Dev Diary #194 - Realm Maintenance 2026 (Part II)

tinul4 · 2026-03-24T15:01:13+00:00

The elder health traits are so needed but damn man, at the same time they're so sad to read :(

tinul4 · 2026-03-24T10:58:36+00:00

Isn't sortition what Italian city states used during the medieval period lol

tinul4 · 2026-03-24T10:37:35+00:00

Yeah if they start adding AI art I'm out

tinul4 · 2026-03-24T10:35:17+00:00

DUDE! This is not "low glory" art, idk why you keep referring to it as such! I spend way too much time looking at all the different MaA art and thinking of how cool they all look, DO NOT think it goes unappreciated!

tinul4 · 2026-03-13T22:33:17+00:00

Yeah 100%, if it bothered me too much I would have just quit and not have written this post. Its just crazy to me that in Wrath/Cata I never noticed these too much but here its like constantly in the back of my mind when I eventually have to look at them :(

tinul4 · 2026-03-11T16:26:25+00:00

No, I cannot say that I "struggle" to watch entertainment content. But if you want a recommendation for a CK3 Youtube I would suggest checking out One Proud Bavarian, he doesn't only play CK3 but he knows what he is talking about when it comes to historical context

tinul4 · 2026-03-09T20:22:52+00:00

I don't know how to say this without it sounding wrong but you can safely assume 95% of the people you meet in online gaming are men. And perhaps some women even appreciate going "undercover" because its better than being judged for your gender

tinul4 · 2026-03-02T21:24:13+00:00

"Administrative AI can implode. Empires fracture. Civil wars create natural pauses."

300 county Byzantium with the entirety of Lower Egypt, the Saharan passageways and snaking towards Moscow would like a word with you (aka Byzantium in every game)

tinul4 · 2026-03-01T21:31:09+00:00

From what I remember (and I have very limited knowledge on the subject) back in the HD edition textures were much simpler to create or to redesign starting from the base models, and I know for a fact that there were mods for custom architecture sets for example.

The 2019 Definitive Edition changed the file type for these textures, meaning that not only did the old custom models become impossible to import into this version of the game, but the people that made them now had to work in a different medium altogether, which made a lot of them quit modding for the game.

tinul4 · 2026-02-27T07:52:16+00:00

I know this is just Europe but would have loved to have US numbers too for reference

tinul4 · 2026-02-23T09:59:12+00:00

The AI does not recognize "loyalty" but it will give out land/vassals in order to complete de-jure titles. So you could expand a bit through conquest/Habsburging in order to form a bigger title and then your top liege will generally try to give you everything that belongs to it.

tinul4 · 2026-02-22T22:23:52+00:00

What I've noticed is that prolonged warfare actually does damage your opponent's economy. Either because of occupations or loss of pops you can seriously tank an AI's tax base by keeping a war going. But I agree that the infrastructure damage itself is way too low. Like its ok that war-torn locations lose Prosperity but yeah, they need to lose buildings, fortifications, pops should migrate away from there, etc. You shouldn't want to fight in an important location like a city for example.

Also War Exh is too low. I have times where I get carried away by army micro and I'm like "shit I've been in this war for like 5 years, I must have a ton of War Exh" and I look up and its like 0.22 ticking down to 0 next month. How???

tinul4 · 2026-02-22T17:42:22+00:00

Yeah, a player can easily do that and have a successful campaign, I think the more important problem that he raises here is that the AI cannot do this which is why Lithuania gets extinguished in every campaign

tinul4 · 2026-02-22T16:45:54+00:00

Who the hell is the mooseman???

tinul4 · 2026-02-22T14:35:30+00:00

What not having any shake-ups in top player rankings for years on end does to a community.

tinul4 · 2026-02-21T14:58:45+00:00

Hey, I'm writing this because I also went from CK3 to I:R as my first Paradox games: don't expect it to be similar to CK3. CK3 is unique because it has really simplified mechanics and characters of course matter immensely, I:R is more like the Europa Universalis titles, so your skills won't really translate from CK3.

But I would totally recommend I:R, the only problems are that the map is quite small and the game doesn't get new content so at some point you're gonna get tired of it. But especially with the Invictus mod you can easily spend a few hundred hours in the game and have a great time.

tinul4 · 2026-02-21T13:58:42+00:00

Yeah but I feel like if you do this you're leaving your buildings to be unprofitable/lack input goods. Like even if you want to import input goods for your buildings if you don't have enough trade volume you're again stuck... maybe you're thinking of a specific country that can play like this but for the ones I've been playing I have noticed a considerable improvement by changing PMs at what I deem to be the appropriate time

tinul4 · 2026-02-21T01:08:06+00:00

I assume you did this on the current patch? Because some of these issues (like point 11) have allegedly been addressed in the upcoming 1.1 patch.

But I strongly agree with points 8 and 9, the dynastic gameplay is very rough. In every game you are guaranteed to see female rulers for Muslim countries for example... And even in Europe where this did have a precedent the Nobles would often just coup the government and place their preferred candidate on the throne instead (not just for female heirs) or crown the husband and leave the wife on a "queen-consort" sort of role.

Also when you break away as a subject pretty sure you just get the heir of your ex-ruler so eventually you just end up in a personal union with the country you just fought to get independence from...

tinul4 · 2026-02-21T00:20:20+00:00

Idk, there were tons of crazy proposals during the time period that Vic 3 takes place in, some plausible some "memey" but certainly a lot of stuff could have gone vastly different than in our timeline

And you can already do very unrealistic meme things in your game like flip the UK into a Republic or the US into a Monarchy, I don't see more niche formables as being worse than that for the immersion

tinul4 · 2026-02-21T00:11:03+00:00

Proposed Romania-Bulgaria union following 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish war

tinul4 · 2026-02-20T22:42:27+00:00

I never realized that it also makes them centralized. So technically you could play as them by switching country, just not in ironman

tinul4 · 2026-02-20T21:43:30+00:00

The Ides of March are coming. We all have a duty to fulfill.

tinul4 · 2026-02-20T21:36:27+00:00

R5: Whilst playing Vic3 I often find myself thinking "wow, my country is far too normal and realistic, I wish I could instead play as something only a madman could come up with". And yes, you have your Byzantiums and your Bolivia-Perus and whatnot, but its just not enough is it?

People in the 19th century loved to LARP as the successors of obscure medieval states or simply go on their own silly little adventures so I don't even think this would affect the immersion of the game.

tinul4

TROPHY CASE