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Tinto Talks #51 - 19th of February 2025

Welcome to the 51st Tinto Talks, the Happy Wednesday where we give you information about our entirely secret game with the Codename of Project Caesar.

Today we will talk about subjects and how they function in our game


Subjects and their Overlord
In Project Caesar, as it starts at the end of the Medieval Era, and reaches into the Post-Napoleonic World, we have to have a system that works for feudal states and also for grand empires spanning the world. This is simulated by our subject system.

A Subject is any country that is subordinate to an overlord. It typically has limitations on its diplomacy in return for protection in a war. Subjects may also suffer subject taxation, and have a certain percentage of their great power score exacted by their overlord. Additionally, a subject may not become a great power. The exact rules are dependent on the subject type. Subjects have subject loyalty towards their overlord, and a liberty desire - both of which indicate their current stance on their subordination. Any subject may in turn be the overlord of other countries, allowing long chains of Subject-Overlord relationships.

An Overlord is a country that has any number of subjects as its subordinates. In return for protecting each subject in wars, it typically receives subject taxation, and exacts a certain percentage of the subject's great power score. The exact rules are dependent on each subject's subject type. Any Overlord may in turn be the subject of other countries, allowing long chains of Subject-Overlord relationships.


Subject Loyalty
Every subject has a Subject Loyalty towards their overlord. Ranging from 0 to 100, and when a subject has less than 50 subject loyalty towards its overlord, it becomes a Disloyal Subject. When in such a state, it will no longer join the wars of its overlord and cannot be annexed.

There is also the concept of ‘Liberty Desire’, which represents a subject's current drive for independence from its overlord, and it affects subject loyalty. Its value is from -100 to +100, but it has a monthly decay towards 0. The value is also used as a currency in some Subject Interactions.


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The Bretons are loyal.. for now..



Diplomatic Capacity
As we mentioned in earlier Tinto Talks, the cost of having a subject is not a fixed number as in previous games we have made, but depends on many factors, including the type of subject.

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Of course we have nested tooltips to find out detailed information..



Create New Subjects
If you have locations in more than 2 different provinces, you’ll always have the possibility to create a subject of one of your provinces. You can also select from the valid types of subjects that your country can have in that province. After you have selected the type of subject you want, you may, if the type of subject allows it,also pick the character to be the ruler of the new subject.

There are also ways to convince your subject to change from one type of subject to another type, where it would be valid.


Vassal
The most typical type of subject, a vassal oversees its territory on behalf of its overlord, pays vassal fees and joins the military campaigns of its overlord.

Almost all countries can make Vassal Subjects.

vassal.png

Probably needs to improve and merge some lines here to make tooltip less unwieldy..

Fiefdom
A Fiefdom is a junior title that is the property of its overlord's ruler. This can only be created and maintained by a Monarchy though. There are some drawbacks to it, as it can not be created by diplomatic offers, and does not grant any prestige.

March
A March is a subject country focused on defending our domain, acting as a barrier between their overlord and external threats.

A March pays half the gold that a vassal does and can not be annexed, but the March gets a discipline boost and gets better-lasting forts that are also cheaper.

Colonial Nation
A Colonial Nation is a subject centered around the administration of overseas colonies on behalf of its overlord.

There are two ways to create a colonial nation. First of all, you can make one from a conquered overseas territory, but secondly, and most commonly you have the option to create one directly from when one of your colonial charters finishes.

A Colonial Nation gives up 33% of its trade capacity and trade advantage to their overlord, while also giving up 10% of their manpower and sailors, and pays 20% of their tax to the overlord.

Conquistadors
Conquistadors are the leaders of a private army who have signed contracts with their rulers to explore and conquer certain territories in exchange for the title of Governor, and a share of the new lands and spoils.

This is a unique type of subject that is only available to Catholic countries with the Capital in Iberia, and this advance is available from the Age of Discovery.

A Conquistador can be commissioned by selecting an area in America, and then a character to lead them. It will also require about 2,000 manpower and some gold to start. It will start with preparing in a nearby good port.

conq_1.png

Just a few months…. And then it’s Conquest of Paradise.

Afterwards the Conquistador have gathered enough resources for their expedition they will set sail, and you will hear from them the next time in a few months time, informing you that they have started their activities.

conq_2.png

Let's see what he can do!

This spawns an army-based country in a location in the area, starting with about 2 regiments of conquistadors. They start at war with the owner of the location where they spawn, and will automatically conquer any location they get control over. They also have the capacity to raise levies from the local people, even if it's from a non-accepted culture. If they manage to get to peace or get enough locations they will convert into a colonial nation of yours.


Some other unique subject types we will go into detail on when we talk about countries that can use them in a Tinto Flavor include Appanages, State Banks, Hanseatic Members and more..


Playing as Overlord
Several types of subjects allow the overlord to annex a subject. Annexation is when an overlord completely takes over one of its subjects. The overlord will gain all of the subject's owned locations, and any character not fleeing to other countries.

A disloyal subject can not be annexed though, and the cost of annexation depends on the amount of cities and towns that a subject has, with rural locations having less of an impact.

scania.png

Less than 30 years, should be worth it..

There are also plenty of different subject interactions, like giving locations or provinces to your subjects, take land, manpower, gold or sailors from them and much more.

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And of course there are other unique ones..

Playing as Subject
If you play a country that is a subject you have a few tools at your disposal. First of all there are two different cabinet actions that you can use.

Frustrate Annexation
This action uses the administrative ability of the ruler and the cabinet member assigned to the task to slow down annexation.

By hindering their delegates with an archaic constitutional legislature and obstructing them at every turn, we can increase the amount of time it will take for our overlord to annex us.

Sow Disloyalty
This action uses the diplomatic ability of the ruler and the cabinet member assigned to the task to reduce the loyalty to your overlord.

By spreading cruel rumors about our overlord and espousing the benefits of ruling ourselves, we can decrease our own subject loyalty, potentially becoming a disloyal subject.


disloyalty.png

Maybe I need a better cabinet member to do it?

And if you want to become independent there are two ways to do it.

First of all, there is the classic option of just declaring war on your overlord, but that is often not entirely a good idea, especially not if you have a tax base at about 1% of your powerful overlord.

However, the other option in Project Caesar, is to start an independence movement. This is somewhat similar to a coalition in that it is an international organization with a target country. You can invite other countries to join it, including other subjects of the same overlord, and when you have gathered enough strength in your movement, often securing the backing of another powerful country, you can start the war and have a chance at liberty.



Stay tuned for next week we will delve into weather and natural disasters.
 

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Is there a diplomatic interaction with another country where you ask them to be your subject similar to how a Castile player usually coerces Navara to bend the knee in EU4? If so, are the requirements for these interactions more clear unlike in EU4, all you get is "your economic base compared to their economic base is insufficient" because of vague reasons.
 
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Please tell me there will be some sort of province reorganization system for colonies. It has always annoyed me that I can't fix the bordergore of my colonial subjects.
 
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Will vassal swarms still be a thing that is viable if done in Project Caesar?

Also, will eyalets be one of the unique ones that are introduced again?
The main advantage is that vassals will usually have higher control over their locations than you’d have if owning directly. I imagine it’s worth I but only circumstantially.
 
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Depends.. there is no magical +X gold/+x Manpower for any country like eu4 has.
Given that, how necessary do you think it is to have the diplomatic capacity cost at all? Sure they can make better use of territory you can't "Control" as well yourself, but it seems they can be a liability in some cases as well?

On another note: have you though of a Subject Type for (supposedly) non-hereditary governorships like those in used in India?
 
You mentioned subject gameplay but it seems to only be ways to hinder your overlord and stop partaking in subject gameplay. Is there anything you can do like use favors on your overlord to request a war for one of your land claims?
 
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Conquistadors are a great feature, but there’s a historical misconception that they conquered americas on their own. Often times, native allies were absolutely critical to their success. For one example, without Tlaxcala, Aztecs likely wouldn’t have been so quickly defeated. And after the victory, Tlaxcala was given considerable autonomy in New Spain.

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I feel like levies aren’t enough to represent this, as that’s a rather unequal relationship. Conquistadors should be able to ally with natives and fight alongside them. Potentially even encouraging subject natives to revolt against their overlords, and intervening in native civil wars.
 
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What mechanisms will we have to deal with subject disloyalty? I see a few options on the subject actions chart, but will there be a war option to crush disloyal subjects, especially colonial nations? In EU4 they always became disloyal and there was only limited amount of loyalty you could get back with the available actions, so they would get stuck in a disloyal limbo state with no recourse.
 
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Create New Subjects
If you have locations in more than 2 different provinces, you’ll always have the possibility to create a subject of one of your provinces. You can also select from the valid types of subjects that your country can have in that province. After you have selected the type of subject you want, you may, if the type of subject allows it,also pick the character to be the ruler of the new subject.

There are also ways to convince your subject to change from one type of subject to another type, where it would be valid.
Can you customize the area, and name, of the subject?

Vassal
The most typical type of subject, a vassal oversees its territory on behalf of its overlord, pays vassal fees and joins the military campaigns of its overlord.

Almost all countries can make Vassal Subjects.
"Almost" all countries? Who are the exceptions?

Fiefdom
A Fiefdom is a junior title that is the property of its overlord's ruler. This can only be created and maintained by a Monarchy though. There are some drawbacks to it, as it can not be created by diplomatic offers, and does not grant any prestige.

March
A March is a subject country focused on defending our domain, acting as a barrier between their overlord and external threats.

A March pays half the gold that a vassal does and can not be annexed, but the March gets a discipline boost and gets better-lasting forts that are also cheaper.
I have two questions here:
1. I believe you mentioned "Dominion" type subjects before. What are they?
2. Can the name or title of vassals change depending on their subject type? For example, could March subjects dynamically change their title to March/Margraviate/etc?


Colonial Nation
A Colonial Nation is a subject centered around the administration of overseas colonies on behalf of its overlord.

There are two ways to create a colonial nation. First of all, you can make one from a conquered overseas territory, but secondly, and most commonly you have the option to create one directly from when one of your colonial charters finishes.

A Colonial Nation gives up 33% of its trade capacity and trade advantage to their overlord, while also giving up 10% of their manpower and sailors, and pays 20% of their tax to the overlord.
What is the in-game definition of "overseas"? Belonging to a different continent, without any direct land contact?

Conquistadors
Conquistadors are the leaders of a private army who have signed contracts with their rulers to explore and conquer certain territories in exchange for the title of Governor, and a share of the new lands and spoils.

This is a unique type of subject that is only available to Catholic countries with the Capital in Iberia, and this advance is available from the Age of Discovery.

A Conquistador can be commissioned by selecting an area in America, and then a character to lead them. It will also require about 2,000 manpower and some gold to start. It will start with preparing in a nearby good port.

View attachment 1256232
Just a few months…. And then it’s Conquest of Paradise.

Afterwards the Conquistador have gathered enough resources for their expedition they will set sail, and you will hear from them the next time in a few months time, informing you that they have started their activities.

View attachment 1256233
Let's see what he can do!

This spawns an army-based country in a location in the area, starting with about 2 regiments of conquistadors. They start at war with the owner of the location where they spawn, and will automatically conquer any location they get control over. They also have the capacity to raise levies from the local people, even if it's from a non-accepted culture. If they manage to get to peace or get enough locations they will convert into a colonial nation of yours.
And I wanted to say that this Conquistador system is very clever, and that the 3D models are looking better with each day!
 
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Already asked in the previous dev diary, but I guess it fits here as well: can we form our subjects into other formable countries? For example France vassalizing Savoy and feeding it all of Italy to turn it into Italy itself.
 
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It feels like Conquistadors might be too focused on just geographic expansion in the Americas - Portuguese Conquistadors like Afonso de Albuquerque built trading posts and conquered coastal cities in Africa and Asia, but they didn't build large colonies themselves.
 
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Enslavment was definitly a reality, but I don't think it's what this mechanic is meant to represent as, for example, Cortes's army was not mostly made up of slaves but of allied natives who wanted to overthrow the Aztecs
The conquest of the Nahuas and Quechuas were atypical. "Conquistas" were quite varied in their forms, alliances weren't always a possibility and expeditions through uncharted lands that had heavy attrition more often that not required a good deal of slaving and looting.
 
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I'd like it if disloyal subjects with low liberty desire would organise revolts to decentralise the realm. Instead of decoupling from the system they seek to change it from within. I know it's not ck3, but it would be cool to see french vassals team up (maybe with a foreign realm) to lower taxes and change religious laws. Please <3
 
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So if I move play as France and conquer Barcelona and move my capital there, I can get conquistadors, if I am willing to take the control penalty for having my capital in a place that is not ideal for the territories I own mostly in the north?
 
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I'd like it if disloyal subjects with low liberty desire would organise revolts to decentralise the realm. Instead of decoupling from the system they seek to change it from within. I know it's not ck3, but it would be cool to see french vassals team up (maybe with a foreign realm) to lower taxes and change religious laws. Please <3
Love that, I think that this kind of nuance is exactly what can make the game more historical and engaging
 
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