Crusader Kings III

Crusader Kings III

Witchcraft
Potential bug with Ancient Singularity (mentioned in comments) (SPOILERS)
So, I was saying in comments that I had the MKII and got the special project to improve the Ancient Singularity, which apparently just exists to upgrade it to the MKII. Definitely seems like a bug, here is the information I can provide about it.

One possible cause is that my archmage character actually inherited the MKII from Abdul after I killed him, since I was his liege and he didn't have any family (due to me killing them trying to give him stress).

That character previously had the "stuck activated, provides some stat boosts and a health penalty" version, at the same time that Abdul had the MKII actually, but I had given it away because it wasn't very helpful and I wanted to see if I could get it back to its original state like what happened when a different character fully activated it previously in the campaign.

At that point (when a character earlier in the campaign died with it), it changed back to normal some time after inheritance, that is I wanted to see if I could repeat here, but it ended up getting deleted instead. A risk I was fully aware of, but it wasn't helping much so I considered it one worth taking.

Anyways, so this character had a different version of the singularity, gave it away, it got destroyed, he inherited it from Abdul, it stayed MKII while I had it, then I abdicated and my heir also inherited it in the MKII form. That character oddly enough had access to the decision to study the Ancient Singularity even while he had the MKII, I did so, and I actually ended up reaching the end where you fully activate it and discover its purpose, so that it would have been MKII anyways. Afterwards, I conducted magical research, made a book, and got a special project to improve the Ancient Singularity, which I thought meant that there was an even better version, but it sounds like that is meant for if you fail to get the MKII normally.

Maybe the issue is with the player having Abdul's version of the MKII? It did seem odd that he had the Ancient Singularity while I also had a different version of the Singularity, but I assumed that was to make it harder to beat him in battle (and likely duels, since you can use it in those), and to prevent a player with the MKII from steamrolling him in battle as well. Alternatively, it could be that whatever scripted event that makes it turn back to its original form after inheritance doesn't handle the Abdicate decision very well. That would be a bit odd though because I did actually get the outcome that would cause it to upgrade as well. I suppose the bug could also be the code being confused about a MKII getting the result to upgrade it into the MKII from studying it.

Oh, while fighting Abdul, I also did the "look for artifacts" activity after my Ancient Singularity got lost. At that point, I succeeded, but it apparently hadn't spawned in a new one, because I discovered nothing and got a claim on nothing. Maybe that broke something too, hard to say.

So full chain of events chronologically:

Archmage character had the "stuck active and leaking radiation" version of the singularity, he was in a long-term battle with Abdul.

Abdul had the MKII Singularity, this seemed odd since that meant two Singularities existed simultaneously, but made enough sense from a gameplay perspective.

I was struggling to beat his army in battle, and my Singularity didn't really provide anything this character needs, so I gave it away and killed the recipient a couple times, seeing if I could get the event to revert it back to the original version.

It got deleted in succession instead, oh well.

Searching for artifacts is off cooldown, let's see if I can get it back. Success, but it seems it didn't actually spawn back in yet, I discovered an artifact and got a claim, but there was no valid artifact to discover and get a claim on. Oh well, just some wasted gold.

Continued battling with Abdul, eventually vassalized him, imprisoned him after a rebellion, fed him to darkblade. Inherited the MKII from him, convenient.

After defeating him, I wanted to split the world back up and move on from this character, never really had any interest in being immortal, so I used the Abdicate decision. I did not receive the event downgrading it before I did so.

Heir inherited the MKII, has yet to receive event downgrading it to the original version.

Heir has access to the study singularity decision for some reason, let's do it.

Success, huh, I got all the way to where I would have the MKII anyways. A bit weird, but at least now my character actually should have access to the MKII, I wasn't sure he was supposed to before.

Conducting research, made a book, got a special project, "Oh, the Singularity can be improved even more?"

Turns out I was not supposed to get that special project since it just upgrades it to the MKII, which I already have.
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Showing 1-3 of 3 comments
ryciebani666  [developer] 17 Jun, 2024 @ 12:43pm 
First of all, many thanks for such a detailed report :D

Fact one: Abdul has his own singularity. Because AC is designed as a weapon, there could potentially be several copies. It is not surprising that a powerful archmage would acquire or recreate such an artifact. Of course, it was introduced to make it more difficult for the player to fight Al-Hazred.

Fact two: Abdul has AC MK II, and the player can upgrade his AC to MK II version. But even if he does, the two artifacts will work a little differently. They both have the same modifiers and allow the same interaction (Use singularity), but Abdul's version is undetectable by triangulation or artifact search, it won't respawn if destroyed, I guess it can't be taken over by dueling or imprisoning. It also does not go to sleep (although I don't remember at the moment if any version of MKII goes to sleep). The basic version of AC goes into a dormant state, some time after the person who activated it dies.

Fact three: Abdul's version is designed with him in mind ;) The player should not be able to get it, this is my oversight. I'll have to think of something in this case. When one character has both versions, the wrong decisions can be available, as in your case. I take comfort in the fact that your case is quite extreme, but I will still have to address it. The whole thing is quite complicated, because... AC is not the simplest of magical artifacts, by the fact that its state can change in several ways ;p

Thanks for the info, regards ;)
WolfWhiteFire 17 Jun, 2024 @ 3:26pm 
I don't have both versions, only one. Good to know though, I figured he likely had his own coded version, and like I mentioned it did make sense from a gameplay perspective. Just broke things by unintentionally inheriting it.
ryciebani666  [developer] 18 Jun, 2024 @ 1:10am 
Perhaps Abdul's version in the hands of the player is enough for there to be trouble. Although unfortunately I have not found the cause in the code. I think Abdul's AC will be destroyed when he dies. That will solve most of the problem, at least in this case.
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