CK3-history-extractor

A program designed for creating an encyclopedia containing your ck3 history
It goes through the lineage of every player in the save file (meaning multiplayer save files also work) and extracts data about every character it encounters and their associates. It even renders cool graphs that depict your history. You can preview how you can expect the result to look like in your browser here

Usage

First you will need to decide what version of the program you want to use. There are three potential versions of the program:

• Release - Every now and then I release a new GitHub release that has compiled binaries attached. You can simply download those binaries and use them. For those unfamiliar with GitHub go here and this is the version you should honestly use.

• Dev - You can also just compile the program from source on your machine of choice. If you have no clue how the rust compilation system works just try running:

  make dependencies
  make cargo
  cp target/release/ck3_history_extractor ./ck3_history_extractor

• Legacy - a Python based script developed way back with no support, but you can access it here

After making your choice go find your save file in the format the program accepts.

Obtaining the save file

In order to use any version of the program you are going to need a text based unzipped CK3 save file. You can find your save files in your documents directory in %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Crusader Kings III\save games\. If you are running the game with the default settings chances are the save file is compressed and if the save was for an ironman run then the save file is saved in their internal binary format. You will need to decompress the save file and convert the save file to the text format then.

De-Ironmanning your save file

1. Backup your ironman savefile
2. Run the game in debug mode (add -debug_mode to launch options)
3. Load the Ironman savefile and let the game run for a month so that it saves the file in debug mode
4. Congrats! your save file in the savefile folder is now no longer binary encoded

If you want to make sure that's actually the case, open the file in a text editor and see if you can see any gibberish or weird symbols. If the save file has no gibberish(non ASCII characters) that means that the save file is ready to go.

Decompressing your save file

The save file may be compressed. This depends on the settings and game version. If you aren't sure if it is just try decompressing. Just decompress it then as if it was an archive. If the process fails, then the save file isn't compressed and the save file is ready to go. If it the file gets decompressed successfully then enter the newly created directory and copy the gamestate file inside. That file is your actual file the program is expecting. If the save file is compressed but you are sure the contents are plain text, you can also just run the tool with --zip which will make the tool decompress the input file as if it was an archive.

Running the program

You can run the program from the command line or just by double clicking it. If you ran it with no arguments it will ask you for the path to the file and for the path to the game. **It is very important that game path provided points to the /game subdirectory in your Crusader Kings III folder. Otherwise you will recieve errors when providing the path. For users familiar with console environments here are details on that interface:

./ck3_history_extractor <save file path> <arg1> <arg2> ...

And here are the arguments that the utility accepts as of right now:

1. --internal forces the utility to use the internal templates.
2. --depth %d sets the maximum depth of the data to retrieve in the savefile. The characters you played have depth=0, their relatives have depth=1 and so on.
3. --game-path %s shows the program where to find your ck3 localization data so that the pages can be completely accurate. Assuming you have the game installed via Steam you can do the following --game-path "*YOUR STEAM PATH*/steamapps/common/Crusader Kings III/game".
4. --zip informs the program that the input file is a compressed archive
5. --no-vis disables all forms of visualisation within the output
6. --language toggles which localization files shall be used if the game path is provided
7. --output %s changes where the output folder will be located

Output example

You can find output examples in the examples directory. Just unzip the files contained within and witness the glory of my dynasty! Additionally I simply deployed the result to GitHub pages meaning you can preview the result here.

Other similar tools

• CK2-history-extractor is a tool like this for CK2

Problems

If you encounter any problems please do let me know. The best way to do that is by creating a new issue on GitHub, this will let me track them better. This also applies to feature suggestions and general feedback.

Development status

The tool has been rewritten using Rust. Currently I'm working on new features and bugfixes. Be sure to start this repository or watch it to get regular updates regarding the process. If you want to contribute feel free to do so! Plenty of things to be done, just read this.

License

This work is licensed under the MIT license. The text of the license is fairly self explanatory, you can find it here