Modifier

A modifier is a number (an integer or a float) which, once unlocked, is inserted into a term. The unlocking of modifiers to buff (increase) gained points is one of the main means of player to play the game.

Note: While modifiers are always either integers or floating points numbers, the UI regularly represents them as percentage values.

Purpose

Imperator: Rome is a paint-the-map type of game: there is a map, and it is divided into many sub-entities called cities (which are grouped into regions and regions are grouped into areas). Cities belonging to the same state are all printed in the same predefined color (in the political map mode).

To conquer more cities, you wage war, and you wage war by pushing your legions across the map. Besides pushing your legions (and fleets) across the map, the game faces you with decisions, most of these decisions unlock or alter modifiers into the base terms to calculate end values. The higher the end values, the more troops you can afford.

In order to really play Imperator: Rome, as opposed to simply pushing buttons without fully understanding the implications, the player need to know the exact terms which are used to calculate all of the relevant end values, so that he can make the decisions, which maximize these values.

Abstract example

The default term used to calculate some end value may be:

base_value1 + base_value2 = end_value

Then the game designers simply invent/define some modifiers:

(base_value1 × modifier1 × modifier2 + base_value2 + modifier3) × modifier4 = end_value

Concrete examples

Building: Training Camp

One pop belonging to the Freemen-social class generates 10 Manpower per day. In case there is a building of the type Training Camp, a modifier of +10% is added to the term which calculates the total generates in that city. The term might look like:

 per month (of one city) = # of  × 10 × modifier_average_happiness × (1 + (# of Training Camp × 0.1) × other_modifiers

Military tradition

Unlocking the Military tradition "Triarii" for 800 adds a modifier of +15% offense to all Heavy infantry-type cohorts.

Slave pops required to produce one additional trade good

The base value defaults to 15 or 13 for the fields terrain type. The Government type and Laws can give -1 to +2 to this value. Thus the number varies between a minimum of 12 and a maximum of 17.

Basic terms in Imperator: Rome

Monthly income

The term to calculate the monthly income of a state might look something like the following:

[math]\displaystyle{ \text{Monthly income} = \left( \text{Total Taxes}\, +\, \text{Total Commerce} \right)\, -\, \text{Expenditures} }[/math]

• Total Taxes = total sum of taxes generated in each city × (1 + modifier_government + modifier_ruler_faction + modifier_ruler_attributes + modifier_ruler_traits + modifer_national_ideas + …)
  • taxes generated in one city = ((# of slave-pops) × 0.03) × modifier_average_happiness × (1 + modifier_building + modifier_event_1 + modifier_event_2 + modifier_capital_city + modifier_capital_province + modifier_capital_area + modifier_province_policy + modifier_governor + …)

Note that is it full of modifiers, most of which can be influenced by player decisions. Some can be changed at any time, some need to be unlocked first. Some of the unlockable ones become available more or less automatically, if just enough time has passed, some need to be worked towards deliberately.