Revive Imperator pls

What I might say is a bit controversial, but I think that Paradox abandoning this game was the best thing that could have ever happened to it. The price is fair, there is a small amount of DLCs with also good prices, and the curse of greedy Paradox is non existent here. Everything that was not fixed or added in is already avaliable for free on Steam workshop in mods such as Invictus. But speaking of vanilla gameplay, it's quite fun. The UI is pretty and readable, characters look good and the map itself looks stunning. This game is a healthy mix between Europa Universalis 4 and Crusader Kings 2, so most of players that at least played one Paradox game should be familiar with this one, making the gameplay loop less tedious and annoying to learn. Lets also not forget about the amazing soundtrack that plays in the background. The only thing that is a bit annoying ( besides obvious lack of content ) are the pop-ups, they appear constantly, so most of the game is just staring at events and choosing options that always come with some annoying drawback. Overall, the gameplay is fun and engaging, and although the content might be lacking, Imperator Rome can still bring a lot of joy, especially since this game doesn't require you to sell your organs to pay for 30+ DLCs.

Initially, I think I liked this game more than most before many of the updates happened. I have the achievement that I had over 9000 population in my empire as well as several others that are rare achievements (starting out as a small nation of maybe 30 population), as well as some other campaigns where I conquered half of Europe, so I think that I did quite well in previous campaigns.

However, since they have changed the military/levy system, it somehow got worse. I have a territory of about 40 regions with 200 population in my kingdom in my current play through, and yet I have a tiny mountain region where barbarians raid almost every year with 7-10k stack of troops when I can only raise 3-4k. It's utterly ridiculous and unrealistic to see the tiny size of this mountain where these huge stacks of barbarians are coming out of, and I have a huge area in comparison that can barely muster half of the number of troops. So basically you just have to watch them raid every region until their numbers dwindle down to a more manageable level before you attack. It happens almost every year. My stability is 70% trending down to 50% (the base amount), but considered high if you are familiar with the mechanics. I really don't know what's prompting these huge stacks to attack, but so far it seems completely random. The only way around this is if you start in an area of the map where there is higher population (so you have more levies available to you) and fewer or preferably no barbarian spawn points (impassable terrain, mountains). If we are held to a levy size limitation based on population, then the barbarian mechanic should also be held to that limitation. Until it's balanced, it ruins the game for me.

With all of that aside, it is still quite a shallow game. Even if they reverted back to the old way of levies being determined on the number of territories you had and not the amount of population, the basic game loop is to start a "mission" which typically unlocks claims on nearby territories so that you can declare war and expand your empire with rewards being granted once milestones are reached along the way. There are also missions that prompt you to build cities or buildings that offer you small rewards again for completing certain milestones. However, That's basically it. The character interactions are minimal and honestly lackluster. The events are repetitive and become a non-issue once you become a large enough nation and you can throw money at any issue that arises. There's just a feeling of something missing.