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CK3 Dev Diary #31 - A Stressful Situation

Dev Diary #31 - A Stressful Situation
Hello everyone! I come to you today with the long-awaited Dev Diary on how Stress works in Crusader Kings III! While the system is relatively straightforward, it does have some rather far-reaching ramifications for how characters choose to behave, so let us dive right in!

Stress
Stress is a representation of a character’s mental well-being. As characters accumulate Stress, they will increase up their Stress Level, with each level causing increasing penalties to their health and fertility values. The penalties at Stress Level 1 are fairly minor, but the penalties at Stress Level 3 can lead your character to an early grave!

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[A screenshot showing the player character with nearly-maxed out Stress]

The primary way that characters gain Stress is when the demands of the realm force them to take actions which go against their nature. For example, a Compassionate character will gain Stress for executing prisoners in the dungeon, even if those prisoners were traitorous rebels or, ahem… inconveniently positioned in the line of succession.

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[A screenshot showing a Compassionate character gaining 42 Stress for executing a prisoner]

There are other sources of Stress too, though. Being locked up in the dungeon of another character will gradually increase Stress over time, as the isolation and neglect take their toll on your psyche. Other causes include overwork or the death of a loved one. Regardless of the source, once a character accumulates enough Stress to pass a certain threshold and gain a Stress Level, they will suffer from a Mental Break.

Mental Breaks

Mental Breaks are a special kind of event which occurs when Stress overwhelms a character and compels them to do something — anything — to gain relief. Exactly what type of Mental Break a character has depends heavily on their personality traits, and each one gives the character several options for dealing with the situation they have found themselves in.

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[A screenshot showing the player character suffering from overwhelming guilt and shame as part of a Mental Break]

Not all Mental Breaks are equal, and the severity of the Mental Break will depend on your Stress Level when the event occurs. A Level 1 Mental Break may cause a Wrathful character to yell at one of their vassals in front of the whole court, insulting them and wounding their pride… but a Tier 3 Mental Break may instead drive that same character to murder their chosen heir in a fit of rage!

In addition to differing by Stress Level, some Mental Breaks are influenced by the situation you find yourself in. As an example, characters who are locked up in a dungeon cell will suffering from completely different Mental Breaks (often of greater severity), some of which can radically change their personality.

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[A screenshot showing the player character swearing vengeance on their enemies from prison]

Regardless of what kind of Mental Break they suffer from, all Mental Breaks give the afflicted character the opportunity to lose a large amount of Stress. Many of these options will also grant the afflicted character a Coping Mechanism trait, which will help them relieve stress in the future and thus reduce the likelihood of having additional Mental Breaks.

Coping Mechanisms
Coping Mechanisms are traits that represent the long-term methods characters have developed to deal with the Stress of their life. Most of them impose some form of minor penalty on a character’s skills, but in exchange they will enhance the potency of all forms of stress loss.

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[A screenshot showing a selection of 4 Coping Mechanism traits: Rakish, Drunkard, Flagellant, and Comfort Eater]

In addition to the passive effects of each trait, each one also enables a unique Decision characters can take to indulge in their vice and relieve a portion of their accumulated stress.

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[A screenshot showing the Decision to visit a brothel and lose stress]

Regardless of the form it takes, all Coping Mechanisms are useful in one form or another. Having the ability to make Stressful decisions at-will is often more useful than a few extra points of Diplomacy or Stewardship, and each Coping Mechanism a character acquires makes it progressively easier for them to manage their Stress. It is expected that most rulers will acquire 1 or 2 Coping Mechanisms during their lifetime, though in some rare circumstances a character may end up with more.

Strategic Considerations
As developers, our goal with the Stress system is not to prohibit or punish players for taking certain actions, but rather to make them think twice about otherwise no-brainer decisions. Is it really worth it to execute that foreign claimant when doing so will give you 42 Stress? Maybe, but maybe not! That is a decision you will need to make when the time comes.

In this way, Stress also gives us another tool we can use to balance the various personality traits against each other. Some traits like Ambitious and Compassionate may have higher numerical bonuses, but they cause you to acquire Stress more frequently or in larger amounts. Others like Sadistic may make your vassals loathe you, but your character won’t be bothered by pesky concerns like morality when they have to do what needs to be done. Who knows... they might even enjoy it!

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[A screenshot showing showing the Skill and Stress differences between the Lazy and Diligent Personality Traits]

Regardless of what personality traits your character has, the optimal strategy with Stress is often not to avoid acquiring Stress at all costs, but rather to strategically acquire certain Coping Mechanisms and leverage them intelligently to keep your character’s Stress at ideal levels. Managing your character’s Stress well will ensure you are always able to take advantage of any opportunities that come your way, while behaving recklessly may leave you Stressed to the point of insanity during a crucial moment of your reign…

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[A screenshot showing a stressed ruler having their very own Nero moment]

Anyway, that is all I have for you this week. I hope this has given you some insight into how the Stress system works in Crusader Kings III, and that this has inspired everyone to think of new and creative ways to leverage the system to its full potential! Feel free to ask any questions you have in the comments, as I will be sticking around for a few hours to explain and elaborate on the Stress system.
 
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By the way, why rakish characters have - 5 attraction opinion?

It appears like being rakish is not the same as having any number of dedicated lovers or flings (being lustful), but instead it would probably mean being a VERY common face at brothels. I would guess someone who spends all their free time at brothels is quite likely to be seen as bad company by default in a medieval setting. If even being seen near a person is a big risk to one's reputation, seducing would probably become more dificult.

Also a king that goes whoring all the time, for instance, really cheapens the place of a royal mistress at court, which I would guess reduces the attractivity of that role.

Not to mention that who knows which diseases they could be caring.
 
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This is a good point. I'll make sure to raise it with the team.


Mental image wise, I think having a man at her feet to do as she wanted might work better as a female counterpart in place of having a man under her lap, which kinda keeps the power focused on the man, visually speaking. But of course you folks should ask a woman before deciding the text.
 
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Mental image wise, I think having a man at her feet to do as she wanted might work better as a female counterpart in place of having a man under her lap, which kinda keeps the power focused on the man, visually speaking. But of course you folks should ask a woman before deciding the text.
All ladies are dominatrices now? Nice.

But seriously, that's kind of a small sample size.
 
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Mental image wise, I think having a man at her feet to do as she wanted might work better as a female counterpart in place of having a man under her lap, which kinda keeps the power focused on the man, visually speaking. But of course you folks should ask a woman before deciding the text.
You might want to reread the original description as to who is sat in whose lap...
 
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I think also of Kings who would just go hunting and not focus on the job at hand of ruling the land - once every three years doesnt feel like much of a vice. uplay365 คาสิโนออนไลน์
 
I think also of Kings who would just go hunting and not focus on the job at hand of ruling the land - once every three years doesnt feel like much of a vice. uplay365 คาสิโนออนไลน์
If you haven't noticed, it has been mentioned that the amount of time would be an abstraction for the sake of gameplay, the trait is meant to imply they go do what ever coping mechanism all the time. The decision to do it and the time it takes to do it again, is just for gameplay reasons and balance.
 
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I absolutely love this stress system, it looks really versatile and a much better representation than CK2.

I do have to ask if the coping methods have any interactions with faiths? For example will Rakish have any interaction with carnal exultation, such as reducing the attraction opinion or providing a faith opinion boost?
 
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What I am really looking forward to about this system is that you just know at some point the devs are going to break the balance causing the AI to be unable to handle stress effectivelly and resulting in all non human characters spiralling into a malestrom of insanity. I anticipate mostly playing that patch.
 
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What I am really looking forward to about this system is that you just know at some point the devs are going to break the balance causing the AI to be unable to handle stress effectivelly and resulting in all non human characters spiralling into a malestrom of insanity. I anticipate mostly playing that patch.
And that's exactly the thing I'm worried will happen...
 
And that's exactly the thing I'm worried will happen...

Well, we'll get amusement until the devs notice and put out a patch, and a working feature afterwards. Win-win.
 
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So coping mechanisms are quite cool, but I wonder/worry about cooldown times? So visiting a brothel once every three years if you character is into that sort of thing doesn't seem very immersive to me (unless they were deeply religious, and therefore trying to counterbalance those competing stressors). I think also of Kings who would just go hunting and not focus on the job at hand of ruling the land - once every three years doesnt feel like much of a vice.

So will all coping mechanisms have a universal 3 year cooldown, or will some be ones that could be deployed every other week (but relieve less stress), and others be used sparingly (ones deepest darkest, most taboo vices)?

Also, will all things that stress you be bad, like executing someone etc, or will some be 'good' things, that you'd want to do in-game? So to use the hunting example again, if you're lazy and useless and just like hunting, would actually trying to rule stress you out, instead of being the wastrel you are at heart? Would make role playing as non diligent characters quite interesting.
Probably to limit needing to press a button every month to relieve one stress, by having a more meaningful vice interaction every three years to relieve 36 stress.
 
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This is the first CK3 dev diary where I'll have to reserve my judgment.

This could be fun if done well, but I'm cautious about the game punishing me for playing in a way it doesn't like.
 
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This is the first CK3 dev diary where I'll have to reserve my judgment.

This could be fun if done well, but I'm cautious about the game punishing me for playing in a way it doesn't like.
Well your not really being punished, you can decide to act against your traits, and not all mental breaks will be fully negative, you might get a positive Coping mechanism like Journalling as a Dev stated in an answer to a question in this thread.
 
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Well your not really being punished, you can decide to act against your traits, and not all mental breaks will be fully negative, you might get a positive Coping mechanism like Journalling as a Dev stated in an answer to a question in this thread.

Sure, I did see that, and I earnestly hope that's a mechanic that makes the game more fun. But I'll reserve my judgment for release.
 
Wait, you play a character like you 'think' they would be and simply disregard the stats and traits? If that's the case what's the point of playing a role playing game with stats and traits then. You ought to play the sims if you want a game where traits are meaningless.

Well, obviously? What do you want, homosexuality to not be included in the game? Do you want it to be done like CK2 where it shows that sexuality is a choice even though it's really not?
This. You think it wasn't stressful being gay in medieval Europe?
 
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When a mental break changes personality the character gets a new personality trait and loses an old one because no more than 3 (s)he can have at the same time. How the lost trait is determined? Total randomly?
Three traits isn't a hard limit it is a soft limit, in the earlier Dev Diary where they 1st talked about traits, they even showed a character with 4 traits. so it will be possible to have 4 or even 5 traits but exceedingly rare. To lose one trait while adding another, would most likely occur when one works towards an opposition trait, by for example continuing to torture prisoners when holding the Kind trait, then that might eventually be replaced by the Cruel trait after a break.
 
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Will it be like this for all characters or only to middle eastern and special cases like it was in ck2? I don't think it's a good think to distort history only to match today reality or because it sounds cool. I thibk it would be more accurate to have a drunkard slavic king that a stoner one imho. English being not my mother language but I do not know if it's clear what I mean't ahah

while Hashish may not have been readily available in far Western Europe, for example, there were mind altering substances available to anyone with the right knowledge. Rings of mushrooms were called "fairy rings" for a reason. while Valerian was used both to cure insomnia, reduce anxiety and to placate envious elves at weddings. Certain nettles and evergreen needles where also brewed, some possibly for medicinal purposes, others just to impart flavor to the water.
 
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I see your coping mechanism and I'd like to interject.

In psychology, you can reduce all activities as mean to cope with reality. For example, when you're hungry and you eat, you cope with the fact that you're hungry. If you do not have food, you might drink water to relieve the hunger or eat dirt. From this we can draw two main issues with how you cope. You have to know how to cope and you have to have access to your coping means. One important implication is that knowledge is context dependent, so what you know is really only a function of what other taught you and whatever you can add to that. Therapy can be seen as a way to learn new ways to cope that are more functional. Classical depictions of madness are functional for example, they serves to preserve from complete catatonia. Catatonia is also functional is a sense, stopping all motor function serves to limit energy expenditure when faced with insurmountable stress. Alas function is relative, to a player function is "my character is doing stuff for my goals", to a character function is being happy.

A character with a clear sense of purpose would suffer less stress, especially when faced with decision that he feel are connected to his goals. One of the main issue of medieval families would be that heir can be disinterested from lordly issues especially when high ranking, such disinterest would result in a great internal conflict when this character is faced with external goals (managing the realm) that are not in line with is internal goals (discussing with Thomas Aquinas about philosophy).

So in gameplay, you'd need to nurture an heir into believing that his purpose in life is to reign and nurture other heirs into believing that going to the monastery is a fine endeavor. This could however backfire if the first heir dies in a hunting accident or ill placed balcony. Now you have an heir that has no interest in what you're going to make him do. So to address that, you might be tempted to go the route of "nurture them all to be leaders" which can lead to ottoman style succession, where you have the potential of great heirs but can devolve into palace politics. A brother without land with an interest in managing a realm might be problematic. He might even go really wrong in his attempt to cope with the fact that he has no kingdom, ill placed balconies are indeed a menace.

So your personality and environment dictate what coping mechanism are available to you, your coping mechanism allow you to transform reality to suit your goals. Actually achieving your goals is linked to eustress : you're energetic, you want to do something, you pour energy into as per your coping mechanism dictates you, you get result, you're happy. Failing is linked with distress : uncertainty, high energy but low activity, great frustration because you do not know how to cope. Your energy being finite means that you can overheat even when successful and happy, you can only deal with so much. It is however easier to deal with eustress since it is finished as opposed to distress that can stay for a very long time. In gameplay terms, each event could give you distress based on how your personality interact with the specific event. Too much distress and you'd need to change your personality, find a new way to manage your life.

So there's a lot that can be done with such a system, it could enrich the game a great deal by giving real long term consequences to your choice on how to raise your heirs, which is in itself stressful. I've already ranted a bit much so I'll stop there.
 
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