Hello everyone and welcome back to another Development Diary for Imperator Rome. It is now almost two weeks since we released the Cicero update, and we are now starting to be able to talk about what will come in the Livy update which is planned for later this year.
Let’s start by digging deep into a mechanic that has not seen much change in the last 15 years of PDS gamnes.
The reinforcement mechanic of Imperator is basically the same as EU3 has, which every game since then, from Victoria 2 to HoI4, have used. You lose soldiers to combat and attrition, and slowly recover them from your manpower pool, with a speed that depends on multiple factors.
In the Livy update, this all changes.
- Armies will consume food, and they will be able to carry food with them.
- Elephants will not require more food than they can carry, while Camels can carry more.
- Different units have different food consumption values.
- New Unit Type called Supply Train that can carry much more food, but are slow and abysmal in combat.
- Armies stock up on food supply in their own territory, or in territory where they have taken control of the provincial capital.
- Armies no longer lose soldiers to normal attrition.
- Attrition now drains the food supply of an army, with high attrition increasing this.
- Armies without food loses about 5% of its strength each month.
- Your armies can ONLY reinforce when they are not taking attrition.
This gives the following benefits to the game experience.
- AI is better at handling this situation with regards to manpower.
- You will actually be able to lose sieges, as you can run out of food, and lose enough troops.
- A deeper and more immersive warfare.
- You will have more control over your manpower.
One thing that fans of the Crusader Kings series recognise and have been requesting since they first saw the game, is the ability to name your rulers children. In Livy, the popup for newborns for your ruler will allow you to edit the name to anything you want.
Another Quality of Life option which have been requested, that is also being added to Livy is the possibility for you to see what trait your ruler would gain or lose from an event, and be able to to tooltip the icon to show the impact.
Stay tuned for next week, when my padawan Peter Nicholson will explain what the new button in the top screen is for.
You can read and discuss the original post on our forums here.