How should the Senate Work?

**Strifeblade** · July 19, 2012, 02:58 PM

I was playing some Rome 1 lately, as well as RS2 and EB1.2 and I began to think about the way the senate works in these systems.

In each case they are auto assigned. In the more historically accurate mods, they are assigned based on certain prerequisites (being a certain type of senator for so and so long, patrician, has an army, is in a certain place etc.) In vanilla, senatorial positions are more randomly decided, and seem to have tiers, 1 of each tier (one aedile/consul?) and have no real bearing or consequences. However, seeing how the entire family system of Rome 1 is rather silly, I doubt it's system will be returning. Hopefully, with a new system for the Roman faction a new senate will accompany it.

Shogun 2 has an interesting system where you could assign certain generals roles, as in "Commissioner for War/Finance/Supply/Development" (I think those were them). There could be one of each, your faction leader couldn't be one, and the benefits of each one would scale with the experience level of your general. For those who haven't played Shogun, lets say I make Takeda Nobushige commissioner for war, so he can recruit units for 2% cheaper at 1 command rating. At 2 command rating the bonus is -4% at 5 rating it is -10% etc.

I would love to see this system return for Rome 2, but I would like to see it expanded to include senatorial positions and differ depending on whether you are an empire or a republic.

In ancient Rome, all republican armies were generally led by consuls, and there were two at any given time, either campaigning, or leading the senate in Rome. It is irritating in Rome 1 to have my main army wreaking havoc in Carthage or whatnot, while the Consul is sitting around being controlled by the AI in Rome. Now, obviously if you could just assign consulship to your generals or whatnot it would be a little inaccurate being a republic; maybe allow you to pay money or influence the plebs into voting for 'Scipio' or whoever for consul. Now 'Scipio' gets a bonus to leading armies.

Perhaps you start with a consul, and you can assign a tribune who will become the next Consul when the current Consul is done. Of course, I wouldn't mind a little inaccuracy with the consul staying in office for 10 years or whatever is reasonable. 2 would be much too short for the games time-nspan, especially considering the limit of characters you would be able to elect.

When you choose to become turn into an empire, you get the ability to assign positions at whim, and perhaps the consul and pontifex maximus, perhaps more senatorial positions will be combined, to make your emperor somewhat of an uber unit.

In addition I would like to see the family system that Shogun 2 had return, but perhaps feature multiple families (Julii, Brutii, Scipii anyone?) which allow for some kind of historical accuracy and variety. Having the ability to recruit certain famous people such as Marius during certain periods (maybe with a prompt in the way you recruit generals in Shogun) would be amazing as well.

With the government arguably being the most interesting and complex thing about ancient Rome, some serious detail needs to be put here. At the very least, allow the same system as Shogun and allow modders to edit the system as they would like. Ideally, this could expand to other factions in a realistic manner, the Carthaginian senate being as detailed, and barbarian factions could have a system more akin to Shogun 2.

**Basileos Leandros I** · July 19, 2012, 03:05 PM

It would be a bit too much micro-management if you had to assign the offices and such. ETW had a pretty easy system of handling the top 5 positions of the state, and those were elected with historical characters whom you could not control. That would add the Senate "touch" and prevent it from being too boggled down.

**Strifeblade** · July 19, 2012, 03:11 PM

Originally Posted by Basileos Leandros I

It would be a bit too much micro-management if you had to assign the offices and such. ETW had a pretty easy system of handling the top 5 positions of the state, and those were elected with historical characters whom you could not control. That would add the Senate "touch" and prevent it from being too boggled down.

I like the idea of having all the individual recruitment managed for you, but I want to choose the consul, he needs to lead my early armies. I think empires system would fit nicely though, especially the way factions can develop different systems of control depending on if they are a constitutional/absolute monarchy or a republic. I do want the Roman senate a bit more developed however. The only alternative is having the player be the absolute will of the senate.

**Basileos Leandros I** · July 19, 2012, 03:35 PM

The possibility of choosing your own consul sounds good, but electing the Senate and taking care of it is too much. Perhaps some offices can be given/elected, but a balance needs to be attained in order for this to be feasible.