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CK3 Dev Diary #80 - Is That a Dagger in Your Pocket…?

Is that a dagger in your pocket…?​

or

Inventory System/Commission Artifact:​

Howdy all,

Your Friendly Local Community Manager here to introduce this week's Developer Diary! While it was not my article, it was written by our ever mysterious Content Designer, CC! So sit back, relax, and enjoy some neat new features from the team and we can't wait to hear your thoughts and feedback!

Without further ado:

Greetings!

Let’s talk about artifacts and the systems surrounding it.

Artifacts can be divided into two categories, inventory and court, which is also where the items are stored. This dev diary will focus on the former one, so the inventory.

Inventory system​

Feast thine eyes on the inventory screen! Instead of putting all of the goodies into a big pile, we’ve made an inventory window showing what’s currently equipped and how many of each category you can “wear”.

1.png

[image of inventory screen]

Equipable artifacts fall into the following categories; crown, regalia, weapon, armor, and lastly, trinkets. Most of these categories speak for themselves but trinkets, so what are they you may ask? The answer is a myriad of things; they can be brooches, dried flowers, even a worm on a string.

You can also sort after these categories, making it easy to find what you’re looking for when you want to equip, repair, or just browse your inventory.

2.png

[image of inventory screen: artifact section]


In the Artifact Details, you can read the artifact’s history, as well as see what people are claimants. Watch out - some of these people may be looking to steal the artifact away from you…
3.png

[image showing artifact details: history tab]

Of course, it goes both ways! Did your stupid brother inherit the family heirloom? You can duel, declare war, or steal it — as long as you have a claim.

4.png

5.png

[image showing artifact details: claimants tab]

Artifacts wear down when on your person versus when they are on display in the court. So keep that in mind as it can be costly in the long run to equip everything for the bonuses if you're not making full use of them.

Since the Antiquarian is such a vital figure in maintaining and making full use of your artifacts, there’s a shortcut to recruiting or just looking at who has that position in your court.

6.png

[image showing the Antiquarian court position info]

As shown in the image, the Antiquarian unlocks the ability to Reforge and Repair, as well as Commissioning Artifacts.


7.png

[image showing the Reforge Artifact interaction]

Commission Artifacts​

Inspirations are fickle like creativity, so if you have the gold and you want something commissioned, you can get in touch with local artisans through the Commission Artifact decision.

An additional benefit of commissioning an artifact is that you get to decide what’s being made.

8.png

[image showing the commission artifact decision; artifact selection]

Now you might wonder, “why would I ever subject myself to the whims and possible long time for a person to become inspired if I can just go to the local artisans and get what I want?”
You see, even if inspirations appear as fickle as love during springtime, it’s that little extra spice — a creator’s passion — that permeates through the final product. It’s that warm feeling of love for the craft that the beholder can feel just by looking at it, it’s something that’s not always present in a commissioned piece.

Ah, my apologies, I appeared to have been carried away there for a brief moment by my muse.

What I meant to say is that in gameplay terms, that means that inspired people can create artifacts of higher quality while the commission artisans will do the bare minimum and therefore be of the lowest quality.


9.png

[image showing the inspiration progress]

Whether a passion project or not, creating something takes time. We ask for your understanding and hope that you continue to enjoy Crusader Kings 3!

This Dev Diary was ghostwritten by the mysterious CC.
 
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My personal opinion about inspirations: From my perspective, the only problem with them is that it might not make much sense who they appear on, if it is really just random unlanded characters who might not have any experience with crafting things. This could easily be fixed though, by introducing a craftsman-trait or something, and giving inspirations only to characters with this trait.

I *do* like that you can't just commission legendary items anytime you want, and the inspiration system is a good way to depict that.
 
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How do you earn claims on artifacts?
When someone dies, their Artifacts get inherited by their Heir. However, the Heir's siblings get personal Claims on those Artifacts. Also, if someone takes an Artifact from you (in a Siege for example), you also get a claim on it.

If you hold an Artifact for long enough, your House also gets a claim on it. This works similarly to a personal claim, except that anyone in your House can take action in an attempt to take it back.

Reminds me of HOMM interface. Now I need to collect just a couple more artifacts and I'm ready to collect my OP knights skeleton stack

Inventory screen with the silhouette of a character as a backdrop? Now that's an old-school look.

This was an important part of Game Direction, that it should look like HoMM :D

Will there be mythological artifacts like Thor s hammer or ark of covenant etc.. ?
Yes! They aren't magical though, and who knows how "genuine" they are...

And yet the Reichskrone seems to lack a durability timer, despite being equipped. Does that mean that certain items can be used indefinitely?
Some Artifacts do not decay over time, but can still get damaged in events, due to sieges and so on.

Is history of Artifact moddable?
The history of an Artifact that appears at the start of the game is moddable. Once the game starts of course, the history reflects what has happened to the Artifact during gameplay.

Are equipped items represented graphically in the Character and/or Court? Like wearing a certain Crown would make the Character wear it in the Portrait
Only weapons have a 3D representation, but if you have a Crown displayed on a pedestal on your Court it will be visible in 3D.

I have a question!
Can non king/emperor characters use this system and commission tools for personal use? I would love to role play with the system and not need to be a king or emperor to use it.
Characters without a Royal Court (so Dukes for example) still have an inventory and can these kinds of Artifacts through commissioning them. They don't have access to the same quality of artisans though so they may not be as good quality in the end.

Looks very promising, but one thing seems to be of concern:

Item deterioration in games is annoying in general, but here we will be forced to often equip and unequip items, like equip The Ring of Master Builder +7, pay for single building, unequip again. Micromanagement worse even than teleporting generals between battles in EU4. I'd very like to ask you to reconsider the system, or at least add some cooldowns and automation.
A bit of clarification: As an Artifact you carry on your person gets worn out, it can be put on display in your Court. (Most) Inventory Artifacts deteriorate over time, but the Artifacts in your Court do not. However, you need to actually convert them into a Court Artifact, so you cannot swap them back and forth (so no micromanagement in this sense).


Nice DD!

What does happen if an artifact loses their whole durability?
It is destroyed and removed from the game.

useful for the antiquarian? Learning and stewardship for forging and looking after artefacts are the obvious ones, but if they are also now protecting artefacts during a siege that suggests the need for either martial or espionage skills. Is this going to be a job that actually has multiple skill boons and you have to decide if you want a knowledgeable but frail antiquarian to look after your treasures but not protect them in times of war, or a strong but stupid antiquarian who might break the cross off of your crown but would die before letting a
Antiquarians are Court Positions so they can have multiple factors affecting how well they perform. As for antiquarians, it is primarily about their Learning Skill, but having made Artifacts themselves, or having certain traits like Administrator also helps.

I'm looking forward to playing it like a child waiting for Santa Claus.

I have a few questions.
Are there any artifacts that can't be handled under certain conditions?
For example, the armor that I, a giant, had made can only be equipped by giants. Or a large sword is too big for a dwarf to equip, etc.
There is support for limiting an Artifact depending on any kind of conditions. I don't know of that many examples (since its not always fun to block you from using stuff), but for example, I think the Essen Crown is only wearable if you are a child.

EDIT: Messed up a quote formatting
 
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When someone dies, their Artifacts get inherited by their Heir. However, the Heir's siblings get personal Claims on those Artifacts. Also, if someone takes an Artifact from you (in a Siege for example), you also get a claim on it.

If you hold an Artifact for long enough, your House also gets a claim on it. This works similarly to a personal claim, except that anyone in your House can take action in an attempt to take it back.
Could that Dynastic Claim mechanic be used by modders to target Landed Titles instead?
 
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Commission Artifacts​

Inspirations are fickle like creativity, so if you have the gold and you want something commissioned, you can get in touch with local artisans through the Commission Artifact decision.

An additional benefit of commissioning an artifact is that you get to decide what’s being made.

View attachment 770085
[image showing the commission artifact decision; artifact selection]

Now you might wonder, “why would I ever subject myself to the whims and possible long time for a person to become inspired if I can just go to the local artisans and get what I want?”
You see, even if inspirations appear as fickle as love during springtime, it’s that little extra spice — a creator’s passion — that permeates through the final product. It’s that warm feeling of love for the craft that the beholder can feel just by looking at it, it’s something that’s not always present in a commissioned piece.

Ah, my apologies, I appeared to have been carried away there for a brief moment by my muse.

What I meant to say is that in gameplay terms, that means that inspired people can create artifacts of higher quality while the commission artisans will do the bare minimum and therefore be of the lowest quality.


View attachment 770086
[image showing the inspiration progress]

Whether a passion project or not, creating something takes time. We ask for your understanding and hope that you continue to enjoy Crusader Kings 3!

This Dev Diary was ghostwritten by the mysterious CC.
If an inspired courtier isn't allowed to create their inspiration within a certain period of time, do they go insane (possibly triggering them to go on a murderous rampage) and eventually die? :p
 
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Neat. some questions:

1.) does that broach contain some fertility herbs or something? aka how does a broach improve fertility. Prestige I get, but fertility?
2.) are there ways to boost the quality of commissioned works? ie threatening them with death, docked pay, torture, etc.?
3.) can some of the bonuses affect realm opinion? for example the Reichskrone in the hands of say the Abbasid caliph or the Chakravatin of India might just be another fancy crown, where as having it within the Holy roman Empire would affect opinion of the people there and give you legitimacy to the HRE.
4.) any chance that holdings could hold artifacts? For example having the Reichskrone in Aachen, so to take it you have to successfully siege the city?

isn’t fertility also conflated with abstract attractiveness?
 
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When someone dies, their Artifacts get inherited by their Heir. However, the Heir's siblings get personal Claims on those Artifacts. Also, if someone takes an Artifact from you (in a Siege for example), you also get a claim on it.

If you hold an Artifact for long enough, your House also gets a claim on it. This works similarly to a personal claim, except that anyone in your House can take action in an attempt to take it back.
Are artifacts partitioned, or do they all go to the primary heir?

Does a House claim rely on a single character possessing it for a long time, or can it be spread out over multiple characters of the same House? And if we lose the artifact for a brief period time, does that reset the clock?
 
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Are artifacts partitioned, or do they all go to the primary heir?
Well, see now, I want them to one day look at the inheritance system, since I now have cool stuff I need to pass out when I pass on.

Let me say what I want to give to which kids. We all know we have that one offspring we can't give the BANGING BED to.
 
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There is a chance that we will be able to develop our weapons, for example through events ? I think it is easy to implement and would be a lot of fun when, for example:
1: During the battle in which our character is in command, the one who defeats him receives an insight that his weapon has great power, it will not really affect his skills, but by building a family legend around the weapon, one could give the sword a name, increase its quality as an artifact and give additional buffs such as morale or prestige or splendor.
2: You conquer a kingdom, for example William the Conqueror, it is to win a new, higher title for you, and it would be nice to symbolically establish yourself on the throne. And here, for example, after obtaining the title of event, we have, for example, 3 options: - we recognize that our victory itself is a proof of our power, which gives, for example, a little prestige. - we want to support our rights by depriving the former king of royal regalia, here, for example, his currently used crown or regalia, we increase its importance by recognizing it as not so much a characteristic element of the ruler, but a symbol of power of the conquered kingdom. - or similarly to option 2, instead of regalia, we recognize the importance of the court, moving the capital to the former capital of the conquered city as a result of the event and increasing the quality of the throne or some other decoration or simply the level of the court itself.
3: Or, as in the previous example, we create kingdoms peacefully and create a special relic to strengthen it in various ways, for example: - raising the importance of our object, let's say making our weapon a coronation sword. It destroys our weapons and creates regalia instead. - we commission the creation of the royal crown. just.

Powodzenia w pracy, może to zająć dużo czasu, ale treść zapowiada się SŁODKO!

Besides, another question. Do some artifacts have restrictions on their owner? for example, will there be items that would require their owner to have a specific title, religion or culture?
 
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When someone dies, their Artifacts get inherited by their Heir. However, the Heir's siblings get personal Claims on those Artifacts. Also, if someone takes an Artifact from you (in a Siege for example), you also get a claim on it.

If you hold an Artifact for long enough, your House also gets a claim on it. This works similarly to a personal claim, except that anyone in your House can take action in an attempt to take it back.





This was an important part of Game Direction, that it should look like HoMM :D


Yes! They aren't magical though, and who knows how "genuine" they are...


Some Artifacts do not decay over time, but can still get damaged in events, due to sieges and so on.


The history of an Artifact that appears at the start of the game is moddable. Once the game starts of course, the history reflects what has happened to the Artifact during gameplay.


Only weapons have a 3D representation, but if you have a Crown displayed on a pedestal on your Court it will be visible in 3D.


Characters without a Royal Court (so Dukes for example) still have an inventory and can these kinds of Artifacts through commissioning them. They don't have access to the same quality of artisans though so they may not be as good quality in the end.


A bit of clarification: As an Artifact you carry on your person gets worn out, it can be put on display in your Court. (Most) Inventory Artifacts deteriorate over time, but the Artifacts in your Court do not. However, you need to actually convert them into a Court Artifact, so you cannot swap them back and forth (so no micromanagement in this sense).



It is destroyed and removed from the game.


Antiquarians are Court Positions so they can have multiple factors affecting how well they perform. As for antiquarians, it is primarily about their Learning Skill, but having made Artifacts themselves, or having certain traits like Administrator also helps.


There is support for limiting an Artifact depending on any kind of conditions. I don't know of that many examples (since its not always fun to block you from using stuff), but for example, I think the Essen Crown is only wearable if you are a child.

EDIT: Messed up a quote formatting
So what about character getting inspiration? Any guests with no prior experience in that field will be able to make stuff better than artisans just because they were inspired? Can same characters get multiple inspirations in different fields?
 
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Any guests with no prior experience in that field will be able to make stuff better than artisans just because they were inspired?
It sounds like they haven't fully figured out how the numbers work for this and when/if inspired randos will sometimes just poop out a thing of booty.

Because I'd wager that answer is of the "numbers may change" variety.
 
If we can now declare war to get back an item we lost... can we also declare war to retrieve a prisoner?

Otherwise we're in a hilarious situation where I can declare war to get back my sword, but not my brother.
And can we declare a war to do both at once, or do I have to occupy their country up to 100% war score, take my sword, and then come back after the truce ends to do it all again to fetch my brother?
 
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Can a particular artifact give you a claim to a certain title, or can this be done via modding? I think for example of the reichskrone giving you legitimacy and therefore a claim to the HRE, the iron crown of Lombardy to Italy, the Eastern Roman regalia to the ERE or, going a little bit back in time, the Roman regalia to the Roman Empire. Historical examples abound. This would be a nice gameplay, role play and also historical feature.
 
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w jednym z pierwszych DD wspomnieli, że raczej skupiliby się na prawdziwych obiektach. Szkoda, choć rozumiem tę decyzję.
Eng : In one of the first DDs they mentioned that they would rather focus on real objects. It's a shame, although I understand the decision.

they litterally just replied to them about it

Yes! They aren't magical though, and who knows how "genuine" they are...
 
Neat. some questions:

1.) does that broach contain some fertility herbs or something? aka how does a broach improve fertility. Prestige I get, but fertility?
The fertility stat isn't just the characters actual fertility but also their attractiveness
So the handsome trait doesn't make your sperm stronger but your wife is 20% more likely to get pregnant because she'll sleep with you more often
I'm assuming that the broach is also seen as attractive
 
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If we can now declare war to get back an item we lost... can we also declare war to retrieve a prisoner?

Otherwise we're in a hilarious situation where I can declare war to get back my sword, but not my brother.
Yeah but your brother wasn't passed from father to son for generations, at least I hope so ...
 
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