Ara: History Untold

[Filo90]

a really great thing is going through turns on a second without waiting a boring carousel of AIs turn....

 

[wilting_aspen]

I ended up coasting through the end of my first playthrough. Built some singularity age units and bulldozed through nearby cities and enemies for fun. I even took the time to watch those battles play out: a mecha blasting a beam against a battalion of decrepit gunpowder units.

Started a new run as Irene/Byzantine as I neglected both religion and military in my first run. However, I'm finding it hard to resist just focusing on improving my regions and resources.

Overall, I'm enjoying Ara and I'm excited to see how the devs continue to improve it. I'm curious just how deep the modding capabilities will be for the game once that is released. I'd like see nations get more visible unique features, whether through official updates or modding: unique improvements, buildings, military units, civilian units, and perhaps even crafted products?

 

[UncivilizedGuy]

The religion game really hasn't been that difficult. Build a couple of Altars and you're good to go. I haven't had the need to produce Missionaries yet

 

[wilting_aspen]

Yeah, religion seems to be a pretty hands-off experience so far - it just chugs along. That said, I do enjoy selecting tenets when the option comes along every so often.

 

[Thormodr]

I ended up coasting through the end of my first playthrough. Built some singularity age units and bulldozed through nearby cities and enemies for fun. I even took the time to watch those battles play out: a mecha blasting a beam against a battalion of decrepit gunpowder units.

Started a new run as Irene/Byzantine as I neglected both religion and military in my first run. However, I'm finding it hard to resist just focusing on improving my regions and resources.

Overall, I'm enjoying Ara and I'm excited to see how the devs continue to improve it. I'm curious just how deep the modding capabilities will be for the game once that is released. I'd like see nations get more visible unique features, whether through official updates or modding: unique improvements, buildings, military units, civilian units, and perhaps even crafted products?

Yes, it would be great to see unique features, architecture and even unique crafted products for different civs.

 

[KayAU]

One thing that did bother me a bit was that the movement felt slow—perhaps in part because of the simultaneous turns thing. Felt like it took a long time to explore.

I think this is one thing which just works better with sequential turns. Ara's turn system is great, and it has several advantages. But because you are just issuing orders, nothing really happens until you hit end turn, you don't get the immediate satisfaction of moving units while revealing terrain. It's not necessarily that movement is slow, as a region is generally larger than a typical tile, it's just that you lose the immediacy.

 

[KayAU]

Game is also moving twice as fast for me since I have a better handle on the crafting.

Yeah, this is something very basic which I think many have overlooked when they complain about the amount of micromanagement. I'm not saying that there isn't a lot to manage and that the UI is perfect, but there's also that a lot of this is new, and there is a learning curve. Many of the things which may seem difficult right now, because people are still figuring out both the mechanics and UI, will become much quicker and easier over time.

Perhaps because there are so many superficial similarities with Civ, some may go into it expecting to be able to pick up everything as quickly as if it were a new entry in a series they have already played for thousands of hours.

 

[Revolutionist_8]

Shouldn't units engage in combat automatically if they are in the same region? An enemy scout just peacefully walked through all my city, even if he was surroundered by my troops on every adjacent tile (On his tile as well ofc. If I pressed 'Attack' manually nothing happened)

 

[ggmoyang]

Scouts do take damage, but they don't get locked in combat so they can run away.

 

[UncivilizedGuy]

Just an observation, the Cemetery is categorized as a Religious improvement but gives no religious benefit. It's only connection to religion is that it's unlocked with the Illuminated Manuscripts tech.

 

[123joanna321]

Ive been away from home all week and having been playing it on steam deck. It does actually work good enough in the early game but by the end of act 1 it becomes too annoying to handle all the mirco without a mouse and the small screen. But i did have fun with the game and can’t wait to restart the game with a much bigger screen

 

[GeneralZift]

Sorry to intrude - so this game is out? How long has it been out? Feel like I've been disconnected from the world a little

Is it any good?

 

[Thormodr]

Sorry to intrude - so this game is out? How long has it been out? Feel like I've been disconnected from the world a little

Is it any good?

It was released on September 24th.

Yes, I have quite enjoyed it. It needs some polishing, diplomacy is barebones and the UI needs some work but overall it was a pretty decent launch.

 

[Pedro P]

How many city styles are there in the game? I am a bit done with it atm, don't want to do more campaigns until the qol update drops.

Since the Xbox delux version doesn't come with the artbook, I can't check on that front.

Anyway, though the game likes to blur the lines a lot, re-using a lot of art assets and going a bit western centric with improvements and crafters, there are still distinct and different architectural styles between the cities of different cultures.

Oddly, this is very easy to see at the very last era of the game, as the future era features skyscrapers featuring striking and unique designs, after previous eras blending together a bit too much for my taste. Which is the opposite of my typical issue with all-of-history games that have very well defined middle ages before it all blends together at the end.

Anyway. So far I have completed thre games. One as Inca, one as China and one as Ghana, and all of them had unique regional architecture which are probably Latin American, East Asian and African.

I have never seen them in the future age, but European and Middle Eastern nations also have their own styles in earlier stages, so I think it's fair to assume they also have a future age.

So 5 styles. Are there any more architectural styles? I have an impression North and South Europe aren't divided, same with pre-Columbian and Colonial Americas. But I might be wrong. Also which style do the two Native American nations use?

 

[Thormodr]

Yes, making the Civs more unique is something they need to do. Not the immediate priority but fairly soon.

 

[UncivilizedGuy]

How many city styles are there in the game? I am a bit done with it atm, don't want to do more campaigns until the qol update drops.

Since the Xbox delux version doesn't come with the artbook, I can't check on that front.

Anyway, though the game likes to blur the lines a lot, re-using a lot of art assets and going a bit western centric with improvements and crafters, there are still distinct and different architectural styles between the cities of different cultures.

Oddly, this is very easy to see at the very last era of the game, as the future era features skyscrapers featuring striking and unique designs, after previous eras blending together a bit too much for my taste. Which is the opposite of my typical issue with all-of-history games that have very well defined middle ages before it all blends together at the end.

Anyway. So far I have completed thre games. One as Inca, one as China and one as Ghana, and all of them had unique regional architecture which are probably Latin American, East Asian and African.

I have never seen them in the future age, but European and Middle Eastern nations also have their own styles in earlier stages, so I think it's fair to assume they also have a future age.

So 5 styles. Are there any more architectural styles? I have an impression North and South Europe aren't divided, same with pre-Columbian and Colonial Americas. But I might be wrong. Also which style do the two Native American nations use?

So you sparked my curiosity. I'm currently playing as Egypt. Took close look at the architecture and it's actually a mixed bag. They definitely did some Middle Eastern touches on Dwellings. But all the other structures appear like they did when I played as Belgium. I did noticed that the Bazaar looked Middle Eastern when I played as Belgium. But most of the structures that Egypt has are very Euro including the farm houses, workshops, gathering halls, etc. The structure that houses the library and weaver have the same architecture and it appears to be a hybrid between Euro and Middle Eastern. I'm pretty sure that same structure was used with Belgium. So it appears that only the Dwellings got the ethnic treatment. It's possible they were planning to do every building but just couldn't make it happen for release.

Edit: my neighbor's (England) architecture is identical except for the Dwellings and filler buildings

 

[UncivilizedGuy]

A small update just downloaded on Steam. Not sure what it does. I've looked through the game files and I'm not seeing much. 9.6 mb

 

[Bosque]

I just won the Single City achievement. Copernicus is a great choice for that endeavor. Finished with over 31,000 points.
Of course I made it easier by playing a tiny map with only four players.
If you want to try the One City Challenge, check to see that your starting point has lots of 4 and 5 region zones. The first time I tried it, I was surrounded by mountains and 2 and 3 region zones. Not enough places for the farms I needed to grow, the various crafters, and for the extra space for triumphs.

 

[Bosque]

In my single city game I grew my population to 30, and discovered that even with extra food and housing it is capped at 30. No additional growth from that point.

 

[Thormodr]

Patch 1.0.4 is now out. From Steam:

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Ara: History Untold Patch 1.0.4 is now available!
Fixes for stability, pacing/balance, and translation quality (German / Korean / Chinese)
For this week - our focus remains on responding to audience feedback on pacing, balance, stability and performance. Additionally, this patch features many improvements to four non-English languages (German, Korean, and Simplified and Traditional Chinese), with more fixes both in these and all other languages to follow in our next patch.

Next week – In addition to hotfix patch 1.0.5 – we’ll be sharing our plans for our first major game feature update, tentatively slated for release in early November. The team could not be more excited for what we have cooking, and as always thank you for your ongoing support for Ara: History Untold!

Balance
Grain production from Rice has been increased from 50 to 100 Production.
Rice nodes now provide Grain instead of Rice.
Soap is available to be slotted into the last Supply slot for Dwellings.
Codex can be crafted in the Great Hearth, Gathering Hall, Town Center, and City Hall.
General Hospitals now have two Supply slots for Soap and Power.
Fertilizer now costs 500 Production and Production bonuses have been increased.
Unit costs are more consistent throughout the ages.
Herbal medicine costs are increased if you don't have the ingredients.
Food requirements are now lowered for higher level cities.
Starting locations have been adjusted to favor spawns nearby food.
Grapes no longer spawn in Savannas.
Herbal Medicine wealth acceleration costs have been updated.
Fuel Recipe Changes
Production Cost changed from 1000 units to 500 units.
Production Bonus for the second ingredient changed from 750 units to 500 units.


Improvements
The Apothecary is now a science domain improvement.
You can now build One Grocer per city, increased from 1 per nation.
You can now build One Inn per city, increased from 1 per nation.
Windmills are updated to be in line with Mills and are now 8 per nation.
The Sawmill can now be unlocked by Engineering, Metallurgy, and Shipbuilding.


Techs
Research costs for some Techs are updated.
Ancient History - lowered by 15
Bronze Age - lowered by 25
Iron Age - lowered by 25
Antiquities - increased by 100
Early Middle Ages - increased by 100
High Medieval Era - no change
Renaissance - increased by 100
Enlightenment - increased by 100
Machine Age - increased by 100
Atomic Age - increased by 100
Information Age - no change
Singularity Age - no change


Stability
Several conditions which could cause the game to crash have been fixed.


Localization

Significant updates to improve translations for following languages:
German
Korean
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese