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Tinto Flavour #2 - 17th of January 2025 - Florence

Hello, and welcome for the second week to Tinto Flavour, the new series in which we will show the flavour content of the latest super secret Project Caesar!

Today we will be taking a look at Florence! I hope you get visually stunned by what you see, but not a rapid heartbeat, fainting, confusion, or hallucinations, as it happened to Stendhal when he visited the city in 1817. So, let’s start!



The Florentine domain stands strong at the cusp of a new age! Our republic has stood the test of time and is located in a prime position to take advantage of our region's prosperity and affluence. Around us, rivaling states and potential allies all make their moves in a bid to influence and expand their territory in Italy. \n\nHowever, few are as well known for their aptitude in arts and cultural influence as our forums of thought in Florence. Under the guidance of a capable administration and an educated people, the coming century will elevate our people and have us shine brightly as pioneering innovators during a time of great enlightening.

Country Selection.png

As usual, please consider the UI, 2D and 3D art as WIP.

We have two elements here that appear in the Country Selection screen, AKA the Lobby. The first is the flavour immersion text that countries with unique content have. They have dynamic localization keys, which are the two words in bold that appear in the text, and which while hovered, allow to check a game concept. The second is a screenshot of the country name, flag, ruler, and the three main elements that define the country - Government Type (Republic), Country Type (Settled Country), and Country Rank (County). The courtroom illustration is the generic one for European countries, but it can potentially be unique.

Let’s jump into the country itself...
Florence.png

Tuscany is a lovely place, isn’t it?

The Republic of Florence is a Signoria, which is a unique, major Government Reform for Italian countries:
Signoria.png
Signoria Description.png

This reform unlocks a Succession Law, the Elective Potestate:
Elective Potestate.png

Florence also has a unique Estate Privilege for its ‘Senate’ (the flavour name of ‘Nobility’ for Republics, the ‘Signoria Council’:
Signoria Council.png

And a unique Estate Privilege for the Burghers, ‘Florence Guilds’:
Florence Guilds.png

This unlocks a unique Socioeconomic Law, the ‘Primacy of Florentine Guilds’, in which you can pick one of three different policies to embrace, promoting one of the three different types of Guilds:
Primacy of Florentine Guilds.png

Primacy of Florentine Guilds 2.png

Florence has another unique policy for the Legal Code Law, which is the 'Consiglio Maggiore':
Consiglio Maggiore.png

Florence also has unique advances, 13 in total, spread among the different Ages, of which I’m going to show a few selected ones:
Arte della Lana.png

Fiorino d'Oro.png

Florentine City Militia.png

Uffizi.png

You might notice that 3 of them have unique icons/illustrations, while the one for the Florentine Citizen Militia still uses a generic one.

Speaking of the Florentine Citizen Militia, it unlocks a unique type of Army Levy Unit:
Florentine City Militia 2.png

Florentine City Militia 3.png

And the Uffizi unlock a unique building:
Uffizi 2.png



All that I’ve shown you so far is what we internally consider ‘structural content’, that is, the type of content that would show up and could be (mostly) checked when starting a new game and digging and hovering over the different panels in the game. Let’s now start with the ‘narrative content’, the one that appears dynamically as you play the game. Oh, and one comment: although we usually have a minimum amount of 'structural content' and 'narrative content' for each country with unique flavour, it's widely diverse, so some countries have more 'structural ones' than others that have more 'narrative content', and vice versa, with others having a balanced amount of each type.

Florence can suffer two disasters during the game, an outlier in the game. You may see that they have some associated effects as long as they’re active, and that they also have associated events that may also trigger (8 for the Ciompi, 13 for Savonarola). Here you have the first one, the 'Ciompi Revolt':
Ciompi Revolt.png

Ciompi Revolt.png

And here the second one, 'The Rise of Savonarola':
Savonarola 1.png

Savonarola 2.png

Savonarola 3.png

Savonarola 4.png

The background illustration is the generic one, but it will receive a unique one. Oh, also, inviting Savonarola to Florence might not be a wise decision…

Besides disasters, there are a bunch of interesting flavour DHEs (‘dynamic historical events’) that can happen to Florence, of which I’m going to show you a selection.

The first is the creation of the Medici bank, in the form of a Building Based Country, ruled by a member of the Medici family, of course:
Medici Bank.png

If you select the first option, you will continue playing as Florence, while the second makes you to continue playing as the Bank of Medici! This is not a common type of content, at all, but a very special one, worth showing.

The event creates a building in the location of Florence, a Bank, and also an independent BBC, the Bank of Medici:
Bank.png

Bank of Medici.png

Two more banking countries are starting in Florence in 1337, the Banks of Peruzzi and Bardi:
Peruzzi, Bardi, Medici.png

It also showcases the Medici, after triggering the event.

There are more events related to the Medici's rise of power in Florence, but let me not reveal all the interesting content today, so let’s continue with other events…

An interesting historical character in Florence’s 14th century is Sir John Hawkwood, an infamous condottiere:
John Hawkwood.png

If you decide to hire him, you will be able to hire a unique mercenary company, the ‘White Company’, led by Hawkwood as general:
White Company.png

We also have some famous artists from the Florentine Renaissance, such as:
Leonardo Bruni.png

Da Vinci.png

Donatello.png

Do we have here two of the Ninja Turtles, maybe?

But besides characters, you also have events that may be related to buildings, such as the construction of the Duomo of Florence, that may end up with a unique Work of Art:
Event Florence Cathedral.png

Duomo.png



… And much more Florence-related content, as there are dozens of unique flavour events! But I think that this is enough showcase for today, as we don’t want to spoil the fun of starting a game for the first time! Next week we will be taking a look at the unique flavour content for Novgorod, cheers!
 

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Does Florence get any benefit from having all these bank BBCs in it or us it not really something the player will care about?

This. I would have hoped to see some kind of mechanic that ties them together. Like surely Florence will have better access to loans or something at least? Or they will get a % of their revenue as a tax.

The Bank building increases the location's (or maybe even the whole country's, the tooltip isn't really clear) tax base by 5%. If that's true for all branches, a kind of Pokemon attitude where you'd want them all seems preferable, especially if that 5% modifier is country wide.

As I understand it the bank building is a generic building anyone has access to. It is created via event when the Medicci bank is created as a nice "gift" but there is no link mechanically between the building and the Banking Country, as I understood.
 
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Having the tricolore as flag for Italy in an age before the French Revolution is pretty weird indeed.
I'd rather use symbology and heraldry closer to the Medieval kingdom even if the state is formed by a republic honestly.
 
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1. In contrast, Martin Luther, in a 1523 re-publishing on Savonarola’s own Fifty-first Psalm, wrote of Savonarola in a preface, that "though the feet of this holy man are still soiled by theological mud, he nevertheless upheld justification by faith only without works, and therefore he was burned by the Pope. But he lives in blessed-ness, and Christ canonizes him by our means, even though Pope and Papists burst with rage." 2.

Luther wrong as usual or stright up lying to justify his claims.

The fact that justification is by faith alone has always been taught by the Catholic Church, from St. Augustine to Saint Thomas Aquinas (Pauline Commentaries, Ephesians, C2.L3 n92).

So I do not think it should have anything to do with the reformation. And he was definitely not condemend by Rome because his thoughts on justification which were the same as the Church as shown, but rather for political reasons and defying the temporal authority of the Church (which by the way, gave him several chances to cease creating unrest or trying to overturn the political system in Florence).
 
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Since you guys already used these terms I suggest to rename the nobility estate of Florence to Patriziato(like Venice) since that's how the most important families were referred before 1532(other Tuscan tags too like Siena can use this term), the bourghers to Arti(the guilds of Florence) usually refferred as the corporations of the city and the ones who make up the Priorato and finally the commoners to Ciompi, although the Ciompi were specifically wool workers, small artisans and apprentices(not farmers) they were considered to be part of the "bottom tier" in the city of Florence
 
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Is Giacomo Gambrielli, the consul at the game start, a made up character? According to florentine online archives, the ruler of the city (which had the title of "Gonfaloniere of justice" and had a term limit of only 2 months) on april 1337 was named Giannino Lapi dei Rinaldelli (And here is his family CoA)

Edit: I shoud specify that Florentine rulers should not be dressed with military outfit as they never partcipated in wars unless they were lords of the city (such as the duke of Athens later on). They should be dressed in red (example).
I can confirm about the Gonfaloniere of justice
Screenshot_20250117_161212_Drive.jpg

I found this in the archives of Florence, a list of all the "rulers" of the city and these are the ones who governed it the 1st April of 1337,
The first seven are the priori with the seventh one being the Gonfaloniere of Justice the one who officially had the highest charge, Giacomo de Gabrielli was the podestà a powerful charge in the city but not the one with highest authority he was by no mean Signore and like I already said before the Medici came around there was no dominant family in the city
 
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Can Leonardo make working helicopters and tanks that reform warfare and plunge renaissance Italy into the Candlepunk Era?

Or is that DLC material? :p
Achievement idea

Florence and the Machines: while playing as Florence, have da Vinci in your employment invent his flying machines and war machine
 
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I like the content.

However in this screenshot I'm not sure what greater than 30 spiritualist vs humanist means? Humanist/Spiritualist is a spectrum. If Humanist is a number between 0 and 100 and Spiritist is a number between -100 and 0, I'm not sure if that text means your score must be >-30 or >+30.

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You wrote it right. Positive refers to Humanist, negative to Spirutualist.
So here it is ‘Greater than 30 Humanist’ SV.

For Spiritualist it would be ‘Greater/lower than -30 Spiritualist vs Humanist’.
 
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Can you honestly tell me that when you first read that description you thought of the island and not the country?
Yes. Because the country is called the United Kingdom. I'm not being some Internet terminology nazi here, but they're literally just two different words with two different definitions.

I must admit, I am a resident of both the Island of Great Britain and the country of the United Kingdom, so maybe for people elsewhere there's a greater degree of confusion.

But when someone says "Great Britain" my mind would never immediately go to the country.
 
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Yes. Because the country is called the United Kingdom. I'm not being some Internet terminology nazi here, but they're literally just two different words with two different definitions.

I must admit, I am a resident of both the Island of Great Britain and the country of the United Kingdom, so maybe for people elsewhere there's a greater degree of confusion.

But when someone says "Great Britain" my mind would never immediately go to the country.
It is, after the Acts of Union 1800. But for nearly a century before that, it was known as Great Britain. It is also called that in EU4 if you form it, and I'm sure it'll be a formable in PC too. Hence why I think it carries the potential to be confused with the political entity.
 
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You wrote it right. Positive refers to Humanist, negative to Spirutualist.
So here it is ‘Greater than 30 Humanist’ SV.

For Spiritualist it would be ‘Greater/lower than -30 Spiritualist vs Humanist’.
I think it is completely unclear, could be read multiple ways and really needs a rewording to something that is clear. In my example I wrote it 2 different ways.

I think that -30 spiritualist vs humanist is an odd way to describe someone on the spiritualist side of the spectrum?? More natural & less mathematical language would suggest that 30 spiritualist vs humanist was on the spiritualist side of the spectrum. 30 humanist vs spiritualist would be the opposite on the humanist side of the spectrum. The side of the scale you are on is written first.

Even with your reading the next thing that is confusing is greater. Does greater than -30 spiritualist vs humanist mean greater spiritualist than 30 (eg full spiritualism), or does it mean greater humanist than -30 (eg in the middle of the scale or full humanist)? The former feels more natural language, the later feels more mathematically correct.
 
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I think it is completely unclear, could be read multiple ways and really needs a rewording to something that is clear. In my example I wrote it 2 different ways.

I think that -30 spiritualist vs humanist is an odd way to describe someone on the spiritualist side of the spectrum?? More natural & less mathematical language would suggest that 30 spiritualist vs humanist was on the spiritualist side of the spectrum. 30 humanist vs spiritualist would be the opposite on the humanist side of the spectrum. The side of the scale you are on is written first.

Even with your reading the next thing that is confusing is greater. Does greater than -30 spiritualist vs humanist mean greater spiritualist than 30 (eg full spiritualism), or does it mean greater humanist than -30 (eg in the middle of the scale or full humanist)? The former feels more natural language, the later feels more mathematically correct.
Totally agree. I knew it because Pavia replied to my question some time ago and explained it. Also said they would think of a better approach.

But in general they have 'mathematically correct' approach for now. They portray it as a simple X axis, ranging from -100 to +100 with left and right parts corresponding to the left and right SVs in the pair. With 'greater than -30' means [-29; +100].

It becomes simple and makes perfect sense when Pavia explains this personally, but obviously this is very confusing for those who see it for the first time.
 
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Totally agree. I knew it because Pavia replied to my question some time ago and explained it. Also said they would think of a better approach.

But in general they have 'mathematically correct' approach for now. They portray it as a simple X axis, ranging from -100 to +100 with left and right parts corresponding to the left and right SVs in the pair. With 'greater than -30' means [-29; +100].

It becomes simple and makes perfect sense when Pavia explains this personally, but obviously this is very confusing for those who see it for the first time.
Thanks - that really helps.

Thinking of solutions is the easiest one to drop the "spiritualist vs" part off?
  • Humanist of 30 is unambiguous.
  • Humanist of -30 makes sense too
  • Humanist of greater than 30 is unambiguous.
  • Humanist of greater than -30 is unambiguous too.
The tooltip of Humanist can talk about how negative Humanist scores mean you are spiritualist (and not one of the antonyms in the thesaurus).
 
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It is, after the Acts of Union 1800. But for nearly a century before that, it was known as Great Britain. It is also called that in EU4 if you form it, and I'm sure it'll be a formable in PC too. Hence why I think it carries the potential to be confused with the political entity.
It has a tooltip in the game. If you hover over it, it will display what it means (that it is a region)
 
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Thanks - that really helps.

Thinking of solutions is the easiest one to drop the "spiritualist vs" part off?
  • Humanist of 30 is unambiguous.
  • Humanist of -30 makes sense too
  • Humanist of greater than 30 is unambiguous.
  • Humanist of greater than -30 is unambiguous too.
The tooltip of Humanist can talk about how negative Humanist scores mean you are spiritualist (and not one of the antonyms in the thesaurus).
I would use A vs B only in the general SVs overview.
In all other cases in texts, icons I would use just one SV with the respective positive indicator.

Another approach would be similar to Piety in Islam in EU4, Legalism (positive piety) vs Mysticism (negative piety). Rename all SVs to more category-like terms and have current SVs as opposite options for flavour.
E.g. Spiritualist vs Humanist category becomes Faith and country, with a [-100; +100] range. And Spiritualist, Humanist terms are used in texts for flavour.

But the first approach looks easier to me.
 
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I had a thought when I saw this, when speaking of institutions like councils, guilds and others, if things remain as is they will stay as a static source of modifiers in the background until the end of the game. Wouldn't it be intersesting to have events over the course of centuries that could show the decay of these institutions overtime? Like event chains or disasters that show their corruption, potentially by changing their bonuses into maluses, and the player will have to reform, replace or fall along with them? And of course, add rewards at the end so that it's not just pure torture. It would be too boring if it was all a smooth ride past the first century.
 
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So far I am visually stunned by the visible lack of content.

Mission, decisions, focuses, ..., you know, stuff to do between just waiting for events to happen.
The lack of these features is a significant part of why Vicy is the least popular of the Paradox Grand Strategies, so I really hope there is something here.

Unique reforms, units, etc is nice supporting flavour, but 5% different modifiers and a fancy hat are not enough to make a nation feel unique.
 
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