Message options

[stnylan]

I would dearly like to be able to better determine what messages I care about.

Personally in particular I would like to know what is happening in my family. Births especially. The game seems to tell me my brother died - who lives in a different realm - but not that I have a grand-child who may one day inherit. This seems ... odd.

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

Came here to suggest just this. I had to go into my son's profile to find out I had a grandson.

We definitely need more options for what messages we care about like in CK2.

 

[tsf4]

This is horrible, I agree.

I don't get why they don't include messages about whats going on outside of your realm, like ck2 did. I know they want to focus on your char, but seriously annoying since I play the game to see what exactly happens in game in other places.

 

[WeeLittleSpoon]

I think they've done a great job because, after almost ten hours of playing, this is the only real complaint I have. I feel like there's so much less available information about other characters that might matter to your own character, which dampens the experience for me. What makes my character's story interesting, to me, is not only the interplay of me against other characters, but also seeing what those people are doing to one another when not interacting with me. I think that's really important to my immersion and enjoyment with the game--at least it was with Crusader Kings 2.

I'm definitely the type of person who would play on speed 1 and pause for every event if I could (which I understand is ridiculous). I am a very, very small percentage of the player base who would do that, but the ability to see more of the world that I'm apart of would be incredible. Right now, it feels like I'm never really getting the full picture of what's happening around me.

For example, tonight I got to the end of my first character's life in the tutorial, Petty King Murchad, who I played for about twenty-seven years. Towards the middle part of his life under my control, I had conquered all of Ireland and established the Kingdom of Ireland, when I received the issue notification that one of my titles was set to leave my realm on the death of one of my dukes. It turns out this duke's nine-year-old son had become the duke of Northumbria, York, and two other duchies in England, and was set to inherit the duchy of Meath upon my own duke's death. This nine-year-old controlled like 80% of England's levies, and it blew my mind. I loved it. But I have no idea how it happened, and I wish so dearly that there had been events I could have followed watching this kid come into power, or understanding what incredibly insane series of events led him to getting all of those duchies. I don't know much about history, so even if this is not a random event, but something based on history, I still would have loved to have followed it as it happened.

Those are the kinds of stories I love about this game, and it just feels like Crusader Kings 3, for all of its incredibly wonderful work, is missing being able to follow little moments like these as they're happening.

P.S. -- That nine-year-old waited until after King Murchad was dead and then came and kicked my butt for the duchy of Meath (which my heir had inherited) after I had blackmailed and disinherited his father for an adulterous relationship. It was absolutely awesome.

 

[tsf4]

Yes, it really really hurts my immersion of the game.

I understand they want us to focus on our char but for people like us, I enjoy seeing what the AI does moreso than my own char, because I usually play counts or somewhere "safe" from a game over.

I really want them to add this, but I got an eerie feeling its not going to happen.

Might have to plead to someone to include info on at least other successions and wars.

 

[Torakka]

All of those notifications, alerts, toasts and messages are moddable in CK3, so it is already possible to edit the existing ones to your liking or even create completely new ones. It's just appears to be quite a lot of work, especially since notifications and alerts use one system while toasts and messages use another (and triggering of those toast and messages are handled in dispersed manner via on_actions, events, decisions, etc.) Also, even with modding there doesn't seem to be any way to make any of those notifications, alerts, toasts or messages to autopause the game (expect for a quite hackish way of creating player-only events that trigger whenever you'd want the game to autopause).

 

[stnylan]

All of those notifications, alerts, toasts and messages are moddable in CK3, so it is already possible to edit the existing ones to your liking or even create completely new ones. It's just appears to be quite a lot of work, especially since notifications and alerts use one system while toasts and messages use another (and triggering of those toast and messages are handled in dispersed manner via on_actions, events, decisions, etc.) Also, even with modding there doesn't seem to be any way to make any of those notifications, alerts, toasts or messages to autopause the game (expect for a quite hackish way of creating player-only events that trigger whenever you'd want the game to autopause).

Which is interesting, but alas not really a viable solution

 

[Torakka]

Which is interesting, but alas not really a viable solution

Agreed, but I fear that's going to be all we'll get =(

 

[AvengerDr]

From a UX / HCI perspective also grouping all notifications under issues is bad. It means you have to periodically go check why the counter increased. You should be able to customise which ones you want to see directly and which ones you want to group.

 

[lambentknight]

Posted about this in general. It was redundant to this thread and also mistakenly posted in general so someone pointed out I should share here.
It really is disappointing. I agree with everyone posting here. I really do like getting to see what the ai is doing and some of the finer details of my realm. The ai's doings interests me almost just as much as my own. I hope they consider.

Please add message/popup/notification settings
"It is a feature available in virtually all paradox titles and i'm sad that the Paradox team decided to do away with it with this new title. I enjoy having the the option to customize and receive more info than perhaps the average CK player would be interested in. Having some options at least to, for example, receive pop ups on foreign wars and peace deals, death of rulers, death of distant family members, marriages, change of religion etc. In some cases there could be utility with this info and to know asap when to take advantage of situations. Sure it can get spammy but at least have the options available for us. Please consider"

 

[Trey353]

So glad someone brought this up. In CK2, I would mark most characters around me just to keep up with everyone's lives. It was a way to kind of fill out count gameplay by keeping up with other people's drama while nothing happens with me. Now my liege can revoke another vassals title and I don't find out about it until some random time later, or my brother and heir can have a child and I don't find out until the kid's like 3. I'm afraid it won't come back, though; it seems the devs are trying to hide a lot of the complex behind-the-scenes machinery in fear that it would be too complex for casual players. It explains why like 75% of the game rules have been cut.

 

[stnylan]

So glad someone brought this up. In CK2, I would mark most characters around me just to keep up with everyone's lives. It was a way to kind of fill out count gameplay by keeping up with other people's drama while nothing happens with me. Now my liege can revoke another vassals title and I don't find out about it until some random time later, or my brother and heir can have a child and I don't find out until the kid's like 3. I'm afraid it won't come back, though; it seems the devs are trying to hide a lot of the complex behind-the-scenes machinery in fear that it would be too complex for casual players. It explains why like 75% of the game rules have been cut.

I suspect you are right as to the intention behind this lack of data.

Thing is, options - they can cater to both crowds. That is what makes it so annoying.

 

[Torakka]

Thing is, options - they can cater to both crowds. That is what makes it so annoying.

They probably have user data from other games showing that only a small percentage of people have altered message settings from their default values and thus deemed them not worth it to implement. Or at least I hope it is rather that than for example trying to promote multiplayer-like playing in singleplayer.

At least all those mesages, notifications, etc. are moddable in CK3, unlike Stellaris or HoI4, and thus customisable, although obviously taking a lot more work than in previous games. Nonetheless, I've this far kept my total playtime under 2 hours in order to be eglible for Steam refund while waiting for some dev response (and hoping enough people care about message settings and are vocal enough that there actually will be some dev response).

 

[lambentknight]

They probably have user data from other games showing that only a small percentage of people have altered message settings from their default values and thus deemed them not worth it to implement. Or at least I hope it is rather that than for example trying to promote multiplayer-like playing in singleplayer.

At least all those mesages, notifications, etc. are moddable in CK3, unlike Stellaris or HoI4, and thus customisable, although obviously taking a lot more work than in previous games. Nonetheless, I've this far kept my total playtime under 2 hours in order to be eglible for Steam refund while waiting for some dev response (and hoping enough people care about message settings and are vocal enough that there actually will be some dev response).

I'm the type in every single title, Vic 2, EU4, CK2, IR, HOI3, I alter the message settings considerably. Details in ledgers are always nice as well. I was extremely pleased when they added casualty stats to EU4. It's those details that make a big difference to me. It does seem to partly stem from catering to multiplayer gameplay and just out of indifference. Most important thing is if we can get more and more people vocal about it so we can get a dev response.

 

[stnylan]

I'm the type in every single title, Vic 2, EU4, CK2, IR, HOI3, I alter the message settings considerably. Details in ledgers are always nice as well. I was extremely pleased when they added casualty stats to EU4. It's those details that make a big difference to me. It does seem to partly stem from catering to multiplayer gameplay and just out of indifference. Most important thing is if we can get more and more people vocal about it so we can get a dev response.

I think you are probably correct. Thing is the last time I recall a Paradox game talking of MP v SP, MP was only done by a small (if vocal) part of the playerbase. HoI4 was the game in question iirc.

And its silly. I mean, you can just set a rule to disable a ledger, or certain parts of the ledger, in MP (I think EU4 does this iirc).

 

[Xifong]

This isn't just a nice-to-have give us more random information suggestion; there are a number of crucial things which simply aren't communicated about children (even including the player's heir): when it's time to pick their education focus, when they're about to become an adult (for guardian change) and when they become a knight (anyone ever had a child with 0 prowess become a knight/champion automatically only to die straight away?).

Without having these notifications, players end up spending so much time on a polling loop in the fear that something important will silently go by - this is what causes player fatigue!

 

[Karlington]

I would dearly like to be able to better determine what messages I care about.

Personally in particular I would like to know what is happening in my family. Births especially. The game seems to tell me my brother died - who lives in a different realm - but not that I have a grand-child who may one day inherit. This seems ... odd.

Agreed! I was shocked to see that we can no longer control message settings like in CK2.

I have hade the same experience as OP @stnylan. Went to take a look one day and found out my heir had three children. Nice. Wish somebody had told me!

If there is one feature I could ask for, just one of all the things I want, message settings would be number one. For sure.

 

[AliasRY]

Seconding this. Its egregious that we can't customise our message settings.

 

[tsf4]

What makes me worried is that there are just no messages in the game, let alone being able to customize the ones we currently have.

Someone must of decided meme players don't care what goes on elsewhere as they conquer and murder to get to the top.

 

[Kainser]

I have to agree with this. There are a lot of things I like about CK3 but it's so hard to enjoy them when it feels like I'm completely blind and limited to whatever dripfeeding of information Paradox decides to give me.

I understand that Paradox don't want to intimidate new players (even though I think it might be a bit futile after watching a few new players on Twitch) by having the absurd amount of message options that CK2 had and I'll admit that most of the options were just there for the sake of it but removing them entirely just feels terrible. Now I'm limited to whatever Paradox decides is important which rarely is what I think is important. I have already gotten to the point where I mostly ignore the ticker to the right since it's just filled with nonsense.

Oh, some random priest is good. Another priest is bad. My niece was captured by someone, truly crucial information. But then there is also things that I would consider really important like "your liege has died!" hidden away there which I end up missing a lot because of that. Imagine if I could make that an event popup instead? I used to have the game pause after won battles in CK2 and give me the popup rightaway just because I found that neat.

I genuinely think that CK2 was in a pretty decent spot in this area with the 4 tiers of information (popup, high import notice, low import notice, message log) which you could quickly customize on the fly as they popped up if you wanted to change them. Just add some message setting presets like minimalistic/close family only etc. for people who don't want to choose a hundred different options in addition to an advanced settings menu where you can pick whatever.