Alternate Leader for Rome - Trajan

[Crixler]

So, lately, I have been thinking of making my own civs. I figured a good place to start would be adding Trajan as an alternate leader for Rome.


(Colors tentative)

Map:

Spoiler :

Here are my ideas for some uniques and such...
UA: After capturing an original capital, a triumphal column is erected in your own capital. This would happen for every original capital you take, so you'd get Triumphal Column (Assyria) if you conquer Assyria, and Triumphal Column (Japan) if you conquer Japan, etc. The columns would likely have a variety of possible stats, which would be randomly selected from a pool of possibilities whenever you obtain one.
UU: Dacian War Legion (or Manica Legion, or something) - Based off of Augustus's Legion unit, but with better defense. Maybe lower attack or something, not sure.

I have some ideas for the second unique, but am undecided.
Some possibilities include:
A GG replacement - instead of the usual +15% Combat strength, +50% against Cities for your nearby Land melee units and protection from ranged (akin to the Cover I promotion)? (Suggested by bane_)
A forum UB (possibly basing it off of the 3rd unique component mod )
Moving the ballista from Augustus to Trajan, and giving Augustus the forum UB

Thoughts?

 

[bane_]

Your Icon is beautiful!

Yes, I believe the UA is possible. The naming part I don't know how you would do it (maybe having one building pre-made for each Civ in the game, but that would leave custom civs out), or if it is possible to write a new name with a Lua code. Either way, it is possible, I'll research a bit and post here my findings if none of the more experienced modders answer this first.

Also, what is the other unique? The ballista still?

 

[AW Arcaeca]

Yes, I believe the UA is possible. The naming part I don't know how you would do it (maybe having one building pre-made for each Civ in the game, but that would leave custom civs out), or if it is possible to write a new name with a Lua code. Either way, it is possible, I'll research a bit and post here my findings if none of the more experienced modders answer this first.

Machiavelli24 did something along these lines in his Race For Religion and Religion Snippets mods (which I am very familiar with now, if you catch my drift ) where there are two buildings for each religion. It's done with SQL and Lua and is part of a custom LuaEvent called CityAdoptsReligionEvent. It might provide a good example of what would be useful.

 

[Crixler]

Your Icon is beautiful!

Also, what is the other unique? The ballista still?

Thanks! It's based off of the back of some Roman coins I found on Google.

I'm undecided on the other unique. Probably not the ballista, as I don't want it to be too similar to Augustus, the Legion variant is already pushing it, I think. Probably a unique building, but I'm not sure what that should be. I might do a Roman bath or something.

Yes, I believe the UA is possible. The naming part I don't know how you would do it (maybe having one building pre-made for each Civ in the game, but that would leave custom civs out), or if it is possible to write a new name with a Lua code. Either way, it is possible, I'll research a bit and post here my findings if none of the more experienced modders answer this first.

Machiavelli24 did something along these lines in his Race For Religion and Religion Snippets mods (which I am very familiar with now, if you catch my drift ) where there are two buildings for each religion. It's done with SQL and Lua and is part of a custom LuaEvent called CityAdoptsReligionEvent. It might provide a good example of what would be useful.

I definitely don't want to leave other custom civs out. If necessary, the civ names in the columns could be left out, I just thought that would look better than having multiple buildings with the same name.
I'll take a look at the Religion mods, thanks!

I think my next step will be attempting to make a map.

 

[LeeS]

You could also create buildings with in-game names like Column of Victory or Column of Hercules Victus* (though that might be a little long to fit well in the city view) and simply randomly determine which 'building' will be added whenever the victory trigger is accomplished. Each of these could have it's own unique effect in the capital. Maybe one adds+2 Culture, another adds +2 Faith, a third adds +1 Happiness, etc. Unless a player is going for domination in one of those special mods / maps that add more than the usual 22 players max, you'd really only have to come up with a total of 22 'buildings'. You could also do stuff like: Victory column A adds a one-time +500 gold to the treasury. So long as no single effect is not too crazy it probably wouldn't de-balance the game dreadfully.

* I think that's close to what they called the statue to Hercules in his 'guise' as a triumphator. Whenever a roman general celebrated a triumph, the statue was decorated with a triumphing general's regalia, as I recall, but at all other times this statue was naked as a jaybird.

 

[Crixler]

You could also create buildings with in-game names like Column of Victory or Column of Hercules Victus* (though that might be a little long to fit well in the city view) and simply randomly determine which 'building' will be added whenever the victory trigger is accomplished. Each of these could have it's own unique effect in the capital. Maybe one adds+2 Culture, another adds +2 Faith, a third adds +1 Happiness, etc. Unless a player is going for domination in one of those special mods / maps that add more than the usual 22 players max, you'd really only have to come up with a total of 22 'buildings'. You could also do stuff like: Victory column A adds a one-time +500 gold to the treasury. So long as no single effect is not too crazy it probably wouldn't de-balance the game dreadfully.

* I think that's close to what they called the statue to Hercules in his 'guise' as a triumphator. Whenever a roman general celebrated a triumph, the statue was decorated with a triumphing general's regalia, as I recall, but at all other times this statue was naked as a jaybird.

Hmm. I do like the idea of having a large variety of bonuses that would be selected at random. I'll probably go with that. I'll probably stick with just calling them Triumphal (or Victory) columns, possibly with civ names attached, rather than each one having a distinct name. I feel like 22 distinct pseudo-wonders would be a bit much.

 

[bane_]

I find LeeS' idea a cool and clean solution as well.

 

[LeeS]

Hmm. I do like the idea of having a large variety of bonuses that would be selected at random. I'll probably go with that. I'll probably stick with just calling them Triumphal (or Victory) columns, possibly with civ names attached, rather than each one having a distinct name. I feel like 22 distinct pseudo-wonders would be a bit much.

You could also make each one a bit more powerful, but limit the total number to something lower, say five or six total, just to spit-ball a number. Afterwards, no new columns in Rome regardless of how many adversaries they roll over. These are probably going to occur more commonly mid to late game, so you may want to think how you can balance this with something more juicy for Rome in the earler parts of the game.

The other reason I was suggesting a higher number is that for most games a player won't be able to get them all, so each game would have a slightly different 'flavor' to it based on which victory columns were assigned randomly for that play-through.

 

[Crixler]

If I can think of 22 different variants, I'm fine with that, it's the distinct names for each one that I'm not big on.
Yeah, their second unique would definitely be something available in the early game. I just took a look in the 3rd Unique Component thread, where they give Rome a forum as a unique building. I could do that, maybe, but I'm starting to reconsider giving them a unique building, as the columns sort of fill that role already.

... Hmm. Maybe I could give the forum to Augustus, and move the ballista to Trajan. I think seige fits well with the UA, and a unique building would be more fitting to Augustus's UA than two UUs.

 

[bane_]

You could make a replacement for the Great General as well.
Instead of the usual +15% Combat strength, +50% against Cities for your nearby Land melee units and protection from ranged (akin to the Cover I promotion)?
This goes well with Domination and the tactics used by Roman Legions (the turtle formation) and you can leave Rome with the Ballista.

 

[Crixler]

That could work, as well. I shall contemplate this.

 

[Crixler]

So, I did a thing

 

[Viregel]

Very nice map indeed! Perhaps slightly overboard with the labelling (and should that "Asia" label be "Asia Minor"? Not really sure.), but I certainly like it a lot anyway. Great work!

 

[Crixler]

I looked up a bunch of maps for reference, and most just called it Asia.

I agree that it is a bit crammed full of labels, especially in Turkey, but I'm hesitant to remove them. Most maps I found showed either almost all of these labels, or none of these labels (instead opting for just cities).

Oh, and thanks!

 

[janboruta]

(and should that "Asia" label be "Asia Minor"? Not really sure.)

"Asia Minor" is more of a geographical term, while the Roman province as an administrative region was just called "Asia".

Very well made map. I like all the province names - they could stay for the DoM image, but the small map in the civ selection screen could only retain the most important provinces. Also, the imperial title of Trajan adds tons of flavour. A job well done.

 

[LeeS]

Nice Map.

The portion labelled 'Asia' on the map conforms pretty closely to the area that was considered 'the Asian Province' in Republican times. Much the same as the area labelled Africa on the map conforms to the outlines of the Republican-era province referred to as 'the African Province'.

ninja'd by Janboruta