Imperiums: Greek Wars News

Hello everyone.

It has been a while since the release of the last major update and it is high time for a new one. We have put a lot of work into improving the game experience, hopefully you will see this too.



MAIN IMPROVEMENTS:

• History replay can be now exported to GIF directly in game.
• State decisions tooltip shows the impact of the action.
• Affiliation (tribe name) is now being displayed for independent units when they move or attack.
  
• New attribute called „aversion“ was implemented, this affects how likely the factions are to cooperate, form alliances etc. Further work is planned on this attribute.
  
• New menu item opening the list of existing DLCs was added to the Main Menu.
  
• New icon showing what map item (e.g. a city, blacksmith, stable) is busy, was added to the Strategic Overview (in map view).

OTHER IMPROVEMENTS:

• Player can choose specialization of a new stable and shipyard immediately.
  
• Invention tree displaying speed was increased.
  
• „Agoge Training“ State Decision was improved.
  
• Loading saved games was improved and it is faster now.
  
• Confirmation is required now before starting tutorial.
  
• City demands were limited to one per city.
  
• Several State Decisions were altered to not upgrade Nomads to Settlers.
  
• Korean and Portuguese languages were added to the pool of experimental languages (please get in touch if you would like to help with translations and/or proofreading).

AI IMPROVEMENTS:

• AI behavior when it was selling city walls in the Troy scenario, was adjusted.
  
• Improvements in selecting attack targets.
  
• Improvements in choosing what to build next.
  
• Improvements in supply usage.
  
• Excessive recruitment of nomads was mitigated.
  
• Algorithm to build less ships on lakes was improved.
  
• Prediction for absorption was not correctly calculated, this has been remedied.

BUGS AND ISSUES FIXED:

• Bug in supply calculation was fixed.
  
• Emissaries not being part of the unit loop in particular cases, was fixed.
  
• Issues caused by mod not being switched to vanilla when starting a tutorial in one of the DLCs, fixed.
  
• Missing popup when a city or a unit was captured as prisoner of war, fixed.
  
• Incorrect resource calculation was displayed when building regional capital.
  
• Issues with scrolling down to the bottom of the list in the Strategic Overview, fixed.
  
• Minor issues with triggering Victory Conditions were fixed.
  
• Several issues in multiplayer (both online and asynchronous) were fixed.
  
• An issue in Windows 11 causing the intro video not being played, was fixed.
  
• Bug in „Slander“ action causing malfunction was fixed.
  
• Several rare CTDs were fixed.
  
• Many other minor bugs were fixed.

Let’s give Imperiums a try again to test all these changes in action 😊 and to get ready for the Rise of Caesar DLC. This update is called "Caesar's legacy" after all :).

Yours,
Kube Games team.

The release of the new Imperiums: Rise of Caesar DLC is literally a few weeks away and many of you are already dreaming about great victories in Gaul and Britain. Well, patience is a virtue 😊 but we still have some teasers coming in the following days and weeks to help you with the wait.



The goal of this DLC was to bring something very new and fresh into the series so a number of new features have been introduced. Most of these have been covered in the series of Spotlight articles, however if you want more detail here is The Manual. This secret book will guide your campaign and provide nuggets of wisdom for the greatest military adventure of your life.

The DLC comes with two smaller maps, Gaul and Britannia. The new mechanics, particularly the change of time scale, weather and seasons will have a profound effect on how you plan your campaign. The game is much more tactical and one wrong decision may cost you dearly.

Lead your units well in Gaul and you will transition directly into the British Isles scenario. You will start the Roman conquest of Britain with your state of affairs and units as they were when you finished your conquest of Gaul.

Naturally, you can also try and stop the Roman advance north by playing as a leader of one of the Gallic, Celtic or Germanic tribes. The maps can be also played separately to allow you to experiment with different playstyles.

Can you follow in the footsteps of a legend or will you bury the Roman aquila at the foot of the Alps forever?

Yours,
Kube Games team.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2250440/Imperiums_Rise_of_Caesar/

Today's Spotlight will focus on one of the most interesting new mechanics that will appear in the Rise of Caesar expansion, Scenario Transition.
Given the number of questions and requests we have had on this topic it is clear that it is one of the top additions many players wish to see in the game. We have been considering it for a long time and it is definitely something we want to continue building on.


When Caesar conquered Gaul, he already was a Roman hero. However, as he stood at the northern coast looking across the misty Channel, thinking about the mysterious land and the tribes that inhabited it, he knew that his quest must continue. This next conquest would be the continuation of his life's efforts, using the experience of his legionaries, the infrastructure he built in Gaul, and all the skills and experience he had gathered in the many battles with the Celts.

Let's give the word to Pavel, our lead developer, to tell you in detail how this will work in game.

Originally posted by Pavel

Transition between scenarios has been on the waiting list for a long time. It was logical due to our chronological approach to the DLCs and something I personally really enjoy in other games, e.g. in Panzer General where I could take my well trained units into the next battle. However, this functionality is quite difficult to implement (more than you might think!) and many questions had to be answered first, such as:

• What should be transitioned - units, cities, roads, terrain modifications, diplomacy relations, tech tree, or even resources?
  
• How will the transition affect the game difficulty and still align with the preferred level of the player?
  
• Should the transition be automatic or player-specific?
  
• What will trigger the transition?
  
• Should all factions be allowed to use this mechanic?
  
• and so on.

Apart from this, there were a number of technical issues I had to consider:

• The more things you allow to transition, the more "skewed" the scenario will be when compared to the stand alone scenario (with its fixed initial setup and balancing).
  For example, if one faction should struggle with a lack of food in the second scenario but terrain improvements are transitioned from the first scenario, it would instantly solve the food problem and completely change the balance of things.
  Similarly, bringing experienced units into the second scenario will affect the balancing. Things such as this could break the historical immersion.
  
• How will the cities be transitioned regarding their size, name and improvements? Will Lutetia still be Lutetia in the second scenario if the player renamed it to Paris?

The list could go on, but you get the idea ...

So what approach have we taken?
Considering all of the above, it will be possible to transition units, cities, roads, terrain modifications, "Politics in Rome" (alternation to the Tech tree in other expansions) and partially the diplomacy relations. Resources on the other hand, will not be transitioned as it would unbalance the whole scenario instantly.

The transition is automatic, the player cannot choose what will or will not be transitioned, this will be taken care of by the transition balance algorithm. Even though players would certainly appreciate it if they could select the units they want to take with them, it would be near to impossible to balance. In this case, if a player has too many experienced units in the first scenario, only some of them will be transitioned.

When certain trigger conditions are met, a pop-up window will ask a player if he wants to move to the second scenario. There is no way of delaying this decision, no "ask me later" option. Do you want to move on to the next quest or do you want to keep playing and lose the possibility of smoothly jumping from one scenario to another?

Transition is only allowed for the Roman Republic faction as it would have been historically very inaccurate to enable this for other factions.

Very interesting is the transition of diplomacy relations and factions in general. We created a very flexible way how factions are "taken" to the second scenario, allowing for example the transition even before Gaul is defeated. This would lead to the opening of a second front while still fighting the hostile Gauls at the same borders and battlefronts of the first scenario.

All in all, I am quite happy that we have managed to implement this mechanic and with how it works. It is very flexible, allowing us to build on it in other potential DLCs while being also quite accessible to the modders.

No true conqueror could look into the fog hanging low on the sea and not dream of the next great conquest, especially when the knowledge of what is on the other side is veiled in mystery. Seize the opportunity, earn your glory, or die trying!

The release of the Rise of Caesar expansion is getting closer every day, so please don't forget to wishlist it and claim the release discount. We would also appreciate it if you subscribe to our company channel. We hope to have news about our next game soon!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2250440/Imperiums_Rise_of_Caesar/

Please, stay tuned for more.

Yours,
Kube Games team.

Hello everyone.

We want to wish you all Happy New Year filled with many memorable moments. The end-of-the-year festivities are over, and we returned to our desks with renewed enthusiasm. There has been a lot going on at the end of the last year although it might not have looked so from the outside.



Most of our time was taken by finishing the long-awaited DLC called "Rise of Caesar". It is going to be a very different expansion from the previous DLCs, and we can’t wait for you to try it out. The more we play it, the more we like it and hopefully you will too.

There have already been few Faction highlight videos and several Spotlights explaining the mechanics of the DLC, and more is about to come. We plan a limited release discount, so wishlist the DLC if you haven’t done so yet. 😊

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2250440/Imperiums_Rise_of_Caesar/



The next big chunk of our time was taken by our new project. The new game is still at a very early stage but requires more and more attention as it grows. We already got some testing 3D models and music tracks done as well as prototyped terrain.
We’re eager to share the first looks with you, but you will have to be a bit patient with us as there are other tasks to be finished first. If you want to support us, please subscribe to our Developer page here on Steam (Steam does not allow regular news about another game posted on different game’s Steam page).



As if there was not enough work already, an early Xmas gift was delivered to Kube Games in December. Our first game, Aggressors: Ancient Rome, has come back “home” (the rights to publish it were transferred from the publisher back to the dev studio). We needed to prepare an update with some bug fixes and improvements.

If you haven't heard about the game yet, check it out. Even though Imperiums is pretty much a descendant of Aggressors, Aggressors has its own charm with a different campaign map and simpler rules. If you want to support us in our indie endeavors, please buy the game, we would really appreciate it.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/783210/Aggressors_Ancient_Rome/



The rest of our time we spent on preparing a new Imperiums version v1.3.3. with a huge number of improvements and fixes.

This is pretty much all from our Kube Games newsroom 😊

Thank you all for the great support we received last year and …
Stay with us!

Yours,
Kube Games team.

We have already mentioned some of the changes that will be introduced to the game along with the new time scale. We will no longer operate in years and seasons, but in weeks. This affects many of the existing mechanics but also gives us a chance to introduce some new ones, such as 'Politics in Rome'.

Today´s spotlight will focus on the changes that are less visible but no less important.


Having a long-term strategy is essential for planning a lengthy war campaign. However, once the conquest starts, you need to operate on a much shorter time scale. Taxes that will fill your coffers over a year will not help you pay a group of mercenaries right now. The training of new soldiers takes time and conscripting all able men immediately would cripple your economy. As the campaign starts your most urgent need is men.

Let Pavel explain how citizens have become the most crucial of resources.

Originally posted by Pavel

A number of challenges and new possibilities appeared when we introduced the new time scale into the Rise of Caesar DLC. We could implement the Weather and Seasons mechanic and we had to create an alternative to the classical tech tree by implementing the 'Politics in Rome'. So, what else has changed?

Let's start with citizens. The population growth mechanic did not convert sensibly to a weekly time scale, because one year in the new DLC could see the population double or even triple. Balancing this mechanic led to an interesting outcome, the population was hardly growing between turns. The natural consequence of this has made citizens the most important resource, more so than even gold, iron or stones.

Military strategy is affected, armies are made of soldiers and they in turn are recruited from citizens. With soldiers so precious, the more costly and lengthy ways of maintaining armies, such as their healing in cities, need to be planned very carefully as losing soldiers can become a real problem.

Settlers are also affected by the slowed population growth. The "execution time" of certain actions has been modified to the new time scale, e.g. building a road, constructing a bridge, building a farm and chopping wood. With these actions now taking longer, alongside the fact that settlers cannot be "created" so easily any more, means that the whole development of the map slows down significantly. Careful consideration will be required for construction projects as well as supply lines, essential for any military advances.

You as Caesar are not the absolute leader of Rome, you are a consul in one of the Roman provinces and obedient to the Senate and the will of the people. You cannot build legions yourself, if you need another legion to boost the four you have, you will have to navigate through a labyrinth of political intrigues. It is possible for you to train inferior units to supplement your battle hardened legionaries and use these troops to somehow get by. After all, part of Caesar's military genius was turning lost battles into victories.

The changes to the time scale have made the new DLC much more tactical and the Roman Republic a very specific and interesting faction. This DLC will really push your strategic and tactical thinking to the limits, the action has not slowed, you will have to be on your toes and alert from the moment you step into Gallic territory all the way to the Scottish highlands.

Caesar's tactical skills made him an unpredictable and dangerous man, he could always find a solution to an impossible situation. This made him a hero amongst his troops and the people of Rome. Can you follow him with limited resources and move forward no matter how difficult the road seems to be?

All these changes definitely push the Imperiums series another step forward and bring a very different feel to the gameplay. Please take a moment and wishlist the upcoming DLC and subscribe to our channel. A few more spotlights are still in the pipeline so stay tuned!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2250440/Imperiums_Rise_of_Caesar/

Yours,
Kube Games team.