• 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:
There were floods in the Netherlands during the span of the game that wiped out entire parts of the land and killed tens of thousands like the St. Felix's Flood. Are those in the game? Can we defend against them with dikes?
 
  • 9Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Having played a bunch of Civ 7 recently, where disasters are currently a bit annoying and happen seemingly every 5 turns, I can say that it's a major pain in the ass having to manually repair stuff every single time.
I suggest, as a QoL thing, that there should be some simple "disaster relief budget" UI thing that you can put money into from your treasury, which would automatically do repairs for you (i.e. restoring destroyed buildings and whatnot).
 
  • 13Like
  • 3
Reactions:
Love this!

But I am concerned about how weather systems and effects are actually represented on the map. As they will strongly affect our economy and military, do we need to be constantly checking the weather in every province before we make a move (so we don't sail into a storm or march into a monsoon), or is there an easier way to be kept aware?

Edit: To clarify I understand there is a weather map mode but that doesn't alleviate my concern of having to check it constantly. The plagues in CK3 are really well-integrated into the political map, I would hope weather and disease etc. are integrated into PC's political map in the same way as that is the map we'll spend 90% of the time looking at.
 
  • 4
  • 2
  • 1Like
Reactions:
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.
I second this thought, provinces should get a permanent volcanic soil buff that provides ~5% or so food production all the time, with the downside being the threat of volcanic destruction
 
  • 13Like
  • 1
Reactions:
I second this thought, provinces should get a permanent volcanic soil buff that provides ~5% or so food production all the time, with the downside being the threat of volcanic destruction
I agree, although at that point I'd just like to see a soil fertility map classification in general though.
t's a bit odd to single out volcanic soils, while black soils are right up there next to them.
Some regions are also notoriously horrible/bad to grow crops in due to other factors (erosion rates, limited rooting depth, high salt levels, too sandy...)
 
  • 11Like
  • 8
Reactions:
Really hope that natural disasters in “PC” will provide some challenge for the player, but at the same time will not make the game feel unfair/unplayable for some nations (Yellow River Flood and Yangtze River Flood EU4 Events flashbacks).

well, not many places are perfect for humans
 
  • 61Like
  • 9
  • 7Haha
  • 2
Reactions:
  • 57Like
  • 11
  • 3
  • 1Love
Reactions:
Nothing definitive. Currently I'm not convinced by how Wales and the Palatinates feel to play so they are WIP. I think Ireland is close to being finished though.
If you finished with the other stuff(raw goods, location reworks...) can't you just show it to us so we can give you some feedback amd then you decide how to do Wales and the Palatinates? Please?
 
  • 3
  • 1
Reactions: