Some suggestions for the usage of static and dynamic events

[Shadowwalker]

MII TW introduced the possibility of static and dynamic events - in my opinion one of the most important improvements over RTW.
Over the last months I have thought about the possible use of these, perhaps this is useful. :)

Below are some of my ideas.

(1) Economy

At the start certain factions have control over only one province, leading to the problem (in EBI) that the player has only two realistic options - blitz until the income of the growing empire exceeds the upkeep of his forces or disband the starting army. In EBI there is - due to engine limitations - no way of turtling with such a faction AND keeping an army that is able to defend against intruders. Examples for this situation you can find with the celtic factions (except the Casse).

What about this system instead:
At the start such a faction gets a significantly higher King's purse.
When the faction grows and the player gains control over the (for example) fifth province a static event is triggered which tells the player that now - with much more people to control - the administration effort has significantly increased and therefore a greater amount of the income has to be spent for this.
Consequence: the King's Purse is (again: for example) halved.

This system could be pursued even further and could help to prevent the general RTW situation that your faction always gets filthy rich after a certain point in a campaign.
As far as I know the king's purse can be set to a negative value even. Why not use this to substact some of the money you otherwise would just find in your ever-growing treasury?
Ideally this could help to make decisions about how to spend your money difficult even in later stages of a campaign.

(2) New (and reformed) units

There is a description for one of the SPQR fleets (Quinqueremes iirc) that says that the knowledge how to build these ships has been stolen from the Phoenicians (one of their ships was thrown to a roman shore during the First Punic War).
What about making this an event - as soon as the SPQR wins a sea battle against the Phoenicians (afaik the actual type of the ship can't be used as condition, at least I didn't find anything when I searched) the player gets a message saying basically what that description in EBI said and he can build those ships.
Perhaps even better - make it a "yes/no" event and ask if the player wants to spent a good sum of money to pay roman shipwrights to research how this ship can be built.
And if the player selects "no" (for example because he lacks the money at the given time) he has to defeat another phoenician fleet to get this opportunity again.

The reformed units work similar, it's just the trigger that is different. But I'm perfectly sure that you have plans to use events for your reforms ...

(3) New building options

When I played the Sweboz I was a bit disappointed that they aren't able to build large walls (the ones you can put troops on).
Of course this is historical accurate but on the other hand - oppida walls were within reach for the sweboz, as far as my knowledge goes.
I don't mean they were able to build it and just didn't do it, I mean they were close enough to the celts to see the advantages.
What about an event that triggers by the conquest of Vienna, Vindelicoppidos or Gergovia? (The names are just "placeholders" ;-) ).

Similar to the ship event above the player could be offered the opportunity to let research (and pay for it of course) the way these walls are built and in the end gain the opportunity to erect these walls himself.

(4) Special units with restricted availability

There are several units in EB that historically were rare at best (the goidilic shock infantry which was even removed due to this, the germanic wild men - Worgozez? etc).
Why not restrict them to 1 unit per campaign?
I think it could be possible to make them appear only by an event - example for the Worgozez:
The event pop-up describes an atmospheric campfire scene somewhere in the northern woods (the player has to send a family member into these woods to trigger the event) where that family member stumbles upon a band of wild warriours who are - for the right price - willing to be hired into the faction's service.
If you make this a one-off-event you have a unit that is available exactly one time in the whole campaign.
You could make it retrainable in the settlement of that province (and even combine this with an expensive building that is buildable only after that event and which is necessary to retrain the unit) if you wish.


(5) Simulation of the split between the Arche Seleukeia and for example Baktria

Reconquista TW (the german mod) had a system (a simple "yes/no" event) that simulated the emancipation of Burgundy from the HRE. The (Burgund) player basically had to decide if he wants to become/stay in a vassalage to the HRE or to break off. Vassalage meant a decrease in authority and King's purse as well as becoming allied (or even a protectorate? ), to break off brought an increase in authority and money but meant war between the two factions and spawned a stack of HRE forces near Burgund's capital.

This system could perhaps be used for AS on one hand and the satrap factions (like Baktria) on the other?

(6) Invasions
Self-explanatory. Just inform the player that some tribe/faction is rumoured to storm towards the mediterranean (or whereever their destination may be) and spawn some stacks. Much like the mongol invasion in the vanilla MTW or the Yuezhi invasion in EB I.

That much from me for the moment, as I said - I hope this is rather helpful than annoying.

[Hm. After re-reading I get the impression that these ideas are obvious to the point that posting is pointless but I will share them nevertheless. ;) ]

[Arjos]

1. Good idea, I love the random events, hope the team works on something even bigger... Also I agree that forcing to blitz at the start is meh :P

2. I think is far too faction specific, so the M2TW eras are a far better choice...

3. Swebozez lived in little communities, they enjoyed their freedom.. If you want to control celtic population with walls, let them build those and capture the settlements ^^

4. Recruitment pools will cover that...

5. What's the problem with starting as vassals already (or close allies with military access), the player can easily break free declaring war... Also I don't know how historically correct is to have satrapies reciving money (in game king's purse), they pretty much had to supply troops and give money to the central authority...

6. The AI will behave much differently, also naval invasions are far more common in M2TW, but maybe something like the events in EB (stack near Numantia) could be implemented...

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

(1) Economy

At the start certain factions have control over only one province, leading to the problem (in EBI) that the player has only two realistic options - blitz until the income of the growing empire exceeds the upkeep of his forces or disband the starting army. In EBI there is - due to engine limitations - no way of turtling with such a faction AND keeping an army that is able to defend against intruders. Examples for this situation you can find with the celtic factions (except the Casse).

Why not just do with all small factions the same thing as has been done with the Casse? I.e. the faction starts the campaign at peace with the Eleutheroi. That will boost their trade. Oh, and being at peace with Eleutheroi means they don't need such a large starting army.

[ziegenpeter]

Na, thats unrealistic. Everybody had nasty neighbours back then ;)

[SneakyNinja]

Thing about having an army larger than you can afford at the start is that if you didn't, smaller factions could be easily steamrolled in the first couple of turns

[Cyclops]

About being steamrolled early, here's a notion:

Elite units get recruited in population cntres. They have a high recruitment cost and a high upkeep, so you have to balance your forces needs carefully (also recruitment limits help). Also certain garrison/standing army troops, who can be fitted intot he "free upkeep from walls" mechanism: some factions who did not habve a standing military might not have these.

Lesser levy units get recruited by the mercenary mechanism. (in M2TW this can be tailored by faction IIRC so you won't get Romans landing in Libya and hiing all the Carthaginian's vassals). They have a low recruitment cost and a high upkeep. Once again the refresh rate can be toggled.

This way even small factions have access to a large pool of cheap units quickly recruited, although it wil smash them economically to keep them standing.

Just speculatin'.

[Foot]

Lesser levy units get recruited by the mercenary mechanism. (in M2TW this can be tailored by faction IIRC so you won't get Romans landing in Libya and hiing all the Carthaginian's vassals). They have a low recruitment cost and a high upkeep. Once again the refresh rate can be toggled.

Why would you do this in the merc mechanic. This would mean that buildings couldn't affect recruitment, and AORs couldn't change. Neither of which are good ideas.

Foot

[Cyclops]

Why would you do this in the merc mechanic. This would mean that buildings couldn't affect recruitment, and AORs couldn't change. Neither of which are good ideas.

Foot

Yep fair enough, just speculatin'.

Just struggling with the ideas of representing the social institutions that affect force pools. I imagine most troops were mustered from the countryside in the countryside. Obviously certain troop types would assemble in barracks in cities.

I realise the "buildings" generally represent a set of institutions and the mechanic of troops appearing "inside" a town is part of the engine. I do like the idea of a player having some loyal followers they can rally even if the province capital is beseiged.

[Foot]

Yep fair enough, just speculatin'.

Just struggling with the ideas of representing the social institutions that affect force pools. I imagine most troops were mustered from the countryside in the countryside. Obviously certain troop types would assemble in barracks in cities.

I realise the "buildings" generally represent a set of institutions and the mechanic of troops appearing "inside" a town is part of the engine. I do like the idea of a player having some loyal followers they can rally even if the province capital is beseiged.

Actually, I imagine that marshalling fields would be where troops would congregate when called to war. I don't think you could walk through a village and inspire some local villagers to fight for you. It's no M&B.

Foot

[Lysimachos]

Also certain garrison/standing army troops, who can be fitted intot he "free upkeep from walls" mechanism: some factions who did not habve a standing military might not have these.

Shouldn't that be the other way round? Standing military has to be paid always, even if it doesn't do anything. It's the militia you don't have to pay around the year, people who have normal jobs and only go under arms when called.