Crusader Kings III

[Syt]

RICE is working on another struggle, this time for Sicily: https://www.reddit.com/r/paradoxplaza/comments/1c4jl51/ck3_rice_mod_dev_diary_45_sicily_flavor_pack_part/

[Jacob]

Just downloaded the After the End mod. Looks pretty fun. Starting out as a King of the Haida, with a goal to conquer real life BC and environs and then see how far I can take it.

Vancouver is run by Cosmopolitan Sikhs, with many of the other neighbours being various flavours of Canuck hippies. The Haida, meanwhile, are a raiding culture like the vikings. My guy also has 1700 event troops, so it may be a pretty easy start.

One little twist is that my guy also has a concubine with a -100 opinion (from rival and "forced me to be concubine"). She's beautiful and quick so that's very attractive. She also has 21 intrigue, while my guy has 4, and she's the mother of my heir. As usual at start everyone on council has negative opinions. I think it might be prudent to send her far far away if I want my guy to survive.

In any case, I think I'll start with some quick conquests of Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland and see how far that gets me...

It's been pretty fun to just read the different cultures and religions as I decided where to start playing.

[Syt]

Features list for Road to Power:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2671070/Crusader_Kings_III_Roads_to_Power/

The glory and might of the Byzantine Empire are yours to command in this expansion to Crusader Kings III. The unique politics and cultures of the heir to the Roman Empire are on display through new governing systems, new ways for characters to progress up the medieval ladder, and new activities for your characters. You can also explore a new exciting lifestyle as a landless Adventurer, seeking fame and glory across a living map of the medieval world.
Roads to Power features include:

Administrative Government: Experience medieval rule outside of the feudal system with new styles of empire management. A web of Governors jockeys for position in the empire with intrigue and power, sometimes rewarding merit and sometimes rewarding perfidy. Only a truly skilled Emperor can keep these squabbling forces in line.

The Family Estate: Run and manage a powerful Family Estate, the seat of your Houses' power. Construct new buildings and improvements to further your power and influence within the Empire.

A Life of Adventure: Freely roam the map, untied to any realm or holding, going where the winds of fortune blow you. Fulfil contracts as a landless adventurer, even through the generations, building up a reputation of your own. Earn gold, prestige and fame traveling the globe until you decide to settle down and claim a land you have earned through merit.

Influence System: Build up a character's influence within an administrative empire to climb even higher in the opinion of the Emperor, gathering more power to yourself. Start as a landless noble on an estate, and compete for valuable provinces to govern.

New Imperial Management: Run a sprawling imperial bureaucracy, appointing and directing the governors of your provinces.

Choose Successor or Caesar: The Byzantine Emperor can choose their heir from a list of Influential candidates or important family members, and even opt to co-rule if the burden of empire is too much.

New Byzantine Flavor Content: New events, monuments and activities built around the Byzantine theme, including chariot racing.

Cosmetic additions: A Byzantine-themed UI skin and new court fashions for your characters, as well as new 2D event art for activities like chariot racing, new on map monuments of the Byzantine and Roman worlds, new on map holding designs and a Byzantine throne room for Royal Court sessions, among other aesthetic improvements...

The "Life of Adventure", while an often requested feature, might end up really underwhelming, because without a demesne to rule, marriages to forge, wars to wage - what is there to do? Even as someone who leans more into the RP side of things, I expect this to be really lacking in features/content.

[Jacob]

I'm looking forward to it

Update on my current After the End game - I'm close to forming the Empire of Cascadia, and have been raiding down the California coast. I just sacked San Francisco, which gave a good payout.

After I form the Empire of Cascadia, I'll probably look to conquer more kingdoms and place relatives on their thrones, but keep my territory contained. I might hybridize my culture (Haida) with that of my capital (Canuck)... not sure yet.

One weirdness is that I'm a clan based government (which I don't have much experience with), but I can't find the tax jurisdiction tab. I have an option to look for tax collectors, but nowhere to place anyone as such. Kind of weird.

[jimmy olsen]

Features list for Road to Power:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2671070/Crusader_Kings_III_Roads_to_Power/

The glory and might of the Byzantine Empire are yours to command in this expansion to Crusader Kings III. The unique politics and cultures of the heir to the Roman Empire are on display through new governing systems, new ways for characters to progress up the medieval ladder, and new activities for your characters. You can also explore a new exciting lifestyle as a landless Adventurer, seeking fame and glory across a living map of the medieval world.
Roads to Power features include:

Administrative Government: Experience medieval rule outside of the feudal system with new styles of empire management. A web of Governors jockeys for position in the empire with intrigue and power, sometimes rewarding merit and sometimes rewarding perfidy. Only a truly skilled Emperor can keep these squabbling forces in line.

The Family Estate: Run and manage a powerful Family Estate, the seat of your Houses' power. Construct new buildings and improvements to further your power and influence within the Empire.

A Life of Adventure: Freely roam the map, untied to any realm or holding, going where the winds of fortune blow you. Fulfil contracts as a landless adventurer, even through the generations, building up a reputation of your own. Earn gold, prestige and fame traveling the globe until you decide to settle down and claim a land you have earned through merit.

Influence System: Build up a character's influence within an administrative empire to climb even higher in the opinion of the Emperor, gathering more power to yourself. Start as a landless noble on an estate, and compete for valuable provinces to govern.

New Imperial Management: Run a sprawling imperial bureaucracy, appointing and directing the governors of your provinces.

Choose Successor or Caesar: The Byzantine Emperor can choose their heir from a list of Influential candidates or important family members, and even opt to co-rule if the burden of empire is too much.

New Byzantine Flavor Content: New events, monuments and activities built around the Byzantine theme, including chariot racing.

Cosmetic additions: A Byzantine-themed UI skin and new court fashions for your characters, as well as new 2D event art for activities like chariot racing, new on map monuments of the Byzantine and Roman worlds, new on map holding designs and a Byzantine throne room for Royal Court sessions, among other aesthetic improvements...

The "Life of Adventure", while an often requested feature, might end up really underwhelming, because without a demesne to rule, marriages to forge, wars to wage - what is there to do? Even as someone who leans more into the RP side of things, I expect this to be really lacking in features/content.

I saw on reddit earlier that there's a new start date at 1179. Is it true? Can't access steam from work

[Syt]

It's from the new dev diary.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/dev-diary-147-some-words-from-our-game-director.1673686/

[jimmy olsen]

It's from the new dev diary.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/dev-diary-147-some-words-from-our-game-director.1673686/

Ah, 1178. Interesting, definitely going to play Manuel I Komnenos and Henry Plantagenet with that start date.

[Zanza]

The power struggle between Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, Henry the Lion, Pope Alexander III and the Lombards and Normans in the Holy Roman Empire and Italy is also fairly interesting at that new start date.

[jimmy olsen]

The power struggle between Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, Henry the Lion, Pope Alexander III and the Lombards and Normans in the Holy Roman Empire and Italy is also fairly interesting at that new start date.

Yeah, but they'd have to give the Pope more to do to make that interesting

[Syt]

Expansion is coming September 24: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/crusader-kings-iii-roads-to-power-available-september-24.1684434/

[Josquius]

I've been thinking.
It's kind of a problem in the game that you marry primarily for stats.
You take the prestige hit of not hiring a princess as who cares to instead marry a nobody with high stewardship.
 You make sure your rubbish first son has an accident so his high martial brother can inherit.

This is kind of weird and really unrealistic isn't it.

I've been thinking a solution could be that rather than getting fixed numbers for stats you instead get degrees of fluffiness.
Some kid who has never been in a battle but as a noble you'd presume he has played a lot of chess, learned the sword, etc...- you can get an idea he is mediocre in martial, then it takes actually leading armies in battle to see his actual rating (as well as train it a bit).
You can choose to give people assignments, whether full court members or little one offs, to give them a bit of training and most importantly assess their actual score beyond a vague incline they could be good at something.

Some guy halfway across Europe? You shouldn't have a clue at all of his stats unless he's someone important or particularlly famously skilled.

Of course these details are usually lost under the map painting. But if that could be reigned in... Might work.

[Tamas]

Yes the clear stats are a big hit on the game's simulation value. You should try the Obfuscate mod. It does what you outlined, to the degree possible in the game. It's pretty neat.

[Tamas]

Speaking of which, if you all know a mod which dials back the massive bonuses granted by activities, lemme' know.

[Jacob]

I tried Obfuscate and I really like it, but the problem (at least when I played) is that when searching people I still want to sort by stats for convenience (so I can look at all the A level diplomacy people when selecting a chancellor for example)... but unfortunately while the actual score is obfuscated, they people are still ranked numerically, so higher on the list is better.

I think the real problem is that the stats matter way more than the social relationships, so the cost-benefit balance is off. It's almost always better to pick the character with the highest (or close to highest stat). Like, if the choice is between a commoner with 28 stewardship and a powerful vassal with 25, then picking the powerful vassal makes sense. But if the choice is a 28 stewardship commoner and a powerful vassal with 12, then the upside of the stat value outweighs the challenges of the opinion hit from passing over the vassal (especially if you're at a stage when you have more powerful vassals than seats).

[Norgy]

I tried the GoT mod.
Sadly, house Forrester has no dragon.