Pax Romana : The Rise of Vespasian

Discussion and development of scenarios and campaigns for the game.

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nenau
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Re: Pax Romana : The Rise of Vespasian

Post by nenau »

Hello,

Thanks, ogr for your kind comments, and sorry for the reply delay.

About the description, I did forget to change it. I removed the "not complete" part on the last update, and I'll think about reformulating the sentence to say that there are lots of language mistakes that I can't correct.

Your remark about the imperial march is interesting because I tuned the roman infantry so that it is quite slow, but nearly unstoppable with all the defense bonuses, slowly breaking all resistance. Too bad that in the last scenario, the AI doesn't manage the flag and centurion combo. The other point is that in some scenarios (most of them actually) you are clearly not on the good guys side.
ogr
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Joined: March 21st, 2018, 6:20 pm

Re: Pax Romana : The Rise of Vespasian

Post by ogr »

It definitely feels that way. However, on hard, you can't win with the roman infantry alone, you need to make full use of the auxiliaries and the horse units. Particularly on forest maps. where auxiliaries are mandatory. But also on big maps, when roman units can't move fast enough and might be hard-pressed by ennemy number, when your low on cash. Because of that, I had to backstab enemy leaders a few times with my horse platoon to be able to win.

Btw, I love the horse units composition : because of the various abilites of the horses units (leadership for instance), you can have a few horse platoons wreaking havoc all around the map while your infantry troops hold the main force.

The spartiate unit is also very good on its own, able to hold waves of ennemy alone before the reinforcements arrive.

And yes, the last scenario feels a little bit easy but I love to be able to blindly charge at the ennemy with an armada of horses.
nenau
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Re: Pax Romana : The Rise of Vespasian

Post by nenau »

A new update featuring:
* more portraits
* Two new units : a celtic mounted flagbearer and an other alternative advancement for the bowman
* I changed the description about high quality texts
nenau
Posts: 114
Joined: May 12th, 2017, 5:46 pm

Re: Pax Romana : The Rise of Vespasian

Post by nenau »

The campaign was uploaded on the 1.14 server, with a few minor aesthetic upgrades.
I've also added a Pax Romana era because it turned out that I like to use these units on european maps (like for example Transfermium's fall of the roman empire) It's however probably rather unbalanced.
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Sudipta
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Re: Pax Romana : The Rise of Vespasian

Post by Sudipta »

Hello. I've been interested in playing this campaign ever since u crated it.I'm kind of a history buff myself and i finally got to playing this campaign. I'm playing the latest version of Pax Romana in Hard difficulty on BfW 1.14.2. I played the first 4 scenarios for now. There are a lot of grammatical errors in the campaign and i've noted some of the typos and their fixes. My feedback on the scenarios -
Spoiler:
I like the wide variety of units available, but some of them are only recruitable for 1 or 2 turns before they disappear from the recall list, not enough time to keep a likable number of them in the recall list. The Young legionnaire unit line, though useful is pretty confusing as well, it seems they can change unit trees with each level up. I also ike how you alternated easy and hard scenarios. But all the scenarios are the same. Just a skirmish battle with an enemy side. I hope there's some scenario variety soon.

I'll continue the campaign tomorrow. Have a nice day ^_^
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
Playing Wesnoth since 2010, still there is so much left to play
nenau
Posts: 114
Joined: May 12th, 2017, 5:46 pm

Re: Pax Romana : The Rise of Vespasian

Post by nenau »

Hello. Thank you for this feedback, it will be most useful.
some of them are only recruitable for 1 or 2 turns before they disappear from the recall list
I guess you mean the recruit list... If not, that's a bug I didn't see and that I have to solve. Anyway, I see what you mean, I was never bothered by that point because as I replay the campaign, it's most of the time in easy difficulty, so my loss rate is very low (I never finished the campaign in hard, I just semi-randomly extrapolated the values to let better players than I have fun). I guess a solution could be to give to the player a few units just before they get unavaliable...
The Young legionnaire unit line, though useful is pretty confusing as well
Actually, it's not a tree, it's more like a net: at each level up, you get the choice to increase or not the rank (legionnaire->decurion->centurion->primus_pilus) of the unit.
I hope there's some scenario variety soon.
Mmmh, well... Afterwards, you have times to times bigger battles, and sometimes many enemy or allied sides, but I agree that one of the main weaknesses of this campaign is that the objective is always "kill the enemy leader(s)". I will re-read the biography of Vespasian in order to try to find a way to interpose a few "go to the sign" or "survive for xx turns" scenarios.
Remark: The scenario 7 is meant to add some variety, bit it's very short.
nenau
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Re: Pax Romana : The Rise of Vespasian

Post by nenau »

Hello,

The campaign was updated on the server, with:
* Intergration of Sudipta's remarks on the firsts scenarii.
* Addition of dialogue (includong 2 dialogue-only scenarii) in the second half.
* A new legionnaire horseman unit
nenau
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Re: Pax Romana : The Rise of Vespasian

Post by nenau »

Hi,
A new update featuring:
* A small revamp of cavalry units with a mounted decurion, and numidian skirmishers.
* New sprites for roman and numidian cavalry, and roman officers
* Addition of 2 scenarii to add variety to the objectives
* A few free units are recruited just before they becom unavaliable (in order to have a chance to keep for example a group of hoplites till the end of the campaign).
Konrad2
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Re: Pax Romana : The Rise of Vespasian

Post by Konrad2 »

How about renaming the campaign to "Pax Romana: The Rise of Vespasian"?
nenau
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Joined: May 12th, 2017, 5:46 pm

Re: Pax Romana : The Rise of Vespasian

Post by nenau »

You mean in order that the campaign has exactly the same name as the UMC ?
Seems legit, I'll do that, thanks.
Konrad2
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Re: Pax Romana : The Rise of Vespasian

Post by Konrad2 »

Yes and no, I was thinking of better readability. :D But you do raise a good point. ^^
You are also missing a space between the campaign description and the difficulty level of the campaign.
...Emperor.(Easy level...
nenau
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Re: Pax Romana : The Rise of Vespasian

Post by nenau »

Thanks, it'll be fixed for the next release.
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sergey
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Re: Pax Romana : The Rise of Vespasian

Post by sergey »

Hi, nenau. I liked your campaign. It reminded me "Rome Total War" videogame. Dialogs have a mix of jokes, brutality and modern English words - I found that funny and enjoyable.

In my opinion leadership and legion's eagle++ abilities are quite complicated.

Comments regarding leadership ability.
1) In the latest Wesnoth version the leadership ability was reworked as single [leadership] tag, you could use that as well.
2) There are different leadership abilities with the same name. E.g. level 3 Senior Decurion has a common leadership, but lvl 3 Centurion leadership doesn't give bonus to lvl2 units. I remember that you described that Decurions have better leadership, but since the name of the ability is the same it may confuse players. What do you think about renaming Centurion's, Veteran Centurion's and Primus Pilus Centurion's abilities? You could use leadership-, leadership--, lesser leadership, minor leadership.
3) In order to simplify the leadership even more you could use another percentage bonus. E.g. instead of lvl 3 Centurion gives 25% to lvl 1 and 50% to lvl0; he could give 10% to lvl2, 20% to lvl1 and 30% to lvl0. Regarding the Primus Pilus Centurion - maybe it will be better to completely remove his leadership?
4) Prefect also has different leadership. I suggest to rename his ability too (and maybe change the percentage bonus instead of affected unit levels). Alteratively, you could give him the common leadership. Since he is lvl 4 the leadership bonus will be still very powerful.

Regarding legion's eagle. It says that Legate can boost it. And Legate needs an unit with the aid ability to be close. But you coded the legion's eagle++ slightly different - it needs both commander++ and aid units to be close (current description doesn't say that unit with the aid needs to be close to the eagle). I think the next description is simpler - "Move units with commander++ and aid abilities close to the legion's eagle". And duplicate that description to legion's eagle++, commander++ and aid. I think such description will be much clearer.

I played "Lethal encounter in Thrace" and "Clean the woods!" on hard and other on medium, replays are attached.
Attachments
TRV-Clean the woods! replay.gz
(32.84 KiB) Downloaded 256 times
TRV-Uprising! replay.gz
(26.7 KiB) Downloaded 243 times
TRV-The tax replay.gz
(15.57 KiB) Downloaded 245 times
TRV-Some Pirates replay.gz
(28.98 KiB) Downloaded 241 times
TRV-Lethal encounter in Thrace replay.gz
(17.26 KiB) Downloaded 259 times
Author of SP scenario Dragon Fight and SP campaign Captured by a Nightmare.
Created The Rise of Wesnoth (alternative mechanics) version of the mainline campaign.
nenau
Posts: 114
Joined: May 12th, 2017, 5:46 pm

Re: Pax Romana : The Rise of Vespasian

Post by nenau »

Hello,

Thanks, Sergey, for your comments.

About the dialogs, I wanted to render the idea I have of state of mind of the ancient roman noblesmen. The problem is that this makes the character of Vespasian very cruel, brutal and contemptuous on our modern standards, and thus, I fear it may cause problems for the player to feel involved in the character's adventures... Lets hope I'm wrong on that point.

On the leadership and such abilities, I know for very long time that I have to clean it. I should do it for the next release, probably taking most of your suggestions.

Thanks for the replays. It will be most useful.
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sergey
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Re: Pax Romana : The Rise of Vespasian

Post by sergey »

nenau wrote: May 15th, 2019, 5:31 pm The problem is that this makes the character of Vespasian very cruel, brutal and contemptuous on our modern standards, and thus, I fear it may cause problems for the player to feel involved in the character's adventures.
I think it is a matter of taste. I do like how you depicted your characters. Also I like the variety of units and scenarios - there are small, medium and large battles. Here is the next bunch of replays.
TRV-The traders replay.gz
(43.59 KiB) Downloaded 262 times
TRV-Subdue the tribes replay.gz
(61.43 KiB) Downloaded 241 times
TRV-The crazy prince replay.gz
(22.66 KiB) Downloaded 228 times
TRV-Defeating a king replay.gz
(53.14 KiB) Downloaded 251 times
TRV-First encounter in Britain replay.gz
(34.96 KiB) Downloaded 252 times
Author of SP scenario Dragon Fight and SP campaign Captured by a Nightmare.
Created The Rise of Wesnoth (alternative mechanics) version of the mainline campaign.
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