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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.
 

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Glad to see characters in Project Caeser. I like how the 3d characters look in the screenshots. I definitely prefer the 3D characters of newer paradox games to the lifeless unimmersive ways of depicting leaders in EU4 and HOI4.
 
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I'm curious about how these characters are generated.

Will they use the DNA files system? And can you use static images for mods?
I think a lot of modders struggle with the DNA file system, when slapping a DDS file in a folder is easier.

Fantastic! I know some people will bellyache about 3d characters but as long as the character models are up to the CK3 graphics and not the abominations of Imperator or Victoria 3 then I'm more than happy with that.

I am a bellyacher, but I am more-or-less happy with this as an early draft. 3D, but looks 2D is fine. Frostpunk does that well, it's all about the quality of the final presentation.
 
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Others have pointed out the presumably-placeholder names for distant countries, but what is up with that splotch of (Gediminid?) Purple around future St Petersburg? I am not aware of Ingria being independent at this time.
 
I hope this means that marriages and dynastic claims also play a central role in getting CBs in Europe at least until the midgame. That would be a great way to slow down expansion.
 
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Are the Basarabs the only dynasty name on that map that are in a plural form? (Ok, and the Movilești but I'm pretending not to see the Moldoblob right now.)
 
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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.

To be honest, I don't see much difference... this still leads to situations where Talleyrand is better admiral than Nelson (or maybe Nelson is better diplomat? I'm little lost on this). I was hopeful for at least few more attributes then the 3 from EU4 - or maybe get rid of attributes and just base their utility on traits? This could be also nice, I guess.
 
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I don't remember if it was mentioned, but are pops/estates moddable(I mean can we add new type of pops/estates, like a secret police force)? Also, can we mod new traits/attributes?
 
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Two questions

Will brothers and sisters of rulers also be able to have children? And can they also be married off?

Can you educate your grandchildren (in case as ruler you live a long life)?
 
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