New Game?

[mercenarius]

Is there a possibility or probability of a 2025 release?

There is certainly a possibility. I will try my best to get something released by the end of the year, even if I have to make compromises.

I'll post a couple of new screenshots (of other things) as soon as I get the first four tutorials finished.

[CSSS]

YES!!!

[Don60420]

Day one purchase for me!

[pascalc]

Is there a possibility or probability of a 2025 release?

There is certainly a possibility. I will try my best to get something released by the end of the year, even if I have to make compromises.

I'll post a couple of new screenshots (of other things) as soon as I get the first four tutorials finished.

Don't make compromises. We want to play the game you want to make. We'll wait for it.

[mercenarius]

Don't make compromises. We want to play the game you want to make. We'll wait for it.

First off, thanks for the compliment! I'll try to live up to the spirit of that.

The third tutorial is now done, but it took a little longer than I thought. So, I don't have much new to post on "other" logic in the game right now. But I do have a screenshot from the third tutorial.

I set it up so that the fleet in the Balearic Sea defects to the Gallic Empire upon the death of Quintillus. This can occur as a result of option card play by the AI. Otherwise, that fleet would support Aurelian under most circumstances in that scenario. I did this in the tutorial so that the player can make a naval attack and learn about naval movement (especially as regards supply).

Here is what the notification itself looks like:

Fleet Defected Notice.png (627.35 KiB) Viewed 24781 times

I'll try to post some new screenshots in about two weeks. The fourth tutorial will, I hope, go faster now that I added so much logic to support the battle dialogs in the third tutorial.

[mercenarius]

Well, I haven't forgotten about all of you! This last week or so was crazy with personal business. On top of that, the video card in my 32-bit test machine died and finding a suitable replacement for hardware that old was difficult. But I keep that machine running as a gauge for checking to see if the game can run OK on older hardware. Rebuilding that machine took 2 whole days.

Here is a screenshot of the dialog for the "Gather Supplies" Operational Command:

Gather Supplies.jpg (194.02 KiB) Viewed 24290 times

This is used somewhat rarely and is intended for "expert use" in the game. Mostly it's to allow a player to gather support before marching into a province with no logistical support. Now, normally, that is NOT how Roman Armies want to operate, of course. But I figured that the game needs the player to be able to do this on occasion, and I had added the menu item for it.

I'll post some additional screenshots next weekend, and hopefully, something about the fourth tutorial.

[mercenarius]

Well, I didn't get quite as far - or as fast - as I hoped. But I do have something to share.

Under the "Victualia" section (think "Vittles") of the Limites Department in the Administrative Interface, you will now have access to this menu:

Victualia Menu.png (568.26 KiB) Viewed 24161 times

What is new is the "Plan Out All Logistical Support" option. That is a one-shot enactment to have the Praetorian Prefect (or the Imperial Bureaucracy) specify all needed supply deliveries. This is the usual way that the player will be expected to manage any extra logistical support.

I'll try to post a couple of screenshots next week to show this menu and related activity, such as any Operational Commands, in a little more detail. And something about the fourth tutorial as well, which I promised before but haven't dont yet!

EDIT: this is a stupid idea. I will show the corrected functionality in my next post,

[mercenarius]

OK, the previous idea was a silly one. Here is the corrected version of the "Victualia" menu:

Victualia Menu.png (569 KiB) Viewed 23666 times

Clicking on "Organize Logistical Planning" will bring up a menu for an Administrative Action:

Logistics Authority Menu.png (650.96 KiB) Viewed 23666 times

Usually the players will use the "default" choice which is to assign this responsibility to the Praetorian Prefect. But I'll the give the players other choices which will have at some small difference in game play.

I didn't get as far as I hoped with the other work, because I had to revise this, but I should have more to show concerning the "Limites" department next week.

[mercenarius]

Well, when I said a week, I guess that I meant a fortnight.

I had pretty bad writer's block until this week; I don't know why. But I did make some progress. Here is a revised version of the Limites Department, including most of the summary elements:

Limites Summary.png (344.97 KiB) Viewed 20008 times

As you can see, two are blank and I should have those filled in and working by next week. But I have said that a lot, lately, so we'll see.

The data above is taken from the start of the Trajan scenario. That is why there is only one Wall (Munimentum). Hadrian's wall and the Fossatum Africae haven't been started yet. There is just the one wall in the Agri Decumates in Germania.

The "quick settings" in this department are pretty simple. The two notification settings are things that I am playing around with and will refine. In "Hannibal" the player pretty much gets a look at everything which happens, via messages in the Tool Area. For The Fall of Rome, I want to limit this somewhat. This is a way for the player to specify that.

"Political Events" is a euphemism for things such as mutinies. That should not happen unless things are going very badly, of course. In that case, if you are like me, you will probably just start another game!

[mercenarius]

I realized in doing the previously mentioned work that I hadn't actually done the logic for fortresses to receive supplies by water transport. And I noticed that there are some locations which will need access to water transport but don't have it at present. So, I had to do a little map editing.

In Colchis (modern Georgia) I added a tributary, the Glaucus river, to the Phasis river:

Glaucus Flumen.jpg (106.76 KiB) Viewed 17376 times

Now the fortress at Archaiopolis can receive supplies by river when necessary.

Players can verify such access by looking at the report dialog and choosing the appropriate panel if they want to see more:

Fortress Report Dialog.png (590.49 KiB) Viewed 17376 times

That shows the river access for Archaiopolis and also indicates that it has no road access. (In Roman times that area was very swampy from what I have read).

Cities with water access will build their "Mooring" for water transport without any action by the player. They do this for the sake of their own trade. There was a decent amount of river traffic on the Danube, for example. At least in good times. When the Goths showed up, I imagine that made a difference.

I figure, for now at least, that the player will either do this manually for forts and fortresses, or allow some delegation. The text in the dialog says "supplies and recruits" but animals and armaments can be transported that way, too, of course. The idea is that ships can anchor somewhere and transfer goods as needed via boats which are provided by the fortress itself.

I'll post something about that delegation tomorrow with an extra screenshot or two.

[mercenarius]

So, I have added an extra setting in the Limites settings which allows the player to delegate some authority for maintaining and building defenses.

Here is a small screenshot to show this in action:

Limites Settings.jpg (108.34 KiB) Viewed 17048 times

This is about as close as the game comes to the kind of auto-management that other strategy games sometimes employ. If the player chooses "Emperor Must Approve" that means that the player has to do any relevant construction using an activation (or through an active leader on the strategy map). Delegation will allow that to be done "in the background" so to speak, without using activations or command points from an active leader. But there will be a somewhat increased chance of usurpation when authority is delegated.

All this means that the player must be able to issue an enactment to perform this kind of construction, so I have added a new enactment button to the grouping Castrum et Castellum in the Limites Department. Here is what it now looks like:

Castrum et Castellum.jpg (197.13 KiB) Viewed 17048 times

I think that people have seen enough of this supply stuff, and I'll try to post something different in a couple of weeks after I wrap up the supply assignment logic in the game.

[CSSS]

So looking forward to this game!

[Orm]

I think that people have seen enough of this supply stuff, and I'll try to post something different in a couple of weeks after I wrap up the supply assignment logic in the game.

Not me. I want to see more supply stuff, although I am perfectly happy to find out when I play the game.

Do the player have any options on how to handle supply for the army when on campaign? Or navy?

[mercenarius]

So looking forward to this game!

Many thanks for your kind words!

Do the player have any options on how to handle supply for the army when on campaign? Or navy?

Short answer is yes, the longer answer is yes but the naval supply will need to get some modest revision to match what is already programmed for land movement.

You can gather supplies in the field using the Operations Command menu of a city or a fortress (or a defensive wall):

Assign Supplies Option.jpg (49.05 KiB) Viewed 10332 times

You can also make a decision to order the delivery of extra supplies - on a scheduled basis - at this location with the second item that you see. Usually, the decision to order supply deliveries will be governed by choices in the Administrative Interface. There is often (deliberately) some overlap between what can be ordered by a commander in the field and what can be done through Admin. And this is one of those cases.

Armies themselves also have a "Gather Supplies" item on their Ops Menu as well, of course.

Armies can carry those extra supplies with them when they move into a new area, or just keep them on hand for winter, etc. When moving, the supplies must be used first - before foraging - and a minimum of 1/2 of them are always consumed when moving. This is a simple, if abstract, way of showing the difficulty of transporting supplies by land in ancient times.

Those supply units must also be used first for the supply checks for armies at the end of a turn.

Now, there is also the option to build a Mooring if a city or a Fortress doesn't have any access to transport at all:

Build Mooring Option.jpg (48.94 KiB) Viewed 10332 times

If there is at least road access, then you will see the first set of items. I will add a menu item to handle the situation where there isn't any water access (at an inland location) but there also isn't any land access due to a lack of a road. Probably it makes sense to allow a dirt road to be laid out quickly using an Ops Command in such a case. And it is pretty rare because most roads which can ever be built already exist at the start of the 69 A.D. scenario. But there are a few which don't. One example is Ireland (Hibernia). There is a road network which you can build but isn't in existence at the start of any of the scenarios.

Between attempting to gather supplies, when needed, and ordering deliveries to augment what is otherwise available, you should be able to manage supplies in key areas when campaigning there.

Note, however, that there isn't much you can do about water for field armies. It's too heavy to transport in large amounts (WAY too heavy). Arid areas will always be a problem in this regard. You do have an end-around in the sense that you can hoard your Extended Move cards for such a case. Water, when moving, is calculated as an expense of movement points. If you use an Extended Move card, that gives an active leader an extra 12 points and can reduce or eliminate the net effects of a lower water rating in a province.

Naval supplies can also be gathered using an Ops Command:

Naval Menu Options.jpg (54.54 KiB) Viewed 10332 times

I haven't coded the effect of these cached naval supplies, however. I plan to do that when the land supply is more polished. Probably they will take the form of a new type of "supply ship" with rules somewhat similar to Supply Units used on land.

[mercenarius]

OK, I retooled the report dialogs for the forts and fortresses a little. These small changes are an effort to emphasize the military nature of fortress administration:

Fortress Report.png (774.97 KiB) Viewed 7823 times

The "stores" icon has been changed to make it different from the icon used for city stores. This new icon is *supposed* to suggest the nature of a storehouse under lock and key.

The city report hasn't been changed. But I revised the supply rules a little to better reflect the effect of the seasons. This screenshot shows the addition of a granary to the city. It's empty because I haven't assigned any extra deliveries to it:

City Report.png (720.42 KiB) Viewed 7823 times

The city screenshot is taken from the start of the Winter season. The "supplies" panel shows the value of winter vegetables and the like. That's why it's so low an amount. The city could provide more supplies if it goes on short rations for Winter and Spring. But it's not and so those 4 food stores are reserved for civilian use. In other words, a nice, fat, prosperous Roman city.

The fortress report will show any assigned supply deliveries under the "Deliveries" icon (obviously). The icon uses a water transport theme mostly for variety but also to the emphasize the fact that water transport is much cheaper and will be used where possible.

The city's grain deliveries are listed under "Annona" and are supposed to show the civilian side of administration. By that I mean that the primary purpose of grain subsidies to the cities is to help feed the people there. Rome is the prime example, of course. Constantinople is another case where the state will assign grain subsidies.

If the cities do get military supplies assigned to them, then I'll probably add another panel like the one used with fortresses. I hope to have that wrapped up by next week. I know that I keep saying that, but I realized this week that a couple of my ideas of how to implement the supply deliveries was going to need some revision.

This is the Labor Day weekend holiday here in the U.S. I'll be watching college football with friends today, but I'll be back on the forums tomorrow and I'll try to post something new.

[mercenarius]

Well, I haven't forgotten about all of you. I just didn't finish anything up soon enough to post something before tonight.

After looking at the game play involved, I realized that having an Operations Command on the strategy map which also implemented a function of "assign supply deliveries to this location" was not useful. And I realized that the logic of the game means that players will need to be able to send supplies immediately under some circumstances.

OK, here is a screenshot of the retooled Ops Command Dialog:

Order Supplies.png (521.13 KiB) Viewed 4837 times

Now, "immediately" is a game play mechanism, of course. Really, it just allows the players to do certain things without some tedious mechanism of planning out a move in advance.

I keep saying this, I know, but I'll try to wrap up this particular topic by next weekend. And I should have a couple of screenshots to share at that time.

Also: i can see from this screenshot that the typesetting in the area at the bottom left of the dialog needs some work. I didn't notice this fact until I prepared the screenshot.

[mercenarius]

I have cleaned up the typesetting on the previous dialog, but it's not that interesting to see again. But I do have a new screenshot for the effects of ordering immediate supply deliveries. Usually, the bookkeeping is done at the end of the turn, and the player doesn't have to think about it. But (that word) when making a special supply order, the supplies have to come from somewhere. The usual source is city's current crops. When that happens, you might see something like this:

Gathered Attribute Panel.jpg (209.43 KiB) Viewed 3248 times

This just shows a new attribute panel that I put in place to show where the crops have gone. Normally those fields in the "Planted" or "Partly Ripe" state would supply 6 strength points. But the "Supplies" panel shows zero, so I added the "Gathered" panel to explain where they have gone. Really, it's where they are going at the end of the turn. But the supplies are taken out or reserved when the order is produced.

Of course, not ALL the city's crops have been reserved or taken. The supplies provided by a city from its current crops represent the state's usual portion which roughly corresponds to customary taxation, plus whatever additional sources can be scrounged up when the government stirs itself to make an extra effort.

I'll try to make any final screenshots on this topic by next weekend. It has gotten a little dry, to be sure. Logistics is not a glamorous topic of conversation.

[CSSS]

There were three Empires that were superb at logistics. The Roman empire. After its fall it was 1600 years before logistically Europe would see armies over 100,000 on each side. Due to the invention of canning to preserve food sponsored by Napolean. The second was of course the Napoleonic empire and lastly the United States which honed it's logistic skills in the American Civil War greatly sharpened the in WWI and have been the undisputed rulers of military global logistics since. Though our global strategies may be flawed, our troops were always well supplied.

[mercenarius]

Good point about the long interval between the Roman Empire and the Napoleonic empire. I haven't studied Napoleonic logistics very much, actually. That's on my to-do list. One thing that I can't help but notice about the Napoleonic period is how much more densely populated Europe was than only a few hundred years earlier. And that fact alone has some parallel to the Roman Empire, of course.

What I have to show this week in wrapping up the current topic is mostly refinement with a little revision of design.

I have changed the iconography of some of the Operational Command menus to make their meaning a little clearer. This is now how the relevant items look for gathering and ordering supply deliveries:

Gather & Order Supplies.jpg (54 KiB) Viewed 498 times

I also realized that the previous efforts in "assigning" supplies through an Ops Command should not use fractional values. It was confusing and not very meaningful. Here is what the dialog for that Ops Command now looks like:

Order Supplies Dialog.jpg (191.39 KiB) Viewed 498 times

Finally, the Gathering Supply functionality needed a little improvement. So here is what should be the final version of that:

Gather Supplies Dialog.jpg (189.67 KiB) Viewed 498 times

It now reads "Use Existing Stores" and that is more accurate than referring purely to "City Stores" because there can be stores saved up in fortresses, current harvests from Agricultural Estates, etc.

I changed the iconography to try to emphasize that these Ops Commands are mostly about building up a Supply Train for an army that needs to take supplies in a move. (Mostly). And the "Order Supplies" command means to transport supplies that are taken from existing stores, although those stores can be taken and "processed" during the turn.

OK, next week I'll try to have something new to post. Enough about Logistics, I think.

[CSSS]

I have spent the last three days Victory and Glory Napolean and Victory and Glory the American Civil War. First by playing them back to back. I was delighted by your evolutionary progress between the games. Napolean is excellent and ACW is superb! The concepts and delivery to each era is quite good to the historical buff, while allowing the player to play their own personal dream of each game. Supply in ACW is really make the game extraordinarily good. The idea that we are going to get a Roman game of even greater magnitude with 400? turns? Well I maybe on the final years of my life, but this will be glorious!