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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.

01_inspiration.jpg

[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.

02_fund_inspiration.jpg

[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.

03_highest_quality.jpg

[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.

04_inspiration_realized.jpg

[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!
 

Beyond Disbelief

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Well, in CK2, they were more like "A regular sword" and "decent armor". Hopefully that's not the case here.
I'll let you in on a secret: Most luxury sports car owners drive at the same speed as regular car owners in your local streets and on the freeway. They just keep the luxury car for the *ahem* prestige and grandeur.
 
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Knights don't forge weapons. Blacksmiths do.
Yet according to devs, to forge a great sword you need to be great commander and fighter... (high prowess and Martial). So yeah, apparently either it's the same thing in CK3 world or every wanderer is a blacksmith. But not landed characters. Landed characters are forbidden from using a forge
 
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Yeah, hopefully they make the items ornamental, and give grandeur, prestige, etc. It makes sense to spend a bunch of money on a jewel-encrusted, golden dagger if you want to show off your wealth. But it doesn't give you a +1 dagger of extra good stabbing.
And well, a more expensive sword is also probably forged by a better smithy that can charge higher prices for their products, and so being made by more skilled craftsmen can be more nimble, sharper, and more durable
While mostly true there's still things like Damascus/Wootz steel which are genuinely of higher functional quality than most counterparts at the time, though granted I'm not sure anyone has done a scientific study of two people of equal skill dueling with similar class but (relatively) slightly better quality equipment. Most tests I've seen are comparing of entirely different class of materials.
 
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I'll let you in on a secret: Most luxury sports car owners drive at the same speed as regular car owners in your local streets and on the freeway. They just keep the luxury car for the *ahem* prestige and grandeur.
In CK2 it wasn't like that, though. You'd spend a big pile of gold and get "A well crafted sword". And it gave nonsense bonuses like making you better at leading infantry. And then you'd spend a ludicrous pile of gold and you'd get a legandary sword that made you even better at leading infantry. They gave a modest amount of prestige, but it was clear that the intent was that you were buying a sword that you would actually use in combat, and it made you a better fighter and a better general.

But clearly that's not how swords work. You can't spend a castle's price on a sword and get one that makes you a master swordsman. You can maybe spend 10x what a regular sword costs and get a nice one, and maybe it provides some slight, incremental advantage on the battlefield (compared to the swords you're giving your knights and men-at-arms. Obviously it'd be a huge advantage over the weapons of levies or peasant mobs). But if you're seeking out a renowned smith and spending a king's ransom, the thing you're buying is ornamental, not practical. You're buying grandeur and prestige, not prowess.

Sadly, I strongly suspect that it'll just be another way to spend gold for a +3 to martial or whatever as character stats stack ever-higher.
 
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Will any wandering characters be able to gain any inspiration so for example any courtiers can get an inspiration for making a weapon even if it wouldn't make any sense for the character to be a blacksmith? Will there be no restriction to that at all?
 
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Getting some Dwarf Fortress vibes.
"Frederich has been taken by a fae mood."

1628637365968.png

As for the diary itself, is the artifact creation tied to the monarch, or the creator? Will the creation fail if either dies or just if the inspired character dies?
 
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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.


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


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


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.
Intrigue inspirations could be things like unbreakable (in the period) codes, books describing means of covert assassination, or secret passageways that would be added to a castle giving you a chance to escape if it's besieged and captured.
 
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Please tell me these artifacts will cost the same whether you're a lowly count or a mighty emperor. Nothing like spending 600 gold just because I have 2000 gold instead of 30 gold if I had 100 gold. I hate the scaling amounts of money you have to pay based on your wealth.

Edit: I really wish you would just add a 3-tiered blacksmith trait, like physician. You can look for one or wait for one to wander into your court. They would forge your weapons for you and the cost would be based on their tier and not on how much money you have in your treasury.
 
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Will we be able to use the artifacts in other events or decisions?

For example use a sword we have forged in a duel or ask someone to steal an actual artifact in the romance scheme event?

Additionally can we steal someone's personal dagger, use it to murder someone else and set the blame on the original dagger owner?
 
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Any chance of "influencing" the final designs of these artifacts? For example. if I have a crown maker, can I direct him a bit so that the final product matches my vision?
 
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Will there be grotesque or morbid inspirations? Similar to how in Dwarf Fortress, dwarves can craft artifacts out of their fellows. A cannibal tyrant should be able to order a throne made out of the bones of their subjects.
 
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Looks really good. I have a few questions about this -

1. Can inspired characters fund their own inspirations, if they somehow have the money?

Lets say there is a landless peasant who wants to forge a sword. But he is also a retired mercenary and a former courtier, and has managed to earn (lets say) 500 gold in his life, enough to forge a nice sword. Will he do that without sponsorship?

2. If characters can actually do that, do they keep the swords for themselves (like how characters in CK2 could keep artifacts since everyone had an inventory) rather than giving it to their lords? They invested in it themselves so its theirs, of course.

3. Can we rename and change artifact descriptions, like the inscription on the dagger in the screenshot?
 
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Edit: I really wish you would just add a 3-tiered blacksmith trait, like physician. You can look for one or wait for one to wander into your court. They would forge your weapons for you and the cost would be based on their tier and not on how much money you have in your treasury.
Totally agree. Why is every fighting man a wannabe blacksmith, whose skills at the forge exactly match his skills on the battlefield? Especially since high-martial, high-prowess characters are much less likely to wander, as they'll be employed as knights. It seems like a totally unnecessary design.
 
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Totally agree. Why is every fighting man a wannabe blacksmith, whose skills at the forge exactly match his skills on the battlefield? Especially since high-martial, high-prowess characters are much less likely to wander, as they'll be employed as knights. It seems like a totally unnecessary design.
Agreed. Since we already have 3-tiered Physician/Mystic model it seems tiered-Craftsman trait model is the better way to go.
 
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Is there any chance that an inspired character might gain large amounts of extra stress from being unable to fulfill their inspiration?

I, of course, find no particular amusement in the idea that a persecuted artist may go mad and do something flamboyantly self-destructive, but my spymaster wants to know.
 
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Beyond Disbelief

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Is there any chance that an inspired character might gain large amounts of extra stress from being unable to fulfill their inspiration?

I, of course, find no particular amusement in the idea that a persecuted artist may go mad and do something flamboyantly self-destructive, but my spymaster wants to know.
Let's not risk said artist later form an adventuring host to form Germania
 
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While youre point is not without merit a Ferrari SF90 costs $625,000 while the average American home is only $375,000.

You can buy a real historical European castle for as low as 400,000 while the median historical castle is cheaper than a Californian single family home.

These 300 gp artifact daggers are more like the king's ferrari


Not sure that comparison is exactly 1:1

A ferrari is designed as a luxury item, if you need a standard car to simply get around you can get something that is much more modestly priced

the artifacts and items are meant to be luxuries but even so their cost scales ridiculously with the economy of most of the game the idea that a medieval monarch or ruler would be unable to get a sword made or other item without spending MONTHS of their income (for most realms smaller than Empire tier in CK3 espeically in the early to mid game 300 gold is probably many times closer to being the annual income rather than a monthly income)
I dont want players to be able to spam artifacts and items in the game but surely there can be a more modest middle ground than it being 300 ducats ( and lets be real the 300 is probably on the "low end" of costs too) the system for pricing those artifcacts and items either needs to be rethought or just removed altogether

If you are fine with it more power to you but don't act as if you don't understand it is inherently nonsensical
 

Beyond Disbelief

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Not sure that comparison is exactly 1:1

A ferrari is designed as a luxury item, if you need a standard car to simply get around you can get something that is much more modestly priced

the artifacts and items are meant to be luxuries but even so their cost scales ridiculously with the economy of most of the game the idea that a medieval monarch or ruler would be unable to get a sword made or other item without spending MONTHS of their income (for most realms smaller than Empire tier in CK3 espeically in the early to mid game 300 gold is probably many times closer to being the annual income rather than a monthly income)
I dont want players to be able to spam artifacts and items in the game but surely there can be a more modest middle ground than it being 300 ducats ( and lets be real the 300 is probably on the "low end" of costs too) the system for pricing those artifcacts and items either needs to be rethought or just removed altogether

If you are fine with it more power to you but don't act as if you don't understand it is inherently nonsensical
You may want to research numerous articles about medieval cost of living and relative price of a sword in today's terms.


https://www.reddit.com/r/history/comments/1xpb2r https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/cd9hfx https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/cd9hfx https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/16641o

TL;DR - price of a functional sword relative to today's cost of living is probably closer to a cheap car $9,000. Price of a high quality sword fitting of a knight is closer to a Porche $100k-200k. You can judge for yourself if the Holy Emperor of Rome's jeweled regalia/ceremonial sword should be closer to $600k~$1m in today's money.

This also makes perfect intuitive sense. We pay the amount we do for cars because its our bread and butter to get to work. A sword is a soldier's lifeblood. A knight is going to need a high end luxury car equivalent like a high level exec today would.
 
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how many "ancient swords" would have even been owned by anyone or used? how do you think a sword passed down through generations came into existence in the first place?
do you think your king will just find a cool sword in the mud and it happens to be Alexander the Great's or something?

I commented on this in the post you quoted. If a generic sword (adding 0 bonuses) is owned over generations and becomes something more akin to a family heirloom, then it can start generating grandeur or whatever, but a newly made sword should not. As for finding a "real" artifact, I don't mind at all the way CK2 let you send out a councilor to find an artifact with the potential a variety of outcomes, though it could of course be improved upon.

While I get your point its a relatively small enough function of the game I doubt CK3 team would ever flesh out enough to any one's liking. What concerns me the most is the modding potential.

CK2's artifact system was very limited, so the only way to achieve the level of detail I wanted was bunch of flags.

I'm hoping CK3's artifacts can store more data (like the secondary name/text strings that I'm crossing my fingers for) and in turn enable more moddable features.


My next pet project once Royal Court lands is definitely going to be a mod to reforge your artifacts starting with Joyeus - blade's dull? Reforge the blade. Pommel's cracked? Replace the pommel - and just like the historical Joyeus one has to wonder with all the replacement over the years is any of the original part still there and is it really still Joyeus? THAT would create a very meaningful and flavorful legacy weapon IMO.

It is currently a small thing and you're right that they'll likely never make it into what it really could become, especially considering they are allowing for some artifacts to be depicted in the 3D images. But there are ways to flesh this out without a significant amount of extra work and I think they would be better served to do so than to put out a poor artifact system like we had in CK2. There is just so much potential for artifacts and instead we're getting the same mediocre "pay someone tons of money to create a powerful artifact" system. It isn't like you're paying some magician to create a magical artifact for you... you're paying a blacksmith or a tailor or weaver or whatever else to make something for you. Maybe it's good. Maybe it's a great achievement. Maybe even it could truly be an "inspiration" that is worthy of "artifact" status, but the system as it's currently described isn't that. The system as described is simply a king or emperor purchasing goods and calling them artifacts. It is pretty clear that "inspired" characters will not be rare, which means it will be easy (if you have money) to have artifacts created often. Sure, they'll likely put on a limit like in CK2 where you could only do it every X years, but you're still going to be able to create a new artifact at least once a generation and so will all the AI. Artifacts will once again be nothing more than random "vendor trash" items or gray/white items (think Diablo) because they'll be so common as to be forgettable.

I really wish they'd work on a system of having artifacts that are created through special events that are limited in availability. As I mentioned in my previous posts long ago, one option is to have family heirlooms created based on special one-off events such as the first dynasty member who becomes a king gets their crown as an artifact or their scepter or robe (not all 3). The same for the first dynasty member to become an emperor. These allow for a single artifact for king and a single for emperor in any given dynasty (not house), so it's limited. They can even make the amount of grandeur from it vary based on who owns it - dynasty member or someone else, or how long it's been around, or how many kings/emperors there have been in the dynasty since then, or whatever else - so that it gains in value over time. Other potential options include having relatively rare events that allow you to receive some artifact due to some special thing happening, or sending someone out in search of an artifact similar to CK2's method, though preferably improved upon, or a knight's (or maybe commander's) weapon becoming something "famous" (i.e. an artifact) after the knight or commander killing a LOT of people or perhaps having some event where they managed to decapitate someone or whatever else that might make for an interesting story behind the weapon, allowing it to become an artifact.

I think I want artifacts to be more in line with relics than calling a pottery shard dug up in an ancient ruin by an archaeologist today being called an "artifact." That generic weapon (even if made very well) is in line with that pottery shard in my opinion. Interesting to an archaeologist or historian, but not worth much to someone of the time period.

Yeah, hopefully they make the items ornamental, and give grandeur, prestige, etc. It makes sense to spend a bunch of money on a jewel-encrusted, golden dagger if you want to show off your wealth. But it doesn't give you a +1 dagger of extra good stabbing.

According to previous DDs, artifacts will only affect grandeur and no longer give whole armies bonuses to attack and defense, which was rather ridiculous.
 
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