• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

Emperor Leo

The Brainstormer
18 Badges
May 17, 2008
1.016
2
  • Cities in Motion
  • Crusader Kings II
  • Deus Vult
  • Europa Universalis III
  • Europa Universalis III Complete
  • Divine Wind
  • Heir to the Throne
  • Hearts of Iron Anthology
  • Europa Universalis: Rome
  • Sengoku
  • Victoria 2: A House Divided
  • Europa Universalis III: Collection
  • Crusader Kings II: Holy Knight (pre-order)
  • 500k Club
  • Rome: Vae Victis
  • Victoria 2
  • Europa Universalis III Complete
  • Europa Universalis III Complete
Ok, so this is going to be quite an epic Brainstorm. It has nice pictures and everything. This is the Avatar of forum posts ;).

In today's Brainstorm, I'm accompanied by my lovely assistant who's flown in all the way from Macedonia! Say hello to Ptolemy Keraunos!

NewCharacter.jpg
NewCharacterExample.jpg

As you can see, Ptolemy is wearing this Summer's hottest accessories! Doesn't he look fabulous! :D Let's break down the new character sheet to see what's what...

Fig. A - Triumphator
  • This is the icon used to show that this character is an ex-Triumphator. This could have been a simple title icon, but I thought it looked nicer as a prominent "badge". Find the full details on Triumphs here.
Fig. B - King of Kings or Shahanshah
  • This is the icon used to show that this character has bestowed the title "King of Kings" upon himself. This is a new gameplay element which I will introduce in this Brainstorm.
  • To become "King of Kings", the player's nation (in this example, Macedonia), must have six or more rival nations under his control as vassal states and have a high Authority (more on this later) and Charisma. The player can then proclaim himself "King of Kings" via a Personal Decision.
  • Becoming the King of Kings gives the Ruler (Ptolemy Keraunos, in this case) the icon that you can see in the picture above. Clicking the icon brings up this menu:

    KingofKings.jpg
  • From here, the player can make unique diplomatic choices to his vassals. These diplomacy options aren't available until you declare yourself the King of Kings. You can make demands of your vassals, but on the downside, you risk enraging and alienating them.
  • This is similar to the HRE in EU3, but simplified and scaled down.
  • This option gives the player a valid reason to create vassals, rather than just steamrolling over the map.

Fig. C - Personal Decisions

  • This is the icon where players can access Personal Decisions. Take a look here for the rundown on Personal Decisions. My assistant is going to take a 5 minute wine-break while you read that post...

  • Ok, read it? Good! Here's how I imagine the Personal Decision menu to look once the player has clicked the icon:

Decisions.jpg

  • Personal Decisions and the existing vanilla decisions could be merged into one menu make the interface simpler.
  • As you can see from the picture, I imagined the different decision types would be broken down into categories such as; Personal / Social, Religious, Military, Domestic and Foreign.

Fig. D - Retinue or Entourage

  • This part of the Brainstorm was inspired by fellow forum member Kandletaadu and a war game that was totally Rome. I won't name it on these forums... :p

  • In EU3, you can select great people to join your court as advisors. I'd like to be able to do this for the Ruler (only the Ruler) in EU Rome.
  • The player would be able to select an entourage from a randomly generated list. These assistants would generate a small bonus personally to the Ruler or effect the way a Ruler runs the country. In this example Ptolemy has chosen to hang out with (from top to bottom):

  • [*]Philosopher - +0.5% to Research Points monthly per point of Ruler's Finesse.
    [*]Celtic Ambassador - +0.25 Yearly Relations with all Celtic Nations per point of Ruler's Charisma.
    [*]Personal Bodyguard - +0.10 Intrigue / Reduced chance of assassination.
    [*]Veteran Soldier - +0.5 Chance of Unit Loyalty / Troop Morale +0.10 per point of Ruler's Martial.​
  • Obviously, the advisors you can see are time travellers from the Medieval period. ;)
  • There are only ever 4 slots to fill. There is no penalty if they're not filled.
  • Advisors are recruited from the Ruler's personal wealth.
  • They are not "playable" characters, rather just a representation of lesser memebers of the court / senate / tribe.
  • Depending on what government or culture you play, there will be some different or unique advisors to choose.

Fig. E - Authority

I won't go over this again. Just take a look here.

Well, there you go. A small collection of what has been thrown out in previous Brainstorms. I think a lot of these features would fit the Alexander theme quite well.

I have to apologise for the shameless promotion of my own threads here. I just like to get the ideas out there, especially as now is the best time to throw ideas around with an expansion possibly on the cards! The reason I made pictures, was to give everyone a visual idea of what I can imagine Rome becoming and it's easier to explain things when you can refer to the pictures.

A note about the pictures: I haven't created a Mod or anything. I simply mocked them up in Photoshop. I also used the advisor images from EU3, as I'm sure you've already noticed. The other icons are existing graphics from EU Rome.

Anyway, sorry for the long post! :eek:o Let me know what you think! That means you, too, Paradox staff! ;)
 
Very nice, as a member of everyone of your Brainstorms(and I hope there will be more) I must say I like it. It certainly must have taken some time doing this in Photoshop, and I applaud your patience and skillls. This certainly helps for some of the members of this forum who are too lazy to read the rest of your brainstorms.
 
So lifelike that i actually tried to scrool down in the personal decision menu.. But very great work. I like all of the ideas very much. The advisor system i really like and could be a very good addition to th ruler, so he won't seem so flawless. The king of kings thing, could maybe also get a little twist so your neighbors would actually have to react on it. Right now it mostly seems that everything that happens inside your country stays there and doesn't have anything to do with the world around.
 
Very nice, as a member of everyone of your Brainstorms(and I hope there will be more) I must say I like it. It certainly must have taken some time doing this in Photoshop, and I applaud your patience and skillls. This certainly helps for some of the members of this forum who are too lazy to read the rest of your brainstorms.

Thank you! :) I'm glad you're enjoying the Brainstorms! I'll probably do more unless Paradox announce that there won't be another expansion. If that's the case, maybe Modders can make some use of the ideas. The pictures didn't take too long, to be honest. I think they make the Brainstorm "come alive" a bit more and make the ideas easier to digest (for myself, too). I'll try to add pictures to future Brainstorms where I can.

I know I've already said it, but I just want to apologise for the length of the post. I'm sure that many of you find the Brainstorms truley irritating! :p

So lifelike that i actually tried to scrool down in the personal decision menu.. But very great work. I like all of the ideas very much.

Thank you! Too kind! :)

I like all of the ideas very much. The advisor system i really like and could be a very good addition to th ruler, so he won't seem so flawless.

The credit for this must go to Kandletaadu. I asked his permission to include his idea here. So a big thank you to Kandletaadu from me!

The king of kings thing, could maybe also get a little twist so your neighbors would actually have to react on it. Right now it mostly seems that everything that happens inside your country stays there and doesn't have anything to do with the world around.

I never even thought about the King of Kings thing until I did a little research on Alexander and found that he bestowed this title unto himself when he conquered Persia. Then I loaded up EU3 and looked at the HRE and relalised that the King of Kings could be a feasable feature in EU Rome.
 
Last edited:
Well, King of kings is something similar to the imperator title i suppose. Any way, I think that if Seleucid Empire should decide to proclaim themselves to be King of Kings, even though they have steamrolled the entire minor asia and the greek citystates, then Egypt would probably still want to question their claim and maybe even go to war over it. Maybe there also should be some kind of cost for the king to proclaim himself that.
 
This is truly epic !
Do you have some sort of mod or something that you work on ?

Thank you! I don't have a mod. I just mocked the pictures up in Photoshop using existing Rome and EU3 graphics. They weren't created in-game. The only time I tried to mod was when I attempted to add new Monarchy titles and skills into the game, but it got too confusing and time consuming for me, so I let it go.
 
C - very good.
A - well... Too minor.
B - mmm, too local. Maybe something similar, but more generic. Maybe just additional vassal actions. Enforce trade (Egypt grain!), migrating talented characters, vassalizing barbarian tribes on "not colonised" lands.
D - So you want add some marionette cripple characters in a game where you have many big and tasty characters? No, ruler already has friends and statesmen.
E - I like global events. But isn't something you make with a decision. Maybe it'd be better if some countries actions were visible for everyone and they could react.

F.e. when someone (Rome or Carthage) captures key points to sea trade everybody could react with, f.e. optional mercantile reforms or creating new trade roots or bending over hegemony. Or when someone declares himself as a god there's a chance for every religion prestige hit. Or when somebody becomes an Empire everybody should state they side - with an empire or against it. Or neighbors choosing to sponsor loyalists or rebels. Or great barbarian invasions. That kind of things.

And I still pray for good character table with more developed prominence system.
 
A - well... Too minor.

Pretty much everything I mention in Brainstorms is minor. For me, anything that adds a little something to the game and gives the player something to occupy themself with is welcome! :)

D - So you want add some marionette cripple characters in a game where you have many big and tasty characters? No, ruler already has friends and statesmen.

The retinue advisors aren't playable and are only available to the Ruler. Think of them as National Ideas for yourself. They can help create a unique playing style, so that no two games will be alike. For example, if your Ruler has a low Charisma, you can surround yourself with Ambassadors and Diplomats to help make up for your lack of personality. They're not there to change the face of the game, just to add some fun and roleplaying elements. In the current Vanilla Rome, the Ruler's friends do, well... nothing. The odd event here and there and the extra loyalty, but other than that, pointless.

E - I like global events. But isn't something you make with a decision. Maybe it'd be better if some countries actions were visible for everyone and they could react.

The Authority stat is a measure of a character's influence, commanded respect and assertiveness. It represents how likely a population is going to listen to or accept his decisions. Authority would be tied to Personal / Domestic Decisions. I'm not quite sure where you got the idea about global events and country reactions being related to Authority from. :confused:
 
Very nice. Would certainly change the way I look at my ruler.
 
But your majesty, those advisors won't have free will. They won't try to kill ruler like all good proper characters, or join civil war, or start to rule over some province. And it's hard to manage them. What will happen to republics? Every couple of years you have to start over with advisors?

And I get what authority is, I just don't see why do you need additional stat. You've got popularity, prominence, tyrany, infamy. Why do you need another stat representing similar abstraction? Occam's razor will strike you down!
 
But your majesty, those advisors won't have free will. They won't try to kill ruler like all good proper characters, or join civil war, or start to rule over some province.

They're not suppposed to have free will. Your ruler will still have friends and enemies that are "real" characters. The advisors are there to enhance gameplay. They're like National Ideas for your Ruler. I don't know how else to explain this, really.

And it's hard to manage them. What will happen to republics? Every couple of years you have to start over with advisors?

I don't see this as being a major problem, to be honest. Pause the game, select up to four advisors and then play. Unless you play at the top speed, it's hardly a grind. Also, there's no penalty for not using advisors, so you under no obligation to select them.

Or, make advisors a Monarchy only feature.

And I get what authority is, I just don't see why do you need additional stat. You've got popularity, prominence, tyrany, infamy. Why do you need another stat representing similar abstraction? Occam's razor will strike you down!

Authority doesn't bear any resemblance to Popularity, Prominenece, Loyalty or Infamy. The closest resemblance is Tyranny, but Tyranny only seems to represent "bad" actions and only appears when "bad" actions are performed. Also, Tyranny has mostly negative effects. Authority would mainly be used to perform decisions and as a way of keeping your Empire held together.
 
Authority doesn't bear any resemblance to Popularity, Prominenece, Loyalty or Infamy. The closest resemblance is Tyranny, but Tyranny only seems to represent "bad" actions and only appears when "bad" actions are performed. Also, Tyranny has mostly negative effects. Authority would mainly be used to perform decisions and as a way of keeping your Empire held together.

Shouldn't Authority be a country value, rather than a character value? It seems that authority makes really only sense for monarchs or major magistrates, something which could much more easily be represented on a country scale.

I think Prominence is already sufficient to represent the personal aspects of authority.
 
I think in terms of international relations, having more authority should affect whether your allies answer your call to arms during wartime if you issue a call to arms. Having higher authority should also help in organizing international trade deals and diplomatic actions.
 
This is quite the brainstom, very well done. I'd love it if any of this would be included into a 2nd Expansion for Rome.

I'd love it even more if you're an undercover Paradox employee and these are sneak peeks of the coming Expansion.
 
Just thought I'd browse the Rome forum and I find this! :eek: Some nice ideas here - maybe Paradox will implement some of the ideas if they decide to go through with that Alexander-era game, or some other Rome patch/expansion?
 
Great job!!! I've been out of Rome forum for a while (long while, in fact) and I find... this. There's lot of good ideas here, hopefully they would be developed in a new expansion (sorry, I voted for EUIII but I've said twice that I'd like to change my vote to Rome), or at least but modders.

Go ahead!
 
I'd love it even more if you're an undercover Paradox employee and these are sneak peeks of the coming Expansion.

*Shifty eyes* Erm... err... these aren't alpha screenshots from the upcoming Alexandros Magnus expansion. Where did you hear that crazy idea from? I'm not a lead design-- LOOK OVER THERE! A LION! *runs away* :p

So when is paradox going to employ you?

Note to Johan: Please place my hefty cheque in the post and sign me up to the Paradox Protection Program. :D

To be honest, if any of our ideas make it into an expansion, I'll be very happy!