An additional element to Rome: Total War ?

As much turmoil as Rome brought to its neighboring nations it paled in comparison to the chaos that existed within its walls, between the aristocrats and plebians, amongst the senate and also between competing noble families. RTW tries to encompass some of this without getting overly complicated but imagine they could work up another element of the game that could really embody the treachery of this time period.

I mean we do have four competiting Roman factions, a Senate that assigns missions and Vices and Virtues but its really quite dry if you're familiar with all the intrigue that existed in Rome. Also, moving spies, diplomats and assassins across the campaign map feels no different that moving an army or a fleet.

Wouldn't it be nice if each turn opened up and your spymaster reported to you, telling you of growing dissension, peculiar habits and also of whatever he's discovered about notable people of other nations. Likewise, you could have a political advisor appear who'd make comments about your family members and advise courses of action to appease or to terminate them. I'm of course just daydreaming but I wish there was a way you could capture the essence of life as a Roman in addition to fighting and conquering as one.

RTW, I dislike so much having to manually move the pieces around the board.

MTW, Drop on target and forget was ok. but again no atmosphere.

STW, My Lord, your offer of a cease fire has been rejected........................
Did it for me.

I would really like to see this idea implemented, but I think it would be too difficult code-wise to get it into R:TW. Also, it would move the TW series more towards hardcore political simulators like the Paradox games. While I wouldn't mind this at all, I think that it would lose the mass appeal TW has just acquired in R:TW.

Mind you, if they kept it rather simple I think it would decrease a lot of micromanagement and make the game more realistic at the same time. Especially if they then linked the available options to campaign difficulty (spy-budget, special missions, etc.). Perhaps an idea for the next TW game...
:bow:

you know what they should do, when planning the next total war they should have this massive chat session one day and have everyone who wants the voice herd to voice there opinions

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Originally Posted by Rilder

you know what they should do, when planning the next total war they should have this massive chat session one day and have everyone who wants the voice herd to voice there opinions

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*Not seeing this happenning....*
However:
AMEN!!!

Hellenes

as there are CA staff here and on other boards almost all the time- they already know a lot about what people would like. I'm sure all of the suggestions that they have been unable to put into patches will be looked at for the next TW game.

I'm actually doing some work on something a bit like that for WoT.

Its a script, and it aims to represent the 'game of houses' or the political intrigue between the noble houses in the books.

Pax Romana tried to do this somewhat, but it just didn't work out well...like the rest of the game. The problem was it was confusing and not user-friendly in the least bit. However, if they could figure out a way to implement a certain amount of intrigue in a straightforward manner without overwhelming the player, I think it'd be a great idea.