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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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A few additional possibilities for weather conditions, especially for the Americas:

Tornados - Both for tornado/dixie alley in NA or areas like Bangladesh that experience high numbers of tornados, or waterspout hotspots like the Mediterranean.

Annual weather systems - Nor'Easters (more of a large blizzard rather than a normal snowstorm) or El Nino/La Nina (increasing chances of flooding or droughts in specific areas, possible modifiers surrounding fishing production as well)?

Slides (snowslide, mudslide, rockslide, etc.) - In areas with large snowfall, mountainous terrain, etc. Could also be used more as an event for when troops are moved through such areas

Heatwaves - Especially targeting arid areas

Floods was already mentioned but also Tsunamis (particularly if there are earthquakes/slides in a coastal region)

In particular with the little ice age:

Although the choice went with was the Maunder Minimum, the 1465-69 cooling event caused by several eruptions in the 50s and early 60s (including the Kuwae event) could be a good event as a mini ice age. Heres the major source I used for this one: doi:10.1007/978-3-319-49163-9_6

Another historical eruption was Huaynaputina in 1600 which also caused a volcanic winter

Theres a few additional interesting historical disasters that could be referenced:

- 1541 an earthquake-tsunami tandem completely wiped out a Spanish settlement in Venezuela
- Slide-created tsunamis in 1343 in Naples, and 1674 in Indonesia (technically this one was EQ - Slide - Tsunami)
- The 1693 Sicilian earthquake and tsunami
- The 1609-10 winter in NA
- The Great Frost in 1709
 
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Also shouldn't "Volcanic soil" be a more permanent modifier and just just after an eruption?
I don't think it would be permanent for small eruptions, they did say a few decades and thats about right for low ash deposits. Maybe historical eruptions will be permanent modifiers since those larger ones would normally have fertility for a few centuries.
 
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how big is location UI? There is so much information about 1 location available - culture stuff, prosperity, weather, a lot of buildings etc.
will there be another windows popping up if you want more detailed info about something or is it somehow condensed in one window? (maybe a screenshot of one section that is already revealed pretty please?)
 
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1.What about forest fires? And potentially city fires like the great fire of London (smaller scale disasters).
2. Will events like the little ice age be hardcoded to start in 1645 lonked with the likely eruption in Indonesia.
3. Can such events be randomised for their start date to add a little unpredictably. (Can be unfair sometimes that the player can predict and prepare for such events while the AI can't)
4. Can natural disasters accure at the same time and place as other disasters such as a volcano erupting around the same time as an earthquake or while your country is also ravaged by the black death? (Could make for a fierce struggle).
 
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Sorry if this is unrelated, but I just need to give this idea to the dev team, so please listen.

To make each playthrough and nation unique when it comes to economy, you should have societal values increase consumption of a certain resource/product through specific pops, or building or just pops in general.

Because the combination of different society values is going to be unique for every country because of government reforms, advancements, laws etc, and even if you play the same country multiple times, because of player input on what societal values they my want that playthrough.

This will create unique demands in your country and also in your neighbors and other countries in your market for example, enhancing the economic gameplay and replayability greatly.

Sorry again if this is unrelated, I just didn't know how to reach you otherwise.
 
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I hope high rain could also hinder river crossing speeds and winters increasing woods needs.

How are trade distance and capacity effected by weather?
 
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I'm glad the Little Ice Age will be represented!

Can we get a shot of a seasons map mode like in EUIV showcasing which provinces experience winters, and which ones experience monsoons?
 
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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..
Sandstorms should also have a similar movement cost as Snow Storms, I believe. This is not Dune where you can just hitchhike through a sandstorm on the back of a worm, afterall

Is the El Niño-La Niña cycle present in the game?

lack of rain?
This would make sense if the game *required* locations to get some rain in order to effectively produce food, which is not really implied anywhere.

I think you should make droughts a separate weather event which fires if there had been no rain events in a temperate/subtropical zone for a long time, that causes famine and stuff

Tfw the Vatican gets eliminated because St Peter's Basilica gets destroyed in an earthquake
 
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lack of rain?
I assume that average rainfall isn't going to be simulated, and be necessary for food production. So if it's not, you should have some sort of heatwave/drought mechanic that probably does something like increase attrition and decrease food production. They'd probably hit whole regions or areas.
 
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What do you think of volcanoes also having an an area of effect like earthquakes? As I'm sure you're well-aware, large eruptions can have far-reaching effects such as lowering temperatures by blocking the sun with ash plumes, and those ash plumes can also be deposited far away. I propose picking a "path" for the plume, and giving the volcanic soil modifier to some locations along it as well, and possibly also some mild modification to winter duration somehow? Just a thought.
 
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I wasn't expecting such an in-depth weather system in the game. Looks great!
 
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