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Crusader Kings III >  Workshop > Cardolam's Workshop > Dark Ages > Discussions
Dark Ages
Description Discussions17 Comments2560 Change Notes
XoXo 1 May, 2024 @ 10:28pm
Feedback!
some feedback content wise:

- i love the mortality rates. you hit an absolute sweetspot there for me.

- financially i find it a little too rough. took me 3 generations before i could afford the first "grand activity", i never did feasts or hunts just because i was permanently broke (and almost for a whole geenration indebted which i kinda loved as that never was the case in vanilla). only pilgrimage once i think. im not sure if its intended to be like that or if i was just unlucky or something. (im playing sicily, which is not really a tough or poor start with those very rich provinces like napoli right around the corner)

- playing dread focused does not feel rewarding but only makes it harder which i feel like historically not very correct? Is the idea when you play a dread-focused ruler to annihialte all potential threats (people who dont get terrified because they have the traits for it) by you one by one out of your cosmos? because especially for a female ruler its not very common to have high prowness so they die to the assassination attempts rather quickly in my observation.

- To make it somewhat more rewarding i would atleast wish there was an option for "evil" rulers to seize wealth so you can enrich yourself on your court additionally to the lifestyle option where you let your peasants bleed.

- In general i do not like the slowed down lifestyle choices. i rarely finish any tree (in the 4th egenration so far) so that feels like a waste. maybe you could tune that down a little or give a slider option atleast for the game rules ( if it doesnt exist already and i missed it)

- the battle changes are wonderful, had some surprising defeats that really made me crumble which is exactly how it should be.

- Even though i was pretty weak for a prolonged time the AI never got the idea to attack me which was a little odd. I only got challenged internally so im considering to use some AI enhancer mod for the next playthrough, if you have a suggestion feel free to let me know.

cant think of more right now: in general a fantastic job and the best mod ive encountered so far for this game. made ck3 interesting again for me.
Last edited by XoXo; 1 May, 2024 @ 11:04pm
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Showing 1-15 of 29 comments
Cardolam  [developer] 2 May, 2024 @ 2:41pm 
Some feedback on your notes:


Financial side:

It is supposed to force you to make choices. Are you going to invest on activities or fill your MaA ranks? Are you going to build your provinces or have a decent emergency fund to bail out of a nasty event while being at war? Are you going to pay for good professionals (don't forget bodyguards!) or do you prefer to invest in a trade route... or a piracy operation, perhaps? Are you going to hire good councillors through the Hire Specialist decision or save for hiring another merc company to help your chances in war? These type of choices and the incapability of having everything increase gameplay by a fair amount, I think.

Dread:

On top of all the vanilla bonuses, Dread has a very powerful capability where you can intimidate your courtiers and vassals into giving you gold, prestige, piety... so, deserving to be graced with some nasty weaknesses to balance it all.

Murders:

The most effective way of reducing death chance in murders is to have at least one bodyguard and if at all possible, a spymaster as good as you can get to prevent the murder events from happening in first place (there is a saveroll coded into each murder attempt that basically makes the event warning you were about to be murdered, but saved by your secret services). Yes, character Prowess and Intrigue contribute to it, but not at the same level as the above mentioned factors.

Lifestyles:

Unfortunately it is not possible to add a rule to change the cost of a lifestyle. I strongly prefer the slower pace at which I am acquiring perks and certainly I am able to finish more than a tree per character on average. Are you taking advantage of the last option of the Focus event you get every ten years? That might give a good amount of monthly XP to make everything go faster (up to 65% bonus)

AI:

I am very wary of turning the AI more aggressive as the mod already provides a true challenge to beat. You can do it easily by going to modpath\common\defines\ai\zzzz_darkages_ai.txt and change the value AI_BASE_WAR_CHANCE. Increase it and it will get more aggressive.


Glad you are enjoying!
#1
XoXo 3 May, 2024 @ 10:25pm 
i think i see the problem... im not using all DLCs which seems to be somewhat mandatory to fully enjoy this mod. Bodyguards come with the court dlc i assume
#2
Cardolam  [developer] 4 May, 2024 @ 4:56am 
Well, yes. I guess having all the DLC will provide a better experience.
#3
Harry the Unlucky 3 Jul, 2024 @ 3:45pm 
Here is a formatting list if you ever want to format the lists slightly better
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/comment/Recommendation/formattinghelp
#4
Cardolam  [developer] 5 Jul, 2024 @ 3:57am 
Thank you!
#5
isma 19 Oct, 2024 @ 1:32am 
I really like your mod, probably won't ever play again without it installed. What I love most is the events of councillors giving advice based on what is happening in the game. I would love it if you expanded on that. More events based on what is happening and warnings of what is likely to happen if you continue that route, or things around you in general. It would be cool if there were events regarding succession and more situational things happening in the game, not just RNG things. Very, very immersive stuff!
Last edited by isma; 19 Oct, 2024 @ 1:37am
#6
Cardolam  [developer] 19 Oct, 2024 @ 4:01am 
Originally posted by isma:
I really like your mod, probably won't ever play again without it installed. What I love most is the events of councillors giving advice based on what is happening in the game. I would love it if you expanded on that. More events based on what is happening and warnings of what is likely to happen if you continue that route, or things around you in general. It would be cool if there were events regarding succession and more situational things happening in the game, not just RNG things. Very, very immersive stuff!

Glad you are enjoying!

Regarding warning events, I guess there are tastes for everything. I recall having to code a game rule to bypass such events as people complained about their intrusion. It is interesting that other people, like yourself, find them immersive.
#7
TheLoneWanderer 12 Nov, 2024 @ 12:18pm 
@Cardolam - would you please consider an even more difficult option as a game rule? -I am finding this harder than vanilla, of course, just not nearly as much of a challenge as I would like. Thank you
#8
Cardolam  [developer] 12 Nov, 2024 @ 2:05pm 
You suggest adding some modifiers to the player only to make everything harder?
#9
TheLoneWanderer 12 Nov, 2024 @ 2:39pm 
Absolutely. Just throwing out some ideas: General opinion penalty, larger opinion loss for offensive wars, lower stacking of bonuses for units from buildings/accolades/traits/etc, lower gold from pope, harder to vassalize, less benefits from traveling- experience gain, grant AI more supplies so there are not AI armies starving and easy to defeat, slower development and cultural fascination discovery, Royal Court malus to value and to the percentage gain,
#10
TheLoneWanderer 12 Nov, 2024 @ 2:43pm 
Or a single choice for a difficulty level of apocalyptical.
#11
TheLoneWanderer 13 Nov, 2024 @ 5:58am 
There are too many bonuses and modifiers that players can stack but the AI won't.

There are too many ways to get huge chunks of lifestyle XP and traits to fill out trees even with poor education.

Opinion bombing vassals so they would never think of rebelling.

Many ways to acquire more renown so we can unlock the extra paths the easier access to more powerful dynasty traits that provides significant bonuses.

Not only does this all make it easy for players to make their character brokenly good, it also makes it easier for them to bring the next generation up to speed so the impact of them dying isn't as devastating as well.

The artifacts system that makes it possible for you to equip items of massive benefit. The AI does not keep up with the player. The Royal Court bonus to the quality of artifacts produced is too powerful.
#12
Cardolam  [developer] 13 Nov, 2024 @ 6:14am 
Ok, I read you. I'll implement an harder difficultty level soon.
#13
TheLoneWanderer 13 Nov, 2024 @ 6:21am 
Other suggestion / random thoughts

Give the AI buffs such as more gold income, prestige boost, vassal opinion boost, and army maintenance reductions.

Levies: reduce vassal contributions for player, reduce levy size for player, boost levy combat values as the game progresses through the eras

Give the AI exceptions or grace periods to factions and succession wars, remove the short reign penalty for kingdom tier AI rulers to stop them from spiraling into civil wars.

The domain limit should be harder to increase for players.

Reduce Accolade bonuses and/or reduce player Accolade numbers.

I can start with a ruler that has mediocre stats and within ~~20 years they are amazingly talented in every stat, if there is a way to cap the improvement from base stats that would help.

Reduce or eliminate spouse contribution to player stats.

Remove limitation on number of AI assassination plots on player.

Reduce player success for sway, befriend, and assassination schemes.

Reduce the cost reduction benefits of the Royal Court to hire courtiers.

Increase opinion penalties for player to different religions and cultures.

Penalty to the chances of marriages that result in alliances
#14
TheLoneWanderer 13 Nov, 2024 @ 6:29am 
Thanks for all of your efforts Cardolam!

I really like your mod and look forward to a brutal level of difficulty that has the traits vengeful, sadistic, and wrathful. ; )
#15
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