Features

1. MAP
BACKGROUND
Most wars during Antiquity were matters of local conflicts, which only occasionally affected larger regions. Even major conflicts, such as the First Punic War, were often restricted to a limited area (in this case, Sicily). These wars are difficult to model in a game where Sicily is composed of two provinces only. The size of the original provinces also suggests that entire regions were controlled by the same political power, which was not the case historically. Instead, these regions were often controlled by more or less independent cities, who had a great deal of self-determination even when they were officially part of larger entities such as the Roman Republic.

Imperium offers a totally redrawn map, scaled roughly two times larger than the original map. Since there is a hard-coded size limit, this means that the new map only covers a quarter of the area covered by the original map. This quarter is well chosen, however, as it includes most of the major cities in and around the Mediterranean Sea. After all, a large part of the original map is covered by "permanent terra incognita" and empty provinces, which results in a situation where most things take place in and around the Mediterranean region anyway.

PROVINCES
Right now, the map includes Italy, Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica only. In total, there are 70 land provinces, which can all be seen on the picture below. The province boundaries are linked to the borders of the traditional Roman regions. For example, Cumae (23) and Capua (24) collectively form the region of Campania, while Rhegium (10), Locri (11), Crotona (12) and Consentia (13) form the region of Bruttium. The provinces carry the names of dominating cities in the region. In some cases, however, the provinces are shaped to include several settlements. The province of Locri, for example, includes Hipponion, a Locrian colony of the late 7th century BC.




ADMINISTRATIVE REGIONS

2. STARTING SCENARIO
BACKGROUND
Imperium starts out in 245 AUC. I'll write more about it later.

3. PROGRESS
BACKGROUND
I think of technological advances as the invention of something new, or at least a new application of old technology. "Discovering" civic or religious phenomena such as double dealing, underhand diplomacy or powerful omens doesn't sound like technological advances to me. It's not as though it hadn't occured to people that it might be a good idea to be a little deceptive when talking to the enemy before 515 AUC (as suggested by the invention of underhand diplomacy). Maybe Paradox thought that it was somewhere around 515 that diplomats started being a little extra deceptive, but it's definitely not a matter of something new.

Consequently, I've decided to rename technology to "progress", tech trees to "aspects of progress" and inventions to "advances".

THE FIVE ASPECTS
There are five aspects of progress:

Administration
Culture
Production
Army
Navy

Administration reminds of "government tech" in EU III: Higher levels give access to more advanced government forms and national ideas. It also makes way for more titles, such as a fourth praetor for Rome.

Culture is the aspect of progress we've all been missing out in vanilla. Philosophers, poets, historians - here we come! Many of the "inventions" associated with this aspect have little or no effect on your country. However, if your country lags behind in cultural development, you can rest assured your nobility will notice. Character loyalty, ruler popularity and even country reputation will suffer.

Production is borrowed from EU III. Since we have no "production efficiency" to play around with, many of the inventions associated with this aspect affect tax income directly. Some buildings require a high production level. Typically, Cato's De Agricultura is the result of a developed production.

Land and Navy are more or less the same thing as "land tech" and "naval tech". I will try to broaden the scope, however, to include more of the tactics, strategies and training methods used during Antiquity.

IMPORTANT FACTORS
War exhaustion now increases army and navy progress, while it decreases progress in the aspects of administration, culture and production. Culture suffers in particular. Being at war or peace, regardless of war exhaustion, also affects progress - in the same manner as war exhaustion. To give an example, our friendly Roman empire is at peace with zero war exhaustion. Due to the peace status, culture development is affected by a boost of +20%. Suddenly, the Carthaginians declare war, resulting in a penalty of -20% to culture development. The war drags on, and each point of war exhaustion gives the Romans an additional penalty of -2%. At the end, when the Romans have finally burned Carthage to the ground, their war exhaustion has reached 10. With 40% less progress points invested in culture, they will soon find themselves culturally backwards. (Production and administration is only affected half as much, while army and navy are boosted by the war.)

Certain buildings also affect progress, by reducing the amount of progress points needed to reach the next level:

Administration
Palace, City guard

Culture
Academy, Library, Theatre, Gardens, Shrine, Small temple, Great temple, Mausoleum and Monumental statue

Production
Academy

Army
Standing army camp, Training grounds and Veteran colony

Navy
Small harbour, Great harbour, Shipwright and Lighthouse

(Read more about the buildings further down in this thread.)

ADVANCES
Progress levels
The level corresponds directly to a decade, ie progress level 25 means 250 AUC.

Army
25: Gastraphetes (Greek)
38: Oxybeles (Greek)
40: Ballista
45: Universal joint for ballistae
54: Scorpio
70: Polybolos

GUI

4. NATIONAL DECISIONS
ROME
(245: Sign a treaty with Carthage)
(406: Sign a second treaty with Carthage)
(448: Sign a third treaty with Carthage)
(475: Sign a fourth treaty with Carthage)

SPARTA
400: Abolish the agoge
608: Reinstate the agoge