Yeah, it's been a long time. Since March 27th I've been collecting your reports. I hope that this work, which costed me a lot of time, is adequate to your expectations.
I haven't decided yet if there's going to be another patch. It depends not only on this one's reception, but on personal matters as well (how much free time I'll have next year).
For now, MP version will follow shortly (by the way, I need someone to help doing a simple test, after that it's ready for the realease), and RAND after a few more days.
NOTE: unlocked WBS are included, so now you won't need to download them separately. Its thread will be closed.
CHANGES
- Wonders required for UHV forbidden to the AI when the human player isn’t yet alive (will make France, Maya and America easier and less dependent on luck)°°
- Same for Christianity founding, now postponed when Ethiopia is played by a human player
- Portuguese and Mongol goals slightly more difficult°°
- Turkish Black Sea goal now has a defined region (all the plots adjacent to the sea) and requires 4 instead of 3 cities°
- New Japanese goals: they’ll be achievable in different ways, leaving to the player the interpretation of the approach°°
- Stability values added to the advisory panels°°
- Attila is back! After adjusting some old code, now barbarians are again a real threat for Rome and Greece, like they were in vanilla times. Tuned in other areas too. They have a stronger effect on the AI thanks to the combat bonus adjustment°
- Pickle replaced by cPickle, 50% faster! Many thanks to Musicfreak°°
- Thanks to the loading times cut, America can now start in its proper date, rather than the earliest possible (their 1st UHV pushed later too)
- New timeline! 500 turns, with a slightly shorter 1900 and a much longer classical age°°
- UHV deadlines for some ancient civ have changed to fit the new timeline°°
- No tech brokering enabled by default°°
- From now on, unlocked versions of WBS are included in the package
- Leaderhead backgrounds replaced in all the cases of anachronism or when it was looking like they were “floating in the air”°°
- Leaderhead textures adjusted (especially complexion)°°
- New realistic terrain graphics (thanks to chuggi and anhu). The enhancement of trees was possible after mastering the DDS configuration, thus avoiding the general darkening and flattening of the texture which happens in other mods, such as Blue Marble°°
- Retouched some areas (especially Russia, thanks to Ruediger Hesse)°°
- African logical continent now only comprehends sub-Saharian Africa, causing Middle Eastern AIs to be much more aggressive in the Mediterranean, and Mail and Ethiopia to expand less. Thanks to Verily for the suggestion.°°
- Restored a part of Warlords code: now AI is much less shy when it’s time to colonise. You probably won’t notice much change however, as this is compensated by the slower tech pace
- AIs contact less frequently in the late game (they used to pester a lot with useless requests)°°
- No tech trading the first 3 turns after spawn (this fixes the exploit of giving techs and jumping to another civ)°°
ADJUSTMENTS
- Smaller Turkish and Mongolian spawn and respawn areas; bigger Viking one°°
- Mercenaries now spawn in your capital instead of a borderline city°°
- Tweaked stability cities star°°
- Adjusted formula for real population (will produce higher values)°°
- Some cities change name with era (such as Edo/Tokyo)°°
- Big update of settlers maps°°
- Giant update of city names°°
- Tweaked stability (less penalty for palace movement and for anarchy, Interpol, Security Bureaus and Intelligence Agency give stability bonus, more bonus for golden age, more penalty for giga empires and city lost to barbarians, less penalty for desert economies)°°
- Retuned great depression°°
- Golden age doesn’t stop anarchy anymore
- Stability indicators are reset after human player collapse°°
- Kremlin slightly cheaper°°
- AI gives less priority to embassies°°
- Easier defensive pacts between 2 civs allied with the same 3rd party°°
- in 600AD start, the Christian Crusade aims at Jerusalem rather than Rome
- The Holy City now is picked differently (the Christian one should no longer be always Milan)°°
- Bribing now offers choices of 10%, 20% or 50% of your treasury°°
- Updated estimated loading time
- More mercenaries are created°°
- Carthage and Vikings have more starting units°
- Early colonists assigned to Greek and Carthaginian AI°°
- Research rate adjusted (now slows down when the human player is alive, because he usually gives it a boost)°°
- Tuned culture strength, inflation and research rate of many civs°°
- Holland and Portugal less likely to do suicide attacks to Germany or Spain
- Tuned difficulty levels°°
- The Apostolic Palace now provides +25% city defence (will help Rome to stay independent in the 600AD start)
- Vassals cap now 5 instead of 4, but in that case no defensive pacts are allowed°
- During spawns, region of conversion of barbarian and independent units is wider°°
- The plot of Istanbul is changed to Asia under certain conditions: now Turkish AI will take it more easily instead of European civs°°
- AIs less likely to be vassalised the first turns°
- Arabia starts without Sailing in 600AD because it’s otherwise too close to caravels
- Added Roman roads in 600AD start
- Added Kazan and Baku as barbarian cities, spawning if the area isn’t already occupied°°
- Continents division now assigns only sub-saharian Africa to the African logical continent°°
- Long civ name shown when passing the mouse on the civ list°°
- New Olympic Park and Wembley graphics°°
- India now has a middle eastern building artstyle°
- Exploit of triggering conquerors coming back later, when America is discovered too early, is no longer available. The date has slightly moved forward too. Now rushing can be a risk°°
- The Olympic Park can be built only once (no longer exploitable)°°
- Human capitals now can flip, as starting location is what counts (makes the exploit of squatting civs more difficult)°°
FIXES
- Ziggurats now provide stability bonus
- Ethiopian boat won’t spawn in the lake
- Fixed pedia entries*
- War declarations because of a UHV goal achievement won’t break defensive pacts or vassallage°°
- Incan UP no longer applies to sea ice°°
- Totem pole removed from pedia
- The correct amount of money is taken when bribing°°
- Fixed Russian city renamings°°
- Conquest victory no longer shown as historical°°
- Gold/Turn displayed correctly in non-English languages°°
- Formula for giving free colonists to the AIs now corrected, reducing the risk that the settlers get disbanded°°
- Fixed bug regarding plague, thanks to 3Miro°°
- Fixed bug regarding cultural owner formula, thanks to 3Miro°°
- Fixed bug regarding settlers code, thanks to 3Miro°°
- Fixed English, Persian and Arabian UHV text°°°
- Fixed English, Russian and French founding goal (not working when a city was lost, and exploitable through founding only the last city and conquering the others)°°
- Fixed American, Dutch and Carthaginian resource goal: now they just need to be in their capital. America stills needs to grab them by force, no trade°°
- Fixed some old code that might have caused some slowdowns°°
- Last minute fix in stability code, thanks to Jet°°
I haven't decided yet if there's going to be another patch. It depends not only on this one's reception, but on personal matters as well (how much free time I'll have next year).
For now, MP version will follow shortly (by the way, I need someone to help doing a simple test, after that it's ready for the realease), and RAND after a few more days.
NOTE: unlocked WBS are included, so now you won't need to download them separately. Its thread will be closed.
CHANGES
- Wonders required for UHV forbidden to the AI when the human player isn’t yet alive (will make France, Maya and America easier and less dependent on luck)°°
- Same for Christianity founding, now postponed when Ethiopia is played by a human player
- Portuguese and Mongol goals slightly more difficult°°
- Turkish Black Sea goal now has a defined region (all the plots adjacent to the sea) and requires 4 instead of 3 cities°
- New Japanese goals: they’ll be achievable in different ways, leaving to the player the interpretation of the approach°°
- Stability values added to the advisory panels°°
- Attila is back! After adjusting some old code, now barbarians are again a real threat for Rome and Greece, like they were in vanilla times. Tuned in other areas too. They have a stronger effect on the AI thanks to the combat bonus adjustment°
- Pickle replaced by cPickle, 50% faster! Many thanks to Musicfreak°°
- Thanks to the loading times cut, America can now start in its proper date, rather than the earliest possible (their 1st UHV pushed later too)
- New timeline! 500 turns, with a slightly shorter 1900 and a much longer classical age°°
- UHV deadlines for some ancient civ have changed to fit the new timeline°°
- No tech brokering enabled by default°°
- From now on, unlocked versions of WBS are included in the package
- Leaderhead backgrounds replaced in all the cases of anachronism or when it was looking like they were “floating in the air”°°
- Leaderhead textures adjusted (especially complexion)°°
- New realistic terrain graphics (thanks to chuggi and anhu). The enhancement of trees was possible after mastering the DDS configuration, thus avoiding the general darkening and flattening of the texture which happens in other mods, such as Blue Marble°°
- Retouched some areas (especially Russia, thanks to Ruediger Hesse)°°
- African logical continent now only comprehends sub-Saharian Africa, causing Middle Eastern AIs to be much more aggressive in the Mediterranean, and Mail and Ethiopia to expand less. Thanks to Verily for the suggestion.°°
- Restored a part of Warlords code: now AI is much less shy when it’s time to colonise. You probably won’t notice much change however, as this is compensated by the slower tech pace
- AIs contact less frequently in the late game (they used to pester a lot with useless requests)°°
- No tech trading the first 3 turns after spawn (this fixes the exploit of giving techs and jumping to another civ)°°
ADJUSTMENTS
- Smaller Turkish and Mongolian spawn and respawn areas; bigger Viking one°°
- Mercenaries now spawn in your capital instead of a borderline city°°
- Tweaked stability cities star°°
- Adjusted formula for real population (will produce higher values)°°
- Some cities change name with era (such as Edo/Tokyo)°°
- Big update of settlers maps°°
- Giant update of city names°°
- Tweaked stability (less penalty for palace movement and for anarchy, Interpol, Security Bureaus and Intelligence Agency give stability bonus, more bonus for golden age, more penalty for giga empires and city lost to barbarians, less penalty for desert economies)°°
- Retuned great depression°°
- Golden age doesn’t stop anarchy anymore
- Stability indicators are reset after human player collapse°°
- Kremlin slightly cheaper°°
- AI gives less priority to embassies°°
- Easier defensive pacts between 2 civs allied with the same 3rd party°°
- in 600AD start, the Christian Crusade aims at Jerusalem rather than Rome
- The Holy City now is picked differently (the Christian one should no longer be always Milan)°°
- Bribing now offers choices of 10%, 20% or 50% of your treasury°°
- Updated estimated loading time
- More mercenaries are created°°
- Carthage and Vikings have more starting units°
- Early colonists assigned to Greek and Carthaginian AI°°
- Research rate adjusted (now slows down when the human player is alive, because he usually gives it a boost)°°
- Tuned culture strength, inflation and research rate of many civs°°
- Holland and Portugal less likely to do suicide attacks to Germany or Spain
- Tuned difficulty levels°°
- The Apostolic Palace now provides +25% city defence (will help Rome to stay independent in the 600AD start)
- Vassals cap now 5 instead of 4, but in that case no defensive pacts are allowed°
- During spawns, region of conversion of barbarian and independent units is wider°°
- The plot of Istanbul is changed to Asia under certain conditions: now Turkish AI will take it more easily instead of European civs°°
- AIs less likely to be vassalised the first turns°
- Arabia starts without Sailing in 600AD because it’s otherwise too close to caravels
- Added Roman roads in 600AD start
- Added Kazan and Baku as barbarian cities, spawning if the area isn’t already occupied°°
- Continents division now assigns only sub-saharian Africa to the African logical continent°°
- Long civ name shown when passing the mouse on the civ list°°
- New Olympic Park and Wembley graphics°°
- India now has a middle eastern building artstyle°
- Exploit of triggering conquerors coming back later, when America is discovered too early, is no longer available. The date has slightly moved forward too. Now rushing can be a risk°°
- The Olympic Park can be built only once (no longer exploitable)°°
- Human capitals now can flip, as starting location is what counts (makes the exploit of squatting civs more difficult)°°
FIXES
- Ziggurats now provide stability bonus
- Ethiopian boat won’t spawn in the lake
- Fixed pedia entries*
- War declarations because of a UHV goal achievement won’t break defensive pacts or vassallage°°
- Incan UP no longer applies to sea ice°°
- Totem pole removed from pedia
- The correct amount of money is taken when bribing°°
- Fixed Russian city renamings°°
- Conquest victory no longer shown as historical°°
- Gold/Turn displayed correctly in non-English languages°°
- Formula for giving free colonists to the AIs now corrected, reducing the risk that the settlers get disbanded°°
- Fixed bug regarding plague, thanks to 3Miro°°
- Fixed bug regarding cultural owner formula, thanks to 3Miro°°
- Fixed bug regarding settlers code, thanks to 3Miro°°
- Fixed English, Persian and Arabian UHV text°°°
- Fixed English, Russian and French founding goal (not working when a city was lost, and exploitable through founding only the last city and conquering the others)°°
- Fixed American, Dutch and Carthaginian resource goal: now they just need to be in their capital. America stills needs to grab them by force, no trade°°
- Fixed some old code that might have caused some slowdowns°°
- Last minute fix in stability code, thanks to Jet°°
And Breme will be forever speaking French!
Anyway, a big THANK YOU for releasing this patch. 
