• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

Tinto Talks #15 - June 5th 2024

Welcome to the 15th Tinto Talks, where we ask for feedback on our extremely crazily top secret game which has the codename Project Caesar.

One thing that many have asked for has been a more in-depth dynastical gameplay, so here it is.

Characters
Before we delve into the dynamics of dynastic gameplay, we must first talk about their building blocks, the characters.

european (1).jpg


Here is a European King with an early 18th century background.

While not copying the Crusader Kings mechanics, a Character in Project Caesar is a bit more alive than in let's say EU4. A character is born, lives, and eventually dies.

Every character has Administrative, Diplomatic and Military Attributes ranging from 0-100. Of course, these attributes will not add any sort of mana, but they will impact how well the character will perform certain roles. One example is that the diplomatic ability of an admiral impacts the morale of the navy he leads.

Newborn characters start with 0, but that grows until they are adults depending on what childhood trait they have. You can also assign your rulers’ children and grandchildren a specific education during their childhood

gifted.png

This is a trait that when on the heir of the player it increases the chance of hunting accidents by 200%.

Characters ruling a country will gain up to 3 traits, depending on how long they have ruled.
They are gained while ruling a country. Characters that are generals or admirals will also get traits after combat. There are also unique traits for characters that are REDACTED or OTHER_SECRET_THING.

Characters also have a culture they come from, a religion they follow, they keep track of where they were born, and where they currently are living. They belong to an estate, which for most characters tends to be the nobles estate.

Many characters will have a father and/or a mother as well. For some historical characters at the start of the game that will not necessarily be true.

The number of spouse(s) a character can have depends on religions and laws, but the number of children they get depends more on the fertility of the parents.

So what can you do with characters? Well, this is not Crusader Kings, so the characters themselves are not as important, and there are no character specific events like in Imperator either. In this game, characters are tools to be used for the greater good. If that means marrying off your daughter to secure an alliance with France, then that's what you have to do. You can arrange marriages in your country, send less useful characters into convents, ennoble great people, and much more.
ashanti (1).jpg


This is an African ruler, in his throne room, which while beautiful, is just a background image…


Speaking of marriages, royal marriages in Project Caesar are not just sending a diplomat, here it is far more limited, as you have to actually marry real characters, and often this is a vital action. If you can’t arrange a royal marriage with a country of enough prestige, that has a young consort, you may be forced to marry a local noble from your country, or worse, even a lowborn.

A Royal Marriage between two rulers will immediately form a union between those two countries. Every country has its own inheritance laws, which if they differ, may cause a Union to break, as the rulers would be different. This is probably not the audience where I need to explain the difference between Salic Law and Semi-Salic Law right?


bjälbo.png

And who was the founder of this dynasty?

Dynasties are important, as they impact diplomacy in direct and indirect ways. As some inheritance laws prefer their own dynasty, and having the same dynasty can improve opinions between countries.


As in almost all previous GSG, the game will keep track of who has ruled that country before, just so you can go back and admire them. We have tried to get in as much history as possible here, even if my heathen content designers refuse to have Odin as the original King of Sweden!

ruler_history.png

Of course regnal numbering and actual names depend on many different things..


Stay tuned, next week we’ll be back and we will then talk about how the cabinet will work.
 

Attachments

  • european (1).jpg
    european (1).jpg
    387,3 KB · Views: 0
Last edited:
  • 335Love
  • 183Like
  • 73
  • 16
  • 10
  • 7Haha
Reactions:
But would it not integrate perfectly with other mechanics ? Disloyalty would be a motivation for the player to give out apanages to his family members in the earlier part of the game when the state isn't yet strong enough. Disloyalty could also dictate which member of your family would try to claim the throne in case of a succession crises. Those are only some exemples but I'm truly convinced that this mechanic has its place in PC. Please reconsider this option
It also begs the question of what exactly affects the chances of character becoming a rebel.
 
So rulers still have the same 3 skills since EU1. Which is ok, I guess, but why do generals/admirals have the same three skills, and why does diplomatic skill improve naval morale? Even more, why doesn't it improve the morale of land units? That just doesn't make sense.

And I really hope that having same 3 skills again, doesn't mean just 3 types of technology, like in EU4 (maybe I missed that info to be honest).

Back to the characters, are we going to have governors for the provinces? I think it's a logical step in granularity of Project Caesar. It could help heirs and members of royal family to develop their skills, gain popularity or legitimacy, or however their claims for the throne are going to be represented in this game.

That being said, hopefully, we'll have more members of the royal families than just ruler, consort and heir.

What about diplomats and merchants, diplomats especially, would we have "real" people as diplomats, with certain skills and flaws, or just few of them with certain modifiers like in EU4?

Are we going to see a proper cabinets for countries, at least the "big nations", with more specialized ministers as the time progresses, or we are gonna still have just 3 of them? Are they gonna give bigger bonuses depending on skills and traits they have?
 
  • 1
Reactions:
I like the humour in this one. While not a fan of 3d sims, it sounds like it'll be less dollhouse than CK3, if "Cool throne room. It's just a background tho" is anything to go by.

Looking forward to seeing the features of this Tinto Talk manifest in the rubaks and chieftesses playing matrillineal Palau and maintaining kinship within the islands and outwards towards Yap, Saipan and beyond across the shared ocean :D
 
I don't know if the "di Aragó" dynastic name is just you testing something but in case it isn't I must tell you it should be "D'Aragó" and not "di Aragó". Hope it helps as feedback :):)
 
  • 1Like
Reactions:
3d who likes who doesn't, it won't please everyone. But I hope maybe many people will agree with me that too many of these characters is too much. As I understand it, compared to EU4, there will be more positions at court in this game, plus generals and the dynastic tree are already creating many characters. And this is only one country. And there are hundreds of them. Of course, your designers are first-class specialists, but even they will not be able to create different faces for everyone. Judging by the pictures in this diary, it looks like a system from CK3, and as many wrote before me, there is not much variety, to put it mildly, except for historical characters at the beginning of the game.
Maybe focus only on the royal family? Personally, I would prefer to remove the images altogether. The family tree is definitely yes, the photo of each character is superfluous, provided only if they are ALL different.

P. S.
You write yourself that the game is not about characters, why such models?
If the characters were similar to those on the loading screens in EU4, it would be just great.
 
Last edited:
  • 2Like
  • 2
Reactions:
I fear I do not have a connection to these 3D characters, much like with CK3 and ViC3, they are very bland. Why not simply use 2D characters akin to Eu4 loading screens but better. Really does not fit imo. But I support your dicissions of course! Love the diplo stuff.
 
  • 4
  • 2Like
  • 2
Reactions:
Wow, that's some incredible art, I was hesitant about attempting photo-realism but that's really impressive. The only gripe I have is with the man's beard, although I'm sure hair is really difficult
 
  • 2Like
  • 1
  • 1
Reactions:
I have a small question: Will we have events related to historic dynasty changes in the game?

For example: in Portugal, at the beginning of the game, we have the Burgundian Dynasty in power. It turns out that, some 50 years after the initial date, the Avis Revolution would historically occur, which changed the reigning dynasty in history.
It was not a change in reigning dynasty, Dom João I was a bastard son of the previous king. Dom João renamed his cadet branch as a mean of distancing hinself from his half-brothers (lawful heirs). Tecnically it should not be a "dynasty change", but something like a "cadet branch renaming".
 
  • 1Like
  • 1
Reactions:
This is really niche, but it would be cool. I’d say that if your country changes its identity, changing the numeral would be something interesting to allow the player to do.
 
its been called DIP since before eu1 was a computer game
I'm not sure that's a reason to keep it. If you want to go for simulation over board game, it should make sense to be open minded about it.

Besides since project caesar is definitely not EU5, it doesn't matter what EU1 did, does it? ;)
 
  • 5Haha
Reactions:
Minor nitpick: I know this is WIP, but, on Portugal, "da Burgundy" sounds very off, bizarre really.

I'd consider either having it "of Burgundy" (english), or "de Borgonha" (portuguese).

Also, even though "dynasty" (dinastia) is a feminine word in Portuguese, we wouldn't use the feminine definite article "da", but, for royal houses/dinasties, the ungendered one "de", such as in "dinastia de Borgonha", "dinastia de Avis" or "dinastia de Windsor".
 
  • 1
  • 1Haha
Reactions:
One example is that the diplomatic ability of an admiral impacts the morale of the navy he leads.
Will it just be one stat influencing the ability for a role or will different stats influence the ability of someones competency at a role rogether? I.e an Admirals admin skill effects how long supplies last, his diplo the morale of the navy, and the military skill the pure damage a navy inflicts