SPQR 0.4 development

[TheLand]

We are just starting work on the development of SPQR 0.4

If anyone is interested to see what's going on, please have a look at the development-version hosted here: http://www.mediafire.com/?fldyumn1cl3
- your views and feedback are welcome.

SPQR is an open project, if you would like to contribute in any way please pop over to our development forum at:

http://terranova.dk/viewforum.php?f=92

The changelist from SPQR 0.3 is below.

New mechanics:
- 'Idle citizens' variable means that full-citizen provinces of Republics will, over the long term, produce less tax revenue and manpower. Your growing empire will come to depend more on its provinces.
- Republican political model improved: Consuls and other Magistrates gain traits to represent their power in these posts
- Factional politics model introduced on Roman model (still at very early stages). Characters can get 'optimates' and 'populares' faction traits. These play a role in political divisions events-series.
- to see these two aspects working, start as Rome in 476 or so and trigger event 40000 from the console after a year or so of peace
- Characters can now use their wealth to buy country estates. It is intended that this will be extended to other things and character wealth will have a much bigger role in the game (if it works out)
- on the whole, trade is more important for trading nations (bigger bonuses available to trade)

Military:
- Heavy Infantry now has lower attack and higher defense to try to resolve its dominance.
- Nations much more diffferentiated by the military National Ideas open to them
- Rulers are now *expected* to command armies. If they are not in command in wartime without good reason, or if they are not winning battles, their popularity suffers.
- Tribal and Steppe nations now have an early Morale advantage. Civilized nations must work (research/win battles) to bridge this gap.
- All nations with the Mass charge idea now get warband events giving them extra troops, not just Gauls. (this includes Illyria!)
- Carthage now has a very heavy manpower penalty from full citizens provinces
- Rome and other (non-Carthage) republics suffer 'Idle citizens' manpower drain over time
- Professional Armies and Cataphracts are now reforms which become available mid-game in some circumstances. You can unlock one of these National Ideas and get massive benefits from it.
- Inventions totally reworked. Some which represented things invented well before 474 historically have been deleted. Some new inventions, some have more subtle triggers.
- Heavy Infantry and Archers are now allowed by a very wide range of tradegoods

 

[Scorpi]

Sounds very intriguing, think I will dust Rome of and have another go as rome..

Is it a early beta version or is it rather stable?

 

[TheLand]

Sounds very intriguing, think I will dust Rome of and have another go as rome..

Is it a early beta version or is it rather stable?

It's stable, just very unfinished

The 0.3 release of SPQR (linked from my signature) is fairly mature, but contains a limited number of features - though still enough in my slightly biased opinion to fix some of the worst aspects of vanilla Rome.

0.4 will be more ambitious. This version sets out how some of that ambition will be realised, but not near completion. The military changes are all there and working but the big deal will be the internal politics. This version has one event-chain which is representative of how internal politics will be developed, but on its own won't have a big impact and indeed probably won't even trigger.

Hope that makes some kind of sense

 

[DesertSnow]

I have a suggestion on the citizenship system.

I believe that the citizenship system should only be applied to "republics", like Rome of Catharge, both for historical and (mostly) gameplay reasons.

Historical: Ptolemaic Egypt and Macedonia were kingdoms, unlike Rome or Carthage. Rome was truly (during this period) "just" a powerful city with "allied cities" in Italy, and these cities had to be kept in line. I have heard historians claim that this "need" to keep the other cities in line, compelled the Senate to refuse any kind of peace with Hannibal, no matter what his terms might be. That would show weakness, and could endanger the other cities' trust in roman power.

When Rome finally became an empire with universal citizenship, then it became possible for it's leadership to accept "defeat" before powerful opponents (like Parthia) without the risk of major internal revolts

Balance: having a different "tag" system for different types of governments could allow your team a greater freedom in balancing things. I believe that your team's decision to divide the factions between "nations with the citizenship system" and "tribal nations where different events and tags are available", was a brilliant choice. I strongly advise you to add a third category of event-tags, specific to kingdoms/empires/dictatorships.

With great respect and admiration for your teams' work,
D

 

[TheLand]

That's an interesting idea....

What would the different effects inside monarchies be?

My impression is that the constitutional structure of mediterranean civilizations was relatively unimportant. I don't know a lot about the internal structure of either Macedon or the Seleucids. But Greek monarchies (e.g. Sparta) had a very similar constitutional structure to Rhodes, Rome or Carthage (at least if you believe Aristotle). The main obvious difference in constitution was that the high officials were hereditary rather than elected: but they still had limited powers, scrutinised by both aristocratic and democratic bodies...

And even then, the nature of the empires is broadly similar. Both Rome and Macedon had a small metropolitan territory, a set of allied cities with a similar culture close to home with whom relations were broadly consensual, and a far-flung empire which was either uncivilized or subjugated...

 

[DesertSnow]

Macedon is a kingdom, in the sense that the territories that are within it's borders have no autonomy, they are under the direct authority of the king.

Philip (alexander's father) forced the greek cities in thessaly (Thiva was the largest one) and in southern Greece (like Athens) to join his "cause". These cities could be considered "allied provinces" in your model, since they kept their own governments (of course, macedonian garissons were placed in them). When Philip died, many of these "allies" tried but failed to get rid of the macedonian hegemony (thiva was burnt to the ground by Alexander's troops, as an example to other 'disloyal allies').

In 474 AVC, the area "owned" by Macedonia does not consist of (actual or in name) "allies". The macedonian kings of the period constantly tried to regain control of the southern cities, which by that time had formed the two loose coalitions you see in the game.

So, in the case of contemporary Macedonia, there is really no place for "allied" provinces within the kingdom's borders. The same thing applies to Egypt, which is also a kingdom ruled by one man.

I am not sure whether or not minor "republics" (with one or two provinces) like Rhodes (IIRC) should be put under the citizenship model, because i cannot speculate on what would happen if they "somehow" managed to form superpowers.