Crusader Kings III is one of the best games in the “Grand Strategy” genre on Steam. With the upcoming DLC, it is set to become significantly larger, but performance should not suffer.
Which game is it about? Crusader Kings 3 is a very deep strategy game in which you lead your dynasty through the Middle Ages and breed a genetically perfect “Übermensch” on the side.
In fact, the games from Paradox Interactive are considered so complex that hardly anyone understands them or even finishes them. 1,500 hours? That’s just the tutorial in Crusader Kings 3, and the developers are proud of it.
But because even the most dedicated player can get bored after a few thousand hours, the strategy geniuses from Sweden regularly supply their game with new content. With the upcoming expansion, the game is set to grow even further – and without a pesky drawback.
“By adding Asia to the map, we slowed down the game”
What’s this new expansion about? With “All Under Heaven”, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia are coming into play. This significantly enlarges the world map and promises many new opportunities: players will be able to explore the Silk Road and rise to become god-emperors.
If the rather sluggish performance of the strategy game bothers you already, you might fear that the new features will demand a high price in terms of speed. However, the developers assure in a new video on YouTube: everything is under control.
What do the developers promise? With “All Under Heaven”, CK3 is set to become 30-40% larger in terms of playable land and characters. To maintain the current player experience as much as possible, the team has worked on the “Simulation Tick Duration”: the time the game takes to process what happens at each moment.
The developers admit that the upcoming DLC poses a challenge due to the large number of new dominions – and their accompanying rulers. Because the more “building blocks” come into play, the more work it means for the CPU.
“By simply adding the rest of Asia to the map, we immediately slowed down the game as much as it was enlarged,” is stated in the video.
According to internal tests, the current build of All Under Heaven is said to run as “swiftly” as the current version of CK3 – as the gameplay progresses, the new DLC is even expected to be faster than the base game.
Community warns: Don’t mess it up
How is this received by fans? Quite positively. In the comments on YouTube, many players thank the developers for taking their concerns seriously. Performance is an important topic for them; this was the best dev diary ever.
Others, however, react a bit more cautiously. One player quips: “I’ll believe it when I see it,” while another insists: “Don’t mess it up.”
This captures the current sentiment in the Paradox community quite well, as players have been dissatisfied with how expansions have been handled for some time now: Strategy geniuses are passively-aggressively criticized for the new announcement regarding their €220 game on Steam
