First of all, I apologize in advance for any grammar or syntax mistake present in the text, English is not my native language, and I may have made some mistakes while i'm expressing my ideas. Sorry for those mistakes. Now, i'm going to explain my idea for an alternative Province/Building system:
Inspired by Marcus Tullius Cicero's thread, called "
Skeuomorphic UI", I decided make a constructive alternative to the actual province/building system, that I consider it is broken and is totally un-immersive.
One of the most immersive things present for the players in "Old good Total War games" (Until Medieval II), beside the interaction with generals, families and political system, was the interaction with cities and settlements. This lovely system forced to the player to destine a high percentage of resources (Gold) to make his favourite settlements grow and personalizing it. You could see your city grow while your empire also was growing, and the experience for the player was totally immersive.
So, I decided return (Almost in form of design concept) this feature to the Total War series making an alternative to the actual building/province system, with the minor work as possible for modders (If they could, if devs give them the approppriate tools) and developers. This new system offers to the player a new and challenging experience, and they now feel identified with his settlements and his population. The pillars of this new system are: Population growth, Wealth/income, and Public Order, and the resources and trade that makes the merchant cities and the big empire capitals grow very quickly. I think that this system will bring us a totally immersive and dynamic experience, that force to the player to continue the campaign until the end, to convert his city in the capital of the Ancient World. And the most important thing: This system don't scare and overwhelm the casual players, because it is very intuitive and very immersive. (All the information are showed to the players when they pass the mouse over the icons and values)
Now his Empire, kingdom, tribe, etc. is alive. It breathes, change, rise... and fall.
1º The explanation of the picture:
(Note: I appropriated the design of forum-users JLC and Tullius Cicero, many thanks to them. Also note that this is not a functioning UI, they are simply rudimentary composite images indicating how it might appear. Therefore, you pay no attention to the buildings and icons, because I composite the pic with other images that I have encounter around the web. The Rome I/Medieval II Style Icons is my personal touch to the image, because I love the artwork of the Old Total war buildings)
1- This tab shows the actual governor of the province
2- This tab shows the actual selected building features
3- This button allows to player change the governor of the province. New governors that you appoint can have a high penalty to the senate/Noble council control if your family/Senate faction already controlled many provinces, is similar to the case with the appointment of generals.
4- This value shows the population growth. When you pass the mouse over, the modifiers of the value are showed.
5- This value shows the wealh/income value. When you pass the mouse over, the modifiers of the value are showed.
6- Those icons shows the actual effects presents in the settlement or province. When you pass the mouse over, the modifiers of the value are showed.
7- This is the lovely individual tax level (Presents in "Old School Total War games"). When you pass the mouse over, the modifiers of the tax level values are showed.
8- This is the Public order value. When you pass the mouse over, the modifiers of the value are showed, like now in the game.
9- This is the actual prevailing culture in the settlement. When you pass the mouse over, the modifiers of the value are showed.
10- This is the settlement's resource. When you pass the mouse over, the modifiers of the production in the settlement are showed, indicating his production and his actual prize in the world ancient market.
11- Those icons are the building slots. As you can see, the walls are gray, because the player cannot upgrade it more for lack of funds, technology level, or level of the city.
12- A new level of the city has been reached, now you can build more buildings to the settlement. (If you unlock a new slot and you don't build nothing in it, slums appears, like now in the game)
13- This button allows to player set this settlement as faction's capital. (The icon is gray because Nemossos is yet the Arverni's capital)
2º Features:
- Players (And AI) can choose a governor to each province where they have almost one settlement. This governor gives bonus (And penalties) to population growth, wealth/income and public order to all settlements controlled by this faction in the province, depending on their level in Authority (Population), Subterfuge (Wealth/Income), and Fervor (Public order). The player can receive missions from senate/Noble council that order him to appoint a specific governor to specific province. (If these missions are not accomplished, the player will receive a penalty to his control of the Senate/Noble council. These missions also can request to the players that they gives the control of determinate army)
- The player (And the AI) can build walls in all settlements (But their costs are
huge, around 20,000 in minor building level). This limits the settlements with walls in early campaign turns, and increases the challenge in later campaign turns. (Only the best factions can build walls in his settlements).
- The province capital can change. (Population determines wich is the capital. If two settlements have the same population, wealth/income determine wich is the province capital). The change of the province capital is announced by and event message to the player.
- All cities have the possibility to build up to maximum 25 buildings, but their slots are unlockable by level of population (Each level unlocks 5 building slots).
- The repair of the buildings is very expensive. (Basic buildings: ~1,000; Wonders: ~5,000) (The player and the AI should value the possibilities when his settlements are besieged) In many cases, the player and the AI must fight outside his walls to prevent that his city (And his faction treasury) suffer with subsequent repair after the siege. The sieges will be the last option for the faction defense. Obviously, the button present in minor settlements to go out and fight out of town must be present in all settlements, not only province capitals.
- All buildings can be upgraded, like now in the game. New buildings and building upgraders could require a specific resource (Wood, iron, etc.)
- Only the most important cities & Empires can have a 5-level city, and they appear in the later turns of the campaign. This will reduce the number of max level cities to 5, 6, or 7 at the end of the campaign.
3º As a developer/modder, what are the changes?:
- Add a menu to appoint a governor to the province. (I don't know why you decide introduce this limited province system and this feature not added)
- Make that each settlement has his own individual public order, tax income, and culture statistics. The province is now only as an administrative unit, present only for appoint governors, and for the appearance of some provincial modifiers to Population growth, Wealth/Income, and Public Order of the settlements.
- Now the settlement menu are displayed alone. Each city have his own menu. With the arrows, (Or clicking the settlement in the campaign map) you can view each city buildings and his statistics (If you control it, have eye contact with it, or a spy near the settlement). The province menu now have been erased.
- Increase the building types present in the game. (Copy Rome I buildings and adapt it to the Rome II new food/resources system)
- Redesign some menus to show the important info in it. (when you pass the mouse over, specially the menu that shows the settlement buildings)
- Add some new modifiers to Population growth, Wealth/Income and Public Order.
- Add some new senate/Noble council missions relating to the governors and warchiefs.
- Add some new events that report to the player the change of the capital in a Province in which he has at least one settlement. Add also another event that reports to the players what are the new most huge city in the Ancient World, when it changes.
- Now the number of Civil War armies that appears depends on how many governors are loyal to your senate faction/Family. (Also, the provinces that don't are loyals to the player will join to the other faction in case of Civil War) As you can see, the new governor system are part of a new reworked politic system, inspired by JLC and Tullius Cicero's work.
4º Modifiers:
Building level (And City slots expansion)
1: (Population 1-5,000 people) For basic buildings (For all cultures)
2: (Population 5,000-10,000) For minor buildings (And some Barbarian advanced buildings)
3: (Population 10,000-50,000) For advanced buildings (And some Barbarian high advanced buildings. This is the highest city level for nomadic culture)
4: (Population 50,000-100000) For high advanced buildings (And all the maximun level barbarian buildings, including barbarian wonders)
5: (Population 100,000+) Punic, Hellenic, Oriental and roman Wonders. (For barbarians, this level only increases the settlement wealth/income)
* Nomadic factions only can expand their cities until level 3 (And some advanced buildings, like barracks), and they have an important penalty to the population growth. If a Nomadic tribe player wants have a more bigger city, he will have to capture it to a more developed faction. (For example, if scythians want a 4 or 5-level city, they need capture a huge city to Armenians, Seleucid satrapies, Parthians, etc.)
Population growth modifiers:
(+) Faction capital (Very High value, depends on how many settlements faction controls, and the number of clientelar states/satrapies that the faction have)
(+) Province capital (High/normal value)
(+) settlements controlled by the faction (Incremental value)
(+) Trade agreements (Incremental value)
(- or +) Public order value in the settlement
(- or +) Culture type (Nomadic (-), Barbarian (-), Hellenic (+), Punic (+), Latin (+), etc.)
(- or +) Taxes
(- or +) Wealth and growth settlement buildings
(- or +) Governor (Authority level)
(- or +) Faction/Province/Settlement Effects and Events
(-) Civil war
(-) Nearby enemy settlement
(-) Settlement recent pillage (This modifier decreases as time passes)
(-) Recents nearby pillages (This modifier decreases as time passes) (For some barbarian factions and Nomadic tribes, this modifier are a bonus to the city growth if the faction are the author of those pillages)
(-) Nearby high level cities
(-) Corruption
Wealth/Income modifiers:
(+) Faction capital (Very High value, depends on how many settlements faction controls, and the number of clientelar states/satrapies that the faction have)
(+) Province capital (High/normal value)
(+) settlements controlled by the faction (Incremental value) (Only in your faction capital)
(+) Settlement Population
(+) Slaves (Very high bonus for Nomadic factions, normal bonus for rest of factions)
(+) Wealth buildings
(+) settlements controlled by the faction (Incremental value)
(+) Looting carried out by the faction (This modifier decreases as time passes. Only for nomadic tribes and some barbarian factions)
(- or +) Governor (subterfuge level)
(-) Recents nearby pillages to faction settlements (This modifier decreases as time passes)
(-) Corruption
Public order modifiers:
(- or +) Governor (Fervor level)
(-) Civil war (Governors can rebel against faction and declare his independence during civil wars, but this only depends on the gravitas and ambition of the governor/general)
(-) Nearby faction looted settlements
(-) Size of the city (levels 4 and 5 gives a high penalty to the public order of the city)
(-) Turns without war (Only for Nomadic factions and some barbarian-horde factions)
* Obviously, all the parameters (Population growth, wealth/income, and Public order) are still being affected by random events, like floods.
I devise this system during bus rides between my house and the university (And one afternoon with Photoshop
), I hope the Total War Community consider it good, and the most important thing, the devs take note about it if players like this system.
The game has good raw material, that is true, but I consider that the politic system and the province/building system at his actual state is a step back in the Total War series, a rework of both features will bring us the game that was promised us.
An alternative to the Building/Province System (Dynamic Cities)
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Re: An alternative to the Building/Province System (Dynamic Cities)
Originally Posted by Heathen Storm
