Scenario: Roman Kings - 753 to 509 BC

The scenario is now available for play!

Download version 0.2.033 here.
View attachment Roman Kings_v0.2.033.zip
File Uploaded on the 7th december 2005

Install instructions
1. Unzip the file.
2. Put the Roman Kings.Civ4WorldBuilderSave file inside the Program Files/Firaxis Games/Civ4/Public Maps folder.
3. Put the Roman Kings folder inside the Program Files/Firaxis Games/Civ4/Mods folder

What the scenario offers:
Map of Rome and its surroundings
Religions: New religions for the all the major early Roman gods. Each religion has a different impact on play.
Religious buildings - their function depends on the religion! Some will give xp to units, others will give promotions. Others yet will have economic benefits.
Techs - completely new tech tree, to represent the period.
Graphics - New graphics for techs & religions.
Civics - New and re-worked civics for the period
Gameplay - Quite unlike the normal civ4 gameplay: 'Take & hold', then consolidate, finally go on a rampage.

Scenario Description
This scenario aims at re-enacting the founding of ancient rome.
It takes place from 753BC up 509 BC (the start of the republic).
It is a short scenario, aimed at having fun, and examining the feasability of a bigger roman scenario up to the punic wars.
Feauturing warriors under Romulus abducting sabine wives, vestal virgins under Numa Pompilius, and much more.
The scenario is designed for single player play only. Rome is the only playable civilisation.
This is a war scenario: Rome is at war with everyone. Expansion is to be achieved by conquest only

Minor civs
Etruscans
Sabines
Various Latin tribes.

Changes since previous versions
v0.2033 - Added copper next to Rome, until I implement events to help take over Alba Longa

Future releases to-do list
New graphic for each new tech & civic
2 more new gods: Juno & Minerva, with special buildings associated. These make Quirinus and Mars buildings obsolete.
Cathedral type buildings to provide extra-ordinary unit xp/promotions, economic benefits
Wonders with appropriate benefits (circus maximus, temple of Diana, etc)
Balance? (research costs, unit costs, unit stats, building benefits, civic effects, etc)
Re-skin phlanx unit, and use for early Roman units.
Re-skin praetorian unit, and use different versions for different periods of the scenario, with different stats.
Re-skin roads and implement 'roman roads' (faster movement, strategic resource trading)
Slow down city growth by 75%, and add biology type tech available to romans/etruscans
Re-draw map to show more of Latinium and less of Etruria?
Add horses & equestrian type cavalry
New eras - one for each king, with music/graphic/tech rate, etc changes
High council of Latinium (United Nations) - built in Alba Longa?
Neglect of the gods technology to disable some early buildings
Shrine special benefits & fonts
Edit AI research priorities to go for archery sooner.
Pedia & strategy texts
International game texts?
Temples give bonuses only if their religion is the state religion?
Change loading hints to Roman Kings specific hints
Python intro screen
Remove/Disable unused buildings/techs.
Romulus leaderhead & flag.
Anything else?

What I most need help on:
Graphics (leaderhead, flag, tech buttons, religious buttons, fonts & buildings),
Python scripting (events, intro, etc)
Sounds & Music

Warning
The scenario is designed to be challenging. Don't expect an easy ride, even on easy levels.

1) I'd make the map a bit smaller, (dont bother including so much territory to the north, Caere, and Veii are enough to represent the Etruscans, IMO) and flesh out the Romans intial territorial possesions to include all the settlements withing the Ager Romanus (the territory of the city stat eof Rome, which included the city of Rome, and towns of Ostia, Ficana, Bovillae, Alba Longa, Jupiter Latiaris -Jupiter, Patron of Latium-, more of a shine then a town, I'd wager, Antemnae, and Collatia.

in thoery, you sould sperate the rest of the latins into thier own Agers, such as Ager Laurens, Pomptinus, Pedanus, and Clustuminus, but thier respective borders arnt readilly known to me, but the last two are probably seperated by the river Anio.

2)the other idea is just flesh this scenario out to be all Italy, and set up the Romans already in control of Latium, and having to compete with the etruscans, smanites, oscans, umbirans, greek citie sint he south and so on for dominace in italy.

Thanks for the feedback Xen.

I aim to make it easy for the romans to capture initial Latin towns (such as Alba Longa).

You're right to say I should include less of Etruria and Latium: do you know where I can find more info on local geography? (the only detailed map I have of ancient Latium is very hard to read).

Jupiter Latiaris would make a perfect holy city, but where is it?

I like the idea of several Agers, but I know very little about them. Google hasn't heard of them - where can I find out more?

(edited) (edited)

well, I made a map of what the scenario woudl lokk like historically, if it took place at about 500 BCE; which while this is during the reign of Tullius Hostilius or Ancus Marcius, I think it might give a better feel to the scenario if you were to flesh it out with more cities- the map looks very barren right now, and a barren map means a boring scenario

now, red cities= Rome (Ager Romanus)
Blue= Ager Clustuminus
Green= Ager Pedanus

nopt enough room to show Ager Laurens, or Ager Pomptinus though.

Thanks Xen

As the scenario starts in 753, Rome only starts out with the settlement of Rome. But I'll include your cities (as minor nations) and make it relatively easy for Rome to capture the Ager Romanus cities by about 500BC. How does that sound?

I'll start playtesting tomorrow, and then probably release an early version the day after.

I really like this idea! If you could have a scenario with the Punic Wars afterwards, then you'd be....

personally, I think that the best idea for an early Rome scenario would be the "unifacation of Italy"- withthe only possible victory type being domination; with the first nation to get 80% of Italy under thier control beign the winner. three playable nations would be availible, the Romans, Etruscans, and Samnites. Yes sir, i think that would be a very awesome scenario indeed.

Punic wars:

AlCosta, it's nice to hear from you.

The Punic wars were truly epic in scope. The first punic war alone lasted 25 years, and could have as many events as a full WW2 scenario.

There would need to be a lot of python scripting involved, as naval power was the dominant factor in the first 2 wars. There are certain things, like sudden storms destroying hundreds of Roman ships (and killing hundreds of thousands of Romans) that would be difficult to do. The siege of syracuse alone would need to have special units created. How would you implement the effects of morale, Hannibal, Scipio Africanus, the Spartan general, etc doing so much more with fewer men than other generals? Trade and mercenaries were also important factors. Strategic fortresses played a big role in the first war.

Unification of Italy:
That's a different scenario then the one I'm making. Much more complex and demanding. Many more factions, different units, different gameplay, and scope for python scripting. Right now I have my hands full with this one! Later...I'll see

Roman Kings:
I'm going to concentrate on making this a good, fun, scenario. I'll be posting an early version in 24-48 hours, so check back

Ok, I'll be posting the first version later today

I've decided to add custom graphics as well.

Here's a snapshot of the wife snatchers

Well...there's been a setback...

Everything looks fine and works fine, except that I get a systematic crash-to-desktop if I 'end turn' after starting a new game. Obviously this is caused by one of the things I changed. I don't know what exactly, and as I didn't make enough backups...I may have to redo a lot of things from scratch.

Bear with me

I don't mean to put a damper on your efforts, but the game Rome: Total War accomplishes what you want better than Civ ever will, including era-specific technological advancements (of a sort). If you haven't played it you might think about checking it out, along with all the mods that've been made for it.

Max

Maxpublic - thanks - I have played it. It's a great game, which builds on the two prequels (medieval & shogun) - but it doesn't cover the founding of rome, only the late-republican and imperial expansion periods. A lot went on before that - which is what I want to cover here, in civ4

And then there's the fact that there are no vestal virgins in that game

The scenario is now available for play

Appologies for the delay.

Please see the first post for details / download

Looks great, with all that initial promotions, hard on monarch level.

Well, all the techs are name agriculture and dont show what they give, i think.

Wolfman - thanks for the feedback.

The guy with the initial promotions is Romulus. I can't rename him until I have the SDK. He is the son of the god of war Mars, so I figured he should have some promotions

The texts only work in the English version! Which language do you have installed? I will update this in later versions.

Oh - and it is supposed to be hard

Oh, spanish, but well, some achievments are intuitive. I think is the first scenario that changes the tech tree, great.

Romulus dies fast. There is another one, a healer, who is represented in it?

The healing one is Remus (Romulus' brother). Historically Romulus Killed Remus, but they were both the founders of Rome, so I put him in.

I'll include non-english texts in the next release (v0.3)

K, thanks