We loved you Imperator, you were gone too soon...

[directordirector]

It's hard for me to say anything that already hasn't been said many times already now, so I'll keep this post short. Imperator came so far after the Marius update, I never would've expected Paradox to pull the plug so soon. Well, not officially anyway, but I have my doubts that Imperator will really ever come back. I don't hold any ill will towards the developers of course, they dedicated themselves to breath life into a game that seemed all but dead and I'm very grateful for how far they went to give us what we wanted, and it's not like they could just defy the orders from upper management regardless.

I don't know if I can keep my hopes high, but there's still a chance the game makes a comeback next year. It might still need a lot of work to get up to full potential, but we still love you Imperator.

 

[merulaalba]

I said it before, I ll say it again. We need a sad emoji

 

[LordSkorpio]

I have serious doubts too. I don't remember any of the other titles going through something like this, so my faith in further development of this game is little right now... I guess I will have to go back to Rome II:TW sadly... I hope I'm wrong because I wanted to see the game expanded to the Imperial Era and finally fight the Huns as some kind of end boss...

 

[Hootieleece]

Pouring one out for the homie...

Hopefully some of the ideas/mechanics from 2.0 will be used in a future release. Like Sengoku tested group plots for CKII.

 

[Nostalgium]

I have serious doubts too. I don't remember any of the other titles going through something like this, so my faith in further development of this game is little right now... I guess I will have to go back to Rome II:TW sadly... I hope I'm wrong because I wanted to see the game expanded to the Imperial Era and finally fight the Huns as some kind of end boss...

It's because we haven't seen something like this for other games I'm optimistic, rather than pessimistic. Imperator has broken new ground in its development model before (the DLC model in particular), so I like to give them the benefit of the doubt this time as well. Of course, breaking new ground could also happen in the less ideal direction here, but even IF that is the case, I'd be willing to consign that to what they said here: They don't know when ASAP is, and if we never see an expansion again, ASAP was unfortunately never. But PDX has always been upfront about shutting the valve, so I believe them when they say they want to develop more content for I:R in the future.

 

[LordSkorpio]

It's because we haven't seen something like this for other games I'm optimistic, rather than pessimistic. Imperator has broken new ground in its development model before (the DLC model in particular), so I like to give them the benefit of the doubt this time as well. Of course, breaking new ground could also happen in the less ideal direction here, but even IF that is the case, I'd be willing to consign that to what they said here: They don't know when ASAP is, and if we never see an expansion again, ASAP was unfortunately never. But PDX has always been upfront about shutting the valve, so I believe them when they say they want to develop more content for I:R in the future.

I hope you are right, because I just can't be optimistic about the game right now, not because of the willingness of the developers to add more content but because of the company's willingness to invest in it.

 

[Nostalgium]

So do I, @LordSkorpio. So do I.

 

[Hootieleece]

At Least IR Marius 2.0 is playable if less than perfect. Which is better than EUIV at the moment.

 

[Herennius]

It's because we haven't seen something like this for other games I'm optimistic, rather than pessimistic. Imperator has broken new ground in its development model before (the DLC model in particular), so I like to give them the benefit of the doubt this time as well. Of course, breaking new ground could also happen in the less ideal direction here, but even IF that is the case, I'd be willing to consign that to what they said here: They don't know when ASAP is, and if we never see an expansion again, ASAP was unfortunately never. But PDX has always been upfront about shutting the valve, so I believe them when they say they want to develop more content for I:R in the future.

Indeed, their is a slim chance for this because of the reasons you explained. Unlike others, I convinced that we were told the truth and it hasn't be decided yet or finally, that IR development is abandoned. The reason is simple that in todays world there is no need to so - again for the reason you described.

The whole problem is just that it is highly unlikely that in the moment the final decision is made the cirumstances will have to be changed enough in favor of IR. And now one additional added negative aspect is that it further IR development means restartng a holded project. By adding creative staff (which is short) which has to work in the game... My fear is that now IR is considered least priority, it will die because there will be always something more pressuring on the list. Sure, if we are lucky Paradox is suddenly flooded with new people and they find enough to populate the IR team again - but if not, my guess is that other projects will get priority. And finally, the deciding factor is money again: offer better salaries = find more and better people. So it depends on how much will is there to increase spendings - and while I don't know or even can guess the extend they are willing to do this, I fear that it will not be enough for IR in the end.

 

[Wesum]

I am very sad. I felt emotionally attached to this game and community to an extent that I never experienced before. It just seem too soon.

I feel like my girlfriend left me.

 

[zaboli]

The fact that IR is abandoned isn't the fault of the devs but of the players. The target audience was always way too hard on IR, yet didn't care about similar problems in other games like CK3. At best IR would receive feedback that the game is 'ALMOST' good, and that it just needed one more update to be a worthy title alongside the other PDX games.

IMO IR was already one of the better PDX games since the Livy update. But youtubers and Steam reviews kept bashing the game, despite that it was probably in a better state than games like CK3 or HOI4.

 

[Lamisatr]

The fact that IR is abandoned isn't the fault of the devs but of the players. The target audience was always way too hard on IR, yet didn't care about similar problems in other games like CK3. At best IR would receive feedback that the game is 'ALMOST' good, and that it just needed one more update to be a worthy title alongside the other PDX games.

IMO IR was already one of the better PDX games since the Livy update. But youtubers and Steam reviews kept bashing the game, despite that it was probably in a better state than games like CK3 or HOI4.

It's absolutely the fault of Paradox. The bungled the launch, then Arheo et al turned it around then the suits dumped it. It was dumped right after 2.0, the review bombing had nothing to do with it.

IR lost its audience on day 1, they were never able to recover it, that's 100% on Paradox. CKIII had a far better launch and remains very popular, so despite your misgivings, it's a success. I think IR good right now, certainly better than EUIV which should have been retired after Dharma, but they wanted ti keep milking it.

People are getting tired of place holder launches throughout the gaming industry, and IR was just that, CK already had a large baked in fan base and was a far better launch so it will run and run for years.

The future of IR lies outside of Paradox, and it will be much better for it.

 

[LordSkorpio]

The fact that IR is abandoned isn't the fault of the devs but of the players. The target audience was always way too hard on IR, yet didn't care about similar problems in other games like CK3. At best IR would receive feedback that the game is 'ALMOST' good, and that it just needed one more update to be a worthy title alongside the other PDX games.

IMO IR was already one of the better PDX games since the Livy update. But youtubers and Steam reviews kept bashing the game, despite that it was probably in a better state than games like CK3 or HOI4.

Sorry, but you are missing the fact that PDX was who sold us a 40€ beta in the first place. It's "ok" because we know how this works, but the problem comes when the game is so bad, that it was barely playable until 1.5 and even then it was probably one of the worst titles. 2.0 was a big push indeed, I played 9 hours before 2.0 and after that the game got my attention for 100 hours or so, but to this day the game still needs a lot of work to be at the same level of the other titles.

That being said, this was IR finest hour and people were just starting to be interested in this game again and then they stop development.

So, is it really our fault that we were supposed to like an unfinished product, but we didn't? Many of us even bought every DLC just because of our faith in the project, not because we really thought the game was good enough yet.

 

[merulaalba]

Sorry, but you are missing the fact that PDX was who sold us a 40€ beta in the first place. It's "ok" because we know how this works, but the problem comes when the game is so bad, that it was barely playable until 1.5 and even then it was probably one of the worst titles. 2.0 was a big push indeed, I played 9 hours before 2.0 and after that the game got my attention for 100 hours or so, but to this day the game still needs a lot of work to be at the same level of the other titles.

That being said, this was IR finest hour and people were just starting to be interested in this game again and then they stop development.

So, is it really our fault that we were supposed to like an unfinished product, but we didn't? Many of us even bought every DLC just because of our faith in the project, not because we really thought the game was good enough yet.

There is a bigger problem. PDX could fund a PR campaign. It is Rome, it is not so difficult!

But they opted not to do it. They (the management, not the devs) willingly stabbed Imperator in the back. Brutus would be proud

 

[Torugu]

Sorry, but you are missing the fact that PDX was who sold us a 40€ beta in the first place. It's "ok" because we know how this works, but the problem comes when the game is so bad, that it was barely playable until 1.5 and even then it was probably one of the worst titles. 2.0 was a big push indeed, I played 9 hours before 2.0 and after that the game got my attention for 100 hours or so, but to this day the game still needs a lot of work to be at the same level of the other titles.

That being said, this was IR finest hour and people were just starting to be interested in this game again and then they stop development.

So, is it really our fault that we were supposed to like an unfinished product, but we didn't? Many of us even bought every DLC just because of our faith in the project, not because we really thought the game was good enough yet.

Paradox genuinely believed that the release version of Imperator was a good game. Listen to the way that Johan talked about it after the launch - it's obvious he was personally devastated by Imperator's failure. The feedback from professional reviewers was also very positive. And for what it's worth, I personally had a lot of fun in 1.1 - in fact I consider one particular campaign of IR 1.1 the most fun I've ever had in a video game.

Obviously the vast majority of players didn't share that opinion. The reason for that have been talked to death over the last two years, so I'm not gonna repeat them here (though I think it has as much to do with marketing and way presents itself as it does with the actual gameplay loop).


But I don't think you can blame PDS for releasing a game which they genuinely believed was good and fun to play.


And the problem certainly wasn't that it was "a 40 EUR beta" - betas don't need require a fundamental redesign of the underlying game philosophy to be fixed.

 

[zaboli]

Paradox genuinely believed that the release version of Imperator was a good game. Listen to the way that Johan talked about it after the launch - it's obvious he was personally devastated by Imperator's failure. The feedback from professional reviewers was also very positive. And for what it's worth, I personally had a lot of fun in 1.1 - in fact I consider one particular campaign of IR 1.1 the most fun I've ever had in a video game.

Obviously the vast majority of players didn't share that opinion. The reason for that have been talked to death over the last two years, so I'm not gonna repeat them here (though I think it has as much to do with marketing and way presents itself as it does with the actual gameplay loop).


But I don't think you can blame PDS for releasing a game which they genuinely believed was good and fun to play.


And the problem certainly wasn't that it was "a 40 EUR beta" - betas don't need require a fundamental redesign of the underlying game philosophy to be fixed.

THIS. I also enjoyed the release version of IR. It seems that IR was a niche within a niche, I wouldn't be surprised that this game would gain a cult status in the future

 

[Lamisatr]

THIS. I also enjoyed the release version of IR. It seems that IR was a niche within a niche, I wouldn't be surprised that this game would gain a cult status in the future

It will in time when we get the full overhaul mods etc

 

[directordirector]

THIS. I also enjoyed the release version of IR. It seems that IR was a niche within a niche, I wouldn't be surprised that this game would gain a cult status in the future

Oh god, Imperator 1.0 is gonna be the new Vicky 2 now isn't it

Jokes aside, Imperator before the 2.0 update was boring and a pain to play thanks to the ugly and overwhelming UI. They certainly don't need to learn that lesson again.

 

[zaboli]

Oh god, Imperator 1.0 is gonna be the new Vicky 2 now isn't it

Jokes aside, Imperator before the 2.0 update was boring and a pain to play thanks to the ugly and overwhelming UI. They certainly don't need to learn that lesson again.

Well to be fair... Vicky II also has a terrible ui with some buggy mechanics and not a lot of regional flavor. But despite that a lot of people, including me, love it

 

[Godd_Howard]

He was IMPERATOR ROME