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Emperor Leo

The Brainstormer
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May 17, 2008
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So, here we are again with another Brainstorm. This time we're focussing on construction and buildings. Seeing as the pictures from the last Brainstorm were well received, I decided to include some in this one, too! :) Anyway, gather your tools and building materials, my friends, as we're marching to Rome...

Province.jpg


ProvinceExample.jpg

Now, I'm pretty sure you're all familiar with the screen above. It's the Province Information window. You'll notice a few changes, so lets take a tour of ancient Rome...

Fig. A - Buildings

On the original Province Information window, you had ten blank construction boxes which were automatically filled for you when you built something. So, ten building types for ten construction sites. No thought required. This has changed. As you can see above, there are now only six construction sites. So there's only six building types now, then? Wrong! There are many, many more...

FarmConstruct.jpg
PublicConstruct.jpg


MilitaryConstruct.jpg
TradeConstruct.jpg

Now we have lots of building types with different effects and some with restrictions, some without. Ignore the building costs and build times seen above (I couldn't be bothered to change them). All building types will have different costs and construction times. So, lots of building types and only six construction sites per province? That's going to require some thinking.

I'm sure you're thinking, "What's the point?". Well, I like to have total control over the growth and development of my country and regions. This new system allows the player to tailor each province to their liking, transforming provinces (and regions) into centres of trade, growth, production, etc.

For example, you reach Britannia as Rome and completely colonise the island. There's no more threats from barbarians and plenty of grain, so construct farms, mills, granaries, etc. and watch your colony flourish. On the flipside, you may wish to protect a frontier in Germania, so you have the option to construct Barracks, Stables, Blacksmith, etc. to be sure that you have skilled troops on the front line.

Obviously, the player won't be able to go on a building spamming run with all the "best" buildings. Some buildings have restrictions (as you can see in the pictures, above the "Build" button). Some restrictions will be stricter than others.

Having the option to build lots of combinations of buildings means that no two games need be the same. These new buildings and restrictions will also make invasions more fun. You can set your eyes on enemy provinces which are to your liking.

Fig. B - Roads & Walls

Two construction boxes will be kept clear and reserved for Roads and Walls. These are two basic construction types and I didn't feel they should take up any of your six building sites.

Fig. C - Exclusive Government Building

There will be one construction box reserved for an exclusive building type that is only available to each government type (Republic, Monarchy, Tribe, etc). This just gives a bit of extra flavour to each government. I feel that this building type should be restricted to the Capital city only or maybe one per region. Here's just a couple of examples of what I mean:

SenateHouse.jpg


Pantheon.jpg

Fig. D - Regional Governor Bonus

You may have noticed that there are symbols above each of the constructed buildings on the Province Information window. Each symbol represents what category each building falls under (these are not fixed icons like National Ideas!). The three symbols are Military, Economic / Production and Public.

So, what do these symbols actually do?

Well, if a region has a collectively dominant building type, the Governor will be granted a small bonus. Take a look...

Military.jpg


If a region contains a majority of military buildings, word will spread amongst the Plebs that the Governor has the means to raise an experienced army at his fingertips. Whether he is feared or loved for this, you can be sure his name will become known.

Civic.jpg


If a region contains a majority of public buildings, the Governor will become known as a man of the people, using the country's treasury to construct buildings to please the mob... and they will love him for it.

Production.jpg


If a region contains a majority of economic or production buildings, the Governor will see no reason why he can't take some of the money as a reward for all his hard work. He governs a very lucrative region, so who's going to miss a few Denarii here or there?​

So, there we have it. Many classical civilisations are know for their architectual feats and marvels, so let's see this reflected in EU Rome! More choice, more thinking, more flavour, more fun! :) Of course, if the player doesn't want to be bothered with the micro-management, Paradox can always include an "Arcade Mode" (a la HOI3) which reverts the game to the vanilla construction options.

Sorry for such a long post, folks! By the way, please note that the building types and effects are as examples only! :)
 
Awesome brainsorm again Leo :D
If I ever decide to program a GS game, you are gonna be the Designer even if I have to kidnap you :p
 
You, are, GOD(at gimp/photoshop)

Also, I think that those government buildings maybe should help with rulers authority? Not sure if that would be the same case with the senate house though...
 
I love the way you could customise your provinces and make them more different from each other !
but i would also point out that you have missed out religious buildings and what if someone have already customised their province into their need, but it doesn't apply to my current situation when i have conquered it. Or my situation changes and i have to change the orientation of the province ? Can i redesign it (even if with some temporary penalty) ?

No. The point is to make the game more fun by making it so the player has to make more decisions, rather than just saying "you can have your cake and eat it" you must make a decision- will this region become a military stronghold, a breadbasket of the empire, a great industrial (as industrial as rome could be 2000 years ago anyway) center, a great religious center to raise your faith's power, or any number of other things. In addition I assume you would be able to raise already rich regions into even richer regions, or you could try to have an even output across most of the empire.

Finally this makes wars more fun, because you get to think about which provinces you want to take from your enemy in order to deprive them of things like an important military center or agricultural site or naval dock in order to hinder their ability to war against you or challenge your trade in the mediterranean. This is what Rome needs, more customizable strategies.
 
I did understand all that ? But you have to understand that AI have mind of it's own and once you get the actual province and there is nothing you can change about it any more (cuz ai have customised it already) then thats the end of your grand strategy and you are stuck whatever Ai found fit to do with it.
The hole idea only takes under account the non colonised fresh provinces you get before anyone else have managed to ruin them for you ! As of now anyway.
And i said that i liked the idea already. If only there would be any flexibility, and i'm not talking about changing every year the face of the province.
You've got a point. Maybe add the ability to demolish buildings as well? The governor/ruler would take a popularity hit and it would cost a fair chunk of money (sort of like disbanding armies), which would make it a costly venture to 'remodel' a province.
 
You've got a point. Maybe add the ability to demolish buildings as well? The governor/ruler would take a popularity hit and it would cost a fair chunk of money (sort of like disbanding armies), which would make it a costly venture to 'remodel' a province.

Yeah, it should be possible to remodel a province, but not free. Demolishing buildings is pretty expensive after all, and all the buildings are ones that some fraction of the population will like. So your particular proposal makes sense.

I like the idea of customizing regions, and, say, taking my Parthian Empire to have Egypt as the rich breadbasket, the Persian core providing vast bulks of manpower, especially cavalry and horse archers, Mesopotamia as the cultural and scientific heart, and Syria and Anatolia providing heavy infantry and, most importantly, the navy. Mmm, cool. It's already like that a bit due to the resources, civilization levels, and populations, but this would make it even more so (and let me have influence--if I instead want to make Egypt the military district and Mesopotamia the cultural one, I can do that).
 
Thank you for the kind words, everyone! :) I just hope that Paradox read these Brainstorms! ;)

You've got a point. Maybe add the ability to demolish buildings as well? The governor/ruler would take a popularity hit and it would cost a fair chunk of money (sort of like disbanding armies), which would make it a costly venture to 'remodel' a province.

Ooops, I totally forgot to mention this! Yes, I had in mind that the player / AI can demolish buildings at a cost (and popularity, as Cheexsta says). I think it'd be unfair to restrict the player to a one off chance of building.

Also, I think that those government buildings maybe should help with rulers authority? Not sure if that would be the same case with the senate house though...

I was thinking this, but decided not to mention any past Brainstorm material, as Authority wasn't hugely well received.

but i would also point out that you have missed out religious buildings

I was going to do seperate construction pages for Naval and Religion / Monuments, but I ran out of pictures to use and it was becoming too time consuming.
 
Haha I wish! My programming expertise doesn't go past Photoshop, unfortunately!
 
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Great as always :D I wonder why doesn't someone try to use these in mods.. Or why doesn't any paradox developer or just someone from there tell is these possible to implement in game in future..

EDIT: How long you spent at working on these GUIs? and btw, I see similarities to EU3 buildings ;)
 
EDIT: How long you spent at working on these GUIs? and btw, I see similarities to EU3 buildings

This Brainstorm took a few hours, I think. Can't remember how long it took as I did it months ago. I'm not claiming credit for the construction ideas implemented in Divine Wind, but it makes me wonder. The ideas are very similar. Also, one of the previous Divine Wind Dev Diaries introduced the use of Authority. Authority increases and decreases. A high Authority opens up extra diplomacy options and a low Authority causes a power struggle. Ideas that I introduced a while back.
 
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Like I wrote in the "Authority" thread; most of DW comes from MM. Not only did they (MM team) have the same ideas concerning buildings long ago, they actually implemented them in their mod, not just made some photoshop pictures.

You should check it out