How do people usually play?????

[greatgodom]

I find it really weird that the most popular mods are basically broken when it comes to creating your own character from scratch. Princes of darkness is virtually unplayable without the default relationships of premades, and I just bricked a run because Elder Kings has broken mechanics for succession on player made kingdoms.

I find it weird the most popular RP mods don't support what I assumed everyone did, which is start with a county and a new character and grind your way up. Is that not the most common way to play? Do you really start with an OP empire or kingdom from the get go?

[Alehkra]

I mean, I've played a ton of Princes of Darkness custom made characters.

[rauchst]

As a fairly new player to the CK scene, I've found that the non-customised leaders are generally far harder than custom ones - especially with some of the more obscure counties/tribes.

The game offers little challenge if you minmax your first character to suit a particular playstyle. (17-year-old albino Norse with strength, beauty and smarts, anyone?) That can be fun too, of course, but then your goal should be far more ambitious than with the leaders the game offers off the shelf.

[Karsh]

i normaly start as a independent duke , and try to make myself a kingdom (a existong one not a custom one)

then i start my life as a king and try to egt my kids to inherit diffirent places through marriage (no assasinating other heirs in line jsut praying on rng )

and that''s basicly my playstyle i want a kingdom , build it up try to give my kids some new lands through marriage if rng allows it

[denton91]

I've only made a couple custom characters that were utterly broken stat-wise. I usually just pick a character that is "close enough" in culture and religion to what I want and then roll with it from there. You can do a lot of shenanigans ingame and it feels better imo.

[Bill Nye the Spy]

I find a character by clicking the random button that only has one piece of territory and try to make something of them that passes down thru the generations

[lordmainstream]

I play tall and hunt for achievements. Achievements are a fun way to set objectives and challenges.

I don't really like blobbing and painting the map. I go for my de jure duchy counties first and develop them until i'm strong enough to go for the kingdom/empire.

[Kalisa]

not sure how popular my play style is but I typically play with a focus on my dynasty above all else, i prefer to not rule big countries rather being a vassal or a smaller nation instead, sometimes just slowly jumping to other parts of the world to establish branches of the family out there well developing areas of the world that are typically underdeveloped.

I usually also try to spread something thats not usually the normal for the world as well for some crazy playthroughs, I dont like being the biggest nation but rather playing on the sidelines influencing the world in fun ways. it also makes mods like supernatural rp mods work really well with my playthrough style.

most of the time I do custom created characters, but it can also be fun playing an already existing character and going from there as well, some have great modifiers or unique interesting starting situations

[Harris]

I don't play created characters - it feels like cheating and essentially robbing myself of things that can be achieved in game, like congential traits or education. Not to mention it's kinda unimmersive to have Varangian conquest of Slavs done not by Rurik, but some random dude. With mods, it even worse. Princes of Darkness WANTS you to play a premade character, it gives each of them lore bits and unique gameplay options no other character has.

Originally posted by greatgodom:

RP mods don't support what I assumed everyone did, which is start with a county and a new character and grind your way up. Is that not the most common way to play? Do you really start with an OP empire or kingdom from the get go?

It's actually neither. Starting with a duchy is a sweet spot in my experience. Start as an empire and you have it too easy. Start as a count and your early game becomes too sweaty for my taste. After all, CK3 is very much about snowballing and "big fish eats small fish" mentality.

[VoiD]

I don't think I ever started as a custom character in CK2 or CK3.

Maybe once to see how it works, but that's it.

I feel like I'm cheating when I get to create my own character instead of trying to make my heir better.

[desaix]

Personally, I mostly play these days using the character creator, mods, and console commands to set up various scenarios.

In my latest (867 start, 1.11; still waiting on the More Game Settings mod to update before starting 1.12), I'm running a small island power trying to survive as an independent power when claimed by three massive empires in a shattered world scenario (I control the kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica, while the Empire of Italia (a united Italy), the Roman Empire (which controlled most of Greece and Bulgaria), and the Byzantine Empire (controlling Turkey and much of the Levantine Coast), all of whom have a claim on Sardinia and Corsica).

And, just to keep the rest of the shattered world interesting, I'll build empires in other locations having conflicts as well. In this recent example, Germania and Bohemia\West Slavia were fighting over Bavaria (which, for purposes of keeping the sides roughly even in power, is the Holy Roman Empire). England (mostly southern England), the Welsh-Irish (Britannia), and the North Seas Empire (mostly Scotland and various islands, but Skane as well just to keep things a little more de jure) were fighting to conquer a collapsing Danelaw (really just Northumbria and Mercia). And someone pretending to be Cleopatra VIII had taken over Egypt and was fighting over Arabia with the Persians.

I went through about five or six generations of that game (I held Sardinia, added the Mallorcas, and lost part of Corsica to a united Italian-Roman Empire that then collapsed, allowing me to re-conquer that lost part) before the update. I think I'll try something very similar once I can shatter the world again...

[TsumaTek]

Both "More Bookmarks +" and "Bookmarks+" offer a plethora of start dates for RP and playing tall. I generally run with 75 - 90 mods. I use Polytheism Reborn after my chosen date starts to manually configure religions for earlier start dates that would fare historically better with Celtic and or Roman/Celtic hybrids. I use "A spouse designer" for character design. I think I enjoy setting up my worlds more so than actually playing so as a result I suffer from what we would talk about in the Skyrim modded forums as "startitis". I just experienced a plague yesterday that eventually covered 2/3 of the world. I love the animation, that was fun. Thanks for a great game and Thank You Modding community ....Cheers

[Panthaz89]

I mean custom characters are good but without going over 400 points they aren't as good as count Alfred.

[Sieda]

Typically I start with a custom count or duke and work my way up to Empire, trying to see how much I can blob and how deeply interwoven I can get my dynasty into the global gene-pool until things become too tedious and I start over again.

I think my biggest problem though has to do with the constant patching/dlc releases which mean I never play a single game more than 100 years or so before I start over.

[rickerts]

Typically a feudal character but not an overly powerful one. Usually in or around Croatia or one of the smaller holdings in Iberia. Occasionalyl as one of the lesser lords of Wales. When tribal I usually I try to form Pomerania

I try to do it as story like as possible. I'll conquer somewhere, wait till control is built up, then declare somewhere else. I try to marry local until I am powerful enough it makes sense someone on the other side of the continent or world has heard of me or my kingdom etc.

Match the terrain to buildings so only build hunting camps in lands with forests etc.

[Я вернулся aga]

I like to play as some Vassals or smthn