Spotlight - Migrating tribes
The last but one Spotlight is dedicated to a mechanic that we consider to be a highlight of the upcoming Imperiums: Rome vs Carthage DLC. Migrating tribes will change the gaming experience into an intense and deep taste of history.
The barbarian tribes that roamed the vast territories beyond the borders of the „civilized“ world were considered primitive savages without any competent leadership. At worst, they could harass border towns, but they were incapable of becoming a major threat to the technically, militarily and economically advanced nations. Nothing is more dangerous than an arrogance that blinds reason.
These people nurture the same desire for a good life and well being as the civilized folk and their leaders are as power hungry as many of the great kings.
Let’s hear from Pavel who will share more details about this new mechanic.
If you hear the horns echoing in the forests on your border, light the warning signal fires, because the danger hidden in the woods is mighty and history has a swift way of dealing with those unprepared for the unexpected.
Don't forget to wishlist the DLC ;)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1839160/Imperiums_Rome_vs_Carthage/
Yours,
Kube Games team.
The barbarian tribes that roamed the vast territories beyond the borders of the „civilized“ world were considered primitive savages without any competent leadership. At worst, they could harass border towns, but they were incapable of becoming a major threat to the technically, militarily and economically advanced nations. Nothing is more dangerous than an arrogance that blinds reason.
These people nurture the same desire for a good life and well being as the civilized folk and their leaders are as power hungry as many of the great kings.
Let’s hear from Pavel who will share more details about this new mechanic.
Originally posted by PavelIt has always been our ambition to make a strategy game that makes the player think one step ahead and plan his actions carefully weighing all his options, sort of chess in the form of a strategic game. Mindless clicking should be limited to a bare minimum and micromanagement that leads to no strategic advantage, should be obliterated. A player should have less tasks during his turns, but they all require close attention as they are important and could potentially change the course of the game.
I can already hear some of your objections and I admit that this approach has its pros and cons. On one hand, it intensifies the feeling that your decisions matter and that they do affect the game developments. It forces you to think about your decisions before you take them and that, at least in my opinion, is a great advantage of this approach. On the other hand, the reduction of the micromanagement duties to a bare minimum could create a feeling there is „not enough to do“. It would of course totally break the deep immersion we strive for, so we have to come up with other ways to keep you entertained and „busy“.
One way is to use a competitive AI that provides a worthy opponent to your efforts, another is the never ending struggle with limited resources. The Imperiums: Rome vs Carthage DLC will introduce a new challenge, in my opinion, one of the best mechanics in the whole Imperiums series, we have called it Migrating Tribes.
In the Imperiums base game, independent nations represented by cities without owners have already been implemented. They cannot engage in political negotiations and do not take an active role as the game develops. We have built on this mechanic over time.
First, we changed these lifeless cities into communities capable of self improvement and self defense. They improve their settlements as any other player would and build a small defensive military force. Next came what we call internally “mirror development”, an ability of these cities to “learn” from nearby foreign settlements and adopt their technological achievements. This increases the notion of continual development through natural interaction. Another level was the addition of the so called “territorial behavior”, which allowed the independent nation to protect not only the city itself but also the surrounding area by attacking any foreign units if they violated these invisible borders. These cities grow in size similarly to regular cities, which means that the city perimeter also grows, so it creates an interesting natural barrier to expanding factions. As players have already found out, independent cities are definitely not easy prey and they can often require a substantial force to subdue their tenacity.
Now, the new Migrating Tribes mechanic takes this whole concept to a completely new level. Independent cities are no longer standalone centers passively interacting with their surroundings. The scattered settlements could belong to a single tribe, although they do not form a state. However, they can act together and have a common goal. As an example, take the small communities of the Helveti or Celtiberian people. They function independently of each other, but may have similar interests and in certain situations they would all follow the same line of thinking. Bad harvests might force them from their current territories and they will migrate in similar directions rather than moving around wildly with no logic. Perhaps if rich lands were found further along the river all of their expansion efforts would unanimously follow this route.
All of this should create some very interesting tensions in the game. Individual groups push towards certain regions in a coordinated migration, meeting the factions already settled there. They are no longer just defending their bare livelihoods, but they expand their territories with determination. The “empty” areas on the map, where before, you would usually only encounter small settlements with limited resistance, are now suddenly active and potentially dangerous territories. Resource mines in these lands are no longer low hanging fruit but will be contested. The seemingly uninhabited territories are transformed into true terra incognita, holding hordes of dangerous nomads who can come and ravage your nation. What’s more, there is no political dialogue with them, they only know the power of the sword.
The icing on the cake is the ability of these tribes to establish new kingdoms and hence become a new political faction. For this to happen, a certain predefined number of cities must be associated with the tribe. This number differs based on the tribe and historical cohesion of its members. From mindless standalone cities we have created a potentially dangerous force that bars the way to the expansive efforts of established kingdoms and that also nurtures dormant ambitions that could give rise to a new power capable of winning the game.
As a game designer, I find this mechanic to be a major addition to the upcoming DLC. It makes the game more engaging and fun, as it faithfully illustrates the historical movements of small tribes. The majority of them slid into obscurity over time but a few entered history with an unexpected force leaving a long lasting legacy behind. I hope that you will love this new feature and that Imperiums: Rome vs Carthage will make it to the top of your gaming list and stay there for a long time.
If you hear the horns echoing in the forests on your border, light the warning signal fires, because the danger hidden in the woods is mighty and history has a swift way of dealing with those unprepared for the unexpected.
Don't forget to wishlist the DLC ;)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1839160/Imperiums_Rome_vs_Carthage/
Yours,
Kube Games team.
