The first temple I included in the game is the Temple of Vesta. For it was supposed to be a small round temple. As it turned out in my research, round temples were rather a rarity in the Roman Empire.
RESEARCH
The temple [Wikipedia article click here] stood on the Roman Forum in Rome. It was rebuilt several times. Therefore, especially the staircase looks different on different views. I have chosen the state of the temple during the Roman Royal period [click here for more information], because the temple looked plainest there, even though the game illustrates the time of the Pax Augusta. I took the floor plan as well as the column arrangement from here [click here].
Although I am not a big fan of Unity Asset Store content, I use a lot of details from the two asset packs Rome Fantasy Pack I and Rome Fantasy Pack II. For the temple, I used the columns from the Asset Pack, because especially the finished columns have very nice capitals.
The Vesta Temple needs seven employees of the Citizen level, as the College of Priestesses consisted of seven Vestals. The Pontifex Maximus – the “guardian” of the vestal virgins – lives in Rome and is therefore not needed on site. In imperial times, the title of Pontifex Maximus was transferred to the current emperor in each case. Later, the Bishop of Rome was then honored with this title. By the way, Gaius Julius Caesar was also once a Pontifex Maximus.
In the game
Religion was an important part of the Roman state and will therefore also have its place in the game. The large marble temples can only be built in the Forum. However, smaller shrines and temple houses can be constructed anywhere in the city. In contrast to the magnificent marble buildings, the small temples will have very little influence.
I know from other ancient city building games that you often had to sacrifice something to god XY in order to receive a reward. But since that bothered me a bit, there will be no such thing in my game Pax Augusta. The temples will have an indirect influence. The more and more magnificent the temples are built, the more religious points you get. At some point, inhabitants from other settlements or even other provinces will travel to your city to pay homage to certain deities. These will fill the inns and thus boost the economy.
