Editing Crusader Kings (section)

==Crusader Kings III==

Released by Paradox in September 2020, the game is a complete redesign from the previous one. Now every character in game is rendered via a 3D model and can do some minor movements on screen. The game also moved away somewhat from "just paint the map your color" to more of a roleplay focus with the addition of a stress meter. Now when your character does something they can gain or lose stress. Gain too much and you get stressed out and can begin indulging in less-than-savory activities which rarely work out for you in the end. These activities largely depend on your characters traits, so a lustful character will probably head down to the local brothel which helps them lose stress but also makes it very possible to catch disease, some of which can make you insane.

At launch there is only two start dates (867 and 1066) and you could not design your own custom ruler and dynasty. This changed with an update in November 2020 with a free update which, in a major Paradox change, allows you to customize your starting ruler and still play on Ironman mode and acquire achievements as long as you do no exceed a certain point threshold during character creation. People have, since then, tried their best to recreate the Hapsburgs in all their giant chin inbred glory.

Graphically the game is far better looking than CK2, with a massive redoing to the map that makes it look like one of those classic maps of yore when you zoom out far enough as well as giving each province multiple sub-regions your troops will have to move through. This makes the game more tactical since you could move an army onto a hill tile within a province by using the quicker plains terrain in it while your opponent slowly trudges through a swamp to get there as well meaning you're more likely to get to the hill and get the defense bonuses.

Another big change is with religion in the game. CK3 launched with 31 religions, almost all of which come with multiple sects (referred to as "faiths" in the game) within them to choose from (Christians can be Catholic, Orthodox, Lollard, etc for instance). However if your religion/faith is not up to your liking, then you can make your own [[Heresy]]. You'll need a lot of piety to do so and you'll probably be attacked over it but this really adds to the depth of the roleplay one can get up to in the game.

To further push into /tg/ territory, CK3 almost entirely sidetrack realm-management for dynastic gameplay, in proportions far greater than in previous two titles. Your main goal is to make your dynasty great, and that means far, far, ''far'' bigger focus on characters as such. This of course means a massive roleplaying potential, unless you want to just stare into the screen awaiting for pregnancy pop-ups and those informing you you can finally marry your 16 yo kids to someone.

The other great thing about the game is how a local lord will be absolutely unable to maintain ''any'' amount of men-at-arms, not to mention those in full harness, so suck it, realismfags and local lord posters! And you will be hard-pressed to even find a duke wealthy enough to afford an entire thousand of those lads.

With the release of the DLC "The Royal Court," far more detail into the roleplaying aspect of the game was achieved. Now artifacts have returned to the game, ranging from ones a character can equip such as crowns, armors, and purple underwear (do not be caught wearing them in the Byzantine Empire), to ones that can be put up on display in the new 3D court kings and emperors now have access to. Court artifacts can range from the fingerbone of a saint and your dynasty's banner to weirder things such as the foreskin of Christ and one of like 50 Excalibur's that appear to be just floating around the British Isles (seriously, everyone and their sister-cousin-wife have one). Along with the artifacts many more decisions are opened up to the player from appointing people to be your seneschal or royal architect, all the way down to threatening to cut a baby in half to figure out who the mother of the baby is (or just plain doing it because you're a sick fuck). You also have to maintain your court's "Grandeur" by keeping people well fed, well accommodated, well staffed, and more, all of which turn into some hefty money sinks if you want to be the best court around and get the best courtiers. Lastly, the DLC finally allows people to alter their cultures in major ways, ranging from what style of culture they are (warlike to courtly, for instance), what kind of "court language" they use, and a number of small tenets that the culture as a whole strive for, such as being xenophilic or isolationist, mountain warriors or desert nomads. If you don't like something about your culture, you can try to become the culture head and blow massive amounts of prestige and time to change it, or you can merge your culture with another (like how the Normans and Anglo-Saxons became the English), or diverge it away from the main culture (such as how the Franks diverged into becoming both the French and Occitans). Player customization has probably never been so advanced in a Paradox game before.