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CK3: Tours and Tournaments - The Vision

Greetings!

Come one, come all! The grand tournament awaits your attendance - your steeds have been readied and your entourage assembled for the journey ahead! It’s time to show the world your graciousness as host and worth in the arena… but to get there, we’re better off routing our journey around the treacherous mountain passes of Stipon, as I hear they’ve been crawling with highwaymen since your, ahem, dalliance with Duke Andronikos’ wife during his son's wedding. Then there’s the matter of your unruly vassals: perhaps it’s time for a royal tour?

The life of a ruler was always active - there were many things to attend to, and most courts at the time were itinerant, roaming from place to place constantly. Tours and Tournaments aims to give rulers plenty of things to do, especially during times of peace, by introducing new systems of Travel and Grand Activities!

As mentioned in the Floorplan Dev Diary, we want to reinforce the connection between character and map - after all, the game is played on a beautiful medieval map, and no longer will the only time your ruler leaves the safety of their capital be when you’re at war. There’s an entire world out there to explore, filled with both great opportunities and adventurous obstacles.

By assembling an entourage, selecting options for your travel, and hiring a caravan master, you are ready to set out on the road and travel to activities across the world. The Travel system is an integral part of activities, with both the host and guests traveling to reach them - creating a stronger feeling of place as you see your route being plotted and your character moving directly on the map.
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[Image: The Duke of Bohemia setting out on a Tour]

So what are these activities you can travel to, you ask? There’s plenty - firstly we’ve updated and revamped Feasts, Hunts, and Pilgrimages completely - the bread-and-butter of activities. There’s now a reason to hunt in a specific forest within your domain, as a ferocious wolf or legendary stag might have been spotted there - or a reason to hold a feast in a holding with leisure palaces, as you might need to impress a particularly unruly vassal. Pilgrimages will now be epic journeys, potentially taking years if you’re going far - making it necessary for a regent to rule in your stead. All activities have dedicated interfaces with easily-accessible information and beautiful art to set the scene.

Of course, there are Grand activities that are even more impactful - each of them different in their own magnificent way! They have Options and Intents which affect rewards and what type of content you might encounter. Our aim is to make each activity have a clear purpose and be interesting in its own right, therefore we chose to make Grand Tournaments, Grand Tours, and Grand Weddings - three vastly different activities with vastly different executions and purposes!
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[Image: Example of Activity Types, initial step]

Grand Tournaments are where you go to test your mettle: spectacles to be announced far and wide, with rewards ranging from precious trinkets to fabulous prizes! Grand Tournaments aren’t only for martially-inclined characters - while there are contests such as melees and jousts, there are also more cerebral ones such as recitals or erudite board games. You can join your knights in slippery wrestling, eagle-eyed archery, dangerous horse racing, and vicious team melees - all clad in gleaming armor brandishing your coat of arms for the masses to see! Participating and winning in these contests will see your characters and knights grow in skill and receive prizes; living the life of a frequent tournament-goer is a valid path to take. Exploring the tournament Locale and choosing the right Intents might help you out in other ways as well, be it finding friends or dispatching rivals. If you’re in need of renown, hosting tournaments yourself will grow your standing significantly, as rulers from foreign realms come flocking to the fateful grounds, eager to compete!
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[Image: Snapshot of part of the Tournament UI. Tournaments, unlike other Grand Activities, have an extra special interface - more on that in the Tournaments Dev Diary]

Grand Tours see you assemble your entire court and set out to visit vassals in your realm - an activity commonly undertaken by medieval rulers. This is a way to assert your overlordship, while also enjoying the hospitality your vassals have to offer. There are various paths to take: Intimidation, Majesty, or Taxation, all affecting the rewards and opinions of your vassals. At its core, Tours are a tool for realm stability - and something a newly-ascended ruler should undertake quite early to avoid factions and revolts. You also get to choose between ways of approaching your vassals individually; you might want to tour the grounds, observe a cultural festival, or simply have a private dinner hosted for you.

Grand Weddings allow you to marry above your station… if you’re willing to pay the cost! They also provide ample opportunity for diplomatic shenanigans, such as impressing neighboring rulers into becoming vassals, forming hard-to-get alliances, or creating favorable matches for your children. Of course, these spectacles come with everything you’d expect out of a medieval ceremony - revelries, drama, and even a bedding ritual at the end. Or you can invite a group of mercenaries to color the halls crimson with the blood of the other House, should you desire it.
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[Image: Planning a Grand Wedding]

As some of you managed to cleverly figure out, there’s also a brand-new regency system where we’ve made sure that it’s both interesting to have and to be a regent. Loyal regents help you by dutifully fulfilling their Mandates, and being the regent of your liege gives you opportunities to (with varying degrees of bloodshed) seize the throne for yourself, should you be doing a “good” job.

There’s also a myriad of other changes which we’ll go into in future dev diaries - smaller systemic updates to buildings, knights, vassal opinions, and so on - all to support a more interesting and living map, where your choices matter more.

So take to the road, ruler - great opportunities await!

Tours and Tournaments will be released in late spring, and until the release we will have weekly Dev Diaries.

Don’t forget to wishlist:
Wishlist on Steam
Microsoft Store

Watch the trailer here!
 
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Add in new feature not in CK2: why aren't the devs adding in things from CK2?

Add in CK2 feature: why are we paying for something that CK2 already had?

But seriously I have never understand the 'mechanics vs roleplaying' argument. Name a DLC which doesn't do both: reapers due added new mechanics and enhanced roleplaying, Conclave added mechanics and enhanced roleplaying. Only addition which is pure roleplaying are the events packs like Friends and Foes.
 
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Niall9 said:
Add in new feature not in CK2: why aren't the devs adding in things from CK2?

Add in CK2 feature: why are we paying for something that CK2 already had?

But seriously I have never understand the 'mechanics vs roleplaying' argument. Name a DLC which doesn't do both: reapers due added new mechanics and enhanced roleplaying, Conclave added mechanics and enhanced roleplaying. Only addition which is pure roleplaying are the events packs like Friends and Foes.
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Agreed. It's always funny seeing people complaining about Royal Court and then conveniently ignoring one of the biggest parts of the DLC, the culture mechanic rework.

Another reason I've also never understood the mechanics vs. roleplaying argument is that the Crusader Kings franchise has always fundamentally had roleplaying as part of its core, and that's what makes it different from other Paradox games and really other strategy games in general. So roleplaying has always been part of the mechanics, so adding more roleplaying is adding to the game mechanically.
 
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wilcoxchar said:
Agreed. It's always funny seeing people complaining about Royal Court and then conveniently ignoring one of the biggest parts of the DLC, the culture mechanic rework.

Another reason I've also never understood the mechanics vs. roleplaying argument is that the Crusader Kings franchise has always fundamentally had roleplaying as part of its core, and that's what makes it different from other Paradox games and really other strategy games in general. So roleplaying has always been part of the mechanics, so adding more roleplaying is adding to the game mechanically.
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I agree with the game being role play, but that can indicate role playing mechanics as well. People are mad because all we are getting are just role playing events. We want more than just events and features that doesn't really have much substance. Adding more congenital traits. More regional decisions, secret societies, regional natural disasters, more buildings, things of that nature.

Also the "role playing" events we are getting doesn't really have an effect. In CK2 you can become infirm, possessed, disfigured, lose a child or gain a really good commander, boost to skills, gain a good trait and get good quality Artifacts. In CK3 most events you only lose like 20 piety or gain a bit a gold. You can just skip passed them and be fine, in CK2 an event can end your campaign if your not being careful or enhance it dramatically. Events felt like they were real events and significant to gameplay.

I agree I do like role playing but I don't want meaningless features that gets repetitive or events that's going to gain me 10 gold or a plus 1% tax modifier, I want some nice role playing mechanics like CK2 that actually adds depth.
 
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PDXOxycoon said:
To quote myself in another thread on the travel system.
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So idk if your the right person to ask, but is it possible to give Knights peace time jobs to do? Like go out and collect taxes, lead patrols of levies to deal with bandits, or something? It seems a bit weird to have a whole host of Elite warriors that have no real means of using their skills when their liege isn't at war.
 
Niall9 said:
Only addition which is pure roleplaying are the events packs like Friends and Foes.
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Not even that is true, because we got the feud mechanic. It is comparatively minor, but still a new mechanic.
 
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wilcoxchar said:
Agreed. It's always funny seeing people complaining about Royal Court and then conveniently ignoring one of the biggest parts of the DLC, the culture mechanic rework.

Another reason I've also never understood the mechanics vs. roleplaying argument is that the Crusader Kings franchise has always fundamentally had roleplaying as part of its core, and that's what makes it different from other Paradox games and really other strategy games in general. So roleplaying has always been part of the mechanics, so adding more roleplaying is adding to the game mechanically.
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Interestingly written post. I would basically agree with you on your premises, but I see the conclusions quite the opposite. I'll try to explain.

I don't think anyone is ignoring the reworking of cultures in RC. On the contrary, I notice that many people who are critical (including me) always mention that the reworking of cultures is the only good thing that RC has brought. But for major DLC, it's not enough. The royal court itself is a great idea in theory, but in reality and in this form it's a very shallow, very often annoying, pretty much pointless feature. If they worked on it and fine-tuned it, it could be very interesting. But they won't do that. Plus, they've also said that they don't plan to add courtrooms events either, so we're stuck with the already repetitive events that just add to the feeling of annoyance and pointlessness. So yes, the reworking of cultures is a great addition, everyone praises it, no one will argue against it, but it does nothing to excuse the rest of it feeling sloppy and unfinished.

But your second claim is more important to me. I agree that CK has always been about roleplaying and I love roleplaying. That's why it's my favorite franchise from Paradox. But roleplaying itself isn't the mechanics. Roleplaying is a style of gameplay that you can achieve by different mechanics. So your conclusion is flawed, it's not that adding more roleplaying means adding mechanics, it's quite the opposite, adding different mechanics adds roleplaying. And here's the problem. Because the developers seem to think that the more spamming popup events, the better the roleplaying. And yet many of those events are so poorly written that they ruin the roleplaying instead. It really doesn't help roleplaying when in the 9th century I get a tinder event (portraits didn't even exist back then), when the courtiers throw me a surprise birthday party (WTF), when I am the ruler of nomads somewhere in the steppe and a vassal calls me to a tavern, or when my wife accuses herself of being unfaithful to herself and complains about herself in the courtroom (two and a half years after release and many such bugs are still not fixed). As for the courtroom, it doesn't help roleplaying either when my tribal pagan sub-Saharan African ruler has the same marble courtroom as a Muslim Arab emperor in the middle east, when most of the artifacts look different than what's in the description (I got a "naked tapestry" of two eagles devouring some animal, great), or when every couple of years someone is looking for a decapitated head in my castle. I'd love it if they added interesting mechanics to encourage roleplaying. But even though the developers claim to be primarily focused on roleplaying, the mechanics added so far are shallow and unfinished at best, and go against roleplaying itself at worst.

But I'm really curious to see what the new DLC will bring. So far it looks interesting. Although since it will be a paid mechanic and the game will have to work without it for people who don't buy the DLC, I'm afraid it will be another shallow mechanic. But I really hope I'm wrong about that.

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Niall9 said:
But seriously I have never understand the 'mechanics vs roleplaying' argument. Name a DLC which doesn't do both: reapers due added new mechanics and enhanced roleplaying, Conclave added mechanics and enhanced roleplaying. Only addition which is pure roleplaying are the events packs like Friends and Foes.
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And that's what many players are missing. Complex mechanics that support roleplaying. If you read up on the mechanics that players want, the Reapers Due and Conclave are the most frequently mentioned DLCs from CK2. All those "anti-roleplaying" complaints are a bit unfortunately worded, because I have no doubt that none of us is against roleplaying, otherwise we wouldn't be playing CK. We just don't like what the developers imagine by roleplaying. Because the most in-demand mechanics like epidemics, the council that matters, the much more important role of the Pope, even the regencies that will be added, are exactly the mechanics that strongly encourage roleplaying (much better than redundant popup events).
 
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HaziTru7 said:
infirm, possessed, disfigured, lose a child
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Literally all of those happened to me before. To be fair, i think infirm only once and losing a child mostly during pregnancy, but it still sometimes happens in events or with illness.
 
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wilcoxchar said:
Agreed. It's always funny seeing people complaining about Royal Court and then conveniently ignoring one of the biggest parts of the DLC, the culture mechanic rework.

Another reason I've also never understood the mechanics vs. roleplaying argument is that the Crusader Kings franchise has always fundamentally had roleplaying as part of its core, and that's what makes it different from other Paradox games and really other strategy games in general. So roleplaying has always been part of the mechanics, so adding more roleplaying is adding to the game mechanically.
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The culture mechanic is the best part of Royal Court, none deny that. But that still does not mean culture is the main part of the DLC, while the RC is just a bonus. The devs still did spend time, efforts and money into an unappreciated feature instead of a better one.
Secondly, neither the RC nor the culture mechanic really add any roleplaying value. Cultures certainly aren't created by the decision of a single person like in the game.
 
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naq29 said:
Cultures certainly aren't created by the decision of a single person like in the game.
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You're semi-wrong on that one. First of all, The cultural acceptance + hybridisation is intended to directly emulate the organic component of cultures.

Secondly, many cultures have serious long term changes, because of individual leaders decisions. See chinese history and foot binding. For hundreds of years (almost) every single young, noble girls feet were broken and tied. Every woman that went through that lived in perpetual agony, because it was deemed a beauty ideal by a very small group of elites in the Song dynasty. This practice eventually spread to the wider population and later generations of leaders had a hard time abolishing it, because it was so deeply embedded in the culture.
Culture is always very influenced by powerful people representing and leading it. It usually doesn't flip within a generation, but the initial kick-off often comes from only a small group of influential people.
 
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SeraphAscending said:
You're semi-wrong on that one. First of all, The cultural acceptance + hybridisation is intended to directly emulate the organic component of cultures.

Secondly, many cultures have serious long term changes, because of individual leaders decisions. See chinese history and foot binding. For hundreds of years (almost) every single young, noble girls feet were broken and tied. Every woman that went through that lived in perpetual agony, because it was deemed a beauty ideal by a very small group of elites in the Song dynasty. This practice eventually spread to the wider population and later generations of leaders had a hard time abolishing it, because it was so deeply embedded in the culture.
Culture is always very influenced by powerful people representing and leading it. It usually doesn't flip within a generation, but the initial kick-off often comes from only a small group of influential people.
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Of course the higher class did influence cultures a lot, but I mean you can't really roleplay it ingame by clicking a button and create a new culture immediately like that. The Song did not turn Chinese into Neo-Chinese just by inventing foot binding.
 
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wilcoxchar said:
Agreed. It's always funny seeing people complaining about Royal Court and then conveniently ignoring one of the biggest parts of the DLC, the culture mechanic rework.

Another reason I've also never understood the mechanics vs. roleplaying argument is that the Crusader Kings franchise has always fundamentally had roleplaying as part of its core, and that's what makes it different from other Paradox games and really other strategy games in general. So roleplaying has always been part of the mechanics, so adding more roleplaying is adding to the game mechanically.
Click to expand...

naq29 said:
The culture mechanic is the best part of Royal Court, none deny that. But that still does not mean culture is the main part of the DLC, while the RC is just a bonus. The devs still did spend time, efforts and money into an unappreciated feature instead of a better one.
Secondly, neither the RC nor the culture mechanic really add any roleplaying value. Cultures certainly aren't created by the decision of a single person like in the game.
Click to expand...

The cultural rework is part of the free patch that came along with Royal Court, not a part of the dlc itself. You don’t need RC to enjoy the current culture features.
 
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BaronMouths said:
The cultural rework is part of the free patch that came along with Royal Court, not a part of the dlc itself. You don’t need RC to enjoy the current culture features.
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While you’re right, I think those comments are about the CK3’s teams interest in developing mechanical content.

Many are suggesting that RC and the announcement of T&T suggest the team aren’t creating/have little interest in mechanical content - and (I think) those comments are pointing out that, taking development work as a whole (rather than only looking at paid content), the team’s record is more balanced than it might otherwise appear.
 
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naq29 said:
Of course the higher class did influence cultures a lot, but I mean you can't really roleplay it ingame by clicking a button and create a new culture immediately like that. The Song did not turn Chinese into Neo-Chinese just by inventing foot binding.
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Culture is always changing. Stuff the upper class does becomes imitated by lower classes. Culture hybridization happens when two groups have intermixed and exchanged culture so much that the two group a so similar to each other that they see themselves as one. If you meet the requirements and choose not to initiate yourself, an event will pop up that can create a hybrid culture. The button press is the ruler declaring that the two groups are so close that they have merged into a new culture.

Neo as part of a culture would be used in a hybrid culture. Adding a new tradition does not change the culture into a new culture.
 
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BaronMouths said:
The cultural rework is part of the free patch that came along with Royal Court, not a part of the dlc itself. You don’t need RC to enjoy the current culture features.
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This isn't really correct. Cultures don't hybridize or diverge and you can't reform a culture unless you have the DLC. The only thing the patch adds for you to do is add traditions to empty slots.
 
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'Ciusi said:
Interestingly written post. I would basically agree with you on your premises, but I see the conclusions quite the opposite. I'll try to explain.

I don't think anyone is ignoring the reworking of cultures in RC.
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I'm going to stop you right here, because I have seen so, so many complaints on this forum that allege Royal Court adds nothing but events and fluff that this is simply wrong. Yes, a lot of people are completely ignoring the culture rework in Royal Court when complaining about it.
 
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