Crusader Kings III

Paradox will release Silk & Silver, the next Crusader Kings III major expansion, on 17 November. It adds Merchant and Republic government types, a new trade system and two bookmarks, 1066 and 1178.

• —Merchant: a landless trading-company government with trade routes for over 40 goods and three specializations: Caravaneer, Creditor and Artisan.
• —Republic: patrician families vie for the role of doge through an Assembly, laws, and a chosen administration; Trade Leagues give commercial and military benefits.
• —Two new bookmarks: 1066 Channels of Commerce and 1178 Guelphs & Ghibellines.
• —Historical Italian flavor includes civic carnivals and the Guelph and Ghibelline conflict in Northern Italy.

By God Alone released September 30 with the free 1.20.0 Crozier update. The expansion adds the Christian Church as a Situation spanning all of Christendom, with chapters that can end in a Great Schism, plus an Ecclesiastical government.

• —Every Christian ruler of County tier or above is a participant, sorted into six groups by faith size and clerical or secular status.
• —Seven chapters, from Fragile Unity to Concord; a Crisis chapter can end in the Great Schism once progress crosses a threshold.
• —A Guide the Christian Church decision is available once every ten years and has four times the effect when taken as Head of Faith.
• —Clerical Regions can be founded on any Duchy-tier title and slowly convert neighbouring counties to their holder's Rite.

Meshes and illustrations now stream instead of loading at startup, cutting time to the main menu from 84 seconds to 16 on the team's slow test machine. Video memory is down by a third to a half and system memory by roughly a sixth a decade in.

• —Streaming meshes and illustrations cut time to the main menu from 84 seconds to 16 on the team's slow test machine.
• —Video memory is down by a third to a half depending on texture quality; system memory a decade in by roughly a sixth.
• —AI decision-making accounts for a bit over a quarter of each simulated day.
• —The day-to-day target is to MATCH the earlier Scribe patch, not to beat it.