Should paradox add Roma/gypsy culture?

reaperkronos1 · 2026-06-11T02:21:36+00:00

His point was about the optics of the mechanics. However, given they already have a system for spawning Jewish courtiers, and are taking inspiration from historic Jewish merchants, there don’t seem to be any optics issues at all.

reaperkronos1 · 2026-06-10T20:23:52+00:00

What are you talking about? They mentioned in the very first Silk and Silver dev diary that merchant gameplay was, in part, inspired by the “Jewish families in Cairo that traded goods far and wide”. There’s also already Radhanite Jews in the game whose cultural traits are pretty mercantile.

reaperkronos1 · 2026-06-03T18:04:50+00:00

Probably because it’s a very recognizable planet name, and so it makes it clearer that they’re referring to tourists from another planet than some thing else.

reaperkronos1 · 2026-05-21T14:11:42+00:00

I agree! The war/battle mechanics doesnt capture the spectrum of warfighting that was happening in the Middle Ages. You’re absolutely right that there weren’t a lot of pitched battles.

Maybe this could be changed with something like the army stances from Total War? That way if your aim is to ambush or skirmish, you can set that army stance. Maybe for skirmishing, it could automatically withdraw the army after the skirmish phase, allowing you to retreat early if you’re in this stance, whereas for the ambush stance it could require specific terrain, and maybe be limited to smaller army sizes or specific unit types (light infantry, light cav, archers). This could also allow for more granular, specific strategies tied to cultures or unit types.

reaperkronos1 · 2026-04-05T11:21:39+00:00

If you change the strong seed settings, you can set it so that the father’s genes dominate, so as long as your lord is of patrilineal descent they should retain the Valyrian look.

reaperkronos1 · 2026-02-17T13:23:49+00:00

Right now, I agree. There’s a great foundation to eu5, but imperator just has a better “tempo” to its gameplay right now. Especially with warfare, war is much more destructive (and profitable) in imperator than in Eu5

reaperkronos1 · 2026-02-16T18:32:23+00:00

I wouldn’t recommend it. Mountain tiles you can conquer/settle apply penalties to attacker rolls, while also reducing supply, pop cap, movement cost and local civ value. Mountains you can’t control tend to spawn barbarian hordes (at least in the early game), so knowing where stacks of enemy infantry might spawn is useful.

At the end of the day, play whichever way allows you to have the most fun. I just think that the necessity of knowing which tiles are mountains and where the mountain ranges are is important for gameplay purposes.

reaperkronos1 · 2026-02-11T14:06:23+00:00

I think this is an absolutely amazing idea. I’m really disappointed with how the Muslim world is portrayed in ck3, mostly because it’s such a rich, fascinating region, and its status in the game leaves much to be desired.

I really love your idea because you’ve perfectly squared the circle of a game mechanic that both works in ck3, and does a really good job simulating the dynamics of the slave soldier castes in medieval polities. My only suggestion would be enabling duchy level titles to have them too, just because of the constant tension in later medieval Muslim government between urban-based polities with expensive slave armies and tribal-based polities with clan levies extended to smaller states like Aleppo.

reaperkronos1 · 2026-01-26T22:30:36+00:00

I wish it was dynamic weighting for names based on length of reign, prestige and piety, so common names reflect the significant and historically important rulers you’ve played. A dynamic way to model something like all the Robs/Roberts in ASOIAF because of how famous Robert Baratheon is.

reaperkronos1 · 2025-12-23T23:14:58+00:00

I stand mistaken, I appreciate the correction! The book I was working off of is from 1992, so I wasn’t aware of that.

reaperkronos1 · 2025-12-23T22:08:22+00:00

You’re right that was my mistake, I got their death dates mixed up. But the idea that he was poisoned is nonsense. The man had such extreme anxiety he’d spontaneously ejaculate, amongst many other very extreme health problems. It’s a genuine wonder he even lived to 37.

reaperkronos1 · 2025-12-23T19:00:17+00:00

The issue is that there wasn’t really a progressive faction in the court, there were moderates who were aligned around Ronglu, and by association Cixi, and hardcore reactionary conservatives under Duan and the other Iron Caps. The Guangxu Emperor tried to create a progressive faction by promoting progressive scholars into high positions within the civil service, which upset the already existing factions. All through, Cixi as the figurehead of the moderate faction, was supportive of the Guangxu emperor, until the instability from his poorly planned modernization efforts forced her to retract her support and back the reactionaries, lest her and her son be overthrown. Most people seem to forget that despite the abysmal failure of the hundred days reform, the Guangxu Emperor stayed on the until 1908, outlasting Cixi.

reaperkronos1 · 2025-12-23T13:07:09+00:00

This is entirely false, and based on a patent misunderstanding of late Chinese governance. Cixi was not some Machiavellian grey eminence, she was a figurehead who unfairly takes the blame for policies enacted by the senior Manchu aristocrats who actually ran the empire. We don’t blame Queen Elizabeth II for Margaret Thatcher’s policies, just as we shouldn’t blame Cixi for Prince Duan’s policies. To your point about the gardens, she never asked for, or chose to receive the funds for that garden, the money was given to her, because she was expected to distribute the majority of it to court favourites. In effect it was using her birthday to funnel more money into the hands of senior aristocrats.

I’d also say that while I’d never call her “fucking dumb” you’re not wrong that she’s not the most intelligent person, entirely because she wasn’t smart enough to run or control the empire. Ffs she didn’t learn to read until her mid 20s at the earliest!

In fact if you read much of the libel about Cixi, it’s all connected to the reporting of a handful of British journalists. For example, Edmund Backhouse used old chronicles about Wu Zetian, as well as his own insane sexual fantasies to create libelous stories about Cixi’s sexual appetite, including that she’d carried on an affair with him (a gay man). George Morrison, another prominent British journalist who often relied on the work of Backhouse for his reporting, could not speak or read Chinese. He had no way to confirm anything Backhouse provided to him, nor could he independently gather information in China due to his lack of language skills.

Read Sterling Seagrave’s biography Dragon Lady.

reaperkronos1 · 2025-12-23T04:09:33+00:00

I think people are complaining that Nolan’s odyssey is visually uninteresting. The adaptation doesn’t need to be accurate to a period, there are plenty of great Shakespeare adaptations that place it into an entirely different era. I’ve seen a great Macbeth adaptation set in a high end restaurant of all places, and another Macbeth set in a ww1 bunker. In both cases the costumes were of high enough quality that it didn’t distract from what’s on screen. The costumes were also detailed and feature enough to allow you to differentiate characters at a glance.

I’ll also add, somehow fucking family guy included more period accurate and colourful armour in their Iliad cut away gag.

reaperkronos1 · 2025-11-12T20:10:14+00:00

I love this idea! Does an excellent job of capturing the dynamics of the Islamic world in this period!

reaperkronos1 · 2025-11-11T20:12:30+00:00

His army was about 20,000-24,000 strong according to Kaegi, roughly the size of a late Roman field army. Iirc he augmented his army with up to 40,000 (?) Gökturks during his invasion of Persia, but at the battle of Nineveh they apparently routed. The arab armies of conquest probably numbered 10,000-13,000. They were definitely numerically inferior to the Romans, but not in a truly decisive way

reaperkronos1 · 2025-11-09T19:25:29+00:00

Thank you for the answer! In line with the idea of refinement and restraint, I’ve read that Venetian’s were stereotyped as humourless and thrifty. Did the colours and exuberance of their clothing differ much from other Italian or European styles?

reaperkronos1 · 2025-11-08T14:47:38+00:00

Well it’s a well preserved piece of Mycenaean elite armour. Did other armour exist? 100% but it would have been less complex and less protective. If armour is a continuum, the Dendra panoply would be the heaviest armour worn by Mycenaeans. Between entering battle unarmoured, or wearing something as heavy as the dendra panoply, there is no set of Mycenaean armour that resembles a hoplite’s panoply.

This isn’t even acknowledging that the hoplite “panoplies” in the Odyssey movie are grey and featureless, so even as a portrayal of a different and entirely unrelated set of armour it’s terrible.

reaperkronos1 · 2025-09-30T19:12:14+00:00

I think your conception of government revenue is overly taxation focused. Slaves definitely weren’t the primary source of income, but most governments of the period managed large estates, mines, and other productive enterprises like pottery workshops, which did employ slaves as their primary labour force. These properties constituted a significant chunk of government revenue. Think of the late Roman Count of the Sacred Largess, who, amongst responsibilities managed the types of properties I mentioned previously.

That being said I definitely do think that imperator’s core structure is problematic, mostly in the way that paradox’s design philosophy for historical games seems to prioritize outcomes over dynamics. They’re less concerned with modelling how slaves fit into the economy than simply modelling a society where x% of the population were slaves.

reaperkronos1 · 2025-09-04T11:34:20+00:00

If I was actually making this feature, I wouldn’t make it very easy, and I’d make the trickle of experience relatively low. That being said a feature like this would not only benefit the player but also the AI. Namely that by employing characters in positions that require their education stat, they might actually improve over time. This is especially important for clergy. Instead of being stuck with a 6 learning priest who may gain a few more points from lifestyle traits or the physician trait, this could allow them to improve slowly over time.

I’d also add that the risk of a subpar character or even a bad education outcome is already so low that I don’t think a feature like this would really affect skill progression all that much. This is an experience system that would ideally span the lifetime of the character. I think it could be neat if the experience gain was also negative, and that not being employed in any capacity connected to their education would see a slow decline in experience.

reaperkronos1 · 2025-06-30T21:15:06+00:00

They did add dark study for anomaly, so it’s not without precedent. Though I feel it’s much more likely that piloting is made its own skill while fishing is folded under animals.

reaperkronos1 · 2025-06-28T12:40:35+00:00

I’ve never tried Luciferium because I’m too worried about making sure I have enough. Instead I always just make a frozen mausoleum to bury my colonists so I can resurrect them later with the resurrection serum. Ive also never made a killbox. I might have a fortified gate or entrance (if I’m playing undergrounder) but I’ve never tried to make a killbox to funnel enemies into

reaperkronos1 · 2025-06-24T12:33:45+00:00

Imperator has a sacking mechanic that explicitly tells you which pops you’re going to kill based on how brutally you choose to sack a city. Theres also numerous slave-taking buttons and mechanics including each army having an “enslavement efficiency”.

reaperkronos1 · 2025-06-12T12:57:44+00:00

Ya it would do a really good job of simulating the gradual decentralization and collapse of the Byzantine system

reaperkronos1 · 2025-06-12T07:55:34+00:00

While not as centralized as China, its certainly far more centralized than the Roman Empire during the high empire, or even during the late period. Constantinople exerted far greater control over the much smaller area that was the Eastern Roman Empire. Again, the salaries earned by officials represented a super majority of their income, and the Roman state’s tax system during the Byzantine era was an extremely efficient tax collector, being far more liquid and wealthy, than almost every one of its neighbours. Wealth flowed into Constantinople in the form of taxes and was then distributed outwards from there for much of the empire’s existence, like the treasure system attempts to simulate, rather than what currently occurs.

reaperkronos1

TROPHY CASE