While development on the Crusader Kings III Royal Court expansion is taking longer than expected, things are sufficiently far along that the development team are able to start sharing snippets as to what the titular court feature is going to look like.
This week’s dev diary gives us the best look at the new mechanics to date, with new screens of the 3D throne room, as well as a selection of court events planned for the CK3 DLC’s release. There’s “just shy” of 100 court-specific events planned, and every time you take the Hold Court repeatable decision you’ll be presented with a random selection of three events to contend with.
The diary shows a range of events, from the straight-forward to the bizarre. Each event will come with several options, each with their own rewards (and consequences), as well as a boost to one of the expansion’s new stats – grandeur. Some events will even be tied to specific cultures and regions, and there is also a chance of follow-up events to decisions taken during court triggering back on the main map as well.
This system is the core focus of the new expansion, and is something the team seem quite proud of.
Developer ‘wokeg’ – who wrote this week’s diary – mentions that “This system is something pretty dear to our hearts, as it models a task that would’ve been a pretty big part of the day-to-day for many rulers, and we’ve put a lot of effort into getting plenty of alternate events to keep it as varied as possible for as long as possible.”
Crusader Kings III’s publisher – Paradox Interactive – has had a couple of high-profile events happen within the past week. CEO Ebba Ljungerud stepped down last week, citing differences on company strategy. She has been replaced by former CEO and founder Fredrik Wester.
Yesterday, two Swedish labour groups published some damning survey results which indicated that over two-thirds of female staff who responded had been subject to gender discrimination.
Crusader Kings III: Royal Court is due out on PC via Steam and the Paradox Store sometime before the end of 2021.