Crusader Kings 3: Roads to Power will add hyper-difficult AI setting

Paradox Interactive published a meaty developer diary for Crusader Kings 3, which detailed the team’s current priorities and gave an outlook on the first features to be expected in its next DLC, Roads to Power.

Among these will be advanced difficulty settings that supercharge some AI characters so that they can properly rival the player. This will revolve around the “Conqueror” trait, a new and rare attribute for NPCs.

“Conquerors switch over to a hyper-aggressive version of the AI,” Paradox explained, “which is much faster to declare wars, can declare multiple wars at once, and invests all of their resources into warfare, Men at Arms, and means with which to declare more and better wars (such as hunt activities if they’re low on prestige and you’ve disabled their special bonuses via game rules, or taxation tours if they’re low on gold, etc.). They switch to the objectively best lifestyle focuses, use schemes in a very realpolitik way, etc.”

Aside from their behavior, these “Conqueror” characters will receive a variety of bonuses that will allow them to keep pace with players, who are often better at managing their realms than the AI – so things like additional taxes, lower maintenance costs, and speedier schemes will be included. What the AI won’t get is strong combat bonuses, as Paradox doesn’t want things to feel outright unfair – at least on this difficulty.

Things are different for what will become the ultimate challenge of Crusader Kings 3: The NPCs with the “Scourge of the Gods” modifier. This modifier can appear on “Conqueror” NPCs when you play on the extreme difficulty setting, though Paradox said that this “is masochistic and not really recommended.”

“Scourge of the Gods” lets the character start invasions without any sort of Casus Belli, makes their armies faster and stronger, and basically gives them immunity from plagues – it’s Genghis Khan on steroids.

With these traits and modifiers in play, there should be a natural rise and fall of such historical giants who may pose a threat to players since they’ll be much better at keeping their realms in one piece than the regular AI.

Roads to Power will also feature a new starting bookmark in the year 1178, which has several interesting scenarios in store: In England, the Plantagenets are in power, while Saladin rules in Egypt and works on dismantling the crusader states in the Levante. Meanwhile, the Byzantine Empire – which will be the expansion’s focus – is besieged by the Seljuks, who’ve established their foothold in Anatolia.

In addition, we’ve got our first glimpse on Estates, a new type of holding. Each family in the game has one such Estate, which is always managed by the current House Head and contains several buildings and upgrade branches – though we’ll get more details on how this all works soon.