Total War: Medieval 3 studio Creative Assembly have posted a round-up of developer insights and musings on their forthcoming strategy game, alongside news that the next livestream, running tomorrow 25th June, will focus on playable factions.

The grab-bag of gamedev commentary spans several months of forum posts, including some thoughts on lawmaking, standing armies, and combat balancing that we've written about already. There's also a post about character development that has hitherto evaded the flaming lidless eye of Rock Paper Shotgun. I wish I'd seen it a few weeks ago, because it tackles one of my greater irritations as a Total War: Warhammer player - having to chew through approximately the same skill tree every time I sign up a new lord or hero.

"We currently have no plans for skill trees in MEDIEVAL III," explained Creative Assembly's Lief Walter in the post. "As some have mentioned, skill trees in games with multiple actors lead to a lot of repetition, and to something we call 'templating' in the team. Where you end up figuring out what the "path" through the skill tree is, or which one(s) you prefer, and then you keep repeating that throughout the campaign.

"It's also a type of system that scales poorly with the size of your roster of characters," he went on. "Early game it is quite interesting, late game it becomes busy work."

Yes. Yes. Promote this fellow! He's already creative director, you say? Well, give him a cool relic of some kind, like the Bridle of Constantine. And a horse called Constantine. Voiced by Keanu Reeves.

Rather than lifting a system of unlocks from the Warhammer games and/or the more personality-heavy historical Total Wars, Medieval 3 will build on Medieval 2's assortment of "ancillary" equipment and unpredictably triggered traits. "[Overall] we want to lean into emergent qualities like traits and ancillaries that drive character development," Walter explained. "There will still be choices, around ancillaries, heirlooms, and other transferrable items - but we are not planning for skill trees like in Attila, or Three Kingdoms."

In terms of what's different over prior Medievals, Creative Assembly want you to think harder about heirs, though possibly not as hard as you might in a full blown feudal breeding simulator such as Crusader Kings 3.

"We would actually love for some of this progression to live on dynasties, rather than characters," Walter continued. "You will be playing through a very long time span, and while characters will come and go - the powerful dynasties within your realm will stick around through long periods or through the entirety of your campaign.

"Over the course of the campaign. you may further develop the Welf dynasty into an independent, proud, and fierce identity - while the Hohenstaufen become your civic administrators and strategic empire builders. So characters from these houses will generally follow these traits, and inherit some of these qualities. Of course there may be exceptions - but we want there to be a continuity. If your great general from 'your house of wardens in the East' dies, we want to ensure that some of this progression is inherited to his children."

There are 338 traits in Total War: Medieval 2 - or Medieval 2: Total War as they insisted on calling it, specifically to annoy journalists already driven to distraction by the thought of unlocking Route Marcher again. Here is a list. My favourites include Religiously Improper, Edgey Around the English (well, who isn't etc), and Quite Objective. By all means, tag yourself.