Rome 0 Turn Recruitment - Dani

[Aristotle's Folly]

This is where I'll post my playtesting reports for this week. I'll put the first report up this afternoon.

My .exe/game info:
Playing as Rome, 0-turn recruitment
Playing on H/H
Playing BI .exe
OS Windows 7 64-bit installed on a MacBook Pro via Bootcamp

Playtest Reports

Playtest Report 1 (filed 10/10/2011)

Playtest Report 2 (filed 10/11/2011)

Playtest Report 3 (filed 10/11/2011)

Campaign Maps Stats at Turn 30 (filed 10/11/2011)

Playtest Report 4 (including screenshot archive) (filed 10/12/2011)

Playtest Report 5 (filed 10/14/2011)

Playtest Report 6 (filed 10/15/2011)

~ Dani ~

[tone]

Fighting battles is key actually because you're more likely to win heroic victories if you play them yourself and way the Roman decorations are awarded makes more likely if the wins are clear or better.

[Aristotle's Folly]

Fighting battles is key actually because you're more likely to win heroic victories if you play them yourself and way the Roman decorations are awarded makes more likely if the wins are clear or better.

Got it, will do.

I'm having another problem with game loading. I've installed the RS 2.2 Beta via the SVN into a C:\Games directory (the same one that has my RSII 2.1 install). Any programs have been installed as admin (in this case, basically RTW).

Edit: RSII 2.1 works fine, BTW.

I've selected my faction (Rome 0-turn), set my preferences, selected my Rome TW-BI.exe. Then I click on the Play button and the launcher clocks for a minute, then goes away. For a full minute or two nothing happens, as if the game didn't launch at all. Then it launches - as usually and without a problem - until I get to the menus screen. There I have the two mouse problem - the RSII mouse and, when I try to move it over the text options, a second "Windows" type mouse appears.

I can get rid of this by doing [alt] [tab] and then everything is fine. I'm guessing I'm doing something wrong as, if this were an issue, others would be reporting it.

~ Dani ~

[Aristotle's Folly]

Fighting battles is key actually because you're more likely to win heroic victories if you play them yourself and way the Roman decorations are awarded makes more likely if the wins are clear or better.

Hmmm . . . apparently not for me. I just played for two hours and lost every single freakin' battle. My faction leader is dead, Italy is in shambles and I have no money. Call me Nepos.

When did I get so bad at this game? Playing on H/H. I guess I'll start over again on M/M.

@ Paedric: Tried that without success. What's strange is this: once the game is running, it runs at basically the same FPS as RSII 2.1 (which I also have installed). The only problem is the time it takes to load from the launcher to the RSII load screen. It's a full minute or two and significantly longer than other game, including RSII 2.1, on my computer.

If it was a degrag issue, my game would run slow, which it doesn't, even with a battle map packed with soldiers.

I'll try to clean some stuff off my hard drive and see if that works. We're on pretty tight - less than 5 gig free.

~ Dani ~

Edit: @ Paedric: Freeing up 15 gig of HD space, then rebooting, helped a lot. Thanks for the tip.

I'm starting again on M/H. If I don't my battles now, I'll give up.

~ D ~

[Paedric]

Have you the bloom option on?

[Aristotle's Folly]

No, the Special Bloom Effects box is not selected, neither are high res unit models or Post Marian General.

Edit: Wow, this is seriously an issue. Rebooted and now it takes almost two full minutes for the game to load. I wrote this edit in the time it took the game to load.

In Windows Task Manager, the only significant process that's running is Rome Total War BI at 458,680 k. Is that normal?

We are loading via the launcher, right? C:\Games\The Creative Assembly\RS2.2 Beta\launcher\Roma Surrectum II.exe?

~ D ~

[Paedric]

Yes, this is the correct path.

Just to be on the safe side, you might want to try to select bloom, then none.
It might say there is none currently used but that might not be really the case since you just reinstalled it.

As for loading time, it's mainly disk bound, so i'd check whether your hard drive is full, or fragmented.


Relaunching the game once more should improve launch time, as there should be some caching going on.

I think my memory usage was at about 1.3gb, but that was after some time playing.

[Paedric]

Hum, i'm almost sure it's the hard drive then.
When the hd is full or nearly, fragmentation is becoming really important, since the os is putting all the files/bytes in the small holes left, scaterring everything.

That's even more problematic with rs on svn because the number of files is simply huge. (About 150k, which is about 10 times the average number for a game, the matter is make worse with svn which basically doubles the number of files.)

Conventional hard drives (ssd are a bit different) are consisting of a disc spinning, with a reading/writing head.
When a hd is defragmented, all the rs2 files are kept together, and the head does not have to move a lot or often to read the data, this is called sequential read.
On the other hand, as it's probably your case, the data is scaterred all over the disk, and thus the head costantantly have to move everywhere to fetch the data, that's random read.

Since we have to obey the law of physics, random speed is necesserely slower than sequential.

The game is accessing the hd mainly during loading time (start and battles), but it does not during battles, so there is no performance loss in that case.

Tl;dr Try to make some space, and defragment the disc.


Concerning the difficulty, would it come from having less money than before?

[Aristotle's Folly]

Hum, i'm almost sure it's the hard drive then.
When the hd is full or nearly, fragmentation is becoming really important, since the os is putting all the files/bytes in the small holes left, scaterring everything.

That's even more problematic with rs on svn because the number of files is simply huge. (About 150k, which is about 10 times the average number for a game, the matter is make worse with svn which basically doubles the number of files.)

Conventional hard drives (ssd are a bit different) are consisting of a disc spinning, with a reading/writing head.
When a hd is defragmented, all the rs2 files are kept together, and the head does not have to move a lot or often to read the data, this is called sequential read.
On the other hand, as it's probably your case, the data is scaterred all over the disk, and thus the head costantantly have to move everywhere to fetch the data, that's random read.

Since we have to obey the law of physics, random speed is necesserely slower than sequential.

The game is accessing the hd mainly during loading time (start and battles), but it does not during battles, so there is no performance loss in that case.

Tl;dr Try to make some space, and defragment the disc.


Concerning the difficulty, would it come from having less money than before?

Actually, making space solved the problem and it works fine now.

Difficulty, no not from less money. In fact, I have more money the first ten turns of this game than in the latest version of RS II 2.1. Of course, I'm taking every precaution to ensure my economy is sound.

So far, I've played ten turns into three campaigns to get a feel for any changes. I've played two on H/H and one on H/M. The first one on was harder by a significant margin. I'd forgot just how deadly Carthages army could be and got trapped fighting two armies in the first five turns of the game. My faction leader was killed, my army destroyed, and I didn't have enough money to recruit another before the Rebels got rolling.

The two I've played this afternoon have been much, much easier.

One reason is Hannibal the Coward. Unlike the real life Hannibal, Hannibal the Coward defeats Nepos, then lays siege to Arretium. The other Carthagenian stack lays siege to Arrinium. Then, on the next turn or so Arrinium is taken, but Hannibal retreats back to Geona and stays there, releasing Arretium. On the next turn, the other stack of Carthagenians retreats back across the river, leaving Arrenium basically ungarrisoned.

And there they sit, unmoving and not attacking, protecting the city of Genoa. I'm free to take out the Rebels without bit of interference. I can literally send three legions running down Italy and those Carthegenian stacks just sit there watching the fun. Then I come back north and destroy them. Italy is mine in 13 turns.

Easiest rebellion I've ever played.

I've won - Clear Victory - nine battles in two campaigns without getting anything. Not an advisor, an honor, nothing. Of course, I've not won any Heroic Victories.

Also, what's with "uninspired leader"? I assume this trait has an effect on the economy and replaces the "beloved by the people", etc. traits that used to appear (and I really, really liked those).

I want to get further into a campaign. I'm sticking with H/M to increase the odds of me getting a Heroic Victory.

~ Dani ~

[tone]

Are you sending in your general to fight? Decorations depend on him taking an active part in the battle

[tone]

Certainly no problem getting generals with decorations in this AI campaign.

[Aristotle's Folly]

Rome 0-Turn Playtest Report 1

Turns 1-20 (536S AUC - 545W AUC)
Playing on H/H
Playing BI .exe
OS Windows 7 64-bit installed on a MacBook Pro via Bootcamp

Okay, I've now started my fourth campaign, trying to get a feel for where the game is now. I've not played for awhile, since last summer, and it's amazing how fast your forget stuff. I've got battles under control now, and I'm back to playing Hard/Hard.

I'm twenty turns in and I'll try to post a report every 10 years (20 turns).

Economy.

Concerning the difficulty, would it come from having less money than before?

As some of you know, the economy is one of the principle reasons I play RSII. I've always enjoyed the dynamic feel of the economy and learning the how to manipulate the tax, trade, and income system to my advantage. One of the things I've learned is that the economy can vary quite a bit from game to game.

The last time I playtested for you - back in July when you chasing down the crash bug - the economy felt stiff and extremely harsh. I was really struggling back then and it was having a major effect on my game.

Today - playing through four 10 year compaigns - the economy feels a great deal softer, more friendly, and a lot easier than it was last summer, and maybe easier than RSII 2.1a. In fact, in one campaign, I had no shortage of money, and could build markets in several cities (three?) even while I was fighting the first rebellion. In my last campaign (the one I'm going to use), playing Hard/Hard, the economy felt fairly balanced to slightly easy.

But I note I probably know as much about the economy - if not more - than other non-devs on the forum. Did I have too much money? Maybe. But other's won't - newcombers and those who don't play for the economy will struggle a bit until they get a feel for it.

Or maybe you just loosened it up for playtesting and will tighten it down later when you release?

Traits and Decorations.

Clearly, the trait system has changed. I'm looking through my screenshots and I don't really know what to comment on. Some annoying traits are gone, but there's enough "bad" traits to make the game and roleplaying interesting. I can't say that I see any "errors" and most of what I see seems playable and enjoyable.

I'm really interested in the Sentatorial and Counsular elections and what you expect a player to do with them. To some degree, I find the constant popup windows annoying, but the elections don't really mean anything to me right now.

And before someone writes me an essay on Senators and Counsuls ( ) I know what they are - I guess I don't know what you want a player to do with them. For example, in Roman history, consuls served one year (two turn) terms. If consul is elected in Rome and is sent to Spain to fight Carthage, his term will be over (in game) before he ever gets to Spain. So, right now, it all seems pointless, but maybe I don't understand how you would expect your player to use these elections.

The traits seem to make more sense. So far, I haven't had that any traits that scream "annoying!", so that's good. And as I said, I didn't see any errors.

Are you sending in your general to fight? Decorations depend on him taking an active part in the battle

Not until this campaign, I wasn't. Thanks for telling me this.

Certainly no problem getting generals with decorations in this AI campaign.

~ snip ~

Okay, I get it - the system's working. So why isn't it working in my campaign?

I think I understand why. I'm good at the economy, not so good at fighting. So when I go into battle, I go in with every advantage. I get my troops experience, weapons and armor up as high as I can get them. I think nothing of overwhelming the enemy - after all, the Rebels didn't think anything of overwhelming me!

During the first twenty turns, I lost a number of battles, mostly to Rebel forces seizing cities with stacks larger than my garrison forces. On the battlefield, I fight with full legions. I do use my general, but I often have an advantage. Not always though, and I was surprised not to win any decorations with my defeat of Hannibal, even though I fought him on near equal terms (actually, I did have a slight advantage in numbers, as the AI split its forces between Arriminum and Arretium).

But I know the system is working as I did get two Hastae Purae's during one single battle. Ironically, it was against the Rebels and I had a significant advantage in numbers over them. So maybe I don't know why I'm not getting decorations.

How many people does the general need to kill? Is it good enough that he chase down some stragglers and router or does he need to risk his life in heat of battle? Because my play-style doesn't risk a good general.

I do wish there was a way to make decorations legion specific and maybe up to the player. For example, maybe a specific monument to each legion? I know, a lot of work, but just a thought, for those battles when a legion performs well.

Rebel Spawns.

One thing that lept up at me - excuse the pun - are rebel spawns. Yes, I got a number of them in the first twenty turns, even a great number of them. In fact, a rebel army spawned in Italy for six turns in a row and on two turns, two rebels armies spawned. Seriously and that is not an exaggeration.

Did we turn up the rebel spawns?

Conclusion and Overall Gameplay.

So far, the patch feels a bit "softer" than RSII 2.1a. By softer, I mean, the game feels friedlier and easier. It feels like more fun.

The first rebellion was not a challenge in any of the four campaigns. But then, I've played the first 20 turns of this campaign maybe 100 times by now and I'm getting it down finally. I'd really like to play this campaign to the second rebellion and see how it goes. And right now, I'm well on my to financial security.


Things I liked:

• The "new" economy. I think you'll hear less cries of help. And maybe I'll write an economic guide for those who struggle.
• The new trait system, including the senate and consular elections. The game is very immersive now and it's much easier to roleplay. In fact, I've not found a single flaw.
• I liked winning the decorations. It made me feel like I accomplished something. (BTW: are Triumphs possible?)

Things I didn't like:

• The new Roman/Roman Rebel boats. Oh please, please tell me they're optional.
• I don't have my favorite EDU so I'm fighting battles on 2x and 3x normal speed. But that's okay.
• The constant Rebel army spawns.
• The consular/senate advisor pop-ups get a bit annoying, but I can live them better than the boats.

As always, I hope this helps. I want you to know I really enjoy your game, and appreciate all the time and effort you put into it. It has a very polished feel right now.

Regards,

~ Dani ~

Edit: If there's anything you want to see in the way of images, etc., please let me know.

Edit II: One more thing: the ony quote I'm seeing on any of the load screens is the Josepheus "Eagle Standard" quote. Just an FYI.

[tone]

Hi Dani,
That's really helpful.
Good question you're asking about senatorial elections. Why do you need to advance characters? The reason there is that ultimately only characters at praetor or above can become legatus and those above consul can become legatus legionis in the post Marian era (although for testing's sake it's happening for pre Marian characters too.
I think you've nailed it with your question though......why bother? The bonuses aren't really that huge and maybe we need to take a leaf out of rtr's book and make it more important in terms of command and Morale to be using the right rank of character. Maybe we need to drop Morale a little overall our give lower ranking characters a Morale penalty then give a bigger bonus to higher ranked characters?

[Aristotle's Folly]

Hi Dani,
That's really helpful.
Good question you're asking about senatorial elections. Why do you need to advance characters? The reason there is that ultimately only characters at praetor or above can become legatus and those above consul can become legatus legionis in the post Marian era (although for testing's sake it's happening for pre Marian characters too.
I think you've nailed it with your question though......why bother? The bonuses aren't really that huge and maybe we need to take a leaf out of rtr's book and make it more important in terms of command and Morale to be using the right rank of character. Maybe we need to drop Morale a little overall our give lower ranking characters a Morale penalty then give a bigger bonus to higher ranked characters?

Okay, I see what you're doing here, but two thoughts:

I wouldn't necessarily make senatorial or counsular status an improvement in command or morale. Some of Rome's worst generals - the one's who did the most damage to the republic - were consuls and senators. But influence definitely.

I think the decorations are a good, immersive way to add command to generals. There should be a number of "basic" decorations. Bronze and silver "phaleraes" were common.

But unless you go to four turns per year, two turns (a year) really isn't enough time to do anything. As many real-life Roman consuls found out.

~ Dani ~

[Aristotle's Folly]

Rome 0-Turn Playtest Report 2

Turns 21 - 30 (546S AUC - 550W AUC)
Playing on H/H
Playing BI .exe
OS Windows 7 64-bit installed on a MacBook Pro via Bootcamp

I know I said I would post ever ten tunrs, but I'm having some problems, and I thought I'd go ahead and post this report in the hope of getting some answers.

Economy.

Please tell me how your economy works now, because it doesn't work the way it did before. What triggers minor recession/growing recession, etc.? You've removed the traits that triggered this in the past (the hated/beloved troops, senate, people traits). So what triggers it now? Is it purely random, becasue that would seriously, seriously suck.

I tried to answer my own question by going through the export_descr_character_traits file in both the C:\Games\The Creative Assembly\RS 2.2 Beta\data directory and the C:\Games\The Creative Assembly\RS 2.2 Beta\Play_Rome\data directory. But I cannot find a reference to "minor recession" in any of these files and after an hour of searching, I've given up. So you've put it somewhere else or your calling it something else.

Here's what happened: I let Sextus Fabius Maximus live this game - being the son of the starting faction leader. I let him live because I thought you'd changed the "he's-a-loser-that-will-kill-your-economy-trait" that he was stuck with in RS II 2.1a. But, nope, it's still there and by simply putting him in Rome, he basically earned a minor recession and now, since Dad died, it's going to effect my entire economy, right?

I don't mind having a bad leader once in awhile, but having no idea how to control it is frustrating. So what factors or traits determine if a leader gets "minor recession" or worse. And to answer the obvious questions: yes, I'm building like mad and in Rome, I'm building a mixture of temples, economic buildings like markets, etc., trade buildings, farm improvements, so I'm not really seeing how I can have a minor recession, unless - once again - we've linked this trait to something completely unrelated to the economy like how much people like your leader.

Edit: Answered my own question but would like to get confirmation.

I found the Prosperity_Counters in the export_VnVs file, which tells me the effects for the traits from 1 to 5:

Prosperity Counter Traits

Trait Prosperity_Index Characters family NoGoingBackLevel 10 AntiTraits Remove_Index Level Prosperity_Counter_1 Description Prosperity_Counter_1_desc EffectsDescription Prosperity_Counter_1_effects_desc Threshold 10 Effect Unrest 8 Effect Trading -30 Effect TaxCollection -30 Effect Law -4 Level Prosperity_Counter_2 Description Prosperity_Counter_2_desc EffectsDescription Prosperity_Counter_2_effects_desc Threshold 20 Effect Unrest 6 Effect Trading -20 Effect TaxCollection -20 Effect Law -3 Level Prosperity_Counter_3 Description Prosperity_Counter_3_desc EffectsDescription Prosperity_Counter_3_effects_desc Threshold 30 Effect Unrest 4 Effect Trading -10 Effect TaxCollection -10 Effect Law -2 Level Prosperity_Counter_4 Description Prosperity_Counter_4_desc EffectsDescription Prosperity_Counter_4_effects_desc Threshold 40 Effect Unrest 2 Effect Trading -5 Effect TaxCollection -5 Effect Law -1 Level Prosperity_Counter_5 Description Prosperity_Counter_5_desc EffectsDescription Prosperity_Counter_5_effects_desc Threshold 50 ; ;Mid-point of index ;No Bonuses at this level Level Prosperity_Counter_6 Description Prosperity_Counter_6_desc EffectsDescription Prosperity_Counter_6_effects_desc Threshold 60 Effect Unrest -1 Effect Trading 5 Effect TaxCollection 5 Level Prosperity_Counter_7 Description Prosperity_Counter_7_desc EffectsDescription Prosperity_Counter_7_effects_desc Threshold 70 Effect Unrest -2 Effect Trading 10 Effect TaxCollection 10 Effect Law 1 Level Prosperity_Counter_8 Description Prosperity_Counter_8_desc EffectsDescription Prosperity_Counter_8_effects_desc Threshold 80 Effect Unrest -3 Effect Trading 15 Effect TaxCollection 15 Effect Law 1 Level Prosperity_Counter_9 Description Prosperity_Counter_9_desc EffectsDescription Prosperity_Counter_1_effects_desc Threshold 90 Effect Unrest -4 Effect Trading 20 Effect TaxCollection 20 Effect Law 2

These are directly related to the Faction Leader Ratings.

Faction Leader Ratings

;---------Faction Leader Rating--------------New Trait Trait FL_Rating_Index Characters family Level FL_Rating_Index_1 Description FL_Rating_Index_1_desc EffectsDescription FL_Rating_Index_1_effects_desc Threshold 1 Level FL_Rating_Index_2 Description FL_Rating_Index_2_desc EffectsDescription FL_Rating_Index_2_effects_desc Threshold 20 Level FL_Rating_Index_3 Description FL_Rating_Index_3_desc EffectsDescription FL_Rating_Index_3_effects_desc Threshold 40 Level FL_Rating_Index_4 ;;mid-point Description FL_Rating_Index_4_desc EffectsDescription FL_Rating_Index_4_effects_desc Threshold 60 Level FL_Rating_Index_5 Description FL_Rating_Index_5_desc EffectsDescription FL_Rating_Index_5_effects_desc Threshold 80 Level FL_Rating_Index_6 Description FL_Rating_Index_6_desc EffectsDescription FL_Rating_Index_6_effects_desc Threshold 100 Level FL_Rating_Index_7 Description FL_Rating_Index_7_desc EffectsDescription FL_Rating_Index_7_effects_desc Threshold 120

Okay, found the triggers and now I think I understand. Please tell me if I'm wrong.

First rule: Prosperity Index triggers are directly releated - linked - to Faction Leader Standing (FL_Rating_Index) numbers.

To get the best economies, all that's required is a FL_Rating_Index of greather than 5, 6, 7 while not having a prosperity index of less than 0.

Effect of rule: The higher Your Faction Leader Standing is, the better your economy. So Good Leaders, Excellent Leaders, Historic Leaders make the best faction leaders and give you the best economies.

Second rule: Senate approval is also based on the Faction Leader Standing. Thus, to get to the highest two levels of Senate approval, the faction leader must:

- have the trait of Patrician
- have a Senator_Approval_Ranking > 0 (so if he's below zero, you'll have to raise it)
- have a faction leader rating (FL_Rating_Index) greater than of 4 or 5.

Effect of Rule: If your governor or general has high Senate approval, they will make a good faction leader, and will enhance your economy.

Third Rule: Over 103 different factors/traits can effect your Faction Leader Standing, making it an extremely dynamic number.

Effect of Rule: A governor can have any number of traits, some good, some bad. The more positive traits a governor has, the better faction leader he will be, and the stronger your economy will be.

Traits that will increase your Faction Leader's Standing.

Dictator of the Republic (which is why you start out strong) Good command, defender traits Courage and Bravery traits Skilled General and Competent Political General Regained Eagle Despoiler (Good looting traits) Fighting Wife (she follows you into battle) (didn't mean what I thought it meant ... :) ). Vanquisher/Great Vanquisher/Conqueror/Victor/Famoun Victor Favor of the Gods Intelligent wife Beautiful wife Well Connected Wife Faithful wife Handsome Optimist Honest Confident Intelligent Considerate ** (raises FLS 2 points @ 8 % chance) Hardworking ** (raises FLS 2 points @ 10 % chance) Loyal Pragmatic Public Faith (without overdoing it) Epicurean (Gourmet of Life, Refined Tastes) Games Fan Races Fan True Roman/Good Honest Roman/Virtus Reverent/Respectful of the Gods/Pious Good Farmer Good Miner Good Trader Good Builder Good Administrator Kind Ruler Lenient Justice Generous Social Contacts/Social Network

Traits that will decrease your Faction Leader's Standing.

Bad commander traits Coward traits Arrogant General Lost Eagle Unlucky leader/Glory Hunter/Glorious Fool Leper (yeah, well, go figure) Alzheimers The higher drinking traits Touched by the Gods Deranged One of the Gods :) Astute wife Cuckold Inbred Ugly Pessimist Dishonest Slow Harsh Procrastinator (rather frustrating since many of my leaders are created "procrastinators") Hot Headed Hasty Disloyal Concieted Paiderastia (Same-sex relationships - avoid this - big, big dip) Catamite (same as above - avoid!) Girls (?) Atheisim Epicurean (Hedonistic) Loves to Eat, Glutton, etc. Gambling Self Publicist/Spin Doctor/Narcissist Games Hater Races Hater Perverted Irreverent/Contemptuous of the Gods/Sacrilegious Bad Farmer Bad Miner Bad Trader Bad Builder Bad Administrator Harsh Ruler Embezzler Harsh Justice Miserly Expensive Tastses Cheapskate Publicani Roman Killer Power Hungry

So, if I understand this you would want to pick someone as your faction leader who had high senate approval. Senate approval is going to be the indicator now of whether an heir will make a good faction leader. As a general rule, a general/governor with "high senate approval" would make a good faction leader who would have positive effect on your economy.

For those of us like to micro-manage, we could actually raise faction leaders by making sure they had a number of positive traits that would ensure senate approval.

Am I correct or misunderstanding something?

Battle Map Trap.

I doubt there is anything that can be done about this, but here goes: I fought a battle against some spawned rebels. Typically when you fight a battle, you have your deployment zone and the AI has theirs. This reflected in the colored lines that appear on the map.

In this battle, closely matched, the AI chose to deploy in one of the far corners of the map. Right in the corner. Tight. Well, I had one reinforcement unit - a governor from a city. The governor was unsupported - it was just a general/governor unit. The unit came on the map directly behind the AI in the corner - so coming in behind them.

The AI simply turned around and slaughtered them - before they ever entered the map! I couldn't control them (yes, I'd toggled of computer control) because the fight took place off the battle map! The AI charged two units right onto the edge of the map and killed them all!

I literally could do nothing to stop it. Extremely frustrating.

Spys and Assassins.

On the upside, spies and assassins are getting more experience, I see. Maybe a bit too much? I recruited a spy and an assassin, left them in Rome for a number of turns and when I looked at them again they were like experts! And still young. And I hadn't even taken them out of the city.

Mostly this was accomplished by traits and ancilliaries, so maybe you're being too generouus with them. On the other hand, it appears the AI is getting the same thing (I haven't seen for sure) and there's no noticable difference in how spies work, but I haven't tested this a lot.

Rebel Leaders.

One nice thing I'm seeing is Rebel leaders. You've obviously fixed the bug that wouldn't let Roman Rebels and the Free People recruit leaders. I'm seeing more of them now - one in the first rebellion with the Roman Rebels and the a couple of more in the spawned Rebel stacks.

Okay, that's it for now. I'd really like info on how recessions are triggered. What triggers them and how they work. I can kill Sextus, but I really dislike doing that because it feels like cheating - "oh this is hard so I'll send my faction leader on a boat ride." Still, if it hasn't improved in a couple of turns or I can't figure out how to improve it, Sextus is going to die.

His life is in your hands now.

~ Dani ~

Edit: I've created an index at the top to make it easier to organize my playtest reports - and, I hope, easier to find them.

[Rex Basiliscus]

Oh and Dani, be sure to check how the province ancillaries/traits work. When I played a couple of months ago the Hispannia ones didn't work.

[tone]

I'll let DVK answer those questions as he's the one who's done the work on the economy traits.

In answer to your question about triumphs..yes you can get things like the hispaniensis epithet...with those you'll also get a corona triumphalis

[Aristotle's Folly]

Also, am I correct in noticing that none of the new governship traits outlined by Tone in his diagrams have any positive effect on the your faction leader's approval rating and then you're economy?

~ Dani ~

Edit: Yet another question. I'm looking at the export_descr_character_traits file, under Genetics Personality Triggers. I see a number of triggers identified as Personality_Trigger_01 to Personality_Trigger_21.

Am I correct if I assume that, when you recruit a general/governor, or a child comes of age, the game begins with Personality_Trigger_01, runs a check for Personality_Optimist, then goes on through the other triggers in sequence, and thus your family members, governors, and generals are given traits at creation/coming of age?

This would mean personality generation is random. So that my change of getting a hardworking governor is random?

~ D ~

[dvk901]

Also, am I correct in noticing that none of the new governship traits outlined by Tone in his diagrams have any positive effect on the your faction leader's approval rating and then you're economy?

~ Dani ~

Edit: Yet another question. I'm looking at the export_descr_character_traits file, under Genetics Personality Triggers. I see a number of triggers identified as Personality_Trigger_01 to Personality_Trigger_21.

Am I correct if I assume that, when you recruit a general/governor, or a child comes of age, the game begins with Personality_Trigger_01, runs a check for Personality_Optimist, then goes on through the other triggers in sequence, and thus your family members, governors, and generals are given traits at creation/coming of age?

This would mean personality generation is random. So that my change of getting a hardworking governor is random?

~ D ~

Yes. That is correct.

[dvk901]

Wow, that's a lot of stuff and questions! I'll do my best to answer as many as I can...

1. The economy probably is a bit different from before, but not because we've radically changed economic settings, it's just because of the traits being overhauled. They have a major impact on the economy.

2. The Roman 1st rebellion is probably a bit easier because I attached a tax bonus to the 'Republican Dictator' trait, if he is in Rome. But he has to BE in Rome, otherwise, it has no effect. I did this because you had pointed out before that the you felt the 1st rebllion was too hard.

3. I have changed nothing concerning rebel spawning of armies, so I have no clue why that would be different.

4. Spies and assassins may get better bonuses...I really don't know. Didn't purposely do much with them because there just really isn't much you CAN do with them.

5. Prosperity Indexes and Senate Standing. The old system of people love, troops love, etc. was removed because it used too few triggers to 'define' what was a good or bad leader. And to duplicate what I did with the present system in that format would've required more that three times the triggers and work to accomplish the same thing. So I axed it all, and started over. Using nearly a hundred 'monitors' of a faction leader's traits, this system works a lot better, and takes a lot more into account. The result is a much slower progression into 'bad' economy or 'good', and a better tendency to 'linger' at a certain level and not nose-dive one way or the other. All other Governors receive their traits based on the faction leader standing traits, and senate approval is given to all Patricians, also, based on the FL standing. None of this, however, would help one to find a better leader. This is all just a rating of how everyone else feels about, or is affected by the current leader. Choosing a good leader to make an heir, therefor, would have to be based on that character having a whole bunch of good traits or attributes.

6. The other thing that's going to be 'different' about this trait system is the departure from the old RTW 'build something and get a good trait...don't build something and get a bad one' way of thinking. I never liked that system because it just created a bunch of great characters and lousy ones, with not much in the middle. So, I changed it, along with the descriptions of a gob of traits. There is a lot of randomness...yes....but it builds characters who will have both good and bad traits like normal human beings. A guy can be a great administrator, and a lousy ruler, or a bad builder. He can be a good miner, and not a farmer. You can build all the farms you want, but the guy will still be a bad farmer.
Good administration is even limited, now, by triggers that will both give the trait, as well as give a 'pass-over' trait so that some characters will never get it.

On the flip side, some personality traits will give a point in administration regardless, or some other bonus. A trait that gives you a sickness is very likely to get you a 'Doctor' ancillary. A bad farmer is likely to get an 'Overseer' ancillary...I call them 'helper ancillaries', so that the character may lack a talent, and yet get an ancillary to 'help him'. It's just a way to make a 'nominal' character useful, but give him something that doesn't keep growing by levels to better and better bonuses. My goal, really, was for there to be many, many nominal or 'average guys'....very few shining stars, a a few total bozos.