Organic and Fluid Gameplay. Perhaps. Dream with me.

[Colovion]

He is an idea I've been conjuring for a while now. Here's my attempt to put it into writing.

There are many rough edges to it, and nowhere near fleshed out - as many ideas are. It borrows from many different games and seemingly good ideas. It adds to my other idea thread's ideas.

The large aspect of this idea is to move the static and clunky gameplay the Total War series has now into something more organic and fluid. It's great but I feel like in the coming years with technological improvements being what they are, some of these ideas may become a reality. Perhaps. Either way, they might interest some people out there and I'd like to know what you think.

- Have every single individial in the game be identified in a unique and different way. This would probably be very slight but it could get really complex depending. Here's a simple list: Age, Loyalty, Trade*.

* - Trade would be essentially the role the citizen plays in your dominion. They can have multiple roles over the course of their lives, but they won't excel at something they aren't experienced in doing. The list would be something like: Soldier (increasing Experience by battle/training), Citizen (one who extracts goods for production/consumption), Tradesman/Producer (blacksmith, carpenter, merchant etc),

- When you want to have an army be created or a certain task completed, you send your Governers orders for certain tasks to be completed. It would essentially mean you guiding your empire but it taking on a much more organic feel. You would give macro orders which would be completed depending on a couple of factors. Granted, you could take a bunch of blacksmiths and order them into the ranks of your army, but usually you would trust the governer to put people with the required skills into the correct fields.

Tasks your populace would be orderd to perform:

/1 - extrating goods including hunting/foraging/farming/food production/fishing etc, logging, mining and pillaging/land stripping. These all are improved in efficiency as technoloy and Development improves. The more people assinged a task the faster it would be completed. Also, the more people in an area means instead of just some tents for your loggers, they begin to make permanent structures to house all of their number once the logging camp swells enough; similar to how armies would assemble.
/2 - trades/craftsmen/specialists including crafting all of your extracted and imported goods into various impliments. Like in all games, improving technology includes inherent bonus' associated to where you invest your technological minds towards. In this idea this would be similar to in Civilisation having to choose a path for your scholars to research, but in a more tangible way. You'd be able to extract iron ore finally to bring your culture into an "iron age" which would give you a range of options of where to invest your profits; better equipment for warfare, better farm impliments to give a boost to population growth, mining improvements (the list goes on). Basically, if you've read my other thread, it lines up perfectly with a Development stat for your culture.
/3 - forming an army after a time there would become on the map a gathering of people and less would be put into the other aspects of your dominion. These soldiers would gather until the amount of soldiers needed would form a "stack" or units enough to form a true army. When the first soldiers arrive everything is very unordered, tents and troops camping in the open, massing together. If a General is present things are sorted out much faster. More soldiers are needed to Form an Army in a gathering which doesn't have a General - less Gathered Men needed when a General is present as Order in the ranks would increase.. A mass of men armed for battle but not in a stack can be ordered around but will have less discipline because the lack of a General to lead them and train them. This would make good Generals even more important. Half disciplined troops would break and run, partially hold up against an onslaught in half-formed ranks, scatter about attacking the enemy but it would create a much more ambiguous feel to a leaderless army.

As you can tell from this design, it would make for very interesting choices as to what you wish for your empire to do. You could go to battle, taking your men from the fields and mines and dockyards and training them for battle which may not be profitous to your ambitions if the victory is not decisive. It would demand the player think about the seasons as reasons to attack or not - and would allow for the ability to surprise a neighboring culture in the winter when they have less Soldiers Assembled.

That's all I have for right now - let me know what you think and if you have more ideas to add on top of it.

[vale]

good idea, I have though about that there should also be more into the politic of the state or empire. There also should be more of a rebellion on your province and that they should become a province once a leader was found and promoted to lead it people against your empire. Now for the current technology it is impossible to do it with just little time consuming; however, i am sure in a few more year scientist will be able to improve computer technology into a higher standard that today though was impossible. Over all great post.

[Uesugi Kenshin]

Great idea. After this what do we need reality for? Everyone could be a Roman Emperor or marauding Hun!

[Colovion]

good idea, I have though about that there should also be more into the politic of the state or empire. There also should be more of a rebellion on your province and that they should become a province once a leader was found and promoted to lead it people against your empire. Now for the current technology it is impossible to do it with just little time consuming; however, i am sure in a few more year scientist will be able to improve computer technology into a higher standard that today though was impossible. Over all great post.

Yes indeed - rebellions should be created much more fluidly than currently portrayed. Let's say a certain area get devastated by a scouting army from a nearby tribe. You hold sway in this area and they look to you for protection. Now that their food is gone you'll have to do something to keep their Loyalty up. That might be easy - just dispatching runners to nearby provinces to lend a hand at giving over excess food. In any case - if this did not occur and you're busy elsewhere and these citizens become such low Loyalty that they rebel - and then once rebelled they begin to foster resentment towards you. This would be a linear curve of a slow smoldering grudge which could be exponentially increased by a malefactor such as a low-Loyalty General of your army, a nearby enemy, or one of those citizens in the populace who has considerable traits.

Gah. Once I start writing I just keep going and going.

[vale]

Also the weather climate should be mate more realistic such as more disease and other natural disaster which needed aid immediately and must be drawn out from your treasury that is just some idea.

[Colovion]

Also the weather climate should be mate more realistic such as more disease and other natural disaster which needed aid immediately and must be drawn out from your treasury that is just some idea.

Well one could build on that idea quite a lot. Disease could be much more of a fearful thing which would occur in stagnant situations like a seige that has been going on for 7+ years or so. It would make the city unusable for a few turns, or if you need to garrison it then you will likely have a diseased army on your hands.

The natural disasters fund/disaster relief would be a great aspect to add as well. Distasters to a populaces food production like a flood or a volcano destroying half the city would require funds ot be invested to get the region back on their feet faster. Your Aid Policy could be on a slide scale or statically rated. Something like "Selfless Aid" meaning that it would automatically draw the funds from your treasury to heal the distaters damage. If you had it on the near opposite it would only mention that some disaster struck but nothign would be done. In the middle, it would ask you if you would like to invest funds into Aid and how much - or setting up a fund like 10,000 over 10 years or something similar.