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Known Features
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...
Update: I've updated this list to include what was
discovered by Angel Washizu while
he was at E3. You can read his full report here.
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.
- When returning to your city after building a colony, it will be exactly
as you left it.
- 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.
- You can
ask other cities for help.
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.
- The soldiers are not full time fighters, so building an army will
take people away from their other jobs.
- Triremes
are crewed by lower-class citizens.
- No forts
- the size of army you can recruit and the sort of troops therein is
decided by your population and its composition.
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.
- There
will be 12 Gods in all, including Apollo, Athena, and Zeus.
- Maximum
of 4 sanctuaries per city. Build in a similar fashion to monuments in
Pharaoh, but won't take as long.
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. (The two housing types are common and elite 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 or E3 report, 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.
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