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Tinto Flavour #10 - 14th of March 2025 - Scotland

Hello, and welcome one more week to Tinto Flavour, the happy Fridays in which we take a look at the flavour content of the super secret Project Caesar!

Today we will be showing the content for the Kingdom of Scotland. Let’s start without further ado:

Scotland is once again in peril.

A mere generation ago, our national hero King Robert de Bruce freed us from English rule alongside the famous martyr, William Wallace.

Now his successor — the bairn King David II de Bruce — lies exiled in France as our loyal nobility continues their struggle against Balliol, the English king's lackey who falsely claims the Scottish crown.

Though the people of our realm are currently united in our cause, this is not guaranteed to last. Embedded in our kingdom are deep cultural and societal divisions, especially between the wealthy English-speaking Scots burghs of the Lowlands and the Highland people who dwell in the inland hills.
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The fate of Scotland is at risk.

A mere generation ago, the illegitimate King Robert de Bruce expelled the English from the country and crowned himself king.

As the legitimate heir of the previous King John de Balliol, his son King Edward de Balliol has laid a claim to the Scottish throne. Along with his English-backed supporters, he plans to fight against the usurper and return Scotland to its legitimate ruler.
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Country Selection.png


Balliol.png

… The only problem for Scotland is that it starts in a civil war between the followers of King David II de Bruce, who is exiled to France, and those of King Edward de Balliol, nominally backed by England. This makes for a very different and interesting setup, therefore. Also, as always, please remember that any UI, 2D and 3D art is WIP, as usual.​

This is the starting situation of the Scottish Civil War:
Scotland.png


The starting diplomatic situation of King David II de Bruce:
Diplomacy Scotland.png

France is Guaranteeing, while England is an Enemy (has selected Scotland as a Rival).​

And that of King Edward de Balliol:
Diplomacy Balliol.png

England is Guaranteeing, and the Lordship of the Isles is a vassal.​

Let’s start with the content related to the Civil War. Both sides have events available for them, but let’s focus on a couple that you get while starting as Scotland - the supporters of the de Bruce dynasty.

This event will trigger early on:

Maybe you can figure out which aspect gets favoured depending on the tutor you pick for the king…?​

And also this one:
The King's Education.png

Halidon Hill.png

You may notice that King David’s name has changed. In the previous event, I selected the second option, the Highlander chieftain, so the culture of the king has changed, and now his name is reflecting that since it has a different variant available.​

We’ve made it so the outcome of the Civil War is not an instant end game; if while playing as Scotland you lose it to Balliol, an event will pop up, so you can decide to continue playing with them (or not! That’s up to the player!). This would be the result, thus:
Edward de Balliol.png

King Edward de Balliol ruling over a once-again unified Scotland. ​

Let’s now move towards the structural content that you might find while playing with Scotland. This is a unique starting government reform:
Shires of Scotland.png

Scotland also has some unique privileges for the Lairds (Nobility):
Scottish Clans.png

Commissioners (Burghers):
Royal Burgh Commissioners.png

And Clans (Tribesmen) - this is the way we’re representing the Highlanders from a pop-type perspective, which also allows us to have them operating as a different estate:
Clans.png

United Scottish Heritage.png

Manrent.png

Fosterage.png

Creach.png

There’s also this law, with three different policies:
Distribution of Scots Clans.png

Direct Inheritance.png

Distributed by the Crown.png

Dynastic Holdings.png

Scotland also has two unique buildings available:
Clan Seat.png

Peel Tower.png

Also something new, Scotland has available some unique parliament issues in later ages, such as:
Presbyterian Education Act.png

College of Justice.png

And a bunch of advances; today we will show mostly late-game ones since it had been requested by you previously to show more of this type of content, and also as a good example of some plausible alt-historical content - you may notice that the advances that Scotland has available for the Age of Revolutions, when they already had ceased to exist as an independent polity (since the Acts of Union of 1707), have a historical background:

This is a specific advance for a Balliol-ruled Scotland:
Longbowmen.png

Warbows.png

Warbows2.png


Highlander Regiments.png

Scottish Highlander.png

Scottish Highlander2.png


Scotch Whisky.png

Scotch Whisky Distilleries.png


Scottish Enlightenment.png

Related to the latest, there’s a late-game event that may lead you to get this important work of art:
Wealth of Nations.png

… And much more, but that’s all for today! My fellow colleagues @SaintDaveUK and @Roger Corominas will be replying instead of me today. And for next week, we will travel south, to take a look at the Kingdom of Ethiopia! Cheers!​
 
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Kvesir said:
It's not a misspell to use "de" instead of "the" for French names or "Roma" instead of "Rome", it's the same as having the Dutch name New York "New Amsterdam". It's culture based dynamic localization.

I don't think anyone had an issue with dynamic localization in EU4. It used to be mostly just for province names, to reflect how different cultures would call them, and now it extends to other parts of the game but the reasoning is the same. It is a piece of flavor that enriches the game by showing us how different cultures would name things.

Either way, in EU4 you could turn it off in the settings and I'm sure in this game you'll be able to turn it off too.
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My problem isn't with dynamic naming. I like it and play with it.

The previous poster thought that if a word could be understood that was sufficient, and I was pointing out that wasn't how the rest of the games systems worked.
 
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Fawr said:
Why have a province that changes name from Roma to Rome when conquered by a different power. If both can perfectly understand what is meant in both dialects? Why run a spell checker over the text at all as long as it can be understood by everyone?

Misspelt words slow a reader down and take their attention away from the text/message. It also teaches people incorrect spelling (my spelling isn't the greatest and seeing misspelt words certainly doesn't help).
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They are not misspelled, they are spelled correctly in en-US which they are using. Why not also provide en-GB, sure which current language would you like them to remove to add it? Everything has a cost.

It is the same reason that they have pt-BR, fr-FR, and es-ES while not also having pt-PT, fr-CA, and es-MX.
 
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Kvesir said:
They might not be switched, it depends on your interpretation of them.

To me it seems like the current centralization icon implies power coming from the center outward - i.e. the central government exerting power over the provinces of the country - while the decentralization icon implies the opposite. So it makes sense to me.

I assume you interpreted it differently.
Click to expand...

I can see that for centralized. The control being based at the center and moving out.
Do you really see the decentralization as the dispersed control moving to the center? Isn't it more pockets of local control?

It feels easier to see to see it as the control _source_ is being spread out (decentralization) or the control _source_ coming together (centralization). That seems to match the icons better when reversed.
 
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Epic how France and England use Scotland as a proxy war. The Cold War before it was cool
 
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This all looks amazing - one tiny detail I'd change
1742646702655.png

Lowland Scots in this period would have spoken Scots, not English (language of Rabbie Burns etc). While this was derived from English, it's worth noting that it certainly was a different language by about the 13th/14th century, so it would be nice to have that reflected in the flavour text!
 
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Fawr said:
Why have a province that changes name from Roma to Rome when conquered by a different power. If both can perfectly understand what is meant in both dialects? Why run a spell checker over the text at all as long as it can be understood by everyone?

Misspelt words slow a reader down and take their attention away from the text/message. It also teaches people incorrect spelling (my spelling isn't the greatest and seeing misspelt words certainly doesn't help).
Click to expand...
i am being specific to english
 
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Fawr said:
extrapolate the rules for place names to the rules for words like colour.
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But why?

One is the name of things in-game, which changes to reflect the state of things in-game and increase immersion. The other is the language used in the interface, which doesn’t change because it’s not meant to reflect the state of things in-game. And also the rules don’t extrapolate in the first place because spelling it color or colour has nothing to do with what’s happening in-game nor affects player immersion.

By that logic why don’t we change to Italian words when we’re playing an Italian-culture country?

You’re really just asking for separate en-GB and en-US localizations, which seems like a waste of effort, or for the English localization to switch to British English instead of American English, which seems entirely unimportant (considering that previous Paradox games mostly use American English, if it really mattered you’d think the complaint would have shown up long before now and in more force).
 
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Ekyman said:
But why?

One is the name of things in-game, which changes to reflect the state of things in-game and increase immersion. The other is the language used in the interface, which doesn’t change because it’s not meant to reflect the state of things in-game. And also the rules don’t extrapolate in the first place because spelling it color or colour has nothing to do with what’s happening in-game nor affects player immersion.

By that logic why don’t we change to Italian words when we’re playing an Italian-culture country?

You’re really just asking for separate en-GB and en-US localizations, which seems like a waste of effort, or for the English localization to switch to British English instead of American English, which seems entirely unimportant (considering that previous Paradox games mostly use American English, if it really mattered you’d think the complaint would have shown up long before now and in more force).
Click to expand...
Seeing words misspelt certainly breaks immersion for me. The game has ways to change all sorts of localisations. Why is this category of misspelling uniquely unable to be done in the game?
 
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Fawr said:
Seeing words misspelt certainly breaks immersion for me. The game has ways to change all sorts of localisations. Why is this category of misspelling uniquely unable to be done in the game?
Click to expand...
They’re not misspelled they’re written in a different standard.

If you view other text written in other standards as “misspelled” rather than just different, and I mean in a serious manner and not a jocular “my variant is superior” manner, then the problem is not with Paradox for only localizing in one standard.

I understand that it is nice to have things localized in the standard you use in everyday life, but with how close British and American English are it is just a nicety. This is hardly a phenomenon unique to English; language variety is natural and normal and we live in a connected world.

I have no objection to a request that the game be localized in British English (actually I’d support everything being localized in every writing standard/language variety, but we don’t live in a world where that’s feasible), but I strongly object to your framing of the current localization as wrong (and less importantly I think your arguments connecting it to dynamic naming are nonsensical).
 
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Pavía said:
Hello, and welcome one more week to Tinto Flavour, the happy Fridays in which we take a look at the flavour content of the super secret Project Caesar!

Today we will be showing the content for the Kingdom of Scotland. Let’s start without further ado:





View attachment 1265678

View attachment 1265573
… The only problem for Scotland is that it starts in a civil war between the followers of King David II de Bruce, who is exiled to France, and those of King Edward de Balliol, nominally backed by England. This makes for a very different and interesting setup, therefore. Also, as always, please remember that any UI, 2D and 3D art is WIP, as usual.​

This is the starting situation of the Scottish Civil War:
View attachment 1265575

The starting diplomatic situation of King David II de Bruce:
View attachment 1265577
France is Guaranteeing, while England is an Enemy (has selected Scotland as a Rival).​

And that of King Edward de Balliol:
View attachment 1265579
England is Guaranteeing, and the Lordship of the Isles is a vassal.​

Let’s start with the content related to the Civil War. Both sides have events available for them, but let’s focus on a couple that you get while starting as Scotland - the supporters of the de Bruce dynasty.

This event will trigger early on:

Maybe you can figure out which aspect gets favoured depending on the tutor you pick for the king…?​

And also this one:
View attachment 1265680
View attachment 1265681
You may notice that King David’s name has changed. In the previous event, I selected the second option, the Highlander chieftain, so the culture of the king has changed, and now his name is reflecting that since it has a different variant available.​

We’ve made it so the outcome of the Civil War is not an instant end game; if while playing as Scotland you lose it to Balliol, an event will pop up, so you can decide to continue playing with them (or not! That’s up to the player!). This would be the result, thus:
View attachment 1265599
King Edward de Balliol ruling over a once-again unified Scotland. ​

Let’s now move towards the structural content that you might find while playing with Scotland. This is a unique starting government reform:

Scotland also has some unique privileges for the Lairds (Nobility):

Commissioners (Burghers):

And Clans (Tribesmen) - this is the way we’re representing the Highlanders from a pop-type perspective, which also allows us to have them operating as a different estate:

There’s also this law, with three different policies:

Scotland also has two unique buildings available:

Also something new, Scotland has available some unique parliament issues in later ages, such as:

And a bunch of advances; today we will show mostly late-game ones since it had been requested by you previously to show more of this type of content, and also as a good example of some plausible alt-historical content - you may notice that the advances that Scotland has available for the Age of Revolutions, when they already had ceased to exist as an independent polity (since the Acts of Union of 1707), have a historical background:

This is a specific advance for a Balliol-ruled Scotland:

Related to the latest, there’s a late-game event that may lead you to get this important work of art:
View attachment 1265626
… And much more, but that’s all for today! My fellow colleagues @SaintDaveUK and @Roger Corominas will be replying instead of me today. And for next week, we will travel south, to take a look at the Kingdom of Ethiopia! Cheers!​
Click to expand...
Hi, sorry I’m late to this but there’s a slight error in the description of Scottish Lowland culture, namely describing the Scots language (or leid in Scots) as English-speaking. As an early modern historian, this should be updated and changed to reflect the fact that Scottish Lowlanders spoke Scots - a language which is distinct from English. Scots is and was a Germanic sister language of English which has roots in West Frisian. It was spoken historically from the medieval period until the 1900s. Scottish-English emerged with increasing culture sharing with England starting with the Union of the Crowns in 1603 and continuing with Act of Union in 1707. You could do something really cool and historic here by having a cultural decision tree which reflects the shift in language with the move to ‘Secretarial Scots’ in a bid to increase governmental collaboration in the Union of 1603 and this only accelerated in 1707. But, you could also have cultural markers in which the elite is speaking English but the population of the commons is still speaking Scots. By the way, Scots is still spoken in Scotland so it would be gey braw if ye changed this tae reflect the history a’ the Scots Leid!
 
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Pretty late here, as I somehow missed this dev diary. Anyway, I hope that, when Great Britain is diplomatically formed by England, there will be ways to somehow represent the Highland regiments. I see Scotland got Scottish Highlander unit type, but it is not clear where in timeframe such regiments are available... I am assuming that it is more of historically pre-Union Highlander regiments, rather than the Highlands regiments raised later in the 18th century after the Union. In other words, it is probably the Highlander regiments that were historically raised in the late medieval / Renaissance era before they became obsolete, if I am not clear enough about that?

The material difference between the Highlands regiments in the British Army and the other regiments in the 18th century and early 19th century might be too superficial to justify separate unit types for a late-game Highlander regiment. They would have same weapons, same equipment, and such. They just dress differently, that is it.

Still, I would love to have different armies whose sprite is not only determined by the unit category (infantry, cavalry, artillery, so on), but also by the geographical area that the majority of regiments assigned to the army were recruited from. In other words, while playing Great Britain, if I have an army formation primarily composed of regiments recruited from Highlands, its sprite would show a Highlander sprite for whatever era the game currently is in. Otherwise, a British army formation would simply show a regular sprite, if the majority of regiments are recruited from England or elsewhere.

In other words, I want some armies in Great Britain I am playing to have feather bonnets and tartan kilts, damn it! ;P

Also, we may need to consider how to retain some of the things unlocked by Scotland and confine, if applicable, any benefits from them to Scotland when Great Britain is formed by England. For example, there is Establish the College of Justice parliament issue as shown in the dev diary... now, the thing is, the College of Justice is, historically speaking, still around in Scotland after the Union, being protected in the Acts/Treaty of Union.

There is also a consideration of protecting whatever state religion Scotland had at the time the Union is being diplomatically formed (Presbyterian in the historical case; I believe that falls under Reformed religion in the game, unless Paradox plans to make it a separate religion (probably unlikely)), IF England had a different state religion. Presbyterian Education Act is another Parliament issue that may potentially be retained and only for Scotland region (or at least for any provinces where Presbyterian is majority) when Great Britain is formed by England, if England have a different state religion.

Regardless, I would imagine that diplomatically forming a union would require some sort of concessions to gain support of the nobility or whatever group that happen to have a significant political power in the country (obviously, it is not going to be popular with the lower class, but their opinion does not matter much in this era. ;P).

Also, any characters that were currently employed/available for employment in Scotland at the time of the Union being formed should be retained as well by Great Britain, unless that is already a thing. This may also tie nicely into the whole thing of forming the Union: you might want to make some concessions to gain sufficient support from characters for the Union. Bribery will do nicely. ;) But you may also want to promise them some positions in the new British government in exchange for them using their political influence to make the Union happen.

There is also potentially the problem of what to do with the clans after Great Britain is formed, as have been historically seen in the post-Union era, if they have not been completely subordinated by Scotland. There is, of course, a possibility of enacting legislation, as the British Parliament historically did, to permanently weaken the clans if they prove to be a continual source of troubles.

Problems and systems (laws, reforms, whatever unique to Scotland) that Great Britain, when formed by England, that can be inherited from Scotland, where applicable/possible. Vice versa with England for Great Britain formed by Scotland, too.
 
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