[Brainstorm #5] Alexander The Great

[anomanderus]

Empire era would require another game to be represented correctly. A game that concentrates only upon internal Roman power struggles and in which you would play an ambitious noble family with sights of being Emperor instead of the Emperor.

This is exactly the same idea I had the other day.

Marcus Aurelius.

But THAT would be great... A game starting 395 AD!

But that would be after the end of the first roman empire

While Alexander was busy showboating around Asia there were all sorts of interesting things going on in Italy.

Like Rome defeating the other italian states and becoming the only italian country

 

[SirGrotius]

I'd like more user-friendly interfaces, so that I can follow and sort the whos who in my realm more easily. In fact, I think there should be a "great men" screen (including women in certain cultures) which would focus on only the top XX in each state. It'd be easier to manage in some ways.

 

[Emperor Leo]

In fact, I think there should be a "great men" screen (including women in certain cultures) which would focus on only the top XX in each state. It'd be easier to manage in some ways.

If you click on the attribute you're after (on the character screen), you can sort character stats (ascending and descending) to see who's the top brass in your court / senate / tribe.

 

[anomanderus]

I'd like more user-friendly interfaces, so that I can follow and sort the whos who in my realm more easily. In fact, I think there should be a "great men" screen (including women in certain cultures) which would focus on only the top XX in each state. It'd be easier to manage in some ways.

Don't forget an expanded ledger. EU3 has a 30 or so page ledger, ROME has a 3 page ledger.

Also there should be a "barbarian horde" government type for barbarian states that reject civilization. I don't really know how it would work, but there needs to be some kind of reason to reject the +1 civilization events you get every now and then.

Also a more in-depth religious system would be cool. Right now it's just "offer sacrifice, receive stability". During this period, because of greek and roman expansion there was alot of change in religions, mediterranean pantheons began absorbing gods from other religions, coming into conflict with religions that didn't quite agree with the idea of the pantheon and with new religions altogether. I think it would be cool if there were decisions you could commit to for bonuses and maluses that would affect whether your religion (as one of the pantheon/paganistic/polytheistic religions) became grounded in dogma, ritual and holy books or remained a loosely organized unifying force. I want the ability to turn Hellenic religion from the faith of the Olympians to the faith of Zeus, The Highest. As a monotheistic religion I want to be able to declare whether foreign gods exist, but don't matter because they aren't MY god or that there is no god other than mine. As dharmic religions (assuming the new expansion would include india and the kushan empire) I want to be able to absorb the new greek gods, reform the caste system to favor rulers over priests, and in the special case of the Kushan empire (like the ottomans and the spanish have special religious decisions in EU3) I want to be able to replace the eastern gods in buddhism with the Olympians and create some kind of Buddhist-Hellenist fusion.

Better cultural design would be good though. Culture is extremely important in this era, there should be province numbers of the various cultures in the province. Preferably in percentages of population.

 

[Emperor Leo]

Better cultural design would be good though. Culture is extremely important in this era, there should be province numbers of the various cultures in the province. Preferably in percentages of population.

I totally agree! Religion and culture should both have "pie chart" percentages of different cultures and religions per province which can change over time. This would be much better than the "Oh, suddenly everyone converts to the Greek religion / becomes Macedonian in one day" that we have now. I'd like to be able to see which religions and cultures are becoming dominant (maybe influenced by surrounding provinces and rival governors).

This would then make your governor choices more important to "block" a charismatic, rival governor's influence bleeding into your provinces. Culture could also be influenced by immigration from neighbouring nations.

 

[vanin]

I totally agree! Religion and culture should both have "pie chart" percentages of different cultures and religions per province which can change over time. This would be much better than the "Oh, suddenly everyone converts to the Greek religion / becomes Macedonian in one day" that we have now. I'd like to be able to see which religions and cultures are becoming dominant (maybe influenced by surrounding provinces and rival governors).

This would then make your governor choices more important to "block" a charismatic, rival governor's influence bleeding into your provinces. Culture could also be influenced by immigration from neighbouring nations.

I agree, and considering that they are developing Vicky 2 for the same engine Rome runs on it isn't really a completely new design for the engine required either.

I see a problem arising though, that we want too much into one game. Rome is a hybrid between EU and CK, and as such we want all the good features from both. Different types of units ala EU3 and great character-depth ala CK to just name two.

Imo, the map along with politics, both national and international, are in the most need of a rehaul right now, along with fixing some of the oddities with character development. A future Alexander expansion could very well be the key.

 

[Teurlinx]

I totally agree! Religion and culture should both have "pie chart" percentages of different cultures and religions per province which can change over time. This would be much better than the "Oh, suddenly everyone converts to the Greek religion / becomes Macedonian in one day" that we have now. I'd like to be able to see which religions and cultures are becoming dominant (maybe influenced by surrounding provinces and rival governors).

This would then make your governor choices more important to "block" a charismatic, rival governor's influence bleeding into your provinces. Culture could also be influenced by immigration from neighbouring nations.

You forget how much data and research on that data you need to do to fill those pie charts. This data generally only is available since about the Vicky era, and even then it will be a nightmare to fill the globe with reliable figures. For the Rome era there's hardly any reliable figure at all.

 

[Emperor Leo]

You forget how much data and research on that data you need to do to fill those pie charts.

This is true enough. Maybe all provinces begin with 100% primary culture or divided between other cultures if the data is roughly known. Over time, the culture changes and fluctuates.

 

[Alexander Seil]

You forget how much data and research on that data you need to do to fill those pie charts. This data generally only is available since about the Vicky era, and even then it will be a nightmare to fill the globe with reliable figures. For the Rome era there's hardly any reliable figure at all.

Who said the pie charts had to be accurate? :rofl:

 

[Teurlinx]

Who said the pie charts had to be accurate? :rofl:

Bah, economists...

 

[vanin]

What about 2 different culture tabs? City (urban) culture and provincial culture? The culture of cities and their surroundings are pretty easy to figure out even for the ancient era I think, and it could easily show colonisation going to settled cities first and then eventually spreading to the rest of the province.

 

[Tommy4ever]

What about 2 different culture tabs? City (urban) culture and provincial culture? The culture of cities and their surroundings are pretty easy to figure out even for the ancient era I think, and it could easily show colonisation going to settled cities first and then eventually spreading to the rest of the province.

I like this idea. You'd get that system where cities in the East had Greek cities but non-Greek rural areas and in the West Latin cities and non-Latin rural areas.

 

[HMAS-Nameless]

i didnt even know they were even hinting a new Rome expansion. well you just got me excited sir!

 

[Emperor Leo]

...well you just got me excited sir!

Awwkkwarrrrdddd...

Anyway, remember to vote for the Rome expansion in this thread! Every vote counts!

 

[Brian Bóruma]

I care very little for the time frame given, however this is the opportunity to finally get some modding support build into the game so hopefully we will get all the triggers and effects from EU3 ported to EUR!

One can dream

+1.

I've bought just about every Total War game and expansion out there, including Shogun and Mongol Invasions, but I had zero interest in Alexander. Likewise, I don't know if I'd bother to buy an Alexander expansion for Rome. Move the timeline forward, not backward.

Roman Empire, Fall of Rome, Dark Ages, all far more enthralling than moving back to a time period where Europe was irrelevant.

 

[Emperor Leo]

Roman Empire, Fall of Rome, Dark Ages, all far more enthralling than moving back to a time period where Europe was irrelevant.

I have to agree with the Dark Ages being an enthralling game. I think it would be best as a fresh game from Paradox rather than a Rome expansion. Dark Ages is a very interesting period and seems to get ignored by many game companies (apart from Barbarian Invasion, but that's more Fall Of Rome than DA).

 

[HMAS-Nameless]

I have to agree with the Dark Ages being an enthralling game. I think it would be best as a fresh game from Paradox rather than a Rome expansion. Dark Ages is a very interesting period and seems to get ignored by many game companies (apart from Barbarian Invasion, but that's more Fall Of Rome than DA).

have you heard of Great Invasions: The Dark Ages by Ageod? ive never played it myself but it looks really good and it looks like paradox may be negotiations with ageod to make a great invasions 2!

 

[Earl Uhtred]

have you heard of Great Invasions: The Dark Ages by Ageod? ive never played it myself but it looks really good and it looks like paradox may be negotiations with ageod to make a great invasions 2!

Where did you hear that? 'Tis consummation devoutly to be wish'd.

GI was pretty much unplayable, sad to say, despite the appealing theme.

 

[UniversalWolf]

Move the timeline forward, not backward.

I disagree completely. Someone suggested starting the timeline a short time before Alexander's death. I think that would be good. You could participate in his empire disintegrating into wars between the successors. If that's not your cup of tea, the Romans were fighting a long series of interesting wars in Italy - wars that could easily have resulted in Rome's destruction.

Moving the timeline forward would give you a game where the uncontested power of Rome got bigger and bigger and bigger. You'd have to play through the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero until you got to the massive civil war that brought Flavius Vespasian to power: the first serious threat to Rome in such an expanded timeline - and then you're in the Pax Romana. It's a fascinating period in history, but I'm not sure what people find attractive about it from a gaming standpoint.

 

[anomanderus]

I disagree completely. Someone suggested starting the timeline a short time before Alexander's death. I think that would be good. You could participate in his empire disintegrating into wars between the successors. If that's not your cup of tea, the Romans were fighting a long series of interesting wars in Italy - wars that could easily have resulted in Rome's destruction.

Moving the timeline forward would give you a game where the uncontested power of Rome got bigger and bigger and bigger. You'd have to play through the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero until you got to the massive civil war that brought Flavius Vespasian to power: the first serious threat to Rome in such an expanded timeline - and then you're in the Pax Romana. It's a fascinating period in history, but I'm not sure what people find attractive about it from a gaming standpoint.

It'd have to be it's own game, even more character based than this one or CK. You'd probably start as a legionary general like Vespasian and wait for your chance to seize power.