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Dev Diary #125 – The Most Valiant of Them All

Knights, Accolades and Glory​

Hey! We’re CK’s resident gang of big, beefy, vascular knight bannerets and we’re here to talk knights! Specifically, the brand-new Accolades feature. So slap on your jerkin, grab your bodkin, strap on your slaying-sword, and don’t you dare get distracted by any damsels in distress.

Accolades are about adding depth and flavor to knight management, giving you cause to care about the low-ranked NPCs you’re sending to untimely deaths. This is a smaller feature, but it’s an excellent tie-in to the new Activity System, particularly Grand Tournaments. Activities are ideal less-than-lethal reasons to get your knights out of the house, and get them known as the budding warriors and leaders they are.

Hey, is this just adding more Knight Effectiveness?​

No. But your knights will probably get a few new things to offer the battlefield.

What’s an Accolade?​

“In death thy glory in heaven, in victory thy glory on earth. Arise therefore, Arjuna, with thy soul ready to fight” - The Bhagavad-Gita

An Accolade represents the special honors - the eminent status - a liege affords to a favored knight. It represents an awe-inspiring reputation passed through generations of fighters; as Accolades improve over time (and as more storied martial deeds are done), they offer more bonuses to the knights who hold them and to their liege (you).

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[Image: Accolades reside at the top of the Knights Window]

By spending prestige to create an Accolade on a worthy knight, you make the character your Acclaimed Knight. They serve just as normal knights do, with no additional effects but those provided by their Accolade Attributes (I’ll get to those shortly).

Here’s what creating an Accolade looks like:

02-create-accolade.png

[Image: Pictured: who you can Acclaim and what’s so very praiseworthy about them]

Note that not all your knights are shown as Accolade candidates here. Only unlanded and baron-rank knights can become Acclaimed Knights. Candidates must also have at least 8 prowess - nobody wants them constantly dying of incompetence. Finally, they have to be eligible for at least two Accolade Attributes.

Accolade Attributes​

“He who would tell divers tales must know how to vary the tune.” - Marie de France

Accolade Attributes reflect the traits, skills or other qualities of your knights that make them stand out. They’re the source of Accolade bonuses, which scale as knights gain Glory (a new stat: Accolade XP).

Every Accolade has two Attributes. The Ranks earned through Glory gain alternately provide one Attributes’ bonus and then the other’s. So, if your Accolade has a Mentor Attribute, you’ll gain the Mentor’s aid to their fellow knights only with every second increase in Rank.

Some Attributes simply herald an element of a knight’s personality and, while they can be interesting, aren’t particularly impressive. Others (like the aforementioned Mentor) depend on the knight being exceptional and, in return, offer potent men-at-arms modifiers, lifestyle trait boosts, etc.

Let’s check out some Attributes.

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[Image: The lowest-level Outrider Attribute bonuses]

The Outrider, shown above, is mostly about boosting light cavalry. Below, you can see what its effects look like when they reach their max. If you’re interested in these kinds of Men-at-Arms bonuses: there’s more on that later in the Dev Diary, including a hot scoop on special Accolade MaA units.

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[Image: The highest-level Outrider Attribute bonuses]

To be an Outrider, your knight needs the Open Terrain Expert trait or XP in the Horse track of the shiny new Hastiluder tiered trait (gained from Grand Tournament participation). Being, say, a salt-of-the-earth Thug is more common. Wrathful, Arbitrary, Impatient, Arrogant and Reaver characters all qualify.

The Thug’s is not exactly a rich lineup of bonuses. But hey, if you’re a bad guy, you might still want a Thug on your side!

05-thug.png

[Image: the lowest-level Thug Attribute bonus]

06-thug-max.png

[Image: The highest-level Thug Attribute bonuses]

Given knights are a liege’s military muscle, most Accolade bonuses are martial and army-focused. Nonetheless, for those more interested in singing chansons than cleaving skulls, there’s Acclaimed Knights like the rare Master of Revels:

07-revels.png

[Image: The lowest-level Master of Revels Attribute bonuses]

08-revels-max.png

[Image: The highest-level Master of Revels Attribute bonuses]

If you find yourself curious about Attributes, a full list with requirements and effects are listed in the in-game Encyclopedia. Have a Marauder and Thug-led gang of bully-boys backing you up, if you wish - or get yourself a Tactician and a House Paragon!

One thing to clear up: while it’s possible to have multiple Acclaimed Knights, you may only ever have one instance of each Accolade Attribute. Let’s keep the modifier stacking reasonable, folks.

09-an-accolade.png

[Image: An Accolade]

The Accolade View​

You’ve created an Accolade. It’s visible above your knights list. When opened, you’re faced with the Accolade’s name, its Acclaimed Knight, the Successor (if one’s been found), its Attributes, and the bonuses it provides.

Note that your Accolades can be freely renamed, just in case the randomly-filled templates like “The Sword of Death” or “Senior Knight of the Polish Guard” don't do it for you.

And the track in the middle is showing… Glory? That’s XP, right?

Glory​

“He who does more is of greater worth” - Geoffroi de Charny, The Book of Chivalry

Heck yeah, XP. Glory is gained whenever something happens that might make your Acclaimed Knight and their Accolade more respected, more famed and glorious, in the eyes of loyal warrior and hateful foe alike. Accolade Rank is increased with Glory; they’re what provide you with the good stuff.

Here’s a list of common Glory sources for an Acclaimed Knight:
  • Fighting in winning battles
  • Wounding/killing other knights in battle
  • Winning single combats
  • Attending Activities with their liege
  • Participating in/winning Tournament Contests
  • Their liege winning wars against higher-ranked war targets

On that last point: indeed, the feat of besting an Emperor as a Count nets the Count’s Acclaimed Knights a tasty bit of extra Glory. This amount varies based on the size of the war target and the Casus Belli type.

10-glory-gain.png

[Image: Glory gain on victory… should this victory somehow happen]

Some new events will also provide opportunities to increase your Accolade’s Glory. This may be the knight-iest one of all:

11-training-montage.png

[Image: An imminent training montage]

12-tooltip.png

[Image: Tooltip of Option A, with Accolades shown in its bottom two entries]

Glory will not accrue endlessly; it is also sometimes lost. This happens when knights lose battles, are defeated, and on Accolade Succession. The last one might seem harsh, but can you really expect a brand-new Acclaimed Knight to command the same respect as their predecessor? Give them some time.

13-lolnoob.png

[Image: A n00b.]

Accolade Succession​

“For I have promised to do the battle to the uttermost, by faith of my body, while me lasteth the life, and therefore I had liefer to die with honour than to live with shame” - Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur

Knights die. It’s a hazard of the job. If Accolades, as a system, were about the rise of an individual knight’s personal legend, it’d necessitate a lot of frustration and loss of investment. Therefore, Accolades carry on from master to pupil, from Acclaimed Knight to Successor.

Accolade Successors are filled in automatically, but the Accolade’s liege is free to remove them and select replacements.

14-accolade-succession.png

[Image: Successor requirements and candidates]

What if one has no valid Successors among their knights? Well, willing players can try to recruit characters who fulfill Attribute requirements, by hook (literally and otherwise) or marriage offer.

But if poring through character lists is not your cup of tea, never fear!

Seek Worthy Accolade Successor​

“Your prowess, Roland, is a curse on our heads” - The Song of Roland

Worried that one day your Acclaimed Knight will be dead and gone? For a nominal prestige cost, a brand new Accolade Successor can be yours!

15-seek-successor.png

[Image: This Interaction is available from the Successor window]

16-successor-found.png

[Image: Top-quality chivalric virtue, on demand!]

There is a bit of fine print to Seek Worthy Accolade Successor, including a fair amount of cooldown. Also, Successors will not necessarily fulfill both of an Accolade’s Attributes, and when that happens - things get funky.

Primary & Secondary Attributes​

Accolades all have two Attributes. First displayed is the Primary, the core of the Accolade’s identity, which will never change. Below is the Secondary Attribute, which Successors aren’t required to qualify for. Successors must simply fulfill the Primary Attribute requirements (listed in the Successor screen) and qualify for any other Attribute.

An example: you create an Accolade with a Politicker Primary Attribute and an Idealist Secondary Attribute. The Accolade is named something warm and fuzzy like “Most Loyal of the Banners”. Then the Acclaimed Knight dies, and guess what? His Successor is no Idealist, he’s a dang Thug! Your new knight is putting his unique unsavory spin on your Politicker Accolade.

On the bright side, the mutability of Secondary Attributes allows you more flexibility with Accolade bonuses. This boon is offset by increased Succession Glory loss whenever an Accolade has to change over to a new Secondary Attribute.

Inactive Accolades​

“Ubi sunt”

What if, god forbid, you fail to find a Successor for your Accolade? Fear not, sweet gamer. The Accolade isn’t destroyed, but rather it becomes Inactive. If you want to free up the slot, you can Retire the Accolade even while it’s still filled by a knight, and it’ll become Inactive.

Clicking on the Inactive Accolades button which, when needed, appears in the Knights and Accolades window will take you here:

17-out-of-commission.png

[Image: Some out-of-commission Accolades]

These Inactive Accolades no longer provide any effects. You may Reinstate them, choosing a knight to fill them when doing so, or delete them if you wish.

But what if you have an Inactive Accolade and there’s no one up to the task of filling it?

The Restore Accolades Decision​

“Are there such heroes among you / Whose bones would not crackle in my fingers?” - The Epic of Jangar

Of course, you’re free to hunt down characters who meet the requirements of your fallen Accolades manually. But this Decision exists to make things a little easier:

18-restore-accolades.png

[Image: SOUND THE HORNS, SEND THE MINSTRELS]

Neat little aside: this Decision first looks to recruit existing characters, but if none available meet requirements, new characters are generated. The new characters’ Skills and Traits will be appropriate for your Accolade’s Primary Attribute. The individual’s culture should be both A) situated realistically near to yours, B) friendly with yours, and C) either suit the Primary Attribute or generally be well-known for exceptional knights. Basically, this just sets up Norman knights appearing as Accolade candidates all over Christendom.

Plus, if you’re Emperor of Byzantium, there’s a decent chance the elite fighting men who show up will be Armenians or Varangians. Pretty neat.

Acclaimed Knights & Grand Tournaments​

Let’s switch gears and talk Tournaments. They’re an outstanding one-stop destination for all things knight. Not only do your Acclaimed Knights stand to gain Glory from competition and victory, but the Hastiluder Trait earned with the honing of warrior skills unlocks powerful Men-at-Arms Attributes. Attend equestrian contests if you’re interested in Attributes like Lancer or Camel Rider; hold dismounted combats to pursue knights like the Vanguard and the Skirmisher, and do some archery to get Archers and Crossbow Captains.

Those particularly interested in improving their stable of knights can attend Tournaments with the Recruit Intent, and improve their odds of going home in chivalrous company.

19-recruit-intent.png

[Image: A Tournament attendee selecting the Recruit Intent]

Interested in your own tale-worthy tournamenting knight? Want an Ulrich von Lichtenstein to dazzle the crowd with skin-tight armor and miraculous skill? Well…

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[Image: Reference reference]

Accolades for Everybody! No, Wait…​

The keen-eyed among you may have noticed earlier there’s but 5 spaces for Accolades in the Knights and Accolades window. This is no mistake: 5 is the maximum number of Acclaimed Knights you’ll ever have simultaneously. And I’m afraid to say you’ll often have far less. Sometimes, even no capacity for Accolades at all.

What gets you from no Accolades at all to a whole squad of Acclaimed Knights? These do:
  • King-tier Rank
  • Emperor-tier Rank
  • Bannus (Innovation)
  • Knighthood (Innovation)
  • Renowned Name (Dynasty Legacy Perk 2)

21-knighthood-innovation.png

[Image: The Knighthood Innovation, looking pretty stronk]

Who is the Most Glorious of Them All?​

“This man was very rich and very proud of his bravery, courage and conspicuous lineage; for every Frank is anxious to outdo the others” - Anna Comnena, huge fan of the Latins

Some cultures’ members tended to care a little more than others about glorious feats of arms, and thus we’ve given them a boost to Glory gain. Cultures with Traditions like Chanson de Geste, Royal Army, Performative Honor: those cultures’ Acclaimed Knights have the best shot at being the greatest in all the world.

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[Image: Futuwaa, with its new Glory Gain modifier]

The Chivalry lifestyle tree is a good source of Glory bonuses too.

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[Image: Chivalric Dominance: a little preview of the Gallant trait]

Knight Army Modifiers​

“He has many men about him and is himself the best of fighters, and is not at a loss for wise counsel.” - The Laxdæla Saga

Before closing things out, let’s take a moment to explain Accolade effects, such as the new Knight Army Modifier. Wherever you see this term, it means your Acclaimed Knight will improve an army simply by being in it. There’s no requirement for the Acclaimed Knight to be the Army’s commander.

Mouse over the Acclaimed Knight icon (helmet with the lil’ colorful scarf) on the army containing your Acclaimed Knight to see what modifiers are being applied to the army by Acclaimed Knights.

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[Image: This commander’s got a bit of skirmishing backup]

Everybody Loves Men-at-Arms​

When you choose a Men-at-Arms-boosting Accolade as a Primary Attribute and level it up, you’ll unlock a fun reward: special, extra-strong Men-at-Arms.

Only one Regiment of these can be recruited and they have a limited troop count. However, their high base stats synchronize well with your Acclaimed Knight’s relevant modifiers and the new bonuses from stationing Regiments in your Holdings. Furthermore, these Retinue MaA perform better in appropriate terrains, they are twice as good at countering, and some of them receive stat increases as the Cultural Eras go by.

Here’s a taste. And it’s just lowly skirmishers with bonuses from game start, because I’m an irrepressible tease.

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[Image: Left: regular skirmishers. Right: skirmishers unlocked by a high-ranked Skirmisher Accolade. Bear in mind effects from Knight Army Modifiers aren’t visible here]

A Knight’s Own Dev Diary of Chivalry​

That about wraps it up! I’d love to leave you with one last wise quote from de Charny, who may or may not be a greater knight than a certain Willy Marshall or Rodrigo de Vivar:

“Avoid quarrels.”

Thanks for reading!
 

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We already have penalties for having things in excess of a limit (domain, vassals, languages...), why not have excess MAA cause penalties of some kind? Give the player an alert when over the limit (like with domain and vassals), and it'd be no less intuitive - you just have more troops than you can manage.

Examples of the kinds of penalties that could apply:
- dramatically increased maintenance cost for the excess troops (not very effective in late game)
- negative modifiers to ALL your MAA, proportional to how much you go over your limits
- negative events, such as the troops causing trouble in a holding, resulting in a negative holding modifier
- desertion
 
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The reason I'm concerned that it will remain optimal play is the bonus to regiment sizes that come with having the right Accolade.

The building changes make it more difficult to buff your whole army. Each regiment now needs to be stationed in it's own building to get buffed. That's an awesome change and I was glad to see it. It also led me to believe, as you suggested, that you'll now want to build a mix of buildings to have a nice mix of different unit types, each of which is modestly buffed. Excellent stuff!

Then Hastiluder and Accolades came along and turned that on it's ear. One side effect of each building buffing only one regiment is that you want your regiments to be as big as possible to get the maximum benefit per building. Now, once you get an Accolade that lets you have bigger regiments of one type (and also makes regiments of that unit type more powerful and less expensive), you're incentivized to build only those types of buildings and only those types of regiments (on a 1:1 basis).

Maybe the countering rules have been fixed/modified such that it's better to have diversity even if that means a smaller regiment with less effective troops, but I'm doubtful (hope to be wrong!) Even it it does, though, that just incentives getting a second Accolade in play that gives you increased regiment sizes for a second military unit of a complementary type and dividing your military buildings across these two types. Plus a Hastiluder dude to increase all those regiment sizes even further.

Having bigger MAA regiments is such an overwhelming advantage that I was shocked to see that the Hastiluder trait allow one guy give you a one era advantage over your neighbours. But now with Accolades added in you can be two eras or more ahead of your neighbours.

I'm still hopeful that there are more unannounced changes coming that changes the equations further, but the whole fix to buildings and then undermining that with regiment size bonuses smacks of two different teams working on different aspects of the update, one of who was creating a great fix to a problem that has plagued the game up to now, the other of whom undermined those efforts by throwing shack-wacky bonuses at one of the few parts of the game not previously subjected to odd bonuses.
personally I like that each realm specify on a single regiment type rather than having everything. For example steppe tribals should focus on horse archers rather than pikemen.
 
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We already have penalties for having things in excess of a limit (domain, vassals, languages...), why not have excess MAA cause penalties of some kind? Give the player an alert when over the limit (like with domain and vassals), and it'd be no less intuitive - you just have more troops than you can manage.

Examples of the kinds of penalties that could apply:
- dramatically increased maintenance cost for the excess troops (not very effective in late game)
- negative modifiers to ALL your MAA, proportional to how much you go over your limits
- negative events, such as the troops causing trouble in a holding, resulting in a negative holding modifier
- desertion
I would honestly love this, tbh
 
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I feel like basic light cavalry should be "upgradeable" to outriders once those are unlocked.

Currently you have to spend so much to rebuild your retinues. I kinda wish they were more personified, with knights also being able to lead retinues as retinue commanders or some such.

Retinues being treated akin collectible cardgame units is something to think about if retinues get more personification
 
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I would see Accolades more as a title (like a holy order or religious head title but a landed one), where the title history could be seen and the artifact could be inherited.
 
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I would see Accolades more as a title (like a holy order or religious head title but a landed one), where the title history could be seen and the artifact could be inherited.
That sounds pretty cool and would add to the immersion if you could see how they ended their days in respect to the title. One knight dies valiantly in the War against the Tyranny of King So-and-So and another in ignominy after being imprisoned 5 times and a third was lifted to Dukedom after saving the life of the King during an attempted coup by a perfidious Regent.

It might also be neat if the Accolade gained prestige or some other modifier over time (maybe if several glorious knights occupied the office) in the same way artifacts do to show that its holder is part of an Ancient and August line of warriors. I know that people are a little worried at this juncture about potential power-creep already but I still think that there should be something to show that people have respect for the Accolade.
 
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I read all of this DD, but I honestly didn't understand what Accolade was. Is it a kind of position or a title? I don't understand the concept.
An accolade is an honour and title bestowed on a knight, who thereby becomes an Acclaimed Knight.

I've seen a few people on this thread referring to the actions of an Accolade, when they're actually referring to the accolade's holder, the acclaimed knight.

nd
 
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We already have penalties for having things in excess of a limit (domain, vassals, languages...), why not have excess MAA cause penalties of some kind? Give the player an alert when over the limit (like with domain and vassals), and it'd be no less intuitive - you just have more troops than you can manage.

Examples of the kinds of penalties that could apply:
- dramatically increased maintenance cost for the excess troops (not very effective in late game)
- negative modifiers to ALL your MAA, proportional to how much you go over your limits
- negative events, such as the troops causing trouble in a holding, resulting in a negative holding modifier
- desertion
An even simpler solution would be to allow the player/AI to draft MAA up to their maximum MAA limit.

Say, you have 12/8 MAA available. When you draft them, you'll only get 8 units while the other 4 stay in "reserve".
 
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Very, very cool. I think this may be the best DLC yet. This is the kind of flavour and enrichment I'm here for. I can't wait to do a Matilda run and have a stable of glorious knights. Unique titles are . Also, I really like this direction of traits with XP tracks (Hastiluder) and other game concepts with XP (ie Accolade Glory). It really gives a sense of progression. Whilst I don't mind the capacity-style investment in royal courts, it feels a lot more like "set some sliders" rather than a living, organic thing. Hoping to see more progression-style ideas across the game in future DLCs.

I have a few questions about Accolade MaAs:
  • Does the related Accolade knight always fight with that MaA?
  • If the Accolade knight dies without a successor, does the MaA get downgraded to a regular MaA?
 
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We already have penalties for having things in excess of a limit (domain, vassals, languages...), why not have excess MAA cause penalties of some kind? Give the player an alert when over the limit (like with domain and vassals), and it'd be no less intuitive - you just have more troops than you can manage.

Examples of the kinds of penalties that could apply:
- dramatically increased maintenance cost for the excess troops (not very effective in late game)
- negative modifiers to ALL your MAA, proportional to how much you go over your limits
- negative events, such as the troops causing trouble in a holding, resulting in a negative holding modifier
- desertion
or just disable reinforcement until the number of troops under the limit again.
 
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When player ruler leads the army there should be more events to dive into the action for example, discussion with the knights after the the event gain brave or craven trait.
 
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I'd love an ongoing dilemma where two acclaimed knights start a rivalry and demand to be made your personal champion each time one of them edges ahead in glory.

I'm going to do this myself anyway...

That or have a shining paragon as my champion and a dreaded Black Knight as my executioner. Accolades won't disqualify knights from court positions I hope?
 
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If an acclaimed knight inherits land, can they keep the accolade as a nickname, even if they have to lose the modifiers? It would be great, especially for the player character, to have that connection to your early life fighting as a valiant knight
 
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Now that you can't massively stack bonuses and it's dependent on stationing
Yeah but with counter efficiency
Why build a bunch of light cavalry buildings when you could build a healthy variety
Your previous post mention gold being too easy to have in the late game, but between the new and expensive activities and the new balances to buildings intended to address that, I think this will be less of a problem
God, how I wished you were right, and that this patch truly would be a nerf.

Turns out, that was a joke.
The reason I'm concerned that it will remain optimal play is the bonus to regiment sizes that come with having the right Accolade
And you were right on the money with this. This post is the proof.
So in the end we cannot really know how broken, until we experience the new game balance, of this patch, as a whole.
And now we know.

The year in my current save is 1124.

I have been broken for a while, but I didn't take screenshots until it really became outrageous how broken I was.

+8 Archer size from the Knight Accolade that literally never goes below 5th rank.
I could build even more of them, as you can see, but I want sieges to be a joke too, so I don't.
1684073625025.jpeg

I built the same buildings in all my holdings, so this is the damage for EVERY of my 4 Archers regiment
1684073601653.jpeg


Countering doesn't matter, as I said.
1684073637678.jpeg


I take back all that I said, this wasn't a nerf at all.
It's just a change in scaling. My MAA size will grow larger, and I will also get more buildings.

This patch is a joke, balance wise, of course.


P.S.
I don't even have crossbowmen yet., LMAO
 

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God, how I wished you were right, and that this patch truly would be a nerf.

Turns out, that was a joke.

And you were right on the money with this. This post is the proof.

And now we know.

The year in my current save is 1124.

I have been broken for a while, but I didn't take screenshots until it really became outrageous how broken I was.

+8 Archer size from the Knight Accolade that literally never goes below 5th rank.
I could build even more of them, as you can see, but I want sieges to be a joke too, so I don't.
View attachment 982659
I built the same buildings in all my holdings, so this is the damage for EVERY of my 4 Archers regiment
View attachment 982656

Countering doesn't matter, as I said.
View attachment 982661

I take back all that I said, this wasn't a nerf at all.
It's just a change in scaling. My MAA size will grow larger, and I will also get more buildings.

This patch is a joke, balance wise, of course.


P.S.
I don't even have crossbowmen yet., LMAO

Only 10 of your 11 allowed domains? I can't believe how sub-optimally you're playing. :p

In thinking about this more, if things like the Knight Accolade and Hastiluder bonuses to MAA size and effectiveness were limited to one MAA unit (you pick the unit), they'd likely be fine. It's applying them to all MAA units of that type that allow things to get out of hand.
 
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God, how I wished you were right, and that this patch truly would be a nerf.
I don't regret acting in good faith and assuming the best of Paradox and I don't think you should take back what you said. We really didn't have enough evidence at that point to be declarative with any certainty. I wasn't declarative one way or the other back then. But now that I've played it I can confirm that every number in the game seems to be inflated.

1684082296747.png


I'm not even playing particularly optimally, obviously. I'm taking the game naturally and focusing on the activities. I'm honestly somewhat baffled at this release state.

To be positive though, I think the new activities work great and travel is a lot of fun especially when you start planning your own routes. I've been really enjoying the building updates and its been making me put a lot more thought into them. I like being able to make friends through events rather than needing the scheme. I think there is a lot more stuff to do both in peace time and in war and its fun getting to have a taste of it all. The pace of my games has slowed down because there's just so much more to care about.

but it doesn't stop this balance from being absurd.
 
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To be positive though, I think the new activities work great and travel is a lot of fun especially when you start planning your own routes. I've been really enjoying the building updates and its been making me put a lot more thought into them. I like being able to make friends through events rather than needing the scheme. I think there is a lot more stuff to do both in peace time and in war and its fun getting to have a taste of it all. The pace of my games has slowed down because there's just so much more to care about.

but it doesn't stop this balance from being absurd.

This is my take-away, too. I love the expansion. Peace time is playing much better now. Deciding whether to host or participate in hunts and feasts is much more engaging.

The re-balancing of the military buildings to avoid the constant stacking was another good change. The way it was changed was just at cross-purposes with the way Knight Accolades were being implemented.

All of the MAA size/ability boosts could use a serious re-think in how they're handled. Hastiluder needs multiple whacks from the nerf bat, I'm not sure about the new economic buildings, as I haven't used them enough to have an informed opinion, but gold seems even easier to come by now than previously. Vassals being divided up into different types hasn't caused any noticeable challenge in keeping them all super-happy.

People were concerned that offering new options without adding new challenges (other than the multiple vassal personalities) would make the game easier, but the expansion's balance issues go far beyond that. The bonuses available from the new stuff are, in aggregate, much bigger than those available previously. So it's not just more options to choose from, it's bigger rewards from those choices. Life as a medieval ruler has never been so relaxing and care-free.

Bottom line is the game is more fun, but I hope the dev team gets a handle on the bonus creep before releasing any additional content, and scale back the rewards from Knight Accolades and Tournaments as soon as they can.
 
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The re-balancing of the military buildings to avoid the constant stacking was another good change. The way it was changed was just at cross-purposes with the way Knight Accolades were being implemented.
I think the issue we're going to run into here is that the accolades were a part of the DLC itself. And at least with CK3 paradox has been clear. They don't want to remove content that people paid for. So I'm not sure what tools they have at their disposal to rebalance things if they have to keep things fundamentally the same. You'd either have to nerf them to the point that you might as well get rid of them or use some really forceful coding to make the AI take advantage of it so they match the players.
 
This is my take-away, too. I love the expansion. Peace time is playing much better now. Deciding whether to host or participate in hunts and feasts is much more engaging.

The re-balancing of the military buildings to avoid the constant stacking was another good change. The way it was changed was just at cross-purposes with the way Knight Accolades were being implemented.

All of the MAA size/ability boosts could use a serious re-think in how they're handled. Hastiluder needs multiple whacks from the nerf bat, I'm not sure about the new economic buildings, as I haven't used them enough to have an informed opinion, but gold seems even easier to come by now than previously. Vassals being divided up into different types hasn't caused any noticeable challenge in keeping them all super-happy.

People were concerned that offering new options without adding new challenges (other than the multiple vassal personalities) would make the game easier, but the expansion's balance issues go far beyond that. The bonuses available from the new stuff are, in aggregate, much bigger than those available previously. So it's not just more options to choose from, it's bigger rewards from those choices. Life as a medieval ruler has never been so relaxing and care-free.

Bottom line is the game is more fun, but I hope the dev team gets a handle on the bonus creep before releasing any additional content, and scale back the rewards from Knight Accolades and Tournaments as soon as they can.
I think the issue we're going to run into here is that the accolades were a part of the DLC itself. And at least with CK3 paradox has been clear. They don't want to remove content that people paid for. So I'm not sure what tools they have at their disposal to rebalance things if they have to keep things fundamentally the same. You'd either have to nerf them to the point that you might as well get rid of them or use some really forceful coding to make the AI take advantage of it so they match the players.
Well, I got Crossbowmen, and the Knight Accolade for them

And.... uh....

They stack with the Knight Accolade for regular Bowmen....

So I get the MaA size bonus and the damage bonus from both of them

Again, this is a flipping joke of a patch.

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