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Crusader Kings III News

Three Years of Crusader Kings III!

Hello everyone! September 1st marks the third anniversary of the release of Crusader Kings III, and we're excited to share this day with our loyal players! You've all helped make this game what it is today through your comments, feedback, and suggestions over the last three years, and we can't thank you enough for the support you've given us and the time you've put into our game.

To help celebrate this milestone, we've prepared a special anniversary video for you, featuring some highlights and statistics of the game, as well as a teaser for what you can expect from us later this year.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We've also prepared a set of high-resolution wallpapers from our wonderful art team (no longer available!), and for those who want to see even more there's a full Art Blast article available on Artstation!

Finally, we want to hear from you! What are your favorite moments of Crusader Kings III? Share your stories (in-game or real life!), screenshots, memes, or whatever else you'd prefer with us here in the comments or on our social media channels (linked below). We'll feature some of our favorite submissions next week!

Thank you again for playing our game, and for being part of our community. We hope you enjoy the anniversary video, and continue being a dedicated player of Crusader Kings III. The last three years have been an incredible journey for us at Paradox, and we can't wait to show you what we have in store for the next three years of Crusader Kings III.
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Update 1.10.1

Hello everyone! Today we're releasing Update 1.10.1 for Crusader Kings III. This update focuses primarily on resolving issues reported since the release of Wards & Wardens and the associated 1.10.0 "Quill" Update, but also targets some older outstanding issues. We hope this makes your experience playing CKIII smoother and more enjoyable!



As always, if you run into issues after this update, please let us know on our bug report board on the official Paradox Plaza forums, or on our Community Support board here on Steam!



Update 1.10.1 Changelog


[h2]Localization[/h2]
  • Fixed some problems with translated localization entries for Spanish and Korean
  • Fixed problems with some English text being unintentionally displayed under some circumstances for localized text strings


[h2]Databases[/h2]
  • There is now a playable Saura-faith vassal ruler in 867, Sussala of Multan
  • Vaticano now starts with a Grand Cathedral already built, representing the Old St. Peter's Basilica


[h2]Bugfixes[/h2]
  • Added letter event when your request to Recall a Hostage is declined.
  • Added missing description text for receiving a recall hostage request.
  • Added missing description text for the notification message when the parent fails to influence a child’s personality.
  • Added notification feedback of the outcomes of skill changes for the child in the event "A Ruler’s Path"
  • Adopted children will no longer immediately send a congratulatory letter to themselves.
  • Adopting a hostage will no longer immediately result in them leaving your court.
  • Character Memories are now created when a character becomes an acclaimed knight.
  • The Childhood event "A Blow, Returned" now properly notifies involved parties of the outcome.
  • The Childhood event "A Potential Crush" will now properly use an adverb and not a definite article when referring to your love interest.
  • Events for being neglected in prison will now properly look for if there is actual neglect going on.
  • Petra, the Iron Pillar of Dhar, and the Doge's Palace should now properly count as Points of Interest during travel.
  • Fixed problem in the prisoner relation text, where it erroneously tried to make claims about a prisoner's origin.
  • Fixed the "Daring Scout" modifier having no icon.
  • Fixed the Activity Pulse Action for Sight-Seeing (used in Pilgrimages as well as University Visits) having broken text.
  • Fixed the Eccentric trait improperly subtracting customization points in the Ruler Designer.
  • Fixed the Garuda court position having a lower modifier at highest aptitude than it did at the level below.
  • Fixed the Rock story cycle not properly referring to the named rock in some cases.
  • Fixed the text in the Wards & Wardens event "An Encouraging Friend" calling your bully by your name instead of bully's own name
  • Fixed unnecessarily large effect lists in wars using the Invasion Casus Belli.
  • Fixed various issues with the travel plans of wards and hostages.
  • Grand tour orgy event "A Chance Meeting" will now display the right participants in the event window.
  • Guardians will now once again be able to influence the religion and culture of their Wards.
  • Horse Archer attribute for Accolades will now properly affect Horse Archers instead of Light Cavalry.
  • Hostage event "Who Am I?" now properly refers to the name of the host's culture
  • Hostage execution events will now display better information when you have multiple possible hostages to execute at the same time.
  • Hostage transfers should now be available as an option in most peace resolutions.
  • Hostages can no longer acquire the Marshal council position.
  • If a regent has a promise for a Grand Wedding, they are now allowed to leave the court to attend their wedding in order to avoid diplomatic consequences.
  • Infertile wedded couples are now properly described as such in game when shown in effect tooltips during Grand Weddings.
  • It is no longer possible to kidnap your hostages.
  • Landed rulers can now once again be Guardians for landed Wards.
  • Resolved an out-of-sync error in Multiplayer that could occur if the player canceled travel to Pay Homage or Petition Liege.
  • Reduced effect of reinforcement rate for same faith from artifacts since these were 10 times too high
  • Reforging an artifact now properly depends on remaining relative durability instead of absolute durability
  • Refusing to return a hostage upon them reaching the age of majority now damages their home court's opinion of you.
  • The acceptance entry for hostage-related interactions is now properly colored in the interface.
  • Children will now correctly gain the ill-trait as an outcome of the "A Sick Leave" event.
  • The Childhood event "Lasting Heartbreak" now properly displays its negative modifier as red instead of green.
  • The event "A Sick Leave" and its follow-up events now properly describe the court chaplain’s relation to you.
  • The guard in the Throne room of African Royal Courts will no longer stab the character next to the throne when no-one is looking.
  • Level 5 educations will now correctly state their bonus percentages in the Lifestyle screen.
  • Level 5 Learning education now significantly improves Physician aptitude.
  • Level 5 Intrigue education now gives all of its bonuses.
  • Vassalization acceptance from the Level 5 Diplomacy education is now applied correctly.
  • Tooltips for University locations when planning a University Visit should now be more consistent with other activities.
  • Upon being adopted, the adoptee will now make their way to their new parents' court.
  • When imprisoning a hostage, they will no longer take a hike back home.
  • You no longer get two identical penalties when trying to murder a Head of Faith.
  • Fixed a crash related to army movements.
  • Fixed a rare situation where the event "A Murder Delayed" could end up in a loop and soft-lock the game from progressing.
  • Fixed a text issue with the "First Words" event.
  • Fixed an issue related to Varangians which could result in female eunuchs.
  • Fixed an issue where children born by a hostage could, under certain circumstances, escape the court.
  • Fixed an option that could be empty in the Child/Regent event "A Tool for the Wielding" when the regent demands access to a child ruler.
  • Fixed bad reference to the Gregarious trait in the Influence Ward's Personality interaction.
  • Fixed broken tooltip in "The Apple Falls" event.
  • Fixed Cave Hermits not looking suitably destitute.
  • Fixed confusing text in the "A Dream of Glass" trait event.
  • Fixed Hapless Knight not being kicked out of tournament contests.
  • Fixed issues with the decision to Unite the Spanish throne, including not including the kingdom of Toledo.
  • Fixed Legendary hunts and Falconry having inverted difficulty modifiers.
  • Fixed multiple issues with scopes and animations in cultural festival events.
  • Fixed minor visual issues with the Rites of Passage event chain.
  • Fixed miscommunicated education trait rewards at end of University Visit activity (the traits were given out correctly, but the tooltip would sometimes lie).
  • Fixed missing icon for "Thuggish Recruiting" modifier.
  • Fixed more issues with hostages failing to return home.
  • Fixed multiple issues related to dying while your heir was a hostage in a foreign court.
  • Fixed multiple misleading relationship reason tooltips.
  • Fixed multiple presentation issues with Wet Nurse events.
  • Fixed multiple problems with AI logic for recalling hostages.
  • Fixed multiple text issues in the "Bully For You?" travel event.
  • Fixed multiple text issues with the "Killer Charm" travel danger event.
  • Fixed petition liege sometimes calling the wrong court position when trying to ascertain a suitable one.


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1.10.0.1 'Quill' Hotfix

Hello everyone! We're releasing a hotfix today to address some of the issues with yesterday's 1.10.0 update. While we have fixes for other reported/known issues coming up shortly, we felt the ones listed below were severe enough to warrant an immediate update.


[h2]1.10.0.1 'Quill' Hotfix Changelog[/h2]
  • Fixed an issue where AI rulers do not marry as much as intended.
  • Fixed an issue that removed the two buttons under the Wards tab in the character interface.
  • Fixed an issue resulting in crashes for resumed games from older versions.


As always, if you encounter any problems not listed in our known issues thread, then please let us know about it either in the Community Support board here on our Steam hub or through the bug report board on our official forums.

We hope this hotfix makes for a more stable and enjoyable experience playing Wards & Wardens and the 1.10.0 'Quill' Update.

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Wards & Wardens and 1.10.0 "Quill" Free Update - Available now!

Today marks the release of Wards & Wardens, and we hope you'll have plenty of fun wrangling unruly young rulers-to-be, managing your royal hostages, and visiting scholarly universities in the pursuit of knowledge!

As always, we want to keep updating and improving the game alongside each release - this time we've especially honed in on multiplayer stability, something that was unfortunately lacking after the last update. We've spent a lot of time hunting down annoying out-of-syncs, and we've managed to squash all of them that we could find - bar one that'll be fixed in an upcoming update (but it's fortunately avoidable; don't select Pay Homage/Petition Liege and cancel it before setting out on travel!)

Another change of note is that the AI will now purchase and manage Men-at-Arms more dynamically, especially later in the game - instead of all AIs wanting the exact same ratio of income-to-MaA. Warmonger Archetypes, powerful rulers, and strong mid-to-late-game economies will want to spend significantly more on having a powerful army, while Builder Archetypes make for excellent targets for conquests as they tend to favor buildings!

Without further ado, here is the full changelog:



Expansion Features
  • Over one hundred new events and event chains expanding upon childhood, guardianship, education, and more - both for young lords, parents, and knowledge-hungry rulers! Many game systems, both new and old, now have unique events and content to really strike home how it actually was to grow up during the middle ages!
    • Enjoy a more lively Childhood with a host of new events for both young rulers and parents, and see the choices made early in life echo far into adulthood!
    • New events for Courtly Education let you both educate and be educated in new and interesting ways, where young rulers can be led down a path of eccentricity!
    • Hostages at court will mingle with your own children, be homesick, get into trouble, or even give you opportunities for both lasting friendships and gaining a new type of Perpetual Hook!
    • Employing a Wet Nurse will aid the development of your heirs and increase the well-being of children at court, alongside a healthy dose of courtly drama!
    • slew of new events for Childhood Regencies sees a benevolent regent aid you as a young ruler by teaching you skills, giving you gifts, or stabilizing your realm - just beware less-than-scrupulous regents!
    • New events for the Meet Peers activity; play ball with your fellow children, hone your skills, or get up to hijinx!
    • Experience several rare story cycles which can see your young ruler aspire to become one of the greatest builders of all time, pursue a nebulous but enticing destiny, meet new friends of esoteric provenance, reform your realm in the image of former wardens, and more!
  • New interactions and decisions allow you to take a more hands-on approach to the task of child-rearing!
    • Attempt to directly influence the Personality Traits of your Wards via a new interaction
    • Have your children pass through Coming of Age-trials in Tribal realms.
  • As a ruler with a less-than-ideal education you will now want to visit Universities! This new Activity sees you travel to any holding with a University or Cathedral in search of higher studies.
    • Spend gold on books, mingle with students and teachers, and either study hard or live like a Goliard!
    • Being studious will reward you with lifestyle perk points and the potential for upgrading your education - and if you’ve studied REALLY hard you could even reach the new fifth-tier education!
  • New mood music to enhance your game regardless of where you play.


Free Features
  • A new system for rulers giving or trading Hostages brings a new side of historical medieval politics to life - Hostages are powerful tools for ensuring peace, as they can be executed during wars to make your enemy suffer a great blow to their morale and stability. Hostages can be identified by a new portrait icon.
    • They can be demanded, exchanged, or even used to bargain beneficial peace deals during wars!
    • Having Hostages of notable status will reward you with both prestige and renown.
    • While hostages are most often children, there’s no guarantee that their warden will send them back as they come of age… after all, they are great bargaining chips!
  • The new Perpetual Hook type lies in-between Weak and Strong Hooks, acting like a Weak hook that can be re-used every few years.
  • A new Adoption interaction allows certain rulers to bring in new members to their family and dynasty. Characters with the Compassionate trait or of a culture. with certain Traditions can Adopt, but the restrictions can also be tightened or removed via a new Game Rule!
  • A new Eccentric personality trait allows characters with it to develop their Lifestyles with ease at the cost of public perception, as their methods might be seen as erratic and odd! Several new event options have been added for the trait, and some of the more ‘out there’ events have been updated to require this trait to fire.
  • Added 6 new events to the Pet Cat story Cycle.


Balance
  • Builder AI's are now less concerned with buying MaA than before, and are slower to purchase up to their ideal amount
  • Cautious AI's want to spend slightly more on MaA and are very inclined to purchase up to their comfortable minimum level
  • Genghis Khan now starts as an Exalted Warlord rather than a Brilliant Strategist
  • Spouse-Regents can now do both jobs at the same time
  • The later into the game, and the more gold the AI earns, the more they will want to spend on MaA (previously AI's would always aim for spending 40% of their income on MaA maintenance, they can now go as high as 90% with the correct circumstances fulfilled)
  • Warlike AI's will now want to spend more on MaA in general, and are much more inclined to purchase MaA over buildings than other archetypes
  • You can now get more than three events per Meet Peers, especially if you are the Host (up to 6)
  • playdate.3008, the event where another child drowns in Meet Peers, is now only available to the players/the host, and is now on a 3-year cooldown rather than 3 months.
  • The hook gained in the playdate.3008 event is now also a strong 'saved my life'-hook.
  • All Abrahamic faiths are now able to restore Rome, not just Christians.
  • Either Italia, HRE, or Byzantium will become the "real" Rome depending on which one is your primary title upon reforming Rome.
  • The Sultanate of Rum can now be formed by either Muslims or Turkic heritage characters, but not Christians.


Interface
  • Events unlocked by Friends & Foes and Wards & Wardens are now decorated with special visuals that show from which Event Pack they originate; this feature can be disabled in the settings.


Art
  • Several new Animations have been added:
    • Happy Teacher
    • Stressed Teacher
    • Eccentric
    • Manic
    • Go to your room!
    • Playing Peekaboo
    • Crying (children only)
    • Clutching Ball
    • Clutching Doll
    • Stick Horse
    • 6x Weapon Animation Variants with Wooden Swords
  • Added several new Event Background Illustrations:
    • Nursery
    • Western University
    • Arabic University
    • Western ‘Inner Courtyard’
    • An Indian Garden Variant
    • An Indian Study Variant
    • An Arabic Tavern Variant
  • Added possible longsword artifact icon and model variation to swords of Late Medieval Western cultures.
  • Added Toy sword, Training sword, Toy Doll, Stick Horse.
  • Added Carolingian commoner clothes variants to the barbershop.
  • Cloaks in general are now a bit more common for Western and Northern European characters.
  • Cloaks will now sometimes be used together with armor.
  • Elegance of the Empire cloaks will now be used roughly as much as the regular western royalty cloak.
  • Fixed a bug where some consorts would use clothing far below their status, for example the Byzantine Basilissa in the 867 start date.
  • For players with Northern Lords, Norse cloaks will now be used by more culture groups than just the Norse.
  • Made it so that western royalty always wear cloaks.
  • Northern Lords crowns are now also used by other Northern cultures.
  • Improved skinning and blendshapes on male wrestling pants.


Game Content
  • Wards and Guardians will now use the Travel system to go to their respective courts to receive tutelage.
  • Most Meet Peers events have been rebalanced and updated to use new backgrounds and animations.
  • Activity log entries have been added to the Meet Peers activity.
  • Memories have been added for Accolades.
  • Added the Saura faith, a sun-worshipping branch of Hinduism, and added the faith to some characters and counties in both start dates.
  • Added new outcomes to the Sun Trial event chain, in order to facilitate its deaths if you manage to end up worshipping the sun in an area without… much sun.
  • Developing a Crush in childhood now creates a memory.


User Modding
  • Weak hooks can now be perpetual and used multiple times
  • Add can_embrace_tradition trigger
  • Add data binding macro CalculateScriptValue to calculate the named script value with designated character as root scope.
  • Add data binding macro GetScriptValueBreakdown to break down the named script value with designated character as root scope.
  • Add x_lifestyle_xp_gain_mult modifier that stacks with monthly xp modifiers.
  • Adds new trigger for checking if a culture has more discovered innovations than another culture in a specified era.
  • All trait triggers and effects can now use a trait scope as well as a database key.
  • Replaced define MEN_AT_ARMS_CHANCE_EXPENSE_BELOW_IDEAL with script value ai_men_at_arms_chance_expense_below_ideal
  • Replaced define MEN_AT_ARMS_CHANCE_EXPENSE_BELOW_MIN with script value ai_men_at_arms_chance_expense_below_min
  • Replaced define MEN_AT_ARMS_EXPENSE_IDEAL with script value ai_men_at_arms_expense_gold_ideal
  • Replaced define MEN_AT_ARMS_EXPENSE_MAX with script value ai_men_at_arms_expense_gold_max
  • Replaced define MEN_AT_ARMS_EXPENSE_MIN with script value ai_men_at_arms_expense_gold_min
  • Replaced define MEN_AT_ARMS_PRESTIGE_EXPENSE_IDEAL with script value ai_men_at_arms_expense_prestige_ideal
  • Replaced define MEN_AT_ARMS_PRESTIGE_EXPENSE_MAX with script value ai_men_at_arms_expense_prestige_max
  • Replaced define MEN_AT_ARMS_PRESTIGE_EXPENSE_MIN with script value ai_men_at_arms_expense_prestige_min
  • Add any/random/every_tradition scripted list for cultures.
  • Add has_tradition_category trigger that works on culture traditions.
  • Has_cultural_tradition trigger, add_culture_tradition, and remove_culture_tradition effects now can take tradition as scope.
  • Add free_tradition_slot trigger to test if culture can have more traditions.
  • Casus belli now has an option to allow or forbid hostage exchange.
  • The chance to assign specific personality, education or childhood traits for generated characters can now be set by random_creation percent value.


Bugfixes
  • Fixed an Out of Sync caused by expiring Memories
  • Fixed an Out-of-Sync caused by players setting Decisions to ‘notify me’
  • Fixed an Out-of-Sync relating to Accolade History
  • Fixed an Out-of-Sync relating to Diarchs being updated out of order
  • Fixed several rare Out-of-Syncs
  • Fixed crash on succession with a landed character without any titles
  • Fixed a crash that could happen when opening the war overview in certain large-scale wars
  • Fixed the Character Search not remembering the selected ‘Sort by’ filter between being closed/opened
  • Fixed Accolade History being lost when loading the save
  • Fixed Tournament event Hapless Knight option not removing jouster from contest
  • Fixed animals captured on hunts not being saved properly
  • Fixed crime for escaping from prison not being an imprisonable crime
  • Fixed feuding house AI members being not aggressive enough
  • Fixed issue with desc of war won memory
  • Fixed issues with relation loc for fellow attendees of activities
  • Fixed missing localization for memories of peasant and populist revolts
  • Fixed missing scope loc in "lay with" effects for other characters
  • Fixed relation loc for deceased spouses
  • Improved presentation of Restore Carolingian Borders decision's effects
  • Fix a rare case when childhood focus is invalidated
  • Fix a rare case when childhood focus is invalidated and wrong education trait is given when coming of age
  • Fixed "A vassal between friends" not accounting for the two involved friends being at war
  • Fixed childhood personality events being largely blocked for traveling children, which resulted in some childhood personality events being way too common
  • Fixed garrisons not refilling correctly after sieges
  • Fixed many instances of Regents traveling with their lieges, especially during Hunts and Tournaments
  • Improved tooltip why sometimes you cannot change intent during activities
  • Increased maximum allowed years in activity passive phase (travel time) from 3 years to 10
  • May now plan activities regardless of insufficient funds to start them
  • Memory descriptions expect character memory as root scope
  • Show correct regent when designated regent has been deposed by a scheme
  • Characters are no longer intimidated by 0 dread
  • Mercenaries and holy orders can now use MaA from culture traditions
  • Swinging the scales of power will now tell you in which direction & towards whom they've swung
  • Fixed unnecessarily large effect lists in Invasion casus belli wars
  • Fixed bastards being born in faiths which had none
  • The HRE title holder no longer needs to exist to establish the Carolingian Empire
  • Champion the Faith of Country Basques decision now includes the new provinces added for Fate of Iberia
  • Can now use "Grant to..." action in county view even if there's a leased out barony


Additionally, please check the Known Issues thread on our official forums for a list of prominent issues in the 1.10.0 update; we're aware of the issues listed here and have fixes for them in the pipeline already.

We hope you enjoy Wards & Wardens and the accompanying free "Quill" Update!

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Dev Diary #134: The Art of Wards & Wardens

As the release date of Wards & Wardens draws near, we're taking a moment to reflect on the artistic endeavors that have brought it to life. This time our focus is on animations and some of the 2D icons and illustrations.

Discuss Dev Diary #134 on our forums!



Icons​

Hey there! I'm Nicolas, 2D artist working on this royal game CK3.

I'm pretty sure many of you checking out this dev diary must get pretty stoked about game designers writing about numbers going up and down, but as cool as it is to dive into the game's new meta, my piece of this dev diary is all about the art! Let me tell you a bit about creating game icons - in particular, how I went about creating the new icon for the eccentric personality trait!

Alright, let's break it down in a kinda rough step-by-step. First things first, the game designers sent me a short brief describing what they needed, as well as ideas of what the icon might look like. Luckily for me, I was given the idea that the icon could depict a bag of marbles of various colors. I think it’s a pretty fitting metaphor for an eccentric individual, embodying their propensity for collecting unconventional ideas and perspectives, much like the colorful assortment of marbles within the bag.

A guideline we try to adhere to when creating icons is to not necessarily create an image that literally depicts what the function/meaning of the icon will be. Instead, we want to be more figurative in our approach. For example, the icon for craven doesn't show a person being cowardly, but instead shows a frantic chicken, a symbol of cowardice.


Starting off, I create a handful of initial sketches outlining the basic composition and values. These sketches don't require fine detailing; their purpose is solely for experimentation and estimating the best read of the image.


When I have decided (When my art director decides which one he likes the most), I move on to making a more refined value render of the image. Paying close attention to the values and how they aid in the composition. For example, how the image goes from brighter in the focal point in the middle of the icon out to a much darker value on the edges, forming a vignette of sorts.



Quite a straightforward step, adding colors to the image. Going over color theory is beyond my paygrade, so let's just say that these colors of warm red/yellow and cool blue look good together!


Now it is time for my favorite part of the process - the refining stage! Now, I fine-tune the image, adding those last touches of light, textures, intricate details, and any minor adjustments to give the icon that final polished look. Make it feel like “candy”, like an old art director of mine used to say.


And there you have it: resize it to the appropriate size and slap a border on it and we have anew, fresh personality icon! Hopefully the trait is good according to the meta, so people will actually see and appreciate it sometimes!

Here are also a few interesting images of game concepts that depict the same thing, but in various styles - depending on the context in the UI.



Illustrations​


Naturally, we are also adding some new scene illustrations. With the option to pursue education as an adult, we've incorporated a University setting tailored for your scholarly characters. Additionally, we've added a Nursery and several scenes that enrich the cultural diversity of some existing locations.

[University]

[Courtyard]

[Nursery]

[Tavern - MENA variation]

[Study - Indian variation]

Animations​

For this Event Pack we have added child-related animations, such as playing with toys. Among our new props we have a ball, a doll, stickhorses, and wooden swords, which all get used in the animations.



Nothing more comforting when running a kingdom than your favorite toy!

That’s it for this time. Stay tuned for next week's update as we gear up for the release of "Wards & Wardens" on August 22nd!

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