Ask a Developer: Romani Faction Team

[Zaknafien]

Salve, Quirites!

Since the EB II forum is a little lacking in exciting news lately due to the release of EB 1.0 with all its fanfare, I figured I would put a thread in here to spice it up a little, and maybe some of my fellows on the team will join me in a similar gambit.

Basically, the premise is you get to ask us a question about EB II, or make a comment, or tell us an idea of something you'd like to see implemented for our faction in the next version of EB.

I promise to respond or youll get your money back. My response may be cryptic and sarcastic, or, a lengthy dissertation on the issue at hand, or something else entirely, but I guarantee a response.

Have at it!
___________

[Zarax]

This might be better asked to a Carthaginian team member but nonetheless I will try:
Could you please change the settlement and port in Sardinia?

Right now you have Caralis as capital and Olbia as port.
AFAIK this is not historical for 272BC.

Under Carthage the political and admnistrative capital was Nora, west of Cagliari (roughly where today's Carbonia is).
Karali was instead the main commercial port of the island.

Also Olbia was not such an important port until the punic wars where it became a resupply center, for sure it was smaller than Tharros (west Sardinia, near today's Oristano) and maybe not even as big as Turris (another greek colony, near today's Porto Torres).
The land route from the settlement to the port also passes through Barbagia, which historically was controlled by nuragic tribes until quite late under roman domination, making it highly unrealistic as merchants wouldn't get alive through it (Carthage reached friendly relationship with the nuragic tribes though).

Also, it would be nice to spawn a medium sized eleutheroi stack if Sardinia is invaded/conquered to emulate the high level of loyalty the Sardinians had to Carthage.

[Zaknafien]

This might be better asked to a Carthaginian team member but nonetheless I will try:
Could you please change the settlement and port in Sardinia?

Right now you have Caralis as capital and Olbia as port.
AFAIK this is not historical for 272BC.

Under Carthage the political and admnistrative capital was Nora, west of Cagliari (roughly where today's Carbonia is).
Karali was instead the main commercial port of the island.

Also Olbia was not such an important port until the punic wars where it became a resupply center, for sure it was smaller than Tharros (west Sardinia, near today's Oristano) and maybe not even as big as Turris (another greek colony, near today's Porto Torres).
The land route from the settlement to the port also passes through Barbagia, which historically was controlled by nuragic tribes until quite late under roman domination, making it highly unrealistic as merchants wouldn't get alive through it (Carthage reached friendly relationship with the nuragic tribes though).

Also, it would be nice to spawn a medium sized eleutheroi stack if Sardinia is invaded/conquered to emulate the high level of loyalty the Sardinians had to Carthage.

You make some good points, and I'll be sure to alert the map and Punic teams to see what they think.

[Powerguy]

Are there any plans to fix/overhaul the Roman traits system, notably in terms of the political positions and military service? I would like to see a far more realistic depiction of this, at the moment it seems like the system for selecting Consols/Censors/Tribunes etc in use is using a slightly tweaked version of the nilla system which doesn't really make much sense in selecting people for positions. At the moment there is no control whatsoever over who gets which rank, besides that you can work out the higher ranks will go to the guys with more influence. I would at least be able to know that a guy leading an army in a campaign in not going to be somehow selected as a Censor when he isn't even in the city.
Ideally I would like to see something more like in a couple of RTRE mods I have played, years of military service (outside of settlement) is the most instrumental form of advancement, up to a point anyway and positions are relevant to where they are situated (leading an army or a governor).

[Zaknafien]

Indeed. This project is super top secret though, and, without trying to make an overblown promise, will compeltely blow you away when you see it come to fruition in EB II. In fact, I would say the Roman political system in EB II will make EB I's system look like vanilla.

P.S.--BozosLivesHere is a traiting genius.

[sirfiggin]

Okay, this must be said.... the family tree system in total war is kinda dumb, could it be changed? All the generals who work for you are for some reason considered to be part of the familia; that really over-simplifies the real situation, the non-patrician class gained favour in return for loyalty (like a clan). Could different families be made part of the family tree system? this would make things less messy and reflect the internal conflicts in Roman politics. Its your choice, of course.

[Zaknafien]

There are alot of Roman clans (gentes) and families within those clans now represented in the family tree. When you look at your character , one of his traits is "Gens Cornelia" or "Gens Fabia" or something that shows what gentes he belongs to.

[Skyler]

Congratulations on completing EB 1.0, EB team.

My question is all about the recruitment system.

In Rome total war you had to recruit your troops from the population of a town/city, you had an extra strategical depth to the game because you could bleed a settlement dry of it population and there would not be an army to recruit anymore.

In Medieval, and especially with Kingdoms in which I played the Mayans, there is a different system, namely the recruitment pool. I dislike this system to great lengths because it took away the tactic of bleeding dry a town/city.

My Mayan campaign resulted in a tiresome never ending (100 turns) clash between the Spaniards in which both sides could easily build their armies to full strength that had been lost a few turns back.

My understanding is that the recruitment pool is hard coded in the M2tw build . My question is how are you guys going to implement a rewarding recruitment system?

[Papirius]

In the Britannia-Campaign of Kingdoms 'culture' is used instead of 'religion'.
I'd like to see that in EBII.

i.e. there could something like: roman, african (incl.carthagian) , 'eastern' (semitic, persian), hellenic (greek), and 'barbarian cultures' (celtic, german, nomadic). I think there were only seven slots, so unfortunately you'd have to be saveful.

It should be difficult -in fact impossible above a specific level- to assimilate a different culture,

cheers

P.S. congrats for releasing EBI!

[Zaknafien]

Culture is probably replacing religion

Recruitment, if its hardcoded, obviously cant be changed. We have ideas to restrict the availibility of certain troops though.

[00Jebus]

are there any plans to include the free upkeep slots for say, Accensi or veterans cohorts?

To simulate those men spending most of their time as average citizens and not constantly ready for battle like cohorts reforma



And, using the new scripts, is there any way of making the bigger rebellions/civil wars happen (say Sparticus' or the social war)?



Also, since we can't choose our faction heir now, does that mean we wont have any more preatorians?

[Zaknafien]

1. They still have to be equipped and paid a stipendium.

2. Hopefully.

3. Obviously, the reform conditions will be changed, or reworked entirely due to some new things we can do in EB II.

[Powerguy]

Not being able to choose a faction heir isn't too much of an issue for Rome actually, probably better reflects the political system. But its a real pain for some of the more traditional factions, I believe there are plenty of people trying to sort out a work around for it though hopefully it works.

I think it has been said that free upkeep will be used, particularly for units traditionally only used during invasions. Veteran Cohorts I somehow doubt would fall under that category.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

Not being able to choose a faction heir isn't too much of an issue for Rome actually, probably better reflects the political system. But its a real pain for some of the more traditional factions, I believe there are plenty of people trying to sort out a work around for it though hopefully it works.

I know, this is the number one annoying thing about M2TW. I cannot play M2TW any more, because of this. I can't roleplay my family with this 'feature' and thus I just can't get into the game.

[Stevie228]

I made a thread on a question thats had no official answer to. Will land bridges be removed? they weren't in R:TW and they can be removed as some mods removed a few of them.

[Zaknafien]

defiantely not a Roman faction question. I plead the fifth.

[Chuffy]

This is a broad question but it does link in with the Romani.

Will EB2 be using Kingdoms?

I ask this because the Teutontic Order don't use the traditional family tree when deciding on heirs, when the time comes the 'strongest' character (i.e. one with the best stats) is elected Grand Master. Now I'm sure you could mod this slightly but at its heart its a much better system for representing the Roman Republic.

Also the Britannia campaign has a system whereby if a particular culture is very high in a settlement you can train a few of its low level corresponding units. For example the english capture a welsh province and its at 80% 'welsh' culture, they can then train a few low tier welsh units. Over time however as english culture becomes more predominant this benefit is lost.

[Powerguy]

I finally found the graphic I was after which shows what a mentioned above http://img467.imageshack.us/my.php?image=rslbz6.png , its the trait system from Marcus Camillus' Roman Leadership mod (for RTR: PE). Specifically I am more worried about the army service required (generally) for advancement and the ranks which go with it rather than the family specific traits.

Also are there plans for any more settlements in the Roman starting area (obviously dependent on the maximum number of regions)? Specifically I'm thinking of Sicily, as the amount of action there in the 1st Punic War seems to deserve a larger number of settlements (one more central for example).

The only other idea/question I had was are there any plans, perhaps not initially but later on, to have separate campaigns (like the Kingdoms campaigns) for each faction to get around some of the possible issues with unit limits and other hardcoded stuff (particularly with more factions in EB2). For example the Rome campaign could possibly use a different map which only stretches to the furtherest reaches of their historical influence (i.e no India or Saka) with more detail around Italy as a result and possibly sacrifice the unit numbers for factions in some of the more far flung places which they are unlike to ever reach.

[Zaknafien]

Powerguy, what is your question regarding MC's system? Overall it is rather incorrect and has several flaws, while still a fun inclusion of many mods, not the best way to go for an accuracy mod like EB.

No, map limits have already been reached. Many areas of the map could use more provinces. Not going to happen unless CA releases their code or patches the hardcoded limits. (i.e, never).

Probably not, but the idea of historical mini-campaigns intrigues me, at least as mini-mods.

[WImPyTjeH]

Just to let you guys know. I think Alpaca made a script to appoint a new faction heir :wink:

Best of luck :wink:

BTW, the Romani have always been my favorite faction

W