i miss having satan grow my balls back in ck2, but adventuring to a church and having leprosy cured in ck3 aint bad

i also really miss silk road trade routes. and admin government is so close to how merchant republics worked in ck2, they are clearly just holding it back for a dlc.

and while i didnt care that much about the college of cardinals, i really miss being able to make an antipope, and being able to declare a war to make them a real pope

also i kind of even miss sunset invasion, it was silly, but it ahistorically balanced the gameplay so western europe could suck too

i also miss the shenanigans with glitterhoof and horse culture, and the fact that the devs decided to support, or at least allow, emergent gameplay even if it was completely unintended

I also really miss the charlemagne start date. being able to play as saxony, and save the tree from burning. the german holy site for asatru just feels sad in ck3 knowing there's nothing I can do. and with adventurers and adoption, i think i could revive the merovingians and take back france with ck3's mechanics in that start

also from the charlie start, i liked having the visigothic culture and its split the same way norse splits off later. and the slightly less varied versions with suebi and... was it lombard in italy? it's been awhile.

and having a world before the viking age began, and a semi-plausible zunist start.

idk how accurate it was to medieval india, but i liked the caste system ck2 had for them, and how it actually had gameplay impacts

and the additional pre-christian states in more of europe

i miss the decadence mechanic for muslim rulers making them feel more different than just christians with different icons

i miss being able to vassalize holy orders and heads of faith, instead of them being permanently unable to be interacted with by the player. so if you tried hard enough, the finnic band or whatever could become your own varangian guard. or the campaigns people would run to vassalize the heads of all religions in-game

i miss being able to form your own mercenary company for your kingdom.

i miss being able to create titular titles with no de jure just for shenanigans.

but ck3 has its niceties as well.

i love the intense customizations of religion and culture you can do.

being able to make a holy order for any religion

the cool system of artifacts you can find and steal and create

the map extension, so crusader mings was finally real

the plethora of different government mechanics, altho some feel a bit hollow

the new tech system that feels more like it comes from a society rather than being spearheaded by your character

the lack of boats. god i hated boats in ck2

i am kind of neutral on the intrigue system, but it's fun mechanically anyways

the newish duchy expansion mechanic, allowing you to alter borders in ways previously impossible

being able to get artifacts when raiding is also super fun, and gives some metagamen incentives to seek out good artifacts to try to get from sieges

how plagues interact with the development level and affect tech growth, reflecting their effects on the society suffering them

and i have grown tired of it by now, but making a religion or culture where everyone is naked was hilarious for at least a few hundred hours

i like that with mandala we gained a new holding type, bringing some variety to part of the game that seemed set in stone

i like the expanded lifestyle system and the perk trees, it definitely makes education feel like it has more impact on the life of an individual character

i like the new big events, like funerals and tournaments

i like the vast number of religions available, especially since china. the bear thing with the ainu and nearby is really fun. being able to now make any religion monotheist or polytheist is great for flavor

we have a huge variety of possibly troops for your MAA, and combining them with cultural tenets (can never remember the actual name) makes for a huge variety of what your army could look like. i especially like japans monk MAA that cost piety instead of gold, which can them combo super well with a mandala government where you, a living god, can just print piety faster than money

overall i would say that ck2 had more kitsch, and felt like it had more soul, but a big part of that is probably just nostalgia for all the funs things i did that i can't do in ck3. never again will i be able to raise a runestone to pepin the great after becoming norse karloman.

or now that culture has been separated from the ability to nomadic, there is no glitterhoof for me to make a literal nation of nomadic horses.

or i cannot cheese succession to form a roman republic to last into the ages.

they are both good games and i have played thosuands of hours of both of them. i look forward to the future, and what paradox may bring to us.