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Tinto Flavour #11 - 21st of March 2025 - Ethiopia

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

Today we will be talking about the Empire of Ethiopia! Let’s start without further ado:

The Empire of Ethiopia is an ancient realm rich with history and traditions. Nestled in the Horn of Africa, it boasts lush highlands, plateaus, and the Great Rift Valley. Its beauty is captivated by golden sunsets on the Simien Mountains.

Ethiopia's enchanting tapestry weaves diverse ethnic groups like the Amhara, Afar, and Tigre. United in trials, it remains resilient like the ancient baobab tree, enduring through time.

Inspired by ancient origins, Ethiopia cherishes legendary unions like the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon. The legacy of their son Menelik, the first member of the Solomonid dynasty, echoes through time, connecting this land to ancient Israelites.

Through the years, Ethiopia's epic tale unfolds, shaped by destiny and the unwavering spirit of its people. Triumphs and tribulations weave a rich tapestry of life's ebb and flow.

However, this nation stands as a realm encircled by adversaries eagerly waiting to seize any opportunity to strike. Managing not only to survive but thrive will be a challenge.
Click to expand...

Country Selection.png

Please remember that any UI, 2D and 3D art is WIP, as usual.

Ethiopia.png

The Ethiopian Empire is in 1337 the strongest power in the region.​

The Sultanate of Ifat starts subjected as a tributary to Ethiopia:
Diplomacy.png

Vassal.png

These are the starting Works of Art for Ethiopia:
Works of Art.png

King Ezana's.png

And these are some advances; I’ve decided to show this week one per age:
Ark of the Covenant.png

Solomonid Claim.png

Prester John.png

A True Ethiopian Church.png

Origin of Coffee.png

Ethiopia also has one of these advances per age, that unlocks a building, and one unique unit per age:
Cawa Regiments.png

Cawa Units.png

Cawa Barracks.png

This is for example the unit for the Age of Renaissance:
Cawa Arquebusiers.png

And this one for the Age of Revolutions:
Cawa Columns.png

Now let’s move to the narrative content since we have some interesting events for Ethiopia.

There’s a unique mechanic for Ethiopia, that can be unlocked early on in the game:
A Wandering Court.png

This may allow to enact this government reform, which will trigger a capital change at the start of each reign:
Wandering Court.png

Some other events:
Lalibela Cross.png


Kebra Negast.png


Ewostatewos Abebe.png

The last option unlocks a unique estate privilege:
Ewostatewos Abebe2.png

Both Days Sabbath.png


Justice of Kings.png

Justice of Kings2.png

Fetha Negest.png


Debere Meshwae.png

Debere Meshwae2.png

…And much more, but that’s all for today, I hope you enjoyed it!

Next week we will have to skip Tinto Flavour, unfortunately, since we have an internal event scheduled on Friday and no one on the team will be available; but we will compensate with a double, intense schedule for the following week. On Monday 31st we will have the Tinto Maps review of Persia and the Caucasus, while on Friday 4th we will take a look at the content for Persia and the Timurids, which includes a starting IO, the Ilkhanate, and a situation, The Rise of Timur. Lots of exciting content is coming! Cheers!
 
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LordThanatos said:
This looks great! I'm quite interested in how the mechanics work for coffee, given how important it is for Ethiopia and its region. How does it get to - say - Brazil? Is this handled by the Columbian exchange mechanics, and if so, does it start to be grown even in locations which are not controlled by an 'Old World' power?

I also assume there are events, or other mechanics to herald the formation of the sultanate of Adal and the wars that follow?
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There's a way to start planting coffee in Brazil, we will talk about it in a future Tinto Talks.
 
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Flower_Marlin said:
Why is there an increased penalty to the move capital cost, shouldn't it be the other way round? Or is it that when a new ruler ascends to the throne, you get an event pop up allowing you to select a new capital for free, and then if you want to change the capital during the rule of that ruler, you'll incur that penalty to the cost?

I'd also suggest being able to move capitals during wartime at a reduced cost as a unique mechanic for the Negusa.
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The second option you mention, exactly.
 
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Pavía said:
1. We have the proper mechanics in place to portray Ifat breaking free from Ethiopia, so there isn't narrative content about that.
2. The Mamluks. We asked for a new Ethiopian report to our QA last week, and, boy, it was though for him...
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Is it common for the Mamluks to conquer down the Nile and into the Horn of Africa currently?
 
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Azgabeth said:
Does Ethiopia have some unique content tied to the Coptic faith like Hungary had with Catholic?
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The Coptic Church is quite unique on its own, with its own flavour, etc. We'll show it some time in the future.
 
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Off topic but it came to me when I read tooltips with estate names. I have no clue which estates are those and it's probably easy to figure out after a while but perhaps there could be an option to use standard/default names rather than localized? I would probably play with localized names for european/christian countries but outside of europe I would change it so I don't need to guess which estate I am dealing with (like Ulema/Umera have pretty similar names that mean nothing to me).
 
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Pavía said:
The Coptic Church is quite unique on its own, with its own flavour, etc. We'll show it some time in the future.
Click to expand...

I was more asking in the sense of unique advances/ reforms/ privileges which require Ethiopia to have Coptic or another Oriental Orthodox denomination as the official religion.

Is there something like that and could you show us some?
 
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Screenshot_20250321_151002_Chrome.jpg
Good TF but weird choice for the flag of Ethiopia, the Lion of Judah design goes hard ngl but why did you go for a white background?
Screenshot_20250321_150927_Chrome.jpgScreenshot_20250321_150931_Chrome.jpg
We know very well that the Ethiopian emperors carried yellow, red and green pennants in and outside battle since the 13th century, even the church used them and eventually was "fused" with the Lion of Judah which simbolized the Solomonids to form the Ethiopian imperial tricolour
Screenshot_20250321_145758_Chrome.jpg
Even though it was officialized in the 19th century the previous flag was more fit for the whole timeframe of the game than the current one imo, as I said in my thread the only problem was(and is) the direction in which the lion is facing
 
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Okay this is one of my biggest hates:

Even though coffee literally comes from Ethiopia, it was Yemen who popularized it and actually utilized it. That's why every popular coffee today using the "arabica" bean. It didn't get the arabica bean name because it came from Ethiopia. People often attribute and give weird bonuses to Ethiopia for coffee in many games, but it makes actually no sense. Yemen should get those.
 
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I hope the "much more" here includes stuff like the possibility of internal fragmentation (i.e. with the kingdom of Kaffa emerging in 1390, later content re: the Oromo migrations). I still think Ethiopia is far too unified here (likely Ifat as well) and should have some indication that Bale, Dawaro, Hadiya, etc. have been recently conquered and might've been more akin to tributaries rather than under direct administration). Ifat being represented as an outright vassal also does not really seem correct. Hope there's some content for the later Ethiopia-Adal war as well...
 
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Goblin Slave said:
Is it common for the Mamluks to conquer down the Nile and into the Horn of Africa currently?
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They are more of a blocker if you try to move upstream river Nile. But take this as very WIP, AI behavior is not something we want to talk about more in detail yet.
 
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Mef said:
How is the quality determined?
An obilisk is a masterpiece, but a literal cathedral in Novgorod is only "very good"?
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Our content designers have varied artistic tastes...

This is a topic that we want to balance a bit more, eventually. But take into account that different places in the world have different artistic styles, and what they consider a work of art.
 
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Is the wandering court gov reform really a thing only for Ethiopia? I know you guys already mentioned that there's a law/policy for it that some countries start with but it seems quite different from this reform, why don't countries like Castile and Aragon have the refirm as well?
 
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