• 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 #17 - 19th of June 2024

Welcome everyone to the 17th Tinto Talks, in this Happy Wednesday, we will give you further information about the most secret game you could ever think of, the one with the codename Project Caesar.

Today we will delve into the depths and mechanics of how the population system of the game actually works.

As a recap, we have 6 different social classes, with Nobles, Clergy & Burghers viewed as upper class, while Peasants, Tribesmen & Slaves make up the other three. Every location has a population, and each combination of social class, culture and religion creates a unique “pop” in the game. That Pop may contain 1 person, or 250 Million, but it is still referred to as a “pop”.


pop_browser.png

Design copied from an old game I made a decade or two ago… UI is a bit placeholdery, but i like the browsing capabilities..


Population Capacity
Each location has a population capacity which depends on quite a lot of factors. The core of it is vegetation, topography and climate, while the amount of buildings and development increases it as well. If your population is higher than its current capacity, then there is a very large impact on its migration attraction and population growth.

While there are no restrictions on how many peasants, slaves or tribesmen there can be in a single location, the amount of upper class pops there can be is limited, and depends on what infrastructure there exists for that type of pop. Of course, if their estates have money, they tend to want to construct buildings that increase how many they are to further increase their power in the country.

There are reasons why you want upper class pops, and not just always creating an egalitarian “all are peasants” society, and that is when the capital economy developing during this era depends heavily on burghers, so you want to have a fair amount of those. You also want clergy of your national religion as they will help with stability, and having nobles of proper culture will help with your diplomacy and warfare.


burgher_capacity.png

Having levies raised from a specific class, reduces the maximum population there can be for that certain class.


Promotion & Demotion
If there can be more pops of a certain social class, pops will promote to become that class over time. While there is a base value, promoting to some classes like nobles will just be a fraction of that each month. If you wish to speed this up in your country, you can use a cabinet member to increase it. There are many factors that impact how quickly pops can be promoted, some are affecting your entire country, some others are more local, like during Devastation or a Lack of Control. Demotion happens when you have pops over your capacity, and will happen much, much quicker than promotion.

promotion.png

16 peasants will be promoted every month to become what is needed in Kalmar...


Population Growth
Only peasants and tribesmen grow organically on their own, but all types of pops can die off from negative growth.

Overpopulation, Lack of food, War exhaustion and Devastation have a significant negative impact on population growth, while having access to free land & lots of food increases the growth.

Not to forget, the population can die directly from diseases and warfare as well.

pop_growth.png

Peaceful and nice, the population should grow nicely here…


Assimilation
Assimilation is a very slow process, and pops will assimilate to the primary culture in core locations if they belong to a culture that your country does not appreciate. Societal Values and Lack of Control have a significant impact on this, but there are buildings and other things that can impact it. In most majorly populated areas the natural growth of pops will outpace the assimilation. However, there is a cabinet action where you can increase assimilation in a specific province.

monthly_assimilation.png

Sadly this is a slow process in this location, 3 pops will assimilate next month..

Conversion
Converting pops works similarly to assimilation, but there are two major differences. First of all, there are mechanics and systems that sometimes change the religion of pops from what your country may desire. Secondly, there is normally no conversion, but you have to actively enforce religious conversion in a province by using a cabinet. The amount of the population that convert each month depends on what type of buildings you may have, your societal values, laws you can enact, or the privileges given to the clergy. If your clergy is very powerful as well, conversion is quicker.

monthly_conversion.png

103,26% of 0 base conversion is still going to be 0 pops.

Migration
There are several ways for pops to migrate, multiple ones regarding the colonization aspect of the game will be talked about in a later Tinto Talks. There is also content that does migration, where events, disasters or other scripted content will set up specific migration from one place to another.

However, there is also a natural migration mechanic, where the population will move between locations. Pops will move away from locations that have a negative migration attraction, and will go to one with higher migration attraction in the same market. Upper class pops are usually allowed to migrate, while not many countries allow their peasants to move freely.

As for other things, you can use your cabinet to control this, where you can have one member of the cabinet leading an effort to expel people from one province, severely reducing their migration attraction, while another one could attract people to another province. You can also construct buildings in lowly populated locations to attract pops to move there.

migration_attraction.png

The price of stone in Kalmar is not inviting, but it's calm and plenty of land is available..


Literacy
Each pop keeps track of its own literacy as well, and there are buildings, advances, laws and other things that impact how quickly it can grow and how high it can be. The average literacy of a country has an impact on the research speed of that country, and the literacy of a pop has some impact on its satisfaction. However, there is also an immediate impact on the location of the average literacy of all of the same social class. Amongst other things, the average literacy of the nobles in a location has an impact on how quickly control can increase there, and the average literacy of slaves in a location increases the unrest of the location.

literacy.png

Literate Burghers will definitely make you richer over the long term..


Population Needs
Each pop has its own needs for goods, and if they can’t get all of those goods, their satisfaction will be lower. The goods that a pop requires depend on their social class, their culture, their religion and where they live. They also may start caring about goods when they know about them, as the demand for tobacco will only appear in Europe when the pops actually know about it. Obviously people in colder climates want more lumber or coal, while a Jain pop is not wanting any fur at all.

pop_needs.png

I am not entirely sure why these burghers want mercury…

Satisfaction
The population needs impact their satisfaction in two ways. If they can't get the goods that they want, it's a penalty to their satisfaction. However, the prices of the goods also affect their satisfaction, as if the prices are high, then satisfaction drops, but if you can get the goods they require cheaper in the market they live in, their satisfaction will increase, but their literacy impacts how much they understand the price impact though.

Satisfaction also depends heavily on the status of their culture in the country, the religion they belong to, and how satisfied their estate currently is. There are other ways to make pops more satisfied like certain buildings, or the good old method of stationing armies.

Pops with low satisfaction will join and start supporting a rebel faction.


satisfaction.png

Of course, these poor pops lack one of the most important things in life.

Even though pops may not be upset enough to rebel, their satisfaction has other impacts, as the average satisfaction of all pops in a location has an impact on prosperity and control.


average_satisfaction.png

Here even the paradox maths check out!


Stick around, as next week we’ll be talking a bit about laws!
 

Attachments

  • monthly_conversion.png
    monthly_conversion.png
    118,2 KB · Views: 0
  • 189Love
  • 173Like
  • 8
  • 4
  • 1
Reactions:
Joining the clergy was the only major path for social mobility in the Middle Ages - even sons of peasants could become popes - so I do think it makes sense to view clergy as Upper Class compared to peasants.
Depending where and at what period of time... for many serfs escaping from their land and looking for luck in towns/cities was also a way of advancing their status. But my guess tells me, that non-burghers citizens of tiwns are represented as peasants anyway...
 
At least I would appear "less unsatisfied" publicly.
Would it not be better than that the military occupation decreases satisfaction, but the reduction in unrest compensates for the any downsides to this satisfaction decrease? Because even the people who are not causing the unrest would be unsatisfied with military occupation, even if they understand the reasons for it
 
Depending where and at what period of time... for many serfs escaping from their land and looking for luck in towns/cities was also a way of advancing their status. But my guess tells me, that non-burghers citizens of tiwns are represented as peasants anyway...
There were definitely other ways to rise in status, like being elevated to nobility or becoming a burgher, but since catholic clergy didn't repopulate its ranks by reproduction, they needed people from all ranks of society, including many peasants.
 
Welcome everyone to the 17th Tinto Talks, in this Happy Wednesday, we will give you further information about the most secret game you could ever think of, the one with the codename Project Caesar.

Today we will delve into the depths and mechanics of how the population system of the game actually works.

As a recap, we have 6 different social classes, with Nobles, Clergy & Burghers viewed as upper class, while Peasants, Tribesmen & Slaves make up the other three. Every location has a population, and each combination of social class, culture and religion creates a unique “pop” in the game. That Pop may contain 1 person, or 250 Million, but it is still referred to as a “pop”.


View attachment 1150374
Design copied from an old game I made a decade or two ago… UI is a bit placeholdery, but i like the browsing capabilities..


Population Capacity
Each location has a population capacity which depends on quite a lot of factors. The core of it is vegetation, topography and climate, while the amount of buildings and development increases it as well. If your population is higher than its current capacity, then there is a very large impact on its migration attraction and population growth.

While there are no restrictions on how many peasants, slaves or tribesmen there can be in a single location, the amount of upper class pops there can be is limited, and depends on what infrastructure there exists for that type of pop. Of course, if their estates have money, they tend to want to construct buildings that increase how many they are to further increase their power in the country.

There are reasons why you want upper class pops, and not just always creating an egalitarian “all are peasants” society, and that is when the capital economy developing during this era depends heavily on burghers, so you want to have a fair amount of those. You also want clergy of your national religion as they will help with stability, and having nobles of proper culture will help with your diplomacy and warfare.


View attachment 1150375
Having levies raised from a specific class, reduces the maximum population there can be for that certain class.


Promotion & Demotion
If there can be more pops of a certain social class, pops will promote to become that class over time. While there is a base value, promoting to some classes like nobles will just be a fraction of that each month. If you wish to speed this up in your country, you can use a cabinet member to increase it. There are many factors that impact how quickly pops can be promoted, some are affecting your entire country, some others are more local, like during Devastation or a Lack of Control. Demotion happens when you have pops over your capacity, and will happen much, much quicker than promotion.

View attachment 1150376
16 peasants will be promoted every month to become what is needed in Kalmar...


Population Growth
Only peasants and tribesmen grow organically on their own, but all types of pops can die off from negative growth.

Overpopulation, Lack of food, War exhaustion and Devastation have a significant negative impact on population growth, while having access to free land & lots of food increases the growth.

Not to forget, the population can die directly from diseases and warfare as well.

View attachment 1150377
Peaceful and nice, the population should grow nicely here…


Assimilation
Assimilation is a very slow process, and pops will assimilate to the primary culture in core locations if they belong to a culture that your country does not appreciate. Societal Values and Lack of Control have a significant impact on this, but there are buildings and other things that can impact it. In most majorly populated areas the natural growth of pops will outpace the assimilation. However, there is a cabinet action where you can increase assimilation in a specific province.

View attachment 1150379
Sadly this is a slow process in this location, 3 pops will assimilate next month..

Conversion
Converting pops works similarly to assimilation, but there are two major differences. First of all, there are mechanics and systems that sometimes change the religion of pops from what your country may desire. Secondly, there is normally no conversion, but you have to actively enforce religious conversion in a province by using a cabinet. The amount of the population that convert each month depends on what type of buildings you may have, your societal values, laws you can enact, or the privileges given to the clergy. If your clergy is very powerful as well, conversion is quicker.

View attachment 1150381
103,26% of 0 base conversion is still going to be 0 pops.

Migration
There are several ways for pops to migrate, multiple ones regarding the colonization aspect of the game will be talked about in a later Tinto Talks. There is also content that does migration, where events, disasters or other scripted content will set up specific migration from one place to another.

However, there is also a natural migration mechanic, where the population will move between locations. Pops will move away from locations that have a negative migration attraction, and will go to one with higher migration attraction in the same market. Upper class pops are usually allowed to migrate, while not many countries allow their peasants to move freely.

As for other things, you can use your cabinet to control this, where you can have one member of the cabinet leading an effort to expel people from one province, severely reducing their migration attraction, while another one could attract people to another province. You can also construct buildings in lowly populated locations to attract pops to move there.

View attachment 1150382
The price of stone in Kalmar is not inviting, but it's calm and plenty of land is available..


Literacy
Each pop keeps track of its own literacy as well, and there are buildings, advances, laws and other things that impact how quickly it can grow and how high it can be. The average literacy of a country has an impact on the research speed of that country, and the literacy of a pop has some impact on its satisfaction. However, there is also an immediate impact on the location of the average literacy of all of the same social class. Amongst other things, the average literacy of the nobles in a location has an impact on how quickly control can increase there, and the average literacy of slaves in a location increases the unrest of the location.

View attachment 1150383
Literate Burghers will definitely make you richer over the long term..


Population Needs
Each pop has its own needs for goods, and if they can’t get all of those goods, their satisfaction will be lower. The goods that a pop requires depend on their social class, their culture, their religion and where they live. They also may start caring about goods when they know about them, as the demand for tobacco will only appear in Europe when the pops actually know about it. Obviously people in colder climates want more lumber or coal, while a Jain pop is not wanting any fur at all.

View attachment 1150384
I am not entirely sure why these burghers want mercury…

Satisfaction
The population needs impact their satisfaction in two ways. If they can't get the goods that they want, it's a penalty to their satisfaction. However, the prices of the goods also affect their satisfaction, as if the prices are high, then satisfaction drops, but if you can get the goods they require cheaper in the market they live in, their satisfaction will increase, but their literacy impacts how much they understand the price impact though.

Satisfaction also depends heavily on the status of their culture in the country, the religion they belong to, and how satisfied their estate currently is. There are other ways to make pops more satisfied like certain buildings, or the good old method of stationing armies.

Pops with low satisfaction will join and start supporting a rebel faction.


View attachment 1150385
Of course, these poor pops lack one of the most important things in life.

Even though pops may not be upset enough to rebel, their satisfaction has other impacts, as the average satisfaction of all pops in a location has an impact on prosperity and control.


View attachment 1150386
Here even the paradox maths check out!


Stick around, as next week we’ll be talking a bit about laws!
Great stuff! Would now be the appropriate time to ask whether or not the state can take hostile action against a minority group to expel or reduce their pop numbers? I don’t condone the behavior necessarily, but it is a feature that aligns with the games supposed focus on creating an in-depth historical world. I’m just thinking of an Ottomans player suppressing the Kurds to prevent revolts and their national unification. Pretty sure Syria and Iraq are guilty of that too.
 
For nobles max-cap is "government says we want 10 nobles here"
When you say nobles, do you explicitly mean nobles with a job/function?

A noble could have had 8 sons, but only one title. Most of the time, while still nobles, the other 7 were out of luck and had little standing in society unless they made a name for themselves somehow.

Is that an accurate understanding of the abstraction?
 
  • 5Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Is there a modifier for semi-nomadic cultures "on the fringe of society" to get less natural assimilation? Otherwise I don't see how it answers the question.
I think they should just disable cultural assimilation for tribesmen at all. Maybe slow down the religious conversion as well (but also speed it up for pagans vs. organized religions)
 
  • 4
Reactions:
Is there any way to convince the team to make the population of burghers also dinamic like peasants? I can understand clergy not growing on its own and the nobility is too few in number for such an implementationn to be worthwhile but I feel that the game would benefit from making burghers grow on their own, if there are too many burghers in a province this would simply result on them migrating out, which would also fix the issue of how to represent the settlement and migration of german pops in eastern europe, by allowing burghers to grow on their own they could migrate naturally to countries where burgher jobs are available.
 
I think they should just disable cultural assimilation for tribesmen at all. Maybe slow down the cultural conversion as well (but also speed it up for pagans vs. organized religions)
Yep, you should have to force them to "settle" first before you can convert them.
 
  • 1
Reactions:
Depends on what the country have decided its culture is
This is an interesting wording.

When you say country do you mean player? As in EU4 where we can unstate/promote/demote to culture swap.

Or do you mean something else the play influences but doesn’t control with a few buttons?
 
  • 1Like
Reactions:
How is the difference between upper and lower nobility going to be represented? In the context of Spain that would be the difference between a very powerful "great of Spain" and a landless "hidalgo".
 
  • 1Like
Reactions:
It feels so Victoria 3-ish and not from the good side.

While I love the addition of population in depth, I feel that the direction EU5, whoops, Project Caesar, is taking is rather over the board, if you know what I mean. I fear it's starting to look like bits of everything (CK3 familial hierarchy, Victoria 2 economy and Victoria series' pop dynamics, EU4 complexity, and HOI4 strategic mind) might be too much for the general audience and overall a pleasant experience. Let it be micro-managed, and you'll lose a lot of potential player base for being too complex to enjoy it and exploit it; let it be too vague, and you'll lose a lot of potential player base for being too simplistic. The population and trading goods are especially dependent on managing to find this very right balance. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem as promising at the moment, as if the right balance hasn't been set yet.

I mean, while I'm crazy about spreadsheets and data porn, I find it hard to believe a general player will be happy about reading too much into tables or fixing every damn lack of goods in each area or county. The big numbers, such as +300 capacity for a single brewery, are hardly making it any better. In fact, it kills the sense of reality. 300 of what? Are you implying that a brewery built in 1387 in an area of roughly 4 thousand pops is able to host 300 guests at that time in a shot? And since we're moving away from the EU4 thingy of imagination helps to fill the gaps (such as culture being bits of language, race, nationality, and whatnot, and mana size in the province is neither population, nor anything relevant except for cash grab), I wish for less abstraction and more realism that, despite all the goods, is possible to exploit. There is a reason the EU4 has been such a huge success for the past 10 years. And one of them is wide accessibility: while it is complex to understand, it is easy to maintain and fun to hold. I hope for a better diary next week because there are certainly some beautiful aspects in-progress.
 
  • 15
  • 2
Reactions:
The big numbers, such as +300 capacity for a single brewery, are hardly making it any better. In fact, it kills the sense of reality. 300 of what? Are you implying that a brewery built in 1387 in an area of roughly 4 thousand pops is able to host 300 guests at that time in a shot?
?????????????????????????????
It's 300 workers in the brewery building, not guests.
 
  • 5
  • 2Like
Reactions:
At least I would appear "less unsatisfied" publicly.

Still, logically, shouldn't the Satisfaction be unchanged but its impact be lessened? Or would that make no difference in gameplay? Vic3 does it differently in that the police doesn't make people happier but makes their rage less impactful, but I don't know if this would be interesting to add in PC.
 
Will Plantation's be a thing we could do, i.e encourage or force transplant parts of our primary population into another location to enforce control on the native culture their. It was used alot as a means to keep proviences less likely to revolt as those transplanted were usually given privleiges and benfits.
 
in most cases primary culture
If that's the case, then I really hope that Han culture is a whole, like the English culture you showed us before. If I had some Arab residents living in Canton, I really wouldn't want them to be assimilated as Mandarin, just because my emperor is Mandarin culture.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions: