Imperator: Rome has a big Livy update released and the free Punic Wars DLC

What could be a true turning point for Paradox Development Studio and Paradox Interactive with Imperator: Rome, a new update "Livy" is out along with the free Punic Wars DLC.

New feature highlight in the Livy update:

• Map changes to Sicily, Ireland, Scotland, Greece and parts of the Baltic Coast.
• Character Experience System, rewarding the cultivation of important characters within your nation.
• Mapmode Manager: providing support for additional future mapmodes, and allowing you to customize your mapmode bar.
• Inferno Graphics: See the ravages of war like never before, as sacked cities burn and smoke.
• Family Rework: A focused, IR-unique take on the importance of characters and great families in the Hellenistic era.
• Generated Mission Templates, giving all nations access to objectives relevant to their own situation.

The free Punic Wars content pack includes:

• Roman Mission Pack: Ten unique mission trees for the star of Imperator: Rome to guide your conquest of Italy and neighboring regions.
• Carthaginian Mission Pack: Ten unique mission trees for the children of Tyre to help you plan your mercantile and military dominance of Africa, Spain and the rest of the west.
• Numidian Unit Model: New army model for the Numidians, North Africans often hired as mercenaries by larger powers.
• Carthaginian Ship Model: A unique ship design for Carthaginian navies.
• New Music: Three additional music tracks to soothe your conquering soul.

Just a warning, that save files from the previous version are not compatible. On Steam, you can use the Beta opt in system to change to an older version. If you're on GOG and you wish to finish, well, just don't update yet!

For Linux support as of this release, Paradox has also bumped up the minimum supported distribution to Ubuntu 18.04 (up from 16.04). Since GOG actually got the update for Linux right away, I've actually been able to test it this time. On Manjaro Linux, the launcher now seems to work fine without any workarounds although you might find you need to install "libc++" to get the actual game running. This is a huge improvement to the frankly messed up initial release, where some people had to disable networking for it to even load. Now everything certainly seems playable and smooth—hooray!

If you're running it on Steam, you might still need this launch option:

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libc.so.6 %command%

At least on Steam the feedback they're getting is starting to look better too, while the overall review score is still "Mixed" the recent reviews have turned "Very Positive".

You can find Imperator: Rome and the free content pack on GOG, Humble Store and Steam. On Steam, it's also now free to try until December 8.

If you do try it and play through after this update, be sure to come back and let us know in the comments how your experience has changed since the initial release.