For all I:R gamers, I hope we can make this a collaborative thread that offers many suggestions when/if the Dev's were to ever sweep through and clean up some of the oddities for Game Start point issues. I'm going to be harsh toned in some of this - it's part of my way to make a point about poor choices in I:R game design/development, and if Paradox is open-minded if their employees read this, you could actually learn a thing or 2 about the way game design choices weren't done well for the way Game Starting conditions were set, and it's partly why I:R wasn't a hot seller for you upon release. I don't know for certain whether some of these were mistakes or purposeful, but here are some that I've caught as I scan the map to look at various spots to start a Vanilla/unmodded game:
- You don't start with Bactrian culture in Bactria, and instead it's Macedonian. But just North is Sogdia that is Bactrian culture, so you can't start with Bactria if you want a true play-through in Bactrian culture. Just seems really odd considering that they gave the game a Bactrian culture, so it's not left out, yet the nation named Bactria doesn't have it.
- Scythia is mistakenly given "Seafaring Heritage" when actual Scythians were experts at Mounted warfare and migratory over land (not sea). Perhaps the worst and most incorrect tag on the map. Give us a real Scythia to play with, please. You give Bospora their own heritage and yet nerf Scythia with an incorrect tag for heritage, leading to a complete mismatch in that region. If anything - make Scythia a Migratory tribe with some coded in incentive to get them migrating more than the average tribe on the map, and give them a heritage that buffs their migratory ways.
- Surprising that Armenian Heritage doesn't come with a buff for fortresses, and/or something for mountainous terrain. Look at Albania to the Northeast of Armenia to see that Montane Heritage looks like what you'd expect of Armenia.
- You gave a special Heritage to Icenia in England, but no other tribe (all others get generic heritage tags), and this ensures that Icenia always has a full-game advantage btw. Surprised you didn't pick a "chosen one" for Ireland also, perhaps, or other similar situations elsewhere.
- Spain is more congested than it should be, and there should be unsettled areas sporadically in that region. The same logic for Ireland not being fully settled, should be applied in Spain. Plus, you have too many same/same tribes with a cookie-cutter approach that is simply game-clutter on the map and was an unnecessary design choice. It's more fun to "grow into it" and if you ever offer an expanded timeline, especially an earlier starting date, by all means reduce the Spain footprint of tribes on the map.
- As a sub-point to Spain, I think you made the Carthage start into Spain too aggressive from the beginning of this game's time period, and the way you geared Carthage makes Spain's tribes practically unplayable unless in an Easy/Very Easy mode setting. You cannot ever catch up otherwise with military tech and Carthage simply eliminates any fun that one tries to have conquering Spain.
- Coastal Heritage makes no sense. Only one of the 3 buff/nerfs has anything to do with water, and only partially so. 10% Export Value since you'd trade via water routes, but the other 2 buff/nerfs make no sense. Fix it, make at least one of the remaining 2 have some logical connection to having water access. Seafaring Heritage at least gets it somewhat right, with 2 of 3 having more direct correlation to water-related buffs.
- Why does Carthaginian Heritage get 3 buffs when most Heritages only get 2? Seems like too much of a buff to start Carthage with as if you attempted to unbalance the game for lack of some design work on Carthage's progression. You didn't even give Scythia its own Heritage, and instead gave it Seafaring of all crazy things.
- The island of Sicily should only have 2 different cultural Heritages at the most, at Game Start. It's silly to have all those different cultural heritages on Sicily at game start. Look at the way you made Corsica only one cultural heritage, which makes more sense. Islands should look more like Corsica, with very same/same cultural heritages throughout, except in cases where we know that in real history there was a divided power base on that island.
- Greece peninsula also has this cultural Heritage oddity, in that there are so many different starting culture Heritages when it was just the opposite - should only be 2 for Athens vs Sparta, for the most part. The generic starting cultures sprinkled around make no sense in Greece, who were already more advanced with propagation of a cultural norm in their regions in this timeframe. You portray Greece at game start as if they regressed in cultural status.
- Zoroastrian religion buff for Legion maintenance reduction makes no sense. Give it a religious buff. For one thing, you over-used the term "Legion" as if all standing armies across the map were named Legions, when only select Empires/Kingdoms referred to a standing army as a Legion (especially Rome). In terms of immersion, you make everything look/sound/feel like it's Rome, when it should have it's own identity outside of Rome.
- Northern Africa is far too settled than it should be. Make Carthage work for it, not simply stomp neighbors quickly to insta-blob Carthage. You basically cheated to show a less-than full disclosure position of Carthage at game start, almost like Carthage is playing dress-up at the start. Carthage takes over their neighbors so quickly, you may as well have shown all of Northern Africa as Carthage green at game start. However, a better start point would reduce Carthage's ability to paint all of N. Africa green so quickly. Most of the tiles away from the Med should be unsettled. They're mostly unsettled even in the modern day!
- Fill-in the gap at Tantonum in East-Central Europe, perhaps Settled Tribe, small 2-3 tiles only, but you have far too great of a gap of tribes in that area between the Saloia to the Northeast and Getia to Southeast. Also look at the river confluence of Obatis and Bilatus, as that has always been a well-populated area with plenty of water for fertile land, and it's as if you ignored where people farmed and expanded there. Sure, there were migratory incursions that really hurt those areas, but people kept going back there. It's just too much of a gap in contrast to a filled-in Spain to reinforce that point.
- Migratory Tribes should never have the cookie-cutter Mission Trees that call for specific settlement and City-building in a specific region. Why would a Migratory Tribe have a goal for a specific region when the point of being Migratory is to move around? If anything, the original Game Design should have had more of a Migratory focused cookie-cutter Mission Tree that was agnostic for regional goals and instead offered universal goal options for migrating successfully and other basic tasks. Perhaps the Migratory tree could come with either/or fork in the road for retaining Migratory status or instead starting the progression to Settle the tribe.
- Israel has temples for 4 god-equivalent "prophets" instead of a mono-theistic religious system. This was a Game Design oversight from the beginning of I:R, that you made all religions accommodate a 4x prophet/god system instead of considering that mono-theism was very much a thing in this era, and in fact - the Romans happened to embrace it beyond this game's timeline, as a reminder. Israel wasn't the only one btw, you had the actual "God of War" out there also (yes, that's a real thing, not just a video game), as that was a belief in a god that existed within a sword btw. One of I:R's design shortcomings was to give a blanket template for religions and governments to all tribes/kingdoms everywhere, and while it simplified design, it dumbs down the period's actual belief systems.
- You don't start with Bactrian culture in Bactria, and instead it's Macedonian. But just North is Sogdia that is Bactrian culture, so you can't start with Bactria if you want a true play-through in Bactrian culture. Just seems really odd considering that they gave the game a Bactrian culture, so it's not left out, yet the nation named Bactria doesn't have it.
- Scythia is mistakenly given "Seafaring Heritage" when actual Scythians were experts at Mounted warfare and migratory over land (not sea). Perhaps the worst and most incorrect tag on the map. Give us a real Scythia to play with, please. You give Bospora their own heritage and yet nerf Scythia with an incorrect tag for heritage, leading to a complete mismatch in that region. If anything - make Scythia a Migratory tribe with some coded in incentive to get them migrating more than the average tribe on the map, and give them a heritage that buffs their migratory ways.
- Surprising that Armenian Heritage doesn't come with a buff for fortresses, and/or something for mountainous terrain. Look at Albania to the Northeast of Armenia to see that Montane Heritage looks like what you'd expect of Armenia.
- You gave a special Heritage to Icenia in England, but no other tribe (all others get generic heritage tags), and this ensures that Icenia always has a full-game advantage btw. Surprised you didn't pick a "chosen one" for Ireland also, perhaps, or other similar situations elsewhere.
- Spain is more congested than it should be, and there should be unsettled areas sporadically in that region. The same logic for Ireland not being fully settled, should be applied in Spain. Plus, you have too many same/same tribes with a cookie-cutter approach that is simply game-clutter on the map and was an unnecessary design choice. It's more fun to "grow into it" and if you ever offer an expanded timeline, especially an earlier starting date, by all means reduce the Spain footprint of tribes on the map.
- As a sub-point to Spain, I think you made the Carthage start into Spain too aggressive from the beginning of this game's time period, and the way you geared Carthage makes Spain's tribes practically unplayable unless in an Easy/Very Easy mode setting. You cannot ever catch up otherwise with military tech and Carthage simply eliminates any fun that one tries to have conquering Spain.
- Coastal Heritage makes no sense. Only one of the 3 buff/nerfs has anything to do with water, and only partially so. 10% Export Value since you'd trade via water routes, but the other 2 buff/nerfs make no sense. Fix it, make at least one of the remaining 2 have some logical connection to having water access. Seafaring Heritage at least gets it somewhat right, with 2 of 3 having more direct correlation to water-related buffs.
- Why does Carthaginian Heritage get 3 buffs when most Heritages only get 2? Seems like too much of a buff to start Carthage with as if you attempted to unbalance the game for lack of some design work on Carthage's progression. You didn't even give Scythia its own Heritage, and instead gave it Seafaring of all crazy things.
- The island of Sicily should only have 2 different cultural Heritages at the most, at Game Start. It's silly to have all those different cultural heritages on Sicily at game start. Look at the way you made Corsica only one cultural heritage, which makes more sense. Islands should look more like Corsica, with very same/same cultural heritages throughout, except in cases where we know that in real history there was a divided power base on that island.
- Greece peninsula also has this cultural Heritage oddity, in that there are so many different starting culture Heritages when it was just the opposite - should only be 2 for Athens vs Sparta, for the most part. The generic starting cultures sprinkled around make no sense in Greece, who were already more advanced with propagation of a cultural norm in their regions in this timeframe. You portray Greece at game start as if they regressed in cultural status.
- Zoroastrian religion buff for Legion maintenance reduction makes no sense. Give it a religious buff. For one thing, you over-used the term "Legion" as if all standing armies across the map were named Legions, when only select Empires/Kingdoms referred to a standing army as a Legion (especially Rome). In terms of immersion, you make everything look/sound/feel like it's Rome, when it should have it's own identity outside of Rome.
- Northern Africa is far too settled than it should be. Make Carthage work for it, not simply stomp neighbors quickly to insta-blob Carthage. You basically cheated to show a less-than full disclosure position of Carthage at game start, almost like Carthage is playing dress-up at the start. Carthage takes over their neighbors so quickly, you may as well have shown all of Northern Africa as Carthage green at game start. However, a better start point would reduce Carthage's ability to paint all of N. Africa green so quickly. Most of the tiles away from the Med should be unsettled. They're mostly unsettled even in the modern day!
- Fill-in the gap at Tantonum in East-Central Europe, perhaps Settled Tribe, small 2-3 tiles only, but you have far too great of a gap of tribes in that area between the Saloia to the Northeast and Getia to Southeast. Also look at the river confluence of Obatis and Bilatus, as that has always been a well-populated area with plenty of water for fertile land, and it's as if you ignored where people farmed and expanded there. Sure, there were migratory incursions that really hurt those areas, but people kept going back there. It's just too much of a gap in contrast to a filled-in Spain to reinforce that point.
- Migratory Tribes should never have the cookie-cutter Mission Trees that call for specific settlement and City-building in a specific region. Why would a Migratory Tribe have a goal for a specific region when the point of being Migratory is to move around? If anything, the original Game Design should have had more of a Migratory focused cookie-cutter Mission Tree that was agnostic for regional goals and instead offered universal goal options for migrating successfully and other basic tasks. Perhaps the Migratory tree could come with either/or fork in the road for retaining Migratory status or instead starting the progression to Settle the tribe.
- Israel has temples for 4 god-equivalent "prophets" instead of a mono-theistic religious system. This was a Game Design oversight from the beginning of I:R, that you made all religions accommodate a 4x prophet/god system instead of considering that mono-theism was very much a thing in this era, and in fact - the Romans happened to embrace it beyond this game's timeline, as a reminder. Israel wasn't the only one btw, you had the actual "God of War" out there also (yes, that's a real thing, not just a video game), as that was a belief in a god that existed within a sword btw. One of I:R's design shortcomings was to give a blanket template for religions and governments to all tribes/kingdoms everywhere, and while it simplified design, it dumbs down the period's actual belief systems.
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