Imperator: Rome

[jpinard]

Kevin - you’re always such a gem helping people with Paradox grand strategy games. :)

[AK_Icebear]

@Tim_N

I would pay good money to have CK2 and EU4 ported over, with all of its current features, into Imperator Rome’s map and engine updates. Mmmmmmm…

Just how much better is Imperator in these areas? Is performance also much better? This is the first time I’ve been curious about the newer title!

[KevinC]

Hmmm, I’ve haven’t had performance slowdowns with Imperator, now that I think of it. I don’t know if that’s due to the nature of the game or of I just haven’t played late enough for it to show, though, so don’t take that as evidence performance is meaningfully better across the board. Imperator does have the Jomini layer on top of the engine which is supposed to make the life of modders significantly better but with Imperator’s rocky launch we haven’t really had a chance to see what that means in practice yet.

What I can say is that Imperator’s map is gorgeous. It can be a little jarring to go back to EU4 (or CK2).

[Spock]

I’m still sort of unsold on the game, but I agree it’s improving. I still feel like I often don’t have a lot to do. But then I had been playing monarchies a few months ago, took a long break, and only just now started playing a tribe.

I do like the look of that supply/logistics update. I like the idea of tracking how much food units are carrying. I don’t know if I’ve ever had to do that in a game before, aside from the OCS board wargame series.

@KevinC, can we see the die rolls in this game?

[KevinC]

Like during a battle? They show up on the left side of the battle display, when you click on an ongoing battle.

[Tim_N]

@AK_Icebear

Just how much better is Imperator in these areas? Is performance also much better?

The map is gorgeous. You know how HOI4 improved on CK2 and EU4 by incorporating terrain features and political colours depending on zoom level? Same deal here, but the map is much prettier. Moving animations, geographical features, it’s all so good. So much nicer playing in this games terrain map mode than the political map mode in EU4 or CK2.

There are some significant advantages for performance as well. In EU4 when you click back in a menu it will literally restart the game, not so here. In imperator when you click on a country to start the game it seamlessly loads the game around it, very cool.

I’m not sure if 5-speed runs faster than EU4. I haven’t encountered any late-game slowdown which happens in Stellaris and (at least early on) with HOI4.

[KevinC]

Looks like Imperator is getting Missions in 1.3.

We had discussed the possibility of a mission system well before release, but had not been happy with any of the designs that we considered. There were several key points that we felt (for legitimate reasons), hadn’t really been covered by similar systems in our sister-titles, and we felt strongly that I:R should have it’s own, unique system.

Firstly, we wanted to ensure that any iteration of a mission system avoided rail-roading the player into playing the game in the same way each time (with any given nation), and secondly, that the player did not only complete tasks, but that the tasks and missions would drive story, both for the intended target, and within the local region.

What we came up with, was a system in which we would write mission ‘blocks’, if you will, which covered compact geographic areas or distinct subject matter, and of which the player had an array to choose from. For example, Rome may be presented with the initial choice to focus on uniting Italia, or instead choosing a mission to develop the land they already own, or turn to the south and deal with Magna Graecia.

[Ginger_Yellow]

@KevinC

What we came up with, was a system in which we would write mission ‘blocks’, if you will, which covered compact geographic areas or distinct subject matter, and of which the player had an array to choose from. For example, Rome may be presented with the initial choice to focus on uniting Italia, or instead choosing a mission to develop the land they already own, or turn to the south and deal with Magna Graecia.

That doesn’t sound all that different to EUIV to me.

[KevinC]

From what I gather, it differs in that the missions are going to be dynamic instead of statically defined per nation like they are in EU4. I’m getting this from this part of the DD.

Each of these mission blocks will be self-contained, and are intended to tell a bit of a story alongside the expected mission fare. Missions will appear as dynamically generated flow-trees, and contain a variety of tasks including timed tasks akin to focus trees, and objectives requiring conditions to be fulfilled.

With the relative power of the scripting tools available to us, we’ve been able to create a series of highly procedural missions with varying objectives and task branches, which will react to the situation in which a nation finds itself, and which should maintain a basic feeling of individuality each time they are selected. This idea of ‘generic’ missions, if you will, is an inevitability while the mission system is in its infancy, but should provide enough variety as to prevent every nation from feeling directly comparable.

In EU4, France might have a mission branch to conquer a region and do something with it. If you were playing Aragon, you wouldn’t have access to that mission. With this implementation, if you conquer the Nile delta or a region of Gaul, I think missions blocks will appear that are tied to that area. That’s my interpretation, anyway.

[MrGrumpy]

Free content pack

[Malkael]

Well you certainly cannot argue with free content additions, especially when it concerns some good ol’ Punic Wars. Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam!

[Juan_Raigada]

What does the content include? Punic Ears events? An scenario?

[Malkael]

According to the announcement on the Paradox forums, it contains the following:

The Punic Wars content pack includes:

• Roman Mission Pack: Ten unique mission trees for the star of Imperator: Rome to guide your conquest of Italy and neighboring regions.
• Carthaginian Mission Pack: Ten unique mission trees for the children of Tyre to help you plan your mercantile and military dominance of Africa, Spain and the rest of the west.
• Numidian Unit Model: New army model for the Numidians, North Africans often hired as mercenaries by larger powers.
• Carthaginian Ship Model: A unique ship design for Carthaginian navies.
• New Music: Three additional music tracks to soothe your conquering soul.

[Strollen]

Green Man Gaming has Imperator for 41% off this weekend, so I bought it.

Installing now , then dinner plans. So what’s a good country to start off playing?. I’m likely to have had a few classes of wine…

[Perky_Goth]

I can’t tell you yet, but, from the wiki,

Recommended locations for new players

For the best starting playing experience, the following starting positions can be recommended:

1. Rome Rome (central Italy) starts of as a local power encompassing 23 cities being inhabited by about 400 pops. It should quickly go to war with its large neigbors Etruria and Samnium. Uniting the peninsula before the other regional powers can make alliances there is crucial. Rome has the ability to train Heavy Infantry in its capital province Latium, which has even two cities producing iron, thereby receiving the “Capital Province surplus”-bonus of iron. Opting for the Military traditions Pricipes, March of the Eagles and Triarii ( see Italic traditions ) will further strengthen this unit type. Also, because the “Capital Province surplus”-bonus is stacking, 15 Slaves should be moved to one of the cities producing the Iron, to further buff that unit type. Most victims have to rely on Light Infantry, the weakest unit type which receives the most penalties, especially −25% against Heavy Infantry!
2. Macedon Macedonia (northern Greece) is a kingdom whose expansion into the Greek city states to its south is complicated by their diplomatic relations with the one great rival to its east - the Antigonid kingdom of Phrygia. Build a navy and use skilled statecraft to maintain independence.
3. Maurya Maurya (India) should be able to unify the subcontinent easily. If you want a sandbox where you can try different expansion strategies, this is a good place.
4. 20px Egypt Egypt (Egypt) is large and has no timber for ships. Phrygia is the only real threat, but it is surrounded by enemies. Egypt’s population does not match its ruling elite, so it will be vital to maintain stability and slowly assimilate the population.

[Tim_N]

@Strollen

So what’s a good country to start off playing?.

Macedon or Carthage are probably the best places to start, rather than Rome. Rome’s Republic brings with it more mechanics that might be better suited for a second game. As Macedon you should get some interesting events with the succession war stuff, and there are clear early-game and mid-game targets to go after.

[Strollen]

@Tim_N

Macedon or Carthage are probably the best places to start, rather than Rome. Rome’s Republic brings with it more mechanics that might be better suited for a second game. As Macedon you should get some interesting events with the succession war stuff, and there are clear early-game and mid-game targets to go after.

Thanks.

Man the tutorial needs some work. There is a lot it doesn’t tell you like for instance. It tells you to build 8 training camps, but it doesn’t tell you that you can’t build training camps in settlement only cities, and you only have 7 cities so you have to build or conquer another one. Doesn’t tell you how to build a city and the tool tips don’t tell you what the downsides are for having cities vs settlements.

It tells you go conquer somebody but no directions on what that means. I had to restart the tutorial because I went broke. It sounds like I need to curl with the Wikipedia. I’ll tell you if this was my 1st or 2nd Paradox game instead of my probably 10th I’d have raged quit.

[KevinC]

Oh man, I didn’t even think of the tutorial. So much changed in 1.2 including the entire building system. I’m assuming the tutorial was updated for 1.2, but you never know. In any case, it worked fine but wasn’t very useful in 1.0 beyond introducing the UI.

[KevinC]

Interesting comments from Johan regarding Imperator development. Speaking of the future of the game, he says that he does not like expansions and instead wants to focus on content packs. He says the reason for this is he wants to avoid the situation they ran into with EU4. If mechanics are tied to expansions, it makes it very difficult to keep expanding and iterating on those mechanics when that is the case. The EU4 team has realized this as well, which is why things like Development and Estates are now base game features. It sounds like what he would like to do is to keep all the new mechanics in the free updates while supporting the game with Content Packs, which would likely be events, regional flavor, things like that.

This is the interview. It was around the 13:00 mark or so.

[MikeJ]

What’s the best introduction to basic concepts of this game as of 1.2, for someone who is familiar with most of the other Paradox GS games, apart from CK2?

I got the game last night, but the hour I had to play around with it was consumed just poking around screens and trying to get a grip on things. The part I find hard is knowing what’s important, and the big-picture of how the variables fit together. I guess I could go through all the DD’s, but I’m hoping for something a bit shorter and focusing on the state as of the new patch.