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wandarah

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Apr 13, 2012
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Howdy Folks,

Thought I'd pick up the game super cheap on steam. I remember having a go when it first came out, but at the time I was a whore for tactical army management - now I'm old and tired, and don't care, I'm all about the grand strategy.

Anyway, I love it.

The one thing I'm having trouble getting my head around, is characters. I've read the guide as to how keep the populist faction low, and that makes sense to me. I'm having trouble really caring about who is consul, or what happens to them though. I understand slapping in a Governor with decent stats, and I understand trying to maintain levels of loyalty. I like to banish or execute losers - all that makes sense. Past that though, it's just piles of people called 'Glabius Doodad Metawomble' from various families, which I'm having trouble even remembering who they are.

Am I missing something, or does family prestige actually matter, does a characters history actually matter - aside from adding a bit of flavour that is. Should I give a damn about characters once they're pro-consuls? Why would I give a hoot if I get a piddly military bonus, or a piddly civic bonus? My armies crush all before them anyway.

Can someone tell me if I'm not appreciating something here - am I just having difficulty locating any screens which the prestige of a family is something to care about for example?

Would appreciate any info on how to get a bit more invested in characters and their history (I came by way of CK2, maybe that's the issue?). Or maybe I'm just not appreciating how much of an effect all those seemingly low modifiers actually have? Whaddya Reckon?

I'm only a few years into my first proper game too. Took back Magna Grecia, and the uh, Spartans and their buddies - Carthage took Epirus, swine. Perhaps all the character drama is just around the corner?
 
Characters need to stay in their place. Thats how it goes, make sure they are loyal and that their skills are put to good use.

Family prestige can largely be ignored IMO. There is a ledger in "country overview" that shows family prestige. Notice that "families" are internationally.

I like to banish or execute losers
I don't know about that one, maybe it's because im a little intoxicated.

Oh if you click on a character there is a little book icon next to their picture. It shows their history.

Once you get a grip on the game try out some of the mods, i can recommend "Reign of the ancients" (ROTA)
 
The one thing I'm having trouble getting my head around, is characters. I've read the guide as to how keep the populist faction low, and that makes sense to me. I'm having trouble really caring about who is consul, or what happens to them though. I understand slapping in a Governor with decent stats, and I understand trying to maintain levels of loyalty. I like to banish or execute losers - all that makes sense. Past that though, it's just piles of people called 'Glabius Doodad Metawomble' from various families, which I'm having trouble even remembering who they are.
I agree; even as an ancient historian (I finally have the degree to back that up, hah!) I find it hard to remember names, especially since the members of a family tend to start sounding the same. Try getting a notepad and pen (or, if you have one, a tablet PC or similar) and jot down the names and important stats/traits of certain characters, that makes it much easier. It's hard to think of characters as being any more than a series of numbers, but I find that writing it down helps a lot :)

Am I missing something, or does family prestige actually matter, does a characters history actually matter - aside from adding a bit of flavour that is. Should I give a damn about characters once they're pro-consuls? Why would I give a hoot if I get a piddly military bonus, or a piddly civic bonus? My armies crush all before them anyway.
Family prestige is one of the main factors that contributes to a consular election, so it matters. In a monarchy, a more prestigious family has a chance to launch a civil war as well, IIRC.

History is mostly for flavour, true.

Proconsuls don't have any particular use, other than giving you more potential generals.

Those ruler bonuses also start to add up pretty quickly with others. Your armies might be crushing all who oppose them now, but you'll be happy when your Militarist leader's morale bonus wins you some extra battles, or your Civic leader's building cost bonus allows you to finish that extensive road network. The Religious bonus is probably the best of them all, IMHO, until you get some good omen success chance modifiers from other sources, since that will allow you to pick whichever omen suits you best (plus the stability cost modifier is very nice for large countries).

Would appreciate any info on how to get a bit more invested in characters and their history (I came by way of CK2, maybe that's the issue?). Or maybe I'm just not appreciating how much of an effect all those seemingly low modifiers actually have? Whaddya Reckon?
Yes, I think coming from CK2 might be the problem. CK2 is, IMHO, a wonderfully immersive game, and makes you actually care about characters (whose traits also restrict what event options are available to you, which I think is ultra cool).

I do also think that you're underestimating those bonuses, they really do make a difference in the long term.
 
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The characters here are different to CK, not least you are playing the state not a family. The bonuses do matter, if you play say Rome at the start it seems you can do as you like but over time you can run out of manpower and start to lag in some areas. Its at that stage you learn the benefits of winning wars with efficiency (from my experience manpower more than anything else is the choke point in Rome) rather than with brute force.

The problem is you can play the game almost as if it was EU - build, diplomacy, manouver - and underestimate the importance of the character strand to the game. But sooner or later that will catch you out - I find Rome at the start of a game is often quite forgiving but those early mistakes come back to hit you hard later on - and most of them are solveable using the character part of the game.
 
Past that though, it's just piles of people called 'Glabius Doodad Metawomble' from various families, which I'm having trouble even remembering who they are.
It's one of the game's shortcomings, frankly, and the reason many people would like some aspects of the CK2 characters system added to ROME2.

That being said, I've had success "loving" my characters when I've picked particular families to follow, especially if they're immigrants absorbed through conquest or exile. As they romanize their names start to follow the roman convention, but they retain the foreign base. I've gotten a few Titus Xenonus Pictors and things like that. They're easy to follow.

Of course you can always find a character you like and edit the save game to give him a cool name. That works too.
 
I never even look at names. My attachment to characters comes solely from recognizing them by their appearance. The fact that many of them look the same is a downside, but when I get a character who looks strange or like someone I know or like someone famous, i become invested in their future.

On this topic, are there any mods which exaggerate facial characteristics to create more memorable characters? That would be fantastic.

EDIT: One time i had a head of the military faction who looked like Don Draper from Mad Men. Needless to say, he had a long and successful career.
 
Pleased to say I'm enjoying it a lot more - I took the advice here, and tried to focus on just a few families - even though it seems to me like there's huge churn, and I still frequently don't give a damn who is doing what - and so many of the events seem almost irrelevant; the friends rival mechanism is a bit of a challenge to figure out - but it's kinda one of those things that youget more out, the more you put in. If Rome 2 is really happening, it should be spectacular.

Also, now I'm a few generations in - it's great fun to click back through the dynasty and see who came from where. It's still clumsy compared to CK2 obviously, but hey - it's Rome, and Rome is awesome.

Also, you won't believe how long it took me to figure out why my 50 unit armies were never replenishing. Thanks Cheexsta for one of your many informative posts.
 
First, what kind of consul you get is quite important, as 1) his party allegiance gives you a big bonus in a certain field (f.e. military consuls really help with warfare), 2) his skills gives your nation quite big bonuses and 3) he is the governor of the area of your capital province. So the consul really makes a difference. True, I find it near impossible to select the consul I want, but he still makes a difference.

Second, I find I get attached to one or two “supertalents”: characters that start with good stats and for who I fulfil ambition after ambition so that they have very high finesse. Such characters are very helpful and as you follow their career through the offices, you kinda get attached.

Most characters are indeed quite anonymous to me, but as I focus on developing a small number of “elite” magistrates, some of them are well-known to me.
 
Pleased to say I'm enjoying it a lot more - I took the advice here, and tried to focus on just a few families - even though it seems to me like there's huge churn, and I still frequently don't give a damn who is doing what - and so many of the events seem almost irrelevant; the friends rival mechanism is a bit of a challenge to figure out - but it's kinda one of those things that youget more out, the more you put in. If Rome 2 is really happening, it should be spectacular.

Also, now I'm a few generations in - it's great fun to click back through the dynasty and see who came from where. It's still clumsy compared to CK2 obviously, but hey - it's Rome, and Rome is awesome.

Also, you won't believe how long it took me to figure out why my 50 unit armies were never replenishing. Thanks Cheexsta for one of your many informative posts.

I would say focusing on a family is a bad idea.. Personally I just set best possible guys to their work and don't worry much more than that. I begin to remember generals (like who was from which party and doing what) and probably some other characters too if they became anyhow important to me but otherwise if you aren't writing an AAR about your characters you can treat them like pawns.

With tribal nations you have the family (clan) thing working very strongly but to be honest the only thing that happens via it is stability drop everytime you go over +2, it's like an upgraded comet sighted with another crappy excuse to make all things go nuts :D

EDIT: I see you did not have EU3 registered so I'll explain the last phrase:
Comet Sighted is an event in EU3 (and all expansions) that gives you -1 stability hit. They added one extra option (that still just gives the -1 stab) in the event in every expansion and its a kind of joke around the community. And it always drops your stability back to the original ~2 months after rising it :D
 
Sure, I still give offices primarily to guys with the relevant stats when I can't choose a decent one from one of the families I'm following in detail - this is just a case of immersion for me really, I like following the career progression of my dudes.