Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

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

XenomorphII

Prophet
Joined
Jan 23, 2011
Messages
1,198
Trade is modifier acquisition for your capital. Look at the bonuses provided get to +1 in capital for the ones you want, then export from other areas to get an additional modifier. After that ignore except food. Sometimes you need to import it to keep a province growing.
 

Beowulf

Arcane
Joined
Mar 2, 2015
Messages
1,963
LoL tutorials are for retards.

For complex strategy games or simulations a good manual is a must. If you can't provide a manual, you should create an exhaustive tutorial (and I don't mean a tutorial showing how to click on the GUI buttons, but one that explains what does different number on hexes mean, or why and how you set propeller pitch). In games like Gary Grigsby's series knowledge of how much rail track you can repair in two weeks, or how to move your planes to forward bases and not cripple their effectiveness with lack of fuel matters a lot, especially in MP games. Or multiplayer Dominion games.
No tutorial will teach you that, and trying to infer how it works from gameplay alone is a waste of time in most cases. Sure, you'll learn how to play the game, but you'll be missing some crucial information that can make you more effective.

And I never imagined I'll praise the monster that is Slitherine/Matrix known for so long for dubious business practices, but take a look at the FoG and FoG:E. They have easily readable, properly edited manuals, that are updated with every major patch/DLC.
I remember that even for CKII Paradox published pdf docs with major changes to the systems, but didn't update the core.

Ehh, I'm just getting tired of what they are doing.
 

Beowulf

Arcane
Joined
Mar 2, 2015
Messages
1,963
They've all got wikis.

But who is updating them? Fans, or Paradox?
I mean, it's a commendable effort, CK II wiki goes very deep when showing how mechanics work.
But creating such an exhausting source of information takes time, and the one for Imperator seems a little outdated and lacks content in comparison. It's not surprising given the small playerbase and reception at launch.

I'm not complaining that there is a lack of sources to learn the game from, but it shows that Paradox doesn't really care about that.
 
Last edited:

Theodora

Arcane
Patron
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Feb 19, 2020
Messages
4,620
Location
anima Bȳzantiī
They've all got wikis.

Out of date and shit. (In Imperator's case, severely, as the game has changed drastically from launch. The 'beginner's guide' is meaningless.)

Acting edgy and 2good4tutorials feels like a weird way to boast about not having a life. Like Beowulf said, they don't provide any kinda in-depth manual, and until they finally bother to pay someone to maintain the wikis their worth as an alternative is a joke.

So in lack of either of those, I want their games to have tutorials. Not just for me, but when I want to introduce one of my friends to a game I know they'd love, they don't have the 100 hours spare to spend learning the basics of their first Paradox game. When you don't understand something, it's hard to judge it worth spending time on, especially if you've a time consuming job (not everyone has 9-5 hours and can just kick back afterwards). Half my friends are doing PhDs or postdoc work, if I ask Y to check out Imperator, she isn't able to sit down for days between conferences, teaching, research, and whatever fucking else is on that week.

Paradox deserves some shade for wasting hours of my and others' time with unnecessary obfuscation. This isn't a case of ~keeping out the casuals~, it's a case of corporate laziness. Getting back to the start of this: they essentially do rely on the wikis, but they are completely unfit for purpose.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Jan 7, 2012
Messages
14,149
The problem with imperator wiki is that no one plays imperator so no one cares to update the wiki.

Honestly don't see the game as that hard to learn though. If you can't have fun while poking around on different screens figuring things out then I don't know what to tell you. It's not like its competitive 1v1 Starcraft where you die in 2 minutes to early zerglings unless you know a ton of meta shit and a specific build for each map.
 
Joined
May 8, 2018
Messages
3,535
buf62lxw8am41.png


859580_20200313014841_1.png


ZWwW8NzWtoQZmmQ9J8hMNKR5_4VDBlr485hj1WFZL1I.png


3NbITTg7TyKB6hDwoPFWvKyBDP2bL1ImMtlZK5sRHWw.jpg
 

Alexios

Augur
Patron
Joined
Feb 18, 2014
Messages
444
I've put a decent amount of time into Archimedes. Game isn't bad at all right now, just needs maybe another 6-12 months of development before it is a genuinely good game.

Way I see it, these are the flaws with the game right now:
-AI is too passive. Countries that should want each other's land generally don't fight over it, and indeed often ally. Rome and Epirus is an example, another is Thrace and Phrygia/other Anatolian tags. There are welcome exceptions, like the Seleucids and Phrygians seem to be in a constant tug of war.
-Not really much purpose to POPs. It's great that they're in the game, but they don't really do anything. You never see slave revolts, freedmen never demand citizenship, citizens never do anything.
-Character system lacks cohesion. The only real interaction with characters is when they become disloyal, which you fix by either bribing them in some way or waiting for them to start a civil war. The loyalty mechanic is interesting when generals go rogue, but this seems to happen rarely.
-Unit composition is a total mystery. The game has all this variety with what kinds of cohorts you can recruit, but I haven't seen anything to suggest that your army won't win every time so long as it's bigger than the enemy's. This is really a missing layer of gameplay.
-Game generally lacks content. I don't know why the hell we got mission trees for Athens when Athens almost always gets annexed within the first 10 years, and yet we have very little content for the Diadochi.

On the other hand, nation management is generally pretty fun, thanks to the POP system. The game really rewards smart development over immediate expansion. The soundtrack is great. The map is by far the best of any strategy game.
 

M. AQVILA

Arcane
Joined
Jan 6, 2016
Messages
3,717
Location
Galicia–North Portugal Euroregion
The fact that they didn't bother decently simulating the Roman republic and the Spartan diarchy still bothers me. I don't particularly need anything special, but I would sure like them being represented in a decent way.

Also it's a shame that they left out Alexander the Great. Or at least his son, I would love to change history by keeping Alexander IV alive and if possible place him on the throne.
 

Theodora

Arcane
Patron
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Feb 19, 2020
Messages
4,620
Location
anima Bȳzantiī
It's small, but it annoys me to no end that they haven't yet renamed 'Phrygia' to the Antigonid Empire; Greater and Hellespontine Phrygia are just satrapies, and not relevant to that empire beyond being among the first Alexander awarded to Antigonus. Gives a really incorrect impression culturally.
 
Last edited:

Wyatt_Derp

Arcane
Joined
May 19, 2019
Messages
3,062
Location
Okie Land
The trannies in first row are looking good.

Damn, leave it to Paradox to turn brothers into white supremacists.

Paradox 'we're making things more diverse. Lots more color in our human palette. We know everyone wants a divergent gaming experience.'

Brother 'Ya but why my brothers have makeup? They look like fags and shit, nigga.'

Paradox 'Well, our research shows that more and more women and minorities are playing...

Brother 'They look like she-males, cuz. What in the fuck is wrong with your honky ass?'

Paradox 'But we thought that...

Brother 'Hell with this shit. Those alt right crackuhz was right. I knew it. Imma grab a foh-ty and play some Doom. Fuck Sweden.'
 
Joined
Jan 7, 2012
Messages
14,149
Took only a year to start talking about how all of Persia being 100% Macedonian after 50 years might not be great for their historical strategy game.
 
Joined
May 8, 2018
Messages
3,535
I just don't see why they keep insisting on POP mechanics that are anything other than the Victoria ones. I presume it's so that people continue throwing money at as many of their franchises as possible but at the same time I feel like they are wasting so much time on trying to fix the POP mechanics in Stellaris and Imperator and it's still not good enough. Nor will it ever be.
 
Joined
Nov 22, 2018
Messages
289
I just want I:R to be fucking *done* so I can do a full Roman playthrough. I am glad they keep overhauling the core mechanics because most of those were half-baked and obtuse while also being full of grind, bit I want to know when it will be finished. After the first couple Crusader Kings II DLC I could play the game basically complete. Nothing unspeakably huge changed, but I:R isn't even at a 1.0 release.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom