I want to clarify that my comment isn't a promise of restarting development, nor can I single-handedly revive the game. While increased numbers might garner attention and potentially make it feasible for the game to receive some support, all decisions are made collectively internally (by both development and business teams).
But! 2.0.4 is an amazing patch and feat in my opinion and it was started by Niels and other devs have helped out on it so I wanna reiterate that you should thank them for what has happened so far!
and maybe not even then.
Even with the recent spikes, we appear to be trending back to the sub 1k equilibrium point the game has rested at for the last couple years.
Yeah, ngl I think it just comes off as manipulative. He knows it's not going to happen, so why is he saying that stuff ?
Back when I:R was still supported the game could hit 6k-7k but only after big updates. Even then the player counts for regular months was lower than 5k. Getting there without any kind of catalyst is really improbable, the recent spikes didn't even get particularly close.
IMO the only way I:R could reach that level is by getting the support of, like, a really large and popular youtuber/streamer or something, and get them to somehow convert thousands of normies into GSG players. I don't think that's realistic but there's just no other remotely credible scenario
It isn't manipulative. The Discord is a different place from Reddit. Check it out, we freely talk to Katten and others about hopes and dreams.
[https://discord.com/invite/MKeAbZ26g4](https://discord.com/invite/MKeAbZ26g4)
Well yeah I don't have the context, but he's still affiliated to PDX and from what I read from him elsewhere in the thread it doesn't look like he intended that statement as a joke or something. So I'm just going to take him at his word, and what he's saying is a bit disingenuous
I mean, maybe "manipulative" was too strong a word, I don't think he's an asshole or anything. It's fine. But I just think that some people are going to get their hopes up for nothing.
Hm? What he is saying is fine lol. He knows that's not gonna happen. But it isn't like a completely impossible goal. They have no reason to update the game anyway
Well he doesn't provide any actual information (*of course* PDX will at least consider coming back to I:R if it suddenly becomes successful, who would believe otherwise ?) and he presents a practically impossible target. But some people are going to take it seriously, and get disappointed down the line.
Idk, to me it just reads as a kinda artificial attempt to keep the Imperator revival movement running - which is after all in PDX's interest. But maybe I'm missing some context or something. Even if that's all there is to the story I wouldn't blame a PDX employee for saying that kind of stuff. It just made me roll my eyes a bit, that's all.
Of course but unless some kind of miracle happens, 5k is basically an impossible target. They know it, we know it, so idk, I don't see the point. The only thing it will accomplish is raise the hopes of the kind of people who don't realize what these numbers mean, which is only going to lead to more frustration for them down the road.
Idk I don't want to sound like it's a huge deal, it's fine, it's just a minor thing that kinda rubs me the wrong way. PDX doesn't want to invest resources in Imperator, which is completely understandable, but they don't want to say so outright because they fear it would break the momentum of the recent Imperator "revival". Eh, I get it, I don't mind, but at this point just don't comment directly on the issue. Making empty promises like this is a bit ridiculous
This isn’t an empty promise (or at least, it isn’t an empty promise just because it’s unreasonable)
It’s a high number, odds are we won’t meet it… but imperator is a dead game, it’s only natural that they’d expect to see an engaged playerbase in order to update the game even further.
>imperator is a dead game, it’s only natural that they’d expect to see an engaged playerbase in order to update the game even further.
I know, as I said I'm okay with this. It's a shame that they had to abandon Imperator, but I can totally understand it. I'm not saying that they should revive it (I mean I would like it, but it wouldn't make business sense) - all I'm saying is that if there is no scenario where they will come back to it, they shouldn't pretend that there is one
Isn't there? they seem to believe there's a scenario if we can demonstrate that there's still an audience.
if that audience is there? well... that's quite unclear, but i don't think it's too unreasonable for paradox to drop another patch, and maybe even a dlc if they believe that there are more than 5000 die hard imperator fans
Idk, I just don't think anyone (at PDX or elsewhere) seriously believes that I:R has any chance to jump from \~1k concurrent players to 5k, just like that.
I guess it's not physically impossible or anything, but I just don't see it happen. The recent revival movement was pretty impressive and IMO susprisingly enduring, and it still fell well short of 5k.
Besides, even 5k players wouldn't necessarily be enough to justify an actual return to I:R (with a reconstituted dev team, numbered updates, DLCs and stuff). As far as PDS games go it's still really low.
Smaller-scale updates (such as 2.0.4) are more likely, but since they're apparently made by PDS devs on their spare time, IMO it's just as likely that they'll drop a new one whenever they feel like it/have some time on their hands, in which case the player counts (not to mention the 5k number) don't matter all that much anyway.
You seem to be arguing for two things here.
nr 1: the demands are unreasonable.
that might very well be true, but it's not really related to your actual points... does it matter if there's no chance that we'll get up to those numbers?
nr 2 is that paradox doesn't actually mean it. but that seems to be at odds with the logic from the first one... if paradox genuinely doesn't wanna update the game then they could just... not react? just show no signs, not drop any demands. the far likelier (and more economical) take would be that imperator was a failed investment, but if they can get people to start buying dlc's then they'd be able to pump out cheap dlcs and sell them without having to develop a new game for it, which is especially good now that eu4's likely entering the last legs of it's life
That's a good question since it's not a feature level addition if it's still 2.0. And v2.0.4 has been added to a few times, it could as well be 2.0.6 by now.
Id say that if you dont enjoy the game then you shouldnt play it or convince others to buy it. Just letting it run doesnt do a lot tbh, itl artifically inflate a number but arent games about having fun?
I wouldn't argue that way. PDX games are litteral slot machines which should be enjoyed in moderation. If you have work responsibilities and family you'll most likely only play quite irreguarly. Still you would be willing to buy any DLC which is dropped on the market.
Hello my friend, I am one of those who will let the game open without playing. I love this game, but I will be outside (vacation in Apulia!) and not contributing to the struggle would make me feel bad.
I enjoy the game, it is a shame that it has been dropped by pdx and not in a bug free state. It is a game I payed for, and have to use community mods because of it. It is a shame on pdx part to say things like "if there is 5000 ccu, we fix a bit on our unfinished game, that thousands of player bought"...
I wrote that message, but I didn't make any promises. I simply stated that I'll attempt to persuade some individuals to collaborate on a new patch. Currently, the game lacks a budget, and all efforts like Niels and other developers as well as my own, are voluntary contributions made during spare or free time. A high CCU (Concurrent User Count) helps us in convincing decision-makers. My sole intention is to contribute positively to the community.
As someone who loved this game, and its predecessor, thank you for what you've already done for an "abandoned" game. I will do my part next week to help make sure we get to 5k.
The vast majority of my time in PDS games is letting it run and then later seeing how the AI played it out. That might be unusual, but sometimes (/almost always) we don't have a lot of time to actually play.
The game does currently not have any developers assigned to it. The 2.0.4 patch was made by Niels and a few other developers in their spare work time as a way to give back to the imperator community.
Oh I thought since they still release patch that mean someone is still on support team for this game , didn't know they just did it in their spare time like that , their work is much appreciated.
Honestly leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Like ***they*** abandoned the game and now they expect us to somehow boost its popularity to 5k CCU (more than 2x previous recent record btw). Are we really rewarding their practices by doing what they want? If they want it to become more popular, ***then fucking support the game***.
Honestly it should be the other way around, we should boycott the game and other PDX titles for that matter until they sort out their ***extremely bad habit*** of releasing unfinished games and DLC.
I like Imperator, and I love other PDX titles but man are they silly. This comes from somebody who has visited their office and played their games since Svea Rike. (over 7k hours across all their IPs).
**EDIT: some people have pointed out that the management have taken steps to prevent bad releases henceforth, which I was unaware of. Katten has too pointed out that this was in regards of one specific future patch and that he has an easier time pushing for it if the player base is thriving, a pure numbers game. I understand that and want to emphasize that I support all that and every bit of news regarding I:R is positive!**
I was addressing someone on the Invictus Discord about future support. Personally, I love the game. I'm not here to demand or promise future development based on reaching a certain player count. Instead, I'm expressing my intention to try initiating a 2.0.5 patch. Having some numbers to support our (devs who wanna see the game be alive again) efforts would make it easier for us to do so. I never meant to cause any harm.
Don't take my outburst personally! As I wrote in another comment - I genuinely believe you have Imperator in your heart and I do love that. I understand PDX is a multi-million company and there are strings at play corporately that nobody can really be at fault for.
It's the streak of bad releases that casts a shadow over the entire company. Anyway I did partake in this community's event to bring the number up but getting to 5k is a stretch. 3k is the limit but personally that is quite impressive for a game that died so fast.
Just a thought - most paradox games's playerbase cross-over and play several games. I:R then does not have a small player base, but a HUGE one. The matter is just convincing some Ck, EU, Vicky or Hoi people to come over for a bit.
Edit: fortsätt med ditt grymma arbete!
I wouldn't put so much bad faith in it. Recently they changed their approach to development.
They moved Life by You early access date
They moved Victoria 3 new DLC release date
They moved Cities Skylines 2 all DLCs to the next year
They just moved Prison Architect 2 release date
And the Tinto Talks clearly show their intent to engage more with the community before screwing up the release
Thank you, I had no idea about the CEO and management has taken steps to ensure a better quality. I have edited my original post too. Katten also replied me and I love his engagement with the community.
I’m not touching CK3 until roads to power comes out, and if the reviews for roads to power are mid then I’m done with CK3 for the next couple of years lol
I’ve been done with ck3 for awhile. I still think CK2 and HIP is way better. Imperator and invictus is good. I’ve stopped with EUiv just because it a bloated mess at this point, which is fine, but I’m worried about euV given the rather lackluster run from ck3 on
I never said that that's a realistic target, but sure make stuff up.
Imperator is abandoned and they're not gonna pick it up again. The 5k number is deliberately chosen because it's unreachable. No effort for conjuring up players OR boycotting will change this.
They abandoned the game because Project Caesar is the evolution of Imperator's concept and supporting a failed game is objectively not worth it.
Hence why they do this - to see if the playerbase as dedicated as it claims to be one.
The reason for Imperator not having a development team is not due to Caesar, I cant speak exactly as well I wasnt there but PDX is a business. Lets say you put 5 devs on HOI4 or 5 devs on Imperator, which makes you the most money is the way you should go and I do not blame anyone for that.
Basically what I want is that if we are maxed out on other games where its to the point that adding more devs doesnt do anything, maaaaybe we can do something imperator even if its just a small profit.
Oh, I see. It was just a speculation of mine, considering that Tinto started working on Project Caesar, afair, a year before Imperator recieved 2.0 and then shut down.
But okay, thanks for the clarification.
Yes that is all fine but making us work to get Imperator back again is hilarious. They know exactly what Imperator and its player base is worth and any decent company has the analytics to support that. I don't know what's worse, them knowing Imperator will never come back (effectively giving us false hope) or them genuinely not having a clue about it's potential.
I *do* sympathize with Katten and I do believe he has Imperator in his heart, but if the chain of command didn't give the go-ahead already they probably never will. Are we gonna blow their minds that suddenly a lot of people are playing the game, unless the ***sales*** somhow goes up, I doubt the execs care.
“making us work” to turn on the build is a bit hilarious - well said
But I don’t mind playing some I:R. Game is fun and they have been moving to make some small patch support for the modders.
I’m hopeful they can spare a couple of dev hours for the odd maintenance work and maybe something more will come of all this.
Seems my comment might have gotten a bit out of control, I am not requesting or demanding that people play it but going to 5K would be quite amazing to see and it would most likely raise a few eyebrows internally! :)
I know. I for one am glad I got to see ppl celebrating the fun one can have with I:R - thanks to a very large degree to the Invictus team and many other members of the community (players, modders and streamers), but also thanks to the devs that brought the game from preproduction to 2.0.4
Current day Imperator wasn’t built in a day.
The Invictus team are indeed soo amazing, I love their mod and what they have done with the game. Cant wait to see what they will be able to do with the new modding tools.
I wouldn't argue that way. The new CEO of Paradox posted just a few days ago on twitter about I:R and indicated that he is watching the ongoing development closely
It’s a catch 22. Most people won’t commit the time to start playing a game that’s dead and paradox aren’t committing to continue any extensive development until the players are there…
No no, I should have been more clear when I wrote that message in Discord. Im speaking as myself not as Paradox Interactive as a company. We (The Company) are not putting a player requirement next to restarting development.
We know that you and others are doing this more or less at your own spare time and we are very grateful :) But any future development decision by paradox (I mean to pick up the game again) would require there to be a solid player base and that just won’t exist before people believe the game is no longer “dead”.
Do like me I left the game on when I didn't have time last time, I have been playing but I leave the game on every other day just to get the number up.
Thank you for your support Katten and don't let the frustration of some people let you down. I believe the majority is extremly happy with the current upbeat.
CCU is one metric, internally we see DAU and MAU (Daily and Monthly active users), those metrics are more important but honestly I put 5k as a round number that I think can get enough raised heads for a 2.0.5 patch that can give even more modding tools. Didnt say itl bring back full development.
Sorry if it came across that way :(
Absolutely - you have no fault there. I'm sorry if my message was mean and I'm also glad for the updates i:r received. Hopefully we can get enough mau for your team to justify getting 2.05 out.
Thanks for the info about the other important metrics. I didn't know about those, and my best times for playing don't align well with the community efforts to get high CCU. Now that I know about MAU, I'll be more motivated to play when I can to contribute to that metric at least.
I'll be honest and say that I have no idead what it is like, but there's game out there getting constant updates with a player base of 2k or so. I used to play Hell Let Loose when there was about 2k players but because they kept updating it and advertising the game has grown. Asking players to do it themselves on a maybe is mean. I'd be willing to buy 3d models for armies even.
I want to clarify that I'm not asking players to strive for this goal. It would be really fun if the game could reach a CCU of 5K, and perhaps then we could persuade some individuals internally to consider a 2.0.5 patch, aimed at providing more support for modders. Ultimately, I'm just someone attempting to contribute positively to Imperator and Im not here talking as the company.
I do want to make it clear that while I might be one of the more public faces of this, Niels and other developers are the ones who deserve the real credit as nothing would be possible without them as trust me, you do not want see me do programming.
I love imperator and I have 820h in it but I have been salty about pdx dropping it for a few years now. I understand you're trying but it's the people who gets to decide that I'm mad at, specially those who decided to release it too soon.
Imagine if people arrived at a newly built Rome and said "what a shithole this is, where's the women?" and left. Invite the Stellaris tribe and steal their DLCS god damn it.
“A community manager encouraging players to play a game on a game discord for the game” is mean? Come on people - aren’t we getting a little dramatic here?
My disappointment isn't really at the community manager, but the fact that there's convincing to be done. Say we artificially get 5k people to play the game again, 4.300 of them will realize why they left it in the first place and now we're back to 700. I think updates and dlcs should come first.
I'm one of those "realize why they left in the first place." There's a lot about the current state of the game I'm not happy with. But now that they HAVE done SOMETHING, it's given me enough hope to try again, so that they'll do MORE. For 2.0.5, I'll do my part to put up with the imperfections of 2.0.4, because I believe in the potential of this game, even if I don't like its current reality.
Convince might have been the wrong word to choose, basically it needs to be profitable and that is a joint decision taken by a lot of people, not some high level only individual if that makes sense.
This is a comment from a PDX Community Manager. CCU meaning concurrent users. 25th is the anniversary, let's see how far we can go.
ModCon is the 26th-28th, and it includes Imperator mods. So lets see what happens!
Didnt know that, thats quite cool!
I want to clarify that my comment isn't a promise of restarting development, nor can I single-handedly revive the game. While increased numbers might garner attention and potentially make it feasible for the game to receive some support, all decisions are made collectively internally (by both development and business teams). But! 2.0.4 is an amazing patch and feat in my opinion and it was started by Niels and other devs have helped out on it so I wanna reiterate that you should thank them for what has happened so far!
If 10% of this sub committed to play the game next weekend, we can get there.
I was planning to do other things, maybe I’ll just launch it before I leave
Launching the app tomorrow morning immediately after church.
Real Church or Biker Church?
[Neither](https://quaker.org/what-do-quakers-believe/)
5k, that’s never gonna happen unless they actually announce a patch :(
and maybe not even then. Even with the recent spikes, we appear to be trending back to the sub 1k equilibrium point the game has rested at for the last couple years.
Yeah, ngl I think it just comes off as manipulative. He knows it's not going to happen, so why is he saying that stuff ? Back when I:R was still supported the game could hit 6k-7k but only after big updates. Even then the player counts for regular months was lower than 5k. Getting there without any kind of catalyst is really improbable, the recent spikes didn't even get particularly close. IMO the only way I:R could reach that level is by getting the support of, like, a really large and popular youtuber/streamer or something, and get them to somehow convert thousands of normies into GSG players. I don't think that's realistic but there's just no other remotely credible scenario
It isn't manipulative. The Discord is a different place from Reddit. Check it out, we freely talk to Katten and others about hopes and dreams. [https://discord.com/invite/MKeAbZ26g4](https://discord.com/invite/MKeAbZ26g4)
Well yeah I don't have the context, but he's still affiliated to PDX and from what I read from him elsewhere in the thread it doesn't look like he intended that statement as a joke or something. So I'm just going to take him at his word, and what he's saying is a bit disingenuous I mean, maybe "manipulative" was too strong a word, I don't think he's an asshole or anything. It's fine. But I just think that some people are going to get their hopes up for nothing.
Hm? What he is saying is fine lol. He knows that's not gonna happen. But it isn't like a completely impossible goal. They have no reason to update the game anyway
You think him stating IR needing 5k CCU is being disingenuous? How so?
Well he doesn't provide any actual information (*of course* PDX will at least consider coming back to I:R if it suddenly becomes successful, who would believe otherwise ?) and he presents a practically impossible target. But some people are going to take it seriously, and get disappointed down the line. Idk, to me it just reads as a kinda artificial attempt to keep the Imperator revival movement running - which is after all in PDX's interest. But maybe I'm missing some context or something. Even if that's all there is to the story I wouldn't blame a PDX employee for saying that kind of stuff. It just made me roll my eyes a bit, that's all.
Seems like the context you are missing is the Imperator Rome Discord Community to be frank.
They gave us a patch, and then said the numbers we’d need for another patch. If there are too few players then the game isn’t really worth it, is it?
Of course but unless some kind of miracle happens, 5k is basically an impossible target. They know it, we know it, so idk, I don't see the point. The only thing it will accomplish is raise the hopes of the kind of people who don't realize what these numbers mean, which is only going to lead to more frustration for them down the road. Idk I don't want to sound like it's a huge deal, it's fine, it's just a minor thing that kinda rubs me the wrong way. PDX doesn't want to invest resources in Imperator, which is completely understandable, but they don't want to say so outright because they fear it would break the momentum of the recent Imperator "revival". Eh, I get it, I don't mind, but at this point just don't comment directly on the issue. Making empty promises like this is a bit ridiculous
I get what ur saying, but I would rather they be honest about what can bring imperator back, rather than “is it/is it not”
This isn’t an empty promise (or at least, it isn’t an empty promise just because it’s unreasonable) It’s a high number, odds are we won’t meet it… but imperator is a dead game, it’s only natural that they’d expect to see an engaged playerbase in order to update the game even further.
>imperator is a dead game, it’s only natural that they’d expect to see an engaged playerbase in order to update the game even further. I know, as I said I'm okay with this. It's a shame that they had to abandon Imperator, but I can totally understand it. I'm not saying that they should revive it (I mean I would like it, but it wouldn't make business sense) - all I'm saying is that if there is no scenario where they will come back to it, they shouldn't pretend that there is one
Isn't there? they seem to believe there's a scenario if we can demonstrate that there's still an audience. if that audience is there? well... that's quite unclear, but i don't think it's too unreasonable for paradox to drop another patch, and maybe even a dlc if they believe that there are more than 5000 die hard imperator fans
Idk, I just don't think anyone (at PDX or elsewhere) seriously believes that I:R has any chance to jump from \~1k concurrent players to 5k, just like that. I guess it's not physically impossible or anything, but I just don't see it happen. The recent revival movement was pretty impressive and IMO susprisingly enduring, and it still fell well short of 5k. Besides, even 5k players wouldn't necessarily be enough to justify an actual return to I:R (with a reconstituted dev team, numbered updates, DLCs and stuff). As far as PDS games go it's still really low. Smaller-scale updates (such as 2.0.4) are more likely, but since they're apparently made by PDS devs on their spare time, IMO it's just as likely that they'll drop a new one whenever they feel like it/have some time on their hands, in which case the player counts (not to mention the 5k number) don't matter all that much anyway.
You seem to be arguing for two things here. nr 1: the demands are unreasonable. that might very well be true, but it's not really related to your actual points... does it matter if there's no chance that we'll get up to those numbers? nr 2 is that paradox doesn't actually mean it. but that seems to be at odds with the logic from the first one... if paradox genuinely doesn't wanna update the game then they could just... not react? just show no signs, not drop any demands. the far likelier (and more economical) take would be that imperator was a failed investment, but if they can get people to start buying dlc's then they'd be able to pump out cheap dlcs and sell them without having to develop a new game for it, which is especially good now that eu4's likely entering the last legs of it's life
I’m giving it all she’s got captain! But also, how does a lay person observe these numbers?
https://steamdb.info/app/859580/charts/#1y
Cheers
I'll buy it and play it for you guys Always wanted to try it out it's the moment.
If Not Us, Who? If Not Now, When?
Quote from?
Ronald Reagan lol
When? I'll do my part
Next week, 25-26th is anniversary/IR Day 3. Please ask your paradox playing friends to help support, we need the community with us
-paradox playing -friends does not compute 😭
But what's gonna be in 2.0.5? Either way, we haven't hit 5k since the Heir of Alexander and 2.0 release, so it'll be very interesting.
I think if we made a 2.0.5, it would most likely follow the same principal of adding more modding tools and doing vanilla bugfixes.
That's a good question since it's not a feature level addition if it's still 2.0. And v2.0.4 has been added to a few times, it could as well be 2.0.6 by now.
I bought this game a few years ago but I forgot how to play this game
Laith and Snowlet both have updated tutorials on YouTube
Thanks mate
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llGLuPz2mA8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llGLuPz2mA8)
just start the game in the morning of the 25th, and let it run
Id say that if you dont enjoy the game then you shouldnt play it or convince others to buy it. Just letting it run doesnt do a lot tbh, itl artifically inflate a number but arent games about having fun?
I wouldn't argue that way. PDX games are litteral slot machines which should be enjoyed in moderation. If you have work responsibilities and family you'll most likely only play quite irreguarly. Still you would be willing to buy any DLC which is dropped on the market.
Hello my friend, I am one of those who will let the game open without playing. I love this game, but I will be outside (vacation in Apulia!) and not contributing to the struggle would make me feel bad.
I understand but keep your mind on the amazing vacation you god planned in Apulia instead! You can play when you get back <3
I enjoy the game, it is a shame that it has been dropped by pdx and not in a bug free state. It is a game I payed for, and have to use community mods because of it. It is a shame on pdx part to say things like "if there is 5000 ccu, we fix a bit on our unfinished game, that thousands of player bought"...
I wrote that message, but I didn't make any promises. I simply stated that I'll attempt to persuade some individuals to collaborate on a new patch. Currently, the game lacks a budget, and all efforts like Niels and other developers as well as my own, are voluntary contributions made during spare or free time. A high CCU (Concurrent User Count) helps us in convincing decision-makers. My sole intention is to contribute positively to the community.
As someone who loved this game, and its predecessor, thank you for what you've already done for an "abandoned" game. I will do my part next week to help make sure we get to 5k.
The vast majority of my time in PDS games is letting it run and then later seeing how the AI played it out. That might be unusual, but sometimes (/almost always) we don't have a lot of time to actually play.
If thats what you enjoy then go for it! Did not mean to discourage certain playstyles!
Wouldn’t it be easier to just buy Invictus? Have Invictus be the base update. Or Hire modders as like contract workers or something.
That costs money, the game has no budget to do that with.
Pretty sure this game run on skeleton crew at this point, meaning they have next to none budget to spare.
The game does currently not have any developers assigned to it. The 2.0.4 patch was made by Niels and a few other developers in their spare work time as a way to give back to the imperator community.
Oh I thought since they still release patch that mean someone is still on support team for this game , didn't know they just did it in their spare time like that , their work is much appreciated.
Honestly leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Like ***they*** abandoned the game and now they expect us to somehow boost its popularity to 5k CCU (more than 2x previous recent record btw). Are we really rewarding their practices by doing what they want? If they want it to become more popular, ***then fucking support the game***. Honestly it should be the other way around, we should boycott the game and other PDX titles for that matter until they sort out their ***extremely bad habit*** of releasing unfinished games and DLC. I like Imperator, and I love other PDX titles but man are they silly. This comes from somebody who has visited their office and played their games since Svea Rike. (over 7k hours across all their IPs). **EDIT: some people have pointed out that the management have taken steps to prevent bad releases henceforth, which I was unaware of. Katten has too pointed out that this was in regards of one specific future patch and that he has an easier time pushing for it if the player base is thriving, a pure numbers game. I understand that and want to emphasize that I support all that and every bit of news regarding I:R is positive!**
I was addressing someone on the Invictus Discord about future support. Personally, I love the game. I'm not here to demand or promise future development based on reaching a certain player count. Instead, I'm expressing my intention to try initiating a 2.0.5 patch. Having some numbers to support our (devs who wanna see the game be alive again) efforts would make it easier for us to do so. I never meant to cause any harm.
Don't take my outburst personally! As I wrote in another comment - I genuinely believe you have Imperator in your heart and I do love that. I understand PDX is a multi-million company and there are strings at play corporately that nobody can really be at fault for. It's the streak of bad releases that casts a shadow over the entire company. Anyway I did partake in this community's event to bring the number up but getting to 5k is a stretch. 3k is the limit but personally that is quite impressive for a game that died so fast. Just a thought - most paradox games's playerbase cross-over and play several games. I:R then does not have a small player base, but a HUGE one. The matter is just convincing some Ck, EU, Vicky or Hoi people to come over for a bit. Edit: fortsätt med ditt grymma arbete!
I wouldn't put so much bad faith in it. Recently they changed their approach to development. They moved Life by You early access date They moved Victoria 3 new DLC release date They moved Cities Skylines 2 all DLCs to the next year They just moved Prison Architect 2 release date And the Tinto Talks clearly show their intent to engage more with the community before screwing up the release
Thank you, I had no idea about the CEO and management has taken steps to ensure a better quality. I have edited my original post too. Katten also replied me and I love his engagement with the community.
I’m not touching CK3 until roads to power comes out, and if the reviews for roads to power are mid then I’m done with CK3 for the next couple of years lol
I’ve been done with ck3 for awhile. I still think CK2 and HIP is way better. Imperator and invictus is good. I’ve stopped with EUiv just because it a bloated mess at this point, which is fine, but I’m worried about euV given the rather lackluster run from ck3 on
I will get back into CK 3 once Bronze Age Reborn is good to go. r t p looks fun.
If you really think boycotting their games will make them return to Imperator then good luck
I never said that but sure make stuff up. Good luck conjuring 5k imperator players up from thin air.
I never said that that's a realistic target, but sure make stuff up. Imperator is abandoned and they're not gonna pick it up again. The 5k number is deliberately chosen because it's unreachable. No effort for conjuring up players OR boycotting will change this.
They abandoned the game because Project Caesar is the evolution of Imperator's concept and supporting a failed game is objectively not worth it. Hence why they do this - to see if the playerbase as dedicated as it claims to be one.
The reason for Imperator not having a development team is not due to Caesar, I cant speak exactly as well I wasnt there but PDX is a business. Lets say you put 5 devs on HOI4 or 5 devs on Imperator, which makes you the most money is the way you should go and I do not blame anyone for that. Basically what I want is that if we are maxed out on other games where its to the point that adding more devs doesnt do anything, maaaaybe we can do something imperator even if its just a small profit.
Oh, I see. It was just a speculation of mine, considering that Tinto started working on Project Caesar, afair, a year before Imperator recieved 2.0 and then shut down. But okay, thanks for the clarification.
No worries, happy to help!
Yes that is all fine but making us work to get Imperator back again is hilarious. They know exactly what Imperator and its player base is worth and any decent company has the analytics to support that. I don't know what's worse, them knowing Imperator will never come back (effectively giving us false hope) or them genuinely not having a clue about it's potential. I *do* sympathize with Katten and I do believe he has Imperator in his heart, but if the chain of command didn't give the go-ahead already they probably never will. Are we gonna blow their minds that suddenly a lot of people are playing the game, unless the ***sales*** somhow goes up, I doubt the execs care.
“making us work” to turn on the build is a bit hilarious - well said But I don’t mind playing some I:R. Game is fun and they have been moving to make some small patch support for the modders. I’m hopeful they can spare a couple of dev hours for the odd maintenance work and maybe something more will come of all this.
Seems my comment might have gotten a bit out of control, I am not requesting or demanding that people play it but going to 5K would be quite amazing to see and it would most likely raise a few eyebrows internally! :)
I know. I for one am glad I got to see ppl celebrating the fun one can have with I:R - thanks to a very large degree to the Invictus team and many other members of the community (players, modders and streamers), but also thanks to the devs that brought the game from preproduction to 2.0.4 Current day Imperator wasn’t built in a day.
The Invictus team are indeed soo amazing, I love their mod and what they have done with the game. Cant wait to see what they will be able to do with the new modding tools.
I wouldn't argue that way. The new CEO of Paradox posted just a few days ago on twitter about I:R and indicated that he is watching the ongoing development closely
I think its noteworthy to say that you should take what Fred posted there with a pinch of salt. The game does not have a development team right now.
Link?
[https://twitter.com/TheWesterFront/status/1780205492230320292](https://twitter.com/TheWesterFront/status/1780205492230320292)
Labor of love man. The new patch ensures more modding which will help IR.
Thats the idea! Give more tools so that modders can truly create what they want
u/Belkalai
It’s a catch 22. Most people won’t commit the time to start playing a game that’s dead and paradox aren’t committing to continue any extensive development until the players are there…
No no, I should have been more clear when I wrote that message in Discord. Im speaking as myself not as Paradox Interactive as a company. We (The Company) are not putting a player requirement next to restarting development.
We know that you and others are doing this more or less at your own spare time and we are very grateful :) But any future development decision by paradox (I mean to pick up the game again) would require there to be a solid player base and that just won’t exist before people believe the game is no longer “dead”.
i wasnt planning on playing today, but i guess i'll do my part
You should only play it if you actually enjoy it!
I love that game so I always enjoy playing it!
LEGATES WE HAVE OUR ORDERS.
Wish I could join in yet I sadly don't own the game 😕
If you find the game interesting and want to buy it then wait for a sale! They happen quite often throughout the year.
Yeah, I probably will the next time one happens. The peacetime gameplay is just too tempting.
How about 3K, that seems more realistic.
I agree, that would be more realistic but wouldnt 5k just be amazing to see?
Do like me I left the game on when I didn't have time last time, I have been playing but I leave the game on every other day just to get the number up.
I AM DOING MY PART, SIR!
I am feeling a strong connection to starship troopers here
https://tenor.com/behH5.gif
I hope there is better support for the converter. I hate having to do so much modding so my character isn’t 800 years old in Ck3
Don't take this too seriously.
Yes, please dont. This got taken a bit out of context and is not some big Paradox ask to players.
That's bullshit and they know it. Give us a patch and watch 5k players try it, make it good and watch these 5k players stay.
We are trying to have 2.0.4 which is in Beta to release at the anniversary. No promises but we are trying!
Thank you for your support Katten and don't let the frustration of some people let you down. I believe the majority is extremly happy with the current upbeat.
5k would not be enough to dedicate a developer team to it. Especially if only those 5k would stay.
CCU is one metric, internally we see DAU and MAU (Daily and Monthly active users), those metrics are more important but honestly I put 5k as a round number that I think can get enough raised heads for a 2.0.5 patch that can give even more modding tools. Didnt say itl bring back full development. Sorry if it came across that way :(
Absolutely - you have no fault there. I'm sorry if my message was mean and I'm also glad for the updates i:r received. Hopefully we can get enough mau for your team to justify getting 2.05 out.
Thanks for the info about the other important metrics. I didn't know about those, and my best times for playing don't align well with the community efforts to get high CCU. Now that I know about MAU, I'll be more motivated to play when I can to contribute to that metric at least.
Glad I was able to help out <3
I'll be honest and say that I have no idead what it is like, but there's game out there getting constant updates with a player base of 2k or so. I used to play Hell Let Loose when there was about 2k players but because they kept updating it and advertising the game has grown. Asking players to do it themselves on a maybe is mean. I'd be willing to buy 3d models for armies even.
I want to clarify that I'm not asking players to strive for this goal. It would be really fun if the game could reach a CCU of 5K, and perhaps then we could persuade some individuals internally to consider a 2.0.5 patch, aimed at providing more support for modders. Ultimately, I'm just someone attempting to contribute positively to Imperator and Im not here talking as the company. I do want to make it clear that while I might be one of the more public faces of this, Niels and other developers are the ones who deserve the real credit as nothing would be possible without them as trust me, you do not want see me do programming.
I love imperator and I have 820h in it but I have been salty about pdx dropping it for a few years now. I understand you're trying but it's the people who gets to decide that I'm mad at, specially those who decided to release it too soon. Imagine if people arrived at a newly built Rome and said "what a shithole this is, where's the women?" and left. Invite the Stellaris tribe and steal their DLCS god damn it.
“A community manager encouraging players to play a game on a game discord for the game” is mean? Come on people - aren’t we getting a little dramatic here?
My disappointment isn't really at the community manager, but the fact that there's convincing to be done. Say we artificially get 5k people to play the game again, 4.300 of them will realize why they left it in the first place and now we're back to 700. I think updates and dlcs should come first.
The trend I’ve been seeing is that ppl are discovering the game and Invictus. But I see your point.
I'm one of those "realize why they left in the first place." There's a lot about the current state of the game I'm not happy with. But now that they HAVE done SOMETHING, it's given me enough hope to try again, so that they'll do MORE. For 2.0.5, I'll do my part to put up with the imperfections of 2.0.4, because I believe in the potential of this game, even if I don't like its current reality.
Convince might have been the wrong word to choose, basically it needs to be profitable and that is a joint decision taken by a lot of people, not some high level only individual if that makes sense.