I'm happy to announce that Never Second in Rome will leave Early Access on May 5, 2026.
Since the first playable version of the game came out, there has been a demand for the introduction of some form of meta-progression, following on the heels of my first game, A Legionary's Life. Although Never Second in Rome was not designed to include meta-progression, I offered to open a discussion with the player base as soon as the story part of the game was completed, which happened last month.
The discussion provided a lot of interesting feedback, and a good compromise was reached.
The biggest change of version 1.0 will involve an optional Ironman mode that includes both meta-progression and permadeath. It will be unlocked after finishing the game at least once in Standard mode. In Ironman mode you will receive points at the end of each game, according to several accomplishments: your centurion rank, the awards won by you and your subordinates, and whether you survived until the end.
The top five games will generate a combined weighted score that will allow buying improvements for the next run, in the form of extra Attribute points, a Mentor feature that provides a bonus to the Skill training of the century, both as a whole and as individuals, and a little extra starting money.
The release update will also incorporate many more changes and tweaks, mostly aimed at easing up the difficulty a bit.