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CK2 Dev Diary #34: Facts about Artifacts, Real talk about Relics

Hello all, it’s been a while, but it’s my turn to write a Dev Diary again! Today I’m going to tell you about the Treasury system we’re adding in 2.7. This system itself is part of the free patch. However, a lot of the content for it is part of Monks and Mystics.

The Treasury is where characters store their items, such as weapons, artifacts, or holy relics. In many ways items are much like Character Modifiers which you are likely already familiar with, but Character Modifiers are a fairly limited and not entirely clear system. With the new Treasury system we have greater control over how they work and when they are active as well as more UI space to display and explain them. Not only that, this system allows items to be inheritable and stealable.

We hope that seeing your character’s items as physical object rather than just a number on their character sheet will offer greater immersion, especially for player who like to focus on role-playing. Sure, in the past you could find a nice axe to increase your personal combat skill, but it was just another number - now you’ll see a gleaming axe, ready to hew the limbs from your foes!
artifacts_example_isolated.png

this is not quite final artwork, but it should be similar to what we end up with

As an example, say your Character has found the Holy Grail - you will now see the Grail in your Treasury with a picture and a description as well as the effects of owning it. Further, if some Norseman comes along and raids your castle, there’s a chance that he’ll make off with your precious Grail - however, since he’s not a Christian your most holy relic is nothing more than a fancy cup to him.

As mentioned, items are also inheritable, they all go to a character’s primary heir. In the event someone dies without an heir, the items will pass to their liege if they have one, but they have a chance of being lost in the process. If an independant character dies without heirs, their items are lost - although if time permits we have talked about them having a chance to be snapped up by powerful vassals.

For 2.7 we’re converting several character modifiers into items, such as the +1 axe you might find while raiding, the saint’s bones you might find on a pilgrimage, or the trophy you made from the skull of your rival. With Monks and Mystics we’re adding a lot more, such as:
  • Commissioning swords from skilled smiths.
  • Buying fabulous Crown Jewels.
  • Hunting for Holy Artifacts.
As well as the items you can find or make while playing, we have also added a system to place some Artifacts into character’s Treasuries when a new game is started. These are mostly placed at random to keep things interesting, but there are also a few historical artifacts given to famous characters.
Paradox_CK2_TreasureChamber_big_v02.jpg
 
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Well this is one damn good game that keeps getting better.
Your Treasury is effectively limitless. It's not possible to sell items, although it's a good idea.
Having a sell button on items that immediately gives money maybe a bit too RPGish or game-ish but going by events could be interesting. Building a war chest or being in severe debt could attract vassals to your castle like it's a yard sale. Or merchants of the republican variety. Being privy to any good deals would add some more merchant to being a merchant republic. A pagan may sell the holy grail he's been tossing chicken bones into for a song, while someone who would not italicize Holy would sing a different tune.

As a merchant republic, establishing your dynasty in feudal with feudal titles doesn't get you as much because you can't inherit feudal titles. However, if being your families merchant republic gives you access to what ever yard sale or shopping spree your extended family gets into I can imagine some fun times being the middle man in the artifacts market.
They do. We can look into splitting them more if artifact pileup becomes a problem, but it might be more that the relic event needs tuned. The idea is they'll stay with the player as your characters die.

Items don't break, although you could do so through events if desired. You can collect as many items as you like, but not everything stacks - e.g. you aren't a combat god just because you have 5 swords.
Situations where you have several of the same type of item seems like an opportunity to split those up among the children. Also I can imagine the black sheep Christian son of a pagan opting to take the royal chicken bone receptacle as his meager stake in the family fortune, returning it to the pope and requesting a crusade that would put his pagan siblings crown on his head. Epic story, no?

The best crown jewels can also reduce the short reign penalty.
I see a potential issue with elective monarchies. I as a vassal amass a small but respectable fortune in artifacts. I am then elected emperor and am the holder of the crown jewels. I gather some more trinkets and then I die of food poisoning after drinking from some old cup stained with chicken blood, or maybe it's human I hear those Christians drink blood like it's wine or something. Anyway, a dynasty member does not win the election. So who gets the treasure? By becoming emperor am I giving away the family treasures to the empire, or do we keep what we brought with us? If the two treasuries are separate in terms of succession with non dynasty members, does the family treasures become part of the empires treasures if the title is held by the same dynasty for more than one generation does the family treasury become part of the empire's?
So many assumptions...
 
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Sorry if I miss this: is it possible to inherit some items? Maybe not common ones, but staff like legendary swords and bones of Christian saints should definitely go to the next generation and not just dissapear with character death.

Oh, just found the answer, yes, the will. That's good :)
 
This is an unexpected new feature. Sounds cool and should improve immersion.
 
As mentioned, items are also inheritable, they all go to a character’s primary heir. In the event someone dies without an heir, the items will pass to their liege if they have one, but they have a chance of being lost in the process. If an independant character dies without heirs, their items are lost - although if time permits we have talked about them having a chance to be snapped up by powerful vassals.
They do. We can look into splitting them more if artifact pileup becomes a problem, but it might be more that the relic event needs tuned. The idea is they'll stay with the player as your characters die.
I've been requesting on and off for a while the ability to play as a secondary heir, in a manner similar to the mechanic some Indian characters have. That is, no changes to who inherits what land, just who the character continues as. I sometimes swap over with the console, as I find this to frequently be more fun than always playing as the primary heir. Would I at least be able to redistribute relics via console, if the gavelkind inheritance doesn't split them up as it should?
Jewels don't magically kill people in reality. Though I guess they could have some poison applied to them, but that would be worn off with time plus it should give it's effect with a short time (a few months at most).

Cursed jewels, which is what I understood his proposal to be, don't have a place in the game in my opinion---especially not when the devs are reluctant to do the game rules differentiation needed for it not being a question of accepting all ridiculous fantasy stuff or cutting out significant amounts of content which are perfectly explainable without magic or aliens.
Eh, people believed in the curses, so at least there should be options triggered by having a "cursed" gem to blame the gem, even if it doesn't have any (visible) maluses. (Does it? Your character wouldn't know, and he/she almost certainly believes in curses.)
Every religion group got some, but Christians got most.
Which Christians?
There's prestige for stealing them, yes.
Any chance for being able to steal them via plot, to go with the expansion of the plotting interface? Would be nice to have some non-murder plots.

Also, aside from raiders, is there a chance that items from my treasury might be stolen when my capital is sieged down in a war and is sacked, going to the siege leader primarily, or less likely to other characters leading troops in that siege?
 
Will we be able to name non-relic objects? Like instead of a generic name such as 'masterwork sword' for a sword that has been in my family for generations can I give it another name?
 
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Secret samurai armor set!

Seriously, this can be a great addition if not going overboard with fantasy stuff, leave that to mods.
 
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Congrats to the CK2 team on delaying the Elder Kings update by another year! :p (Kidding)


As mentioned, items are also inheritable, they all go to a character’s primary heir. In the event someone dies without an heir, the items will pass to their liege if they have one, but they have a chance of being lost in the process. If an independant character dies without heirs, their items are lost - although if time permits we have talked about them having a chance to be snapped up by powerful vassals.

If there's time, it might be worth considering having relics pass to the local bishop. If there's even more time, there could be events where the local clergy try to tempt you into donating relics to the local bishop by offering you large sums of piety. You could also do cool things where you get events about pilgrims visiting your county in order to see the relic, providing a small tax increase, or something like that.

Personal items like a favoured sword could be buried with your character and then you'd have the opportunity to do events around grave robbing.
 
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I suggest other characters' Items appear as well. Otherwise, how will you know if the Grail has been found, if your rival neighboor has a nice sword, or if you should befriend a certain courtier because of his Item-induced stats?

Maybe its just a list of Items, without images or descriptions, but something IS needed.
 
The Game of Thrones mod is going to love this.

Not that much I think. You can't see other people's Items right now :/
 
Things it would be nice to be able to do with relics:

Have vassals offer to buy them from you when you are trying to accumulate a war chest.

Offer them to religious authorities for piety and an opinion boost

Endow them to a church in one of you holdings for a prosperity boost as pilgrims come to see it.

Set them in the hilt of your weapon for a minor morale boost when leading armies (and the risk it gets lost in the confusion of battle)

Prove that the bones of the alleged saint are actually pig bones if you are cynical/of a different religion
 
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If there's time, it might be worth considering having relics pass to the local bishop. If there's even more time, there could be events where the local clergy try to tempt you into donating relics to the local bishop by offering you large sums of piety. You could also do cool things where you get events about pilgrims visiting your county in order to see the relic, providing a small tax increase, or something like that.
It would also give the Norse a good reason to attack bishoprics like Lindisfarne. (On that note, @Darkrenown, any chance we might ever get raiders that can target coastal bishoprics, bypassing castles? When at war one obviously can't leave a garrison behind oneself, but when raiding that isn't to much of a concern. It could be balanced by only allowing the sacking of one holding per province instead of burning the whole province to the ground, or just one out of order, then the remaining holdings would have to be sieged in order.)
 
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Commissioning swords from skilled smiths.

Event Chain:

Commission masterwork sword.
When the sword is complete: "Pay the smith" "Kill the smith and take the sword"
If you selected option 2 has a chance of triggering: "Smith's son takes up the sword to kill you", an event which either leads to an event where you die, killed by the brat, or leave him scarred.

If you leave him scarred, he will of course come for you in 15-20 years, saying "Hello... My name is <Culturally Appropriate Name>. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

DARKRENOWN MAKE IT HAPPEN PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE.

By the way, I love this xpac more than I did yesterday, and I already loved it.
 
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Since you're going to expand upon military equipments with a certain variety, can we expect a little revision of how fights are calculated, in general, in duels, in battles and in tournaments ?

I think it's a good opportunity for you to do so, especially since how important quality weapons and armors can be in the heat of battle or during tournaments.

The Fighting Skill was a good addition to the game, allowing the crucial differentiation between fighters and strategists, represented with the Martial Skill. Sadly, it was and it is still a bit too random. Through multiples games, I had some really impressive fighters, with Fighting Skill ranging from 5 to almost 15, with all the perks and everything, and they were still losing at times to random people with none, if not negative, Fighting Skill.

A good, hard look at the randomness involve could make much more interesting this particular aspect of the game, especially with the introduction of actual equipments.

On another note, am I mistaken to believe weapons and armors will be impacting the Fighting Skill rather than the Martial Skill ?

Thanks for reading :)

Edit : I add to the sentiment of some hoping for some kind of breaking or obsoleting system for "normal" equipments, even masterworks. They should not be used from 8th century to the end game. There should be something avoiding this, with maybe something special for masterworks granting prestige if displayed in someway.
 
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