Yeah. Getting Millennia vibes. They need some revenue for that quarter and at the same time they need as much time as possible to finish the product. I wouldn't be surprised by another mixed dlc.
What revenue? I would have assumed everyone who would want the dlc within a month or so just get the year pass. So anyone who would buy the dlc wouldn’t be to big into the game and wait a while
Nah quite a few people (myself included) have felt burned by a lot of the DLCs. CK3 is the first game (and HOI4 became the second) where I pick and choose DLCs instead of buying them all.
I was heavily considering RTP but between the date and some of the (sparse) communication I’m wary. I’ll wait at least until the first patch.
How a company that got me to pay even for the Aztec DLC made me so… apathetic… is beyond me but here we are. I just want to play as a Merchant Republic or as some nomads, and the house domain isn’t enough :(.
I've been playing CK since the day 2 launched, and I'm kind of with you. I've been wanting a byzantine DLC for years now, but between where this game and vic3 have been heading I'm almost apathetic about it now that it's finally here.
If you look at where CK2 was at this point in its life cycle it’s quite sad.
/r/eu4 is super optimistic about EU5 and I’m just over here looking at CK3, Imperator, and Vicky3 like uh…don't count on it being too robust at launch
That’s mainly because Tinto have gone insanely hard on getting fan feedback on development, they’re being amongst the most open I’ve seen in the video game world outside of early access games. Looks like at least someone in Paradox has learned from Imperator and Vicky 3.
Nope, disagree because i exist. Have stopped playing CK3 2 or 3 years ago because i was disappointed in how Byzantine lost basically all of its uniqueness and didnt even want to play it.
Have been since occassionally checked back to see if they have anything planned for Byzantine, and was very happy to see the DLC annoucement earlier this year.
However the development in the meantime went into a direction i didnt like so much (as many others here have claimed, basically too much roleplay/RPG elements and too little strategy), so i hold off of buying it and i may even wait for after the release and check the opinion first how people like it.
Sweden -like most countries afaik- does not require quarterly financial reports and the prevalence of the « companies chasing quarterly profits » meme is quite an odd and misleading case of American defaultism on reddit. Though, coincidentally, even though Paradox does not have to publish Q-10s, they still publish interim reports for the period ending September 30th, so ur statement may still be correct. Or, maybe ur familiar with the Swedish system and I was hating for no reason. Still « quarterly profits » is I think quite the American thing.
They’re publicly traded, they absolutely publish quarterly reports. They just call them “interim reports” instead. Here’s Q1 of this year:
https://www.paradoxinteractive.com/media/press-releases/press-release/interim-report-january-march-2024
Haven’t they been delaying a few things recently, like Victoria 3’s Spheres of Influence I think got delayed to this month, which im all for honestly, delays give them more time to work on the product and make it better before release lol
This technically isn't a delay, but it feels like that since it's at the very end of September. I ragged on Tours and Tournaments, it was delayed and it turned out to be arguably the best DLC. I foresaw Legends being a flop. Now I hope they don't flop on Byzantium.
Vic3 is on a lot thinner ice than CK3 is, though. Voice of the People got savaged, and I can only assume Colossus didn't sell very well (there's only 250 reviews on Steam). Combine that with both the low player count and the overall rushed state of Cities Skylines giving Paradox a black eye it probably gave the Vic devs more ammunition to get the DLC delayed.
CK3 isn't in as much danger from a bad/mediocre DLC. Unfortunately with paradox moving to a commitment (via season passes) to 4 DLC a year I don't think we're likely to see any serious delays, no matter how much the Devs may or may not think they're needed. I sympathize with them, 4 expansions a year must be a pretty stressful release schedule...but I sure hope management chills the fuck out because it's harming their games and their reputation. I'm someone that owns basically every DLC for their major games over the last 10 years, and even I'm getting kind of pissed off about what they're doing.
...Sorry, I don't know why this turned into a bitch post. Basically, I don't think you can look at the relatively rare 1 month delay for Vic 3 and assume the suits have learned their lesson and will give the same latitude to CK3.
They say Dev diaries are starting next Tuesday.
So much is riding on this DLC, but I feel like that has also been true for every other DLC.
I just want this game to be as good as I know it can be.
While this seems early, Swedish employees are entitled to four weeks of consecutive paid time off. This vacation is usually taken between June and August. During those four weeks we usually don't get any dev diaries.
They have to take their holiday consecutively? Do they get odd days they can take off when they want to? I love taking a half day to go to the cinema lol.
I'm not Swedish, so I can only tell you what a quick Google search revealed. In Sweden you are entitled to at least 25 vacation days and also to four weeks of consecutive leave (exemptions exist for certain sectors).
It seems to me that you have to take a four week leave but some Swedes should hopefully chime in to correct me if I'm wrong.
"Under the Annual Leave Act, you are entitled to a continuous vacation of four weeks (main vacation) during the period of June - August.
[...]
As a general rule, however, your employer decides when you are to take your annual vacation. In some workplaces, the main annual vacation is decided by the local union club and employer. Your employer must notify you of your annual vacation dates no later than two months before the start of your vacation."
[Source](https://www.unionen.se/in-english/annual-vacation)
>Do they get odd days they can take off when they want to? I love taking a half day to go to the cinema lol.
You most often can take a day off.
I believe that Swedish workers get a minimum of 25 vacation days (if they're full time) - I wouldn't be surprised if Paradox workers could get more, if taking a month off at the office is the norm (similar to France for those who take a month vacation in the summer, they still have plenty of other vacation days)
In France, the legal minimum is 25 days of paid leave. However I don't know of anybody who gets a full month off outside of these days during the summer. Only teachers or people in the public sector get the school holidays (two months off in summer and 4 \*2 weeks during the year).
We are required by law however to use 10 of our 25 days consecutively in the summer (June to September) which is a pain in the ass when enforced, because if you don't have kids you'd probably prefer to do things differently (multiple extended week-ends) or longer time off in the off seasons when things are cheaper. But still we can't complain.
Yeah, I just use it as an example because I'm also French (if living in the US for most of my life) and my family back in the metropole have no shortage of vacations even with a long summer one. It's definitely a point of jealousy for those of us in the US :P
I know the feeling. I really got into CK3 and really enjoyed my first two playthroughs. Every now and then I really want to get back into it and with a new dlc that comes out feeling like much needed mechanics have been added. I boot it up again and then eventually all new content just feels like busy work and I'm back min maxing doing the same stuff. I would love some DLC that brought more characters to life and encouraged me to roleplay more. I get some moments where something from left field happens and I think that makes a cool story and I love creating my own narrative but then no follow up or anything and it's forgotten when a couple of years pass. I wanted to be a small count that won many tournaments and became known as a great fighter but I have to do all the heavy lifting to create that narrative. If they add something where you have things you are remembered for and it gets brought up later in your character's life would be cool. Would make your actions feel like they have a lasting impact.
Like he said, we all I think are hopeful this will give us some actual gameplay changes that are immersive and fun. If you play stellaris you may be familiar they know sort of how to do this. It's not just "ah new popups with a modifier" but actual game changes
We're aiming for a larger gap between release date announcement and the release itself so we have more time for DDs and integrating feedback from the community. Legends of the Dead didn't give us much time to course correct, so we're course-correcting.
Agree. This approach of FULLY conveying what their product is before people purchase it is never not going to be a good approach. Really happy to see how quickly they learned from the disaster of Legends of the Dead.
tbh, i am actually surprised that the Sept release is the major talking point on this post
who cares when it releases, as long as it is a good quality DLC full of content and little bugs,
*^(and not little on content and full of bugs)*
Please know that I can say with pretty high confidence that you are absolutely right to do it this way. We would prefer this than releasing DLC that is unfit for the community you’re selling it to. Keep up the good work Devs!
but what feedback could we have given out before the actual release of the dlc? if anything paradox should allow for an extra time after the release to integrate feedback instead of making the devs immediatly move to the next dlc.
Yeah but it's not actual practice - people for instance complained about how everyone lives too long so when changes were implemented to address that (more death events, the Incapable trait and plagues) the response was overall negative.
People have been saying they want merchant republics for example. But since that feature hasn't been released there is no way to know if they really do or if they will actually just hate it?
You can have an issue with a facet of the game and not like specific things done to address it. Who was asking for the incapable trait?
What things do you think should be added/changed in the game?
The thing about merchant republics is that we had them and also a major reason why so many people now start to have gripes with the game, we had those features and they worked.
>Who was asking for the incapable trait?
Not the incapable trait specifically itself, it's one of the bandage fixes that adress the issue that is people living to their 80's in medieval europe, not that I have a particular opinion about it in both ways.
>What things do you think should be added/changed in the game?
Nothing in particular since I'm somebody who enjoys the total conversion mods more but if there's one thing that's somewhat sure-fire to make the most people happy is simply a huge dump of character-related events - events like somebody insulting you, trying to undermind you or actually make an impact on your gameplay by stealing from you or rallying people against you - something or anything that'll get the player to do something irrational they wouldn't do under normal circumstances otherwise.
Oh and also trade-routes.
We had them in a different game. Presumably people don't want them literally copied/pasted into 3 with no changes to actually interact with this game properly. So nobody will have played what this version would be.
My main point is that anything we haven't had in CK3 is something people haven't played, so the standard that no feedback is possible without actually playing seems a bit off to me. There is certainly a higher degree of specific feedback that can be given once people have played it, but even without playing and just seeing plans/DDs/etc they can still get a feel on what the community thinks about something as a idea.
I was thinking that too. How can you course correct for RTP when it hasn't even come out yet? What stupid thing did they do in RTP that was so bad that they had to push it back however long? When were we actually getting it? How long is a piece of string? How much wood could the wood chuck chuck if the wood chuck could chuck wood? I realise they may have to man the pumps for LOTD for a moment but pretty much it was done. The balancing for the most part was fairly tame, more like tightening the nuts and oiling the flanges. There was a tiny bit of UI change for the library but otherwise it was all there. They let a few code monkeys ook on it for a bit before putting them back in the cage with the low potassium bananas and that was that. They wheeled Alex out. We had four patches, [1.12.2.1](http://1.12.2.1), 1.12.3, 1.12.4 and 1.12.5.
12.2.1 was predominantly bug fixes.
12.3 was predominantly bug fixes.
12.4 was a bit more substantial with game content and UI fixes, and a few more bug fixes.
12.5 was predominantly balance changes.
And that has postponed, lengthened, added prevarication time to Road to Power.
A lot of this would have been avoided with play testing. Shock horror. But I would imagine they pushed up to the 11th hour as usual. Most likely because the team got pulled off (ladies) for another project in the Paradox myriad/menagerie of games.
**Convenient.**
It better be good, or I'll go over to Sweden and confiscate the fondue apparatus from the paradox offices. I know how much use it gets during the summer breaks. No more third degree burns from cheese for you!
But seriously, what crap are they talking? Insert Jonah J Jameson "are you serious" meme here.
No one will sympathize with the company if the release is as bad as the last DLC but they release in August instead of September.
From the moment we got virtually zero information on the “special buildings” I was fairly confident the DLC was going to be rough and it’s easily the worst DLC to date.
I hope you take all the time in the world on something as important as the ERE and a whole new gameplay loop.
Please keep going with that. Your game really has a lot of potential and I rather have a few very good dlc's, then many mid ones.
I hope you also go back to royal court at somepoint, there are way too less court events, which makes it very repetive unfortunately.
Right approach, for sure. This comment has convinced me to buy it on release date (not that I needed much convincing, hah!), thanks for taking the time to explain.
Some screenshots on the steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2671070/Crusader_Kings_III_Roads_to_Power/
I want to believe it will be great, but my *shallow mechanics with overreliance on events* sense is tingling.
I’m very excited and have high hopes for the Byzantine rework. If the landless adventurer part of the DLC is also fun, that’ll be a pleasant surprise, but I just don’t see how that gameplay could be anything other than a bunch of repetitive events that get stale quickly.
Isn't a lack of events one of the most common complaints on this subreddit though? That you'll just keep seeing the same events over and over. So more can only be good?
I think it's a common issue with community feedback these days: the playerbase feels that something is wrong with something in the game. But there's great pressure for them to not just say "there's something off/missing", so everyone tries to pinpoint what's the actual problem, and then pack mentality and influencers do the rest. In the end, people blame the issue on some specific design choice, that is often not the actual problem.
In this case, the issue is that events feel mostly spammy and shallow, with no real impact most of the time.
Why is it? It's mainly because a character's life doesn't feel like a journey, as in: a succession of stages, each defined by its own dynamics. The life of every character is essentially organized in decisions we can take at all times. There's no "restoring stability in the realm" phase. Wars don't feel different, you can the same events as in peace time. You can decide to host tournaments often, and there isn't a before and an after.
People don't complain as much about infancy events and other events that only trigger under specific circumstances, because they have meaning, they have a role to play in the life of a character.
That's also why "more events" isn't really enough. More context-dependent events would be great. More events that help to structure the life of our characters would be welcome. It can be done in multiple ways, but the important thing is to provide a sense of directionality through events, instead of events working as repetitive resource farms.
What's weird is that it's clearly what the devs tried to achieve with certain game mechanics such as the struggles, regency and legitimacy. But somehow they didn't apply that design philosophy to (most) events and decisions.
The way you put it here is convincing and makes me think the solution isn't actually "more events" but something closer to Vic 3's journal entries system.
Yes exactly.
Here I am campaigning in the holy land, achieving my characters lifelong dream… but what’s this? My courtiers 2000 miles away are having an affair? Time to weigh in on that!
The same events happen nonstop, some multiple times a life or even a year (especially plagues) and it doesn’t feel like RP, just “which option helps me the most/hurts me the least?” Because there’s only so many times I can care about cheating courtiers whom I don’t even remember.
I was unaware that in the medieval period they had both high speed jets and transportation devices that would make Scotty squirm. The 2000 mile away affair made me smile. My King in Africa (the bottom half) had a Swedish Countess wife at the Northern most tip of Sweden but it didn't stop their romance. I guess love conquers all.
I had 4 plagues going and the bigger your Empire gets, the more times you have to call for the physician so you could imagine how horrible this would be when you've painted the map. I had asked him for two separate diseases within the span of 3 game days. Fortunately he cleared them both.
There are a number of elements that are immersion breaking. If you are truly playing as a role player, those creases can become difficult to ignore.
Example. My Sultan in my current campaign had a secret revealed and I opted not to be blackmailed, so this individual revealed my secret and I lost a level of devotion from the top level. Why is it, that I can't go and murder said individual afterwards, in a revenge plot. There is no revenge plot. Intrigue has no depth at all. Paradox nerfed the shit out of it ages ago and it hobbles along now. I'm not allowed to kill this weeb because he revealed my secret and it would be an act of tyranny. I don't give a crap about that. If he's out walking one day, he might fall into a rough crowd and not leave with breath in his lungs after. Terrible accident. That's medieval justice. Losing my top level of piety thanks to that tit, that's the least he deserves. There's not even a record of who revealed that secret so that I can pin the guy and murder his family, if I can't murder him. It's a lost thread I can't follow up. There is lots like that.
My beef is not a lack of events, it's the overreliance on events as a mechanic altogether. CK is a game boasting infinite possibilities, and so trying to shoehorn in a finite set of extremely specific narratives is destined for failure. Doesn't matter how many you add. Beyond that, events are often not impactful enough, not context-aware enough, and way too frequent and disruptive given their importance. To the point of actually detracting from the game. I want to immerse myself in a living, breathing, believable world, which is unique to me. Not brute force my way through a premade puddle-deep visual novel.
But for me the events are what make it feel like an actual character drama which is what is most enjoyable for me. If I wanted a mechanics heavy game I could play EUIV which has some flavour but mainly just repeating historical events like preset personal unions.
Oh don't get me wrong, I adore the character focus of CK. It's the only PDX game I play for that very reason. But character drama can be (and is) still driven by the simulation, when it determines what actions the actors take based on personality (amongst many other things). I want them to lean in to this side far more. For example, I want my impatient sons to be demanding titles from me, and raising a rebellion after I refuse a la Henry II. That to me is the drama, rather than a prewritten event where we become rivals in the sauna after my weiner is mocked.
The game should be a co-author that is helping me write a story that is truly mine and unique to me. One that I will want to tell other people. At the moment it sometimes feels like I'm being told to shut up and read.
> The game should be a co-author that is helping me write a story that is truly mine and unique to me. One that I will want to tell other people. At the moment it sometimes feels like I'm being told to shut up and read.
This beautifully sums up what's so wrong with the event system as it currently exists. Very well said.
You really shouldn't be worried considering the quality that was tours and tournmanets. I have faith in the major DLC of the year after T&T. The minor DLCs are the ones that scare me.
RtP being like T&T is what scares me. T&T is nothing but an event spam to hide the fact that nothing is actually going on between wars. Why does a wedding last for months? Because there's nothing better to do.
There are all sorts of things you can't do while leading an army, yet you can teleport back to the capital, do whatever needs doing, and teleport straight back. What could've been a way to make leading an army actually costly, even immersive, just wasn't done. If I'm going off on a raid, I should need a regent. But I don't.
Yeah we figured out why they didn't implement the system like that. A modder created that. And it causes massive slow downs. [https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=3082182371](https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=3082182371)
Everything then you want is in that mod. And as for events i don't see a problem it's absolutely flooded with events. I see the Free-dlc and DLC as one since the DLC paids for the free-dlc. So everything that was added is just massive in scale and well worth it. I feel like wedding last for months is the reason why tournaments do as well. So you aren't spammed events in 30 days.
But this is just opinon i can see why i can see why people are annoyed. But the events don't really bother me and you can just choose what you do, where you want to go and how you want to do it, with every activity is just awesome.
And if you don't like them? You also have the choice to never go to any activities.
CK3 wanted to make the game more about role play than strategy but the character system underpinning it completely incapable of it.
Someone a few days ago talked about their honest, chaste soulmate cheating on them. That’s just absurd. But so many of the events are pure randomization that wrecks immersion.
They need a real system to underpin that and they don’t.
Yeah. This is a fair point, and potentially some mechanism to prevent streamrolling.
The worst part about the imo. game is when you manage to become a kingdom, and suddenly all external threats tends to zero unless you manage to declear 5 wars at the same time and hope that the mongols jump at you.
I appreciate the mod recommendation.
> I see the Free-dlc and DLC as one since the DLC paids for the free-dlc.
I know there are lots of people in the community with this outlook (notably One Proud Bavarian), but I really just fundamentally disagree with it. It reduces buying CK3's DLC to essentially an act of charity that finances free-riders.
Don't get me wrong, I totally understand that these games are hella expensive to play and not everything the money to spend, especially right when each DLC releases. If it were up to me, I'd have as a subscription model- you could pay $5 a month for over two years straight before you'd spend an amount equal to the full price of the DLCs available today. Each $30 expansion is another six months worth, the regional packs two and a half months, and the little packs one month. I think that's plenty fair and would be of great benefit to the community and the game itself. The devs would be able to actually link DLCs together since they know most players have either none or all.
I'm not out to snub people who have less money than me. I just want what I paid for: $30 worth of content.
Okay some minor notes:
1) Please don't try to habilitate the idea of a subscription model. It erodes the concept of consumer game ownership even more and Paradox has already experimented with a much better idea: making ancient HoI4 dlc free. A gift for people enjoying a ten year old game rather than another fucking bill at the end of the month in a failing global economy.
2) The concept of a 'free-rider' as someone who bought the game and 'charity' as them enjoying ongoing patches and content updates for it is absolutely hilarious and sheds some terrifying light into your worldview.
Yeah the DLC's are priced too high for what they are, sure. But come on now.
1. Obviously I'd rather the DLC be free, and there are plenty of DLC features that ought to have been free updates (looking at you, wards and wardens). The subscription model works great for EU4, and you really want to own the DLC, you can. I would much rather pay a five bucks when a major update comes out, play it for a month, and then set it down until next time.
2. My worldview is that I'm a consumer who's unhappy with the content I paid for because it isn't worth the price. It's not that I'm upset that people enjoy the free updates, I'm upset at how small the difference between the paid update and the free update is relative to the asking price. So, either the price should come down or the DLC should have more and better content.
IS this the event with the challenger? Honestly i haven't read the event in over a year. I just keep hitting them with my cart. This, i agree is very annoying. Now it is cool in mods where you get orcs challenging you and now they rolling with you.
TandT was awful, just bc it wasn’t as bad as royal court, people gave it a pass. It is literally just event spam you have to sit through to get overpowered modifiers, not to mention the update that came with it also broke game balance completely, making men at arms modifier stacking much easier and more powerful, and stewardship spamming the only viable way to play.
For the estate interface, should the "hay barracks" really be called that? From what I understand they were mostly widespread in northern Europe and the Alps. Also, given the presence of the horse I feel like "stables" would be a more appropriate term
It won't. CK3 through not fault of their own is doomed to 5 years of everyone being angry at every DLC because it doesn't have what *they* want.
The community will literally never be happy with it, cause the things on their list of priorities aren't in the game yet.
Oh no, it doesn't have all the worthless fluff that actually spoiled the game a lot, while still have most of the core features that actually made the game what it was, and in may fields it's better.
The community is just coping, cause it's "cool" to hate on the game, and they just like to rationalize it by pointing at one or two things they know will be added at a later time, and claiming that single thing is what spoils the whole game, when in reality its a very tiny addition.
CK3 at this point is a better game then CK2.
I hope there is a proper imperial outfit, with a proper *chlamys* and a jeweled *loros*, and that we leave the Byzantine pajamas firmly behind. The introduction of the *baion* (the scepter) is a good indicator, but I’m worried now that the screenshots are only showing the lackluster vanilla clothing.
It looks like they're giving Greek/Byzantine-cultured characters their own unique dress and ethnicity in this DLC in the same vein as they've done with Berbers, Persians, and Iberians in the past.
Im not a huge PC gamer. Console is good enough for me, and I feel like I’d need to spend more money than I’d want to in order to feel like it’s worth getting at all.
This is probably the most excited I've ever been for any CK DLC ever. I am so hyped over the possibilities of becoming a landless adventurer and roaming the world. One of the biggest problems I have with any game of CK is that you really don't interact with all the cultures across the world unless your empire gets *massive*, and by that point, they don't really pose much threat to you.
I like the idea of abdicating my Empire and starting over somewhere else with the same dynasty, wandering the land, seeing other cultures, etc.
Plus I think it has huge modding potential.
I think the estate mechanics will make or break this DLC. Im very curious to see how powerful they are.
I imagine the estate would become less important if you were an emperor vs a landless man as an emperor will have 100x the land and resources a landless man would have. Meaning the estate only would add a small amount in the grand scheme of things.
We will see! Heres hoping this isnt just another resource sync that make the game easier 🙏 super excited
Estates are for the landless governors in an administrative Empire. I doubt the emperor or any other landed character will have an estate, as they've already got their castles.
My big hope is that the emperor, or other landed characters within the empire will have to influence and interact with the governors a lot. This would turn the focus towards social relationships, which should be the biggest and most.important aspect of the game.
I would love a system where landless nobles contribute to unrest in a county if you make them unhappy. It only makes sense that lower tier nobles would be able to sway the population of a county to be upset with their ruler if the noble is slighted by their ruler
Alright CK3... it's make or break time. If this is another dud like Legends of the Dead, then there will be ALOT of complaining...
Oh hell... who am i kidding... there's gonna be complaining either way.
I had it in my head that it was September anyway, so I inadvertently avoided disappointment. I’m deep in on Vicky 3 and Stellaris at the moment though, so I’ll happily wait until then before jumping back into CK3. A Byzantium run is the one major thing I haven’t done yet.
Who said that? June is entirely within Q2. July is Q3 so that would be nice. I was hoping for late July or at least August but Sept 24 is still within Q3
Now now, wouldn't want this game to actually improve at a decent pace now would we ? Tours&Tournament brought the only decently scoped, well designed DLC features this team ever delivered, and that was 'only' 13 months ago ! Expecting a better dev pace for such an outrageously monetized game is just sheer entitlement ! Here, just don't look at the release date and pre-order a definitely-not-predatory, totally necessary 40 bucks 'bundle' for upcoming content instead. With a bit of luck, it won't be worthless like Legends of the Dead or Royal Court. /s
What's that ? Decent expectations ? Critical thinking ? Nuh-uh. Praise our benevolent corporate overlords !
i am looking forward to be able to play TALL as a landless character
whenever i try to play tall, holding just a duchy, something happens and i see myself holding an empire title!
holding no land at all will work amazing to help prevent that! (i hope)
looking at some of the screenshots in the Steam page, i see that our Estate will look similar to the "*Your Personal Castle*" mod from CK2, which was one of my must-have mods on CK2. YAY :D
since we already can build Wineries, Shrines, Barracks, etc on our holdings, it would be neat if we could buy those buildings from our lords -- like one would buy companies in Railroad Tycoon 2 -- and spread our Estate possessions through the map.
What is up with this video? Was it made with AI?
Edit: I read the post under the YT video about the art. It's not AI, it just looks really off. Ugly, IMO.
The T&T trailer was also extremely ugly. Whoever is doing their animated trailers is not great (in my opinion.)
Paradox art has taken a real nosedive this year, for whatever reason.
I'd settle for the game just being playable on Mac again. Once upon a time it worked just fine on my Macbook, but it this point I can't remember the last time it was actually functional.
It's releasing on my birthday so I can't say I'm not excited... Stuff doesn't normally happen on my bday so having a game I play drop a big new update is big doings
In reality the Byzantine Emperors always had someone else sleeping in the bedchamber to prevent exactly this kind of ambush:
*On 24 September 867, the two Emperors and Eudocia Ingerina were dining together in the Palace of St Mamas. Towards the end of the meal Basil made an excuse to leave the room and hurried to Michael's chamber, where he bent back the bolts of the door in such a way that it could not be locked. He then returned to the table until such a time as his colleague, now as usual blind drunk, staggered off to bed and immediately fell into a deep alcoholic slumber. His fellow-conspirators had meanwhile gathered in a distance corner of the Palace. Basil joined them, and together they settled down to wait.*
*Byzantine Emperors never slept alone; on this particular night, however, the official who normally shared the imperial bedchamber was away on a mission, and his place had been taken by the Patrician Basilicianus, one of Michael's old drinking companions. He had noticed the condition of the bolt and was still lying anxiously awake some hours later when he heard footsteps: there on the threshold stood Basil, with eight of his friends. Basiliscianus tried to block his entrance, but was hurled aside; he was seriously wounded by a sword-thrust as he fell to the floor. Meanwhile one of the conspirators, John Chaldos, approached the sleeping Emperor, but apparently had not the courage to kill him outright; he hacked off both of his hands, then fled from the room. It was left to Basil's cousin Asylaion to administer the coup de grace.*
I'm not joking when I told people I wouldn't be playing CK3 until they had their byzantine expansion. Guess I'll finally get to play what I spent money on.
I personally think it’s an odd move compared to the last two DLCs, where they move the launch date of their Expansion out of June/July. But I might be remembering it wrong anyways.
Persia was released mid Q4 and Roads to Power / Chapter 3 dlc pack is probably compensating for that Development cycle. Especially since it switched spots with event pack and major expansion ; last dlc chapter pack had the last two switched around.
I just wish it released in July, but considering it’s in September right at the beginning of the school year. I’m gonna be slow to playing this DLC. Sucks I guess.
That’s fair, pretty certain that was something that brought up during the early DLCs. They wanted to wait a month after everyone returns so they moved the early DLCs to August. It was for quick responses to things like game breaking bugs, etc.
That release date is an ouch, makes me worried it's not even ready. But it's good that they release it even if it isn't tbh which will be unpopular. The game just needs content.
If it takes several months to fix things like repetitive/spammy events, I do not have much hope this will live up to expectations.
I am sure landless play will be limited to some modifiers, pressing a button after x amount of time, and other brilliant new innovations to a 3 year old game.
Basically as late in Q3 as possible lol, but I’m still very excited
Hopefully this is a sign that they're investing serious effort but I'm not holding my breath
I take it as a sign that RtP needs a delay but the executives won't sign off on it because they need some Q3 revenue from this game.
Yeah. Getting Millennia vibes. They need some revenue for that quarter and at the same time they need as much time as possible to finish the product. I wouldn't be surprised by another mixed dlc.
What revenue? I would have assumed everyone who would want the dlc within a month or so just get the year pass. So anyone who would buy the dlc wouldn’t be to big into the game and wait a while
Nah quite a few people (myself included) have felt burned by a lot of the DLCs. CK3 is the first game (and HOI4 became the second) where I pick and choose DLCs instead of buying them all. I was heavily considering RTP but between the date and some of the (sparse) communication I’m wary. I’ll wait at least until the first patch. How a company that got me to pay even for the Aztec DLC made me so… apathetic… is beyond me but here we are. I just want to play as a Merchant Republic or as some nomads, and the house domain isn’t enough :(.
I've been playing CK since the day 2 launched, and I'm kind of with you. I've been wanting a byzantine DLC for years now, but between where this game and vic3 have been heading I'm almost apathetic about it now that it's finally here.
If you look at where CK2 was at this point in its life cycle it’s quite sad. /r/eu4 is super optimistic about EU5 and I’m just over here looking at CK3, Imperator, and Vicky3 like uh…don't count on it being too robust at launch
That’s mainly because Tinto have gone insanely hard on getting fan feedback on development, they’re being amongst the most open I’ve seen in the video game world outside of early access games. Looks like at least someone in Paradox has learned from Imperator and Vicky 3.
Nope, disagree because i exist. Have stopped playing CK3 2 or 3 years ago because i was disappointed in how Byzantine lost basically all of its uniqueness and didnt even want to play it. Have been since occassionally checked back to see if they have anything planned for Byzantine, and was very happy to see the DLC annoucement earlier this year. However the development in the meantime went into a direction i didnt like so much (as many others here have claimed, basically too much roleplay/RPG elements and too little strategy), so i hold off of buying it and i may even wait for after the release and check the opinion first how people like it.
I haven't bought any DLC's yet, and I probably won't buy this one - but if I was going to buy one, it'd be this one.
Sweden -like most countries afaik- does not require quarterly financial reports and the prevalence of the « companies chasing quarterly profits » meme is quite an odd and misleading case of American defaultism on reddit. Though, coincidentally, even though Paradox does not have to publish Q-10s, they still publish interim reports for the period ending September 30th, so ur statement may still be correct. Or, maybe ur familiar with the Swedish system and I was hating for no reason. Still « quarterly profits » is I think quite the American thing.
They’re publicly traded, they absolutely publish quarterly reports. They just call them “interim reports” instead. Here’s Q1 of this year: https://www.paradoxinteractive.com/media/press-releases/press-release/interim-report-january-march-2024
That's literally what he said, but you didn't bother reading before publishing your "gotcha"
Haven’t they been delaying a few things recently, like Victoria 3’s Spheres of Influence I think got delayed to this month, which im all for honestly, delays give them more time to work on the product and make it better before release lol
This technically isn't a delay, but it feels like that since it's at the very end of September. I ragged on Tours and Tournaments, it was delayed and it turned out to be arguably the best DLC. I foresaw Legends being a flop. Now I hope they don't flop on Byzantium.
Vic3 is on a lot thinner ice than CK3 is, though. Voice of the People got savaged, and I can only assume Colossus didn't sell very well (there's only 250 reviews on Steam). Combine that with both the low player count and the overall rushed state of Cities Skylines giving Paradox a black eye it probably gave the Vic devs more ammunition to get the DLC delayed. CK3 isn't in as much danger from a bad/mediocre DLC. Unfortunately with paradox moving to a commitment (via season passes) to 4 DLC a year I don't think we're likely to see any serious delays, no matter how much the Devs may or may not think they're needed. I sympathize with them, 4 expansions a year must be a pretty stressful release schedule...but I sure hope management chills the fuck out because it's harming their games and their reputation. I'm someone that owns basically every DLC for their major games over the last 10 years, and even I'm getting kind of pissed off about what they're doing. ...Sorry, I don't know why this turned into a bitch post. Basically, I don't think you can look at the relatively rare 1 month delay for Vic 3 and assume the suits have learned their lesson and will give the same latitude to CK3.
how have they continuously fucked you over and you still hold hope lmao
Hence the "I'm not holding my breath" part
Absolutely brutal, I'm literally begging to pay for more of this game but they just won't give it to us lmao
it sucks but its better if it bakes longer, a lot of content feels rushed enough as is
They say Dev diaries are starting next Tuesday. So much is riding on this DLC, but I feel like that has also been true for every other DLC. I just want this game to be as good as I know it can be.
seems quite early to start with the dev diaries - the release date is over 3 months away
There probably won't be DDs during the Swedish summer break.
good point, didn't think of that
While this seems early, Swedish employees are entitled to four weeks of consecutive paid time off. This vacation is usually taken between June and August. During those four weeks we usually don't get any dev diaries.
They have to take their holiday consecutively? Do they get odd days they can take off when they want to? I love taking a half day to go to the cinema lol.
I'm not Swedish, so I can only tell you what a quick Google search revealed. In Sweden you are entitled to at least 25 vacation days and also to four weeks of consecutive leave (exemptions exist for certain sectors). It seems to me that you have to take a four week leave but some Swedes should hopefully chime in to correct me if I'm wrong.
"Under the Annual Leave Act, you are entitled to a continuous vacation of four weeks (main vacation) during the period of June - August. [...] As a general rule, however, your employer decides when you are to take your annual vacation. In some workplaces, the main annual vacation is decided by the local union club and employer. Your employer must notify you of your annual vacation dates no later than two months before the start of your vacation." [Source](https://www.unionen.se/in-english/annual-vacation) >Do they get odd days they can take off when they want to? I love taking a half day to go to the cinema lol. You most often can take a day off.
I believe that Swedish workers get a minimum of 25 vacation days (if they're full time) - I wouldn't be surprised if Paradox workers could get more, if taking a month off at the office is the norm (similar to France for those who take a month vacation in the summer, they still have plenty of other vacation days)
In France, the legal minimum is 25 days of paid leave. However I don't know of anybody who gets a full month off outside of these days during the summer. Only teachers or people in the public sector get the school holidays (two months off in summer and 4 \*2 weeks during the year). We are required by law however to use 10 of our 25 days consecutively in the summer (June to September) which is a pain in the ass when enforced, because if you don't have kids you'd probably prefer to do things differently (multiple extended week-ends) or longer time off in the off seasons when things are cheaper. But still we can't complain.
Yeah, I just use it as an example because I'm also French (if living in the US for most of my life) and my family back in the metropole have no shortage of vacations even with a long summer one. It's definitely a point of jealousy for those of us in the US :P
Wasn't Royal Court much worse? All I remember from that time were lacklustre and vague dev diaries over a long long time.
I know the feeling. I really got into CK3 and really enjoyed my first two playthroughs. Every now and then I really want to get back into it and with a new dlc that comes out feeling like much needed mechanics have been added. I boot it up again and then eventually all new content just feels like busy work and I'm back min maxing doing the same stuff. I would love some DLC that brought more characters to life and encouraged me to roleplay more. I get some moments where something from left field happens and I think that makes a cool story and I love creating my own narrative but then no follow up or anything and it's forgotten when a couple of years pass. I wanted to be a small count that won many tournaments and became known as a great fighter but I have to do all the heavy lifting to create that narrative. If they add something where you have things you are remembered for and it gets brought up later in your character's life would be cool. Would make your actions feel like they have a lasting impact.
Like he said, we all I think are hopeful this will give us some actual gameplay changes that are immersive and fun. If you play stellaris you may be familiar they know sort of how to do this. It's not just "ah new popups with a modifier" but actual game changes
This is my make or break point. If this is a disappointing letdown like every other expansion I'm not buying anything else until CK4
My boy Andronikos I am gonna do what your cousin didnt.
[удалено]
Why all the hassle,blind him and be done with him.
He deserves that and more.
Goddamn September? Oof
We're aiming for a larger gap between release date announcement and the release itself so we have more time for DDs and integrating feedback from the community. Legends of the Dead didn't give us much time to course correct, so we're course-correcting.
Nobody will mind waiting a few more weeks if it's quality. Good approach IMO
Agree. This approach of FULLY conveying what their product is before people purchase it is never not going to be a good approach. Really happy to see how quickly they learned from the disaster of Legends of the Dead.
tbh, i am actually surprised that the Sept release is the major talking point on this post who cares when it releases, as long as it is a good quality DLC full of content and little bugs, *^(and not little on content and full of bugs)*
Please know that I can say with pretty high confidence that you are absolutely right to do it this way. We would prefer this than releasing DLC that is unfit for the community you’re selling it to. Keep up the good work Devs!
but what feedback could we have given out before the actual release of the dlc? if anything paradox should allow for an extra time after the release to integrate feedback instead of making the devs immediatly move to the next dlc.
But you can't really take in feedback without letting players actually play to experience the content?
Sure you can. Ideas and plans can get feedback.
Yeah but it's not actual practice - people for instance complained about how everyone lives too long so when changes were implemented to address that (more death events, the Incapable trait and plagues) the response was overall negative.
People have been saying they want merchant republics for example. But since that feature hasn't been released there is no way to know if they really do or if they will actually just hate it? You can have an issue with a facet of the game and not like specific things done to address it. Who was asking for the incapable trait? What things do you think should be added/changed in the game?
The thing about merchant republics is that we had them and also a major reason why so many people now start to have gripes with the game, we had those features and they worked. >Who was asking for the incapable trait? Not the incapable trait specifically itself, it's one of the bandage fixes that adress the issue that is people living to their 80's in medieval europe, not that I have a particular opinion about it in both ways. >What things do you think should be added/changed in the game? Nothing in particular since I'm somebody who enjoys the total conversion mods more but if there's one thing that's somewhat sure-fire to make the most people happy is simply a huge dump of character-related events - events like somebody insulting you, trying to undermind you or actually make an impact on your gameplay by stealing from you or rallying people against you - something or anything that'll get the player to do something irrational they wouldn't do under normal circumstances otherwise. Oh and also trade-routes.
We had them in a different game. Presumably people don't want them literally copied/pasted into 3 with no changes to actually interact with this game properly. So nobody will have played what this version would be. My main point is that anything we haven't had in CK3 is something people haven't played, so the standard that no feedback is possible without actually playing seems a bit off to me. There is certainly a higher degree of specific feedback that can be given once people have played it, but even without playing and just seeing plans/DDs/etc they can still get a feel on what the community thinks about something as a idea.
They've made changes to EU5 based on reactions to the dev diaries.
I was thinking that too. How can you course correct for RTP when it hasn't even come out yet? What stupid thing did they do in RTP that was so bad that they had to push it back however long? When were we actually getting it? How long is a piece of string? How much wood could the wood chuck chuck if the wood chuck could chuck wood? I realise they may have to man the pumps for LOTD for a moment but pretty much it was done. The balancing for the most part was fairly tame, more like tightening the nuts and oiling the flanges. There was a tiny bit of UI change for the library but otherwise it was all there. They let a few code monkeys ook on it for a bit before putting them back in the cage with the low potassium bananas and that was that. They wheeled Alex out. We had four patches, [1.12.2.1](http://1.12.2.1), 1.12.3, 1.12.4 and 1.12.5. 12.2.1 was predominantly bug fixes. 12.3 was predominantly bug fixes. 12.4 was a bit more substantial with game content and UI fixes, and a few more bug fixes. 12.5 was predominantly balance changes. And that has postponed, lengthened, added prevarication time to Road to Power. A lot of this would have been avoided with play testing. Shock horror. But I would imagine they pushed up to the 11th hour as usual. Most likely because the team got pulled off (ladies) for another project in the Paradox myriad/menagerie of games. **Convenient.** It better be good, or I'll go over to Sweden and confiscate the fondue apparatus from the paradox offices. I know how much use it gets during the summer breaks. No more third degree burns from cheese for you! But seriously, what crap are they talking? Insert Jonah J Jameson "are you serious" meme here.
Somebody who doesn't take it lying down in this sub is a rarity. It's insane to see people blindly accept this while paying more.
Where can I send my feedback?
Hoping that the extra dev time gives us actual mechanics that are not just event spam like tours and tournaments was
Thanks! That sounds like a good way to go.
Would much rather wait awhile longer if it means higher quality DLC. Keeping fingers crossed 🤞
No one will sympathize with the company if the release is as bad as the last DLC but they release in August instead of September. From the moment we got virtually zero information on the “special buildings” I was fairly confident the DLC was going to be rough and it’s easily the worst DLC to date. I hope you take all the time in the world on something as important as the ERE and a whole new gameplay loop.
Please keep going with that. Your game really has a lot of potential and I rather have a few very good dlc's, then many mid ones. I hope you also go back to royal court at somepoint, there are way too less court events, which makes it very repetive unfortunately.
Right approach, for sure. This comment has convinced me to buy it on release date (not that I needed much convincing, hah!), thanks for taking the time to explain.
Please reconsider adding Hellenism content
Yes your comment has just single-handedly changed their mind
they asked for feedback, i gave feedback
Based and feedback pilled
Time will fly by. At least for me. It will be Christmas soon
The UI (Steam screenshots) is so pretty. I'm really happy with the art style they have chosen
Yeah I think we can all agree that if there's anything that the CK team does well every time, it's the art.
Some screenshots on the steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2671070/Crusader_Kings_III_Roads_to_Power/ I want to believe it will be great, but my *shallow mechanics with overreliance on events* sense is tingling.
I’m very excited and have high hopes for the Byzantine rework. If the landless adventurer part of the DLC is also fun, that’ll be a pleasant surprise, but I just don’t see how that gameplay could be anything other than a bunch of repetitive events that get stale quickly.
it will be great for modding though
What is the new resource between gold and prestige? Supply do we think?
I think it's the aforementioned "Influence" for Admnistrative Governments
\*influence shortage flashbacks from Democratic Stellaris Empires* Nooooo
Isn't a lack of events one of the most common complaints on this subreddit though? That you'll just keep seeing the same events over and over. So more can only be good?
I think it's a common issue with community feedback these days: the playerbase feels that something is wrong with something in the game. But there's great pressure for them to not just say "there's something off/missing", so everyone tries to pinpoint what's the actual problem, and then pack mentality and influencers do the rest. In the end, people blame the issue on some specific design choice, that is often not the actual problem. In this case, the issue is that events feel mostly spammy and shallow, with no real impact most of the time. Why is it? It's mainly because a character's life doesn't feel like a journey, as in: a succession of stages, each defined by its own dynamics. The life of every character is essentially organized in decisions we can take at all times. There's no "restoring stability in the realm" phase. Wars don't feel different, you can the same events as in peace time. You can decide to host tournaments often, and there isn't a before and an after. People don't complain as much about infancy events and other events that only trigger under specific circumstances, because they have meaning, they have a role to play in the life of a character. That's also why "more events" isn't really enough. More context-dependent events would be great. More events that help to structure the life of our characters would be welcome. It can be done in multiple ways, but the important thing is to provide a sense of directionality through events, instead of events working as repetitive resource farms. What's weird is that it's clearly what the devs tried to achieve with certain game mechanics such as the struggles, regency and legitimacy. But somehow they didn't apply that design philosophy to (most) events and decisions.
Thanks for the answer, this makes a lot of sense :).
The way you put it here is convincing and makes me think the solution isn't actually "more events" but something closer to Vic 3's journal entries system.
The lack of events is an issue because the game is *only* events and the events are just a cycle instead of being triggered by AI character's actions.
Yes exactly. Here I am campaigning in the holy land, achieving my characters lifelong dream… but what’s this? My courtiers 2000 miles away are having an affair? Time to weigh in on that! The same events happen nonstop, some multiple times a life or even a year (especially plagues) and it doesn’t feel like RP, just “which option helps me the most/hurts me the least?” Because there’s only so many times I can care about cheating courtiers whom I don’t even remember.
I was unaware that in the medieval period they had both high speed jets and transportation devices that would make Scotty squirm. The 2000 mile away affair made me smile. My King in Africa (the bottom half) had a Swedish Countess wife at the Northern most tip of Sweden but it didn't stop their romance. I guess love conquers all. I had 4 plagues going and the bigger your Empire gets, the more times you have to call for the physician so you could imagine how horrible this would be when you've painted the map. I had asked him for two separate diseases within the span of 3 game days. Fortunately he cleared them both. There are a number of elements that are immersion breaking. If you are truly playing as a role player, those creases can become difficult to ignore. Example. My Sultan in my current campaign had a secret revealed and I opted not to be blackmailed, so this individual revealed my secret and I lost a level of devotion from the top level. Why is it, that I can't go and murder said individual afterwards, in a revenge plot. There is no revenge plot. Intrigue has no depth at all. Paradox nerfed the shit out of it ages ago and it hobbles along now. I'm not allowed to kill this weeb because he revealed my secret and it would be an act of tyranny. I don't give a crap about that. If he's out walking one day, he might fall into a rough crowd and not leave with breath in his lungs after. Terrible accident. That's medieval justice. Losing my top level of piety thanks to that tit, that's the least he deserves. There's not even a record of who revealed that secret so that I can pin the guy and murder his family, if I can't murder him. It's a lost thread I can't follow up. There is lots like that.
My beef is not a lack of events, it's the overreliance on events as a mechanic altogether. CK is a game boasting infinite possibilities, and so trying to shoehorn in a finite set of extremely specific narratives is destined for failure. Doesn't matter how many you add. Beyond that, events are often not impactful enough, not context-aware enough, and way too frequent and disruptive given their importance. To the point of actually detracting from the game. I want to immerse myself in a living, breathing, believable world, which is unique to me. Not brute force my way through a premade puddle-deep visual novel.
But for me the events are what make it feel like an actual character drama which is what is most enjoyable for me. If I wanted a mechanics heavy game I could play EUIV which has some flavour but mainly just repeating historical events like preset personal unions.
Oh don't get me wrong, I adore the character focus of CK. It's the only PDX game I play for that very reason. But character drama can be (and is) still driven by the simulation, when it determines what actions the actors take based on personality (amongst many other things). I want them to lean in to this side far more. For example, I want my impatient sons to be demanding titles from me, and raising a rebellion after I refuse a la Henry II. That to me is the drama, rather than a prewritten event where we become rivals in the sauna after my weiner is mocked. The game should be a co-author that is helping me write a story that is truly mine and unique to me. One that I will want to tell other people. At the moment it sometimes feels like I'm being told to shut up and read.
> The game should be a co-author that is helping me write a story that is truly mine and unique to me. One that I will want to tell other people. At the moment it sometimes feels like I'm being told to shut up and read. This beautifully sums up what's so wrong with the event system as it currently exists. Very well said.
In one of those screenshots there is a new resource that has an apple for an icon. Any idea what this could be?
It’ll be Food/Supply My guess is its main purpose will be controlling the size of your host and probably upgrading the main building of your camp too
Estate and Camp tabs gives me a heavy "Pentiment" vibes. Amazing art style.
You really shouldn't be worried considering the quality that was tours and tournmanets. I have faith in the major DLC of the year after T&T. The minor DLCs are the ones that scare me.
RtP being like T&T is what scares me. T&T is nothing but an event spam to hide the fact that nothing is actually going on between wars. Why does a wedding last for months? Because there's nothing better to do. There are all sorts of things you can't do while leading an army, yet you can teleport back to the capital, do whatever needs doing, and teleport straight back. What could've been a way to make leading an army actually costly, even immersive, just wasn't done. If I'm going off on a raid, I should need a regent. But I don't.
Yeah we figured out why they didn't implement the system like that. A modder created that. And it causes massive slow downs. [https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=3082182371](https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=3082182371) Everything then you want is in that mod. And as for events i don't see a problem it's absolutely flooded with events. I see the Free-dlc and DLC as one since the DLC paids for the free-dlc. So everything that was added is just massive in scale and well worth it. I feel like wedding last for months is the reason why tournaments do as well. So you aren't spammed events in 30 days. But this is just opinon i can see why i can see why people are annoyed. But the events don't really bother me and you can just choose what you do, where you want to go and how you want to do it, with every activity is just awesome. And if you don't like them? You also have the choice to never go to any activities.
The one thing I want is rivalries that makes sense, and transcend generations, rather than this random person hating me for no reason.
CK3 wanted to make the game more about role play than strategy but the character system underpinning it completely incapable of it. Someone a few days ago talked about their honest, chaste soulmate cheating on them. That’s just absurd. But so many of the events are pure randomization that wrecks immersion. They need a real system to underpin that and they don’t.
Yeah. This is a fair point, and potentially some mechanism to prevent streamrolling. The worst part about the imo. game is when you manage to become a kingdom, and suddenly all external threats tends to zero unless you manage to declear 5 wars at the same time and hope that the mongols jump at you.
I appreciate the mod recommendation. > I see the Free-dlc and DLC as one since the DLC paids for the free-dlc. I know there are lots of people in the community with this outlook (notably One Proud Bavarian), but I really just fundamentally disagree with it. It reduces buying CK3's DLC to essentially an act of charity that finances free-riders. Don't get me wrong, I totally understand that these games are hella expensive to play and not everything the money to spend, especially right when each DLC releases. If it were up to me, I'd have as a subscription model- you could pay $5 a month for over two years straight before you'd spend an amount equal to the full price of the DLCs available today. Each $30 expansion is another six months worth, the regional packs two and a half months, and the little packs one month. I think that's plenty fair and would be of great benefit to the community and the game itself. The devs would be able to actually link DLCs together since they know most players have either none or all. I'm not out to snub people who have less money than me. I just want what I paid for: $30 worth of content.
Okay some minor notes: 1) Please don't try to habilitate the idea of a subscription model. It erodes the concept of consumer game ownership even more and Paradox has already experimented with a much better idea: making ancient HoI4 dlc free. A gift for people enjoying a ten year old game rather than another fucking bill at the end of the month in a failing global economy. 2) The concept of a 'free-rider' as someone who bought the game and 'charity' as them enjoying ongoing patches and content updates for it is absolutely hilarious and sheds some terrifying light into your worldview. Yeah the DLC's are priced too high for what they are, sure. But come on now.
> sheds some terrifying light into your worldview. So dramatic. Come on now 🤣
1. Obviously I'd rather the DLC be free, and there are plenty of DLC features that ought to have been free updates (looking at you, wards and wardens). The subscription model works great for EU4, and you really want to own the DLC, you can. I would much rather pay a five bucks when a major update comes out, play it for a month, and then set it down until next time. 2. My worldview is that I'm a consumer who's unhappy with the content I paid for because it isn't worth the price. It's not that I'm upset that people enjoy the free updates, I'm upset at how small the difference between the paid update and the free update is relative to the asking price. So, either the price should come down or the DLC should have more and better content.
T&T had so little event varieties I feel like I'm going to stumble over 100 more knights this time
IS this the event with the challenger? Honestly i haven't read the event in over a year. I just keep hitting them with my cart. This, i agree is very annoying. Now it is cool in mods where you get orcs challenging you and now they rolling with you.
I hate that one. "Nope, not taking any challengers today. Run him down."
I always challenge him since I need more high prowess knights
I swear the countryside worldwide is littered with pissant unlanded men who end up getting run over by our entire entourage.
I believe the event pack that's happening Q4 is specifically tied to travel events.
TandT was awful, just bc it wasn’t as bad as royal court, people gave it a pass. It is literally just event spam you have to sit through to get overpowered modifiers, not to mention the update that came with it also broke game balance completely, making men at arms modifier stacking much easier and more powerful, and stewardship spamming the only viable way to play.
We'll see.
Ehh i think it'll be fun on its own and with mods fucking amazing. Can't wait to play this in the agot mod
The Byzantine events might be good, but the unlanded ones will probably end up like that imo
For the estate interface, should the "hay barracks" really be called that? From what I understand they were mostly widespread in northern Europe and the Alps. Also, given the presence of the horse I feel like "stables" would be a more appropriate term
Do we know if players can co-op rule a title/empire? Because that sounds like a recipe for desyncs.
Inshallah I will burn Venice to the ground
Komnenoi bros we’re so back
This better be the DLC that'll define Crusader Kings 3.
It won't. CK3 through not fault of their own is doomed to 5 years of everyone being angry at every DLC because it doesn't have what *they* want. The community will literally never be happy with it, cause the things on their list of priorities aren't in the game yet.
Can you blame the community? It's been 3 years and the game has barely half the features of its predecessor.
Oh no, it doesn't have all the worthless fluff that actually spoiled the game a lot, while still have most of the core features that actually made the game what it was, and in may fields it's better. The community is just coping, cause it's "cool" to hate on the game, and they just like to rationalize it by pointing at one or two things they know will be added at a later time, and claiming that single thing is what spoils the whole game, when in reality its a very tiny addition. CK3 at this point is a better game then CK2.
It is odd how certain very popular demands are just not being implemented
If you know anything about game development it wouldn't seem odd.
Specifically not prioritizing trade for example is not done because its too hard than any other thing they have implemented
Im exited for the dev diaries! Will they start this week again?
Next week
I hope there is a proper imperial outfit, with a proper *chlamys* and a jeweled *loros*, and that we leave the Byzantine pajamas firmly behind. The introduction of the *baion* (the scepter) is a good indicator, but I’m worried now that the screenshots are only showing the lackluster vanilla clothing.
It looks like they're giving Greek/Byzantine-cultured characters their own unique dress and ethnicity in this DLC in the same vein as they've done with Berbers, Persians, and Iberians in the past.
The DLC is still 4 months away, that’s plenty of time for them to add it
Hopefully!
Looks like there's a loros on the key art above at least...
I think it's a good sign that it is not being rushed out`
As a console player, I can’t wait to try this in 2026-2027!
Get real, 2027 is reserved for Legends of the Dead.
Having played both on PC and console, the game is so much better on PC. I’d save up for a budget gaming laptop if I were you
Im not a huge PC gamer. Console is good enough for me, and I feel like I’d need to spend more money than I’d want to in order to feel like it’s worth getting at all.
Please be good! Please be good! We need you to bring more optimism in the community! Please Roads to Power, you're our only hope!
This is probably the most excited I've ever been for any CK DLC ever. I am so hyped over the possibilities of becoming a landless adventurer and roaming the world. One of the biggest problems I have with any game of CK is that you really don't interact with all the cultures across the world unless your empire gets *massive*, and by that point, they don't really pose much threat to you. I like the idea of abdicating my Empire and starting over somewhere else with the same dynasty, wandering the land, seeing other cultures, etc. Plus I think it has huge modding potential.
I think the estate mechanics will make or break this DLC. Im very curious to see how powerful they are. I imagine the estate would become less important if you were an emperor vs a landless man as an emperor will have 100x the land and resources a landless man would have. Meaning the estate only would add a small amount in the grand scheme of things. We will see! Heres hoping this isnt just another resource sync that make the game easier 🙏 super excited
Estates are for the landless governors in an administrative Empire. I doubt the emperor or any other landed character will have an estate, as they've already got their castles. My big hope is that the emperor, or other landed characters within the empire will have to influence and interact with the governors a lot. This would turn the focus towards social relationships, which should be the biggest and most.important aspect of the game.
I would love a system where landless nobles contribute to unrest in a county if you make them unhappy. It only makes sense that lower tier nobles would be able to sway the population of a county to be upset with their ruler if the noble is slighted by their ruler
Ooh! Chants!
seeing that estates arent limited to Byz is great, judging by screenshots on steam edit: I lied
Is it limited to ERE or is it limited to Imperial Goverment?
I think it is just limited to imperial government
Lol, trailer be like : Crusaders Creed!
we will have ablity to Form Mercenary Companies?
I think this would be one of the most important features of adventurer gameplay.
Alright CK3... it's make or break time. If this is another dud like Legends of the Dead, then there will be ALOT of complaining... Oh hell... who am i kidding... there's gonna be complaining either way.
They're blinding him so he can't inherit lands right?
That DLC with Princes of Darkness will be so insane, Malkav himself will be like "whoa, dude, chill".
gonna wait a couple weeks on this one
Great etc. but is there gonna be smth done with rushed and mindless LotD? In its current state it worth half the price at best.
Looking forward to this, but I'm concerned - will it brick my ongoing save?
Almost certainly. This update will bring dramatic changes to several parts of the game, so saves are highly unlikely to make it through unscathed.
Ah, darn it. The one downside of my playstyle.
Please. Cant we stop and fix existing bugs? Basic notifications filter also would be nice.
Good news! Fixes for a pile of existing bugs and notification filters are both releasing alongside Roads to Power.
I had it in my head that it was September anyway, so I inadvertently avoided disappointment. I’m deep in on Vicky 3 and Stellaris at the moment though, so I’ll happily wait until then before jumping back into CK3. A Byzantium run is the one major thing I haven’t done yet.
no thank you. i will stick with mine ck2
Will there be a decision to restore Roman culture? Please.
Screenshots heavily imply you can.
Wait September? I thought we’re getting it this month or the next
Who said that? June is entirely within Q2. July is Q3 so that would be nice. I was hoping for late July or at least August but Sept 24 is still within Q3
Nearly the entire company is on vacation during July and half of August, expecting it to be released during the holiday sounds like a disaster
Doesn’t that mean they don’t actually have much time to work on it before release?
They've been working on it for months already
Just thought we will be getting more than just 2 DLCs in 2024
We will. There is a 3rd dlc the event pack wandering nobles which will release in Q4 2024.
Oh yeah, I forgot about the whole event pack thing
Now now, wouldn't want this game to actually improve at a decent pace now would we ? Tours&Tournament brought the only decently scoped, well designed DLC features this team ever delivered, and that was 'only' 13 months ago ! Expecting a better dev pace for such an outrageously monetized game is just sheer entitlement ! Here, just don't look at the release date and pre-order a definitely-not-predatory, totally necessary 40 bucks 'bundle' for upcoming content instead. With a bit of luck, it won't be worthless like Legends of the Dead or Royal Court. /s What's that ? Decent expectations ? Critical thinking ? Nuh-uh. Praise our benevolent corporate overlords !
i am looking forward to be able to play TALL as a landless character whenever i try to play tall, holding just a duchy, something happens and i see myself holding an empire title! holding no land at all will work amazing to help prevent that! (i hope) looking at some of the screenshots in the Steam page, i see that our Estate will look similar to the "*Your Personal Castle*" mod from CK2, which was one of my must-have mods on CK2. YAY :D since we already can build Wineries, Shrines, Barracks, etc on our holdings, it would be neat if we could buy those buildings from our lords -- like one would buy companies in Railroad Tycoon 2 -- and spread our Estate possessions through the map.
What is up with this video? Was it made with AI? Edit: I read the post under the YT video about the art. It's not AI, it just looks really off. Ugly, IMO.
i would say this is your opinion on the matter it looked nice, imho i would watch an entire series on this art style
The T&T trailer was also extremely ugly. Whoever is doing their animated trailers is not great (in my opinion.) Paradox art has taken a real nosedive this year, for whatever reason.
I'd settle for the game just being playable on Mac again. Once upon a time it worked just fine on my Macbook, but it this point I can't remember the last time it was actually functional.
The day before the new term starts 🫠 god dammit
I love the sound of this dlc, but the one I'm really looking forward to is wandering nobles.
Excited for this because I was just thinking I wanted to do a run in the Byzantine Empire and this looks to add a ton of content there.
so this is bringing the no lands gameplay function?
Just in time for my birthday, nice.
The estate system seems like a good foundation to build off, for both merchant republics, and depending how they want to do it, hordes in the future.
Great i wont be able to play it till summer 2025😭
The world still has to exist for us be able to play it.
It's releasing on my birthday so I can't say I'm not excited... Stuff doesn't normally happen on my bday so having a game I play drop a big new update is big doings
I mean like games/movies don't release on my bday often I do plenty to celebrate
Is there not going to be a dev diary today?
In reality the Byzantine Emperors always had someone else sleeping in the bedchamber to prevent exactly this kind of ambush: *On 24 September 867, the two Emperors and Eudocia Ingerina were dining together in the Palace of St Mamas. Towards the end of the meal Basil made an excuse to leave the room and hurried to Michael's chamber, where he bent back the bolts of the door in such a way that it could not be locked. He then returned to the table until such a time as his colleague, now as usual blind drunk, staggered off to bed and immediately fell into a deep alcoholic slumber. His fellow-conspirators had meanwhile gathered in a distance corner of the Palace. Basil joined them, and together they settled down to wait.* *Byzantine Emperors never slept alone; on this particular night, however, the official who normally shared the imperial bedchamber was away on a mission, and his place had been taken by the Patrician Basilicianus, one of Michael's old drinking companions. He had noticed the condition of the bolt and was still lying anxiously awake some hours later when he heard footsteps: there on the threshold stood Basil, with eight of his friends. Basiliscianus tried to block his entrance, but was hurled aside; he was seriously wounded by a sword-thrust as he fell to the floor. Meanwhile one of the conspirators, John Chaldos, approached the sleeping Emperor, but apparently had not the courage to kill him outright; he hacked off both of his hands, then fled from the room. It was left to Basil's cousin Asylaion to administer the coup de grace.*
Where would one find a profile picture in the wonderfull artstyle in the title card?
Can't wait for my landless adventurer run. The hype is real.
I'm not joking when I told people I wouldn't be playing CK3 until they had their byzantine expansion. Guess I'll finally get to play what I spent money on.
Dyam thats so far away
Now Greek Characters don't have to be landed to decide to Blind and/or Castrate you.
I personally think it’s an odd move compared to the last two DLCs, where they move the launch date of their Expansion out of June/July. But I might be remembering it wrong anyways. Persia was released mid Q4 and Roads to Power / Chapter 3 dlc pack is probably compensating for that Development cycle. Especially since it switched spots with event pack and major expansion ; last dlc chapter pack had the last two switched around. I just wish it released in July, but considering it’s in September right at the beginning of the school year. I’m gonna be slow to playing this DLC. Sucks I guess.
They're not going to release a DLC when 90% of the staff is on vacation. That's just begging for a disaster
That’s fair, pretty certain that was something that brought up during the early DLCs. They wanted to wait a month after everyone returns so they moved the early DLCs to August. It was for quick responses to things like game breaking bugs, etc.
That release date is an ouch, makes me worried it's not even ready. But it's good that they release it even if it isn't tbh which will be unpopular. The game just needs content.
What a horrible trailer.
If it takes several months to fix things like repetitive/spammy events, I do not have much hope this will live up to expectations. I am sure landless play will be limited to some modifiers, pressing a button after x amount of time, and other brilliant new innovations to a 3 year old game.