Dev Diary 72: Icenian Mission Tree and Nuragic tweaks
Salvete!
Today we’ll be presenting the Icenia mission tree, some tweaks that have been made to the Nuragic lands and some QOL features for the GUI.
For the Icenia tree, i’ll hand you over to Zorgoball.
Hello everyone, Zorgoball here to introduce and show off the latest tree for the tribes of Britannia - in the 1.7 update of Invictus, there will be a mission for Icenia. Twenty tasks await you as you personally guide the “Ascent of the Cenimagni”.
The Iceni were a tribe that lived in southeastern England, and are perhaps mostly known for the rebellion that was led by their queen Boudicca about sixty years after the game’s end. While this famous incident is well beyond our time frame, other things that the Iceni were known for - their skill at metalworking, their fondness for chariots, horses and trade - are all represented here. You will be tasked with building up your economy while fighting to form Pritania, and while there are some shared missions from the Dumnonia tree, all involving the Aquae Sulis holy site and Druid Event Chain associated with it, everything else here is completely focused on the Iceni. We will start on the left side of the tree, where the military aspect of your campaign will come into focus.
When the game starts, your people are in possession of most of your home province of Icenia, but there are three territories that the Trinovantians to the south have moved into. You won’t be able to progress any further until this mistake has been corrected.
Once you have unified your home province, you will be able to build upon this momentum by preparing claims against your neighboring tribes en masse. The promise of the glorious battles to come will inspire your levies to fight like they never have before!
The Iceni were known to be diplomats, trusting in their connections when it came to matters both domestic and international, and this is reflected in a couple of tasks. You will need to cultivate friends in your backyard as well as across the water, as there are obvious benefits for doing both.
There will be rewards for consolidating your hold on the island, which will open up even more opportunities for investing in your new territories.
In an effort to increase your holdings as you subdue your foes, you will be able to take things from them - not just their gold, but even their Elders shall be numbered amongst your possessions…
We will take a look at the right side of the tree now, which will help you build up your capital region and make your city of Venta Icenorum the most powerful seat of power in all of Britannia. Because the Iceni were said to be quite fond of gold, you will be tasked with building markets and kickstarting the economy to make sure your treasuries are filled.
If you chose to build the La Tène workshops and supply your blacksmiths with the training and the tools that they need, then there is a good chance that a masterpiece will eventually be produced.
As the reputation of Venta Icenorum grows, new opportunities for your people will make themselves available - the iron in the nearby swamps will serve useful purposes, once a mine has been built in the bogs.
As a tribe, you are unable to raise a legion per se, but the Iceni are unaware of these limitations and do as they please, and their foes tremble at the mere mention of their dread elite force known as the Chariots of Doom. Any time that there is a battle with an enemy where the forces are evenly matched, these quickly-moving chariots have often turned the tide of battle in Icenia’s favour.
In 2011, archaeologists discovered an Iron Age road in East Anglia, one that was made of wood and thought to have been built by the Iceni, so you will have a chance to do exactly that.
There are a couple of tasks that we will leave as surprises, but there will be good reasons for your ruler to invest in building up your civilization level.
A couple of other things before I go; a quick peek into Dementive’s workshop, where he has been polishing up some quality of life features that you can toggle on and off as you please. Here is a look at a compact military traditions view, where only traditions available to you are visible.
There will be a similar option for a compact mercenary menu.
The last thing I want to mention before I hang things over is that our AAR contest is still going strong over on our Discord server:
https://discord.gg/5K9fd3qSjx, with many ongoing series that are a thrill to read being continuously updated. We have some excellent stories, including “Master of the Steppes”, “To The Strongest”, “Sicilian Ambitions”, “Horsing Around”, “The Hundred Year Quest for North Africa”, “450 AUC: The World After Alexandros”, and even entries written in a dev diary style! We at the Invictus team are having a blast reading about your sensational campaigns, so thanks to everyone who has submitted so far. Remember, the contest is open until June 17th, so there’s still plenty of time to enter. That’s it from me, so here is one of our newest contributors, Acult, to discuss the tremendous work he has done in Sardinia.
Saludi a totus, I’m Acult and today we talk about Sardinia.
The bulk of my work consists in adjusting the majestic work previously done by Zorgoball and the Invictus team, bringing a bit of historical accuracy where the unavailability of creditable English sources had the upper hand on the content integrated for the island.
At this time, the Invictus mod currently contains five playable Nuragic tags: Coracensia, Luguidonensia, Tibulatia, Celesitania and Rubrinsia, as well two mission branches entirely dedicated to the Nuragic culture.
The nations of Celesitania and Rubrinsia got respectively changed to “Kelsitania” and “Rubrensia”, to better suit the historical record available from Ptolemy (Kelsitanoi and Roubrensoi), while instead the nation of Tibulatia has been renamed to “Longonensia”, as the Tibulati were a Roman incolae from Republic time, while the “Longonenses” are an historically attested Corso-Nuragic tribe of north-east Sardinia.
All provinces names of Sardinia have been revisited, correctly assessing each one to the name of the relevant settlement in the area used at the time:
–Province number - Previous name -> New name
3486 - Ferraria -> Sarcapos
Ferraria was an irrelevant minerary settlement on late Roman Republic, the name has been changed to Sarcapos as the latter was an important Sardo-Punic city-state in the area.
3484 - Karli -> Karali
Karali (punic KRL), was a Sardo-Punic city state of a certain size which would later become the center of power in the island during Roman era (Carales/Caralis). The toponym is Proto-Sardinian and related to Carallai (yellow rock)
3483 - Tarshish -> Nura
Misplaced toponym, Nura instead was the center of power during the Carthaginian rule.
3481 - Slahi -> Sulki
The previous name was invented, now replaced with the historical one. A Sardo-Punic city, destroyed by Carthage during the wars to submit the coasts and quickly rebuilt, Sulki would never renounce to antagonise the Tyrean colony, siding with Rome since the very beginning.
3485 (Roman) - Sardopatoris -> Metalla
Only for the Roman culture, the place was also known as Metalla
3493 - Tarrot -> Tarshish
Replaced the invented toponym with the correct one. A city of relevant importance which would have lost most of its former glory after the war against Carthage in 500BC.
3494 - Cornus -> Sanaphar
Replaced a Roman-era name with the local toponym (both mean Horns), Sanaphar was a relevant city state in this area ruled by Hampsicora. It would lately lead a Sardinian revolt against the Roman rule during 215 BC
3497 - Hermaion Akron -> Carbia
The previous name was misplaced and incorrect for the area
3499 - Nymphaios Limen -> Nure
Nure was yet another settlement in north-west Sardinia, it would give the name to the Nurrenses (a Nuragic tribe) and Nurra (the name used nowdays to define such region)
3500 - Mighdal Shradhnin -> Libisonis
The previous name was invented, it’s better to stick with the historical one. This settlement would lately turn to a Roman colony during Caesar era, one of the two only Roman colonies ever founded in Sardinia (the other is Usellis, still during Caesar)
3495 - Aquae Hypsitanae -> Hydata
No need to name a city after an aqueduct if we know the name of the city
3491 - Lesa -> Lacon
Misplaced toponym, switched to the historically attested Lacon (home of the Lakonites, an Iliensian tribe)
3502 - Sorabile -> Lesa
Misplaced toponym, this was the correct Lesa (home of the Lesitani, an Iliensian tribe)
3501 - Ercynum -> Luguido
The previous name was a misplaced irrelevant town of Roman era, switched with Luguido, the historically attested capital of the Luguidonenses, which would lately give the name to a wider region nowadays knows as “Logudoro”
3505 - Portus Tibulae -> Tibula
The city was named Tibula
3506 - Viniolae (missplaced) -> Longones
Very misplaced and irrelevant Roman settlement, switched to Longones, the capital of the Longonenses.
3504 - Qart 'Onim -> Phausiane
A curious toponym invented by the PDX team in the effort to translate the ancient greek “Olbia”, although being the solely Greek colony ever founded in Sardinia, the Phoceans would abandon the area within 20 years of the foundation after a war against Carthage and the Etruscans of Caisra. The settlement became a periferic Carthaginian outpost, locally known as Phausiane (source M. Pittau)
3489 - Fanum Carisi -> Kares
Replaced with a suitable indigenous name, Kares was the capital of the Karenses (an Iliensian tribe)
3487 - Porticenses -> Tyrsenia
Replaced with a locally attested settlement name, Tyrsenia would take the name from Tyrsis, the pan-Mediterranean word to identify Towers, on this case the Nuraghes. The use of this word was attested among Sardinians, Etruscans and ancient Greeks.
About the distribution of cultures in the island, the Nuragic culture has been added to the three missing provinces in the north-east. The punic culture is no longer the majority at Tarshish, Sulki and Sanaphar, while it has been added to Sarcapos.
The ahistorical overpopulation of the cities of Sulki and Phausiane has been distributed among the other equally relevant Sardo-Punic city-states of the time, which were previously severely depopulated.
Phausiane has lost its city status, while Tarshish, Nura and Sanaphar are now cities.
Concerning the “Nuragic Homeland” mission tree, the localization has been tweaked to better fit historical data, for example the “human sacrifice” task (not attested among Sardinians) has been changed to something else.
In regard to the country-specific heritages of the Nuragic tribes in the game, we have a plan to rewrite the localisation of those who do not correctly attain historical data.
