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Tinto Talks #52 - 26th of Feburary 2025

Hello and Welcome to another Tinto Talks, the Happy Wednesday where we spill all the secrets about our upcoming game with the codename Project Caesar.


In a game where we simulate hundreds of millions of people, not all calamities that they get exposed to involve Warfare or Diseases. Today we will talk about how Mother Nature does her best trying to reduce the population regularly.

Little Ice Age

As the widest definition of the Little Ice Age encompasses almost the entire timespan of our game, we decided to go with the Maunder Minimum, which happened between 1645 and 1715, being the colder phase of the period. We simulate the Little Ice Age with a Situation that will affect the northern half of the Northern Hemisphere, making winters last longer.

During the Little Ice Age, food production in the affected areas is lowered, and events and other mechanics are happening which will make the experience a challenging mid to late-game phase.

ice_age.png

Who will survive?

Weather
We also have a rather in-depth weather system, where we simulate storms and similar phenomena moving across the planet. We currently have two categories of weather systems, the weather front, and the cyclone. We have also included in the weather fronts the monsoons, which have the particularity of going in one direction (Africa to India) from February to June, and in the other direction (Himalayas to the Indian Ocean) from October to December.



cyclone.png

Ireland might suffer some weather fronts during the year, yeah…


Not all weather systems that spawn are the same strength, and their strength can change as they move across the map. The strength of the weather system directly impacts the benefits and penalties they give to the locations.

Fronts are usually wide weather patterns bringing rain from the oceans into lands. This has some negative impacts on armies and navies, but it provides a large food production boost.

passed.png

This was a huge rainstorm..


Cyclones, or Hurricanes as they are known in the Northern Hemisphere, are a more narrow weather system, which causes a lot of damage due to high wind speeds.

wind_damage.png

At least no buildings damaged? Or????


In deserts with cold arid or arid climate, there will not be sometimes beneficial rains though when a weather system passes through, but instead you will get sandstorms.

sandstorm.png

I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere.

In any location with severe winter, where a front passes through, there will be snow instead of heavy rain.

snowstorm.png

Didn’t stop Carl Gustaf Armfeldt trying to move his army..


Volcanos
There are locations which contain volcanos that are not entirely dormant. At any point, any one of them can erupt, spewing out long streams of lava and an enormous cloud of ash that leaves a path of destruction in its wake, causing huge devastation to the location they are present in.

It will ruin RGO’s, destroy buildings, kill a lot of people, and reduce prosperity dramatically. Afterwards, there is a small boost to food production due to volcanic soil for a few decades.

volcanic_soil.png

Can be helpful longterm yes?


Earthquakes
A large part of the world is prone to earthquakes. While we do have some famous historical earthquakes likely to happen, we also have a small chance that any area with an earthquake risk can get one.

Similar to a Volcano it will destroy buildings and kill people, but earthquakes will usually not affect just a single location, but many adjacent ones as well.


Sadly there are some locations that are in the awkward position of most being in an earthquake zone, and having a volcano.

naples.png

Not the best place for a city?



Next week we’ll be talking about how mercenaries work in Project Caesar.
 
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So what about Autumn Storms?

I heared the turks abandoned the Siege of Malta, because the mediterranean Sea should be avoided during autumn when sailing becomes very risky.
Kinda makes sense, hot air soaked with water cools down as autumn comes => Huge Storms.

So is there a higher change for Storms in early Autumn when temperatures fall?
 
I see several inaccuracies in the earthquake risk map. For example, most of central Italy and eastern Romania are quite shaky in reality, yet only small portions are listed as at risk; Apulia on the other hand is a very quiet land, but it has been arbitrarily listed as at risk.

Is the map still WIP? If it is, I found this world map that might help you. It pinpoints 1300 events of magnitude >7 occurring between 1897 and the date of publication (1989), and 140k events of magnitude >4 occurred since the 1960s'. I think it can be reliable for the game timespan as well, I guess. Its resolution is not at game-location level, but it still shows at a glance where to put earthquake risk labels.
 

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Is it really correct to model a passing weather front / storm as something so very much (+25%) positive for food production? I'm no agriculturist, but I'd imagine one would have brought with it ruined crops, flooded farmlands, inaccessible terrain & dead animals (e.g. chickens).
 
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Is there any way for the player to mitigate the damage done by natural disasters? Like flood walls for cyclones as an example. Special bonus points if these benefits are staggered throughout the game's timespan to give the player a goal to work up towards.
 
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Will the 1700 Cascadia earthquake be one of those famous earthquakes set to likely happen? It was extremely impactful to the people of the PNW of course.
And related, are tsunamis from earthquakes modeled at all? Such as with the above having waves destroying some stuff in Japan. It would be really cool if earthquake tsunamis were in this
 
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The monsoons (and heavy rains in general) should give movement speed maluses to armies and should increase penalties for crossing rivers (both in terms of time and in terms of penalties for battle). It should also be a lot harder to supply your armies during the monsoon. The monsoons shaped many wars in the Indian subcontinent, and hopefully the weather system should be able to reflect that.
 
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This is all great however some feedback.

- The bit about cyclones and hurricanes. being northern hemisphere related is wrong. The naming system is actually. It is called a hurricane if it is in the Atlantic, a cyclone of it is in the Indian Ocean, a typhoon of it is in the pacific.

- also regarding typhoons, hurricane and cyclones. South America should not be affected by these events. If they aren’t well done.

- although the reason why kinda leads on to my next point. The La Niña and El Niño. Weather system should be represented in the game for the Oceania and South America nations adding a bit of flavour to the game.

- another tid bit is landslides should be in the game maybe a factor in some areas like Hong Kong area which are prone to landslides due to heavy urbanisation. It should be a random event after a heavy rainfall in hilly or mountainous areas meaning that area receives their building damaged or destroyed even. Countries like Switzerland should have event like avalanches making playing that country a bit more difficult but more flavour. Other mountainous areas could have avalanches as well.

- leading onto other weather system not mentioned is tornadoes, unlike the common stereotype they only occur in the Midwest USA, this isn’t the case, they can occur in Central Europe and weirdly enough the second most hit place in the world by tornadoes is the uk. Also in countries like Bangladesh. Like landslides they could be an event leading to several building in multiple location being damaged or destroyed.

- earthquakes can cause landslides and tsunamis. Tsunamis should be included, a good historical example is the 1700 Portugal earthquake.

- volcanoes can cause landslides and flooding. Flooding should be some sort of mechanic, for countries in the lowlands and other areas prone to it. Now counties like Iceland receive flooding from a volcano when the lava melts the ice, this is called

Jökulhlaup.​


- earthquakes like volcanoes are not all bad, in fault lines, the faults can push up water creating good areas for buildings a city in otherwise barren locations, this is why the city of bam in Iran was founded. California is rich in resources like oil and gold due to the fault pulling resources to the surface. There are three types of faults but that is gettting too complicated

- also using the Richter scale is outdated and generally considered wrong, instead seismologist use moment magnitude scale.

- another point is Europe does not get hit by hurricanes as these weather events can only form in warm water. Due to the ocean currents, Europe never gets hit by hurricanes as all the hurricanes that could potentially hit Europe have died down due to the cold water between America and Europe.

- a lot of the information found here can be found by a simple google search. However if sources are required I will gladly provide them.

If any of these do get added it would add a whole lot of flavour to the game, the weather system is okay but feels a bit basic at the moment. Although if one could get added I would definitely choose the hurricane, cyclone, typhoon naming system.
 
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Can I see the volcano/earthquake map for Asia, Pacific. I might give feedback on it. Europe looks good, i think the volcanoes that I identified seem to be Erta Ale (Ethiopia), Katla, Hekla (both in Iceland), Vesuvius/Campi Flegrei (Naples), Etna & La soufrière in St. Vincent & the Grenadines. But a lot of volcanoes would be near the Pacific. And i'm also cure to how earthquake zones are represented in Asia & the Americas.
 
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it’s so refreshing to see such detail! The realistic movement of weather fronts, the inclusion of monsoons, cyclones, and even sandstorms all make the game world feel so alive and challenging.

Though:
  1. Will there be a dedicated weather map mode so we can keep an eye on these systems as they roll in?
  2. Will weather effects like rain, sandstorms, and snowstorms, and fronts be visibly represented on the map in real time?
 
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Will there be volcanic winter?
It got me really curious. Historically, our Earth went through some pretty dramatic volcanic winters between the 14th and 19th centuries. massive eruptions, from the mysterious 1452/1453 event to the 1600 eruption of Huaynaputina, the devastating 1783 Laki eruption, and the infamous 1815 Tambora—which led to what they call the "Year Without Summer." these events upended life as we know it. Crops failed, food shortages hit hard, and entire societies were forced to adapt to unforeseen hardships.

Of course, in a game setting, there should be an element of randomness to these volcanic winter events. It’d be cool if players could even choose how often they occur—maybe one per campaign, three per campaign, or even unlimited, much like how CK3 lets you customize events. Should dev team bring that flexibility into the game?

I really wonder if Johan could add a volcanic winter mechanic to the game. It would introduce a whole new level of challenge,

where players have to deal with
  • sudden climate shift (weather systems, fronts severity of the winter),
  • resource shortages (negative modifiers ort events),
  • and shifts in social dynamics (societal values?).
Imagine having to postpone military campaigns or take a more lenient approach against rebellions while coping with these drastic changes. What do you think—should Johan bring some of that historical realism into the game?
 
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Do earthquakes have the potential to cause giant fires as well, or is that already represented by the destruction they deal out already?

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"The 1855 Edo earthquake (安政江戸地震, Ansei Edo Jishin) was the third Ansei Great Earthquake, which occurred during the late-Edo period.[3] It occurred after the 1854 Nankai earthquake, which took place about a year prior. The earthquake occurred at 22:00 local time on 11 November. It had an epicenter close to Edo (now Tokyo), causing considerable damage in the Kantō region from the shaking and subsequent fires, with a death toll of 7,000–10,000 people and destroyed around 14,000 buildings.[4][2] The earthquake had a magnitude of 7.0 on the surface wave magnitude scale and reached a maximum intensity of XI (Extreme) on the Mercalli intensity scale.[1][5] The earthquake triggered a minor tsunami."
out of curiosity, is this Aku ?
 
My money on it erupting one time during playthrough specifically to kill my 90\90\90 heir.

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Maybe exploiters will send a 0/0/0 heir as admiral straight into the affected areas—or even right into a hurricane—just to watch their 'little one-way ticketed armada' get wiped out, unless, of course, after all the ships sink, the heir teleports to the capital.
 
will Artillery units get more attrition from rain or is it same for all unit types?

same for all
These examples below clearly show that severe winter conditions were a major hurdle for artillery (especially early cannons) in the past., no?

I believe that firing artillery in severe winter-affected fronts should be restricted. Historically, extreme winter conditions have significantly compromised artillery performance, here are 6:
  • Siege of Kazan (1552): During Ivan the Terrible’s campaign, freezing temperatures really messed up the cannons. Gunpowder acted unpredictably and metal parts contracted, causing misfires and overall unreliability.

  • Winter Campaigns of the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648): In Central Europe, winter operations often found that the cold led to frequent artillery malfunctions. The freezing weather just wasn’t kind to early cannons.

  • Russo-Polish War (1654–1667): Harsh Eastern European winters made it nearly impossible for artillery to perform consistently. The deep cold affected both gunpowder and the cannon components, limiting how much they could fire.

  • Ottoman Campaigns in Eastern Europe (16th–17th centuries): When fighting in regions like Hungary or near Vienna, the onset of winter made artillery a risky bet. Commanders often had to delay or restrict the use of their cannons because the weather simply didn't cooperate.

  • English Civil War Winter Engagements (1642–1651): Yes, even in England, where winters are milder, the damp and freezing conditions during some battles reduced artillery accuracy and effectiveness, proving that even a slightly cold climate could pose challenges.

  • Napoleon’s Invasion of Russia (1812): The brutal Russian winter severely hampered artillery operations. Freezing temperatures affected gunpowder and metal components, leading to misfires and mechanical failures that contributed to the campaign’s collapse.

 
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These examples below clearly show that severe winter conditions were a major hurdle for artillery (especially early cannons) in the past., no?

I believe that firing artillery in severe winter-affected fronts should be restricted. Historically, extreme winter conditions have significantly compromised artillery performance, here are 6:
  • Siege of Kazan (1552): During Ivan the Terrible’s campaign, freezing temperatures really messed up the cannons. Gunpowder acted unpredictably and metal parts contracted, causing misfires and overall unreliability.

  • Winter Campaigns of the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648): In Central Europe, winter operations often found that the cold led to frequent artillery malfunctions. The freezing weather just wasn’t kind to early cannons.

  • Russo-Polish War (1654–1667): Harsh Eastern European winters made it nearly impossible for artillery to perform consistently. The deep cold affected both gunpowder and the cannon components, limiting how much they could fire.

  • Ottoman Campaigns in Eastern Europe (16th–17th centuries): When fighting in regions like Hungary or near Vienna, the onset of winter made artillery a risky bet. Commanders often had to delay or restrict the use of their cannons because the weather simply didn't cooperate.

  • English Civil War Winter Engagements (1642–1651): Yes, even in England, where winters are milder, the damp and freezing conditions during some battles reduced artillery accuracy and effectiveness, proving that even a slightly cold climate could pose challenges.

  • Napoleon’s Invasion of Russia (1812): The brutal Russian winter severely hampered artillery operations. Freezing temperatures affected gunpowder and metal components, leading to misfires and mechanical failures that contributed to the campaign’s collapse.


Also First Vienna Siege of Ottomans, as Ottomans couldnt carry their heavy cannons due to heavy rain on their march to Vienna and had to abondon the siege shortly afterwards
 
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