Roadmap

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From the roadmap we can see what's left to do. I think we're a little over halfway there though a lot of the artwork will take time.

The three most important features that still need to be completed are:

1. Diplomacy and War
Players should be able to forge alliances and work to spread their ideology across the known world. It also means that there might be foreign threats that have to be handled. I plan to have at least one large rival Empire and a variable amount of small kingdoms that can be gobbled up. Players won't always have control over diplomacy, they'll still have to make proposals and the President will have a lot of diplomatic power. Armies of the Republic may also be more loyal to their preferred political party rather than the President. Players will have to influence and scheme to get their favorite general into powerful positions, either by getting the current general demoted, assassinated, or have their divisions transferred, all while trying to fight off external enemies. Most generals won't go away without a fight though. Anger the wrong general and you may see them march toward the senate at the head of a column of their troops. Roman history will play a big role in influencing how I develop armies and generals.

Some have asked me why I'd include foreign diplomacy and war in a game about simulating a fantasy senate. I believe it's necessary in order to add external factors that create another dimension to the balance of power in the senate. Map painting is also fun and I find that the fantasy theme really comes through when there is military conflict. Lastly expanding the game to the world scope gives the opportunity to have world crisis like they have in Stellaris and further cement the fantasy theme.

2. Character Traits and Actions
I want to avoid having events feel random. I'm a big fan of how games in Rimworld tend to naturally develop stories through how the characters and their traits interact with each other and the world. In FFS a character might have the party animal trait and occasionally make themselves and all their friends drunk in the senate and fist fighting with their enemies leading to the senate be completely derailed for that turn.

This system might take a lot of work so I may add it as a free expansion after official release but I think it would be fun and remove some of the random feeling that pulling from a deck of events sometimes gives.

3. Sprites and Art
For the world map I'll need to make a lot of sprites as I want armies to be animated. I'd also like world locations to be animated with smoke rising from chimneys or light glowing from a magic tower. More character portraits and components will be needed as well as updates to the senate map.

Thanks for checking the game out!