As Paradox Studio Black continues to work on addressing feedback following the launch of Crusader Kings 3’s Khans of the Steppe DLC, it has confirmed that it does not plan on implementing the often-requested passive herd decay mechanic. Without it, some players believe nomadic rulers to be a bit too powerful.
Those seeking an extra challenge during new playthroughs do, however, have two new modes to look for as CK3 is getting hard and very hard difficulties in its next update, set to launch “later this week.”
Crusader Kings 3 Skipping Passive Herd Decay Mechanic, Hard and Very Hard Difficulties On the Way
The two announcements were made in a developer diary that provides a detailed overview on how the studio gathers player feedback at various stages of a project’s development.
The developer is aware that players currently find the balancing rather “wonky” while veterans wish the game offered a higher degree of challenge.
If a fix for the former could take longer to materialize, the latter group is getting a treat quite soon. Crusader Kings III is officially set to receive a Hard and Very Hard difficulty mode when update 1.16.2.1 launches “sometime later this week.”
Less lucky are those of us wishing for a passive herd decay mechanic, since Paradox seems quite opposed to the idea.
“To go ahead and rip the bandaid off: We’re not planning on implementing this,” the developer explains rather bluntly. “Put simply, the system wasn’t designed with this in mind and is instead built around discrete reductions. Too much of the game goes off the rails when it tries to deduct what doesn’t exist, and herd decay ultimately impacts AI rulers far more than it impacts players (compounding balance/difficulty concerns).
“With the [post release support] stage for Khans of the Steppe coming to an end, we don’t have the time or resources available to rework a core aspect of the DLC to this degree. Additional adjustments to this system are still possible in Realm Maintenance updates, but these are unlikely to fundamentally rework the system itself.”
The upcoming patch also aims to fix a series of bugs, including AI asking for paizas too often, the steppe region map mode missing proper colors, and more.
Following the release of update 1.16.2.1, the developer expects “a period of relative stability where mod authors can update their mods and players can finish a longer campaign without worrying about another update dropping and causing them grief.”
Working on addressing various bugs and issues is set to continue but fixes will “be packaged up alongside the release of our next piece of Chapter IV.”
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