Grand Strategy Crusader Kings III - coming September 1st

Location:
Bulgaria

Wait, why are we listening to one of the barbarians? I'm going to make it a point to crush the Bulgarians day 1 when I pirate CK III.

 

Wait, are you talking about the Byzantines or the Bulgarians here?

Cus it sounds like the Bulgarians to me~

 

Empire needed more men like Nikephoros II and Basil II the Bulgar-Slayer Comrade... or Slav Tzar to reinvigorate the Empire.

 

If it wasn't for Basil II, the Kievan Rus' would have probably remained pagan for a much longer period. He transferred church literature translated from Greek to Bulgarian, so the Russians lrn2read.

This whole transition to 3D is Massive Decline (tm). Only proves the principle that game developers usually do good things by accident, and when they do them, they can't recognize them.

Why not transfer from memorable faces and timeless 2D art to unmemorable faces with less defined features in a 3D that already looks dated. PDX have no idea what they are messing with - the association of a player with his characters was one of the main draws of CKII.

Next high-level thing that made a bad impression was that they are sticking with a "mana points" system. One of the numales in the video actually gave an example of breaking a truce being a dishonorable thing that makes people hate you. Boo hoo, what if PDX had actually put some more effort and made it so the same action affects different people in a different way, instead of sticking to a good-bad meter? What if some feudal lord wanted to ally with mine and me breaking that alliance is actually percieved as a good thing? Obsidian already did a similar system with their companion relations in Deadfire. But PDX are choosing the easy way.

 

In any case game will be worthless until 3-4 DLC after release.

 

That was the same thing as in CK2, all characters react in generally the same way to a given action...even if they were the ones who wanted it. They've always been cardboard cutouts with canned reactions, not individuals with their own agendas and opinions.

 

I think it's an improvement over the CK2, character art, where I barely could identify the characters and tell them apart or recognize inherited features.

 

I am here and i see no Byzantines here! Do you,mister civilized person?

 

Those men with rainbow colored hair.

 

Modern Swedes. The blood of Numenor is all but spent.

 

Gaaaaah, that dude’s just asking to receive constant titty twisters.

 

The ones with space hair was an englishman and an american.

 

DD Lifestyles.

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Greetings! Today we’ll be taking a look at a new and exciting feature in CK3 - the Lifestyle system!

Now, to start off, the lifestyles of CK3 have very little in common with those in CK2. The system has been changed and is vastly improved and much more interactive than CK2’s system. In fact, we have proper skill trees now, much like those you would find in an RPG. You will gather experience and unlock perks, which conveys all kinds of bonuses to your character! This allows you to tailor your character to your needs, immerse yourself in their story, and provides a lot of replayability, as it’s not only about what perks you get, but also when you get them.

There are five Lifestyle categories, with each category containing three full skill trees. You first choose the Lifestyle you want, and then you select a focus within it.




The focuses convey immediate bonuses, much like they did in CK2 - you usually pick the Focus that provides the modifier you most need at the moment. For example, if you desperately need piety you can pick the Theology Focus, while if you have just conquered a large amount of land the Authority Focus might be more appropriate. You can pick any Focus within a Lifestyle to gain experience within it, the Focuses do not correspond to specific trees.

Each Focus also comes with its own unique set of events, connected to the theme of the Focus. If you have the Temptation focus selected you might get events about subtly manipulating your vassals and guests, finding out their secrets or gaining hooks, while if you have the Wealth focus selected it might see you levy extra taxes upon your peasants, among other things. More on this in the next weeks DD.



After you’ve picked a Focus, you will start gaining experience and can start unlocking perks!

Now, characters will not usually live long enough to unlock every perk. You will have to choose which path to go down, and you will unlock a new perk every few years. Perks are unlocked by spending experience, which is gained both passively (symbolizing that your character dabbles in subjects pertaining to their lifestyle during their free time) and actively (through choices in Lifestyle events, etc).

Perks are wonderful things that unlock all manner of possibilities and opportunities. Going down the right paths will unlock special modifiers, decisions, casus bellis, and even schemes. Some perks will modify existing systems to work differently for your character - for example, going down the Avarice path makes Stress (more on this in a later DD) have some positive effects. There are perks that make your troops fight better, that make factions stay in line, or that fortify your health. Really, you’ll be spoilt for choice - and we’ll go into more detail on what each Lifestyle is capable of in the coming weeks!



The final Perk in each tree always gives you a trait, which is very powerful (think the Master Seducer trait in CK2), nicely rounding them off. If you live long enough, you’ll see yourself accumulate a few of these.


Can you guess the traits? 15 of these traits are tied to the Lifestyle trees, the remaining can be gained through special events and activities.

While you won’t start using Lifestyles and unlocking perks before you’re an adult, it really begins during childhood. Depending on the education you get, you will have an affinity for a certain Lifestyle - now this doesn’t mean that you’re stuck with that Lifestyle, of course, you can choose any lifestyle regardless of your education. The education ranks directly correspond to a percentage increase in experience gained, a rank one education will give a 10% bonus, and a rank four one a 40% bonus, and so on.

When a character becomes landed they will select a focus and unlock perks based on their age - the older they are, the more perks they will have unlocked. They will select an appropriate Lifestyle based on their education (making it even more important to manage your children’s education carefully), and perks based on their personality and traits. Do not worry though, if you’re not satisfied with the hand you’re dealt you can choose to reset all perks (within that Lifestyle) once per lifetime - though this will incur a massive amount of Stress (again, more on this in a later DD). Sometimes it’s worth playing the hand you’re dealt - perhaps going along with your lustful heir's seductive tendencies could open up a venue you hadn’t even considered?

In the next few weeks we’ll dive deeper into the various aspects of the Lifestyle system, so stay tuned!

 

Wow, news of that perk system just drained the life out of me. Don't know why but it sounds like they've removed much of the random and unpredictable nature of the CK gameplay. Trying to control chaos was always the most interesting part of CK2.

Sounds artificial and popamole.

 

Not a fan either, seems too controlled. I liked how it worked in CKII.

I think it would be neat if some lifestyle could lead you to something else - like say, enough love-life dissapointments leading you to Religion instead.

 

And that whole shitty Perk Tree will be mandatory for every character under optimal play. Sounds more and more like RTW2. I guess this game will be 3/5 or so, not as awful as Imperator but to think it can ever compare to CK2 is absurd. A pointless exercise from an increasingly clueless company.

 

It doesn't look that different from the way lifestyles work now, its just being presented to the player differently. I still kind of agree that presenting the player in-game with this sort of structured flowchart of how to develop a character feels out of place, that should be something you look on the wikis to find. The in-game presentation is better off being more vague.

 

It's way too gamey, in the same way today's CK2 is. The entire point of traits and lifestyle choices is that you can't predict what they'll lead to. It takes away the role play aspect of being an imperfect person. Of course the player should have some control over the development of their character but not in the way a skill tree offers it.

 

Removing some of the randomness would make sense if they actually geared towards being simulationist and presented an actually difficult, deep game that keeps the player on his toes. But CK2 was anything but that - it was about RPing through history, where the game randomly shitting on you with an event was a welcome diversion to incorporate into the roleplay. I could get behind this system if they added it to a radically different game, but the trend with paradox is to make every subsequent game even more brainless and shallow, so I can't really see that happening.

It feels like they're focusing on the wrong thing entirely, tbh. The character side of things was mostly fine as it was in CK2, the big issue was that there was fuck all to do 80% of the time due to the realm part being so shallow. That's where I'd like to see additional mechanics and overhauls, not somewhere that already works

 

The key difference is - is CK's character "your guy" like an RPG protagonist that you sculpt through points? Or is he a semi-autonomous actor in the sadistic entropy of history that you guide through thick and thin? And to me the entire point of CK1/2, even down to the awkward way in which important decisions would arrive as semi-randomised popups, was that you're not in full control of your guy.

Of course, in practice, so many players would have used various tricks to mould the perfect heir with munchkin stats, assassinate the rest of Gavelkind siblings every generation, etc. - and now it will I suppose be easier to do that.

As above post says the attention should instead be on fleshing out different aspects of realm management and medieval courtly life into a more involved process - e.g. I'd be happy for Tournaments and other ceremonies to get a better interface with more control.

Edit: I have no idea who "nikt" is but I am honoured to have received one of his 129 Golden Cucks, a rare prize he grants on a chosen few

 

Maybe they're trying out systems for a future Warhammer game.

 

Well, Idid not like that much the concept of wait 15 years and get random education and stick to it. At least here you can improve on that and if you are shitty misguided warrior then you can become great warrior through practice. In CKII you will stick with misguided warrior forrever with some very rare event advancing your education 1 level up.

 

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/ck3-dev-diary-10-lifestyle-events.1312112/

 

Do you think that Crusader Kings series can evolve into RPG(Or maybe in your opinion it already is an RPG)?