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Tinto Flavour #10 - 14th of March 2025 - Scotland

Hello, and welcome one more week to Tinto Flavour, the happy Fridays in which we take a look at the flavour content of the super secret Project Caesar!

Today we will be showing the content for the Kingdom of Scotland. Let’s start without further ado:

Scotland is once again in peril.

A mere generation ago, our national hero King Robert de Bruce freed us from English rule alongside the famous martyr, William Wallace.

Now his successor — the bairn King David II de Bruce — lies exiled in France as our loyal nobility continues their struggle against Balliol, the English king's lackey who falsely claims the Scottish crown.

Though the people of our realm are currently united in our cause, this is not guaranteed to last. Embedded in our kingdom are deep cultural and societal divisions, especially between the wealthy English-speaking Scots burghs of the Lowlands and the Highland people who dwell in the inland hills.
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The fate of Scotland is at risk.

A mere generation ago, the illegitimate King Robert de Bruce expelled the English from the country and crowned himself king.

As the legitimate heir of the previous King John de Balliol, his son King Edward de Balliol has laid a claim to the Scottish throne. Along with his English-backed supporters, he plans to fight against the usurper and return Scotland to its legitimate ruler.
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Country Selection.png


Balliol.png

… The only problem for Scotland is that it starts in a civil war between the followers of King David II de Bruce, who is exiled to France, and those of King Edward de Balliol, nominally backed by England. This makes for a very different and interesting setup, therefore. Also, as always, please remember that any UI, 2D and 3D art is WIP, as usual.​

This is the starting situation of the Scottish Civil War:
Scotland.png


The starting diplomatic situation of King David II de Bruce:
Diplomacy Scotland.png

France is Guaranteeing, while England is an Enemy (has selected Scotland as a Rival).​

And that of King Edward de Balliol:
Diplomacy Balliol.png

England is Guaranteeing, and the Lordship of the Isles is a vassal.​

Let’s start with the content related to the Civil War. Both sides have events available for them, but let’s focus on a couple that you get while starting as Scotland - the supporters of the de Bruce dynasty.

This event will trigger early on:

Maybe you can figure out which aspect gets favoured depending on the tutor you pick for the king…?​

And also this one:
The King's Education.png

Halidon Hill.png

You may notice that King David’s name has changed. In the previous event, I selected the second option, the Highlander chieftain, so the culture of the king has changed, and now his name is reflecting that since it has a different variant available.​

We’ve made it so the outcome of the Civil War is not an instant end game; if while playing as Scotland you lose it to Balliol, an event will pop up, so you can decide to continue playing with them (or not! That’s up to the player!). This would be the result, thus:
Edward de Balliol.png

King Edward de Balliol ruling over a once-again unified Scotland. ​

Let’s now move towards the structural content that you might find while playing with Scotland. This is a unique starting government reform:
Shires of Scotland.png

Scotland also has some unique privileges for the Lairds (Nobility):
Scottish Clans.png

Commissioners (Burghers):
Royal Burgh Commissioners.png

And Clans (Tribesmen) - this is the way we’re representing the Highlanders from a pop-type perspective, which also allows us to have them operating as a different estate:
Clans.png

United Scottish Heritage.png

Manrent.png

Fosterage.png

Creach.png

There’s also this law, with three different policies:
Distribution of Scots Clans.png

Direct Inheritance.png

Distributed by the Crown.png

Dynastic Holdings.png

Scotland also has two unique buildings available:
Clan Seat.png

Peel Tower.png

Also something new, Scotland has available some unique parliament issues in later ages, such as:
Presbyterian Education Act.png

College of Justice.png

And a bunch of advances; today we will show mostly late-game ones since it had been requested by you previously to show more of this type of content, and also as a good example of some plausible alt-historical content - you may notice that the advances that Scotland has available for the Age of Revolutions, when they already had ceased to exist as an independent polity (since the Acts of Union of 1707), have a historical background:

This is a specific advance for a Balliol-ruled Scotland:
Longbowmen.png

Warbows.png

Warbows2.png


Highlander Regiments.png

Scottish Highlander.png

Scottish Highlander2.png


Scotch Whisky.png

Scotch Whisky Distilleries.png


Scottish Enlightenment.png

Related to the latest, there’s a late-game event that may lead you to get this important work of art:
Wealth of Nations.png

… And much more, but that’s all for today! My fellow colleagues @SaintDaveUK and @Roger Corominas will be replying instead of me today. And for next week, we will travel south, to take a look at the Kingdom of Ethiopia! Cheers!​
 
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SaintDaveUK said:
Scotland's name changes to Alba if their Court Language or Primary Culture's language is Gaelic.
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Cool! So does that mean that there's a game rule that make's the court language of a country dynamically change the location's names? Also are there other countries that have a name change with primary culture/ court language?
 
pheonicia said:
It's not really a problem so much as it is a weird gameplay incentive for "optimal" runs. Also a little weird to inevitably tell a new player, yeah it's going to be easier to play as Scotland by picking balliol and then losing on purpose.
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I mean exploit will be exploits, what is "allowed optimal" or "disallowed optimal" should honestly matter only for ironman imo. This argument would be true for pretty much all civil war though : "easier to pick the side you want to loose and run it in the wall", but to me the difference between this and just console annexing the losing side would be.. minimal.

I think the goal of that decision is to make losing a civil war not "game over" to make for a more fun experience, but it has the cost of opening a pathway to winning civil wars most would deem... unnatural. So I say for non ironman let the ones who wnat to be unnatural be unnatural, and I don't mind a rule that this is game over to avoid exploit.
 
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Will it be possible to unite Scotland and France in a personal union ? It could have happen if François II, betrothed to Mary Stuart, hadn't the stupid idea of dying young. Plus will they're be content toward the Auld Alliance ?
 
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Captain Brandy said:
Will it be possible to unite Scotland and France in a personal union ? It could have happen if François II, betrothed to Mary Stuart, hadn't the stupid idea of dying young. Plus will they're be content toward the Auld Alliance ?
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There is something related to the Auld Alliance. Concerning the PU, it will have to depend on the mechanics for that.
 
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In order to prevent cheesing civil wars by just surrendering then flipping sides, I think there should be a special 50 years long etc debuff only applied when we lose civil war and continue playing:

Legacy of civil war:

Estate satisfaction -5%
Manpower -10%
Levies -10%
diplomatic reputation -2
Max control in rural -10%
 
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Maybe you can figure out which aspect gets favoured depending on the tutor you pick for the king…?
Click to expand...
Is there a screen missing here? This seems to be a description but there's no image
 
titan.bevel said:
I mean exploit will be exploits, what is "allowed optimal" or "disallowed optimal" should honestly matter only for ironman imo. This argument would be true for pretty much all civil war though : "easier to pick the side you want to loose and run it in the wall", but to me the difference between this and just console annexing the losing side would be.. minimal.

I think the goal of that decision is to make losing a civil war not "game over" to make for a more fun experience, but it has the cost of opening a pathway to winning civil wars most would deem... unnatural. So I say for non ironman let the ones who wnat to be unnatural be unnatural, and I don't mind a rule that this is game over to avoid exploit.
Click to expand...

The difference is you can do this without opening console,

By your logic, there is no point of preventing exploit at the end you can cheat otherwise,

But this will probably wont disallow achievements and be aple to applied at multiplayer too, thus it needs to be prevented somehow
 
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I don't like the way how events reference the dynasty name of characters. It adds to much bloat to reading that should be quick and to the point.
 
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SaintDaveUK said:
No, the British Isles map review isn't complete
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Wonder what are we getting first, British Isles map review, the Winds of Winter or GTA VI
 
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Gurtannon said:
The difference is you can do this without opening console,

By your logic, there is no point of preventing exploit at the end you can cheat otherwise,

But this will probably wont disallow achievements and be aple to applied at multiplayer too, thus it needs to be prevented somehow
Click to expand...
no point in preventing them in non ironman, as long as it isn't detrimental to the fun, indeed. Without opening console, you can save a game, and load it as another country, so it's not exactly that "non cheating".

Regarding ironman and multiplayer, I already said, fine to disallow this in ironman, and for multiplayer game rules either in the engine or as a rule for your group should make for a good experience for all groups playing the game.
 
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titan.bevel said:
, you can save a game, and load it as another country, so it's not exactly that "non cheating".
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Do this still allow achievements?
I mean for vic3 or ck3 we can get achievements without ironman,
Doesnt tag switch remove achievements in these games? If so not non ironman achievements seem already super problematic, you are right no point of adjusting smaller exploits
 
Gurtannon said:
Do this still allow achievements?
I mean for vic3 or ck3 we can get achievements without ironman,
Doesnt tag switch remove achievements in these games? If so not non ironman achievements seem already super problematic, you are right no point of adjusting smaller exploits
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Oh, eu4 crowd here, and never bohered with achievement !

I think there ironman is mandatory for achievement, thought it was the case for all PDX titles. So when i mentioned ironman I meant "ironamn, achievement, and multiplayers groups not trusting their members"
 
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