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Tinto Talks #5 - March 27th, 2024

Welcome to the fifth Tinto Talks, where we talk about the design for our upcoming top secret game with the codename ‘Project Caesar.’


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The state is me! Oh, you meant E-state, sorry.. not me ..

Today we will go into detail about one of the core systems in the game, and talk about how estates work.

First of all, there are four estates in Project Caesar, which mostly map 1 to 1 with a social class: Nobility, Clergy, Burghers and the Commoners. There is also the Crown, which represents the state itself.

Each estate gains power based on the amount of population belonging to the estate, which is also modifiable by local attributes of where the population is, where some nobles may have very high power in a certain area, or whether a specific city has entrenched burgher rights there.

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This is the estates part of the government view, where you can see their power, current satisfaction, the equilibrium its trending toward, and what privileges it currently has.

Every 1,000 nobles gives +50 estate power to their estate, while 1,000 peasants merely give +0.05 estate power as default. Then these are modified locally in every location, as mentioned above, and then in the entire country by laws, reforms and most notably the privileges that you have given the estates.

The total power of all the 4 estates and the crown then together all add up to 100%, which is the effective power they have.

Depending on your crown power, you either get a scaling penalty or scaling bonus, on aspects like the cost of revoking estate privileges, the cost of changing policies in laws, the efficiency of the cabinet, the expected costs of the court, and other things. If your crown power is weak, you need to have the estates really satisfied, or you will not get much out of any parliament you try to call.

Each of the four estates has a current satisfaction and an equilibrium it will move towards. Some estates, and some countries, will have the estate satisfaction moving quicker to the equilibrium than others. Each estate has 2 factors per type of estate in which their satisfaction impacts the entire country, where satisfaction above 50% gives a scaling bonus, and below, a scaling penalty.

If the satisfaction is below 25%, this estate will not provide any levies. Most importantly, the estate satisfaction also impacts the satisfaction of the pops that belong to that estate, possibly creating rebel factions or even civil wars.
  • Nobility impacts your prestige gain and your counterespionage.
  • Clergy impacts your research speed and your diplomatic reputation.
  • Burghers impact your merchant power and the production efficiency.
  • Commoner impacts your food production and your stability costs.

So what impacts the satisfaction equilibrium of an estate? The privileges they get, the current stability, some reforms may impact them, some laws may, how you tax them, and much more. Some examples include clergy being happier with higher religious unity or burghers liking having more market centers in your country.

# estate privileges
Estate Privileges then? You may feel forced to grant privileges to estates to be able to tax them more, and you may be forced to grant privileges to get their support in parliament. All privileges impact the power of their estate, and many also increase their satisfaction equilibrium. They all have some impact on gameplay fitting the privilege, and often they also impact a societal value of their country.

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WiP ui, temporary graphics and no icons etc.

There are many different privileges, and many unique ones depending on where and what type of country you play.

We mentioned taxes before, and while this is not the development diary where we go into details about the economic system, it is important to mention that the estates of a country have wealth that is increased by the amount of money that you have not taken from them in taxes. Rich estates will use their wealth on many things, primarily to invest into things that benefit them, but will often also build things that also benefit the country.

Next week we will talk about a few new concepts that are rather new to this game that have not been present in previous games, as we will talk about proximity, control and maritime presence, all concepts that need to be talked about in detail, before we go into the economy system.
 
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On paper this sounds good but hopefully there aren't restrictive building slots like in CK3, because your vassals would build useless buildings in your kingdom and fill up building slots, so the meta was to build optimal buildings at lvl 1 before they start with useless ones.
Although EU4 also had building slots they were pretty generous and did not restrict you as much, you had loads of space to build what you wanted.
This is all assuming the building system will work similar to previous games.
I think a sort of middle ground is required. I would certainly not like it if estates never acted in a way that was against my own interests as a player/sovereign, but if there is an extremely gamey and awkward solution to stop that entirely that is also not ideal.
 
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On paper this sounds good but hopefully there aren't restrictive building slots like in CK3, because your vassals would build useless buildings in your kingdom and fill up building slots, so the meta was to build optimal buildings at lvl 1 before they start with useless ones.
Although EU4 also had building slots they were pretty generous and did not restrict you as much, you had loads of space to build what you wanted.
This is all assuming the building system will work similar to previous games.

There is no restrictive building slot system in Project Caesar.
 
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Hopefully it will work in favour of Tall play.

probably.. Its far easier to play tall if you play, lets say Flandern, than the Jarldom of Greenland.
 
Assuming climate and vegetation effect building and development then I can definitely see why. Not much grows in Greenland after all, compared to the Low Countries. (I excluded topography as mountainside farms exist) Really excited to see how it's gonna play out! :D
 
probably.. Its far easier to play tall if you play, lets say Flandern, than the Jarldom of Greenland.

As long as I can play tall with the Andorran Tax Haven, all is good.
 
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Greenland starts as Norse confirmed?

Greenland was staunchly catholic in 1337. They had had Bishops there for several centuries then.
 
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What I really wonder is how steppe nations is going to be like. What I mean is will it be like EU4 where only difference from avg. monarchy is just razing and horde unity mechanic or will we have new mechanics and government types for hordes ?
 
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Hello Johan, I've been playing your games since eu1. Thank you for maintaining such a demanding policy over the years.
I'm writing these few lines to tell you about the three things that were so charming about eu1.
The first was the impossibility of attacking Russia in winter.
The second was the fact that, in the event of prolonged uprisings, the bordering regions would automatically join our nation.
The third was to learn about the succession of kings, so as to be able to adapt gameplay from one game to the next.
I know you'll make a wonderful game.
Best regards.
 
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There is no restrictive building slot system in Project Caesar.
Vicky 3 building system - subsistence farm simulator LFG
Jokes aside I wonder how many sectors there could be - first era techs in Vicky 3 is EU IV.
 
The map is beautiful, and I hate to bring negativity straight away, but please move away from the mobile-game-esque clean bland modern UI and let this be just a placeholder.
It's easily the worst part of the 'visual experience' of playing Victoria 3, and I'd hate to have it tarnish what can otherwise be a beautiful gem of a game.
Yes, I fully agree. I do not like the UI design in Victoria 3. It is not only a bad UX (Such as the damn lens opening up and taking up 20% of my screen when I didn't even click them!!!) but the design in general. Feels very mobile game and bland. Easily the worst experience in Victoria 3 imo.
 
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The first was the impossibility of attacking Russia in winter.
I agree. Seasons should have a bigger impact than they do in EU4. For war, military campaigns were planned around seasons. Even in non-war related things, when sending exploration fleets, navigators took into account the ocean currents which change seasonally, but predictably.
 
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Will Egypt look like a rectangle or a snake? Meaning, will part of the Sahara be cut in a way that makes full control of it give Egypt its rectangle look it currently has today?
Let’s hope not. That’s totally anachronistic for this game period. These are 19th century colonial borders from the scramble of Africa, there is absolutely no linguistic, religious or ethnic reason behind this arbitrary straight line, it was just imposed as a clear demarcation.

No historical mamluk or ottoman map ever had this square shape
 
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The first was the impossibility of attacking Russia in winter.
It was possible, but with high losses :) and maybe there will be donkey system like in Imperator:Rome
Let’s hope not. That’s totally anachronistic for this game period. These are 19th century colonial borders from the scramble of Africa, there is absolutely no linguistic, religious or ethnic reason behind this arbitrary straight line, it was just imposed as a clear demarcation.

No historical mamluk or ottoman map ever had this square shape
maybe we will get a map screenshot tomorrow