RSII "Five Good Emperors" Questions, Suggestions & Discussion

[I3enjaIvIin]

First impressions after playing the game for some hours:

Almost all he building prices are very low imo.

Roman oppidium and dockyard are around 6-7k and 15k respectively. These are good prices imo, just like original RS2.
All other buildings cost between 1-2k (basic farm, trade, tempels) and already by the year 539 I get a ton of money every turn since the building prices are that low. Most of my governors have the intelligent trait, which gives construction +2 (I know it reduces building cost, but can't be that much imo) but that should not affect the building price much. I don't know if it's supposed to go like that, but it hasn't been hard so far (I can construct at every city and recruit at both capua & rome)

Suggestions:
- Increase building cost of basic structures
- Increase building time by 2x for the first tier temples, trade and farm buildings.
- Recude income even more?
Basically, a campaign is hard imo when I have to choose between building/producing and cannot build in every city. This has not been the case thus far, but since this can be campaign specific I'll tell you how my campaign went.

I am playing at H/H with BI.exe, huge size.

First turns:
Fought Hannibal and got owned. Abandoned Emporiae and Dyrrwhateverium. Not to disband but retrain them in Rome.
At the end of the first turn, Hannibal besieged and immediately took over Arretium - since he had elephants. After this, he left 1 unit as a garrison and the city rebelled against him so I owned it again at around 538 AUC. (also, a ton of gold shield skirmishers spawned..I disbanded all except for 3 to stay as a garrison, but to me they shouldn't be that upgraded)
Moved governor from Corsica to Rome and made some ships to transport units from Sardinia and Sicilia to Rome for retraining.

Around 538/539 Hannibal attacked the city again (only with 2 units) and I relieved the city but did not follow up to attack him as I would like to fight him with a big army, yet the next turn he didn't move whatsoever and just sat outside Arretium.
I don't know where his big army is (and his reinforcements) but there was no pressure for me to defend Rome nor Ariminum so I just left with 1 army and focused on the rebels first.
Made peace with Averni/Cimbri and sold them map info/trade agreements ~ no forced diplo & money cheats etc.

By 539 I defeated the first roman rebels (both Rhegium and Croton rebelled and they besieged Tarentum and Capua the next turn - when I relieved both cities the rebels were not in full stack (3/4 and 1/2 and only bronze/bronze, not silver silver, its this how they should be?)) quite easily. Income after the summer of 539 is around 30/40k which leaves me with a ton of money. At the beginning of the winter in 539 I have ~50k to spend, meh..would this be normal, like in the test campaigns how much income were you able to generate after a couple of turns?

[Sephiroth88]

It is normal to make a ton of income in 1 turn campaign at the start as Italy can produce a lot of money while it takes more time to built troops than in 0 turns and you can't spend it all. Eventually as you progress into the game the new conquered regions won't produce as much money as Italy, but you will have to mantain more and more armies, and build in many more settlements so the expenditures will surely increase compared to the income.

[chris10]

It is normal to make a ton of income in 1 turn campaign at the start as Italy can produce a lot of money while it takes more time to built troops than in 0 turns and you can't spend it all. Eventually as you progress into the game the new conquered regions won't produce as much money as Italy, but you will have to mantain more and more armies, and build in many more settlements so the expenditures will surely increase compared to the income.

True...During my test campaign I found myself without money to retrain troops guarding North Italy...cause I had to maintain a defense force around Dyrrhachium, Emporiae and tried to gather enough forces to deal with Carthago ...
thats the reason why I made the donation event at the beginning....
obvioulsy this could as well have to do with the fact that I almost autoresolved all battles as I had no time to fight them all myself...that might caused more casualties and I needed more money to retrain...
If casualties are still to low maybe It would be an option to give another +1 or +2 morale to the AI but lets see how things are going...to secure Italy is not the biggest challenge...

especially in those big cities like Syracusa, Cathago, etc. where, after developed properly, the "Cultural and economic building" will give 250% - 300% tax bonuses. I was like "wtf?!" when in my first campaign Carthago went from +2000 in income to + 25000 in one turn.

This is not going to happen anymore cause the money is taken away elsewhere if you own these Citys...mainly the Factions Capitals...

Suggestions:
- Increase building cost of basic structures
- Increase building time by 2x for the first tier temples, trade and farm buildings.
- Recude income even more?
Basically, a campaign is hard imo when I have to choose between building/producing and cannot build in every city. This has not been the case thus far, but since this can be campaign specific I'll tell you how my campaign went.
I am playing at H/H with BI.exe, huge size.

Increasing price of basic structures is not that simple as lots of them are shared and if they cost to much the AI may skip them.
So I had to increaase prioces of exclusive roman structures and high end structures which the AI rarely builts anyway.
Same with the built times...doubling any building time means half price as you make more money during these turns...it should be doubling building time triple the price...that would mean a real increase of 33% then.
Lets see how things going. I can reduce trade income considerably if there is still to much money..however...tax income multipliers are hardcoded

Sparta just got destroyed by free people, it's only 541 A.U.C.
I know that happens from time to time, just want to report it, because don't know if it's maybe related to your changes...

hmmm.....cant imagine that...if more people would report it I have to consider it obviously ...but seriously... I have not strengthen the Free People that much in that Area that they just can roll over Sparta...thing is..the maybe attacked (which is rarely enough) and Sparta got loaded with a passive campaign AI (this is random at every reload) and hey...they got chewed up because they did not defended the only Settlement they had...

[Sephiroth88]

Allright I just conquered Carthage after making my way from Lepcis Magna to the west and conquering every settlements on the road. The garrison scripts works fine for settlements, but I'd suggest to put a general with at least 5-6 stars in the armies that pop up after conquering Carthage, because I routed 2 full stacks with the same army I used to conquer Carthage commanded by my 10 star Scipio Junior scoring 2 heroic victories without even retraining-reinforcing it. Sure they were all 2-3 silver chevrons and my army is beaten up now but a general could help the AI resist a bit longer and inflicting more casualties.

[chris10]

Sure they were all 2-3 silver chevrons and my army is beaten up now but a general could help the AI resist a bit longer and inflicting more casualties.

I really really would love to do that but scripting a named Charater for an AI Faction will lead inevitably to a campaign breaking clone character CTD...so...no way...
dont forget you brought a 10 star General with you...that means +10 morale in 150 meters radius around him...other players might not have that luck and will be screwed up with their 2 star general and get burried in the desert
Spartacus will not be cannon fodder though...you know ? ...he is a named character with 10 stars...thing is...for the slave faction I can script characters without CTD later ...
still...depending on further feedback from others I might think about raise morale/attack/defense 1 or 2 points for the AI to counter the lack of generals...

[Sephiroth88]

I really really would love to do that but scripting a named Charater for an AI Faction will lead inevitably to a campaign breaking clone character CTD...so...no way...
dont forget you brought a 10 star General with you...that means +10 morale in 150 meters radius around him...other players might not have that luck and will be screwed up with their 2 star general and get burried in the desert
Spartacus will not be cannon fodder though...you know ? ...he is a named character with 10 stars...thing is...for the slave faction I can script characters without CTD later ...
still...depending on further feedback from others I might think about raise morale/attack/defense 1 or 2 points for the AI to counter the lack of generals...

Oh I see that's a pity, I'm looking forward to Spartacus then

[chris10]

Oh I see that's a pity, I'm looking forward to Spartacus then

No,you dont....he will chew up a few Legions and you will hate it....

Anyway I have a nice Update...

NEW MERCHANT SHIP IMPLEMENTED
A really cool model which adds a lot of atmosphere. Made by Davide .Cool



HISTORIC ROMAN WATCHTOWER IMPLEMENTED
Another gem made by Davide .Cool. Adds to the experience IMO.

[military tribune]

No,you dont....he will chew up a few Legions and you will hate it....

Anyway I have a nice Update...

HISTORIC ROMAN WATCHTOWER IMPLEMENTED
Another gem made by Davide .Cool. Adds to the experience IMO.

This looks fantastic! +rep

[DedlySerious]

Congratulations on the release of the beta and i know you didnt mean to but you released it on my birthday so this is a lovely pressie cheers and +rep

[chris10]

Congratulations on the release of the beta and i know you didnt mean to but you released it on my birthday so this is a lovely pressie cheers and +rep

very kind, thnx ...and well..happy birthday then...

[MikeyH]

Great Mod Chris. I'm really enjoying it. I'm about 20 years into it and love all that you've done to make it difficult. I did notice an issue though. Looking at the ancillaries file I've noticed that you tweeked the mercenary captain and drillmaster ones to increase the unit training discount from 10% to 20% which I like but it's not being reflected when I go to train units ( it's keeping the old discount ). Take a look and see if there is something else that's missing here. Thanks

[chris10]

Great Mod Chris. I'm really enjoying it. I'm about 20 years into it and love all that you've done to make it difficult. I did notice an issue though. Looking at the ancillaries file I've noticed that you tweeked the mercenary captain and drillmaster ones to increase the unit training discount from 10% to 20% which I like but it's not being reflected when I go to train units ( it's keeping the old discount ). Take a look and see if there is something else that's missing here. Thanks

thnx a lot for your kind words......ironically I have not touched the ancillaries you mentioned...
maybe Drecie14 used the 2.0 ancillary files to port them from SPQR to RSII and maybe in the 2.1 update something has changed regading these ancillaries...I dont know
I only debugged the Legion Ancillaries as there where 2 errors who caused CTD on triggering them.

[Constantius]

I carnt wait to see what surprises you've scripted, I have had time to play for few days have assignments on Virgil, Horace and Propertius to do......Will you be adding the Marcomanni war, Jewish revolts etc etc

[chris10]

I carnt wait to see what surprises you've scripted, I have had time to play for few days have assignments on Virgil, Horace and Propertius to do......Will you be adding the Marcomanni war, Jewish revolts etc etc

Well.....still working on the economy ...once Rome holds Spain,North Africa, Italy, Sicily +Ilands and Greece is going to swim in money.
I train all available Hamata Legions now to see how much they will cost and what the surplus income is after that...then I will press it down with a dynamic system which is based on expansion and time passed in campaign (more provinces = more money attrition).

I have done the jewish armys already but they not implemented by now ...only thing is..I can only use the slave faction and they are a bit more passive than other AIs....but at least I can give the player the opportunity to fight lots of the exotic units in a homogenic Army composition with a 3-6 star general (like Judean Infantry,Judean Slingers, Corsica Infantry etc.) he probably could never fight in a real "challenging" battle when playing the normal campaign....

One tip...taking city after city will trigger more of the hidden content...especially taking Spain can be fun

[Constantius]

Spain was hard to take before, it took me 25 years to fully them I was trying to go slow and fighting on two fronts, in Asia minor as well .

[chris10]

Spain was hard to take before, it took me 25 years to fully them I was trying to go slow and fighting on two fronts, in Asia minor as well .

wonderful ....
You mean you passed the "spain" event already and the little "italy" incident too, which was related to it somehow ?...
feedback mate..feedback..without spoilering details of course...

[Constantius]

wonderful ....
You mean you passed the "spain" event already and the little "italy" incident too, which was related to it somehow ?...
feedback mate..feedback..without spoilering details of course...

Let me get a bit further, I got to work from tomorow till Monday ....

On that note though NOBODY discuss details of Chris10 hidden "events" at least for a year, it will keep the surprises for everyone
Also could we have some sort of event for the beginning of Pricipate: a number of regions, Marian reforms and victory in civil war could trigger it, the faction laeder gets title Primvs inter Pares with Imperivm proconsulare Maivs and Trbvnitia Poestas.

[Beetlecat]

I can't wait to play this!

I wonder how much the generic legionaries will be missed...

[chris10]

I can't wait to play this!

The public beta has been released, you know that,true ?
...and so far it seems that there are no serious issues who needed to be reported...

I wonder how much the generic legionaries will be missed...

well..as this is 1Turn it sounds more dramatic than it is. Its more the fact that expansion has to come to halt anyway as the Player can not go on conquering when he can not retrain his troops...so...call it a "logistical" mini game..defending if necessary while raising the numbered Legions...Iam in the process right now and it takes quite a while and is a money drainer but it gives the neighbouring AI good time to replenish,grow and built up again...this is sort of simulating one of the times when the Romans did not expanded their territory...it was not intended as such but now I see the various positive side effects...

[Constantius]

Further to my point in #203, do you also think it would be possible to have a 'Triumph event' for great victories, either a few successive wins or one massive victory? In reality though armies should only be commanded on campaign by either of the two Consuls(which is how I like to play it)