3 Families & Senate -OR- Unified Rome with 3 New Factions?

[ahowl11]

Hey everyone!

The title says it all, I am working on the mod again, and before I get too deep into the next release I want to get some feedback from the community.

Do you want to keep the 3 Roman Families with the Senate? This gives you the missions as well as a civil war later in the game and keeps the true essence of the vanilla game in tact.. however it is greatly unhistorical and it creates a Roman machine that wipes out historically powerful factions too early (Gauls, Macedon, Carthage).

-OR-

Do you want 3 new factions with a unified Roman faction? This makes the game a bit more historical and adds flavor. The 3 new factions would be:

Illyria
Nabataea
Bosporan Kingdom

I am not going to expand the map south or east, so no Saba, Bactria, Saka or India. I like the map as is.

The 3 New factions will make the map a lot more fleshed out, and all 3 campaigns will be very challenging!

Please Vote and when you vote, post below your reasoning for why you voted. I want to move forward based on how everyone is feeling.

Eventually I will inevitably unify Rome, but I am willing to keep the 3 family system going for a few more versions if that's what you all like to play as.

[Naacal]

I do feel like if this is supposed vanilla enhancement then having the core design of vanilla (3 romes w/ senate) is the better option.

[ahowl11]

I do feel like if this is supposed vanilla enhancement then having the core design of vanilla (3 romes w/ senate) is the better option.

Thanks for the input, make sure to vote!

[Der Wachturm]

I may not vote it says above :0 - 1 rome!

[Solon de Atenas]

I voted for unique Roman faction to allow more diversity to the game and to do not provide overpower romans.

[crazyroman]

I prefer unified romans. Voted

[King Athelstan]

I do feel like if this is supposed vanilla enhancement then having the core design of vanilla (3 romes w/ senate) is the better option.

Seconded! Though while the game certainly would be perhaps more interesting with the new factions, the three family-system is perhaps the core of the vanilla game in my opinion. So while new factions would be cool, it would go against the Vanilla experience and become a more independent mod rather than a vanilla enhancement.

[Saul Tyre]

It does not make sense to call the mod VE if you are going to eliminate The Senate & unify the Roman families as one, that's false representation imo.

[Oblivi0us]

Poll is restricted on my end. However my vote would endorse unified Rome however the absence of Epirus leaves one feeling deprived.

[King Athelstan]

Poll is restricted on my end. However my vote would endorse unified Rome however the absence of Epirus leaves one feeling deprived.

You need to be a full forum member to vote in the poll- that means a minimum of 25 posts - So keep going, you're getting there!

[Kirila the Kitten]

I would like both options since they both have their own charm, however given the choice I went for unified Rome since I like playing non-vanilla factions in vanilla-like mods.

[Leeroy9000]

For me this feature is not really that important, voted for unified Rome. Though adding new factions is by definition beyond vanilla enhancement, so there are mixed feelings about that. Probably if the poll is 50/50 don't consider my vote.

[Winters07]

I can't vote in poll sooo, I'd vote for unified Rome and 3 new factions. There are some mods with that idea and still they are vanilla-like for me

[Ardruire Iacób]

Absolutely merge the Roman factions.

It does not make sense to call the mod VE if you are going to eliminate The Senate & unify the Roman families as one, that's false representation imo.

Perhaps, but it's a feature that adds nothing unless you play as a Roman faction. 'Vanilla Enhanced' could also mean fleshing out other factions and cultures. It's really only 'false representation' if you believe that the civil war is integral to the vanilla experience, and I personally don't.

[Saul Tyre]

Absolutely merge the Roman factions.



Perhaps, but it's a feature that adds nothing unless you play as a Roman faction. 'Vanilla Enhanced' could also mean fleshing out other factions and cultures. It's really only 'false representation' if you believe that the civil war is integral to the vanilla experience, and I personally don't.

You misinterpreted my point, it was nothing to do with believing the civil war being integral to the vanilla experience, taking away the core 3 families and senate means it's not vanilla as we know it, simples, you may as well call the mod something else.

[ahowl11]

You misinterpreted my point, it was nothing to do with believing the civil war being integral to the vanilla experience, taking away the core 3 families and senate means it's not vanilla as we know it, simples, you may as well call the mod something else.

Well, I might need to do that since the mod is pretty far away from a simple enhancement mod at this point. I’d probably call it ‘Historical Rome Total War’

[Saul Tyre]

Well, I might need to do that since the mod is pretty far away from a simple enhancement mod at this point. I’d probably call it ‘Historical Rome Total War’

So virtually another RTR Andy my friend?

[Derc]

It's really only 'false representation' if you believe that the civil war is integral to the vanilla experience, and I personally don't.

I not only think that it is, I think it was an integral part of the whole vanilla experience, from turn 1 to the very end.

Vanilla experience can be interpreted so or so, as can be the term 'enhancement'. I think it might not resemble what you have in mind. And let's not forget there are plenty of Vanilla Enhancements already out there. Just give it some unique name that sticks around. AVE itself doesn't sound too bad.

Fun fact: In the German community there was a mod named after a chocolate brand (Choceur), because ... reasons.

[ahowl11]

So virtually another RTR Andy my friend?

No no no, definitely not going that deep, just a name change if I decide to make the changes.. I don’t need the semantics mob to come after me and it will save a lot of confusion for people looking for a true vanilla enhancement.

Also I accidentally ‘edited’ your post thinking I was replying, so don’t mind that.

[shikaka]

Voted 3 families + Senate. Reasoning, even though I understand it is not historical:

- it is closer to vanilla
- it provides a lategame challenge, which is otherwise missing from the game (eg. Medieval 2 and on)
- most important: it help the AI a great deal. The Rome AI is very inept and handling multi-front wars, Seleucids, Carthage, Gaul, Greek cities all crumble because of this. If Rome is united, it needs to focus on at least 3 fronts, one of them naval. If you check Scipii, you will often find the AI is not capable of a naval front, even if it has one of these.