Citizens and sieges

[A4_Copy_Paper]

what i want to see is maybe during siege battles we see civilians scurrying to their houses or if building get damaged we see the rushing out...

also another one is cutscene(s) depending on what we choose for the settlement we successfully conquer...so say if i take over Syracuse, if i choose to exterminate the population a cutscene should play we it shows my men going through town and executing/pillaging the town.

it's not really needed but just a feature i think would add the immersion of the game and how gruesome it was. what're your thoughts?

[Nicolaos]

I like the idea with the running citizens, but they should not interfere with the units...

Animations are nice, but i will end up skipping them anyways

[Augustus Scipius]

It still raises a question; where would the civilians run? They just can't open the rear gates for them, that would be stupid. Then again, seeing them aimlessly running around would also look dumb and artificial.

Furthermore, knowing how awesome CA's pathfinding is, the civilians would form immovable walls of doom or even prevent entire units from moving anywhere, thus taking the fun out of sieges.

As I have said in earlier threads, the ability to kill them, on the other hand, would earn the game a Pegi 18 rating, thus limiting sales in certain countries and the target group would shrink. Not to mention it might get negative feedback from the press for being unneccessarily brutal.

Even though the concept is fine, I can't see it happening.

[Doktor Soviet]

It still raises a question; where would the civilians run? They just can't open the rear gates for them, that would be stupid. Then again, seeing them aimlessly running around would also look dumb and artificial.

Furthermore, knowing how awesome CA's pathfinding is, the civilians would form immovable walls of doom or even prevent entire units from moving anywhere, thus taking the fun out of sieges.

As I have said in earlier threads, the ability to kill them, on the other hand, would earn the game a Pegi 18 rating, thus limiting sales in certain countries and the target group would shrink. Not to mention it might get negative feedback from the press for being unneccessarily brutal.

Even though the concept is fine, I can't see it happening.

Well, they would likely run to the temple, the city square, or really anywhere that isn't in the path of the advancing army.

Of course they wouldn't really interact much with units. I think you could be allowed to order your troops to kill them if you like, because your pillaging, it's what you do. However, they shouldn't collide or interact much with the soldiers. If we make it so they don't collide in mass numbers, basically by using the same code routing units use, we should be fine.

I really think that CA should stop worrying over the ratings. "Limit Sales" is just an excuse, in my opinion, to not have to do extra scripting. I mean, think about it, if there was a pegi 18 game that came out when you were a kid, you would just have your parents or older friends/siblings to buy it for you. And I think, if anything, the gaming press would hail the game for it's violence. I mean, it's not like that kind of stuff hasn't been shown in games before. Christ, look at Spec Ops. That game has a seen where you melt people with White Phosphorous, including civilians (that's right, women AND children) and it didn't even get a slap on the wrist, mostly because they used it in a way that was serious and set the tone and feel of the game. That's why civvies are important here, it's because they would show just how brutal war is.

One of the biggest points CA is trying to make with Rome 2 is how much you should care for the soldiers on the ground doing the dirty work. I cannot think of a better way to have people empathize with them than having the civilians.

[|Sith|Galvanized Iron]

It still raises a question; where would the civilians run? They just can't open the rear gates for them, that would be stupid. Then again, seeing them aimlessly running around would also look dumb and artificial.

Furthermore, knowing how awesome CA's pathfinding is, the civilians would form immovable walls of doom or even prevent entire units from moving anywhere, thus taking the fun out of sieges.

As I have said in earlier threads, the ability to kill them, on the other hand, would earn the game a Pegi 18 rating, thus limiting sales in certain countries and the target group would shrink. Not to mention it might get negative feedback from the press for being unneccessarily brutal.

Even though the concept is fine, I can't see it happening.

To their relativs in another part of the city probably Civilians randomly running into "safe" houses is sufficent to simulate that.

[A Barbarian]

It still raises a question; where would the civilians run?

Simple: Into the next sword. They are there to be slaughtered

[Biggus Splenus]

so say if i take over Syracuse, if i choose to exterminate the population a cutscene should play we it shows my men going through town and executing/pillaging the town.

How do you execute a town?

Idk about this idea though, would the city be evacuated usually before the enemy got there?

[A4_Copy_Paper]

i meant execute the townspeople

[Zimmy]

Unneeded lag.

[Augustus Scipius]

Unneeded lag.

Not to mention the civilian hordes would block the streets and make a nightmare out of city sieges...

[DarkArk]

Not to mention the civilian hordes would block the streets and make a nightmare out of city sieges...

So it's realistic then?

It would be a nice feature to have but I rather doubt it.

[gaunty14]

Could add the option for your defending general to order the men to kill the citizens in order to reach the enemy....and with a large increase of dread as a result

[SturmChurro]

I think it would be rather unnecessary.

[Ichon]

Why would civilians be running in the streets? They would be fled or locked up as tight as possible hoping to survive. Maybe some civilians helping the defense but then they aren't civilians any more.

[yuezhi]

they could run to the sewers/cisterns if their dignity allows it.

[Mazzor]

I would rather have more soldiers on the screen at once, rather than having citizens being rendered and using processing power that could be used on soldiers

[Jackie Chan's Brother Wang...]

Wouldn't most citizens just be hiding inside buildings? If it was me, I'd say forget the buildings, it's a death trap once we've been defeated, I'd try and get out of the city somehow.

It actually makes me wonder, obviously it would depend on what army it was, but what was the general path for Roman armies once they had conquered a town? Did a lot of murder and rape follow? Were the people enslaved?

[snarst]

They should just be in buildings, they either ran or battened down the hatches before the siege and their houses/temples would be places they would run to when the battle started. They would only make things more complicated if they were put on the map.

[A4_Copy_Paper]

well what about the cutscene idea

[saxdude]

Cut scene sounds fine.
Occupy: Nazis marching through the arc of triumph or Nazis marching through Austria (depending on the happyness of the city)
Sack: Soldiers pillaging and robbing, the general public is upset but defenceless
Exterminate: that.