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Grand Strategy Imperator: Rome - the new grand strategy from Paradox

Agame

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So really there's just two options: Either what Paradox does is not easy to do, or there is a plague of incompetence. Or third option, which is both.

I think you are correct its hard to make a good strategy game compared to a FPS or whatever, but another important point is the market for strategy games is probably tiny compared to other game genres, which is partly to blame for no one bothering to make them, and then Paradox, Firaxis etc pretty much control this niche area so good luck competing.
 

fantadomat

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The general problem is that the competition just doesn't show up. Supreme Ruler as mentioned is a huge mess, and there's one very important point to its mess-ness that shows WHY Paradox has such dominance over the grand strategy market: There's fuck-all the average player can do to fix Supreme Ruler the way they'd wish to, made worse by how overdesigned the game is. The accessibility of modding with Paradox titles is a HUGE advantage they have, and this focus on accessible personalization of the user experience also shows in how the games and DLCs are structured: For all the usual complaints that they are doing something too simple, the whole idea is that the mechanics are there to be modded so if someone gets a raging erection over overdetailed production and tech trees they totally can do that.

Another thing sort of related to the modding aspect is that Paradox effectively TRIED to create competition when they had their phase of trying to fund modders-turned-studios games... Which turned to be a losing prospect all the way through because East vs West bungled its priorities and resource allocation and Magna Mundi was doomed to fail because the mod is haphazardly overdesigned shit too and Ubik gonna Ubik. So really there's just two options: Either what Paradox does is not easy to do, or there is a plague of incompetence. Or third option, which is both.
The biggest problem for making such game is the engine. Paradox had ironed their engine with a lot of years making games with it and upgrading it. The quantity of back calculations and AI choices is impressive. You can't do that shit with unity or unreal. Modding has shown that people could make whole different games if they have access to their engine,just look at kaiserraich or warhammer mods. Most people don't get how hard is to make such an engine and AI. It will be huge investment to make such engine.
 

fantadomat

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What makes you think that the Bulgars are your people? Most Bulgarians are a mix of ancestries but Bulgar blood is hardly recognizable.
That is why i am down :) The modern mix is pretty much missing,i could play as Slav,Thracian or Tengri Bulgar. Maybe is should burn Rome with Volga Bulgaria in my first game. Also in modern day Bulgaria the old blood is pretty recognisable.
 
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Dev Diary #1 said:
Hello everyone and welcome to the first development diary for Imperator: Rome! Each monday until release, except when the team is on holiday, we’ll be giving you a development diary!

Today we’ll be talking about the vision for this game. We have often talked about how close we are with the community, but this is the first game we have made where a post from a forum-member is quoted at the top of our Game Design.

The balance between CK2 and EU4/Vic2 should remain in Rome2. Rome was a fantastic mix between CK1(characters), EU3 (diplomacy, and war) and Vic1(parties, provinces system and population dynamic) and its own feature like barbaric migration and the best civil wars in Paradox games - @Leon_Aditzu https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...e-2-if-it-happens.769694/page-5#post-19193193

This was such a great post describing Rome, so that when we started with Imperator, it was a natural to use.


In this game we’ve wanted to stay true to this vision, while implementing the knowledge we’ve learned in the last decade of making games with better UX and player agency, while increasing the depth and complexity enormously.

There were a few main things with the original that was really bad though, and that we have decided to remove or change.
  • We’re removing characters as envoys, as that was a bad mechanic, and you primarily used to get rid of people.
  • Omens and Religious Prestige were not very fun, and have been changed.
  • Trade was lots of micromanagement, this have been reworked for a more interesting and fun mechanic.

All in all, whenever possible we’ve strived to be adding more depth and complexity to the game, to make this into the ultimate GSG.

Here's a quick look of Iberia!

2018_05_28_2.png


Next week we’ll take a deep look into the map, cities and provinces!
 

Vaarna_Aarne

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I think you are correct its hard to make a good strategy game compared to a FPS or whatever, but another important point is the market for strategy games is probably tiny compared to other game genres, which is partly to blame for no one bothering to make them, and then Paradox, Firaxis etc pretty much control this niche area so good luck competing.
fandatomat put it quite well that Paradox has an extremely good engine in the sense that it works and it's extremely modder-friendly. They've already got a leg-up in that sense. But there is still just that Battlegoat and others just don't put out a product that fully compares.
 

MilesBeyond

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So it kind of seems like they're trying to take toned-down versions of Vicky 2's POP and econ system, CK2's dynasty management, and EU's exploration and expansion, and roll them all together into one game. I don't think there's going to be any middle ground on this one. It's either going to merge those successfully and create one of Paradox's best games that becomes the standard for things to come, or it'll collapse under its own weight and be an unplayable wreck. I think the only outcome that would actually surprise me is if it's mediocre.
 

Vaarna_Aarne

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EU Rome I feel was also kind of a hybrid game, though between CK and EU3, so it is sort of proper.

Also it is greatly disappointing you don't just appoint people you want to get rid of as diplomats. Even if it never worked on Gaius Bulbus (my favourite and most memorable character in EU Rome; or maybe "my" is misleading since most of the effort was put into preventing him from getting anywhere near important positions).
 

Agame

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So it kind of seems like they're trying to take toned-down versions of Vicky 2's POP and econ system, CK2's dynasty management, and EU's exploration and expansion, and roll them all together into one game. I don't think there's going to be any middle ground on this one. It's either going to merge those successfully and create one of Paradox's best games that becomes the standard for things to come, or it'll collapse under its own weight and be an unplayable wreck. I think the only outcome that would actually surprise me is if it's mediocre.

I hope you are right, Stellaris is a monument to tedium and mediocrity, because they took systems like pops from Vic and then hit them with the retardo hammer so it plays like a facebook game. HOI4 also had a lot of streamlining and dumbing down so if this game turns out the same I think I will officially give up on Paradox.
 
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Why are they doing nation-based rather than character, tho? Bummer!

Also just a few hundred years? Must be planning to sell DLCs down the round - push back for Alexander/Diadochi, push forwards for Empire/Barbarians. What's the fun of becoming DA EMPRAH and then game ends?

Or do they have no idea what to do with Christ?
Another possibility is that they want another game for Roman Empire era and beyond.

They do know that most people play the earliest possible starting date, right?

Seems to me the map is going to be pretty much CKII's, but with less of Northern Europe. I bet they plan to add more of the Steppes and China later in DLC, would be rocking to have Xiongnu and whatnot. Ironically, it makes more sense to have India in this game than in CKII, where its pretty much "those dudes over there doing whatever" unless you play in the East.

I really hope they include Garamantes in this, its one of most interesting yet less know groups of the time. Also, Meroe.
 
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But what's the fun of continuing the game? If it's about competing states and nations, then once you've become the empire, what more can you hope to accomplish?

- Conquest of Caledonia
- Roman Ireland
- Roman Africa
- Breaking the Parthians like a twig
- Taking over Germany
- Taking some distant OPM and then watching when the Gotterdamerung crashes into your empire and takes it down like so many dominoes falling into each other
 
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Dev Diary #2 said:
Hello everyone, and welcome to the second development diary for Imperator! This time we’ll talk about our map!

This is arguably the biggest and most detailed map we have had made for a game ever. More is not always better though, as of which the original release of HoI3 is a great example. We have taken good care into making a game where you can have interesting situations both while playing a small state, and while playing a vast empire.

In various games before, we’ve worked with organising entities on the maps in various ways, with States being groups of provinces tracing back to Vicky1. In Imperator we’ve been designing the game from the ground up with having 2 layers of interaction. The smallest part of a map is what we call a city, which corresponds to about a province in previous games. A city holds a city (or village, or metropolis), a bunch of pops, produces a trade-goods and may have a few buildings. A Province is a group of cities all belonging to the same country. A province is usually about 10 to 12 cities, and this is the entity you interact with to control trade and assign governors to.

Let us quickly compare how Sicily have been depicted in our previous games, as this is where we’ll take a look today.
  • Eu2 had 2 provinces
  • CK2 has 5 provinces.
  • Eu4 has 3 provinces
  • HoI4 has 9 provinces

In Imperator, Sicily has 23 cities (provinces in previous games), and 4 impassable mountain range areas.

This creates a much more interesting military campaign, and also more variety in your peacetime activities.

2018_06_04_6.png


Of course, as you would expect from a game with Rome in its title, we have the entirety of Mare Nostrum covered, but there is far more of the world in the game than just that area. And with those words I’ll hand over the keys to @Arheo & @Trin Tragula , our research team!

One of the major reasons behind our choice of start date, aside from being a particularly interesting period in Roman history, is the state of the successor kingdoms in the east. We’ll go into depth about those in another development diary, however, it is worth noting that many of our decisions to include certain territories were down to their relevance within the hellenistic world, as being fascinating in their own right.

Britain made up a sizeable portion of historical Roman conquests, and played an important part in the tin trade throughout the bronze age, into the iron age. Data on pre-roman Britain is scarce, particularly for the period preceding 150 BC, and some liberties have therefore been taken regarding the extrapolation of tribal territory as known to Caesar.

The inclusion of southern Scandinavia, despite it being the epitome of all modern civilization (enough of that now - Editor), was a calculated decision. Our start date of 304 BC places us during the migration (not to be confused with the Migration Period, which occurred as of the 4th century AD) of the original Germanic tribes from modern-day Scandinavia, into northern and central Germany. The displacement of the native inhabitants (about whom very little is known), and latterly some of the celtic tribes, occurred over the course of the next several hundred years. As with Britain, very little concrete data exists on the exact nature of the locations and names of tribal groupings towards the beginning of this period.

The recorded history of the Ethiopian region extends back far further than our timeline, however, none of the contemporary sources we were able to discover, were particularly detailed regarding location data or political situation. Even now, structures built by the D’mt kingdom around 700 BC still stand, a testament to the advanced civilizations out of which the contemporaries of our start date grew. The Nile has always been the lifeblood of north-eastern africa, and we felt it was worthwhile including as much of it as possible.

The inclusion of the Indian subcontinent is something we considered as vitally necessary to complete the world that was relevant to the Hellenistic era. A state of conflict had already existed for some time between the recently established Mauryan Empire, and Seleucus Nicator, self-proclaimed King, by the time we begin. Greek traders had long-since been visiting west Indian trading ports, trading in fabrics, gemstones and spices, and indeed, many of the ancient names we have for these locations appear also in Greek, or show Greek influence.

Last of all, since we only have one start date, we have wanted to include as many interesting things as possible in it. This means that we have also tried to identify interesting states that can reasonably start as subjects of others, rather than directly owned by governors, both to better cover the political realities of far off regions like northern Anatolia or Judea, and to allow the player the choice of taking over the reins of many unique polities in these regions.

Over the course of development, we have used a great number of sources, texts and maps in order to craft what we believe, is an immersive, living world, which is as close to history as is possible. One invaluable reference tool for our Roman areas which deserves special mention, is the Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire, compiled at Lund University, using data from the Pelagios Project.

Additional sources include (but are far from limited to):
  • The Schwartzberg Historical Atlas of South Asia
  • An Atlas of Ancient Indian History - Habib & Habib
  • Perseus Digital Library
  • Pelagios Project
  • Pleiades Gazetteer
It should be noted that while these have been great resources we have sometimes had to take liberties to create as full a map as possible. As such, any errors are likely to be ours and the reference materials we have used should not be faulted. :)

If there are any significant reference materials you believe might be relevant, we always welcome suggestions from our posters.
 

Vaarna_Aarne

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I would argue that it'd be more ideal to have a state or whatever it'd be called have a single city that acts as the "capital" of the area and then a number of less populated provinces like farmland, forests, and so on surrounding the city.

Impassable terrain is good tho.
 

Space Satan

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Most games will be beating up Cathrage. Rest will be some germanic tribe building up a horde or something like that and sacking Rome.
 

Space Satan

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Marry rich gal, divorce, marry rich gal, divorce, marry rich gal, divorce, marry rich gal, divorce, marry rich gal, divorce.
That would be a nice play given how usual it was for patricians.
 

fantadomat

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Marry rich gal, divorce, marry rich gal, divorce, marry rich gal, divorce, marry rich gal, divorce, marry rich gal, divorce.
That would be a nice play given how usual it was for patricians.
Buahahaha that would have ruined you financially. By Roman law you will be required to return dowry,also there is no shared ownership. In the old times if one wanted to be rich by marriage,he had to stay married. Another thing is that you get to keep all the kids and take care of them. By the end you would have like 20 kids.
 
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Reddit on the Seven Wonders:

I'm pretty sure they won't be in the base game. They're kinda perfect as a DLC. I think that they might be the sorta thing where you have to sink a lot of resources into them and they offer back a bunch of customizable bonuses. We should just be limited to just building the RL wonders. You should be able to build one specific to your nation and its history.

Not everything needs to be a fucking DLC.

Genuinely, what is the problem with expansions? Especially with Paradox titles. What is the actual issue?

I have played 1500 hours of CK2 and have probably spent 200 euros on it. In what world is that expensive? And I am hardly an outlier. Paradox titles are very, very specific. They are not expensive. Pricey, but not expensive

There is no inherant issue with DLC. But what's being suggested here is "this content is better as DLC". Why? Why can't we want monuments to be in the game at launch? Why would we as consumers say that X feature should be DLC before the game is even out?

We can, but look at it this way: Some finite amount of work hours will be spent on the game before release. Not every imaginable feature can be included.

Now, would you rather exclude content that will be hard or impossible (or just inappropriate) to develop and release as DLC, or would you exclude things that are easy to add as DLC?

I addition, I’d argue thet Wonders are not a core feature that is essential to make the game feel complete. So I’d rather they focus on more central features (such as having two Consuls for Rome), and allow me to pay extra for Wonders at a later time.

Honestly 200 for a full game is alot, when you can get plenty of full games for sixty dollars. I have no problem with DLC in itself, but when a bunch of small things that could have easily be included are separated into a ten dollar DLC (looking at you EU4) that adds maybe five new mechanics, it starts to feel a bit ridiculous.

Think of it this way, a lot of 50-60€ games have nowhere near the replayability of PDS games. DLCs give more value to a game you'll play for thousands of hours. If you'll play a new 60€ game for 30 hours, but play each 20€ Paradox DLC for over 100 before the next one comes out adding more stuff (and of course you'll keep using the older one), it's not all that unreasonable.

Of course it's a lot as a lump sum. However, Paradox titles are "thousand hour"-games. Most games aren't. Most games are not even played 100 hours. Hell, most games are not even played 50 hours. And Paradox titles are very, very niche. There is basically nothing similar available.

Is your issue about paying for DLC, period. Or paying for DLC which you feel is not worth it?
 

vota DC

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Looks like the shitty barbarian mechanic from EU: Rome is back! I love when 50% of the map is worthless Terra Incognita colony provinces that spawn annoying rebel armies every few years.

If a country different from Rome will rise that could be really weird: that country won't know nothing about its backyard.
Also why Lusitania is Terra Incognita? Because it will be included in WW1 DLC?

Anyway if you manage to survive with Sparta then you can resurrect the guy that was making Demiurgos path of the Leviathan.
 
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Dev Diary #3 said:
Hello everyone, and welcome back to another development diary for Imperator. This time we’ll talk about the resource system in the game

First of all, we have gold which you gain from tax and trade, and spend on development and military. The second resource is manpower, which is required mostly for building and reinforcing armies.

There are also four other types of resources, which do not scale with growth, but instead act as a great balancing tool against snowballing always being better.

These four resources, are referred to as power. There are four types of power in Imperator, each corresponding to a character attribute . Each with their own use and benefits.

You primarily get power from the quality of your current ruler, but there is also a bonus in monthly power for having your national ideas match the categories your government want ideas in.

military.png
The first power is the Military Power, which represents the ‘Virtus’. This is based primarily of the martial abilities of your ruler. Military power is used to get new military traditions, inspiring devotio, as well as all unique unit abilities.

civic.png
The second power is called Civic Power, which represents ‘Gravitas’, and is based primarily on the finesse attribute of your ruler. You use civic power to get inventions, set up trade routes, and moving your pops about, amongst other things.

oratory.png
The third power is the Oratory Power, which represents the ‘Dignitas’ This is based on the the charisma attribute of your ruler, and you spend this power on Fabricating Claims, Improving Relations, Enacting Laws, Endorsing Parties and many other things where a silver tongue is useful.

religious.png
The fourth and final power is Religious Power, also known as the ‘Pietas’. This is based on the zeal attribute of your ruler. Some of the things you use religious power on is to stab pigs, convert pops and call omens.

Then there is lots more of abilities and interactions, that may or may not use a combination of power to use, but your technology progress is depending on your citizens output, not on your spending of power.

2018_06_11_2.png


Next week we'll take a look at the units of Imperator!
 

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