• 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…
 
  • 191Like
  • 54Love
  • 9
  • 7
  • 4
  • 3Haha
Reactions:
Can noble uprisings (Bar and Targowica Confederation) in Commonwealth be a disaster? It happened in late 18th century but main reason why they happened was an attempt to curtail szlachta's power by the king so in game could trigger as soon as player will be able to try to reform out of Sejm for example (if it's possible in PC)
Polish content wouldn't feel correct without a proper Szlachta disaster, although it's oriented to early game.
 
  • 35Like
  • 10Haha
  • 2
Reactions:
All the disaster have a time limit? I'd say that just putting a time limit to disasters is not the best way to force ir closing. If the disaster is a civil war, just because 10 years passed doesn't mean everything finished, and some civil wars finish fast and others take decades to finish. So I'd say limiting by time is a bit inflexible
 
  • 1Like
  • 1
Reactions:
So, which historical events do you think would be best represented by a disaster? Post your suggestions here..
The Tripartition of Hungary; essentially, if the country is being invaded by the Ottomans (or an equivalent Turkish Empire), and the king dies in battle/there is an Interregnum or the ruler has low legitimacy and is challenged by a pretender, triggers this disaster that is essentially two disasters in a trenchcoat (a Civil War between the two king-candidates and a regular war with the Turks).

This would spawn the rebel faction of the Kingdom of Eastern Hungary, and the expected outcome of this Disaster would be, per the Treaty of Speyer, the consolidation of this rebel Kingdom into the Principality of Transylvania. Per normal gameplay mechanics, it shouldnt be possible for a pretender faction to turn into a sovereign country like that, like it happened in real life, so this is justified to be a disaster.
The creation of the Principality of Transylvania would be presented if either of the factions completely destroys the other one within a fixed period of time, or surrenders, or is unwilling to accept the armistice.

Alternatively, the Tripartition disaster could also be used to model the entire 150 years of tripartition between the Habsburg-lead Royal Hungary, Transylvania, and the Ottoman, and instead of ending with the Treaty of Speyer or its equivalent, would only truly end when one of the three factions truly unifies the entire region (like Habsburg Hungary did at the turn of the 17th-18th centuries).
 
  • 9Like
  • 4Love
Reactions:
Are disasters repeatable? If I get one War of Succession disaster, can it happen again if the conditions are fulfilled once more?

Personally I hope so. Just because it happened once shouldn't give you magical immunity. You should need to commit to the solution instead of backpedaling after solving it.
Some, yes. A Succession Crisis is a Succession Crisis, no matter when.
 
  • 47Like
  • 2
Reactions:
"-80 Absolutism vs Liberalism" and "25 Absolutism vs Liberalism" is a kind of clunky way of describing them. Might be better to rework those descriptions so for example in this particular case -80 would be 80 Absolutism and 25 would be 25 Liberalism. Similar to EU4 Islam discussing Positive/Negative Piety in terms of Legalism and Mysticism.
Noted, we'll take a look towards a better solution.
 
  • 72Like
  • 5
  • 1
Reactions:
  • 28Like
  • 1
Reactions:
  • 35Like
  • 8
  • 3Love
Reactions:
Disaster idea (Poland-Lithuania): The Deluge / Three Partitions

Or, if that's considered too international to be a Disaster, then perhaps you can have a Disaster which simulates Poland's decentralisation that led to the Deluge.
 
  • 2Like
Reactions:
I know it is not about this in this Tinto Talks but I cannot sleep at night: If I want to play as Moldova in Project Ceasar, the founder of Moldova was Dragos Voda , will he be in the game at the beginning? Because he is the one who united the independent small states of Moldova. Also the one ho changed the course of the history of Moldova was Bogdan I and he is the founder of the Musat Dinasty. So what the actual Schnitzel Dorf will be done? Will there be an event to enable the coming of Musat Dinasty to the Moldovan throne? Because under the Dragos rule , Moldova was a march under Hungary till Bogdan came in and took the throne from Dragos´ son. Thank you! Also this Moldovan Game of Thrones can also be a disaster maybe.!!!!
 
  • 7
Reactions:
Are you open to the idea of non-generic disasters of events that could have plausibly happened, but didn't?
We're focusing mostly on Historical content for the base game.
 
  • 42Like
  • 4
  • 4
Reactions:
My question is wether there will ever be a scenario where instead of doubling down to solve the current disaster you instead decide to backtrack and move in your desired direction at a slower pace later. For example during Court and Country, will there ever be a reason for you to resolve the disaster by reducing your absolutism value and veering towards satisfying your estates instead of accepting the penalties and forcefully centralising your country? In EU4 you always want Court and Country to end with you gaining the absolutism bonus. I hope that totally not EU5 will have more viable alternative methods in resolving disasters compared to its predecessor.
 
  • 3
Reactions:
Does this confirm generic situations???
I meant 'Crisis of the [X] Dynasty' disaster, just corrected the post, sorry for the error.
 
  • 27Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Any disaster relating to locust swarms? I know they ravaged and caused famines in most of the Danube basin and Italy during the Middle Ages. While it does seem to be just like a punishment for the player, having buildings for food production/storage and trading in more diverse food items would mitigate it and it would be a good thing to work towards.