By PF2K on Jun 8, 2019 at 8:00 AM
  1. PF2K

    PF2K Lead Developer
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    Header_-_Week_3.png
    Hello there Celeste players! We are back with another Roman reveal blog.

    As we develop the Romans, each week we will be revealing the Romans to you building by building, unit by unit, and technology by technology. We are not just showing you what the Romans will be, but showing you how we are building them, who is building them, and also why we are building them the way that we are.

    This week we are not only revealing our first military building, which is called the Castellum, but we are also introducing one of the Romans’ most important units: the Legionary.

    If you would like to start with our first post on Houses, you can find it HERE.

    Castellum
    =========
    Though the Castellum appears in the Romans trailer, we have not yet explained it. As many of you deduced from its architecture, the Castellum is the Roman Barracks. It also serves as AoEO’s first special Barracks.

    As discussed in more detail in our Building Design blog, the Barracks is one of the 13 Common Buildings that every civilization in Age of Empires Online has by default and that always appear in a specific age. In almost all cases, every Common Building in every civ is identical. However, there are two exceptions, Improved Buildings and Advanced Buildings.

    The Castellum, however, stands out as the game’s only Advanced version of the Barracks.

    As an Advanced Building, the Roman Castellum still appears on schedule in Age 1, but it is simply much better than a regular Barracks. (Similar to how the Norse Outpost (trains units) is better than a Watch Post and how the Norse Longhouse (larger, garrisons villagers) is better than a House.) Here is how the Castellum appears in Age 1:

    In_Blog_Picture_Base_-_Week_3_-_Castellum_Closeup.png

    In_Blog_Picture_Base_-_Week_3_-_Concept_to_Creation.png

    The Roman Castellum is better than a regular Barracks because in Age 3, you can research the Praesidium technology that turns the Castellum into a mini-Fortress that has significantly more health than a regular Barracks and can attack enemy units as long as there are villagers garrisoned inside. Though we have not yet begun balancing the Civ, we expect that the DPS of the arrow fire will increase with every villager garrisoned.

    This mechanic is like that of the Babylonian Siege Tower. (In fact, we are fairly certain that the Developers imported this idea from their Roman design and planted it into the Babylonians. However, we found the Castellum to be such an important part of the Roman civ and the mechanic to be different enough when used in a rolling siege weapon that we chose to look the other way and use it here, too.)

    Here is how the Castellum appears after the Praesidium upgrade in Age 3:

    In_Blog_Picture_Base_-_Week_3_-_Praesidium.png

    Rome will have its share of brand new units and technologies, and the Castellum is a brand new Building and serves an important role in giving Rome its unique feel.

    Here is how the Castellum looks next to other civilizations' Barracks:
    In_Blog_Picture_Base_-_Week_3_-_Bacrracks_Lineup.png

    We will be saying even more about the Castellum as we reveal other details about other Buildings and Units in the weeks ahead. But for now, we want to introduce you to one of our favorite units in the entire civ, which happens to also train at the Castellum: the Legionary.
    Legionary
    =========

    In_Blog_Picture_Base_-_Week_3_-_Legionary_Closeup_2.png
    Just as they were throughout history, our Legionary is the backbone of the Roman army. However, we did not find a lot of specific information from the original civ design about how the unit would perform and where it would fit into the entire Civ. So we had to make some major design decisions.

    We plan to discuss our approach to designing units in a future blog post, but briefly, we knew that the Legionary needed to be available in Age 2 and make a large impact in the civ's strategy while not feeling like a clone of the other major infantry units in the game. And there are a lot of major infantry units already in the game, such as the Hoplite, Immortal, Long Swordsman, Woad Raider, Champion, Royal Guard, and Berserker. So our Legionary needs to be powerful and super cool to use, but in a historically accurate way that does not dull the impact of existing units in other Civs. And it needs to be available in Age 2 since it is the backbone of the Roman army.
    In_Blog_Picture_Base_-_Week_3_-_Legionary_Closeup_3.png
    So they need a hook. For instance, as historic Legionaries would throw a javelin (called a pilum) before rushing in with their swords drawn, we tossed around the idea of giving the Legionary a javelin ranged attack to complement its melee. But that felt too much like the Immortal. And as we need the Legionary available in Age 2, it would be irresponsible to turn this unit into a stronger, more easily available Immortal.

    Meanwhile, though we need the Legionary to be available immediately in Age 2, we sought for it to remain viable through Age 4.
    In_Blog_Picture_Base_-_Week_3_-_Legionary_Closeup_1.png

    To achieve this, the Legionary will stand out by being the only Age 2 unit in the game that has an upgrade both in Ages 3 and 4 (and also as it trains out of a mini-Fortress that fights back). This means that after you research Legionary Champion in Age 3, there will be another upgrade available for Legionaries in Age 4, called Bellum Romanum, which turns Legionary Champions into Legionary Elite, who are more mobile than regular Legionaries and have a Charge attack.

    (Side note: While the Romans often followed some chivalry-like rules of warfare, when they declared Bellum Romanum, the gloves were off and mistreatment of captives, torture, and violence to noncombatants were on the table. Bellum Romanum was the term the Romans used to describe "all-out war without restraint as they practiced against groups they considered to be barbarians." Bellum Romanum was inhumane treatment of those the Romans considered to be sub-human.)

    At a broader level, in a game that already features several Infantry-focused civs, we need the Romans to have great Infantry without feeling like just another Celt or Norse. We will discuss more answers to that question later. But rest assured, just because the Legionary will stand out does not mean that you will be mindlessly spamming them. The Roman army has many, many more useful units in its roster which you will see in time as we reveal them to you one by one in our weekly blogs.

    To quickly summarize what has been revealed so far in our blogs, here's a picture of a small Roman town that has all the revealed pieces in it:
    In_Blog_Picture_Base_-_Week_3_-_Reveals_Lineup.png
    In_Blog_Picture_Base_-_Week_3_-_Reveals_Lineup_2.png

    Thank you for reading, and we will see you all next week!

    Project Celeste Development Team

    What do you think about Roman Castellums and Legionaries? What would you like to see next? Let us know in the comments below!

    ========
    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.

    Read every Romans related blog HERE.

    Tell your friends! Join our Discord HERE.
    ========​
     
    #1 PF2K, Jun 8, 2019 at 8:00 AM
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2019
    DraCConiaN, Robcore, zenorhk and 19 others like this.
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What do you want to see on the next blog? The top 2 picks will be chosen for next week!

  1. Age 1 Town Center

    19 vote(s)
    48.7%
  2. Age 2 Town Center

    9 vote(s)
    23.1%
  3. Watch Post

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  4. Market

    17 vote(s)
    43.6%
  5. Other (Mention in the comments section)

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Comments

Discussion in 'Romans' started by PF2K, Jun 8, 2019.

    1. Ardeshir

      Ardeshir Immortal

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      Chief/aura units was taken from Roman and given to Norse by MS/GPG. Of course, the CP team could look at a different buff (damage, attack speed, movement speed, armour, instead of health) on a different unit (cavalry, ranged, both instead of infantry melee) and at a different tech stage, but then if 2 civs utilize the mechanic of hero units with varied stat buffs and playstyle, shouldn't they all?

      Maybe having a unit get a buff/debuff for being massed/used in small numbers could be another new unit feature? Haven't seen it be used much other than for Chinese military units in Command and Conquer Generals.

      Again, more building tech like aid tent or something new like mobility boosting auras (maybe Roman outposts get a unique movement speed, or attack speed aura?) would be cool too, but bearing in mind it has to feel both unique and balanced.
       
    2. TheSpaniard

      TheSpaniard Berserker

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      I like turtles.
       
      Andy P XIII likes this.
    3. Robcore

      Robcore Spearman

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      Ok I could not read all replies but I want to post the following:

      Please for gods sake the romans did not use leather armor! 3 types of armor you can do:
      Squamata = Many Small Scales wired on leather or linen. (The usage of this one is probably the same as the Segmentata throughout all roman time period)
      Segmentata = Segmental Plates put together in an overlapping manner (The most iconic one, tho it is not the most used one. Also this one is just coming in in the 1st century and dispearing already in the end of the 2nd century.)
      Chain Mail = Many Small Rings just put together like a puzzle (This was way more used over all time periods starting from 300b.c. till the end of the middle ages)

      I personnally would go for the segmentata as it is the most known example of a roman legionary that most people know of. (This is just so common cause of movies and similiar)
      Chain Mail and Scale Mail you could use for auxiliaries at least.

      Breastplates for commander Units or Centurio Unit.

      I am not sure about the helmet, I cant see it good enough on those pictures. But It does not realy look roman, more like a reused asset from the npc at cyprus arena.


      Another suggestion would be to the Age 2-4 controversy to make the following:
      Do not make Age 2-4 upgrades at all. Rather make new Units by time period.
      So in Age 3 you get an upgrade for the legionary and age 4 you make a new unit which is a 3rd century legionary with a different skin and gear. But of course I can see that making one unit go through age 2-4 saves you a ton of modelling work. As modder I can understand that.

      But I am also sure that the players patiently await the romans even when they can not make it this year.

      I think the old devs did a great job and I am glad you want to keep on their route with the romans. Just dont keep on that route for stupid decisions :)
      I think they provided as awesome unique civilisations and you improved the balance even more so I dont see what this Gaia guy wants from you. You will do it nicely and thoughtful. Even if not, you will fix it in future updates.

      Keep going guys, just dont try to overdo the romans. If you do too much it does turn out bad as well XD. I know that myself from live, modding, making music and whatever else haha.
       
    4. Kulcsos12

      Kulcsos12 Hippikon

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      Agree. New Age 4 unit in Castellum should be a Centurion which buff the other Castellum units like the norse Cheif. Grants more pierce armor for Legionaries, more range for Veles and more damage for Spearmen.
       
    5. Andy P XIII

      Andy P XIII Moderator
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      We haven’t done our unit analysis blog yet, but turning one infantry unit into three would wreak havoc on the tech tree. AoEO civs have around 14-18 military units, of which perhaps 3-5 are infantry. If we dedicated 3 of those spots to just the Legionary, we would have to sacrifice two other units from the tech tree. We’ve only revealed two military units so far. I think everyone will enjoy how we answered some of these questions.
       
    6. Robcore

      Robcore Spearman

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      I see. Lets wait patiently then and see what you reveal soon :)

      But please consider my armor part at least. Helmet is a deal tho but not as big as the armor maybe.
       
    7. mandakafa

      mandakafa Long Swordsman

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      will it be turtle formation as well ..?
       
    8. Andy P XIII

      Andy P XIII Moderator
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      Even if we wanted to make the Romans the only civ with formations, we presently are not able to add that feature to the game.
       
    9. mandakafa

      mandakafa Long Swordsman

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      I guess it's not possible with the current code structure... Legions without testudo form will be a little bit sad. you still do an excellent job in any case . thank you...
       
    10. PavlikBene

      PavlikBene Villager

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      Awesome work with the legionnaires, however I believe that would be much better to preserve "champions" naming habit for fully upgraded units rather than adding the "elite status".
      Something like "Early Legionnaire" > "Legionnaire" > "Legionnaire Champion" would be much more suiting for the entire army logic of AoEO
       
    11. Kulcsos12

      Kulcsos12 Hippikon

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      Then Legionary -> Legionary Veteran -> Legionary Champion would be the perfect choice.
       
      Ardeshir and PavlikBene like this.
    12. mandakafa

      mandakafa Long Swordsman

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      and also.. gladiators from the structure colosseum maybe.. even a spartacus campain .. it would be great ...
       
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