Citizen of Rome - Dynasty Ascendant

I love this game, it is possible to get quite invested if you have an imagination. I played a family for over 1000 years, and while the game does little in the way of evolution, you can do this yourself. Notably, whenever I had a character excel I changed the family name in honor of them to carry on the memory. At one point a character died unexpectedly but left a large fortune to a 1yo child. That child became a military tribune. This was all because of a strong man some generations back who made a fortune in the games, and he was set up by another few generations back by a mystic which high intelligence.

All the same, though, I wrote down some things I noticed after this 1000 year long campaign:
--I never once saw a 'brilliant' or 'attractive' modifier on any character
--with 60% chance of doing well in an archery competition, I will only do 'ok', and be so stressed about that fact for 15 years that I die young. Opportunities to get rid of stress are random, which is incredibly frustrating.
--I've gotten a good outcome from sending voters to the theatre maybe 3 times. Why blame me?
--Inheritance is wasted without stewardship. I can max have 90k, fine, then don't give me 300k and give me no where to put it. It just disappears. Add banks?
--Military achievements? I have 7 or so generations of military tribunes and nothing happened.
--More prestigious education amounts to nothing aside from family prestige and personal influence, which degrades so quickly and is only useful in extremely limited circumstances.
--In fact, I have no idea what family prestige is for other than achievements.

Please, PLEASE, add save files! I had to delete this 1000 year long line just to do sandbox mode.

***2023 Update***

Over time, the developers have made many updates to this game, and I feel like I can wholeheartedly recommend it in its current state if you want what it has to offer. This game isn't the game to get if you want to sit down and have a 8 hour gaming marathon. It's the game to get if you want an enjoyable experience that's quick to pick up and put down for small bits of time.

Current thoughts:

- While the events can still get repetitive, there have been many more added. The repetition doesn't ruin the game, as part of the game has become learning the events and playing the bonus's they give correctly for where you are in the game.

- Throughout the games development, balance seems to have been tweaked so that you can make semi-consistent upward progress despite children. You might have a streak of bad luck that takes your family back to the beginning, but you can always recover.

- After the most recent update, my last 5 characters have died early from sudden illness. While before, I had characters regularly live until there 60s, since the update I have not had one get out of their 40s/early 50s. With shorter life spans, it's much harder to be successful in the game as your heir is still in school or an apprenticeship.

- In the end game, finances are not much of a threat, but it's still interesting to watch how your family plays out for awhile. The randomness of the game starts to create a bit of a family story, even where other story elements, like events, are missing.


***Past Review, 2019***

This is one of these games where I wish we had a neutral button. It seems good for a few hours of entertainment, but not much more. Value those few hours by yourself against the price, personally I'd say it's worth it on sale but not at full price.

Suggestions for developer:
- Right now everything is very repetitive. There aren't any (or many) events beyond a childs birth and roman holidays. The holidays happen every year, meaning seeing the same text and clicking on the same things over and over again. We need more events or event variants.

- At the moment you split all your money and property between all your kids. If you have five kids and 1 million dollars worth of property it will be fractured on your characters death. I get that it could be a way to balance so the player doesnt get to much money. The issue with that 'balance' is it doesn't prevent the player from getting a lot of resources, but it can get annoying.

- End game content is lacking- once you reach the last level of social standing you can no longer get the most expensive investments in the game so you end up quickly amassing huge amounts of the lower level investments. It starts to feel meaningless. When you make 30k a month there is nothing you can buy that you would have to save up for. There's also no reason to get more money once you get to that point except getting more stuff to split among your kids.

- Political offices- perhaps I am missing something but it seems that you can have good stats and spend over 200k on trying to get into a political office, and still not get enough votes. The next year you can spend less with the same stats and get in. Again, unless I'm missing something it seems very luck based.

As I've already said, in its current state it's a shallow game good for a few hours but not much more.

I want to recommend this game, but can't. I'm a huge Roman history buff, and enjoy simulation games of this type. Moreover, I was looking forward to the story-building aspect of this game. However, "success" even in a measured way is impossible.

Because you cannot influence your household except in broad non-custom ways, you're restricted to the game, the entire game, being a game of chance. Inheritance is never split equally, resulting in your losing anywhere from 60-90% of your accumulated wealth each time your paterfamilias changes hands. It's impossible to compensate for/play around. And sure, you can build yourself back up...only to fall again, in the same way.

A few things that would make this game playable/worth the price tag to me (right now, it isn't):
1) Allow for reduced cost of trade apprenticeship (-1.20/month) if there is anyone in your current HOUSEHOLD who practices that trade
2) If a member of your household is a Literator, Grammaticus, or Rhetor allow for reduced or comped educational fees
3) Give better visibility into household costs. It's not clear where upkeep comes from or frankly what it even is
4) Give better criminal options/events, up to and including getting rid of members of your own household
5) Give a freelance 'gigs' option for pay when you have characters whose trade is in the arts

Right now this is a game where you will waste hours on a completely RNG based experience - your knowledge, strategy, none of that matter. Needs improvement before that will change, and the above suggestions are just a start to that end.