• 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 #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.
 
Last edited:
  • 210Love
  • 131Like
  • 7
  • 3
  • 3
Reactions:
honestly, hard disagree about the volcanoes part

I think they should be honestly divided in 2 types of events.

One being "historical eruptions", which encompasses all big Krakatoa - like eruptions and that are only scripted (these ones destroy buildings and temporarily heavily debuff RGO production in location and in a lesser manner in all the province). Tbf I feel having random unhistorical eruptions just that can kill your cities to be "slightly frustrating"

the other being "small eurptions" (akin to the ones the Etna does nowadays) which just gives a small RGO temporary debuff and then gives the "volcanic soil" as a buff to its province

also, useless to say but "volcanic soil" should be a buff given to all of Iceland, some locations near Naples, some other locations in Sicily, a good part of Java, so on so forth at the game start

edit : and add either Amalfi or Sorrento as a location but this is for Pavia and not Johan tbf
 
  • 12
  • 4Like
  • 3
  • 2
Reactions:
1. Are certain volcanic eruptions like 1815 Mount Tambor which lead to h th e 1816 year without a summer more likely to occur?

2. Do the supervulcanoes exist? Maybe as a game rule? I think it would be super cool to model what would have happened had Yellowstone or the Phlegraean Fields errupted.

3. What about floods?
 
  • 5Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Will grasshopper migrations get simulated like this system? as it was quite destructive I guess
 
Last edited:
  • 6Haha
  • 4Like
  • 1Love
  • 1
Reactions:
Northern Italy should probably be a nit more seismic considering we had some bad earthquakes a few years ago, though I don't know of any seismic activity from 1337 to 1837
Screenshot_20250226_151704_Chrome.jpg
 
  • 7Like
  • 2
Reactions:
Since seasonal monsoons are being added would it also be possible for the devs to also simulate wind currents in some way, however basic? It would definitely help add more depth and flavor to the weather system and the naval system if we had to pay attention to the basic wind currents of Earth. For example, the Indian monsoon winds making it easier to sail towards India in the summer and back towards Africa in the winter. This was the age of sail after all.
 
  • 4Like
Reactions:
Is it possible to make both earthquakes and volcanoes more granular in their danger?Like the Etna is far more prone to eruptions but it doesn't do nearly as much damage as the Vesuvius
 
  • 10
  • 2Like
Reactions:
This looks fantastic! Just a few questions:
  1. Is this a complete list of of weather effects at this time? If yes...
    1. Will you be adding floods, or will that be discussed separately?
    2. Will you be adding droughts, or will that be discussed separately?
  2. I assume the effects will impact winds for sailing. Do they?
  3. You mentioned historic earthquakes. Will there be other historic disasters such as eruptions, hurricanes (Such as the deadliest in recorded history), floods (If they're added), etc?
    1. Will there be a game option for whether to enable historical/non-historical natural disasters?
  4. Are all tectonically active areas given the same chance of earthquakes, or are some higher/lower than others?
  5. Are there various levels of earthquake, hurricane and eruption? Having rare globe-affecting eruptions like Krakatoa should be accounted for.
    1. Do volcanic eruptions cause volcanic ash worldwide, leading to famine and crop failure, if large enough?
  6. Is there a general bonus to volcanic soil even in absence of a recent eruption?
  7. We've seen an earthquake map (I assume). Are there maps for:
    1. Weather fronts
    2. Hurricane-prone locations
    3. Floods (If they're added)
 
Last edited:
  • 7Like
  • 2
Reactions:
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.

View attachment 1258991
Can be helpful longterm yes?
First off, this weather system looks amazing! Very awesome abstractions, and I can't wait to see those unfold in game.

I'm afraid your approach to volcanic soils isn't quite how it works in real life. Volcanic sois are so fertile because of the combined effect of thousands of years of volcanic activity, not per se individual events. The ash is easily weathered and broken down, which is why there are so many nutrients available, but you need organic matter in order for the crops to grow. A thin ash layer is perfect, thick ash layers are devastating, but are often also largely washed away by rain.
I can respect the approach for giving volcano-ravashed lands a small boon afterwards, but when talking about soil fertilities I think the scope is a bit too narrow here.

Large volcanic events should give negative global repercussions on food production effectivity for a short period of time (like 1 or 2 yrs, depending on size of eruption). The modifiers shouldn't be too extreme, but for the largest eruptions, a global 5-10% decrease for 1-2 years sounds devastating, simulating the effects of the Tambora in 1815, or Laki/Hekla in 1783.
 
Last edited:
  • 28Like
  • 7
  • 5
  • 1Love
Reactions:
Sadly there are some locations that are in the awkward position of most being in an earthquake zone, and having a volcano.

View attachment 1258992
Not the best place for a city?

Napoli che esplode è quello che vorrei, ringraziamo tutti i campi flegrei.

E se esplodono puliscono la monnezza, tanto quella città era già una schifezza.

Ormai avete un terremoto al girno, e speriam che vi cancellino dal mondo.

Grazie a loro addio ai napoletani, ma se eruttano poi sono cazzi amari.

*credit to u/ChristianMarchese*
 
  • 5Haha
Reactions:
Hmm, should there be more historical vs. random natural disasters? Because if the former is on and I'm playing Portugal, I know to be prepared for 1755.
 
  • 5Like
  • 2
Reactions:
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.

View attachment 1258986
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.


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.

View attachment 1258987
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.

View attachment 1258988
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.

View attachment 1258989
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.

View attachment 1258990
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.

View attachment 1258991
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.

View attachment 1258992
Not the best place for a city?



Next week we’ll be talking about how mercenaries work in Project Caesar.
Do you have game settings related to disasters, like perhaps frequency settings ranging from off, infrequent, realistic, frequent and and disastrous, maybe also a setting for excessively historical disasters too
 
  • 2Like
  • 1
Reactions: