Crusader Kings III, AKA the medieval family breeding simulator, is one of 2020’s hit games. This isn’t surprising considering how it’s a significant upgrade to its predecessor (CK2) thanks to its larger world upon release and its realistic animated portraits. If you’re a history buff or simply someone who loves strategy games, it’s definitely a game you’d need to add to your list.

However, despite it able to give hundreds of hours of gameplay, we think it still needs a few features to fully legitimize itself as the true ruler of the strategy game genre. Excluding upcoming features like the ruler designer, playable military religious orders like the Knights Hospitaller and the Teutons, as well as other government modes, here are a few other features we’d like the game to have:

A map covering the entirety of East Asia

The Crusades and the goings-on in medieval Europe, Africa, Western and South Asia were the focal points of medieval history. Thing is, storms were also brewing in East Asia. In the year 866, one of CK3’s starting periods these events were unfolding in the orient:

- Japan Emperor Uda’s reign has started.
- The Tang Dynasty in China was starting its decline due to an incompetent ruler.
- Buddhism and Islam were starting to spread in Southeast Asia; the Khmer Empire dominated the region.

Sure, these events pale in comparison to the Crusades, but they’re as significant. Personally, I’d want to see how far west I can go as China, or try to rule mainland Asia as the powerful Khmers.

More story events

CK3 is chock-full of story events. As a child, your character may stumble upon a stray cat, giving him a way to relieve stress in tiring moments and a slew of other adventures. Meanwhile, you may choose to go hunting and somehow suffer an untimely death after being gored by a boar. After a certain amount of time and a few playthroughs though, these stories keep repeating. With that said, we’d like more story events as new content continues to be churned out in the future.

Customizable coat of arms

The ability to customize a coat of arms is a feature in CK2 but is currently not present in CK3. This is due to development time constraints and Paradox’s focus on other aspects of the game. There’s no timeframe for when it’ll be part of our medieval experience, but in any case, we hope it will be. After all, having a customizable emblem will add to the immersion.

Peace deals akin to EU4

One of the letdowns of CK3 is it had the old CK2 manner of after-war treaties. You’ll only have three options: enforce your demands (which can range from grabbing territory to deposing an excommunicated ruler), offer a white peace, or surrender. This is inflexible and forces you to at least reach a 100% war score to get the desired result. Anything less won’t get you anything. Plus, the road to achieving this is an arduous one, as you need to imprison the opposing monarch or occupy enough territories.

With that in mind, we’d like to have peace deals akin to EU4 and Stellaris which let you negotiate terms of peace and surrender. Depending on the cassus belli (cause for war) and war score, I’d like to have the option to grab more territory, gold, and other concessions (like forced marriages, hostages, etc). If I’m an Anglo-Saxon King, why not give me the option to allow me to pay the Vikings instead of getting blood-eagled? Doing so will open up a whole new avenue for the game.

Better and more diplomacy actions

To be honest, diplomacy is still a rough diamond in CK3. There simply isn’t a lot of options to interact with other characters. Plus, it’s a bit difficult to invite gifted characters, like strong warriors and veteran physicians, to your court to serve you. Plus, interactions with fellow monarchs are limited as well.

Personally, I’d like to have the option to bribe characters a copious amount of money to join my court. Plus, if I have claims on counties and kingdoms, the ability to denounce these in return for gold and other concessions.

Calamities and plagues

The medieval era wasn’t easy to live in. People spent most of their time in the fields and sickness was rampant. If you had a deadly disease, all you could do is hope for a miracle since most “cures” involved eating burnt cats and spending 24 hours in front of an altar. Crop failures which led to famine were a regular occurrence, and epidemics like the Black Plague took millions of lives.

Although minor breakouts are present in CK3, major plagues and calamities are still absent. It’s a feature we’d like to have in order to increase the difficulty level and make the game a tad more realistic.

Although CK3 is already packed with features, we can’t help but ask for more. After all, there’s still a lot of unexplored historical elements while others, like the Mongols, weren’t implemented well. Given the lifespan of Paradox’s games, we’ll definitely get the full and unfiltered medieval experience in the years to come.

If you’ve played the game, what are some of the features you’d like it to have?