[SPQR] Plot-threads - random musings...

[TheLand]

Earlier today I was musing about the direction Rome modding should go in... here are my musings.

Rome is unique among Paradox games in mixing a character system with a high degree of control over your provinces.

This gives an opportunity to make things happen across the levels of character, province and country. An 'event' should not be a one-off, it should be a series of occurences which require decisions by rulers, characters and the population of the provinces which are affected. Taken together a sophisticated event-seried might give the feel of a narrative involving characters, rulers and cities that you get by reading classical history.

Of course Paradox have done this quite well with one aspect of Rome - which is the civil wars. They have been a bit let down by the 'troop-spam' problem but they are genuinely character-driven.

It would be cool if other aspects of the game could be made deeper along these lines.

 

[Sute]{h]

I remember an old game called Castles II. It had something resembling the events of Paradox games. In essence it had a handful of storylines in which you where faced with a number of choices. Depending on which direction you went you got different followups to the story. It would be quite simple to make storylines like that for Rome, and they added a lot of feeling to Castles II. What worked great was the fact that the storylines played out over a long time instead of everything being settled in a single event. That way you got a feeling for the story unfolding.

 

[TheLand]

I remember an old game called Castles II. It had something resembling the events of Paradox games. In essence it had a handful of storylines in which you where faced with a number of choices. Depending on which direction you went you got different followups to the story. It would be quite simple to make storylines like that for Rome, and they added a lot of feeling to Castles II. What worked great was the fact that the storylines played out over a long time instead of everything being settled in a single event. That way you got a feeling for the story unfolding.

Sounds interesting.

Want to lend a hand?

 

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To see a game that did a great job of this take a look at "King of Dragon Pass". It had really deep series of decisions, often with all sorts of outcomes.

 

[Sute]{h]

Sounds interesting.

Want to lend a hand?

I'm very busy with exams at the moment, but when they are done I might lend a hand.