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Dev Diary #162 - Steppe by Steppe

Өглөөний мэнд!

I am here to welcome you to a special kind of Development Diary – It's the first of a series, but the rest will come later and not in the following weeks. We're working on a comprehensive system for the Nomads of the Steppe, and while we are knee-deep in the production of the expansion, we still want to introduce you to the features as soon as possible, with the aim of collecting feedback and acting on it during our approaching iteration phase.

For that reason we are showing screenshots earlier than usual, so do keep in mind that all shown here is still a work in progress.


Therefore, some small caveats:
  • Layouts, visuals, and other aspects of the UI may change as we continue to refine these systems.
  • The map set up is also not final and we are open to feedback.
  • All values and numbers are still subject to balancing, and some of them are mere placeholders while we work on the features.
  • This is an overview of the next DLC. The following Dev Diaries will go more in depth about all features at a later date – we need time to act on the feedback we get from you, so dev diaries for this update will not be releasing weekly just yet.


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Nomadic Government


At the core of this update lies the new Nomadic Government. This new government type is heavily inspired by the rulers of the Eurasian Steppe, and puts a heavy emphasis on herd, might, and land.

[Initial distribution in 1178.]

But what do we mean by that?

[h2]Herd[/h2]
Your cattle and horses are represented by a new currency only available to Nomads called "Herd". In the Steppe, Herd is incredibly valuable and plays a big role in how other Nomads perceive you: it can be used for ransoming, dowry, bribes and even be stolen via a scheme or raiding. It controls who the Cultural Head is and serves as a gate for increasing Dominance (we will talk more about this later in this Diary).

Herd is obtained both through the land by exploiting its Fertility and through your Nomadic subjects via their contracts, since Nomads don't have a stable income. We will talk more in depth about this in the "Land" section below.

One of the main changes when it comes to Nomads is that they do not use levies. Instead, they transform a percentage of their Herd into Horde Riders.

Horde Riders are the most basic type of Men-at-Arms that Nomads have access to. However, these Riders can be then upgraded to better MAAs types, such as Horse Archers, for a cost of gold. These numbers don't come from a vacuum, however; if I want to create 100 Horse Archers, then I will lose 100 Horde Riders as they are converted into the new unit.

Basic Horde Riders don't have an associated maintenance cost, but the other MAAs do in the form of monthly prestige.

We've opted for this change because warring was an essential part of the Steppe life, and levies did not exist per se, as every able warrior would be called when the time was needed. From a more mechanical standpoint, we wanted Nomads to have fewer, but stronger and more significant, MAAs.


The percentage depicted in the screenshot above represents what percentage of your Herd can be converted into Horde, as not all of them are mounts suitable for war. This percentage can be affected by yurt buildings, dynasty perks, character modifiers and other factors.

[Extremely WIP, we are aware of some issues like the Maintenance cost not being displayed]

To reflect the importance of your people, the names on a Nomadic map are also different from our regular naming conventions. It is the Borjigin Mongols that move across the map, not the Duchy of Örgöö.

The Cultural Head gets to take the cultural name (The Mongols), while the smaller rulers have a combination of their House Name + Culture (The Borjigin Mongols). To better reflect the dynamics of the Steppe, we have also changed the way that the Cultural Head is selected in Nomadic governments: the ruler with the biggest Herd becomes the Head instead, independently of their title.

The names on the map, as well as this naming convention using culture are still work in progress, and we are open to hear your suggestions.

[Note that we may remove the "The" to make the titles more readable.]

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[h2]Might[/h2]
In the Steppe, might makes right. Titles are not as important as actual strength, and to reflect this we've made a series of changes that only affect Nomads.

Nomadic rulers have access to Dominance, a measurement of their perceived power. Low Dominance implies a relatively insignificant chieftain, while the maximum Dominance represents the rise of Genghis Khan.

Dominance is a fixed scale, a mountain that Nomads have to climb, with each level being a hard-achieved goal that each ruler must work towards. Only those who have a Herd of a significant enough size are allowed to reach the next level.

Dominance affects things such as Vassal and Domain limits, with the lower levels having a very reduced number of both, but with higher levels offering impressive bonuses. Dominance also governs the tiers that you are allowed to target during your migration (more on this in "Land"), access to special Men-at-Arms, title and vassal revocation, settlement outside of the Steppe, flavourful decisions and more.

[h3]Obedience[/h3]
You'll need loyal followers if you're going to take over the world – and it does not matter by what means you've ensured their loyalty.

Obedience is a binary state – either you are obedient or not. Every character that's a subject or courtier has Obedience towards their overlord. Obedience works as a threshold; if a character is below the threshold then they will be unruly, plotting against their overlord or just having general acceptance maluses to various interactions. However, if a character is above the threshold then they will not form factions, start hostile schemes against their liege, and – more importantly – will take their side during the Kurultai succession by voting for whichever heir was your preferred one. The Kurultai is formed by special members of your Council, and having them on your side is extremely important for Nomads.

Obedience is calculated based on several parameters like the relationship with the other character, friendship, their traits and whether you have granted them a Kurultai or Court Position.



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[h2]Land[/h2]
Nomads grow their Herd by extracting Fertility from the land. Thus, migrating becomes an important part of their loop in the early stages of the game, when their realms are not big enough to accommodate the horde.

County Fertility is calculated primarily based on the terrain type. Nomads deplete Fertility of the counties they hold until it stabilises at a fixed number where the Herd can be maintained. This number is mostly affected by the domain size, but Stewardship, dynasty perks, yurt buildings and other character modifiers can affect it.



[h3]Migration [/h3]
When the Domain Fertility is depleted, it's time to migrate.

Migration targets de jure titles, and the available title tiers you can target depend on your level of Dominance. A Nomadic ruler of Dominance level 2 can only target counties and duchies, whereas someone with level 3 can target kingdoms as well.

This means that smaller rulers should migrate frequently, either find abandoned lands occupied by Herders, or subjugate themselves before bigger rulers. Bigger rulers in the Steppe should, on the other hand, adopt a more sedentary way of life and demand Obedience and Tribute from rulers in their sphere.

[This panel is subject to reorganizations and reworks.]

The migration screen allows you to negotiate with the local rulers. If two or more independent rulers occupy the same de jure territory, then the ruler with the highest Herd leads the negotiations with you. You can use gold, herd, or a hook to bribe them, and their acceptance depends on their relationship with you, your Dominance level relative to theirs, your Prestige, Prowess, Herd size, their traits, and other minor factors.

If they accept, you will start a travel plan that will take you and your herd to the desired location. If the location had already been suggested by perhaps a courtier you may get some extra bonuses for following the desires of your people.



However, many nomads may refuse to give up their lands, especially if they have a high level of Dominance and find themselves pretty comfortable where they are. In those cases, one must resort to war.

[Total soldiers aren't being calculated in this screenshot. Keep in mind that this is from a development build!]

Migration wars allow the attacker to take the lands by means of force.

The targeted ruler will be either displaced to their other lands if they hold any titles outside of the de jure, or be made landless – similar to Administrative Noble Families or Adventurers. While landless, Nomads keep their yurts and upgrades but can't grow their Herd due to the lack of stable access to Fertility. They roam the Steppe in search of a new place to set up their tents.

No matter how you choose to migrate, your Obedient vassals will follow you, while non obedient ones will keep their titles and lands and stay where they were. The lands that you leave behind will be occupied by someone else entirely…

[h3]Herders[/h3]
Nomads are not the only rulers that inhabit the Steppe. A new unplayable government type called "Herder" populates the map with shepherds that wander small counties. Herders replenish Fertility over time, and are extremely easy to displace, given their lack of armies. They are the ones occupying those counties left behind by migrations.

Having a Herder as a subject is still possible, however, and they will pay a small, fixed rate of herd based on their county's fertility.

One may also choose to voluntarily abandon one of their counties to a local herder, in the hopes that they will replenish Fertility quick enough for them to seize it back. The Steppe is not merciful, however, and another Nomad ruler may be faster than you.

[We indeed have several sheep variations.]

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[h2]The Great Steppe[/h2]
Life in the Steppe is not easy, and being at the mercy of the weather and pasture quality is something that nomads have had to adjust to since time immemorial (up to this day, in fact). To reflect this, we've created a seasonal system that governs the general climate of the steppe.

The Great Steppe is divided into three subregions: Western, Central and Eastern, each of them with their own season.

[Another very WIP screenshot, artpass pending.]

Seasons affect the Fertility of the subregion, as a White Zud creates a thick layer of snow that prevents the animals from grazing, while a more moderate and warm weather offers the perfect climate for pastoring.

That’s not the only effect they have though, as different seasons also change the general mood within Nomads. If a ruler extorts their vassals for Herd during an Abundant Grazing season, then they will receive more than usual, and a Severe Drought will promote characters to migrate even more than usual.

The two special and rare seasons of Havsarsan Zud and the Blessing of the Blue Sky explore these effects even further, with the Blessing amply increasing the Fertility of the subregion and the terrible Havsarsan Zud allowing rulers to take a desperate stance, making all of their subjects obedient and getting an invasion CB on settled people. One of the academic reasons given for the Mongolian Invasion is, after all, the lack of pasture in the Steppe at that point in time.

Your Stargazer can also help predict the next season depending on their aptitude. More on this in upcoming diaries!

[h3]The Gurkhan[/h3]
Only one character in the entire Steppe can go on to the highest level of Dominance and become the Greatest of Khans, but we will provide you with tools to stop them.

The Gurkhan is whoever has the largest Herd within the Great Steppe. They are on their way to reach the highest Dominance and are a threat to all. Confederations may form to target them, while hostile scheming and wars may target them more frequently, and the Gurkhan will have to prove that they deserve their seat.

[h2]Your Yurt[/h2]
Nomads have no buildings. Whatever they build is carried with them when they migrate. To represent this, Nomadic Holdings cannot have any other buildings than some basic corrals, but in turn they have access to a new domicile type: the Yurt Settlement.

Yurt Settlements have a main yurt that can be upgraded internally, and several other specialised buildings that give upgrades to pasture management, warfare, diplomacy, raiding, and more.

[Names and art are not final]

[h2]Tributaries[/h2]
During this Development Diary, you may have observed my careful use of "Subject" instead of "Vassal", and here is the reason why.

Tributaries are a new and looser type of subject introduced with this expansion. Nomadic Tributaries specifically have some unique qualities to them.

The Tributary Contract governs the levels of Obligations (or Tribute) that they may pay to their Suzerain. While the tribute is being, sent all is well and a truce is held between the two of them. The tributary relationship is even inherited across generations.

However, tributaries may become unruly over time, and if the suzerain doesn't look that threatening to them then they may eventually opt to stop paying tribute. To bring them back into the fold, a former suzerain can bring them back under tribute by force, pacifying them and extracting both resources and prestige to a greater extent.

Nomadic Tributaries offer a payment in herd, while settled tributaries give gold to their Nomadic suzerains.

[Art and map visualization are still in progress.]

Tributaries can be obtained through a Character Interaction to Demand Tribute or through a Casus Belli. A ruler may also voluntarily offer themselves as Tribute to a Nomadic Ruler to ensure that their lands are spared from destruction.

As with the other features covered in this dev diary, we will do a deep dive on the Tributary system at a later date.

[h2]Confederations[/h2]
With the rise of all these powerful and dangerous khans in the Steppe, lower-tier Nomadic rulers may decide to band together against a bigger enemy through forming a Confederation.

For those in a Confederation, an assault on one member is an affront against all members, so everyone in a Confederation joins defensive wars being fought by fellow members. This potent defensive power is balanced against checks on expansion: as long as they belong to their Confederation, members cannot increase their Dominance or create new titles.

[h2]Raid Intents[/h2]
Raiding is one of the main ways Nomads have to get access to Gold. Given the importance that raiding had in their society, we have decided to expand this feature by adding Raid Intents.

A Raid Intent allows to set a desired outcome of the raiding: you may want to raid to capture interesting characters, steal your neighbors' cattle, or simply burn their property to the ground.

[Art and names are placeholder, so are the intents themselves as we may change or tweak them.]

Some of the Raid Intents will also be available for Tribal characters, while others need specific Nomadic unlocks.

[h2]Nomadic Flavor[/h2]
Lastly, we are adding a number of new Character Interactions, Decisions, Activity Types, a new Vassal Stance, Events, and more focused on unique Nomadic flavour. Genghis Khan's famous storyline and Mongolian specific events will, of course, also make an appearance.

Expect to see a Kurultai, Blood Brotherhoods, Paizas and Kublai Khan's famous Pleasure Dome. More on this to come.

There are many things that we have left out of this Diary because our focus is on the main mechanical features introduced with this expansion, but we will come back to all of this in more detail in the future.

Thanks for reading. We are eagerly awaiting your thoughts and feedback.

Save up to 70% in the Real-Time Strategy Fest!

Steam's Real-Time Strategy Fest is here, and Crusader Kings III is participating! During the sale, you can enjoy the following discounts on CKIII content:

  • 70% off Crusader Kings III
  • 50% off Royal Court, Fate of Iberia, Northern Lords, Wards & Wardens, and Friends & Foes
  • 45% off Crusader Kings III: Starter Edition
  • 30% off Tours & Tournaments


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Check it out before January 27th to save on Crusader Kings III and other Paradox Interactive titles!

Content Bundle Changes + Win Prizes in Our Updated Legends of CK Quiz!

[h2]End of an Era[/h2]

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With Legends of the Dead, Roads to Power, and Wandering Nobles, we've had a captivating journey of new content, flavor, and mechanics released for Crusader Kings III in 2024. You've crafted your own legends, danced through illness, relocated camps, blinded co-emperors, and finally... took a hike. From all of us at Paradox Development Studio, thank you for a fantastic year. We're incredibly grateful to have players as passionate about the medieval era as you are, and we wouldn't trade (most of) you for the world.

With all of the content in Chapter III now released, the time is quickly approaching to retire the content bundle. While all of content within Chapter III will still be available individually (and as part of the Collection Bundle), you will no longer be able to purchase the Chapter III bundle itself after January 9, 2025.

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/38036/Crusader_Kings_III_Chapter_III/

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[h2]A Good Deal Gets Even Better[/h2]

Speaking of the Collection Bundle, we've increased the permanent discount on that bundle from 10% to 20%, so it's now cheaper than ever before to complete your Crusader Kings III collection.

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/36586/Crusader_Kings_III_Collection/

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[h2]Win Artifacts from Afar (Or, Well... Sweden)[/h2]



While a true ruler never gives away treasures lightly, you can take our Which Ruler Are You? quiz (freshly updated with new rulers!) to prove your mettle and enter for a chance to win in our giveaway. While we don't offer titles, holdings, or court positions, we do have some intriguing artifacts to send out to winners of the giveaway.

  • 5 lucky winners will receive: 1 Crusader Kings III Displate signed by the development team, 1 physical copy of our Many Roads to Power comic book, and 1 Legends of CKIII mouse pad.
  • 15 winners will get: 1 Legends of CKIII mouse pad and 1 physical copy of our Many Roads to Power comic book.
  • 10 winners will receive: 1 physical copy of our Many Roads to Power comic book.


Sign up and take the quiz before January 9th, and test your luck!

Dev Diary #161 - 2024 in Review

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Greetings!

2024 is coming to a close, and with it the conclusion of Chapter III and everything we’ve done this year - we’ve hit some big-ticket milestones, including one I’ve been dreaming of since I started working on Crusader Kings way back in 2015! In fact, back in 2017-2018, when we were planning the features for the CK2 expansion Holy Fury, I had a design for a rudimentary ‘Adventurer’ mechanic that we ultimately decided not to go with because ‘it’d fit CK3 much better’! Interestingly enough, some elements of that design survived to this day, such as the concept of officers, mercenary work, and contracts on the map.

Discuss Dev Diary #161 on our forums!



Some of the heavy-hitting features we’ve managed to tackle this year include having the Black Death (and other plagues) ravage the world, a bespoke and truly unique Administrative government for Byzantium, and, of course, the aforementioned Adventurers roaming the map in search of fame and glory. For Chapter III we’ve focused a lot on making the map more interesting; with disease and legends spreading bloody tendrils and beams of light over the world, estates and camps representing the seat of power of powerful families or ambitious travelers, contracts and issues denoting local opportunities and disruptions, and more reasons than ever to travel with new activities ranging from chariot races to local inspections. This focus on tying features to the map is something that we’ll definitely be bringing with us in the future!

We’ve also changed and improved how we gather and work with feedback from you in the community, making sure that we’re working on the right things in the right way going forward. We moved from small and aspirational Dev Diaries (LotD) to chunky and very ‘matter-of-fact’ and ‘this-is-what-the-feature-is’ diaries (RtP, WN) over the course of the year - this allowed us to collect as much useful feedback as we could from your discussions during a time where there was still time to make changes.

But the most important thing we’ve done this year is to lay the foundation for the future, as we’re not slowing down any time soon! We’re already working on what's to come next year, and while we won’t go into what it is yet, it’s going to be big.

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Chapter III​

Let's take a look at Chapter III, what it was, and which learnings we’re taking with us!

[h2]Legends of the Dead[/h2]​
Legends of the Dead and the accompanying update introduced a new system for spreading things on the map - deadly plagues that ravage development and family trees alike, and glorious legends to bolster your legitimacy and make sure your name is known across the world. We knew that you in the community had been asking for plagues for a long time, therefore we wanted to introduce them sooner rather than later - and it’d also introduce some very CK-appropriate challenge, as the perfect heir suddenly dying from an illness and leaving everything to the less talented younger brother makes for a good story. At large, we’ve hit the goal of making plagues feel immersive and dynamic, with names taken from the state of the map (Kaiser Heinrich’s Plague, French Boils, etc.) and varying levels of intensity - of course, it took a while to get the balancing right, but we now feel like they’re in a good spot (and of course, we’re always open for further feedback on this).

From the start, we knew that we wanted the plague feature to be free. We generally avoid having such features as part of feature sets of expansions to avoid a general feeling of pay-to-lose. That’s why we sat down and thought about what else could spread across the map. That's where we came up with legends—stories about an individual embellished throughout the ages, ultimately ending up as founding myths or even folklore.

During this development cycle, we had really inefficient communication. Dev Diaries presented the features in a much too embellished and flowery way, making them appear as something they weren’t. This meant that the feedback we got wasn’t really for the features that we were making, which made it difficult to apply. Most of the significant changes to the system came after the release, as the stage of development we were in during the Dev Diary phase didn’t allow for major pivots at the time.

Now, we know that Legends as a system is a divisive one, with most of you wanting to see changes to it for the legends to feel truly legendary. Without promising too much, the team who worked on the Legends feature has been gathering feedback and has proposed some improvements to enhance the immersion and player agency of the system. We’re currently looking into when we would be able to commit to doing it. For those of you who don’t already know, we develop several expansions in parallel, which means that our timelines are somewhat strict. So finding the right time to add something can take time, especially if that something needs to be done by very specific people (in this case, members of the LotD team). That said, the improvements will surely happen sometime next year!

[h2]Roads to Power​[/h2]
Contrary to LotD, our communication strategy for Roads to Power was to have the Dev Diaries earlier (allowing for harder pivots, if needed) and as I mentioned earlier make them more matter-of-fact, leaving no room for misunderstandings. This paid off in a major way - we were able to gauge what you thought about the features well ahead of them being fully finished, and were able to integrate a LOT of feedback immediately. Of course, you have to strike a fine balance as showing something too early also carries risk - you might get reactions such as ‘is this it?’ which in the worst case can deflate someone's excitement - you have to show things not too early, and not too late. This is the undoubted strategy we’ll be working with going forward!

Now, this expansion is by far the most well-received one we’ve made so far, and it can be explained in a simple way; we chose features that you had been asking for for a long time, going back way before CKIII was even released! We also chose complimentary features, so no matter who you are or what your preferred playstyle is, there was something for you - whether you enjoy creating stories of adventure on the open road or want to partake in the complex bureaucracy of Byzantium!

For the first time in the CK series we’re able to represent the administration of Byzantium, a landmark realm in any of our start dates, and the Middle Ages in general. The constant intrigue, political machinations, and jockeying for prestigious positions differentiate the Administrative government from all others in a way that hadn’t been explored until now. While we’ve done attempts to represent this form of governance in previous iterations of the game, they’ve come nowhere close to what we’ve achieved with RtP - and it feels great to finally be able to represent such an important and pivotal realm in an appropriate way. After all, the fall of Constantinople is the symbolic end of the Middle Ages, and Constantinople is the beating heart of the Empire itself…

Another first is having Adventurers roam the map in search of fame, gold, or revenge! Synergizing fantastically with the Travel system introduced last year, these characters, unburdened by land-holding, are free to go where they please, presuming they have the resources to do so… Whether you’re playing a displaced noble, a historical adventurer like El Cid, or an adventurer of your own making, you are sure to make a name for yourself in one way or another, be it by conquest, mercenary work, or kingmaking! One of my favorite aspects of this feature is that you can now create your own ruler-designed character without having to displace a real-life historical character, something that never sat right with me personally.

The advent of landless play, as an adventurer or noble family, opened up the game like never before - we were able to get rid of the most traditional of game-overs, losing your last title, and replace it with stories of vengeance and comeback. We were able to truly represent the governance of a state as complex as Byzantium, where most of the power didn’t come from enforcing a hereditary succession of land, but from political influence held by powerful families located in the Jewel of Cities herself. Not to say that this opens limitless possibilities for the future.

[h2]Wandering Nobles​[/h2]
Wandering Nobles also synergised heavily with the Travel system, giving (primarily) landed rulers many new reasons to leave their capitals and set out on the road! This is the first time we’ve released a new Lifestyle, but it’ll hopefully not be the last. It’s also a highly interactive Lifestyle, with each tree unlocking a new Activity for you to undertake - be it active de-stressing via Hikes, bolstering your Domain with Inspections, or increasing your skills by Exploring distant monuments.

An interesting tidbit from the development of this one is that, because of our parallel development setup that I mentioned earlier, we realised mid-development as the Roads to Power Adventurer feature started taking form that we also wanted the Lifestyle to work for Adventurers, despite originally planning it only for landed rulers. This resulted in using the system for dynamically switching out Perk bonuses from RtP to make sure that we had interesting tie-ins that affected adventurer-specific mechanics also.

This had some fun emergent effects, the Monument Expeditions primary ‘gating mechanic’ is the fact that monuments become more and more distant (and thus you might not want to leave your realm for literally 10 years just go gain a skill point), but for adventurers it enabled a true ‘tourist’ playstyle, as they wander the world all the time anyway!

A learning from Wandering Nobles is that it’s generally better to focus on something visible and more instantly available rather than just collections of events - it’s both easier to see what you get, and enables new styles of play. It's very likely that future Event Packs will follow a similar setup.

[h2]Concluding and Retiring Chapter III​[/h2]
With the end of the year also comes the end of Chapter III, after which the contents will be folded into the collection bundle, and of course, the individual expansions will still be available standalone. If you still want to buy the chapter with its current discount, you should consider doing so soon!

The last date for purchasing Chapter III is January 9th!

But that’s not all, we’re also increasing the discount on the Collection Bundle from 10% to 20% on December 19th!

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[h2]Content Creator Packs​[/h2]
This year, we’ve started a new program where we collaborate with modders to release Content Creator Packs, and for this year, we’ve had the opportunity to work with El Tyranos, the lead for the excellent Community Flavor Pack, in releasing two of them! Both North Africa and the Western Slavs have new looks and attires, both well-researched and beautiful. The latter we even decided to pair with a brand new Polish localization of the game (and a big thank you to you in the community for helping us find & fix issues with it, it’s never easy to localize into a new language!).

From our perspective these collaborations have gone fantastically, we get to work with talented modders - acknowledging their skills and the value they bring to the community, and the game gets more variety of content. It’s a win-win.

We will continue to collaborate with our excellent modding community to create even more content for the game, and we have some modders that we’re excited to be working with lined up for 2025 already! While we’re currently focusing on graphical assets, we are looking into if we could expand the scope to include other things in the future, too.

[h2]Legends of CKIII​[/h2]
One of the initiatives we launched during 2024 was the Legends of CKIII, where we highlighted a collection of characters both outside and inside of the game, making the game more approachable for new players while at the same time giving something new and interesting to existing players! We even found time to make some bespoke content for most of the characters, such as events pertaining to the marital dilemma that Matilda of Tuscany was in at the start of the game, or Vratislav of Bohemia’s conflict with his brother Jaromir.

We actually have a couple of new highlighted characters launching alongside this Dev Diary, though they will only be highlighted outside the game for now! It’s possible that we’ll make some bespoke content for the ones that don’t have any in the future, though…

See the characters HERE!

We're also giving away a ton of stuff left over from this year. Signed Displates, extra physical copies of the Many Roads to Power comic, and the Legends of CKIII mousepads. If you take the quiz here you have a chance to get one of these!

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Coming in 2025​

We’re currently hard at work on Chapter IV, and have been for quite some time. While it’s too early to give any specifics on the content, it’s safe to say that it’s likely going to be our biggest year yet! While the themes are already decided, we’re of course still interested in what you’d like to see in the game as anything you mention now can be accounted for in our future plans.

All of the expansions and features we’ve made in 2024 will allow us to do so much more going forward into 2025 and beyond. Our current philosophy is that we want to create expansions that build upon and synergise with what we’ve created previously, we want to have a logical progression of features that both make sense from a development standpoint, and match with what you are asking for!

We've seen a lot of discussions about merchants lately, now, we won't be implementing them next year, but we hear you - we have some things that we want to do first, things that will make the merchant experience stronger when it eventually comes out. In the most likely scenario a mercantile expansion will be planned for the following chapter, and this is because we're seeing the many engaging posts and conversations that you are having about this topic - as I mentioned earlier we're working in a parallel development setup which requires us to decide expansion themes very, very early. What will be in Chapter IV are all things that have been requested in the past! So keep discussing what you want to see for the future, it will help us form the content of upcoming chapters.

[Image - Automated Warfare feature coming next year, WIP screenshot]

Next year, we will also aim to have a free update sometime in the first quarter of the year (probably towards the end), which we’re stuffing with improvements, fixes, and quality-of-life features. We are, for example, looking into improving the Warfare AI in multiple ways (work on this is ongoing: we’ll see what the extent of the changes will be, so far they’re promising)! We’re also looking into improving interfaces like the Court Positions, and bringing over and improving the automated warfare feature that the console version of the game has - among many other things.

[Image - Court Position overhaul - More compact, immersive, and useful with all positions having Tasks. Numbers are WIP and from a massive late-game empire so keep that in mind]

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Outro

This year has been a fantastic one, and we couldn’t have done it without you in the community. We’ve released landmark features such as Plagues, the Administrative government, and Landless Adventurers - and we’re paving the way for a future that is unbelievably exciting! Truly, I see CKIII as a game with endless potential, and next year and the years beyond will see it grow to new heights, that I say with utmost confidence.

Once again I’ll invite you all to share your thoughts about the year and what you hope 2025 and beyond brings to the game. And do not worry, for even if what you wish for isn’t what we’re doing next, it might just be what we’re working on after that - you expressing your desires is what makes us able to plan for the future!

Now that’s it for this year! We’ll see you again in 2025 where we’ll be talking more about what the free update will bring. Until then, have a wonderful winter, fantastic holidays, and a very God Jul!

Update 1.14.2.2

Hello everyone! We're releasing a small update today to tackle some localization issues reported to us since the introduction of Polish language support alongside the launch of Update 1.14.2.

This update should be fully compatible with mods and save files supporting 1.14.2.

Thank you to everyone who reported issues to us after the release of Update 1.14.2! As always, if you encounter issues after today's update, then please let us know by submitting a report in the Bug Report board of our official forums.

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1.14.2.2 Changelog


[h2]Bugfixes[/h2]
  • Fixed UI overflow when playing in Polish in:
    • County View
    • Interaction options
    • Scheme Headers
    • Law descriptions
    • Struggle cultures


[h2]Localization[/h2]
  • Changed the name of poborowi (levies) to pospolite ruszenie
  • Changed the names of West Frankia and East Frankia to Francia Occidentalis and Francie Orientalis respectively. Unfortunately, all the Polish versions of those realms were creating highly visible, broken loc strings in the game, hence the Latin
  • Fixed the missing Wanderer lifestyle name in the perk selection window
  • Fixed the UNLOCKED_PERKS string in the perk selection window gluing itself to the previous string
  • Fixed the desc and/or names for the following Roads to Power decisions:
    • visit_local_settlement_decision
    • gather_provisions_decision
    • seasoned_visitor_decision
    • zealous_missionary_prep_decision
    • zealous_missionary_start_decision
    • bandit_king_decision
    • start_city_construction_decision
    • separatist_uprising_decision
    • go_fishing_decision
    • butcher_animals_decision
  • Changed the name of domicile temperament modifiers
  • Fixed the lowercase in governorship gov desc in foreign character panel
  • Fixed the text overflow on Move Domicile button in the Domicile window
  • Fixed the EPIDEMIC_OUTBREAK_LOCATION in the epidemic window
  • Changed too modern and too long AI personality names to more suitable ones
  • Fixed the text overflow in the character window from being a vassal
  • Fixed the text overflow for landless adventurers in the character window
  • Fixed the missing loc string in when selecting a new court position task
  • Fixed the text overflow in the invite_to_court_interaction and recruit_guest_interaction names
  • Changed armored_footmen, armored_horsemen, cataphract and guanch_vaulter MaA names
  • Changed the trait_adventurer name
  • Changed the trait_tourney_participant name
  • Changed the trait_gallowsbait name
  • Added a missing apostrophe in game_concept_iberian_reclamation_desc
  • Fixed all truncated game rules descriptions
  • Removed incorrect translations of landless in the context of landless adventurers
  • Shortened the choose random destiny text to fit the button in Choose New Destiny window
  • Changed the concubinage doctrine name
  • Removed doubled dashes in visit settlement event options
  • Removed all mentions of "period of time"
  • Allowed modifiers header in schemes window to be translated in all languages
  • Removed all uses of superfluous "as follows"
  • Fixed missing diarchy scope in notifications about diarchies
  • Fixed link to the into description in recruit wet nurse event


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