Narrative choices/ "Decision Paths" in TW:R2

[Beavertronius]

Hello folks.

Hopefully you can help me - I'm a student doing some research on Total War: Rome 2 and wanted to ask about in-game events that occur. Like, is there certain events that happen at preset times in the game based on when the actual historical events happended? Or do these events occur only in response to the actions that players take within their individual campaigns?

It also would be great to hear about some of the decision paths & choices that players make and some of the consequences of these in terms of how the campaign plays out - as I'm sure must be huge differences in how the game unfolds depending on what choices people make when they play.

[Apologies in advance for not finding this out just by playing the game - time is always a factor for me....]

Thanks in advance for your help!

/Bewavertronius

[Alwyn]

Hi Beavertronius, yes there are events which happen at different times. As far as I can tell, the events which I am thinking of are random, I don't think they are linked to specific years or specific actions by the player. (This is different from Empire Total War, when the player would be notified of historical events involving their faction or part of the world in the in-game year when the events happened.)

The events I'm thinking of involve things such as:-
- A merchant arrives offering purple dye. Do you adopt the dye for the exclusive use of your ruling family, allow the merchant to trade or (something else I can't remember)?
- A dispute in your ruling family needs resolution - something like: one member of your family has murdered another. A family member wants to kill the murderer, do you allow this?
- The gods of your faction are angry, how will you deal with this? Options tend to involve sacrificing animals or even people(!!), or doing nothing.

You wrote that you are sure that this affects the game. Your choices do affect the game (you find out the consequences of your choices in the following turn). In my experience they tend to involve small, short-term bonuses or penalties. For example, if I fail to offer a sufficiently pleasing sacrifice, my farmlands could be affected by flood or drought, reducing my food supply. They can also be linked to the game's political system (involving competition for power by rival families or factions within a tribe or nation) - if I make a decision which offends a rival family, this will reduce their loyalty.

There are also events such as festivals which don't involve choice and tend to also provide small bonuses.

There might be specific historical events tied to the years when they happened in the new Rome II DLC Empire Divided, but this is released on 30 November, so I don't know yet.

[eXistenZ]

you can have a riot in the capital, about ten ing times

[Daruwind]

you can have a riot in the capital, about ten ing times

well looks like only you are so lucky

[Beavertronius]

Thank you so much Alwyn! This is really helpful

[Alwyn]

You're welcome! Having played using the new Power & Politics patch, I've noticed events occurring such as plagues and a great fire which destroyed all of the buildings in one city. (Maybe they also happened before the patch - I'm not sure.)

Having played a bit more with the new DLC Empire Divided, I can show you some of the events I've seen when playing as Aurelian's Rome.

Here's a standard narrative choice, the type of event which can happen in the standard Grand Campaign as well as the Empire Divided one (you make a choice and discover the consequences in the following turn). As you can see, events like these tend to represent the attitudes and behaviour of ancient cultures (for example, in this scenario when your son-in-law has a problem with his wife, there is no option to simply talk to the people involved and to try to work out a solution):-



The following event seemed to be purely narrative, creating atmosphere for the player without any effect on the campaign and with no dilemma to resolve:-



There are also events which do have an effect on the campaign but which don't have a dilemma to resolve, like cult feasts:-



I was intrigued by this event, which had choices and (presumably) had effects on the campaign; it prompted me to look online for information about the Sibylline Books:-



As I see it, these kinds of events add atmosphere to the campaign, create opportunities (such as an event boosting public order in a recently conquered region), problems (such as a great fire wrecking a city) and prompting players to learn about the actual history. For writers of After Action Reports, they're a useful source of inspiration (in my Iceni AAR, I have sometimes used in-game historical events, such as the arrival of a refugee from a nearby tribe, as part of the story. I have also invented my own historical events, such as the incident involving the two cauldrons which caused a war in Chapter Twenty-six.)