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Crusader Kings 3 Dev Diary #111 - 1.8.0 “Robe” Feature Highlight

This image depicts an in-game notification with the title “1.8.0 Feature Highlight”, to the right is the vanity character of Hugo Cortell, while to the left is the Paradox Interactive logo. The text within the notification body says “The Paradox Community gained 20 opinion of you (Received Dev diary).
Hello crusaders! I’m @Hugo Cortell, game designer and horchata drinking aficionado at Paradox Thalassic, and today I am here to present everything new and exciting with the upcoming 1.8.0 “Robe” free update.

We’ve worked hard to ensure that this update is a wonderful blend of bug fixes, refinements, and brand-new features. Since this is a “Feature Highlight”, I’ll be keeping it short and sweet and focusing on the latter two. But worry not, I'll still be showing off two of our more interesting changes from the upcoming changelog diary.
Without further ado, let’s begin.

New Bookmark Screen​

The biggest thing you’ll notice when starting a new game with 1.8.0 will certainly be the new and shiny bookmark screen, which has been redesigned to more cleanly fit new scenarios.

This image is animated, showing a before and after comparison of the bookmark screen User Interface. The new one is much more stylish.

Click (here) and (here) for high-quality still images.

Screenshot showing the 867 'The Struggle for Iberia' bookmark.
Screenshot showing the 867 'The Carolingians' bookmark.
Screenshot showing the 1066 'The Fate of England' bookmark.
Screenshot showing the 1066 'From Rags to Riches' bookmark. Emir Yahya is selected on this screenshot.
Everyone loves a good image collage, right?

The new bookmark screen not only looks better but it is also more streamlined: for example, the scenario information box and the character information tab become a single togglable tab once you select a bookmark character, avoiding unnecessary clutter on the screen.

This image is a side-by-side comparison of the new togglable information menu, the left side shows scenario information, while the right has information about the character itself.


To top it off, alongside the new bookmark screen we have also updated the main menu to conveniently display all the downloadable content you own and easily access any that you may be missing out on. You’ll be able to find it on the bottom left corner of the main menu screen.

This image shows the DLC icons on the main menu. One of the DLCs, Fate of Iberia, is being highlighted by the cursor, prompting it to display information about itself. It is also informing the user in the picture that the DLC is enabled and that clicking will open the store page for that DLC.


Custom Ruler Saving​

To complement the new bookmark screen, we’ve also added the ability to save and load custom characters! At long last, you can finally use for multiple playthroughs that one character that you’ve spent so much time detailing to perfection.

Saving and loading is done through buttons that you’ll find at the bottom left of the ruler designer.
Selecting load will bring up a list of all saved characters and allow you to conveniently preview your selected creation before loading them into the designer itself.

This image shows the Ruler Designer window. In the center of the screen lies an overwhelmingly handsome man named Theodore Thalassic, canonically the son of John Paradox. On the bottom left there are two new buttons, one of them (titled 'save') saves the character on screen, while the other (titled 'load'), opens a menu to load a character.
This image shows the menu used to load saved characters into the Ruler Designer. The window is divided into two parts. The left side contains a list of saved characters, containing their name, a headshot, and the amount of points utilized by that character. The right side has a compact breakdown of the character’s details, their Age, Faith, Family, Skills, and Traits are all displayed in this menu.

Additionally, saved rulers are stored as individual files in ..\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Crusader Kings III\ruler, meaning that you will be able to easily share your magnificent creations & abominations with the rest of the CK3 community. I look forward to seeing a mix of gorgeous and cursed creatures in the forums once this release comes to be.

Unique Illustrations For Every Tenet​

Yes, you heard right. Get ready for art galore because our artists have been hard at work making new illustrations for every single tenet in the game that was previously missing one.

This image is a collage of various new tenet illustrations, all of them have clearly been lovingly and expertly crafted to maximize both readability and beauty. There are a total of ten illustrations in this image. An idol of an ancestor, standing between ritualistic candles. An axe hitting a shield. A mouth, opening in a threatening manner while blood and saliva drip from its fangs. Hands holding prayer beads decorated with an islamic symbol. A robed skeleton carrying a child within. A lotus flower in a pond, sheltered by lush leaves. A mother cradling a young child. A pagan-style statue hidden inside a christian-styled one (in the fashion of a Matryoshka doll). A lone, robed individual walking across a sun-lit arched hall. And a stone shelter built on a mound at the foot of the mountains. These illustrations are highly interpretative and may hold greater meaning and detail than can be described by the likes of the writer of this post.

PSA: if you are visually impaired, hover over the image to get a written description!

We don’t want to spoil all of them here, so look forward to seeing them in-game for yourself when the update releases. The art team did a great job making these, especially considering how tenets can have very abstract concepts, which I am sure must have taken a lot of back-and-forths to get just right.

Changelog Highlights​

We’ve worked very hard to fix as many bugs as possible for this release. I hope our commitment to making a high-quality product will be made apparent when you see the size of the final changelog in an upcoming changelog dev diary. As mentioned at the start of the post, I’ll be sharing two highlights.
Please note that the current titles may not match their name on the final changelog.

Mozarabs can now use a strong hook to coerce the Pope into binding with Rome​

If you have a strong hook on the pope, you can now use it to skip the requirements for binding with Rome. Though the pope will not like that.

This image shows the 'Bind the Faith to Rome' decision side-by-side. The left side shows the requirements, which state that you must either fulfill all the regular requirements or have a strong hook before being able to make the decision. The right side shows the effects of the decision when you use a strong hook to bypass the regular requirements, which includes the pope disliking you and your hook being consumed.

It goes without saying that if you fulfill all requirements, but also have a hook, it will pick the regular outcome before the coercion one.

Zandaqa can now have their pledge of submission rejected by the Caliph​

Pledging submission to a caliph will send out an actual in-game letter rather than instantly consulting the AI upon selecting the option. If you enjoy playing as a Caliph in multiplayer mode, look forward to deciding the fate of the Zandaqa players for yourself.

Image of the 'Heirs of the Prophet: Zandaqa' event, where the Zandaqa gets to pick who their head of faith may be. The first option is to elect their own leaders, while the second lets them 'Realign with the Sunni orthodoxy'. The player in this screenshot has their mouse over the second option, which has made a tooltip showing the possible outcomes appear. The first outcome is that the Caliph rejects your pledge, forcing you to select your own head of faith. The second one is that the Caliph accepts your pledge, getting a weak hook on you in the process.
Image of the follow-up event that the Caliph receives. It comes in the form of a letter from the Zandaqa player. There are options to accept or decline the pledge, but accepting comes with greater benefits. Both options come with the nice detail of having icons, a designer somewhere in Paradox Interactive probably spent too much time on that.


Alright, that is everything I’ve got to show for now. I hope that we’ve managed to excite you for what’s coming in the immediate future for Crusader Kings. Let us know your thoughts below!
 

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While I would dearly love more start dates, there's other plausible explanations for the change - each DLC is probably going to want to add at least one bookmark, and on a 1080 screen there's basically already no more space. Together with the DLC highlighter, it seems like there's been an effort to clean the UI up to accommodate / appropriately highlight future DLC.

I can still be hopeful for Iron Century though. :)
Sounds like they are maybe streamlining the interface for console?
 
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Sounds like they are maybe streamlining the interface for console?
I've seen the console interface on Facebook. It's actually not that different. The only major difference I could see was the menus, which I actually prefer this new presentation. It also makes sense. If they want to create additional bookmarks for the same start date and just highlighting new play options, it's a huge pain to squeeze them in horizontally every time.
 
I've seen the console interface on Facebook. It's actually not that different. The only major difference I could see was the menus, which I actually prefer this new presentation. It also makes sense. If they want to create additional bookmarks for the same start date and just highlighting new play options, it's a huge pain to squeeze them in horizontally every time.
I was thinking about getting the PS5 version but no mods is stopping me at the moment.
 
I was thinking about getting the PS5 version but no mods is stopping me at the moment.

And it's significantly behind in the dev cycle. They just got Northern Lords last week I believe.
 
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I think, unfortunately, that a lot of the UI elements involve some level of coding. That’s why even many simple changes, like adding icons, will alter the checksum.

I don’t know if that will change or if it is feasible to change.


Religious icons being checksummed is much more sensible than embedding base64-encoded bitmap graphics in the save file.

(One of the purposes of the checksum is multiplayer consistency.)

Well, I was thinking in line with Stellaris where the empire icons (and flag backgrounds) don't break the checksum/achievements when you add new ones in, so *potentially* somewhere in their coding archives they might have a way to expose the religious icons without breaking checksum in the future, even if it requires reworking how the religious icons are called and/or stored.
From fiddling around with my saves and mods in Stellaris, it appears that the empire icons aren't saved in the saves, just the path to the icon, so that's got potential *if* they can make the change.

But perhaps we'll get that attached to a "religions" DLC down the road somewhere.
 
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Well, I was thinking in line with Stellaris where the empire icons (and flag backgrounds) don't break the checksum/achievements when you add new ones in
I'd be really interested to know how that affects MP stability.
 
I'd be really interested to know how that affects MP stability.
Sorry, I don't do MP.

From my SP messing around, it appears that an "unknown" or removed empire icon just defaults to blank.
The same if a removed background or colour scheme is used.
 
Definitely looking for more DD in the future. Nothing here is bad or anything just hoping for something more substantive before the end of the year. I do really like the art update for the tenants though. Hopefully they do the same thing for culture.
 
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I'm not a big fan of the main menu greeting me with DLCs that might be missing. In my opinion that spoils the atmosphere a bit... Please don't overdo it with the advertising. : )

I think the rest of the changes make really sense.

I will use the option to save my own rulers very often.
Building on that, it would be great if you could edit your entire court and family.

It would also be nice to create my own artifacts, religions and cultures with the editor including an option to save it for other sessions.