What to do with agents?

[Roman Legate]

Well i was just wondering how you guys on the EB team are going to use the new agent (merchant) in EB II

Another question, how are you going to use the hostage abiltiy in MTW2? I mean, can you make the prisoneers slaves, like in real roman times? The same goes for captured new settlements. I think it sould be possible, because MTW 2 uses the same engine as RTW, right??

Thanks in advance!

[Ludens]

From the FAQ:

Q: Will the new agents be used (merchants, priests/imams, & princesses)?
A: The use of M2TW agents is still under discussion. Some agents may be used, some may not, and some may be used but have completely different "job".

The engine of M2:TW is based on R:TW, but not exactly the same, so what you propose may not be possible.

[delra]

I hope there will be no princesses, no merchants and no priests in EB2.

[Roman Legate]

why wouldn't you want them, they add a new aspect and feeling to the game!

[Antiochos VII Sidetes]

I second that.

[delra]

What would a priest preach? Culture?

[Antiochos VII Sidetes]

Possibly...I'm quite sure the Romans weren't content to have barbarians under their rule...

just call them a "scholar" or some such thing, and have them convert the populace of regions to Roman/Greek/Celtic ways.

[Roman Legate]

Possibly...I'm quite sure the Romans weren't content to have barbarians under their rule...

just call them a "scholar" or some such thing, and have them convert the populace of regions to Roman/Greek/Celtic ways.

That sounds good

[Ludens]

Possibly...I'm quite sure the Romans weren't content to have barbarians under their rule...

just call them a "scholar" or some such thing, and have them convert the populace of regions to Roman/Greek/Celtic ways.

The Romans, especially of the early republic, didn't particularly care what the locals were up to as long as they did what the Senate told them to do. Romanization does not mean that everybody adopted Roman culture and values. In 350 A.D., after having been dominated by Rome for four centuries, Gaul still was recognizably Celtic. Cultural transmission doesn't work that way.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

And the minimum conversion rate is 5%. Converting 5% of a population to your way of thinking in just three months is completely ahistoric.

[delra]

That sounds horrible. Please do not do that. :-)

[delra]

Okay, so with priests we've dealt.

Now about princesses. They serve three purposes:

1. As a diplomat, we have diplomats to do that job
2. As an alliance strengthener, we can fix AI to be more reliable (see Luste'ds M2TW AI for example).
3. To steal generals, how many Roman consuls defected to enemy to marry their princess?

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

Indeed, #3 definately makes princesses not to appealling.

[melancholic]

Can't princesses be avoided by completely removing them from the family tree? Allowing married couples to reproduce only male descendants would get rid of the princesses, but I guess you would have to limit the amount of children you can have to a more reasonable size to avoid overpopulating the family tree. Is that possible?

[herbsman]

Princesses are great - I hope they will be in, they could enrich the game a lot. I don't meant that every faction should get them (Romans should not) but for almost all hellenistic factions (except Koinon) they should be in. Just look on history - Macedonia and Epirus formed quite strong alliance through marriage after years of war. Seleucid king (I think it was Antiochus II) married Ptolemaic princess to make an alliance, and some other Seleucid king married his daughters to Pontic and Armenian rulers.

EDITED: not to mention the Ptolemaic kingdom and their notorious brother/sister relations : that is what I call role play

[delra]

Merchants, what about merchants. Did it really worked the way it is in M2TW:

1. State trains a merchant
2. State sends him to a land far away
3. He finds some resources, a plantation for example
4. He camps there and makes cash
5. He sends this cash to the state

I think trade is represented by ports and roads far more accurately. Merchants are unrealistic and redundant just like princesses and priests.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

Another problem with princesses is that the game is hardcoded to only make the daughters of the current leader into princesses. Historically, people would marry away cousins or nieces to establish foreign alliances as well.

Merchants aren't really all that good, in my oppinion. First of all, the AI doesn't use them as they should. The AI will simply have them wandering the map searching for your merchants and "killing" them. Secondly, it seems entirely stupid to have a merchant trading goods in your enemies lands.

[fightermedic]

another thing: please dont use heretics! they suck all there way

[Hax]

another thing: please dont use heretics! they suck all there way

Heresy as we know it didn't exist back then, so I can't see how they would use it in the form you speak of.

Of course, it wasn't exactly nice to spread untruth and lies about the god, or denying their existence (Aisopos, Socrates anyone?), but AFAIK there weren't any inquisitions in Ye Olde Days to exterminate "heretics".

[sirfiggin]

merchants and diplomats, certainly, princesses and priests had different roles at this time. A possible compromise in terms of priests are immigrants are settlers, in the frontier mod such an agent is being made for their American mod, maybe you guys should ask some questions? The Hellenes flocked into the East after alexander, the Romans flowed into the Po valley when they took that, as they did to the rest of their empire, and the Jews fled from Judea after the city of Jerusalem was sacked.