Some Ideas, for the Patch.

Dear CA......... ~;)

First off I would like to say, what a fantastic peice of work guys and gals.

Nicely balanced, nice spread of units, and very nice eye candy. The workings are great, and the game itself is very much a credit to some obvious hard work on CA's and it's peoples' behalf.
Not to mention so real thought has obviously been put into the game itself and it's workings.
And thank you for putting some of the ideas of the gamers, into the game, that we have been discussing over the last few years.

But I do have some suggestions, and questions if I may be so cheeky.

1. With the pila/missile units, it seems that trying to get them to throw the pila before an enemy unit can charge is almost worthless to a large degree.
I have been successful in allowing some limited degree of throw and charge, but it seems to take quite some time,(really to long).
Second to this, is when the units (Roman), have no pila to throw, and i try and get them to counter charge, they take 3 to 5 secs to check by running through and reload, then throwing of non exsitant pila. It seems to even to have confused the AI, that there is nothing to throw.
This perhaps can be looked at?
I find this allows the enemy to get to your men before they can charge in reply.
Perhaps we need a charge auto when the fire at will button is not on? Like a sword icon, allowing direct infantry contact? or a button allowing a close and engage or a throw and engage?

2. Traits/V & V.
I don't know about anyone else, but on very hard/very hard, (I haven't played anything but, so not sure if this is universal).
But 21 to 26 traits???? isn't that a little over kill?
I would have understood, say 0 to 4 for the coming of age, and maybe another 6 or 8 too a total of 10 or 12 of added traits to top character development? (10 being my preferred).
Then maybe ex office and current office titles.
That would allow a total of 16 to 18 all up. To my way of thinking this would be a huge number, but it seems the named members pickup a huge number of traits for nothing. Even some which are at odds with other traits they already have.
Example:
I have been getting traits like useless taxman, when i can see no reason for it. or dislikes farming, when i can detect no reason either.
In one case in point, i had a faction heir in Patavium.
Now I got patavium in the 3rd year, i built a road, 1 turn, then a land clearance or the basic farm build. I then went on to build a temple, (shrine)? and stables, then a upgraded temple. Then got the the trait poor farmer.
Also I have been getting useless taxmam, when the town has never been below the 105% loyalty. In fact another member got it only 2 years after the poor farmer was given.
Any ideas would be appreciated.

3. IMHO only, can we please have assigned titles?????
in my experiance at playing, I have found that we use, or have too use our named members continously for defence or attack.
there by leaving an in-effeicent Ai to manage the cities.
If we could have a title we could assign, this then frees up the named members, also allowing, a small button to remove and reassign a title in one turn? With out having to send a diplomat, mainly because it would cut down on the micro management.
It would act like the named member is in the city, but also free them up for action, espeically when you lose 70% of the named members because no one wants to have children.
One main reason is, in real life, many governors where also out in the field. Yet still ran provinces to which that where assigned. Some, ran more than one or two.
But the main reasons seem to be linked more to game play. It makes it impractical to have a named member in a city, when they could be moving to defend and check the boundries of your land.
While in the same breathe, cities suffer if a named member is not present.

4. This one really had me in an uproar. my family members are not having children, and those that do, do not, or have not been having children until in there late 40's atleast, or 50's.
This is very annoying.
I started off as Julii, and went from a max of 9 family members (3rd generation), to having only 2 (4th generation). Then 3.
Second to this would be, female off-spring, technically, they would become part of the family to which they married into. Not remain part of the family to which they are born into.
The female when married, would assume the station and status of her husbands' family.
And usually, but not always, allied with the females original family.
Adoption, most of these where between blood relations, eg: the taking of a poor family member, (usually a male born of the families lower members), and them being adpoted by the more influential and wealthy members/ 'pater familis' of the family. It was in many cases not the done thing of adpoting a non blood member to a family.

5. Unlike MTW, RTW seems to be management adverse of the named characters. in the early peice for julii espeically, there is no management skills of note coming thorough.
I did note, that Brutii and Scipii both have some management abilities, but if 4 is the default, you are doing ok at things, then shouldn't there be more managment capable named members?
As the nobles in Rome, placed a high regard for education in all areas, atleast as much as their fighting prowess.
Note: since installing the patch v1.1 this seems to have got a little better, i have had three members, come through with two or three management.

6. Captians. Ok i have only a few thoughts on this subject, rather than any real issue.
Would it not be better in the Roman aspect, to refer to them as say, a Tribune? And allow us to assign titles to them as loyal retainers? EG: Family provinces, and allow a retine?
Or allowing us to raise them to a level of tribune? and a minor family military leader rather than a family member?
This would also help solve the problem of losing lots of namaed members to old age, and no one having children to bring forward any other named members. when you have 7 julii named mebers, and only two produce heirs, that kinda sucks.
This also comes back to the named members tied up in cities. A city producing 835d without, and a level 6 management capable named member moved in, gets 2800d. Knida makes me cry.

ok another question i have, is it possible to add more roman factions?

And is it possible to have more than one city in a province?

I hope thats coherant, as it is a bit rushed.

Anyway just some thoughts, and observations on my part. Now if work would just go away, i could get some more game time in.
Actually any free time would be nice.

thank you, Great game, am loving it.
PS: Thats 3 great games now ~D

fenir

Some of the bad traits seem to be random, like bad farmer. Maybe you neglected farm buildings?

To fix up traits, build an acadamy - it will give everyone good traits!

Quote:

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Some of the bad traits seem to be random, like bad farmer. Maybe you neglected farm buildings?

To fix up traits, build an acadamy - it will give everyone good traits!

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Sadly you have to neglect farm buildings in this game otherwise Squalor and piopulation growth go out of control... Even building an acadamy will not help that one.

never niglect farm building you get so much from it.
1 => few hundred denarii from growing extra food.
2 => thousands denarii for exterminating the city when it gets pass 25,000 people. (just move your army out. sell the city to your enemy, that's another few thousands, then move the army back)
3 => with the population grown bonus, you can repeat about 30 years later.

Just had a thought, if the AI is managing a city, then shouldn't we have a 4 management Ai, as this would be an average management level capable named member?
wouldn't it?

fenir