Hi all,
Now that most of the biggest issues with the game have been fixed (mainly stability and performance-related), I'm going to start working on fleshing out some more features in the next update. This one is definitely going to take a few more days than the previous few, since it's adding quite a bit more (also includes a ton of balance and bug fixes).
First off: I'm expanding the religion system so that you can appoint Bishops to each Land where your religion is at least 10% (even outside your borders) if you've got the highest population of that religion in the world. These bishops will be able to perform various actions with the player and will make up the Clergy power bloc (rather than random characters filling up these roles) - the Patriarch will have to be a Bishop as well. Clergy-related goals will also be tweaked to work with this new system.
I'm adding the ability to manually control battles: you will be able to select one of your battle formations, right-click and drag to move them around and attack the enemy in the flank. Battles will still be controlled by the AI until you take charge of a formation, so you won't need to manually handle every battle in the world.
I'll also add an optional set of victory conditions - similar to Total War, the game will have multiple win conditions that are progressively more difficult, focused around holding on to the Empire as long as possible. Different factions will have different goals (when they are added).
The patronage system is getting expanded: currently I think it's a bit lacking and doesn't have very much gameplay relevance, so I'm going to add a ton of stuff to make it more interesting. You'll be getting demands for favours from your clients and will be able to use them to get favours yourself. It'll also work with the Power Bloc system: your patronage networks will affect the blocs, and you will be able to push them to do certain actions.
Difficulty levels will also be added. These will affect various stats, making the AI more difficult to play against and weakening your own faction.
Trade is getting redone. In addition to the base resources produced, you'll also get income generated from merchants paying tolls and levies based on resource production, and from agreements to allow merchants from other factions. This will make it so that trade and tax income is comparable, and make the trade-focused buildings more viable.
I will also be updating the events model with a larger 9B version (as free DLC due to the size), as well as two smaller replacements for the current models based on Qwen 3.5 which should result in higher-quality random events and less issues where logical errors occur in the outputs.
This week I'll also be setting up Steam Workshop and continuing work on the mod kit to make it easier for the game to be modded. This will be what I'm working on after the next patch's release.
In the patch after that, I will be adding in the ability to play as a Dux of a province: since you can already play as a province of the Empire in the tutorial, this won't be too much of a change, it will mostly be focused around disabling certain features, adding the ability to join and influence power blocs and start rebellions to take your rightful place as Emperor.
Now on to the future of the game's development: a lot of people have asked for the ability to play as other, minor characters in the Empire, the ability to play as barbarian factions and for a campaign based on real life. Of course, these are all secondary to making sure the game is as fully fleshed out and fun as it can be, so I don't want to announce any dates yet.
The first three expansions will be:
- Barbarian factions: Choose a barbarian faction to play as. Turn into a migratory horde with no settlements. Conquer territory from the Empire. Create fusion cultures with dynamic naming for characters, settlements and factions. Adopt Rephsian traditions as feudalism begins to form.
- Custom start: Start the game as a minor character you design, a Magister Militum of the army or a complete nobody and rise up through the ranks to the position of Emperor.
- Majorian: With a whole new, historical map of Europe play as Emperor Majorian, the Eastern Empire, the Sassanids or any barbarian ruler of the time.
Of course, these are just preliminary ideas on what could be included: it's hard to say what's actually fun until you've designed and played it.
Thank you,
Joe