Thursday, February 8th 2024
Paradox Interactive's "Millennia" Demo Playable Until February 12
Hello there! Community Manager Katten here, we provided access to the Steam Next Fest Demo! So this Diary is here to get you caught up to speed to the question; What is Millennia? Millennia is a revolutionary turn-based 4X game developed by C Prompt Games, a team of experienced strategy developers known for their work on the Age of Empires franchise. This game introduces innovative elements such as alternate history, custom tech trees, and a focus on both economy and combat. Millennia stands out by redefining the 4X genre with dynamic historical progression, where your decisions shape the unfolding of different historical ages. Each age brings its own distinct gameplay challenges and opportunities, taking players on a journey from ancient civilizations to futuristic societies. With every choice holding significance, Millennia offers unparalleled replayability and strategic depth with its unique core pillars, so let's dive in!
Ages
A key innovation in Millennia is the Age-based design. There are ten Ages in a "normal" game, ranging from the Age of Stone to the near-future. Each Age provides the experience of the Age - the Age of Iron has Iron Age technologies, Iron Age units, Iron Age buildings, and rules specific to the conditions of the Iron Age. If you keep things within "normal" parameters, you might progress through 10 "standard" Ages, each delivering historical gameplay. However, Millennia allows history to go off the rails. If you make some different decisions, you might steer your timeline into alternate Ages. These Ages are still historically themed, but explore some "what-if" territory. The Age of Aether is based on a history where the internal combustion engine doesn't come about as soon as it did and steam-power develops further. The Age of Blood is based on a war raging out of control and spreading across the world. Ultimately, most of the things you have to use in a game come from the Ages, so you can end up with very, very different scenarios depending on the specific history and alternate history your timeline moves through.
National Spirits
Think of National Spirits as "things a nation can be famous for." Are your people known as great engineers? Is your nation seen as the center of global banking? Does the world fear your unbeatable warriors? Mechanically, each National Spirit is a technology tree. You get to pick National Spirits from a set at different points in a game. Doing so makes the technologies of the National Spirit available to you.
Through National Spirits, you get to customize your Nation, to decide what you will be famous for, during the course of the game.
Deep Economy and Combat
Economy and combat are key to Millennia. As you lead your nation, you'll need to design the right economy for your strategy. Not all resources in Millennia are the same. Cutting down trees for Logs can provide Production, much like mining Copper. However, with the right Improvements, you can create a chain where your Logs are made into Paper which is then made into Books, getting you Knowledge (or Religion or Government or Wealth) instead of Production. Some resources are (like the Logs) broad and capable of steering into a variety of different Goods while others are more focused and less flexible. How you decide to structure your economy has an impact on your capabilities and your ability to respond to changing conditions.
One of the places this is felt is with combat. The best military for you to field changes based on your economic design (and the Age you have moved into and the National Spirits you have selected). You might be better off with more Production to train troops, or more Warfare Domain to support them, or more Wealth to pay the upkeep on expensive elite troops. Beyond the economy, combat offers its own interesting decisions. Different types of Units have different capabilities. You design your Armies by assigning multiple Units to fight together, allowing you to create different Army types for different needs.
Millennia Steam Next Fest Demo
Now onto what you have been waiting for, the Demo. In the Demo, you have access to playing all the way up and during the 3rd age, within a 60 turn limiter. The Demo is Singleplayer only, but Multiplayer will be available at release. The Demo is only available in English, with additional languages at release. During the Demo, you might encounter bugs or find areas to give feedback upon. If that is the case, we would highly appreciate it if you would tell us about it on the Forum!
Source:
Millenia Steam Profile
Ages
A key innovation in Millennia is the Age-based design. There are ten Ages in a "normal" game, ranging from the Age of Stone to the near-future. Each Age provides the experience of the Age - the Age of Iron has Iron Age technologies, Iron Age units, Iron Age buildings, and rules specific to the conditions of the Iron Age. If you keep things within "normal" parameters, you might progress through 10 "standard" Ages, each delivering historical gameplay. However, Millennia allows history to go off the rails. If you make some different decisions, you might steer your timeline into alternate Ages. These Ages are still historically themed, but explore some "what-if" territory. The Age of Aether is based on a history where the internal combustion engine doesn't come about as soon as it did and steam-power develops further. The Age of Blood is based on a war raging out of control and spreading across the world. Ultimately, most of the things you have to use in a game come from the Ages, so you can end up with very, very different scenarios depending on the specific history and alternate history your timeline moves through.
Think of National Spirits as "things a nation can be famous for." Are your people known as great engineers? Is your nation seen as the center of global banking? Does the world fear your unbeatable warriors? Mechanically, each National Spirit is a technology tree. You get to pick National Spirits from a set at different points in a game. Doing so makes the technologies of the National Spirit available to you.
Through National Spirits, you get to customize your Nation, to decide what you will be famous for, during the course of the game.
Deep Economy and Combat
Economy and combat are key to Millennia. As you lead your nation, you'll need to design the right economy for your strategy. Not all resources in Millennia are the same. Cutting down trees for Logs can provide Production, much like mining Copper. However, with the right Improvements, you can create a chain where your Logs are made into Paper which is then made into Books, getting you Knowledge (or Religion or Government or Wealth) instead of Production. Some resources are (like the Logs) broad and capable of steering into a variety of different Goods while others are more focused and less flexible. How you decide to structure your economy has an impact on your capabilities and your ability to respond to changing conditions.
One of the places this is felt is with combat. The best military for you to field changes based on your economic design (and the Age you have moved into and the National Spirits you have selected). You might be better off with more Production to train troops, or more Warfare Domain to support them, or more Wealth to pay the upkeep on expensive elite troops. Beyond the economy, combat offers its own interesting decisions. Different types of Units have different capabilities. You design your Armies by assigning multiple Units to fight together, allowing you to create different Army types for different needs.
Millennia Steam Next Fest Demo
Now onto what you have been waiting for, the Demo. In the Demo, you have access to playing all the way up and during the 3rd age, within a 60 turn limiter. The Demo is Singleplayer only, but Multiplayer will be available at release. The Demo is only available in English, with additional languages at release. During the Demo, you might encounter bugs or find areas to give feedback upon. If that is the case, we would highly appreciate it if you would tell us about it on the Forum!
3 Comments on Paradox Interactive's "Millennia" Demo Playable Until February 12
(Not saying the game won't be fun. Hoping it will, actually. But the presentation is made for retards.)