Soren Johnson's Old World

Casworon

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The lead designer of Civ IV has announced his new 4x game with early access release before the summer.


Spoiler :
Old World is an epic, historical turn-based strategy game from Soren Johnson, Lead Designer of Civilization 4 and Offworld Trading Company. Set in the classical era, Old World gives players the chance to not just build an empire but to found the greatest dynasty of its age. The game has many innovative features that are worth describing in detail:

Orders

Orders are a resource used to issue commands across your nation. Instead of moving every unit every turn, as is traditional in 4X games, each unit can be moved as many times as desired, until the player runs out of Orders. There are many other ways to spend this resource: Combat, Construction, Events, Diplomacy, and so on.

Legitimacy

Each ruler must prove that they are worthy of the throne. As you accomplish Ambitions, finish Wonders, and gain renown (as “the Wise” or “the Avenger” or “the Peacemaker”), your Legitimacy increases, granting additional Orders each year and improving your standing with the people.

Succession

Every turn in Old World represents a year, and the rulers are mortals who won’t last forever. They will need to get married and produce an heir to continue their line. When a ruler dies, the heir who takes the throne chooses a new Ambition to make a new name for him/herself.

Events

Old World has a powerful and deep dynamic event system that generates a procedural story for your nation based on your decisions, your accomplishments, and your characters. The game has over 1,000 unique events, many of which are inspired by historical events from the period. These events give characters Memories, Traits, and Relationships, which can then trigger later events, so be careful what you choose.

Ambitions

Your dynasty achieves victory by fulfilling 10 Ambitions, each one more difficult than the last. These Ambitions are dynamically generated from the Events of your game and the desires of your characters. No two games will ever play out the same way, and the wise ruler will know when to change direction.

Politics

Each nation has four noble families who can be granted stewardship of your cities, with each one providing unique and powerful bonuses. You’ll want to balance how to distribute cities among your families carefully as those with too many will begin to think they deserve the throne while those with too few will grow envious of their rivals. Pleased families will keep their citizenry under control while angry ones will incite revolts.

Territories

Cities form cohesive blocks of territory, with an urban center and rural hinterlands. Each improvement occupies a single tile, including Wonders and urban buildings, such as Shrines, Amphitheaters, and Garrisons. This territory grows based on where the player constructs Improvements and trains Specialists on the map.

Resources

Resources in Old World, such as Food, Wood, Stone, and Iron, are stockpiled as they are produced, to be spent on units, improvements, Wonders, and so on. Borrowing some algorithms from Offworld Trading Company, a dynamic marketplace allows players to buy and sell the resources at any time, with the prices fluctuating based on supply-and-demand.

Technology

The technology tree borrows mechanics from card-building games to add variety and create interesting decisions. Each technology available to research is added to the player’s deck, and when it is time to choose the next technology to research, the player draws four cards, chooses one, and then discards the others, which will not reappear until the deck is reshuffled. Thus, choosing between two desirable technologies is a difficult decision as the player knows they will not see the card they just passed over for many more turns.

Old World is available for pre-purchase on the Epic Games Store and will launch as an Early Access title before Summer 2020


Looks super interesting. Like a mix between Ck2 and Civ where you have to develop both your civilization and your dynasty. One thing in particular which interested me is the 'orders' system in the description where you can only take a certain number of actions in your turn. Seems like an anti-snowball and sorta pro-tall mechanic, but i will have to wait to see how it works out before i make my mind up on it. I can imagine it either working really well or being extremely annoying.

It's an interesting time for Historical 4x. With Humankind on the horizon and evidence of more Civ content, and now also Old World.

Edit: added game description




 
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Let's then quote this description from the youtube video:

Spoiler :

Old World is an epic, historical turn-based strategy game from Soren Johnson, Lead Designer of Civilization 4 and Offworld Trading Company. Set in the classical era, Old World gives players the chance to not just build an empire but to found the greatest dynasty of its age. The game has many innovative features that are worth describing in detail:

Orders
Orders are a resource used to issue commands across your nation. Instead of moving every unit every turn, as is traditional in 4X games, each unit can be moved as many times as desired, until the player runs out of Orders. There are many other ways to spend this resource: Combat, Construction, Events, Diplomacy, and so on.

Legitimacy
Each ruler must prove that they are worthy of the throne. As you accomplish Ambitions, finish Wonders, and gain renown (as “the Wise” or “the Avenger” or “the Peacemaker”), your Legitimacy increases, granting additional Orders each year and improving your standing with the people.

Succession
Every turn in Old World represents a year, and the rulers are mortals who won’t last forever. They will need to get married and produce an heir to continue their line. When a ruler dies, the heir who takes the throne chooses a new Ambition to make a new name for him/herself.

Events
Old World has a powerful and deep dynamic event system that generates a procedural story for your nation based on your decisions, your accomplishments, and your characters. The game has over 1,000 unique events, many of which are inspired by historical events from the period. These events give characters Memories, Traits, and Relationships, which can then trigger later events, so be careful what you choose.

Ambitions
Your dynasty achieves victory by fulfilling 10 Ambitions, each one more difficult than the last. These Ambitions are dynamically generated from the Events of your game and the desires of your characters. No two games will ever play out the same way, and the wise ruler will know when to change direction.

Politics
Each nation has four noble families who can be granted stewardship of your cities, with each one providing unique and powerful bonuses. You’ll want to balance how to distribute cities among your families carefully as those with too many will begin to think they deserve the throne while those with too few will grow envious of their rivals. Pleased families will keep their citizenry under control while angry ones will incite revolts.

Territories
Cities form cohesive blocks of territory, with an urban center and rural hinterlands. Each improvement occupies a single tile, including Wonders and urban buildings, such as Shrines, Amphitheaters, and Garrisons. This territory grows based on where the player constructs Improvements and trains Specialists on the map.

Resources
Resources in Old World, such as Food, Wood, Stone, and Iron, are stockpiled as they are produced, to be spent on units, improvements, Wonders, and so on. Borrowing some algorithms from Offworld Trading Company, a dynamic marketplace allows players to buy and sell the resources at any time, with the prices fluctuating based on supply-and-demand.

Technology
The technology tree borrows mechanics from card-building games to add variety and create interesting decisions. Each technology available to research is added to the player’s deck, and when it is time to choose the next technology to research, the player draws four cards, chooses one, and then discards the others, which will not reappear until the deck is reshuffled. Thus, choosing between two desirable technologies is a difficult decision as the player knows they will not see the card they just passed over for many more turns.

Old World is available for pre-purchase on the Epic Games Store and will launch as an Early Access title before Summer 2020.



I like that they are trying to tell a story. Should make single games more memorable and take them longer to play. I fear that as an indie title, the lack of polish will irk me - I know it shouldn't. But I definitely want to give it a try.
 
I like the idea that people from Civ IV made this but they did that with Rise of Nations too.
Rise of Nations certainly did not stand the test of time like Civ or Age of Empires.
Looks Fun just like Humankind and many other games I own.
However, Civ has been King for a very long time and I always come back to it.
Civ is just too simple and complex at the same time.
After playing Civ for 20+ years it is just too familiar.
It always fills that one more turn need.
Even when I hate Civ and feel it is too easy or dumb I always come back to it.
I highly doubt this or any game will be able to compete with Civ.
They don't have an Old Word Fanatics website nor do they have one for Humankind.
I paid over 200 dollars for the complete EU Series but hardly ever play it.
 
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I'm in the beta for some time and I played some games so far. We are allowed to talk about the game, its content and mechanics, but we can't share any screenshots or videos. Feel free to ask if you'd like to know any details.
 
I like the idea that people from Civ IV made this but they did that with Rise of Nations too.
Rise of Nations certainly did not stand the test of time like Civ or Age of Empires.
Looks Fun just like Humankind and many other games I own.
However, Civ has been King for a very long time and I always come back to it.
Civ is just too simple and complex at the same time.
After playing Civ for 20+ years it is just too familiar.
It always fills that one more turn need.
Even when I hate Civ and feel it is too easy or dumb I always come back to it.
I highly doubt this or any game will be able to compete with Civ.
They don't have an Old Word Fanatics website nor do they have one for Humankind.

I feel i am in the same boat as you. At times Civ frustrates me so much however i always come back to it and just play hundreds more hours. It's mechanics just work despite their flaws. But it is interesting to see other peoples take's on the same genre and the different ways they try to fix the genre's flaws. No one has seemed to have hit the magic formula yet though
 
One thing in particular which interested me is the 'orders' system in the description where you can only take a certain number of actions in your turn. Seems like an anti-snowball and sorta pro-tall mechanic, but i will have to wait to see how it works out before i make my mind up on it. I can imagine it either working really well or being extremely annoying.
"Through the Ages“ seems to have a very similar 'action points' system, although it is not a 4x game, but you can get the taste of what it may look like. Tantalizing, most of the time :)

And Epic exclusive, of course. I'll just wait then. There are too many games out there, anyway...
 
Looks a little more like an events-based ancient era version of Civ. I definitely like the stuff Soren+co put out, Civ 4 was epic and Offworld Trading Company was quite fun too for a spell for me. Certainly will be interesting to see more of it when it releases.
 
I'm in the beta for some time and I played some games so far. We are allowed to talk about the game, its content and mechanics, but we can't share any screenshots or videos. Feel free to ask if you'd like to know any details.

Could you tell us a little about the 'card based' research system? How is it implemented in game? We have a visible deck of card and we draw from it?

I ask about it because from all the features described, this is the only one that worry me and repel me : having a deck system modelising the research break my immersion and I am really not at all a fan of this cross-genre mixed game designing.
 
I feel i am in the same boat as you. At times Civ frustrates me so much however i always come back to it and just play hundreds more hours. It's mechanics just work despite their flaws. But it is interesting to see other peoples take's on the same genre and the different ways they try to fix the genre's flaws. No one has seemed to have hit the magic formula yet though

Hmm. Dunno if the I agree the mechanics ALWAYS work, but yeah. I wasn't aware of this Old World game. Heartened to see something new from Soren.
 
Nice, a pity it's an Epic Store exclusive.
 
I'm in the beta for some time and I played some games so far. We are allowed to talk about the game, its content and mechanics, but we can't share any screenshots or videos. Feel free to ask if you'd like to know any details.

How is the late game? Can I name my heir Commodus?
 
I've resisted the Epic store stuff until now, my resolve has crumbled. Bring it on this summer! Gonna be a great 4x year with this and Humankind both.
 
all this puts some puts some pressure on Civ to change up the actual gameplay, make it more open-ended perhaps, less predictable. If this game has a huge potential for moddability and hits Steam, it could be huge competition.
 
Will the exclusivity be lifted after one year like some other games or will it stay exclusive?

I am not sure, I like the strong reliance on scripted events, though.
Sure, 1000 events is an awful lot. But even with this amount, events will repeat, because at certain points in the game only a few possible events will make sense.
I know from ‘Stellaris’ that after some games, I don’t read the text any more, but just klick through the screens, merely scanning the yield results.

So the question is: Will such a heavily event-based game allow the same replayability as a completely “free” game of Civilization?
 
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