So I really like Imperator and I see that the next few updates are going to be good and help greatly improve the game. The culture system that is coming out soon is pretty much what I want for example. So I don't think that we are anywhere near a reboot of the series. However I do think there are things that they can improve. So here are my suggestions:
Buildings
The theme of the game IMO is civilization building and one of the things that show the civilization are buildings but the Building system in Imperator. Yet I find that the number of the buildings and the lack of depth with them to be well lacking. Now I have posted about this before and hopefully some of the ideas will be implemented in the future.
The nutshell is that I would have more buildings and those buildings to have depth and levels. In addition to things such as sewers and hospitals for fighting diseases and actual ports for your provinces that produce fish and for your navy. There would be buildings for your pops. Things such as Bath-houses, Barbershops, Villas and the like.
I also would have settlement buildings be revamped so you had more options to build things at your settlement and dictate what sort of settlement it is. So you might have a building to reflect that this settlement is along a trade route and thus focused on commerce or perhaps has a small shrine and thus far more sacred then average.
I would tie the various special buildings that you can create into a revamped building system. So for example the Pharos Lighthouse and the temple of the muses that Egypt can build in Alexandria would be buildings in the building screen. This also goes for your special shrines and temples that you can build.
Religion
So for religion, I am going to focus on the Indian Religions and the Greek religions. I have written about my suggestions for Hellenism and the Indian religions before. This was however a rather dynamic time for the various religions.
For the Greeks you had various philosophies rise and spread throughout the world. From Pythagoreanism, Platonism, and Cynicism, to newer philosophies such as Stoicism, Epricurianism, and Pyrrhonism. You also had various mystery religions, such as the eleusian mysteries or the orphic mysteries. These two elements complemented mainstream Hellenism. In addition this was a world filled with festivals not just the olympic games.
The indian religions meanwhile were also rather dynamic during this era. This was the era not long after Jainism and Buddhism were founded. When the Śramaṇa movement was in full swing where in addition to Buddhism and Jainism, you also had Ājīvika and Charvaka competing with them and with the religions that would form Hinduism. In OTL Ajivika and Charvaka lost out but that doesn't mean they had to and one could see them dominate. Still these are young dynamic religions. It was during the reign of Chandragupta that the split between the Svetambara and Digambara Jains arose. Buddhism was still in the early form of Buddhism where there were a number of different Buddhist schools. Playing them should be interesting and a bit different everytime as you take the reigns of a dynamic new faith.
Hinduism meanwhile was in the Hindu Synthesis period. Transitioning from the vedic religion to Hinduism. As with Hellenism a number of Hindu philosophies arose during this era as well. You had Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, and Mimamsa during this era. Mimamsa was one of the schools of Hindu Philosophy that arose during the game's time frame.
The religion update was a good step in the right direction. However there is more that could be done. First and foremost, if a religion is accepted in your nation, then pops conversion drops dramatically, there should still be a small increase for your primary religion but it should be tiny.
One thing I think all religions should have are things for priesthoods be it Indian Brahmins, Roman Vestal Virigins, Greek Oracles, Celtic Druids, Persian Magi and so on. More devoted and zealous characters might seek to enlist in a priesthood. Which would have different rules on behavior and things. Some may require celibacy others may not.
Tying into the building thing I have mentioned above, I would have minority religious buildings so that you could build temples to gods and goddess of religions that are not your primary religion. So for example I am a Hellenic nation ruling over part of india, so in addition to the temples to the Greek gods and goddesses, I could also build a temple for the Jains, Buddhists, or Hindus in the city.
Governments
The big thing that I would do is focus on having a lot more laws. Double or triple the amount of laws we have atm. Some might be shared across nations, but others would be limited. So you have different laws based on culture, religion, nation, and government type. So instead of having roughly 8 categories of law you might have 16 or 24 law categories or more. So that you can have a variety of different laws and that nations would be different.
What this means is that you would be able to tailor your government more to what you want it to be and they would be unique. This does mean that you wouldn't have a decision to become a theocratic monarchy or plutocratic republic. Instead these would be represented by picking the right set of laws and then you would become that type as the nature of your government takes on the new form.
Pops
The culture rework where Pops are wanting certain trade goods is a major step in the right direction. That should be then translated to buildings. So Nobles might want vilas and academies, citizens might want bathhouses and forums, while freemen might want a marketplace and granary. Everyone would want temples of their own faith.
The demand for these buildings and how many would depend on a number of factors. is it a provincial city, a megacity, the capital, what is your rank? are you a local power or a great power. What this would mean in practice is that at the start of the game it would be easy to keep everyone happy but as you grow their demands will become more and more as nobles particularly in the capital want a city worthy of being the capital of a great power.
Pops would make up the army but how they do would be based on the laws and traditions. So for example you might have a law that says only citizens can be heavy infantry or that only nobles can be heavy cavalry or ride war elephants. This would allow you for example to represent the marian reforms by having freemen able to become heavy infantry.
Disease
Disease and Plagues were a common occurrence in the ancient world and this was especially true in cities. This should be one of the elements that you have to deal with when creating a megacity as disease would kill off your population. New buildings such as hospitals, bathhouses, barbershops, and sewers would help fight the disease but it would still be a threat.
Every now and then you should have a pandemic strike the world. This would be a devastating effect for the nations that are afflicted by the disease.
User Interface
So an improved UI is one thing I would like to see. One thing I would want to see somehow is that the ancient world wasn't white marble for all the eye to see. It was a world filled with color. Now getting this into a UI is a bit tricky. One could have the mission images become painted as they are completed, so starting as white marble statues but then painted when you complete them. I think that they should be represented in some fashion.
Being able to resize the various screens at will would be great.
Buildings
The theme of the game IMO is civilization building and one of the things that show the civilization are buildings but the Building system in Imperator. Yet I find that the number of the buildings and the lack of depth with them to be well lacking. Now I have posted about this before and hopefully some of the ideas will be implemented in the future.
The nutshell is that I would have more buildings and those buildings to have depth and levels. In addition to things such as sewers and hospitals for fighting diseases and actual ports for your provinces that produce fish and for your navy. There would be buildings for your pops. Things such as Bath-houses, Barbershops, Villas and the like.
I also would have settlement buildings be revamped so you had more options to build things at your settlement and dictate what sort of settlement it is. So you might have a building to reflect that this settlement is along a trade route and thus focused on commerce or perhaps has a small shrine and thus far more sacred then average.
I would tie the various special buildings that you can create into a revamped building system. So for example the Pharos Lighthouse and the temple of the muses that Egypt can build in Alexandria would be buildings in the building screen. This also goes for your special shrines and temples that you can build.
Religion
So for religion, I am going to focus on the Indian Religions and the Greek religions. I have written about my suggestions for Hellenism and the Indian religions before. This was however a rather dynamic time for the various religions.
For the Greeks you had various philosophies rise and spread throughout the world. From Pythagoreanism, Platonism, and Cynicism, to newer philosophies such as Stoicism, Epricurianism, and Pyrrhonism. You also had various mystery religions, such as the eleusian mysteries or the orphic mysteries. These two elements complemented mainstream Hellenism. In addition this was a world filled with festivals not just the olympic games.
The indian religions meanwhile were also rather dynamic during this era. This was the era not long after Jainism and Buddhism were founded. When the Śramaṇa movement was in full swing where in addition to Buddhism and Jainism, you also had Ājīvika and Charvaka competing with them and with the religions that would form Hinduism. In OTL Ajivika and Charvaka lost out but that doesn't mean they had to and one could see them dominate. Still these are young dynamic religions. It was during the reign of Chandragupta that the split between the Svetambara and Digambara Jains arose. Buddhism was still in the early form of Buddhism where there were a number of different Buddhist schools. Playing them should be interesting and a bit different everytime as you take the reigns of a dynamic new faith.
Hinduism meanwhile was in the Hindu Synthesis period. Transitioning from the vedic religion to Hinduism. As with Hellenism a number of Hindu philosophies arose during this era as well. You had Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, and Mimamsa during this era. Mimamsa was one of the schools of Hindu Philosophy that arose during the game's time frame.
The religion update was a good step in the right direction. However there is more that could be done. First and foremost, if a religion is accepted in your nation, then pops conversion drops dramatically, there should still be a small increase for your primary religion but it should be tiny.
One thing I think all religions should have are things for priesthoods be it Indian Brahmins, Roman Vestal Virigins, Greek Oracles, Celtic Druids, Persian Magi and so on. More devoted and zealous characters might seek to enlist in a priesthood. Which would have different rules on behavior and things. Some may require celibacy others may not.
Tying into the building thing I have mentioned above, I would have minority religious buildings so that you could build temples to gods and goddess of religions that are not your primary religion. So for example I am a Hellenic nation ruling over part of india, so in addition to the temples to the Greek gods and goddesses, I could also build a temple for the Jains, Buddhists, or Hindus in the city.
Governments
The big thing that I would do is focus on having a lot more laws. Double or triple the amount of laws we have atm. Some might be shared across nations, but others would be limited. So you have different laws based on culture, religion, nation, and government type. So instead of having roughly 8 categories of law you might have 16 or 24 law categories or more. So that you can have a variety of different laws and that nations would be different.
What this means is that you would be able to tailor your government more to what you want it to be and they would be unique. This does mean that you wouldn't have a decision to become a theocratic monarchy or plutocratic republic. Instead these would be represented by picking the right set of laws and then you would become that type as the nature of your government takes on the new form.
Pops
The culture rework where Pops are wanting certain trade goods is a major step in the right direction. That should be then translated to buildings. So Nobles might want vilas and academies, citizens might want bathhouses and forums, while freemen might want a marketplace and granary. Everyone would want temples of their own faith.
The demand for these buildings and how many would depend on a number of factors. is it a provincial city, a megacity, the capital, what is your rank? are you a local power or a great power. What this would mean in practice is that at the start of the game it would be easy to keep everyone happy but as you grow their demands will become more and more as nobles particularly in the capital want a city worthy of being the capital of a great power.
Pops would make up the army but how they do would be based on the laws and traditions. So for example you might have a law that says only citizens can be heavy infantry or that only nobles can be heavy cavalry or ride war elephants. This would allow you for example to represent the marian reforms by having freemen able to become heavy infantry.
Disease
Disease and Plagues were a common occurrence in the ancient world and this was especially true in cities. This should be one of the elements that you have to deal with when creating a megacity as disease would kill off your population. New buildings such as hospitals, bathhouses, barbershops, and sewers would help fight the disease but it would still be a threat.
Every now and then you should have a pandemic strike the world. This would be a devastating effect for the nations that are afflicted by the disease.
User Interface
So an improved UI is one thing I would like to see. One thing I would want to see somehow is that the ancient world wasn't white marble for all the eye to see. It was a world filled with color. Now getting this into a UI is a bit tricky. One could have the mission images become painted as they are completed, so starting as white marble statues but then painted when you complete them. I think that they should be represented in some fashion.
Being able to resize the various screens at will would be great.
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