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

Joined
May 11, 2007
Messages
1,853,653
Location
Belém do Pará, Império do Brasil
List of Barbarian Traditions:
- Washing only once per semester
- Incoherent, violent screams
- The Black Tongue
- Constant Squabbling for ultimately nothing
- Constantly moving to and from rather than settling down in a place and building something like civilized people
- Horrible Smell Aura
- Constant backstabbing
- Animal Skin Clothing
- Killing people to eat them
- Generally being unpleasant
 

M. AQVILA

Arcane
Joined
Jan 6, 2016
Messages
3,717
Location
Galicia–North Portugal Euroregion
List of Barbarian Traditions:
- Washing only once per semester
- Incoherent, violent screams
- The Black Tongue
- Constant Squabbling for ultimately nothing
- Constantly moving to and from rather than settling down in a place and building something like civilized people
- Horrible Smell Aura
- Constant backstabbing
- Killing people to eat them
- Generally being unpleasant

European "barbarians" were not niggers.
 
Joined
May 11, 2007
Messages
1,853,653
Location
Belém do Pará, Império do Brasil
List of Barbarian Traditions:
- Washing only once per semester
- Incoherent, violent screams
- The Black Tongue
- Constant Squabbling for ultimately nothing
- Constantly moving to and from rather than settling down in a place and building something like civilized people
- Horrible Smell Aura
- Constant backstabbing
- Killing people to eat them
- Generally being unpleasant

European "barbarians" were not niggers.

Technically they were snowniggers.
 
Joined
May 8, 2018
Messages
3,535
A really good post. This is what I had in mind when I said classical antiquity was mainly about struggles between various forms of government all based on the idea of citizenship.

To start off briefly I shall provide some personal commentary regarding the dev diary released late last August.

---

Like many of you, I was quite disappointed in discovering that only one consul can be elected. It is quite ahistorical, and from my understanding the only time this was the case was during the Roman Republic where Pompeius Magnus was elected as consul solus (sole consul) in 52 B.C. This obviously however wasn't a normal occurence, and was done during a period of crisis - the reason being as that was seen as the only viable alternative to instead having one of the Triumvirs appointed as dictator. As for 5 year terms of office, I can actually empathise behind this design decision as I've often heard how players complained about the "constant spam" of election messages in Europa Universalis: Rome. I will however get into this in greater detail in the following proposals.

---

Intro

The time period of which the game starts off can be seen as a golden age in the West regarding the development of institutions/systems of government which we know and recognise today. Words such as oligarchy, democracy, republic & dictatorship can trace their origins during the era shortly before and after the start of the game. In my viewpoint, institutional development is one of the least appreciated aspects of the classical period.

Mechanics

Regarding the game as is, Imperator in some respects has shown (albeit to a relatively limited extent) that it is offering players the ability to engage in some level of customisation in determining the direction of (from what we've seen so far) and the development of the Roman Republic (e.g. such as term limits, socio-political reforms as stated in the dev diary mentioned); and from what we can determine - most likely political systems of other nations as well as such as those in Greece.

Personally however, I feel that Paradox may not be sensing what seems to me to be an peculiar opportunity, an opportunity with which to add a signature uniqueness in regard to Imperator's own gameplay - by implementing mechanics that allow players an unprecedented amount of control in determining the development of a nation's institutions and political system. Ideally, players should not be limited to simply determining term limits for offices or enacting social reforms, but also have the ability to determine the more subtle minutiae of government - such as adding or retracting the number of seats in a legislature (e.g. like in say the Roman Senate or Athenian Areopagus/Boule) as well as determining what representation pops of a certain class or cultural group have in the political affairs of state (e.g. which offices are open to different class/cultural groups and what proportion of seats are made available to a particular class).

Another aspect that could be portrayed in the game is the establishment of newer offices, whether they be political, religious (e.g. Pontifex Maximus), judicial and military (e.g. the the office of "Boeotarch" present in Ancient Thebes). For example, at the start of the game (450 BC I believe / EDIT: Scratch that, the game calendar is actually ab urbe condita rather than anno domini, so technically its suppose to be 304 BC according to the gregorian calendar [kudos to LeveeBreak's keen-eyed observation :)], so just ignore any temporal adverbs in the following :oops:) the office of praetor was not yet established in the Early Roman Republic. Rather it was during the time of Camillus, and the period known as the "Conflict of the Orders" (a period of civil strife between the main classes of Roman society - namely the patricians and the plebeians). The office was founded so as to relieve (or delegate/decentralise depending on your point of view) judicial authority away from consuls. This establishment of the praetorship also helped soothe the internecine class conflict of that particular period as the praetorship were open to both patricians as well as plebeians.

As way to throw some obstacles the player's way, it would be prudent to somehow simulate "class conflict" (or "class warfare" if you are of a Marxist persuasion ;)) which was endemic in classical societies such as Athens and Rome. If say a certain class or culture group of pops have a disproportionate amount of representation in terms of offices or legislative seats, this could fuel some degree of unrest among other groups. Another way it could fuel discontent would be if a particular group has a large degree of "clout" but feels that the amount of political representation they have isn't conducive to their actual influence and/or numbers. Unfortunately I am not well versed on this subject in this particular time period, so I encourage any readers if they can spare to time to share what greater insight the may have on the matter.

---

Lastly, although this may not be a particular peeve with most other players, I am of the opinion that "political factions" as shown in the 13th dev diary don't exactly translate the political stances individuals had during the time of the Republic or even classical Athens - I find it to be somewhat crude. Personally, I think the bonuses (and/or maluses) exemplified by "factions" would be better represented by something along the lines of an education trait like the one present in Crusader Kings II. However unlike CKII, such "traits" would occur not by tutelage or upbringing but based to some degree on a character's class and position in society, which for the purposes of this thread I will call "orientation" - whilst also being subject to change depending on political circumstance and opportunity (with the added con of such a person losing whatever progress gained towards a particular level when switching to a different orientation). Figures such as Scipio Africanus and Julius Caesar for example made names for themselves whilst serving in the military whilst the latter also aligned himself with the interests of the plebeians (as well as his own interests but who's to judge :p), whereas Marcus Tullius Cicero made his name as an advocate, defending clients from accusations in the courts, whilst also spending his time dealing with many notable magisterial and civic cases during political career.

Rather, I would instead classify the political makeup of the Senate (and other legislative bodies) along these lines:

  • Conservatives - basically elites, aristocrats and the wealthy who's interests lie in both maintaining as well as expanding their influence and clout; actively seeking to both prevent laws or reforms detrimental to their interests whilst at the same time proactively attempting to diminish the rights of the lower classes whilst accruing further privileges for themselves.
  • Moderates - people who place a particular emphasis in preserving the status quo and most importantly, maintaining stability. This group would be attractive to those of a civic and (to a large degree) mercantile orientation and would become unhappy if unrest is high - the level of which would determine how willing they would be to vote on legislation and/or reforms that may alter the status quo.
  • Populists - those seeking to enfranchise the lower stratas of society (the ones that aren't slaves at least), actively seeking to procure power for themselves by enabling reforms with which to both benefit and/or empower the urban poor at the expense of the landed elite, and whose clout, influence and ability to pursue/procure office is dependant on the support of the lower classes.
Naturally people from the same political "parties" and/or orientation would have a relationship bonus with those who associate along similar lines. However, whereas populists and conservatives would be diametrically opposed to each-other relationship-wise, moderates would (which I find appropriate to their beliefs) have neither a malus or bonus in their relationships with either conservatives or populists (which could act as a unique boon to characters who identify themselves as moderates). Naturally, depending on whether a character voted "yes" or "no" on a particular legislation, characters either supportive or opposed to that legislation would have a temporary malus to their relationship, or permanent if a were to have traits similar to that of Cato the Younger o_O. I am naturally unsure as to everyone's opinions regarding this subject. Therefore, feel free to voice your opinion on this particular point - so to determine whether or not I should put it into the summary and to hear some better input on the matter.

Implementation

Naturally such systems and mechanics would be very difficult for players to manage without the proper supports in place. Therefore it would be wise to implement an extra "UI box" to provide some shortcut for players to help when paying attention to political and internal affairs. Basically something to represent the length and duration of various political terms of office (like a progressing bar and/or percentage number) as well as unrest or "satisfaction" among different classes/culture groups, specifically in regard to political representation and needs.

From my estimation, such systems and features would take months to actually put into the game and even more months just simply developing and refining said ideas into something that can be considered "practical". Considering these obstacles, I'd be content if such ideas were implemented at a later date. As to whether such design ideas should be implemented as a DLC I am not so sure. Of course it would make sense financially in the short-term for Paradox to do so, so as to earn an extra buck. At the same-time if it were to be implemented freely at a later date, it could act as a systemic basis as well as opportunity with which to release other DLC's that more specifically caters to institutions found in particular regions, nations, cultural groups and so-on (like in releasing a future DLC that adds further mechanics and flavour to Classical India or one catered towards representing the unique institutions of Ancient Sparta) - in greater depth.
Summary & Conclusion

To summarise:
  • Greater customisability of political systems and government.
    • Formable offices (political, military, religious and judicial).
    • Adding or retracting the number of seats in legislatures.
    • Determining how many seats, the type and number of offices and which if any offices are open to different pop types (which can be deferentially be based upon a pop's class, culture group and/or geographical delineation)
  • Class conflict.
    • A level of unrest and/or satisfaction among pops dependent on their political (and maybe even economic) representation and laws/reforms that have been passed.
Personally I think there is an opportunity for Imperator to become not only just a new game, but a title unique not only in the setting and time-span it covers, but also in terms of providing unique types of gameplay - gameplay that can take on a far greater variance and style with every playthrough - like whether a player wishes to focus on becoming a conquering expansionist, form an ever wealth-accumulating thalassocracy or seek to establish institutions and forms of government that will stand the test of time (and not come to an abrupt end due to some ambitious dude with a comb-over :D).

Whereas other Paradox titles focused on sophisticated character development and story-lines (CKII), or geopolitical/galactopolitical expansion and colonisation (EUIV and Stellaris), I am of the opinion that Imperator provides some truly fertile ground with which to place its focus on institutions, government and politics - to give players an understanding of how the development of such ideas and systems in the classical era have shaped our modern understanding and relationship with society and politics in general. What are your thoughts?
 
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Hello and welcome to the 17th development diary for Imperator. This time we’ll talk a bit more about characters and how you interact with them

Back in the 7th development diary we talked about Characters for the first time and talked about their attributes, traits and stats. If you haven’t read it yet, I recommend going back to read it HERE.

We did not talk about health in that development diary, except mentioning the fact that one of the categories for traits were health-related. In the original Rome 1 & in the Crusader Kings series, health is a hidden value that the player never sees, which impacts hidden probabilities of when you die.

In Imperator health is a value between 0 and 100, and when it reaches 0, that character dies. Health related traits affects this each month, but don’t expect that a brain-damaged frail leper to have a long life-expectancy.

Holdings is another thing I promised to talk about. Each character can have holdings in one city. A governor picks a city in the province she is governing as where he’ll have his holdings, while a general picks one from the cities he may have conquered. A character with a holding will get income from that city until death, or until otherwise forced to relinquish it.

Income ties into another concept I’d like to touch upon in today’s diary, ie Wealth. Each character have a pool of money that they may use to their own benefit. Characters gain money, if they have an office that pays them, or if they are a governor that can use their corruption to enrich themselves, or if they have holdings.

index.php


So how do you interact with these characters then? Well, Imperator has lots of different ways, besides the normal event interactions like most of our games, we also have the direct character interactions..

Character Interactions usually have costs in power and or gold, and some have different chance of success as well, and in Republics, some of the character interactions require senate approval as well.

  • Appoint Dictator - Can be done on your ruler in a republic when at war or civil war, and it will allow him to do any diplomacy or character interaction without Senate interfering until the end of the war.
  • Assassinate - You can attempt to assassinate a foreign character.
  • Banish - To force a character you have previously imprisoned to leave your country.
  • Bribe - Increases the loyalty of that character.
  • Execute - Permanently move a prisoner to another plane of existence.
  • Free Hands - Increases Loyalty and Corruption if that character is one of your Governors.
  • Hold Games - With a ruler in a republic, you can spend states money to increase the popularity of the current ruler.
  • Imprison - Attempt to relocate someone to a more secure area for future processing.
  • Inspire Disloyalty - Reduces loyalty and increases corruption of a foreign character.
  • Loan - To get money from a wealthy character. They may want it back though.
  • Marry Ruler - If different gender and both ruler and character is unmarried.
  • Recruit - To get a character leave a foreign nation and work for you.
  • Recruit General - Get a disloyal foreign general to leave his nation and join your nation. With his army.
  • Release Prisoner - For bleeding-heart liberals..
  • Repay Loan - Sadly you can’t imprison and execute people you owe money…
  • Sacrifice Prisoner - Some religions allow you to sacrifice prisoners taken in war, making your tribesmen happy and productive, and making it easier to stay tribal.
  • Seek/Stop Treatment - For characters with bad health that you need to live longer or shorter.
  • Seduce Governor - Convincing a foreign governor that it’s far better to officially say they are part of your nation, while they regretfully report that about 105% of all collected taxes were lost due to bad harvests and bandits to your government.
  • Smear Character - To reduce the popularity of a character.

There may be more interactions added through development, and they are 100% created by scriptfiles., and here is an example of the simple Hold Triumph interaction.

Code:
hold_triumph = {

on_other_nation = no
on_own_nation = yes

sound = "event:/SFX/UI/Character/sfx_ui_character_hold_triumph"

potential_trigger = {
hidden:scope:target = {
is_alive = yes
}
}

allowed_trigger = {
hidden:scope:actor = {



can_pay_price = hold_triumph

custom_tooltip = {
text = "TRIUMPH_RECENTLY_HELD"

NOT = { has_variable = triumph_recently_held }
}
}
scope:target = {
is_adult = yes

days_since_last_victory < 720
}
}

effect = {
scope:actor = {
pay_price = hold_triumph

set_variable = {
name = triumph_recently_held
value = 1
days = 365
}

}

scope:target = {
add_loyalty = loyalty_huge
add_popularity = popularity_huge
}
}

}


Stay tuned, there are more things to talk about characters in Imperator, like ambitions and loyalty, but next week we'll go into the Latin Military Traditions.
 
Joined
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Hi everyone and welcome to the eighteenth development diary for Imperator. This time it is we will talk more about the Military Traditions, and delve into another of our Seven Tradition Trees.

To recap from the fifteen diary, there are seven different military traditions in the world, tied to which culture-group you have, and due to the size of the traditions and how they are structured you will see rather different and unique nations.

Military Traditions unlocks unique abilities, unlocks new units and give special bonuses to units.

Each Military Tradition has one bonus they get from the start, and then three different paths they can go down through, where after you have picked the seventh tradition in that path, you’ll get the a special benefit for that as well.

It is not very likely you will get to the end of all paths by the end of the game, so you really have to think about which path you want to progress down through first. One military tradition currently costs 800 military power, and each tradition taken increases the cost by 50%, and each military technology level reduces it by 25%.

This time it is the Italic traditions, which is available to all countries in the Latin culture-group.

They all start with the “Walled City” tradition, which gives +25% to Defensiveness, which basically makes sieges against your fortified cities take 25% longer

The first path of the Italic Traditions is the Tribal Path.
  • Artisanal Bronzework: +15% Light Infantry Defence
  • The Equestrian Order: +15% Light Cavalry Offensive
  • Deus Vult: +15% Omen Power
  • The Acquisition of Wealth: Enables ‘Raid City’
  • The Aulos: +15% Light Infantry Morale
  • Mare Nostrum: -25% Trireme Maintenance Cost
  • Rousing Oratory: +15% Manpower
End bonus for this path is ‘Hill Dwellers’, which gives to +15% Combat Ability to Light Infantry when fighting in Hill Terrain.

The second path of the Italic Traditions is the Support Path.
  • State Navy: +15% Trireme Morale
  • The Fabri: 25% Cheaper Military Buildings
  • Scale the Walls: +15% Siege Ability
  • Castra: Emables ‘Border Forts’
  • Logistics of State: 25% Cheaper Light Infantry, Heavy Infantry, Archers
  • Scutum: +15% Heavy Infantry Defence
  • Foederati: +15% Light Cavalry Discipline
End bonus for this path is ‘Rome, Ascendant’, which makes Holding a Triumph 50% cheaper.

The third path of the Italic Traditions is the Roman Path.
  • Principes: +15% Heavy Infantry Discipline
  • March of the Eagles: +5% Morale Recovery
  • Triarii: +15% Heavy Infantry Offence
  • Roman Roads: Allows ‘Military Roadbuilding’
  • Professional Soldiers: -0.05 Monthly Warexhaustion
  • Velites: +15% Light Infantry Offence
  • The Honor of Service +15% Manpower Recovery
End bonus for this path is ‘Triplex Acies’, which allows a defensive stance for your armies, similar to the Greek Phalanx.

index.php


There are a few abilities mentioned above that needs some more information.

Raid City - This is possible to do when you have taken control over hostile territory, giving you money and manpower, while hurting that province in growth, output and commerce for 5 years.

Border Forts - This creates a colony in an unowned ‘city’ that is adjacent to one of your own cities, adding 1 freeman pop of your culture and a fort for military power.

Military Roadbuilding - The cheapest and fastest way to build roads in the game.

index.php


Next week we’ll be talking about loyalty and civil wars.
 

Nahel

Arcane
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Feb 12, 2015
Messages
862
Basic and boring traditions. Paradox never learns. This is basically Eu4 again.
 
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Reddit said:
I appreciate the post, but

That's a really rough oversimplification.

Well, yeah, you don't say. It's a game, and one focused on Rome, for one. Asking to add all these features and differences between the Gauls and the Germans is unrealistic, at least at launch. Since we know there's going to be a coalition mechanic I simply suggested that this be expanded for tribal nations, or its importance prioritized, against bigger opponents.
 

The Wall

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Hi everyone and welcome to the eighteenth development diary for Imperator. This time it is we will talk more about the Military Traditions, and delve into another of our Seven Tradition Trees.

To recap from the fifteen diary, there are seven different military traditions in the world, tied to which culture-group you have, and due to the size of the traditions and how they are structured you will see rather different and unique nations.

Military Traditions unlocks unique abilities, unlocks new units and give special bonuses to units.

Each Military Tradition has one bonus they get from the start, and then three different paths they can go down through, where after you have picked the seventh tradition in that path, you’ll get the a special benefit for that as well.

It is not very likely you will get to the end of all paths by the end of the game, so you really have to think about which path you want to progress down through first. One military tradition currently costs 800 military power, and each tradition taken increases the cost by 50%, and each military technology level reduces it by 25%.

This time it is the Italic traditions, which is available to all countries in the Latin culture-group.

They all start with the “Walled City” tradition, which gives +25% to Defensiveness, which basically makes sieges against your fortified cities take 25% longer

The first path of the Italic Traditions is the Tribal Path.
  • Artisanal Bronzework: +15% Light Infantry Defence
  • The Equestrian Order: +15% Light Cavalry Offensive
  • Deus Vult: +15% Omen Power
  • The Acquisition of Wealth: Enables ‘Raid City’
  • The Aulos: +15% Light Infantry Morale
  • Mare Nostrum: -25% Trireme Maintenance Cost
  • Rousing Oratory: +15% Manpower
End bonus for this path is ‘Hill Dwellers’, which gives to +15% Combat Ability to Light Infantry when fighting in Hill Terrain.

The second path of the Italic Traditions is the Support Path.
  • State Navy: +15% Trireme Morale
  • The Fabri: 25% Cheaper Military Buildings
  • Scale the Walls: +15% Siege Ability
  • Castra: Emables ‘Border Forts’
  • Logistics of State: 25% Cheaper Light Infantry, Heavy Infantry, Archers
  • Scutum: +15% Heavy Infantry Defence
  • Foederati: +15% Light Cavalry Discipline
End bonus for this path is ‘Rome, Ascendant’, which makes Holding a Triumph 50% cheaper.

The third path of the Italic Traditions is the Roman Path.
  • Principes: +15% Heavy Infantry Discipline
  • March of the Eagles: +5% Morale Recovery
  • Triarii: +15% Heavy Infantry Offence
  • Roman Roads: Allows ‘Military Roadbuilding’
  • Professional Soldiers: -0.05 Monthly Warexhaustion
  • Velites: +15% Light Infantry Offence
  • The Honor of Service +15% Manpower Recovery
End bonus for this path is ‘Triplex Acies’, which allows a defensive stance for your armies, similar to the Greek Phalanx.

index.php


There are a few abilities mentioned above that needs some more information.

Raid City - This is possible to do when you have taken control over hostile territory, giving you money and manpower, while hurting that province in growth, output and commerce for 5 years.

Border Forts - This creates a colony in an unowned ‘city’ that is adjacent to one of your own cities, adding 1 freeman pop of your culture and a fort for military power.

Military Roadbuilding - The cheapest and fastest way to build roads in the game.

index.php


Next week we’ll be talking about loyalty and civil wars.

This is 100% boring and unimaginative. Such a pity. Such a Yawnum Maximus...
 
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May 8, 2018
Messages
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Hi and Welcome to the 19th development diary for Imperator! This time we delve deeper into the concept of Loyalty.

Unrest

So, let’s recap what we mentioned talked briefly about unrest in the 16th development diary, and how unrest in cities affected the loyalty of provinces. Unrest also have two other direct impact, the first is the reduction of commerce, tax, manpower and research from the city, while when it reaches the threshold of 10 unrest, you can no longer recruit regiments in the city, build buildings,or interact with the population.

Unrest is generated through unhappy pops, low stability in your country, war-exhaustion, governors policies and corruption. It can also be reduced by various laws, positive stability and by assigning armies to the local governor.

The happiness of a pop depends on its culture and its religion compared to the country’s religion and culture. Different pop-types also want different civilization levels to be happy, while a tribesman want it as low as possible, the citizens want it rather high. Different laws makes different types of pops more or less happy as well. Access to different goods in the city will also make pops happier.

If a pop has less than 50% happiness, they will contribute to the unrest of the province.

Now let’s talk about loyalty. There is three types of loyalty we’ll talk about today, as the loyalty of subjects is a subject for another diary. (And I just wanted to type that sentence..)

Province Loyalty

Each province have a loyalty value to the country. If it goes down to 0, then that province is basically 100% autonomous and provide nothing to you. They will cancel all trade to other parts of your country and every city will be acting as it had at least 10 unrest.

If enough provinces are disloyal, they will either start an independence war, if the dominant culture is not your primary culture-group, or a civil war if they are of your culture-group.

There are alerts if your provinces are disloyal, or if you risk a civil war or major revolt.

index.php


Cohorts Loyalty

Each cohort in an army can become loyal to a single person. This depends on the charisma of the commander during a battle or a siege.

When a cohort is loyal to a character the country pays less maintenance for it, as the commander of the unit it is loyal to, starts paying the unit him or herself.

There is a slight drawback or two to having cohorts loyal to a character instead of the country, like for example, a cohort that is personally loyal to a character will not allow it to be transferred away from the unit in any way. Also, a character with cohorts loyal to him tend to become more disloyal over time.

Character Loyalty

Characters loyalty to the Country is one of the more interesting aspects to manage, as disloyal characters is a huge risk, as disloyal characters will refuse to abandon their armies or provinces, and if enough are disloyal they will form a block together to form a civil war.

Some forms of government, a few inventions and some ideas increase loyalty of all characters. Giving people titles and offices will increase their loyalty, but removing them decrease their loyalty. Characters of the same faction as the ruler tends to become more loyal over time, while friends and rivals of the ruler will see their loyalty go up and down as well.

When the loyalty of a character is below 33%, that character is considered disloyal.

Civil Wars!

While a major revolt is not different from having a large nation revolt from you in other games, civil wars are dramatically different.

The threat of a Civil Wars will start as soon as either 33% of the army is controlled by a character that is disloyal OR 33% of all provinces are disloyal to the country.

During the threat of a civil war, a small timer ticks up each month, where the civil war will break out after a year. During this time you have an alert so you can see that you have a risk of it. Of course, there are alerts as soon as a single province is disloyal or a general is.

When the Civil War starts, all disloyal characters and provinces will join them.. And possible friends and families as well.

A civil war is a war-to-the-death, where provinces automatically switch owners when you occupy them, and if you lose the civil war, it is basically game over.

And always remember.. Tyranny is not a help when it comes to get loyalty. Sic Semper Tyrannis!
 

thesheeep

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I approve of this EU4+CK2-like direction.
Too bad I never really had much interest in that time period when it comes to grand strategy games.
 
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https://www.gamestar.de/artikel/imperator-rome-exklusiv-gespielt,3335336.html

It's a pretty thorough preview of Imperator, based on hands on experience playing it at Paradox. They appear to have enjoyed their time playing it. Systems work together, characters seem to be meaningful (but family related mechanics are not yet in the game) and loyalty matters and is something that distinctly sets it apart from "just EU4 in Rome"

From this preview it actually seems to be a much more fully articulated game than the dev diaries made it appear to me personally. There are still some things to work on, like family mechanics, trade is a mess without a better UI and probably tons of content and balancing issues.

Not sure if that was already in a dev diary, but apparently you can convert power points at a loss (and money cost), to which the author was apprehensive about, but it's supposed to stay in like that. That was just something new to me.

Kjxrph0.jpg
 

Agame

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I approve of this EU4+CK2-like direction.
Too bad I never really had much interest in that time period when it comes to grand strategy games.

Same, Rome era is my least favourite historical era, dunno why really...

I prefer the pre Rome: Greek, Alexander, Persia stuff, but sadly that is almost never used as a setting for games.
 

Tigranes

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'loyalty matters' is probably the single most important and basic requirement here.
 
Joined
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Hello everyone and welcome to the 20th development diary for Imperator. This time it is almost two development diaries in one. First we’ll talk about governor policies, and then we’ll delve into the north african military traditions.

Governor Policies
Every governor will when he is assigned to a province, select a policy he wants to pursue for his reign. The policy picked depend on the personality of the governor, but also on the setup of the province. Not all policies are necessarily beneficial to you as a player, so you can always overrule what policy the governor should have, but that comes at a cost in loyalty of the governor.

You can of course change policy as many times as you want in a province, as long as the governor is loyal enough before changing it, but a disloyal governor will change it to benefit himself.

Here are the current policies we have in the game.
  • Acquisition of Wealth - Reduces tax and commerce income by about 10% of the province, while enriching the governor.
  • Religious Conversion - Adds some minor unrest, but the governor have a chance to convert the religion of a pop each month, depending on his zeal.
  • Cultural Assimilation - Adds some minor unrest, but the governor have a chance to convert the culture of a pop each month, depending on his finesse.
  • Bleed Them Dry - increases unrest and reduces population growth dramatically, while increasing income from the province, and also give some to the governor.
  • Borderlands - Increases Manpower and Defensiveness of the province.
  • Encourage Trade - Allows another import route to the province and increases commerce income, for a small decrease in loyalty.
  • Social Mobility - Reduces output of citizens by 20%, while there is a chance for the governor to change the type of a pop towards a balance of citizens, slaves & freemen, depending on the governors charisma.
  • Local Autonomy - Increases Happiness of pops, while reducing their output.
  • Civilization Effort - Increase civilization in the province.
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Governor policies are designed to get indirect influence over provinces, while having a trade off, where constantly micro-managing it is not beneficial.

Of course, all are moddable, and you can make as many of these as you’d like.

North African Military Traditions
So, time to take a look at another military tradition tree, and this time the North African one, which is available to the north african & numidian culture groups, and the carthaginian culture.

They all start with the ‘Seafaring People’ tradition which gives 25% cheaper Triremes.

The first path is the ‘’Tribal Path”.
  • Born in the Saddle +15% Light Cavalry Discipline
  • Man and Horse +15% Combat Bonus on Plains for Cavalry
  • Sure-footed, as Wild Horses 25% Cheaper Light Cavalry
  • Wild Charge Enables Cavalry Skirmish Stance
  • Local Knowledge 25% less attrition.
  • Call to Arms +15% Manpower
  • Ululating Cry +15% Light Cavalry Offensive
End bonus for this path is ‘To Each, Their Own’, which gives +10% output from tribesmen.

The second path is the “Naval Path”.
  • Phoenician Heritage +15% Offensive for Triremes
  • Iberian Draft +15% Defensive for Light Infantry
  • Naval Dominance +15% Defensive for Triremes
  • A Life at Sea Allows Repair at Sea ability
  • Noble Warlords +2.5% Loyalty for Generals
  • Imposing Edifices +15% Defensiveness
  • Putting our People to Work -25% Trireme Maintenance
End bonus for this path is ‘Maneuverability Above All’, which gives +15% Discipline for Triremes.

The third path is the “Army Path”.
  • Skilled Recruiters 15% cheaper mercenary maintenance
  • Professional Marines +15% Trireme Morale
  • The Sacred Band +15% Heavy Infantry Discipline
  • Uneasy Relations More Manpower from Subjects
  • The African Elephant +15% Warelephant Discipline
  • Numidian Cavalry 25% Cheaper Heavy Cavalry
  • Devastating Charge +15% Warelephant Morale
End bonus for this path is ‘A Hard Bargain’, which gives 25% cheaper mercenaries to recruit.

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Next week, we’ll talk a bit more about combat!



 

Mark.L.Joy

Prophet
Joined
Sep 11, 2016
Messages
1,278
Ye amazing people still buy into one of the most abhorrent business models around, completely gave up on paradox by the 4th DLC for Crusader Kings.
 

fantadomat

Arcane
Edgy Vatnik Wumao
Joined
Jun 2, 2017
Messages
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Location
Bulgaria
Ye amazing people still buy into one of the most abhorrent business models around, completely gave up on paradox by the 4th DLC for Crusader Kings.
That is because there is no competition....:negative:

If you want grand strategy,they are the only one out there.
 
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