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Greetings!

In this Dev Diary we’ll show off some of the other things we’ve been working on for the 1.2 patch! While the Ruler Designer is extremely cool, it’s not the only thing you’ll be getting - there’s plenty of exciting new things coming up! What follows below is a showcase of some of the things we’ve done, presented by someone who’s worked on it!

Oh, and because we know you’re wondering - yes, saves made in 1.1 will be compatible in 1.2!


Kill List
A very fun feature from CK2 that we wanted to bring back is the Kill List, you might have noticed the new UI button in some of our Ruler Designer teasers before.
This skull icon will appear on any character who has killed people you know about and when clicked opens a list of everyone they killed and how they met their grisly fate. So you can get a sense of just how much of a true beast some of your strong knights are and how many of your foes they have vanquished on the battlefield in your name.
But of course it only shows the kills you know about, so some people that look innocent to you may in fact be hiding numerous skeletons in their closet…
KillList.png

[Picture of kill list button location]

YourKills.png

[Picture of the open kill list]


Attach to Army
Another helpful utility we wanted to add was being able to attach your armies to follow ally armies to their destinations. This is especially useful during bigger wars like Crusades where you are not the primary participant; you can attach to any friendly unit of an ally in the same province as your unit and of course then detach when you decide to go your own way. If there are multiple armies in a province you can attach to then a pop up window will open for you to decide which one you would like to follow.
Attach.png

[Picture of the attach to army button]


Force Realm Priest Endorsement
Your realm priest will endorse you normally if they have a good opinion of you, and we’ve now extended that so if you have a strong hook on them then they will passively be forced to endorse you regardless of their personal opinion of you.
That way you can still get all of those sweet taxes and levies from their church holdings even if they might personally think you are a blasphemous fool!
HookEndorsement.png

[Picture of realm priest being forced to endorse you via a strong hook]


Tribal Walls / Tribal Holding variants
Tribes in different parts of the world will now look different! From longhouses in the north to yurts in the steppes, there’s now a visual difference between the major tribal regions on the map. We’ve also added one more visual tier of walls, symbolising the very lowest possible fort level a holding can have.
TribalHoldings.png

[Picture of new Tribal Holding variants]


Reworked Dynasty UI
The Dynasty view has gotten some more love! The window now has two dynamic info boxes explaining how dynasty and house head is chosen, especially how Max military strength determines who's dynasty head. Military strength can now also be seen and compared between house heads in the house list. The legacy area has gotten a new look to easier show which legacy tracks you have unlocked, how many steps are unlocked, and which ones you've finished.
NewDynastyView.png

[Picture of updated Dynasty UI]


Improved Battle UI
Battles have also gotten some more love, with the UI having received an overhaul. It now both looks nicer and places important information in a better layout!
NewBattle.png

[Picture of the improved Battle UI]


Player Coat of Arms Graphics
Your Coat Of Arms is now decorated with mantling! It adds a sense of flair and you can also spot other players easier on the map during multiplayer.
Mantling.png

[Picture of Mantling on a player CoA]


Rally Point Improvements
We’ve done some work on the troop system in 1.2. As part of this we hope to have eliminated some bugs like levies failing to reinforce when they should.
More visibly, we’ve made one change to how troops get raised at rally points. Now if you exceed the supply limit the game will automatically split the army up to obey the supply limit, spreading it out over adjacent provinces.
RallyPointRaise.png

[Picture of a rally point where armies are spread out]

Pictured is what now happens when trying to raise a bit over 10k men in an area with supply limits of 2.5k.


Siberian Paganism
Suomenusko has long been in a bit of an awkward spot. It stretches over large territories where the people in reality worshiped many different deities. To improve the situation, we've made two changes. The first is a simple name change, as we've renamed Suomenusko to Ukonusko (after the main deity). It gives the faith a name that isn't specifically Finnish, since we have several other cultures that share the same faith.

NewSetup.png

[Picture of new Faith Setup in the north]

Secondly, we've split it into two separate faiths by adding a new faith for the Siberian region. We felt that adding a new faith would be a significant improvement as to better reflect the varied beliefs of the Ugrian peoples. Named Turumic, after their main patron deity Numi-Turum, it is in some ways similar to Ukonusko in that it's a faith closely linked to nature, but is different by their veneration of hunting. The tenets are the following: Ancestor Worship, Ritual Celebrations, and Sanctity of Nature. It uniquely has the Hunter lifestyle traits as virtues. The other virtues being Brave, Generous, and Temperate. Meanwhile, being Greedy, Craven, or Vengeful, is considered a sin.


Improved Ugliness System
In CK3, the “ugly” trait is a lot more interesting than it was in CK2, having a noticeable effect on portraits, and coming in three levels of severity. However, beyond the first level of the trait we didn’t quite achieve the levels of ugliness we wanted at release. So in 1.2 we’ve improved the system we use to distort the portraits of ugly people to make them uglier while still not feeling too out of place within the art style. Before 1.2 ugliness worked by changing skin texture and making all facial features more extreme. This is still the case, but in 1.2 we also pick a single or a small set of features to make especially extreme. This can result in a character for instance having a particularly messed up nose, a face that’s too small for their head, or the tiniest mouth. Focusing on small feature sets like this helps ensure that ugly people are varied in their ugliness, and more readily identifiable as “ugly”.
Below are a couple examples of how ugly characters will look in 1.2 vs. 1.1.
UglyComparison.png

[Picture of a comparison between the same level of ugliness in 1.1 vs 1.2]

As you can see the difference isn’t massive, but helps make them a bit more interesting. There’s still room for improvement and especially so for the “Hideous” trait, but this was a relatively simple and safe change to make for 1.2.


Matrilineal Game Rules
We’ve added a new game rule that controls the behaviour of the AI when choosing which type of marriage to pursue. There’s plenty of options to choose from, so regardless what your preference is, it should hopefully be represented! All options are achievement compatible.

MatriRules.png

[Picture of Matrilineal Marriages Game Rule settings]

Naming Dynasty Members in Court
You now get to name all Dynasty members that are born in your court, not just your own children. This means that you can make sure that the correct names are passed down as you prefer!


New Event Content
You can now grow old, sick, tired, and depressed more efficiently, with new events that dole out the “Infirm” trait.

For those seeking even swifter departures from this mortal coil, we have expanded the Murder scheme with additional events and deadly outcomes! But take care — the mastermind behind a scheme can now be unmasked, in addition to the existence of the scheme itself. To even things out a bit, a Court Physician you recruit as an agent has a chance to purposely mess up treatments of your target — and they can now also properly treat their own wounds and conditions.

Other schemes and mechanics have gotten numerous content tweaks, additions, and updates.


That’s it for this time! Don't forget to tune in to tomorrows CK3 stream, where we'll show off the 1.2 patch! Who knows, maybe you'll even get to know the release date?
Details:
Link
Live at 16:30 CET, tomorrow!
 
Maybe we'll be treated and they'll give a color-blind friendly mode. The colors just blend together too much. "Is this my enemy's army or just a hostile one"? (I presume they're a different color as that would make sense.)
 
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The raise all armies in one spot was such a great improvement over ck2, made me really happy. Don't take that away from me, I beg of you. Make it optional or something, please.

Regarding the comments about MAA being too strong, I don't get it how someone can complain that armored and/or trained soldiers easily beat pasants in rags, with forks…
Also, why do some of you treat MAA as personal guards, with that idea of a centralized force existing only in the capital is beyond my level of understanding…

Finally, about the teleportation "issue" of the MAA and that levies raise quite quickly, do take into account that some people don't play on max speed and/or have all the time in the world, so the current system is just fine.

In the end, keep up the great job with this game!
 
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The new tribal holdings are looking great! Another question: Have you any plans for rebalancing tribals? Especially Norse. Most of the time, they have massive to absurd amounts of levies/gold. As soon as you adopt feudalism, 75% of income/levies are lost.

So my question is: Are you planning of making adopt feudalism more worth like it is in ck2?

Best regards!
 
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I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but is it just me or is the "ugly" character on the left actually quite good looking? Nice cheekbones, straight nose...better than my broken beak, which I guess gives me the "hideous" trait..
 
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Full agreement here. MAA are definitively not a “strike force”. They’re your centralized elite troops. Because they’re centralized, they need to be considered as stationed in your capital.

Let them use rally points, but time to spawn relative to distance from capital. Let them disband anywhere, but they are not available to re-spawn relative to distance from capital.

This Models difficulty of guarding distant borders with a centralized force. Also difficulty of fighting off multiple foes from different ends of your realm.

Then if we can just get to where building MAA bonuses don’t stack per realm and to where levies grow stronger each age via tech, then we’re set!

As a counter point to that, if I'm King of England, with my capital down in London, but I'm putting down rebellious Northern/Scottish lords it would make sense to station the "elite" MaA at a court in the area so as to be ready to deal with the next expected revolt and/or conquest. Basically quartering the king's own army in the area where trouble is expected.

Perhaps the MaA should be tied to the rally point flag you have, and it should take time to move the rally point instead, because it seems the exploit is actually being able to move the rally point instantly rather than specifically moving the MaA around.
 
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I see that the Estonian and Latvian culture borders are still ahistorical and falsely show the Curonian peninsula as 100% Latgal during times when it was still majority Finnic/Livonian/Estonian (however you decide to call it in CK)...
The bug report was acknowledged on day 2 after the release by Paradox so I'm a bit puzzled.
 
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Fervor seems designed to cause the Catholic Church to burn to the ground and be replaced by heresies within a few decades of an 867 start.
This virtually never happens. You are correct in general terms about the issues, but let's not exaggerate valid concerns and risk having them not taken seriously. :)




The raise all armies in one spot was such a great improvement over ck2, made me really happy. Don't take that away from me, I beg of you. Make it optional or something, please.
Agreed.

Regarding the comments about MAA being too strong, I don't get it how someone can complain that armored and/or trained soldiers easily beat pasants in rags, with forks…
Nobody thinks MAA shouldn't be stronger than levies, but some of us think they are too strong. For example, witness this:
Beat much larger army thanks to overpowered MAAs.jpg

Crossbowmen with Strength/Durability of 319/78. For reference, War Elephants have 250/50.

Now I don't think that a single Crossbowman should hit about ~25% harder than a War Elephant no matter what buildings the owner has.

The Durability becomes even more absurd. The Crossbowmen can take over 50% more punishment than a War Elephant. Imagine that you deliver enough punishment to kill a frickin' elephant to a Crossbowman, and he's still standing. That's just too unrealistic to swallow.




Also, why do some of you treat MAA as personal guards, with that idea of a centralized force existing only in the capital is beyond my level of understanding…
What some people have said is that MAAs shouldn't be able to teleport across the map, and should use the same time mechanic for being called up as levies do, using the capital as a starting point since that's presumably where the majority of MAAs would be stationed when not on duty.

MAAs also have no "return time" like levies do when you dismiss them while you're at war, so you can literally call your MAA up and have them fight a battle in Spain, then dismiss them and have them fight a battle in India the day after the first battle ends. That movement might be just a bit too fast. :)
 
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Thanks for the update. It will be great if you can add a "Dynasties" map-mode. It will be really useful to see the spread of one's dynasty, and not just one's house.
 
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Still no notifications added, that is crazy. Want to know what’s going on in the world!
 
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Naming Dynasty Members in Court
You now get to name all Dynasty members that are born in your court, not just your own children. This means that you can make sure that the correct names are passed down as you prefer!
at last! we will be notified when dynasty members are born! (at least the ones in court.)

now, could you please also make message settings a little more generous? i need to know when that cousin leaves my court for the greener pastures of Too Far to Interact With, or who got a new rival, or that this handsome duke got married when i wasn't looking! not knowing things really bothers me.
 
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I think the whole rally point system limits the thinking on armies. And I do think the game desperately needs some more strategic depth to its wars. Therefore I will shamelessly promote my solution which you can find in the suggestions under the title “Replace the rally point system with army system”.

In any regards, seems like a great update coming up!
 
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MAAs also have no "return time" like levies do when you dismiss them while you're at war, so you can literally call your MAA up and have them fight a battle in Spain, then dismiss them and have them fight a battle in India the day after the first battle ends. That movement might be just a bit too fast. :)

While I agree I felt for completeness I had to point out some caveats in your example.
To disband you would have to control the area from which they are leaving.
To disband there cannot be hostile armies 'nearby' (I have not figure out how close that is) which includes fleeing armies.
To have them then go to India you need to own (not just control) the barony in which they are appearing.

Typically these things are easy to handle.
It does make them better on the defense. Once you start pushing into enemy territory it makes it take longer for them to return to the 'front'.
 
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I see that the Estonian and Latvian culture borders are still ahistorical and falsely show the Curonian peninsula as 100% Latgal during times when it was still majority Finnic/Livonian/Estonian (however you decide to call it in CK)...
In this regard, I am much more worried about the absence of the Balts in central Russia at that time (approximately in the Moscow region (let me remind you that the names of most of the largest rivers in Moscow are of Baltic origin (Jauza, Sietun', Nieglimna, as well as most likely Moscow (Moskva) itself))). And if in CK2 I made allowances for the imperfection of the map as a whole, in CK3 it looks as strange as possible given the very presence of Golyad' tribe (aka eastern Galindians) in the game (as Mozhaysk).
Slav-7-8-obrez.png
 
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Naming Dynasty Members in Court
You now get to name all Dynasty members that are born in your court, not just your own children. This means that you can make sure that the correct names are passed down as you prefer!

THANK YOU! At last I can have a good historical game with cool historical names.
 
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The supply limit rally point tweak is so good!
Why? Why is it so good?!

They all gather in one point that I can split, if I want, however I desire. All in one point instead of a bunch, just to merge them in one big blob a bit later on.

But when I run low of supplies, I don't have a button so that the army splits and auto go to neighboring provinces in order to resuply according to the supply limit of the province. No, I have to check the provincial supply limit and split the army in tiny bits and manually send each little one to a province.

Soooo… why is this change so good?
 
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But when I run low of supplies, I don't have a button so that the army splits and auto go to neighboring provinces in order to resuply according to the supply limit of the province. No, I have to check the provincial supply limit and split the army in tiny bits and manually send each little one to a province.

Yeah, the pain of resupplying could really use some UI work. For better or worse, wars in CK3 are won by doomstacks. Your best strategy is almost always to put all your troops in one small area so that you can be at maximum strength for an eventual battle. The supply system means that you need to keep your forces spread out into a handful of adjacent baronies, and move each one independently. There's little additional strategic depth - you're still ultimately going to combine them into one big army when it's time to fight. It just means that all troop maneuvering takes about ten times as many clicks as it otherwise would. Instead of just moving my doomstack from one province to the next, I have to carefully move each component army one at a time, making sure I don't accidentally walk several of them into the same barony at once. And once the battle's over, I have to re-divide my army to stay under supply limits.

If the AI already knows how to do this effectively, it'd be very nice to have a button that does it for us. Although at some point I think we should ask whether the system is giving us any real benefits. If we're still just doing one big doomstack battle, but with 10x the clicks, what's the point of the supply system? It's not actually incentivizing me to divide my army into multiple smaller forces that pursue different objectives. It's just making me divide my army into multiple smaller forces that all do the same thing.
 
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