Hello there, and welcome to the eighty-first CK3 Dev Diary!
Today we are going to look at the experience of admiring your Royal Court, one of the paid features of the Expansion with the same name.
Most of the actual mechanics of the expansion should already be familiar to you if you have read previous Dev Diaries. I will refer back to these Dev Diaries where appropriate, so you can see this as a bit of a summary of what it means to preside over your own Royal Court.
That being said, we are going to talk a bit about Court Types, a minor feature for your Royal Court.
► Read our Dev Diary #81 - A tour of your Royal Court (Interface)
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💡 Enjoy the FAQ Royal Court and read all there is to learn about our upcoming Expansion
Visiting your Royal Court
When you reach the rank of King or Emperor as a Feudal or Clan Ruler, you have laid the foundation for your Royal Court. You can now go to it via a button in the main interface.
This button highlights if there is something interesting to do in your Royal Court at this moment, such as if you have new Court Artifacts.
Button to open your Royal Court, with a notification
You can also view anyone else’s Royal Court via a button next to their Character.
Button to open someone else's Royal Court
The Throne Room
Your Royal Court is split into three segments: Throne Room, Court Grandeur, and Court Artifacts
When you enter your Royal Court, you end up in your Throne Room.
Throne Room view of Royal Court
Here you can see various petitioners or other goings-on in your Court, and you can choose to interact with them. These types of events are described in Dev Diary 75. If any Inspired Characters are present or have projects in progress, they are also shown here, on the left side of the screen.
Interacting with a Court Event
If there is not enough going on here, you can also choose to Hold Court, inviting Courtiers and Vassals across the Realm to grovel before you (which was shown in Dev Diary 72).
First step of Holding Court
A petitioner approaches while holding Court
If this is your Liege’s Court, you can even approach them to hear your reasonable requests, as seen in Dev Diary 74.
Button to Petition your Liege in your Liege's Court
Grandeur and Amenities
Moving on to the second part of your Royal Court, which is an overview of your Court Grandeur. How much you have, various factors affecting it, and so on.
Grandeur was explained a while ago, in Dev Diary 61. Basically, it is a measure of how well known your Court is, and each Level gives you further benefits.
Your current Grandeur, Grandeur Baseline, and unlocked Grandeur Levels are shown on the large bar in the center.
In the image below, we can see we are gaining Grandeur every month due to being below our Baseline.
Our current Level is 4: while we do not have enough Grandeur to maintain this Level, we had unlocked it before, and it will thus stay unlocked for 6 months, regardless how much Grandeur we have.
Grandeur Level staying unlocked for 6 months
We can also see that our expected Grandeur Level is 7, which we are nowhere near fulfilling.
Expected Grandeur Level is Level 7
Grandeur is also reflected in other ways. If you have high Grandeur, the UI looks more luxurious, and new (non-Artifact) furniture appears in your court.
Your Royal Court at Level 0
Your Royal Court at Level 10
A large source of Grandeur is which Amenities are available to your Courtiers and visitors to your court. Providing excellent Amenities is sure to make your name well known across the world.
An overview of your Amenities
Popup graphic when you change your Amenities
There are two other factors affecting Grandeur, Court Language and Court Types. Court Language was already explained in Dev Diary 78, so let’s talk about Court Types.
Court Types
With Court Types, you can choose which kind of Royal Court you want to foster. Perhaps one where martial prowess is admired, or where there is a whisper around every corner and a lover behind every curtain.
You always have the choice between two Court Types, based on the Ethos of your Culture, and changing it costs Prestige. If your Culture changes, you can still keep your old Court Type.
The type of Royal Court affects two things: what you get from your Grandeur Level, and what your Courtiers get from being part of the Court.
While some Grandeur Levels you reach are always the same regardless of your Court Type, some change somewhat. So, in a Diplomatic Court, Grandeur Level 4 may see you gaining less Tyranny, while in a Warlike Court, you may gain more Levies.
Changing your Court Type
As for Courtiers, each Courtier who stays at an especially Grand Royal Court for a certain period of time (5 years) will gain a special Courtier Trait based on the Court Type
Court Trait Icons
Each Trait of this type has two different levels. If your Court is at Grandeur Level 5, Courtiers get the first level, while the second level will appear at Grandeur Level 8. The second level comes with extra bonuses and can be especially useful for those you plan to be your Vassals.
Effects of the two levels of the Warlike Courtier Trait
Court Artifacts
Last but certainly not least, are the Court Artifacts. We showed a few of them off in Dev Diary 69.
In short, Court Artifacts are a special type of Artifacts. These are large furniture and other decorative items you display inside your Royal Court. This makes them distinct from your Inventory Artifacts described in last week's Dev Diary as you are not hauling them around everywhere.
When entering this part of the Royal Court, you can see all spots where you can place Court Artifacts
A view of all slots for Court Artifacts
Just like Inventory Artifacts, they give you a bonus if they are actively on display in your Royal Court. The primary purpose of Court Artifacts is to increase your Court Grandeur, but some have additional effects.
Zygmunt's Goblet in your Royal Court, and its tooltip
For most Court Artifacts, there is more than one slot to place them. Perhaps that tapestry would look better on that other wall?
Animated gif of considering different placements for your Banner in your Royal Court
End of the Tour
That is all for this week, thank you for reading!
