Expeditions: Rome - Dev Diary #9

Redglyph

SasqWatch
Joined
August 29, 2020
Messages
10,159
Location
Good old Europe
Logic Artists posted a new development diary on playstyle variety and choice & consequences.

DevDiary 9 - Playstyle Variety

Ave, and welcome to our ninth DevDiary. If you were expecting something spooky, you're in the wrong place: Ancient Rome obviously did not observe All Hallows Eve. Come back on December 17 for the Saturnalia.

Lately our DevDiaries have been delving into very concrete and specific game systems, with diaries discussing character progression and the specifics of the crafting mechanics. Today we're going to take a step back from all that and look at a more high-level aspect of our game design: how we strive to support multiple play styles.

Different play styles have always been an important part of our game design philosophy, and we consider it one of the most important aspects of roleplaying games - after all, roleplaying shouldn't just be a matter of what you say, but also what you do. Play styles is a broad topic, and in this DevDiary we will touch on the way roleplaying choices affect the story; we'll examine how quests can be approached in various ways; and we'll even look at how difficulty settings change the player experience.

Expeditions: Rome has many strategy elements but it is first and foremost a roleplaying game. As we have already discussed, key to the RPG genre is choice and consequence in the narrative, and in Rome you will often get to make important decisions that branch the way the story progresses going forward. One of the major factors we expect to inform your decisions is what kind of legatus you have chosen to play as: are you a ruthless conqueror whose only loyalty is to the might of Rome? Are you a philosopher-general who strives to mitigate the horrors of war and address the needs of Rome's allies and rivals alike? Are you purely concerned about your own quest for vengeance, or the power and wealth of your family and friends? [...]
More information.
 
Joined
Aug 29, 2020
Messages
10,159
Location
Good old Europe
Given there's only 2 months left in 2021 and still no official release date, I'm guessing it will be pushed back to 2022.

Keeping an eye on this one still.
 
Joined
Sep 4, 2021
Messages
1,367
Surprised to hear that they'd indicated a 2021 release. I feel that this project was just announced and was expecting a 2023 release. Then again, 2022 is well possible given that the game is not as complicated as the AAA titles these days.

Their previous game was great. I read it had lots of bugs at launch and played it some years afterward. Don't remember a single bug and enjoyed it very much. I wish there were more studios making historical non-fantasy RPGs…
 
Joined
Jun 19, 2020
Messages
1,100
Location
Norway
It's always hard to know, on top of that, release dates and completion dates are not always the same. To be honest I haven't followed it closely, but it doesn't seem there is any EA or any clear visibility of the development progress? Those dev updates detail the content but not what they've already done, from what I saw.

When asked end of July, they replied this on Steam
2021 is still the goal, yes :)
The games industry is a crazy place though. You never know! But so far it's all on-track.
 
Joined
Aug 29, 2020
Messages
10,159
Location
Good old Europe
Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me if this one turns out to be a tad tardy. That's fine with me, they've two great successes to live up to, so I'd prefer they take their time and get this one as right as possible. We'll all be there at the finish line, waiting to play yet another worthy entry in this franchise!

And I really really need to replay Vikings, soonish.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2011
Messages
18,795
Location
Holly Hill, FL.
I thought Vikings was a nice step up from Conquistadors, reflecting some improved game play and story-telling. Hopefully this one won't get rushed and will be another step up from Vikings. Should be good!
 
Joined
Sep 3, 2016
Messages
1,343
Location
A Misty Island
2021 is still the goal, yes. The games industry is a crazy place though. You never know! But so far it's all on-track.
Ain't that the truth as you never know about release dates anymore. Based on the videos and diary's the game is far along in development. So they are almost finished.

My guess is it will slip to early 2022 though.
 
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Messages
36,181
Location
Spudlandia
Surprised to hear that they'd indicated a 2021 release. I feel that this project was just announced and was expecting a 2023 release. Then again, 2022 is well possible given that the game is not as complicated as the AAA titles these days.

Their previous game was great. I read it had lots of bugs at launch and played it some years afterward. Don't remember a single bug and enjoyed it very much. I wish there were more studios making historical non-fantasy RPGs…
Actually it was in early production right after Vikings was released. Then their publisher went through bankruptcy, and Larian offered them a job on a Divinity spin-off.


Then Larian killed the spin-off and the developer went back to this game.
 
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Messages
36,181
Location
Spudlandia
Actually it was in early production right after Vikings was released. Then their publisher went through bankruptcy, and Larian offered them a job on a Divinity spin-off.

Ok. Nice guitar at least…Perhaps for the better that they gave up with that idea…
 
Joined
Jun 19, 2020
Messages
1,100
Location
Norway
Ok. Nice guitar at least…Perhaps for the better that they gave up with that idea…
I'm guessing you didn't play Dragon Commander? It was almost the same but with different combat. Anyway if you love the Expedition games you would have enjoyed it.
 
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Messages
36,181
Location
Spudlandia
I'm guessing you didn't play Dragon Commander? It was almost the same but with different combat. Anyway if you love the Expedition games you would have enjoyed it.

No, I didn't. Don't see how that would be similar to the Expedition games, though. Looks more similar to Total War Warhammer and such.
 
Joined
Jun 19, 2020
Messages
1,100
Location
Norway
No, I didn't. Don't see how that would be similar to the Expedition games, though. Looks more similar to Total War Warhammer and such.
The premise of Fallen Heroes was you had a ship as your headquarters like in Dragon Commander. The combat instead of RTS was similar to Original Sin instead.

It had potential but Larian pulled the plug with no reason given.:(

As for Dragon Commander it was a blend of different genres and nothing like the Total War games. Larian combined all of the elements of Command and Conquer with an RPG.

 
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Messages
36,181
Location
Spudlandia
Today's live stream

There was a live stream on Twitch today, about the playstyle variety. Quite informative, mostly commented gameplay.

They will stream every other week from now on, next one is the 17th with the music composer and they plan to do an "awesome announcement" during that stream. They also mentioned that they may be close to revealing the release date.
 
Joined
Aug 29, 2020
Messages
10,159
Location
Good old Europe
Back
Top Bottom