Millennia | Ancient Worlds & Update 5 Release

[PDX Katten]

Hello there! Katten, your friendly neighbourhood community manager, here.

Ancient Worlds, along with Update 5, has now been released. Let’s break down what’s included!

Ancient Worlds

Let's start with the DLC itself, Ancient Worlds, I will link to the original announcement dev diary HERE, which contains detailed descriptions of everything new but without further ado, the features of Millennia: Ancient Worlds include:

• Nomadic Band Start: Open the game with an unsettled band of travellers, scavenging for resources to improve the strength of your group until you decide to settle down and form a proper society.
  
  
• New Threats: Megafauna stalk the land, threatening your prehistoric nomads but providing the chance for new events and experiences.
  
  
• New Terrain: A Frozen Terrain start introduces new challenges as it limits resource gathering, but lush grasslands and forests are revealed as the tundra melts and more hospitable settings expand.
  
  
• New National Spirit: Messengers is an Age II National Spirit that emphasises early game diplomacy. Give gifts to your rival nations, gather resources from minor nations and preserve their independence, and reap benefits from the new Llama special good.
  
  
• New Starting Government: Band Society: Rather than building up a Homeland, Band Societies rely on potent short-term bonuses and Tribal Camps to gain an early lead. They also gain a Nomad Band to scavenge terrain and settle an additional Capital Region.
  
  
• New Landmarks: Discover majestic natural wonders as you explore your new world. Mount Jianglang, Iguazu Falls, the Great Redwood Forest and eight more Landmarks can appear on the map, each with its own new Expedition.

[PURCHASE ANCIENT WORLDS HERE]
2024 Roadmap

Now, let’s take a look at the updated roadmap.

SMP = Simultaneous Multiplayer

As you can see, the roadmap now includes Experimental Multiplayer and Modding Beta. We'll explain what that means right now.

Experimental “Simultaneous Multiplayer” (SMP)

We know this is a feature you've been requesting since before the game released, and since it's important to us too, we're continuously working on it. At this time, we don't feel it's developed enough to be marked as a 'full release', but we want you to experience it and be able to share your feedback as we continue perfecting it.

Simultaneous Multiplayer or SMP for short will only be available in the public beta branch build, 'open_beta,' until its planned release in Update 6. You can access this by right-clicking on the game in your Steam library, then going to Properties > Betas.

Here are important things to keep in mind while playing Simultaneous Multiplayer in its current state:

• Bugs & Errors will occur
• Up to eight players can play.
• It is possible to save games and rehost the lobby to continue from a save game.
• Synchronisation errors: we have been finding and fixing these, but additional multiplayer games will help to uncover more of them.
• There is a visual indicator for sync issues, with the opportunity for the host to save at that point (and then re-host).
• If you get disconnected you should be able to save, and re-host.
• AI in MP does not work right now – PLEASE DO NOT PUT AIs IN SIMULTANEOUS MULTIPLAYER GAMES.

Because the Experimental Simultaneous Multiplayer is experimental, IT IS CURRENTLY AVAILABLE ONLY IN THE OPEN BETA BRANCH.

IF YOU WANT TO EXPERIMENT WITH MILLENNIA’S EXPERIMENTAL SIMULTANEOUS MULTIPLAYER, ALL PLAYERS IN THE GAME NEED TO USE THE OPEN BETA BRANCH FOR THEIR EXPERIMENTATION.

Note that a player joining a friend’s game without a direct invite is not supported at this time. If you’re looking at your Steam friend list, see a friend playing Millennia, and attempt to join their game, it will not work – you can be invited in by your friend, but you cannot invite yourself in.

Alternatively, you can join a game using the GameID: host the game, copy the GameID in the setup UI, and share this with anyone you wish to invite.

For those of you who want to test out the experimental SMP, we have prepared testing notes for you HERE.


Modding Beta

Mod Support was on the roadmap as part of Atomic Ambitions, which will be out later this year. However, we started working on it and things went better than expected – since mod support is a highly requested feature we decided to enable a Beta Version of Mod Support as part of Update 5 coming with Ancient Worlds.

The Beta Version, using Steam Workshop, will allow you to view mods you are subscribed to with the in-game UI, enable or disable mods from within the game, and upload or update your own mods from within the game.

Currently, Beta functionality allows the creation of mods for the following elements:

Custom Nations

• Custom City/Town names
• Custom flags

Units

• Add new Units (but not modify existing Units)

Improvements

• Add new Improvements (but not modify existing Improvements)

Landmarks

• Add new Landmarks (but not modify existing Landmarks)

Decks/Cards

• Add new Decks or Cards and modify existing ones.
• National Spirits
• Chaos and Innovation Events
• Unit Actions
• Ages

While testing out the system, we have created a number of example mods which will be available to modders soon.

Keep in mind that THIS IS BETA:,

• Bugs & Errors will occur
• Currently, mods must be disabled to play multiplayer.
• Debugging is very limited.
• You cannot mod UI.
• You cannot mod the models / visuals of existing entities (Units, Landmarks, Improvements, etc.).

Feedback about Beta Mod Support will help us to address issues and polish up the system, so please share your experiences if you decide to make a mod.

To get you right into modding, we have created a guide for you available HERE.


Millennia Console Commands

With Mod Support going in, we have enabled the game console and a number of console commands that will be useful to anyone working on a mod.

Specifics on enabling the console and available commands are HERE.


Changelog

Due to the extremely high amount of images that is inside of the changelog, we are unable to post it here, but you can view it on our forums HERE