UI
Combat preview for Aircraft UI addition. - what is this Aircraft UI?
Diplomacy and AI
I was hoping for more changes to the AI and Diplomacy for this patch. The change log does seem to be a bit lacking considering the state of current AI and Diplomacy.
Gameplay
Player is now given the option to return a CS worker that they free from barbarians. - thought this was already the case?
Machu Picchu no longer destroyed when capturing a city containing Machu Picchu. - FINALLY!!!!
Balance - Mechanics
Reduced per-city Policy cost increase by 50%. This is pretty big. Will definitely help those that like a large civ. I wonder how the Representation Policy works with this then.
Unhappiness per city increased to 3 from 2. - This will no doubt affect early game expansion, especially with the happiness nerf to luxuries (only 4
now)
All great person tile improvements now connect all strategic resources.
Balance - Terrain, Resources, and Improvements
Academy yield increases with Scientific Theory.
Customs House yield increases with Economics.
Manufactory yield increases with Chemistry. - These 3 changes are great, but nothing for Landmarks?
Luxury resources now give 4 Happiness, down from 5. - Why? I find myself always short on
and every game I'm having to chose my social policies solely to reduce
Balance - Terrain, Resources, and Improvements
In general I'm not liking the direction of these changes. For one, buildings that made cities unique have been hit hard (monastery, mints).
I'm seeing some pretty significant nerfs here. Factory got hit hard - factories should be powerful as they require a permanent coal resource! And seaport? I thought this was already a very weak building, but now it has effectively been nerfed by 50%.
Colosseum maintenance reduced by 1 gold, Happiness reduced by 1.
Theatre maintenance reduced by 1 gold, Happiness reduced by 1.
Stadium maintenance reduced by 1 gold, Happiness reduced by 1. - Again why? I need moar
not less! Are they only testing these changes playing as the AI with their ridiculous
bonuses?
Balance - Wonders
These actually seem pretty good.
Cristo Redentor will no longer a bee-line for me in most games.
Sydney Opera House is actually available at a useful time
Balance - Civilization Unique Abilities
Was hoping for more changes here in an attempt to make the civilizations more unique. Germany's buff seems nice. Unit maintenance is usually by far my biggest cost in a game. Ottomans buff needs more though - in fact, the whole bonus trait just needs to be scrapped and re-thought.
Policies
It looks like most Policy Trees got buffed and balanced nicely.
Tradition
A bit of a nerf really, but I think it was needed. Landed Elite was quite powerful I found. The new Landed Elite is quite pathetic actually. Of course you can get the old Landed Elite buff's if you complete the whole tree.. but it means you have to use SP's on a few crappy ones.
Liberty
I like it. We wont see as many early Great People now, which I like.
The +5%
for Republic is welcome.
Honor
Some massive buffs here. Even more so for certain civilizations!
Honor Opener now additionally provides Culture for each barbarian killed. - Awesome. Can go hunting now for barbarians for both loot and culture! Does this also apply to Aztecs doubly? I think this also buffs the Germans significantly! Depending on the amount of culture given though.
Warrior Code now also gives 15% melee unit production.
Military Caste now provides +1 Happiness and +2 Culture for each city with a garrison.
Professional Army now reduces cost of upgrading units by 33% and provides +1 Happiness per defensive building (Walls, Castle, Arsenal, Military base). Always appreciate
, and might actually build a defensive building for once now. (keep in mind these defensive buildings where nerfed though)
Honor Finisher: Grants gold for each enemy unit killed. Very good, but how much?
Piety
I always considered Piety to be a critical Social Policy tree, mostly because of Theocracy reduction to
, which in 95% of my games i found essential (I'm a builder and expansionist).
Piety Opener now provides a 15% production bonus on Culture buildings.
Free Religion now provides only 1 free Policy but increases the Culture from Monuments, Temples and Monasteries by 1. Bit confused about this one. I think they should just scrap the free policy bonus, and give it something else. Still, I'm not complaining.
Organized Religion now gives 1 Happiness per Monument, Temple and Monastery.
Reformation now increases Culture in all cities with a Wonder by 33%, and starts a Golden Age. Nice little buff there.
Theocracy now increase gold yield by 10% in cities with a Temple. Theocracy was already the most essential SP in the game, and now it is also one of the best. (I would actually want to get it rather than simply must get it)
Piety Finisher: -10% Culture cost of future Policies.
Patronage
Nothing much to see here. I found Patronage a little OP frankly. Not much has changed here, which is good as it seems most other SP trees have been buffed.
Commerce
Hmmm. Commerce to me was always a bit weak. Still is, but the finisher is nice!
Commerce Finisher: +1 Gold per Specialist.
Rationalism
Rationalism never really did it for me, as the late game techs rolled around pretty regularly that I was never left thinking I needed more research. But, there were quite a few nerfs to science buildings I thought, and with the re-balancing maybe late game techs now take longer to research, making this tree more appealing.
Rationalist Opener now increases the Science granted when completing Research Agreements by 50%. Stacks with Porcelain Tower. - Unsure of how good this is, but I am thinking it will be quite powerful if you have a few friends to do plenty of RA's with. Does it also get a GA now?
Free Thought now also increases University science yield by 17% Nice little buff
Humanism now also affects Public Schools and Observatories. - More
too!
Rationalism Finisher: +1 Gold from Science buildings. - Nice
Freedom
This SP tree was a favorite. Now it is quite pathetic. The opener was great for expansionist and builder like myself, as it often reduced
significantly. It is still in the tree but now a few SP's into it (Democracy).
Freedom Opener now provides 25% Great Person Points in all cities. - This Democracy earlier, but it has been reduced from +50%. So a fairly giant nerf.
Democracy now provides -50% Unhappiness per Specialist. This was the opener previously. Still great (essential for me).
Constitution now provides +2 Culture per Wonder. - Massive nerf from +100% culture.
Free Speech now provides 8 maintenance free units. - This reduction in SP cost came a bit late for it to be much use, but I think I would still prefer it over this. Nerf.
Freedom Finisher: +100% yield from Great Tile Improvements and increase length of Golden Ages by 50%. - Nice, but how many GA's are you going to get by this stage in the game? Might be nice to see the Great Tile Improvement yields, not that I ever use GP for improving tiles.
Autocracy
Police State now provides 3 Happiness per Courthouse, and reduces the time it take to build Courthouses by 50%. Nice. I never understood the original buff, as a courthouse would be the first thing I would either rush buy or start building... for those very very rare times I annexed rather than puppetted.
Total War now provides +15% Production when building Military Units and +15 XP for new units. - Fairly week still for a very late SP. Selecting this SP though will finish the tree giving...
Autocracy Finisher: 30 turn attack bonus of +20%. So a longer duration, but reduced buff (from 33%). I'll take that.
Order
This tree has been beaten pretty hard with the nerf stick. Was a little too good previously though.
I was expecting United Front (Other players influence with City-States decrease 33% more) would be updated, as this same bonus is already available from the Patronage Finisher. Anyways, here it is again it seems, and I'm assuming they stack.
Order Opener now provides +1 Happiness per City.[/I - This effectively replaces the old Planned Economy (Unhappiness from number of cities reduced by 50%). As cities now have 3 , this is effectively a pretty big nerf.
Socialism buff to 15% reduction in building maintenance from 10%. Tiny buff to a SP you would only ever choose to get to the original Communism and Planned Economy SP's. Meh.
Planned Economy now increases Science yield by 25% in cities with a Factory. I don't get this one. Nice, but does not have much synergy here. And this perhaps comes too late to be of any use.
Communism now provides 2 Production and 10% Production towards buildings in each city. Massive massive MASSIVE nerf. Probably needed though. The +5 has been reduced to +2. The additional 10% used to be as part of the opener, and has been reduced from 15%.
Order Finisher: +1 Food/Production/Science/Gold/Culture per city. Quite weak really.
Technology
Reduced cost of Calendar, Civil Service, Iron Working, Gunpowder, Rifling and Dynamite. - Interesting. Are they trying to make this game more for the war-mongerer? I thought the balance for this part of the game was quite good.
Scaled up costs of all sciences starting in the mid-renaissance era and on (larger increases later on). - Excellency! Should really help balance the game.
Metal Working requires Construction. - Do they mean Metal Casting?
Units/Combat
Good stuff here. I was hoping a few units would be modified in terms of what strategic resources they required. For instance, Oil is next to useless in this game, which makes no sense at all.
+1 moves for Tank, Panzer, Modern Armor, with no sight penalty. - Great!
Decreased Longswordsman strength.
Reduced Tank, Panzer, Modern Armor to lower tier city attack penalty (-25%, instead of -33%). - Tanks are going to be used now I think.
Aztec Culture from kills now stacks with new Honor Policy branch opener for double Culture killing barbarians. - Answers my question from before. How good are Aztecs going to be with Raging Barbarians?