Restored Rome Fun - But With Specifics This Time

[JCommander]

Myself and others have mentioned that reforming the Roman Empire has... some problems. First of all, it's just a bit lifeless. The most equivalent ahistorical tag - the Mongol Empire - gets a special government form and access to the Banners mechanic as a reward for the herculean effort required to form it. Rome doesn't have anything except access to the (admittedly powerful) Roman ideas. Given that Europe is literally in the game's name, as the defining historical European empire, Rome should have if anything even more flair. This is especially the case now that Italian missions in Emperor will make it easier for Italy to reform the Roman Empire.
The most often-discussed issue with Rome is that any country that forms the Roman Empire will, by necessity, end up with 35 cultures within its borders. This issue is only exacerbated by the fact that the forming country's primary culture will become Roman, so if say France forms Rome, it will immediately lose Occitan, Norman, Burgundian, Walloon, Breton, and Gascon as free accepted cultures. Assuming you take Roman ideas when you form Rome, you will have an absolute maximum of 11 accepted cultures and probably fewer than that.
Some - including myself - have suggested in the past that Rome get the Diwan mechanic to deal with this, but that solution would be pretty overpowered.

Here's my vision:

The Roman Government
The "Restore the Roman Empire" decision triggers an event "Empire or Republic" in which you can either restore the Empire or the Republic, which are Monarchy and Republic tier-1 government forms respectively.

Roman Empire:

• +20 max absolutism
• -0.075 monthly autonomy change

Roman Republic:

• +10 max absolutism
• Uses parliamentary ("Senate") mechanics
• -0.05 monthly autonomy change

Both government forms also enable the Roman Citizenship system allow the Roman Government Abilities. I'll get back to that in a bit. First, some other government reforms

Senatorial Class:

• Tier-2 reform for the Empire
• Enables parliamentary ("Senate") mechanic

Roman Civic Virtue

• Tier-2 reform for the Republic
• -1 unrest in states with Roman citizenship

Expanded Citizenship:

• Tier-3 reform for either Empire or Republic governments
• -50% cost to grant citizenship
• +100(?) governing capacity

Reform the Tribes:

• Tier-4 reform for the Republic
• -15% governing cost in states with Roman citizenship

Consular System

• Tier-5 for the Republic
• Newly-elected rulers are 2/2/4, 2/4/2, or 4/2/2.
• -1 term length

Roman Citizenship
Historically, Rome granted Roman citizenship to people by geographic distribution, so the Citizenship system reflects this. The Roman Republic can grant citizenship to the people of a state similarly to the Assign Pasha or Consecrate Metropolitan actions. It costs 1 Reform Progress per 12(?) development to grant citizenship and requires an average autonomy of less than 25% in the state. Granting a province citizenship removes all penalties for non-accepted culture, gives -1 local unrest.

Roman Government Abilities
Like the Tsardom, Sich Rada, and Mameluk Government, the Roman Republic and Roman Empire government reforms have access to "three big button" government abilities, which charge at [ruler skill] / month and can be used at 100 progress.
Admin: Strengthen the Administration - +5% administrative efficiency for 1 year
Diplomatic: Placate Client Rulers - Gives all subjects -20% liberty desire, decaying at 1% per month.
Military: Raise New Legions - Raises 1 Roman Legion per 12 development in every state with Roman citizenship. Legions get +2.5% discipline and -25% drill decay.

So that's Roman Empire fun stuff! I did not originally plan to write this much but I kinda got carried away.

 

[Eruth]

This is unique and sounds fun. Probably not balanced but hey, you've formed the Roman empire. Who cares about balance?

 

[Waverider900]

I agree with this. Within reason, I think dumping a bunch of excellent ideas and other fun mechanics on Rome is great, since by that point you’re already steam-rolling anyway.

i know the WC crowd would disagree and say that it would make a WC too easy, which i respect. but i personally am not usually forming Rome until the late 17th century at the absolute earliest, and once i do, i just want to walk some fools for half a century and then start a new game. so if those 50 years can become more engaging, sounds good!

short of that, i can always at least take some joy in seeing the Roman province names all over Europe.

 

[Romanix90]

I always like to state that Roman Empire exist at the start date in 1444. It's the Roman Empire of Christian/Orthodox faith and Greek language, but nevertheless Roman. They continued Roman traditions, they even had a Roman Senate in New Rome/Constantinople and of course Roman Emperor. They were ruled by Roman laws and during the time of Justinian Latin was official along side Greek. Pentarchy was established by Emperor Justinian and the title of the Western Roman Empire was abolished at the same time. Nevertheless i like your idea of making RE unique.