One of the questions we get most often is – “What about Empire Divided?” Well, here is our answer. After many years of working on the Grand Campaign time period and associated DLCs, we are now moving onto a new frontier – the Third Century! In the upcoming beta release this summer, we will have a very bare-bones overhaul for the Empire Divided DLC campaign for Divide et Impera. The goal of this initial overhaul is to make the campaign playable and have some of the units be at an acceptable spot. However, it will also lay the foundation for our future work on this campaign by building the framework from which we can hopefully conquer this monumental task up to our mod standards over the next few years. We also have some other exciting work going on for the beta, which includes work on other DLCs and the Grand Campaign. These will be announced as we get closer to the beta and will be added as the beta progresses over the summer.
Campaign Features
Cult System
A interesting addition in the Empire Divided campaign is the cult system and we want to expand on this concept. Some fundamental changes will be the addition of new cults and cult traits for characters. Also, historical cultural bonuses will make cults a more difficult thing to manage. Western Roman empires will focus primarily on the Imperial Cult, while Palmyra will receive its own culture. Cult buildings will be more prevalent to start and will not be removable. Please note the effects in this preview are WIP and very much subject to change.
Loyalty System
In order to represent the time of the Barracks Emperors and unrest among generals during this time period, we are adding a new Loyalty system for the Western Roman empires. First, loyalty will be harder but all political parties will have loyalty increased from victories for a short time. However, individual generals will have a trait that decreases loyalty as they progress. In this way, the player will have to balance winning overall battles with individual general loyalty.
Government Actions
Rather than have government types, Roman factions (and possibly the Sassanids) will have government actions. These are early WIP ideas.
Unit Overhauls
The long term plan for our Empire Divided overhaul will be to have all the major factions with redone units to fit the time period. However, since this is a monumental task that will take time, our first steps will be laying the foundation for this work. Our main goal in this beginning phase is to create custom unit entries for all the factions based on our existing units. Then, we will prioritize factions to overhaul as we go. The main focus will start with the Romans and Germans, but will eventually expand outward. Here are some very early WIP previews from CEMMEN!
