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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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Not sure if this has been mentioned already, but why is the location of Florence the only one which uses an anglicized name? Fiorenza, Firence, and Firenzzie are all more period and culture appropriate, although the contemporary name Firenze would also be an improvement. Here's a link to the city's own page about its name:
 
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Someone else might have already written it but the Election modifiers need some further rework. Age being a net positive mainly. While age within reason would be a plus, it should also be a significant minus. The way the current system is, a slightly worse 90yr old will win out over a better 40 yr old due to their age modifier. At the same time while a 40yr old would in theory be preferable to a 20yr old, when you stretch this into extremely elderly people it becomes unrealistic.

It should then perhaps become a minus after a certain age cap
 
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If you have the Medici Bank, will you also have an event for Jakob Fugger? And will there be a way to switch your country mid-game, like CK3 or VIC3. Or would the event let you play as him, or anyone else with a similar event, if you’re in the region, like in CK3?
 
I want to say that i just saw the map of balkans and why tf did you guys changed the culture in modavia from wallahian to moldavian?! Moldova from today is not the one in medieval ages. after the anexxation of basarabia by ussr the romanians were deported in kazahstan and russians were brought. I really want to hear some arguments for why they should be different cultures and if possibel to revert the change!
 
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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!





View attachment 1244260
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...
View attachment 1244262
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:

This reform unlocks a Succession Law, the Elective Potestate:

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

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

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:

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

Florence also has unique advances, 13 in total, spread among the different Ages, of which I’m going to show a few selected ones:
View attachment 1244273
View attachment 1244274
View attachment 1244277
View attachment 1244276
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:

And the Uffizi unlock a unique building:


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':
And here the second one, 'The Rise of Savonarola':
View attachment 1244283
View attachment 1244285
View attachment 1244327
View attachment 1244305
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:
View attachment 1244318
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:

Two more banking countries are starting in Florence in 1337, the Banks of Peruzzi and Bardi:
View attachment 1244289
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:

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

We also have some famous artists from the Florentine Renaissance, such as:
View attachment 1244319
View attachment 1244320
View attachment 1244321
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:


… 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!
Please please please change the UI it really doesn't look very good. The 3d models for the people and the flags look really bad :(
 
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Talento the Medici is not a real character why isn't Giovanni de Medici the one who actually founded the bank in 1397 represented in game?

Someone else might have already written it but the Election modifiers need some further rework. Age being a net positive mainly. While age within reason would be a plus, it should also be a significant minus. The way the current system is, a slightly worse 90yr old will win out over a better 40 yr old due to their age modifier. At the same time while a 40yr old would in theory be preferable to a 20yr old, when you stretch this into extremely elderly people it becomes unrealistic.

It should then perhaps become a minus after a certain age cap
Not every old dude gets dementia though, and there were methuselah badasses. We should get a random badass 90 year old sometimes. Otherwise you nerf someone like enrico dandolo to the ground.
 
The event creates a building in the location of Florence, a Bank, and also an independent BBC, the Bank of Medici:
Not sure if anyone has pointed this out yet, but BBC has a VERY different meaning that's well known in the U.S. Unless you realize and think it's funny go ahead, but otherwise it's NSFW if you wanna look up the meaning.
 
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I have a UI suggestion, since it is still WIP :)
Instead of making the (possisbly generic) character background this big, I would say: add some important flavor highlights to the country selection screen, perhaps next to the ruler portrait. That way the players can see what kind of mechanics they can expect while selecting the country. Especially unique government reforms laws, policies or privileges might be useful for a player that does not spend hours on the wiki before selecting a country.

Also, I am happy with this amount of content for a country, looking forward to more :D
 
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Not every old dude gets dementia though, and there were methuselah badasses. We should get a random badass 90 year old sometimes. Otherwise you nerf someone like enrico dandolo to the ground.
yeah those are extremely rare though and you will still have these if they have amazing stats, however the result of this will be that youll have them more often than not, which is false
 
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Since you guys already used these terms I suggest to rename … the bourghers to Arti(the guilds of Florence) usually refferred as the corporations of the city

That would help me understand all those options with “Arti” in the name!

and the ones who make up the Priorato and finally the commoners to Ciompi,
That would also help
 
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Not sure if anyone has pointed this out yet, but BBC has a VERY different meaning that's well known in the U.S. Unless you realize and think it's funny go ahead, but otherwise it's NSFW if you wanna look up the meaning.
I don't know what's NSFW about the British Broadcasting Corporation.
 
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"Florance is part of Holy Roman Empire" would be better.
It should be “the,” your sentence sort of works in a very overtly computery manner of assigning X to Y but it’s ungrammatical in regular English and localizing in that manner feels kind of dated or low budget at this point.

I think every unique IO we’ve seen should be “the,” but at least some of the generic ones would probably fit better with “a(n)” (depends exactly how it’s structured in-game though). Hopefully they have localization keys that can handle that, if not there will be some awkward phrasing, but if they have to choose the same article for everything then “the” would be better.
 
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