Playing other games

[GCU Grey Area]

I don't think it's quite like that, because if the game is meant to make the good guy suffer hell, then it would feel forced. A lot of products (game and other medium) fall into that trap. As an anime jog I'm not a fan of high drama series, because for the most part the drama feels forced. Half of the time as I watch the event unfold in those shows my dominant thought is "well none of this crap would have to happen if everyone can string 2 sentences together without getting choked up with emotion".

What makes CK3 good so far for me it it handles things organically. I don't think the game set out to punish the good guy (despite the good guys usually end up in a ditch). What it punishes is the act of treating the game like a fairy book, disrespect the setting and/or approach it naively. Everything else happens is a consequence of that.

It's not so much that the good guy suffers hell, rather that they may be comparatively weak rulers, effectively incapable of the sort of morally repugnant acts that might be beneficial for the realm (e.g. murdering children to break up dangerous military alliances, pre-emptively locking up powerful vassals to prevent a civil war when their heir takes over, etc).

[BrasatoAlBarolo]

I'm curious what do you mean by "investigate". I had seen other people talk about it, like tracking the visitor to your court, see who suddenly just got a lot money, or even start your own fake murdering scheme on someone you think gonna be the next target to bait the "real" murderer into joining as a co-conspirator. I haven't get to the point in the game where I pay close attention to these detail yet, but I did run into them. I.e I do know sometime I get co-conspirators in my murder scheme but I don't pay attention to who they are, but it seems it should be taking not for future preference.

I simply choose to "investigate", "increase security" and "confront the suspect"; these are the options I get in the event chain and I successed with the last one, having high intrigue and a very good relationship with the murder.
"I forgive your youth errors, my son. Puberty is a mess."

Curious, again this is something I see other people talk about a lot, but is "pure blood" (not divine blood) something you do for the prestige rather than the practical benefit of it? It requires at least 4 generation of direct inbreeding (brother-sister) with a lot of stress and rng involves, not to mention the bodies of fail subject piling up. If the end result is to reliably getting good top trait, there are other method that's much easier.

In my longest save, I have so many bloodlines that can get lvl3 on the 3 main buff (Genuis/Beautiful/Hercules) reliably that I even export excess candidate to help the AI. It's no uncommon to run into a foreign dynastie with the blood mother/father in my game. What I do is by the 3rd generation I manage to consolidate the 3 good trait into my main line to get the blood-father buff, and you can even catch wanderers with all 3 lvl3 trait around the world.. Then I start splinting it into new house, adding one house per generation. Each new house is in charge of one specific trait and re-enforce through lvl3 candidate outside of my dynasty to keep their main trait going. After all the lines established, then every generation I shift the children around - round robin style and eventually it get to a point every house will produce nothing but top class children.

(Of course, every few generation I groom one high intrigue, sadistist ruler for the purpose of curating and filtering all the impurity that may pollute the various houses).


This way the inbreeding only happens at the 3rd or 4th generation level, so the chance of getting the actual inbreeding trait is pretty much non-existence. In another word, I went with the Japanese style instead of the Alabama style to re-enforce my bloodline. Seem to be a lot more stable than then trying to get pure-blood buff.

I just try to marry people with good traits (especially the intelligence ones), even getting my relatives to marry them whenever possible (to have good vassals).
As soon as possible, I unlock the dinasty perk to increase chance of good traits (blood perk, iIrc).

[Mightysword]

Well, it has been a fun week with Ck3. But I just received my copy of Trail of Cold Steel 4, so time to fire up my PS4 again.

As the name implies, it's the 4th game of the series with the first one started back in 2013. All installation are direct sequence of each other, and each games ended with a massive cliff hanger. This game is the conclusion and ending, so it has been quite a ride. It's not a mainstream tittle like Final Fantasy of Tales Of series so all those years as I finish one, it's hope and fear wondering whether the next tittle would be localized or not, but today you can sigh with relief since they're all here with the grand finale.

It's a Falcom tittle, so for me it's the classic (PS1/PS2 era) JRPG experience that hasn't been transformed or westernized to appeal to the wider audience the way Final Fantasy and other similar big tittle.

[pjknibbs]

What a coincidence, I've just been on a Trails binge--so far in the last few months I've played Trails in the Sky SC and FC and the first three Cold Steel games, and just started up #4 yesterday. Some slightly distasteful moments aside (Falcom do seem to find females sexually abusing other females something worth playing for laughs...no, Falcom, it really isn't) I think it's an awesome series.

[Mightysword]

I'm a bit jealous if you're rolling into Cold Steel 4 from a recent binge of all the previous tittle, I have good memories but after playing them spread out over the years, there are a few moments that I was a bit at a loss. But yes, the series is quite awesome, its world building is massive and characterization is really second to none. Despite the huge casts almost all characters appeal in some way to me, and I find myself eager to listen to what each of them have to say whoever on screen, whether in other series I care for about maybe a handful and ignore the rest. It's a really unique series in many regard that I don't think there is any other like it. I always have a minor "withdrawal" whenever I finish each game in the series (that feeling of wanting more), but the only choice is always just have to wait until the next entry.

The thing you mention though ... it's not really a Falcom thing, but rather an anime thing. I came into it often enough to consider it a "troupe", and cringe at most.


Edit: a while back I thought it was a pity you gave up on the Yazuka series, but looked like it was for a good cause.

[Mightysword]

Coming back to CK3 after finishing Cold Steel IV.

I hate the pope

He called one crusader per generation against me that usually last for 10 freaking years or more.

All I want is to have gender equality.

Playing as England he's too far away for me to do anything.

But one day if I make it there, by the beard of my ancestor Rome will become ground zero.

[RegisterMe]

Playing Batletech RogueTech (mod) at the moment. Bloody good, and damn hard. I'd be playing X4 but for CK3. But that's a shitshow too, so.. RogueTech is where it's at.

CK3 and X4 will come good in their own time. Just not on my dime.

[Warenwolf]

Playing Mars Horizon.

I found this game while searching for an alternative to Kerbal Space Program which I played to death (I visited every rock in that game) and found this little gem. It is not KSP in any way except being related to space program and rockets. While you build rockets in KSP in this game you manage a space organization like NASA. And while you are never on the clock in Kerbal Space Program here you are racing against another space organizations - and this is where all the fun is:

I just beat the chinese to the mars orbit mission playing as russian. Got the message that they are going to try to test lander in 18 months. Researched 60s era N1 rocket which is deathtrap and I have avoided unlocking due to its reputation and strapped a soyuz on it. Launched as quickly as possible with 57 % chance of launch success in bad weather. Chinese launched at same time but their craft exploded. Arrived 1 month before capitalists in NASA.

Gameplay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIP6dMECaSw

[Mightysword]

I'd be playing X4 but for CK3. But that's a shitshow too, so...

Not sure what you mean by shitshow for CK3? I assume the usual bug gallor that usually come with Paradox games? I think it's pretty decent tbh, with very little trademark of typical Paradox's bug fest. I have 100+ hours in the game so far and I have only run into a few minor bugs, and none that impacted my experience.

[RegisterMe]

I'd be playing X4 but for CK3. But that's a shitshow too, so...

Not sure what you mean by shitshow for CK3? I assume the usual bug gallor that usually come with Paradox games? I think it's pretty decent tbh, with very little trademark of typical Paradox's bug fest. I have 100+ hours in the game so far and I have only run into a few minor bugs, and none that impacted my experience.

I don't know how experienced you are with CK2, but CK3 still has lots of problems that maybe aren't immediately apparent eg:-

* Succession laws can be a mess, not helped by confusing tooltips and opaque combinations of family / province laws
* AI noble rulers don't spend anything developing their demesnes (but I think towns and bishropics might be ok?), and overspend on war.
* Related to the above every time an army converts to a fleet it costs gold, and the AI does a lot of this.
* Christendom invariably ends up a mess because every time some random bishop gets his hands caught down the pants of a choir boy it loses fervour, which contributes to continuous religious schisms in the Christian world. And a lot of bishops are up to no good.
* The Intrigue focus is a bit bust, and there are way too many illegitimate children running around.
* Female heredity laws are broken.
* Crusades are broken.

Some of the above may have been patched out (but not materially, the last time I checked), but all in all it detracts enough from the experience for me that I just don't want to play it yet.

At first glance, yes, it looked very polished but....

[BrasatoAlBarolo]

I'd be playing X4 but for CK3. But that's a shitshow too, so...

Not sure what you mean by shitshow for CK3? I assume the usual bug gallor that usually come with Paradox games? I think it's pretty decent tbh, with very little trademark of typical Paradox's bug fest. I have 100+ hours in the game so far and I have only run into a few minor bugs, and none that impacted my experience.

I don't know how experienced you are with CK2, but CK3 still has lots of problems that maybe aren't immediately apparent eg:-

* Succession laws can be a mess, not helped by confusing tooltips and opaque combinations of family / province laws
* AI noble rulers don't spend anything developing their demesnes (but I think towns and bishropics might be ok?), and overspend on war.
* Related to the above every time an army converts to a fleet it costs gold, and the AI does a lot of this.
* Christendom invariably ends up a mess because every time some random bishop gets his hands caught down the pants of a choir boy it loses fervour, which contributes to continuous religious schisms in the Christian world. And a lot of bishops are up to no good.
* The Intrigue focus is a bit bust, and there are way too many illegitimate children running around.
* Female heredity laws are broken.
* Crusades are broken.

Some of the above may have been patched out (but not materially, the last time I checked), but all in all it detracts enough from the experience for me that I just don't want to play it yet.

At first glance, yes, it looked very polished but....

In my experience:
- Succession laws are confusing, but apparently working: provinces are split based on their military strenght, if I looked that right, starting from your primary heir down until every county is checked.
- In my experience, everyone develops their domain, but it takes time (they need to have *a lot* of money, way more than the cost of the expansion). They are indeed too prone to wage expensive wars, though.
- I think it's because of pathing: traveling by sea is usually faster, so they often chose to go there, ignoring the cost factor (and that is frequently an issue).
- Religious schisms are indeed to easy to trigger. I don't mean bishops should be caught down the pants of a courtier less frequently, but the fact even a small country priest could destroy religious fervour and induce a new faith to be founded is a bit too much.
- This aspect of the game is probably close to realism for those times, and yes intrigue focus is probably too effective in "creating bastards".
- Again, in my experience female heredity works, but there are too many matrilineal marriage to support this mechanic.
- Crusades are strange: you conquer the kingdom of Jerusalem, but usually you leave it abandoned to its fate, easy prey of the arabic empires and to how smaller holy wars are easy to trigger. In my game, we already conquered Jerusalem four times, yet in a few years the holy site is back under muslim dominion because nobody cares to defend it.

Another thing: I usually arrange marriages for my relatives and courtiers, but I find strange that nobody asked anybody to marry one of them. I always need to take the initiative, somehow...

[Mightysword]

I don't know how experienced you are with CK2, but CK3 still has lots of problems that maybe aren't immediately apparent eg:-

* Succession laws can be a mess, not helped by confusing tooltips and opaque combinations of family / province laws
* AI noble rulers don't spend anything developing their demesnes (but I think towns and bishropics might be ok?), and overspend on war.
* Related to the above every time an army converts to a fleet it costs gold, and the AI does a lot of this.
* Christendom invariably ends up a mess because every time some random bishop gets his hands caught down the pants of a choir boy it loses fervour, which contributes to continuous religious schisms in the Christian world. And a lot of bishops are up to no good.
* The Intrigue focus is a bit bust, and there are way too many illegitimate children running around.
* Female heredity laws are broken.
* Crusades are broken.
Some of the above may have been patched out (but not materially, the last time I checked), but all in all it detracts enough from the experience for me that I just don't want to play it yet.

At first glance, yes, it looked very polished but....

I didn't play CK2 at all, so I can't compared:

- It's hard to understand for sure, I personally had to make a few questions on the forum to have it explained to me. But once I do, I think it's working as intended, now I have a fairly good projection on how it plays out, as well as how I can game it. I actually introduce different type of law into different tittles to manipulate the outcome. Tbh, even after I understand it, I don't know how the wording can be better, after all these stuffs are confusing by nature at the time. That's why succession wars brought many kingdoms to its knee.

- I can see why that's an issue. I think human approach (or at least my approach) is turtle up. Meaning focus on getting economy building first, while the AI seems to be focus on zerg tactic. The way I play though, it's not an issue. Since I always start out as a count who has income in the low 1 digit range, so it takes forever for me to get up and running too. By the time I'm established, there are enough well developed big boys around me to keep it challenged + the pope and his freaking Crusade. It may sounds like an issue at the beginning, but over long term the impact isn't that big since the AI eventually develop. By mid game there is no shortage of 50k battle to fight.

- Agree on schism, but again, as someone who always go for my own religion it's not much of an issue for me.

- Agree on Intrigue (and I think they toned it down in the recent patch), I don't really play intrigue characters, and while I do see a bastard here and there it's not really rampant. It does annoy me a bit is whenever I dip into the intrigue tree there is a good chance my wife cheat on me.

- Don't see a problem with female heredity.

- Not sure what you mean by Crusade being broken?

So yes, probably due to my specific play style I don't see issue with it. Which is more than I can ever say for a lot of Paradox tittles in the early launch period where I may feel compelled to punch the screen sometime.
- I have never had a crash.
- The game does whatever I tell it to do.
- The AI throws enough stuffs at me to keep thing challenged and entertained.

Another thing: I usually arrange marriages for my relatives and courtiers, but I find strange that nobody asked anybody to marry one of them. I always need to take the initiative, somehow...

Eh I have the opposite problem. As mentioned in earlier posts I'm a control freak who try to establish different house and bloodline, I wish everyone in my court just sit still and let me find the "perfect" partner for them. But they keep promising themselves to random hobos. In fact, my strategy is to find a random 0-3 years old child to betroed to "lock" my candidates down until more suitable partners become available. The last patch made it less like for a 6 years old prince be pair with 60 years old granny, which is a big plus.

[BrasatoAlBarolo]

Eh I have the opposite problem. As mentioned in earlier posts I'm a control freak who try to establish different house and bloodline, I wish everyone in my court just sit still and let me find the "perfect" partner for them. But they keep promising themselves to random hobos. In fact, my strategy is to find a random 0-3 years old child to betroed to "lock" my candidates down until more suitable partners become available. The last patch made it less like for a 6 years old prince be pair with 60 years old granny, which is a big plus.

This happens to me, sometimes. I think AI weights that kind of actions (marrying a child to an elder) based on alliance potential. It makes sense in the game, but I'm not sure it is realistic.

[Mightysword]

And that is soooo funny, isn't it?
I once was planning to give my firstborn all my domain by disinheriting / denouncing his brothers. I was going to be so stressed, because I had traits like "Just" and "Forgiving"...
At some point in time, (and please note my favourite child was 14 at the moment) they started to get killed by someone... I investigated, spent a lot, and who was the serial killer? My Sadistic Cynical Genius heir, who started his tabula rasa with puberty... He killed three brothers and a couple of court members by the time he was 20.

And ... I just experienced my own tabula rasa, although I can't help but think it's my own design.

Think he's 3rd or 4th inline, so I disinherit him just like with others except the main heir. Once renown become free resources in late game it's just the most convenience way to deal with succession. I've been doing that for generations so I didn't think about it much any more. Sure they'll get pissed, but a few bribe, give them a piece of land and it's one big happy family again ... or at least that how it normally work.

This guy just happened to grow up earning a Phd in intrigue. It also happened he grew up around the time my old spy master kick the bucket, so he naturally got the position. And ... you probably can guess where the story go next. Years of inexplicable murders that systematically go through the court, even his mother wasn't spared. I couldn't figure it out, I had thought that it maybe him but he's sitting there at 100+ relationship, smiling and even invite me to his feast sometime. Then I remember spock's quote: "When you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." Apparently he still considered me his rival for dis-inheriting him all those years ago.

Afterward I wanted to change my dynasty motto to: Never forget, never forgive.

[Gavrushka]

Well, I gotta say that Titanfall 2 is my favourite non-X game. I nearly abandoned after being unable to play the tutorial effectively with a controller... (How does anyone aim a damned gun effectively with a joystick?) ... Anyhow, I switched to keyboard and mouse which made controlling it far easier. I still brainfarted my way to a painful death many times while getting the hang of it, but the combination of powerful story and great gameplay is superb. - Thanks to Tycow for encouraging me to buy it.

I've just reached the point where I've retrieved the third battery, and now I'm in the Titan. - The only in-game issue I have is the enemy AI is sometimes a little poor, and the 'irritation' I face is every time I load the game, it goes back to windowed mode, even though I change it to full screen, and save changes.

A week Monday I'm ordering a new PC, a good one, and will buy a RTX 3080 after Christmas when stocks are hopefully a little higher and prices a little more palatable. - Will look to acquire another modern FPS with a strong story then as I understand Titanfall is not a very long campaign.

[CosmicVoyager]

Working through my steam library recently, rl kept me busy so not many chances to play. But i'm playing persona 4 atm, really good game despite it's age.

Not sure what you mean by shitshow for CK3? I assume the usual bug gallor that usually come with Paradox games? I think it's pretty decent tbh, with very little trademark of typical Paradox's bug fest. I have 100+ hours in the game so far and I have only run into a few minor bugs, and none that impacted my experience.

As a Stellaris Vet i can safely assume that he means the bad MP peformance, usually riddled with desyncs and disconnects. I would be surprised if Paradox were able to pull off a stable MP in CK3, but i can only guess because i've only played eu4 and stellaris as mentioned.

[BrasatoAlBarolo]

Never tried multiplayer in Paradox, but could be funny indeed.

By the way, the character designer is comically good: beautiful dwarves will conquer the world!

[Chips]

Never tried multiplayer in Paradox titles too - they seem to intense and I'm far too laid back and slow paced gamer in those titles >.<

But I'd expect CK3, which is using the same engine (I believe) as HOI4 and likely Europa Universalis, to be an entirely different experience MP wise.

In other words, those titles were Paradox developed and have evolved over nearly a decade (undoubtedly with their own issues) and using a shared game engine have had plenty of development to get it right - whereas Stellaris is not inhouse afaik and uses an entirely different engine.

Of course, may be talking utter drivvel.

[Mightysword]

Never tried multiplayer in Paradox, but could be funny indeed.

By the way, the character designer is comically good: beautiful dwarves will conquer the world!

Question, does the facial genetic passed down to children? Or the children are still gonna be just generic culture based templates?

Even before the designer became available I never messed with custom ruler either since I don't see the point. The first generation last like ...3h top before dying out and a game tend to last at least a dozen generations.

[GCU Grey Area]

Question, does the facial genetic passed down to children? Or the children are still gonna be just generic culture based templates?

Think facial genetics are passed down.
This is not what I'd normally expect a Scandinavian emperor to look like:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0d6lfp6rpyhsf ... 1.jpg?dl=0
Not exactly a "generic culture based template" for a Norwegian.

Though perhaps not particularly surprising since this was his mother:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/g6vvwwwscclpq ... 1.jpg?dl=0
...and his grandfather:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/e2mf4hiw9n7cb ... 1.jpg?dl=0