Old World

Old World is a turn-based historical strategy game in the tradition of the Civilization series. It threads together classic Civ-style 4X gameplay mechanics with Crusader Kings character-driven procedural narrative while also innovating in both of these spaces. Players choose an ancient empire to found, starting with a historical ruler as the head of their royal dynasty.

The Lead Designer of Old World is Soren Johnson, who was the co-designer of Civilization III and the Lead Designer of Civilization IV. The game will launch as an Early Access title on the Epic Game Store before Summer 2020.

Old World introduces many mechanics that are important to understand while playing, and some of the most critical ones are listed below:

Orders: Represented visually by a scroll, Orders are a resource used to issue commands across your nation. Instead of moving every unit every turn, as is traditional in a 4X game like Civilization, each unit can be moved as many times as desired, until the player runs out of Orders. There are many other ways to spend Orders: Combat, Construction, Events, Diplomacy, and so on.

Legitimacy: Each ruler must prove that they are worthy of the throne. As you accomplish Ambitions, finish Wonders, and gain renown (as “the Wise” or “the Avenger” or “the Peacemaker”), your Legitimacy increases, granting additional Orders each year and improving your standing with the people.

Succession: Every turn in Old World represents a year, and the rulers are mortals who won’t last forever. They will need to get married and produce an heir to continue their line. When a ruler dies, the heir who takes the throne chooses a new Ambition to make a new name for him/herself. Players can also change their Succession Laws to ensure that the right person inherits the throne.

Events: Old World has a powerful and deep dynamic event system that generates a procedural story for your nation based on your decisions, your accomplishments, and your characters. For Early Access, the game will ship with over 1,000 unique events, many of which are inspired by historical events from the period (including Wikipedia links for the curious). These events give characters Memories, Traits, and Relationships, which can then trigger later events, so be careful what you choose. (A Role-Playing game option hides the effects of decisions until afterwards, which is good for players who want to focus on the narrative.)

Politics: Each nation has four noble Families who can be granted stewardship of your cities, with each one providing unique and powerful bonuses. You’ll want to balance how to distribute cities among your Families carefully as those with too many will begin to think they deserve the throne while those with too few will grow envious of their rivals. Pleased families will keep their citizenry under control while angry ones will incite revolts.

City Territories: Old World cities form cohesive blocks of territory, with an urban center and rural hinterlands. Each improvement occupies a single tile, including Wonders and urban buildings, such as Shrines, Amphitheaters, and Garrisons. This territory grows based on where the player constructs improvements and trains specialists on the map.

Playing the Market: Unlike in Civilization, resources in Old World, such as Food, Wood, Stone, and Iron, are stockpiled as they are produced, to be spent on units, improvements, Wonders, and so on. Borrowing from some Offworld Trading Company algorithms, a dynamic marketplace allows players to buy and sell the resources at any time, with the prices fluctuating based on supply-and-demand.

Technology Deck: The technology tree borrows mechanics from card-building games to add variety and create interesting decisions. Each technology available to research is added to the player’s deck, and when it is time to choose the next technology to research, the player draws four cards, chooses one, and then discards the others, which will not reappear until the deck is reshuffled. Thus, choosing between two desirable technologies is a difficult decision as the player knows they will not see the card they just passed over for many more turns.

Source: The Game Press Kit.