I am not going to play the game.

[Fabiondo]

I bought the royal edition, but I swear to god the first time I boot up the game I won’t play for at least an hour. I’ll just select a random ruler, pause and then waste my time looking around all the corners of the map, the different ethnicities, cultures, religions tenets, doctrines, terrain, buildings, tooltips, and everything.

I’ve never been this excited for a game. Please don’t let me down!!!

 

[Sleight of Hand]

How did I know from the title that you were going to say something like this.

 

[Atalvyr]

Good bait title. 10/10 would bite again.

 

[KippieKippu]

I remember when I first launched ck2 and had to pause it for 2 hours because I had no idea what was going on.

 

[Morrowind3]

Good bait title. 10/10 would bite again.

False alarm CK3 defense force, put down your arms

 

[Alejandro Cauchy]

Hah hah, nice try.

 

[PillowWillow]

I must not bait.
Bait is the mind-killer.
Bait is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my bait.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the bait has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

 

[blackninja9939]

 

[PillowWillow]

I’ve never been this excited for a game. Please do-n’t let me down!!!

Your wish is my command:

https://forumcontent.paradoxplaza.com/public/590900/Early%20concept%20arts.jpg

 

[Karlington]

I will permit it to pass [...] through me.

I'm not really comfortable with being penetrated, in either the literal or metaphorical sense!

 

[Karlington]

Your wish is my command:

https://forumcontent.paradoxplaza.com/public/590900/Early%20concept%20arts.jpg

Now to calm anyone who doesn't know the story: people flipped at this art, Paradox heard us, and completely redesigned the character models to what you see in the development diaries, clips, and streams.

 

[ShadyGuy_SuspiciousGoal]

put pitchfork down

 

[LewisVee]

Your must be a master fisherman. You certainly Caught me.

 

[General Von Trapp]

The way you feel in this manner is quite understandable.

Crusader Kings 3 is the game that will end all games... nothing else will matter, civilisation will cease to exist.

The events that unfold within the medieval sandbox will be all that "matters" for the foreseeable future, post 1st September.

 

[Brian Bóroimhe]

Now to calm anyone who doesn't know the story: people flipped at this art, Paradox heard us, and completely redesigned the character models to what you see in the development diaries, clips, and streams.

That's not what happened.
Those portraits were very early concept art that was not shown to players until Dev Diary 35

CK3 Dev Diary #35 - User Testing Before Release

Hello everyone! My name is Hanna and I work in a growing field of game development called User Research! I’m here to tell you a little about the job itself and also how me and my team have worked with user testing for Crusader Kings III. Ah...

forum.paradoxplaza.com

For example, one of the first things we did for Crusader Kings III was actually done internally - the dev team were making early designs for characters and User Research helped them out by sending out a survey to all of our colleagues to gather feedback. At the time, characters looked like this:

And good thing we got some feedback, because the style turned out to be way too cartoony for most people! It might have brought our colleagues a lot of work, but I’m glad we discovered this way before release day…

You're right that when the portraits were first revealed back in DD 07 people went ballistic

CK3 Dev Diary #07 - Characters & Portraits

Greetings! Today we’re taking a look at what makes up a character in CK3. As you already know, the game revolves around characters and all the things they get up to, so to make it interesting we have to make sure that they have as much...

forum.paradoxplaza.com

But that was just the usual internet rabid reactionary hatred towards change. They are the same portraits as in the release version of the game, they weren't changed at all, just minor tweaks like backgrounds, lighting and other effects tuned up (as was surely their plan the whole time).


An example of the devs listening to feedback from the fans and then changing the mechanics accordingly is better seen in the change to Feudal contracts between DD17

CK3 Dev Diary #17 - Governments, Vassal Management, Laws, and Raiding

Good afternoon, everyone. I’m Magne “Meneth” Skjæran. You might know me from the CK2 dev diaries or the Paradox Wikis, but for the last couple of years I’ve been working on CK3 as a programmer. Today we’re going to cover a number of topics...

forum.paradoxplaza.com

and DD33

CK3 Dev Diary #33 - An Offer You Can’t Refuse

Hello everyone and welcome to the 33rd CK3 Dev Diary! I’m Matthew, one of the Programmers on the CK3 team, and today I am going to talk to you about the overhaul we’ve done to Feudal Contracts since Dev Diary 17. A quick refresher on what...

forum.paradoxplaza.com

 

[Karlington]

That's not what happened.
Those portraits were very early concept art that was not shown to players until Dev Diary 35

You're right that when the portraits were first revealed back in DD 07 people went ballistic

[...] They are the same portraits as in the release version of the game, they weren't changed at all, just minor tweaks like backgrounds, lighting and other effects tuned up (as was surely their plan the whole time).

Ah, it seems I was confused. Thanks for the correction!

 

[PillowWillow]

I'm not really comfortable with being penetrated, in either the literal or metaphorical sense!

Good luck with blaming the Herbert Estate!