Hello and welcome to this weeks developer diary!
Today I will be returning to the matter of Trade, Diplomacy and to the geopolitical setup of the British Isles.
Trade is a subject that is integral to this era in many ways. Flow of goods and people over the Mediterranean is the primary reason it was natural for an empire to form around it. This is how this sea could ever conceivably become Mare Nostrum, or “our sea”, to the Romans.
In Imperator Trade is not limited to something you conduct to make money, it also ties into the other systems in the game.
So before I move on to the things we have adjusted with this system I will reiterate what we have touched upon in previous diaries about Trade in Imperator. I will also be using Grain as an example:
Last but not least each active Trade Route creates Commerce Income in your province, which may add up to quite a bit of money if you have many active routes.
We have divided our Trade Goods into functional categories to reflect their effects:
By mixing and matching which Trade Goods you import, you can decide what kind of country you want to build.
By importing Strategic and Military goods you could build stronger and cheaper armies.
A mix of Growth and Population Goods would allow you to build a stronger internal economy, with more productive and prosperous population.
Technology boosting goods for greater scientific leaps.
And of course any mix of the above. Some things might not be as obvious, a country that conducts a lot of expansion may well see the need to focus on the Population Goods such as Wine, Olives and Precious Metals, to keep the recently conquered foreign populations happy.
The Mediterranean world was in some ways very interconnected, but travel time, reputation and maintaining diplomats for long distance diplomacy for a small country would not have been easy.
In order to conduct most Diplomatic Interactions except for declaring war, military access, and suing for peace, will be limited by your Diplomatic Range.
In order to determine if you are within diplomatic range of another country, your maximum diplomatic range will be compared to the distance between your capital and theirs.
The Maximum Range is modified primarily by how high your Rank is, but it is also modified by inventions. An overlord and a subject will always be considered to be within Diplomatic Range of each other.
Powerful and advanced countries will thus be able to perform far reaching diplomacy, while smaller states will be more limited to their immediate area.
Likewise other countries will be approaching you for the right to import your Trade Goods.
So why would you agree to export something when there are so many nice benefits from stacking things inside your own country?
To start with there is an economic incentive. The amount of Commerce from international trade is much higher than that from internal trade routes. Meaning that exporting can net you much higher income, especially if you do it from somewhere with good modifiers to commerce (such as a province with many high happiness Citizens and Markets).
Secondly there is a fourth modifier to be had for exporting a Trade Good. For Grain, our old example above, this would be +5% National Manpower.
Taken together this means that export is sometimes quite a bit more lucrative than using your own import routes to move Trade Goods around within your own country, though there will of course still be situations where you may prefer not to export a Trade Good that would benefit a neighbor more than you are comfortable with.
Of Pythias works however very little remains, and we only know them from what others have written about them. So for most cases we have had to extrapolate what information we do have backwards.
What we do now, from written sources as well as archaeology, is that the British isles were undergoing a period of growth and wealth. Rich in iron, base metals and even gold, these islands were also good agricultural land and are described as exporting grain and cattle.
Southern Britain would also have been in somewhat close contact with Gaul to the south, commercially as well as politically, and would in time come to receive increasing numbers of Gallic and Belgic tribesmen.
The southern part of this region is home to the strongest of the Pretani states, while the far north of Caledonia has a number of resilient Pictish kingdoms, in between some unowned (but populated) stretches of land.
As in the south the region had seen the rise of societies around strong hill forts, and is home to a number of growing cities in the Lowlands and Northern England.
Today I will be returning to the matter of Trade, Diplomacy and to the geopolitical setup of the British Isles.
Trade
Trade is a subject that is integral to this era in many ways. Flow of goods and people over the Mediterranean is the primary reason it was natural for an empire to form around it. This is how this sea could ever conceivably become Mare Nostrum, or “our sea”, to the Romans.
In Imperator Trade is not limited to something you conduct to make money, it also ties into the other systems in the game.
So before I move on to the things we have adjusted with this system I will reiterate what we have touched upon in previous diaries about Trade in Imperator. I will also be using Grain as an example:
- Each city produces one type of Trade Good for your province. -For instance Grain.
- Having a Trade Good present in a province gives a modifier in that entire province. -Grain gives +0.10% Population Growth.
- Each of your provinces has a certain number of routes it can use to import goods, and each route can be used to bring in one Trade Good.
- Having a surplus of a Trade Good in a province gives a small modifier, but one that stacks for each extra unit of surplus. -For each surplus of Grain the Province gets +0.05% Population Growth.
- Trade Routes can be used to import Trade Goods either making them present in provinces where they are not produced, or to increase the surplus of them, adding to the stacking modifier in the province. -The more Grain you bring in the more Population growth your Province will get.
- Exporting a Trade Good from a province also requires a surplus in that province.
- Generating a surplus without importing requires can be done either if your province has more than once city producing the same Trade Good, or if it has 15 slaves in one of its cities. Each group of 15 Slaves will increase the Output of a Trade Good by 1.
- Surplus of a Trade Good in your capital province gives a national bonus. Capitals have more import routes than other provinces, most notably they gain more from the rank of your country. -Grain gives +10% National Manpower when in surplus in capital.
Last but not least each active Trade Route creates Commerce Income in your province, which may add up to quite a bit of money if you have many active routes.
We have divided our Trade Goods into functional categories to reflect their effects:
- Strategic Goods such as Wood, Iron or Elephants, are required to be present in a province in order to recruit certain types of units there.
- Military Goods are those that impact the performance of your Armies.
- Growth Goods, such as Grain, are Trade Goods that increase Population Growth (and since population size reduces population growth these goods may also be required to maintain population without starvation in very populous regions).
- Population Goods are Trade Goods that will increase the happiness of your pops, making them more productive and less likely to revolt.
- Economy & Technology, the last category, provides a variety of bonuses to technology, buildings, tax, commerce, loyalty or civilization level.
By mixing and matching which Trade Goods you import, you can decide what kind of country you want to build.
By importing Strategic and Military goods you could build stronger and cheaper armies.
A mix of Growth and Population Goods would allow you to build a stronger internal economy, with more productive and prosperous population.
Technology boosting goods for greater scientific leaps.
And of course any mix of the above. Some things might not be as obvious, a country that conducts a lot of expansion may well see the need to focus on the Population Goods such as Wine, Olives and Precious Metals, to keep the recently conquered foreign populations happy.
Diplomatic Range
The Mediterranean world was in some ways very interconnected, but travel time, reputation and maintaining diplomats for long distance diplomacy for a small country would not have been easy.
In order to conduct most Diplomatic Interactions except for declaring war, military access, and suing for peace, will be limited by your Diplomatic Range.
In order to determine if you are within diplomatic range of another country, your maximum diplomatic range will be compared to the distance between your capital and theirs.
The Maximum Range is modified primarily by how high your Rank is, but it is also modified by inventions. An overlord and a subject will always be considered to be within Diplomatic Range of each other.
Powerful and advanced countries will thus be able to perform far reaching diplomacy, while smaller states will be more limited to their immediate area.
Exports:
We only touched briefly on export in the previous diary on trade, and what we did mention has changed. There are no longer any general Trade Access treaties. Rather than making you sign one deal to get access to all the Trade Goods of a country you will now be able to ask any country within diplomatic range to be allowed to import something they have a surplus of.
Likewise other countries will be approaching you for the right to import your Trade Goods.
So why would you agree to export something when there are so many nice benefits from stacking things inside your own country?
To start with there is an economic incentive. The amount of Commerce from international trade is much higher than that from internal trade routes. Meaning that exporting can net you much higher income, especially if you do it from somewhere with good modifiers to commerce (such as a province with many high happiness Citizens and Markets).
Secondly there is a fourth modifier to be had for exporting a Trade Good. For Grain, our old example above, this would be +5% National Manpower.
Taken together this means that export is sometimes quite a bit more lucrative than using your own import routes to move Trade Goods around within your own country, though there will of course still be situations where you may prefer not to export a Trade Good that would benefit a neighbor more than you are comfortable with.
The British Isles
Southern Britannia
As we move on into territory that is further from the Mediterranean we are now approaching lands of which we know far less. The British isles were by no means unknown to the ancient world, most recently the islands were supposedly visited by Pytheas of Massilia.
Southern Britannia
Of Pythias works however very little remains, and we only know them from what others have written about them. So for most cases we have had to extrapolate what information we do have backwards.
What we do now, from written sources as well as archaeology, is that the British isles were undergoing a period of growth and wealth. Rich in iron, base metals and even gold, these islands were also good agricultural land and are described as exporting grain and cattle.
Southern Britain would also have been in somewhat close contact with Gaul to the south, commercially as well as politically, and would in time come to receive increasing numbers of Gallic and Belgic tribesmen.
Starting Countries:
- Icenia: Middle size Tribal Kingdom in what would much later be known as Norfolk. Would historically ally with the Romans in their invasion after our timeline. Icenia starts independent and unaligned.
- Trinovantia: Another middle sized Tribal Kingdom, between Icenia and the Thames. Their prosperous capital Camulodunum has been suggested as a possible site for the legendary Camelot, at our start it was still an insignificant village. Trinovantia starts the game independent and unaligned.
- Cantiacia: Tribal Kingdom stretching from the Thames to the English Channel. Described by Caesar as a maritime oriented kingdom, with close ties to the Gallic states to the south. Cantiacia starts independent and unaligned.
- Durotriga: Small Tribal Kingdom of settled agriculturalists on the southern coast of the island. Durotriga starts independent and unaligned.
- Dumnonia: Tribal kingdom in modern Devon and Cornwall, with an economy based on fishing and tin mining. Tin was so bountiful that it found its way from this region far south, helped by Phoenician merchants from Gadez in southern hispania. Dumnonia starts independent and unaligned.
- Ordovicia: Tribal Kingdom in the fortified hills of northern Wales. Ordovicia starts independent and unaligned.
- Demetia: Small Tribal Kingdom in western Wales, etymologically close to the later name Dyfed. Demetia starts independent and unaligned.
- Deceanglia: Small Tribal Kingdom in northern Wales, a region that would become known for its precious metal mines during Roman Rule. Deceanglia starts independent and unaligned.
- Siluria: Warlike tribal kingdom in southern Wales. Known later for their resistance to Roman occupation. Siluria starts independent and unaligned.
- Dubonnia: Large Tribal Kingdom in modern Western England. The Dubonni economy and society is based on agriculture and like many other societies in the British isles and elsewhere guarded their people with hill forts. Dubonnia starts independent and unaligned.
- Cornovia: Tribal kingdom in the northern midlands, north of Dubonnia. Starts independent and unaligned.
Northern Britannia, Caledonia and Hibernia
As in Southern Britannia there are scant sources for this region. The north was only partially subdued by Rome and so we have even less to go on here in some ways.
The southern part of this region is home to the strongest of the Pretani states, while the far north of Caledonia has a number of resilient Pictish kingdoms, in between some unowned (but populated) stretches of land.
As in the south the region had seen the rise of societies around strong hill forts, and is home to a number of growing cities in the Lowlands and Northern England.
Starting Countries:
- Brigantia: Largest Tribal Kingdom in Britain, and at the start also the strongest. Controls all land between the Irish and North Seas. Would remain a substantial power long after Roman conquest. At start Brigantia is independent and unaligned.
- Parisia: Small tribal kingdom in modern east Yorkshire, part of the Arras culture. Would in time come under considerable influence from Belgic tribesmen who migrated into this region. Parisia starts independent and unaligned.
- Carvetia: Tribal kingdom to the north of Brigantia, and likely closely related to them. Starts independent and unaligned.
- Votadinia: Pictish Tribal kingdom in what would become the northern end of Roman Britain, today Southern Scotland and Northern England. Votadinia starts independent and unaligned.
- Damnonia: Pictish Tribal Kingdom in in the western lowlands. Very little is known of this tribe, which is only attested in Ptolemy’s Geography. Damnonia starts independent and unaligned.
- Taexalia: Pictish Tribal Kingdom in the highlands. Starts independent and unaligned.
- Caledonia: Pictish Tribal Kingdom representing the tribes of the northern highlands. Starts isolated, independent and unaligned, at the northern tip of the island.
- Ulatia: Hibernian Tribal kingdom in Northern Ireland, representing the tribes around the royal center at Navan Fort. Starts independent and unaligned.
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