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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.
Click to expand...

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.
Click to expand...

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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Very good dev diary on Scotland.
 
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As a son of a Scotsman I'm delighted to see some dedicated Scottish content, and to see the War of Independence. I'm also thrilled we get to see actual Highlanders, and I hope all this content means that England can't just roll through Scotland like they do in EUIV.

My suggestions-

I know Edinburgh Castle is already a Great Work, but I'd suggest adding an Age of Enlightenment era great work being the New City of Edinburgh- it was a model city built along gothic and enlightenment lines that starts at Princes Street, and includes things such as the Sir William Scott Monument
R (1).jpg

It's actually no stretch to say that the New City of Edinburgh was the heart of the Enlightenment with thinkers like Hume rubbing elbows with one another. It'd give bonuses to Enlightenment thought, maybe research speed, as well as some commerce buffs.

I'd also have some events centered around some of the cultural history- Sir William Scots poetry being one of them, which did a LOT to help codify the modern Scottish national identity. But you should also do events regarding Burke and Hare who were Europes most prolific body snatchers and grave robbers who stole corpses to sell to nearby universities for anatomical study. While this went throughout Europe, and there should be generic events for this once nations have the Enlightenment, there should be a special one for Burke and Hare who were based out of Edinburgh. Likewise there was also Deacon Brodie who has a pub named after him in Edinburgh that I've been to. He was the inspiration for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, essentially a judge I believe who was caught doubling as a highwayman that'd beat people.

You should also showcase that the Steam Engine was invented in Scotland with the birth of the first industrial revolution happening there to access the large coal deposits in Scotland- and how this related to the rise of Glasgow which became the capital of Scotland during the Industrial Revolution.

Now I forget the exact name, but I remember the story that the stone that Scottish Kings were coronated on from which they drew legitimacy (which I believed would be stored under the throne after coronation) was by this time stolen from the English, and sits in London to this day. It was a goal back then to reclaim the stone, though unfeasible, but there's a conspiracy that the English stole a fake, evidenced that the English have thus far offered to send it back and the Scots have declined. A few events around this would be real neat to incorporate.

Also a really minor but fun bit of trivia- the Rose Stone is the only place you are allowed to spit in public in Edinburgh. It sits right outside the big cathedral atop the Royal Mile. As legend goes, every time someone spits upon it, an Englishman dies.

I should also hope that Scotland gets some bonuses to trying (and bankrupting themselves) to colonize Nova Scotia. In particular it'd be neat if there are some events tracking the migration of the Scots-Irish to the colonies so Americans can brag about heritages they don't understand. These could also fire if we have a unified Great Britain at this stage.

Also a minor event you could do as a sort of easter egg- following the Acts of Union the Scottish Parliament building went unused and eventually burned down in a fire. Now since the Scots didn't have an independent parliament this was seen as a bummer but not too important. Now when Scotland was devolved their own parliament again in the current era they built a new modern (honestly garish looking in my opinion) parliament building at the bottom of the Royal Mile, but being the stubborn lot they are they hunted for pieces of the old building from centuries prior, and found one of the arch stones had been repurposed as a garden bench who was happy to return it. And it is now placed above the doorway into the parliament quarters, so that every MP must pass through the ruin of the old parliament building. The fire could be an even that triggers (with maybe a Great Britain with extra cash willing to restore the building as something else) but an independent Scotland or Scotland-formed-Great-Britain would want to immediately rebuild, you could have a small event where you discover people repurposing the stones and using them in reconstruction.

Also- I figure that if Scotland manages to conquer England and integrate them they should also get access to those English-Scottish Bowman.
 
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I don’t know how much this will apply since we haven’t seen a fort map mode but the Great Glen shouldn’t have any forts as one of Bruce’s main strategies and notable campaigns was his destruction of all the Balliol forts in the great glen which he did so that his enemies couldn’t use them and so he didn’t need to waste his limited manpower on garrisons.

Also PLEASE don’t just have Scottish gameplay focus on just forming Britain but just more difficult, can a Scottish Britain actually play different and can Scotland have more paths for a non-British gameplay.
 
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Why must you guys insist on using the most ugly UI interfaces, fonts, and those horrid 3D portraits for all your new games since Imperator? Holy crap. CK2 and EU4 were truly peak Paradox UI.

Don't even get me started on the map where I can't even see individual tiles at a glance. No, it's all one big blobby mess.
 
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Strybjörn said:
I don’t know how much this will apply since we haven’t seen a fort map mode but the Great Glen shouldn’t have any forts as one of Bruce’s main strategies and notable campaigns was his destruction of all the Balliol forts in the great glen which he did so that his enemies couldn’t use them and so he didn’t need to waste his limited manpower on garrisons.

Also PLEASE don’t just have Scottish gameplay focus on just forming Britain but just more difficult, can a Scottish Britain actually play different and can Scotland have more paths for a non-British gameplay.
Click to expand...
Naturally your expansion paths would send you to invade the rest of the British Isles, and from there geo-strategically your interests would be similar to OTL. What do you think the room for divergence is?

One I think would be trying to take Ireland for yourself. Now I think we could have two alternate routes here- a centralized conquest (which could see the formation of Scots-Irish culture, and the role they played in Irish history) and a decentralized conquest which would be about vassalizing one of the Irish clans and feeding them Ireland (this could be the less colonial form of subjugation). There could be events regarding trying to align with the Welsh and split Wales of off England as well. I could also see some events for a Scottish settlement of Northern England.

Outside of that I think the only big question would be whether you settle your capital in London or Edinburgh, and while there should be a lot of content for the city of London, there should be some advantages to keeping it in Edinburgh. Or perhaps Glasgow as a third option? As it was the Scottish Capital during the Industrial Revolution.

Then I think the only big difference should be that forming Great Britain doesn't turn you into a historical enemy of France- if Scotland has maintained an alliance up to that point they should be historic friends instead, though I think you'd need some events where Britain and France sort of set terms on their spheres of influence so they don't step on each-others toes, not unlike how the pope split South America for the Spanish and Portugese.
 
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Also- another easter egg to throw in could be how Hogwarts is in Scotland. Like just have an event fire regarding people think witches and wizards are hanging out in one of the castle buildings in Scotland. You could tear it down to appease the peasants, or leave it up with a minor research bonus. If such meme events are allowed.
 
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So if I understand correctly levies by default are a 1000 strength unit with a 0.1 combat power, China having a starting tech that increases this to 1500 strength, but we can research technologies or adopt policies/laws/privileges etc which cause a portion of levies to be raised as a different unit. Do I have it right? Will levies remain relevant to represent wartime conscription, particularly towards the endgame when mass mobilization displaces (though doesn’t replace, these are complimentary) professional standing armies, or will they remain the same crappy 10:1 disadvantage units we start the game with unless the country has special flavor like Scotland? Levée en masse not using the levy mechanic would be a bit odd but I’ve seen no mention of how levies evolve over the ages, only regular/mercenary regiments.
 
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  • What is the chair above our crest mean? Why is it there? (almost missed it)
  • The photographer is doing a bad job of framing the subject, the chandelier is coming out of his head. The background it too cluttered
Country%20Selection.png


  • Guarantee is a red box?
  • Is the green the new 'war'? or is rebellion different than war?
  • Rival is missing? Does it not appear if we don't have one? (I would merge it with enemy personally) with us -> them left justified, bi directional in the middle and them-> us right justified.
  • I hope the flapping flag lives up to the hype that the devs are giving it because it makes for shitty picture.
Diplomacy%20Scotland.png


  • Is it safe to assume that the character type icon will always be in the title block? If so then it is not needed also in the body
  • 3d model still appears misplaces (poorly framed) without a background and icons overlapping it.
  • Can we move away from changing the color of the attribute icons, you are not changing the text 'Maximum Tax' green in the Government reform.
  • So the bear doesn't mean stubborn? Are we moving away from red = bad, green = good?
  • So are multiple titles for the sake of unions?
  • What is a title history of 1 even mean?
  • Spouse should be a list and include the name. giving me a pinky nail image does nothing.
Edward%20de%20Balliol.png


  • I'll say it again but 'progress towards' is better than 'progress to'
  • 'to' icon modifier looks like it is moving away from the icon and not to the dot. maybe have the arrow and dot have separate colors (though if you did that do the same for the cap modifier).
  • Thanks for making the progress values neutral colored
  • What is maximum Tax? Is that to all estates?
  • As the coins on paper is tax, the icon for Maximum Tax would be that base with the 'cap' modifier
  • So key is control, ok.
  • Don't use both max and maximum
  • don't like the pitchfork on shield for levy (and with how it is it looks more like a trident than a pitchfork)
Shires%20of%20Scotland.png


  • A lot of the privileges have a "Cannot be removed due to:" but the only thing lists is when it was implemented is something missing?
  • Can we see a privilege that is partially implemented (all we ever see is 0% and 100%)
  • If the implemented date is when it reached 100%, then by having the date you don't need to list the 100%. If it is when it started (i.e 0%) then call it something else. "Origination date"?
  • So I think I would change up the bottom icons a bit
    • Tax icon, cap modifier (BR), noble secondary modifier(UL) for 'maximum tax for noble estate'
    • Levy Icon, size modifier( BR), noble secondary modifier(UL) for 'Nobles levy size'
Scottish%20Clans.png


  • Why do we need to list Estate Satisfaction? isn't that was the icon is? If we feel we need to list something can it just be 'Satisfaction'
Clans.png


  • how does monthly control work? is this just the speed between current and target or can this make all my locations become 0 control if not countered?
1741977833032.png


I'll have to come back for the rest.
 
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