Hello, and welcome everyone to the first post in this new series, Tinto Flavour! It will be the happy Friday in which we will be sharing with you the flavour content that we’re adding to the super secret Project Caesar. But before we start, for the map lovers, we will continue with the Tinto Maps review, although following an irregular schedule.
Today we won’t be taking a look at any country (surprise!), but instead I will talk about the types of flavour content that we have in the game, how it works, and how we approach it (although you might already have a good insight from previous Tinto Talks), using some specific examples. This way, we want to share with you a clearer picture of all the different scripted content assets available in the game, and how we use those assets.
So, let’s start by looking at the list with all the different elements, and then we will be talking about them individually:
Quite a lot! This makes for a very varied menu, in which we can pick the different elements that fit better for the content of each country or region, making it diverse enough. I will be linking each flavour asset to its related Tinto Talks, so you get a clear overview of how they work, and also of how it’s all coming together towards making all the different features part of cohesive game systems. So, let’s start checking them.
There are plenty of International Organizations, both unique and generic. They may also appear throughout the game, either organically by some game mechanics or as scripted content.
Italy is divided in 1337 into two rival IOs, the pro-Papal Guelphs, and the pro-Imperial Ghibellines.
Situations are ‘content containers’ that allow narrative content to affect different countries at the same time. They usually have some actions that can either be performed in the situation’s panel, or that are unlocked by the situation (e.g. diplomatic or character-related actions), and they may also trigger other types of content, like events or disasters.
'Nanbokuchō Jidai' is a situation that will trigger in Japan in the first month of the game, dividing the country in two sides, one supporting the Northern Court, and the other supporting the Southern Court.
Disasters are usually a negative type of content that impacts one country. In Project Caesar, they get a separate panel in the UI that can be used to interact with them, although we will show them in future Tinto Flavour.
‘Crisis of the Chinese Dynasty’ is a dynamic unique disaster for China, that can happen multiple times during a playthrough, to represent the fall and replacement of the Imperial Chinese dynasties. We will talk in the future more in-depth about the Middle Kingdom IO, and all the content we have created for China, and how all the assets interact with each other.
The humble event is the most common type of content present in the game, as we already have some thousands of events scripted and implemented. There are two types, as in other Paradox GSGs: random events, and unique events. Of this second type, the most common is the Dynamic Historical Event (DHE), also well-known from other games.
This is a recurring event that can happen to countries with their capital in Eastern Europe, that have enacted a specific privilege for the Peasants, ‘Invite German Settlers’, to portray the Late Medieval ‘Ostsiedlung’. You have three options to deal with them; the last one would directly revoke the privilege, and no more German peasants would be invited to migrate into your country.
Government reforms define the shape of a country, thus being a very valuable flavour asset, especially the unique ones. It’s also one of the ways we use to hook permanent modifiers, as there aren’t many sources in this game.
Turk Beyliks rule over Anatolia. And it also unlocks other interesting content, such as a unique Succession Law…
Laws also define a society, and we have several spread over 5 categories: Administrative, Religious, Socioeconomic, Estate, and Military. And you may already know that each Law have different policies to pick one upon, some of them being generic, other unique ones.
Here you have a unique Military Law for European countries, the ‘Order of Chivalry’ one. It always unlocks a unique Policy, which is country-driven. So, for instance, here we have the Castilian ‘Order of the Band’, instituted by King Alfonso XI ‘the Avenger’ in 1332. (Note: This is WIP content, so these are obviously not all the Chivalry Orders that will be available, only the ones that we’ve implemented so far)
There are several privileges that you can grant to the different estates. These might also interact with other forms of content, either being unlocked or unlocking them, which makes it key to select them wisely.
The Libro d’Oro is a starting estate privilege for the Venetian Patriziato (Nobility). It gives +5% Estate Satisfaction and +10% Estate Power to Nobles, plus a couple of additional modifiers. It also triggers a recurring event, that adds new noble dynasties to Venice, making Nobles even happier, at a certain monetary cost. It might be costly to get it revoked, though…
The also humble advance is the second-most common flavour content, after the event. There are plenty of unique advances, usually from 1 to 3 per age in those countries with unique ones, plus specific regional advances, plus specific religious advances.
One of the starting advances of Mali, tells the legendary tale of its founder, Sundiata Keita.
The ‘Presbyterian Education Act’ is a Parliament Issue available for Scotland if they embrace the Calvinist religion. As you may see, it impacts the Societal Values of the country, and it also unlocks a new available unique Policy for the ‘Education of the Masses’ Law.
There are plenty of scripted works of art at the game start, and more from DHEs! Besides the randomly created ones, of course. This will make the game more immersive, as you will be able to recognize a bunch of them, and they will also have the effects described in the TT.
‘Tripitaka Koreana’ belongs to the ‘Scripture’ type of WoA. Its long-lasting impact on Korean culture is marked by its ‘Great’ condition, which gives more benefits than, let’s say, an ‘Average’ WoA.
The ‘Partition Inheritance’ is a unique Succession Law that is unlocked by having an active Estate Privilege for the Nobility, the ‘Right to Inherit’, which is only available to countries of the German culture group. This is one of the historical reasons behind the fragmentation of the lands of the Holy Roman Empire, as principalities used to be split among the heirs, creating several branches of the same Dynasty. A good example of this at the start of the game are the Wittelsbach, the ruling Imperial dynasty, spread over several different countries, like Brandenburg, the country shown above.
As shown by Johan, we have tons of different buildings in the game. But more importantly, we can also have unique ones, that are either unlocked by conditions (e.g. playing with a country of a certain religion or culture), other content assets (e.g. government reforms), or events.
This is an example of an event-created building: the Palace of Versailles. It is not created automatically, as you need an upfront cost of 500 gold, some materials that are taken from the market Paris belongs to, and a Default Building Time of 360 days (1 year). The benefits of the building are increased Cultural Tradition and Influence, and it employs a lot of Nobles (you need to have them occupied!).
Besides the generic types of units that compose an army, we also have unique ones, that, again, are completely scriptable. They are usually available for an Age, and afterwards, when a new unit type appears, it’s up to the player to either upgrade them, or keep them.
‘Elephant Cavalry’ is a type of cavalry unit available for Indian countries. It has some interesting stats, and it employs a lot of Elephants (logically), which are only present in South East Asia (as the African elephant was not employed for warfare in our game’s period). It is a unit that performs very well in Jungle terrain, thus making it very valuable in Southern India, but not as much in Gangetic Plain.
Similarly to units, there are unique types of ships, that also usually last for an Age.
You may have seen this ship before, but not its stats, nor its flavour description!
Certain countries may have unique cabinet actions, for various reasons. This is not a feature that we use much, as we need to keep balanced the available number of Cabinet Actions with the available number of cabinet positions; but in general, this introduced an interesting trade-off, as you may usually not be able to use all the Cabinet Action you may want at the same time, therefore having to prioritize which to perform.
Sweden has a unique Cabinet Action at the start of the game that helps the country to colonize the vast lands to its north and east, mostly inhabited by Sámi and Finnish SoPs.
Here we have two unique features at once. The first is a Diplomatic Action, ‘Demand Samanta Status’; as you see, I’m trying to perform it as Delhi, against Orissa. The second is the ‘Samanta’ itself, which is a type of Subject, unique to countries in the Indian culture groups.
Religious Features are a mix of hardcoded and scripted features. The second allow us to add unique flavour that intersections specific countries with the religions that they historically worshipped. We will talk more about the different religions in future Tinto Talks, during the year.
A little spoiler here: Religious Schools are a scriptable feature of Islam! More about that in its future Tinto Talks, though… In any case, here you have the Ibadi school, which is unique to countries of the Ibadi religion. Thus, this is the starting Religious School of Oman, one of Johan’s favourite playtesting countries.
So now that we’re done with the different types of flavour content, let me add an addendum about a couple of topics, as I think that they would be thoroughly discussed in the comments in any case.
The first topic that I want to address is ‘modifier inflation’. Yes, we have a bunch of modifiers in the game, as it’s not always possible to unlock other content features or more mechanical flavour with our content assets (although we usually really try, as unlocking, let’s say, a new Succession Law by adopting a new Government Reform makes for great organic content). However, we’re trying to limit the number of modifiers that you can stack (we at Paradox Tinto may have some PTSD regarding this due to the latest phase of development of EUIV, lol). So, the content assets that would usually give permanent modifiers are those ‘structural’ assets that your country has, such as Government Reforms or Policies, which you may want to change to get different modifiers. However, we aren’t giving permanent modifiers by ‘conjunctural assets’, as let’s say, DHEs, which, instead, only give temporary modifiers. This in general makes Project Caesar a game much less based on stacking modifiers, and more about interacting with the different mechanics.
The second topic is the elephant in the room: Missions. You may have noticed that this is a usual flavour content used in Paradox GSGs that we haven’t talked about. Well, I can’t disclose any details yet, as @Johan will be in charge of that in future Tinto Talks. But what I can say is that we don’t consider them to be part of the base flavour content of any country, differently to the content shown above; and that it will be present in the game, but in a different way. Therefore, in the Tinto Flavour posts from now on, we will be focusing on the base country flavour shown above, and we won't be discussing at all about Missions, as, again, that will be a topic for the future.
And that’s all for today, I hope that you enjoyed it! Next Friday I will start showing the content of a specific country, starting with Florence, which will be our regular weekly schedule from now on. Cheers!
Today we won’t be taking a look at any country (surprise!), but instead I will talk about the types of flavour content that we have in the game, how it works, and how we approach it (although you might already have a good insight from previous Tinto Talks), using some specific examples. This way, we want to share with you a clearer picture of all the different scripted content assets available in the game, and how we use those assets.
So, let’s start by looking at the list with all the different elements, and then we will be talking about them individually:
Quite a lot! This makes for a very varied menu, in which we can pick the different elements that fit better for the content of each country or region, making it diverse enough. I will be linking each flavour asset to its related Tinto Talks, so you get a clear overview of how they work, and also of how it’s all coming together towards making all the different features part of cohesive game systems. So, let’s start checking them.
International Organizations -> Tinto Talks #12
There are plenty of International Organizations, both unique and generic. They may also appear throughout the game, either organically by some game mechanics or as scripted content.
Italy is divided in 1337 into two rival IOs, the pro-Papal Guelphs, and the pro-Imperial Ghibellines.
Situations -> Tinto Talks #14
Situations are ‘content containers’ that allow narrative content to affect different countries at the same time. They usually have some actions that can either be performed in the situation’s panel, or that are unlocked by the situation (e.g. diplomatic or character-related actions), and they may also trigger other types of content, like events or disasters.
'Nanbokuchō Jidai' is a situation that will trigger in Japan in the first month of the game, dividing the country in two sides, one supporting the Northern Court, and the other supporting the Southern Court.
Disasters -> Tinto Talks #42
Disasters are usually a negative type of content that impacts one country. In Project Caesar, they get a separate panel in the UI that can be used to interact with them, although we will show them in future Tinto Flavour.
‘Crisis of the Chinese Dynasty’ is a dynamic unique disaster for China, that can happen multiple times during a playthrough, to represent the fall and replacement of the Imperial Chinese dynasties. We will talk in the future more in-depth about the Middle Kingdom IO, and all the content we have created for China, and how all the assets interact with each other.
Events
The humble event is the most common type of content present in the game, as we already have some thousands of events scripted and implemented. There are two types, as in other Paradox GSGs: random events, and unique events. Of this second type, the most common is the Dynamic Historical Event (DHE), also well-known from other games.
This is a recurring event that can happen to countries with their capital in Eastern Europe, that have enacted a specific privilege for the Peasants, ‘Invite German Settlers’, to portray the Late Medieval ‘Ostsiedlung’. You have three options to deal with them; the last one would directly revoke the privilege, and no more German peasants would be invited to migrate into your country.
Government Reforms -> Tinto Talks #40
Government reforms define the shape of a country, thus being a very valuable flavour asset, especially the unique ones. It’s also one of the ways we use to hook permanent modifiers, as there aren’t many sources in this game.
Turk Beyliks rule over Anatolia. And it also unlocks other interesting content, such as a unique Succession Law…
Laws & Policies -> Tinto Talks #18
Laws also define a society, and we have several spread over 5 categories: Administrative, Religious, Socioeconomic, Estate, and Military. And you may already know that each Law have different policies to pick one upon, some of them being generic, other unique ones.
Here you have a unique Military Law for European countries, the ‘Order of Chivalry’ one. It always unlocks a unique Policy, which is country-driven. So, for instance, here we have the Castilian ‘Order of the Band’, instituted by King Alfonso XI ‘the Avenger’ in 1332. (Note: This is WIP content, so these are obviously not all the Chivalry Orders that will be available, only the ones that we’ve implemented so far)
Estate Privileges -> Tinto Talks #5
There are several privileges that you can grant to the different estates. These might also interact with other forms of content, either being unlocked or unlocking them, which makes it key to select them wisely.
The Libro d’Oro is a starting estate privilege for the Venetian Patriziato (Nobility). It gives +5% Estate Satisfaction and +10% Estate Power to Nobles, plus a couple of additional modifiers. It also triggers a recurring event, that adds new noble dynasties to Venice, making Nobles even happier, at a certain monetary cost. It might be costly to get it revoked, though…
Advances -> Tinto Talks #20
The also humble advance is the second-most common flavour content, after the event. There are plenty of unique advances, usually from 1 to 3 per age in those countries with unique ones, plus specific regional advances, plus specific religious advances.
One of the starting advances of Mali, tells the legendary tale of its founder, Sundiata Keita.
Parliament -> Tinto Talks #41
- Parliament Agendas
- Parliament Issues
The ‘Presbyterian Education Act’ is a Parliament Issue available for Scotland if they embrace the Calvinist religion. As you may see, it impacts the Societal Values of the country, and it also unlocks a new available unique Policy for the ‘Education of the Masses’ Law.
Works of Art -> Tinto Talks #37
There are plenty of scripted works of art at the game start, and more from DHEs! Besides the randomly created ones, of course. This will make the game more immersive, as you will be able to recognize a bunch of them, and they will also have the effects described in the TT.
‘Tripitaka Koreana’ belongs to the ‘Scripture’ type of WoA. Its long-lasting impact on Korean culture is marked by its ‘Great’ condition, which gives more benefits than, let’s say, an ‘Average’ WoA.
Characters & Artists -> Tinto Talks #15 & Tinto Talks #37
- New characters & artists
- Character Traits
- Character Interactions
- Heir Selections
The ‘Partition Inheritance’ is a unique Succession Law that is unlocked by having an active Estate Privilege for the Nobility, the ‘Right to Inherit’, which is only available to countries of the German culture group. This is one of the historical reasons behind the fragmentation of the lands of the Holy Roman Empire, as principalities used to be split among the heirs, creating several branches of the same Dynasty. A good example of this at the start of the game are the Wittelsbach, the ruling Imperial dynasty, spread over several different countries, like Brandenburg, the country shown above.
Buildings -> Tinto Talks #9
As shown by Johan, we have tons of different buildings in the game. But more importantly, we can also have unique ones, that are either unlocked by conditions (e.g. playing with a country of a certain religion or culture), other content assets (e.g. government reforms), or events.
This is an example of an event-created building: the Palace of Versailles. It is not created automatically, as you need an upfront cost of 500 gold, some materials that are taken from the market Paris belongs to, and a Default Building Time of 360 days (1 year). The benefits of the building are increased Cultural Tradition and Influence, and it employs a lot of Nobles (you need to have them occupied!).
Units -> Tinto Talks #22
Besides the generic types of units that compose an army, we also have unique ones, that, again, are completely scriptable. They are usually available for an Age, and afterwards, when a new unit type appears, it’s up to the player to either upgrade them, or keep them.
‘Elephant Cavalry’ is a type of cavalry unit available for Indian countries. It has some interesting stats, and it employs a lot of Elephants (logically), which are only present in South East Asia (as the African elephant was not employed for warfare in our game’s period). It is a unit that performs very well in Jungle terrain, thus making it very valuable in Southern India, but not as much in Gangetic Plain.
Ships -> Tinto Talks #24
Similarly to units, there are unique types of ships, that also usually last for an Age.
You may have seen this ship before, but not its stats, nor its flavour description!
Cabinet Actions -> Tinto Talks #16
Certain countries may have unique cabinet actions, for various reasons. This is not a feature that we use much, as we need to keep balanced the available number of Cabinet Actions with the available number of cabinet positions; but in general, this introduced an interesting trade-off, as you may usually not be able to use all the Cabinet Action you may want at the same time, therefore having to prioritize which to perform.
Sweden has a unique Cabinet Action at the start of the game that helps the country to colonize the vast lands to its north and east, mostly inhabited by Sámi and Finnish SoPs.
Diplomatic Features -> Tinto Talks #33
- Diplomatic Actions
- Casus Belli
- Peace Treaties
- Subject Types
- Subject Interactions
Here we have two unique features at once. The first is a Diplomatic Action, ‘Demand Samanta Status’; as you see, I’m trying to perform it as Delhi, against Orissa. The second is the ‘Samanta’ itself, which is a type of Subject, unique to countries in the Indian culture groups.
Religious Features -> Tinto Talks #13
Religious Features are a mix of hardcoded and scripted features. The second allow us to add unique flavour that intersections specific countries with the religions that they historically worshipped. We will talk more about the different religions in future Tinto Talks, during the year.
A little spoiler here: Religious Schools are a scriptable feature of Islam! More about that in its future Tinto Talks, though… In any case, here you have the Ibadi school, which is unique to countries of the Ibadi religion. Thus, this is the starting Religious School of Oman, one of Johan’s favourite playtesting countries.
So now that we’re done with the different types of flavour content, let me add an addendum about a couple of topics, as I think that they would be thoroughly discussed in the comments in any case.
The first topic that I want to address is ‘modifier inflation’. Yes, we have a bunch of modifiers in the game, as it’s not always possible to unlock other content features or more mechanical flavour with our content assets (although we usually really try, as unlocking, let’s say, a new Succession Law by adopting a new Government Reform makes for great organic content). However, we’re trying to limit the number of modifiers that you can stack (we at Paradox Tinto may have some PTSD regarding this due to the latest phase of development of EUIV, lol). So, the content assets that would usually give permanent modifiers are those ‘structural’ assets that your country has, such as Government Reforms or Policies, which you may want to change to get different modifiers. However, we aren’t giving permanent modifiers by ‘conjunctural assets’, as let’s say, DHEs, which, instead, only give temporary modifiers. This in general makes Project Caesar a game much less based on stacking modifiers, and more about interacting with the different mechanics.
The second topic is the elephant in the room: Missions. You may have noticed that this is a usual flavour content used in Paradox GSGs that we haven’t talked about. Well, I can’t disclose any details yet, as @Johan will be in charge of that in future Tinto Talks. But what I can say is that we don’t consider them to be part of the base flavour content of any country, differently to the content shown above; and that it will be present in the game, but in a different way. Therefore, in the Tinto Flavour posts from now on, we will be focusing on the base country flavour shown above, and we won't be discussing at all about Missions, as, again, that will be a topic for the future.
And that’s all for today, I hope that you enjoyed it! Next Friday I will start showing the content of a specific country, starting with Florence, which will be our regular weekly schedule from now on. Cheers!
