Hello everyone!

I know you are all eager to learn more about the Royal Court, but as we announced last week, we will go into more details once the Azure patch is released. If everything goes according to plan, and there are no unexpected events, we aim to release Azure next week! But let’s focus on today's small dev diary for now!

During the development of Crusader Kings III, we organized a community challenge where you could unlock unique cosmetics for the game, which we dubbed the Monarch’s Journey. With the 1.4.0 Azure patch, we’ve decided to make these cosmetics available for everyone!

It includes:

• Headgear:
  • Hennin
  • Chaperon
  • Jester's Hat
• Haircuts:
  • Miller
  • Miller Highlights
  • Jeanne d'Arc
  • Pageboy
  • Mullet
• And the Wizard's Beard!

In order to celebrate this, we’ve also hooked some of these assets in to be used by random characters. For instance, Scots will be able to randomly use the Mullet haircut, while Frankish women will be able to use the Jeanne d’Arc haircut.

[A classy French woman with a Jeanne d’Arc haircut]

[A charming Scot with a Mullet]​

And because fashion changed over time, the Chaperon and Hennin will be available in the western world only after 1300.

[A wonderful Chaperon]

[A magnificent Hennin]​

In addition to that, we fixed several visual bugs highlighted by you:

• Spouses of rulers will now once again wear clothes based on their spouse's culture
• Arabic High Nobility will now use the Scholar's Turban and Caliphs will use the Caliphal Robes
• The 'Spindly' Trait will not make people's limbs too thin anymore

On the AI side, we reworked how vassals handle holy war and added constraints on Feudal and Clans rulers to limit their aggression of Tribal rulers. These modifications still allow the Byzantine empire to expand but in a more elegant way. Let’s have a look at a few results from Observe mode!

​

And this is it for today! As mentioned at the beginning of this dev diary, we should be back next week with the changelog for the patch if everything goes well!

Until then, I wish you the best and, hopefully, have fun!

 

[johnty5]

Just went back through the old Dev Diaries to remind myself of what we're getting in Azure:

• Modding Improvements
  
  
• War Declaration Window changes and Starting Men at Arms
  
  
• Childhood "gatherings" and more childhood/lifestyle events
  
  
• Changes to traits/stress interaction and events. Improvements to AI in warfare.
  
  
• Ability to raise only Men-at-Arms. Ability to save game rules/character search presets
  
  
• War Declaration Window changes. Dynamic Mercenary Costs. Dynamic Garrison. Factions update.
  
  
• Monarch Journey items released for everyone. Changes to how vassals handle holy war and constraints on Feudal and Clans rulers to limit their aggression of Tribal rulers.

 

[Pdx_Meedoc]

This dev diary title was awful. It made it sound like Monarch's Journey was coming back...

Sorry for that, it was not my intent at all. I'll be more careful next time to set up wrong expectations!

Am I the only one who can't see the images? I refreshed a few times and it doesn't do anything.

Sorry, I fixed the images in the dev diary... I'm really cursed with the images in this forum... Hopefully it will work for everyone now! Let me know if it's not the case!

Does anyone know if the Azure update is the update that brings the changes to the culture system? Or is that coming with "The Royal Court"?
Thanks

It will be coming along the Royal Court expansion. You will have to be more patient before playing with it

Can you expand on this ? What sort of constraints did you add ?

Will this result in feudal/clan vassals being less likely to expand into the steppes ?

Now the AI will not target Tribal realm if they have Tribal holding within their realm. They will have to first upgrade their holding before conquering more tribal holdings. So they will be less likely to expand into the steppes indeed.
Regarding the restriction on Vassals starting holy war, we limited them to target only neighboring lands.

Will saves from 1.3.1 be compatible with 1.4?

We always try to make saves from the pervious version work reasonably well on the new update. However with a game as complex as Crusader Kings, we can never test all the edge cases. If you want to be sure your save doesn't break, make a backup. On Steam you can also roll back to the previous version to complete your campaign.

Please tell something about new achivments in 1,4 ?

There won't be any new achievements in 1.4

debug for devs

Indeed!

Cheers,

 

[johnty5]

Sorry for that, it was not my intent at all. I'll be more careful next time to set up wrong expectations!

Next week's dev diary title:

"We're adding China"

+dev diary is about tea cups+

 

[Thoughtful Gaming LP]

Sorry, I fixed the images in the dev diary... I'm really cursed with the images in this forum... Hopefully it will work for everyone now! Let me know if it's not the case!

Thank You for fixing it so quickly Works for me now!

 

[Spirit_mert]

Can you expand on this ? What sort of constraints did you add ?

Will this result in feudal/clan vassals being less likely to expand into the steppes ?

Now the AI will not target Tribal realm if they have Tribal holding within their realm. They will have to first upgrade their holding before conquering more tribal holdings. So they will be less likely to expand into the steppes indeed.
Regarding the restriction on Vassals starting holy war, we limited them to target only neighboring lands.

This is a very welcoming change! Hopefully this means no more Greek Egypt and other such bizarre cases. HIP mod on ck2 had this, limiting holy wars within only one water tile and it works well enough.

My biggest worry is that Jerusalem blob now that happens in most of my games just like in that 2nd observe mode screenshot. Byzantium and crusader realms always stomp the Muslim realms in the middle east. I don't know if you guys waiting for a expansion like Sword of Islam from ck2, but they need few buffs now. AI always crumbles to Christians and it makes a bland experience. Nowadays I only play Muslim nations since they offer much more challenge.

Hopefully you guys will take a look at this issue without waiting too long for that eventual Islam focused dlc. We need some balance changes asap.

 

[The Turk2]

By giving all these cosmetic options from the 8th century, you're missing out on the changing fashion of the elite across the map, that would add a truly unique immersive quality to the game, as you see your characters change clothing over time.

 

[Tigre91]

we’ve decided to make these cosmetics available for everyone!

Nice!

 

[elvain]

View attachment 726620

What are these?

map modes in debug mode (not just for devs, as mentioned above, but for anyone, who uses the debug mode)

 

[G S Palmer]

Wasn't expecting to see Azure so soon, so that's exciting news!

Also really glad to see the Monarch's Journey cosmetics coming to all of us. I meant to do the challenges, but never found time.

 

[Scanz]

the most desirable change is the reworking of the Crusades

 

[SausageSpirit]

will this prevent byzantium from invading random places like ukraine or turkmenistan instead of de jure regions?

 

[FonzoRomano]

So happy that the Monarchs Journey's cosmetic are being automatically added to AI characters. It's great that everybody gets them, don't get me wrong! I myself was missing a couple of them. But the real hero here is is that AI will start using them on it's own.

When I found out that it was up to me to manually change my characters clothes to see those cosmetics in action, I got a bit saddened by the fact, and I think I've never used the cosmetics after the first week of release (because I honestly forgot they were a thing).

I wouldn't be against the return Monarch Journeys in CK, I loved that system, it made me play in ways I wouldn't have played before, with characters I had never played with. Cosmetic unlocks still really fit the theme, hell just a few extra colour schemes would be enough of a reward. I did all the achievements I've found interesting, and the challenge is not the same as in Monarch Journey, so I'm a bit lost on what to do in-game until the expansion comes out.

 

[G S Palmer]

Is it just a coincidence that the gay marriage (well gay concubinage, I know marriage isn't until 1.5) patch is coming out in time for pride month? That's kind of nice.

 

[Ares Enyalios]

I hope for an eventual option in the Barbershop to change the colours of the character's dresses and robes... But well, a patch next week means great news anyways!

Uhhh, that's what i thought several times myself. That would make a really, really nice feature.

 

[Tiax]

On the AI side, we reworked how vassals handle holy war and added constraints on Feudal and Clans rulers to limit their aggression of Tribal rulers. These modifications still allow the Byzantine empire to expand but in a more elegant way. Let’s have a look at a few results from Observe mode!

​

I notice that in all of these screenshots, the Seljuks have made no progress against the Byzantines. In a bunch of observer games I have *never* seen the Seljuks attack the Byzantines after their initial war, regardless of how strong the Seljuk army is compared to the Byzantine army. Is this an issue that is on the radar? Is there some AI code that discourages strong empires from declaring wars to try to reduce blobbing or something?

I also notice that we're still seeing the Seljuks collapse into a bunch of tiny realms, rather than a handful of coherent realms. With the strengthening of factions in the upcoming patch, is there any concern about how chaotic the outcome of successful factions, especially populist factions is? I often see the Seljuks (who are Oghuz) get torn apart by populist rebels because they rule a bunch of Persian and Mashriqi territory, and the result is that a bunch of fresh characters are generated to rule single provinces. Is this really a good way to have empires collapse? Shouldn't they collapse into something a little more coherent?

 

[Vityviktor]

Very happy to see all the Monarch's Journey items to be not just added for free in the game but also actually implemented according to culture and era!!!

 

[Siamese55]

Thanks for the cosmetics. Just missed out on them, myself.

 

[pengoyo]

As someone who unlocked all the Monarch's Journey cosmetics, I have no problem with it being unlocked for everyone, especially if it means the AI will start using it.

Sorry for that, it was not my intent at all. I'll be more careful next time to set up wrong expectations!

Personally, I knew exactly what you were going for with the title. I think your title is perfectly fine.

 

[IndigoRage]

With the 1.4.0 Azure patch, we’ve decided to make these cosmetics available for everyone!

Thankfully. Monarch's Journey being randomly removed from CK2 before I could finish was very frustrating.

On the AI side, we reworked how vassals handle holy war and added constraints on Feudal and Clans rulers to limit their aggression of Tribal rulers. These modifications still allow the Byzantine empire to expand but in a more elegant way.

Good. Though I notice Byzantium is uniformly strong and intact in all of these screenshots as well. Perhaps some more functional turkic conquerors (the ones in CK2 never worked particularly well in my experience) or another Fourth Crusade mechanic is in order?

Proceeds to show bordergore

What is supposed to be gore? Bulgaria? That's better than what the borders in the balkans were in real life for a time. Obviously what they're referring to is the Byzzies wildly blobbing out of control into Russia.

 

[moxica]

or another Fourth Crusade mechanic is in order?

oh god yes, 4th crusade is desperately needed into the game atm! it is such an important event that totally rearranges the power balance of the region, it's almost as crucial as getting the mongol invasions right.

fingers crossed for a simple 4th crusade event added soon!