Feature Requests

[Zarax]

Is there anything you would like to see in the next versions of XGM? Post here!

Updated: 06/13- Zarax

Here is a short resume of what has been asked lately: I have sorted this into "Will happen", "Might Happen", "Has Happened", and "Won't Happen".

Will Happen

-would you consider giving different objectives to the ptolemies? and i was thinking that would be great if the parthians have the goal to conquer all the greek capitals- something like "Remember Persepolis!", and the parthian king to have the ability to become king of the kings and "aryamehr". thanks

-What about my idea of adding AOR elephants? I really enjoyed Asiatic and Indian war elephants in RTR. Moreover this could revitalize the eastern side of MM campaign map, which currently is not strategically very important.

Might Happen

- splitting recruitment zones for african and indian elephants would be good, make the african ones recruitable only there (wouldn't make sense to spend money to import them elsewhere if you can get the better ones) and the indian (and armoured) ones with 3 turns for carthage (they use a different unit IIRC)

- adding one point of experience and/or armor/weapons upgrade to the last level of the temple of baal would help the carthaginians a lot

- consider making the hillmen armed with an axe or sword instead with spear (DBH, you proposed some kind of AOR axemen for the eastern areas, alternatively I think that it would be easy to just give them a javelin so that they will be some kind of eastern heavy skirmisher)

- have the rebel factions using pirate ships instead of biremes

- some kind of post marian unit for most factions would help, it hasn't to be special or high level, just some existing medium unit with a bit more armour and a slight texture change to show it would do the trick...

- a few mercenary ballistas in hellenic areas wouldn't hurt imho

Some examples:

germans: throwing axemen (historical, caesar wrote of them)

gauls: some kind of armoured spears?

numidia (if it stays): numidian heavy cav, similar to pontic heavies but with more javs

carthage: armoured lybian spearmen (historical somewhat, they upgraded their spearmen during the 2nd punic war)

hellenic factions: should get the ability to recruit hoplites pre marius and have them replaced by slightly improved thorakitai, maybe you could make them more similar to the EB version so that you will have a javelin/spear unit available at lower level than hypaspists (ok, not very historical but we all know that marian reforms comes quite earlier than their real date and thorakitai were quite new units in 280BC)

Parthia: Clibinarii (similar to the clibinarii immortals from BI)

Thracia: thrachian gothic cav (have no better idea)

Ptolemies: basilikon agema changed to be similar to seleucid silver shields (happened around 60-70BC but still in game timeframe)

Roman rebels: you could get some units from BI here, like the veteranii (comitanenses), bucellarii, auxilia palatina and some AOR units like eastern armoured archers or equites clibinarii mixed with some old style units like triarii, so that you wouldn't be fighting a clone faction for all the game

Iberians: Already got armoured scutarii, maybe they could make use of some stealthy unit

- Belief system implementation based of "political systems" (in the works), possibly the fun/law buildings can be linked so that different government gets different means of controlling the population

-Macedonia: Agema Hypapists - Sword and javelin armed, with stats on par with praetorians, 3 years production time, post marius

-Pontus: their chariots should get the javelin animation and appropriate stat change

-Numidia (and Carthage?): Numidian heavy cav - similar to pontus heavies but with a barbarian look as the few heavies numidians had were celtiberians (post marius?)

-Game balance: bring down libians to max torakitai level stats and down a tech level so they will be easier to build but weaker... Leave their barracks level for the good merc units like hoplites or scutarii, even though mercs should get a different kind of building the more i think about it...

- cosmethic change: I would give the samnites hoplite style spear so that they don't look like pushovers anymore

- It has been suggested to add more "depth" to the Iberians, to answer the best thing would be to add new units and buildings.

- New mercenaries suggestions:

- Greek Ballista mercenaries, available in areas with historical hellenistic presence

-Scythian style axemen as a steppes AOR unit.

-Another change you might do is to add a rebel stack in Sardinia between the mountains as that zone historically wasn't an easy walk for any army, even the romans had to make 4 separate campaigns to pacify the island... Maybe you might also want to change the name to Ichnusa, which is the punic name.

-reduced farming levels for less important cities, this would make holding some places more important.

-what about giving overhand spear to thureophoroi and thorakitai?

-replace legionary cavalry with heavy auxiliaries from different places, basically roman version of barbarian nobles and other factions heavy cav

-your idea for culture specific barracks was nice DBH, it's definitely worth a shot

-increase large stone wall defences and move them to the huge city level

Gaul gets the British javelin chariots (from BI), a heavy spearman (like the iberian one), perhaps the briton woad warrior, as a Belgae AOR unit.

Germans get a throwing axe (from BI) for the night raiders, shieldwall rather than phalanx for the spear warband

- Iberians get Hillmen as an AOR in the pyrenees and/or something like the later almuguhavars i.e. javelin skirmishers that are decent at hand to hand. iberian spearman get schiltron formation (good defensive fighters at siege of Numantia)

- Numidians get garamantae javelin chariots and a similar unit to nubian spearmen, available from their southern provinces.

- All basic spear warbands get one javelin in addition to their spears (like in BI, but just one)

Naked fanatics only for the Gauls and iberians - much more expensive andwith 2 HP (these guyswere on magic mushrooms - think native american ghost dancers)

Has Happened

-demolishable grain storages to boost population for small settlements - - done in XGM 4 -Zarax


- To balance this, you could allow romans to recruit numidians in africa and sarmatians around the bosphoran sea (in that case Seleucid should get them too), so that it will be historically more accurate too - More or less done with the AOR system -Zarax

- Torakitai should get shield wall Done (from 3.5.2) and Thureophoroi have lost shield wall. -DBH

-Eggies: basilikon guardsmen, looking like pharaoh guards but sword and shield... chariot will die with pleasure there lol[Done, more or less, the basilikon Guard will be a hoplite style unit.

-Thrace: Illirian torakitai, like the illirian peltast but with chain mail and falx as 2nd weapon... would look sweet.Done.

-Carthage/iberia: Armoured Scutarii - Chain (or muscle cuirass) armoured scutarii, stats at least on par with principes. Alternatively they could also train numidian legionaries in africaDone, more or les. Poeni Infantry become a legionary style unit.

- recuitable generals for romans, greek, carthage, eggies, pontus and parthia Done (from 3.5.3) for all factions except barbarian. You can recruit generals with an Imperial Palace. Cost is 3120 for all factions. -DBH

- gameplay: Add royal/elite barracks for carthage and move up the sacred band there, giving a +1 experience bonus for other units

- mercenary median cavalry, available in eastern areas and asia minor: heavy cavalry (similar to cappadocians) armed with axes (ap attack), should replace southern sarmatian recuitment pool.Done.

- Celtiberian heavy infantry: Heavy spearmen with chosen swordsmen skin (so chainmail armoured), a scutum (same shield as scutarii) and spear of course. Recruitable by the iberians and available as mercenary unit in celtiberia and border regions. This is an historical mercenary unit employed by the carthaginians during the 2nd punic war.Done.

-Pontus: some kind of galatian (gaulish mixed with greek looks) swordsman will do, same thing for chariots as seleucids Done - in the form of Galatian Swordsmen AOR unit.

- all roman cavalry units should have -2 morale as they are way overwpowered now and historically the quality of their cav was so poor that they had to rely mainly on mercenaries for that role.Done for Equites.

- Loyalty system featuring rebels for the bigger factions (in development) Done for the Romans and GCS. Ptolemies, Seleucids, and Carthage will be done.

- barbarian and eastern factions ability to get higher city levels and some more advanced buildings later (they should be able to build some more "civilized" structure, just later than the others) Turns out this can be done. The barbarians will get one new city level, and some new tech and units to go with it.

-Ptolemaic temples of set and horus gives exactly the same bonuses and the eggies lacks a "military" temple... Could you change one of them so that it gives some kind of bonus to troops? I don't think they should get a military temple, but they should be able to build a tech one.

-small african elephants should be restricted to africa, indian type ones shoud require an extra turn to recruit for Carthage representing the fact that they were much harder to import for them and quite rare.

- mercenary gladiators, available in Rome and Lepcis magna (if someone knows other historical major gladiator recruitment/gathering areas please report!), should be very rare

Won't Happen

-Tureophoroi should get javelin with prec attribute and loose shield wall Too much like heavy peltasts then, and too good for a level one unit. -DBH

- spartans should go and be replaced by the royal guard unit (representing the few real elite spartans left) and a special building that gives experience to the troops trained there (representing the spartan higher standard of training)...I like the Spartan Phalangites too much to get rid of them. -DBH

-GCS: Some kind of sword torakitai, 1 year training time and similar stats to the premarian ones, maybe principes level? Too much like hypaspists don't you think? -DBH

- Happiness booster for the executioner square line similar to the ones given by arenas and amphitheaters: Possible events can be public executions, mass arrests and martial law.Can't be done.

- set the late roman cav as non trainable in italy I think the cost is now enough to discourage the Romans from using too much cavalry.

That's it for now! Please post your own ideas!