CK3 Dev Diary #84 - Building a Court - A Tale of Code and Art

[jakeowaty]

View attachment 780729

Can we have the option to have this into the game ?

 

[Carlberg]

Can we have the option to have this into the game ?

I have inquired about it, since I do have some fun memories of that mode in N64 Goldeneye, but no plans of it right now. Maybe I can challenge the character and tech leads to a duel for it in the future, slappers only!

On a more serious note : How many variations will we get per court type ?

Thanks for the work !

There are currently three court variants for each of the visual culture groups, with each of those having three grandeur level variations to them. Landing at a total of 12 variants, 36 counting grandeur variants. Part of the variation is also gained from the artifacts you chose to decorate your courts with, as some artifacts are hung on the walls or stand like furniture on the edges or on pedestals in the center.

Edit: corrected a number, math..

 

[Alien-47]

Looks good. One question: Do we get to decide which of the court styles we want? If no: What are the criteria for which one we will get?

Visual style is based on various cultural and geographical triggers. A bit similar to how the game decides which holdings and units graphics to use. One way for the player to affect it - is to hybridize cultures and pick the desired visual style there.

Spoiler

 

[Carlberg]

On the long-term design roadmap, are there any plans to have the characters walk?

No plans for walking characters on the books right now i'm afraid.

Why are grandeur variants so similar to each other? I can tell one from another only when I see both at once...

It's a gradual change that happens to the court over time, and we decided to avoid going from luxurious down all the way to overly dilapidated/trashed. A King (or higher) would have some standards was the angle we took.

It reminds me palace building feature from Civilization 1...

I believe that feature was also present in Civ 2, it was fun to mix and match, slowly improving on it and also brought a bit of a break to the map-staring
We did have a bit of a look back at those features when we were first planning for our own courts.

Is the fireplace still on in the summer?
When I'm a Scandinavian lord, is there any change in the seasons, such as the sun getting darker in the winter, or the heavy rain sounds in the rainy season when I'm Raja in India?

Anyway, it's a nice room!

The hearth is ever burning in the Kings court. Right now seasons aren't shown in the courts that are indoors, and we don't really model the day-night cycle in the game. But maybe that's something we can think about in the future even if its not planned at the moment.

And thanks!

 

[Alien-47]

Can we choose the specific variant of our court? I like the stone walls for Western courts, but that red/white wallpaper... if it's historical, then sorry, but people in those times had bad taste
Other variants looke great, epsecially the ones with big windows.

Btw, you have a small typo: "variation to the the grandeur levels"

No, specific variant is picked at random based on your capital location. If you want to try your luck, try moving it several times across different rulers.

I realize it's not a very satisfying answer, but player customization is limited to placing artifacts. Making proper UI and mechanics for editing static room elements was simply too much for the scope of the expansion.

 

[Carlberg]

Indoor courts? As in some are outdoors ?

Bad wording on my part, we dont have any outdoor courts in Royal Court.

 

[Alien-47]

How open is the whole thing to modding? Will it be hard to add new rooms for certain culture groups? Aside from the difficutly of actually creating those 3D assets I mean.

Totally open. Add new culture themes based on triggers, add more variations within the culture. Scene configuration itself is in script files, that one can edit manually or with some debug tools

 

[Alien-47]

Could you mod in variation choice similar to how the barbershop works for clothing?

I assume it's scripted, not hardcoded? If so, than no problem, we could set up a way to select it.

It might be possible with modding the culture theme selection, but not with the variant within the culture.

 

[Alien-47]

So does this mean modders could tie a unique court scene to a title? I'm thinking of mods like Elder Kings with the Ruby Throne room when you own the Imperial City.

Any interface trigger should work. You can take a look illustrations and their dynamic selection. All you can do there, is also possible for royal court.

 

[Alien-47]

I know that after this DLC I will not be able to continue playing, I know it is impossible for my toaster to run so many graphics.

That's not true. If you have character animations disabled, court room will become a static picture, rendered only once - when the view is opened.

 

[Alien-47]

If character animation is enabled we will see characters doing animations?

Of course. You get full spectrum of things: animated characters, special animations for some court roles, flickering and trembling lights from fireplaces, smooth camera transitions between points of view, optional slight idle camera panning.

 

[Alien-47]

Welcome to active play's first loading screen.

Yuck.

Please don't presume to know it in advance. Your statement is not true. Even on extreme low-spec machines it'll take 2-3 frames to give you a complete scene picture.