New 4X Title Unveiled At Steam Next Fest From Paradox

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• New 4X Title Unveiled At Steam Next Fest From Paradox

At this year’s February Steam Next Fest, C Prompt Games with publisher Paradox Interactive showed off the new 4X game Millennia. The game’s demo currently allows you to play 60 turns which is enough time to advance through the first two ages and get an introduction to the game’s systems. Paradox in recent months has started becoming a more active publisher with the following other games announced:

• Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 (Coming Fall 2024)
• Life By You (A Sims competitor; Early Access coming June 4, 2024)
• Foundry (A factory/automation game)
• Prison Architect 2 (A management game; Check out our article on it; Coming March 26, 2024 (2024-05-06): 2024-09-03)

(2024-02-22): Millenia is currently going to release on March 26, 2024, and pre-orders are now available on Steam.

C Prompt Games

C Prompt Games is a independent studio founded by Robert Fermier and Ian M. Fischer. According to Moby Games, Robert Fermier is an industry veteran with their first credited contribution to a game being Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds in 1993 for DOS for playtesting. Robert has an extensive record in programming/engineering and quality assurance. Notable games they provided programming to are:

• System Shock (2023)
• Halo Wars (original and Definitive Edition)
• Orcs Must Die! (1 and 2)
• Age of Mythology
• Age of Empires: Mythologies

Ian M. Fischer is also an industry veteran with their first credited contribution being in quality assurance for the original Age of Empires in 1997. As their career evolved they have been more involved in the game design and business aspect of the gaming industry. Notable games they provided design expertise to are:

• Halo Wars (original and Definitive Edition)
• Orcs Must Die! (1 and 2)
• Age of Mythology
• Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings

Age of Empires II holds a special place in my memories as it was the first RTS game that I had ever played before being exposed to Blizzard Entertainment with StarCraft and WarCraft 3.

A Brief Overview of the Systems

The gameplay in the demo reminded me a lot of Civilization, but also had new mechanics like vassals and adding cities within domains. Each domain has a major city and you can add lesser cities to the domain to increase resource generation. To provide an analogy, the lesser cities are like districts in Civ 6 in that cities can have production specializations. When you first make a new major city with a settler it acts as a vassal to your civilization and you can integrate them after 15 turns for 25 Government EXP. You have the option to just leave them as your vassal, but that means you have no control over what they do. So then they are more or less a city-state you get benefits from that is a part of your civilization.

As you advance through the ages new experience groups get unlocked and added to your increasing options. Each of these experience groups offers unique, and instant, rewards provided you have the points. You start with the Government ideal group which allows you to create settlers and create basic infantry instantly. The options also expand as time goes on as I also had the option in Government to revolutionize and adopt a new form of government. After a few turns, you will also unlock Exploration and Warfare ideal groups. The Warfare group has a nice ability to heal an army of your choosing for 10 EXP. The EXP is the main resource you’ll need to manage as, at least for military, is used to upgrade units, heal them, and promote them to veterans.

After about 60 turns the game started to show some complexity as the various mechanics started to unveil themselves and intertwine. Supposedly, the history of my civilization is also not set in stone as when you get to transition point from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age you have a series of options for what your next age will be. You have a default selection with no special requirements and then 2 others that require you to complete specific requirements to unlock the progression path. Being the first to achieve something in the world (such as the first to advance to a new age) will generate inspiration points that appears to act as a sort of golden age once you completely fill the meter.