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Winter Teaser #5 - Mendicant Mystics Making a Mess

Welcome comrades! We’ve not got anything major on the docket for the day’s dev diary, so we’ll be taking a little peak at a cultural tradition that’s dear to my heart instead. Just to whet the appetite for more content a little.

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Mendicant Mystics is a moderately uncommon tradition, one that synergises well with faiths that already boost the mystic lifestyle. Moreover, though, there’s something that just _speaks_ to me, personally, about the idea of impassioned people wandering the world, sharing their wisdom and message.

Consequently, I’ve spruced it up a little bit, adding some flavour to the idea of living in a culture where wandering know-it-all is a valid career choice. To reflect this, the following events will all _try_ to grab characters from the pool first, so wandering characters of such a culture are often at risk of deciding to become a mystic once they hit the road, and if a mystic breaks in to annoy you once, there’s every chance the same mystic might come knocking a second time down the line...

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After all, who better than a stranger covered in twigs and mud to teach your children some valuable life lessons?

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Or, indeed, yourself.

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Really, they’re altruists...

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… of course, for some folks, the wandering may get too much eventually.

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Hmmm, can’t really put my finger on why I like the idea of mendicant mystics so much. Something about them just seems delightfully familiar to me, I guess. Ah well.

Thanks for reading folks, and we’ll see you next dev diary!
 
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Just to clarify, these aren't usually going to be randomly generated characters, but characters already in the game that are taken whenever possible from a pool of appropriate characters and can reappear later.

As to the rest, my main issue with rulers converting is only when I have to constantly deal with it with my vassals. In CK2, it got really annoying to have vassals converting constantly. I eventually had to turn off the secret religion option because it seemed that every single vassal would want to convert to something else. If we are just talking about an event that may randomly occur a limited amount in a game, I'm actually okay with that even if it's ahistorical.

My main interest in this is that these aren't generated characters, but ones already in the game and that they can come back again later. This shows a step in the right direction with events, where the game actually attempts to pick valid characters and tie events to one another to create a coherent story instead of it all being completely random. Granted, there is a long way to go in this regard, but if they are doing it with this, there's hope they'll continue to move in this direction.
I don't really buy it. What's the difference between a randomly generated character and a character from the pool who has no history or future? Could you even remember if it's the same pool character when he reappears in an event 20 years later? You certainly wouldn't have any way of checking.

Contrast with the system in CK2, where a neighboring ruler might send you a missionary, who can then become your court physician, and you interact with repeatedly over the years as he tries to convert you. This character has a history - he came from a neighboring kingdom. He has a role, he's your court physician and you need him. You interact with him repeatedly in a coherent storyline.

Merely having the chance to reselect a the same character twice for a random event is not sufficient to build a connection with that character. I know because that's how the game already works - it always draws characters for events from the pool, and it always feels like a random nobody.
 
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One month to go, folks! Get psyched!

Also, at what point does one of these mystics hypnotize my son and sleep with my wife?
 
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The events selecting from a smaller pool is a very good thing. Many events in CK3 just pick random wanderers and courtiers you've never interacted with before and never will again, and so the events add nothing to the story of my character's life. If the same smug bastard in a distinctive fur hat keeps knocking down my door to yell about the gods, this does add to the story by giving my character a recurring figurative headache to deal with a figure to hate.

This is great stuff, keep it up!
 
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I love the example where the mystic walks in and lectures you for 2 HOURS, and only AFTERWARDS you can call for the guards as to who let him in. LOL.
 
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I love the example where the mystic walks in and lectures you for 2 HOURS, and only AFTERWARDS you can call for the guards as to who let him in. LOL.
the king was just polite and did not want to interrupt or he wanted to hear the end of the story thinking it would be worthwhile listening to it