• 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 #42 - 18th of December 2024

Welcome to another Tinto Talks, the happy Wednesday where we give you information about our upcoming super secret game with the codename Project Caesar.

This week we will be talking about the disaster system, which has been present in different forms in recent GSG games from Paradox.

Disasters
There are two major differences between a disaster and a situation. The first is that a disaster is almost always negative, and secondly a disaster is always for a specific country. While multiple situations can be active and involving a country at the same time, only a single disaster can happen at the same time.

There are also two categories of disasters. The specific historical narratives, and the generic ones that can happen to anyone under the right circumstances.

Disasters in Project Caesar are not just a modifier applied to the country, and some events triggering until you fulfill the winning conditions, but you also get unique actions you can do to affect the disaster.

Let's start looking at some common more generic disasters.

Court and Country
Resistance to the growing centralization in our country has culminated in a period of general crisis and conflict between Court and Country. Depending on how we handle this time of crisis we might come out of it a stronger country than before.

This disaster can happen to any country with strong Absolutism or Crown Power in the Age of Absolutism or Age of Revolution.

court_and_country.png

The Nobility has taken the biggest offence to this plan

As you can see above here the UI for this disaster shows your current crown power, and the power of your estates, while also showing the rebel closest to starting a civil war. It also lists the current actions you have in the disaster. Here we cannot rein in the Nobility, as they are too strong already.

Two of the icons above have special tooltips that are useful for you as well.

end_condition.png

You have to endure it for at least a decade..

advice.png

In case you don’t know how to increase crown power..


Religious Turmoil
religious_turmoil.png


Despite the country's efforts to mediate between the different religious groups in our nation, conflicts have been erupting on a regular basis. The situation has worsened and without drastic measures, we will soon be engulfed in a religious civil war.

This disaster can occur during the Age of Reformation for any Catholic country or any country following any Protestant religion, if they have a low enough religious unity and a weak clergy estate.

To get out of this disaster there are multiple ways: get religious unity higher; get the power of the clergy much higher as a spiritualist; or go full humanist, while restoring stability.

While this disaster is happening, there will be a lot of conflict from religious minorities in the country.



If we look into some of the country specific ones, we have a few here, and we don’t want to spoil them all..

The Rise of Savonarola
savonarola.png


An upstart preacher has started to spread his apocalyptic message, advocating for repentance and reform. His message is causing quite a stir among the population, and it's for sure a sign of changing times.

This is a disaster that is likely to happen to Florence in the last decades of the 15th century, if they are a Catholic republic.

To get out of this disaster you either have to become a Theocracy or Savonarola will have to die.


War of the Roses
war_of_the_roses.png


Two junior branches of the House of Plantagenet, the House of Lancaster and the House of York, both claim to be the rightful heir to the throne of England. Sporadic fights between their supporters have already broken out in a number of provinces around the country. Their heraldic symbols, a red rose and a white rose, have already become synonymous with the conflict now commonly known as the War of the Roses.

This is a specific disaster for England which can happen during the 15th century if the ruling dynasty is Plantagenet, and some specific historical events have happened. It will allow you to side with either York or Lancaster as it will build up to a civil war for the throne.



So, which historical events do you think would be best represented by a disaster? Post your suggestions here..

Now, you either get a Christmas present next Wednesday, or you get a lump of coal…
 
  • 190Like
  • 54Love
  • 9
  • 7
  • 4
  • 3Haha
Reactions:
Cool, a great iteration on the EU4 system. My only wish is that the disasters are more common to trigger in a normal game. In EU4 you pretty much have to go out of your way to trigger most of them or they come to kick you while you're already down. I also don't like how manually triggering Court and Country is meta because of the bonuses you get for finishing it.
Basically, I want more disasters, I want them to happen more often, and I want them to be a challenge but not the rage-inducing unfair type of challenge like the EU4 -1 stab event fiesta some of them are.
 
  • 20Like
  • 10
  • 1
  • 1
Reactions:
Jokes aside, those arts are fantastic, I love them! And king Pere with the fire behing him can become a new meme, just like that dog in the burning house "It's fine" :D
1734530897516.png
 
  • 5Haha
  • 3Like
  • 1Love
  • 1
Reactions:
Are there any plans to implement the Georgian collapse disaster from EU4?
It should be easy enough.

 
  • 4Like
Reactions:
this looks good! probably a disaster similar to the modifier in eu4 called "Total collapse of society" that affected countries in the new world that were hit we European epidemics in the early years
In PC we have proper systems and mechanics, we don't need that modifier anymore. :cool:
 
  • 77Love
  • 43Like
  • 2Haha
Reactions:
Most importantly: do you see the exact end date in conditions like "had disaster for 10 years"?

The tree conditions UI seems very nice. A significant improvement to clearly see complicated conditions.
 
  • 12
Reactions:
Not sure if it was shown before but the tree on the left for these requirements make them much easier to read, especially with the exaggerated indentation. If there's only two options that are mutually exclusive would it be possible to have the text say "Either X or Y"? Right now it comes off as you can have both options complete despite them having opposing requirements.
1734530749372.png
 
  • 19Like
  • 5
Reactions:
I like that disasters are more interactive this time around, and hopefully they won't be so easy to cheese through. Will multiple different disaster have alternatives of ending once they fire like religious turmoil, or is the majority of them crush the opposition or lose?

As for suggestions, are pogroms possible disasters? Jews were such an easy scapegoat in european history, so during times of trouble/low stabilty I feel that would be a natural event. You could "lean into it" as a ruler, appeasing the mobs but suffering the consequence of jews leaving the country, taking their money and knowledge with them, or do the opposite and lose popularity with one or more estate.
 
  • 5Like
Reactions:
Can we bonfire all those Renaissance vanities during the Savonarola disaster? :D
Hmm, I'm going to talk to the CDs in my team, because it may actually be interesting to be able to bonfire works of art...
 
  • 71Like
  • 32Love
  • 4Haha
  • 3
  • 2
Reactions:
For example with "War of the Roses" disaster, your nation actually turns into red/white rose flagged nation and enemy one turns into white/red rose flagged nation? Or it's same like in EU4, where it's just rebels with their generic rebel flag? (Same for other similar-ish disasters?)
Great idea. I'll give it a try. And obviously the dragon standard if the Tudors win, the best ever English flag.

1734530965775.png
 
  • 69Love
  • 46Like
  • 5Haha
  • 3
  • 2
Reactions:
Its a bit disappoiting. Its exactly the same as EU4. And you still get cheese ones like Court and Country which was nothing like a disaster it was the meta way to cheat the game into giving you lots of absolutism (which was also the meta. Is going absolutist vs liberal going to be the meta to in this game? that'd be sad). If you come out of a disaster its not a disaster but a cheese. Especially if its as easy and silly as it was in EU4 which presumably will be.

It would be nice if you could at least show some of the actions you showed on the screenshot and its effects, as that seems to be the only improvement over EU4 ones.

I dont know maybe disasters are amazing but you have barely explain how the play out and what actually happens during them so we might be missing key information to judge
 
  • 13Like
  • 10
  • 1
Reactions:
Hmm, so there are no natural disasters? No Lisbon earthquake and the like?
Disasters are strictly just "negative situations"?
Earthquakes and other natural disasters could be cool thing to have. Where instead it is affecting country, it affects the land around it (except if there's some Comet coming, that affects the world).
 
  • 13
  • 2Like
  • 1
Reactions: