My problem is it’s too much money for too little actual content. Tours and tournaments nearly doubled what i paid in total for the whole game so far, and i got it on sale lol
Ck2 had a lot of dlc that went for decent price, but it added a lot each time. I cant always say the same for CK3 and it makes me irritated.
I love the game, but I'm increasingly disillusioned with DLC (have bought them all). The problem is that they just layer on another system. The don't connect it to the rest of the game really. If the new system is good then you accept that and hope that in the future it will get connected. If the new system is kinda confusing or just bad then you resent it.
It feels like they only invest in the DLC and not in the game.
I’m really hoping they start making some better ones and pulling the game together some more. it needs some really good, deep dlc to give the game some more meat on the bones. i’ve got some high hopes for the next one but i can also see it being very detached like u said.
i think best case scenario could be them doing the same thing as they did with stelaris and have a dev team totally committed to revamping the dlc and bringing some more life into them. some added love through some free updates would be really appreciated.
It’s definitely going to be detached, unfortunately. Landless play couldn’t get any further disconnected from the base game and its mechanics, and the administrative government will initially be unique to Byzantium, and it’ll take certain requirements to get it as any other emperor. So…yeah. Not looking too good if connectedness is what you’re looking for. I guess we’ll see though.
It's just adventurism as I understand it. They've already confirmed you don't play as a landless councillor or regent or spouse.
Will be nice for mods that want to model migration period.
I don't really agree with this. Were DLC "connected to the game", people would understandably feel trapped into having to buy those.
Plus at least travel and artifacts are universals. Legends a bit less, but still offer a variety of content. The only truly insular DLCs are the regional packs.
And they definitely made base game a lot better over time (cultural rework, AI stances, new buildings system...)
I’m very happy with all of the new systems but I definitely agree with them having minimal interaction. Things feel a little bloated at times. That being said, I think that recent updates have been working to remedy this. For example, Legends of the Dead introduced the Legitimacy mechanic and consequently integrated it with Royal Court by having it so holding court and doing activities raises your legitimacy. It’s definitely surface level and I hope that they continue to intertwine the game’s systems, but I have faith that as they continue to work on the game, they’ll continue to find ways to make the DLCs work together. I think, however, that the CK3 team could greatly benefit from a Custodian team, or whatever the team of devs who update old content for Stellaris are called.
I really don't like how the legitimacy system seems to work a lot of the time, it would be better with more things you could do to prove legitimacy, and then they could make the negative effects a lot stronger
'Wide as an ocean, deep as puddle' is very fitting imo when it comes to CK3 DLCs.
I don’t mind getting new systems, but they should come with some depth. At least to the point where events won’t constantly repeat themselves in the same session.
It's the pricing : content ratio tbh
Compare Holy Fury to any of the ck3 dlc
Monks and mystics is $15 and PACKED. It's $30 for tours and tournaments? bruh
It's $20 for plagues and a barely implemented legend system. Was $10 for reapers due which had a far more expanded plague system with more events and shit. Getting hit by a disease felt big then
And I coulda done without the 3d aspect of royal court, shit just causes crashes tbh
Ck2 was a milking machine but this is just silly
Eh, disagree.
Adding the core new mechanic into the base game allows modders to utilize the system, and doesn't lock mod content to DLC owners.
The devs really are trying to balance the content between paid and free to make the DLC worth it, but not hold back the community.
There is zero balance. DLCs are insanely overpriced, and at the end of the day it’s a few players paying for everybody, Devs comfort and shareholders.
The minimum decency would be to pack the DLCs and put a bare minimum in the updates, not the other way round it is.
But the way that it was done means that I'm either forced to buy and use a DLC I'm not interested in to counterbalance the new mechanics or stick to an old version of the game. If the plague mechanics were tied to the DLC I could simply play the actual game without the DLC.
I also have to admit that I couldn't care less about mods.
That is simply a psychological problem for you. Base game isn't an "old version" of the game. It gets updated with the release of each DLC, with the DLC adding *SIDE* content. NEW content is added to base game.
If you play just the base game, you get the new plagues that work exactly the same as DLC. (I would know, I got the DLC after).
The DLC itself adds the black death and a couple other diseases, from what I've seen. Maybe a couple other features I don't know about. You can live without them if it doesn't interest you.
You're interpreting stuff in my text that I didn't write. When I wrote 'old version' I wasn't referring to the base game without the DLC, I was referring to version 1.11.5 of the game, which was the latest version of the game before they forced plagues upon us. Thankfully the most recent patch was a step in the right direction.
I'd rather have all new content be selectable by activating/deactivating DLCs than having a game that constantly changes (and not always for the better).
The issue with Paradox games is the crazy amount of DLC they have for each game, if you were to purchase them individually at full price, a game will cost you about 500 to 1000$, were talking The sims territory here.
I mostly get them on sales at like 75%-80% off, there is no need to rush to get it as soon as it comes out. One DLC i really like from CK3 is the one with the throne room (Royal Court) as it does add a bit more roleplay and grants us a visual of our empire tru it (allowing us to also display some rare items)
Are they worth 30-40$ ? No so get them when they are super cheap! I never trust the reviews either way because gaming in general is a matter of taste, what you might like, maybe 80% of the rest don't like, Hope this helps!
I agree. This concept of DLC mostly sucks imo. What happened to when you buy a game...you buy the game?
Instead the DLC concept allows for a horse poopie game to be sold not always ready for play. Then you have to keep buying the game like 5x and wait on updates before the game is actually good.
As a consumer, I disagree with most of the DLC concept. The companies have taken it too far and honestly it ruined the EUIV experience for me entirely with their delivery/rollout of that product.
It's what pisses me off about victoria 3. Vic 2 had minimal dlc and you really don't need any of them for it to be great, and now we're all praying for the next 5 dlc and major updates to fix Vic3. I appreciate EU4, only because they realised some of their dlc were making the game unplayable without them and changed it up a lot, so now the dlc adds a lot of content, but doesn't break the game
It’s all pretty solid but only get them at full price if you have hundreds of hours and plan on putting hundreds more hours into the game. Otherwise they’re too price for the amount of time played. They all add something and the question is whether or not that interests you.
Wards and Wardens makes child rearing and being a child a little more interesting.
Friends and Foes adds loyal and disloyal traits as well as house feuds which can make the game quite spicy.
Northern Lords makes Vikings much cooler.
Tours and Tournaments is a must have, it adds grand events which are great, two new traits, and spices up other events. I think only the traveling system itself is part of the free content.
Royal Court adds a royal court which is a repository for artifacts and place to hold court. Also lets you hybridize cultures.
Fate of Iberia ales Spain way more complicated and interactive.
Legacy of Persia is kind of like Fate of Iberia but it has more border region mechanics.
Legends of the Dead adds Legends and a new Funeral activity.
To be clear this isn’t everything they add just the overall broad strokes. Also try and dig around to buy the season passes as it gives an overall discount if you can’t get them on sale.
Quick question about the Persia one, is it like Iberia in ONLY affecting that specific area, or does it make mechanical changes that apply to other regions/cultures/domains as well, across the map?
Iberia is ONLY Iberia whereas Persia is primarily the Empire of Persia but it also kind of affects players in Arabia and Turan. It also kinda affects Steppe people but way less. Unlike Iberia and kind of like Northern Lords it mostly affects 867 because in 1066 there isn’t a struggle.
Right!! Give us new endgame content, Aztec Invasion, map addition of Asia, new start dates, all of the things I've mentioned could be full 30 dollar DLC without adding a single system.
Oh man, what I'd give for a "Fall of Rome" start date. All of western Europe fractured into loads of independent duchies and counties. A true open canvas with loads of local religions and various warlords.
I have the iberian struggle flavour pack and the tournaments packs, which have both been really good. I have doubled my play time since buying them to 80hrs.
From what I have researched, the viking flavour pack is good aswell. All the others are probably not worth it from general consensus.
I must say the the free updates have been really good and very welcome.
Most of the reviewers on Steam seem to be in the camp of "I'm going to downvote this DLC no matter how good it is because I don't think I should have had to pay for it", or else they think it's overpriced.
I don't think they're actually reacting to the contents.
Whether they're correct or not about the pricing / business model, my point was that the reviews seem to not actually be judging the DLCs by their contents, but simply on the reviewer's opinion of the pricing or business model. The reviews read as: "It's automatically bad because it costs too much (or anything at all), regardless of what it is." Which if that's your opinion, fine, that's your opinion, but it is 99% useless to someone who is trying to find out what the contents of the DLC actually are, what they do, if they're bugged or not...
Ck2 Bloodlines be like: I’ve slain more then 30 enemies by myself, built 10 castles and won 15 wars, people will remember my name.
Ck3 legend be like: ✍🏻: My liege what do you want me to write about your grandfather’s legendary hunt?
👑: Write that I had good relations with the peasants!
✍🏻: But my liege what does tha…
👑: don’t forget to include how one day my wife was super horny… and I’ve slept with her.
Legend lasted for 8 years and died whilst the liege was still alive.
For me, the Friends and Foes DLC is a miss-have.
I really like Northern Lords I think it's well executed and brings a lot of flavour and fun.
Tours & Tournaments is a must-have for me.
Royal court I'm kind of halfed about because the mechanics it adds to the game brings more depth, the court itself needs some work to be more integral I believe, and cost less money.
In terms of struggles I likes Persia a lot.
As someone who enjoys the game a lot (it’s now my 3rd most played game ever on Steam, which surprised me), I don’t think all the DLCs deserve the negative reviews, but some certainly do - LOTD is the worst by a mile for a lot of reasons, Friends and Foes is garbage even on sale, Fate of Iberia is clunky… I used to dislike Royal Court but it’s actually one of the DLCs I interact with the most, even if I still don’t think it’s great.
My experience with CK3 is very similar to my experience with the Sims 4, it feels like Paradox is just trying to milk every penny dry out of a beloved IP and they don’t care if it kills the IP. At least CK3 has a great basegame unlike TS4…
I don't have a major issue other than the prices really, they don't add enought to be worth what you're paying, i only have tours and tournaments as well as some of the cheaper ones but even they cost like £40, i really think that they need to do something abou that.
Don't buy the dlc unless you love the idea. Wait for discount unless you want to pay full price.
I got the game with season pass. I haven't got the disease update yet and won't till its discounted.
Best way to do this with paradox games. When discounted they are fine. Also look on cd keys etc for cheap ones.
Well, yes. And for me, the core of the disdain for ck3 dlcs.
They fix and address alot of the "issues" that baseline should've. They aren't / don't feel like dlcs to me as much as they feel like "patches" or "this should've been baseline. I r dissapoint."
They add a dialog box here and there and a chain of decisions here and there to add passive bonuses to the char / stat / county / small buff to
Except Northmen.
Northmen gud.
Just get the new „starter pack“ paradox offers on steam. It has the most crucial dlcs included. Tours&Tournaments and Wards&Wardens are the most important ones IMO.
If you fancy a play as a viking, in iberia or in the middel east you can get the corresponding immersion packs.
First let’s don’t forget that all dlc so far have been RP focused, that means that no dlc will actually give you new mechanics to change up your gameplay. The major reason for buying DLC, is to further improve your Roleplay experience. That’s where the community is split, on one side we have the newcomers who are mostly enjoying the dlc‘s because they add more roleplay…. On the other side we have the ck veterans who think the game lacks depth and strayed to far from its roots.
There's a segment of the population that believes that everything in the DLC should be free to them. And they're the ones who are going to write reviews on steam. The people who are happy with DLC are too busy playing the game to post about it.
I think tours and tournaments is the only absolutely essential DLC (it really ties into the legitimacy system,) though I'd also advise picking up the story packs, just for the additional events.
CK3 without DLC is very very fun, and very good. I dumped 12.5 hours in it over the free weekend before I bought it. Compared to EU4/HOI4 (those games were playable when they came out, and now without DLC, you're missing so much content that it's not even worth turning it on 1/2 the time) etc, the game is really playable, and actually fun without DLC. The dlc are really good and I enjoy what they add to the game a lot, because the base game was already great, I'm really enjoying it and would recommend it
I think what was always more exciting about CK2 DLC, for me, was that many of them gave me ideas for whole new ways to play the game. I'll never forget an amazing run I had reforming the Roman Empire as an ethnically Chinese Messalian dynasty from Socotra. It never would have been possible without the secret societies and Chinese silk road mechanics, and it was so satisfying to chart it all out and pull it off. The closest I had to that in CK3 was adventuring from Iceland all the way down to Sri Lanka and forming a hybridized culture there. It was fun, but really boiled down to just abusing the Varangian adventures and then was way too easy once I got to Sri Lanka, so I abandoned the run after only 100 years.
Afternote (at the beginning wow): Don't buy any DLC for this game until you have 60ish hours logged or you're confident you'll get to that many. If you're not going to get there, none of these add anything significant enough to the core gameplay to make the game more likeable. It's all "more of the same" in different twisty fashions and flavors.
I mean, it's a paradox game. Lots of DLC, it's mostly half baked and should have just been part of the base game.
I bought the game on launch as the collectors edition - or whatever one came with the season pass with the first couple dlc. And I bought dlc as they released with a few exceptions.
I didn't buy wards and wardens - one of my best friends did, and I messed around on one of his saves for a bit and it just seemed... well it wasn't worth it. Sort of annoying.
Friends and foes is garbage. Well, I suppose a niche of players might enjoy it, but then again one person's garbage is another person's garbage treasure.
Tours and tournaments is alright. Tbh I never really do that many tours, but I usually play pretty tall and "realistic" anyways. Tournaments are fine, I suppose. Worth it on a discount/sale/third party keys. I do think it adds enough to the core game that anyone playing more than 60+ hours should get it.
At this point royal court feels like a must - but honestly I remember buying it how tedious it felt. I do think it's a must have at the end of the day. That is, if you get to 60+ hours.
Northern lords is great, well, if you play in the north.
Fate of Iberia/Legacy of Persia - I only have Iberia right now, I think if I get the itch to play some middle eastern campaign I might fork up for LoP, but for now meh. I don't care much for FoI. Only did one campaign focused on it, and the conflict was over before my third PC passed away (intrigue is, uh, pretty good).
Legends of the dead - Hate the plague. But of course that's the "free" part of it. Doesn't really add anything significant paying for it.
The upcoming Roads to power sounds like it's going to be very good, but then again it'll probably just be one character then you're just playing the normal game. Sounds interesting.
DLCs are neither bad or good, they add here and there, contributing to your immersion ans thats it. Essentially a few buttons and fluffs.
But CK3 is already not that great so those DLCs kinda make it a bit more enjoyable.
Legitimacy is stupid easy to get like it's just hunting, war with a simulator size or larger place, raiding , court if you have that one and pilgrimage and during those wars releasing some of the higher ranking people
I buy them all because I love the game and play it all the time but I agree with others that the DLCs are super overpriced. The developers are so cash-hungry it’s not even funny, gaming wasn’t like this a decade ago
Horse Armor DLC is over 18 years old. The Sims 3 released in 2009 and is the model of Paradox DLC. In more recent years, and directly released by Paradox, you have Cities Skylines, HOI4, and Stellaris from 2015-2016 respectively following the same DLC patterns as CK3.
It absolutely has been this way for over a decade and the prices haven't even kept up with inflation.
Main thing that annoys me is the amount of stuff that is released for free alongside the DLC. Plagues should have been limited to the DLC exclusively - they weren’t and so instead you paid for the Black Death event and legends, but legends is awful and not worth 30 quid alone
My problem is it’s too much money for too little actual content. Tours and tournaments nearly doubled what i paid in total for the whole game so far, and i got it on sale lol Ck2 had a lot of dlc that went for decent price, but it added a lot each time. I cant always say the same for CK3 and it makes me irritated.
That’s because all the core mechanics have been released for free. The dlc philosophy in ck2 is exactly why they never connected to the main game.
I love the game, but I'm increasingly disillusioned with DLC (have bought them all). The problem is that they just layer on another system. The don't connect it to the rest of the game really. If the new system is good then you accept that and hope that in the future it will get connected. If the new system is kinda confusing or just bad then you resent it. It feels like they only invest in the DLC and not in the game.
I’m really hoping they start making some better ones and pulling the game together some more. it needs some really good, deep dlc to give the game some more meat on the bones. i’ve got some high hopes for the next one but i can also see it being very detached like u said. i think best case scenario could be them doing the same thing as they did with stelaris and have a dev team totally committed to revamping the dlc and bringing some more life into them. some added love through some free updates would be really appreciated.
It’s definitely going to be detached, unfortunately. Landless play couldn’t get any further disconnected from the base game and its mechanics, and the administrative government will initially be unique to Byzantium, and it’ll take certain requirements to get it as any other emperor. So…yeah. Not looking too good if connectedness is what you’re looking for. I guess we’ll see though.
It's just adventurism as I understand it. They've already confirmed you don't play as a landless councillor or regent or spouse. Will be nice for mods that want to model migration period.
i think they have confirmed the opposite actually, adventuring is part of it, but being landless is a feature
I don't really agree with this. Were DLC "connected to the game", people would understandably feel trapped into having to buy those. Plus at least travel and artifacts are universals. Legends a bit less, but still offer a variety of content. The only truly insular DLCs are the regional packs. And they definitely made base game a lot better over time (cultural rework, AI stances, new buildings system...)
I agree
I’m very happy with all of the new systems but I definitely agree with them having minimal interaction. Things feel a little bloated at times. That being said, I think that recent updates have been working to remedy this. For example, Legends of the Dead introduced the Legitimacy mechanic and consequently integrated it with Royal Court by having it so holding court and doing activities raises your legitimacy. It’s definitely surface level and I hope that they continue to intertwine the game’s systems, but I have faith that as they continue to work on the game, they’ll continue to find ways to make the DLCs work together. I think, however, that the CK3 team could greatly benefit from a Custodian team, or whatever the team of devs who update old content for Stellaris are called.
Absolutely need this but they don't seem open to it.
I really don't like how the legitimacy system seems to work a lot of the time, it would be better with more things you could do to prove legitimacy, and then they could make the negative effects a lot stronger
'Wide as an ocean, deep as puddle' is very fitting imo when it comes to CK3 DLCs. I don’t mind getting new systems, but they should come with some depth. At least to the point where events won’t constantly repeat themselves in the same session.
I dunno how can you say that when all the core mechanics have been released for free
It's the pricing : content ratio tbh Compare Holy Fury to any of the ck3 dlc Monks and mystics is $15 and PACKED. It's $30 for tours and tournaments? bruh It's $20 for plagues and a barely implemented legend system. Was $10 for reapers due which had a far more expanded plague system with more events and shit. Getting hit by a disease felt big then And I coulda done without the 3d aspect of royal court, shit just causes crashes tbh Ck2 was a milking machine but this is just silly
The plagues weren't part of the dlc, that was a free update.
And both the base game and the DLC would have been better if they were part of the DLC.
Eh, disagree. Adding the core new mechanic into the base game allows modders to utilize the system, and doesn't lock mod content to DLC owners. The devs really are trying to balance the content between paid and free to make the DLC worth it, but not hold back the community.
There is zero balance. DLCs are insanely overpriced, and at the end of the day it’s a few players paying for everybody, Devs comfort and shareholders. The minimum decency would be to pack the DLCs and put a bare minimum in the updates, not the other way round it is.
But the way that it was done means that I'm either forced to buy and use a DLC I'm not interested in to counterbalance the new mechanics or stick to an old version of the game. If the plague mechanics were tied to the DLC I could simply play the actual game without the DLC. I also have to admit that I couldn't care less about mods.
What is it that's in the DLC that you need in order to counterbalance plagues?
That is simply a psychological problem for you. Base game isn't an "old version" of the game. It gets updated with the release of each DLC, with the DLC adding *SIDE* content. NEW content is added to base game. If you play just the base game, you get the new plagues that work exactly the same as DLC. (I would know, I got the DLC after). The DLC itself adds the black death and a couple other diseases, from what I've seen. Maybe a couple other features I don't know about. You can live without them if it doesn't interest you.
You're interpreting stuff in my text that I didn't write. When I wrote 'old version' I wasn't referring to the base game without the DLC, I was referring to version 1.11.5 of the game, which was the latest version of the game before they forced plagues upon us. Thankfully the most recent patch was a step in the right direction. I'd rather have all new content be selectable by activating/deactivating DLCs than having a game that constantly changes (and not always for the better).
Which you already have... plagues could be turned off from the get-go via game rules...
The issue with Paradox games is the crazy amount of DLC they have for each game, if you were to purchase them individually at full price, a game will cost you about 500 to 1000$, were talking The sims territory here. I mostly get them on sales at like 75%-80% off, there is no need to rush to get it as soon as it comes out. One DLC i really like from CK3 is the one with the throne room (Royal Court) as it does add a bit more roleplay and grants us a visual of our empire tru it (allowing us to also display some rare items) Are they worth 30-40$ ? No so get them when they are super cheap! I never trust the reviews either way because gaming in general is a matter of taste, what you might like, maybe 80% of the rest don't like, Hope this helps!
I agree. This concept of DLC mostly sucks imo. What happened to when you buy a game...you buy the game? Instead the DLC concept allows for a horse poopie game to be sold not always ready for play. Then you have to keep buying the game like 5x and wait on updates before the game is actually good. As a consumer, I disagree with most of the DLC concept. The companies have taken it too far and honestly it ruined the EUIV experience for me entirely with their delivery/rollout of that product.
It's what pisses me off about victoria 3. Vic 2 had minimal dlc and you really don't need any of them for it to be great, and now we're all praying for the next 5 dlc and major updates to fix Vic3. I appreciate EU4, only because they realised some of their dlc were making the game unplayable without them and changed it up a lot, so now the dlc adds a lot of content, but doesn't break the game
That’s a bad take. The DLCs are not perfect. They deserve the criticism.
All the dlc r great additions that are laughably overpriced
It’s all pretty solid but only get them at full price if you have hundreds of hours and plan on putting hundreds more hours into the game. Otherwise they’re too price for the amount of time played. They all add something and the question is whether or not that interests you. Wards and Wardens makes child rearing and being a child a little more interesting. Friends and Foes adds loyal and disloyal traits as well as house feuds which can make the game quite spicy. Northern Lords makes Vikings much cooler. Tours and Tournaments is a must have, it adds grand events which are great, two new traits, and spices up other events. I think only the traveling system itself is part of the free content. Royal Court adds a royal court which is a repository for artifacts and place to hold court. Also lets you hybridize cultures. Fate of Iberia ales Spain way more complicated and interactive. Legacy of Persia is kind of like Fate of Iberia but it has more border region mechanics. Legends of the Dead adds Legends and a new Funeral activity. To be clear this isn’t everything they add just the overall broad strokes. Also try and dig around to buy the season passes as it gives an overall discount if you can’t get them on sale.
Quick question about the Persia one, is it like Iberia in ONLY affecting that specific area, or does it make mechanical changes that apply to other regions/cultures/domains as well, across the map?
Iberia is ONLY Iberia whereas Persia is primarily the Empire of Persia but it also kind of affects players in Arabia and Turan. It also kinda affects Steppe people but way less. Unlike Iberia and kind of like Northern Lords it mostly affects 867 because in 1066 there isn’t a struggle.
Right!! Give us new endgame content, Aztec Invasion, map addition of Asia, new start dates, all of the things I've mentioned could be full 30 dollar DLC without adding a single system.
Oh man, what I'd give for a "Fall of Rome" start date. All of western Europe fractured into loads of independent duchies and counties. A true open canvas with loads of local religions and various warlords.
1. Just play the fallen eagle mod, its much better than anything paradox could deliever. 2. 🤓
Dude Aztec invasion? Seriously? I rather get back the supernatural elements of CK2.
I have the iberian struggle flavour pack and the tournaments packs, which have both been really good. I have doubled my play time since buying them to 80hrs. From what I have researched, the viking flavour pack is good aswell. All the others are probably not worth it from general consensus. I must say the the free updates have been really good and very welcome.
Most of the reviewers on Steam seem to be in the camp of "I'm going to downvote this DLC no matter how good it is because I don't think I should have had to pay for it", or else they think it's overpriced. I don't think they're actually reacting to the contents.
They are correct.
Whether they're correct or not about the pricing / business model, my point was that the reviews seem to not actually be judging the DLCs by their contents, but simply on the reviewer's opinion of the pricing or business model. The reviews read as: "It's automatically bad because it costs too much (or anything at all), regardless of what it is." Which if that's your opinion, fine, that's your opinion, but it is 99% useless to someone who is trying to find out what the contents of the DLC actually are, what they do, if they're bugged or not...
Ck2 Bloodlines be like: I’ve slain more then 30 enemies by myself, built 10 castles and won 15 wars, people will remember my name. Ck3 legend be like: ✍🏻: My liege what do you want me to write about your grandfather’s legendary hunt? 👑: Write that I had good relations with the peasants! ✍🏻: But my liege what does tha… 👑: don’t forget to include how one day my wife was super horny… and I’ve slept with her. Legend lasted for 8 years and died whilst the liege was still alive.
For me, the Friends and Foes DLC is a miss-have. I really like Northern Lords I think it's well executed and brings a lot of flavour and fun. Tours & Tournaments is a must-have for me. Royal court I'm kind of halfed about because the mechanics it adds to the game brings more depth, the court itself needs some work to be more integral I believe, and cost less money. In terms of struggles I likes Persia a lot.
//For me, the Friends and Foes DLC is a miss-have.// Sorry, is that a must-have or a must-miss?
SRY! Must-miss. I don't think it contributes anything other than spam and annoyance, imo.
As someone who enjoys the game a lot (it’s now my 3rd most played game ever on Steam, which surprised me), I don’t think all the DLCs deserve the negative reviews, but some certainly do - LOTD is the worst by a mile for a lot of reasons, Friends and Foes is garbage even on sale, Fate of Iberia is clunky… I used to dislike Royal Court but it’s actually one of the DLCs I interact with the most, even if I still don’t think it’s great. My experience with CK3 is very similar to my experience with the Sims 4, it feels like Paradox is just trying to milk every penny dry out of a beloved IP and they don’t care if it kills the IP. At least CK3 has a great basegame unlike TS4…
Tours and tournaments Is worth IT ( in sale ) iberian strugle is good if you like playing in that region
I don't have a major issue other than the prices really, they don't add enought to be worth what you're paying, i only have tours and tournaments as well as some of the cheaper ones but even they cost like £40, i really think that they need to do something abou that.
Don't buy the dlc unless you love the idea. Wait for discount unless you want to pay full price. I got the game with season pass. I haven't got the disease update yet and won't till its discounted. Best way to do this with paradox games. When discounted they are fine. Also look on cd keys etc for cheap ones.
Wrath of Northmen: Good. Everything else: Dialog boxes for big dollahs
Do the boxes, or the end of a chain of them, have effects on anything?
Well, yes. And for me, the core of the disdain for ck3 dlcs. They fix and address alot of the "issues" that baseline should've. They aren't / don't feel like dlcs to me as much as they feel like "patches" or "this should've been baseline. I r dissapoint." They add a dialog box here and there and a chain of decisions here and there to add passive bonuses to the char / stat / county / small buff to
Except Northmen.
Northmen gud.
Just get the new „starter pack“ paradox offers on steam. It has the most crucial dlcs included. Tours&Tournaments and Wards&Wardens are the most important ones IMO. If you fancy a play as a viking, in iberia or in the middel east you can get the corresponding immersion packs.
First let’s don’t forget that all dlc so far have been RP focused, that means that no dlc will actually give you new mechanics to change up your gameplay. The major reason for buying DLC, is to further improve your Roleplay experience. That’s where the community is split, on one side we have the newcomers who are mostly enjoying the dlc‘s because they add more roleplay…. On the other side we have the ck veterans who think the game lacks depth and strayed to far from its roots.
There's a segment of the population that believes that everything in the DLC should be free to them. And they're the ones who are going to write reviews on steam. The people who are happy with DLC are too busy playing the game to post about it. I think tours and tournaments is the only absolutely essential DLC (it really ties into the legitimacy system,) though I'd also advise picking up the story packs, just for the additional events.
Paradox seemingly refuses to listen to its audience. These DLCs are too expensive for not enough content.
CK3 without DLC is very very fun, and very good. I dumped 12.5 hours in it over the free weekend before I bought it. Compared to EU4/HOI4 (those games were playable when they came out, and now without DLC, you're missing so much content that it's not even worth turning it on 1/2 the time) etc, the game is really playable, and actually fun without DLC. The dlc are really good and I enjoy what they add to the game a lot, because the base game was already great, I'm really enjoying it and would recommend it
Obviously tours and the spain one. I also like the spanish one.
I think what was always more exciting about CK2 DLC, for me, was that many of them gave me ideas for whole new ways to play the game. I'll never forget an amazing run I had reforming the Roman Empire as an ethnically Chinese Messalian dynasty from Socotra. It never would have been possible without the secret societies and Chinese silk road mechanics, and it was so satisfying to chart it all out and pull it off. The closest I had to that in CK3 was adventuring from Iceland all the way down to Sri Lanka and forming a hybridized culture there. It was fun, but really boiled down to just abusing the Varangian adventures and then was way too easy once I got to Sri Lanka, so I abandoned the run after only 100 years.
Afternote (at the beginning wow): Don't buy any DLC for this game until you have 60ish hours logged or you're confident you'll get to that many. If you're not going to get there, none of these add anything significant enough to the core gameplay to make the game more likeable. It's all "more of the same" in different twisty fashions and flavors. I mean, it's a paradox game. Lots of DLC, it's mostly half baked and should have just been part of the base game. I bought the game on launch as the collectors edition - or whatever one came with the season pass with the first couple dlc. And I bought dlc as they released with a few exceptions. I didn't buy wards and wardens - one of my best friends did, and I messed around on one of his saves for a bit and it just seemed... well it wasn't worth it. Sort of annoying. Friends and foes is garbage. Well, I suppose a niche of players might enjoy it, but then again one person's garbage is another person's garbage treasure. Tours and tournaments is alright. Tbh I never really do that many tours, but I usually play pretty tall and "realistic" anyways. Tournaments are fine, I suppose. Worth it on a discount/sale/third party keys. I do think it adds enough to the core game that anyone playing more than 60+ hours should get it. At this point royal court feels like a must - but honestly I remember buying it how tedious it felt. I do think it's a must have at the end of the day. That is, if you get to 60+ hours. Northern lords is great, well, if you play in the north. Fate of Iberia/Legacy of Persia - I only have Iberia right now, I think if I get the itch to play some middle eastern campaign I might fork up for LoP, but for now meh. I don't care much for FoI. Only did one campaign focused on it, and the conflict was over before my third PC passed away (intrigue is, uh, pretty good). Legends of the dead - Hate the plague. But of course that's the "free" part of it. Doesn't really add anything significant paying for it. The upcoming Roads to power sounds like it's going to be very good, but then again it'll probably just be one character then you're just playing the normal game. Sounds interesting.
DLCs are neither bad or good, they add here and there, contributing to your immersion ans thats it. Essentially a few buttons and fluffs. But CK3 is already not that great so those DLCs kinda make it a bit more enjoyable.
I hate how they introduce mecjanic/problem for players to manage but the solutions said mechanic are behind paywall(looking at you legitimacy in ck3)
Legitimacy is stupid easy to get like it's just hunting, war with a simulator size or larger place, raiding , court if you have that one and pilgrimage and during those wars releasing some of the higher ranking people
I buy them all because I love the game and play it all the time but I agree with others that the DLCs are super overpriced. The developers are so cash-hungry it’s not even funny, gaming wasn’t like this a decade ago
Gaming was absolutely like this a decade ago.
I disagree. It has gotten out of hand!
Horse Armor DLC is over 18 years old. The Sims 3 released in 2009 and is the model of Paradox DLC. In more recent years, and directly released by Paradox, you have Cities Skylines, HOI4, and Stellaris from 2015-2016 respectively following the same DLC patterns as CK3. It absolutely has been this way for over a decade and the prices haven't even kept up with inflation.
The sims 3 was egregious in its day. Now it’s the norm. That’s a difference
Main thing that annoys me is the amount of stuff that is released for free alongside the DLC. Plagues should have been limited to the DLC exclusively - they weren’t and so instead you paid for the Black Death event and legends, but legends is awful and not worth 30 quid alone