History Book

[aorda14]

I had an idea, and since im not a modder or anything, was wondering if A it is a good idea and B if it is possible to mod

Pretty simply, a history book. Any time there is a battle fought, it is put in the history book, along with the winning and losing country, winning and losing general, and army/unit casualties. Also put in there when gentleman, monarch, ministers and generals die. Put in when counties are destroyed. put in when there is revolts and revolutions. pretty much take all the events that happen in the game, and keep track of them.

[Teutonic Joe]

doesnt EUIII have one of those?

[aorda14]

whats EUIII

[Teutonic Joe]

Europa Universalis III. whenever you resign, a summary screen of the years gone by will show and it lists all your great achievements and what not. wars, lands taken, heretics converted, etc.

[aorda14]

o man u got me all excited i thought it was a mod

[CharlestheShort]

I would really like this feature it would be great to look back on your game. A total war campaign takes hours and it is a huge investment of time. It would be very enjoyable to read about your "history" when it was over.

[StrawberryDUTCH]

Amen. Could also be used in conjunction with renaming units. "14th 'B. Kheul' Regiment fought in the battle of Budweis, sustained heavy casualties".

Expounding upon this idea, Regiments could gain traits based on their past performance like Generals do (lifts the morale of surrounding units, terrifying enemy units, etc), develop rivalries with other nation's regiments (Grenadier Guards anyone?), and.. All sorts of other cool stuff I haven't begun to ponder!

[Graphic]

Hmm, an idea from EUIII that doesn't blow. I like it.

[♔ brucedickenson♔]

Sounds really cool!

[aorda14]

ok so now someone mod it lol

[The Gallant Forty-Twa]

I was actually keeping a rota of the names of all the proud Englishmen, Scotsmen, Welshmen, Irishmen and Prussians who fought and died for the King.

But then I started fighting in Europe...

(Yes, I did make up names for everyone. 'Captain Andrew Oliver Jackson, King's Royal Regiment of New York, Killed in Battle, Cherokee Territory, 1724' was the way I did it, and yes I had alot of free time).

[43rdFoot]

I wish the game retained the feature in Rome where your famous battles would be marked on the map. That was cool.

[AUSSIE11]

i agree completely...another cool feature would be also to have individual histories for units/general/cities... a bit like a regimental colour shows campaign honours...

[rubenandthejets]

One of the people here did this using a spreadsheet and a notebook to log every unit's actions, casualties, the works. It's not a mod, just something they did for their own immersive enjoyment. Makes for a really credible AAR!

[StrawberryDUTCH]

Personally I think that's where the next smart direction to take the total war series in is.. Take a look at games like WOW and other hugely successful MMOs. They built their success on the casual gamer, and the reason is that even the casual gamer (one might say more so than the hardcore gamer actually) likes a game that reflects reality. What we're all really looking for in a game is a set of tools in which we can build an image of ourselves and our world. Empire was an accidental step in this direction with the ability to rename regiments and such, but it could be taken much further.

For Instance:

Bring back the system from M1 where each unit had a character profile on it's commander. Except this time The captains of different regiments have stats that affect the unit. For instance captain Lothar of the 12th Regiment of Foot has the traits "Eye for detail" and "sticky fingers", giving the 12th regiment of foot a bonus in reloading skill (more rigorous musket inspection) and additional protection from attrition (the captain is better at obtaining supplies). A captain's skills would pertain mostly to his own regiment or possibly to nearby regiments (a particularly inspirational captain could hold the line by boosting the morale of his surrounding units), and if you find a captain who's skills might be particularly well tailored for generalship, you promote him!

Somehow tying unit recruitment to towns and provinces might also be cool. Recruitment still occurs in provincial capitals, but the regiments are sourced from the towns within the province. So as Sweden you recruit a line regiment in Sweden, but it's the Umea regiment. Umea is way up north, so perhaps a regiment recruited from men from Umea would have a resistance to cold fatigue or something of the like. Perhaps certain towns are famous for certain fighting qualities, and if anyone's noticed the "horse stud farm" building on the NTW website I think it could factor in perfectly for cavalry units. We already have veterancy for units recruited from certain levels of barracks, why not push it a step further?

Units previous combat records could also factor in. Instead of the system we have now which basically awards veterancy levels for different kill thresholds, a system where the actual performance factors in would be great. The 12th Umea regiment held it's ground under fire from 2 units for 5 minutes before captain Lothar sustained a mortal wound and the unit was forced to withdraw. A new captain has to be recruited, which reduces the 12th Umea's reloading skill and makes it more vulnerable to attrition, but the unit gets a bonus in morale because it now has a reputation for standing firm. Perhaps the old Rome/M2 caracter system where characters with particularly strong traits got nicknames ("Manius the Mean") could come back. 33rd Foot "The Pattern" the Grenadier Guards, etc.

In conclusion, not only would these above inclusions add more immersion and strategic depth, but they'd also add a more relateable and human aspect to the game. We're all human beings, and we most readily identify with other human beings. It's called empathy. For the same reason people like to watch romantic comedies people like to play videogames: It's an artificial interaction with people. What better way to make the game more appealing (And thus increase sales.. Pay attention here CA) than to tune the mechanics of the game so that I feel as if not only do I know the artificial people involved, but I can feel the gravity of their personalities played out in results? Namely, the results of the battle, the character growth of both regiment and captain, and how this affects my campaign in the long term. And in the end I'll have a history book that reflects the growth of my empire turn by turn in terms of territory, personalities, regiments, etc. Let's not forget that the entire thing we're trying to imitate with a game is the interactions of a huge mass of people over a period of time. Everything else is extrapolated from this.

[aorda14]

One mod for Rome was amazing in the aspect of bringing a more personal character to the table. I believe it was Europa Barbarorum (EB). In Empire, a character might have 4 traits. But in Europa Barbarorum, it gave like 30 character traits based on who is father was and based on where he was born and his social status. I believe to add that to empire who be great.