Sorry for the late reply all! Have been without internet access for the last half a week. A hellish experience. So:
Oh, I see. "European" as in the technology and the culture that the most civs in the "known area" somewhat share. Still, I'd want the traits of civs to be more randomized but I guess that kind of extreme procedural generation could create some crazy things with no realism at all. I mean, it's a known fact that real-life civs which started on an island are much more unique (look at ancient Japan) since it didn't have much contact with foreign lands. You gotta generate the world according to that. Civs which are in close contact with each other are likely to share similar traits and culture. Close foreign relations usually equals similar traits. If some zones will have a tendency to have similar traits (like east being more likely to generate religious civs) will it be randomized? As in, a continent in the east will have religious civs on one genned world and in another world, in the east you'll see aggressive small civs and city-states always warring with each other (which you can conquer through by acting like a careful manipulation, diplomacy, and intrigue. God I love creating scenarios like that!)
That got me thinking, we should be able to keep our deals secret with other civs. Let's say my civ is a protector of the weak and the symbol of peace. There is one particular civ I want it to disappear (for greater good!). I should be able to sell a nearby civ which has a reputation for being ruthless and very aggressive (but not to me, the protector of peace who wants to help them!) some weapons and supplies or even give it to them for free (for bringing peace, of course!) but keep it as a secret with a chance of it becoming discovered. Maybe WE can be the ones who are out to expose secret deals like that (for the right price). Reveal the true manipulative nature of a so-called peaceful civ! Man, my brain is like imploding with all these possibilities.
By the way,
A particular island more likely to generate particularly cultured civs,
This reminded me of Atlantis. 
It would be awesome to find an alien culture that's highly advanced like that, even if it's a little unrealistic, right? (*wink* *wink*)
That's my kind of thinking - as much variation as possible, within the constraints of sanity! Exactly re: close civs; close civs will be more likely to be similar to other close civs, so there will - I hope - be a 'bleeding' of traits as you move around the world. Warlike civs might be close, civs with similar/same religions will be close, civs that prefer monarchies, or theocracies, or focus on scientific advancement, or whatever else, will - approximately - be close. Which is not to say disparate civs will not be similar sometimes, because they will, but certain regions will generate meta-cultures, I guess, that pervade regions.
I love your suggestions for secrets and less-obvious diplomacy; in part, that's what the subversion tree is where for (and I guess parts of the rule tree) and I guess I want three strings to the 'strategy' bow - Diplomacy, War, and Espionage (in the broadest sense of that word, maybe 'covert operations' is more appropriate?). Haha; no Atlantis, alas, but as I say, that is not to exclude the odd anomaly.
PTF.
Wise!
Have you given any thoughts to religion? The 16th and 17th centuries saw a lot of religious turmoil and warfare in Europe - the reformation, the shia/sunni divide, ottomans and orthodox, etc. The papacy was instrumental in how the colonization of the New World happened, with the Treaty of Tordesillas, etc.
I have, but not in as much detail as I one day intend. History generation for the coming version will 100% include religions and cults, but I don't yet know the depth to which they will be generated at this stage.
I definitely think that the climate and enviroment should have some effect on culture and architecture. Cooler areas will have warmer clothes, like fur and wool. Coastal lands will have more seafood in their diet. Cuisine in general will be affected mainly by what grows there.
In snowy lands buildings will have steeper roofs to shed the snow. Warmer zones will have shallow slopes and gutters to shed rain, while desert buildings can have flat roofs for ease of construction. Woodlands will have more wood buildings, while others have stone or brick or clay. Different building materials necessitate different building styles, as well. Swamps and rain forests will see buildings on stilts. Places with softer dirt will have more basements and root cellars. The hottest and coldest climates will both have small windows and chimneys, but for opposite reasons.* Some relations are more complex. Mediterranean buildings often had courtyards with fountains or ponds, as air cooled by evaporation would flow through the house.
*Small windows are keeping the heat either in or out, depending. Chimneys are for fireplaces in cold climes, and for primitive AC in hot ones.
Agreed on all in your first paragraph. I agree different conditions necessitate different building... parameters, but I want to keep building styles hugely varied according to culture. I'm basically planning a kind of modular architecture generator, where civs have certain values for average buildings - like size of building large/medium/small, style of roof, number of floors, windows, preferred materials, decorations, furnishings, locations, identifiers for important buildings, designs, towers, etc etc, and then generating a building for a given civ will take those parameters and create appropriate buildings!
Not sure if food will be much of an issue in this game, but cultures that live in hotter climates tend to have spicier food. Spicy food retards the decay of food, which is usually a bigger problem in warmer areas than ones in higher latitudes.
On a somewhat random food related note: Cheese is primarily a European invention. While making yogurts out of milk is common, the practice of actually putting it in a cold cave and letting it age to get real cheese is pretty regional for Europe.
I don't know that 'cheese making' as a technology needs to be in your game, but since it does make a fairly high-value portable food that is very resistant to rot while it's still in the cheese wheel it might actually be a notable food for feeding armies.
Hmm...makes me wonder if anyone has ever studied the effect of cheese on military rations in history before.
Re: spicy, interesting! Hadn't even considered that. Will consider it, therefore.
I love that you have produced several paragraphs for my perusal on the topic of cheese. If they have not (which seems likely) then I shall be the first, and URR shall be an in-depth study of that very sort! Which is to say... different food cultures would be a nice idea to generate, according to climate, and then obviously random variation for different cultures, who they trade with, etc....
So, will we get instruments? And other more cultural than combat tools. That's the sort of thing I'm following this for.
Very interesting suggestion. What do you think they could do/what kind of gameplay they could allow? But you're right, a lot of what I'm interested in is creating interesting, non-combat possibilities, and things to do.
Will more advanced civilizations have better roads, and will that affect deployment/movement speed of armies?
Will there be the ability for an infantry charge, I forget the name of it, where a foot soldier would loop his arm in an open stirrup of a cavalry dude and get carried in on the charge then dismount and fight like a badass who just rode a horse the wrong, and best, way into battle (I actually think it was called the 'stirrup charge')?
Back in somesuch BC Alexander had a land bridge built to connect somesuch island to the mainland to allow his forces to siege dat city. Would manipulating the very earth itself be an option in the (far) future?
Hannibal of Carthage was awesome, and I want to do all the things he did (march an army through mountains, using natural selection to kill off the weaker soldiers and animals, leaving only the toughest soldiers and like one emaciated elephant, tying torches to the tails of cattle to create the appearance of an army on the move, and flanking the unsuspecting enemy forces as they're scattered and trampled by a stampede, etc). You will note that there is no question here. I just want this to happen.
Would there be a possibility of something like the Holy Roman Empire, where a bunch of countries have a sort of agreement where they are not quite ruled, but overseen, by the leader of an elected country?
Will colonization be a thing you can participate in? I'd really like to have a character who becomes a governor of a small island and have to fight off brigands and pirates and crap.
Cortez (or was it Pizarro?), did some really awesome shit, even moreso than Hannibal in my opinion. Let me be him too. I want to take a small force out of their element, purchase the loyalties of some tribal groups, and meet with the leader of a tribal empire only to take him prisoner and eventually have him executed.
Also can I construct a pit to kick dudes into?
I've been reading "To Dare and to Conquer: Special Operations and the Destiny of Nations, from Achilles to Al Qaeda" by Derek Leebaert instead of just sitting on the bus and train and staring out the window while thinking about URR. If you don't mind the fact that it feels mildly textbookish you'd probably enjoy it. And it will probably give you some inspiration for stuff as well (most of my questions and my two demands come from my recent intake of knowledge from this beautiful book).
Roads: yes, definitely, and speed. Not sure how I'll display differences visually on map; you might have to cursor-over to find out quality.
I'd never heard of that charge, but I like that a lot.
I've very, very briefly considered landscape changes; I see no reason it wouldn't be workable in the future, but you are right to say far
Wonderful Hannibal description - I'm working on it!
I do intend to allow federations and alliances and similar structures to appear, or states which are mostly unitary, or ones which have a lot of power in the provinces, or various combinations of the above.
Colonization, absolutely - alternatively, you'll be able to fight off colonization, I should hope. I'm really looking forward to working on the exploration/colonization/discovery aspects of the game in the future! They might in fact, in part, come earlier than expected, as I might need to get a way for you to travel between land masses going...
There will be pits.
A quick Amazon later, and it's in my basket! Though, being the winter hols, I don't expect delivery any time this year (literally!)...
Even reading questions like this (even if it's a little crazy) are hyping me up for the 1.0 version.
Man, imagine the possibilities...
Ha, likewise! It's all moving along, anyway - the "Encyclopedia" function, for viewing everything from artefacts to religions and from ships to famous figures is up and running, and now just needs populating...
So is there any combat in the current version? I find myself with a desire to kill mans.
YOU MUST CONSTRUCT ADDITIONAL MANS
I'M WORKING ON IT
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Topic: Dwarf Fortress meets The Outer Wilds? "Ultima Ratio Regum", v0.10.1 out Feb 2023 (Read 632638 times)