Ideas about ETW (AI, city ancillaries, universities, parallel building, civic virtue)

[ThePianist]

Here are some ideas I thought about Empire:Total War

========== AI ==========
~ AI that holds diplomacy. The AI would first declare cessation of ceasefire or cessation of alliance before invading a territory of another faction or attacking the army of another faction. This is especially true in the 19th century. It would be great to require that of human players as well.

~ It would be great if when there is a ceasefire or alliance between player faction and faction X, the diplomacy of ceasefire or alliance had a measurable life-bar (almost like a person's influence bar) that can be increased with
-- diplomatic actions by player faction
-- alliance between player faction and other allies of faction X

and decreased with

-- hostile actions by player faction, or allies thereof, against faction X (such as sabotage, etc)
-- attack on the faction X 's allies by player faction, or allies thereof
-- bribing or other influence from allies of faction X that are at war with player faction.

this would be displayed on the diplomacy list

~ customizable AI (for custom campaigns) so that an AI faction can be programmed to make war with X faction in Y year, or make peace with X faction in Y year. This can be put in something like EmpireTotalWar/Data/scripted-events.txt

faction name
{(war, X faction, Y year) (peace, Z faction, A year) (...)}


========== Resources ==========

I thought about a numerical count of horses in each province and a numerical count of iron/steel in each province, that one be needed to train cavalry and the other be needed to manufacture firearms and cannons and munition. This would make trade and the development of mining meaningful. It would also make blockades meaningful. It doesn't have to be very easy to run out of horses or iron/steel, or it would be boring. But it could be available as a possibility. However, I put the ideas in this paragraph to the least priority compared to the ideas in the other paragraphs. It's also the only paragraph unmarked with a leading punctuation.

========== Distance to Capital City ==========

~ Having posted this before, I merely mention it here again briefly, so as to bring together all my suggestions about ETW. It would be great to have distance to capital city not be a factor in the unrest, or be a tiny factor, so as to make it easier to maintain order in the cities. it would be great to have it as a multiplier of unit upkeep cost. That would be realistic. So that a unit of grenadiers in Britain cost nearly nothing in upkeep, but in India or far away places their upkeep per turn would be a lot.

========== Cities and Provinces ==========

~ City Ancillary: Instead of merely characters having ancillaries, the cities could also have ancillaries. In RTW there are four folder tabs in the user interface of a city: Building / Army / Agents / blank The fourth tab could be Ancillaries. The first ancillary could be the city leader, a local person. The player can decide between installing his general as governor or having an indigenous governor, which would greatly change the unrest and cultural differences. The other ancillaries of the city could be famous artists of their time, like Beethoven, Mozart, etc. They could be put into a city as ancillaries to increase the happiness level.

~ Instead of a spy in a city merely causing unrest, there could be the option of concentrating several spies in a city and organize a loyalist rebellion, resulting in the grabbing of a province without invasion.

~ Instead of massacring the population to change the unrest level, there could be some other ways of doing peacekeeping in a province

~ It would be great if individual provinces/cities can be acquired as protectorates. They would be allies and tributaries but not direct territories. This would be a better portrayal of much of Europe.

~ It would be great if after a port is built, the port can be clicked on and have its own upgrade menu. This would allow for more build options without cluttering the build menu of the city

~ ability to built restaurants in a city, in addition to drinking places

========== Parallel Building ==========

~ in a large city, there would be more manpower and it would be great if the two leftmost buildings on the queue get built at the same time, rather than merely one. In other words, it would be great if large cities can built multi-task and one building and another building at the same time. For example, a military building and a cultural building being built at the same time.

========== Universities and Academies ==========

~ It would be great if academies were required to do some scientific advances, and they could be built as an independent building in a province, that can be clicked on and with its own menu

~ academies and universities should give more bonus than +5% law in a province.

~ great thinkers and scientists and intellectuals of their time can be deposited there as ancillaries

~ ability to build West Point, Annapolis, Sandhurst, Saint-Cyr, etc. Ancillaries could be Clausewitz and Jomini, if possible. Many-star generals can go there and be added as teaching ancillaries. Either young military leaders can be recruited from these military universities, or existing military leaders can go there and get their traits upgraded as students

~ ability to build Oxford and Cambridge, etc., people can go there to upgrade their management traits and influence/leadership traits

~ ability to build Harvard and Yale, Christian preachers can upgrade their leadership and virtue spreading capability there

========== Civic Virtue ==========

~ it would be great if democracy was correctly simulated as needing civic virtue. The civic virtue can be raised by Christian preaching (not merely buildings). If civic virtue is below a certain level, corruption will be so high as to make government nearly impossible or very difficult/onerous. And countries can't be changed to democracies if the population doesn't have a certain level of civic virtue.

[Sir Beane]

Pretty much all of your ideas are fantastic. I especially like the resources section, and the idea of cities being able to acquire ancillaries.

It would be fantastic from a roleplaying point of view of a city had a chance to acquire certain buildings or famous people to represent them setting up shop in one of your cities.

For instance a big enough city could have various guilds, clubs and groups set up, giving various bonuses.

Also a similar idea to your parallel building. A city should have a certain number of 'build points' based on how larg a city is, its population, and maybe govenors traits and building bonuses. Each building would cost a certain number of points, with big buildings costing more. That way we could build multiple smaller buildings in a turn or so, but larger buildings would take longer.

[Sheogorath]

It would be nice to see different breeds of horses, although I doubt it's going to happen.

Once again, being more familiar with the Russians, I know that the average Russian war horse was smaller than the Western standard, but had much better endurance (Apparently Russian soldiers could out-march Western horses )
Being able to pick out and supply different types of horses to different units (And, of course, different weapons), would be great. But far too complicated for the TW-style of game.

[Sir Beane]

It would be nice to see different breeds of horses, although I doubt it's going to happen.

Once again, being more familiar with the Russians, I know that the average Russian war horse was smaller than the Western standard, but had much better endurance (Apparently Russian soldiers could out-march Western horses )
Being able to pick out and supply different types of horses to different units (And, of course, different weapons), would be great. But far too complicated for the TW-style of game.

The complex economy and resource management that this sort of idea hints at is actually something I wouldn't mind Total War games experimenting with. Actually having to have iron deposits to build iron weaponry, needing horse stock for certain units etc.. it's the sort of thing that could really enhance the campaign map experience if done well, and also make the game more of a challenge.

It would be nice if these resources were geographically linked, rather than for factions. So if France took over parts of Russia they could eventually train Russian super-endurance ponies as well as European fast-but-easily-spent chargers. That way you could mix and match horsies for enhanced equine combat. Or create some kind of uberhorse bred from both .

[ConnMon]

I like Sir Beane's point on how units shouldn't be faction specific, but more of a region specific make. In M2TW, it doesnt make sense that I can take over a town that was training a set of totally different set of units before, but somehow the facilities change to accomadate my units. This might make retraining a bit tricky though...

[Sheogorath]

The complex economy and resource management that this sort of idea hints at is actually something I wouldn't mind Total War games experimenting with. Actually having to have iron deposits to build iron weaponry, needing horse stock for certain units etc.. it's the sort of thing that could really enhance the campaign map experience if done well, and also make the game more of a challenge.

It would be nice if these resources were geographically linked, rather than for factions. So if France took over parts of Russia they could eventually train Russian super-endurance ponies as well as European fast-but-easily-spent chargers. That way you could mix and match horsies for enhanced equine combat. Or create some kind of uberhorse bred from both .

What we need to do is crossbreed Civilization and Total War, for Civilization: Total War.

But yes, that sort of thing would enable factions to be represented better than before. But poor implementation could hurt the game badly. Remember Imperial Glory? Ugh.

Now, good implimentation (such as in Civ IV, where you just had to POSSES the resource and not worry about the whole 'I NEED 200 IRONS TO MAKE A CANNON DURR') would be excellent, and the basics are already in place for such a system. It would probably be possible to make it happen fairly simply, since they already had it in place for elephant and camel units, way back in RTW.

I like Sir Beane's point on how units shouldn't be faction specific, but more of a region specific make. In M2TW, it doesnt make sense that I can take over a town that was training a set of totally different set of units before, but somehow the facilities change to accomadate my units. This might make retraining a bit tricky though...

A mix would be appropriate, I think. Your factions line infantry, for example, should be able to be built anywhere. After all, linemen are linemen, they're supposed to be generic. Chuck 'em in a uniform, hand 'em a gun and send 'em into battle. Other units, yes, should be regional, like Finnish Jaegers, or Quantum Elephants

[Fisherking]

It would be nice to see different breeds of horses, although I doubt it's going to happen.

Once again, being more familiar with the Russians, I know that the average Russian war horse was smaller than the Western standard, but had much better endurance (Apparently Russian soldiers could out-march Western horses )
Being able to pick out and supply different types of horses to different units (And, of course, different weapons), would be great. But far too complicated for the TW-style of game.

Yea, the slow Russian Horses got eaten by the infantry. That’s why they had endurance!

You aren’t fooling me you degenerate Russki! I know all the stuff you do with horses!

So you want to recreate say Gray Horse Troop, & Black Horse Troop, and so on, huh?

Lay off the fermented mare’s milk…or was it the mushroom laced ur** never mind!

Tell me, do the Russians make any kinds of cheese form horse milk?

[Sheogorath]

Is this the point where I'm supposed to make a Welsh joke?

I dont know about Russians, but the Cossacks had an extensively horse-based diet :P

[Sir Beane]

Is this the point where I'm supposed to make a Welsh joke?

I dont know about Russians, but the Cossacks had an extensively horse-based diet :P

Eatin' horses makes ya faster... possibly.

Speaking of food, anyone have any info on what the average European or Russian soldier ate while soldiering? Fresh horse every day might not be so bad, considering the alternatives. From what I remember an interview mentioned Coleslaw as a researchable tech that staves off scurvy and therefore raises morale, what other delicious dishes might we be able to acquire for our men?