• 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 #4 - March 20th, 2024

Welcome to the fourth iteration of Tinto Talks!

Today we’ll give you an overview of the different mechanics of the Government part of the game. There will be development diaries going into much more detail for these later on.

First of all, we have 5 different government types in the game, which determines a fair bit of what type of mechanics you get access to. As an example, a Republic does not have access to royal marriages, and a Steppe Horde has a different view on how war, peace and conquest works compared to other types of countries.

  • Monarchy, which uses Legitimacy
  • Republic, which uses Republican Tradition
  • Theocracy, which uses Devotion
  • Steppe Horde, which Horde Unity
  • Tribe, which uses Tribal Cohesion

ZLW8XrWYZLxnovNzgF_7TuPQWyWmoGGLwwD2R2susU8CbvdqziEL_Ulp-yKCubRFOexelDTDIdjssj852lmLobBEQVeYT6bSkHFEIZmWUs_H-38W79jBh1S5OiDDATUVu0nB6GXgi2ze2LmNyJ115OU

An illustration from our game..

These, together with country rank, government reform, and local flavor gives countries names like “Crown of Aragon,” “Kingdom of Sweden,” “Principality of Wales.” Not all countries are countries that are based on owning locations on a map though; more on that in later development diaries.

Each country also has a ruler, or they may be in a regency, if there are no possible adult heirs.

One of the most defining parts of the government of a country in Project Caesar is the Estates mechanic. This has been one of the core parts of the game, with a full connection between the population and the estates. Keeping the estates satisfied while keeping their powers low is an important part of the gameplay loop. In this game, the Estates are also active entities and will do things on their own if they get enough power.

qYgBGNEzv3H0jQc6eneo7kkUZgpdahDdiD2oZxQEQZsEziJaaYEGiEnn0-whjga7G0UAzf7YYhABAvScXHNozJux_FGQz5ujPQN8ey_63fuKTGJCI91U-b_fQ15sn3qbalZo_HQ4dyjmlZKWg_zOT1w

Two government reforms, one culture specific and one government specific.

As time passes, different government reforms and reform-slots will be available. They can also be based on tag, culture or religion.

uS3pA3GElx0t_YJa_9rdYdyTavbK_IEfSQP1AT3GA9nESw5PidjM0ca7CawBGS80IfNTF-gFGP7O5WDOKzR9Wt5Ffn9iPUkg7hzYRIdfnGp6EG-7ssCmrxh6kd1snKgU2LssP30gr5KJqlfgGJmfIjE

These are the two available possibilities in the Law 'Language of Pleading' for the country I tested.

Something that is different from a reform is what we call a Law. A Law can have several different policies you can pick from, and several laws have unique policies only available to certain tags, religions, cultures, government types or other factors.

There are some drawbacks to adding new reforms or policies though, as it takes a few years for it to have full effect, depending on your country's administrative efficiency. (Yes, it's a name for something else in another game, but it fits here.)

Regularly, if your government allows it, you can call in a Parliament. If you don’t do it often enough the estates will start to get irritated, but each parliament has issues that need to be resolved, and the estates will have agendas they want done for their support. Of course, you also have options to push through what you want from a parliament, if you are willing to accept the demands of the estate, like changing a particular law.

Another part of the government is the cabinet, which also grows in size as you become more advanced, allowing you to do more things. This is something that can be viewed as a hybrid between EU4 Advisors and the CK2 council actions.

Some of you may remember the domestic policies from EU2 and EU3. In Project Caesar we are bringing the idea back in the form of Societal Values. There are seven that we took from these games, one that was split in two, and we added four new ones, bringing the total to 13 different Societal Values. Societal Values are primarily affected by what other actions you do, like what policies you pick in a law, or what reforms you pick. As with so many other things in our game, this is not an instant action, but a gradual change over time.

ZEZWxSpKakO4WurGDUAAsx7sedtM4QfQOCQe32TQGOWyLFGbPv2JrSLjbi0NgOMzD855iLKD6JGOWancM-kU6hqp65oRF7P7ubsaNOY9_L5kdzqELF2f26rggfEojZBnW0giSvY1Xf3thtmlKDVEtqg

oh look, its eu3!

Next week, we will go into much more detail about estates and how they work.
 
  • 264Love
  • 167Like
  • 13
  • 10
  • 1Haha
Reactions:
Administrative efficiency? Very good. I really hope that the more you expand, the less your adiministration is efficient and the more your State become unstable. It would be a soft limit to expansion.
 
  • 8
  • 1Like
Reactions:
If I could have only one request, it would be to end the infamous siege mechanics that EU4 and Imperator had. I want sieges to be somewhat predictable. Look at CK3, it has a progress bar, but random events can happen to slow or accelerate progress. It feels so less frustating, and way more strategic.
 
  • 13
  • 3Like
  • 3
  • 1
Reactions:
1) Solid black outline is definetly countries borders (one location "province" Theodoro? No. An independent Theodoro? For sure)
2) So, country located just south of Constanople has to be Beylik of Osman in some point of timeline
3) Ottomans (let me call them like this) already have location of Izmit a.k.a Nicomedia, which them conquered in 1337
4) Also in 1337 Beylik of Dulkadir was established (Country with location Malatya inside it).
5) Karaca Bey of Dulkadirs had conquered Darende in august 1338. This location on map is a part of another country (Eretna)
So map in the top definetly shows us world state in 1337-8. Is the start date sowhere around?
 
  • 1Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Start date is more or less confirmed, I wonder what will be the end date? If they have day-night cycle (something like Vic 3) it would certainty hint ending in early 1700s. Otherwise, if a Single Day is the smallest unit of time, it could be same as EU4.

This is important, since usually late games in paradox games are a lot less polished in terms of gameplay and stability, I hope regardless of the time period, there will be more polish towards the mid and end points of the game compared to EU4.
 
  • 2Like
  • 1
Reactions:
This all looks interesting, I'll have to wait till we get more details on them to better judge them.

The map looks awesome, so many provinces!
I do hope we won't have to manually siege them tho haha
I was thinking something like if you occupy the fort in a province(or its capital if there isn't one), the other locations in the province will be slowly and automatically sieged unless there are enemy units on them. Something like that

Edit: I also love the amount of impassable terrain!
 
Last edited:
  • 2Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Damn! The more I hear about project Caesar the more I'm disappointed. Mission trees are great! Hope you reconsider. Or perhaps this changes into something different, like the journal entries in Vicky 3. Please clarify.

I said no to EU4 style MT's, nothing else.
 
  • 71Like
  • 12
  • 7
  • 3Haha
  • 1Love
  • 1
Reactions:
Looks really cool. Excited for the future game.
Also to all the people worried about the UI: I am too, but UI is modable in an iron-man friendly way.
 
  • 2Like
Reactions:
I hope these government reforms will have actual effects that aren't just +10% or -10% modifiers. Seeing something as separate as having feudal landed aristocracy and appointed tenure governors (Pashas) just be a 10% modifier to crown power or local unrest is worrisome.

Also the idea that Ottomans had less "Crown power" than alternative seems patently absurd, as it was the more centralized executive government at the time compared to feudal aristocracies.
But estate power has actual effect, and it has afect on societal values, which seem to have plenty of impact.
 
So it seems like England will start with the iconic Edward III, France with Phillip VI or John II, and the HRE Emperor is either Louis IV of Bavaria or Charles IV of Bohemia.
 
  • 1
  • 1Like
Reactions:
So...are you bringing back the sliders?

Literally the best feature of EU3 that didn't make it to EU4.
I don't think this game will include sliders. It seems like societal values are numbers that can only be influenced by laws and reforms and other factors. Something that changes over time.
 
  • 5
  • 3Like
Reactions:
Also, while we are on the topic of governments, probably my biggest wish for totally-not-EU5 is a deeper dynasty system where you have actual family members to marry off and can make actual strategic marriages for dynastic plays instead of the system we have in EU4 where you have a century internal clock deciding on the outcome of royal marriages in case of heir-less death of a ruler that also turns to the next stage whenever the Pope or the HRE emperor dies just because. Obviously not fully fledged characters with their own agency because that's what CK3 is (supposedly) for, but something a bit closer in that direction.
 
  • 16Like
  • 6
  • 1Love
Reactions:
Interested to see the approach y'all take to modder support. Recent titles have been taking huge strides towards less hardcoded content. Hope to see the best of eu4, hoi4, and vicky3 modability here.
 
  • 2
  • 1Like
Reactions:
Will there be navigatable rivers?
I wish we do get navigable rivers, but I think we would see evidence of that with river locations for the Danube if that were the case, which we cannot see in this image. However, the Caspian Sea has sea locations, so who know?

Having rivers to block army movement and allow inland tags to access the sea is a huge win imo.
 
  • 5
Reactions:
I hope PDS continues treating this as a 'mystery game' all the way up until release. Full dev diaries talking about Austria's mission tree or whatever without naming the game. Then on release day, surprise! It was EU5 all along! Bet we had you guys going.
 
  • 23Haha
  • 9Like
Reactions: