• 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 #37 - 13th of November 2024

Hello everyone and welcome to another Tinto Talks. This is the Happy Wednesday, the day of the week where we tell you information about our super secret game with the code name Project Caesar.

This week we will talk about art and culture; not why it's important to the world, but the impact it has in our game. To begin with, every Culture in Project Caesar has two important attributes: Cultural Influence and Cultural Tradition.

Cultural Influence

This is the attack power of a culture in the context of culture war, representing how impressive it appears to other cultures, and the reach it has beyond its own borders.

It has a monthly increase depending on prestige, some cultural buildings and also increases upon the completion of a work of art.

influence_1.png

The influence of the English is weak… for now..


Cultural Tradition

This is the defense power of a culture in the context of culture war, representing how strongly this culture's traditions resonate with its people.
Tradition has a monthly change dependent on relevant buildings, but also on the amount of art you have in your country. The average literacy of your nobles also have a significant impact on your cultural tradition as well.

cultural_tradition.png

Some nested tooltips, you can also see the details of every location by hovering over that value as well..

As you may see in the screenshot above, the primary culture of the country is the one benefiting from your art and nobles.


Culture War
So what is cultural influence and cultural tradition impacting then. Well, we have this concept called Culture War which impacts several aspects of the game. For the part where culture is relevant, the cultural influence of the “attacking” culture is compared against the cultural tradition of the “defending” culture. If it's positive you will get bonuses, but if it's negative, you will face penalties.

There are plenty of diplomatic actions where having a dominant culture is a benefit for the other country to accept your deals, not to mention the fact that building a spy network is far faster if you have a cultural dominance.

This also has an impact if you have conquered some land and want to integrate it, as if your cultural influence is bigger than their traditions you will integrate the territory faster. This is also valid if you want to annex a subject.

You also assimilate people faster if you have a higher cultural influence than the pop’s culture’s traditions. There is also a small impact on sieges as well.



Cultural Investment
One of the most important advances in the Age of Renaissance is the ‘Patron of the Arts’, this one is early in the part of the tree that requires the Renaissance Institution, and it allows you to invest into culture. The cost of this depends on the size of the economy and how many artists you wish to employ.

patron.png

How can you be a renaissance man without sponsoring the arts?

There is a direct impact from the investment you make each month on your prestige as well as an impact on the skill of the artists and the art they create.

There are some countries outside of Europe that already start with advances that unlock investing into culture.

Artists
These are characters that appear in countries that are investing into culture. They will spend their time creating new art, or figuring out what art they should create. They will also increase their skill over time, depending on how much money you will throw at them. If you get frustrated with them not producing new art, you can always commission art directly by throwing even more money at them.

Various buildings and advances can impact the skill floor and ceiling of a new artist as well.

artist.png

One artist that exists at the start of the game..

If you have less than double the number of the supported artists in your country, you can always poach an artist from a smaller and less rich country. That artist will then move to your country and all the art they create will benefit you, however the influence of the culture of the country you invited him from will increase.

There are several different types of artists, and they create different types of art.
  • Painter
    • This type of artist creates images by depicting the world or purely from their imagination. It is done by applying pigment, coal or other sources of colors to a solid surface like a canvas or a wall. Famous painters of the era include Leonardo Da Vinci, Rembrandt, and Raphael.
  • Sculptor
    • A sculptor shapes clay, stone, marble, wood, and other materials into art. Famous sculptors of the era include Donatello, Michelangelo, and Gianlorenzo Bernini.
  • Composer
    • This is an artist that creates music, including anything from a motet to a symphony. Famous composers of the era include Johan Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Carl Michael Bellman.
  • Writer
    • A writer describes artists that can write anything from a poem to a novel, as well as writing entire plays. Famous writers of the era include William Shakespeare and many more of lesser talent.
  • Architect
    • Architects are the artists that design the buildings that create the beauty of our cities. This also includes monuments, mansions and palaces. Famous architects of the era include Minar Sinan, Christopher Wren, and Michelangelo.
  • Philosopher
    • This type of artist defines reality and helps us shape our understanding of our existence. Famous philosophers of the era include René Descartes, Immanuel Kant, and Baruch Spinoza.
  • Jurist
    • An expert in legal matters, proficient in analyzing and commenting on the different legal codes. Famous Jurists of the era include Bartolus de Saxoferrato, Francisco de Vitoria, and Jeremy Bentham.
  • Scientist
    • A person of knowledge and a scholar of thought, questioning the aspects of nature which have been granted as given in the past. Famous Scientists of the era include Isaac Newton, Leonardo da Vinci, and Joseph Fourier.
  • Iconographer - Only for certain religions
    • Iconographers create religious icons. Famous iconographers of the era include Eulalios, Georgios Kallergis, and Manuel Panselinos.
  • Metalsmith - if you have metallurgy
    • Metalsmiths are skilled artificers, capable of creating anything from decorative weapons to kingly regalia. Famous metalsmiths of the era include Johann Joseph Würth, Vidal Astori, and Jehan Cambier.


Works of Art
A work of art is something that an artist has created. When the art is created, it will directly increase the cultural influence of the primary culture of the country that the artist is working in. Not all artists will necessarily live in a capital, or create their art there either.


work_of_art.png

There is of course art already present at the start of the game..


When a location is conquered through a siege or normal occupation, there is a chance for Works of Art to be looted or destroyed. If it's looted, it will be transferred to your capital, so you can create a nice Museum a few centuries later. Having some art in your country has some benefits, increasing your prestige and traditions.


art_in_country.png

You might become more innovative if you have lots of art though..

There is also a direct benefit to all locations that have works of art as well, depending on how much of the art you have, and it provides some good benefits.

art_in_location.png

A true melting pot..

Prestige
This is a concept that has existed in many of our previous GSG and it is present on Project Caesar as well. Here it's a value between 0 and 100 and will decay to 0 if nothing else increases it, where the decay is bigger the higher the prestige is.

Prestige in this game is heavily tied to the cultural part of the game, but it also has an impact on diplomacy and trade.


prestige.png

If the nobles were just a little bit more happy…


Stay tuned, as next week we will go into detail about all the societal values we have.
 
Last edited:
  • 195Love
  • 159Like
  • 10
  • 10
  • 6
  • 1Haha
Reactions:
Except it doesn't say that, bro. It says X number is Y percent of all art in the world, bro.
Couldnt you read "magnus opus", "average", "good", etc, on the description? How many "magnus opus" do you think the game start with? Thats why the score in Venezia is bigger than in Westminster, no doubt.
 
  • 1
Reactions:
Will we be able to make a deal for foreign art? And will we be able to demand art in a peace deal? Perhaps you'll cover it at a later date, but I want to ask if art from distant cultures will be extra prestigious, at least when the time of museums arrive. I'm particularly thinking about China and how almost mythical it was viewed in Europe at the time.

Also, I am formally requesting an event for if the ERE captures Venice that lets them get their damn horses back!
 
  • 3Like
Reactions:
Quick question: If you, as the player of England, poach a Norman artist from France and he creates a work of art, does it benefit the English cultural dominance or tradition, or does it benefit the Norman cultural dominance or tradition, or both or neither or one of each or - you get my question.

English culture, if that is England's primary culture.

I feel like it would be a really neat feature if by employing an artist from another culture, you get all the benefits of having the art (prestige etc), but the cultural influence or tradition effect is for the artist's culture. If I'm France and employing excess artists from Italy because they have the renaissance first, I should have to deal with some effect that's different to if I sponsor artists at home. It also provides an extra incentive for countries to invest heavily in art, where maybe they can't fund them all, but can still get the cultural effects by them being employed elsewhere by other countries.

It feels like a natural process to me. The English nobles are exposed to art inspired by Italian artistic techniques from an Italian artist, leading them to feel different about the artists culture, while still getting all the prestige and acclaim because only the important English get to view the art.

Alternatively, maybe the influence gain can be halved between the primary culture of the country and the culture of the artist. That way both sides benefit regardless, and there is still incentive for both countries to 'export' artists or invest in their own culture artists to get both bonuses.

Another alternative, you could even split it so the country culture gets Cultural Influence gain and the artist culture gets Cultural Tradition gain. Its hard to influence a culture when most of your artworks are being created and inspired by people from that culture.
 
  • 2Like
  • 2Love
  • 2
  • 1
Reactions:
Are there any provisions for cultures having their own written vernacular/writing system and how that can lead into cultural attack/defense? I think of how Japan/Vietnam/Korea all use Chinese characters to write their native languages - this would be the kind of thing I could see China getting a culture bonus for, while having totally different writing systems could be a form of defense - if you use the Cyrillic alphabet then your culture would be more resistant to a culture which uses the Latin alphabet, right?

I also could see how cultures without writing would be especially weak to cultures with writing - if you don't have your own writing system then you either have to adapt it to your language or just learn a new language entirely.
 
  • 5Like
Reactions:
1 - we have a cultural hegemony
2 - similar to navy or court.
3 - no, you have no control over its destruction, as soldiers are unruly when sacking.
4 - no
There should be an event for the Eastern Roman sacking of Venice, as the securing of certain stolen artworks would be a high priority in such a symbolic scenario.
 
  • 5Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Sad to hear. If you’re familiar with the game rimworld, they have a great way of dynamically generating description for works of art and it makes the game way more immersive
Rimworld's spiritual ancestor presents Planepacked.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions:
1 - we have a cultural hegemony
2 - similar to navy or court.
3 - no, you have no control over its destruction, as soldiers are unruly when sacking.
4 - no
I think estates should be able to commission piece of arts, like historically did. I undersatand, though, it's not an important or urgent question, so: I just hopu you'd think about, even for later on.
 
  • 9
  • 3Like
Reactions:
I had some modding questions about the culture system in general that I was hoping to get answered.

1) Can we change the relationship between two cultures by event?
2) Can a culture be added to a culture group with an event?
3) Can we change a culture's language in events?
4) Can a religion's language or a court language be changed by event?

And regarding this statement from SaintDave
In the base game, cultures and culture groups don't have any modifiers. But it's exposed to modders if they want to create a fantasy Orc race with unique modifiers, or give the Welsh culture its historic bonuses for example.
5) Can we add modifiers to a culture by event, or do they have to be added in the culture file and can't be changed once the game starts?
 
  • 1Like
Reactions:
As long as I don't have to repair artifacts or something, this looks basically fine, and a good way to take the new artist events from EU4. Hope many historical artists are in. I'd also want more types of artists, and more culture bound types and some name localizations. It would be cool to get aşıks and divan poets as the Ottomans. And I do not want to have an aboriginal architect unless they get to that technological point.
 
no, you have no control over its destruction, as soldiers are unruly when sacking.
Are there any CBs related to stealing art? Maybe getting art back that was captured in a previous war, or stealing art that was created by a poached artist? And that CB would make soldiers less likely to destroy the target work of art and would steal it instead
 
  • 1Like
Reactions: