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Dev Diary #117 - Shave and a Map Mode

Hello everyone!

My name is Jens and this is my first appearance on this forum. I’ve got the opportunity to share some details with you on my probation project for CK3, which is making it all the way into the upcoming release (because that’s where I pushed my changes, lol)!

I’m happy at least one of you caught on to the subtle hint in the previous DD. I was like “Wokeg, did you use my new thing to set up the screenshots?” Well yes, because all of a sudden most assets and characters have become way more accessible. So what is it I’m talking about? At this point, most of you have probably guessed it - but yes, we have upgraded our old friend the Barbershop.

I’ve scrambled through the webs looking for feedback and wishes of what you would like and expect from such a tool. Heck, no mediocre fix would do: I want only the best for you! I distilled the info down, looking for the essence of how you’d want to use the tool, set up the tasks, prioritized them, and spent the last few weeks going through them all. Well, I’ll spare you the fluff. Let’s get into some details.

First off, we have expanded the Barbershop into two tabs. The first is focused on changing the appearance of your character. Additionally, I’ve added a fuzzy search box next to the drop downs, in case you already know the name of what you’re looking for.

barbershop1.png

[Image: Barbershop, tab for changing appearance]


In the second tab, we’ve added drag and drop support for the portraits, so you may click, drag and place them wherever you want. You can also rotate them 360 degrees and we’ve also got 4 different zoom levels for you to play around with. Every character has their own dropdown of poses and animations and we’ve also added a wide variety of backgrounds. The only limit now is your own imagination.

barbershop2.png

[Image: Barbershop, tab for placing characters in the scene]


One of the big reasons we play is to create stories and make memories. I took a deep dive into the forum history and found out some of you want to use the Barbershop to relive past events between characters, dress up a serious ruler in a funny outfit or take family photos. To support this I’ve added presets. The “Custom” preset lets you import characters simply by pinning them. Another preset I really wanted in (based on a comment) was an easy way to view your entire Council, so for that end I present to you:

barbershop3.png

[Image: Barbershop, easily view your council]


Also, note the council preset supports modding if that’s your thing.

barbershop-script.png

[Image: Barbershop script]


With only a few polish tasks left, people have already begun discovering this tool in-house and started trolling and meme-ing each other. I hope you guys will enjoy the new Barbershop as much as we do. Let me know if you have any last minute requests and I will see what I can do. Now @rageair also has something in store for you.




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Greetings! In addition to the above we also want to show some additions to our collection of Map Modes - namely the introduction of the Control and Economy map modes! These two new tools are very useful in managing your realm… and planning your conquests.

map-modes.png

[Image - New Map Mode Buttons]


The Control map mode is very straightforward, showing you exactly what you’d expect. It spans from a dark purple (denoting very low control) to a light yellow (showing just a slight lack of control), and a bright white shows where there’s Absolute Control.

control-map.png

[Image: Control Map mode Example]


The Economy map mode is a little bit less straightforward - but we aspired to make it as useful as possible. The nebulous concept of ‘economy’ is a bit harder to represent, but we decided to include what most of us thought were key factors in making informed decisions.

econ-map-france.png

[Image: Economy Map mode Example, Southern France]


Similar to the Development Map mode, the color spans from dark purple to bright yellow; bright yellow indicates an area is quite rich. The area colors are based on Counties, including income from Cities, Bishoprics, and so on - for an overall approximation of the County’s use to the player (of course, Counties with more Castles might be better in the eyes of some, but we had to make a call and thought that this was the most useful overall). This coloring is relative to the state of the world, meaning that the most brilliant yellow County is the richest one in the world at that moment. This map mode doesn’t care about the current Control Level of the County, which makes it useful for planning conquest targets.

econ-map-india.png

[Image: Economy map mode, showing India]


Something else that you no-doubt notice is that Special Buildings are shown on this map mode! They’ve been hidden away for much too long, and we decided that this was an excellent time to reveal them… and maybe add a handful of new ones. Getting Special Buildings in your domain was always a fun goal for the player to achieve, and now it’s not only possible to see where they are - but also whether you can use them, if they are already built, what they provide, and so on!

As an added bonus, we’ve added an absolute ton of new mines strewn around the map, and we’ve also revised the system for founding Universities - now it’s no longer a decision, but rather the institutions are constructed as normal special buildings (and in many more places than before!), with the same rewards on offer.

This means that there are many, many more great capital locations strewn across the world, and it’s now easier than ever to find them!

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That’s it for this time! But stay tuned… our spymaster sends word that what’s next for Crusader Kings III will soon be announced! Make sure to mark Monday next week, March 6th, in your calendars and visit this link!

 
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Greetings! In addition to the above we also want to show some additions to our collection of Map Modes - namely the introduction of the Control and Economy map modes! These two new tools are very useful in managing your realm… and planning your conquests.

View attachment 951636
[Image - New Map Mode Buttons]


The Control map mode is very straightforward, showing you exactly what you’d expect. It spans from a dark purple (denoting very low control) to a light yellow (showing just a slight lack of control), and a bright white shows where there’s Absolute Control.
Wait a minute. The control map is already in the game. When we select a marshal task to increase control, a county control map appears.
 

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Wait a minute. The control map is already in the game. When we select a marshal task to increase control, a county control map appears.
Yeah, but this one shows control levels outside of your realm (at least I think that the marshal task one doesn't, correct me if I'm wrong).
 
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Well. The Barbershop and the Map modes are fun.

But I think sooner or later someone will bring out a Shaving-Minigame for hairy rulers in it. God shave the King?
 
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Ok, I love what I'm seeing. I expected more on regencies, but well, I love what I see. Can't deny that.

On that note, since we're already talking about how things look and showing more things... may I ask if there are any plans to allow ultrawide resolution in throne rooms? Currently 21:9 (or higher) isn't supported in throne room view, we have those black areas to the left and right. Which is a shame, I might add, as the rest of the game looks fabulous on higher resolutions.
 
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Here's some bonus Barbershop images for you folks

View attachment 951730

Nice, looks like there are some new animations/3D objects on the horizon. From a glace here is what I noticed from these pictures:
  • Bow and arrow + animation
  • New armor
  • Another appearance of the COA/Heraldry armor
  • New flower crown
  • New disfigured mask? ( Guy on the left side in the iberian photo from Trinexx) This is just the nose of his helmet

    Subtle, but cool stuff!
 
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That's some cool stuff !

A little worry however: right now the rulers can very quickly drown in their own wealth. AI manage their treasury better and players often extract the better of their land (all the more with stewardship focus).
Furthermore the court expenses are not very heavy and except if you are warring heavily, war expenses are not prone to ruin you quickly, hence you can already have no financial problems forever very fast !

Wont these new mines make the financial balancing problem worse ?
 
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I really hope these are just the tip of the iceberg for all of the new features the patch and DLC will have.

I mean the barbershop and map modes are items that people have asked for but I hope it’s not the meat of a “large” DLC.
 
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Wait a minute. The control map is already in the game. When we select a marshal task to increase control, a county control map appears.

It's not actually the same, tho. The map for the marshall only shows shades of red - and, well, grey/white when it is at 100% - it doesn't have the granularity this new one has as I understand.
 
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Are these additions part of the free update or the yet announced DLC ?
Improved Barbershop and map modes are in the free update for the upcoming update.

Does the introduction of the new economy tab on the map mean that you will someday make the economy a little more complex and at least a little more population-based than it is now, or will it just be a county income map?
Maybe some more complexity in the future, but not as detailed as making it pops based like V3 is.

Wait a minute. The control map is already in the game. When we select a marshal task to increase control, a county control map appears.
This is a bit upgraded and made available without having to select the marshal task beforehand. You can see other people's county control. It's also not quite the same as the one being used when you select the marshal task.
 
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Ok, I love what I'm seeing. I expected more on regencies, but well, I love what I see. Can't deny that.

On that note, since we're already talking about how things look and showing more things... may I ask if there are any plans to allow ultrawide resolution in throne rooms? Currently 21:9 (or higher) isn't supported in throne room view, we have those black areas to the left and right. Which is a shame, I might add, as the rest of the game looks fabulous on higher resolutions.

No plans for that for now. Currently scene and its camera FoV is set just for default 16:9/10 aspect ration, and changing it to ultrawide would require quite a bit of rework and rethinking of the scene. Just naively enabling a wider scene will introduce ugly perspective distortions on the sides, and everything will look smaller, more distant and much less impressive
 
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Being able to see where Special Buildings see is such a great QoL addition.

I think we need a group picture of flower crowns, though, for a fully complete DD.;)
 
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Amazing changes, the barbershop looks awesome and it's great to see the special buildings on the map!

Will it be possible to change the color of the clothes in the barbershop? This is probably the most requested feature. I don't think it's possible to choose a specific color because there are probably a couple of predefined options, but at least some button allowing to randomly generate a new color option would be cool. Now our ruler has to spend his entire life with the color generated at his birth.

Also, the changes to universities sounds interesting. I think it doesn't quite make sense that they have predefined locations the way other special buildings do, because in our gameplay we may have completely different centres of learning and education in the world than they were in reality. But that would probably require too much work for something so insignificant. So more places for universities (hopefully spread out more evenly in different areas of the map) is a good change.
 
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Do the new flower crowns suggest some increased mechanics/flavour around weddings?
Oh yeah, weddings, baptisms, coronations... I want those!

EDIT: Basically, this game will turn into The Sims: Crusader Kings [aka Crusader Sims].
 
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This was a very great Dev Diary this time around. I'm extremely excited about the new special buildings and universities. That's definitely going to make the flow of tactics/strategy in the game better, and provide some more variety in capital locations for the player. Hopefully it'll also give the AI some more ability to improve their own economies too.
 
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I really hope these are just the tip of the iceberg for all of the new features the patch and DLC will have.

I mean the barbershop and map modes are items that people have asked for but I hope it’s not the meat of a “large” DLC.
This is all clearly a part of the free update. I highly doubt they'd sell us quality of life improvements.
 
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I mean the barbershop and map modes are items that people have asked for but I hope it’s not the meat of a “large” DLC.
Considering the annoucement show next week, we cannot really go into the meat of what's coming ahead of the annoucement itself ;) We can show you some of the other things though :)
 
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