Greetings, all!
Today marks my first official dev diary as Game Director of this august project. Many of you have expressed interest in the direction I intend to take Imperator - this is a topic upon which I have made much thought. I:R is a game with huge potential; an era straddling the final days of the ailing yet proud Diadochi, as well as the storied ascent of Rome. The term ‘map painting’ describes Imperator well, though not only, perhaps, in the way it was originally intended. With the advent of I:R and subsequent updates, the expression of cultural or national identity upon the map became possible through the founding of cities, building of roads, and cultivation of pops - this is an area that I feel strongly about. To me, it is equally possible to paint the map on an internal level, as well as external, and it is paramount to see one’s decisions reflected visually upon the fabric of the map.
The war game inside I:R at launch was a compelling simulation, and with the Cicero update, I feel that realm management reached a similar state. That simulation is the core that drives a PDS grand strategy game; Imperator is no different. With Livy, we began working on structure, using great families and missions to provide a framework to identify character and goal, respectively. For the future, we’re still considering a multitude of ideas.
To say that we have ideas, however, would be an understatement. There are so many things that I believe would fit perfectly into the world we’re creating. Beginning in 2020, (and in no particular order or discrete timeline!), we’ll be considering culture, religion, and warfare. These are all aspects of the game that are ripe for expansion and development, as well as systemic improvements for culture especially.Additionally, I’d like to retain the high level of communication and transparency that we’ve had with our fans, inasmuch as is possible. Your continued feedback is much appreciated.
As we end the year, however, we have an small patch for those of you that are enjoying the 1.3 update, which includes a host of balance changes and fixes. I’ll hand over to Trin Tragula, who’ll give you the rundown on what you can expect!
1.3.2
Livy 1.3.2 went out as an open beta for the Livy Update last week and it contains a combination of tweaks and fixes to issues found in missions, as well as some extra stability fixes for crashes that some users experienced. Sometime in the near future, when we are content that this patch is working as we intend it will be released as a regular update on all platforms.
Balance tweaks in 1.3.2:
Statesmanship:
With statesmanship you are rewarded for keeping someone employed, as they will only reach their full potential if given the sufficient experience within the government apparatus.
The effect at launch during 1.3 Livy was quite harsh however, with many characters never getting near their full potential.
In 1.3.2 the base output of many offices have been tweaked to account for statesmanship, and the Finesse attribute on characters will also help produce a steady increase of Statesmanship for those with a strong inclination for government work.
Stability:
When stability was reworked some time ago, and made to decay towards the middle, the intent was that you should over time experience periods of good stability, where everything is going your way, and bad stability, which are veritable slump periods for your country.
The decay has however been too quick, which means it never really mattered too much when you gained or lost stability as it would always rapidly return to the middle ground.
In 1.3.2 we have slowed the decay of stability, which should allow you both longer periods of well being as well as longer periods of crisis.
Units & Food:
With Livy the food system was expanded to allow armies to carry food and to use stored food to mitigate attrition, with taking provincial capitals in order to secure food supply in hostile territory now being an integral part of warfare.
In the balance patch we have looked again at how much food units can carry, and at the cost for the supply trains that are now vital for any drawn out siege or campaign in hostile territory.
Fixes in 1.3.2:
Stability
The patch fixes a number of crashes that some experienced on startup, as well as some minor improvements to performance.
Missions:
Livy saw the introduction of a new mission system, as a way to guide expansion but primarily also to deliver scripted content such as event, alternate history and meaningful interaction with things that are not directly covered by game mechanics.
As with any new system the release to the general public has unearthed some issues in mission design that we now begin to address (especially for the General missions).
The 1.3.2 patch will take care of most of the oversights reported in the general missions reported to date, as well as a number of issues in the missions for Carthage and Rome.
Highlights include picking more sensible regional capitals for the development mission, as well as a fix for the demand that you grow olives in the wild wastes of Scandinavia. The general conquest mission will also no longer abort when you succeed too well with it.
For a full list of mission related fixes see the changelog at the end of this post.
1.3.2 also contains a number of smaller fixes to various things, all which can be found in the log below:
Full Changelog:
Today marks my first official dev diary as Game Director of this august project. Many of you have expressed interest in the direction I intend to take Imperator - this is a topic upon which I have made much thought. I:R is a game with huge potential; an era straddling the final days of the ailing yet proud Diadochi, as well as the storied ascent of Rome. The term ‘map painting’ describes Imperator well, though not only, perhaps, in the way it was originally intended. With the advent of I:R and subsequent updates, the expression of cultural or national identity upon the map became possible through the founding of cities, building of roads, and cultivation of pops - this is an area that I feel strongly about. To me, it is equally possible to paint the map on an internal level, as well as external, and it is paramount to see one’s decisions reflected visually upon the fabric of the map.
The war game inside I:R at launch was a compelling simulation, and with the Cicero update, I feel that realm management reached a similar state. That simulation is the core that drives a PDS grand strategy game; Imperator is no different. With Livy, we began working on structure, using great families and missions to provide a framework to identify character and goal, respectively. For the future, we’re still considering a multitude of ideas.
To say that we have ideas, however, would be an understatement. There are so many things that I believe would fit perfectly into the world we’re creating. Beginning in 2020, (and in no particular order or discrete timeline!), we’ll be considering culture, religion, and warfare. These are all aspects of the game that are ripe for expansion and development, as well as systemic improvements for culture especially.Additionally, I’d like to retain the high level of communication and transparency that we’ve had with our fans, inasmuch as is possible. Your continued feedback is much appreciated.
As we end the year, however, we have an small patch for those of you that are enjoying the 1.3 update, which includes a host of balance changes and fixes. I’ll hand over to Trin Tragula, who’ll give you the rundown on what you can expect!
1.3.2
Livy 1.3.2 went out as an open beta for the Livy Update last week and it contains a combination of tweaks and fixes to issues found in missions, as well as some extra stability fixes for crashes that some users experienced. Sometime in the near future, when we are content that this patch is working as we intend it will be released as a regular update on all platforms.
Balance tweaks in 1.3.2:
Statesmanship:
With statesmanship you are rewarded for keeping someone employed, as they will only reach their full potential if given the sufficient experience within the government apparatus.
The effect at launch during 1.3 Livy was quite harsh however, with many characters never getting near their full potential.
In 1.3.2 the base output of many offices have been tweaked to account for statesmanship, and the Finesse attribute on characters will also help produce a steady increase of Statesmanship for those with a strong inclination for government work.
Stability:
When stability was reworked some time ago, and made to decay towards the middle, the intent was that you should over time experience periods of good stability, where everything is going your way, and bad stability, which are veritable slump periods for your country.
The decay has however been too quick, which means it never really mattered too much when you gained or lost stability as it would always rapidly return to the middle ground.
In 1.3.2 we have slowed the decay of stability, which should allow you both longer periods of well being as well as longer periods of crisis.
Units & Food:
With Livy the food system was expanded to allow armies to carry food and to use stored food to mitigate attrition, with taking provincial capitals in order to secure food supply in hostile territory now being an integral part of warfare.
In the balance patch we have looked again at how much food units can carry, and at the cost for the supply trains that are now vital for any drawn out siege or campaign in hostile territory.
Fixes in 1.3.2:
Stability
The patch fixes a number of crashes that some experienced on startup, as well as some minor improvements to performance.
Missions:
Livy saw the introduction of a new mission system, as a way to guide expansion but primarily also to deliver scripted content such as event, alternate history and meaningful interaction with things that are not directly covered by game mechanics.
As with any new system the release to the general public has unearthed some issues in mission design that we now begin to address (especially for the General missions).
The 1.3.2 patch will take care of most of the oversights reported in the general missions reported to date, as well as a number of issues in the missions for Carthage and Rome.
Highlights include picking more sensible regional capitals for the development mission, as well as a fix for the demand that you grow olives in the wild wastes of Scandinavia. The general conquest mission will also no longer abort when you succeed too well with it.
For a full list of mission related fixes see the changelog at the end of this post.
1.3.2 also contains a number of smaller fixes to various things, all which can be found in the log below:
Full Changelog:
############################
#Game Balance:
############################
- Base Stability Decay is now halved.
- Aggressive Expansion decay from Foreign Minister & Praetor offices increased from -0.01 to -0.015 per skill point.
- Aggressive Expansion decay from Arbitrator office is now -0.01.
- Omen Power from the High Priest & Augur offices increased from 2% to 3% per skill point.
- National Tax bonus from Steward & Tribune of the Treasury offices changed from 1% to 1.5% per skill point.
- Tribesmen Happiness from the Elder office increased from 1% to 1.5% per skill point.
- Characters now receive a monthly Statesmanship increase from their Finesse skill.
- Supply Trains now cost 16 gold to construct, and their maintenance is therefore also higher.
- Horse Archers now carry more food (up to 3 from 2.4).
- Elephants now deal more damage to Heavy Infantry (up to 1.4 from 1.3) and less damage to Light Infantry (down to 1.3 from 1.5).
- Stability gains from events reduced by around 30% across the board.
- AI tribal nations will now only reform their governments if they have at least 25 Civilization in their capital.
############################
#Complete Soundtrack DLC:
############################
- Three new songs added: Tyros, The Mediterranean, and The Punic Wars.
############################
#Bugfixes:
############################
Stability & Performance:
- Fixed startup crash related to shadowmap resolution setting.
- Fixed crash related to using the back button to negotiate with barbarians.
- Fixed two more rare crashes related to ingame popups and account login.
- Slightly improved performance related to ai threat calculations.
Modding:
- Fixed mods being unable to load localization files.
Gameplay:
- Fixed game not applying Naval Damage Taken modifiers correctly.
- Fixed Slave Raid naval unit ability being available to everyone.
- Fixed problem where countries would not be properly called into wars which affected both humans and AI.
- Adoption will now exclude prisoners in all cases (instead of just some cases).
- Fixed local modifiers being used in Nabatean and Helot Heritages, which made them do nothing.
- No longer possible to teleport armies between Athens and Keos.
- Orontid family now properly a great family in Armenia.
- Fixed all remaining food vanishing when detaching a supply train.
- Made it impossible to adopt Mercenary captains.
- Olympic competitors can no longer form families while they are competing, leading to that family then being dispersed over the entire Mediterrenean world.
Missions:
- Fixed badly scripted mission requirements for the Roman task to subdue Greece.
- Fixed bad tooltip in Roman Mission relating to Crete.
- Fixed problem with the Roman Mission events relating to acquiring subjects in Italy.
- Fixed problem with Roman Mission tasks to befriend a tribe not finding appropriate countries for their events.
- Carthaginian mission bonus for same culture happiness reduced from 50% to 15%.
- Fixed the generic conquest mission aborting if you conquered every last territory in the region it targeted.
- Fixed bug where Musalamii would not properly turned to a client state in Carthaginian missions if they civilized before the mission was completed.
- Fixed problem with selection of Governorship capital for the General Development Mission.
- Fixed problem related to the dominant culture in the governorship capital changing mid-mission.
- Fixed problem with mission task wanting you to appoint a governor but in fact never actually considering that requirement fulfilled.
- Fixed issue with mining mission tasks being able to target a place where the Mining mission could not be done and therefore bypassing immediately.
- Fixed problem where some tasks would sometimes bypass immediately in a mission.
- General development mission will no longer require only Olives for your slaves but instead Olives or Wood since Olives can be quite hard to come by in Scotland, India or even Germany.
############################
#Interface:
############################
- Fixed the game failing to display last names for minor characters in the minor event window.
- Fixed Spanish localization having no information about what trade good a trade offer was for, or where it came from.
- Fixed badly linked text for event about Roman Eagles.
- Fixed a number of failed references to Family names.
#Game Balance:
############################
- Base Stability Decay is now halved.
- Aggressive Expansion decay from Foreign Minister & Praetor offices increased from -0.01 to -0.015 per skill point.
- Aggressive Expansion decay from Arbitrator office is now -0.01.
- Omen Power from the High Priest & Augur offices increased from 2% to 3% per skill point.
- National Tax bonus from Steward & Tribune of the Treasury offices changed from 1% to 1.5% per skill point.
- Tribesmen Happiness from the Elder office increased from 1% to 1.5% per skill point.
- Characters now receive a monthly Statesmanship increase from their Finesse skill.
- Supply Trains now cost 16 gold to construct, and their maintenance is therefore also higher.
- Horse Archers now carry more food (up to 3 from 2.4).
- Elephants now deal more damage to Heavy Infantry (up to 1.4 from 1.3) and less damage to Light Infantry (down to 1.3 from 1.5).
- Stability gains from events reduced by around 30% across the board.
- AI tribal nations will now only reform their governments if they have at least 25 Civilization in their capital.
############################
#Complete Soundtrack DLC:
############################
- Three new songs added: Tyros, The Mediterranean, and The Punic Wars.
############################
#Bugfixes:
############################
Stability & Performance:
- Fixed startup crash related to shadowmap resolution setting.
- Fixed crash related to using the back button to negotiate with barbarians.
- Fixed two more rare crashes related to ingame popups and account login.
- Slightly improved performance related to ai threat calculations.
Modding:
- Fixed mods being unable to load localization files.
Gameplay:
- Fixed game not applying Naval Damage Taken modifiers correctly.
- Fixed Slave Raid naval unit ability being available to everyone.
- Fixed problem where countries would not be properly called into wars which affected both humans and AI.
- Adoption will now exclude prisoners in all cases (instead of just some cases).
- Fixed local modifiers being used in Nabatean and Helot Heritages, which made them do nothing.
- No longer possible to teleport armies between Athens and Keos.
- Orontid family now properly a great family in Armenia.
- Fixed all remaining food vanishing when detaching a supply train.
- Made it impossible to adopt Mercenary captains.
- Olympic competitors can no longer form families while they are competing, leading to that family then being dispersed over the entire Mediterrenean world.
Missions:
- Fixed badly scripted mission requirements for the Roman task to subdue Greece.
- Fixed bad tooltip in Roman Mission relating to Crete.
- Fixed problem with the Roman Mission events relating to acquiring subjects in Italy.
- Fixed problem with Roman Mission tasks to befriend a tribe not finding appropriate countries for their events.
- Carthaginian mission bonus for same culture happiness reduced from 50% to 15%.
- Fixed the generic conquest mission aborting if you conquered every last territory in the region it targeted.
- Fixed bug where Musalamii would not properly turned to a client state in Carthaginian missions if they civilized before the mission was completed.
- Fixed problem with selection of Governorship capital for the General Development Mission.
- Fixed problem related to the dominant culture in the governorship capital changing mid-mission.
- Fixed problem with mission task wanting you to appoint a governor but in fact never actually considering that requirement fulfilled.
- Fixed issue with mining mission tasks being able to target a place where the Mining mission could not be done and therefore bypassing immediately.
- Fixed problem where some tasks would sometimes bypass immediately in a mission.
- General development mission will no longer require only Olives for your slaves but instead Olives or Wood since Olives can be quite hard to come by in Scotland, India or even Germany.
############################
#Interface:
############################
- Fixed the game failing to display last names for minor characters in the minor event window.
- Fixed Spanish localization having no information about what trade good a trade offer was for, or where it came from.
- Fixed badly linked text for event about Roman Eagles.
- Fixed a number of failed references to Family names.
