I've got 70 hours in this game, and I feel like I don't know what I am doing.

[HypeHunter]

Don't get me wrong - I really like this game, but the process of learning is painful. I play for a few hours, make a terrible mistake, spend an hour on YT watching tutorials and repeat everything with a different mistake at the end. How long took you guys to understand core mechanics? Sometimes I still feel this game plays me, not the other way around.

[Admod, the Equivocal]

I tend to play ironman, make a mistake, reset, make a mistake, reset, make a mistake, until I stop making mistakes. I actually like the process instead of getting too upset and wanting to reload. It's not actually painful. I'll reset a game I made a mistake 5 minutes in the same as I'd reset a game I made a mistake 5 hours in. I only play games in one sitting so normally if I didn't finish a game I'm restarting from scratch anyway the next time I sit down.

[AC Denton]

Core mechanics? A few runs.
I have 608 hrs total and still learning new things though.
I have 1313 (cool number) hrs in EU4 and still haven't learned everything.

With Paradox games, learning them game itself is the game. That's the fun.
Especially when it comes to CK3. As with CK3, failing is actually the point. Dying isn't always a bad thing. It can even be a good thing. Losing territory may suck, but you can get it back easily enough.

Originally posted by HypeHunter:

spend an hour on YT watching tutorials and repeat everything with a different mistake at the end.

This is your problem. You're trying to follow a guide then considering it a failure when you don't do it perfectly. This game is all about unpredictability.
Don't follow guides to the letter. Use them to get a rough idea of the direction or goal you should be aiming for, then make your own way there.
THAT'S how you learn the game (or anything really) as that's how humans reinforce information in their brain; by memory and experience, not following step-by-step.

[Supercow ツ]

It took 71 hours....just kidding^^

It's hard to say, but I have to admit, that I've learned a lot from my own mistakes and let the game continue with those mistakes. And I've fealt the same way, as you do. Then suddenly it clicked and I knew how to overcome the obstacles, the game has thrown to me. The most important thing is, that you are still fascinated of the game.

These tutorials were also helpful to understand things, that I havent figured out for myself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kOY5BREekM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7t9Sz93F-A

[HypeHunter]

Originally posted by AC Denton:

This is your problem. You're trying to follow a guide then considering it a failure when you don't do it perfectly.

No, I rather try to understand the general idea of a particular mechanic of the game, there is never 1 to 1 example. But there are a lot of mechanics and very little free time. I can achieve 600h in 2030, maybe 2029 :D.

[Razorblade]

It sounds like you may be giving up too easily. Unless your family dies out or you lose your last county, you have not lost the game.

A large part of succeeding at CK3 is being able to play through your mistakes. You're going to learn a lot faster by working through your mistakes, rather than restarting and hoping you manage everything perfectly this time around.

[Kimlin]

My whole first run I never really grasped the core concepts. That probably took 50 hours. I have about 1,400 hours played now and I think I have the cores mastered pretty well.

[mb3]

First off, this game is much funner when you make a mistake and then play with it to see what happens, or if you can pull it off.

Secondly, this game isn't really that deep, once you learn the menus and how to browse thru your game play options, you realize that any perception of 'depth', is just that, illusion, surface glitter, mirror rooms. Once you understand the short list of basic functions the game becomes very easy.

[Aluminum Elite Master]

For me, in the first 100 hrs, I started to understand a lot of things...

...but this was because I had played CK2 for hundreds of hours years ago, and EU-IV for about a thousand hours. So I had a lot of experience, going in, with ideas that CK3 largely uses itself.


So, it's relative. If this is your first PDX game, it could easily take 500+ hrs to nail everything down, and I mean just all the core mechanics and systems.

[Ashling]

Originally posted by HypeHunter:

No, I rather try to understand the general idea of a particular mechanic of the game, there is never 1 to 1 example. But there are a lot of mechanics and very little free time. I can achieve 600h in 2030, maybe 2029 :D.

What are your guides telling you about the game?

Originally posted by Aluminum Elite Master:

For me, in the first 100 hrs, I started to understand a lot of things...

...but this was because I had played CK2 for hundreds of hours years ago, and EU-IV for about a thousand hours. So I had a lot of experience, going in, with ideas that CK3 largely uses itself.


So, it's relative. If this is your first PDX game, it could easily take 500+ hrs to nail everything down, and I mean just all the core mechanics and systems.

+1
CK3 is very helpful in telling you all the information you need, but it still has a pretty big sinister side with inheritance. Even when inheritance is in its simple, CK form, nothing can escape the nonsense that is medieval succession. Nothing.

[Gingy]

Playing tribal? Focus on gaining Land, Prestige and Dynasty Renown. Decide to use elective voting to keep your kingdoms together or bum rush to build empire early. Decide to let kingdoms split after death to grow Dynasty Renown.

Playing Feudal? Focus on Land, Money & Dynasty Renown. Same as above.

Use Counselors to Manage Your Lands: make or save money, find secrets for blackmail or cash, Create stability with culture change or religion change etc.

Slightly deeper topics: Culture, Religion, artifacts, court positions, knights, Great Holy Wars, Retinues, De Jure Drift/Land, Personal Combat, Land Battles.

Since PDX haven't implemented a resign game score board like ck2, there are really no set goals or score to aspire to except the goals you make yourself.

Ask yourself before setting out on another play through what you hope to accomplish, will you end up keeping a certain religion/culture or will you roleplay among yourself and organically make decisions to dynamically change your style/goal per character in your dynasty. Outside of this, You can achievement hunt or use Mods from the workshop to spice up the game.

I imagine that allocating 10 to 15 minutes max per topic would be sufficient as CK3 has done a good job with already explaining in game mechanics. They even have a built in game wiki along with tool tips.

[R.T.]

I'm honst, I had already waste over 2000 hours on CK2 and 700 hours on CK3, just read some CK3 wiki pages and patchnote.

[glendriv]

Wiki is your best friends, just try whatever you can or you want, dont be afraid to make some mistake. Enjoy the story telling or try min maxing perknowlege you got so far, and reading wiki, Im not really recommend watching YT for Minmax, but you do you. Cheers. 800h + btw.

[!]

Maybe 150 hours to learn the game. I still make mistakes of inattentiveness whereas before I thought the game hated me. The four categories for which you learn several strategies are increasing income, increasing vassal opinion, creating an acceptable succession, and acquiring claims.

[Mythrix]

Doing badly is super fun. I love having to start again by figuring out a way to declare independence from whoever screwed me, before slowly regaining my power.

But basically how to win = create a 'conquest' religion and then pick on small neighbours and always have some merc money saved.

[Kimlin]

Originally posted by Mythrix:

Doing badly is super fun. I love having to start again by figuring out a way to declare independence from whoever screwed me, before slowly regaining my power.

But basically how to win = create a 'conquest' religion and then pick on small neighbours and always have some merc money saved.

The climb to power is currently the most fun thing to do in the game.