• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

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
 
  • 322
  • 25
  • 2
Reactions:
Does owning the crown jewels count as a de jure claim on the title ? And also probably a casus belli for the de facto ruler to recover the jewels.
 
Last edited:
  • 2
  • 1
  • 1
Reactions:
What a beautiful wallpaper.
 
I will need to commission trousers+1 after wetting myself at this!

My sig on Heroes & Champions also had some artifacts ideas I'd like to pitch!

New mechanic:
Artifacts & Relics (convert "holds a holy relic" into the new mechanic)
- Artifacts can be considered Holy or Profane by religious group. (Neutral is also possible)
--- One can feasibly find it appropriate to transfer a holy artifact to the religious head or a religious order.
- Artifacts are tracked and held in a similar manner to titles (with the associated badge and dynastic prestige), except without land or actual title.
- Characters can have claim on artifacts.
--- Seizing of an artifact is a valid Causus Belli (no land transfer)
--- Seizing an artifact is a valid reason for duel (personally or through a champion), with a similar truce timer between the two contestants.
--- Theft of an artifact is a possible plot.
- If an artifact has remained safely in the hands of a Dynasty for 100 years, it is considered belonging to that Dynasty. If the artifact is no longer in the hands of that Dynasty, all dynasty members have the option to wage war, duel, or steal the artifact, as if they had a claim on it. (similar to De jure claim/CB mechanics) This does not, however, automatically grant a "real" claim, so you do not have the entire dynasty's members constantly waging war on each and everyone within the dynasty for the artifact.
- This can make the current "owns a Holy relic in your family" modifier/event much more personal.

- Artifacts can be generated by an event, inspired by legends such as Excalibur but nothing outright fantasy.
- Holy/profane artifacts can only be generated by event.
- Under extreme and rare conditions, players may be able to take a Decision to generate a neutral artifact
- Artifacts can be destroyed through rivalry, plots, or VERY rare event-driven during a war-based/escort interception transfer of hands (maybe a 2-step process that requires a double fail and choice made on the player's part)
- Religious wars to destroy another religious groups' artifact, or an artifact that's been declared as profane (which does not necessary needs to be holy to another religion) may be declared by Religious head.
- The religious head can declare another religion's holy artifact as holy (wage war to claim it) or profane (wage war to destroy it).

- Both event & decision based creation of artifact should become decreasingly likely to happen if on an MTTH model, or outright no longer possible as time progresses (similar to Norse culture abandoning runestones) - this keeps them rare, and prevents overload on artifacts in circulation.


Artifacts come in 3 types, and each character can only benefit from 3 "slots"
- Held (weapon, sceptor, etc., such as Excalibur)
- Worn (armor, robes, etc., such as the shirt Aslaug made for Ragnar)
- Relic (simply held in possession)
 
  • 2
Reactions:
Congrats to the CK2 team on delaying the Elder Kings update by another year! :p (Kidding)




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.

that's a good point, there is probably a whole lot of gameplay in leverage to be made in designing a will or inheritance. Maybe if you will something to people they will owe your children favors. Have people court you for favors, which you can repay by giving items in the will.
 
  • 2
Reactions:
This. Is. AWESOME! Is it possible to name a sword? Like... If I, William the Conqueror, took over England and then had a masterwork sword made, will it be dubbed as William the Conqueror's Sword a few generations later?
 
  • 1
Reactions:
And my Alan Orthodox nomad horde can get a fancy crown and Saint bones still?
And Now I will be able to see them? Anything else? Fancy bow? Fancy saddle? Would love to be able to found a Holy order... "I Thýella tou theoú" = "Storm of God"
 
I like the concept. I think it should be a limited number of unique real world items to make it worthwhile.

Are there options\events to pawn\steal these items?

Can the player award certain items to younger children, loyal retainers much like those court titles?

Are items such as crown jewels, seal of office etc going to be a prerequisite to become duke\king of x country or will they give claims to the titles?
 
No it would help you defend against the siege of Antioch.

No, the discovery of the Holy Lance helped renew the Crusader's Zeal and their Final Push gave them the victory of taking over Antioch. Discovering the Lance during a Crusade would increase the Crusader forces Morale, not their Defensiveness.
 
  • 3
  • 1
Reactions:
No, the discovery of the Holy Lance helped renew the Crusader's Zeal and their Final Push gave them the victory of taking over Antioch. Discovering the Lance during a Crusade would increase the Crusader forces Morale, not their Defensiveness.
No the lance was found inside of antioch while they were besieging the citadel but were themselves besieged at the outer walls.
 
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.

On this note, I definitely foresee artifact pile up becoming problematic for players like me who enjoy playing 300-500 years at a time.

I think it would be neat to set up a will menu upon character death to distribute some items so vassal get a +5~50 modifier to mitigate negative effects of short reign or opinion of predecessor (for no Conclave) and favors to the heir (for Conclave) depending on the artifact's value relative to the recipient's rank.

Eg. a courtier receiving a masterwork sword may see it as his family heirloom and treasure it with his life, but a "standard" masterwork sword may be just a pretty trinket for a Duke or vassal King.
 
Oh my... Game of Thrones mod is going to be so much better after this!

Can you put living things (like Slaves or, GoT's dragon characters) in the treasury? Please make it so!
 
  • 4
  • 1
Reactions:
Wow - great idea and long overdue. This will really add a heap of RPG elements and potential to the already great game.

A few ideas for mechanics -
  • An "object" scope, so that the objects and relics can be referred to separately from their owners.
  • Per the above, an object_decision class of decisions. This would allow the ability to right click on an object and Sell, Hide, Gift, Destroy or whatever.
  • The ability to create Hidden stats. This is true for character as well, but in the case of objects it is even more important, it would allow modders to create all manner of mysterious and supernatural effects for objects. The thought that hidden stats exist at all would be enough to create unease in a player picking up a Doom Sword or whatever
  • The ability to Hide an object. This would invalidate most or all of its bonuses, but would also make it harder/impossible to steal or loot. Would be the object equivalent of Go Into Hiding for characters.
  • The ability for an object to become Lost. A lost object could have a fixed/variable chance of turning up in the same/distant province at some future date. Seed each start date with a few well chosen "Roman Swords", "Dragon Bones" (dinosaur fossils), "Holy Relics" and the like and get a free set of random events for mid and late game.
  • The ability to combine objects to create a third object or effect. Actually, scratch that - any modder could simply create an event that fires if and only if the player has the Sword of Attila plus Helm of Pericles plus Breastplate of Alexander or whatever to give the player a certain modifier or trait.
  • The ability to set objects as portable or static - for example the Stone of Scone can be stolen and taken away, but the Kaaba can't

Again, the potential for this new mechanic is immense - two solid thumbs up !
 
  • 2
  • 1
Reactions: