I think it’s a fair change, though be sure to add opportunities to decrease the suspicion as well. Raising a child happens to be a rather long and involved process, and the Prefect has been doing so, and suspected to be the Empress’ lover, for over a decade at this point. Unless there was some method of dispelling rumors, the stat at the beginning of the game should start out at 100. Any Roman emperor would be shaking their head at how easy the Prefect and Julia are making it to connect the dots.
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There will be, I might adjust some outcomes later. Generally the colder, less affectionate and more removed from Augusta you are, the less people will suspect.
The fact that the stat can only start so high after 13 years I have to concede is a gameplay necessity however, it would be a bit unfair to make a challenge out of hiding Augusta’s parentage and have you lose it immediately based off appearance alone. Not to mention that it’s also about making people bold enough to whisper the truth, not just think it.
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Funny is that Julia acknowledges this, basically saying at a certain point in Chapter III to a worried Prefect “Oh, please, everyone knows what we are doing.” It’s pretty much an open secret and she doesn’t care. I assume she believes she can intimidate anyone who doesn’t play along with the charade that is her and Titus’ marriage. Which, to be fair, seems to have worked for the last decade or so.
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On a more effusive note, I think the rebalanced imperial favor gives Julia more personality. Before, she seemed to reward you for competence regardless in what field that competence was in. But now, a soldier/tax background or high warfare/subterfuge prefect makes it substantially easier to garner her favor. I always did find it a little strange that someone as headstrong and bold as Julia wouldn’t have preferences for certain types of prefects over the others, especially ones that mesh with her militaristic temperament. I wouldn’t mind a similar concept for the other ROs.
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This exists to an extent already though I do plan on expanding as these romances start to really play out. A high scholarship character (and Sorceress, though this does depend on your choices more carefully) will do well with Darius, same for a Subterfuge (or treasury background) with Ceto, high Rhetoric with Consentia and high Warfare with Antonius also should help.
I wanted to clarify this a bit. Julia’s point is fairly reasonable from her perspective. Empresses having affairs is far from unheard of, especially considering many marry for political reasons. So it’s an open secret at this point, though obviously it’s not something that people talk about in polite company since Julia is not the kind of ruler who tolerates people questioning her much.
However, having a child with another person altogether is far more controversial, bastardry is condemned in a society where so much aristocratic power flows from bloodright, after all. It’s actually even worse for Augusta, however, because so much of her legitimacy as a future ruler (and the legitimacy Julia used to take the throne) comes from her continuation of the Galerian dynasty which ruled for 110 years before Julia ascended the throne. It’s the status quo everyone knows.
Now, what would happen if people were to suspect elsewise? Or go from suspicion to knowledge?
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Wait, there is an illegitimacy stat for Augusta?
Legitimacy resulting from long-lived dynasties is certainly a very strong factor. Most of the examples I know of come from the ever byzantine Byzantine politics.
We got Irene of Athens having her legitimacy originate from her links to the Isaurian dynasty ( marriage to Leo IV and being the mother of Constantine VI). Then a more ambigous case is that of Leo VI (maybe he was an illegitimate child of Michael III and hence a continuation of the Amorian dynasty).
Then we have Constantine VII and his absolutely fascining Co-Emperorship (for 24 years!) with his usurper Romanus I, who might or might have not considered killing the young Constantine but perhaps was afraid of the people’s wrath if the heir of the Macedonian dynasty was murdered .
Of course, Basil II himself was co-emperor with two different persons, who, despite their great achievements, didn’t dare to kill the Macedonian heir.
And, of course, then we have the various Emperors that were legitimised by their marriage to the childless Macedonian princess Zoe Porphyrogenita (by far one of the most frustrating and tragic ends, that of the Macedonian dynasty; thanks Basil).
Anyhow, that goes to show that back in the day the older your dynasty was the harder it was for the people to justify getting rid of you. If you were the heir of an illustrious heritage and you didn’t make a mess of your reign (like Constantine VI), then you could be a completely meh ruler and go on with your reign peacefully. Inertia is a strong thing in monarchies.
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Would it be possible in a future update for an MC with very high stats to pretend to lose in a way that gains the Empress’s respect? An MC who wants power based on a good relationship with the empress would probably like this option, I admit, I like the idea of the MC pretending to lose even though he is superior in this regard 
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Tried playing as a sorceress who is a friend to the Empress, guides her daughter to be an independent and good ruler and does everything in her hand to keep the Empire going. My Empire stats were good but my Imperial favour, well…
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So my high economics stat is just good for thankless public service… sigh. I should have known spreadsheets aren’t exactly RO magnets.
Also,. you’re telling me that my Treasury background best fits with Ms. Discount Robin Hood? Insert Darth Vader “noooo” here.
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Yes. If Augusta is not the MC’s child, it has no effect. If it does, then the illegitimacy stat is derived from a number of places, such as how greatly your character’s appearance deviates from Julia and Titus, how close of a relationship you have with Augusta, and how you talk about her to other people.
This actually makes a lot of sense to have, so I’ll put it in.
You can only make so many people happy, unfortunately. There’s always a give and take in this game.
Economics is very important for Empire stats and other choices, so I feel it balances out well enough.
Sort of, I was more listing the ROs where the MC’s background makes a difference in the relationship. You can play your treasurer as a dutiful public servant, or a greedy corrupt official, in which case you get a significant boost to your relationship with Ceto and some different dialogue as a corrupt official would have had plenty of dealings with her before.
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Unless…
Never say never, my friend. Mark my words, there will come a day when a RO will go head over heels for a MC who does spreadsheets for a living.
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I see, I have been missing out on the fun get another disadvantage path. Must deviate as much as possible from both Titus and Julia now.
I feel like rhetoric and economics are the best skills for empire (which makes perfect sense, but it’s uncommon in games for MCs to become accountants)
It’s two skills for me, you can save training time to do other stuff instead
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This has probably been answered before, but if my male MC wanted to learn Magic, would he have to have a good Scholarship? Yes, I know it’s complicated, it’s supposedly impossible for a man to learn Magic, but in a hypothetical scenario, would he need a good Scholarship?
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Yes
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Am I the only one here who doesn’t care about the royal intrigue side of things, and just want to learn about the old world? Screw running a country, time to dig up the AI goddess from the ruins with my bro Darius.
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Don’t know if this has been seen already by others but I found it to be impossible to achieve getting a 50 relationship with Augusta before returning her to her chambers. Even after all the options that give relationship points have been chosen already after looking into the code
*if augusta_rel > 50
Before she disappears behind the cordon of guards protecting the door, she dives in to give you a tight hug. “That was a lot of fun, $!{name}!” She smiles.
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Alright, I went on a bit of a typo-finding spree here, so you’ll forgive the bazillion screenshots. They contain all typos I could catch in the first four scenes of Chapter 1 (so it includes the library Augusta scene but not the yard one), separated by file. Hopefully I’ll do the other ones at a later juncture, but for now this felt like enough RIP.
ch1
who are believed
double space here
“and you were there to provide it” maybe? Otherwise it gives the impression MC provided more enemies for Julia, which is a fun thought
since then
needs a period, this is present in all ace sexuality choices but the transf one
double space
into the consul
the “if” shouldn’t be capitalised
a pauper empire
double space
on her mind to prioritize her child
ch1augusta0
needs a period after Co-Empress, this is present in the warm_welcome and cordial_welcome labels but not in the cold_welcome one
double space(s)
repeated “the”
ch1augusta_throne
needs finishing quotation marks
these words are in inverse order
repeated “with”
the senator is taken aback
ch1augusta_library
before turning back to you
needs a period after “knowledge”
while the Empress
a personal history
the comma should be outside the quotations–also, “mean time” should be written together
double space
together by following, without the with
you could sit on the throne
has ever laid
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