Greetings all,
Today we’ll be taking a look at some of the more significant balance changes coming to the game with the advent of the 2.0 release.
Manpower
Due to the levies and legions features being added, manpower is undergoing a few adjustments. Simply put, manpower from pops is being increased, whereas the expected number of years for manpower to reach the maximum cap is being reduced.
This effectively means that your monthly manpower gains will go up, whereas your manpower pool will remain broadly similar to before.
Why these changes?
Well, with levied units being proportional to your population, we found that fielded forces tend to be larger than if one builds armies 1 unit at a time. Combined with the fact that levied pops do not contribute to resource income, this usually results in significant waiting periods in between conquest - something that could often feel like a hard block. Of course, these changes don’t offset the need for good pop planning, they merely mitigate some of the increased potential for attrition and casualty damage.
Statesmanship
As of 2.0, statesmanship will be vastly more important than prominence in republican elections; simulating more of a meritocratic/political aspect to character importance. It should become more likely to have long-serving officials elected to Consul, than those with inherent prominence from one of many sources.
Subjects and Integration
The per-pop cost to integrate subjects has been reduced significantly, as often pop growth would end up outstripping integration speed for larger subjects. Additionally, the AI has been altered to more frequently consider integration of smaller subjects without strategic potential.
Several subject types have been added in 2.0, many of which are accessible through the invention trees.
Additionally, previously tag specific subjects such as Syracuse’ mercenary state subject type can also be unlocked through the innovation tree, provided the Magna Graecia content pack is owned. Syracuse will still start with this subject type unlocked.
Oratory Inventions
During development of the oratory tree, it became apparent that more diplomatic ‘keystone’ style effects were required. Several have been added, and tie in to protectionism and intervention.
While the sum of the various keystone inventions can certainly seem very powerful, the limiting factor will still be how one spends the limited number of innovations one receives over the course of a campaign. Situational choice remains relevant, and allows for tailoring national capabilities according to desired playstyle.
While the invention trees still contain numerous modifier changes, we’ve tried to add plenty of decisions or unlockables that affect how you play the game, as well.
Mercenaries
The size of mercenary stacks now has a greater scaling based on where they are situated. This ensures that they maintain long-term viability, and allows you to better ‘grow’ mercenary bands for your own nefarious purposes.
This functionality previously existed, but was heavily reduced due to the propensity for ludicrous mercenary stacks. A more reasonable scaling has been applied.
Holy Sites and Treasures
Due to popular demand, you will now be able to remove treasures from holy sites not in your pantheon, without razing said site to the ground.
Additionally, holy sites have been given more prominence in the territory UI, where the holysite image will now replace the city status image, and will also show any treasures currently in the territory:
Treasures are a gameplay feature that were previously very difficult to interact with, as many of you have pointed out. These changes ought to mitigate some of those concerns.
AI Expansion
Whilst very difficult to balance optimal play and historical accuracy for the AI, we’ve changed the way that the AI evaluates potential wars. This puts a greater emphasis on going after claimed land, a vastly reduced likelihood of expanding into tribal territory (for non-tribal governments), and a greater likelihood of engaging in more evenly-matched warfare between regional powers.
In practice, this results in better expansion for our classic ‘great powers’ such as Rome and the Diadochi, and fewer snaking conquests into low-value tribal terrain. Of course, Imperator remains a sandbox - games will not play out the same way twice, and where sometimes Rome may fall, other great powers may rise to take their place…
Yes, that is Rome as a client kingdom.
And now I shall hand over to @Chopmist who’ll take you through the final, essential mission for any successful Diadoch.
Today we’ll be taking a look at some of the more significant balance changes coming to the game with the advent of the 2.0 release.
Manpower
Due to the levies and legions features being added, manpower is undergoing a few adjustments. Simply put, manpower from pops is being increased, whereas the expected number of years for manpower to reach the maximum cap is being reduced.
This effectively means that your monthly manpower gains will go up, whereas your manpower pool will remain broadly similar to before.
Why these changes?
Well, with levied units being proportional to your population, we found that fielded forces tend to be larger than if one builds armies 1 unit at a time. Combined with the fact that levied pops do not contribute to resource income, this usually results in significant waiting periods in between conquest - something that could often feel like a hard block. Of course, these changes don’t offset the need for good pop planning, they merely mitigate some of the increased potential for attrition and casualty damage.
Statesmanship
As of 2.0, statesmanship will be vastly more important than prominence in republican elections; simulating more of a meritocratic/political aspect to character importance. It should become more likely to have long-serving officials elected to Consul, than those with inherent prominence from one of many sources.
Subjects and Integration
The per-pop cost to integrate subjects has been reduced significantly, as often pop growth would end up outstripping integration speed for larger subjects. Additionally, the AI has been altered to more frequently consider integration of smaller subjects without strategic potential.
Several subject types have been added in 2.0, many of which are accessible through the invention trees.
Additionally, previously tag specific subjects such as Syracuse’ mercenary state subject type can also be unlocked through the innovation tree, provided the Magna Graecia content pack is owned. Syracuse will still start with this subject type unlocked.
Oratory Inventions
During development of the oratory tree, it became apparent that more diplomatic ‘keystone’ style effects were required. Several have been added, and tie in to protectionism and intervention.
While the sum of the various keystone inventions can certainly seem very powerful, the limiting factor will still be how one spends the limited number of innovations one receives over the course of a campaign. Situational choice remains relevant, and allows for tailoring national capabilities according to desired playstyle.
While the invention trees still contain numerous modifier changes, we’ve tried to add plenty of decisions or unlockables that affect how you play the game, as well.
Mercenaries
The size of mercenary stacks now has a greater scaling based on where they are situated. This ensures that they maintain long-term viability, and allows you to better ‘grow’ mercenary bands for your own nefarious purposes.
This functionality previously existed, but was heavily reduced due to the propensity for ludicrous mercenary stacks. A more reasonable scaling has been applied.
Holy Sites and Treasures
Due to popular demand, you will now be able to remove treasures from holy sites not in your pantheon, without razing said site to the ground.
Additionally, holy sites have been given more prominence in the territory UI, where the holysite image will now replace the city status image, and will also show any treasures currently in the territory:
Treasures are a gameplay feature that were previously very difficult to interact with, as many of you have pointed out. These changes ought to mitigate some of those concerns.
AI Expansion
Whilst very difficult to balance optimal play and historical accuracy for the AI, we’ve changed the way that the AI evaluates potential wars. This puts a greater emphasis on going after claimed land, a vastly reduced likelihood of expanding into tribal territory (for non-tribal governments), and a greater likelihood of engaging in more evenly-matched warfare between regional powers.
In practice, this results in better expansion for our classic ‘great powers’ such as Rome and the Diadochi, and fewer snaking conquests into low-value tribal terrain. Of course, Imperator remains a sandbox - games will not play out the same way twice, and where sometimes Rome may fall, other great powers may rise to take their place…
Yes, that is Rome as a client kingdom.
And now I shall hand over to @Chopmist who’ll take you through the final, essential mission for any successful Diadoch.
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