[MOD] Imperator Invictus

[olivenkranz]

I play on a license, version 2.0.4, 2.0.5 and 2.0.3, the mod does not give errors, when I load into the game it just does not exist. what should I do?

If you have multiple versions of the mod on your drive, none will load.

 

[Kazanov]

Dev Diary 89: AI rework part 2, the Man-eating Androphagians and the Ides of March 1.9.2 update out now

Salvete!
Today we'll be talking about more great AI work by Anbeeld surrounding laws, national ideas and stances along with new content in a later update for the man-eating Androphagians and some more pirate content.

But first!
Happy Ides of March, the game is 70% off on Steam right now if you haven't purchased and have been waiting to check it out. Let's get player numbers up today, perhaps leave a good review if you're so inclined, and show Paradox that we still love our favorite grand strategy game.

As a reminder you can download the Imperator: Invictus mod from the following sources:
Steam workshop: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2532715348 (Recommended as it will auto-update, only for Steam players)
Nexusmods: https://www.nexusmods.com/imperatorrome/mods/1?tab=files (Contains all old-versions of the mod too, does not auto-update but is available for everyone, delete your old mod before installing the new version)

Now with these ides of march, the 1.9.2 save-compatible patch is out now containing:
Major changes:
- AI countries are now able to properly change laws. (Previously they couldn't do it at all, outside of events and alike. This especially affects Tribes who can now go down either Centralization or Decentralization)
- Implemented proper logic for state investment in AI countries and removed them ignoring the scaling gold cost
- Improved AI decision making regarding commerce economic policies.
- AI now properly bribes, gives free hands, gives out subsidies in order to prevent civil wars (they do have restrictions for roleplay purposes and to prevent them never having a civil war)
- AI now has to actually pay for character interactions like players do (AI is still far better at it than before)
- AI now has proper strategies for choosing diplomatic stances, they'll no longer swap constantly which caused them to waste Political Influence
- AI now no longer cheats to reform from being a tribe (combined with the new AI law strategy they'll still be able to reform)
- AI now has proper strategy for picking national ideas
- AI now properly performs sacrifices if they are below 50 stability (AI did not do it always before, and now they'll spend their excess Political influence on it)
- Many minor tweaks to the AI strategies introduced in the previous updates improving them even more, all thanks to Anbeeld

AI will now perform considerably better in several areas, will no longer cheat and performance remains the same.

Changes:
- New Coat of Arms, mainly for Iberians: Garmania, Oppidania, Mantasia, Lobetania, Deitania, Bardulia, Cempsia, Elbocoria, Mastia, Cynetia, Locri, Hipponion, Achola
- Made many improvements to the German translation of the mod
- Yuezhi now use the Sogdian levy template
- Military service law now only gives 7.5% levy size modifier instead of 10%
- Mercenary reliance now gives 4% levy size instead of 3.5%
- Noble retinues now give 15 cohort start experience instead of 10
- Carthage's Xanthippan Reforms law now no longer gives an extra 5 cohort start experience
- Mercantile stance now gives 20% commerce modifier instead of 25%
- Domineering stance now gives extra 25% tribute income modifier and integration speed increased to 0.35 from 0.25
- Nerfed many of Nepals modifiers and its Fiefdoms
- Italic and Puntic religious modifiers are now inline with other religions
- Forming Thessalian League now requires being of the Hellenic culture group
- Prevented tradegood events from firing for tradegoods that are not actually available in your country
- Slave revolts now properly keep track of amount of slaves that joined and are defeated

Bugfixes:
- Fixed dozens of smaller errors mainly causing error log spam
- Fixed a vanilla bug also affecting several mission trees breaking svalues (the numbers being checked in mission tasks would occasionally be wrong)
- Fixed misuse of the religious unity trigger
- Yuezhi should now always properly declare on a country when their invasion starts
- Fixed the Belgae civil war having a wrong name
- Fixed several modifiers not being actually given decide appearing in the mission task
- Fixed several spelling errors


Now onto the AI work by Anbeeld, all of which is in the update which just came out!

Filling in the missing pieces of AI​

Hiya! Once again, Anbeeld there, continuing AI work described in the previous dev diary. In this patch I worked on a number of systems one could call less significant, but together they lead to quite an impact: laws and tribal reform, diplomatic stances, state investment, character loyalty, economic policies, and more. Let’s dive into it!

Wild West? Wild Gaul!​

I’ll start with a confession. Not only am I a tall player, but I’m a tribe player. I love to build tribal utopias. I think Rome is beautiful for tourism. So naturally, I appreciate tribal laws, with how many of them are there and how impactful some of them are.

But as it turns out, some players are not aware of tribal laws' existence at all. And first and foremost, I’m talking about all the AI countries in your games. This terrible realization struck me when I happened to check the law panel of various AI tribes, only to find out that it’s almost empty for all of them!

The horror didn’t end there. I started to dig deeper, and found monarchies and republics completely depending on rare occasions of laws changing in random parts of the code as their main source of directing the country’s course. This is where it became obvious to me.

Wow. There’s simply no system of AI enacting laws in the game. It doesn’t exist.

Okay. No big deal. That’s why I’m here. I’ll just create one of my own.

Being a tribe enjoyer, unsurprisingly I started with their laws, which is a joy considering how much freedom they have with changing them left and right. As I mentioned before, their law panels were almost empty – there are some events with options to change laws, which were the only source of bringing law to tribal lands, most notably the one leading to widespread disease of Adopt Human Sacrifice.

Instead of AI ignoring these events, I decided to make them part of the bigger question of choosing centralization vs decentralization. For those who don’t know, tribes can go one of these two paths with their laws, each giving completely different benefits. Centralization leads to higher civilization, more research points and eventually the ability to reform into a monarchy or republic. Decentralization is all about staying as a tribe and dragging others into the mud, thanks to levy size and morale bonuses, as well as the ability to migrate with minimal stability costs.

At the start of the game every tribe has a certain centralization value. To keep things simple, I designed their law management in a way that most of the tribes will double down on it, going negative or positive all the way depending on the starting value. There are exceptions, of course, like tribes that start with 0% centralization. These will have a chance to go either path, thanks to the law events that I mentioned earlier and events that give ticking (de)centralization modifier, bringing in an element of randomness.

As most of these laws offer quite good bonuses, on average tribes will be slightly stronger now compared to their Wild Gaul version where they had almost no laws. Good news for civilized nations is that there are barely any direct military bonuses, it’s all about internals like income, happiness, stability and so on.

Unless we are talking Steppe Horde.

Good luck for those in a way of a large horde. Until it collapses by itself, that is.

Tour de France with training wheels​

As usual, such a drastic change led to even funnier things floating to the surface. Turns out, to compensate for AI tribes inability to found cities and enact laws, they had special decisions to reform into monarchy or republic with drastically lowered requirements compared to what players go through in the tribal reform mission tree. And now that they learnt to play properly, they abused it really hard.

Snowlet, the lead of the Invictus team, seemed somewhat unhappy about tribes mass reforming barely 100 years into the game. I love this guy, but he’s such a cold ice and constantly stops me from turning the game into Stellaris 2! Ugh.

So I fixed the issue by forcing the AI to meet all the same requirements as players do to reform the tribe, including stuff like ruler popularity and correct law corresponding with going monarchy vs republic. Some additional requirements were added as well, for example having a rank of at least regional power, to avoid AI countries looking like they are being played by an average OPM enjoyer.

In the end there are still tribes that reform naturally without help from cultural decisions and mission trees, but it’s more of an exception, which makes more sense historically than half of Europe turning into monarchies somewhere in 200 BC.

Just download more army, bro​

While laws of monarchies and republics have much less going for them in the context of the AI, they too benefit from having an actual law changing system. Previously inventions that allow to enact new laws contained special effects for AI countries, where they would be forced to change towards them, because otherwise it would have never been done. This could lead to big problems with stability – if it happened to be already low by the moment of researching the invention, now after paying the price to change a law it’s gonna be put six feet under.

But in this new system stability is a key factor, and laws are only enacted when it’s high enough to not ruin the whole country by doing so, with thresholds varying depending on the importance of the specific law we’re looking forward to.

So after dealing with some funny things, like the monarchy.101 event apparently enacting Royal Army for every single monarchy that has the required invention, I managed to provide civilized AI countries with the logic for the most important law group, which is of course military reforms.

The main elements here are levy size and the ability to raise legions, so the AI will consider all the factors and choose what fits it the best. For example, a country that has most of its levy population inside the capital region doesn’t want a law that allows to raise legions outside of it, even if the country has the required invention, because it will lose the levy size bonus and thus its army will only get weaker.

Then there are military laws that are only useful as a part of a certain strategy, such as laws with mercenary bonuses, but we can’t rely on the AI making use of them, so instead it will prefer raw army numbers.

Me monarchy, me assimilate​

Monarchies also have the very important Conversion Policy law group, unlocked with Proscribed Canon invention. It has insane value for any country with subpar cultural and/or religious unity, providing best in class bonuses for assimilation or conversion, depending on what law you’ll choose. The best strategy would be going for conversion first, as it’s a faster process overall, and then switch to assimilation – which is basically what I told AI monarchies to do.

This can lead to countries like Diadochi states becoming proper raid bosses by the very late game, granted they won’t get smashed into the ground before it, as increased percent of integrated pops means higher stability and much larger army. Beware!

Most other monarchy law groups are locked behind inventions. Some of them are just generally useful and thus AI countries will look to enact something in them after reaching the required invention, while others have drawbacks and again require some conscious strategy to make use of them, so the AI won’t bother with it.

As for republics, they have a fair share of law changes going on through events, which is why for them the system only touches military laws. Otherwise there could be conflicts, leading to losing stability without any value gained. Besides, while effects of republic laws are nice to have, there’s nothing comparable to the mighty Conversion Policy, for example. I may look into it a bit more in the future, but for now that’s how it goes.

Wanna some trade routes?​

Another borderline shocking discovery I made is that not only AI barely uses state investment mechanic, but they also play darts with what exactly they will invest in. Literally! While usually there are at least some barebones conditions, for investments the AI weights looked like 1 and 1.5, like that’s it, just some number. This is no fit for state investments, where most of them are actually highly conditional – it’s only trade routes that you can spam and always gain at least something from it.

First I was forced to move all the logic around in the files, because it was glued to GUI, and there’s no proper way to control how often and under which conditions the AI presses the buttons you want it to press, in fact usually it prefers to ignore them. Just Paradox modding things.

Then the actual fun started, where I was making the AI realize that military investments help with fort limit and don’t do much otherwise, that you need some real overcrowding going on to make use of civic investments, that religious investments are only impactful when you have multiple built up cities, and on the contrary that trade routes are just good – so when in doubt, go for oratory investments.

Then there is another layer of limiting how eager AI countries are to invest in their states. They should do it only if they have some otherwise unused political influence on their hands or there are free investments, but also I limited how much investments they can get by a combination of country government type and state population, so we don’t end up with small German tribes having dozens of them.

And it worked, I guess? Said German tribes don’t invest into city building slots anymore, instead spending their few investments towards more useful things. Small Greek states with multiple cities, on the contrary, are likely to get some of these religious investments, allowing them to construct more nice buildings. Finally, all of them are now united in thinking that investing in the capital state is good, so they could better develop it and import more strategic goods.

Oratory investment with its trade routes really is a base option for the AI, so with the balance shifting towards it, the average AI country will have slightly higher income thanks to higher numbers of both imports and exports. Unfortunately, I’ve met a harsh limitation there, as it turns out AI trading is very heavy on performance. Because of this oratory investments are allowed only if the state has some trade routes already from other sources.

On this note, I’ve also adjusted AI logic for country commerce policy. Previously every country above city state defaulted to Free Trade for export income, but now they actually check if they have enough exports to make use of it. If not, they will use Trading Permits for 2 more capital import routes, leading to another small boost in AI trading capabilities. Again, because of performance concerns this has the same limitations as described above.

Keeping inner demons at bay​

If you are tired like me of re-adjusting your trade routes because Carthage has a civil war again, you’ll love this segment. Inability of the AI to press these shiny “fix loyalty” buttons finally got me, so they received some lessons here as well.

AI countries were pretty ok at bribing people already, although it looked like they did it without a specific idea. But when more drastic measures were needed, they couldn’t do anything, falling into civil wars they could easily avoid. Turns out, they were not paying political influence for bribing and persuading! Life definitely gets easier when you cheat the system like this.

When I started to write my own AI logic for fixing loyalty, this became a big issue, as I needed to make up some random rules for them to not exploit this free bribing left and right. We decided to remove the cheating, because combined with improved decision making this could lead to overly high internal stability, and the need to pay political influence is an important factor by itself for designing the logic.

Now the AI is not only capable of making bribes just to keep loyalty at a decent level, but is also well equipped to combat civil wars. If bribes are not enough, free hands will be given – and revoked somewhere in the future, with governors having strict limits on corruption due to its impact on province loyalty. Where everything else fails, subsidies will be given to families, granted there’s enough gold in the treasury.

This doesn’t mean AI countries won’t have civil wars. While they are now better at dealing with disloyalty, I haven’t touched anything regarding what causes it, like improper management of offices and power base in general. And that’s completely fine – the government is often a synonym of corruption and incompetence, no reason to make it different here.

We also added some additional limitations to avoid AI countries being too stable. For example, none of the loyalty fixing can be applied to rivals of the current ruler, unless there’s stuff like the country facing an existential threat. In some cases this will result in civil wars, but this time – as the result of an actual political struggle, instead of any light breeze and the AI just not pressing the buttons for no reason as it was before.

The school of diplomacy​

Another system that saw some improvements is diplomatic stances. We’ve adjusted the balance between them and added new modifiers in this patch, so it must be important to make the AI aware of these changes, isn’t it?

In vanilla every stance has its AI weight increased or decreased by small values under many different conditions. For me it looked shaky, with potential for close or even equal weights leading to switching back and forth. I reworked it into exclusive logic with a bit more elaborate, but still simple decision making. Now at any given moment the AI may want only one specific stance, and there are buffers in action to prevent it changing way too often.

High AE and is not attacking anyone? Appeasing until low enough.
Big war? Bellicose for lower war goal costs and AE impact.
Going really hard on subjugating other countries? Domineering.
Low on diplomatic relations or political influence? Neutral.
Old good money printing? Mercantile.

What a national idea!​

For a long time there was a belief that we can’t control which nationals ideas the AI would pick, as no syntax was provided for that in the corresponding files. That is, until I semi-randomly tried to use the same syntax as we have in other systems… and it worked.

After realising this we discussed what national ideas would serve AI countries better, and implemented this in the form of AI weights. Unfortunately, it seems that the AI doesn’t update the ideas over time, instead sticking to the ones it got after initial setup, and there’s no workaround we could find. A pity, considering that late game ideas are substantially stronger.

Still, countries that changed their government type can benefit from this, as this process wipes one’s national ideas. Revolts start with them being blank as well, so civil wars can bring some fresh ideas to the table. Otherwise I just hope some way to fix this issue will be found in the future.

A few more bricks in the wall​

As you can see, it’s nothing mind blowing. Some better law management, some smarter investments, a few civil wars prevented. But all this and other small fixes combined should further improve internal development of AI countries, so they could pose more challenge to you, the mighty player.

That’s it for today! Thanks for reading this one, and I hope to continue bringing you good news in the future.


Now onto the content side of things as presented by Zorgoball.

Hello everyone! Zorgo here with a peek at some of the new things I’ve been working on. Before I reveal the brand new tree, let’s take a look at something small but impactful that I recently added; in the next update, certain army units will have the ability to construct Pirate Havens.

Will this ability be available to everyone? No - it will only be unlocked via mission or event. I have gone through some old trees and added this ability where it makes sense, and because you’ll have to wait for a future dev diary to see *new* trees where this fun “mechanic” has been implemented, we return to that old chestnut, Pirate Illyria, to demonstrate.

Of course, your neighbors won’t really like you building Pirate Havens in your ports, so there will be a little bit of AE added every time you send the boys out with their pickaxes and bulldozers…but you don’t care about international opinion, you just want those sweet local taxes and population growth modifiers, don’t you?

I should also reiterate that adding this ability has certainly got the creative juices flowing on the dev team when it comes to new content, so definitely stay tuned for missions that will see the scourge of piracy become worse than it has ever been.

And now, on to the main course…I hope you're hungry! The next update of Invictus (not today’s update, as it was an AI focus - massive shoutout to Anbeeld) will have a tree for the migratory Androphagians, or “Man-Eaters”, entitled “Day Of The Cannibals”. Special thanks (in no particular order) to Shinymewtwo for fun flavorful suggestions, Julia for scripting assistance and to Mateusz/Snowlet for some excellent general feedback. Here’s a peek at the tree itself before we dive into the nitty gritty. Instead of rehashing what I’ve already written, we will let some of the in-game localization fill you in on a little bit of the tribe's history.

More on that tortured relationship with the Scythians later, but first, let’s discover one of the things that will make an Androphagian playthrough unique…

About those health risks…there’s an 80/20 chance that you’ll contract a random disease from eating someone alive. Oh, and if you thought your neighbors would be upset by you building Pirate Havens, they are really not going to like it when you eat prisoners alive. But your kinsmen will be happy and you'll be the most popular cannibal in the tribe! Good for you, upholding those traditional Androphagian values. In the end, “Devour” is basically a flavorful variation of the “Sacrifice” character interaction with some different rewards, but it makes the Androphagians feel unique and allows for some pretty fun campaigning.

Each potential illness that you can get from eating humans has its own localization, adding a bit of flavor to the rich fabric of your Ruler’s life story. The worst afflictions are rare, but please keep in mind that there is a chance you could get really, really sick. To get the above outcome to fire, I had to eat about twenty people, but I was very unlucky - this is one of the worst outcomes available. But let’s move on to the mission.

When the game starts, you only have three territories to your name and two Tribal Chieftain counterparts that don’t always agree with what you propose. At various points in the tree, you’ll have to make sure that both of these grouches are content in order to proceed, so have fun with that. The first task will see your leaders gathering to discuss the future, and two options will be presented; one Chief will want to migrate west, to the amber-rich and uninhabited territories of the coast, whereas the other will want to see you devastate and destroy the tribes living close to you.

You will, of course, have to do both and so much more in the course of the mission, but depending on which branch of the tree you want to explore first, you’ll get some bonuses to help get the ball rolling. Or, if you don't feel like choosing, you can petition the gods to make the selection for you, which will be revealed via dream in about one month’s time. But make no bones about it; one way or another, you will have to destroy your neighboring tribes while building up a coastal seat of power that is focused on exploiting the amber trade. Let’s ask your Chieftains what they’d like to do first.

Let’s take the less bellicose option for now and see what awaits you in the uncolonized wilderness where amber can be found. As you might imagine, once you start to settle the Ilmandu Superior province, there will be some tasks that will help you build up the infrastructure of your new home. Doing things like constructing ports and a road network will increase your centralization, but don’t worry - your greatest triumphs as a migratory tribe are still ahead of you. But do be mindful that some optional tasks will require you to have a certain amount of decentralization, so you'll have to choose your task order wisely, depending on what you want to do first. You will be faced with a small conundrum of sorts; will you start to centralize and get those sweet mission rewards, or will you explore some of the smaller branches that reward you for staying decentralized before settling down? I'll let you ponder the future as your tribesmen start rolling up their sleeves and get to work building up the amber trade.

If you want, you can select one of your new western territories to be your new capital.

As a madness for amber seizes your people, roads will be built in order to facilitate easy trade between your settlements.

Eventually, you’ll want to take this franchise to the seas, and ports will be built in the far north. As your fleets begin to explore the Oceanus Sarmaticus, there will be plenty of opportunities to raid and pillage the unsuspecting tribes living around you…especially those that produce amber, which by right should be yours! You have a good thing going with your monopoly on amber, and a hostile takeover of your competition is the best way to consolidate your bottom line. And you wonder why everyone hates the Androphagians.

Imagine the look of horror on the faces of the Germanic tribesmen as fleets of woad-streaked cannibals descend upon their settlements…*shudder*. The “Rightful Dominion” law requires -80 Centralization, however, and is one of those optional tasks that I mentioned, so don’t worry - you won’t be forced to expand into Scandia if you don’t want to, but the opportunity to raid far and wide will be there. We will naturally leave a few surprises for you to discover on your own in the Amber Coast, so let’s switch gears and see what happens if you start your campaign by waging war against the Scythians and the other tribes living to the south.

Even though you will probably have a dismal diplomatic reputation, it is in your best interest to find an ally to help you in your initial wars - the Melanchlaenians, your closest neighbors, are much stronger than you and will be jumping at the chance to destroy the cannibals on their borders.

Of course, when you do inevitably conquer them, you will have to decide what to do with the influx of foreign tribesmen living within your borders. Their levies would definitely augment your strength, but this approach might be decidedly un-Androphagian…as always, dissension amongst the Tribal Chiefs will have ramifications for your politics.

Arjune must’ve been a popular Androphagian name in the 340s BCE.

The Melanchlaenians also possessed one of the only iron-producing settlements in your neck of the woods, and your levies will benefit from exploiting the natural resources.

There are other development tasks involving your levies and pops - things like building farms so your diet won't subsist entirely of subjugated slaves, or training your cavalry to move swiftly through the forests of your homeland - but I’m not here to give it all away, just tease you with the promise of fun things to come. But rest assured that you’ll have things to do besides enslaving and destroying - like building your first true city, a proper capital.

You’re growing. You’re conquering. You’re enslaving. You’re eating good. Your reputation is spreading around the civilized world, as more and more people become aware of the growing threat from the migratory cannibals in the far north. Once you hit a certain milestone, the gloves will really come off and the dreaded Crimson Horde will be proclaimed.

Thanks to Shiny for making both of the flags for Androphagia! Once you’ve embraced your destiny as a horde, then it will be time to do horde-y stuff.

As it so often happens, one thing will lead to another, and your tribesmen will decide to take advantage of the chaotic wars in Anatolia in order to personally profit. I will say that, in my own playthroughs of the tree, it’s been tremendous fun running amok and causing pandemonium throughout the civilized world. So many superiority wars declared, so many enslaved pops…

By the by, something that we are testing at the moment and that might not make it in the final release is the chance of Pillaging allowing you to kidnap and imprison characters from a nation. There are some voices arguing that this is terribly broken and will be prone to abuse (and they’re probably correct) but boy is it fun eating random characters that you've yoinked from an enemy nation. I mean, you could do the nice thing and ransom them, but you aren’t truly living life until you’ve eaten a Bosporan Greek that you've kidnapped from his villa on the coast.

Sorry, Chairestratos…

You’ll burn, pillage and raze your way across the civilized world, absolutely wrecking Greece and making big stacks along the way. You’ll not only steal their wealth but also their technical know-how, something that they will never forgive you for. So many superiority wars declared, so many enslaved pops…

But let’s return to the thorny question of the Scythians, one of the most powerful tribes in your region when you first start and a true threat to your hegemony.

When the Achaemenids under Darius invaded their land, they cried out to you for help - which you declined - and now, two hundred years later, you’ll finish the job the Persians started and utterly destroy the Scythians and their allies before turning your eyes to the east. Your Chieftain, at this point drunk on power and seeking to destroy any challengers to your Androphagian supremacy, will launch a Grand Invasion of the Steppe in order to shatter the power of the Horse Lords. Your migratory ways will come to an end once you form a Steppe Horde, but at this point, your people will be ready to hang up their traveling shoes and settle down - what's the point of destroying the world if you can't enjoy the stuff you've taken? You'll be tasked with destroying the tribal confederacies that stood against the Persians and then look east in order to make sure that no one else seeks to emulate your example.

I could talk about the some of the Ilmaric religious tasks and even show you the Great Wonder that you will construct in honor of the Moon Goddess, an important deity in your pantheon, but instead, I’m going to show a little peek at an event chain that you’ll have the option of pursuing.

Your tribesmen might be bloodthirsty cannibals but they aren’t dumb, and they are very aware that you are not as technologically advanced as some of the kingdoms and empires that you are raiding. In order to rectify this, a fleet of Androphagian ambassadors, headed by your Tribal Chief, will sail around the Mediterranean in hopes of finding tutors that you can hire to teach at your newly-constructed academies. Make sure you have plenty of money, as well as the ability to follow the stars back home, before you go.

Oh, the adventures you’ll have! A swashbuckling tale of intrigue and mystery awaits you. Here, you’ll get to experience the ramifications of all of those Pirate Havens that people are building.

You’ll go on a shopping spree in the marketplaces of Carthage once you grease some palms…

You might even attend a philosophical lecture in the agora of Athens…

Anyways, that’s it from me - talk soon and see you in a future diary!

I was playing with the Cannibals the other day and found them fun, of course, the update is still not there, but I rped them.

The main problem is the flag, I cannot take it seriously, as their capital has an Ork name, they should use a Mordor-flavored flag as the Vandals do.

 

[Castlerea12]

Hey has anyone received the new update yet? For some reason my game hasn't updated

 

[olivenkranz]

Hey has anyone received the new update yet? For some reason my game hasn't updated

The update ddidnt update the patchnotes in the overview

 

[Castlerea12]

The update ddidnt update the patchnotes in the overview

Oh okay, i guess that makes sense, only for some reason the Androphigian mission tree isn't there either

 

[LamarckianEnterprise]

Oh okay, i guess that makes sense, only for some reason the Androphigian mission tree isn't there either

That's because it isn't in yet iirc, they're still testing it and it's presumably going to get bundled in with other MTs in a later update.

 

[Castlerea12]

That's because it isn't in yet iirc, they're still testing it and it's presumably going to get bundled in with other MTs in a later update.

Ohhh okay thank you, my bad I was a little confused apologies

 

[jmbesada]

Hi and sorry for my bad english.

Is this mission bugged?

I don't understand why I don't meet the conditions

 

[Ingor]

You have empowered oligarchs, not traditionallists ?

 

[Snowlet]

Dev Diary 90: Nartic faith, Blemmian, Legian and Zygian mission trees

Salvete!

Today we'll be talking about a new religion being added to the map, Nartic, and 3 new mission trees which will arrive in the summer update for Blemmia, Legia, And Zygia.
To present all of this, i'll hand you over to their developer, Omegacorps. Enjoy!


OmegaCorps here with an update on a new religion and some mission trees coming next update:

While the Invictus Team has worked hard to build up the level of detail and content within the Caucasus region at large, in-lieu of the once-rumored Caucasian DLC Imperator Rome might have gotten, there is still much work to be done, and it remains ongoing.

To that effect, a new religion has been added: the NARTIC religion/faith. While the Southern Caucasian mountains, notable for the Cholchians, Caucasians Iberians, and Caucasian Albanians, revered a diverse set of deities and mythical tales, the geographic boundary of the mountains themselves gave rise to unique cultures north of the peaks of Kavkasos: the likes of the modern Circassians, Abkhazians, Ubyks, Ingush, Cechens, and so forth. Colonized/imperialized/centralized by Russia late in the relative historical timetable, and only partially islamized before that entities such as the successive Iranian empires, the individuals of the Northern Caucasus have retained much of their oral tradition and cultural values dating back to early recorded history. Chief among those, a trend of Nart-worship, through variations of the Nart Sagas, displays strong connections to other Indo-European mythologies of antiquity, such as that of the Greeks and the nomadic steppe-iranians of modern-day Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

Below I’ve pasted pictures of the dominant and diaspora spreads of Nartic (still a WIP), so that it can effectively act as new content for multiple nations and releasable-nations (through mission trees).

A significant caveat to this religion is that, due to its oral nature, the limiting amount of English-language academia about the Caucasian region in general (most is in Russian), the general lack of significant scholarship about these peoples when it comes to the age of Antiquity, and the lack of significant, contemporary, primary sources from that era prevents us from having a crystal clear idea of what Nart-worship looked like to the tribes of the time, or how some of the now-recorded stories might have evolved between Antiquity and the first time they put on paper in the 1800s or later. With that in mind, to balance the need for a viable selection of deities, have significant enough spread for gameplay purposes, and develop content inspired by the variations of the Nart Sagas, I have chosen to be less restrictive with adding deities or divine entities which we still have names for (this includes animals and plants, given that Tree-worship was and remains a significant aspect of polytheistic belief systems in the area).

For those interest, references for Nartic worship and the Nart Sagas include:

• Nart Sagas: Ancient Myths and Legends of the Circassians and Abkhazians by John Colarusso
• Tales of the Narts: Ancient Myths and Legends of the Ossetians, by John Colarusso
• The Circassians: A Handbook (Caucasus Worlds: Peoples of the Caucasus) by Amjad Jaimoukha

Some may be confused by the reference of the “Ossetians” in one of the above sources, and also why this religion is applied to Siracia, a Sarmatian-culture-group country in the Northern Caucasus region. As mentioned, the Nart Sagas retain ‘native,’ Greek, and steppe-Iranian characteristics, and several of the characters and story tropes draw upon similar mythology as the Scythians and Sarmatians. Given that, during the periodic but ever-continuous east-west migration process of the steppe-nomad groups, the Scythians had dwelled in the Kuban river valley area (leaving many royal kurgans), and the Sarmatian tribes had moved in by the time of the game’s start date, it is entirely within the realm of possibility that the mixed faith system, drawing influences from successive steppe groups as well as the coastal Greek civilizations of the Black Sea, would span the entire Northern Caucasus by this point. Therefore, I have made its religion spread to match such a possibility.

Here are a few of the deities to look forward to including in your pantheon:

With that said, which countries on the map have obtained some additional content in tandem with this religious reshuffling?

To start: LEGIA

A tribe left to ad-hoc mentions by historians of the era, rarely mentioned even in Pompey’s foray into the Eastern Caucasus, the tribes of Legia most closely correlate to the Lezgic tribal groups of modern day. Their mission tree has been based off of their long-standing oral traditions, deeply rooted cultural values, and their history of contact between the steppe, Iranian, and Caucasian worlds.

The mission tree provides the option of going the traditional tribe→monarchy route, federalizing, or releasing a tribal tag and switching to it which represents the Galghai peoples, an antique form of the early Ingush and Chechen tribes whose tower-based architecture traces back through and beyond the medieval era. Collectively known in academia as the Vainakh (or Nakh) peoples, the Ingush, Chechens, and other neighbors exist as a potential obstacle or ally to the Lezgi. The centralization route of the mission allows players to explore the complex social structure of the Lezgic tribes, between families, villages, clans, and so forth as they centralize. Furthermore, the key city of modern Derbent serves as the main economic artery of the Eastern Caucasus, so it figures heavily into the mission tree! Expect to invest as much into it as you do your own capital:

While not perfect, the following picture represents the general directions/areas of conquest dictated by the mission:

The mission will also make invading your neighbors more fun with unique raids and wars of rebellious populations!

For those who’ve played the Colchis mission tree before and remember the option to create a type of Caucasian Union, a similar option exists at the end of the series of mission tasks involving Legia and Caucasian Albania due to their shared population similarities and demographics.

Also similar to previous Caucasian content additions, new cultural innovations have been added which are culture or culture-group specific. Some of these may be particularly useful within the mission trees…

Anyway, you can play the mission tree to find out what I haven’t revealed yet. Onto the next country

ZYGIA

An incredibly small and unassuming country on the game map, Zygia is the first nation to fully integrate and utilize the Nartic faith within the requirements and rewards of its mission tree. Although it is characterized as simply a pirate haven in contemporary sources, the city of Torikos/Nikopolis evolves over time into an important trade hub while the Zygii tribe themselves take on a more geopolitically relevant landmass and influence up until the medieval period. It is theorized that the Zygii correspond to an early tribe of proto-circassians, and so we wanted to represent them in-game with more than a superficial touch.

Building on both the new pirate mechanics and options developed in the Illyria and Bosporan Kingdom trees, the Zygia mission attempts to make pirate havens, pirate fleets, and piracy more than just a hassle to remove from the map - it will be a narrative means of success for the opportunistic tribesfolk. Conquest-wise, we’ve added some reasonable mini and macro land goals with quirky names and even some titles dredged from the annals:

Your final formable depends on whether you would like to pursue a more traditional or zealous route in your journey from broke pirate to ruler of the region.
You may even begin:

Several of the Nart-centric mission tasks will involve recreating, exploiting the popularity of, or feeling the effects of a significant Nart Saga

In what ways shall the Narts guide you to ultimate victory, *cough* I mean… map-painting?





For the final mission tree I’m about to present, we’re going to take a rather drastic detour from the Caucasus region. However, you may wonder: “is this the end? Will that be all for the mountain countries?” No, no it will not. While not enough is complete yet to show off, content is in the works for Maeotia, Sindica, and Heniochia, with future plans for at least Siracia. The area will keep getting updates and a denser package of content as time stomps onward, don’t you worry.

Anyway, now to BLEMMIA

Yes, in the hot sands, cliffs, and barren hills of the Egyptian Red Lands, half-mysterious, half-plain-mythological Blemmian tribes have finally gotten a mission tree which will allow them to balance between the major powers of Ptolemaic Egypt as well as the Nubian Kingdom of Kush.

Inhabiting wadis, wastes, and carved cliff-dwellings, the Blemmians/Blemmyes/Blemmyans (nomenclature varies between scholarly sources), the tribes of the Red Lands control a wealth of natural luxuries, such as gold and jewels while they themselves must rely on other, more structures civilizations to import and process those natural blessings. The mission tree revolves around economic development, diplomatic ties/conflict with the major powers of the region, and establishing the greater realm alluded to in later Byzantine sources.

As with the Zygia and Legia missions, Blemmia will have access to unique and assisted raids against the likes of Egypt and Kush, with a focus on the city-dense region of Dodekaschoinos. Historically, the Blemmians vicariously held the island and temple complex of Philae and areas around it, dedicating their own shrines and such but also frequently being pushed out by the Egyptian forces. It will be important to take that middle section of the Nile to support a growing population and to fuel further conquest.

Likewise, to pay for such costly military affairs, you will need to capitalize on your natural wealth, including the emerald mines of Mons Smaragdus.

While contemporary sources from the Hellenistic Period and Early Roman period provide inconclusive testaments to the social structure of the Blemmian tribes, analysis of their extensive, numerous, and surprisingly complex city and town-sites throughout the region, as well as the later usage of a royal insignia on maintained mines indicates that the tribes functioned through a system of lesser and greater kings or rulers with a chain of command, likely beholden to a royal line. Similarly, like the Odrysian Kingdom of Thrace, the Blemmians seasonally migrated between ‘royal’ staging grounds and cities, so there was no single, ultimate capital like could be found in a centralized imperial or monarchic state such as those of the diadochi.

For those familiar with taboo-type creatures of legend in Antiquity, from the dog-headed cynocephali to the griffons guarding gold in the Central Asian region, accounts of ‘Headless Men’ would seem not all too unfamiliar. Indeed, the term ‘Blemmyes’ also referred to men with faces on their chests both in the antique and medieval periods, causing great confusion with the actual historical tribes of the same nomenclature. To my own personal amusement, and hopefully your fun, I have included some truly barbaric content to showcase these mysterious historical rumors…

While the mission tree does not actually ask you to conquer the entirety of Egypt, given that development, religious, and diplomatic content will focus on the Upper Egypt, Dodekaschoinos, and desert areas, here is a rough estimate of the territory you will conquer and expand your domain to over the course of a playthrough:

Without going on too much longer and making this developer diary burdensome, I will leave it here and just say that this summer’s update will definitely reinvigorate the game with new content, religions, mission trees, and general flavour all over the map so that everyone, no matter their preferred arena of choice, can have something to look forward to!

Do keep in mind, all pictures represent WIP material, so numbers and text are subject to change.

That’s all for now, but in the next dev diary, we will be returning to Africa to discuss two brand new mission trees with a whopping 76 tasks and 100+ events between them…

 

[Snowlet]

Dev Diary 91: 2 Large Macrobian trees and Remastered Event Art

Salvete!
Today we’ll be taking a look at some remastered artwork by Pureon greatly expanding the amount of event images we can use along with presenting 2 new expansive mission trees for the Macrobian tags.

But first, due to a gifted Steam key by Poros. We're holding a small raffle which anyone can enter for a free key for Imperator: Rome.
You can enter here: https://forms.gle/GktYXcoKJDDfLkX58

Let us now take a look at what Pureon has been up to - remastering artwork!

As you know, Invictus recycles a lot of vanilla event art to use in places where it wasn’t originally intended - for example, we might use the icon artwork from a military tradition for a flavor event, but there has always been a problem with this approach; many of the pictures were drawn at a smaller size and look washed out when used for events. Some examples of what I am talking about below…

Literally unplayable.

It was a noticeable drop in quality that was semi-immersion breaking, but we were grateful to have artwork in a vanilla style that we could use. But thanks to Pureon, this has all changed; in the next update of Invictus, most of the flavor artwork will be upgraded and refreshed, and the worst offenders, the biggest eyesores, will be removed - no more washed out images. By the way, Invictus has a “No AI” rule that we abide by, and we are proud that this has not changed; all of the artwork was manually created and edited by Pureon himself. Let’s look at some examples!

While all of this was happening, Rutabega discovered an interesting fact; a lot of vanilla deity icons were cropped from larger images that have otherwise been unused since the earliest versions of the game came out. We were sitting on a gold mine - I’m talking about stuff like this…

Guided by this revelation, Pureon went back into his lab and came back later with EVEN MORE ARTWORK.

Again, we would like to give our thanks to Pureon for making this possible. And since I am in a gratitude mood, I’d like to give a shout out to fellow devs Shinymewtwo99, Snowlet and Two-Coops for giving me some excellent ideas and suggestions for the trees I’m about to show you, Rutabega and Izn for their help with flags and deities, Julia for making the super cool cultural point “mechanic” that is used in Tree Two, and last but not least, an extra special thanks to Salt for their help with testing both missions. Drum roll, please…

In the next version of Invictus, there will be two trees available for the Macrobian tags in the Horn of Africa. The first tree is regional and available to any tag with the Macrobian culture, and it will lead you to a massive second tree. The last time we visited the Macrobians was in Dev Diary 48, so the region is definitely overdue for some more flavor.

Not the easiest picture to read, I know, but you will have the tree’s shape in mind as we look at some of the individual tasks. The purpose of the first tree is to build a powerbase within Africa as you expand to points of interest within Southern Arabia and Southern India. By the end of this first tree, you will have conquered the trade routes, consolidating its unimaginable wealth for yourself - that’s the plan, anyways.

The first thing up today is the optional task “A Lack of Faith”, which is only available if your starting Ruler has a terrible martial stat. Keep in mind that all of the stats for the Macrobian rulers are randomly generated when the game initializes, and the sight of a leader on the battlefield with a martial score of 0 is rare, but not unheard of, as awful as that sounds. As a tiny city-state locked in a struggle to the death with your neighbors, can you really afford to have a general with a score of 1 leading your troops? If you don’t think so, you can take the stability hit and spend some political influence in hopes of finding a more worthy candidate, but they might not be amazing either - such is the luck of the draw.

Whether or not you keep your starting King will be up to you, of course, but there is only one road forward - all of the Macrobian cities must be united under your rule, and from there, you will eventually be guided towards forming Punt, a Tier Two formable that is the crossroads of commerce and a formidable power in its own right. But forming Punt will require you to control a vast amount of territory, so there will be intermediate steps along the way to help you to get there.

Will you be the one to finally unite the powerful Macrobian city-states under one banner? All of the territories of the “Cinnamon Horn”, a region hailed for its production of the rarest of spices, will be fair targets in the wars to come, and you’ll lay claim to them all. And don’t be fooled by the name “Macrobian League” - your ambitious ruler will remain the power behind the throne, with a regime that is supported by the rich merchants living within your borders.

I’ll take a brief detour here to remind you that many of the Macrobian tags have fantastic heritages thanks to OmegaCorps, so you will really be able to focus on the exact playstyle that you want from this campaign. Here are a few interesting starts;

So much flavor already - and speaking of flavor, it will be a desire for spices that sends your armies throughout eastern Africa.

If Waaq is truly with you, then slowly but surely you will gather the resource-rich Macrobians together, consolidating the production of myrrh, incense and spices into the hands of your greedy merchants. At first, you will only conquer parts of Africa, but your economic interests will be threatened by the rising Arabian powers, and you will have to take the necessary steps required to make sure that you stay on top.

In addition to the tasks focused on warfare, there will be the usual infrastructure and development missions. Some of the historically important trade cities along the coast will be targets for your engineers, as well as your capital itself, so there’s plenty of work to be done.

You will even be able to take advantage of another natural resource that you have in abundance; elephants.

Over the course of the tree, your connections with Arabia and India will continue to grow, and your bold sailors will sail farther and farther into the Mare Erythraeum as they become more comfortable navigating its expansive waters.

Contact with the pirates living in the Maldives might prove to be a bad thing, but it all depends on how you look at it.

While all of the overseas expansion is taking place, your Ruler will take the time to honor Waaq, building a temple for the god and celebrating the traditional religious festivals of your people - it is important to remember what is truly important in life.

As the trade revenues continue to flow into your capital, it will become known by a new name, one that reflects its status as the heart of an economic empire.

By the end of the first tree, not only will you have formed Punt, but you will have conquered parts of southern Arabia and have taken over the Lankan island of southern India. A grandiose kingdom such as yours deserves a more fitting name, and in a salute to your humble beginnings as the Macrobian League, the “Erythraean League” will be proclaimed - a kingdom centered around the Mare Erythraeum that connects your lands together.

Leaving, as always, some surprises for you, we are going to start looking at the second mission tree, “The Erythraean Empire”.

This tree is the second in Invictus to utilize the cultural points system found in the Armenian tree made by Julia. Here’s a quick refresher of the concept, as well as a look at the tree itself.

This next image was definitely made on a phone, but will show you the various branches of the tree - green is Arabic, orange is Indian and purple is African.

“The Erythraean Empire” will allow you to focus on an individual part of your realm at the expense of the others; will you remain a mighty kingdom based in Africa, or will you build up your Arabian holdings and make the peninsula the center of your empire? You could even move the capital across the ocean to the fertile farmlands of India, if that’s the route that you choose. But focusing on one part of your realm to the exclusion of the others might have some ramifications down the road…

The missions on the far left side of the tree are available to everyone, regardless of which of the three paths you focus on, so we are going to look at those first, starting with “Warriors Of The Desert Hills”.

With Arabian manpower garrisoning your towns, you will be able to expand and hold onto territories far from your capital, and you will be rewarded once you can claim to rule over one hundred cities.

Over the years, as your countrymen intermingle and your population numbers grow, a new culture and levy template will be created, the Erythraean - one that reflects that fusion of the various peoples living within your realm.

With the Erythraean culture established, you could choose to end the mission tree here, as it counts as a final task - you won’t be obligated to commit to any of the permanent choices that are presented to you later in the tree, and could just do the tasks that appeal to you before calling it quits. Think of this as the “cultural victory” path, one without bloodshed and civil war…so I guess that makes it the good ending?

Let's look at some more tasks. The first branch we will take a look at will be the Arabian path. In the first tree, there is a task that deals with colonizing or conquering the island of Sarapis, which lies off the southeastern coast of Arabia. In the second tree, this port will grow in importance, becoming one of the most important cities within your empire.

Just like in the Armenian tree, certain missions will increase the costs of completing other tasks; if you start to invest heavily in building up the Arabian peninsula, for example, the cost of doing business within nearby Africa will increase.

As Sarapis grows in importance, it will begin to affect trade in other parts of your realm - a decision that your King must be ready to make.

As the Macrobian elites intermingle with Arabian royalty, the chance to join households will be presented.

With the waters of the Mare Erythraeum being yours to control, your Ruler will begin to interfere with the shipping lanes coming out the Sinus Persicus by aiding and assisting the pirates in the north - if you desire to expand towards the rich cities of the Persians, then this is the way.

As the power and influence of the Arabians living within the Erythraean Empire increases, your Ruler will decide to convert to the traditional gods of the Arabian pantheon.

If your King fully embraces his new faith, he will even be tasked with destroying the Temple to Waaq in Mosylon that your ancestors built in the first tree - a true display of your ruler’s religious fervor and a sign that the times have changed.

The next task features something that all three branches will have in common; choosing the location of the Erythraean Grand Bazaar. Once you have accumulated enough points, you will be able to construct a giant marketplace in one of your territories, and in Arabia’s case, it will be on the island of Sarapis.

The importance of Sarapis makes it a natural capital of your nascent empire, and it is a fitting choice; an island at the center of your realm that is home to the largest marketplace in the entire world, easily defendable and with an important military harbor - there are many reasons that have persuaded your Ruler to move there permanently. Moving the capital from the City of Coins to Sarapis will unlock a new heritage for your realm, one that reflects the importance of Arabia for your people.

So, here is where it gets interesting. By choosing to make one part of your kingdom more important than the others, your Ruler will cause some long-simmering tensions to erupt to the surface. There’s no way to avoid the civil war; if you want all of the benefits of having a multi-cultural empire, then you will have to deal with the attempt of some rebels to break free from your grasp.
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I left plenty of surprises for you in the Arabian branch, but now it’s time to look at the Indian content. The first tree took your armies and navies to the Maldives, where you quickly and rudely interjected yourself into the world of Indian politics by seizing territories for yourself. Your presence in India will grow even greater in the second tree as you build up the diamond-producing cities that you have conquered. There is a hunger back home for the gemstones that are found only in India, and as the middleman controlling their flow into Africa and Europe and beyond, you have every reason in the world to increase production by every means possible.

The more territory you accumulate, the greater the rewards.

As the religious traditions of your various cultures intermingle, your Ruler will eventually come to understand that Waaq and Brahma are one and the same, unlocking a new deity for your pantheon. Although you will embrace the religious traditions of India, you will never forget this divine revelation.

Your armies will eventually learn the fighting techniques and tactics used by the Indians, unlocking two new military traditions that will make your levies the deadliest in the world.

One of the most important market cities within India, Bharukaccha was a point of departure for many trade ships sailing west - thus, a natural target for your soldiers. Conquering this magnificent trade hub will allow you to build a second Erythraean bazaar, something only available in the Indian branch.

There are plenty of other tasks in India that are waiting for you, but we will look at the task that unlocks the Indian heritage before returning to where it all started; Africa.

The African branch sees you doing more of what you did in the first tree; making your homeland an economic powerhouse that is the envy of the world. If you stay in the same capital city for the entire campaign, the City of Coins will absolutely crush with all of the bonuses that you will stack from both trees, truly living up to its name. A peek at some African tasks;

If you remain faithful to Waaq in the face of many temptations, then the rewards will be well worth it.

Because the City of Coins rules the coasts and the waves, your Ruler will develop Aksum as a second capital, one that is inland and defends your interests and projects your power within Africa.

Once you have built up the infrastructure of your African holdings, you will turn your eyes northward, hoping to capture all of the important trading cities within your sphere of influence.

One of the rewards for completing the African branch is an increased mercenary limit, allowing you to always have an army in the field no matter where they are needed.

Here’s the heritage that you can unlock in the African path. Building the Grand Bazaar in the City of Coins will be quite the accomplishment!

We will take a quick look at some of the infrastructure tasks available to everyone that involves the development of your Erythraean culture. You will create a new written script to capture the complexities of your merging dialects, and you will even mint coins in an effort to standardize trade within your sphere of influence…there’s so much I am leaving out! It’s also very fun to see the various systems we have already added interact in ways that make it feel like a story is being told, like in the event below.

That’s it for now, so thanks for reading and talk soon - we are working on some very exciting content that we can't wait to reveal!

 

[Davisx3m]

That art is just wow wow wow!!

 

[Gurkhal]

Magnificent to see an increase in the art usable for the mod.

 

[Rabid]

Yet another reason to be waiting for the next update with bated breath...

 

[XSamatan]

That new artwork looks marvellous!

Kind regards
XSamatan

 

[zavarin19]

Hi all. I am engaged in translating your fashion into Russian. Recently new states appeared on the map: Iliplaia ( ILP ), Iptuccia ( IPT ), Eponara ( EPR ), But these countries are absent in the Countries.yml file. Can't you go ramp where they are?

 

[luis3007]

Another hotfix for 2.0.5 is coming. So, I'll wait until that, and the new version of the mod are launched.

 

[Snowlet]

Hi all. I am engaged in translating your fashion into Russian. Recently new states appeared on the map: Iliplaia ( ILP ), Iptuccia ( IPT ), Eponara ( EPR ), But these countries are absent in the Countries.yml file. Can't you go ramp where they are?

You're right, the loc was mistakenly placed in the Iberia file for them. For next update they will be moved.

Another hotfix for 2.0.5 is coming. So, I'll wait until that, and the new version of the mod are launched.

The mod is already fully compatible with 2.0.5, you can play at any point really.

 

[luis3007]

The mod is already fully compatible with 2.0.5, you can play at any point really.

Yes, but I want to see the new art that was shown in the latest dev diary