal of maintaining the dynasty by using matrilineal marriages even in female oriented religions.

On top of that, the idea that the AI acting this way is to the benefit of the player isn't accurate. More than that, it mirrors the above point how things are even worse in CKIII than they were in CKII. Because in CKII the biggest benefit of using matrilineal marriages correctly was when you had vassals of your dynasty for the opinion bonus and AI properly utilizing matrilineal marriages maintained that.

Meanwhile in CKIII on top of that we also have the issue of foreign realms ruled by your dynasty granting you an increase in renown gain. And having all of the effort of putting your dynasty on other thrones go down the drain whenever that branch of the family gets a female ruler is very much not to the player's benefit.

Besides, even Paradox disagrees with you on that:

But its not game over for the AI, the AI isn’t playing a game. Unless Matilda marries you or your heir, her realm is no less a threat to you with a patrilineal alliance than with a matrilineal alliance (all other things equal).

 

[SidoShiro]

is Jerusalem Kingdom becoming muslim a bug or a new feature ?

and Pope is blobing too much, i think he believes he plays Battle Pope in EU4.

Maybe, I got an Orthodox Jerusalem Kingdom, and then appeared a Catholic Jerusalem Kingdom, so maybe musilms can have a specific Jerusalem Kingdom too

 

[AGHOSTY]

I have to be honest I am extremely satisfied with CK3's release especially compared to other releases where the game felt like a shell. This one is actually as advertised and I am so happy. In fact, I was so proud of Paradox that I immediately bought the deluxe pass.
At the same time, the game does have horrible and immersion-breaking bugs like the seduction/bastard fabrication event, and also the ridiculous snake-like blobbing (especially from Vikings) I've seen on every play-through over 60 hours. Obviously the 867 bookmark was probably a nightmare to implement but some of the issues are quite ridiculous and might be solved with a strong HRE which could fight off the Vikings for other counties.
As of current patch, the AI is completely unable to properly form the HRE, and to me this makes playing at 867 almost boring at current moment. There is virtually no challenge once you get going as everything is split up to all hell.

 

[Sebastián Machado]

Greetings from all of us in the CK3 team!

The game is finally released, and what a journey it has been! It’s truly humbling to see something that we’ve worked on for so long, and poured so much of our passion into, finally out in the wild. We’re overjoyed with the response we’ve gotten so far, it’s great that so many of you seem to enjoy the game. The amount of stories and experiences already being shared is nothing but mind-boggling, and lots of them are circulating throughout the team, putting many smiles upon our faces (especially all the memes!). We in the team wish to extend a grand ‘thank you’ to all of you for making this launch so fantastic.

In the near future we’ll be looking at collecting and addressing as many of your issues as we can. The upcoming patch (release date TBD) is a mix of improvements that didn't make it into the release (including some really fancy UI upgrades!), and bug fixes based on your feedback. Patch notes will be posted closer in time to when the patch will be released. If you have an issue, make sure to report it here so that it’s sure to be looked at!

In the next few weeks there will be no Dev Diaries, as we’ll focus our efforts on working with the feedback we’re getting from all of you. When something of interest happens, we’ll of course be back! Until then, please keep enjoying the game, sharing your stories, and shaping the world to your liking!

a work of art. congratulations to the entire work team.

 

[Senfmann]

Great Game so far, really enjoying it much. I guess the bigger stuff that I miss, like Republics will come in a DLC, and my only complaint, apart from the very rare CTD I get sometimes (wrote in bug reports already) is the fervor mechanic, it's too easy to stay either 100% or very low fervor, no balance inbetween. My game is now pretty unrealistic and an orthodox heresy has taken over 80% of Europe. Apart from that, I already uninstalled CK2 lol, wanted to play it to compare it to it, but I think I already had enough lol. And maybe a tool to let us carpetbomb without micromanagement of armies? That'd be cool.

EDIT: Also I really like the player statistics, which Dynasty played as most, how many players overall, and so on. I really liked it in Stellaris and HOI4, so would be cool if it was included in a future DD!

 

[JustinianJustice]

I have loved playing this game so far. You guys did an awesome job! Of course there are some bugs, and some things are unbalanced, but I don't blame the devs for that exactly. From something I have read, game testers have been cut way back for Paradox (not a good idea, mister big suits) so I'm sure you're looking to us to tell you the things needing attention. So I'm hopeful that the next couple of patches will be huge for fixing things.

Thanks for all you've done!

 

[BrotherJonathan]

Congratulations on a (mostly) smooth relsease. Keep up the good work; I'll probably pick this up around Christmas.

 

[Slimane]

I think most of us will feel a pinch at not getting a developer diary this week but I've been thinking for a while that having them when there's nothing substantial to talk about does more harm than good. Obviously, they will be working on a big patch which will likely drop near the end of the month or early October and there's not much they can say about that. Some Forum frequenters will only get angry if the fix they want is not in and for those of us for whom the fix is in, we'll be impatient waiting for it.

So I can wait. My own expectation is that the first flavour pack will drop around Christmas this year. I want them to take their time and do it properly and not rush it out to fulfill their commitments to Royal adopters. This is the best PDS game I've ever played and I am enjoying the base game content well enough not to mind the wait. The first patch may have a 'surprise' or two as well

This game feels like a beta test right now. The amount of bugs/issues I've encounted in 30 hours of play is simply astounding. They need to release a patch ASAP that fixes the most blatant issues/bugs.

For the adultery issue you have this mod at least: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2216850785

If the patches will only come later this month, why did they release it now? This game could of easily used a few more months...

 

[Senfmann]

This game feels like a beta test right now. The amount of bugs/issues I've encounted in 30 hours of play is simply astounding. They need to release a patch ASAP that fixes the most blatant issues/bugs.

For the adultery issue you have this mod at least: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2216850785

If the patches will only come later this month, why did they release it now? This game could of easily used a few more months...

Which bugs exactly? In my 36 hours of play as of now, I found only a few rare CTDs and it wasn't soo bad since for some reason it still managed to save beforehand. And a few inconveniences that are more bad game design rather than bugs, like the fervor mechanic. Granted, I've so far only played the Tutorial Island up until unifying Ireland and am now in the African campaign of Daura, so haven't touched much of Europe yet, next will be Poland probably.
I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm genuinely curious and I check the bug report forum pretty regularly.

 

[Negru Voda]

you guys really knocked it out of the park with the improvements to user experience, pacing, systems and content design.

congrats! Looking forward to the upcoming years for this great game and franchise.

how far it’s come since the first Crusader Kings

 

[Monkbel]

Why did you decide not to put this dev diary on the home page? https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php. Quite sad and unexpected omission..