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I'm sure you all looked into this more than me, but don't most depictions of Mansa Musa depict him with a beard?
Maybe there's some sources from during his Hajj that describe his appearance, but it feels like he should have a big, bushy beard.

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AFAIK, there isn't an account of his physical appearance in Ibn Khaldun's work (although I don't know it so in-depth), and take into account that this depiction, which is the only one close to the period, is in the Catalan Atlas, crafted in the 1370s or 1380s by the Cresques family, Jewish Sephardi that resided in Mallorca. So it could perfectly be a convention on how a mighty ruler should look like (which is something that you might note that is already portrayed by the crown and regalia, which are very much of a Western European style).
 
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From my understanding (I may be wrong), Mali struggled to assert full control over the extraction of gold, with the extraction being a responsibility of tributary peoples and even struggled to limit the gold supply. Will this be represented somehow?
There's a gold field in Niani, but after that, the control of your locations that produce gold decreases from 58% in Siguir, two locations away from the capital, to 10% in Diawara, two locations away from the border of Jolof. These numbers may change as they're subject to constant review, but my point is that it will require effort and resources to assert full control and get the gold fields to produce at maximum capacity.
 
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Does Mali have any other disasters or is the decline of Mali the only one we have to face!
One disaster is more than enough, in this case!
 
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So why would I want to play as Mali?

Sell it to me!
Being the mightiest Empire of Sub-Saharan Africa, developing and colonizing the surrounding lands, earning huge trading profits, while also ruling a very culturally and religiously diverse population, and facing a challenging disaster on the go, would be good enough selling reasons for you? ;)
 
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When controlled by the AI, what is the ratio of "Mali splinter"s vs. "Mali remains united" outcomes are you aiming for any given game?
We aren't yet in that phase of the project, as the AI needs some more work to start thinking about such granular outcomes regularly.
 
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There is evidence that Mansa Musa was already dead in 1337 and his brother Mansa Suleyman was in power that you guys must have missed. Also, will there be a special building for the university of Timbuktu itself besides the great works?
1. Apparently, he died in 1337, yes, but in which month? This is what we don't know about, so we have decided to start with him as ruler.
2. There's an advance and an event about the Sankoré Madrasah.
 
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Based off the description, should the Jonow, and Sofa units require slaves? as the description mentions slaves in both of these units.
There's a common Manpower pool, but you might notice that you need Slaves for Sofa Barracks to work, which is the building that allows Sofa to be built in a location and also adds Manpower to the pool.
 
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While it is nice to have so much unique content for Mali, and in particular the unique disaster, I hope this game also has a generic disaster (or otherwise other kinds of generic mechanics) that lead to empires' decline. During the scope of this game there were many empires that went into decline and ultimately collapsed: Khmer, Delhi, Yuan, and later on Ming, the Mughals, the Ottomans etc. It is a concept that definitely deserves to be baked into the game's core mechanics as a possibility for any empire that reaches a certain extent.
It's something we'd like to have, yes.
 
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This is all interesting and informative, so thanks. But it doesn't address my question.

I'm asking why this happened to Mali historically. Not how you programmed it to fall. Your flavour description could apply to almost any state at almost any time.

I feel like the flavour of any country should be:
  1. encouraging/nudging the changes in a country that are caused, as much as possible, by the existing mechanics
  2. bringing that change to life through personalities, nomenclature, and choices
  3. adding in any major events or causes that cannot be caused by the game mechanics
The flavour talk has a lot of 2 and 3. But it seems in this country's case that the natural narrative of 1 has been bypassed. And without 1, the game can feel disjointed and inorganic.

I'm not criticising, just trying to understand why this is happening to Mali, and whether the historical causes have been taken into account as much as the historical outcomes.
There were multiple reasons affecting the governance of the Empire, making it increasingly more difficult to be ruled, and also weaker from external threats. You have a short summary in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mali_Empire#Decline

There's something we're working on for the game, called 'Historical Info', that will appear in future Tinto Flavour, and that we'll keep adding for cases such as the 'Decline of Mali' disaster, so the historical context is clearer for the player.
 
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Great!! I haven't finished reading this tinto flavor yet, but I have a question: why does the fact that the nobility has religious freedom increase their power, and not just their satisfaction?
Because you can't directly convert them to another religion if you want, and for that, you need to revoke the privilege first; so I'd say that it translates well in game terms to an increase in their power.
 
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"Our economy, though, is used to a constant influx of gold and is more difficult to inflate."
What is the source for this claim?
I don't think it makes any sense. If you increase the money supply without a corresponding increase in available goods and services, you're going to have inflation.
Did Mali have a magic economic system that has since been lost to time?
As gold was mostly an exported commodity, Mali could sustain a higher level of relative monetization, compared to other economies; it could indeed be reworded, as it's a bit simple and tautological ATM.
 
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Will there be another art for the Mosques? It feels odd having a european horseguy statue for a west african mosque.
It's a generic illustration for the 'Monument' WoA. It's something that we could potentially take a look at, although it's not scheduled.
 
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Thank you for the info on the university of Timbuktu. Regarding Mansa Musa's death, I was saying that there's evidence he had already died by 1337, in the year 1332 which you guys seemingly missed. There are sources which support this if you would like to know more.
Oh, yes, there's a debate about 1332 or 1337. For those interested, here is the Wiki entrance, that links to some academic works: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansa_Musa#Death

We decided upon the most commonly accepted date of 1337, though.
 
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Can you tell me if this information is also present at the 'lobby' (Country selection screen)?

This type of information will help me decide to play a country more that a 3d model in a throne room.

I also agree that "Urban locations" should change to Locations where there number presented will be Urban / Rural
I would add the estate card to the information presented at the lobby (Even if it is just Icon : power value , satisfaction value)
Yes, and the display is more visual (e.g., you can see the cultural and religious distribution of your country more in detail).
 
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Are we working on a fix so that Mali Empire and Mali don't appear three times each on this map?
If we find the solution can we apply it to the other maps (if I am looking at a contiguous blob of forest I don't need it listed a dozen times in it)
Mali.png
Yes, already reported, I hope our programmers have time to fix it anytime soon.
 
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Is there any colonization content for them? If thing go well for them they are in a prime position for some colonization
Yes.
 
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Will these buildings and units have their own unique illustrations and artwork?

If you don't currently have the resources for it... should I make some?
mfw Mali emperor in Asante throneroom

Are there plans to give West Sudanic states (Mali, Songhai, I'll throw in the Hausa and Kanem-Bornu states here too) their own unique art (could be a set of generic assets for each of these, since ig they're similar enough)? It feels quite odd to give the Mali Empire throne-room art associated with modern Ghana -- even stranger given that art is filled with motifs the increasingly islamized Mali emperors would have surely seen as pagan, and given the Mali state had no serious connections to Ghana, aside from as conquerors in the region of Begho/Bono.
We'd like to eventually increase the granularity of the 2D and 3D art. But you may have noticed already that the content of the game is massive, with thousands of countries, cultures, religions, etc. So we need to be smart and add the art on a hierarchical way, from the most generic to the most unique.
 
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