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Imperator Dev Diary - Heirs of Alexander

Greetings all,

While there is yet more to come regarding Marian military matters, today I’m here to announce that the content pack, ‘Heirs of Alexander’, will be released in conjunction with the Marius update.

As befits our 2.0 statement, the Heirs of Alexander content pack will be the largest yet; encompassing mission trees and flavor events for all the Diadochi nations, as well as the ability to customize and build a large variety of Great Wonders as detailed in the Vitruvius dev diary.

Included alongside this will be a variety of additional content that you have grown to expect from content packs, including new event pictures, music tracks, and more.

As time goes on, we will introduce more specifics surrounding the content you will receive in the HoA pack, however, as a small addendum to last week’s diary, I would like to clarify that the Legion Honors that you encountered in the Legions feature reveal will be part of the HoA pack.

With this announcement out of the way, I’ll detail a few more changes you can expect in the Marius update!

Legacy of Alexander

This Diadochi-only wargoal has been refactored to use a mechanic similar to that of Civil Wars. What this means, in essence, is that occupying a territory belonging to the target war leader during a Legacy of Alexander war will result in the immediate cession of said territory to the opposing war leader.

Every territory that changes hands this way will add a small amount of war exhaustion to the war leader that gains the territory, resulting in wars in which large amounts of territory can change hands, whilst also reaching an organic ‘end’ point, at which both sides are weary enough to make peace.

We are also looking at making a similar wargoal available in other circumstances, particularly for situations in which it makes historical sense to do so, for example, the expansion of the Parthian state.

Legion/Levy Indicators

As hinted at last week, there will be a visual distinction between Levied units and Legionary units. The 3D unit models used to display levies and legions will use light and heavy infantry, respectively.

This distinction is a highly important gameplay factor, and as such, the large variety of new unit models will be included as part of the Marius update. @Katzura, as someone with a greater aesthetic eye than myself, has prepared a variety of screenshots to give you a preview of some of the unit models coming in 2.0!

We’ve included a side-by-side of the Levy and Legion models; some will be familiar to you, and some may be new. While we’ve tried to respect the period in which Imperator is set, in some cases we’ve had to use a little imagination, particularly for graphical cultures in which the distinction between levy and legion is not always clear.

pasted image 0.png

Legion:Levy - Arabian group

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Levy:Legion - Celtic Group

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Levy:Legion - Greek Group

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Levy:Legion - Roman

Next week we’ll have more legion/levy 3d models from other graphical culture groups to show you.

And now on to Snow Crystal’s Seleukid missions!
 
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I'm am very exited for 2.0 and a wish I could play it today, BUT:

1. Take your time with it, don't rush it. We are willing to wait for quality.
2. Do a public beta an really listen to the feedback you get and make changes if necessary.
3. Do a 2.0 dev clash, it will increase the chance of people who haven't kept up with the game since release to realize what a fantastic game it has become with all the updates the game has seen since launch.
 
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First I have to say that this is a great update.

1) I personally don't like velites as the Roman levy model because they were skirmishers and I think that a hastatii model could represent the early roman armies better.

2) I like the new missions but the red arrows doesn't make it look "professional" I suggest to change it.

3) The first post mentioned that it would come along side with the great wonder pack, so does this mean that's it's a DLC? If so I suggest that the players who bought the deluxe edition should receive this for free like what happened with the epirus DLC. Because people who bought the deluxe edition supposedly had more mission like "Alexander's body" but in real life i never had that event chain appear in any gameplay in spite of buying the deluxe edition. So it would be weird to buy mission two times for the Diadochi.

Nontheless these changes are good for the game, thanks paradox team.
 
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First I have to say that this is a great update.

1) I personally don't like velites as the Roman levy model because they were skirmishers and I think that a hastatii model could represent the early roman armies better.

2) I like the new missions but the red arrows doesn't make it look "professional" I suggest to change it.

3) The first post mentioned that it would come along side with the great wonder pack, so does this mean that's it's a DLC? If so I suggest that the players who bought the deluxe edition should receive this for free like what happened with the epirus DLC. Because people who bought the deluxe edition supposedly had more mission like "Alexander's body" but in real life i never had that event chain appear in any gameplay in spite of buying the deluxe edition. So it would be weird to buy mission two times for the Diadochi.

Nontheless these changes are good for the game, thanks paradox team.

the velites model, is pretty and an important roman combat unit.

how it should fit in is might open for debate. the velites was at time extremely dangerous, is fast due to low weight gear, so can quickly move in to throw pila/pilum. Hit by such weapon meant in those times, definitely knocked out.
than the ability to defend itself with gladius and shield, makes it truly hybrid.

this game has enormous potential. I so much wished even mor succes for CK3, but it will be fleshed out combat and economic mechanics which will make the game shine

as such i once again say, the pop system as well as the economic system (tied equipment to mp and military cost) must be drastically changed, overhauled.

than as some forum member said, delay the release, no problem with that.
 
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the velites model, is pretty and an important roman combat unit.

how it should fit in is might open for debate. the velites was at time extremely dangerous, is fast due to low weight gear, so can quickly move in to throw pila/pilum. Hit by such weapon meant in those times, definitely knocked out.
than the ability to defend itself with gladius and shield, makes it truly hybrid.

this game has enormous potential. I so much wished even mor succes for CK3, but it will be fleshed out combat and economic mechanics which will make the game shine

as such i once again say, the pop system as well as the economic system (tied equipment to mp and military cost) must be drastically changed, overhauled.

than as some forum member said, delay the release, no problem with that.

not to forget, the common threat unifier.

this should in later stage cause troubles for advancing larger nations as smaller nations come more easy together to possibly form resistance to an advancing power,
but even here i notice to my great astohnishment great warp speed progress, as some deevloper said that parthia empire as historically was now will have a certain stop in how large exapnsion can be. these are great things, cost a lot of research and work,
but in the endstack up success, as such prdx is the owner of the data set and can later port it to next titles eg. eu5.

so no work or investment from prdx side is done for nothing
 
1) I personally don't like velites as the Roman levy model because they were skirmishers and I think that a hastatii model could represent the early roman armies better.

Agreed. I think Hastatii capture both the characteristic heavy infantry focus of Rome and the levy system together better than the velites.

I like the missions....but I think there seems to be a lot of focus on missions in place of mechanics, which I'm not very encouraged by. The 'L.O.A." CB changes to a civil war similiar cb is good and shows the devs are listening to the fanbase, but I hope there's not too many reactionary changes and some more I:R characteristic mechanics will be implemented. Innovative ideas for new mechanics are definitely going to be needed for trade/buildings//diplomacy/government and tribal overhauls.
 
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I like the focus of the DLC. Guessing it's going to be mission trees for Egypt, Thrace, Macedon, Selucids, and Antigonids? Seems good enough, though sneaking in some other nation(s) between the cracks somehow would be nice.

I know you are probably dissapointed since most people are talking about the models instead of the dlc :p but I will second that Greek heavy infantry(legions) should really get at least a Spear, and Roman Levies should be based on Hastati rather than Velites IMO.
 
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I like the focus of the DLC. Guessing it's going to be mission trees for Egypt, Thrace, Macedon, Selucids, and Antigonids? Seems good enough, though sneaking in some other nation(s) between the cracks somehow would be nice.

I know you are probably dissapointed since most people are talking about the models instead of the dlc :p but I will second that Greek heavy infantry(legions) should really get at least a Spear, and Roman Levies should be based on Hastati rather than Velites IMO.
maybe time has come for larger armies on the map to be represented as a three type unit model. three most used units in the army.
only when army size exceeds every certain time frame in history a certain amount of mp.
making it easier also to spot larger force concentrations.
what i find hard to research is how much eg. problems caused the romans the lack or cost of infantry equipment in their campaigns when there teritorry grew.
 
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@Snow Crystal Question: will the various states in Alexander's empire aside from the Diadochi get mission trees, such as the remaining Greek states in Anatolia that do not have a tree and Bactria? I would really love it if Bactria gets a mission tree.
 
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Greetings all,

While there is yet more to come regarding Marian military matters, today I’m here to announce that the content pack, ‘Heirs of Alexander’, will be released in conjunction with the Marius update.

As befits our 2.0 statement, the Heirs of Alexander content pack will be the largest yet; encompassing mission trees and flavor events for all the Diadochi nations, as well as the ability to customize and build a large variety of Great Wonders as detailed in the Vitruvius dev diary.

Included alongside this will be a variety of additional content that you have grown to expect from content packs, including new event pictures, music tracks, and more.

As time goes on, we will introduce more specifics surrounding the content you will receive in the HoA pack, however, as a small addendum to last week’s diary, I would like to clarify that the Legion Honors that you encountered in the Legions feature reveal will be part of the HoA pack.

With this announcement out of the way, I’ll detail a few more changes you can expect in the Marius update!

Legacy of Alexander

This Diadochi-only wargoal has been refactored to use a mechanic similar to that of Civil Wars. What this means, in essence, is that occupying a territory belonging to the target war leader during a Legacy of Alexander war will result in the immediate cession of said territory to the opposing war leader.

Every territory that changes hands this way will add a small amount of war exhaustion to the war leader that gains the territory, resulting in wars in which large amounts of territory can change hands, whilst also reaching an organic ‘end’ point, at which both sides are weary enough to make peace.

We are also looking at making a similar wargoal available in other circumstances, particularly for situations in which it makes historical sense to do so, for example, the expansion of the Parthian state.

Legion/Levy Indicators

As hinted at last week, there will be a visual distinction between Levied units and Legionary units. The 3D unit models used to display levies and legions will use light and heavy infantry, respectively.

This distinction is a highly important gameplay factor, and as such, the large variety of new unit models will be included as part of the Marius update. @Katzura, as someone with a greater aesthetic eye than myself, has prepared a variety of screenshots to give you a preview of some of the unit models coming in 2.0!

We’ve included a side-by-side of the Levy and Legion models; some will be familiar to you, and some may be new. While we’ve tried to respect the period in which Imperator is set, in some cases we’ve had to use a little imagination, particularly for graphical cultures in which the distinction between levy and legion is not always clear.

View attachment 654990
Legion:Levy - Arabian group

View attachment 654987
Levy:Legion - Celtic Group

View attachment 654988
Levy:Legion - Greek Group

View attachment 654989
Levy:Legion - Roman

Next week we’ll have more legion/levy 3d models from other graphical culture groups to show you.

And now on to Snow Crystal’s Seleukid missions!
Wait, Roman levies have wolf pelts?
I'm no expert, but... Is that really correct?
 
Wait, Roman levies have wolf pelts?
I'm no expert, but... Is that really correct?
One subset of the five main types of units the republican levy had, the velites, is usually depicted wearing a wolf's pelt, they were the LI skirmishers of the Legion, I don't think that there was more than 1200 of them per legion of 6000, so no, it isn't correct as a representation of the whole thing, but they did exist
 
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Yes tbf it is. It's based on a description of velites by Polybius, who was a Greek historian
One subset of the five main types of units the republican levy had, the velites, is usually depicted wearing a wolf's pelt, they were the LI skirmishers of the Legion, I don't think that there was more than 1200 of them per legion of 6000, so no, it isn't correct as a representation of the whole thing, but they did exist
Huh, I see.
I guess you learn something new every day, thank you.
 
I am one of those more critical of the changes to the UI. I just wanted to post the old and the new mission interfaces side by side so we can discuss the changes. Personaly I prefer the old one.

Why have the arcs above the statues been removed?

People have already stated a dislike for the basic arrows in inventions trees.

EDIT: I mean the niches in which the statues were set, not arcs)
mission art old.png
mission art new.jpg
 
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