Crusader Kings III – Edit character appearance – DNA edit

Introduction

This is a guide on how to edit the characters in Crusader Kings 3 using the portrait editor. Debug mode is required. A text editor is required.

Let’s go!

Finding DNA to work with.

You can skip this section if you are going to create a brand new character.

Go to your document folder.
An open folder named “Paradox Games.”
An open folder named “Crusader Kings III.”
An open folder named “save games.”
Find the file with the extension .ck3 where the character you wish to edit is.
Copy the file somewhere safe.
Right-click the file and unpack it. You can unpack the file using 7zip, Winrar, or Winzip, whichever you prefer. Right-click the file and select “Extract here” or “Extract files.”
Open the game state file in a text editor.
CTRL+F the unique ID of your character or find the character by name.
Protip: to find the character by its ID, search for <ID=>. For example, if the character id is 102583, search for 102583=
Copy the string in dna= and boot up the game to begin editing.

Working with the DNA

Go into Crusader Kings 3
Open the console
Select “Portrait editor,” first-row 3rd column
Click paste DNA string without quotation marks.
Play around with the genes

Don’t use genes’ sliders too much, or the game will crash.
Protip: the portrait changes only when you touch sliders or buttons.
Alternatively, select a 3D view and observe the character from there. Left-click rotates the camera; right-click moves the camera.
Once done editing, add clothes to your character to not be nak*d in the main menu.

Once satisfied, click copy DNA string from the button on the right.
If you are editing your heir, spouse, or player character, copy the persistent DNA.
Paste these temporarily in an empty text file, so you don’t lose your hours of work, you dummy.

Applying DNA

Save the game and exit it.
Navigate to your folder with the saved games.
Copy the save file to a safe place and unpack it.
Open the game state file with a text editor.
Find the character by ID whose DNA you wish to edit.
Replace the character’s DNA with your own edited DNA. Remember to preserve the quotation marks.
If you are editing your heir, spouse, or playable character, you might need to paste the persistent DNA as well.
Go to the top of the game state file.
Find the meta_ portrait you need.
Copy and replace the genes dictionary. Do not replace anything else unless you know what you’re doing.

Save the game state file and add the extension .ck3. If you do not know how to change file extensions, Google it.
Rename the file so that you preserve the original in the same folder.
Place the edited .ck3 file back into your save folder.
Start the game
The portrait in the main menu may not be updated. Wait until you enter the game to check whether you’ve made a good edit.

Conclusion

Enjoy your new waifu.

If you have any questions or problems, ask them politely, and I will help you as much as I can unless you ask something that you can, Google.

If you’ve enjoyed this guide or found it useful, gimme a nice and/or share this with your friends who need a hot waifu.

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