Greetings!

Welcome to the first Dev Diary for the Royal Court expansion! As we mentioned in a previous DD, we’ll go back to Azure patch DD’s for a few weeks after this one. But do not fear, there will be some more Royal Court DD’s before the summer holidays - and when we’re back from holidays we’ll have many, many Royal Court diaries for you!

It’s really hard to pick a topic for where to start, but we decided upon a dive into the namesake feature of the expansion - the Royal Court itself, your seat of royal majesty and power! The Royal Court consists of many features, all collected within a 3D scene that we call the Throne Room.

Here’s an early Work in Progress screenshot of the throne room - do note that it’s a very early version, but we just can't wait to show you what we have been working on!

[Image: An early WIP western-style Throne Room, not indicative of final quality]

Now, there are many things that go into the Royal Court itself. It interacts with numerous new features that’ll come with the expansion - we won’t go into detail on all of them today, if we did this DD would become much too long!

It's worth noting that this isn’t just a graphical feature; while we admit the importance of immersion, we don't want any features to feel tacked-on or superfluous. The Throne Room is there to show what’s happening; what artifacts you’ve collected, which courtiers are having a fight, etc. This allows us to place your character in a scene together with others, showing that you’re actually present in the same world! We’re trying to bridge the gap between your character and the map, all while representing a side of medieval history we’ve never previously explored in detail - the importance for a ruler to show their power, their grandeur, to their subjects and peers.

Every Feudal/Clan King and Emperor has a Royal Court. Tribal Rulers do not have one, as this feature primarily models the formality and ceremony surrounding the court, as well as the need for spending Gold, while Tribal rulers use Prestige as their main resource. If a ruler is demoted to a lower rank (through war, election, or just sheer bad luck) their Royal Court and everything therein will either stay dormant until you regain your lost status, or follow the character who now rules in your stead.

Grandeur
The key concept that enables this is called Grandeur - a measurement of your standing in the eyes of your peers. While it’s measured on a scale from 0-100, it’s not necessarily a simple system. Increasing your grandeur will lead to direct political benefits, such as increased opinions, marriage acceptance, etc. It will also unlock new Council Jobs, such as being able to peacefully demand De Jure land with the ‘Convince De Jure Territory’ job, or gain Knight Effectiveness while also decreasing enemy Scheme Success Chance with the ‘Manage Royal Guards’ job. These effects motivate you to aim for a high level of Grandeur, but naturally comes at a monetary cost. How much are you willing to spend on artifacts, amenities, or on positions within your court? You have to balance your political needs with your temporal ones, such as warfare or development. Sacrificing your grandeur entirely will cause instabilities both internal and external.

Grandeur is not really a resource, and is not actively ‘spent’ - unlike something like Prestige. It works on a much slower timescale, and is something you must balance and work towards increasing over a longer period of time. Though there are of course choices in events that make Grandeur increase or decrease, with various trade-offs.

Grandeur Effects
As mentioned in the previous section, Grandeur has several different effects and modifiers. It is divided into 10 separate levels with their own effects. For example, the very first level of Grandeur unlocks the ability to Hold Court - which is a crucial component in achieving the higher Grandeur levels. The second level unlocks a Council Task called ‘Bestow Royal Favor’, which is a powerful single-target task that increases a vassal’s opinion of you while granting them, and you, prestige.

One of the most significant effects of Grandeur is its effect on attraction of Inspired characters - the higher your Grandeur is compared to that of your neighbors, the likelier you are to have these creative travelers visit your court first, giving you an opportunity for patronage (more on Inspirations in a future DD).

Some of these levels will give courtiers who stay within it a flavorful trait, which will increase their skills and attributes based on the type of court they’re staying at. A particularly grand court might even see a more powerful trait appear, making such characters excellent for various jobs and Court Positions (more on Court Positions in a later DD).

Several Grandeur levels have effects and modifiers based on your Court Type - a type of flavorful perk for your court. Depending on your cultural Ethos you’ll get access to a few different types, such as a Diplomatic or Warlike Court. All royal courts have a type, and among other things it affects the type of trait that courtiers get (see previous paragraph). The bonuses granted from these types are varied and aim to enhance a certain style of play. The AI will tend to go for the Court Type most reflective of their Cultural Ethos and situation - for example, Indian Kings will often tend to want a Scholarly Court since many Indian cultures have a spiritual Ethos.

As an example, having a Diplomatic Court Type will grant you bonuses to Vassalization acceptance, tyranny gain, opinion, and potentially even unlock a Personal Scheme slot. A Warlike Court Type might instead see bonuses to MaA counter efficiency, knight efficiency, and the maximum size of MaA regiments. As not all cultures can access all Court Types, this is another reason to pursue Hybridization or Divergence (more on that in a later DD).

How Grandeur is Gained
Grandeur is divided in two; baseline, and direct gain. The baseline decides the ‘trend’, with you passively (and slowly) either gaining or losing grandeur over time, until the baseline is met. The baseline is affected by many things; what Court Artifacts you have, what Court Positions you have filled, etc (more on Court Artifacts in a later DD). The rate of grandeur change can be modified by many things, such as Cultural Ethoses or Traditions, but is as a rule of thumb slow. It takes time for word of your glory to spread, after all!

The most simple way to increase your Grandeur baseline is by investing in Amenities. Now, Amenities are simple and straightforward; but they’re still central to the concept of having a grand court! There are four different types; Lodgings, Food, Clothing and Servants. There are four levels to each, with each progressive level costing more gold to maintain, but giving more Grandeur baseline. They all come with a selection of flavor effects, for example; spending on food will slightly increase the disease resistance of your courtiers, but higher levels might also cause them to gain weight! Spending on clothes will increase their prestige, and will even cause them to wear fancier clothes at higher levels of expenditure (commoners will wear low nobility clothes, and so on). If your court is lacking in artifacts, spending on Amenities is the way to go.

Worth noting is that the cost of amenities is relative to your size and income; a small realm won’t have to pay as much as a prosperous one - the intent here is to allow smaller kingdoms and empires to ‘punch above their weight’ diplomatically, making choosing between expansion and consolidation a more relevant matter.

Reaching your baseline might take a long time, unless you decide to take action in order to speed it up - to gain grandeur fast, you need to Hold Court! Performing this decision invites your vassals and subjects to bring their issues, requests, and questions before you. The mere act of Holding Court will give you a one-time boost to your Grandeur, but the opportunities within the activity itself might give you opportunities to increase it further (or you could decide to lose grandeur for some temporal gain that is just too good to pass up!). The issues brought forth when Holding Court are many and varied, with many of them reacting to the state of your realm (more on Hold Court in a later DD).

Grandeur Expectations
Now, Grandeur isn’t only about reaching the level that gives the effect you desire, it’s also about managing expectations!

Depending on a number of factors, such as your tier or the size of your realm, you will have a certain expectation put upon your Royal Court. This expectation is a double-edged sword - if your grandeur is below expectations you’ll suffer increasing diplomatic penalties as people lose respect, while if it’s exceeded you might see powerful diplomatic bonuses.

These are scaled based on how powerful you are - a rather small Kingdom that undershoots its expectations won’t be hit particularly hard, while a massive empire such as the Holy Roman Empire or Byzantium will be punished much harder if they fail to live up to the expectations put upon them.

The effects of not living up to your expectations are many; reduced prestige, renown, and a hefty hit to opinion with both foreign rulers, courtiers and vassals. A large realm might easily find itself facing significant unrest unless its ruler starts spending on grandeur! On the other hand, a small kingdom that vastly exceeds the expectations put upon it might see significant bonuses to its diplomatic power, as well as renown and other bonuses.

Court Events
Now, the Royal Court isn’t all about Grandeur, of course. Another important role it holds is to show that there’s life in your court! This is done through Court Events; happenings contained within the court, taking place between those who live therein.

This new type of event uses the throne room as its backdrop, transforming the entire throne room into an event when they happen. Unlike normal events, this type of event is non-interruptive - you get notified that something is happening, whereby you can go into your Royal Court, inspect the scene, find whoever is involved, and trigger the event yourself. Usually these events are some sort of drama happening between your courtiers, which you can choose to simply ignore if you feel like you have more important matters to attend to.

These events come in many different flavors, mostly focusing on how it is to live in the court.

Some examples of court events that are being worked on currently include courtiers causing you embarrassment through their drinking or poor manners, or getting into arguments with your architect. Others involve things like rumors spreading about your predecessor on the throne, or popular and unflattering songs about you spreading within the court itself.
Court events might also be things like foreign ambassadors trying to uncover your secrets or devout courtiers shaming you and your court for your frivolous living.

---

Now, of course there’s more that goes into the Royal Court, but we’ll save going into details regarding Court Artifacts, the UI and graphical looks of the Throne Rooms, Court Positions and so on for future DevDiaries! Of course, this expansion isn’t all about the Royal Court; before the summer break starts you’ll get to read about some of the other features coming with the expansion and patch.

That’s all for now!

 

[Min91]

When you hold court i would love to be able to invite Holy warriors for some special occasion like discussing crusade

 

[LukeCreed13]

Overall, it's pretty neat. Particularly the part about different levels of grandeur and various types of court (and how that ties to culture). I still heavily disagree with denying the whole system from dukes (though like I said in the previous thread, I think a nice compromise here would be to allow it only to dukes that have multiple duchy titles, i.e. upstart kings) because vassal play is an important part of the game, as well as from tribals (because, like I also said in the previous thread, it's rather silly to think that a tribal emperors would not concern themselves with things like hoarding treasures, showing off their power and splendor or addressing the issues of people in their realm).

The even worse part about the "no tribals" thing though is how you limit court styles to only four options. That correspond to the general four areas that start as feudal in 867. OK, you don't want to give courts to tribals. I may disagree, but this is apparently the direction here. But the areas that start as tribal are still going to transform into feudalism (or clan government) during the time span of the game. It's literally one of their primary short term goals. Why shouldn't they have their own court styles once they transition? What court style are Mongols going to use, for example? Middle Eastern, when they are half the steppe away from it? Or Indian, even though they are separated from the Indian Peninsula by the Tibetan Plateau?

If anything, if the game is going with the weird "cultures that start as tribal are going to use an architectural style of a more 'civilized' culture when they turn feudal/clan because they are too stupid to use their own architecture, or alone develop it further to fit some arbitrary metric of being courtly enough" Mongols should look at Chinese architecture as an inspiration, because that's the culture Mongols would be logically most exposed to. Yet Chinese style isn't an option either.

On another, while the example of a court used here looks neat overall, something about the ceiling looks off. Though maybe it's the static lightning that's playing tricks on me. And while I'm on the topic, I know we will fill the empty spaces with artifacts, but will grandeur also affect how that space looks like on a more baseline level? Take the throne, for example. Will it get upgraded at higher levels to look even more prestigious? And would the type of court also affect things here? Continuing the example of the throne, in CK2's Great Works you could construct a skull throne in the Royal Palace. Would it be possible if you went with intrigue-related court for bonuses to dread and the like?

I think that specific cultures would probably get their own version of a royal court with their accompanying expansion\flavour pack. Whenever a "Horse Lords" or "Legacy of Rome"-like DLC for CK3 comes out, it's not far-reaching to say it may come out with its own version of culture-appropriate royal\imperial court. Better this, than having to make placeholder mechanics and artwork for current tribal or Mongol rulers, then having to make them from scratch once more when the "Horse Lords 2.0" DLC comes out.

 

[Greene]

Picking a small guy and working your way up to King/Emperor is more fun than starting as one. Sad that counts and dukes aren’t getting a court mechanic :/ Not such a grand court but at least something small...

 

[SauronGorthaur]

I think that specific cultures would probably get their own version of a royal court with their accompanying expansion\flavour pack. Whenever a "Horse Lords" or "Legacy of Rome"-like DLC for CK3 comes out, it's not far-reaching to say it may come out with its own version of culture-appropriate royal\imperial court. Better this, than having to make placeholder mechanics and artwork for current tribal or Mongol rulers, then having to make them from scratch once more when the "Horse Lords 2.0" DLC comes out.

Why would their court artwork need to be redone from scratch even if they get their own expansions later on? Any mechanics introduced by those expansions are unlikely to affect the Court, as Paradox usually shies away from modifying DLC features in further DLCs. Also, I'm pretty sure one of the four styles has been confirmed to be Mediterranean, meaning that Byzantine Empire will get its own court style and it won't be a "placeholder" just because ERE is likely to be revamped down the line.

 

[klopkr]

I'd love a court type that flips the dynamic of grandeur on its head for christians and buddhists.

For pious courts of these faiths you'll be sacrificing grandeur at your own risk and at the discontent of your rich vassals but with big piety and religious gains.

 

[Blackfox066]

Can't wait to play it

 

[GeorgieBest]

If anything, if the game is going with the weird "cultures that start as tribal are going to use an architectural style of a more 'civilized' culture when they turn feudal/clan because they are too stupid to use their own architecture, or alone develop it further to fit some arbitrary metric of being courtly enough" Mongols should look at Chinese architecture as an inspiration, because that's the culture Mongols would be logically most exposed to. Yet Chinese style isn't an option either.

I don't know about with regards to Mongols, but afaik didn't the Norse settlers adopt the local castle building traditions when they stayed in northern France and Sicily?

 

[Elryos]

Besides baseline grandeur will there be a max grandeur? E.g. will ascetic faiths shun us if our court spending is too lavish?

 

[LukeCreed13]

Why would their court artwork need to be redone from scratch even if they get their own expansions later on? Any mechanics introduced by those expansions are unlikely to affect the Court, as Paradox usually shies away from modifying DLC features in further DLCs. Also, I'm pretty sure one of the four styles has been confirmed to be Mediterranean, meaning that Byzantine Empire will get its own court style and it won't be a "placeholder" just because ERE is likely to be revamped down the line.

The way the royal court seems to be set up, it seems to be a new major part of gameplay. I doubt it's going to be released for the Royal Court DLC and then never touched again forever after in future patches or DLCs. Graphic assets would probably be touched upon whenever they'll make a new flavour pack\major DLC, I can imagine culture-specific thrones, artifacts, clothes, etc. That's why I'm assuming they'll probably do this if\whenever the ERE gets reworked, so that the Mediterranean royal court can be replaced by a proper Byzantine\Roman royal (imperial?) court. And the various court interactions would need to change accordingly too, to reflect the fact that you're the Basileus\Roman Emperor.

 

[SauronGorthaur]

I don't know about with regards to Mongols, but afaik didn't the Norse settlers adopt the local castle building traditions when they stayed in northern France and Sicily?

When they stayed in Northern France and Sicily? Sure. They were settlers and a minority. And they quickly ceased to be actual Norse, instead turning into Normans. In Scandinavia, not so much. And Scandinavian Norsemen still feudalized IRL, as they are prone to do in CK3 as well (especially if played by the player).

 

[pengoyo]

Wait, actually I have to reconsider my initial opinion on linking court types to cultural Ethea. Judging by the remark that many Indian cultures have a spiritual Ethos, it sounds like each base culture has an Ethos from the get go. And as per PDX-Nicou's recent post in the previous thread, Divergence is the only answer to wanting to swap an Ethos out. That's further corroborated by this dev diary, as it mentions how Divergence and Hybridization are the only answers to wanting different court types (as that in turn requires an Ethos change).

And that's kinda limiting. And while some choice is good in games, this is limiting in the bad way. Let's say you want to play as a French dynasty. Perhaps you're French yourself or at least some of your ancestors were. Perhaps you're a fan of French history. Or perhaps the idea of eating frogs simply speaks to you on a spiritual level. Whatever your reason for playing French may be, you're limited to the - I'm going to guess here - two court types unlocked by the Ethos it has from the get go.

So, what happens if the court types unlocked by that Ethos don't suit your playstyle? The only answers provided by the devs are either Hybridization or Divergence. I.e. creating a culture that is NOT French. Completely defeating the point of wanting to play as specifically French. And here you're not limited in your choices because you did something, like how picking certain buildings means you can't have others because building slots are limited. You're simply limited from the get go. It'd be like limiting characters of French culture to a specific religion.

According to the GameWatcher article, Traditions can be picked by the Cultural Head if you have free spots by using Prestige. Which indicates that unlike Ethea Traditions are not there from the get go. Or at least not all spots are filled. As such, I'd argue that Traditions would make for a better mechanic to tie court types to. You'd still have to make a choice but here you'd be in control.

These are some good points.

One, I hope the culture head will have some ability to change the culture's ethos without hybridization or divergence.

Two, as not every king isn't going to be able to be culture head (and changing your entire culture every time you want to play as a different court type seems weird), I'm not a fan of the move it to traditions option. I think the better solution would for the ethos to steer you towards certain court types, rather than lock you out of others. So an ethos could gives bonuses to two or three different court types (the bonus it gives is also another way to add some flavour and variety). Meaning you can get a benefit for picking a court type the matches your cultural ethos, but can still decide to go against the grain if you so desire. Could even add in some penalties that you have to overcome if your court type is of the wrong type, such as a lower base grandeur.

 

[PapaRocks]

I always imagined CK having a point and click Castle "rooms" instead of the standard map with tabs. Might have to start a new game before this releases.

 

[Doogy]

Looks really good. Can't wait to be messing around with my council personality types.

 

[The_Old_Shrike]

Given the fact the question of vassal interactions with the liege's court has been continously dodged, I think it's safe to assume that there won't be any of these.

I hope there will be new events at least - to make up for it. For the game which was marketed, among all things, as a step to try making vassal gameplay more engaging, completely ignoring vassal players in the DLC looks really sad and strange.

At least bring back the events which were related to your character when he was a part of liege's council, please.

 

[daxtexoscuro]

I hope that the cost of different amenities is different depending on where is the capital located. For example, the most expensive food (ie: rare spices) should be cheaper in India than in Iceland. Servants should be cheaper in the lands which are more densely populated. Lodgings shoul be cheaper in plain lands with little obstacles (swamps, forests, jungle...).

This would make for distinct gameplay depending on the country, and may encourage expansive empires to move their capital to newly, and better conquered lands. I think it would be very cool.

 

[DreadLindwyrm]

Would be a good idea if culture-merging wasn't a DLC mechanic. Expanding on this thought is ok, but not removing something from religions from base game

It'd be nice to move some of the arguably cultural elements of the current religious system into cultures though.

Say being able to be part of a religion that has it be criminal to be homosexual, but you treat it as one step lighter (so that it's now "shunned" rather than criminal), reflecting the de facto behaviour in some more... decadent areas of Europe.

Potentially it would allow for Welsh Catholics to have a different attitude to inheritance (effectively "no bastards") compared to their Anglo-Norman counterparts (effectively unable to legitimise bastards).


It'd mean that cultures that *really* didn't get on with kinslayers could stay in the same faith as those who tolerate them somewhat more - especially when it comes to consideration of who/what is considered kin.

Potentially it might allow for someone under Catholicism to move to *equal* succession without having to split into a heresy.

 

[PaulZig]

I dont know if this has been discussed but as a count or duke would you get invited to the court of the king and maybe get some bonuses or grandeur? Or if you are a King would you get an invite to the court of the Emperor?

 

[Voy]

I can only echo the mistake of neglecting the existence and prominence of ducal courts, especially in France, Spain, Italy and the HRE.

I can also see why not all dukes should hold court, but there's a specific group that definitely did and should. Namely independent dukes and prominent vassal dukes in Empires and Kingdoms where centralisation is low.

 

[korvmaskin]

This new type of event uses the throne room as its backdrop, transforming the entire throne room into an event when they happen. Unlike normal events, this type of event is non-interruptive - you get notified that something is happening, whereby you can go into your Royal Court, inspect the scene, find whoever is involved, and trigger the event yourself. Usually these events are some sort of drama happening between your courtiers, which you can choose to simply ignore if you feel like you have more important matters to attend to.

I hope they bake in the older "drama" events etc that happened between courtiers into this as well. Something I always appreciate is when older events are revisited for newer content to incorporate the feature even better.

 

[korvmaskin]

The only way to get an existing court is to inherit it.

So in a sense it is tied to the main title and the character then? One bad election in Sweden and your court will slip into another family, I guess?