Campaign map improvement suggestions
As is well known, in RTW each province has one city and controlling that city means controlling the entire province. This is a silly system, especially in areas that would historically have no settlements of significance, like Germania or the steppe. What would make more sense is a system in which one establishes control of the countryside by building forts (upgradeable to castles of course) or seizes existing ones to exert control over the land. Cities/town are considered separate and different entities, and controlling them does not mean controlling the countryside very far beyond the town limits.
What I am proposing is that noob they function somewhat differently: Forts/castles act as focal points in the countryside, it is here knights, men-at-arms and levies are mobilised and one gets income from farming (mostly at harvest time). Improvements buildable here are castle extensions and those dealing with economic and physical infrastructure, like roads and farming improvements. Cities and towns are centers of trade and industry, which gives income, and one recruit towns militia-type units here, perhaps also artillery if foundries historically were located in cities. It is also in coastal settlements that shipyards are found. Buildable improvements are ones that strengthen the defenses and infrastructure of the city (walls for defense, night watch for public order, baths for health (though I have read about medieval bathhouses being closed wholesale because they actually were detrimental to public health, being fleshpots that made veneric disease far more common), cathedrals and universities and so on).
There is also the possibility of making things more realistic, for example by giving the player direct control only over royal domains, and instead of the state building any and all infrastructure and improvements people do it themselves if they know how and have the means (armourers and weaponsmith build their own forges and workshop and sell their wares to those that can afford them, same for stud farms, merchants build their own trade docks and markets if the volume of trade warrants it and so on). But I do not believe CA is willing to go down this path.
Movement on the campaign map in RTW is often illogical, such as a besieged city still exerting a zone of control hampering the movement of a second army that attempts to march past it. It should be possible to deploy on all sides of a city when assaulting it, since they are supposed to be surrounded. Moving agents about is annoying, they should be off-screen, with the player rather selecting a target and ordering an action against it, the cost and chance of success depending on the nature of the action and the target.
Some cosmetic improvements are in order: major natural features should be named, boats should travel on rivers (the are excellent conduits for trade). One should be able to see the countryside being further developed as population increases, with forest turning into farmland and existing farming districts becoming more dense populated.
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Originally Posted by Bwaho
