News & Updates
Rome is under active, ongoing development - here's a running log of what's actually shipped, most recent first. The same highlights show up in-game too: type motd or news once you're playing for the current headline.
Resistance, colored languages, and a Germanic gear drop
Debuffs and buffs can now be resisted - a higher Ingenium than whoever cast it helps you shrug it off, instead of every hex and hex-like effect landing automatically. Custom titles can run up to 60 characters, look <direction> correctly checks real exits first, and each of the five learnable languages now shows in its own color when spoken. The Germanic Stronghold's warriors now speak in-character and drop their own unique gear when defeated.
Closed the disengage/rest loop, retired Animate Dead
Wounded enemies you leave standing now heal back up over time instead of sitting at whatever HP you left them at forever, and a successful disengage/flee now costs a bit of XP progress - still far lighter than dying, but no longer free. Haruspex's Animate Dead is gone, replaced by Summon Fury: a real late-game companion upgrade.
Class rebalance pass, racial abilities, and a new compare command
A full role-audit across Augur, Medicus, and Haruspex to make sure each class's kit actually matches its own identity, plus several new spells and skills. Five races now have a real, usable signature ability (racial). Added compare for checking gear side by side, and fixed several sewer creatures that had somehow shipped with no real stats at all.
Live bugfix batch, Discord is open
Fixed five real combat bugs surfaced by player reports. Our Discord server is now live and linked in-game and across the site - come talk to the dev team directly.
Player Testing phase begins
Rome opened its doors for real player testing. Added roleplay/description help topics and real pet-lifecycle management for anyone running a summoned companion.
Equipping gear, simplified
Unified weapon and armor equipping into one consistent equip/unequip pair instead of separate commands per slot.
Arena Fighters get real gear, chargen gets a real ceremony
The Deeper Sands' Arena Fighters now wield real, mechanically-active weapons and armor, and drop real loot when defeated. Combat now shows clear wound-status feedback as a fight goes on. Character creation got a full aesthetic pass - in-world framing, Roman numerals, per-race and per-class colors, and a proper ceremonial ending.
Deeper Sands rebalanced to true endgame
The Deeper Sands is now real level 75+ endgame content, no longer competing with the sewers as "where to go next" right out of the Ludus. Added working doors, statues of the gods, a real map of Rome (ask the Forum bookseller), and a cleaner boxed stats display.
Beyond the walls: the road to Germania
Built Rome's first real city gate, the Porta Flaminia, and the wilderness road beyond it - the game's first stretch of real travel outside the city, with roaming danger along the way. At the road's end: the Germanic Stronghold, a full leveling zone. Also added a new-player tutorial and the recall command.
Religion & the quest framework
Mortal characters can now devote themselves to one of the pantheon's fourteen gods for real, ongoing benefits. Also shipped the full quest framework - one-time, narrative objectives from named NPCs, distinct from the bounty board's repeatable kills.
A major expansion of Rome itself
Opened the Aventine Hill, the Domus Aurea, the Library of Rome, and Campus Martius, plus a proper road out to the Pantheon. Built the bounty board. Movement now costs real stamina over distance, and death carries real weight - your resources fully empty until you're resurrected.
The Ludus weaponsmith opens
The game's first shop selling real combat gear - three tiers of weapons and armor, priced and balanced for a fresh Colosseum escapee.
Real gear finally has somewhere to go
Weapons and armor now scale properly with level, every class starts with real, fitting armor instead of just a weapon, and dropped items now decay on their own so the world doesn't fill up with clutter.
The Capitoline Hill and the Forum Romanum open
Rome proper opened for the first time beyond the Colosseum - the Capitoline's temples and Senate, and the full Forum Romanum. Also shipped the Cursus Divinorum god-tier system and the game's five learnable languages, each with its own real trainer.
This log starts with our push into Player Testing - Rome's been in active development for a good while before that, and every future update will keep landing here as we ship it.