Create-a-Legion
First, this is a very long post. I'd appreciate it if you read the whole thing before critiquing it! I've been pondering this idea for a while now, it's an effort to appease the history vs. gameplay debate while adding some great chances for customization. I want to say that I really doubt CA will give us historical legions/different versions of a legionary besides standard vs. late. What I am hoping is that they will add a sort of unit builder (for all factions, not just romans) that functions as such.
1. Able to pick a name for this unit type, ie. Legio I Germanica if you want, or Ticklestick's Purple People Eaters, whatever you want.
This lets the purists re-create the actual legions they want, while people who don't care have a chance to name and follow their own creations. Let's face it, running around slaughtering gauls with "legionary cohort" isn't nearly as awesome as whatever you named it. Plus, people who just want to run around smashing things aren't saddled with a bunch of latin they can't read.
2. Customized equipment based on your research/discoveries however they handle it. Different shaped shields/armor/swords whatever. Includes things like manica/greaves/pteruges.
Once again, this is pretty much necessary to keep accuracy enthusiasts happy. It's also important for gameplay reasons. You may want to take a lighter armored force to africa/syria, and find the heaviest stuff possible for walking into germania/dacia.
3. Customized heraldry, including possibilities like shields emblems on the flags whatever. Shields would be the required ones really.
Who doesn't like customized looks to their creations? Jerks, that's who.
4. Secondary color scheme. CA has said that factions will be color coded, so I'm guessing all legions will be mostly red, but maybe the ability to add flourishes of a different color to help differentiate them would be possible, if not, different shield colors would pretty much be a requirement.
This one is enormous for accuracy reasons. Different colored shields were hallmarks of certain historical legions. Even just from a gameplay perspective, it would be very handy to be able to tell which legionaries you are looking at by seeing their shield in the unit card. Plus, the purple people eaters would just look silly with a red shield.
5. Possible bonus traits:ie inspires nearby troops/hiding/whatever.
Not sure if this will be handled elsewhere in the game, or if it should just be directly related to the items you equipped them with.
How it would function is let's say there's a menu button for it by the family tree/diplomacy buttons, and there's an initial investment cost (steep, I'm thinking ~10,000). It pulls up a menu, similar to the veteran unit menu in the avatar conquest of shogun 2's online. Here you could customize everything, it would show the stats while changing the gear etc, and also the cost based on the equipment being used. When you finalize your selection, you are given the first cohort with the eagle next turn and can begin training your new legions. Maybe have a cap on how many legions can be "stored" in this manner, I don't know how they plan on handling recruiting limits. I'm not sure if you should have to pick a specific region or not in which to recruit the legion.
This system would accomplish quite a bit. It would reduce the furor of not having a perfectly accurate game. It adds depth to the unit pools without CA having to do it themselves. We all want to be able to mod, but this would allow us to mod quite a bit on our own. It allows for "what if" scenarios, like "what if the seleucids were still stomping people in 100 AD, what would their armies look like?" Let the player decide how accurate they want to be with it.
The caveats:
1. The AI probably couldn't/shouldn't use it.
If CA relies on this too much to give depth, it's only going to give depth to the player faction and not the AI. If it *does* use something similar, I would argue it should be historically accurate as possible.
2. Development time.
It would be a fairly large undertaking, but we might be far enough away from release to see it happen, or they might already have something similar planned. The one bright side is they had something at least similar in shogun 2's multiplayer already.
Closing:
First off, thank you for reading the entire post (if you did), I really appreciate it. Now I want to hear your thoughts/criticisms ideas for it!
Reply With Quote
I am working as a roman provincial archaelogist at southern Germany and believe me the roman legionary dont have red tunics, red scuta, red crests, cloaks etc.
Originally Posted by AndyMoszejevsky
Apologies for anyone who's message i may miss or not be able to answer
