CK3 ?

[Ikoma]

I have spent more hours in CK2 than probably any other single video game ever. So the news of a sequel on the XBox has me super excited. SUPER!

[Ikoma]

Reposted since we may want to spin a dedicated CK3 conversation out of the what are you playing thread...

I haven't check the wiki bio links.

And the just improved the old CKII game thing is 'true' but also not true. There are changes. I found more of them. I like them (so far).

First, quick report on the first game that ended poorly. (Not surprising that a first run through a new Paradox game would founder). Initial Petty King was a mountain of a man who successfully pulled together the Kingdom of Ireland. He was loved by his subjects and vassals, and feared by his enemies. A truly great man and leader who lived well into his 80s. He had prepared his oldest son to follow in his footsteps as a warrior and a steward. But we learned something important when the original king died. The new king had been engaging in a decades long affair with his younger brother's wife. Dad had not known about this skullduggery. Dad had the younger brother trained in the arts of intrigue, with the intent that he would watch his older brother's back and protect the family. Yeah... that did not happen. Older brother lasted less than a year on the throne before a 'mysterious accident' killed him. His oldest son had been maimed (blind, missing two limbs) but was still alive so the throne passed to the the maimed son's only child. An eight year daughter with the traits Sadistic, Cruel and Callous. Yikes! Before I could even blink, the Independence Factions were out in force. Ireland shattered back into a maze of petty kingdoms. And I retired that play through.

So... biggest changes so far. Stress is an awesome game mechanic. Basically, Stress is a new level to track. Acting *against* your traits is what earns you stress. So my original character, who was impatient and wrathful, would earn stress any time he had to show patience or not blow his lid. It made him a better battlefield commander since he was decisive and committed. It made him a worse administrator. And it made him horrible at subterfuge. At one point, I tested out the intrigue system by having him target an enemy for murder. And every time a decision would come up, do we act now and risk being discovered or give the conspirators time to tighten the noose and increase the chance of success, I would have to choose between loading the king up with stress or taking the smart path. When you hit 100 (or 200, or 300) stress, you have something of a 'nervous breakdown'. And you can deal with it... depending on your traits. My king had anger management issues. When the king was stressful, you did not want to be too close because he might get... violent. It made lots of other things more important. Calling for a hunt really lowered my king's stress. So I called for hunts as often as I could. Getting involved in intrigue increased his stress (he wasn't good at it or temperamentally suited for it) so I didn't get him involved as much. Which is why I was blindsided by the news of what was really going on at court when he passed away. I think Stress is going to help different characters *feel* different. And not just the next pawn in the plans of the ancient Methuselah (i.e. me).

Next difference is the new lifestyle thing. I like it. You pick one of five or six different life paths based on the skills. Obviously, my original king was martial. Then there are three sub-focuses. I went with Chivalry. The choice of the focus and sub-focus gives you bonuses (and helps define what gives and relieves stress) and also determines what actions earn you lifestyle XP. You spend that lifestyle XP in three trees (specific to the main focus) that give you bonuses. Obviously, the big bonuses are at the end of the trees. But you need ever increasing amounts of XP to get to the bottom of the trees. So, do you focus to get the best goodies -or- do you spread yourself out to get more, smaller bonuses? You can switch focuses and sub-focuses, but doing so is stressful and sets you back to the beginning of a new set of trees. Also, you can completely respec your bonuses once per leader's lifespan but doing so is VERY stressful and unless your character is a psychic rock, will likely cause a minor nervous incident or two.

Third, war has been streamlined quite a bit. No longer do you call up your armies and a slew of little units spring up around the realm. Now, they all show up at a designated rally point (your capital by default) over the course of a couple weeks. You can set multiple rally points and theoretically the army will divide itself roughly equally, but I never had a big enough realm to require me to test that out. Had I expanded my burgeoning empire onto the bigger island to the east, I probably would have set a rally point for armies over there. There is no more flank/center stuff. The battle screen has been simplified to a single bar that moves back and forth as the battle rages. Different troop types do 'counter' other troop types. Oh, and instead of commanders, you have knights. How many knights you have is governed by a set of things I do not fully grok yet. But more knights is better. Knights can sway a battle.

Anyway, there are lots of other little changes. And I'm sure I'll learn more when I do my next playthrough. Tradition dictates I do a viking run and try and create a Scandinavian Empire. But I'm also tempted to dig into the new custom religion/heresy systems and try to create the Mormon religion a millennia early. But that might be too complicated. Another option is picking a weird corner of the world I haven't played with before. Maybe build a true Roman Empire and see the Byzantines dominate the world. Hell, the map is big enough, maybe I'll conquer the world as Korea...

[Sith_Mafia]

in the Ireland tutorial my King was being pursued by his son's wife as well. He resisted however. I sent my brother's son to be educated by the bishop as any good Catholic would, I also bribed him with monetary gifts to be a ward. Then I captured the small land directly south of mine in an easy battle and made the lord my vassal. We then moved north in the quest to take all of Ireland. Quickly in that battle my new lord was killed and a new one appointed. The new guy then joined sides against me with some other people who didn't like us trying to take their land. Quickly I was fighting three wars at once.

I ended it there. will start a real game tonight and try to resist getting in battles right away

I never played CK2 but this screams Game of Thrones Mod

[tombombodil]

in the Ireland tutorial my King was being pursued by his son's wife as well. He resisted however. I sent my brother's son to be educated by the bishop as any good Catholic would, I also bribed him with monetary gifts to be a ward. Then I captured the small land directly south of mine in an easy battle and made the lord my vassal. We then moved north in the quest to take all of Ireland. Quickly in that battle my new lord was killed and a new one appointed. The new guy then joined sides against me with some other people who didn't like us trying to take their land. Quickly I was fighting three wars at once.

I ended it there. will start a real game tonight and try to resist getting in battles right away

I never played CK2 but this screams Game of Thrones Mod

There is a huge GoT mod for CK2. It was really impressive in it's detail and completeness, but last time i tried to play it it crashed constantly.

[tombombodil]

Blew through the tutorial after I realized knowledge of CK2 is pretty much applicable, and dove into a North Africa campaign which was my go-to in CK2. Almost forgot how evocative this series is, and how quickly I slip into full roleplaying in character with my goals and decisions. It's a pretty impressive magic trick the game pulls.

[Mikel]

I loved the idea of CK2 and tried to play it a bunch, sometimes learning parts of it but (usually at war) running up against the UI and how much it took to learn how to do it. I wanted those stories people would tell about CK2 with all of the bizarre intrigue but I could never quite crack it. Didn't have the patience or desire to really crack down on it and learn it.

I did the CK3 tutorial and then, when it let me go, went ahead and conquered Ireland, inherited parts of Wales and Spain, and got those stories without ever feeling lost.

Well, almost ever. I got tagged as a tyrant by something but the people I executed had started a rebellion, so I thought they said I wouldn't be seen as a tyrant for doing that.

[tombombodil]

I loved the idea of CK2 and tried to play it a bunch, sometimes learning parts of it but (usually at war) running up against the UI and how much it took to learn how to do it. I wanted those stories people would tell about CK2 with all of the bizarre intrigue but I could never quite crack it. Didn't have the patience or desire to really crack down on it and learn it.

I did the CK3 tutorial and then, when it let me go, went ahead and conquered Ireland, inherited parts of Wales and Spain, and got those stories without ever feeling lost.

Well, almost ever. I got tagged as a tyrant by something but the people I executed had started a rebellion, so I thought they said I wouldn't be seen as a tyrant for doing that.

It's an astonishing improvement.

[Chad]

I bounced off CK2 very hard. It felt like there were all of these buttons, levers, dials, options options options! And every button I pressed and dial I turned.... I had no idea what they did. I could press a button and something happened, I press it again and something different happened, press it again later in the same situation and maybe nothing happened or something happened later on... or not... I have no clue. It was like my pressing buttons only activated a random number generator that press... moved a unit or press... made someone mad or press... generated a pop up that presented three random buttons that did nothing? something? Until eventually all of this button pressing/random rolling I rolled You Lose, would you like to play again?

My answer to that was not random.

[Ikoma]

CK3 will improve that feeling, a lot. There are still a lot of buttons and levers to pull. And you'll have to make hard choices about whether it's more important to keep vassals happy or avoid stress or win a war or all the other plates you need to keep spinning. But the game is a lot better about telling you the odds of what will happen based on the choice you make.

That said, the AI still runs the other characters like crazy people some times. My current High King just passed away only to find out his heir and son has been sleeping with his sister. The secret just came out and I have a shitstorm to deal with as the vassals are appropriately grossed out. I might only be able to hold the Empire together with a bit of old fashioned tyranny while I look for a better replacement and then have my current character make some risky and dangerous lifestyle choices.

[BottledViolence]

I bounced off CK2 very hard. It felt like there were all of these buttons, levers, dials, options options options! And every button I pressed and dial I turned.... I had no idea what they did. I could press a button and something happened, I press it again and something different happened, press it again later in the same situation and maybe nothing happened or something happened later on... or not... I have no clue. It was like my pressing buttons only activated a random number generator that press... moved a unit or press... made someone mad or press... generated a pop up that presented three random buttons that did nothing? something? Until eventually all of this button pressing/random rolling I rolled You Lose, would you like to play again?

My answer to that was not random.

I never got past the "beginner" level of expertise in either game, I did get over the initial hump that you hit too. Starting off in the beginner realms and not worrying about "losing" or restarting gives you time to learn the game after going through the tutorial. This is a dynasty simulator, not a wargame or 4X. You're in for the long haul and have to be willing to make long term plans and goals. Don't worry about pissing someone off too much, there are ways to fix it, or maybe you can get lucky and they die, or just don't matter. Don't try to get the whole game at once. Take your starter king and learn how to declare wars and consolidate the kingdom of Ireland. It doesn't put you on rails, but as long as you "stay in character" you're well positioned to do well. I managed to do fine just with swaying anyone too terribly mad at me or just shoving them off to some harmless spot or waiting for them to die. A 70 year old mayor with no family can hate me all he wants, he won't be a problem very long. I'm still learning ways to get rid of troublesome courtiers, but there seem to be a few.