Imperium Romanum

[SwordsMaster]

Hey all. Considering buying this. Is anyone playing it? Any comments? Reviews?

[Achilleslastand]

Looks interesting......but i dont think its been released yet.....i think it will be released here in the states later in March

[professorspatula]

http://www.metacritic.com/games/plat...rium%20Romanum

Looks like an enjoyable if not overly brilliant game if that's your type of thing.

[frogbeastegg]

There's a demo. I'm downloading it now, with the faint hope of trying it tonight. Citybuilders have been very thin on the ground since Impressions stopped making them.

[Mouzafphaerre]

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Citybuilders have been very thin on the ground since Impressions stopped making them.

True. Precisely though, since Vivendi Universial removed Impressions from being at all.

Haven't tried CoN and Caesar IV by Tilted Mill, which is basically ex-Impressions crew yet.
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[SwordsMaster]

Borrowed it from a friend, played for a bit yesterday.

Graphics are very nice - the game has a self adjusting feature that keeps the game running smoothly by reducing the representation distance. Which isn't much of a problem since you're focused on a small are of the city anyway.

Controls are quite intuitive, even if a little awkward in execution, for example, a rightclick on an empty spot will bring up a list of all the things you can build classified by type: military, production, food, etc... but the icons for the actual buidlings are so small that they're very easy to miss.

Another interesting concept is the settlers. There is no point in building housing if there are no settlers willing to come. And settlers are only willing if all the jobs in the city are filled, etc.

Every building has a "range" that is, for houses, where those resindets will be able to look for jobs, water, markets, and so on, and for other buildings, the area in which they will recruit and the area they'll be willing to serve.

The military works in much the same way it did in the various Caesar incarnations, you train a squad, point at the enemy, and forget about it. On some maps there are also barbarian settlements that can be destroyed, but that will produce new enemies if they are not.

All in all, a very good looking game, very much in the spirit of the old citybuiders, that introduces an element of Age of Empires-like city "improvement" by being able to upgrade your forum in order to significantly alter your city's life (for example, not until the forum is at level 2 can you collect taxes). Some of the mechanics are streamlined and simplified from Caesar. (no need to build tax collectors, for example)

On the downside, the tutorials are way too simplistic to actually prepare you for the game, and the gap between tutorials and actual scenarios can be a bit steep if you never played a citybuilder before.

I will try and play some more, and write something more comprehensive.

[Sarathos]

Looks interesting......but i dont think its been released yet.....i think it will be released here in the states later in March

That depends on where you live. Im in Australia and it hasn't come out yet. But when it does its sure buy for me. Looks really really good.

[frogbeastegg]

I'm going to buy a copy. I've tried the demo a few times and there's a lot I could like in there. I recognise the source of my (few) qualms too: Caesar IV. I liked the demo of that game - and never completed the tutorial campaign of the full game because I could not get along with it at all.

I do appreciate the more accurate styling of Imperium. This makes a change, and makes the game stand out a little more as its own product. CivCity: Rome is the only other I've played which was not, to a greater or lesser extent, cartoony. It's a good enough effort that I found myself less forgiving of the stereotypical barbarian warriors and 'hastati' wearing lorica segmentata than I might usually be.

That individual feel carries over to the rest of the demo. This doesn't feel like a rehash of an existing game, though it's got enough in common with the other city builders that a genre veteran can pick it up and get going easily.

Exterminating barbarian villages is perhaps illustrative of the game overall. It's not something other city builders have allowed you to do except in abstract (send an army off to fight an autocalced battle), and it's done using a fairly typical city builder combat system. Once the standard simplistic battle is done your men head on in to the village and flames begin to appear as women and children run and scream. As your soldiers get close to these terrified civilians your view is obscured by thick black smoke. When it clears the village is gone without trace. Realistic ... and not. New ... and not.

[KukriKhan]

...though it's got enough in common with the other city builders that a genre veteran can pick it up and get going easily.

But a non-vet of city-builders might have a tough go of it?

(*Kukri seeks a new genre to explore*)

[Mouzafphaerre]

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stereotypical barbarian warriors and 'hastati' wearing lorica segmentata

Please excuse my stupidity, which can often compete and compare with RTW (but not MiNO) AI, for not understanding your elegant literary style but may I ask if Imperium Romanum includes them or not, exactly?
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[Mouzafphaerre]

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(*Kukri seeks a new genre to explore*)

A genre worth Kukri-sama's efforts I may say.
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[macsen rufus]

The various comments here have prompted me to DL the demo today, and wouldyabelieveit, I got to 99% then the screen flashed "Disc full!" messages.... doh! Cleared out a few files and started again

Looks like a nice change of genre to clear the gaming palate, I think

[frogbeastegg]

But a non-vet of city-builders might have a tough go of it?

(*Kukri seeks a new genre to explore*)

No, no, not at all! :tries not to trip over in her rush to indoctrinate new blood!:

It's one of those simple yet complex types. The interface is easy to use and the foundations of your city are easy to lay: build basic housing, a water source, some way of getting food, done. Then it gradually edges out into more. Basic industry, more food types, religion, posher housing, trade. The demo doesn't let you progress too far, however I expect that circle to keep on pressing outwards until there's a lot going on and a large population in place to support it.

Typically in the early missions of these games you can expand at your own rate. After a year of game time you might have a thriving city with hundreds of citizens and a complex economy, or you could have a basic little polis with 400 people herding cows. By the time missions need you to set up quickly you should be ready for it.

Half the fun of these games is in the tweaking your building plans so they're more efficient. It's satisfying when you plan out a compact, thriving little city which produces better results than the improved sprawling mess you used to first pass a mission.

Download the demo and try it. There's 2 tutorial missions and nothing else. They do a good job of showing the basics.

may I ask if Imperium Romanum includes them or not, exactly?

The basic Roman infantry unit is called 'hastati', and the graphic has them looking like the classical early imperial legionary. The barbarian warriors have horned helmets and wear fur. They stand out more because the rest of the game is more accurate than the norm for this genre.



I found a link to what appears to be a good review while looking around the official forums.

With regards to the release date, it appears that the US release was delayed a bit, and that it came out a couple of days ago. The European release has been on shelves for a couple of weeks now.

[Dutch_guy]

I played the demo, but it didn't make as much of an impression as Caesar III did back in the days. Still the best Roman era builder out there.

IR seemed a bit too simplistic and small (quite literally, the tutorial maps were too small) to hold my attention for longer than a week, but that may as well differ from the actual game. Can those who've actually played it comment on that ?

[frogbeastegg]

I played the demo, but it didn't make as much of an impression as Caesar III did back in the days. Still the best Roman era builder out there.

IR seemed a bit too simplistic and small (quite literally, the tutorial maps were too small) to hold my attention for longer than a week, but that may as well differ from the actual game. Can those who've actually played it comment on that ?

Well, I've not played the full version but every city builder I've played has had tiny tutorial maps. They also start off simple. It took a couple of campaigns before Pharaoh (the best of the Impressions games IMO) revealed its full features and started to give sizeable maps. I'm giving Imperium the benefit of the doubt.

Then again maybe I'm spoiled. Caesar IV is worse than this demo, and I've come here after an hour of trying to play that game. The maps in the tutorial campaign there are so puny and crammed with unusable areas that I struggle to put down the buildings needed to pass the mission.

Caesar IV. I have no idea what happened to that game. I liked the demo a lot, and this is the second time I've attempted to play the full game and bounced off it.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The maps are so puny the tutorial is a misery, and the tutorial is many missions long. The cities end up puny because the houses hold loads of people, so you can't build many before you end up with mass unemployment. The buildings are too big, you can't get that much on screen at once. The food production chain is a nightmare; far too unpredictable. The useful stats and feedback implemented from Pharaoh onwards is missing, for example I know I'm producing 12 units of food but have no idea how many my city needs. The populace is unpredictable; I had my equites leave the city because I wasn't paying high enough wages. There's two problems there. First, I was paying the standard rate, not less. Second, I only discovered there was a problem because I dropped into the ratings screen to see if I had nearly met the goals yet. The range on the support buildings is too small, so you have to build more than you'd think reasonable. Above all, and most damningly, it's boring. Downright tedious. Far too much sitting about with the game on maximum speed waiting for the numbers to tick up to the required amount.

[SwordsMaster]

Don't worry, the maps in the full game are BIG. They are also geographically challenging - Verona, for example has a lot of mountains and requires some planning to build the necessary structures.

[The_Doctor]

A bit off topic:
Why are nearly all of this type of city builder set in the Roman Empire?

Whats wrong with medieval Russia, or industrialising a town in the north-west of England, or Incas, or colonial New Zealand etc.

[Mouzafphaerre]

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Thanks Lady froggy. I think I'll give it a chance.
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[frogbeastegg]

My copy is here. The manual is nice and chunky; I've been flicking through it while waiting for pages to load. Lots of information, with the caveat that the table of player ranks is still in German!

The building list reveals there are a good number of structures, all that one would expect. Some jobs can only be occupied by men, others by women, and the remainder by either.

It appears each worker gains experience and becomes better at their job. The more skilled workers have more advanced needs. A novice needs flour, while apprentice level and up demands ready made bread. Sausages are a staple food source, lol, I like that. The Romans were very partial to their sausage.

Barbarian bow maidens?! They're in there and they have a longer range than male barbarian archers

I won't get chance to play it until tomorrow evening at the soonest.

[Big_John]

to any who have played both, how similar is this game to knights and merchants?

[CountArach]

@ froggie - What's it like? I'm tempted to try the demo, but if I know the full game isn't great I won't bother.

[frogbeastegg]

to any who have played both, how similar is this game to knights and merchants?

I played the demo of K&M at the start of the year. They're quite different games. K&M is closer to the Settlers series IMO. It's about setting up resource chains and expanding your territory. Imperium is a true city builder. Everything is centred around building and improving your city.

@ froggie - What's it like? I'm tempted to try the demo, but if I know the full game isn't great I won't bother.

I've completed a grand total of 1 level so far. There's loads left for me to see.

Unless the game has something unexpectedly rubbish lurking in its untouched depths I expect it will remain at the higher end of my post Impressions city builder scale. That makes it the best Roman city builder since Caesar III. If I'm unkind I might say that is not difficult, as I don't like Caesar IV and found CivCity: Rome to be good but not spectacular.

Without a doubt I can say that the full game is better than the demo. There are important facets of the game which are not touched upon in the demo, such as the mini economy which requires your citizens to earn money in order to buy the goods they need to survive.

[Ja'chyra]

Can you control the battles in this game?

And if not is there any of this type of game our there that allows you to do both, city building and tactical battles?

[frogbeastegg]

Yes, you can. They're simplistic and a bit rubbish, as per the sad usual for city builders.

In a nutshell, you build a barracks and supply it with the right types of goods. Slowly it will train soldiers until the unit reaches 36 men. You can deploy the unit by clicking on an incon in the barracks. Stick the flag down wherever you want the unit to move to. The soldiers will automatically attack any enemies within close range. Alternately you can click on the attack icon, and they will head off after the closest enemy or enemy village. You have 2 formations to choose from, and 3 troop types. The formations add different bonuses to your units, the troop types function in a rock-paper-scissors fashion.

There's a rudimentary morale system. As soldiers die the unit loses morale. I think the enemy troop type has an impact on this too, and the number of enemy dead. If morale reaches breaking point the unit will break and rout. It's possible to have a battered unit with high morale if the battle goes your way, so it's not too much a case of numbers=morale.

[The Marcher Lord]

Must admit I am quite liking the demo, it reminds me a lot of the style of gameplay in Stronghold 2, which is the only other citybuilder type game I have played, although IR has less emphasis on troop production and more on stable economy and community building.

Played through the main scenario and expanded in the freeplay that continues when you finish it to see what happens, so far everything is stable although i'm running short on the denarii and need to slow down the expansion somewhat (too used to the fast expansion in TW games ) The tablet system is OK but seems a bit easy, maybe thats just the demo though. Battles are very basic, but not really meant to be the meat of this game in any case. There seems to be plenty of scope for experimenting with interesting building and expansion strategies and the historic timeline scenarios look like they will be fun, varied and challenging. Graphics look good, plenty of things to build, lots of different environments tackled in the maps and more maps/scenarios on the way in future addon packs (some new stuff coming this week with the patch! ). It runs fine on my two year old system. All in all, unless I find some horrors in the rest of the demo, I will be getting this one.

Found a very good forum where there is plenty of lively discussion and help here http://www.citybuildergames.com/inde...ard,170.0.html

[woad&fangs]

It took a couple of campaigns before Pharaoh (the best of the Impressions games IMO)...

Hey, I used to play that game Would I enjoy IR if I enjoyed that game?

[Mouzafphaerre]

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I like Pharaoh quite a lot but IMHO Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom is the best.
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[frogbeastegg]

Hey, I used to play that game Would I enjoy IR if I enjoyed that game?

I don't see why not. It's the same type of game.

I like Pharaoh quite a lot but IMHO Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom is the best.

It's a very close call, and I'd happily play either.

Zeus deserves much love too. It shouldn't be possible for a city builder to be funny, and that one was in abundance. If it had been more challenging overall and hadn't featured that nasty whale whistle sound effect whenever you had ocean on your screen it would have been my favourite. I hated that sound effect and there was a lot of ocean.

[Artorius Maximus]

This looks interesting. I only hope that they would have changed the name of the game, if you know what I mean. It's incorrect Latin. It should be Imperium Romanorum, not Imperium Romanum.

[Ja'chyra]

I gave the demo a go but without decent battles it seems a waste to me.

The city builder side is quite good, but it all seems to have been done before. I would like it to run more like governing a city state where you could build up your military, design your own troop types, initiate diplomacy, and conquer other cities. Almost like a cross between this game, TW, EU with some extras added.

I would even pay double the cost of a normal game if it was done well.

edit: Oh and it's not supposed to be proper latin, it's a game title, it's supposed to appeal to gamers kind of like Roma Victor.

Languages are bastardised all the time, just look at US English :(, why should latin be an exception?