[2023] Developer Diary - The Mamluks

A lil somethin somethin: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page here.

Good afternoon and welcome to today’s Developer Diary where we will be discussing new content for the Mamluks! As a preface, there is merit in addressing the design approach I chose to pursue for this country. Domination and its huge amounts of content served as a great platform to gauge what the people wanted, what they liked and disliked. This helped shape the content for 1.36 moving forward, as the entire team takes feedback very seriously and our ears are keenly tuned to the forums and various platforms for it.

How does this affect the content of the Mamluks? For starters, the entirety of the Mamluk tree hosts only 2 new country_modifiers, one temporary and one permanent (more on that later). The idea behind this shift is to give more room to mechanic-related bonuses over pure modifier stacking. So, missions for the Mamluks have been designed from the ground up as a way of investing more effort into slower and natural growth for the country. Moreover, the tree was conceived from the base with simplicity in mind, both for requirements as well as effects. Gone are the long lists (for the most part) of effects that were featured in Domination. As a pleasant side-effect, the AI is also more capable with this mission tree, as missions are simpler but fair in their difficulty for most players and not too overbearing.



To better simulate the turbulence that the Mamluks experienced, especially across their Syrian provinces, this event should help set the tone just at the start of the game; a vast realm whose fringe border provinces near Anatolia have come to disdain the rule of Qahirah, ready to take up arms.


Note; your choice in this event will impact the reward for “The Northern Territories” mission! The first option will release a rebellious Syrian subject whilst the second will severely increase autonomy and unrest in Syrian provinces

The top third of the mission tree is devoted to expansion against Anatolia, Constantinople, and maritime dominance over the Mediterranean as a whole either through sheer might or diplomacy:


Note: Keep in mind that ALL art is WIP in this Developer Diary!











Note; The other option here will grant you some permanent power projection (+15) and give you the option to move your capital to Europe (wink wink, Trade Company enthusiasts).








The second third of the missions will focus on expanding Mameluke influence across the deserts of Arabia to the Southeast, the realms of the Tunisians and Moroccans to the West, the Ethiopians to the South, and the territories of the (soon to be) Safavids to the East, offering a satisfying avenue for expansion in any direction, without constraining and forcing you to always conquer towards one direction:



Note; Numbers are far from final, your feedback is appreciated!



Note; Should you complete this mission outside of the Age of Reformation, you will receive a different reward!



Note; Opting to integrate Ethiopian administration via the first option, will enable several flavor events over the course of the game (Zara Yakob as an advisor in your court, etc.) among other rewards!

This leads us to the third (but not final!) part of this Developer Diary and by far my favorite: internal flavor! The difficulty of reading up on the Mamluks’ final 100 years made crafting content for them quite an interesting challenge. The following missions (much like the conquest missions above) are a mixture of what the Mamluks did between the 14th and 16th centuries, what they sought to do (corroborated by historical sources), and what would make sense for most players to do, in an effort to facilitate content that makes sense and does not break immersion. It should be repeated here, as noted in our introduction, that the Mameluke mission tree is by far not a hard or complicated piece of work to follow, for the player or the AI. It was made from the ground up for both the AI to follow and the player to comprehend, with simple tooltips, simple (but fair) requirements, and consistent flow.

As part of the new content, you will gain access to a new special unit, the slave soldiers “Mamluks”:


Note: The modifiers are not final, feel free to leave feedback! The idea is for these units to become the backbone of your army. Not as powerful and few in numbers as the Hussars and not as stacked as the Janissaries.

The primary source of these units will initially be a new Estate privilege for your Noble estate (now renamed ‘Mamluks’) but later on through idea groups, events, etc. you will potentially gain access to more!



Moving on, the impact of the Estate will be magnified via the ‘Recruit the Mamluks’ mission, which will require you to recruit them and grant the following reward:



These new Agendas are meant to be very useful and help your nation militarize further, by performing tasks such as:

• Constructing barracks, regimental camps
  
• Improving your army tradition
  
• Improving your army professionalism

In total, there will be 6 new Estate Agendas for the Mamluks through this mission alone! Moving on, you will be able to further hone your army through the following government reform:


Note; I had this idea while writing the DD that instead of yearly innovativeness, this reform would grant yearly army and/or naval tradition from certain advisors. I have a feeling it would fit better than yearly innovativeness. Let me know what you think!

While on the topic of Government reforms, the Mamluks will have access to several new ones, some as mission rewards and others by reaching the eligible reform tier, let’s take a look at one of them!


Note; The Mamluks will have 5 new government reforms ranging from military to economic themes.

I took the time to rework this event and make sure it fits and plays well into the new content for the Mamluks while granting them a useful reward from developing Cairo, which can now be accessed by either a mission reward or a standalone event:


Note; A capital and a reward fitting of a prestigious nation.

Mameluke content would not be complete without missions and events around the lifeblood of Egypt, the river Nile:




Note; the Burghers are set to play a very important role within your nation’s administration. Numbers are not final!

Known as the Canal of the Pharaohs, a predecessor of the Suez Canal, this set of public works connected Cairo with the Red Sea and was often used up to the 8th century for the transportation of goods via sea lanes. Historically, the Mamluks came in agreement with the Venetians to rebuild and extend it, in an effort to weaken the Portuguese, who had discovered a direct sea route to India through the Cape of Good Hope. This undertaking was never realized, the Mamluks were soon thereafter invaded by the Ottomans, and the canal was abandoned. However, through the mission ‘Highway of an Empire’, you will be able to complete the works, go a step further, and connect the Mediterranean and Red Seas! The idea here is that this will create a whole new avenue of gameplay, adding useful rewards (naval movement to and from Arabia) without granting overly powerful modifiers, etc.





The mission ‘Cultivate the Delta’ will instruct you to develop the breadbasket of the world, allowing you to expand production and increase your grip on local trade:



Note; The other option grants +1 Production Development as well as stronger Estuaries and ports across the Delta’s Mediterranean coast.

Moving on, let’s talk about the most important caste of merchants within the Mameluke domain. The Karimi merchants played a significant role in the Mameluke Sultanate during the medieval period. Hailing primarily from the Persian Gulf region, the Karimi merchants were known for their expertise in maritime trade, especially in the Indian Ocean. They established prosperous trading networks that connected the Mameluke Sultanate to distant lands such as India, Southeast Asia, and East Africa. These merchants facilitated the exchange of goods like spices, textiles, precious metals, and luxury items, contributing to the economic prosperity of the Mameluke Sultanate and fostering cultural exchanges in the region. Their entrepreneurial spirit and maritime skills made them vital actors in the bustling trade scene of the Mameluke era. During research I came across a very interesting paper that I used to create content around these merchants, its title being ‘The Spice Trade in Mameluke Egypt: A Contribution to the Economic History of Medieval Islam’.


Note; Yes, cloves. The requirements for this mission potentially involve a new estate privilege ‘Fund the Karimi Merchants which grants Trade Efficiency and Merchant Trade Power at the expense of National Tax and Crown land:


Another aspect of your economic development will revolve around the exporting of grain, via the Khass al-Sultan mission. It will require establishing workshops in your highest grain-producing provinces as well as either raising your crown land or enacting the Diwan al-Khass reform:



Exporting Grain as well as the previous Sponsor Grand Hajj action were designed with two goals in mind

• Assist with immersion and add new avenues of gameplay
  
• Be useful (but somewhat minor) tools for multiplayer and introduce a new layer of importance to human-to-human diplomacy

Note; As with the Grand Hajj, you can only have 4 such relationships with other countries at the same time, and only once per <their> ruler’s lifetime. Hajj would grant piety and better school relations, allowing you to more easily host their scholars without depending on high-influence estate privileges and Exporting Grain would grant your allies Development Cost, Unrest and in return you would gain Mercantilism. Both actions would also improve relations.

As a nation that is majorly dependent on the spice trade, this part of the content is more of a “What If?”. In this instance, the missions Harness the Spice Trade and Reach the Spice Islands will be your stepping stones towards exploration and eventual colonization of the Spice Islands.







The mission ‘Assign a Waqf’ will require you to tend to your religious responsibilities, either by embracing certain idea groups or by assigning a new privilege for the Mamluks:


Note to ourselves; We should rename Holy Orders to Local Organizations.

The following event will be the reward for the mission:


Note; The first option will allow all our administrative advisors to generate -1% idea cost reduction per level and construct a University in our capital. The second option will generate 0.25% crown land per mosque built (subtracted when they are demolished).

Of course, in the interest of time, I cannot showcase every bit of content, and as a result, this Developer Diary should serve as a taste of the content we have for the Mamluks!



The final piece of the Mameluke puzzle happens to be its most interesting, in my opinion. Let’s take a look at the mission of “Kashifs of Egypt”. It will require you to centralize, increase your crown land, and establish an efficient administration. A reward is an event called ‘The Administration of the Mameluke Domain’.



The first option will enable a new powerful local organization for the Mamluks, and if you are not an Empire, you will become one. But, I believe that the second option is far, far more interesting; the ability to reform into Egypt and pursue a new government mechanic; Egyptian Westernization!



Note; Art is WIP

Unlike its Russian counterpart, Egyptian Westernization (or EW for short) is dependent on 3 separate government, interactions, each one a symbol of the country’s management aspects:

• Administration
  
• Manufacturing
  
• Armed Forces

Calling on each interaction will push your country closer to the brink of westernizing a specific aspect, with each having 5 distinct levels:




Note; Westernizing each level will change the red X to a green ✓ to keep track of your current level!

To do so, you would need to spend a little bit on 3 resources; Innovativeness, Monarch points, and EW progress. However, with ample governing capacity, goods produced, and Western units accompanied by a significant amount of army tradition, this is well worth the trade!

But wait, there’s more, this mechanic goes even deeper! The bar below the new interactions is beneficial on either side (0 or 100) much akin to Army Professionalism. Whilst Egypt has no Westernization, estates are happy, stability will be cheaper to increase and general tolerance towards the true faith will be happier. On the other (and more lucrative) end, a truly westernized Egypt will enjoy bonuses such as technology and idea cost, as well as yearly innovativeness.

Of course, this choice is major and will impact other aspects of your content, such as mission rewards:

• The mission 'The Imperial Gambit' would grant Egypt Innovativeness, 25 progress towards their Westernization as well as reduce the cost of increasing Westernization by -5.
  
• The mission 'Center of the Islamic World' would grant Egypt Innovativeness and double the chance of getting positive traits for your rulers based on which aspect they excel in, the most.
  
• However, for the Mamluks, the mission Center of the Islamic World will grant an additional Golden Age or extend the current one by 50 years.

The content for Egypt would not be complete without a brand new idea set that plays well with the new content:

EGY_ideas = {
start = {
trade_efficiency = 0.1
administrative_efficiency = 0.05
}

bonus = {
free_policy = 1
}

trigger = {
tag = EGY
}
free = yes #will be added at load.

egy_centralization_works = {
development_cost = -0.1
}
training_missions_in_egypt = {
country_military_power = 1
}
legacy_of_the_karimis = {
burghers_loyalty_modifier = 0.1
burghers_privilege_slots = 1
}
nile_production = {
production_efficiency = 0.10
}
westernize_the_military = {
max_general_fire = 1 #YES!
fire_damage = 0.1
}
mediterranean_shipwrights = {
sea_repair = yes
}
crossroads_between_europe_and_africa = {
global_trade_power = 0.1
}
}

Reforming Egypt via a national decision will also grant access to these missions, the government reform, and the Westernization mechanic!

As mentioned before, the content showcased here is about half of the content we have in store for the Mamluks, and as such expect more content to be present once you play. The Mamluks are a very fun country to play in with a marvelous position on the map and lots of different ways to play and stuff to do. We hope this content adds to the joy and interest many of us (myself included) have while painting the map with the Mameluke color! Next week [USER=1602459]@Ogele[/user] will come back to present the long-awaited Developer Diary focused on the Byzantine Empire!

Oh look at this! Our weekly chapel comics have returned:


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