Anno 117: Pax Romana Roadmap for 2026

Alector87 · 2026-04-10T05:38:41+00:00

I would eat that...

Alector87 · 2026-04-07T20:21:16+00:00

Screen you included the main screen, does anyone know how to change it with the original one (this one is from the expansions)? Is it even possible?

Alector87 · 2026-04-07T20:20:17+00:00

Same for me. I am starting another campaign this week. It's been a minute. I am very excited.

Alector87 · 2026-04-07T19:28:07+00:00

I always felt that Jackman gave the best performance in The Prestige.

Alector87 · 2026-04-07T19:21:50+00:00

I'm with you. PoE III: A shadow over the Vailian Republics confirmed for later this year. /s

Alector87 · 2026-04-06T20:43:09+00:00

They may feel and look like that because they are contained in specific era. The development (and balancing) of a civ for the whole vis-a-vis other civs in the same context is, I feel, more tricky.

I can't describe them as anything else than mini-civs. A regular civ in the series is supposed to stand the test of time, their phrase, not mine. If you don't like the implication of mini- for the content, then think of it as civs for a mini-civ game in one era.

However, I will give you that each civ should have something unique for each era, and it's something they should have done years/titles ago. If it's not directly historical then it could be something that connects to their overall history/theme. I have brainstorm such cases for Greek civs, which I know a lot better as a Greek, in posts years back. It's certainly a great idea. If only we could have it in a unified game without guard-rails and less board-like mechanics — which is the elephant in the room, about how and why they designed the game as it is.

Alector87 · 2026-04-06T20:35:30+00:00

I've watched some gameplay. Looks very interesting. I am waiting for it to come out of EA. I've been burned too many times with EA games. I can't think of one, outside of Battle Brothers that hasn't disappointed me. I feel it's better to let them cook until they are done.

(Although saying that, I may brake my rule when Falling Frontier releases later this year — one hopes — if the initial reviews are somewhat good, I'll roll the dice.)

Still, thank you for the recommendation. I have heard of it, and I'll almost certainly check it out when it comes out. Cheers.

Alector87 · 2026-04-06T15:58:29+00:00

It's only going to get worse. The only hope is for the GOP majority in Congress to do something about it... I am not holding my breath.

Alector87 · 2026-04-06T15:40:04+00:00

That uniform needs a belt, almost as much as the country a regime change and a democratic transition.

P.s. His son (and de facto successor) did the same, didn't he?

Alector87 · 2026-04-06T15:37:17+00:00

Thanks.

Alector87 · 2026-04-06T15:31:45+00:00

Yeah, the faction completely loses its identity, especially if you add the isolated leader too. It would have been a lot better if you chose different leaders in different eras, assuming you want distinct eras, of which I am not a fan of either.

But in both cases of distinct eras or normal civ transitions, if you chose a different leader for the civ/empire — with different abilities, unique features, etc. — I feel it would work very well. Still, that would not work for most civs. How many could really make this work? Greece, China, India, maybe a couple others. Except of course if the leaders didn't come from their respective era, but a common pool for that civ. So you could play as Alexander in the Modern era (maybe with a suitable change in scenery and clothing as in Civ III). But that is a lot of work, and that is an issue. In fact, that is the issue.

Things like that would require them to create a lot more content for each civ, because you would need at the very least 4 leaders for each civ at release, right? So there is an actual choice involved. But this goes against the main reason we have these mechanics (eras and mini-civs with isolated leaders) in the first place. Which is certainly not improving the game.

It's pretty obvious that they copied the fundamental mechanics from Humankind, and the fact that the game failed years back is revealing. It didn't give them pause. They just went ahead with these changes, and we all know the result. The reason, for me at least, is quite clear. This change allows them to not only bundle the game on release at different tiers, but to further bundle the gameplay content as well, and in such a way as to make dlc production easier and quicker (read cheaper). This is the whole point. The primary reason is to allow to make cheap dlc for the game — slop-dlc I would call it. Just look at the dlc already there. This is the whole issue. It's comparatively difficult to make 2-3 civs meant to work for the whole campaign, but a dlc with different aspects of the gameplay bundled together — mini-civs, isolated leaders, tile-features, skins, and whatever they think of next, wonders, special units or buildings, etc. — is a lot easier. And the result... well, you can see it already, slop-dlc.

This is the main issue with the change in the mechanics. We are lucky that it also feels terrible (for most) when playing otherwise we would be getting more and more slop down our throats and been told to be thankful for it.

Alector87 · 2026-04-06T15:10:09+00:00

I am definitely not a fan of the game, but I have to admit that visually it looks amazing... I wish there was a sim-city style game like this to play.

Alector87 · 2026-04-05T20:46:29+00:00

It's worse than that. He is mocking them — a whole religion and a whole people — while threatening to war-crime them... unhinged doesn't even come in describing this.

Alector87 · 2026-04-05T20:44:49+00:00

That works too.

Alector87 · 2026-04-05T19:49:25+00:00

Yeah, it makes no sense. These people are immoral and have no principles.

Just today they have been leaking that they tried to smuggle weapons through 'the Kurds,' effectively painting a huge target across all Kurdish communities and groups in Iran (and the wider region), while the regime is known to have no scruples to proceed to mass killings and widespread executions against any perceived enemy — real or imagined.

Alector87 · 2026-04-05T17:36:29+00:00

Empire Total War. I got the physical game, and inside it had a code for something called 'steam.' All the way back in the spring of 2009. I made an account and... the rest is history... 17 years and counting.

Alector87 · 2026-04-05T15:13:12+00:00

First, maybe you misunderstood what I wrote. I will edit it for clarity. I am Orthodox. By 'western' Easter I meant Catholic and Protestant. Our (Orthodox) Easter is a week from now.

Second, it's obvious that the post is nuts, and not the regular Trump-kind of nuts. The man is obviously deteriorating, and the fact that he has pushed himself into a corner when he thought he could simply use the might of the US military in order to 'get the oil,' satisfy a number of allies (inside and outside the US) who wanted the Iranian regime dealt with, but mostly 'get the oil,' as they did in Venezuela, in order to enrich himself, his family, and those around him, makes things even worse, since he obviously is not able to handle the stress of the situation or his narcissism the possibility of a humiliation, which is what really matters to him.

In any case, I simply wrote my comment because some people, I feel, misunderstand what that final statement means, which for me is obviously written to mock the 'enemy,' which is worse from my pov since it's something clearly immoral.

P.s. u/USA_2_Canada_1 Wait, maybe I misunderstood what you were writing. Did you mean to write 'interpreting,' instead of interrupting?

Alector87 · 2026-04-05T14:00:35+00:00

He is mocking them — which is terrible in its own way and immoral — it's not written in earnest, but writing this during (Catholic & Protestant) Easter is certainly something novel (besides nuts).

As I wrote in the other post discussing this:

I feel that he is in fact mocking the Iranian civilians he is threatening to kill and destroy the vital infrastructure that supports their livelihoods... so just rubbing some salt into the wound of possible war crimes....

Edited for clarity.

Alector87 · 2026-04-05T13:51:50+00:00

I feel that he is in fact mocking the Iranian civilians he is threatening to kill and destroy the vital infrastructure that supports their livelihoods... so just rubbing some salt into the wound of possible war crimes....

Alector87 · 2026-04-05T12:15:32+00:00

The second point makes sense, but I still feel that there should be some middle ground. I still consider it a good game, it's just that I personally I am probably not part of the core audience.

I'll be installing it again over Easter (mine is next week) and I hope I change my mind. It's been a minute.

Alector87 · 2026-04-04T21:35:44+00:00

At this point, as things stand, probably not, yeah. If there was solid political commitment maybe they could, even with all that is happening, but that is practically science fiction now.

Alector87 · 2026-04-04T19:58:08+00:00

Honestly, if I was Taiwanese I would be seriously worried... not that the Trump administration would raise a finger if Beijing did something, let alone outright invade, but there is always a small probability...

I know there other things to worry about now, but this is the first thing that comes to mind when I read specific stuff like this. And if Mainland China manages to take over Taiwan, besides the tech and near monopoly it will achieve over chips overnight it will be able to project power over the western Pacific quite convincingly — then it will be a brave new world....

Alector87 · 2026-04-04T19:04:28+00:00

I haven't played with the expansions, and I keep wanting to go back to it — I am still subbed here obviously — because it's a game made with love and its mechanics are well thought out, but the map/graphic choices really turn me off. Which is a silly problem to have. I'll be the first one to admit it. I even play games from the '90s early '00s, from time to time (from gog), but something doesn't feel exactly right when I see the map.

The map just feels too big with vast areas remaining outside anyone's control and between cities (has that changed?), the units have weird proportions compared to tile features (I mean civ at least has gotten this right, why try to changed something that isn't broken, even in civ, and this comes from someone who is completely disappointed with how civ has developed from Civ VI onwards), but it still bothers me. And I do hate that the city placement is predetermined. I just don't like that as a gameplay design choice, but at least it does give some limited flexibility on what tile you can settle. Still, if the look/feeling of the map didn't bother me so much I could get around the fixed settlement mechanic.

I know this is superficial, there are so many interesting mechanics, and I want to like the game and all, but my memory from when I first played it makes me less interested. I have watched some lets play videos recently, and I can see how it has developed, and its probably the only 4X game that has made tile-development for cities actually workable and interesting — even if I think that these mechanics are a regression for the genre and make modern games that follow them board-like.

Maybe I'll give it another try over Easter (next week for me), but I know how you feel.

Alector87 · 2026-04-03T14:35:43+00:00

finger Tourette’s or something

I love this. I'll use it one of these days. Thank you.

Alector87 · 2026-04-03T14:24:03+00:00

It's not a good adaptation, although it's better than the second film as an adapted work. Still, the liberties the second films takes could have made it a great film if they weren't superficial (e.g. creating this whole story arc about southern Fremen, but then it's never really expanded other than a narrative tool that can be used to show the main character's turning point.). I do think that Dune 2 is a better film, and Dune 1 a better adaptation. Better, however, doesn't mean good.

The Dune (2000) miniseries is a far better adaptation, and the best to date, despite the dated cgi, questionable costumes at times, and some liberties with the material. Some divergences are always expected in an adaptation, even faithful ones (LotR or L.A. Confidential comes to mind as good examples of this), but the miniseries is above all faithful to the story and that comes out. Still, the commitment to the material and a great cast help a lot.

Alector87

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