I personally think lifestyles are already done far better than in CK2. The stat bloat in CK2 meant that even a slow or imbecile character could get decent stats if you got the right artefacts and picked a good society and lifestyle for him/her. And concerning WoL, aside from possibly improving in a matching education, education and traits had no effect on your character's development at all. CK2 only really started connecting traits to character development/growth in the M&M societies: a craven, slothful learning education guy would be able to progress through the war/hunting lifestyle events as easily as someone way more fit for said lifestyle. You simply chose what was most efficient/fit your roleplaying idea best.
For CK3, traits and education are both confirmed to affect the rate at which you accrue XP in your chosen lifestyle, which means they directly affect how quickly your character improves in his chosen field. It would only be logical for traits such as ambitious and content, and genetic traits such as quick and slow, to also have their effect on XP generation. As such, CK3 will already have more depth in how well your character manages to progress in his chosen field: you still have the freedom of decision, but there's an immediate, visible difference in growth if you pick something that doesn't fit your character. For example, if done right, a genius brilliant strategist may manage to finish all 3 martial lifestyles over 70 years, while a slow misguided warrior would struggle to finish even one in that timespan. I already wrote a more detailed post on possibilities concerning the xp in the "I don't feel this is crusader kings" thread a few days ago.
It'll always be a precarious balance between "forcing players to play their character to the letter" and "allowing them to change the character any way they want", but I feel the current mechanic of xp gradients and stress look promising. Of course, we still need to see any specifics on stress, so it's hard to discuss it properly; but I think it has a lot of possibility.
For CK3, traits and education are both confirmed to affect the rate at which you accrue XP in your chosen lifestyle, which means they directly affect how quickly your character improves in his chosen field. It would only be logical for traits such as ambitious and content, and genetic traits such as quick and slow, to also have their effect on XP generation. As such, CK3 will already have more depth in how well your character manages to progress in his chosen field: you still have the freedom of decision, but there's an immediate, visible difference in growth if you pick something that doesn't fit your character. For example, if done right, a genius brilliant strategist may manage to finish all 3 martial lifestyles over 70 years, while a slow misguided warrior would struggle to finish even one in that timespan. I already wrote a more detailed post on possibilities concerning the xp in the "I don't feel this is crusader kings" thread a few days ago.
It'll always be a precarious balance between "forcing players to play their character to the letter" and "allowing them to change the character any way they want", but I feel the current mechanic of xp gradients and stress look promising. Of course, we still need to see any specifics on stress, so it's hard to discuss it properly; but I think it has a lot of possibility.
