• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

Crusader Kings 3 Dev Diary #72 - Holding Court at Court in The Royal Court (in a courtly fashion)

Welcome comrades! In today’s dev diary, we’ll be taking a gander at a neat part of the upcoming expansion: Holding Court. Per the usual, I’ll preface this by saying that the court scene is a work in progress, the UI of the court scene is a work in progress, and the art generally is work in progress; we also have some missing animations and camera perspectives, so take all the images here with a grain of salt.

001.png


As with any medieval ruler, monarchs in The Royal Court are vain creatures. It’s not enough to control the largest or best-developed realm, you have to have the largest palace, the fanciest food, the most renowned courtiers, and so on: after all, what’s the point of taxing the masses if you have to live like a peasant anyway?

Sometimes, though, you can’t quite afford the fanciest feast, the latest fashion, or even just the shiniest artefact to spruce up your court.

When times are that hard, and you really need just _immediate_ distraction from the flaws in your life, it’s important to spend some time indulging those with lives even harder than yours. Like nearly everyone else. For times when you feel like slumming it amongst the weird and wonderful characters of your realm, you can Hold Court.

002.png


This repeatable decision lets you hear a number of requests from various characters, listening to petitioners seeking your aid and legal ruling on many subjects. They might be guests, courtiers, neighbouring rulers, vassals, spies, the odd bumbling peasant…

003.png


At present, you’ll receive three such petitioners each time, with all events delivered in the new courtly event style (though follow-up may be character events or similar).

004.png


Some choices are easy…

005.png


… some choices are hard…

006.png


… and some are just weird.

007.png


After you’ve made your ruling in each case, in addition to the effects of each turn, you’ll gain some court grandeur to bolster your overall supply. We’ve got just shy of a hundred or so of these events alone, so there should be a goodly amount of variety for most playstyles.

This system is something pretty dear to our hearts, as it models a task that would’ve been a pretty big part of the day-to-day for many rulers, and we’ve put a lot of effort into getting plenty of alternate events to keep it as varied as possible for as long as possible. We hope you find it a fun & proactive way to explore some of the smaller (and uhh, not so small) issues developing in your realm.

Small dev diary, but that’s all from me for the mo. As ever, I’ll be around in the comments for an hour or so to answer questions, but otherwise, see y’all next diary!

… Y’know what, let’s have a few more events to show off before we finish for the day.

008.png


009.png


010.png


011.png
 
  • 138Like
  • 89Love
  • 13
  • 4Haha
  • 4
Reactions:
Hey Ewan!
Thank you for your work! I'm a big fan of the highly character-driven gameplay that is the focus of this system.

Have you and the team considered enabling this system from the other direction as well? I am mostly thinking of, for example, a player having something that resembles the events above and choosing to bring it to their liege? I may have a claim that, instead of pushing in a bloody war, I want acknowledged and pushed through by the king.

Cheers!
 
  • 51
  • 22Like
  • 5Love
Reactions:
Looks excellent!

Two questions:

1. Can a king view other kings' courts? Your Abbasid screenshot is being viewed by a Christian character according to the piety icon in the upper right.

2. Can we please have customizable Forms of Address please? (king, queen, prince, duke, etc) Please?
 
  • 21Like
  • 4
  • 1
Reactions:
My only concern was that could become very repetitive but saw there are close to 100 events which is great!

Are some of these events regional or cultural?
 
  • 15
  • 10Like
Reactions:
Nice dev diary! The events will be interlinked with the Lifestyle mechanics? Or they are mostly independent?
 
  • 3Like
Reactions:
A few of these seem to be reactions to things you can do as a player like swear fealty. Will things like swearing fealty work normally on the player end or will the player somehow have to interract with the AI's court?
 
  • 3Like
  • 2
Reactions:
This is cool. Some questions

1.) what do the three icons at the bottom mean? the Brackets, papers, checkmark and question mark.
2.) One of the events mentions a saint. Are these just randomly generated or do they use some historical saints?
3.) Can I be a petitioner as a vassal? Say for example I am playing as Duke Ramnulf and I want the County of Limousin but I want to try a peaceful solution first.
 
  • 15
  • 5Like
Reactions:
Seems great! But only 3 petitioners every time? Isn't a bit too low?
Seems like the perfect amount- anymore than 3 and eventually players will not use the function because it’s too tedious with too much clicking and reading to be enjoyable.

If there’s 100 events, it also means players would burn through the current pool very quickly and start to see repeated events.
 
  • 22Like
  • 3
  • 2
Reactions:
Love this!

It seems like a pretty huge undertaking what the team is trying to achieve, but it's looking incredibly interesting. Don't think I've ever seen anything like this in a PDX game before.

I realise that there's enough to polish and get done as it is, but I echo what some others have said, that I would love to be able to interact with this system from the other side too. I feel like often there's an assumption that players always want to play the King role, or the Emperor role. You can't fight as a Knight for your liege, as a member of the Council you aren't really expected to do anything for your liege and you get nothing but benefits. Again, with this system, it feels a little like there's no content for the Vassal side of the Vassal / Liege relationship.

I'd love to see my character depicted in a Court scene where I'm the Steward, and I'm NOT sat on the throne.

I understand why you've prioritised what you have here, and it's looking incredible. I'm just hoping there will be some plans for the future to expand the other side of this experience as well.
 
  • 16
  • 14Like
  • 1Love
Reactions:
"Oath of Fealty" makes me afraid that dynamics of large countries' covering the map will change too drastically between buyers and non-buyers of DLC. Free patch needs a corresponding (simpler) mechanics of vassalization.
 
  • 8
  • 3Like
Reactions:
I would like to join the people asking if I can be a petitioner for me liege's court as well. Or maybe for the court of a neighboring ruler, if the event allows for that.
 
  • 17Like
  • 3
Reactions:
this bit is what I'm looking forward to mostly after cultural rework

A few questions:

1. what the icons at the bottom of the events and will they be present on other events outside of court?

2. additionally what will happen with the current events pre 1.5 that might be more suitable for this hold court mechanic (wanderers looking for a home, peasants demanding to burn a witch, vassal requesting recognition for claims, someone claiming one of my courtiers slept with his daughter etc.)

3. most importantly can we use any of these mechanics as vassals to request audience with our lord or neighbouring ruler (AI and/or human players)
 
  • 13Like
  • 1
  • 1
Reactions:
I like the idea, thanks.
 
  • 1
Reactions:
Is there also regional/cultural/religious flavour in the court events? Like events or options that depend on culture, area or religion?
 
  • 9Like
Reactions: