So first let me say I know I can be a pain in the ass and I have been whining quite a bit about how the series has progressed. from Eu 1 to Rome today. Specifically, the micro management that has no strategic impact in the gameplay or how the world develops. First of all I love details and managing those some details but for a strategic game they have to have some meaning for it to be fun.
Sliders that really just rob Peter to pay Paul and Peter and Paul are twin brothers and Rob is their cousin are pretty meaningless and not a whole lot of fun. While Eu3 is still what I consider a fun and addictive game, I think all the sliders that end up doing not a whole lot while your game speed runs along at mach 11 really subtract from the game.
I really think Rome breaks with this whole trend – on the face of it there really are not as many sliders—all the micro management is out of the game but you still have a lot of detail and depth. Do I think they could add more detail, depth and conent? Yep—I think they can and will. I’d like to see more diplomatic options and complications.
The Map. Ok when I saw this in the demo I was pretty excited. I’ve been wanting them to add this kind of detail and beauty for a long time. I had a bunch of posts about it back in 2006 etc when EU3 coming out and said it looked like I was playing on my old Vic 20. I love what they did and would like to see even more there. The only issue I have here, is while I love the terrain map, it’s very hard for me to play the game on it. If there was some way to make a political map more like the terrain map with maybe subtle shades or hues or some other way to distinguish borders. Or maybe its make the terrain map easier to read political boundaries. The point is I love it but can’t use it as much as I’d like to watch the in game action. Maybe some of the super smart modders like Modestus could figure out a way to do this so the terrain and political map could be combined without messing up the beauty of the terrain map.
Also, I’d love an economic map mode that shows tax value of provinces. Makes it easier for me to find provinces that will hurt my enemies. Same with things like Revolt risk.
Map related but not graphical—I love the modifiers Paradox used when you hold certain territories like Carthage, Rome, Alexandria, Athens etc. There are only a few of these modifiers, I’d love to see them modded (maybe I will do it myself), where there are some additive provinces to each of these to make more provinces strategic.
This adds all sorts of possibilities to the game in where there are reasons for conflict inside Greece, or for Carthage to have tensions with Numidia and its neighbors etc. It’s awesome, takes no coding but adds a ton of depth and potential.
Trade looks good so far with a lot of new potential in terms of having impact on provinces. I have not figred it out completely to be honest. Not sure how impactful the choices I make there are yet.
With the patch, looks like Ping pong is a tad down that said I think both the combat system and the province improvement system could use some improvement.
User interface additions. An ability to click on the modifier warning you a governor is absent in several of your provinces to take you right to the province. Click it again and it takes you to the 2nd one down on the list. I spend a lot of time trying to find provinces. My geography is pretty good but I waste a lot of time finding this. Also- what about an option to auto select the governor so the one with the highest finesse rating is put in there. More hotkeys for each of the buttons—I have not gotten my game yet so maybe there are some hotkeys I don’t know about.
I think there is a lot of room for new content, expansions and patches for this game in the areas of politics, building province improvements , religion, and technology. For example, what if you as Carthage could support a Rome rival –send him cash to try a coup or break away some provinces. This would also serve as a way to have more game balance when Rome is much larger in later periods.
I think this game is a solid foundation for improvements in the Rome series. I hope its improvements in strategic elements, and the map are ported back into EU and the other games. In short, great game.
p.s. I have a question for the developers. Did you guys decide to do Rome in part at least because of the HBO Series Rome?
Sliders that really just rob Peter to pay Paul and Peter and Paul are twin brothers and Rob is their cousin are pretty meaningless and not a whole lot of fun. While Eu3 is still what I consider a fun and addictive game, I think all the sliders that end up doing not a whole lot while your game speed runs along at mach 11 really subtract from the game.
I really think Rome breaks with this whole trend – on the face of it there really are not as many sliders—all the micro management is out of the game but you still have a lot of detail and depth. Do I think they could add more detail, depth and conent? Yep—I think they can and will. I’d like to see more diplomatic options and complications.
The Map. Ok when I saw this in the demo I was pretty excited. I’ve been wanting them to add this kind of detail and beauty for a long time. I had a bunch of posts about it back in 2006 etc when EU3 coming out and said it looked like I was playing on my old Vic 20. I love what they did and would like to see even more there. The only issue I have here, is while I love the terrain map, it’s very hard for me to play the game on it. If there was some way to make a political map more like the terrain map with maybe subtle shades or hues or some other way to distinguish borders. Or maybe its make the terrain map easier to read political boundaries. The point is I love it but can’t use it as much as I’d like to watch the in game action. Maybe some of the super smart modders like Modestus could figure out a way to do this so the terrain and political map could be combined without messing up the beauty of the terrain map.
Also, I’d love an economic map mode that shows tax value of provinces. Makes it easier for me to find provinces that will hurt my enemies. Same with things like Revolt risk.
Map related but not graphical—I love the modifiers Paradox used when you hold certain territories like Carthage, Rome, Alexandria, Athens etc. There are only a few of these modifiers, I’d love to see them modded (maybe I will do it myself), where there are some additive provinces to each of these to make more provinces strategic.
This adds all sorts of possibilities to the game in where there are reasons for conflict inside Greece, or for Carthage to have tensions with Numidia and its neighbors etc. It’s awesome, takes no coding but adds a ton of depth and potential.
Trade looks good so far with a lot of new potential in terms of having impact on provinces. I have not figred it out completely to be honest. Not sure how impactful the choices I make there are yet.
With the patch, looks like Ping pong is a tad down that said I think both the combat system and the province improvement system could use some improvement.
User interface additions. An ability to click on the modifier warning you a governor is absent in several of your provinces to take you right to the province. Click it again and it takes you to the 2nd one down on the list. I spend a lot of time trying to find provinces. My geography is pretty good but I waste a lot of time finding this. Also- what about an option to auto select the governor so the one with the highest finesse rating is put in there. More hotkeys for each of the buttons—I have not gotten my game yet so maybe there are some hotkeys I don’t know about.
I think there is a lot of room for new content, expansions and patches for this game in the areas of politics, building province improvements , religion, and technology. For example, what if you as Carthage could support a Rome rival –send him cash to try a coup or break away some provinces. This would also serve as a way to have more game balance when Rome is much larger in later periods.
I think this game is a solid foundation for improvements in the Rome series. I hope its improvements in strategic elements, and the map are ported back into EU and the other games. In short, great game.
p.s. I have a question for the developers. Did you guys decide to do Rome in part at least because of the HBO Series Rome?