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Imperator Dev Diary 20/04/2020 : Dev Diaries

Greetings all!


It’s been a little while since our last dev diary due to a combination of public holidays and schedule, but we’re back again, and I’ve a few changes to mention regarding the way you’ll be getting information from us in future.


Firstly though, I’d like to thank you all for the great feedback on 1.4 Archimedes, I’ve particularly enjoyed seeing the various stories and playthroughs that you’ve all been posting here and on our other social media platforms.


As I mentioned back at the beginning of the year, Imperator has been aiming at a faster frequency of smaller releases compared to some of our other studio titles. One thing that has been becoming apparent here, is that our old method of dev diaries on a weekly basis does not mesh well with this. Going forwards, we’re likely to have a couple of weeks of downtime after a major release such as Archimedes, before we launch into a more packed schedule of information filled diaries.


This achieves two things: it allows time to breathe and plan the workflow for our next release without having to make any snap decisions at an early date; and it ensures that there’s enough to talk about in dev diaries leading up to a release. There were reasonable criticisms that some of the DDs from the last release cycle didn’t contain enough ‘substance’. I think part of this is that it’s hard to see very focused feature-breakdowns in the context of the whole, so we’ll be aiming to look at features as they relate to game, and other parts of a release, going forwards.


Thus, since we’ve had a couple of weeks of down-time, we’ll start off our development diary cycle next week with a comprehensive overview of the subjects that will be covered in Menander, followed up by weekly, in-depth diaries on each one of those.


With all that said; this week I have a couple of teasers from 1.5 for you. Let me know what you think they might mean, and I’ll reveal all next Monday, as we dive into a full feature overview of the Menander update….


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I think those are new subject management tools. like merging, and creating separate subjects as well. It would be cool if neighboring states can "steal" the subject. For instance, Armenian Orontids and Commagene Orointids are relatives. Further Armenia gets an event to send a pretender to take Capadoccia's throne. This is realistic as many states would first try to get the support o local lords before invading the overload.
Edit: I am happy to see Phrygia in the picture, finally something focused on diadochi and the East is expected.
 
I'm guessing armies will be made up of different classes now with this particular army composing of 4 freemen.
yes please. as an aside, it sucks that manpower isn't tied to the pops where if 1k of people die, a pop isn't killed.
 
Fingers crossed for the building macro to get seriously pimped (and the ui improved in general) next update.

Adding more to the game when managing what is already there is a drag will be counterproductive in the medium and long run. Also the short term. In fact anyways!
 
In reality, the difference is not so much 'when' but 'how'. A lot of our time post-release is spent on support for the preceding release - it's difficult to also commit to planning and features for the next update while that is going on.

makes sense to me. I'm really happy we will get more dev diarys soon and how you're committed to the game. i love it. hoping for diadochi or tribes content pack :)

EDIT: maybe missions that'll allow us as tribe to "evolve" from wooden cities to marble/stone ones?
 
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As I mentioned back at the beginning of the year, Imperator has been aiming at a faster frequency of smaller releases compared to some of our other studio titles. One thing that has been becoming apparent here, is that our old method of dev diaries on a weekly basis does not mesh well with this. Going forwards, we’re likely to have a couple of weeks of downtime after a major release such as Archimedes, before we launch into a more packed schedule of information filled diaries.
A lot of our time post-release is spent on support for the preceding release - it's difficult to also commit to planning and features for the next update while that is going on.
Does it essentially mean that you'll start posting new DD when you've finished fixing bugs in the previous version?

Further Armenia gets an event to send a pretender to take Capadoccia's throne. This is realistic as many states would first try to get the support o local lords before invading the overload.
But in the current (and all previous versions) anyone playing as Armenia has no reason to to do this. They lose a character, his wife (if he's married) and manpower but gain nothing, as Cappadocia stays a Satrapy of Phrygia. When Ariarathes takes the throne, Cappadocia should become independent and ally with Armenia or become an Armenian satrapy.
 
that'd be a huge rework and we're currently on the Summer of Culture. I'd expect something like this in Autumn, for warfare, if that's really what they want to do.

Ooooh, it is for sure something with manpower. Culture is all about people and people should be generating the manpower. Better do the change in manpower in culture update when they possible rework some mechanics of POPS then later in warfare when it will be without any logical ties to other systems (my secret hopes).

Also the cut from the printsrceen is from some bigger UI element - I am more interested what blue colour can mean and 10% are definitely clickable button.

And amazing work with mods! :)
 
I have played 1.4 quite a bit now. I was disappointed about not being able to block trade on province level. Well, its actually not that big of a issue for me anymore. When the food problem starts, it's kind of at a point in the game when money is less of a problem and I want to keep all the food anyway. So yeah, I'm wrong again ;p amazing update.

Reminder: Still alot to improve regarding QoL / ui ;D
 
But in the current (and all previous versions) anyone playing as Armenia has no reason to to do this. They lose a character, his wife (if he's married) and manpower but gain nothing, as Cappadocia stays a Satrapy of Phrygia. When Ariarathes takes the throne, Cappadocia should become independent and ally with Armenia or become an Armenian satrapy.
Exactly, all you get is a negative 50 opinion from Cappadocia and 5 aggressive expansion. and if you don't send Ariarathres will get sad small :D
 
In reality, the difference is not so much 'when' but 'how'. A lot of our time post-release is spent on support for the preceding release - it's difficult to also commit to planning and features for the next update while that is going on.

Thanks for answering :)
I guess I was kinda hoping that you would throw ideas at us before you went into post release, so that you could then actually commit and plan afterwards based on feedback.
But then again, I have never tried to manage, build and fix a giant game at the same time. So maybe, that's just not how that works.

As long as the first dev diaries dont come out, after it is too late to give feedback, Ill be hapy :)
 
I do hope we get limited manpower and less loyalty in cohorts recruited from other cultures. This was one big factor in the military policy of Ptolemaic Egypt
 
I’m confused. You tell us there will be less frequent dev diaries because you want there to be substance. Yet you release a dev diary with no substance apart from two teaser pics with no context or explanation. Seems ironic more than anything...