How do you feel about stress for playing out of character?

[travro]

Personally, I feel CK needs this.

It's such a great thing that the RPG aspects of the game are being brought out, because in CK2 there was little reason to appreciate the day to day lives of the characters. Traits were just modifers; thus I always felt more inclined to play a fast-paced game rushing to get past the blocks that prevent my map painting.

But with this I feel we can now be more inclined, if not obligated to play a slower paced character driven game, and one that makes sense.

I'm just really curious of what constitutes playing out of character? How do I get stress for a character who's?:

• Content? Fabricate claims?
• Cruel? Release prisoners or make friends?
• Cynical? Build a temple?
• ...or is it all mostly decisions in the popups?

Things to think about. What's also thought provoking here is that if there is a system to monitor playing against traits, then there is the possibility of a system where the players has more control of how his traits are changed, and things not be so random.

 

[Black Turtle]

It's good and encourages role playing. At the end of the day it's all about balance. If you can't do anything out of character without severe penalties then it's probably not very fun.

 

[Groundpounder12]

I love it. I've gone from gaming the game to trying to role-play out my character and it's added so much depth and flavor to my game. I mean, it's so easy to just ignore your character and see traits as collectable sources of attributes. Now you have to care who you are, and what you're trying to accomplish. I love it, and I can't wait to see it in action.

 

[Despotism]

With the information we have, I would say it is great, and I hope it is applied to the AI as well, not that I think they will be making many out of character decisions, but I don't think the stress system's sole purpose should be rewarding the player for playing in-character, it could serve many other purposes as well.

 

[yezhanquan]

On the flip side, any word on whether our characters will have traits based on our action? As in if not acting out-of-character, will we be able to get new traits that reflect our actions, or reinforce current traits(assuming there are tiers)?

 

[mrinku]

I love it.

It's a great concept and feels logical and not gamey. No doubt there will be exploit and bugs to be addressed, but that's going to apply with any mechanic.

 

[PhilzuNeide]

Great idea. You could do this as an optional game rule

 

[Divirix]

I'm all for it.

 

[Calahir]

I really like the idea both with regard to roleplaying and balancing possibilities it seems to be giving. I only hope the stress mechanic would not allow us to get rid of unwanted rulers easily. One can assume making somebody chronically overstressed could kill him or her, or at least increase the likelihood of faster 'natural' death. What I would like to see is such an attempt to cheese the game be cerainly possible, that is to stress the life out of my character, but it should also enhance the probability for many calamities happening along the way. What would be truly intresting is a possibility to lose control over severely stressed person: let's say he or she did something irrational without player's ability to counteract (could be done via an event popup), now is the time to deal with the consequences.

 

[Cardolam]

It's the best idea so far that I know about CK3. It's brilliant.

 

[LukeCreed13]

I love it, and personally I'd have liked if CK2 did the same thing with its Stressed and Depressed traits sometimes. Executing vassals and peasants should have serious mental repercussions if done repeatedly when you're a Kind character, just as conquering land left and right if you're a Content character. This system is actually even better, because, If I remember correctly, there will be different tiers of stress. The firsts are manageable, but if you continue acting out of character the effects will get more and more severe on your character's mental (and possiblly physical) health.
What I'd love them to add is this: if you keep going out-of-character, there's a chance that you don't actually get stressed/depressed, but lose your trait and get the opposite, with serious repercussions on other people's opinion of you. So that if you're a kind character that starts executing and torturing people, most of the times you'll get stressed/depressed/lunatic/etc., but sometimes you manage to "push through" the stress and depression, lose the Kind trait and get the Cruel trait, and your vassals get an opinion malus on you for your change of character.

 

[Torngasuk]

I like the concept, but I want to see it kicked up a notch. I'm big on internal consistency. You know how in CK2, like in any good RPG, some dialogue options and courses of action are opened up that were previously hidden because you now have a trait? Now, I'd also like to see the reverse of that: you've kept up a lifestyle of a jealous, spiteful, paranoid monarch who routinely goes on murdering, killing, and maiming sprees - so far past the point of no return that you can't even remember seeing it coming - so no, you don't get the "good" option in this event chain.

Now, I'm going to fully agree in advance with the first point anyone is likely to make, that this is somewhat harsh in a binary system where you either have a certain negative trait, or you don't. I advocate for this in the same way that I advocate for revising the trait system to more closely resemble that of the old school, classic Total War games, where it's not that you're either sober or a Drunkard, maybe you're a Social Drinker, or Likes a Drink, or then a Drunkard, after which point it's downhill toward Drunken Lout, Sot, and Paralytic. Repeatedly engaging in certain behavior should reinforce that it's a behavioral pattern, and repeatedly engaging in negative behaviors should lead to increasingly negative traits, while repeatedly engaging in positive behaviors should lead to, you guessed it, increasingly positive traits.

 

[vandevere]

Okay. So we might have punishments for "Good" characters playing evil. All well and good.

But...

Will we see any rewards for "Good" characters playing good?

One of the things I disliked so much about CK2 is that the reward/punishment ratio was so blasted lop-sided, with heavy penalties/maluses, and virtually nonexistent rewards/boni...

A little balance please?

 

[Groundpounder12]

Okay. So we might have punishments for "Good" characters playing evil. All well and good.

But...

Will we see any rewards for "Good" characters playing good?

One of the things I disliked so much about CK2 is that the reward/punishment ratio was so blasted lop-sided, with heavy penalties/maluses, and virtually nonexistent rewards/boni...

A little balance please?

Since the player character is usually OP as hell without benefits/bonuses, I would vote no. Seriously, a couple generations in and you’re a waking steamroller ready to rip down your opposition lol. The last thing players need is more bonuses to make gameplay even more boring

 

[Kumicho]

Okay. So we might have punishments for "Good" characters playing evil. All well and good.

But...

Will we see any rewards for "Good" characters playing good?

One of the things I disliked so much about CK2 is that the reward/punishment ratio was so blasted lop-sided, with heavy penalties/maluses, and virtually nonexistent rewards/boni...

A little balance please?

Less stress? Remember, "stress" is going to be a sliding scale, not an either/or. So maybe you'll get less stress (ending up in a positive?) if your character is consistent with his traits?

 

[vandevere]

Since the player character is usually OP as hell without benefits/bonuses, I would vote no. Seriously, a couple generations in and you’re a waking steamroller ready to rip down your opposition lol. The last thing players need is more bonuses to make gameplay even more boring

You know, not all of us are Powergamers. I generally pick a place, hunker down, and just enjoy all the craziness the AI gets up to. So why do I need the same punishements Powergamers get?

I know...

Lots of players enjoy punishingly hard games, and they tend to get a little honked-off when other players don't like that. That's why CK2 ended up with Game Rules, for example.

 

[Pied-Noir]

I'm a fan!

 

[Razmorg]

I think it might hamper players from doing exactly what they want a bit but it'll make the characters you control feel more alive and in turn make you care more / feel more immersed. So yeah this is one of the things that have been revealed that sounds like a great upgrade to the basic formula.

 

[Morrowind3]

I love it. This, combined with using dynasty prestige to motivate spreading your dynasty shows they're really committed to making CK3 a deeper experience than a map painter. I feel like it's simple enough to disable that it's going to be a start option to disable for metagaming playthroughs too so critics don't need to worry much.

 

[gekj]

Yes good mechanic. In CK2 you could have any trait an act like you want without any consequence, that was odd.