Problems:
So the family system is still a mess and unengaging. Reducing the total number of Great Families to 5 for the largest empires was supposedly to lessen the amount of character management and make characters more engaging, but without reducing the total number of jobs, this change was never going to achieve its stated goals. Instead, we now have characters with often the same exact names because there are now fewer last names to go around. It can be quite hard (especially with the event where a former ruler demands a job) to even find whoever an event is talking about because of this.
Then there's the immersion issue. Families rising and falling is now an all or nothing system, and in the case with Rome, either you take extra special precautions to raise up the Julii, or the entire family is lost to history. This is the same with Atii, Curii, Junii, Pompeii, Marii, all families that dominated the politics of Rome. Without them, its a never-ending parade of the same families throughout the whole game.
Finally there's the perennial lack of characters in these families. Because of the arbitrary block on most characters even marrying, Great Families have to perpetually adopt minor characters, and often fail to do so. This also has the result that most everyone is incredibly old. This is annoying in republics because all minor characters are always populists due to the overlarge boost to populist conviction they get, but in monarchies it can ruin entire games as legitimacy crumbles in the face of a parade of elderly rulers.
Suggestions:
Now it is clear that the devs don't want to clone CK (though I feel this is a mistake as that character system is endlessly engaging) but removing the arbitrary block on characters marrying would go a long way towards solving the above issues and make the game more engaging. At the moment, a lot of characters are modifiers that sometimes (or often) murder each other, but if they had families, that would give them a bit more life.
I also suggest rolling back the Great Families concept somewhat, but instead of just having all families represented, instead have some Great Families with the rest being Minor Families. Only great families will demand positions as a matter of course, but minor families might start getting feisty if they have a particularly skilled member who you aren't employing.
Finally I think the automatic scorned family modifier should only kick in if the Head of Family demands a job for someone and you refuse. At the moment having to reshuffle jobs once someone dies is tiresome busy work and personally takes me out of enjoying the game each time. Whether a Head of Family demands a job could also be influenced by other things such as whether they are friends with the ruler, greedy, or content, not just some yearly tick as is too often the case with characters. There should also be the option to just pay the family off with either personal funds or from the national treasury.
Quickly I think that all family members should get a boost to party conviction for the party that the Head of Family belongs to as this was historical and would also help insure that there are actually enough characters in each party instead of everyone being populists after a couple decades.
Reasons:
So I've already outlined the reasons for my suggestions, but to reiterate: that above changes would make characters more interesting and dynamic while reducing the bother and annoyance that comes from managing them and the Great Families. That's not to say characters shouldn't be annoying at all, but instead of a bare mechanic that just increases busy-work, characters should be annoying as an aspect of gameplay.
That being said, I want to congratulate the devs on a fantastic relaunch of the game. I personally feel that the only issues left to fix for imperator are the diplomacy system and characters/families which is truly something great to be able to say. Keep up the amazing work!
So the family system is still a mess and unengaging. Reducing the total number of Great Families to 5 for the largest empires was supposedly to lessen the amount of character management and make characters more engaging, but without reducing the total number of jobs, this change was never going to achieve its stated goals. Instead, we now have characters with often the same exact names because there are now fewer last names to go around. It can be quite hard (especially with the event where a former ruler demands a job) to even find whoever an event is talking about because of this.
Then there's the immersion issue. Families rising and falling is now an all or nothing system, and in the case with Rome, either you take extra special precautions to raise up the Julii, or the entire family is lost to history. This is the same with Atii, Curii, Junii, Pompeii, Marii, all families that dominated the politics of Rome. Without them, its a never-ending parade of the same families throughout the whole game.
Finally there's the perennial lack of characters in these families. Because of the arbitrary block on most characters even marrying, Great Families have to perpetually adopt minor characters, and often fail to do so. This also has the result that most everyone is incredibly old. This is annoying in republics because all minor characters are always populists due to the overlarge boost to populist conviction they get, but in monarchies it can ruin entire games as legitimacy crumbles in the face of a parade of elderly rulers.
Suggestions:
Now it is clear that the devs don't want to clone CK (though I feel this is a mistake as that character system is endlessly engaging) but removing the arbitrary block on characters marrying would go a long way towards solving the above issues and make the game more engaging. At the moment, a lot of characters are modifiers that sometimes (or often) murder each other, but if they had families, that would give them a bit more life.
I also suggest rolling back the Great Families concept somewhat, but instead of just having all families represented, instead have some Great Families with the rest being Minor Families. Only great families will demand positions as a matter of course, but minor families might start getting feisty if they have a particularly skilled member who you aren't employing.
Finally I think the automatic scorned family modifier should only kick in if the Head of Family demands a job for someone and you refuse. At the moment having to reshuffle jobs once someone dies is tiresome busy work and personally takes me out of enjoying the game each time. Whether a Head of Family demands a job could also be influenced by other things such as whether they are friends with the ruler, greedy, or content, not just some yearly tick as is too often the case with characters. There should also be the option to just pay the family off with either personal funds or from the national treasury.
Quickly I think that all family members should get a boost to party conviction for the party that the Head of Family belongs to as this was historical and would also help insure that there are actually enough characters in each party instead of everyone being populists after a couple decades.
Reasons:
So I've already outlined the reasons for my suggestions, but to reiterate: that above changes would make characters more interesting and dynamic while reducing the bother and annoyance that comes from managing them and the Great Families. That's not to say characters shouldn't be annoying at all, but instead of a bare mechanic that just increases busy-work, characters should be annoying as an aspect of gameplay.
That being said, I want to congratulate the devs on a fantastic relaunch of the game. I personally feel that the only issues left to fix for imperator are the diplomacy system and characters/families which is truly something great to be able to say. Keep up the amazing work!
Last edited:
- 10
- 5
