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CK3 Dev Diary #81 - A tour of your Royal Court (Interface)

Hello there, and welcome to the eighty-first CK3 Dev Diary!

Today we are going to look at the experience of admiring your Royal Court, one of the paid features of the Expansion with the same name.

Most of the actual mechanics of the expansion should already be familiar to you if you have read previous Dev Diaries. I will refer back to these Dev Diaries where appropriate, so you can see this as a bit of a summary of what it means to preside over your own Royal Court.

That being said, we are going to talk a bit about Court Types, a minor feature for your Royal Court

Visiting your Royal Court​

When you reach the rank of King or Emperor as a Feudal or Clan Ruler, you have laid the foundation for your Royal Court. You can now go to it via a button in the main interface.

This button highlights if there is something interesting to do in your Royal Court at this moment, such as if you have new Court Artifacts.

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You can also view anyone else’s Royal Court via a button next to their Character.

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The Throne Room​

Your Royal Court is split into three segments: Throne Room, Court Grandeur, and Court Artifacts

When you enter your Royal Court, you end up in your Throne Room.

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Here you can see various petitioners or other goings-on in your Court, and you can choose to interact with them. These types of events are described in Dev Diary 75. If any Inspired Characters are present or have projects in progress, they are also shown here, on the left side of the screen.

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If there is not enough going on here, you can also choose to Hold Court, inviting Courtiers and Vassals across the Realm to grovel before you (which was shown in Dev Diary 72).

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If this is your Liege’s Court, you can even approach them to hear your reasonable requests, as seen in Dev Diary 74.

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Grandeur and Amenities​

Moving on to the second part of your Royal Court, which is an overview of your Court Grandeur. How much you have, various factors affecting it, and so on.

Grandeur was explained a while ago, in Dev Diary 61. Basically, it is a measure of how well known your Court is, and each Level gives you further benefits.

Your current Grandeur, Grandeur Baseline, and unlocked Grandeur Levels are shown on the large bar in the center.

In the image below, we can see we are gaining Grandeur every month due to being below our Baseline.

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Our current Level is 4: while we do not have enough Grandeur to maintain this Level, we had unlocked it before, and it will thus stay unlocked for 6 months, regardless how much Grandeur we have.

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We can also see that our expected Grandeur Level is 7, which we are nowhere near fulfilling.

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Grandeur is also reflected in other ways. If you have high Grandeur, the UI looks more luxurious, and new (non-Artifact) furniture appears in your court.

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A large source of Grandeur is which Amenities are available to your Courtiers and visitors to your court. Providing excellent Amenities is sure to make your name well known across the world.

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There are two other factors affecting Grandeur, Court Language and Court Types. Court Language was already explained in Dev Diary 78, so let’s talk about Court Types.

Court Types​

With Court Types, you can choose which kind of Royal Court you want to foster. Perhaps one where martial prowess is admired, or where there is a whisper around every corner and a lover behind every curtain.

You always have the choice between two Court Types, based on the Ethos of your Culture, and changing it costs Prestige. If your Culture changes, you can still keep your old Court Type.

The type of Royal Court affects two things: what you get from your Grandeur Level, and what your Courtiers get from being part of the Court.

While some Grandeur Levels you reach are always the same regardless of your Court Type, some change somewhat. So, in a Diplomatic Court, Grandeur Level 4 may see you gaining less Tyranny, while in a Warlike Court, you may gain more Levies.

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As for Courtiers, each Courtier who stays at an especially Grand Royal Court for a certain period of time (5 years) will gain a special Courtier Trait based on the Court Type

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Each Trait of this type has two different levels. If your Court is at Grandeur Level 5, Courtiers get the first level, while the second level will appear at Grandeur Level 8. The second level comes with extra bonuses and can be especially useful for those you plan to be your Vassals.

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Court Artifacts​

Last but certainly not least, are the Court Artifacts. We showed a few of them off in Dev Diary 69.

In short, Court Artifacts are a special type of Artifacts. These are large furniture and other decorative items you display inside your Royal Court. This makes them distinct from your Inventory Artifacts described in last week's Dev Diary as you are not hauling them around everywhere.

When entering this part of the Royal Court, you can see all spots where you can place Court Artifacts

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Just like Inventory Artifacts, they give you a bonus if they are actively on display in your Royal Court. The primary purpose of Court Artifacts is to increase your Court Grandeur, but some have additional effects.

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For most Court Artifacts, there is more than one slot to place them. Perhaps that tapestry would look better on that other wall?

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End of the Tour​


That is all for this week, thank you for reading!
 

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The difference between a Level 0 Grandeur Court, and a Level 10 Grandeur Court (if that's indeed what we're being shown) is... pretty minor. A rug and a couple of wall lamps? Is this an accurate depiction of the differences between the minimum and maximum levels of Grandeur visually?

Also two things that stand out to me: the characters don't have shadows, which looks odd. Also, the King sat on the throne is so high up that his legs are kinda dangling like a little boy. Is it supposed to look like that?

Conceptually: this stuff is all fantastic, and I'm looking forward to playing with it. Visually, it's looking a little lacklustre if I'm honest.
 
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Am I losing my mind or have they changed the dress type for Polabians/Pommeranians from western to northern? If that's the case I'd be quiet open to the idea:) I just hope the czechs, sloviens and caranthanians retain the western dress as it fits them way better! For the Polish I'm a bit torn... It's a minor detail but what do you guys think?:)
 
Looking at the screenshots I notice that furniture is not throwing any shadows (only the throne does, but not the artifact display stands)? Its kind of immersion killing. Should be easy to accomplish since those are static shadows that can be baked in. Also, I notice that characters throw shadow form the light that comes in from the windows, but not from the fire place. There is a person standing right in front of the fireplace without any shadow....I guess that must be a vampire. ;-)
 
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I look forward to this development diary every week!

Can the court types be added by mods? Also, how customizable is it?
For example, is it possible to create a special court type for a particular culture, religion, or region?
 
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Nice to see how everything comes together. This makes the whole court system seem more coherent and worth investing in.
 
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The difference between a Level 0 Grandeur Court, and a Level 10 Grandeur Court (if that's indeed what we're being shown) is... pretty minor. A rug and a couple of wall lamps? Is this an accurate depiction of the differences between the minimum and maximum levels of Grandeur visually?
There's also a bench!
 
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Very nice.
 
Am I losing my mind or have they changed the dress type for Polabians/Pommeranians from western to northern? If that's the case I'd be quiet open to the idea:) I just hope the czechs, sloviens and caranthanians retain the western dress as it fits them way better! For the Polish I'm a bit torn... It's a minor detail but what do you guys think?
Well that's simple. Slavs that aren't heavily influenced by Germans should have their new type of clothing
 
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Thanks or the insight.

My question would be how many diffrent visual styles there are. I mean not martial, diplomatic but rather cultural. In the images are two. A more european and a more african, arabian one. Do we get something special for the vikings?

Is the DLC for example upgraded in that regard? Would be strange to have the same as the rest of Europe. This is one of my few complaints since the Nomad factions have still western european castles when going feudal etc. It's a bit immersion breaking,
They already announced that Euro, Mediterrannean, MENA and Indian would be the Court styles RC would launch with.

Nothing more revealed so far
 
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When in the court screen dealing with court events, I assume the game is paused (it looks like it in the screenshots) but how would it work in a multiplayer ? Would we have to pause for everybody or do we deal with he court events while the rest of the players do their thing ?
The game will pause in single player when you open the royal court view, but continue while in MP.

Court mechanics will not be available for tribal kingdoms?
The Royal Court is only available for clan and feudal kingdoms and empires.
Can the court types be added by mods? Also, how customizable is it?
Court types are moddable, and they have their own script files for you to peruse and change.
 
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Although the features are really cool (even if they can become quite repetitive, especially Holding Court, but okay, modders will easily fix that eventually), I think the Royal Court is not that impressive. Especially the change from CG level 0 to 10, it adds a few bits (as somebody else already pointed out), and this is actually disappointing: it doesn't feel a Royal Court, but more a storage closet in some details (this wants to be a constructive criticism, not a provocation).
However, looking forward to release, artifacts and court grandeur seem to be very gamechanging!
 
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Nice RPG element to the game. Very nice.

Next I hope we will see some economy patch and focus on building your realm and expanding without waging wars non stop.
 
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Why are there two levels of the courtier traits, but three levels of other lifestyle feats?

Do independent rulers lose the courtier trait? Perhaps they should, if not, every single heir will have a trait like that.
 
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Love it. Tho i see why it needs to be hold till next year :p My only problem is that i can hardly see any change betwen grandeur lev 0 and 10 in those European courts... this musilim level 6 is imo way richer then even this 10 Eu. Imo would be great if materials used for example walls and roofing chaneged with growth of grandeur. Like on lev 1-3 only wooden walls with some paint. From 4-7 some aditional stone layers and 8-10 beautifully smoothed walls with frescoes ect.
 
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I'm sure this has been asked before, but I can't remember. Is there any way to upgrade your throne? If not, is it something that could potentially be added at some point?
 
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I'm sure this has been asked before, but I can't remember. Is there any way to upgrade your throne? If not, is it something that could potentially be added at some point?
It can be crafted so, by getting someone to make you a better one I assume?
 
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