New Game?

[mercenarius]

ORIGINAL: Nepos96

This is quite interesting, a cool “defection” mechanic. Reminds me a bit of Alea Jacta Est civil war scenarios. So basically, killing Quintilius is not enough to put an end to the civil war as some armies may keep fighting under another usurper (or join another preexisting faction I guess). I have one question: assuming we are able to play as Quintilius is there anything we could have done to save the game after the battle, either to wait for reinforcements and hope we don’t get betrayed in the meanwhile or just keep playing as “Quintilius’ heir” and avenge his death.
Having lots of fun with Hannibal right now and I hope I’ll be able to do the same with this new game pretty soon.

The news of an emperor's death progresses in stages in the game. It happened in Italy, so the theaters nearby get the news immediately and make their decision. And yes, they could decide to acclaim a new emperor and follow him. In this particular instance that won't usually happen (Because Aurelian's position is strong and what is left has to side with him, the Gallic Empire, or Zenobia).

You ask a reasonable question. Probably I won't make Quintillus a playable faction - although it's not as hopeless for him as it is for Didius Julianus, for example. For the short scenarios, if "your" emperor gets killed that is usually going to be the end for the player. There may be an exception or two.

In the "Aurelian" scenario, you will have the option of playing Aurelian, the Gallic Empire, or Zenobia and Palmyra. So there will be some choices there.

[Nepos96]

Really like what I am reading. Especially that the big guys are all playable. And really curious to see what scenarios you are going to include in the game (especially the long ones). Maybe more could be included later on through DLCs if the game proves successful. Is there any faction in any of your scenarios that is almost hopeless but still you are planning to make playable?
Looking forward to playing this game.

[chee006]

When is the game coming out?

[mercenarius]

ORIGINAL: chee006

When is the game coming out?

Short answer: not real soon, unfortunately. [:(]

Longer answer: I hate to make any promises because some of my past estimates have been wildly inaccurate. I had really hoped to have the game finished by the end of the year, but it won't be finished by then. I certainly intend to have a firm release date by the end of the year. Which sounds kind of lame and it is. [:@]

I am working full time on the game but I've made the design so much deeper than 'Hannibal' that it's a bigger piece of work that I had originally intended and imagined. I hope that this isn't too much information. Still, I realize that it's really kind of funny just how long this particular forum topic has grown!

[chee006]

ORIGINAL: mercenarius

ORIGINAL: chee006

When is the game coming out?

Short answer: not real soon, unfortunately. [:(]

Longer answer: I hate to make any promises because some of my past estimates have been wildly inaccurate. I had really hoped to have the game finished by the end of the year, but it won't be finished by then. I certainly intend to have a firm release date by the end of the year. Which sounds kind of lame and it is. [:@]

I am working full time on the game but I've made the design so much deeper than 'Hannibal' that it's a bigger piece of work that I had originally intended and imagined. I hope that this isn't too much information. Still, I realize that it's really kind of funny just how long this particular forum topic has grown!

That's fantastic. This year will be soon!

I did not purchase the original and was wondering if this will be released as a new game with AGEOD engine and if it will be under Matrix/Slitherine>

[mercenarius]

I did not purchase the original and was wondering if this will be released as a new game with AGEOD engine and if it will be under Matrix/Slitherine>

I hope to release the game through Matrix/Slitherine, but it's still a little early for me to say for sure how it will be distributed.

The game doesn't use the AGEOD engine and I don't know very much about that, to be honest.

[mercenarius]

ORIGINAL: Nepos96

Really like what I am reading. Especially that the big guys are all playable. And really curious to see what scenarios you are going to include in the game (especially the long ones). Maybe more could be included later on through DLCs if the game proves successful. Is there any faction in any of your scenarios that is almost hopeless but still you are planning to make playable?
Looking forward to playing this game.

First off, thanks for your kind words!

Secondly, the short answer to the last question is yes. Although I don't expect too many players to enjoy falling on their swords, so to speak.

More scenarios can and I certainly hope will be included later through a DLC or add-on of some kind. I plan to edit the current scenario list down a little - only a little! - and make a few of them available through a DLC. For example, Galla Placidia and Aetius will require and deserve some extra programming and I won't be able to include that in the initial release.

Here is a screen shot of one of the campaign showing the basic options. This will be revised a little before the game is finished, but's close to what we'll have:

[Orm]

This looks awesome. [&o] [:)]

[Nepos96]

ORIGINAL: mercenarius

ORIGINAL: Nepos96

Really like what I am reading. Especially that the big guys are all playable. And really curious to see what scenarios you are going to include in the game (especially the long ones). Maybe more could be included later on through DLCs if the game proves successful. Is there any faction in any of your scenarios that is almost hopeless but still you are planning to make playable?
Looking forward to playing this game.

First off, thanks for your kind words!

Totally deserved, this is slowly shaping up to be my dream game.

Secondly, the short answer to the last question is yes. Although I don't expect too many players to enjoy falling on their swords, so to speak.

We probably are not many, but I do enjoy a “survival mode”, a scenario where my main goal is to try to survive for as long as possible before the inevitable doom.

More scenarios can and I certainly hope will be included later through a DLC or add-on of some kind. I plan to edit the current scenario list down a little - only a little! - and make a few of them available through a DLC. For example, Galla Placidia and Aetius will require and deserve some extra programming and I won't be able to include that in the initial release.

I think this game would do great if supported with an adequate number of DLCs. As long as the base mechanics are fine (which seems to be the case), there is probably no limit to the number of scenarios that can be recreated. And personally, I wouldn’t mind paying for extra, good quality, add-ons. Really excited to see a mid V century scenario.

Here is a screen shot of one of the campaign showing the basic options. This will be revised a little before the game is finished, but's close to what we'll have:

Also, reading that victory conditions in the screenshot, am I right in supposing that there will be more in the game then just defeating rival emperors? Like some sort of side objectives?

[Orm]

The Christmas season is soon upon us. Depending, of course, how one defines 'soon' and 'Christmas season'. So maybe it is time for another sneak peek into the progress of the game?

[mercenarius]

Nepos96,

I am sorry that I didn't see your last question. I didn't mean to ignore it.

Yes, victory conditions will involve more than defeating rival emperors in most scenarios. In a few scenarios, there won't be any rival emperors and those other victory conditions will be the only goals. In most other scenarios, obtaining sole power is a necessary first step but the player will be trying to achieve things after that: mostly conquests, but I'll certainly add a few other goals. Even if some of those other things will be 'chrome' to a certain extent.

[mercenarius]

The Christmas season is soon upon us. Depending, of course, how one defines 'soon' and 'Christmas season'. So maybe it is time for another sneak peek into the progress of the game?

Well, I don't have anything to post today, but I expect to have some new screenshots to post before the end of this month.

Truthfully, I spent about 6 weeks working on the multiplayer logic and it didn't progress nearly as well as I hoped or expected. It looks as if that might have to be dropped from the initial release. [:@]

I don't like to admit that, and I know that I promised that the game would have it. It may have to be something along the lines of an expansion module down the road.

Sorry to spoil the Holiday Mood (Christmas or, for those of you who celebrate it here in the U.S., Thanksgiving). I guess that honesty is the best policy, though. [:(]

[Orm]

That is awesome. Not the thing about the multi-player. Although I expect to only play single-player. But to get "some new screenshots" before Christmas is. [:)]

And honesty is always appreciated. And, I suspect, is valuable in the long run.

[Nepos96]

That is good news. Since you mentioned a V century scenario among many, both conquering supreme power and then trying something like restoring the empire and cleaning the mess would make for a very fun game. I can't wait to see more ( and play it).
Not really concerned about multiplayer, as I am mostly a single-player guy (as long as the AI is good enough to pose a challenge, like in the previous game). In my opinion that can be released at a later moment after the release of the main game.
Looking forward to any news about a potential date for the release of the game!

[mercenarius]

It is the end of the month, and I do have a few screenshots.

I'll explain what these are. As was mentioned some time ago, I have added a Point and Click interface to the game. "Hannibal" didn't have that, but I had wanted to offer this as a choice for "The Fall of Rome" from the beginning.

I have noticed when using the Click and Point interface that it's somewhat harder to access the Operations Menus for things that might be a target such as city. For example, if you are besieging a city and have your besieging army selected, when you click on the city itself, the game assumes that you are trying to attack it. Natural assumption for Point and Click. In a Drag and Drop interface that isn't so. In that case, the game assumes that you are simply trying to select that city. To attack you need to actually drag and drop the army onto the city.

But what if you really only want to demand the city's surrender? Well, the usual way is to select the city, click on its Operations Menu, and choose Demand Surrender. Here is what that sequence looks like:



The problem is with Point and Click is that just clicking on the city won't (in this case) select it unless you first clear the existing selection. This always used to get me in Command and Conquer. I would want to deselect a unit so I would click in an empty space just as I would on the Macintosh Desktop (I was a Mac user back then). Of course, that simply ordered the unit to move to that location.

OK. I have done two things about this. First off, if you hold down the Control key when clicking that overrides the standard behavior and assume that you are clicking to select and not to move, attack, etc. So when you hold down that key you just click and select whatever.

The second thing that I have done is to add a second pane to attack dialogs to allow a player to make a short cut to the most commonly used options from an elements Operations Menu. I will show that in the next two posts.

[mercenarius]

Here is the new attack dialog with the selector for additional options:

[mercenarius]

Using the selector at the top right you can switch to the other options to use against that city:

[mercenarius]

I hope that everyone had a new Christmas (if relevant) and let me wish all a Happy New Year a little in advance. I don't have any late Christmas presents but I do have some screenshots and some info.

I had hoped to get a "Coming Soon" page up on Steam before the new year, as mentioned previously. I am making progress, but I don't think that I'll be able to start setting that up until next month. The game is progressing, however. I have been implementing Fog of War rules and some related logic. I have also spent the last week colorizing the B&W unit report icons. I will post some screenshots in this post and the next.

For Fog of War, players will see raw troop strength on the map, but details will be obscured. If a player tries to get a report on something which hasn't been scouted, the player will see something like this:

[mercenarius]

Players get access through control of cities, fortresses, and walls in an area. They also get some additional access if they have a friendly army in the field in a province. They can also use the "Speculatores" option card to add 2 levels of access to elements in a province for a turn.

The access scheme is based on 4 levels:

1. Some panels have values when an element is selected. Others are marked with "?"
2. Most panels have values, but a full report cannot be opened.
3. A full report can be opened. Some values in the report may be obscured.
4. The player sees everything, including the unit tiles for armies and fleets.

I am polishing this up a little and the scheme may evolve somewhat. But that is the heart of it.

I didn't include raw troop strengths in the Fog of War because that just seems weird to me. Players will have the ability to add dummy troops strengths to forces, and those values will inflate or deflate the strength values that you see on the map. Those dummy strength can be exposed through scouting, intelligence, and other game play. I haven't coded these dummy strength values - that is next on the agenda.

Here is a screenshot showing this scheme in action:

[Orm]

Thank you for the update. [&o]

I like the look of the fog of war options. [:)]

And I hope you all have a good, and Happy New Year.