Best suggestions for RTW2

[Ichon]

POLL

The numbers correspond with ideas below-

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Below are some of the best suggestions for RTW2 which could either be easily accomplished or at least are possible. Threads which start with complaints or devolve into pointless debates won't be included as its simply a mess to read through, good ideas presented in such threads can be given their own topic and then included here.

The idea is to make a quick reference for people and possibly CA to read and get some of the more creative ideas that would improve RTW2 and not have to read a bunch of off topic critiques and personal attacks.

Eventually the most rep'd/approved/seconded suggestions will be made into a poll so that we can see what people seem most interested in comparatively and at least help focus CA's attention to the most so far overlooked, or in demand features for RTW2.

Concepts will be divided at least into 3 categories, probably I can further subdivide in the future as this list hopefully grows longer.

Battle Mechanics & Features Battle AI, formations, units, terrain, archery, artillery, sieges, naval battles...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

1 Archers Targeting
2 The Use of Terrain
3 Battle Formation Effects
4 Horse Archers
5 The use of Archers
6 Auto Pursuiting Routing Army
7 Unit Mass and Push Back
8 Catapults on Walls
9 Battle Speed and Morale
10 Archer Improvement
11 Cavalry Improvement
12 Slingers Improvement
13 10% opacity for nearby trees
14 http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=555598 - Effects of (environment) Rain, Snow and Sand

Campaign Mechanics and Features Map, Economics, Diplomacy...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

15 Population & Labor Distribution System
16 New Foreign Trade System
17 Simulating the cost of the empire
18 Far or unlimited Movement for Generals and Agents
19 More than 1 type of Alliance
20 Changeable Capitals
21 Importance of Training and Experience
22 Building Improvements and Balancing
23 Repairing in allied ports
24 Emerging trade nodes
25 http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=555525 - Transportation on rivers/roads
26 http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=558369 - Retreats
27 http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=560868 - Recruitment
28 http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=563073 - Experience

General Mechanics & Features UI, design, timescale, general concepts,...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

29 UI improvement
30 Proper Horse Models
31 View Distance and Battle map background
32 Importance of the Navy
33 Culture instead of Religion
34 Terrain advantage depending on generals traits

Credit

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Huskatten for thread and organization suggestions
CA for enabling this discussion
TWCenter for providing the forums

[Ichon]

To make a new suggestion post the thread URL or create a topic and then post it for a new idea.

Examples-

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=555598 - Effects of (environment) Rain, Snow and Sand
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=555525 - Transportation on rivers/roads
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=558369 -Retreats
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=560868 - Recruitment
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=563073 - Experience

[Rasic]

Good idea, I vote for a sticky on this.

[Ichon]

Good idea, I vote for a sticky on this.

Maybe eventually but for now it would be nice to allow people to contribute suggestions and for me to edit and revise as needed and from experience the majority of people don't read the stickies.

[Roman Might]

Some of them are good, others not so much, for example the one to make battles longer. Make them bigger not longer cause I do not want to sit staring at my screen for 10 minutes watching them hack at each other uselessly.
On the other hand I like the suggestion to make formations somewhat effective is brilliant.

[Ichon]

On the other hand I like the suggestion to make formations somewhat effective is brilliant.

Which suggestion what that exactly? There are 2 threads on formations...

[Roman Might]

Which suggestion what that exactly? There are 2 threads on formations...

I think its called 'The use of battle formations'? Its where he describes that ordered formations should have an impact on the stats of the units by making them more effective but whn the formation is broken they are at a disadvantage.
That would probably have to be clmbined with the push and shove idea but CA already stated they are doing this.

[a tw player]

I have a great feeling of accomplishment in life that 2 of my suggestions have been included here...Of course, this feeling will be destroyed with AS results coming out in a couple of days, but I'll enjoy it while I can

Anywho, +rep to the op for some great work here, bringing some order to the chaos (sticky worthy?)

edit - turns out I have to spread some rep before giving you more...

[MrBoBo1]

One thing that doesnt seem to be listed, that is kind of annoying, is constantly having to set units to skirmish mode and loose formation.
It would be nice if you could set them to this on the turn based map or in the prefrences.

[Ichon]

One thing that doesnt seem to be listed, that is kind of annoying, is constantly having to set units to skirmish mode and loose formation.
It would be nice if you could set them to this on the turn based map or in the prefrences.

Since ETW I don't put units on skirmish because they skirmish right into enemy units instead of back towards friendly lines and it is more trouble to micro them on skirmish than without.

Loose formation is handy but not always wanted in every battle but it would be nice to have an option to start battles with those always on or always off as some players prefer with and some without and some players it depends on the situation. Even better would be you can set preferences for deployment for each unit. I often distinguish my units by xp and unit type so that no part of my line is weak. That means often light infantry are put into line formations to give some extra range as enemy approaches and they can be pulled back slightly when enemy comes into range. Shogun 2 I do the same thing with counters and xp units so the high xp units alternate evenly with the lower xp units so no part of the line is exceptionally weak filled with low xp units.

[Asgaroth]

Good idea, I vote for a sticky on this.

Me to !

[SleepySteve]

Huskatten for thread and organization suggestions
CA for enabling this discussion
TWCenter for providing the forums

Nicely put!

[HusKatten]

Great to see the thread gone live, Ichon lets give CA what they want guys!

[atheniandp]

Excellent idea for a thread. Many of our ideas are just pushed down over time and CA may not get a chance to look at them.

I'm planning to make an "atheniandp's suggestion thread" sooner or later in which I will extend some of my ideas. One thing I'd like to stress though is that Rome II should have a Casus Belli system. I believe there's been a thread about that somewhere.

[Dramatic Cat]

Sticky this already!

Maybe CA will notice how awesome the community's ideas are, and then, maybe, with some luck, a precious 1% of good ideas will make it into the game, and we won't end up with screeching gals and flying pigs again.

[Heathen Storm]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Factions and diplomacy:

• One of the main problems of TW is that strategy map AI knows how to attack, but doesn’t know how to defend itself. Defending AI must be seriously reworked. AI should keep sufficient army near borders with unfriendly factions. AI should not move all its troops just to one side of empire leaving all other provinces defenseless. AI troops should not leave city right after conquest just to cause rebellion in the province, but should wait till public order will be normal (even without presence of troops in city) and leave city only for counterattack. Moreover AI should not expand too fast without armies enough for defense from all necessary directions. It’s too easy (and boring) now to conquer numerous “empty” provinces of large AI faction while its troops are busy somewhere else.

• Really unique trait for every faction, not just “plus some percents”. Moreover there could be one positive and one negative trait for each faction according to historical realities.

• Better communication with allies. There should be possibility to plan war against enemies. For example, you suggest your ally to start war against other faction and could choose which provinces of that faction should be occupied by you or your ally. Also you could specify time of invasion: immediately or after some turns. If you agree with your ally to start war after some turns, then after those turns there should be option for you (and your ally) to start war, postpone till next turn or cancel invasion. If one of allies decides to cancel war, it should negatively affect relations with other ally. Postponement will not affect relations but it should be limited to some number of repeats only (e.g. 3), after that you can only start or cancel war. During war if one of allies decides to occupy province which was previously suggested to other ally, it should negatively affect relations with all other allies. On the other hand there should be possibility to return to ally a region that he lost earlier. Same could be done by AI to human player. There should be also possibility to call for help: one ally asks other ally to help him in certain province. There should be option to negotiate peace together with allies. Though allies could decide themselves either to stop war or continue. On the other side AI allies could negotiate peace themselves and then ask human player if he want to stop war or continue it alone.

• Simple communication with AI ally in battle: hold, attack, fire, outflank them from right/left/rear, stay in defense to right/left/rear of me, retreat, etc. Though AI could ignore your orders and prefer to act independently (e.g. if ally general has more stars than your general).

• Better communication with vassals. You should be able to grant more territory to your vassals, specify amount of tribute (in percents of vassal’s income), order to start or stop war against other faction (even without your own participation in that war), choose defensive or offensive tactics and order to occupy certain provinces of enemy. You could also call for help of vassal in certain province. And you should be able to annex vassal, but it will cause negative effect on public order in former vassal provinces (large anger should decrease every turn after annexation but small negative points should stay forever as memory of former independence). Annexation will negatively affect relations with that faction if it will reappear again.

• Faction can offer itself to become vassal of other faction.

• Possibility to ask other faction to stop war against third faction.

• Possibility to trade territories. But AI should understand that some regions are more important than others and don’t trade it easily like in NTW.

• Possibility to gain some of technologies known to rival faction when you destroy this faction.

Strategy map:

• Mountain passes on strategy map that will be really narrow place in battle.

• Swamps as impassable terrain on both strategy and battle maps.

• Frozen rivers and lakes that would be possible to cross on both strategy and battle maps during winter.

• Posibility to check battlefield before starting battle. Ideally it should be possible both at battle start screen (when two armies cross swords on strategy map) and just for army standing anywhere on strategy map. You could click on special button and get pop-up screen with minimap showing landscape and possible positions of armies, like on battle loading screen.

• Surrender for besieged city with possibility to negotiate different conditions. It should be initiated either by besieger or defender.

• Possibility to catapult infected animals into city during strategy level of siege to cause plague among besieged troops and citizens. If besieger army fights with sallying enemy or occupy infected city, it should be infected too.

• Possibility for ships to use friendly ports on strategy map.

• Receive some booty if you capture trade or pirate ships in successful battle.

• Trade ships should not be naval military units, but kind of characters (like general who is character on strategy map but military unit on battle map). Number of trade ships should be limited like number of spies, monks, etc. (for example, one ship per each trade route available to port).

• Small inner trade income for luxury goods which faction gets itself by ships from trade posts.

• More diversity of tradable resources for provinces.

• Governors as strategy map characters.

• Possibility to disband strategy map characters.

• More diversity of negative random events, like earthquakes, storms, plagues, etc.

• Faction loyalty for every region. Game could start with 100% loyalty to initial owner faction of region. After conquest by other faction loyalty to previous owner should be slowly replaced by loyalty to new owner. First, it will influence public order in newly conquered region and will make quick expansion harder. Then it could lead to some interesting features. For example, population in unloyal region could rebel and join the previous owner faction. Units hired in unloyal region could be untrustworthy for some time and could rebel or even turn to enemy side in case of battle. Other penalties for unloyal regions could be decrease of tax income or increase of buildings construction time. Some events could cause more negative effect on unloyal regions only; the less is loyalty to new faction the greater should be the effect.

• Troops presence make some positive effect on public order when troops are stationed in province, not in city itself (like in all TW games). Troops stationed in city should only increase this effect.

• Significant amount of luxury goods available to faction cause positive effect on public order (e.g. 1 happiness point for every 3 luxury items).

• Massacre or enslaving of population after conquest of province produce great fear among population for long period of time, thus add lot of positive points to public order. On the other hand it should add small negative points that stay forever as memory about this event. It could be also applied to any city with great negative public order at any time as kind of punishment.

• The more negative relations you have with some faction, the more negative points should be added to public order if you conquer region of that faction. So it should be harder to conquer regions of old enemies.

Armies and units:

• Manpower limit the number of troops that faction can maintain. It could be done by different methods (see details here), but imho the best way is population that gives quotas for troops. For example, every 1000 citizens allows to hire 1 unit of any troops. So if faction have total of 33000 population it could have army of 33 units, but not more.

• No more construction of levels and levels of buildings to get advanced units. Research of technologies is enough for this purpose. But this progress should not be too long.

• If you choose to retreat instead of battle, you should be able to choose the place to where retreat instead of moving automatically to random place. AI retreat moves should be more logical. And it should be possible to retreat as much as your movement points and landscape allows you, not just one time.

• Decreased speed of army movement on enemy territory. Movement into hostile land is not quick march on friendly territory. There should be scouts in front of marching army, some stops in case of suspicious activity around, more time for finding forage, proper night camps, etc. – it all takes more time.

• Increased radius of control for armies and fleets. It will give defending army more chance to intercept sudden invasion.

• Bonus for some troops in mountains: stamina bonus on battle map, ability to cross small mountains on strategy map.

• Possibility to retrain troops to upgrade armour and weapon. Bonus for moral and accuracy should be left unretrainable.

• One more bookmark for city to see which garrison troops are available there.

• Garrison troops keep experience after battle and don’t start with zero xp in next siege.

• Garrison troops replenish like other troops, not magically recover themselves just the same turn after battle.

• If you have large army stationed in city and cannot use all garrison troops in siege, then you can choose which garrison troops you want to use in upcoming battle.

• It should be possible to hire mercenaries from abroad only (what’s the point in giving additional payment to somebody if you can just have him as common levy in your regular army?). There were certain regions famous as source of mercenaries (e.g. Numidia). If you border or trade with faction that own such region, then in your border or port provinces you can hire mercenaries available for corresponding region (special button for hiring mercenaries could be placed right to unit recruitment slots in your city). But if you own such region yourself, you cannot hire any mercenaries from this region. Though there could be multiple provinces available for certain type of mercenaries. Mercenaries could be also hired by your general in corresponding province (if this province does not belong to your faction). Cost of hire and replenishment rate of mercenary unit should correspond to diplomatic relations with faction that own “mercenary source” region. Friendly relations will decrease cost and increase replenishment, war will hugely increase cost and make replenishment almost stopped.

• Ships should have capacity limit for transporting troops. There should be more realistic size of fleet for transporting army, not just one ship for full-stack army.

Battles and sieges:

• Ambushes are almost useless now and needs to be revised. Battle map should represent ambush conditions more accurately: there should be road (if ambushed troops were caught on it) with forest at least on one side of it. If the tile on strategy map is hilly, then it should be hills along the road. Both forest and hills should be quite close to zone of ambushed troops. Ambusher troops should be placed closer to ambushed troops (maybe at arrow flight distance). Ambushed troops should be visible to player at deployment stage of battle.

• Battles on bridge should be revised too. There should be only one bridge or ford on battle map, so there should be really hard fight for it. If you want to outmaneuver enemy defending bridge, it should be done on strategy map, not on battle map. Defending AI troops should be placed closer to bridge (to prevent human player from placing troops in proper formation after crossing the bridge), but not too close (it should not be reached by arrow from other bank). In case of artillery fire from enemy, AI should replace its troops far from bridge, out of fire, or even retreat.

• Weather and environment cause more effect on combat. Heavy rain, snowfall, scorching heat will reduce stamina (of course, some units should be resistant to such conditions). Moving uphill (even slow walk) should always reduce stamina of units (though some units could be resistant to it). Mud, deep snow, water in ford will reduce speed of movement. Heavy fog, night will reduce moral of basic units in defense. Rain, snowstorm, duststorm will reduce distance of arrow flight. Frontal wind will also reduce distance of arrow flight, but tail wind will increase it. Angular wind should decrease accuracy of archers. Height advantage for archers should be returned too.

• Exhausted units stop any activity except self-defense until they recover stamina. It should be applied to routing units too.

• Button that set unit (or all your units together) to automatic pursue of every routing enemy on battle map.

• Capture of routing units for subsequent ransom (if it's historically correct for this period), enslaving, execution or release. For ransom troops could be selected separately (e.g. you can choose to buy back your general and elite units but leave basic units to enemy’s will). Captured troops could be also kept imprisoned for quite long time and later used in diplomacy to exchange for your troops captured by enemy or release them as condition for ceasefire. But such imprisoned troops should decrease every turn depending on time speed of game (e.g. it should decrease slow in game where one turn is one month, but do it fast in game where one turn is one year).

• Wounded warriors could be recovered from casualties after successful battle.

• Possibility to launch any attack or only ambush as surprise assault on enemy camp. Maybe it should be special trait for advanced generals. Such attack could start at night or early foggy morning. Most of enemy troops should be stationed inside tents or lay on the ground, though one or two units should be on guard. Surprised enemy should suffer moral penalty and act slower.

• If there is spy in army, then enemy disposition should be visible to player at deployment stage of battle.

• Attackers are visible to defenders of besieged city during deployment stage of siege. Also it could be trait for advanced general to launch surprise attack on city so that defenders could not see disposition of attackers before beginning of battle.

• Manual control over city gates in siege battle.

• Ships run aground in naval battles.

• Ship could be boarded by two enemy ships from both sides.

• Rivers that flows through city or along city walls.

• Ability to save your own formation in battle and apply it to your army in next battles.

• Quicksave in battle and posibility to continue this battle when you start game next time.

Tasks and events:

• More logical tasks with more adequate rewards. No more tasks like "Capture gold mines of that very_strong_currently_neutral_faction and you'll be rewarded with one unit"!

• Possibility to choose between different variants of reward for completed task instead of giving just one variant that is not always useful.

• Task to build certain unique building in certain province (e.g. build Coliseum in Rome in next 30 turns). There would be special temporary construction slot in city for this building only. Such building could give some bonuses to faction (like in NTW).

• More tasks later in game, with more diversity of tasks.

UI:

• Clocks somewhere (like in Civ).

• Ability to see written number of units (1 to 21) in army and not to count it yourself.

• Three statistics screens with list of all your provinces to see which buildings you can construct, which units and charactersyou can recruit in corresponding provinces.

• When you select faction list below strategy mini-map, it would be useful to place on mini-map icons to see which factions you trade with, which are enemies and which are allies. In S2TW list of factions bellow mini-map is actually useless.

• Statistics list under strategy mini-map to see religion, culture, etc. for all provinces, with information depicted on mini-map.

• It would be great to see on strategy mini-map armies, fleets and characters of factions which you’re at war with. Of course, if they are at visible zones. Such icons could be painted with colors of corresponding factions. It would be useful to see allied units too. You could add one more list under mini-map or just add switchers to existing lists of armies, fleets and characters: “You”, “Allies” and “Rivals”.

• For battle UI: buttons that will move units right and left, not just forward and back or rotate.

This guy takes the cake for best and most thorough suggestions, IMO.

[Asgaroth]

This guy takes the cake for best and most thorough suggestions, IMO.

Wow, that is very nice. Haven't seen it before.

[Ichon]

Yeah I don't remember seeing it before either- I'll put a link to that topic when I find it. NGR is taking me all over the place with search though.

[Vaskill]

Very nice, thank you for putting this together Ichon.

[Asgaroth]

Yeah I don't remember seeing it before either- I'll put a link to that topic when I find it. NGR is taking me all over the place with search though.

Hey Ichon, try and contact the moderators to sticky this. Here are really some fine ideas.