Is this game still too easy?

[Typha]

I've been on the fence about it and the reason I haven't bought this is because I've heard for so long that it's too easy, little challenge, bad AI. Have updates or DLCs remedied this at all? Thanks.

[Seggellion]

Yes. Once you know how to play, the game is no longer challenging unless you have self-imposed rules. Currently, I am trying one with a domain limit of -3.

[Sputnik]

Bear in mind that's often said by veteran crusaders in comparison to CK2.

[VoiD]

Yes, and it's not something easy to solve.

The AI is horrible, sure, and that's one of the problems, you could, in theory, make it appear to be more competent giving it more bonuses, stability and aggression.

But it wouldn't fix the fundamental design flaws within the game, mainly in the warfare aspect, unless there's a radical overhaul on the way the AI functions it will never be competent, as it still thinks levies are soldiers, it still neglects to train big stacks of elite MAA and put them in an appropriate county with the correct building type+blacksmith, which should be enough to start posing a challenge, the AI still neglects knights as a mechanic entirely and doesn't try to find the good ones, or even to fill up all of the spots, the AI probably doesn't even acknowledge the accolade system and it's probably picking total random nonsense that doesn't help their plan (AI have none), armies, or knights in any way.

Speaking of plans, CK games have 2 layers of strategy, the usual border/conquest gameplay, the main meat of the game, and the game mode you spend 90% of your time staring at and planning for your next moves, and the strategic dynasty layer.

The AI does a bad enough job in the regular gameplay area, but it's at least somewhat functional, it will declare wars on weaker neighbors, try to avoid stronger enemies, then dance around trading sieges with other AI until a whitepeace is offered, it's functional.

The issue is the dynastic part, the AI doesn't do ANYTHING, it just.... Exists, it just stands there, waiting around, picking random choices in random events, or waiting for the player to do something so it can fall over and die, the AI will never activelly pursue ways to land more dynasty members, to activelly increase their own dynasty's splendor, to attack you with the goal of harming your dynasty as it would attack your territory in a war, so it feels like you're just playing by yourself getting a bunch of meaningless, disconnected random events over and over again.

The next expansions seem promising, drifting away from the nonsense DLCs that don't really add anything to the gameplay from previous seasons, and instead focusing on the actual meat of the game according to one of their most recent announcements, but IMO CK3 needs a custodian team like the one they made for Stellaris, so they can start fixing and overhauling the systems that didn't work in the game, and start addressing the AI issues I just mentioned. I wouldn't expect just the DLC team to do all of that on their own.

PS: If you're a new player, you won't think this is easy for a long time, until you understand the unique systems like hierarchies, claims and inheritance present in this game. This only applies to people who know what they are doing, and while CK3 is a LOT easier to learn, mostly thanks to the UI upgrades, than CK2, it's still one of the harder, most unique games in the grand strategy/4X genre. If anything it's worth checking it out.

[ElaborateSky6]

Originally posted by Typha Latifolia:

I've been on the fence about it and the reason I haven't bought this is because I've heard for so long that it's too easy, little challenge, bad AI. Have updates or DLCs remedied this at all? Thanks.

Everything said here so far is true, however I have found that the best way to make it fun and challenging is by using debugmode to mod the game. What I mean by that is making a selected ruler I choose into a god character and build up his region. To futher this I sometimes give him claims to other big countries and let it play out. Then as your character you can choose how you want to play it. There are many different ways I mod it but that was just a suggestion

Let me know if you want to play a multiplayer game with me if you ever got it and we could have a lot of fun. I have other friends who play this and we always have a good time

[fancho22]

Originally posted by Federal Agent Rex:

This is a sandbox.
You have to make your own challenge.

It's not like the devs will provide you a sandbox full of quicksand :b

can be true if AI was decent... but it isnt , once you know the game mechanics the game is boringly easy...
only way to make it harder is with mods and not everybody like mods.

[AC Denton]

Yeah. The only challenge is the beginning, once you form an Empire you are near unstoppable. That said, even at the beginning some smaller starts are very easy too.

[Orb]

After 500 hours I find the game quite easy yes. But it's great fun. There are harder characters to pick or you can kind of make your own challenge like defending vs the mongols. I also like to create OP dudes in some parts of the world with all 100 skills and all the positive traits, they'll live over a 100 years and can form pretty strong kingdoms/empires in one lifetime.

[VBigB]

Originally posted by Seggellion:

Currently, I am trying one with a domain limit of -3.

My personal experience with this is it makes the early game slower, especially in 867 start, but not harder. In fact overall for me it seems that it makes it easier as the you will have much less powerful vassals. Even AI kings may only be able to hold one holding themselves whereas the player is still better equipped to maximize the number of holdings they can hold.

[VoiD]

Yeah, I'm not sure if -3 domain made such a difference or not, early game, sure, it was a bit harder, I had to be more careful, but later on everything got stackwiped by one or 2 MAA regiments as usual.

I did notice the AI empires seemed to be more stable though, maybe because the difference between an emperor, with a single county, and a duke vassal, with a single county, is the number of extra vassals the emeperor usually has, so kingdoms and empires weren't breaking apart as often.

[Hagnard]

For those longtime players like me who find the game too easy after figuring out all the ways to minmax it, I can't praise the mod ObfusCKate high enough. It takes away your omnipotence (on a level of your choice) which both makes the game harder and more immersive as you no longer knows everything about everyone in the world.

[Typha]

Thanks everyone for your well thought-out responses. I hope the devs are aware of this flaw, it sounds pretty serious,

[Razorblade]

To be fair, the game is too easy for veterans; most people probably have a few hundred hours before that's an issue, especially if they have no prior experience with CK2.

Moreover, your post history suggests you play plenty of easy games, so I don't see how CK3 is any worse. I think you may be getting caught up in mass hysteria on this one.

[Typha]

Originally posted by Razorblade:

To be fair, the game is too easy for veterans; most people probably have a few hundred hours before that's an issue, especially if they have no prior experience with CK2.

Moreover, your post history suggests you play plenty of easy games, so I don't see how CK3 is any worse. I think you may be getting caught up in mass hysteria on this one.

Yeah no man’s sky is so easy it’s boring for me.

But also multiple people have used this account with lots of different preferences.

Same with Civ VI but at least I can make the AI cheat a lot to make it artificially challenging. I'm surprised there isn't a system like that here.

[Nine]

try victoria 2

[Japzzi]

My biggest gripe with the game is the stat bloating. You can get so many buffs and things that increase your stats it is absolutely crazy, unless you take a RP approach you can get 15+ or even 20+ in all stats quite easily.