CK3 Dev Diary #68 - Inspiration Never Dies

[Servancour]

CK3 Dev Diary #68 - Inspiration Never Dies​

As you may already know, artifacts are making a triumphant return in Royal Court. The artifacts themselves will be familiar to those of you who have used them in CK2, but how you actually get your hands on them will be slightly different. As such, I won’t talk much about the artifacts themselves for now, but I’ll be going over one of the major ways of how you will acquire artifacts.

Characters throughout the world can gain what we call an inspiration. Inspirations come about as a character is seeking to create something extraordinary, resulting in the character wanting to pursue the means of realizing their inspiration. They may want to write a great tome of knowledge, weave a tapestry, or forge a magnificent crown! There are many different kinds of inspirations, all resulting in various types of artifacts upon completion. An inspiration can be broad, such as someone wanting to merely forge a weapon, or very specific like a character wanting to forge a sword.

[Image of a character with an active inspiration]​

Inspirations only occur for landless characters. We want to extend the immersion of guests and courtiers by making them valuable to you even if you have no desire to push their claims, or use their skills as a councillor. Inspired characters will travel the world, from court to court, seeking a wealthy monarch to sponsor them and their creation. Realms with a high grandeur will be able to attract inspired characters more frequently than those with low grandeur. Granting them a higher chance at receiving skilled craftsmen that will be able to forge an artifact to meet your expectations.

Once an inspired character arrives at your court, you can choose to sponsor them by giving them the gold they ask for. A skilled character will demand larger amounts of gold, but will also yield better results in creating an artifact. Most of the time at least. No one is infallible after all. The skill that is relevant depends on the type of artifact they want to make. For example, a weapon and the quality it gets is dependent on the character’s Martial and Prowess skill. Writing a book, on the other hand, scales with Learning.

[Image of the Fund Inspiration interaction]​

After funding an inspiration, it will take some time for the character to create the artifact. During the creation progress various situations can happen, such as the character asking for better materials to work with. Below you’ll find such an example, in which my inspired character finds excellent material at the local market. Approve their request and pay for the material, and you’ll increase the overall quality of the artifact they’ll produce.

[Image of an inspiration event: Highest Quality]​

An inspiration gains progress similar to that of a scheme. You’ll gain progress depending on a chance each month, making the actual time it takes to complete vary. Once the inspiration reaches full progress, the character will approach you to present their creation.

[Image of an inspiration being completed]​

Mind you, this is not the only way in which you can get an artifact. Inspirations exist to serve as the most significant means of doing so, since they will generally grant you artifacts of a higher quality. You can still get artifacts by other means, such as getting them in events. I hope you enjoyed this brief look into how an artifact can come about. Stay tuned for more information regarding the Royal Court!

 

[Servancour]

This is very cool, I like it. Is it possible to fund more than one inspiration at a time? What are the artifact types for the other skills (diplo, int, stew)?

As long as you have the gold for it, and inspired characters at your court, you are able to fund as many inspirations as you like.

I don't think we actually use all the different skills for creating artifacts. I don't think we use intrigue at the moment for example. Some inspirations may use mutiple skills, while others only make use of a single skill. A weaver inspiration makes use of diplomacy, while weapons and armor both use martial and prowess.

Will artifacts be 3D models?

It will depend on the artifact type. Certain artifacts will be shown in 3D.

The event says, "On the blade of the sword there's an insciption" - is it normal to refer to a dagger as a sword? Or just unfinished loc?

Probably just a loc error. I'll look into it though.

I am still not completely sure how artifacts will work in relation to who gets to have a court or not. Can I still get inspired people to make artifacts for me if I am below king tier or tribal? Given that I would probably still want to have things like weapons and armor?

Inspired characters will only travel to the courts of kings and emperors, but as I mentioned in the DD, there are alternative ways of getting artifacts so that counts and dukes are able to procure artifacts as well.

 

[Servancour]

1.) does the creator of the artifact have his/her name in the description or somewhere to note who was the creator? If I have my own Chaucer, who wrote for my English king an exceptional tome, I would like his name to be remembered somehow.

2.) Could I poach inspired characters from another realm by say offering them more money or using a hook on them(if I have one)

1. Artifacts can have names on them, yes. It's a bit random, but some artifact may be named after its creator or after whom it was created for.
2. If you have the means of getting them to your court, you may indeed poach them and fund the inspiration yourself.

 

[Servancour]

I mean, I like the system, but I also find it odd that if as a high Learning character I want to write a book, I have to look around for somebody who is inspired to write a book and pay them to do it? Or as a legendary warrior, I can't have my own idea of what type of sword I want, I have to randomly look around for a guy who is inspired to make a sword?

Inspirations are the primary way for you to get artifacts of a higher quality. We will have alternative methods of getting artifacts in general. This is still being worked on, however, so I can't go into details for how that will work quite yet.