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Crusader Kings 3’s first big patch drops this week, and it’s huge

The Pope can no longer accept cannibalism, at least in public

The first major patch for Crusader Kings III arrives on the morrow, which means it’s a very special day. Today, we get to comb through the changelog and see what kinds of fixes and updates are on the way to Paradox’s latest grand strategy game. We’re in luck, too, because this really is a big ‘un.

In addition to the usual funny ones like “Reclusive characters will no longer host feasts” and “You will no longer be stressed out if a spouse you dislike dies”, there are some important changes in Crusader Kings III update 1.1.0 that could have an impact on the way you play. Notably, the so-called ‘North Korea strategy‘ we highlighted a couple weeks ago is going to be essentially unusable going forward, since this patch increases the maximum penalty for being above the domain limit to 100%.

Again, the changelog for 1.1.0 is huge, and the updates are broadly categorised into the headings of Game Balance, Interface, Art, Localisation, Game Content, User Modding, Databases, and Bugfixes. Paradox has been hard at work, it seems, and no detail is too big or too small to catch the attention of its industrious medieval engineers.

Your heads of faith should always wear the correct clothing from now on, for example, and the Catholic Pope will no longer be able to publicly accept cannibalism. A few more choice entries:

  • Sneaky people will now wear sneaky clothes
  • You can no longer ask your house head to approve your divorce if you are the house head (just do it)
  • You can no longer demand liberty from a chill liege
  • Two players having a child together will no longer have a screaming competition about the name
  • The Mongol Empire will no longer destroy itself when winning a war
  • Spymasters will no longer try to dig up dirt on themselves
  • Fixed word salad in the Level of Splendor toasts
  • Added more restrictions to the check for if characters are willing to cheat on their partners
  • Told the AI that maybe it shouldn’t pretend it can’t see your units when it actually can due to you being in or on the border of its liege’s territory

You can read the full list of upcoming changes on the Paradox forums. That last one highlighted above is pretty important: it’s part of a series of new instructions for how the AI handles warfare, and while the entries are humorously phrased, the implications are that you’ll be up against a much more competent opponent when you’re mounting a large-scale war from now on – notably during crusades.

You can read our Crusader Kings 3 beginner’s guide if you need some help getting started, or have a look at our guide to the best Crusader Kings 3 mods, if this latest list of changes doesn’t quite go far enough for your tastes.