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Game News Expeditions: Rome Dev Diary #3 - Story

Infinitron

I post news
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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Tags: Expeditions: Rome; Logic Artists; THQ Nordic

As promised, the third dev diary for Expeditions: Rome is all about story, companions and choices. It goes into a surprising level of detail about the game's plot and premise, which involves your character returning from the Mithridatic Wars in Greece to become a power player in Rome. In addition to your regular companions, you will have to manage a praetorian guard consisting of Expeditions: Conquistador-style characters with systems-driven personalities.

The story of Expeditions: Rome is built on three major pillars: its authentic historical setting, deep and compelling characters each with their own personality and agenda, and the choice and consequence that is crucial to the role-playing genre. While the historical setting has provided the foundation for our writing, we’ve introduced our own fictional characters to drive the plot forward, and we’ve put great effort into allowing the player to change the course of history in major ways.

To us, history isn’t a set of events that must be experienced the way they actually happened, but rather a backdrop for a complex plot that may borrow countless elements from history but must not be limited by it.

The historical backdrop of Expeditions: Rome is, as the name suggests, Ancient Rome – specifically the late Republic, somewhere around the middle of the first century BC. You will be cast in the role of the scion of a patrician family, who are forced to flee Rome when your father dies. Joining the Mithridatic Wars in Greece, led by the Consul of Rome, who happens to be a friend of your family, you quickly rise through the ranks thanks to your military talent and the favour of your powerful patron.

As your victory draws near, you will be faced with a momentous choice: secure the evidence you need to take your rivals to trial before the Senate or strike a decisive blow in the war effort that will save the lives of many Roman legionarii. This is just the first of the major choices you will be faced with in the game, which will keep branching the plot and affecting scenes throughout the rest of our story.

After the war, you return to Rome to regain control of your family and property. Rome is where you really get to see the effects of your war-time choices, and as the story skips forward in time, the long-term consequences become clear. You will soon find that you have made a powerful and dangerous enemy in a Senator by the name of Vitellius Lurco.

This leads us naturally into our second story pillar: the fictional characters we have introduced to drive the plot forward. Vitellius Lurco – your primary antagonist in Rome – is not a real person, but represents an amalgam of many different real-world people who lived at the time. He is a ruthlessly ambitious and frighteningly intelligent man with great plans for the Republic… plans that you are standing in the way of. As our plot begins to diverge more and more from historical events, these changes are driven by his schemes, your own reactions to them, the influence of your friends on those reactions, and the choices you make along the way.

A word on those friends. Expeditions: Rome is a party-based RPG, meaning you do not go into combat alone – you fight alongside a group of companions, each of whom has his or her own reason for following you. This is a motley crew, ranging from your old family servant and mentor Syneros, over the freed gladiator slave Bestia Tabat, to the Scythian amazon warrior Deianeira. Every companion has their own part to play in the main story, and they all have their own personal quest to deal with. Sometimes you even get to play as them! And, yes, as many of you have asked: you will have the opportunity to form a romantic relationship with most of them.

In addition to these companions, which are critical story characters who stand by your side through thick and thin across the entire span of the story, you will need to recruit legionarii from your legion to fill out your praetorian guard. These praetorians are mainly used in randomised pacification missions where leadership must be delegated to one of your companions (as a legatus, you do not have time to handle every little thing yourself), but they are not just filler – as in previous Expeditions games, every character in your party has a set of personality traits that determines how they feel about your decisions.

A Conciliatory character approves of peaceful overtures but responds poorly to aggressive actions. A Hedonistic follower wants you to make time for recreation and revelry and objects when you fail to make time for such needs. The Approval of each praetorian determines their morale in combat, meaning disapproving praetorians may disobey you or be more likely to panic when things go poorly. If you manage to anger a praetorian enough, they will eventually leave you – and the manner in which they leave will depend again on their personality traits. But don’t worry, your closest companions at least will never leave your side, no matter how gravely they disapprove of your actions.

Approval is just one of the many ways – large and small – that your choices influence the direction of the story and even of the gameplay. As we set about realising our vision for this grand, sweeping story of Expeditions: Rome, opportunities kept presenting themselves to let you, the player, decide the fates of major characters or the outcomes of missions. To us, the most important thing is that these choices should feel organic rather than contrived, and that they should have major consequences and knock-on effects, both clearly sign-posted and unforeseen. Some choices may seem small and insignificant at first, but then come back to haunt you in surprising ways later.

If this seems intimidating to you, rest assured that there is no wrong choice in Expeditions: Rome. There are no perfect endings, nor are there any entirely bad ones. For every character you make an enemy of, another will join your side. We encourage you to make decisions based on what kind of character you want to play, and then see how the story reacts to that and unfolds before you.

We hope this has given you some insight into what kind of story we’ve created for you in Expeditions: Rome, and that you’re excited to see what kind of mark you can make on this fascinating corner of history we’ve carved out for you. In a later DevDiary, we’ll go into more detail about the characters you’ll fight besides in Expeditions: Rome, and if you’ll join us for our DevStreams, you’ll gain even more insight into the process of creating this expansive RPG and how we’ve brought our world and our characters to life.
As before, Logic Artists plan to follow this up with a dev stream that will air on June 23rd. The next dev diary will be about the game's visual style and is scheduled for July 5th.
 

Sentinel

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152757.jpg
 

jac8awol

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Your party will consist of: creepy uncle servant guy, freed slave noble savage, and girl power pandering attempt. We know how much you want to play as them! And don't forget, all of them are romanceable!

I feel sick.
 

Roguey

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"I can't believe they have women in the party just like every other party-based RPG in existence"

A key sentence is

To us, history isn’t a set of events that must be experienced the way they actually happened, but rather a backdrop for a complex plot that may borrow countless elements from history but must not be limited by it.
 

The_Mask

Just like Yves, I chase tales.
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Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I helped put crap in Monomyth
It's a bit sad that Infinitron's post couldn't include the art they showcased related to the game. I'm enjoying it. It's not offensive, for just proof of concept.

Let me see if I can add them up...

01_T_OutpostBuilding_Barracks.jpg.d7b5d4127e8c3136f0ab4bff04f9f749.jpg

02_Rome_Battle_Event_Illustration_Divide_And_Conquer.jpg.4254b2c4cf7430d395bcbd39323fb11b.jpg

03_Rome_Concept_Plaza.jpg.f5b54222234cfdebae97c518a00bdf90.jpg
04_Rome_Praetorians_Finals.jpg.45e7d7276e3c6372d56e199a85d7b5b9.jpg
05_Rome_Battle_Event_Illustration_Show_Mercy.jpg.a1a7c2b19e7b78296d93b7e333235357.jpg
06_Nasamones_Region_Concept_01.jpg.aa377efc38a9351839c10b22e4c9cfe1.jpg


There we go. Looks like it worked. :)
 

Roguey

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All right you know I would have happily accepted the presence of brown Romans given the empire's presence in North Africa but I am fed up with the WE nonsense.
 

Dr Schultz

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492
WE

don't expect me to give a shit about your "historical" game if you throw any pretense of historical accuracy out the window to pander to modern sensibilities, btw. You took the selling point of your game and stomped on it.

04_Rome_Praetorians_Finals.jpg.45e7d7276e3c6372d56e199a85d7b5b9.jpg


:hmmm:

Furthermore, I consider that Infinitron must be banned.
These are the guys that made Expeditions: Conquistador? What the fuck happened?



:hmmm:

Furthermore, I consider that Infinitron must be banned.
These are the guys that made Expeditions: Conquistador? What the fuck happened?

Aside for the name "praetorians", there is nothing inherently inaccurate in this picture: Scythian women were known as fierce warriors since Herodotus and people from all provinces/vassal states were conscripted in the Roman army. Actually, the Roman army was in constant need of cannon fodder and didn't desciminate at all about its origin.

As a matter of fact, a Conquistador woman in the early XVI century was 10 time more cringy than this picture for a History buff.
 
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Dr Schultz

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And - as far as I know - Numidian were black
ok well lets compare your encyclopedic knowledge to an actual encyclopedia
https://www.britannica.com/place/Numidia
They were physically indistinguishable from the other indigenous inhabitants of early North Africa and, at the end of the Roman Empire, were often categorized as Berbers.


Except that people ranged from full black to middle brown even in Egypt at the time and - more importantly - Romans didn't give a fuck.

The only important difference for them was between Romans(+ Greeks) and barbarians, inferior by definition, no matter the origin.
 
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Except that people ranged from full black to middle brown even in Egypt at the time and - more importantly - Romans didn't give a fuck.
do you have some PROOOOOFS of this claim?
How come north africa is the one magical exception where people of all colors lived together? Maybe because it just happens to fulfill some western libtard fantasy of a multicultural mecca that never existed?

The only important difference for them was between Roman (+ Greek) and barbarians, inferior by definition, no matter the origin.
This is such a childish view that I can't believe people really support it. Do you really believe some of the smartest men to ever live believed solely in an "us vs them" paradigm with no other external distinctions?

Livy said:
The Macedonians who occupy Alexandria, Seleucia, Babylonia and their other colonies throughout the world, have degenerated into Syrians and Parthians and Egyptians. Massilia, situated amongst Gauls, has contracted something of the temperament of its neighbours. How much of the rough and stern discipline of Sparta has survived amongst the Tarentines? Everything grows most vigorously in its own home; when planted in an alien soil its nature changes and it deteriorates into that from which it gets its subsistence. As in the battle with Antiochus you slew the Phrygians in spite of their heavy Gaulish arms, so you will slay them now, you the victors, they the vanquished. I am more afraid of our gaining too little glory in this war than of gaining too much. Antiochus has often routed and scattered them. Do not imagine that it is only wild beasts which preserve their ferocity when newly-captured but after being fed for some time at the hands of men grow tame. Nature works in the same way in softening the savagery of men. Do you suppose that these men are the same as their fathers and grandfathers were? Driven from their home by want of room they wandered across the rugged coast of Illyria, and after traversing the whole length of Paeonia and Thrace and fighting their way through warlike nations took possession of these countries. After becoming hardened and savage by all they had to go through, they have found a home in a land which makes them fat with bountiful supplies of every kind. All the ferocity which they brought with them has been tamed by a most fertile soil, a most genial climate and the gentle character of the people amongst whom they have settled. You, sons of Mars, believe me, will have to be on your guard against the attractions of Asia and shun them from the very first; such power have the pleasures of other lands to weaken and destroy your energies, so easily can the habits and practices of the people round you affect you. It is, however, fortunate for us that though they cannot oppose you with anything like the strength they once could, they still enjoy their former reputation amongst the Greeks. You will therefore gain as much credit with our allies in conquering as if the Gauls you defeat had retained all the courage of old days.

Environmental determinism -- which was widely accepted as far back as On Airs, Waters, Places in 500BC -- directly opposes this school of thought.
 

Dr Schultz

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Except that people ranged from full black to middle brown even in Egypt at the time and - more importantly - Romans didn't give a fuck.
do you have some PROOOOOFS of this claim?

I would gladly post a speech on this topic performed by Alessandro Barbero, one of the major living Italian historian, except this speech is in Italian.

Barbero is mostly a middle-ages expert but he is also a military historian, which wrote extensively about the Battle of Adrianopoly and its causes.

It goes without saying that he doesn't give a fuck about American's projections of their problems on ancient history. As a matter of fact, he constantly laughs about that. But he ended up answering this specific question during an interview.


How come north africa is the one magical exception where people of all colors lived together? Maybe because it just happens to fulfill some western libtard fantasy of a multicultural mecca that never existed?

No, because in the ancient world there was this magic thing called "trade". You know? Goods, men and women (willingly or unwillingly) moved constantly inside the empire and from/to the empire and its neighbors. Depending the period you could have even Indians living in the city of Rome. A multicultural hub of 1 million inhabitants, tragic as it may sound to your purist ears XD.

The only important difference for them was between Roman (+ Greek) and barbarians, inferior by definition, no matter the origin.
This is such a childish view that I can't believe people really support it. Do you really believe some of the smartest men to ever live believed solely in an "us vs them" paradigm with no other external distinctions?

The Macedonians who occupy Alexandria, Seleucia, Babylonia and their other colonies throughout the world, have degenerated into Syrians and Parthians and Egyptians. Massilia, situated amongst Gauls, has contracted something of the temperament of its neighbours. How much of the rough and stern discipline of Sparta has survived amongst the Tarentines? Everything grows most vigorously in its own home; when planted in an alien soil its nature changes and it deteriorates into that from which it gets its subsistence. As in the battle with Antiochus you slew the Phrygians in spite of their heavy Gaulish arms, so you will slay them now, you the victors, they the vanquished. I am more afraid of our gaining too little glory in this war than of gaining too much. Antiochus has often routed and scattered them. Do not imagine that it is only wild beasts which preserve their ferocity when newly-captured but after being fed for some time at the hands of men grow tame. Nature works in the same way in softening the savagery of men. Do you suppose that these men are the same as their fathers and grandfathers were? Driven from their home by want of room they wandered across the rugged coast of Illyria, and after traversing the whole length of Paeonia and Thrace and fighting their way through warlike nations took possession of these countries. After becoming hardened and savage by all they had to go through, they have found a home in a land which makes them fat with bountiful supplies of every kind. All the ferocity which they brought with them has been tamed by a most fertile soil, a most genial climate and the gentle character of the people amongst whom they have settled. You, sons of Mars, believe me, will have to be on your guard against the attractions of Asia and shun them from the very first; such power have the pleasures of other lands to weaken and destroy your energies, so easily can the habits and practices of the people round you affect you. It is, however, fortunate for us that though they cannot oppose you with anything like the strength they once could, they still enjoy their former reputation amongst the Greeks. You will therefore gain as much credit with our allies in conquering as if the Gauls you defeat had retained all the courage of old days

Environmental determinism -- which was widely accepted as far back as On Airs, Waters, Places in 500BC -- directly opposes this school of thought.

Ok, I will elaborate a little further. The "Environmental determinism" of the ancient Romans is an elaborate theory that states what follows: We are the best because we live in a temperate area. The Northerners are dumb but brave because of the cold climate, the Southerners are smart but coward because of the warm climate, we are the perfect middle ground hence we are destined to rule the world.
 
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I would gladly post a spoke on this topic performed by Alessandro Barbero, one of the major living Italian historian, except this spoke is in Italian.

Barbero is mostly a middle-age expert but he is also a military historian, which wrote extensively about the Battle of Adrianopoly and its causes.

It goes without saying that he doesn't give a fuck about American's projections of their problems on ancient history. As a matter of fact, he constantly laughs about that. But he ended up ansewering this specif question during an interview.

muh appeal to authority
lol get fucked
 

Dr Schultz

Augur
Joined
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Messages
492
I would gladly post a spoke on this topic performed by Alessandro Barbero, one of the major living Italian historian, except this spoke is in Italian.

Barbero is mostly a middle-age expert but he is also a military historian, which wrote extensively about the Battle of Adrianopoly and its causes.

It goes without saying that he doesn't give a fuck about American's projections of their problems on ancient history. As a matter of fact, he constantly laughs about that. But he ended up ansewering this specif question during an interview.

muh appeal to authority
lol get fucked

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alessandro_Barbero


The question wasn't made during an interview but during a documentary.
Enjoy, around min 22 you will find his answer. Maybe you can understand it.
 

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