Hello everyone and welcome to another Happy Wednesday, the day of the week where you get a new Tinto Talks, the special posts we make to gather feedback about the very very secret game with the codename Project Caesar.
While we may have some skills and some experience in designing games, we are not perfect, and that is why we are doing these Tinto Talks, so we can get feedback on what may be less than stellar, and for us to think about things that we may not have thought about. Sometimes it's small easy things we can do immediately and will tell you in the thread directly, and sometimes it's larger things, which we talk about later.
Our Tinto Talks from a month ago, about Great Powers and Hegemons was one of the very few we have made that had a negative reaction, but what was great with it was that there was plenty of great, constructive and usable feedback from it. Pretty much everything in this thread today has been built on community ideas that have then been revised and discussed internally.
Country Ranks
First of all, we reworked so that rank for a country is now more about the flavor and internal mechanics, moving away from the unlocking of powerful diplomatic actions, like intervene and threaten war, so that they are for Great Powers instead. There were also some modifiers that more fit being a great power than a Kingdom and Empire in name, like the power projection bonus that a rank gave.
Also a new icon for the rank..
Great Powers
First of all, being a great power is not without its costs, and now being considered one increases the amount of gold your country needs to spend to keep up its legitimacy. Also, all Great Powers have a negative opinion of -25 of each other.
The bonuses you get now scale with the position you have among the great powers, where being the no.1 gives the highest one.
Yuan gets a bit more than France..
Another change we did, was that the amount of great powers is now fluid, and depends on how many countries are close to the number 1 power in the world. There is always a minimum of great powers though, and a maximum, which depends on the total number of countries in the world.
Hegemonies
We have done a lot of changes to both the system for Hegemons and how they actually work as well.
First of all, we changed the hegemony system to not be unlocked by advances, but instead they become available directly when the Age of Discovery starts. Why you may now ask, well, this is important for the new mechanics, as you no longer actively decide to become a hegemon, but the hegemon is proclaimed on you by being the strongest in a particular area.
Every month the strongest in the area the hegemony concerns will be proclaimed as that hegemon. If there is a hegemon already, you need to be at least 10% more powerful in that area. So, for the Military Hegemon, if France has 200k soldiers, then Sweden needs at least 240k soldiers to become the new Military Hegemon.. Or reduce the French army to be smaller in a way. You will not lose your hegemony if you lose a war though.
Another major change though is that you can hold multiple hegemonies, and there are now some drawbacks to being a Hegemon. Of course, all other countries distrust a hegemon so for every hegemony you hold, you get a -20 opinion from every country, and a +20% extra impact on aggressive expansion. There is also an increase to expected court costs, and a monthly prestige gain.
We also removed the system of Hegemonies becoming more powerful the longer you hold them, and removed most stacking modifiers, and having them merely gives one bonus each, however, instead, each hegemony gives you two unlocks. One unique cabinet action each, and a unique diplomatic action, that each can be used while you hold that hegemony.
The UI also shows you all the competing great powers… Not sure the word “competing” is relevant here though.
We also added two new hegemonies since last month, but what do the hegemonies give you then.
Economic Hegemon
This is the Great Power that has the highest income from Trade and Taxes.
As you can see in the screenshot above, their units consume less food, which can be useful over a campaign.
They can use the Diplomatic Action ‘Divert Trade’, which forces a non-greater-power country to give up part of their merchant capacity and power in all markets they are present in. This can not be done to anyone that has their own market though, but this forced divert of trade can not be broken for 10 years, unless a war breaks out between the hegemon and the target.
The Cabinet Action this hegemon gets is “Reduce Paperwork”, which increases the production efficiency in an entire area. So what is an area? An Area is a group of provinces, and a province is a group of locations. Production Efficiency is a powerful modifier which directly impacts the output of a building, without increasing its input requirements.
Naval Hegemon
This is the Great Power that has the most Heavy Ships of all Great Powers.
Their bonus is 10% less naval damage taken.
They can use the Diplomatic Action “Force Embargoes”, which makes the target non-greater-power embargo another country. An embargoed country can not trade in the market they are embargoed in, and their locations will not belong to that market, both which are rather non-ideal. This forced embargo can not be broken for 10 years, unless a war breaks out between the hegemon and the target.
This hegemon can use the Cabinet Action “Naval Focus”, which increases the maritime growth and harbour suitability of all ports in an area.
Military Hegemon
This is the Great Power with the biggest army of all Great Powers.
Their bonus is 10% cheaper warscore costs.
They have the “Violate Sovereignty" Diplomatic Action. This is probably the most requested feature ever by any warmongering player, and allows you to enforce a military and food access on any non-greater-power country for 6 months. This means that you can pretty much ignore neutrality, and make sure your army is well fed as you march it to another theatre. There is a slight drawback that the country who you march through will dislike you and get a casus belli on you.
The Cabinet Action this hegemon gets is “Soldiers as Workforce”, which gives you faster construction speed in an area. This impacts roads, buildings and rgos, so can be useful to get more barracks, forts and iron mines quickly for the war machine.
Cultural Hegemon
This is the first of the new ones, and this is granted to the Great Power with the highest Cultural Influence.
Their bonus is a 25% growth to cultural tradition growth.
They can use the Diplomatic Action “Force Change Court Language”. This forces a non-greater-power country to change their court language to yours, which further strengthens your stronghold on culture. This can not be changed for 10 years, unless a war breaks out between the hegemon and the target.
This hegemon can use the Cabinet Action “Assimilate Area”, which allows you to assimilate pops in an entire area at once, which is a few times more powerful than the Promote Culture cabinet action which can only target a province at a time.
Diplomatic Hegemon
This is the second of our new hegemonies, and it is granted to the Great Power with the highest Diplomatic Reputation.
Their bonus is 30% higher impact from Improving Relations.
They can use the Diplomatic Action “Influence Country”, which increases trust and opinion in a target non-greater-power country.
Their Cabinet Action is “Diplomatic Corps”, which allows this Hegemon to dramatically increase their diplomatic capacity while also gaining more diplomats each month.
The current 5 Great Powers at the start of the game
Stay tuned, as next week we’ll go through Government Reforms, how they work, and take a look at what types we have there.
While we may have some skills and some experience in designing games, we are not perfect, and that is why we are doing these Tinto Talks, so we can get feedback on what may be less than stellar, and for us to think about things that we may not have thought about. Sometimes it's small easy things we can do immediately and will tell you in the thread directly, and sometimes it's larger things, which we talk about later.
Our Tinto Talks from a month ago, about Great Powers and Hegemons was one of the very few we have made that had a negative reaction, but what was great with it was that there was plenty of great, constructive and usable feedback from it. Pretty much everything in this thread today has been built on community ideas that have then been revised and discussed internally.
Country Ranks
First of all, we reworked so that rank for a country is now more about the flavor and internal mechanics, moving away from the unlocking of powerful diplomatic actions, like intervene and threaten war, so that they are for Great Powers instead. There were also some modifiers that more fit being a great power than a Kingdom and Empire in name, like the power projection bonus that a rank gave.
Also a new icon for the rank..
Great Powers
First of all, being a great power is not without its costs, and now being considered one increases the amount of gold your country needs to spend to keep up its legitimacy. Also, all Great Powers have a negative opinion of -25 of each other.
The bonuses you get now scale with the position you have among the great powers, where being the no.1 gives the highest one.
Yuan gets a bit more than France..
Another change we did, was that the amount of great powers is now fluid, and depends on how many countries are close to the number 1 power in the world. There is always a minimum of great powers though, and a maximum, which depends on the total number of countries in the world.
Hegemonies
We have done a lot of changes to both the system for Hegemons and how they actually work as well.
First of all, we changed the hegemony system to not be unlocked by advances, but instead they become available directly when the Age of Discovery starts. Why you may now ask, well, this is important for the new mechanics, as you no longer actively decide to become a hegemon, but the hegemon is proclaimed on you by being the strongest in a particular area.
Every month the strongest in the area the hegemony concerns will be proclaimed as that hegemon. If there is a hegemon already, you need to be at least 10% more powerful in that area. So, for the Military Hegemon, if France has 200k soldiers, then Sweden needs at least 240k soldiers to become the new Military Hegemon.. Or reduce the French army to be smaller in a way. You will not lose your hegemony if you lose a war though.
Another major change though is that you can hold multiple hegemonies, and there are now some drawbacks to being a Hegemon. Of course, all other countries distrust a hegemon so for every hegemony you hold, you get a -20 opinion from every country, and a +20% extra impact on aggressive expansion. There is also an increase to expected court costs, and a monthly prestige gain.
We also removed the system of Hegemonies becoming more powerful the longer you hold them, and removed most stacking modifiers, and having them merely gives one bonus each, however, instead, each hegemony gives you two unlocks. One unique cabinet action each, and a unique diplomatic action, that each can be used while you hold that hegemony.
The UI also shows you all the competing great powers… Not sure the word “competing” is relevant here though.
We also added two new hegemonies since last month, but what do the hegemonies give you then.
Economic Hegemon
This is the Great Power that has the highest income from Trade and Taxes.
As you can see in the screenshot above, their units consume less food, which can be useful over a campaign.
They can use the Diplomatic Action ‘Divert Trade’, which forces a non-greater-power country to give up part of their merchant capacity and power in all markets they are present in. This can not be done to anyone that has their own market though, but this forced divert of trade can not be broken for 10 years, unless a war breaks out between the hegemon and the target.
The Cabinet Action this hegemon gets is “Reduce Paperwork”, which increases the production efficiency in an entire area. So what is an area? An Area is a group of provinces, and a province is a group of locations. Production Efficiency is a powerful modifier which directly impacts the output of a building, without increasing its input requirements.
Naval Hegemon
This is the Great Power that has the most Heavy Ships of all Great Powers.
Their bonus is 10% less naval damage taken.
They can use the Diplomatic Action “Force Embargoes”, which makes the target non-greater-power embargo another country. An embargoed country can not trade in the market they are embargoed in, and their locations will not belong to that market, both which are rather non-ideal. This forced embargo can not be broken for 10 years, unless a war breaks out between the hegemon and the target.
This hegemon can use the Cabinet Action “Naval Focus”, which increases the maritime growth and harbour suitability of all ports in an area.
Military Hegemon
This is the Great Power with the biggest army of all Great Powers.
Their bonus is 10% cheaper warscore costs.
They have the “Violate Sovereignty" Diplomatic Action. This is probably the most requested feature ever by any warmongering player, and allows you to enforce a military and food access on any non-greater-power country for 6 months. This means that you can pretty much ignore neutrality, and make sure your army is well fed as you march it to another theatre. There is a slight drawback that the country who you march through will dislike you and get a casus belli on you.
The Cabinet Action this hegemon gets is “Soldiers as Workforce”, which gives you faster construction speed in an area. This impacts roads, buildings and rgos, so can be useful to get more barracks, forts and iron mines quickly for the war machine.
Cultural Hegemon
This is the first of the new ones, and this is granted to the Great Power with the highest Cultural Influence.
Their bonus is a 25% growth to cultural tradition growth.
They can use the Diplomatic Action “Force Change Court Language”. This forces a non-greater-power country to change their court language to yours, which further strengthens your stronghold on culture. This can not be changed for 10 years, unless a war breaks out between the hegemon and the target.
This hegemon can use the Cabinet Action “Assimilate Area”, which allows you to assimilate pops in an entire area at once, which is a few times more powerful than the Promote Culture cabinet action which can only target a province at a time.
Diplomatic Hegemon
This is the second of our new hegemonies, and it is granted to the Great Power with the highest Diplomatic Reputation.
Their bonus is 30% higher impact from Improving Relations.
They can use the Diplomatic Action “Influence Country”, which increases trust and opinion in a target non-greater-power country.
Their Cabinet Action is “Diplomatic Corps”, which allows this Hegemon to dramatically increase their diplomatic capacity while also gaining more diplomats each month.
The current 5 Great Powers at the start of the game
Stay tuned, as next week we’ll go through Government Reforms, how they work, and take a look at what types we have there.
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