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CK3 Dev Diary #81 - A tour of your Royal Court (Interface)

Hello there, and welcome to the eighty-first CK3 Dev Diary!

Today we are going to look at the experience of admiring your Royal Court, one of the paid features of the Expansion with the same name.

Most of the actual mechanics of the expansion should already be familiar to you if you have read previous Dev Diaries. I will refer back to these Dev Diaries where appropriate, so you can see this as a bit of a summary of what it means to preside over your own Royal Court.

That being said, we are going to talk a bit about Court Types, a minor feature for your Royal Court

Visiting your Royal Court​

When you reach the rank of King or Emperor as a Feudal or Clan Ruler, you have laid the foundation for your Royal Court. You can now go to it via a button in the main interface.

This button highlights if there is something interesting to do in your Royal Court at this moment, such as if you have new Court Artifacts.

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You can also view anyone else’s Royal Court via a button next to their Character.

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The Throne Room​

Your Royal Court is split into three segments: Throne Room, Court Grandeur, and Court Artifacts

When you enter your Royal Court, you end up in your Throne Room.

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Here you can see various petitioners or other goings-on in your Court, and you can choose to interact with them. These types of events are described in Dev Diary 75. If any Inspired Characters are present or have projects in progress, they are also shown here, on the left side of the screen.

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If there is not enough going on here, you can also choose to Hold Court, inviting Courtiers and Vassals across the Realm to grovel before you (which was shown in Dev Diary 72).

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If this is your Liege’s Court, you can even approach them to hear your reasonable requests, as seen in Dev Diary 74.

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Grandeur and Amenities​

Moving on to the second part of your Royal Court, which is an overview of your Court Grandeur. How much you have, various factors affecting it, and so on.

Grandeur was explained a while ago, in Dev Diary 61. Basically, it is a measure of how well known your Court is, and each Level gives you further benefits.

Your current Grandeur, Grandeur Baseline, and unlocked Grandeur Levels are shown on the large bar in the center.

In the image below, we can see we are gaining Grandeur every month due to being below our Baseline.

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Our current Level is 4: while we do not have enough Grandeur to maintain this Level, we had unlocked it before, and it will thus stay unlocked for 6 months, regardless how much Grandeur we have.

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We can also see that our expected Grandeur Level is 7, which we are nowhere near fulfilling.

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Grandeur is also reflected in other ways. If you have high Grandeur, the UI looks more luxurious, and new (non-Artifact) furniture appears in your court.

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A large source of Grandeur is which Amenities are available to your Courtiers and visitors to your court. Providing excellent Amenities is sure to make your name well known across the world.

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There are two other factors affecting Grandeur, Court Language and Court Types. Court Language was already explained in Dev Diary 78, so let’s talk about Court Types.

Court Types​

With Court Types, you can choose which kind of Royal Court you want to foster. Perhaps one where martial prowess is admired, or where there is a whisper around every corner and a lover behind every curtain.

You always have the choice between two Court Types, based on the Ethos of your Culture, and changing it costs Prestige. If your Culture changes, you can still keep your old Court Type.

The type of Royal Court affects two things: what you get from your Grandeur Level, and what your Courtiers get from being part of the Court.

While some Grandeur Levels you reach are always the same regardless of your Court Type, some change somewhat. So, in a Diplomatic Court, Grandeur Level 4 may see you gaining less Tyranny, while in a Warlike Court, you may gain more Levies.

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As for Courtiers, each Courtier who stays at an especially Grand Royal Court for a certain period of time (5 years) will gain a special Courtier Trait based on the Court Type

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Each Trait of this type has two different levels. If your Court is at Grandeur Level 5, Courtiers get the first level, while the second level will appear at Grandeur Level 8. The second level comes with extra bonuses and can be especially useful for those you plan to be your Vassals.

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Court Artifacts​

Last but certainly not least, are the Court Artifacts. We showed a few of them off in Dev Diary 69.

In short, Court Artifacts are a special type of Artifacts. These are large furniture and other decorative items you display inside your Royal Court. This makes them distinct from your Inventory Artifacts described in last week's Dev Diary as you are not hauling them around everywhere.

When entering this part of the Royal Court, you can see all spots where you can place Court Artifacts

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Just like Inventory Artifacts, they give you a bonus if they are actively on display in your Royal Court. The primary purpose of Court Artifacts is to increase your Court Grandeur, but some have additional effects.

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For most Court Artifacts, there is more than one slot to place them. Perhaps that tapestry would look better on that other wall?

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End of the Tour​


That is all for this week, thank you for reading!
 

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When in the court screen dealing with court events, I assume the game is paused (it looks like it in the screenshots) but how would it work in a multiplayer ? Would we have to pause for everybody or do we deal with he court events while the rest of the players do their thing ?

Looks great anyway.
 
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Cool! I really like the diplo court, and the benefits seem strong and worthwhile.

Could we see some of the benefits of going over court grandeur expectations?

When you die, is your current court grandeur preserved? Or does your heir have to build it up again?
 
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Looks good. Some questions:

-> Will the renown penalty from not fulfilling grandeur expectations also be relevant for characters other than the dynasty head?
-> There seem to be 7 slots for court artifacts. Is this a flat limit, or can that be increased somehow?
-> Is there some way to send characters to other courts so they can collect the different courtier traits? Does this work with wards?
 
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I see "inherited along with the kingdom of Pomerania" on that goblet, does that mean that artifact inheritance can be tied to inheritance of a specific title? or is it strictly related to being put on display in the court?
 
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Can your unlanded hair get a courtier trait if he stays unladed in your court for 5 years? And if you place an unlanded courtier as Marshal or Steward he can still get the courtier trait right?
 
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1)Could you make a modded Court type that would give you a Courtier Trait from among a wider selection?

Let's say we have a "Mercantile" Court. Courtiers in there could get either the Diplomacy or Stewardship Courtier Trait.

2)Are Courtier Traits mutually exclusive?
 
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It looks like the vision set out in the original Royal Court dev diary has been implemented really well, both in terms of the features and the UI. I'm looking forward to playing this; it's exactly the kind of thing I like.

One thing I would change though. While the feature looks good, the term"Court Type" seems a bit antiseptic and more suitable for a script keyword than a flavourful UI. Could it perhaps be referred to in a more immersive way? "Court Atmosphere", maybe?

I'm thinking of something that would look appropriate in event text.

A medieval courtier wouldn't say: "My lord, would you consider changing the type of this splendid court to something more warlike?"

But she might be more likely to say: "My lord, would you consider changing the atmosphere of this splendid court to something more warlike?"

Other people might come up with something even better than "Atmosphere"; it's just a first thought.
 
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Number 4 dude from the left in the top picture... Is that Voldemort?!
 
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Why still not all character in courtroom have shadows?

This feature feels like such a waste of dev time for such results...

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Throne itself has the shadow but no one else in the room does?

Also, it's not as noticeable in character screens, but if you're putting toddlers in the room (for some reason) here, why are they barefoot??
 
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I... don't think it looks that great yet and I can pinpoint it to a few things. I hope that things will improve over the coming months.

- I wish the walls were different in the Pomeranian court. It's too noisy for a cosy feeling if that's the intent, and yet it's not flamboyant enough to be authentically medieval.
- The courtiers wear clothing that looks out of place for the court if you ask me. In truth, the awkward stilted poses of the characters look very unnatural.
- Missing shadows and too bright lighting, I'm sure this is getting tweaked.
- Clipping on the clothing in the new animations, especially sitting ones.
- Those children animations must change because it looks creepy and out of character for very young children. Better to have them sit or play with something.
 
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It looks like the vision set out in the original Royal Court dev diary has been implemented really well, both in terms of the features and the UI. I'm looking forward to playing this; it's exactly the kind of thing I like.

One thing I would change though. While the feature looks good, the term"Court Type" seems a bit antiseptic and more suitable for a script keyword than a flavourful UI. Could it perhaps be referred to in a more immersive way? "Court Atmosphere", maybe?

I'm thinking of something that would look appropriate in event text.

A medieval courier wouldn't say: "My lord, would you consider changing the type of this splendid court to something more warlike?"

But she might be more likely to say: "My lord, would you consider changing the atmosphere of this splendid court to something more warlike?"

Other people might come up with something even better than "Atmosphere"; it's just a first thought.
Agree, but I find the court trait names much worse. What's a "warlike courtier"?
Most other traits in CK3 have names that one could directly use to describe them. These ones not so much.


Especially since the "warlike courtier" might one day be the king... "Hey, you have you seen that scary looking foreign king? - Which one? The one-eyed? - No, the warlike courtier? - I thought you were looking for a king. - Yes, the warlike courtier king of course. Oh, excuse me, I think he's actually a valued warlike courtier. - Ah, sure, that one is right over there."
 
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Thanks or the insight.

My question would be how many diffrent visual styles there are. I mean not martial, diplomatic but rather cultural. In the images are two. A more european and a more african, arabian one. Do we get something special for the vikings?

Is the DLC for example upgraded in that regard? Would be strange to have the same as the rest of Europe. This is one of my few complaints since the Nomad factions have still western european castles when going feudal etc. It's a bit immersion breaking,
 
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