Grand Strategy Crusader Kings III

[Consul]

Is there a reason to get this if you have CK2 and 90% of its add-ons?

At this stage I would say no, unless you are fed up with CK2 and want something looking and playing slightly differently, yet being almost identical at the same time.

The good things about CK3:
- the hooks system (now you can blackmail other characters and make them do your bidding if you know their secrets, works sort of similarly to favors in CK2)
- you can actually be a tyrant now without everyone revolting against you instantly, when you do cruel actions you accumulate something like dread (dunno what it's called in the game) and if it's high enough it prevents other characters from taking actions against you.
- religions are much more detailed, you can see their doctrines (for example if the religion allows only men to be priests), which traits are seen as virtues and attitudes toward certain things like homosexuality, adultery, deviancy. You can reform a religion and customize all of those things, but this has its downsides. You can reform a religion to be a complete opposite of what it originally used to be without triggering some massive civil war, making it very unrealistic.
- the map looks great when being zoomed out.
- character models are not that bad either.
- you can see baronies on the world map.
- great loading screens.
- the stress system (doing actions that go against the traits of your character accumulate it)
- it's possible to create a cadet branch of your dynasty.

The bad:
- horrendous, atrocious UI developed for phones and tablets.
- lack of latin names of certain things like laws etc.
- you can only declare war for a single title, you can't press multiple claims like in CK2.
- only three government types (expect more with dlcs).
- lack of certain filters in character search options
- lack of certain map types.
- lack of societies and secret societies (will probably appear in a dlc).
- you can't secretly follow a religion (will probably appear in a dlc).
- only two starting dates. (I don't view it as something that negative, because I only used the earliest ones in CK2)
- no option to create a randomly generated world like in one of the CK2 dlcs.
- smaller amount of events (will improve with future dlcs)
- no plagues and epidemics (will probably appear in a dlc).
- no bloodlines (will probably appear in a dlc).

There are likely many things that I missed, but this will give you a decent picture. If I were you, I would wait for it to gain more content through dlcs and buy it on sale. I don't think there is a reason to buy it right now at full price, especially if you own CK2 with most dlcs.

 

[Catacombs]

- great loading screens.

I really like the painting loading screens. Here's an album of full-size JPGs: https://imgur.com/a/XPhCyjO

- no option to create a randomly generated world like in one of the CK2 dlcs.

There's a mod for Shattered World, if that's what you're looking for. However, it's still very much in alpha.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

- you can actually be a tyrant now without everyone revolting against you instantly, when you do cruel actions you accumulate something like dread (dunno what's called in the game) and if it's high enough it prevents other characters from taking actions against you.

I wonder how my life would be like if I became Roose Bolton...

thinks

Spoiler

Cool...

 

[Lemming42]

Playing this and having fun but it does feel like there's a lack of anything to really do so far. As with a lot of Paradox games, before long you just set the game speed to max and sit back doing absolutely nothing while your resources go up, at which point you declare an unprovoked war so you can paint a bit more of the map. Occasionally, your marriage breaks down. Pretty standard Paradox experience all around.

 

[fantadomat]

I see what you're doin here

You have no idea of how much i am not even trying,the game just can't put up any fight. This is done just by lazying around and not suiciding my rulers so i could get a free kingdom deus vult cb.

 

[fantadomat]

your marriage breaks down.

Yeah,it is amazing all the sjw retardation. I have cheating on being illegal,but when i catch one of me wifus sucking the stable boy,i could just be cuck and can't even throw them to the pyre. The whole religion aspect of the game is a fucking joke,is is just another coloured map to paint. Also the amount of harlots that want to warm the stable boy is really annoying. I am getting tired of throwing cunt in to the dungeon and executing them every 20 minutes.

 

[Harthwain]

It's easy to forget after hundreds of hours of playing, but when you first play CK2 it's easy to sit there and think "I want to achieve X, but I have no idea how because there's a million modifiers and nobody will accept any of my offers". I think hooks and all, it's easier in CK3 to figure out how you can try to achieve your personal goals.

A lot of people forget how CK2 was on release. In comparison CK3 has more stuff on release.

What doesn't change is at the end of the day, CK in particular, because it isn't a very fun/robust blobber, is really about sitting there waiting for cool events that shape your Sims-like character. It's an awful wargame, I don't know why you'd play it to conquer the whole world.

Indeed. It's intended to be played like A Game of Thrones, especially with all the anti-blobbing changes. Some people seem to not be getting it.

 

[oscar]

CK2 on release was much much worse than this (spoken as someone who played a lot of CK1 too).

 

[RobotSquirrel]

CK2 on release was much much worse than this (spoken as someone who played a lot of CK1 too).

It also crashed a lot more than this does. But this still doesn't excuse the fact that the modern paradox model is essentially Early Access without admitting to it. It's kind of annoying that publishers are allowed to get away with that whereas if an Indie did it they'd never work again.

 

[Average Manatee]

What doesn't change is at the end of the day, CK in particular, because it isn't a very fun/robust blobber, is really about sitting there waiting for cool events that shape your Sims-like character. It's an awful wargame, I don't know why you'd play it to conquer the whole world.

Indeed. It's intended to be played like A Game of Thrones, especially with all the anti-blobbing changes. Some people seem to not be getting it.

What anti-blobbing changes are there in CK3? It seems trivially easy to blob right now.

I'd say the goal of both CK2 and 3 is blobbing, but the critical difference is that in CK2 it was much more about interfacing with the game's unique systems than in CK3 right now. In CK2 you had the various inheritance laws and claimants were important and all that. In CK3 you're basically locked into gavelkind for most of the game and its so easy to fabricate a claim basically every year that claimants really don't matter much except for the final game-ending war where you push your wife's claim to the Byzantine Empire to restore Rome.

I'll admit I didn't play CK2 on release but I started only a few DLC in (I think Sword of Islam was the latest?) and these core elements were there back then. And I don't see Paradox patching the game to make it harder to blob, harder to get a claim. Clearly they are moving in the direction of letting people blob whenever wherever with reliable, constant claim spams like they did when they went from EU3 to EU4.

In my recent game I saw Sweden invading around Mali for some forsaken reason, everything about the game is geared towards blobbing including the AI. CK2 realms were relatively peaceful most of the time and you could look around at vassals and take some time to take in the situation and think about how to exploit it. You're a duke, some other duke has a daughter, maybe you marry your son to her and 20 years down the line you can exploit that. In CK3 probably 50% of the realm's vassals are at war with another vassal at any point in time, you can't plan anything 20 years ahead because there's a good chance that powerful duke would get killed off in the ever-present chaos. Only the powergaming player is actually competent and strong enough to ensure a stable position. Granted there was some chaos in CK2 (byzantines playing musical chairs with the throne), but it was much more limited.

 

[Harthwain]

What anti-blobbing changes are there in CK3? It seems trivially easy to blob right now.

I meant it's harder now to maintain your personal power, due to Partition being the default law, it being harder to change and you not being able to kill off your own unwanted children anymore.

 

[Zero Credibility]

So your seductress can't just instantly collect all the best men in range.

Bah, a seductress can just seduce them to her court. But yeah, it's probably to prevent poaching good characters. I still think opinion influence is capped too low though.

Anyway, back to griping. I absolutely hate how they removed ships from the game entirely. Yes, the way they worked in CK2 was tedious, but even that was better than this. The way AI uses this ability to turn into boats is just jaw-dropping stupid, and I only started playing this game. I declare war, they turn into boats and sail for my capitol. I smash them, they retreat into sea, turn into boats and sail for my capitol. A completely land-locked eastern european country is easily sending their troops over to Ireland. Overseas enclaves everywhere, because sea as an obstacle is meaningless now, as are straits and other choke points since all can be bypassed by just walking around them over water. Seriously, fuck this shit.

 

[Consul]

So your seductress can't just instantly collect all the best men in range.

Bah, a seductress can just seduce them to her court. But yeah, it's probably to prevent poaching good characters. I still think opinion influence is capped too low though.

Anyway, back to griping. I absolutely hate how they removed ships from the game entirely. Yes, the way they worked in CK2 was tedious, but even that was better than this. The way AI uses this ability to turn into boats is just jaw-dropping stupid, and I only started playing this game. I declare war, they turn into boats and sail for my capitol. I smash them, they retreat into sea, turn into boats and sail for my capitol. A completely land-locked eastern european country is easily sending their troops over to Ireland. Overseas enclaves everywhere, because sea as an obstacle is meaningless now, as are straits and other choke points since all can be bypassed by just walking around them over water. Seriously, fuck this shit.

Yeah that seems like a major issue, initially I saw it as an improvement. But now, after seeing what you've written, I changed my stance on this. Didn't think to look at it from the perspective of the AI and how this would affect it. Maybe tinkering with this mechanic would somehow make it better.

 

[Theodora]

I won the sexiest codexer award.

You can download it from rin.ru, no cracks needed.

I knew they gave away a bunch of copies for different reasons.

Just didn't think someone would phrase pirating it that way. It being easy to pirate is inherent to its EGS release.

I really like the painting loading screens. Here's an album of full-size JPGs: https://imgur.com/a/XPhCyjO

Thanks! I've been looking for these. Craig Mullins' work is gorgeous. ^^

 

[IDtenT]

no bloodlines (will probably appear in a dlc).

I believe that dynasty renown unlocks replaces this.

 

[IDtenT]

Make it so that you can only embark from your own land.

 

[Smoker]

I like how you can redirect the crusade against your own enemies for 500 piety.

Also it seems dynasty legacies is replacing bloodlines yet also some separate bloodline options in decisions.

The whack a mole with enemies fleeing to sea then sieging your capital has to stop.

 

[RobotSquirrel]

no bloodlines (will probably appear in a dlc).

I believe that dynasty renown unlocks replaces this.

They're not really a suitable replacement though. Bloodlines required you doing some kind of Achievement to pull off and you could breed into them.
Renown unlocks work more like traditions in Imperator and thus aren't as good a mechanic.

 

[Avarize]

Yeah,it is amazing all the sjw retardation. I have cheating on being illegal,but when i catch one of me wifus sucking the stable boy,i could just be cuck and can't even throw them to the pyre. The whole religion aspect of the game is a fucking joke,is is just another coloured map to paint. Also the amount of harlots that want to warm the stable boy is really annoying. I am getting tired of throwing cunt in to the dungeon and executing them every 20 minutes.

Degenerates can't fathom every human in history not being like them.

 

[vonAchdorf]

Yeah,it is amazing all the sjw retardation. I have cheating on being illegal,but when i catch one of me wifus sucking the stable boy,i could just be cuck and can't even throw them to the pyre. The whole religion aspect of the game is a fucking joke,is is just another coloured map to paint. Also the amount of harlots that want to warm the stable boy is really annoying. I am getting tired of throwing cunt in to the dungeon and executing them every 20 minutes.

In CK2 I disabled the seduction focus most of the time. Unfortunately, this isn't possible here.

 

[IDtenT]

Yeah,it is amazing all the sjw retardation. I have cheating on being illegal,but when i catch one of me wifus sucking the stable boy,i could just be cuck and can't even throw them to the pyre. The whole religion aspect of the game is a fucking joke,is is just another coloured map to paint. Also the amount of harlots that want to warm the stable boy is really annoying. I am getting tired of throwing cunt in to the dungeon and executing them every 20 minutes.

In CK2 I disabled the seduction focus most of the time. Unfortunately, this isn't possible here.

They went all-in on schemes for base game release. It would have been very surprising if you could turn any of it off.

 

[IDtenT]

I do hope we get a religion / Catholic DLC soon.

Playing as Catholic without cardinals is pretty lame. There's a lot of drawbacks (like being stuck with a shit realm Bishop) and you only get crusades as a reward.

 

[Avarize]

I do hope we get a religion / Catholic DLC soon.

Playing as Catholic without cardinals is pretty lame. There's a lot of drawbacks (like being stuck with a shit realm Bishop) and you only get crusades as a reward.

Did they remove that dumb crusader war chest thing they added in CK2?

 

[Theodora]

They're not really a suitable replacement though. Bloodlines required you doing some kind of Achievement to pull off and you could breed into them.
Renown unlocks work more like traditions in Imperator and thus aren't as good a mechanic.

I find it hard to assess these new unlock tables, but I agree that it doesn't really cover. (But at the same time the new culture system feels like it's really usurped the old technology system.)

I do hope we get a religion / Catholic DLC soon.

Playing as Catholic without cardinals is pretty lame. There's a lot of drawbacks (like being stuck with a shit realm Bishop) and you only get crusades as a reward.

Agreed, Orthodoxy too feels weird when the Pentarchy feels basically irrelevant.

 

[fantadomat]

They're not really a suitable replacement though. Bloodlines required you doing some kind of Achievement to pull off and you could breed into them.
Renown unlocks work more like traditions in Imperator and thus aren't as good a mechanic.

I find it hard to assess these new unlock tables, but I agree that it doesn't really cover. (But at the same time the new culture system feels like it's really usurped the old technology system.)

I do hope we get a religion / Catholic DLC soon.

Playing as Catholic without cardinals is pretty lame. There's a lot of drawbacks (like being stuck with a shit realm Bishop) and you only get crusades as a reward.

Agreed, Orthodoxy too feels weird when the Pentarchy feels basically irrelevant.

All the religious shit feels irrelevant,it is just a button down in the right that is used for decoration. Even the religion making mechanics are shallow and the world doesn't react to them. The is zero reactivity from anything when it comes to religion.