Hey everyone!
The podcast for Imperia on Space Game Junkie is now up. If you want to see a game of Imperia played (and wondered who the hell I was) then check it out! And after you’re done, check out the rest of the site – it’s a veritable treasure trove of space game history and media!
Check it out here: http://www.spacegamejunkie.com/featured/sgj-podcast-68-living-life-emperor-imperia/
Thanks again!
-Steve
Hello!
Since we have more readers and I’ve gotten away somewhat from the ‘Concepts’ series of blogs, I wanted to return to them to explain more about what makes Imperia different from other 4Xs.
In Imperia, you do not rule in a vacuum. Each action you take in the game moves you along a ruling continuum that starts in the middle when you are a new Emperor, and can eventually move left (Nationalist) or right (Tyrannical). Being a continuum, that means that you don’t ‘just suddenly’ become Tyrannical once you hit a certain number- it happens gradually, and the effects are gradual, just as in real life.
Your Popular Support is generated in two ways – your Nationalist support and your Tyrannical support. Think of Nationalist support as people who love you and who would follow you willingly while not necessarily always giving you a blank check for rule, and Tyrannical support as people who are totally obedient, fear you, but who yearn for the day your power wanes so they can rise up and destroy you. These types of rule are described below.
As a Nationalist Emperor, you rule for your people’s welfare and well-being, not the opposite. You take actions that better your subjects’ lives and place in the world. As a result, your people are naturally more loyal out of freedom, and will stand for your Empire, not just you, knowing that you care for the nation and Empire first.
STRENGTHS
+ Much easier to raise PoSup.
+ Much less chance of rebellions/unrest
+ Nationalist tending characters will graviate to you and tend to be more loyal the stronger your Nationalist rule is
+ Less turnover for your governmental figures
+ Economic benefits – people want to work for your government, so it takes less money(wages) to get them to work for your Empire
+ Splinter colonies/sectors will be much more likely to join a Nationalist-run Empire
WEAKNESSES
+ Tyrannical characters will tend to be less loyal and actively seek to usurp you
+ Corruption somewhat higher
+ Taxes must be kept low to be considered Nationalist, so less immediate ability to raise quick cash
+ Very expensive to pass Edicts and actions that positively affect Nationalist rating
+ PoSup will drop if you do not continue to provide for your people.
As a Tyrannical Emperor, you rule for your welfare and your subjects are the cogs in the machinery to help you do just that. Thus, while your ‘loyalty’ is absolute – it only remains that way as long as it’s bought and paid for, backed by demonstrable power and authority. Once that goes… you may soon follow.
STRENGTHS
+ Much cheaper to rule Tyrannically
+ Tyrannical tending characters will tend to gravitate towards you, and as such be actively open to actions that see their grip on power maintained
+ Intel is easier to accomplish – after all, there are always weasels in every crowd
+ You can tax the hell out of your people, and they can’t complain
+ Edicts tend to be completed much faster with a preponderance of Tyrannical Influence
+ Military technology will be easier to develop and tend to be more powerful
WEAKNESSES
+ If you run out of money, you’re in big, big trouble
+ If your power wanes or drops too much for any reason, you’re in big, big trouble
+ Nationalist characters, while not as willing as Tyrannical characters, will still look to make trouble
+ Splinter colonies/sectors will be much less likely to voluntarily join a Tyrannical Empire
+ Societal technology will be difficult to come by
It is also possible to rule down the middle, although this is not easy. You start here, of course, and it is the ‘neutral’ type of ruling. You have no special benefits or drawbacks, but who wants to be exactly in the middle? Still, the option is here if you choose… Your people are somewhat indifferent to you; you are just ‘there’ as part of their scenery; neither hindering or helping in any particular way. Characters are all relatively neutral to you, and have no specific intolerance to you (other than being you, of course!). Your Edicts will proceed relatively quickly (using Pragmatic Influence) but not as quickly as a popular Nationalist Emperor or a powerful Tyrannical one.
The core of Imperia, at the end of the day, is you. I want Imperia to be a game where you truly feel that you are ruling an empire, and the empire knows that it is you, and reacts accordingly.
Thanks!
Good news! For those of you who have been unable to play due to the nasty mouse-over bug, try this build! Note: if you have not been having this problem, there are no other fixes in this build that will be visible, and therefore no need to update.
Imperia V.301 Change Log/Readme
7.2.14
Notes
* Please uninstall any previous version of Imperia before installing a new version. I have not yet added patch ability. The good news is that the install is relatively quick.
* I am updating the Sourceforge Imperia wiki periodically and this will be the best document for questions and how to play Imperia. Please refer back to it frequently.
Fixes
* Hotfix to fix major crash bug with certain computers not running an exclusively English character set – basically the SpriteFont was running out of characters and couldn’t cope, causing a crash whenever certain non-standard characters came up.
Changes/Additions
* None
Balance
* None
Unresolved Issues
* One crash due to computer flagging in-game music as DRM protected (it is not). Possible issue with WMP. Investigating.
-Steve
Well, it’s been a longer wait than I wanted, but finally version .3 is just about here! I wanted to test it as much as I could, and I look forward to more people being able to get farther into the game and to help stamp out the last few known crash bugs!
Imperia V.300 Change Log/Readme
6.30.14
Notes
* Please uninstall any previous version of Imperia before installing a new version. I have not yet added patch ability. The good news is that the install is relatively quick.
* I am updating the Sourceforge Imperia wiki periodically and this will be the best document for questions and how to play Imperia. Please refer back to it frequently.
Fixes
* Fixed numerous issues related to the save/load system
* Fixed an issue where the emperor power was not calculating correctly
* Fixed the ADM increase chance for the emperor – was almost impossible previously
Changes/Additions
* Added hotkey save/load system. F1 will hot save your current game and F2 will hot load from any point in the game. If there is a game version mismatch, the game will not load.
* Added system information display bar functionality hotkey ‘I’ to toggle between the system info bar displaying in the quadrant display as a player option while I chase down an annoying crash bug that results as a result of the SID bar displaying.
* Due to player request, pressing the ESC key in a screen other than the quadrant screen will act as a right click, i.e. take you one screen out. The ESC key on the quadrant screen will eventually bring up a popup menu that will allow you to exit, load, save, and return to the start menu; for this build, it will exit.
* When an unexpected crash occurs, a log folder is created under your C: directory, called ‘ImperiaLogs’. In addition, a popup window will appear explaining the specific exception and trace for the crash. This information will help immensely in tracking down some remaining bugs.
* Added loading and new game start screens
* Added launch buttons on the title screen (new game, etc.)
* Significant ‘under the hood’ revisions to error checking and data structure that will enable much faster updating and debugging
* Added credits page
* Fixed annoying screen whitespace on title screen and a few other screens
Balance
*
Unresolved Issues
* For a very small # of people (that I know of) mousing over certain systems causes a CTD. I am still investigating.
Sorry for the length of time between updates – real life job sometimes gets longer and more job-y. However, I have recently had a few days off and I have put that time to good use, working hard on .3. I have listened to your requests (thanks to all who voted!) and I am wrapping up work on a quicksave/quickload system that will auto-save each turn AND let you save at any time by hitting F1 or quickload your last save by hitting F2. Since this is not a forms-based game, it is up to the programmer to create the save/load form by hand, so that’s a project for another day. There will also be a small debug feature that will let you turn off the system info bar on the galaxy screen (this is causing issues for a very small portion of people and I want to isolate it as an issue) by pressing hotkey ‘I’.
I have also worked on some data streamlining while I was mucking around in my classes and data managers, so hopefully you should notice some game speed improvements. Since save and load seems to be far and away the most requested feature, it will be the primary feature in .3. Next after that? The emperor screen, with personal edicts and your tyrannical/nationalism rating, and more data about your reign that you can view. And after that? A (vastly) improved Economics screen, with Edicts for taxation limits, saving, and more! Also, I think I have worked out a good way to show trade flow, so that you should know where your goods are coming and going so that you can more accurately plan out your trade/manufacturing/embargo strategy.
Even though it wasn’t ‘voted’ high, I do want to start adding triggers and events generated by high character anger and jealousy. This will make your dealings with characters more circumspect and hopefully make the ‘bad boy’ path to victory a little more fraught with danger. This will also create the foundation for ‘coalitions’ of people working, say several sector governors working together if they hate you enough to destabilize a portion of your empire and work to discredit you among their people, seriously hurting your PoSup in those sectors. And I can’t wait until military/starships get put in! 😀
Finally, I will be spending all of Friday on the wiki. I am looking at moving to a different wiki system that is easier to edit and manage, so I’ll keep everyone posted.
I’m not going to give a firm release date for .3 except – Soon(tm)!
Thanks!
-Steve
So now that a reasonably stable version of Imperia is out, I wanted to get people’s thoughts on what major feature they wanted to see next. I have been working on a few systems ‘under the hood’ but I wanted to get some feedback from you about what you consider most important/would like to see!
Thank you so much for your input with this!
EDIT: OK, looks like we have some winners. Everyone will be glad to know that I’ve been working on the save/load system. It’s not glamorous(or fun!) but I think it will help longevity even this early in the game design process and it should help track down some bugs…. Version .300 will be coming out soon! I’ll have a change log up soon.
Great news!
The final version before the .3xx series is here. There are a lot of fixes – the changelog is basically the same as the previous post, with a few extra changes. The updated readme contained in the setup file has all the information. Here are the highlights:
NEW UI – The UI will now start black (neutral) and slowly change color towards blue or red as your Emperor becomes more Nationalist or Tyrannical in nature. This will eventually extend to music, sound effects, and fonts.
NEW EDICTS – You can now create a prison world, add a logistics base, create an exploration outpost, and more!
NEW CHARACTER ACTIONS – You can embargo planets and cut them out of the trade net, and from receiving emergency goods. Perfect for bringing that hardline viceroy into line, and more for controlling your supply network.
FIXES – Virtually every crash bug that has been reported has been fixed. There is one case that I am still working on getting more info.
BALANCE – Generally lowered the cost of most Stellar Edicts and slightly raised the cost of most Terrestrial ones. Also added more ADM per planet, weighted towards capitals.
NEW FEATURE – New Terra can now support any Terrestrial Edict in range, even if it is not connected to its sector.
This will be the last release for probably a few weeks, barring any hotfixes. I will be working on the Emperor screen and updating the Wiki. If you are interested in helping write for the wiki, please let me know – it’s a daunting project!
Also, we are about to welcome our 5,000th visitor sometime this week. I can’t thank you all enough for your support on this project. Sometimes I get frustrated for some reason or another, and then I’ll look at the visits to this blog or get a nice comment or E-mail and it reminds me of what I’m working on. You are awesome!
As always, you can download the setup package at the Sourceforge link located on the left-hand link bar.
Enjoy!!
-Steve
Based on some feedback, and some things I wanted to add and clarify, I am releasing one more .2xx version before moving on to version .3xx. There is a lot of stuff here, so as soon as I’m reasonably sure I didn’t break anything, it’s out to you!
Imperia V.230 Change Log/Readme
5.25.14
Notes
* Please uninstall any previous version of Imperia before installing a new version. I have not yet added patch ability. The good news is that the install is relatively quick.
* I am updating the Sourceforge Imperia wiki periodically and this will be the best document for questions and how to play Imperia. Please refer back to it frequently.
Fixes
* Fixed a small bug where science outposts created agriculture sectors, but no science sector
* Fixed bug where starbases could be higher than level 5, but show nothing
* Fixed bug where stellar missions could be supported from a sector that had no starbase, but was within range
* Fixed allocation of materials for Edicts. Had a kludge fix in place, but now will allow use of as many materials as possible without going below 0 on a planet
* Fixed serious intel screen bug where if two planets shared the exact same value, an exception would occur.
* Fixed bug where edict times could, with sufficient influence, be pushed to below 0, sometimes causing a NaN error
* Not a bug, per se, but removed the block on children and retired people moving, since it could in extreme situations lead to situations on very bad planets where they would turn into a ‘Peter Pan’ world with only kids and old folk left
Changes/Additions
* Added new Edict, Deploy Exploration Station, a smaller version of a starbase that can only be built above unclaimed planets. Allows stellar missions within the system that it is built. Destroyed once a planet is colonized, but some of the materials are added to the planet’s reserves.
* Added new Edict, Build/Upgrade Logistical Station, a smaller version of a Starbase that can be built above any owned planet. This station allows stellar missions at the range of a Starbase, but does not ship goods to and from the planet, and missions based from this base take longer depending on level. Upgradable to Level III, at which point they may be converted into a starbase. Building a Starbase scraps this base (unless level 3), but some of the materials are returned to the planet and added to their stock.
* Added new Character Action, Embargo Planet/System/Sector. This will block these entities from receiving replenishment goods from the Imperial Capital, and if they are a trade hub, it will block supplies from coming through their trade hubs. Naturally, this will really piss off the leader in question, but you may want to do this to redirect goods to a more critical part of the Empire.
* Added UI labels showing embargo is present in system screen.
* Added tooltip in Character Screen to show how much ADM an action would cost.
* Added darker shaded circle to show Logistic Stations on quadrant map, vs. starbases.
* Added foundation for UI changes depending on how you are running your Empire. Eventually, most of the UI will change depending on your Nationalist/Tyrannical rating, for now the quadrant and system info background will start black and slowly fade into blue or red, respectively, as your ratings change
* Assigned Nat/Tyr rating adjustment range to every action/ edict/ designation currently active, instead of just a few test actions
* Effects of Starbase levels are now factored into a Stellar edict’s time to complete. Higher levels make the Edict more efficient to complete.
* Effects of Logistics Station levels are now factored into a Stellar edict’s time to complete. Higher levels make the Edict more efficient to complete, but not as efficient as a Starbase.
* Added Edict Class to be more explicit – the class type now shows up on Edict screen. Displays Terrestrial, Stellar, or Both. Stellar Edicts can only be performed by planets that have a Starbase or Logistics station in range, or an Exploration Station in the system
* Added new Primary Designation, Penal Prison World. This allows you to designate planets as prison planets, where any viceroy within range of this world can send especially unhappy pops to mitigate unrest on their world. Only craven, cruel, corrupt, and despotic viceroys will do this, however, and building one will seriously impact your Tyrannical rating. Building several will be… interesting, shall we say. On the plus side, since ‘workers’ are paid next to nothing, penal worlds generally turn a tidy profit and use few minerals. Plus, they come with a ‘free’ Starbase.
* Changed to where the Imperial Capital can support stellar missions in range of the planet if no other sector or system is eligible. This is an experimental change, suggested by the community
* Changed formula to check for mineral loss on a planet to weight planet class, so that larger planets lose minerals much more slowly than tiny planets.
* Added a check during calculating job Prestige to consider the system rank when calculating. In other words, it’s way more prestigious to work for a Sector Capital government than it is a backwater colony government. This should fix some of the ‘sector capital hellhole’ issues, while creating more delineation for capitals and colonies.
* Changed ‘deception’ to ‘ambition’ for character stats, in preparation for character plots/personality engine
* Added a System Value stat for systems that measures ‘system prestige’ from a sector governor’s standpoint. Basically, the more profitable and populated the system, the more prestigious the system is to have, and it will cause more anger losing a highly prestigious system than an unexplored backwater, and create conversely more loyalty and happiness for the receiving governor. Also useful to weigh relative value when deciding whether to reassign systems.
Balance
* Lowered costs to abandon planets
* With the station changes, decreased chance of stations showing up at game start
* Slightly increased minimum engine range in order to create less hopeless situations 🙂
* Added negative PoSup effect (and tooltip) for when a planet is changing designations.
* Lowered requirement for Stellar missions to any Starbase, since you can now build Exploration and Logistical stations.
* Massively increased Science revenue per t/B of production (from 300 to 2000), this will hopefully not make science planets useless for now
* With the start of the UI changes reflecting your Na/Ty rating, tweaked actions to create more of an effect so that the UI can be seen to change
Unresolved Issues
* For a very small # of people (that I know of) mousing over certain systems causes a CTD. I am still investigating.
With the release of .227, I feel like most of the showstopper bugs have been fixed and the few that are still in I hope to have fixed or have already fixed by the next release.
Looking at the published roadmap. everything that I wanted in the release up to .3 is fixed or in the game, so I’ll be moving on towards .4 and the development that I have laid out. Next will come the financial screen and Edicts related to controlling your economy, working on balance, adding the Emperor information screen that will have your personal information, your good/evil rating, expanded information on your accomplishments, and the beginnings of your personal Edict options, such as traveling to a specific planet or giving an Empire-wide speech about different topics that may come up in your Empire. I will also be expanding functionality on the Intel screen. Each of these additions will probably have its own release so that people can test the UI and use the expanded functionality.
Version .4 will also continue to see your leaders expand their personalities and interactions with you. A big part of what separates Imperia from other 4X games is the interaction with your leaders and their personalities that unfold as you discover more about their leadership style. This will be a constant point of improvement.
I will also be spending a lot of time, especially over these next few weeks, fleshing out the documentation wiki. It is critical that people know how to play and don’t feel lost. A lot of Imperia’s concepts are somewhat hidden, and if you don’t understand how they work, you’ll be left wondering if it’s a bug in the program or WAD. I want people to understand how to play and why things work sometimes and why they might not always be available, so the documentation will be a huge priority for me.
Beyond that, keep hacking away at bugs as they crop up (and you discover them!) and continue to add blocks to Imperia, bit by bit!
Thank you for your interest!
-Steve
So in .226 with the resolution scaling there is an issue with the game crashing when you bring up the character screen at very low resolutions. This was due to the screen rendering data off the main screen, causing a crash. I have fixed it and am uploading .227 now. There are a few other minor changes, but that is the big one. It should be available to download at 8:15 CDT. It is now available. Thanks for playing!
