There are quite a few new game options in "Shadow", some were snuck into 0.25 but I'll list them all now because some have been modified and vanilla players may not be aware of the new options that got put into 0.25.
I have been playing a lot of games with various religions on or off. Especially on smaller maps 7 religions is an awful lot. Sometimes its nice to have a game with just the Order and the Ashen Veil, or the Empyrean and the Council of Esus. I also think that it will be helpful to scenario designers.
I've also been playing a lot of "End of Winter" games. We have been talking about a mechanic like this for a long time and we finally found a way to do it that isn't processor intensive on huge maps. I think you guys will enjoy it.
Barbarian World- The Barbarians start with a city for every player in the game (this is the Labrascum option renamed).
Wildlands- Double the normal rate of animals, in "Shadow" this has been rewritten so that it truely doubles (there was a smooth check that took place after our doubling that made our change insignificant). Also in the new version animals continue to be spawned much later if this option is selected.
Blessings of Amathaon- Doubles the amount of bonuses generated on the map.
Living World- Doubles the frequency of events.
Last Days- Doubles the rise and fall of the Armageddon Counter.
Hallowed Ground- Removes the Armageddon Counter from the game.
Compact Enforced- The Mercurians and the Infernal won't be spawned during the game.
No Lairs- Lairs won't be be automatically created on the map (though animals can still make lairs).
No Settlers- No players can create settler units.
End of Winter- The world starts frozen and slowly thaws to the normal terrain type.
No Unique Features- No Unique features are created on the map.
Remove Religion- Fellowship of Leaves- Removed the Fellowship of Leaves religion from the game.
Remove Religion- The Order- Removed the Order religion from the game.
Remove Religion- Octopus Overlords- Removed the Octopus Overlords religion from the game.
Remove Religion- Runes of Kilmorph- Removed the Runes of Kilmorph religion from the game.
Remove Religion- The Ashen Veil- Removed the Ashen Veil religion from the game.
Remove Religion- The Empyrean- Removed the Empyrean religion from the game.
Remove Religion- The Council of Esus- Removed the Council of Esus religion from the game.
AI No Building Requirements- With this option selected the AI no longer needs any building requirements for units. So they can build axemen without training yards and longbowmen without archery ranges. My goal eventually is to improve the AI enough so that this doesn't have much effect (and in "Shadow" the AI's ability to field upgraded units is MUCH better than in 0.25) but we put this in for testing and decided to keep it for players that wanted to try it out.
Wildlands- Double the normal rate of animals, in "Shadow" this has been rewritten so that it truely doubles (there was a smooth check that took place after our doubling that made our change insignificant). Also in the new version animals continue to be spawned much later if this option is selected.
Blessings of Amathaon- Doubles the amount of bonuses generated on the map.
Living World- Doubles the frequency of events.
Last Days- Doubles the rise and fall of the Armageddon Counter.
Hallowed Ground- Removes the Armageddon Counter from the game.
Compact Enforced- The Mercurians and the Infernal won't be spawned during the game.
No Lairs- Lairs won't be be automatically created on the map (though animals can still make lairs).
No Settlers- No players can create settler units.
End of Winter- The world starts frozen and slowly thaws to the normal terrain type.
No Unique Features- No Unique features are created on the map.
Remove Religion- Fellowship of Leaves- Removed the Fellowship of Leaves religion from the game.
Remove Religion- The Order- Removed the Order religion from the game.
Remove Religion- Octopus Overlords- Removed the Octopus Overlords religion from the game.
Remove Religion- Runes of Kilmorph- Removed the Runes of Kilmorph religion from the game.
Remove Religion- The Ashen Veil- Removed the Ashen Veil religion from the game.
Remove Religion- The Empyrean- Removed the Empyrean religion from the game.
Remove Religion- The Council of Esus- Removed the Council of Esus religion from the game.
AI No Building Requirements- With this option selected the AI no longer needs any building requirements for units. So they can build axemen without training yards and longbowmen without archery ranges. My goal eventually is to improve the AI enough so that this doesn't have much effect (and in "Shadow" the AI's ability to field upgraded units is MUCH better than in 0.25) but we put this in for testing and decided to keep it for players that wanted to try it out.
I have been playing a lot of games with various religions on or off. Especially on smaller maps 7 religions is an awful lot. Sometimes its nice to have a game with just the Order and the Ashen Veil, or the Empyrean and the Council of Esus. I also think that it will be helpful to scenario designers.
I've also been playing a lot of "End of Winter" games. We have been talking about a mechanic like this for a long time and we finally found a way to do it that isn't processor intensive on huge maps. I think you guys will enjoy it.