Themed events & dilemmas - Contribute to the mod

[Sheridan]

Salve, forumites.

It has gone some time since the popular thread Random events surfaced on our boards. We haven't forgotten about this, nor the inspired and creative work it amounted to. We now feel we've reached a point in development where this is becoming relevant to think of it in terms of implementation, rather than just as an idea. This would become something much more interesting and successful with the involvement of the community.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

An example dilemma

Decadence

Violent riots in the streets, marked by filth and ever ongoing decay, has caught the attention of other subjects who are starting to question your legiticamy. Senators plead for measures to be taken, in feeble attempts to save their own face. Even your generals, who due to the lack of military activity spend most of their time in brothels or drinking, are making you a laughing stock. A catastrophe is inevitable. Enviously you look back at your ancestors, whose popularity among kin far surpass anything your laughable ambitions could possibly accomplish you.



1.) Feed the pigeons
2.) Do nothing
3.) Take a nap

---

That's why we want to reach out to you and ask if there are people who are interested in assisting us with this part of the project. It requires no prior modding knowledge, nor will the task require use of modding tools. If you noticed the use of the word "themed" in the title, that is deliberate. There is a very special thing being worked on, quite long in development, that we're in the finishing stage of. Hopefully you're curious at this stage. The work on events and dilemmas is related to this "secret" project, and if you sign up to help, you will be part of it. Why won't we just share this "secret" thing, if it's so special? Well, we want to make it a big thing when announced. And take advantage of all possible ways to enhance its interaction with other, important campaign elements, to make the most out of both.

What we're looking for are two main things, researching and description-writing. People are welcome to join as either one or both of those. With our ambition to release Ancient Empires soon, it's going to require dedication and the ability to produce work within a deadline. Fret not, though, for there are priviliges that come with service. Among those, there's access to our private boards and other platforms, and access to unannounced features. If you are interested, drop a comment below or send me a private message.

As Hannibal famously said, crossing the Alps: "I will either find an event, or make one."

[FWIT]

Love for son or wife
"Oh Baseilos, your son and heir, has become infatuated with his stepmother. He refuses all sustenance and wallows in despair as his love will remain unrequited. The great physician,Erasistratus ,,has examined your son and fears truly he will die, but suggests a novel solution"

1) Divorce wife to allow marriage to Heir(Loyalty boost to heir)
2) Do not divorce wife(Heir dies next turn or if not possible, gains an unhealthy character trait, fertility boost for wife)-This was the real-life decision, the new union produced two grandsons for the Baseilos
3) Divorce wife, marry her to a general ( Loyalty and health penalty to Antiochus, Loyalty boost to other family characters)
I suggest the above triggers for the Seluciad faction in early Campaign( Actual event circa 294BC)http://archpsyc.jamanetwork.com/arti...icleid=1171952, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erasis...hus%27_Disease

[FWIT]

Sorry about the above post- this is the correct post
"Oh Baseilos, your son and heir, has become infatuated with his stepmother. He refuses all sustenance and wallows in despair as his love will remain unrequited. The great physician,Erasistratus ,,has examined your son and fears truly he will die, but suggests a novel solution"

1) Divorce wife to allow marriage to Heir(Loyalty boost to heir,fertility boost for wife,)This was the real-life decision, the new union produced two grandsons for the Baseilos
2) Do not divorce wife(Heir dies next turn or if not possible, gains an unhealthy character trait)
3) Divorce wife, marry her to a general ( Loyalty and health penalty to Antiochus, Loyalty boost to other family characters)
I suggest the above triggers for the Seluciad faction in early Campaign( Actual event circa 294BC)http://archpsyc.jamanetwork.com/arti...icleid=1171952, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erasis...hus%27_Disease[/QUOTE]

[FWIT]

Suggested pic for above event is Erasistratus Discovering the Cause of Antiochus' Disease by Jacques Louis David

[Willhelm123]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weregild

This would be a good basis for some of the Germanic dilemmas

[Sheridan]

Thanks, those are some interesting suggestions. FWIT, am I to take it you're interested in writing up more of these?

[FWIT]

Thanks, those are some interesting suggestions. FWIT, am I to take it you're interested in writing up more of these?

Yes and thanks Wilhelm for the wiki link

[The Wandering Storyteller]

I don't mind contributing a few ideas here and there, so here's something I thought up:

Rome:

This incident occurs when your empire has grown too big, and instability and political turmoil reaches out very clearly. In this case you are presented with a dilemma such as this, this would be a one in rare event, so only happening at turn 250, when your empire's expanded across the map and you're not sure what to do. I would also suggest having revolts spurring in only major towns, specifically five to four cities. Not like all the cities. I also suggest bringing back a much loved feature from RTW which is neglected, and that was building the Colosseum where you could make public order by hosting daily games. It was easy, but it was a great way of keeping public order and the Romans held plenty of these events. This is also a very late style Rome dilemma, around the time of near 1 ad to 100 ad. This event can happen during this time,.

Dilemma:

The old man dipped his pen in ink taken from the ocean of the Mediterranean. Stretching his arms, he began to write. As the Emperor watched in further interest, he asked who was he writing about? The old man replied that it was to celebrate Paulianus, the gladiator who had made himself a name in the Colosseum. The Emperor had heard of him, and began to talk in length about the gladiator's legendary feats, but he began to scowl when he heard that Paulianus was Thracian, and the lands of Thracia had been a subjective area to squash all opposition out of. In that time a member of the Praetorian Guard arrived detailing news of fires having broken throughout Rome. Senators rallied and called for the Emperor to act, while the mobs of Rome began to revolt. High taxes, low income, and a rebellious spirit began to cross the lands of the Roman Empire. Many called for the declaration of the new Emperor. The Emperor knew that the empire needed stability, and he knew enemies of the empire, the Parthians were scheming up their alliances in the East. The Kingdom of Kush had become an annoying interference, and the warring Marcomanni tribes raided.

What should he do? Should he face the Parthians in battle or conclude through diplomacy? Use the Daily Games to placate the mobs, issue edicts? The choices are present to you.

Then you are faced with choices with their overall conclusion:

Option 1: Daily Games!

The mobs of Rome are loyal to their Emperor, but if they are not happy they will question your rule sire. I say you host the games, a hundred days maybe. They will then be quiet, and distributing bread for free will obviously increase your popularity. Host a festival to Jupiter and offer some concessions, give alms to the poor and needy. This will decrease the Senate's influence...which is not much. But we must respect them. Hosting them around the Empire will be an excellent decision my lord. Host an edict to proclaim the games!

Option 2: War and Triumph!

My Lord, this adviser is useless. The royal Treasury is already overspent. We spend more than we generate. The games would drive the Empire's borders bankrupt, and our legionnaires that spend the night defending the Empire must be protected. They are the true heroes of Rome, not some peasant rabble. We must declare war on our neighbours, for a start, concluding an easy victory from the neighbouring Marcomanni tribes will do us much good, and we can then host a glorious triumph in Rome. We can then of course do a games, but limit it.

Option 3: Political intrigue.

My lord, the Senate must be ignored. You as Emperor, have made lives better for the people, what have you not done for Rome? You have built aqueducts , games and many more. The people are happy, and merchants from a far away land called China arrive through the famous silk road to sell their silk to us. Are the people not happy? Are the soliders not happy? A war would help, but your rival, Lucianus is wanting to ally with the Marcommani. Put the revolts down, and banish Lucianius from the city. Banish the rivals of your empire.

So what are the eventual outcomes:

Conclusion for Option 1: My Lord, you are the greatest Emperor on earth. Your significance has increased, and the world respects you. Your investment into building the arts has made us the greatest and learned civilisation in this world. Even Jupiter would be proud of this achievement. Roman engineering and Roman expert strategy has enabled us to not only host the games, but all our people are happy with theatres emerging everywhere. Somewhere, there is a hope, that the Emperor is looking after them. You have climbed the height, and the senate is no longer powerful after you reduced their power. Our enemies seemed to be retreat after hearing of your aggressive military stance.

Conclusion for Option 2: Excellent, sire. The glorious triumph in Rome gave us the much needed victory. We will sort out the Parthians for the timebeing, as they are wanting a peace treaty. I say give it to them, and we will go on to attack the Marcomanni, and any rebels that can end up in the Colosseum. The mobs are happy, and so they can easily be ignored. Boring plebs. Now sire, do you have any more lands you wish to conquer?

Conclusion for Option 3: The rivals have been conquered, Rome is happy The mobs are happy, and your constant military victories have given us more than a sense of pride. All I can say, is that go forth and rule like the glorious Emperor you are.

Not the best, but a alpha version of this type of dilemma. I would class this as a special dilemma etc.

[Argive Strategos]

Or maybe even a Spartacus revolt to be spawned. The first, second and third servile war. A Spartacus type scenario where the revolt is small and occurs in Capua. A themed event like this could be fun. Maybe it should go like: sir, our garrison has been destroyed, what do we do?

Tell the people all is well
this will make public order boost dramatically if you can defeat the gladiators before 6 turns. If not, public order negative 50 across Italy.

total war
men get drafted into the army with huge bonuses in recruitment times, each turns say 5 units. However food will be cut back on and so will the Italian economy until Spartacus is defeated.

I am emperor, my word is law
no effect on public order, but more slaves will revolt in Italy and join Spartacus. The slaves should get stronger each turn for a couple of turns. With some elite units too, like gladiators.

Spartacus' charisma should give him a huge buff to the slaves he gets each year. He started off with 80 gladiators and made an army of 70,000 according to some sources. I am not good at this, this scenario is probably a bad one, but Spartacus is something fun to see.

[FWIT]

All the other suggestions are good too
I appeal to anybody outside of the Western world(who are steeped in Classical Rome and Greece, with a deep love of their ancient founder myths, to offer suggestions too!
For example It would be a boon if there was a contributor steeped in Zorasterian culture reading.

[FWIT]

Princeps. Your wife, Pompaeia was hosting the annual rite of Bona Dea, supervised by the vestal virgins. This is meant to be a female only sacred rite! A certain young tribune of the Plebians, Clodius, disguised himself as a woman and partook in the rites(possibly to seduce Pompaeia). This has scandalised Rome. As Princeps and head of the state religion(Pontifex) it is incumbant on you to deal with this sacrilege decisively!

A) Divorce Pompaeia. "Caesar's wife must be above suspicion" - No penalties. Faction leader divorces wife.
B) Execute Clodius. Clodius is the leader and the embodyment of the Populares in the senate and a tribune to boot! - Public order penalties with plebians. Faction leader gains trait "optimates"
C) Lie! This incident has been concocted by my enemies to discredit me. Public order penalties whole empire commensurate with Roman religion

Actual event 62 BC http://www.unrv.com/fall-republic/clodius-scandal.php

[FWIT]

On Perusing the DEI forums would we consider events with no choices? For example the Eruption of Vesuvius event followed by a harsh winter or two?. Also there are multiple accounts of plague pandemics greatly effecting manpower for Rome(people of Rome effects) and even killing emperors(possible Aurelius). These plagues could be scripted events for all factions and would hit the more urbanised factions harder. For example greater penalties the greater the province fertility or population.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonine_Plague
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague_of_Justinian.. The biggy but outside the frame of this mod. Probably reduced the populations of Byzantium and Persia by 40% leaving them vulnerable to Arab conquests(nomadic, not greatly urbanised, Sea trade was bypassing the Arabian peninsula at the time, therefore less population loss due to plague!

[The Wandering Storyteller]

On Perusing the DEI forums would we consider events with no choices? For example the Eruption of Vesuvius event followed by a harsh winter or two?. Also there are multiple accounts of plague pandemics greatly effecting manpower for Rome(people of Rome effects) and even killing emperors(possible Aurelius). These plagues could be scripted events for all factions and would hit the more urbanised factions harder. For example greater penalties the greater the province fertility or population.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonine_Plague
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague_of_Justinian.. The biggy but outside the frame of this mod. Probably reduced the populations of Byzantium and Persia by 40% leaving them vulnerable to Arab conquests(nomadic, not greatly urbanised, Sea trade was bypassing the Arabian peninsula at the time, therefore less population loss due to plague!

Exactly what the mod needs. This would be a return back to the good old days of europa barborum and Shogun 2 where historical events were given in event boxes.

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[Sheridan]

Thanks for your contributions, Triumph, FWIT and Argive Strategos. They're colourful and confer interesting options, which is really what we're going for. My intention is setting this up in a way that all contributions can be consolidated to a place and format where they're simple to transfer to in-game. It'd help with communication if I had your steam addresses, alternatively add me on Steam. My idea of this is setting up a google document where progress can be shared and people potentially help each other out with research and content. The more contributions and people working on this, the more we can really include in the mod. This is invaluable work that saves time but also improves the diversity and quality of the campaign.

Those of you who intend to stick around and contribute further will be granted insight into the other progress that's taking place with the campaign, seeing the grander context of this. Public updates will follow at a later point, depending on how fast we are able to process this.

[The Wandering Storyteller]

No probs, I don't mind contributing some ideas as long as the mod is good. And if I have any more I will add them on. I will also post some of my old ideas to see how they can work. Some of the events posted by other members is fantastic, the more we contribute, the better the ideas can get. I also suggest to the other members to come up with more culture specific ideas that can help increase replayability. What would be fantastic is if we had events coming from historical events, books such as Tactius and Herodotus.

Sheridan, there's the random event thread and there's another thread which contains characters;, city description. I suggest you pick out the best dilemmas that you feel and post them here. Add a section in your post which details the character progress and city description or make as thread and sticky it up. It's up to you how to do it.

A really amazing feature would be to have event messages telling you of the seven wonders when you arrive there.

Another good feature would be to have a Book of Grudges style, what I mean is that ancient rulers were very much influenced by Alexander the Great and Xerxes of Persia, the Kings of Akkad. So if you played Rome and say you conquered the eastern lands, various text messages coming from historical sources of the great leaders would be very very immersive. Shapur saw himself as reviving the old Persian empire, Hadrian and many Roman Emperors saw themselves as wanting to be Alexander.

To make it more simple, let's use NTW. As Napoleon when you conquered Austria you recieved a special mission message or an historical event. In the same way the book of grudges style thing is just that but used from historical sources.

Also events detailing the famous buildings of the ancient world, or when you construct them and get a special message etc.


With Parthia, we are not sure whether it was really fully Zorostranisim. But this is possible should a Persian King ascend the throne. I also suggest using many of the Sassanids, the Sand Empire DLC events and rewriting them to suit the ancient world, etc events for the Parthians. That way you can keep the Eastern feeling.

There are many dilemmas that can be rewritten for the specific cultures. WRE, ERE, and Barbarian culture.

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[ABH2]

We are looking for just hard historical events, as well. So an eruption of a volcano would suffice. The main thing with those, though, is keeping them restricted to things that the governments had no control over. A volcanic eruption being one such example. It's just a random act of nature.

I also very much like in Rome 1 how different philosophies were announced.

[Causeless]

I know that my good friend Mausolos of Caria wrote quite a few historical events for RTR. Not dilemnas, just historical flavour text upon hitting a year and/or set of conditions, but it's a very interesting read anyways. I'm not actually sure how many of these - if any - were actually implemented into RTR, so I could ask him if he'd want to share it.

I believe most of those events are Roman-specific, but that wouldn't really be an issue I'd imagine.

[Sheridan]

That'd be a very welcome contribution. It's not an issue them being centered around Rome - if anything, the more unique events there are per faction, the more content-rich and memorable that playthrough will be. We might not be able to match that kind of rich depth with other factions, but there's going to be some general events to keep those interesting as well.

[Causeless]

That'd be a very welcome contribution. It's not an issue them being centered around Rome - if anything, the more unique events there are per faction, the more content-rich and memorable that playthrough will be. We might not be able to match that kind of rich depth with other factions, but there's going to be some general events to keep those interesting as well.

Indeed. I'll ask him when I next see him.

Just out of general curiosity - are you using my historical events system here which I implemented while on the team, or have you created your own systems?

[Sheridan]

Indeed. I'll ask him when I next see him.

Just out of general curiosity - are you using my historical events system here which I implemented while on the team, or have you created your own systems?

We haven't gotten there yet. The plan is first making an outline of which events we intend to include within each category, write them up and have them ready for implementation. At that point there's going to be more manpower freed up to deal with the actual implementation, both in the database and script. Some of us are in the process of wrapping up related mechanics/campaign features. I haven't had the chance to look at your system yet.