Hey there !

I noticed Caesar III doesn't get as much Speedrunning love as it could, so I decided to give a shot. The rules seem quite simple in terms of starting the game, but there have been great mods that came out, mainly Augustus and Julius. I think there's also an Full HD patch/mod out there as well.

Julius is essentially a UI overhaul but it doesn't affect any gameplay features, whereas Augustus builds on Julius and implements new aspects in the game (such as roadblocks).

I could see Augustus being a category of it's own, but would Julius be an acceptable mod to go with ? Or does it not matter because there are hardly any runners anyways ? ^^

Thanks to anyone who responds !

Hey!

Haven't tried Julius myself yet (seems nice though). If I understood correctly, Julius is a total recreation of the game. It looks like it's as close as possible to the original, but isn't there a risk it could have an impact on some runs?

Anyway if most of the runners are playing with Julius, then I would say it shouldn't be a problem? I wouldn't mind a poll about it, but I'm not sure we'll get many answers.

I'd have to dig into it a bit more (or ask on GamerZakh's Discord, where a lot of the Julius/Augustus discussions are held) but I felt as if it was simply a rescaled version of the original game : Julius requires to identify the original Ceasar III files to run (Julius is an executable, whereas Augustus contains modified game files that have to be put into the game folder). There are some options that may be modified - the most "changing" could be the "auto-cycling temple" button - but it's not things like adding actual roadblocks (Augustus). But in any case, yes, I guess it'll just depend on what people end up doing most :)

Spec, the current Caesar III mod, hasn't been on in 3 years it seems, so it may fall on new members to revive the runs around the game and get that pole going.. Current rules are to be in Hard, as well as have God Effects active - but there's no real check on that either.. Julius can have some game options visible on the right side bar (like game speed), so maybe there could be some discussion with Julius modders to include a "Speedrun mode" that would add rule relevant info in the side bar.

Also congrats on taking top time on Mission 1 - glad to see there's a bit of momentum going to bring runners in ;)

I personally am fine with using Julius, we'll see if other peoples have anything against that

Also I was thinking about finding a way to set a few hotkeys (for new buildings essentially), is that ok ? No more than one action per key of course

And congrats for the new top time again :p

Sounds good for Julius !

For rules and settings though, to keep things consistent and verifiable, I guess it would be required to somehow be able to "show" those things.. I'm not sure of the approach on that.. Difficulty and God Effects are current requirements - God effects are easy to see, whereas the difficulty isn't necessarily obvious. I wonder if the Julius creators could include a "SpeedRun mode" where these indications would be highlighted - in a similar way to "Ironman" runs in Paradox games, that are required to allow (Steam) Achievements.

Julius actually does allow you to set hotkeys for buildings, which otherwise doesn't seem possible in the Base game (if I'm not mistaken), so that could be a key difference beyond the simple "screen resolution" changes. I think it could be ok (RTS games like Warcraft naturally use them) but maybe an interesting question for the community.

Quite odd to be setting rules as the only current runners ! ^^'

Oh glad Julius allows it itself, but then yes, I guess we'd have to have the final word on whether its ok to fully use this mod or not at first.

I could try developing that "Speedrun mode" feature to Julius later, if I manage to understand how it works :)

We'll definitely need milliseconds timers for levels :p

In summary from the GamerZakh Discord exchanges with some notably active community members :

• most current players of the game play with Julius, rather than the base game. Purists could argue that speedrunning Julius is not legitimate - but this could be clarified by indicating two categories and will depends on community interest/following.
• Julius shouldn't affect anything that would modify run times, when compared to the base game. Only some bugs (e.g. immigration bug) would be fixed (and that requires chosing an option)
• Augustus definitely would be too complicated to set up what with various rules (e.g. global worker pool) as well as potentially game changing version updates (e.g. cart depot)
• the Peace rating would risk being the limiting factor in all missions and so runs would quickly be limited not by a "game skill" factor but by the arbitrary "Peace factor" limit
• it must be confirmed if 500% speed is the same on all computers, or if there is a hardware limitation that may influence runs ( ==> eventually test this by running 10 years on different systems)

Following up on some discusions with Gheekss :

• Julius has an option to "add information" on the right side of the screen, such as game speed and city ratings. It could be interesting to have a "Speedrun" option that could include game difficulty, and maybe even a "real time" timer, if that could be a credible tool (==> to be discussed with Julius mods)
• Would hotkeys be allowed ? Julius allows this, but it clearly marks a difference from the base game - so if it's included, Julius may have to be a separate category
• If Peace rating is such an issue, it could be possible to create a category that addresses all level requirements EXCEPT the Peace rating. Of course an interest/following would be necessary. The information provided by the Julius side bar could facilitate this, but base game could simply open the options to confirm it. In this scope, Favor could still be an issue (as it depends on imperial requests)
• Game difficulty on Hard seems like a good level to have now. Maybe if more runners come in the future and Very Hard becomes a new norm to test runners, that category can be established.