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CK3 Dev Diary #80 - Is That a Dagger in Your Pocket…?

Is that a dagger in your pocket…?​

or

Inventory System/Commission Artifact:​

Howdy all,

Your Friendly Local Community Manager here to introduce this week's Developer Diary! While it was not my article, it was written by our ever mysterious Content Designer, CC! So sit back, relax, and enjoy some neat new features from the team and we can't wait to hear your thoughts and feedback!

Without further ado:

Greetings!

Let’s talk about artifacts and the systems surrounding it.

Artifacts can be divided into two categories, inventory and court, which is also where the items are stored. This dev diary will focus on the former one, so the inventory.

Inventory system​

Feast thine eyes on the inventory screen! Instead of putting all of the goodies into a big pile, we’ve made an inventory window showing what’s currently equipped and how many of each category you can “wear”.

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[image of inventory screen]

Equipable artifacts fall into the following categories; crown, regalia, weapon, armor, and lastly, trinkets. Most of these categories speak for themselves but trinkets, so what are they you may ask? The answer is a myriad of things; they can be brooches, dried flowers, even a worm on a string.

You can also sort after these categories, making it easy to find what you’re looking for when you want to equip, repair, or just browse your inventory.

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[image of inventory screen: artifact section]


In the Artifact Details, you can read the artifact’s history, as well as see what people are claimants. Watch out - some of these people may be looking to steal the artifact away from you…
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[image showing artifact details: history tab]

Of course, it goes both ways! Did your stupid brother inherit the family heirloom? You can duel, declare war, or steal it — as long as you have a claim.

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[image showing artifact details: claimants tab]

Artifacts wear down when on your person versus when they are on display in the court. So keep that in mind as it can be costly in the long run to equip everything for the bonuses if you're not making full use of them.

Since the Antiquarian is such a vital figure in maintaining and making full use of your artifacts, there’s a shortcut to recruiting or just looking at who has that position in your court.

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[image showing the Antiquarian court position info]

As shown in the image, the Antiquarian unlocks the ability to Reforge and Repair, as well as Commissioning Artifacts.


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[image showing the Reforge Artifact interaction]

Commission Artifacts​

Inspirations are fickle like creativity, so if you have the gold and you want something commissioned, you can get in touch with local artisans through the Commission Artifact decision.

An additional benefit of commissioning an artifact is that you get to decide what’s being made.

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[image showing the commission artifact decision; artifact selection]

Now you might wonder, “why would I ever subject myself to the whims and possible long time for a person to become inspired if I can just go to the local artisans and get what I want?”
You see, even if inspirations appear as fickle as love during springtime, it’s that little extra spice — a creator’s passion — that permeates through the final product. It’s that warm feeling of love for the craft that the beholder can feel just by looking at it, it’s something that’s not always present in a commissioned piece.

Ah, my apologies, I appeared to have been carried away there for a brief moment by my muse.

What I meant to say is that in gameplay terms, that means that inspired people can create artifacts of higher quality while the commission artisans will do the bare minimum and therefore be of the lowest quality.


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[image showing the inspiration progress]

Whether a passion project or not, creating something takes time. We ask for your understanding and hope that you continue to enjoy Crusader Kings 3!

This Dev Diary was ghostwritten by the mysterious CC.
 
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There's also the matter of what happens to artifacts in a case of revolt - I recall in CK2, unique artifacts such as the Reichskrone would often get lost irrevocably as the holder was deposed in favor of a claimant, kept the crown, and died landless with no one to inherit the artifact. One would assume that if the figurative crown is claimed at a sword point, the actual physical crown would go with it - unless, of course, the previous ruler escaped with the crown (and possibly other regalia) in tow, but even in that case, it would be preferable if they didn't disappear in a hole so easily.
The holder's liege should have inherited the artifact in that case, as most of those special artefacts were flagged as indestructible.

The Reichskrone was almost invariably destroyed because of an event that would trigger for the holder, where they could destroy the crown in exchange for a couple of points in Learning. An absurd choice that reasonable players weren't likely to take, but IIRC the AI was weighted towards doing it.
 
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I'll say this again: Many of us who are used to the White->Green->Blue->Purple->Orange rarity system are going to get confused hard when a common dagger comes up as Orange. Can we get confirmation of what the rarity tier color scheme is, and if at all possible modify it to the color system that literally *everyone* else uses?
 
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I'll say this again: Many of us who are used to the White->Green->Blue->Purple->Orange rarity system are going to get confused hard when a common dagger comes up as Orange. Can we get confirmation of what the rarity tier color scheme is, and if at all possible modify it to the color system that literally *everyone* else uses?
Honestly, this is a UI thing and can be easily modded.
Personally, I use this mod (https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2372123341) when playing because the colour system fits better with the CK3 colour pallet, so in my main tiers in ck3 go orange/brown - green - blue - gold - purple, so would rather the devs ignored your suggestion for the base game ‍♂️
 
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Could artifacts be used as materials for other artifacts. like how there is, according to legend, a Nail of the Cross hammered into the Iron Crown of Lombardy?
 
Bit odd to clap the commission community like that. I might be inspired to walk out and draw a picture of Ryan Reynolds tossing an angry koala at Boris Johnson, but I can guarantee you that someone I pay £25 to on Fiverr will produce a far better product.

Being inspired doesn't necessarily mean the product will be better, basically. It should be an event trigger that can be factored in to artifact creation, possibly improving the quality.
The question since first DD about artifacts remain: why the hell random courtiers (many of those may be nobles who never worked in their lives) can suddenly be inspired to make work of art, better than commissioned artisans?

Alright, they can be inspired to do it... but where did they learn how to do that? Why that random woman who might be my Doctor or my son's wife suddenly knows how to make THRONES? She went to carpenter courses? And learned how to make thrones in better quality than commissioned carpenters?
My personal opinion about inspirations: From my perspective, the only problem with them is that it might not make much sense who they appear on, if it is really just random unlanded characters who might not have any experience with crafting things. This could easily be fixed though, by introducing a craftsman-trait or something, and giving inspirations only to characters with this trait.

I *do* like that you can't just commission legendary items anytime you want, and the inspiration system is a good way to depict that.
Late here, but to all the people talking about how inspired artifacts are stronger than normal artifacts:

Skill does matter, according to Dev Diary #38 It says,
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.
This is just one quote showing that skill does affect quality.

However, it's seems implied that inspiration artifacts are of significantly higher quality. I'm guessing part of the reason for this is because of the inspiration for the system. Everything about artifacts, from the quality tier names, to the descriptions (okay, mainly those 2 things), screams heavy Dwarf Fortress inspiration. In Dwarf Fortress, artifacts are created when a dwarf is struck by a strange mood. Successfully fulfilling the resource demands of a stricken dwarf will create an artifact and also max the relevant skill (excepted for the "Possessed" strange mood). Moods strike randomly, and who they strike are not dependent on the dwarf's skills (however the highest applicable skill is used for the type of item). I presume this is (at least partially) why inspiration works the way it is, and the stuff about someone commissioned putting minimal effort is sort of ad/post-hoc justification. Could be complete wrong though; it's hard to divine intentions.
 
I'll say this again: Many of us who are used to the White->Green->Blue->Purple->Orange rarity system are going to get confused hard when a common dagger comes up as Orange. Can we get confirmation of what the rarity tier color scheme is, and if at all possible modify it to the color system that literally *everyone* else uses?
Learn new colors. WOW is not the sole determiner of tier colors and many, many other color schemes have existed over the years in games. It's not that hard.
 
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