A KINGDOMTO DISCOVER
PART 1
With this first installment of Questions & Answers, we're kicking off a series to introduce the world of Oriontis and explain how to play.
1. What is Oriontis: The Lost Kingdom?
Oriontis: The Lost Kingdom is a city-building and strategy video game for PC. Players must found and manage colonies, organize production, develop trade, and meet the needs of their inhabitants.
2. What games inspired Oriontis?
Oriontis draws inspiration from city-building classics such as Caesar, Pharaoh, Emperor, and Zeus, which are part of the Impressions Games tradition. It shares with them a focus on urban planning, production chains, and the distribution of goods and services.
Those familiar with these games will find a familiar foundation: each building serves a purpose within a city whose systems depend on one another. Oriontis expands on this foundation within its own unique universe, where ships connect settlements and the relationships between the Crown, factions, and colonies are integral to the experience.
3. What is the world of Oriontis like?
The world of Oriontis consists of large rock fragments suspended in the void, capable of sustaining an atmosphere, vegetation, and life. Sailing ships navigate among them, transporting goods and connecting ports built alongside enormous cliffs.
Its architecture combines medieval and Victorian influences with the imagery of nautical adventure.
4. What is the player's role?
The player takes on the responsibility of establishing a colony and turning it into a place where its people can thrive. The top priorities are securing food, providing housing, and getting an economy off the ground with limited resources.
As the colony grows, new responsibilities arise: expanding services, assigning workers, managing finances, and meeting the demands of the Kingdom. The colony is also tied to factions with their own interests, so governing involves making decisions about its relationships with those powers and the future of its inhabitants.
5. What needs to be managed to keep the city running?
Agriculture, industry, storage, transportation, and trade form the foundation of the economy. The fields need workers; the workshops need raw materials; and products must reach those who consume them.
Players must also address the population's health, education, and religious life, in addition to managing wages, taxes, and expenditures.
The challenge lies in coordinating these needs. A new neighborhood increases the demand for food and services; a new industry requires labor and supplies. Helping the colony prosper means understanding these relationships and deciding what the city needs at each stage.
In upcoming installments, we'll delve deeper into the city simulation, naval trade, factions, and the campaign of Oriontis: The Lost Kingdom.