Difficulty discourse was on this forum since CK3 release and in recent times it becomes even more loud, because game become less and less hard after each update. The main problem of game, in my opinion, is modifiers stacking and their limitation through a special game rule could fix 90% of current difficulty problems. But before that happened (if we ever see that happened) you could still make your game harder without any mods. Many people arguing about CK3 nature – should it be considered as RPG or Grand Strategy. In my opinion CK3 evolved in something different – it’s an immersive sim with RPG and Grand Strategy elements.
I always find strange that fact, that immersive sims always was an outsider as a gaming genre, because it, in some way, a quintessence of gaming. In this type of games (like Deus Ex) you can achieve your goals in dozens of ways and, quite often, only your imagination limits you. And in recent years CK3 evolved in this type of game – you have dozens of ways to become friend or lover with someone, take power in kingdom, et cetera. But, despite so many mechanics and possibilities, most of them work only at the beginning of the game, because modifier stacking ruins them in the middle and late game. To be honest, most immersive sims are always broken in terms of difficulty after you complete them twice or more. And there is only one way to enjoy this games after – limiting yourself. So, without further ado, I want to share some of my game rules, that may bring a second life to your campaigns.
- Don’t use your courtiers to arrange marriages. You can only marry your dynasty members and family. Also, you can’t invite characters to your court using hook. (Exceptions – your courtiers become friends or lovers with other characters, or you have a strong hook on a foreign characters. Also, you can invite pretenders if your court grandeur is big enough.)
- Never change your vassal contract without hook on liege. You can only change your taxes/levies and special status like march.
- You can’t have non-vassal council members if your crown authority is less than 4. From level 3 you can have there a non-powerful vassals. (Exception – spymaster, friends, dynasty members, bureaucratic state or roleplay purposes.)
- Don’t become friends with someone for purely gaming advantages.
- If your king becomes an army leader (on purpose, not accidentally), he can’t leave it for at least 6 months. If he brave – he can’t leave it even if there is a plague in region.
- Legends should cost 4 times more and their spread decreased to 50% (an actual game rule). You can’t sponsor legend about holy site keeping and you can’t have more than 2 legends per character (each one with cooldown for 20 years). Exception – legend seeds from truly great actions (like ending Iberian Struggle).
- It’s forbidden to use artifacts that give health bonuses. Exception – characters who complete health tree from learning lifestyle, have herbalist/gardener/witch/healer/physician/mystic trait – than you can use books about herbs, medicine or alchemy artifacts, but everything else is forbidden.
- Don’t use funerals for legitimacy farm, especially if bury target is someone unrelated to your character.
- Don’t use character list to search for perfect courtiers. Exceptions – you need a knight for a rare accolade or someone extremely rare (like Garden Hermit). But even in this case you shouldn’t invite them through marriage, hooks or friendship. Your court must be big enough so you can invite them with a simple gift and coverage of their travel expenses.
- Roleplay your character even in a cost of initial campaign target. For example, if your character is cynical and enemy of your bishop/head of faith and you have an event about converting into different faith – convert. There is no need to convert your children and a whole country in that type of events.
- If possible, limit artifacts that give knight effectiveness, number of knights, stats per level of fame, vassal opinions, et cetera. Give preference to artifacts that give prestige, piety and renown (but this is not always possible, due to one artifact can combine different modifiers).
- Limit yourself in choosing culture traditions. For example, I never get Only the Strong or By the Sword if my religion is not fundamentalist + warmonger or Xenophilic if my religion is not pluralist.
- You can create only two accolades that boost specific professionals.
- AI always must have bigger stability than player, all conqueror children must inherit their trait.
- Give land to your house members in clan government if possible.
- In bureaucratic state powerful noble families and just noble families must get land in 2:1:1 proportion. Two titles of new lands get powerful noble families, one another family and the last one is chosen by you. From third level of crown authority powerful noble families get only one title, and at max crown authority only you decide who can get land.
- In adventurer camp court positions should be distributed according to the character relationships with you, not their aptitude. Exception – legitimists.
- In feudal countries your vassal must command armies. From the 3 crown authority level you can appoint your knights or some courtiers (like master of the horse) and from 4 crown authority you can appoint everyone. I bureaucratic states you can appoint everyone.
- You can’t give gifts to vassals who have less than 30+ opinion about you. From roleplay perspective, you just embarrass yourself as a liege.
- You treasury must have limit. I determine this limit by county size, crown authority and court grandeur, but even in a giant empires it should never surpass 30000. If it is – you must spend it on buildings in vassal lands.
The post has already turned out to be quite long, so I'll stop here. I didn’t mention some of my rules, because they already were “integrated” to the game (like not marrying lowborn or give them titles) and other one is too specific for some regions or religions. These rules won’t make game harder in late period, but early and middle periods will feal differently, since you will be limited in a lot of actions. For example, it will be harder to find knights or useful courtiers. You will need to pay attention to your guests and character from events. Or, without abusing vassal contract you simply can’t start wars in latest start date – with high AI stability almost every ruler have 3+ crown authority and almost zero wars for freedom. Also, bureaucracy states will feel more alive, because you can’t ignore other families with low crown authority.
If you have your personal self-limitation rules I would like to hear them too.
I always find strange that fact, that immersive sims always was an outsider as a gaming genre, because it, in some way, a quintessence of gaming. In this type of games (like Deus Ex) you can achieve your goals in dozens of ways and, quite often, only your imagination limits you. And in recent years CK3 evolved in this type of game – you have dozens of ways to become friend or lover with someone, take power in kingdom, et cetera. But, despite so many mechanics and possibilities, most of them work only at the beginning of the game, because modifier stacking ruins them in the middle and late game. To be honest, most immersive sims are always broken in terms of difficulty after you complete them twice or more. And there is only one way to enjoy this games after – limiting yourself. So, without further ado, I want to share some of my game rules, that may bring a second life to your campaigns.
- Don’t use your courtiers to arrange marriages. You can only marry your dynasty members and family. Also, you can’t invite characters to your court using hook. (Exceptions – your courtiers become friends or lovers with other characters, or you have a strong hook on a foreign characters. Also, you can invite pretenders if your court grandeur is big enough.)
- Never change your vassal contract without hook on liege. You can only change your taxes/levies and special status like march.
- You can’t have non-vassal council members if your crown authority is less than 4. From level 3 you can have there a non-powerful vassals. (Exception – spymaster, friends, dynasty members, bureaucratic state or roleplay purposes.)
- Don’t become friends with someone for purely gaming advantages.
- If your king becomes an army leader (on purpose, not accidentally), he can’t leave it for at least 6 months. If he brave – he can’t leave it even if there is a plague in region.
- Legends should cost 4 times more and their spread decreased to 50% (an actual game rule). You can’t sponsor legend about holy site keeping and you can’t have more than 2 legends per character (each one with cooldown for 20 years). Exception – legend seeds from truly great actions (like ending Iberian Struggle).
- It’s forbidden to use artifacts that give health bonuses. Exception – characters who complete health tree from learning lifestyle, have herbalist/gardener/witch/healer/physician/mystic trait – than you can use books about herbs, medicine or alchemy artifacts, but everything else is forbidden.
- Don’t use funerals for legitimacy farm, especially if bury target is someone unrelated to your character.
- Don’t use character list to search for perfect courtiers. Exceptions – you need a knight for a rare accolade or someone extremely rare (like Garden Hermit). But even in this case you shouldn’t invite them through marriage, hooks or friendship. Your court must be big enough so you can invite them with a simple gift and coverage of their travel expenses.
- Roleplay your character even in a cost of initial campaign target. For example, if your character is cynical and enemy of your bishop/head of faith and you have an event about converting into different faith – convert. There is no need to convert your children and a whole country in that type of events.
- If possible, limit artifacts that give knight effectiveness, number of knights, stats per level of fame, vassal opinions, et cetera. Give preference to artifacts that give prestige, piety and renown (but this is not always possible, due to one artifact can combine different modifiers).
- Limit yourself in choosing culture traditions. For example, I never get Only the Strong or By the Sword if my religion is not fundamentalist + warmonger or Xenophilic if my religion is not pluralist.
- You can create only two accolades that boost specific professionals.
- AI always must have bigger stability than player, all conqueror children must inherit their trait.
- Give land to your house members in clan government if possible.
- In bureaucratic state powerful noble families and just noble families must get land in 2:1:1 proportion. Two titles of new lands get powerful noble families, one another family and the last one is chosen by you. From third level of crown authority powerful noble families get only one title, and at max crown authority only you decide who can get land.
- In adventurer camp court positions should be distributed according to the character relationships with you, not their aptitude. Exception – legitimists.
- In feudal countries your vassal must command armies. From the 3 crown authority level you can appoint your knights or some courtiers (like master of the horse) and from 4 crown authority you can appoint everyone. I bureaucratic states you can appoint everyone.
- You can’t give gifts to vassals who have less than 30+ opinion about you. From roleplay perspective, you just embarrass yourself as a liege.
- You treasury must have limit. I determine this limit by county size, crown authority and court grandeur, but even in a giant empires it should never surpass 30000. If it is – you must spend it on buildings in vassal lands.
The post has already turned out to be quite long, so I'll stop here. I didn’t mention some of my rules, because they already were “integrated” to the game (like not marrying lowborn or give them titles) and other one is too specific for some regions or religions. These rules won’t make game harder in late period, but early and middle periods will feal differently, since you will be limited in a lot of actions. For example, it will be harder to find knights or useful courtiers. You will need to pay attention to your guests and character from events. Or, without abusing vassal contract you simply can’t start wars in latest start date – with high AI stability almost every ruler have 3+ crown authority and almost zero wars for freedom. Also, bureaucracy states will feel more alive, because you can’t ignore other families with low crown authority.
If you have your personal self-limitation rules I would like to hear them too.
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