When Imperator was announced, some people commented that they would have preferred a Crusader Kings-style, character-based Rome game, where you would control an individual, rather than playing as a state.
The thing is, the Roman period wasn’t really Feudal, and there weren’t entrenched landed nobilities in most areas. Republics, tribal federations and city-states don’t merge well with the idea of the same bloodlines keeping power for centuries at a time, so the CK2 dynastic gameplay doesn’t seem like a good fit.
I really like CK2 and I love the character focus – the cynic in me feels that the soap opera shenanigans, amoral backstabbing and sheer nepotism and cronyism are a better reflection of human history than the impersonal spreadsheets of other strategy games. However, since the top unit of CK2 gameplay is the family dynasty, I don’t easily see how this can be transplanted to settings that aren’t the Middle Ages, or Westeros.
Paradox themselves have obviously thought about this – they have expressed a desire to make more character –based games. I know that they originally considered designing Stellaris around this concept, as per the postmortem:
Based on the above, it seems that even a sci-fi character game is destined to be tied to a feudal setting. Personally, I think that’s a shame, as it is quite limiting to the kind of sci-fi universe you can build - I’d want my CK in space to feature democracies, dictatorships, tribal warlords, even megacorporations, rather than just feudal families.
If a character-based game can cover a wider range of governments, then it opens up a lot of potential settings for games past, present and future. So, my question is – how can the gameplay be transplanted to a non-Feudal setting?
Some thoughts:
- CK2 does technically cover republics, by portraying them as in hoc to a small group of powerful families, keeping it tied to the dynasty gameplay. However I think this is far too limiting for most modern settings.
- You could break the dynasty gameplay and allow ‘designated heirs’ from anywhere. Though that causes immersion difficulties where you may not feel the same attachment to a meritocratic selection, or if your designated heir becomes disloyal. It also means that spreading your dynasty and gaining prestige are no longer the nominal point of the game, so would possibly need replacing?
Would like to hear people’s ideas on this. I do expect Paradox will make another character-based game at some point, and I’d love to think it could be more than just a reskin of the current feudal gameplay.
The thing is, the Roman period wasn’t really Feudal, and there weren’t entrenched landed nobilities in most areas. Republics, tribal federations and city-states don’t merge well with the idea of the same bloodlines keeping power for centuries at a time, so the CK2 dynastic gameplay doesn’t seem like a good fit.
I really like CK2 and I love the character focus – the cynic in me feels that the soap opera shenanigans, amoral backstabbing and sheer nepotism and cronyism are a better reflection of human history than the impersonal spreadsheets of other strategy games. However, since the top unit of CK2 gameplay is the family dynasty, I don’t easily see how this can be transplanted to settings that aren’t the Middle Ages, or Westeros.
Paradox themselves have obviously thought about this – they have expressed a desire to make more character –based games. I know that they originally considered designing Stellaris around this concept, as per the postmortem:
Henrik Fåhraeus said:
Based on the above, it seems that even a sci-fi character game is destined to be tied to a feudal setting. Personally, I think that’s a shame, as it is quite limiting to the kind of sci-fi universe you can build - I’d want my CK in space to feature democracies, dictatorships, tribal warlords, even megacorporations, rather than just feudal families.
If a character-based game can cover a wider range of governments, then it opens up a lot of potential settings for games past, present and future. So, my question is – how can the gameplay be transplanted to a non-Feudal setting?
Some thoughts:
- CK2 does technically cover republics, by portraying them as in hoc to a small group of powerful families, keeping it tied to the dynasty gameplay. However I think this is far too limiting for most modern settings.
- You could break the dynasty gameplay and allow ‘designated heirs’ from anywhere. Though that causes immersion difficulties where you may not feel the same attachment to a meritocratic selection, or if your designated heir becomes disloyal. It also means that spreading your dynasty and gaining prestige are no longer the nominal point of the game, so would possibly need replacing?
Would like to hear people’s ideas on this. I do expect Paradox will make another character-based game at some point, and I’d love to think it could be more than just a reskin of the current feudal gameplay.
