CK3 Dev Diary #16 - Tutorials and Tooltips and Encyclopedias, Oh My!

[Grzegorz Grzybek]

I'll say it again - did you already apply for "Best game font ever" contest?
Can't wait to preorder this game! With necessary key binding configuration - even for extra 2€.

 

[Dsingis]

Having WASD bound to move on the map in a grand strategy game is a sacrilege!
I hope we can rebind these, unlike Imperator!

 

[Ezumiyr]

It may sound a bit harsh, but it was about time that Paradox catches up with its time and get an in-game encyclopedia of some sort, as well as a properly user-friendly experience for new players. It's nice to see that they didn't go for the very minimum either and decided to enhance the experience as much as possible with those nice-looking notifications as well. I didn't know I needed that, but I really love the "current situation" window.

Happy to see that interface elements are still very immersive. I was a bit worried at times about the very dark and "smooth" interface that didn't necessarily looked very medieval.

I mean it look like CK3 is from Another era than Imperator: Rome.

No, Imperator feels like it belongs to another era. The lack of attention to QoL in Imperator is one of the main reason behind its catastrophic launch (you didn't even have the basic troop commands like "embark all"...). Obsolete game mechanics (that became famous as "mana" but really encompass the whole ressource management of the game at launch) and general shallowness (a big map filled with 4-5 different playstyles, what did they expect really? Imagine launching Civ6 or TW with 5 playable civs/factions) are other reasons that make it seems like a game from when EU4 was released. You could compare Imperator with any modern strategy game and find it extremely outdated when it comes to UI and UE, except for very niche independant games... that's Imperator's vision problem (basically it was designed as a niche map painting game), and of course CK3 had to be better, because while Imperator could just be a niche game for so-called "hardcore GS fans", CK3 is going to be compared with other modern strategy games.

 

[Denkt]

No, Imperator feels like it belongs to another era.

CK3 QoL look alot better than all other paradox games which is why I said that CK3 look like it is from Another era since it is simply such big improvement over anything paradox have done here. It is basically have the potential of being the dreadnought and make all other paradox games look obsolete.

 

[MarkFranz]

Imagine launching Civ6 or TW with 5 playable civs/factions

TW

Well... About this...

 

[Zhetone]

wasd for panning is great, not sure why people would dislike it. using arrows crowds your hands around the right side of the keyboard, which is obnoxious

 

[Alfray Stryke]

wasd for panning is great, not sure why people would dislike it. using arrows crowds your hands around the right side of the keyboard, which is obnoxious

Because binding a thumb button on my mouse (or caps lock) to middle click and moving the mouse is easier.

 

[Heiliges Thüringens Reich]

I like everything in this DD.

The better tutorial, the highlighted text with pop-ups, tooltips within tooltips, Advices, Issues (although its icon confused me; I thought that was Realm Size), new notifications, toasts, the encyclopaedia and, most important of it all, the fact that people in Paradox can add their own projects to the game!

 

[Zhetone]

Because binding a thumb button on my mouse (or caps lock) to middle click and moving the mouse is easier.

I don't want to move the mouse to move the screen, I want to pan the map and move my cursor at the same time, since the UI is locked in place...

 

[Empress of Stars]

This is a great DD, the encyclopedia is welcome in any game that includes one.

One random thought - In CK2 there's a great little button on character profiles, to go straight to that character's Wiki page. Obviously it's only relevant for a generation or so, but I always loved that. Is there going to be any kind of equivalent in CK3 to see historical characters?

 

[Duuk]

WASD is amazing. Now if you could just add the option to disable edge scrolling for those of us with real monitors that play the game at high resolution... but still in a window, while watching Netflix on our 4K ultra-HD 32" desktop monitor.

 

[Razmorg]

Look like a substansial improvement over the other paradox games, like why can't Imperator: Rome have something similar, I mean it look like CK3 is from Another era than Imperator: Rome. The difference between the lack of quality of Life features in Imperator: Rome and improvement upon them in CK3 is just crazy.

It is hard to Believe that CK3 and Imperator: Rome is made by the same developer and just a year or so between their release dates.

Imperator was a one year project of porting EU: Rome to CK3's engine with some tweaks and tests. CK3 is a massive multi year project to be one of the next main games. If you listen to Johan's talks of the game at PDX con its pretty clear they thought they were making something smaller and it's only after player feedback that they went "oh, I guess we'll have to make it live up to standing toe to toe with EU and CK somehow".

I personally don't mind that. Victoria 2 was a pretty good 1 year project too and I think Imperator is going somewhere nice too but it's not hard seeing why the approach to the games would be very different.

 

[IndigoRage]

Escutcheons instead of banners to represent capitals on the map is going to be the first mod I'm looking for. Who needs plain banners when I can have an obnoxiously grandiose escutcheon.

 

[EU3NOOB]

I don't want to move the mouse to move the screen, I want to pan the map and move my cursor at the same time, since the UI is locked in place...

I rarely ever use the keyboard beyond the space bar for pause.

Everything I do is with my mouse.

 

[Nikolai]

An excellent dev diary!

 

[LunarBahamut]

If only the same time and work had gone into Imperator Rome's UI,

 

[Tvarog]

Grate work! Wikipedia seems really useful, hope it will be maintained regularly.
Do Characters of special interest appear in Issues tab?
Will there be way to make own alerts for a lot of things dev's forget to make them for us sometimes?

 

[Arona]

Question about modding. Like we all know now there is map visible baronys. Can we add more tiers to titles. Like historical or fantasy tiers, like Lairdoms what are smaller than baronys or divine empire what is tier up from empires. Are they modable or still hardcoded.

Question about encyclopedia does this only works while only or you can download it with game and even if you play offline you can get accsess on it?

can we edit or add things on encyclopedia, like traits and title information from mods or our own notes on game.
Would be also nice if encyclopedia includes in game alert system where player can set alert of different things like building will be ready on this date or niece will be grow up and need to marrie off or any other alarm.

 

[Nikolai]

I rarely ever use the keyboard beyond the space bar for pause.

Everything I do is with my mouse.

The old pause button is superior to space.

 

[blackninja9939]

Question about modding. Like we all know now there is map visible baronys. Can we add more tiers to titles. Like historical or fantasy tiers, like Lairdoms what are smaller than baronys or divine empire what is tier up from empires. Are they modable or still hardcoded.

The tiers are still hardcoded, making them dynamic would be quite the pain with how we need to reference them in code so often for things

Question about encyclopedia does this only works while only or you can download it with game and even if you play offline you can get accsess on it?

It doesn't require any online connection or download, it just runs as part of the game

can we edit or add things on encyclopedia, like traits and title information from mods or our own notes on game.

Any trait or game concept or anything that would go into any of the other pages shown in the images will automatically have its own entry made in the encyclopedia with the relevant information.

Would be also nice if encyclopedia includes in game alart system where player can set alart of different things like building will be ready on this date or nice will be grow up and need to marrie off or any other alarm.

That is a bit out of the scope of the encyclopedia, a cool idea, but the encyclopedia is static text to explain parts of the game as opposed to some dynamic thing for noting down anything