Culture Shock in future ExRM versions?

[Carados]

Since Barbarian Roman hasn't gotten round to it yet, I thought I'd start a thread about it for him.

What are peoples opinions of the optional "culture shock" being part of future ExRM versions, as opposed to currently just being optional? I haven't used it myself so I wouldn't know how it works.

If you've tried it already, how does that change your gameplay? Does holding on to an empire suddenly become very difficult? Do you agree with the current cultures etc.?


Discuss!!

[Quinn Inuit]

I'm glad you remembered this.

Caldarium, would you assent to this if the vox populi thinks it would be a good addition?

One thing: is Culture supported by RTW.exe?

[caldarium]

I'm not sure if this is mainly a cult following (punch will be served later), but I say give the people what they want. Some Download stats from the hosting site:
- Version 3.4.1 : 180 DLs
- Version 3.5.1 : 15 DLs
- Version 3.5.2 : 30 DLs

To those not in the know, this add-on enables the religion feature for all factions, which adds to the complexity of the game. There are three 'cultures' aka religions : Barbarian, Western Civilized, and Eastern Civilized. I have attempted to add more, but any additional religions do not cause the unrest effects. I believe the religion feature is supported with RTW 1.5, but have never tried it personally.

This add-on slows some of the AI expansion, especially in areas where there are mixed cultures. The typical ExRM game will start with the Seleucids losing some of their eastern provinces to revolt in the first few turns. Certain buildings have culture effects and each city has a default Native Culture that replaces the Town Square. Faction Capitals have double the Native Culture rating to represent their Homeland.

I enjoy playing as Rome and bringing proper virtue to the unwashed masses or playing as the Greek City States and spreading Hellene culture throughout the world.

[Ramiro]

I would very much like to see something like this add on in the next version of ExR.As it will force a much more historical evolution of the great empires as they will fall by overexpansion.

[Caesar Augustus]

Aye, it would be interesting to see this.

[Mogan]

Me too. It brings another challenge to the game, which I gladly welcome.

[caldarium]

Has anyone tried the add-on and not liked it? Or does anyone not particularly like the religion feature from BI?

[Heptagenia]

i like it perfect

[Quinn Inuit]

Does religion work with RTW.exe?

[Carados]

I don't know. We'll have to find out.

Here's an idea. How about the 3 superfactions get the core unrest cultures, whilst we split the rest of the cultures up between the other factions?

[Quinn Inuit]

I don't understand. Could you elaborate on that?

[Carados]

Well, it seems we can have a number of different cultures in the game, however, only 3 of them cause unrest in a settlement. What I suggested is that the superfactions get a culture that causes unrest in a settlement, whilst the normal factions get the other cultures which don't. Although these other cultures don't cause unrest, due to the widespread nature of the superfactions, the normal factions would still have to account for some form of unrest on their travels.

[Quinn Inuit]

I see. How would we differentiate the Celtic superfaction culture from the Arverni faction, though? And what would we call the four non-superfaction cultures?

[Wambat]

Something that makes empire building more difficult would be welcome. I have just completed the Greek Coalition's victory conditions by year 268 B.C. (3.5.3). I did this without even trying, on the hardest difficulty settings, only reacting to war declarations, never initiating aggressive wars, and, outside of the first year, never even coming close to financial difficulties. The Greek Coalition's faction description may need to be modified to read "supper easy" rather than "very difficult".

[Carados]

Something that makes empire building more difficult would be welcome. I have just completed the Greek Coalition's victory conditions by year 268 B.C. (3.5.3). I did this without even trying, on the hardest difficulty settings, only reacting to war declarations, never initiating aggressive wars, and, outside of the first year, never even coming close to financial difficulties. The Greek Coalition's faction description may need to be modified to read "supper easy" rather than "very difficult".

Yeah, I really did make the Greeks stupidly easy to play as in this version. Nevermind. This won't be the case in the next version, oh yes. It won't be the case at all

I see. How would we differentiate the Celtic superfaction culture from the Arverni faction, though? And what would we call the four non-superfaction cultures?

Well. One way to differentiate here would be to just lump all the celtic factions into one huge celtic culture, whilst have all the other "barbarians" be part of a non-unrest barbarian culture. Otherwise, we'll just have to but an a or b at the end of the "barbarian" culture, or something daft like that. I don't know.

Maybe... we use celts, greeks and rebels instead? The celts and greeks were the most widespread at this point of time. The rebels will be there just to annoy everyone else.
Alternatively, it might be best just to stick with the barbarian/western/eastern situation caldarium has currently?

Anyway, these are just ideas.

[Quinn Inuit]

I think the best bet is to stick with Caldarium's trio, personally. If we do more, we're forced to rationalize why some deserved to be in the big three as opposed to others, and I'm not sure we can.