Details

[Jayl]

I was looking over some screenshots of the game, and noticed some details that I don't think anyone else has brought up.

1. In ancient Rome, Republican era and Imperial, the cities of Rome were not all white marble as we have imprinted in our minds, they were full of color. In some of the screenshots they show temples, at least they look like temples. In ancient Rome they painted their statues and columns of temples. So instead of the nice white columns many would be painted red.

2. The nice clean streets look great on the shots, but in reality they were nasty and unsanitary. My suggestion is like in CotN the houses deteriorate, the streets begin to deteriorate. People throwing trash and waste from their houses, not the upperclass houses, but from the low level upwards. The city would hire or have slaves to sweap the streets. If they don't it piles up and disease begins to spread, and you become unpopular.

3. Not really a suggestion or a nag, but in the shots, the designers have done a nice job of adding the realistic "dirtiness" of the houses lol. It is realistic, because not many houses had the nice white plaster that stayed that white for long.

4. The forum, not sure if they have designed this or not yet, but haven't seen it in the screenshots. I hope it is not like in Caesar III that was the tax collector. I would suggest a large open area with colonnades with shops on the sides, much like an agora. Also, in CotN when the people were displeased they protected outside the palace. I suggest in Caesar IV that they come into the forum and get up on the rosta (fancy latin word for podium :D ) and give a speech to the people about their problems. If it is a big problem, the unrest could spread because of the speeches, much like real Rome.

5. Speaking of the forum, the politics of the game. Not sure if it is going to have interactive politics such as the senate, but if it does it would be interesting to see your political enemies to come into the forum and create discontent with your rule. You have the choice of the guards taking him away, which would cause more discontent, especially if he is in mid-speech, or have him arrested during the night. Or you could just improve things.

6. Black lists. Not sure if it is realistic, or if CotN had a list of people you could arrest, but if you desire to rule like Sulla, you can have something of a clickable black list. Say there is a list of those who are discontent with your rule, political enemies, and rioters, you can have your legion or city guards come pick them up, and have them executed or thrown into prison. (I know, I know, Romans didn't have prisons, except the one under one of the hill in Rome, which they stuck the real political prisoners. They normally crucified or thrown the traitors into the sea.)

7. Gladiator riots. They had them in Caesar III, usually burning half my city down before I could mobilize a legion to put them down, would be nice to see that again...maybe even Sparticus... :)

8. Cutsceens, people have begged for these to be added back into CB games since Caesar III, would be nice to see them in this game. You know TM, since you are reviving the Caesar line, you could bring these back, it would be a good game to bring them back, and it would make you more popular :D .

Well that is all I can think of now, but if you have anymore details that I've forgot please add them.

[Jayl]

Already brought up in the midst of a old thread, but

9. Natural disasters. Vesuvius like erruptions that destroys your city. Might be stretching it, but maybe instead of rubble have the destroyed parts of the city covered in ash, or lava. If ash, have soldiers or workers clear the ash and rubble so you can rebuild. Or a suggestion for a scenario. Say you build a city on the horizon of a volcano and let us call this city, I don't know Pomepii, and you race against a timer to "relocate" (build) a new city away from the volcano, on the other side of the map before it errupts. Interesting, even if it is impossible no?

And the traditional disasters, earthquakes, floods, famine, in mountain terrain maybe have snow storms or landslides.

[Kiya]

1. In ancient Rome, Republican era and Imperial, the cities of Rome were not all white marble as we have imprinted in our minds, they were full of color. In some of the screenshots they show temples, at least they look like temples. In ancient Rome they painted their statues and columns of temples. So instead of the nice white columns many would be painted red.

2. The nice clean streets look great on the shots, but in reality they were nasty and unsanitary. My suggestion is like in CotN the houses deteriorate, the streets begin to deteriorate. People throwing trash and waste from their houses, not the upperclass houses, but from the low level upwards. The city would hire or have slaves to sweap the streets. If they don't it piles up and disease begins to spread, and you become unpopular.


1. That sounds fine. Not every citiy all white with red roofs.

2. C3 has people (architects and engineers I think they are called?) who take care of houses so why not also people who sweap streets and perhaps maintain bigger parks. If the streets are not OK perhaps it would restrain trade (hinder carriages, carts) or just otherways annoy elite people. All this will affect your popularity or desirability of the area. Yes, I really would like to see the desirability affect again.

[Kiya]

9. Natural disasters. Vesuvius like erruptions that destroys your city. Might be stretching it, but maybe instead of rubble have the destroyed parts of the city covered in ash, or lava. If ash, have soldiers or workers clear the ash and rubble so you can rebuild. Or a suggestion for a scenario. Say you build a city on the horizon of a volcano and let us call this city, I don't know Pomepii, and you race against a timer to "relocate" (build) a new city away from the volcano, on the other side of the map before it errupts. Interesting, even if it is impossible no?

And the traditional disasters, earthquakes, floods, famine, in mountain terrain maybe have snow storms or landslides.
This sounds very interesting too. It reminds me of the few Cleopatra scenarious where you have to meet the victory goals in a certain number of years. I liked that very much so why not in C4. A volcano would be a "nice excuse" for such a scenario. In general I like to have a bigger variety of goals and scenarios than CoTN has.

[vic_4]

At least from screen shots it appears that fire will be an important aspect of the game.

[Jayl]

At least from screen shots it appears that fire will be an important aspect of the game.

True, all we need now is Nero and a harp....

[Jayl]

10. More on politics. The interactive senate, many have wondered how it could be done. I'll try to take a stab at it. The patrician class would be divided, say you have 5 patricians in your city, 3 would be in the senate. Instead of just sitting in their nice villas drinking wine and laughing at the plebs remodeling their atrium, these 3 patricians would be in the senate working. They would be the voice of the people. The senate would send you a message saying, "There is not enough food in the city..." so and so forth. If they are displeased they can start to give speeches in the city about you and what you are doing or not doing.

On the flip side if you do good, they can give you rewards. Like a raise, much like from Caesar III and civic crowns, like the statues for population and colonies from Zeus. These crowns will add to your respect and overall score. Fellow cities will be more inclined to listen to your requests.

11. The fights inside the area. This has to do with the cutsceens. Instead of looking down inside the arena, maybe it is possible of right clicking on the arena and it has an option that say "View fight" and shows a cutsceen of a different battle. There could be a few different random fight cutsceens. Two gladiators, massive gladiator bout, lions, tigers and bears, or naval fights.

12. Products. I'm surprised someone hasn't made a list of possible products and industries yet.

[Ziffer]

13. City ships and camelcades for trading.

14. Military ships.

[Ziffer]

3. Not really a suggestion or a nag, but in the shots, the designers have done a nice job of adding the realistic "dirtiness" of the houses lol.
Yes! Caesar wouldn't look like heaven.

[Lumpylo]

I remember an old game called "Centurian" where you not only got to watch the races or fights in a town, but you got to participate!

Or at least I think it was that way...that game is ancient history now.

Anyone remember if hippodrome politics was a factor in the Roman Empire? I recall something from history class about how people organized into political groups based on what racing teams they supported, like the "red" party supporting the red team and the "green" party supporting the green team. It might be fun to track which teams are doing well, just as a small add-on.

[Jayl]

Anyone remember if hippodrome politics was a factor in the Roman Empire? I recall something from history class about how people organized into political groups based on what racing teams they supported, like the "red" party supporting the red team and the "green" party supporting the green team. It might be fun to track which teams are doing well, just as a small add-on.

I don't think that it was politics. It was more on the lines of football or soccer teams. They did organize into the red teams that supported the chariot that was red. Also frequent fights broke out over who won or lost, just like soccer matches :D .

[imhotep3147]

True, all we need now is Nero and a harp....


That made me laugh Dr. Pepper up my nose. :D

[Aumtehoutep]

I like the idea of Vesuvius exploding far away .... and having ash problems in your city .... this would work really well in conjunction with the street cleaners idea .... certainly give them more to do ...
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Disclaimer: All opinions expressed above are correct, and should not be disputed as they emanate from one who is Righteous and devoid of fault.

[Thucydides]

I like the idea of adding more colour to the cities. Stone is an excellent example. Those that are familiar with Europe will know that the colour of stone differs considerably depending on your location. Thus in Augustonemetum (today's Clermont-Ferrand) the local stone is grey to black (reflecting the volcanic nature of the region) and many of the stone building are very dark, whereas only a few hundred kilometres to the South-East in Glanum (a kilometre of so south of today's Saint Remy-de-Provence) the local stone used was a pale white to soft sand colour. Go over the hill to Les-Bauz-de-Provence and the bauxite in the rock adds some redish hues. And, of course, the colour of marble and wood differs as well depending on the location. smile R.