Army Command: Unlike other roguelikes, URR has a major strategic military focus. You will be able to serve in, or command, military forces numbering in the hundreds, ranging from pikemen to siege weapons, and cavalry to archers. Commanding a squad or an army will have a number of complex options, and these military mechanics will influence global politics, territory, and military campaigns.
Art Generation: Ultima Ratio Regum will feature significant amounts of complex generative graphics, ranging from planetary atmospheres to ancient temple murals, landscapes to military rankings, and from sword designs to family coats of arms. The game aims to explore what can be done with ASCII graphics to detail and explore a deep generated world.
Ancient Exploration: Set in the 16th/17th century, the game contains a number of relics of earlier civilizations, which can be explored. These temples and tombs will be full of murals generated according to ancient myths (see the art generation objective), but these murals serve not just an aesthetic purpose – they will give clues to the locations of artefacts, or catacombs containing great wealth. They will also contain procedurally-generated puzzles, mazes, and other challenges.
Navy: URR aims to feature a lot of naval mechanics, including exploration, trade, and ship-to-ship combat, involving both boarding and gun batteries. Ships will take up a large number of squares, and ship-to-ship combat will take place involving potential fleets of vessels. Piracy and customs will also be included, and you will be able to both serve on, or lead, a ship, or a fleet.
Linguistics: Different civilizations – ancient and contemporary – will have different languages you may not necessarily be able to speak at the start of the game. Ancient languages can be learnt to give greater insight into murals or ancient texts, whilst contemporary languages enable you to communicate beyond your empire’s boundaries, trade with others, and handle yourself in other empires.
Multi-Square Units: Ultima Ratio Regum will include a large number of units that span many squares, a significant break from the rogulike norm of one-square-per-unit. Catapults, ballistas and other siege weapons take up around 5×5 squares and behave accordingly, whilst ships range from around that size up to filling half the screen.
