Retaliation Path of Rome
Retaliation Path of Rome is a very complex game, with several unique features
MISSIONS
About 100 different missions, with either single or multiple objectives, like:
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reach a population target (a minimum number of patricians and/or plebs)
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reach a target happyness
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earn a certain amount of money
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complete the mission in a given time
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win a certain number of battles
5 difficulty levels, from very easy to very hard: with different world resources, starting money, initial reputation…
Every mission is created parametrically to offer an ever changing challenge, each time a mission is re-played.
STRUCTURES
The player has the possibility to build more than 50 structures to complete the missions. Some example structures:
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Slaves' quarters
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Plebs' houses
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Patrician villas
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Wheat field
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Olive grove
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Vineyard
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Farm
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Fishing house
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Market
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Stables
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Workshop
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Dirt road
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Paved street
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Archers' barracks
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Ballistaari' barracks
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Equites' barracks
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Legionary barracks
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Velites' barracks
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Defence tower
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Signaling tower
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Watch tower
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Wooden wall
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Wooden gate
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Stone wall
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Stone gate
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Forum
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Theatre
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Amphitheatre (arena)
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Gladiator ludus
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Stadium (chariot races)
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Gardens
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Groves
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Fountain
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Well
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Butcher
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Olive maker
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Wine maker
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Lumber mill
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Clay pit
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Iron mine
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Stone quarry
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Marble quarry
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Gold mine
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Potter workshop
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Blacksmith
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Academy
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Library
..
Each structure needs specific resources in order to be built.
And of course each structure has different function and features, and some structures have to be properly positioned in order to yield the desired result: for wine production it is necessary to create both vineyard (to get the grapes) and a winemaker (to get the wine).
CITY AI
In each city there will be some AI controlled competitors: other patricians whose goal is to increase their riches and extend their influence. They will be vying with the player, acquiring resources and building structures, trying to get to the best spots before the player.
The competitors appear in advanced levels, and each has a different strategy: some concentrate in the real estate market, others in trade or in resource production.
DESIRABILITY
When new structures get built, these can differ in desirability. Usually this depends on what is present (or built) around them. For example a patrician villa has higher desirability (and hence higher market value) if nearby there are gardens, fountains, other villas, theatres.. It instead loses value if nearby there are stables, farms, wheat fields… Residents will at first go to dwell or work in the structures with higher desirability, avoiding those of little value.
For production structures, for example a wheat field, the value depends on the amount of the produced resource is available in the nearby city and in the global market. If the market needs grains, the value of the field will rise. Conversely, the field would become less desirable and its value decrease.
DAMAGE
In time, structures deteriorate. Every week mainteance works are done to keep them operative and pleasant. If there are not enough money for the basic upkeep or if extraordinary work is needed, the player will need to acquire the necessary funds and repair it as soon as possible (or see its profitability vanish and possibly even arrive to the point when the whole structure eventually collapses).
CITY BUILDING
The city management part of the game depends chiefly on money, people’s satisfaction and resources available.
Dealing with these three amounts, the player needs to complete the missions.
Careful and efficient exploitation of the resources allows to save money and gain with the trade. A wheat field created in a fertile area will yield much more and hence cover its operation costs and bring profit.
It is best to plan the city growth in order to efficiently exploit the resources and reduce the expenses. It is important that cities be self-sufficient: for example a global event like a drought could push prices of imported goods to very high levels.
It is also fundamental to avoid discontent in the populace. If discontent is too high there could be revolts that would seriously compromise the possibility to successfully complete a given mission.
HAPPYNESS
To be happy, people needs to have their basic needs satisfied: food, dwelling, work, water, protection from enemies.
Increasing the people’s life conditions will also generate new needs. In particular the patricians will start to require luxury goods (good wine, gold, silk, refined pottery, statues…).
Entertainment is another fundamental need: populous cities will require stadiums and arenas (and famous people competing inside those structures..)
When happyness is low, the city structures become less productive and hence less profitable.
WORKERS
All structures need a certain amount of workers or worktime, even for the simple upkeep/maintenance.
All productive structures are tightly bound to the number of workers available in the city: with not enough available workers the production would decrease or even become null. Structures with the highest desirability will be the first ones to attract the workers, leaving the others without.
Different structures will require different amounts and different type of workers. For some jobs only slaves will be requested. Plebs are needed for crafts and trade.
Unemployment will cause collapse of happyness and increased risk of revolts.
PATRICIANS / PLEBS / SLAVES
Patricians are the wealthiest citizens, they have expensive needs and cannot accept to see their needs not satisfied. Their weight over city happyness is very relevant.
They also expect to be given high prestige jobs: army generals, high clerics, administrators, politicians, proprietors.
Plebs are mostly involved in crafts and trade. They are fundamental for the management of the city but they don’t have much political weight.
Their class gives the major turnout in tax income.
Slaves are the major work force. Satisfying their primary needs (food, lodging, water) is important as they deal with the production and resource gathering of the city. Correct management of the slaves is fundamental to make the city desirable to the other classes.
RESOURCES:
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Gold
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Wood
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Stone
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Marble
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Iron
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Clay
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Wheat
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Meat
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Fish
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Grape
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Olive
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Wine
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Oil
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Pottery
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Jewelry
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Leather
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Cloth
These are the resources that can be traded, produced or transformed.
TRADE
To evolve the city it is mandatory to correctly manage the trade of all goods: selling the city production to obtain the resources needed for the evolution and improvement of the city.
Prices of resources are managed at two distinct levels: local and global.
Locally: they depend on the city demand and the amount of that type of good that has been bought or sold (selling a lot of wheat will make its price decrease).
Globally: the entire nation’s demand is evaluated and several other factors also influence the price (e.g. events like plagues, droughts, wars..). For example the global price of wheat could be much higher than the local one because of scarcity due to droughts in several areas of the nation.
So if there is a global crisis, even if your city sells a lot of wheat, its price could still be increasing instead of decreasing. But when the trend changes (for example the drought ends) its price could suddenly crash.
AUTOMATIC TRADE
To simplify the game and avoid micromanagement, it is possible to automate trade setting some “limit orders”.
E.g. “buy if there is less than .. %”
The automatic system won’t consider the price, but the quantity set as requirement.
STRUCTURES' MARKET
In Path of Rome it is possible to buy or sell the structures (with the exclusion of those like walls, streets, barracks) according to its market value.
Once the building of a structure is complete, the player has the possibility of selling it, to the value defined by its desirability and the kind of resources it produces.
Selling a structure gives an immediate income, but could be disadvantageous in the long term:
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no money will be collected for rent of properties or sale of production
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resources produced by sold structures will not be managed by the player
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and hence those resources won’t be available to build other structures
Nevertheless a good sale would still benefit because of immediate cash flow…
DANGER AND ENTRENCH
Every structure you build makes your city more appealing to enemies who could invade or pillage it, according to the kind of structure: a patrician villa, a thriving market or a golden mine would increase the risk of enemy incursion much more than a new wheat field or a stone quarry.
To compensate, it is better to spend some money and time on defending the city, creating walls, towers and military units.
Defensive structure will also contribute to raise the desirability and hence the values of the other structures of the cities, whose occupants will feel safer.
All choices in the game are two pronged, bringing both advantages and problems.
For example, continuing on the topic of city defense: if there are few or no defensive structures, there will be many enemy incursions, but very light (small bands of brigands mostly).
Conversely, excellent defensive structures won’t guarantee that the city becomes untouchable, will deter and block small offensives but will attract the organized war sieges of big enemy armies: a city so well defended MUST be rich and full of bounty!
BATTLES
Retaliation Path of Rome is a hybrid RTS/TBS, a combination which makes the game very tactical. You’ll need to plan how to move the troops, how to arrange them and expecially what kind of army units to train. Different movement ability (velites, with barely no armour, are much faster than full armoured princeps) and different attack types and attack speeds make unit types (and how you’ll use them in battle) very different.
Each battle is managed by a parametric AI system with almost endless combinations and possible states and developments.
COHORTS
Units are arranged in groups, which are commanded by officers, controlling the movement and formation of the groups.
Each group can have a different formation: for example you’ll probably be depolying the archers in a long line (or in two/three lines), rather than massed as a square.
The commanding officer will also decide the state for the group: defensive, aggressive, berserk…
Continuously changing the state, formation, movement or attack orders of a group when the battle is already started may seed confusion on some members of the group, which may then fail to follow some of the orders and in the worst cases a total confusion could even provoke the disbandment of the group.
GENERALS
The army general will give commands to the officers and these will command the groups under their command.
The closer a general is to a certain group, the faster the issued orders will be received and carried out correctly. If the general is far away, the group for which the order is meant will react more slowly to the new commands.
If your general dies during the battle you can still command the army, but in a much slower and less coordinated way, with a high risk of confusion and messy coordination. Furthermore, the loss of the general will take a huge toll on the army’s morale, and could cause the whole army to flee the battlefield.
COHORTS AI vs SINGLES AI
Control AI will be managing separately groups and single soldiers.
Each group is treated as a single autonomous entity and orders given to the group will take priority over orders and states of the single soldiers. Nevertheless if the group disbands, its officer dies or the army general dies, then single soldiers will not be bound by group cohesion and will follow a behaviour dictated by their last orders, mediated by their own particular demeanor, state and parameters (called " stats").
SOLDIERS
Each soldier has more than 20 “stats”, parameters defining the single unit, similarly to many RPGs (like strength, intelligence, agility, accuracy, movement speed, orientation ability, luck, tactical acumen, battle experience… ).
Every cohort will include units with very different characteristics, which will affect their performance on the battlefield.
For example: a very strong archer will shoot very fast and very far, possibly inflicting more damage when hitting… but the same archer could have a very bad aim and rarely hit the intended target.
Unit types:
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General
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Legionary (heavy infantry)
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Velities (light infantry)
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Ballistarii (siege and field artillery operators)
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Sagittarii (archers)
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Equites (cavalry)
TRAINING
All cohorts can undergo specific and additional training (up to 5 levels) to become more efficient and to improve the stats of the individual members of the cohort.
Training will improve things like speed of execution of orders, combat ability, manouvering, aim… but no amnount of training, obviously, will affect such things as individual soldiers' intelligence or natural agility.
NIMBY Rails
For a game that is only £13.49, you can’t argue with the amount of packed content for price. After paying this fee, I expected the game to be sluggish, boring, and lacking of content (bought as I was bored looking for a new game) but boy was I wrong… 933 hours play time, 56,388km (35,037 miles) of track laid, 102 lines created, 358 trains purchased later, I was able to create approximately 85-90% of the entire UK rail network, and I’m still building it 6 months later!! It has simply been an IMMENSE project that has completely submerged me with my free time.
– Real player with 1075.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Building Transportation Games.
This is a game for a very specific audience. In the real world, I’m a transportation planner, and I’m that audience.
It’s simple and so complex. Lines on a map. These are train lines. But it uses a real world map and if you know anything about building infrastructure, then you know you can’t just point a train line from point A to point B and call it a day. (Actually you can, in tunnels, but that gets very expensive! If you don’t start with sandbox mode, you’re not building any subways from the start.) Surface lines have to be bridged over streets (game does that automatically) and viaducted over large bodies of water.
– Real player with 549.9 hrs in game
Persian Empire Builder
Persian Empire Builder is an economic strategy game focused around building and managing ancient cities in an empire that stretched from Balkans to the Indus Valley. As a ruler of these lands player will face a variety of tasks and challenges.
Claim the land and shape your empire in every detail, from smallest houses to largest works, plantations and military buildings. Construct it’s vital infrastructure such as roads, bridges, fortifications and qanats (persian aqueducts). Make sure you choose optimal location for
each link in the chain of your growing economy.
Mind the amount of resources and secure growth of your population. A properly managed empire never runs out of crops, gold or hands willing to work. Society living under your rule consists of people with their problems and aspirations. Provide them with opportunities of education and trade and settle their disputes to avoid internal unrest.
Once your city prospers you will need more land for your growing society and economy.
Build your army and fleet to conquer both land and sea providing your people with safety
and welfare. Hostile eyes will sooner or later grow jealous of your riches.
Read More: Best Building Economy Games.
SecretMission_ProduceForPresident
Background Story :
Race for President is comming !
In 2020 , There are two candidate ， one for pence , one for new .
And you’re just the head of a new souvenir factory ， all this has nothing business with you .
One day , a man in black find you , and give you a secrect missison :
“You must help the current President pence , do anything you factory can do !”
Then the man who called The Director disappear .
“OK ,let’s see what I can do .”
You start check order , market and production , and start you secret mission .
Game Goal :
1.Make sure you factory survive .
2.Help the current President pence sucess.
How to play :
1.Build your production line ,and select production to produce .
2.Check the market and buy resouces or sign a order .
3.Check the polls view ,and influence the rate of support in secret .
Tips :
–You can upgrade your technology to help your factory .
–The more expensive the production, the more impressive it will be .
Citystate
First off, I must say I love this game. It seems I have already put 30 hours into it.
Graphics.
While many complain of the “Old school” graphics, I happen to like them. While yes, they are not the ultra-high definition 3D graphics like in other new city builders, It is still very good. The architecture is detailed and modern. It is different and original, which I like very much. Plus, the graphics don’t make my computer crash like other city builders.
Gameplay.
The gameplay is relativaly easy and simple. It may be a bit confusing at first without a tutorial, however, I recommend viewing one of the many gameplay videos on youtube. Many reviewers complained it had “No point” and was boring, but I disagree. In their logic, what is the point of playing simcity 4? or cities XL? They too don’t have a “story mode” or missions. Since there is no in-game goals or tasks, you do have to set your own goals. I find that great, as I aim to build a rich city, or aim to have a socialist city without going broke, or try to make a farming city. And remember, this game is a political sandbox to try out several political and economic models, not an adventure game. Set your own goals, and you are good to go.
– Real player with 222.8 hrs in game
Citystate may be the only city builder sim I can think of where you can politically influence your city and eventually go into space, but it’s difficult to recommend the game given all the bugs, performance issues and barebones design choices present.
First of all, the game was plagued with some rather serious bugs that came with the 1.2.3 update. Though many of these have been patched out, some such as the “NaN” resources bug which occurred on space colonies require you to completely reset your region and start from scratch to fix them. Another one that screwed one of my playthroughs was where I managed to click a policy multiple times in the middle of a lag spike and ended up applying its effects seven times over. I know it applied multiple times because I lost around 70% stability as a result of this and since then my city’s environmental score has plummeted to 0 regardless of what political changes I made in future.
– Real player with 118.7 hrs in game
Citystate II
Don’t buy.
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Unfinished game
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Bugs
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The “realistic economics” in this game leaves a lot to be desired and calling it realistic is laughable.
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The dev has been MIA since early October (within weeks of release).
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Developer is either a huckster or lacks any sense of professionalism.
The misrepresentation that you are buying a finished game on the store page and the fact that the developer just disappeared makes me feel as if I’ve been had. The excuse on discord by some person who is not the dev is that he has a family and he takes long breaks. Make of that what you will, but I will not buy another product from this developer.
– Real player with 65.1 hrs in game
You simply can’t play more extreme ideologies anymore (Left & Right) which Is kinda where alot of the fun came from. Everything needs to be balanced. It’s okay but at some point you’ll run into bugs that remove zones not just buildings and tank everything. Tbh it gets boring after it happens a few times. Oh and after many hrs my political leaning instantly went from 47-53 to 100-0 to the left which sent everyone into a riot and the whole city was destroyed. That right there is a game breaking bug. I’d honestly say buy the first one. I’m not hating btw, I actually really wanted to like it.
– Real player with 25.3 hrs in game
Ruinarch
A fun game that is definitely in early access.
Edited: 7/30/2021. The game has been significantly changed since I posted my first review, and its' unfortunately not all for the better.
The Good:
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Villagers have been overhauled significantly, and their interactions with each other and the world are much more interesting. They earn money to buy resources, have more robust individual trades, craft items, and all sorts of other fun stuff.
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The way monsters are used has been vastly improved. Rather than just spawning them next to a villager and letting them have at it, they are formed into parties, led by one of your demons, to accomplish a specific purpose. Marauder parties from the marauder building break stuff and attack villagers to sow chaos, snatching parties kidnap villagers or monsters for imprisonment, and defense parties protect your base full-time. It’s a bit monotonous to reform the parties repeatedly if you make heavy use of them, but this alone has made Ravager a lot more fun.
– Real player with 36.0 hrs in game
UPDATE: hot damn, that’s one hell of an update. 10/10 guys, very cool.
At first, I thought this was the “Devil Simulator” I’ve always wanted. But the longer I played, the more frustrated I became with this game. I’ll start with the Good things, follow up with the Bad, and leave you with my suggestions for improvement.
The Good
-The AI is tremendously well made, just as advertised. Each NPC has different traits, different relationships with other NPC’s, and adjusts it’s behavior over time as it interacts with the other NPC’s. The level of care and attention that went into this facet of the game is dumbfounding, considering this is, at it’s core, “God Simulator meets Sim City”. As an example, if you turn enough villagers into vampires or cultists, they can split off and form their own societies.
– Real player with 23.7 hrs in game
Megacity Builder
like the older city building games but with a national twist. incorporates multiple little cities to run a country. can really get lost in the constructing and managing
– Real player with 42.3 hrs in game
Fantastic game! If you like lite sims, then this is your game.
It’s got a very detail orientated design for a game as lite as it is, its mechanics are nuanced and unique.
I strongly advise this game to anybody who is a fan of unique sims.
It has a bit of a learning curve, but never fear, its worth it!
– Real player with 18.7 hrs in game
Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic
Given 9,221 hours with W&R:SR, it seems I like this game. Right now, I’m enjoying the 1908 early start and the steam-powered vehicles from the mods. I recommend the game.
– Real player with 9682.1 hrs in game
After almost 1000h in game, I can say it’s undisputed champion among city builders. And it’s still EA.
Currently, the main drawbacks, especially in comparison to competition:
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lack of comprehensive tutorial or training missions to explain game mechanics in painless way - beginners need to browse forum or ask its users for help
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some bugs,
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graphics are rather inferior, comparing to CS - it’s not really a game to make beautiful screenshots,
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certain mechanics could be reworked.
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probably game will need more optimalisation before you’ll be able to build 100k citizen metropoly
– Real player with 970.8 hrs in game
News Tycoon
The concept is good but the game does not go deep enough. Workers do not take breaks and the day never ends. The sky changes and worker attribute drop over time, but there is no recovery or rest. Either there are not enough random populated stories or the posting of them have a random relevance ratio that doesn’t work. Settings for the worker to make selections of stories do not always work and workers continue to make the same mistakes regardless of their level. Without any constant personal attributes or recovery / rest periods each day, no real sense can be made about their performance. The workspaces do not seem to have any real benefit either. What is comfort suppose to do for a worker? I could go on but the list is far to long. This is suppose to be a newspaper, but this game only deals with recording and producing it. Where are the people these stories are about and who are the people developing them? There are writers, photographers, proofreaders, copy, and editors, not to mention all the other things in the paper like cartoons, ads, and classifieds. The revenue stream from a paper is quite complex and even without the other media streams that are not within the game, a newspaper is a rich project to make a game the subject of to start. Get to work or dump the project.
– Real player with 32.8 hrs in game
I got News Tycoon some time ago, I don’t remember when. Probably when I purchased kingdoms. Finally started playing it cause I was bored the other day. This game has my recommendation only because I was looking for a game that wasnt very involved and would allow me to multitask. This game fits that bill perfectly. If you are looking for a heavily involved tycoon game that isnt roller coaster tycoon or planet coaster, this game will bore you in minutes.
Lets start with the good side of this game. It has a simple UI, a strong start in gameplay, and has just enough customization to make the company you start feel like its yours. Further more, you can feel youre company grow as the game progresses. further more you can customize how your paper looks choosing through a fair amount of templates. Some of these templates feel relatable and realistic which gives a nice immersive feeling.
– Real player with 12.5 hrs in game