Would you recommend CK3 to a Pure CK2 fan (me) ?

[Xtex]

I have been playing CK2 for years. Love how versatile and flexible it is. The gameplay options that expand not only decisions, interactions but also the world map from Europe to the Far East Asia etc are really amazing. Compared to that, how is the modding potential in CK3 ? does it also has revolutionary mods like CK2 ? do let me know.

[Celedhring]

Not really. I have both.  CK3 is pretty shallow compared to CK2.

 

[ArtemisEuropa]

2 hours ago, Celedhring said:

Not really. I have both.  CK3 is pretty shallow compared to CK2.

 

 

Well that is because CK3 doesn't have the amount of DLCs that CK2 has yet. But if you compare base-game CK2 to base-game CK3, the latter feels and is more complete to play.

[Xtex]

However, CK3 seems to have animated sex. Also, it appears that many CK2 mods here are either dead or abandoned like Noxbestia etc, but CK3 mods here are getting new updates.

[Zeke]

I'd recommend waiting for a few more DLCs, it's fairly shallow(slightly more content than base ck2) once you get past all the new looks and shit.

Also a lot of the mods are still in their infancy, it's going to take a while before mods really start to kick off.

[Algene]

I did play CK3 but found it bland.

 

What pretty much everyone said already, just wait till it has enough DLCs, at least one or two years should be enough to let the Modding scene be enough to supplant proper updates, and to the main game to get enough DLCs to be enjoyable.

On 7/11/2021 at 3:08 AM, Xtex said:

However, CK3 seems to have animated sex.

Not exactly, that mod is slightly hard to use for the new players, I suggest waiting till the next CK3 update at the very least, at that point there should be a little more on that front, if I'm not mis-remembering what the mod's Dev said, ultimately you can watch gameplay videos and form your own opinion.

Edited July 12, 2021 by Algene

[Abraxis00]

I can't recommend it until and unless they add same-sex marriage to the game.  They started off with such promising steps towards it, and then spent the first half-year of the game's life running away from it as fast as they could.  Only after a forum thread blew up did they start making concessions again, and all they've done so far is get it back to where it was at launch, with mods able to add same-sex concubines, but same-sex marriage hardcoded out.

 

Same-sex marriage is a big part of several CK2 mods, and including it in CK3 would not just be great from a kink perspective, but from a basic human decency position.  That the devs have had to be dragged kicking and screaming into allowing anything like it just turned me off the game entirely.  Theoretically they're adding the ability to mod it in with the next major patch, but I'll believe it when I see it, and in any case it's something that should be available in the base game in some way without mods.

[Jaghave]

As someone who played 14,121.6 hours of CK2, yes I can strongly recommend ck3 with mods. Stand Alone it pretty bare and requires additional dlc before it will be remotely close to the amount of content CK2 has. 

[Miss AshleyJ]

Consdering this is the same people who created an expansion for CK2 entirely about the Aztec's invading Europe... marriage equality in this shouldn't be a hard concept...

[SamIAmHam]

I have 2k hours of CK2 with all the major DLCs and 413 hours of CK3 with the Royal Edition, so I can give you a good comparison.

 

CK2 has a better UI as the one in CK3 takes up quite a bit of real estate. It feels like it's from the early 2000's. 

 

CK2 has better mod support and better DLCs so far. It also has far more events and the ability to start with a shattered world. It appears that CK3's mods are nowhere near the quality or extent that CK2 has. Due to Pdox killing off for a few months same sex mods really hit the modding community hard. I noticed that old CK2 mods are being worked on and new ones created at a faster rate.

 

CK2 mods give you slavery etc... and the ability to have same sex marriages. CK3 spent its entire existence running away from it and the developers using their gay co-workers as a shield. Pdox's response to people like Waffleironer and myself who raised issue with it were banned from the official forums. This killed the enthusiasm Pdox had in the modding community. People have left the game for good and never to return due to Pdox's reactions to their community pointing out the flaws in their statements concerning same sex relationships. Due to this many of those that left have left negative reviews for the game explaining exactly what happened. My review happens to be on there as well and call for a boycott of all Pdox products. They burned their bridge with me and others.

 

CK3 DLC and flavor packs are underwhelming and a cash grab. Northern Lords is just regurgitated The Old Gods without half of the events. The upcoming Royal Court DLC is another cash grab that isn't worth the $30 price tag. It will give you a throne room, new culture creation, and the ability to change your culture and country colors. They haven't said anything about new events related to the throne room. 

 

My advice is to stick with CK2 and get the DLC when it's on sale. You could also try Kinguin to see if there are any deals there. Otherwise, there's Isthereanydeal which allows you to search for them.

Edited July 13, 2021 by SamIAmHam

[nuria1]

As someone who played CK2 since launch, CK3 was/is sort of a disappointment.

Me and and a lot of people were expecting an improved CK2, meaning maintaining the concept of CK2 and filling the gaps in gameplay, such as battles, with something new, no one was expecting complex Total War/M&B style fighting, but at least something new.

 

Instead we got a mana system and a freaking skill tree, killing the mostly organic character development via events from CK2. Also a million of other half baked things, like religion and how it actually works ingame.

 

The modding system, well other people already mentioned it, instead of making the game less hard coded dependent, the devs thought it wold be fun (AKA cheaper to code) to make it less moddable, with the expected results.

 

As for the DLCs, that's a Paradox trademark by now, most are useless and pure cash grabs, with the good ones spaced between 2 or 3 useless ones, but that also happened in CK2.

 

 

[Ginzeen5]

ck3 without mods is pretty boring after like 20-40 hours. Ck3 with mods makes it way better. It's my most played game on steam.  400 hours.

[Leaf the Elf]

CK3 is.... interesting.

 

While there are some changes that I appreciate (like the 3D portraits, specialization of provinces, the way religion works now, the future cultural changes in Royal Court,, the simpler way to do modding, the fact that fantasy races with different lifespans can be now modded into the game, etc.), there are some that I don't. Among other things, I miss the societies, the artifacts, and I'm not particularly impressed by the new army management, like men-at-arms. I miss being able to amass an army of diverse units from my diverse vassals, as now vassals only give you generic peasant levies, and don't give you their culture-specific men-at-arms. I also miss the Nomads and the playable Republics.

Also, I preferred CK2's UI and more colourful palette, over CK3's convoluted UI and depressingly dark palette

 

I dunno. I think CK3 was a bit rushed. It's a good game, don't get me wrong, but I wouldn't recommend it to a CK2-purist.

Edited July 15, 2021 by Leaf the Elf

[Assassin739]

I agree that it is very bland atm compared to CK2. There is just much less content.

 

But I also hate the new focus replacing CK2 way of life foci. Every time you get a new ruler you have to go through the same short trees picking perks you've already got a thousand times before. It should just be removed until they can think of a way to implement it that's remotely interesting imo.

[CobraPL]

CK2 is more unforgiving and random. A lot of plans are destroyed. CK3 is more walk in the park.

[Wily Rodent]

CK3 is very linear. I stopped playing it after less than a month.

Everything is just so... Stable. One good thing is that the ai has stopped eating crayons and warfare is a bit more frustrating as a result because the AI actually regroups properly and fights back beyond the first major engagement... But that's mostly down to the simplified levy system being easier for the ai to manage. Other than that, you are looking at a stable and uneventful court life, there is barely any chance of your character suddenly going insane or experiencing ANY development other than incremental growth. You are just slowly gaining more skills, never really at risk of losing anything, vassals are easy to appease or ignore, rebellions are far easier to handle, etc.

All in all, all the relevant threats to your rule are pretty much neutered and the only one you need to keep an eye on is rivals of the same tier as you or higher conquering your lands. Honestly, in some regard it plays more like civ than crusader kings.

[malvic]

CK2 is a better game, modded or unmodded. There is no real arguing this fact.

 

However the reason for this is because CK2 has a very large volume of content while CK3 is a newer game.

 

Vanilla CK3 is fucking miles better than vanilla CK2 was, but that doesn't help now. Unless absolute disaster strikes, CK3 will be the best game by an order of magnitude. It'll just probably take several years to reach that point.

Edited July 19, 2021 by malvic

[Buridan]

I'll go against the grain a bit. As a huge fan of CK2, I actually prefer CK3, even in its current state.

 

CK3 can't beat CK2 in terms of content (and number of mods), but the stress and hooks mechanics are such fundamental improvements on the CK core gameplay loop that I just can't go back to CK2 now.

 

I also quite like the 3D portraits in CK3 even though I was initially ambivalent. They actually age gradually and have different idle animations depending on personality, which makes a surprisingly big difference immersion-wise. In CK2 they tended to feel like artistic depictions on a painting or coin, while in CK3 it's more like you're looking at the actual person.