Selected Chris Beatrice Quotes
There was a lot mentioned in the interview between myself and Chris Beatrice on the subject of Zeus: Master of Olympus. Therefore, I decided to go through it with a fine-toothed comb and extract all the information I could find and package it up into easy-to swallow capsules. So here we go:

Politics and Trade

• In Zeus you, the player, are ruler of an independent city-state.
• You can establish your own colony and become even more self-sufficient.
• A colony is one of several cities that comprise the player's city-state or "polis". Player picks from several viable locations, establishes the colony, and then returns to the parent city. Colonies supply resources and raw materials for your main city. Colonies and vassals might revolt if your demands are too harsh.
• You have ally and rival cities to contend with.
• Each city maintains real-time diplomacy with you. 4 groups of cities - allies, rivals, colonies and vassals. Rivals might gang up against you, or allies might all turn to your enemies if you attack 1 of them.
• You can attack and conquer other cities (and demand tribute thereafter); you can give gifts to them or make demands of them… you can even order your allies to attack your enemies for you.
• The other cities in Zeus are living, thinking entities.
• Trade is not made possible by paying to open routes, but on whether or not you're in good enough standing with a given city for them to trade with you.

War

• You can attack any city you want at any time.
• Military units include triremes, horsemen and hoplites.
• Military comprised of well-off citizens. Must be supplied with horses, arms and armour to be effective.
• Triremes are crewed by lower-class citizens.

Gods and Heroes

• Borrowing and mixing characters and events freely from the so-called "Heroic Age" (i.e. the Iliad & Odyssey), the Dark Age (i.e. Xena, Warrior Princess), and the Classical Age (which is more like ancient Rome).
• The gods crave the player's worship.
• Certain gods will tend to support the player and certain gods will oppose him/her.
• The player usually has to worship at least one of the gods, and that god then comes to the player's city to help him (This can take a variety of forms, from the god walking the streets and sanctifying certain structures, to granting the player some mythical beast to help defend the city, or even personally engaging in combat with the city's enemies).
• You may have trouble setting up a foundry because a pesky Kraken, or Medusa the Gorgon won't leave you alone.

Game Structure

• A campaign (we're calling them "adventures", at least for now) involves the creation of a single parent city, and one or more colonies - known collectively as a city-state or "polis".
• A "campaign" in Zeus might roughly equate in terms of play time to a mission in Pharaoh, though it's broken up into several subparts or goals.
• A "mission" is really just one of the goals (which can be relatively minor) you'll have to achieve as you develop this little empire.
• Mission goals can be things like achieving quests, slaying mythical beasts, making allies, establishing colonies, and so forth.
• When you achieve a mission goal, you go on to the next mission, but that doesn't mean going on to another city. It may mean picking a location and setting up a colony, or it may mean returning to the parent-city from a colony, or it may mean staying in the parent-city and developing it further.

Game Engine Changes

• Terrain elevation added.
• Alpha channel added for pyro graphical effects. (RR's note: Thunderbolts from Zeus?)
• Natural disasters such as lava floes.
• Livestock handled differently. Sheep and goats are purchased and tended by shepherds and goatherds. Competition for land between crops and animals.
• New interface - now you can play the entire game from just the city & world levels and messages system where you can skim over your messages without interrupting the game.
• Raw materials acquired differently.
• 2 types of housing.
• Food and goods distribution.
• Troops supported by the Palace (whatever that means ;)).
• Pathfinding changes.

General Information

• Zeus not constrained by strict historicity.
• The Olympic Games will be represented in some way.
• Sacrifices and naked sheep..?

Known Buildings

• Agora (Marketplace?)
• Sanctuary
• Trading Pier
• Trading Post
• Palace

Extra note: Although not mentioned in the interview, I am informed that there are no plans to incorporate multiplayer into Zeus.

Ok, that's all I could find. If there's anything I've missed (and I'm sure there must be somewhere), then please drop me a line and I'll update this page.