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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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It may be disappointing if you missed that information before, but CK was always meant to be "The Sims, but medieval-ish" - it was even directly confirmed by some of the devs. This vision and design goal was reaffirmed even stronger for CK3
That would be fine if it were still a historical game. And it's clearly not. Which is a truly bizarre design decision. It's fine to focus more on the interpersonal aspects instead of the strategy layer (though I still think the game could do both), but then it also needs to be about actual medieval history and society. With events and stories that are believable, even if they're not accurate. CK2 drifted more and more into parody as time went on, but CK3 didn't have to fully embrace that to be successful. I think it's a fundamental misunderstanding of what made the game good and what didn't work.
 
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This may be a question with an obvious answer, but have the devs said how royal court architectural style will be determined?

I think the obvious answer is by culture, and the obvious customizable setting culture is the aesthetics - architecture setting. Previous DD’s have only shown the 2D rendering for a castle by culture, and there is more variety of castles by culture than the 4 royal court styles we’ve seen.
 
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Look that all is cool and stuff, but this is nothing of the sorts I paid for. I paid for quality Menu-based-interface and Menu-based-Gameplay that is very much 2D and Quality stuff with big Q. This is very much out of the scope of game I paid, not something I expected at all, not quality stuff, and not something I feel fits into the rest of the gameplay.
I would be fine with all of this Court thing if you scrap 3D presentation, because that ruins the whole thing very much so.

So let me see if I understand your position. You bought access to the DLCs before they were even announced, knowing that they could be anything, and now you're upset because the first DLC has been announced and it's not something you would have bought had you known about it ahead of time? Did you learn your lesson? If you're going to get upset that the DLCs aren't what you want then you shouldn't buy access to them before they are announced.
 
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I'm fine with 3D models of characters and Sims playstyle, as long as it remains menu based 2D feeling game. What I'm seeing is not what I'm paying. I don't like bird view while I look at anybody else from a different point of view and I feel any perspective that feels 3D is just wrong in this game, with distinctive menu based gameplay.

Currently in the game, there are 3D models - yes - but impression is nothing different than in CK2. This just looks miles different.

This just seems like two devs came to the job and together they plastered some Guild 2 areas to King's Quest gameplay.
 
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In general, this looks like a nice feature, with some brains and meat to it.

I'm slightly concerned about the balance though... like the powercreep of another -20% tyranny gain (keep in mind the potency of negative flat percentage reduction stacks with itself!). And on the other hand, elements such as 'child guardianship acceptance' which is just not of any relevance whatsoever, because the AI will not let you teach it's children anyways, and likewise any AI, even across the continent of a religion deeply hostile to you, will always tend to accept any ward you sent them anyways... Like, what is the actual benefit of getting a small modifier there?

Obviously, screenshots of final(tm) numbers are a bad data source to judge features by, so I'll wait with in depth critique until I actually got to play a game or three with those features. But I do hope that the CKIII team keeps in mind that any feature most be an addition to relevant gameplay choice first, and a 'feature for the sake of feature' second... otherwise the game will inevitably end up with a jumbled mess of barely interacting features that are just 'more buttons to click'.
 
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It may be disappointing if you missed that information before, but CK was always meant to be "The Sims, but medieval-ish" - it was even directly confirmed by some of the devs. This vision and design goal was reaffirmed even stronger for CK3 - as they try to give each game in their portfolio a more distinct gameplay niche.

Victoria 3 is about economy and society. HoI4 is about warfare and wacky alt-history. CK3 is about rich individuals and their relations.

An in-depth mini-game about writing love letters or a sims-like dreams and aspirations system (or 3D pets!) is a more probable direction of development for CK3 than trade overhaul or complicated realm management.

That does not mean that such game cannot be strategically deep, but...the second goal in the CK3 vision was to make any player fantasy at least partially feasible. So the strategy puzzle cannot be too challenging, as it will destroy the "create your own preferred story" type of fun.

It was all directly stated in the very first development diary.
Yes, they stated this in multiple interviews, both when CK2 was still developed and some months before CK3's release.
For example, here's an article from 2014 about it; while this other article is from May 2020.

Some excerpts from the 2020 article:

Rather than playing Crusader Kings 3 like a traditional grand strategy game, they tell me, instead I should be playing it more like The Sims.
"Our other games feature things like nations, their people, economics and so on,” Fåhraeus had told me, “but CK really is a medieval soap opera."
“There is a big aspect of gardening to the game,” explained designer Alex Oltner, “especially when it comes to your dynasty. And Sims players, as far as I know, really enjoy managing a big family and seeing it grow. That’s something that we have put a special focus on in CK3 with all the dynasty-based mechanics.”
It may sound weird to say it, but if someone asked me what games are similar to the Sims I'd put CK2 and CK3 on that list, and pretty high too. The two series definitely share some of the same DNA, so to speak, what with them being soap operas - one based in the current era, the other around the Middle Ages (there was a Sims Medieval too, but it didn't receive much further development as the rest of Sims games did, outside of a single expansion).
 
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In general, this looks like a nice feature, with some brains and meat to it.

I'm slightly concerned about the balance though... like the powercreep of another -20% tyranny gain (keep in mind the potency of negative flat percentage reduction stacks with itself!). And on the other hand, elements such as 'child guardianship acceptance' which is just not of any relevance whatsoever, because the AI will not let you teach it's children anyways, and likewise any AI, even across the continent of a religion deeply hostile to you, will always tend to accept any ward you sent them anyways... Like, what is the actual benefit of getting a small modifier there?

Obviously, screenshots of final(tm) numbers are a bad data source to judge features by, so I'll wait with in depth critique until I actually got to play a game or three with those features. But I do hope that the CKIII team keeps in mind that any feature most be an addition to relevant gameplay choice first, and a 'feature for the sake of feature' second... otherwise the game will inevitably end up with a jumbled mess of barely interacting features that are just 'more buttons to click'.
I love tyranny reduction. With this I just might be able to get -100% total, though admittedly -95% was tolerable.

AI vassals often let me educate their children, as long as I let their keep their barbarian ways and heathen faith. But sometimes I can at least convert their culture, faith conversion can be arranged later. A few more positive modifiers should reduce the need to invade everything. Getting to raise neighbour's heir properly for later diplomatic vassalisation would be better still.
 
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Wait, so no more new Court types for other cultures ever?
No, he basically said there would most likely be more, but that tying them to a DLC is unlikely. I think it's more likely to be part of a DLC's free patch or something along those lines, though as he also said, he isn't sure how they will deal with it, so it could still be tied to a DLC.
 
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It may be disappointing if you missed that information before, but CK was always meant to be "The Sims, but medieval-ish" - it was even directly confirmed by some of the devs. This vision and design goal was reaffirmed even stronger for CK3 - as they try to give each game in their portfolio a more distinct gameplay niche.

Victoria 3 is about economy and society. HoI4 is about warfare and wacky alt-history. CK3 is about rich individuals and their relations.

An in-depth mini-game about writing love letters or a sims-like dreams and aspirations system (or 3D pets!) is a more probable direction of development for CK3 than trade overhaul or complicated realm management.

That does not mean that such game cannot be strategically deep, but...the second goal in the CK3 vision was to make any player fantasy at least partially feasible. So the strategy puzzle cannot be too challenging, as it will destroy the "create your own preferred story" type of fun.

It was all directly stated in the very first development diary.

I see, well I was unaware of that fact, given that the game shows up under the "strategy" category of Steam. I guess that category does not mean much anymore. Likewise if I wanted Medieval Sims, I would just effing play "The Sims Medieval". At least I learned this fact before I wasted money on this DLC.
 
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From now on Paradox, if you want to make Medieval Sims, stop selling it like it's a Strategy game please. Even here on your own website you say it's a Grand Strategy franchise, with the tagline "Strategy requires cunning". Yet clearly, you have no interest in developing that aspect, and would rather create As the World Turns instead. That's fine, I won't judge that. But I will judge you selling me it's something it's clearly not. Have a nice day.
 
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This is sadly quite true.

Perhaps higher level courts could get way more furniture, arcs, better windows, tapestries on the walls, a more ornate roof, paintings, etc.

It could also do with some sort of tech progression elements. Perhaps earlier courts could look more stoney or wooden and late game courts have more ornate and intricate looks to them.
 
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I for one love the slightly subtle differences. The wall treatment is all polished up and bright in the second picture, and the flooring is more vibrant and clean.
The rug really does tie the room together too.

I do think there could be a few more differences though. Stained glass on the windows, a more ornate chandelier, still small but more noticeable things like that.
 
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The rug really does tie the room together too.

I do think there could be a few more differences though. Stained glass on the windows, a more ornate chandelier, still small but more noticeable things like that.

Agreed, I also really liked the idea that entering different eras could architecturally change a royal court too, e.g. tribal should look and feel very different than a late Middle Ages royal court.

If it isn’t in the vanilla, I wonder how easy it’ll be to mod in.
 
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Maybe those pictures are made to show exactly what the post says? "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." You know, if you tried to point what grandeur changes directly with images you would make sure everything else stays the same.

In screenshots we had so far there is a greater variety. I know there are 4 types of room but pictures below seem of the same type. We get only sneak peaks into the DLC, and are yet to see it in action, but that system just begs to be modular.

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