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As we develop the Romans, we are showing you how we are building them, who is building them, and also why we are building them the way that we are. Though we have finally revealed every Roman Unit, Building, and Technology, we are continuing to present all of their miscellaneous extra features as we design them.

Recently, we have been firmly entrenched in that late-stage of development where the civ feels almost totally finished but yet we are struggling under the weight of a near endless punchlist of details. That fidgeting feeling of constant tinkering and polishing.

While it often feels like we are going around in circles, we are also slowly spiraling our way upwards. This week, our 3d team has been polishing and ironing out bugs in a number of units. The Clinicus had a major bug that is now fixed. We are also excited to show off the Romans' improved Ram and Scorpio, alongside the Onager and the Palintonon. Check out the full roster of Roman Siege Units below:

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As a quick reminder, here's an overview of Roman Siege Units and the Buildings from which they are trained:

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This week we also turned a corner on the Roman Campaign and can share some more details with you. As we have mentioned, we are intentionally designing the Roman Campaign to look and feel similarly to that of the other three full civs, the Greeks, Egyptians, and Celts.

Therefore, the Roman campaign will be a collection of seven different types of Quests, each of which will be accessed by various Quest Givers stationed in your Roman Capital City and two Roman-specific regions. Because of the various Quests unlocked by various Quest Givers in various regions at various moments, the entire campaign will feel like a meandering network of Quests.

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This design can feel overwhelming, and while we intend to tighten it up a bit as compared to the others, we intend to keep the general feel for the sake of consistency in the game.

The heart of the campaign will be what we call the Main Quest Line. The Roman Main Quest Line is comprised of 27 Quests that unlock in sequential order. Their gameplay, Quest objectives, and Quest Giver narratives tell the story of early Rome from the founding of the Republic in 508 BCE through the Romans' emergence as a world power in 395 BCE by sacking the wealthy Etruscan stronghold of Veii.

We are pleased to report that we have completed blueprinting the entire Main Quest Line (thanks to Andy, who handles much of the history and storyboarding) and almost completely drafted each of the 27 Quests (thanks to PF2K, who has been a quest design machine over the last month, and @RecoN , who has helped with various Quests in the campaign, including a few that he's responsible for entirely). We still have some details to iron out such as rewards, Quest Giver Strings, and of course playtesting. But it is a huge relief to get these Quests onto paper and then into playable files.

(Andy's note: Special thanks to @Fristi61 , who is a scholar of the early Roman Republic and a frequent poster on the forum. He worked closely with me over the last few weeks to bounce ideas around about how to interpret a number of famous moments in Roman history into playable quests. It was a huge help to have another set of eyes on the history.)

Other than the Main Quest Line, the Roman Campaign will also feature about 15 Side Story Quests, 15 Challenge Quests, three Naval Quests, three Trade Quests, six Global Quests (5 of which will be repeatable), and at least three Travel Quests (which are those little Quests where you simply have to go and speak to a certain Quest Giver). We expect to land somewhere around 70 Quests total in the entire Campaign.

Of those, we have working drafts of 14 Side Story Quests, 9 Challenge Quests, and the 6 Global Quests. RecoN and PF2K will be working to make the remaining Quests while Andy will be writing all of the Quest Giver Strings. We plan to set the experience points such that the Romans can reach Level 20 just by completing the Main Quest Line and can reach about Level 23 or so by completing every single Quest in the Campaign.

This week, we want to highlight some of the higher level quests we have recently finished. Many of Quests feature Camillus, who was a legendary Roman soldier and is one of the three Roman hero units featured in the Quest Line. Like Horatius and Cinncinatus, Camillus is another early Roman war hero who gets overshadowed today by the Caesars and the Pompeys and the Sullas and the Augustuses of the Classical Roman era. But these heroes of the early Roman Republic are the true classic Romans -- they are who Caesar, Pompey, Sulla, and Augustus idolized. We expect to make a lot of Roman quests in the next few years, so it is only proper that we start with the early legends and go from there.

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The Etruscans had been a superpower in northern Italy for centuries, and the Roman victory over them marked the moment the Romans finally arrived on the world stage. Therefore, the Campaign ends following Camillus as he leads the Romans against the mighty Etruscans. At that point, you will have brought the Romans from being a lowly inland village in rural Italy to a budding world power poised to take on the greatest civilizations of all time.

Another notable Quest in the Main Campaign is "The Fools On The Hill", which features playing patrolling the streets of early-day Rome at night, suppressing a rising insurrection before it even starts. Cincinnatus will be present on this Quest, alongside his Centurion Lieutenants. If this Quest is played in co-op mode, then Player 2 will control a group of Decurions, and the Quest's difficulty settings will be scaled to adjust.

PF2K's Personal Note: I know how much you guys love Romans in red color, so I went ahead and got a picture of Roman Siege Units with Legendary Gear in red color too! Check it out here:

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We know you all are waiting patiently for the Romans, and we appreciate your continued support. Again, we have only so many hands, only so many hours, and a ton of projects in the air. We will be back with another blog as soon as we have more to share.

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Thank you so much for reading, and we will see you all next time!
Project Celeste Development Team

What do you think about this week's blog? What would you like to see next? Let us know in the comments below!

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Missed the Roman Civilization's announcement? Find out about it HERE.

Project Celeste is completely free and always will be. However, we gladly accept donations for our overhead costs, which are larger than we have budgeted. If you want to support us, you can do so HERE.

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