Core
AI
Adjustments to diplo AI logic for vassalage and war
Last game i'm completing with Caterina was perfectly balanced about voluntarily vassalage. Two AIs just gave up and request when they saw my Army at their door. War: AIs still accepting going war for a low bribe like a couple of luxury and some gold. Arabia bribed Greece to DOW Russia. Red Army vassalized Greece in 9 turns.
Changes
Victory
Vassals holding capitals now count towards domination victory
Finally Domination is possible again. Nowadays as soon you can build United Nation is a DV in 15 turns if you went successfully warmongering.
Puppets
Scrapped prior model - now build normally up to prior era of buildings
Argh .. No. No. Let them as they are now. Sigh :\
Refunds
If a city has a building replaced by a 'free' copy from a policy etc., the current cost of the item in the city is refunded as an immmediate instant yield in the city.
Very nice.
Scaling Spies
Policies/Abilities that scale on number of CS now only scale off of those founded in first 10 turns of game
Uhm. So if a CS conquers another city it does not scale. Fine.
Happiness
Empire Happiness is now distributed on from high->low pop cities (instead of order of founding)
Distribution now ignores local population cap - so it'll just keep passing out happiness until the empire sources are gone
Local happiness can now exceed local population, just like local unhappiness
Slightly expanded the ratio for distress (70 -> 100), meaning you'll suffer less relative distress overall
Distress is no longer the average of food/production in a city - it is now the sum of them
Unit Production/Cost no longer scales off of local unhappy - now scales off of War Weariness
War Weariness - increased rate of increase slightly, increased % cap to 34% of total empire pop (was 25%)
This is an earthquake by itself way more than spy rework. It will need a lot of testing by players. Overall I like it. In my recent games when going wide i just beelined Two Kay Food. Ticket to win 100%.
Espionage
Science/Gold theft no longer have effect cooldowns (no blocking)
'Quell' counterspy mission no longer requires unhappy element in city
Fixed CTD caused by firaxis spy pointer method (bad direct access, bad!)
Fixed some strange notifications in specific situations
Added two new espionage missions, locked behind policies/wonders:
Steal Tech - locked behind Bletchley Park
Steal GW (copy, not actually a theft)- locked behind Avant Garde
New espionage rework was more an heavy nerf imho. Now is just an event like many others, maybe with some player control. Sadly you cannot rely on it to catch up at higher difficulties. It's better keep those Authority war machine going at all time or you'll find yourself severely behind tech wise.
In my final push vs Arabia (the whole world vs Arabia) Harun kept at bay my 8 Bombers with 4 Destroyers nested in an internal lake. Not big deal but 124 units vs 12 come on just give up your capital and sue for peace.
