Imperator - Development Diary - 21st of January 2019

[RagingJaws]

I usually don't have an issue with how PDX games are designed but it's clear that there is little development from EU:Rome to Imperator in regards to the naval side of things. For once, the multitudes that complain about bare bones features that will get filled in with DLC might be right.

One naval unit is not enough.

 

[Ixal]

How does making peace work? Like in EU4 where you can claim whatever you want at higher cost?
If yes, why would anyone ever use the Conquest war goal? That it automatically ends will be seen by most players as a downside as they will fight to get 100% warscore to get as many provinces as they can, like what the optimal strategy in EU4 is.

Also, the naval gameplay looks very poor. Only 1 unit? I forsee that you will easily get a EU4 GB scenario where one nation can easily become unstoppable on the sea because it buffed its triremes.

 

[Wagonlitz]

It seems that the steppes will be complete wasteland. How historical is that? Wasn't there some settlements there before the Mongols, or were those things not there yet at this point in time?

 

[kusemaster47]

@Trin Tragula Would you mind explaining a bit more into the war leader mechanic? I get where you are coming from in that a fight between lets say Hesse and Saxony in Eu4 where Hesse is allied to France and Saxony to Austria isn't really a Hessian-Saxon War and more a French-Austrian one. But would, for example, Rome be able to call its allies into a fight if it became war leader in a defensive war with one of its allies? Because if that is the case that might get a bit annoying.

Btw Central Asia looks very promising, keep up the good work.

 

[Pureon]

I'm going to have to agree with a few of the other comments - For a game with such a strong focus around the Mediterranean sea, and from what I can tell a solid trade mechanic, it's disappointing they've limited it to one type of ship. Sorry but this seems rather bland. I just hope I'm wrong.

 

[Karl244]

In Imperator:Rome there is only one type of naval unit, the Trireme (representing all forms of War Galleys). Ships can only be built in ports, and ports only exist in predefined locations around the map. Building ships also requires access to Wood in the Province that the City belongs to.

So may I ask why you guys choose to only allow for predefined port locations?

 

[Adrianople]

It seems that the steppes will be complete wasteland. How historical is that? Wasn't there some settlements there before the Mongols, or were those things not there yet at this point in time?

There were proto-Turkic peoples in the region going from the North of Kazakhstan all the way through Uyghurstan and into the Xiongnu lands that became Mongolia. However, they were at this point simply nomadic, and it may be an oversight for them to ignore what actually made the Silk Road work, especially during the Roman-Persian rivalry, which saw the Persians stop land trade through their Empire from going into the Roman Empire. The proto-Turkic peoples thus are very important due to their facilitation of the Northern branch of the Silk Road (Crusader Kings II actually depicts this very well, having the route coming from Mongolia going to Central Asia, and then forking off to Rostov-na-donu, all of which were under control of Turko-Mongolic, Turkic and Mongolic peoples from the time of Imperator all the way to the late part of EUIV, when the Russians took over and nullified any remaining Turkic presence (later taking over Bukhara and the other remaining Central Asian states (one Iranian Tajik state and the other states people see at the beginning of Victoria II). So the fact that the proto-Turkic peoples aren't on the map doing exactly what they were doing even before this game is a little wrong.

 

[TheDarkMaster]

There are some concerns from previous games that I want to bring up here and now to hopefully avoid history repeating itself:

• Pirates: Can these still spawn if you do not have the capacity to build ships and fight them off? Such as if you have no access to wood in your ports? What if you are importing wood and the pirates cut off your ability to build ships?
• AI negotiation: How obstinate is the AI in accepting limited concessions? A huge problem in most Paradox games is the need to completely and utterly defeat the AI in a lengthy before it will agree to giving up a single province, at which point it is likely being swarmed by other opportunists and you may as well take as much land as you can. Will it be possible to attack a massively weaker foe, defeat them in a battle or two, and claim a little territory in only a few months of war? Similarly, will the AI try to recognize when it's in a really bad spot and give up on one war almost immediately it has very little chance of winning so it can focus on another one it does have a good chance in?
• War AI prioritization: Similarly to above, please improve the AI's prioritization when choosing targets to fight. A big problem in other Paradox games is the AI's insistence of attacking the weakest target first. If it's in a difficult but winnable war with a powerful rival, it should not abandon the fight against its rival if a minor power decides to try and opportunistically grab a province off of it. Wasting resources fighting off the flies while it's lands are destroyed and stolen by its rival is suicide. It should just leave the weak armies until after the main war is finished or give up a little territory to the minors for now and then use its claims to take them back later.
• Allies: If an ally joins a war that they have no way to interact with or one side cannot reach them, can this lead to wars lasting far longer than they should because the winning side must wait 36 months to sign a separate peace with the ally they cannot attack before they can sign a peace with the primary target? For example, a war might take less than 6 months to fully occupy the target's land, but they cannot be annexed while their ally is still in the war even though the ally cannot reach or be reached by the opposition?
• War leaders: Can we choose not to call to arms our allies when we are attacked if we don't want to lose warleader status? Additionally, can we choose to not take over as warleader if we do not want to call our own allies into a war when we are trying to prepare for another offensive war and what them to join us in that instead?

 

[sersors]

I'm going to have to agree with a few of the other comments - For a game with such a strong focus around the Mediterranean sea, and from what I can tell a solid trade mechanic, it's disappointing they've limited it to one type of ship. Sorry but this seems rather bland. I just hope I'm wrong.

This...

 

[SalviaPratensis]

May I ask what sources are you using for the place names east of Tigris? I admit not being the expert on this, and probably almost no one cares about it, however some province names appear to medieval Persian versions instead of Middle Persian, such as Qom instead of Goman, or Tahiriya, Persian, but with an Arabic suffix, and then there are some which are clearly Arabic such as Mansur or Javad.

Other than that the map looks great.

 

[gato tecleador]

I expected more from the naval mechanics

 

[Dusk313]

So about that checkbox regarding "call allies". We have the opportunity to call which allies we want to our wars but we must always fight our allies' wars? I see some unfair double standard here!

 

[Prometheus_1]

Are you taking in consideration that ancient geography could have been a little different from modern one? Like desertic areas of today beeing lush and rivers or lakes that are now non exhistant? Large untouched forests or sea level ? Also climate was colder during the time of Spartacus as was snowing regurarly in southern Italy and N.Africa wasn't desertic or so hot.

 

[Druplesnubb]

Oh hey, I actually recognize the Sogdians from that time I visited an exhibition on Tang Chinese history.

 

[Prometheus_1]

I expected more from the naval mechanics

I guess they are leaving it for Dlcs.

 

[Denkt]

So about that checkbox regarding "call allies". We have the opportunity to call which allies we want to our wars but we must always fight our allies' wars? I see some unfair double standard here!

It only applies to defensive wars. Allies do not have to fight in offensive wars.

I expected more from the naval mechanics

Actually it is better than I thought it would be. I was pretty sure there would only be one ship type but I did not know you could raid you enemies for slaves with the navy which make naves more important than they would be if they could not raid.​

 

[GurenGaaze]

I guess they are leaving it for Dlcs.

As every paradox game have no focus on navy at all (only HOI4 going in the right direction, or so I've heard) I doubt it.

 

[Denkt]

Wait, so how can the Diadochi reunite Alexander's Empire? Can a conquest CB be on a whole country?

​

The war of the diadochi event give the 5 major diadochi claims on the whole empire.

 

[Inner Circle]

Just like there are army unit abilities on land there are also unit abilities at sea:

• Ramming Tactics: Navy Offensive Damage +10% Navy Defense Damage -10%

 

[Strigoi Tyrannus]

I'm a bit disappointed here, the mechanics seem quite barebones.

Naval tactics could be a bit more diverse. What I can think of is that Ramming should increase damage dealt and received and boarding should make it possible to capture ships. One tactic could be to use archers to fire from a far, which would decrease damage dealt and received.

With pirates there could be a lot better and interesting mechanics. For example: Make it possible for ships to become loyal to admirals like armies can be to generals. Disloyal admiral could turn into a pirate, taking ships loyal to him to his pirate fleet. The fleet needs a place to harbor, so nearby (or not so nearby) port owning nations are asked one by one, until one agrees , if they would let the fleet use one of their harbors as a base of operations. The nation hosting the pirates would get a part of the plunder the pirates hoard. It could also generate events in the province/city with the harbor (mostly negative, put positive aswell. Maybe having an army or navy at the harbor would keep the pirates in control and deter negative events). The nations which get plundered would get a cacus belli towards the host nation. Something like this would be much more interesting and tie pirates to other mechanics of the game, instead of making it just a random chance.

There could also be a lot more cacus bellis and wargoals.