My Review of Paeninsula Italica II

[endel2005]

This Mod has great potential. I really enjoy playing it. I have played 6 different campaigns thru 6 different factions. Including Romani of course.
Suggestions Bugs etc..
1. This mod tries to do too much. As in any of the Total War series games it's not based on history but more of a timeline. Build your own empire differently or identically to history. Yet in this game there are pop ups about a road going to Capua. Yet later in the game it's not extended. If you follow history then you need a history book in front of you as you expand your nation and then do exactly as they do except the conditions are different. Beauty of the map not withstanding you concentrate on a road like it's the first road Rome ever built.. dirt roads were common yet no evidence or benefit on the map, have a road or don't have a road.. at least armies should reap rewards in movement values and cities in trade and tax income..

2. Corruption - if anyone's played the game for as long as I have then you will understand perfectly my next statement. This part of this mod is INSANE. Each one of my campaigns ended with something like 140-160k per year in income and twice that in expenses.. and almost 3x as much in the corruption / other expense as military spending. Historically corruption in the high levels of government wasn't rampant until post Punic Wars. Some corruption is to be expected.. few Denair off the top etc.. and corruption in new provinces. But once the province is culturally Latin it should be low 5-10% maximum. An example of the type of corruption that existed in early republic was in tax collection for new provinces.. tax collectors would pay a flat rate amount for tax for a region.. then go collect the tax for reimbursement.. collect more than they were supposed to. However once full colonization was complete taxation went back to normal. Overall taxes in the roman republic were EXTREMELY low as compared to today's terms. 1% in peace and 3-5% in war.

3. City Governance- Each roman city other than Rome had a praefectus aka mayor. Rome had 4(Aediles). They could usually be one or 2 type of people, military or politician. This game needs the ability to recruit a mayor. He can have 0 body guards but I'm sure a politician in those times would have some so maybe 3 or 5. A recruitable commander would be awesome. This family tree stuff for the Romani for example is a little silly. They aren't apart of a family.. and just because they performed well in battle doesn't give them automatic political power. Besides in this game you can't lead a revolt unless it's in your mind lol. Also its extremely aggravating sending mayors from one side of the map to the other. It takes years for them to get there (another inaccuracy because of the lack of roads in the game or + movement values).. and when they die now cities population is angry because governor gave population bonus that are now no longer in place.

4. I love the fact that the Romani don't start out with any kind of siege equipment. Historically they learned that from the Greeks after taking some of the city-states in southern Italy. However I think the moment that Romani takes a Greek city it should have the ability to build siege equipment.


I hope I don't offend anyone.. Just an opinion

[Admiral Piett]

Much of what you suggest would not be feasible without serious scripting.

[alhoon]

Well, some of those things can't be done even with serious scripting. But S.O. said somewhere else he will look into corruption.

IMO corruption isn't just people stealing. It's extra expenses because of the distance. However that doesn't explain the huge corruption seen in the game.
Keep in mind that corruption in the game is still more or less based on ... M2TW's "whole Europe" values. The distance from Rome to Capua is greater for the game than the vanilla Rome-Sicily. I.e. the default values are too high.

[gotrek]

Corruption is simple to fix go into descr_settlements_mechanis.xml in your mod's data folder and change this:
<factor name="SIF_CORRUPTION">
<pip_modifier value="1.0"/>
to 0.45 or 0.5 or whichever you like. It works also for the AI though so he'll get more money too I think.

My question is:
What is the mine building supposed to do? cause I don't see it making any money....

[SigniferOne]

This Mod has great potential. I really enjoy playing it. I have played 6 different campaigns thru 6 different factions. Including Romani of course.

Thanks for the comments. A bit premature to write a review for a beta of a mod, wouldn't you say? So I hope this is a beta review

1. This mod tries to do too much.

Can you elaborate?

Beauty of the map not withstanding you concentrate on a road like it's the first road Rome ever built..

The significance of this road was that it was the first of all roman roads, presaging the vast network of them that survived for 2,500 years and because of their engineering and construction in places continued to be used to this day. Also, it was the first road of its kind in the Mediterranean. Even the Greeks, who were much more advanced in engineering during earlier times, never went beyond the dirty-road principle; they never had paved plazas. Their cities were literally built right on the dirt ground. The cocept of vast paved areas, long monumental engineered highways, was introduced by the Romans, and is introuced at precisely the moment when those announcements appear. However it probably makes sense to restrict the announcements to the Etruscans and Samnites only, and not spam the other cultures elsewhere.

2. Corruption

Will be fixed in the next patch.

3. City Governance- ...

A recruitable commander would be awesome.

Would be too powerful. Only named generals have the ability to move their armies across large distances (as I'm sure you've noticed). I'll take a look to see if it's possible to tie movement range to traits, but it's unclear howe well this will work.

This family tree stuff for the Romani for example is a little silly.

There is no family tree for the Romans?

4. I love the fact that the Romani don't start out with any kind of siege equipment. Historically they learned that from the Greeks after taking some of the city-states in southern Italy. However I think the moment that Romani takes a Greek city it should have the ability to build siege equipment.

Why, to allow the Romans to steamroll through enemy settlements with 0-turn sieges? I think not.

Besides, historically Romans only began using siege machines in the late 3rd century. They have no room for that here, and their siege tactics mirror those of the rest in Italy at this time, which I think is well mirrored with the siege equipment available to them.

I hope I don't offend anyone.. Just an opinion

Not at all Thanks for your input.

[Coldfire88]

What about spies, Im really missing being able to spy... i have to use my diplomat to find the cities around me...

[alhoon]

And diplomats don't open gates and have a very small area they can see.

[SigniferOne]

Indeed, I am hoping to maybe have spies and merchants in the next version...

[alhoon]

About merchants: Were there the merchants of the Roman era though as dependant on the state as Kingdoms makes them be? I mean, would they really generate so much money to make adding them in the game worthwhile? If they generate 5-30 denars/turn and cost 500 denars they're a waste of money IMO. If they generate 10-500 like they do in M2TW then IMO, that's unrealistic.

[smoesville]

About merchants: Were there the merchants of the Roman era though as dependant on the state as Kingdoms makes them be? I mean, would they really generate so much money to make adding them in the game worthwhile? If they generate 5-30 denars/turn and cost 500 denars they're a waste of money IMO. If they generate 10-500 like they do in M2TW then IMO, that's unrealistic.

I believe the markets etc. represent how merchants work in the game better than actual merchants.

[TheNasoRomaLost]

This Mod has great potential. I really enjoy playing it. I have played 6 different campaigns thru 6 different factions. Including Romani of course.
Suggestions Bugs etc..
1. This mod tries to do too much. As in any of the Total War series games it's not based on history but more of a timeline. Build your own empire differently or identically to history. Yet in this game there are pop ups about a road going to Capua. Yet later in the game it's not extended. If you follow history then you need a history book in front of you as you expand your nation and then do exactly as they do except the conditions are different. Beauty of the map not withstanding you concentrate on a road like it's the first road Rome ever built.. dirt roads were common yet no evidence or benefit on the map, have a road or don't have a road.. at least armies should reap rewards in movement values and cities in trade and tax income..

2. Corruption - if anyone's played the game for as long as I have then you will understand perfectly my next statement. This part of this mod is INSANE. Each one of my campaigns ended with something like 140-160k per year in income and twice that in expenses.. and almost 3x as much in the corruption / other expense as military spending. Historically corruption in the high levels of government wasn't rampant until post Punic Wars. Some corruption is to be expected.. few Denair off the top etc.. and corruption in new provinces. But once the province is culturally Latin it should be low 5-10% maximum. An example of the type of corruption that existed in early republic was in tax collection for new provinces.. tax collectors would pay a flat rate amount for tax for a region.. then go collect the tax for reimbursement.. collect more than they were supposed to. However once full colonization was complete taxation went back to normal. Overall taxes in the roman republic were EXTREMELY low as compared to today's terms. 1% in peace and 3-5% in war.

3. City Governance- Each roman city other than Rome had a praefectus aka mayor. Rome had 4(Aediles). They could usually be one or 2 type of people, military or politician. This game needs the ability to recruit a mayor. He can have 0 body guards but I'm sure a politician in those times would have some so maybe 3 or 5. A recruitable commander would be awesome. This family tree stuff for the Romani for example is a little silly. They aren't apart of a family.. and just because they performed well in battle doesn't give them automatic political power. Besides in this game you can't lead a revolt unless it's in your mind lol. Also its extremely aggravating sending mayors from one side of the map to the other. It takes years for them to get there (another inaccuracy because of the lack of roads in the game or + movement values).. and when they die now cities population is angry because governor gave population bonus that are now no longer in place.

4. I love the fact that the Romani don't start out with any kind of siege equipment. Historically they learned that from the Greeks after taking some of the city-states in southern Italy. However I think the moment that Romani takes a Greek city it should have the ability to build siege equipment.


I hope I don't offend anyone.. Just an opinion

I haven't played it yet and am downloading now, but what you said about the family tree makes a lot of sense to me. However about siege engines you may remember that this isn't the glory days of the empire when they lobbed ballista bolts into british towns.

[TheNasoRomaLost]

About merchants: Were there the merchants of the Roman era though as dependant on the state as Kingdoms makes them be? I mean, would they really generate so much money to make adding them in the game worthwhile? If they generate 5-30 denars/turn and cost 500 denars they're a waste of money IMO. If they generate 10-500 like they do in M2TW then IMO, that's unrealistic.

They had to have generated the money considering nobles were banned from trade by law.

[alhoon]

Ehh... what?