[MOD] Regional Immersion and Cultural Enrichment - a cultural flavor pack collection, sequel to Cybrxkhan’s Immersion Packs

[Lordinquisitor]

Finally got around to experiencing the Sicily Flavor pack and it´s a blast. I haven´t been so involved in a CK3 Campaign for a long time- Thanks a lot! Currently, in my game, with a "great conqueror" byzantine emperor and a "great conquerer" maghrebi king i really feel the "Between three Worlds" aspect. :`D )

I might have a few thoughts, down the line.

One "Criticism" i have right now, though, is that i don´t like that both struggle endings require filling the sicilian legacy track. While i don´t think that ending the struggle should be too easy, i personally don´t enjoy it when certain decisions have requirements which are too heavily divorced from the game state and if they limit myself too much.

Right now it´s possible to control the whole of sicily for generations, develop it heavily, humiliate the byzantine empire and yet still not be able to end the struggle, even resulting in Sicily devolving into a periphery. Also, in order to end the struggle, i´d have to devote the first five legacy picks entirely to the sicilian legacy, which is quite an investment and hinders exploring other options. (Not to say, that the legacy track is bad. It looks quite nice. But maybe my drengot dynasty would like to embrace some of their norse heritage? Or my greek dynasty would like to focus on administrative perks?)

Personally i´d much prefer it if there were different sets of requirement. Maybe there could be a general set of requirements to end the struggle, and advancing in the sicilian legacy track could make ending the struggle easier? Having tier two of the legacy track could unlock easier ending conditions and having tier 5 could unlock even easier ones.

 

[cybrxkhan]

Finally got around to experiencing the Sicily Flavor pack and it´s a blast. I haven´t been so involved in a CK3 Campaign for a long time- Thanks a lot! Currently, in my game, with a "great conqueror" byzantine emperor and a "great conquerer" maghrebi king i really feel the "Between three Worlds" aspect. :`D )

I might have a few thoughts, down the line.

One "Criticism" i have right now, though, is that i don´t like that both struggle endings require filling the sicilian legacy track. While i don´t think that ending the struggle should be too easy, i personally don´t enjoy it when certain decisions have requirements which are too heavily divorced from the game state and if they limit myself too much.

Right now it´s possible to control the whole of sicily for generations, develop it heavily, humiliate the byzantine empire and yet still not be able to end the struggle, even resulting in Sicily devolving into a periphery. Also, in order to end the struggle, i´d have to devote the first five legacy picks entirely to the sicilian legacy, which is quite an investment and hinders exploring other options. (Not to say, that the legacy track is bad. It looks quite nice. But maybe my drengot dynasty would like to embrace some of their norse heritage? Or my greek dynasty would like to focus on administrative perks?)

Personally i´d much prefer it if there were different sets of requirement. Maybe there could be a general set of requirements to end the struggle, and advancing in the sicilian legacy track could make ending the struggle easier? Having tier two of the legacy track could unlock easier ending conditions and having tier 5 could unlock even easier ones.

The idea behind requiring the whole legacy is because the canonical ending of the Sicilian Frontier is that it never really ended in a sense, and is still something of a peripheral region today, so I want the player to really have to devote a lot of time and investment over generations if they want to actually truly end it and make Sicily a central, metropole region. Making it shorter wouldn't really work with that narrative goal of Sicily being this almost eternal frontier if it's just easy to fix it. One thing I'm thinking of is buffing the bonuses from the Sicily legacy track and giving them additional various bonuses to make it a more appealing pick for people, so it feels less of a chore to work through.

 

[Lordinquisitor]

Oh, i think i get your reasoning and where you are coming from. Having recently talked a lot with a person from sicily i likely even agree with your assessment that even today it´s still a periphery.

I think, personally, i´m just more of a fan of struggles ending being caused by a change in game state/the game world, rather than being restricted by picking x. (I´m aware that the crossroads ending has more requirements than that.) Just feels kinda strange, that one could conquer the mediterranean, turn palermo into the most developed country in the world and end up with a sicily still "struggling".

That being said, modelling this and accounting for the various scenarios is difficult and thus the current solution might indeed be the most suitable.

///

Btw. i don´t really think that the Sicily legacy track is that weak. Tier 2 is very strong. 4 and 5 might get some tweaks, imho. For me, personally, the "issue" is the fact, that the requirement narrows down the choices in legacy picks, leading to every dynasty i´d like to play in sicily having to unlock the same legacies if i want to end the struggle.

Please, mind you, i´m "complaining" from a position of absolute, privileged, endorsement of your work and don´t want to sound as if i have better ideas or solutions.

 

[cybrxkhan]

Oh, i think i get your reasoning and where you are coming from. Having recently talked a lot with a person from sicily i likely even agree with your assessment that even today it´s still a periphery.

I think, personally, i´m just more of a fan of struggles ending being caused by a change in game state/the game world, rather than being restricted by picking x. (I´m aware that the crossroads ending has more requirements than that.) Just feels kinda strange, that one could conquer the mediterranean, turn palermo into the most developed country in the world and end up with a sicily still "struggling".

That being said, modelling this and accounting for the various scenarios is difficult and thus the current solution might indeed be the most suitable.

///

Btw. i don´t really think that the Sicily legacy track is that weak. Tier 2 is very strong. 4 and 5 might get some tweaks, imho. For me, personally, the "issue" is the fact, that the requirement narrows down the choices in legacy picks, leading to every dynasty i´d like to play in sicily having to unlock the same legacies if i want to end the struggle.

Please, mind you, i´m "complaining" from a position of absolute, privileged, endorsement of your work and don´t want to sound as if i have better ideas or solutions.

Thank you! I think it is indeed a bit of a limitation of the game since the game relies a lot on character-driven actions, whereas IRL these things are much more complicated and long-term at times. Probably might help if there were a way to better model the impact of outside forces on Sicily. Anyhow, I totally understand and appreciate the thoughts as always.

 

[cybrxkhan]

Zhangzhung Flavor Pack Preview #16​

February is upon us, and work is coming along for the Zhangzhung update. Much of the content outside of the generic flavor events are done, so work is now focused mainly on finishing the text for the new content, flavor events, and bugtesting.

Speaking of generic flavor events, let's preview one such event. The goal of RICE's generic flavor events is to immerse you more in a region, culture, or religion, and despite this flavor pack's focus on Zhangzhung, many of the new flavor events apply to Tibet more broadly. I'm having great fun utilizing the gloss tooltips the PI devs added with Roads to Power, like in this event about thangkas, colorful Tibetan Buddhist or Bon scroll paintings that depict various religious figures. The making and use of thangkas likely dates back to around the 11th century, during CK3's timeframe. I've provided an example of a thangka below of the so-called Medicine Buddha, who is typically depicted as blue-skinned.

(Do note the religious figure mentioned in the event is randomized for flavor, so you won't always get the Medicine Buddha when the event triggers.)

 

[cybrxkhan]

Zhangzhung Flavor Pack Preview #17​

In today's preview, let's take another look at a tertön discovering a terma, except from the POV of when you are the tertön yourself! Mechanically, it works similarly to termas when discovered by NPCs. The chances of a player, especially a ruler, become a tertön is pretty rare, but does happen occasionally. If you want to get a head start as a tertön, you might want to consider playing as one of the historical characters who start off as one, or create your own character with the tertön trait.

In this screenshot, the player has discovered a religious teaching that's an earth treasure, that is, a terma in physical form. Not all terma are physical; some are so-called mind treasures. Instead of finding some scroll or text with the teaching written on it, the terma would be found within one's mind, such as by remembering it from a previous life. The tertön would then write down this teaching after supposedly receiving it this way.

 

[cybrxkhan]

Zhangzhung Flavor Pack Preview #18​

This will be the last preview of the Zhangzhung update; yup, that means we're getting real close to release! I am more or less in the final stages of work for this update, and am focusing on bugfixes and ironing things out. I can't guarantee when it'll be out, but hopefully within a week at most if all goes well.

In the 2nd dev diary, I talked about a decision to Find a New Faith for Tibet which allows rulers who follow Khyarwé Bön (the "unreformed" Bön faith) to convert to various faiths for bonuses, such as Buddhism or Gyur Bönpo ("reformed" monastic Bön), but did not show an example of what the event for that decision looked like, since it wasn't done at the time. The event text will vary somewhat depending on what faith you pick.

The decision represents changes in Tibet's religious landscape in the late 10th and 11th centuries, with the rise of monastic "reformed" Bön and the so-called second dissemination or propagation, or phyi-dar, of Tibetan Buddhism. In older Tibetan Buddhist histories, the first dissemination of Buddhism happened in the 7th and 8th centuries during the era of the Tibetan Empire; Buddhism supposedly suffered a dark age in Tibet until it was spread, once more, during the phyi-dar. Modern scholarship has complicated this traditional narrative, but it is clear that the CK3 timeframe saw a flowering of Buddhist learning and thought across Tibet, with an increase in patronage by nobility, the rise of influential sects and charismatic teachers like Milarepa, and the beginnings of the tertön institution that forms a core feature of this update.

 

[Kapitalisti]

To appease my inner powergamer, which faith would you say was the "best" to get the most content out of Tibet once this update hits?

 

[cybrxkhan]

To appease my inner powergamer, which faith would you say was the "best" to get the most content out of Tibet once this update hits?

In a vacuum, just for Tibetan content itself, Nangchos (aka Tibetan Buddhism), Bon (either version), or the new Kimshuist faith in the West Himalayan will get the lion's share of the new content.

However, Tibetan Buddhism (or any Buddhism) will also benefit from the previous Buddhist content added a while ago, which Bon and West Himalayans won't get. Additionally, the Tibetan characters who get a little historical flavor in 1066, such as the Hrugs family and especially the bookmarked character Dpal Dus Sgra, start off as Buddhist.

Unreformed Bon and Kimshuism however does get the benefit of choosing a faith through the decision, so you have some more flexibility, and Kimshuism does get the unique flower festival activity. You do get special modifiers for taking the decision to reform Zhangzhung if you are Bon or West Himalayan, however, that you wouldn't as a Buddhist, and that does fit the "pagan revival" playthrough a lot of CK fans like.

So, I'd say if you don't care about having a unique starting situation via Dpal Dus Sgra or the Hrugs to a lesser extent, for "maximum" amount of content I'd suggest starting as an unreformed Bon and then converting to Nangchos or reformed Bon once you're ready, depending on if you want more Buddhist flavor or you want to try doing a Zhangzhung restoration.

 

[cybrxkhan]

RICE 1.14.1 "Padmasambhava" is out, with RICE's next flavor pack:
Zhangzhung: Land of Hidden Treasures
Steam Workshop Download | Github Manual Download | Paradox Mods Download
Discord Server | Twitter | Official Website
​

My father is wisdom and my mother is voidness.
My country is the country of Dharma.
I am of no caste and no creed.
I am sustained by perplexity; and I am here to destroy lust, anger and sloth.
– Padmasambhava, 8th century Indian tantric Buddhist master

I'm happy to announce the release of RICE's first flavor pack for 2025 - Zhangzhung: Land of Hidden Treasures! The largest non-flagship update in a while, this update takes RICE back to the Himalayas, and its major features include:

• Flavor for the Himalayas, especially Western Tibet
• Reveal hidden treasures as a tertön
• Integration of Tibetan content from Dharmachakra and Rajas of Asia
• Improved religious/historical setup for Tibet
• ... and much more!

Remember you may need to unsubscribe and resubscribe for mods to update properly (multiple times if necessary). You do not need to restart if you're playing a game with RICE already. If you are experiencing issues, you can try rolling back to an older version of the mod.

⁠I'm currently waiting for the official announcement of Chapter 4 to know what's coming and a rough timeframe for the future DLCs, to determine what's next for RICE – previews and teasers for the next update, once it’s decided, will hopefully be up soon! This might (or might not) mean the initially planned Celtic Flavor Pack could be postponed to later this year.

Due to the large size of this update there will likely be a hotfix out in a week for any bugs/issues. As someone who grew up in a Buddhist household, this was a very fun update to work on, even if Tibet isn't the most popular region. Thanks all for your continued support!


Changelog

Spoiler: Changelog

• Added Zhangzhung Flavor Pack: Land of Hidden Treasures
• Added 5 Tibetan-themed soundtracks
• Added dna for a few historical characters added by RICE
• Added fictional Dezawist Darada rulers in Chitral in 867, 1066, 1178
• Added semi-fictitious non-Islamic Pamiri vassals for Badakhshan in Shughnan and Wakhan in 1066
• Renamed Buddhist vassal of the Samanids in 867 from the fictitious name to Humar, who is an attested non-Muslim ruler in the region around that time period
• Thabit ibn Qurra’s wife is now also Syriac like he is if he chooses a Harranian wife in his event chain
• Revamped Darada namelist with actual Dardic names and dynasties
• Sicily struggle is now automatically started based on start date after 647 CE, rather than if Fallen Eagle is running or not (should not affect most users, only those that play with TFE or O-Saft-Killer’s 867 and 1066 submod for TFE)
• Improved randomness of Sicilian stronghold malus events
• Changed Hindu Shahi rulers to Gandhari culture in 867
• Buffed victory chances in Palios from various Palio modifiers
• Slightly buffed victory chances in Palios for players
• Reduced control malus hit from Sicilian stronghold raids
• There’s now some slight variety with how much control or development you might lose from Sicilian stronghold raids
• Buffed the last two perks of the Sicilian Liminality Dynasty legacy
• Changed defender holding bonus of the Incastellamento perk of the Sicilian Liminality Dynasty legacy to a control growth bonus
• Chronic Ifriqyan Famines modifiers no longer last forever, instead they last for 30 years from the 1066 start date
• Decisions to Collaborate with Pirates now clarifies that you will no longer be able to build other special buildings on the province in question
• Fixed the Sicilian decision to support Salerno’s medical school not actually deducting gold costs
• Fixed some RICE Dynasty Legacies not being available to adventurers
• Fixed Siculo-Arabic culture event not properly referencing the Siculo-Arabic/Siqilli culture
• Fixed Luxor Temple building not being available to Greco-Roman faiths even though they can take the decision to rededicate it to paganism
• Fixed Mediterranean Pirate decision being available in the Caspian
• Fixed “Norman Culture and Learning” dynasty modifier rewarded for the Assimilation ending of the Normandy struggle giving renown instead of a legitimacy bonus
• Fixed Palermo being Ashari Muslim in Fallen Eagle and other mods with early start dates
• Fixed mismatch for Budivoj/Henry and Krutoj names in aspirations
• Fixed one of the Zhang families in Dunhuang having Zhu as their admin noble family title
• Fixed Collaborate with Pirate decisions being available when your capital already has a special building
• Miscellaneous bugfixes and tweaks

 

[Lordinquisitor]

Oh my. Just booted up CK3, wanting do do a dunhuang rajas of asia playthrough and i´m instantly notified that the flavor pack dropped. Now i´ll have to consider whether to do a west himalayan playthrough first. What a terrible and good problem to have!

 

[cybrxkhan]

Oh my. Just booted up CK3, wanting do do a dunhuang rajas of asia playthrough and i´m instantly notified that the flavor pack dropped. Now i´ll have to consider whether to do a west himalayan playthrough first. What a terrible and good problem to have!

Glad to hear it

If you're going to try the West Himalayan faiths since Dharmachakra and I think Rajas of Asia turn syncretic tenets into a doctrine, there's a bug where the Kimshuist faith only has two tenets at game start (since the eastern syncretism gets removed but isn't replaced as I've done with some other faiths), so until I release the hotfix to fix that, you can run the following console command at game start to fix that:

effect faith:kinnaur_pagan = { add_doctrine = tenet_adaptive }

EDIT: Only seems to happen with Dharmachakra as Rajas of Asia has a failsafe, as a heads up. I'll still leave this comment here for the record.

 

[Lordinquisitor]

Maybe some of the other small mods are the cause, but in my game the drokpa MAA can´t be hired. Other affects of the corresponding cultural traditions seem to work, though.

 

[cybrxkhan]

Maybe some of the other small mods are the cause, but in my game the drokpa MAA can´t be hired. Other affects of the corresponding cultural traditions seem to work, though.

Yeah, someone else reported the bug to me earlier today as well and it seems like it's caused by the Drokpa MAA requiring the Hussar tradition (I copied the code over to determine the balance and forgot to change the requirement). So that'll be fixed for the hotfix too, thanks!

 

[cybrxkhan]

RICE 1.14.1.a hotfix for "Padmasambhava" is out!
Steam Workshop Download | Github Manual Download | Paradox Mods Download
Discord Server | Twitter | Official Website
​

Thanks everyone for the feedback for the Zhangzhung flavor pack! Here's the obligatory hotfix to address some of the issues you all reported, among other things. Another hotfix may come in the next week or two if further notable issues are discovered.

The hotfix should be savegame compatible if the game was started with RICE 1.14.0 or 1.14.1.

Additionally, as some of you may know, we got hints for some kind of DLC that includes content related to nomads later this year. I will factor that into my future plans for this year, though we'll have to wait and see what PI has in mind exactly. particularly their time table/schedule for Chapter 4 content.

Changelog:

Spoiler

• Khitan Empire now starts with some event troops in 1178
• Integrated additional Spanish localization thanks to Ferchu
• Fixed Kimshuism having only two tenets if you play Africa Plus (added Adaptive)
• Fixed decision to choose a enlightenment deity still costing piety if you have the Assertive Deities doctrine, which is supposed to waive the cost
• Fixed missing localization for the Kimshuism and Bonanah faiths and West Himalayan religion
• Fixed missing localization for the Zathapuk monastery decision historical tooltip
• Fixed the Drokpa MAA requiring the Hussar tradition
• Fixed Divination intent of the Fulaich Flower Festival activity not having any effect
• Fixed localization for the Divination intent of the Fulaich Flower Festival activity not showing the correct bonus to chances of gaining the oracle modifier
• Miscellaneous bugfixes

 

[Vanticus]

RICE 1.14.1.a hotfix for "Padmasambhava" is out!
Steam Workshop Download | Github Manual Download | Paradox Mods Download
Discord Server | Twitter | Official Website
​

Thanks everyone for the feedback for the Zhangzhung flavor pack! Here's the obligatory hotfix to address some of the issues you all reported, among other things. Another hotfix may come in the next week or two if further notable issues are discovered.

The hotfix should be savegame compatible if the game was started with RICE 1.14.0 or 1.14.1.

Additionally, as some of you may know, we got hints for some kind of DLC that includes content related to nomads later this year. I will factor that into my future plans for this year, though we'll have to wait and see what PI has in mind exactly. particularly their time table/schedule for Chapter 4 content.

Changelog:

Spoiler

• Khitan Empire now starts with some event troops in 1178
• Integrated additional Spanish localization thanks to Ferchu
• Fixed Kimshuism having only two tenets if you play Africa Plus (added Adaptive)
• Fixed decision to choose a enlightenment deity still costing piety if you have the Assertive Deities doctrine, which is supposed to waive the cost
• Fixed missing localization for the Kimshuism and Bonanah faiths and West Himalayan religion
• Fixed missing localization for the Zathapuk monastery decision historical tooltip
• Fixed the Drokpa MAA requiring the Hussar tradition
• Fixed Divination intent of the Fulaich Flower Festival activity not having any effect
• Fixed localization for the Divination intent of the Fulaich Flower Festival activity not showing the correct bonus to chances of gaining the oracle modifier
• Miscellaneous bugfixes

What did you think of the new Dev Diary? It looked like a lot of mechanics were announced that could greatly enhance new and old VIET flavour packs, particularly regional situations like with the Steppe seasons.

 

[cybrxkhan]

What did you think of the new Dev Diary? It looked like a lot of mechanics were announced that could greatly enhance new and old VIET flavour packs, particularly regional situations like with the Steppe seasons.

There's a lot of potential but I suppose the big question is what modders can do with it, and how compatibility friendly it is and how much I can do without modifying vanilla code. One thing I really hope I can do is add nomad style stuff to groups some Bedouin and Berber tribes, the Sami, etc. if the devs aren't going to give them some nomad content, but again depends a lot on compatibility. I'll just copypasta something I wrote on discord instead of saying it again:

Like if it's something like the Admin gov't which was pretty easy to slap onto other realms through a few lines in the script, then we're good to go. If it requires adding a new government to not have to deal with the steppes, that might be trickier but doable depending on how compatibility friendly they make it (main issue to my understanding is soft compatibility, as they might call up governments in different parts of the code that wouldn't account for any new governments unless you modify the vanilla code for them). If nomad mechanics are inherently hardcoded or strongly tied to the steppe specific stuff in a way that would make separating them tricky without modifying vanilla code, then we might be in trouble for RICE

 

[Lordinquisitor]

Expanding nomadic mechanics to the neglected nomads would be awesome. But even if that would be out of reach, the possibility to properly expand your amazing immersion packs to the steppes is tantalizing.

Apart from giving lesser known cultures in the west deserved attention, one of my first thoughts went to the spread of buddhism amongst the steppes. Or heck, even better, giving attention to the varied religious makeup of the steppes. I´ve been fascinated by the thought of nestorian steppe communities for a long time.

 

[cybrxkhan]

Apparently the devs said after feedback they will consider adding a game rule to add nomad mechanics for certain groups (like the Berbers/Arabs). Even if it's barebones and lacks the steppe nomad flavor, that's fine for me as it would make it easier for me to add in my own content for those regions down the line.

 

[cybrxkhan]

TEASER 1 FOR REDACTED​

It's back to teaser season! Work is slowly starting on RICE's next flavor pack. There will probably be a few teasers for this one, so it won't take as long for the reveal as the Sicily Flavor Pack last year.

I'll give a hint - it won't be the Celtic flavor pack I plan to do this year, as I've decided to postpone that to later this year until we have a better idea of PI's schedule for 2025, as I want to make sure I have enough to work on that when the time comes.

Clue #1: A ruler born in the 12th century established his own branch of a dynasty in this region and fought against a mighty foe known for their cavalry.

*ᶠᵒʳ ᵗʰᵒˢᵉ ʷʰᵒ ᵃˡʳᵉᵃᵈʸ ᵏⁿᵒʷ ᵖˡᵉᵃˢᵉ ᵈᵒ ⁿᵒᵗ ʳᵉᵛᵉᵃˡ ᶦᵗ ʸᵉᵗ ⁻ ᵗʰᵃⁿᵏ ʸᵒᵘ