Demo impressions

[Haunted Backlog]

Without question it is technically impressive that a lone indie can do all this as a hobby project. At a glance it looks on par with professional games in the same niche, such as Firaxis/Firefly's 2006 CivCity: Rome. A testament to the last 20 years of breaking down barriers in development and distribution. It is also more polished and legible than comparable and contemporary indie project Songs of Syx from Gamatron AB.

However, the demo focuses too much on a grand tour of the interface, discussing features that are not fully implemented or even actually included at all, and too little on working and entertainingly balanced gameplay.

There's a travel interface at first, but no time passes in it, so why? Just show a map with options and no wagon rolling across it if there are no mechanics for supplies, encounters, etc. Cf. Lost Pilgrims' Vagrus; that game is built around travel, so that's the kind of game where showing me a moving wagon makes sense. The game also has some silly features like a shader mode switcher that's always present in the main interface, even though the default shader is clearly best.

When you found your city you designate a major crossroads, rather than that being emergent. This is an interesting idea but it's counter to gameplay, where circumstances may change which roads are the most-used or most-developed. (Intuitively I also doubt it's historical, but I couldn't tell you for sure.)

I do like the "spacer" buildings you can add as features to the main ones, how a house can have gardens and "backyard houses," and the way you can fit your slave stalls into available space around the slave market, but a lot of the complexity in Pax Augusta may not contribute well to the game. Wood processing might better just include a wood warehouse. (Or are there meant to be many wood processors per wood warehouse, or many warehouses per wood processor?)

I've seen talk on this board of adding consumer goods to the game like furniture and pottery, and that sounds like a good idea. Could have something to do with issues like worker motivation and the flow of money.

I was supposed to make a lumber colony, but my lumberjacks weren't producing any wood. Their building said they had 0 motivation. But they had houses, food, a theater... I then realized that i had nobody in the city at all, 0 in all population categories including the liberti who were supposed to be felling trees (who built the buildings, then?). Nothing was functioning and the tutorial continued merrily on.

I was supposed to produce 300 lumber. Instead I had to requisition it. (And I'm not sure anybody ever came to collect the 300 lumber, but I might have missed them taking it out of my initial stockpile.) Also the tutorial is on such training wheels that you can't run out of money. It can never go below 1000. This means there is no opportunity to really evaluate the gameplay or the nature of the game's challenges.

I need to see construction progress when a building is going up. Not just a loose visual phase, but show me what resources are needed and if any are missing and if it's being worked on and estimated time left. Construction should take labor, not just resources. Cf. Haemimont's Tropico's construction office, Paradox's Victoria 3's construction sector, 11 bit's Frostpunk 2 or Eremite's Against the Storm using idle workers for construction....

While I appreciate the details like the modular way you build a forum or the elaborate system for scheduling festivals, I am not confident they'll all contribute to the challenge and strategy of the game. (Also I think the player-built forums are likely to be weird, unpleasing mazes, directed by the inexperience of the novice or — if the game supports it — the ruthless expediency of the expert. If your forum only looks nice because you prioritized aesthetics over gameplay, the gameplay should better support the intended aesthetics.)

It is a spectacular effort on the basic prototype level, but will take spectacular effort of a different kind to become a suitable game. It might be useful to compare this gameplay experience directly to Impressions/Tilted Mill's Children of the Nile, Eremite's Against the Storm, and Slavic Magic's Manor Lords (although at this stage, Pax Augustus is probably committed to a grid system rather than Manor Lords' organic free placement). Against the Storm is a much different sort of game, but the comparison I think would be instructive because Against the Storm focuses where Pax Augusta is undeveloped: strictly on the gameplay.

It is not my impression that this game will be ready for a "final release" in two weeks. Is it going into Early Access?

[Winter's Embers]

A few answers to your questions.

The world map does not have 'travel time" as world and city maps operate on separate saves. Right now, the build of the game simply cannot support time passage for cities while on the world map. Also, the game uses city events that can alter the city. Many of these have detrimental effects (like flooding). It doesn't seem fair to have these events happen when the player is unable to respond to them.

The Cardo/Decumanus is more historically accurate than you might think. Ever heard the saying "The Road to Rome?" It was a real thing. Being on a direct line to this path to the Road to Rome was considered a high point. The game isn't designed for players to lay buildings statically and then move on. It is designed so that the player must consistently re-evaluate the design of the city and re-design it as necessary to align with the needs of the most populous or most influential citizenry. So, you lay your Liberti Houses along the Cardo in the beginning, then demolish them and rebuild them later outside the city core to make room for Peregrini, Cives, and eventually Equites and Senators.

Wood Storage is needed in more than just receiving wood produced by the Processing Station. It is also needed for other production lines such as Brick and Iron production as well as satisfaction buildings like the Thermae (Bath Houses). Since the game relies on visual representation for the delivery of materials (ox carts), having wood storage buildings as close as possible to these wood consumers is essential.

Your population wasn't increasing for one of the following reasons:
1) You did not build a pyre or enough graves connected to the pyre or the graveyard is full. This will not only prevent people from moving in, it will cause them to move out, emptying your city.
2) You did not provide water from a well. If well access is lost, people will move out.
3) You did not provide a market administration with enough market stalls to satisfy the population (each small stall provides for 15 residents). If the population reaches the market stall limit, no further population will move in.
4) The satisfaction of the population was below 40%, the minimum requirement for people to move in.
You can see what the problem is by right-clicking on a house and checking the information pane. Critical issues will have icons.

Construction costs are shown when the building is selected for construction. You either have enough to start construction or you don't. The building will not available for placement if you don't. It is not within Roger's experience level or skill to create such a complex construction system at this time.

Most players in both iterations of the demo created pleasing-looking forums. You can see some of these for yourself on the Discord.

The game will not have all the elements that Roger wanted to include in the game when it launches on 17.4.2025, this is true. Other elements will be added later. And, while your references to 'more polished' games may invoke imagery, it is important to remember that this is still one person doing all the work on a game while still holding down a full-time job and a life outside of work and development. While some of the features you mention or reference would be nice, they are the products of much larger teams of developers working together.

And, yes, I know, this is just an 'observational' post but there are issues in here that I know to be player-related rather than game-related so I felt the need to point them out.

[Haunted Backlog]

>Cardo/Decumanus

But is which road is the main one going to stay static? Surely there must have been many cases where the main road in the Roman network was revised, a stretch replaced by a new road nearby.

>You did not build a pyre or enough graves connected to the pyre or the graveyard is full. This will not only prevent people from moving in, it will cause them to move out, emptying your city.

Had a necropolis pyre and graveyard. The graveyard was empty.

>You did not provide water from a well. If well access is lost, people will move out.

This might be it. No saves in the demo so I can't check. Do not recall whether the tutorial path instructed me to build a well or not. The colony was right next to a stream though. Not sure if the pre-existing farm I built near had a well of its own either.

>You did not provide a market administration with enough market stalls to satisfy the population (each small stall provides for 15 residents). If the population reaches the market stall limit, no further population will move in.

I had at least two small market stalls.

>The satisfaction of the population was below 40%, the minimum requirement for people to move in.

0% motivation on my lumber camp; not sure if this is the same thing as satisfaction. If there was indeed no well, perhaps satisfaction was at 0% for that reason.

>it is important to remember that this is still one person doing all the work

I'm very conscious of that, but in the end, people are going to see and play the result, not the process or the team — which means it is only natural to judge the game against others in its genre.

I greatly appreciate your detailed response.

[Winter's Embers]

Water is definitely an issue so that might be what's causing the lack of population.

As for the motivation, that is equal to the satisfaction of the population working in that production but not a part of the satisfaction calculation. It is more of a bonus or penalty based on how happy the population is.

Workers require 4 things:
Access to any road. You can't build the house without the road so this mainly applies to removal of the road after construction.
Market: This has 2 caveats. You must have food in your town. If your food is zero, then people won't move it and current residents will leave very quickly. Once you have food, you need market stalls equal to or greater than the maximum population allowed by current housing. When residents = market stalls, no new residents of any class will move in. However, no one will leave.
Access to well or piped water. When you right-click on a well or other water source, you'll see a radius extending outward. Any housing covered will be highlighted.
Necropolis: If your number of occupied graves is greater than 90%, you'll start to see a slowing of new residents. If the grave capacity is reached, no one will move in and people will move out very quickly.
These 4 items form the base happiness and, when fulfilled, grant a 64% base satisfaction for Liberti. Higher tier population groups get less base satisfaction and rely more on bonuses listed below.
This base satisfaction will be affected by the following conditions:
Type of Road: City Street provides a 25% bonus. Gravel roads give no bonus or penalty. Trade Roads give a 10% penalty.
Cardo/Decumanus: 10% bonus to any house whose main facing is on either of these 2 thoroughfares.
Distance to the altar: If the house is within the altar radius (right-click on altar to see it), 10% bonus. Outside, progressively larger penalties starting at 2% up to 50%.

Add these bonus/penalties together. For instance, if all the best bonuses apply, your house will have a +45% bonus.

Finally, satisfaction buildings add another bonus if the total rating of the building type is equal to or greater than the housing requirement. For Liberti, they only require Religion at 5 rating or higher. A simple shrine makes them happy. The bonus for satisfaction building varies by population type and you'll receive a bonus only if the rating exceeds the demand of that group. Many satisfaction ratings will need to be met for the highest levels of population.

Add all the bonuses to the base percentage. In the above example, that would be 145% satisfaction. By proxy, this would make your worker motivation for Liberty *also* 145%, boosting production by a significant amount.

The tutorial is not always clear on these things so it is very understandable that there is confusion. Once the game launches, I'll be starting a fandom wiki with as much information as I can. I've been testing a while now and have become extremely fluent in the game. However, like Roger, I'm just one person so it may take a bit of time to get it done. Also, I suck at fandom and I'm learning as I go.
Hopefully, others with questions or observations will visit this Steam forum and leave such detailed and honest opinions like you did. Roger does read them and he is very appreciative (which he'll probably say once he sees this). And, please, share any other thoughts or questions. I'll answer what I can.

[Haunted Backlog]

You need a market stall for every resident? Does everyone have a product to sell at the market?

I've looked a little more into the cardo/decumanus thing and I'm completely sold on it now. Who cares if it's in some cases a little artificial or reductive — it's new and different, changes up layout patterns, and has plenty of historical basis.

[Roger]

Originally posted by Haunted Backlog:

You need a market stall for every resident? Does everyone have a product to sell at the market?

I've looked a little more into the cardo/decumanus thing and I'm completely sold on it now. Who cares if it's in some cases a little artificial or reductive — it's new and different, changes up layout patterns, and has plenty of historical basis.

Thank you very much for the feedback. I implemented, based on the feedbacks a tooltip that will warn and show you, why the lumberjack is not producing anything.
I always read all the feedback, especially the very detailed ones like yours. Your feedback helps the project move forward. Thank you for that :)

[Winter's Embers]

Originally posted by Haunted Backlog:

You need a market stall for every resident? Does everyone have a product to sell at the market?

I've looked a little more into the cardo/decumanus thing and I'm completely sold on it now. Who cares if it's in some cases a little artificial or reductive — it's new and different, changes up layout patterns, and has plenty of historical basis.

Yes. A market stall for every resident. Think of each resident as a single representative of a large Roman family. Things start to look a little more logical with that perspective.

The Cardo/Decumanus really threw me for a loop in the beginning too. I'm like you. I played a lot of city builders and my first (and only) instinct was: once something was built, you didn't screw with it. Both the Altar and the C/D challenged me in ways that made me think more like a real city builder. Every once in a while, you just have to clean up a zone and rebuild it for new stuff. And get the lowly peasants out of the downtown core to make room for the ritzy rich people and new theaters!

And, see, there's Roger, right on cue!

[Haunted Backlog]

The altar makes perfect sense; it's a proximity/desirability mechanic and you see that a lot.

Demolishing and rebuilding is a bit different. It's true, in most city-builders, rather than demolish what you built in the past, you build something new and leave the old thing to serve a different overall purpose, like your first neighborhood in Cities Skylines whose streets are no longer the main ones anymore. But once you anchor the city around a permanent designated crossroads, yeah, you'll just have to shuffle some things out.

Roger, great to hear from you. Let me say once again I'm blown away by the results you've gotten so far. Children of the Nile had a team of 80, CivCity Rome had a team of 150... what a lone dev can do has skyrocketed. I am so excited for the present and future of development tools and resources making this possible, and I think small, focused projects like this are exactly the antidote to the waste, mismanagement, and lack of vision at the established publishers.

Blue Byte/Ubisoft Mainz is coming out with a Rome-themed game in the Anno series this year that I expect will boost interest in the period and genre, but may also leave disappointed players looking for alternative Roman citybuilders.

[Winter's Embers]

Yeah, if it's Ubisoft and BB, that's a LOT of disappointed players :) I saw their promotional video and we even discussed it a little on the Discord for Pax with about the same conclusion. They're stealing Roger's idea and helping boost his sales at the same time!

[Haunted Backlog]

Roman citybuilders go very far back, at least to Impressions making the original Caesar, so I can't say they're stealing his idea, and I used to really like Blue Byte, but I think they've lost their way.