Crusader Kings 3 is a fantastic game because despite the large map and reduced perspective, this is what it’s about People. Paradox Interactive has developed a strategy role-playing game that is a little closer to the Sims than to civilization.
The most interesting feature to come Crusader Kings 3 is the ruler designer that allows players to create a new head of state rather than taking on an existing role. Lineal Designer was in Crusader Kings 2but was not in the third game at the start. Now it will be released with the upcoming patch 1.2.
There are two advantages to working with your own ruler rather than a preset historical figure.
- You can customize every aspect of their appearance, from jaw width and eye size to body mass and weight.
- You get access to all of the properties when you set up your character, which allows a story to be created before the game even starts.
For example, I can create a young woman and then decide that she was the leader of a peasant revolt and then assign that trait to her. That gives her a pleasant boost in public opinion, but other gentlemen and women look down on her. I can make her a master of tactics and a terrifying berserk, which is probably why she rose to the throne.
On the flip side, if I want to go on a challenging run, I can create a young man who beats the odds and survived medieval pneumonia and now needs to use his enormous intellect to take control of an entire nation. I can give him some social traits to top it off like the ability to record his feelings and be really great at parties.
It’s really varied and players can create any type of ruler they want. Paradox has already included the ability for gamers to change their rules of the game and have a completely equal world, even though it’s 1066. So it’s great to be able to launch rulers who can thrive in these new worlds. I can even create my character’s starting family by marking them married and assigning them a number of sons or daughters. (Unfortunately, you can’t customize the spouse and children, but they are generated with your default beliefs and culture.)
Eventually my starting characters will die and their ancestors will take over the helm, but I still strive to start with a completely original character that I made up, rather than a pre-generated one. It’s easier to get into the story that way. I can even pick some of the more interesting and occult traits like witch and work hard to start a circle from day one.
This isn’t a massive game changer, but it does get you started Crusader Kings 3 much easier. The amount of strategy and information can be overwhelming, especially since it’s embedded in so many menus. If you start with your own ruler made from scratch, some of this is negated. I don’t care about the little king of Ireland, but I do do take care of my original character.
Ruler Designer will come to the game in Patch 1.2. The game’s latest developer diary shows some nice additions to the game, like a fix that makes “ugly” characters look less attractive, and a list that lets you look at all of your past murders. There are also more murder incidents that crop up when you dispatch your enemies and you can trick your doctor into murdering people through sub-optimal care. To the Crusader Kings 3 Players involved in war, armies can now join allies, and the combat interface has been cleaned up to show more information.
