Imperator - Development Diary #20 - 8th of October 2018

[Johan]

Hello everyone and welcome to the 20th development diary for Imperator. This time it is almost two development diaries in one. First we’ll talk about governor policies, and then we’ll delve into the north african military traditions.

Governor Policies
Every governor will when he is assigned to a province, select a policy he wants to pursue for his reign. The policy picked depend on the personality of the governor, but also on the setup of the province. Not all policies are necessarily beneficial to you as a player, so you can always overrule what policy the governor should have, but that comes at a cost in loyalty of the governor.

You can of course change policy as many times as you want in a province, as long as the governor is loyal enough before changing it, but a disloyal governor will change it to benefit himself.


Here are the current policies we have in the game.

• Acquisition of Wealth - Reduces tax and commerce income by about 10% of the province, while enriching the governor.
• Religious Conversion - Adds some minor unrest, but the governor have a chance to convert the religion of a pop each month, depending on his zeal.
• Cultural Assimilation - Adds some minor unrest, but the governor have a chance to convert the culture of a pop each month, depending on his finesse.
• Bleed Them Dry - increases unrest and reduces population growth dramatically, while increasing income from the province, and also give some to the governor.
• Borderlands - Increases Manpower and Defensiveness of the province.
• Encourage Trade - Allows another import route to the province and increases commerce income, for a small decrease in loyalty.
• Social Mobility - Reduces output of citizens by 20%, while there is a chance for the governor to change the type of a pop towards a balance of citizens, slaves & freemen, depending on the governors charisma.
• Local Autonomy - Increases Happiness of pops, while reducing their output.
• Civilization Effort - Increase civilization in the province.

Governor policies are designed to get indirect influence over provinces, while having a trade off, where constantly micro-managing it is not beneficial.


Of course, all are moddable, and you can make as many of these as you’d like.


North African Military Traditions
So, time to take a look at another military tradition tree, and this time the North African one, which is available to the north african & numidian culture groups, and the carthaginian culture.

They all start with the ‘Seafaring People’ tradition which gives 25% cheaper Triremes.

The first path is the ‘’Tribal Path”.

• Born in the Saddle +15% Light Cavalry Discipline
• Man and Horse +15% Combat Bonus on Plains for Cavalry
• Sure-footed, as Wild Horses 25% Cheaper Light Cavalry
• Wild Charge Enables Cavalry Skirmish Stance
• Local Knowledge 25% less attrition.
• Call to Arms +15% Manpower
• Ululating Cry +15% Light Cavalry Offensive

End bonus for this path is ‘To Each, Their Own’, which gives +10% output from tribesmen.


The second path is the “Naval Path”.

• Phoenician Heritage +15% Offensive for Triremes
• Iberian Draft +15% Defensive for Light Infantry
• Naval Dominance +15% Defensive for Triremes
• A Life at Sea Allows Repair at Sea ability
• Noble Warlords +2.5% Loyalty for Generals
• Imposing Edifices +15% Defensiveness
• Putting our People to Work -25% Trireme Maintenance

End bonus for this path is ‘Maneuverability Above All’, which gives +15% Discipline for Triremes.


The third path is the “Army Path”.

• Skilled Recruiters 15% cheaper mercenary maintenance
• Professional Marines +15% Trireme Morale
• The Sacred Band +15% Heavy Infantry Discipline
• Uneasy Relations More Manpower from Subjects
• The African Elephant +15% Warelephant Discipline
• Numidian Cavalry 25% Cheaper Heavy Cavalry
• Devastating Charge +15% Warelephant Morale

End bonus for this path is ‘A Hard Bargain’, which gives 25% cheaper mercenaries to recruit.

Next week, we’ll talk a bit more about combat!

 

[Praetorian44]

Very interesting to see policy success so much based off the governor's skill, I like it. Also really digging that changing the policy will irritate the governor. So good DD

 

[dayalu]

Are platypus legionaries unique to Carthage?

 

[Appio Claudio]

Will I be able to crash Roman manpower through naval battles? Will they be decisive in this game as they were in the First Punic War, for example?

 

[Palando]

This seems like a huge and more immersive upgrade of EU IV's edict system. I like it!

I can already see how I'll curse the corrupt governors and be happy about beneficial ones.

 

[Voigt]

It seems the decision making becomes harder and harder.
Do I want a loyal Governeur who keeps my policies in the regio
Or an Incorruptiable one for less unrest
Or one with high stats, meritocracy style, to get the best Boni of the selected policie.

But let's see how it is balanced in the end.

But I have a question about it, if I put a rather young and not that great but really loyal goveneur in a province, will his stats increase over time? Will he learn to better himself, so after a while I have a loyal governeur with high stats?

 

[anastiel]

Very interesting to see policy nice update

 

[Denkt]

Pretty nice with a double DD.

The governour policy system seems like a very good thing as it provide some needed Life to the characters.

Religious Conversion - Adds some minor unrest, but the governor have a chance to convert the religion of a pop each month, depending on his zeal.

Will you still be able to convert with religious Power?

Next week, we’ll talk a bit more about combat!

Sounds cool.

 

[Nyrael]

Will you still be able to convert with religious Power?

I imagine that using RP will be too expensive to want to use it to convert all those numerous cities.

 

[BobbyDylan]

Are platypus legionaries unique to Carthage?

You must be new here.

 

[Knight of Nii]

I thought it was confirmed that pops couldn't culturally/religiously convert.

Am I misremembering this or has it been changed?

 

[Badesumofu]

Seeing that naval stuff has me wondering, how important will navies be in this game?

 

[Johan]

Will you still be able to convert with religious Power?

yes

 

[henzington]

The traditions make me curious how mercenaries work

 

[johnleeyx]

You can of course change policy as many times as you want in a province, as long as the governor is loyal enough before changing it, but a disloyal governor will change it to benefit himself.

Is there a cooldown to how frequent you can change it, or can you change it as soon as a disloyal governor changes it? - leading to gamey situations where you only change it before monthly ticks to get the max benefit.

 

[Yeekim]

It seems the decision making becomes harder and harder.
Do I want a loyal Governeur who keeps my policies in the regio
Or an Incorruptiable one for less unrest
Or one with high stats, meritocracy style, to get the best Boni of the selected policie.

In practice, this will likely more often than not boil down to: I have three provinces, one halfway decent potential governor and three rebelliously minded idiots... now who goes where?

 

[Kaelic]

It seems a bit weird to mix Carthaginian and Numidian traditions. Especially 'Seafaring People' being the base tradition for Numidians, which makes no sense. In what way were they Trireme builders and sailors?

Additionally, Carthaginians having access to 'Born in the Saddle' also makes no thematic sense. They had access to Numidian cavalry. Seafaring Peoples who were Born in the Saddle?.....

Why not split it and have an interesting Mercenary mechanic for Carthage? Carthage seems too important to the focus of the game to leave their improvements to a DLC...come on.

 

[cristofolmc]

It seems the decision making becomes harder and harder.
Do I want a loyal Governeur who keeps my policies in the regio
Or an Incorruptiable one for less unrest
Or one with high stats, meritocracy style, to get the best Boni of the selected policie.

But let's see how it is balanced in the end.

But I have a question about it, if I put a rather young and not that great but really loyal goveneur in a province, will his stats increase over time? Will he learn to better himself, so after a while I have a loyal governeur with high stats?

It doesn't really become harderand harder. He just said that micromanaging isn't beneficial, so in most cases, youre better off letting them decide their policy, or youre headed towards civil war.

 

[Cheexsta]

Love the policy system. Great solutions to a bunch of concerns raised in previous DDs.

Will you be able to 'lock' the current policy if you don't want the next governor to change it? Or will they always change the policy to align with their ambitions until you overrule it?

 

[Johan]

Or will they always change the policy to align with their ambitions until you overrule it?

this