Old World Patch, August 25 2021

[The_J]

A new patch has been released, see here: https://mohawkgames.com/2021/08/25/old-world-update-67/
Full update notes see here: https://gist.github.com/MohawkGames/a7dfb04b2f778206e64031c6d4b86d75

Most important changes:

Highlighted Changes:

• Player order in hotseat and play-by-cloud games is no longer necessarily grouped by team
• Spymaster: Charisma now boosts Family Opinion
• Hunters now have -10 opinion per hostile unit in their territory
• Riders have -40 opinion if the leader marries a foreign spouse
• Carthage now gets +10 Money/Turn per Connected City
• The Lighthouse now gives +100% output to all Nets
• Forts now enable healing to any unit standing on it

• It is now possible to build improvements on hamlet tiles, replacing them.
• Tactician Generals (if Leader) now gives -25% to Attack in addition to Stun
• Added game parameter tooltip to network games lobby
• Teenagers can only be targeted by one courtier tutor mission, for a total of 2 tutor missions possible using a Scholar Leader.
• Added Very High AI Advantage
• Multiplayer: Diplomats boost Family/Religion Head opinions in games with no AI teams
• Adjusted the ratio of barbarians and tribes in mirror map setting
• Multiplayer: Ambassador Charisma boosts Family Opinion in games with no AI Teams
• Added 39(!) New Events

39 new events... that sounds like quite a bit, nice .

Follow this discussion on Twitter: https://twitter.com/civfanatics/status/1430645958904369154

 

[Dale]

Ha, beat me to it. Was coming to post it.

I know for certain that next week's patch has an item of specific importance to CFC @The_J .

 

[PiR]

• Teenagers can only be targeted by one courtier tutor mission, for a total of 2 tutor missions possible using a Scholar Leader.

I must admit I abused that and almost considered it an exploit.

 

[fjordan]

I must admit I abused that and almost considered it an exploit.

I don't think of it as an exploit at all. If you invest in getting a lot of courtiers and gold it means you later have a leader that is significantly better than average. This sounds right to me.
I really hate it that they make changes that have such a huge impact in a game that is supposed to be out of beta in a weekly patch.

 

[Dale]

I don't think of it as an exploit at all. If you invest in getting a lot of courtiers and gold it means you later have a leader that is significantly better than average. This sounds right to me.
I really hate it that they make changes that have such a huge impact in a game that is supposed to be out of beta in a weekly patch.

The intent of training is to give your young Royals a little head start. It isn't supposed to be creating super-stat Leaders.

 

[Solver]

I don't think of it as an exploit at all. If you invest in getting a lot of courtiers and gold it means you later have a leader that is significantly better than average. This sounds right to me.
I really hate it that they make changes that have such a huge impact in a game that is supposed to be out of beta in a weekly patch.

It only limits simultaneous tutoring, doesn't prevent you from doing several tutoring rounds. You can still improve the heir considerably by having 2 or 3 rounds of tutoring.

What we wanted to get rid of is heirs that get tutored by 3-4 courtiers at once throughout their teenage years, giving you an 18 year old that, after completing studies, ends up with like 11-12 wisdom. Then you just abdicate in favor of that super-heir who lets you go through the tech tree at warp speed, and is guaranteed to get even more stat increases.

 

[fjordan]

But what changed? Muli-tutoring your heir is the most natural thing to do and I am sure everybody did that. It makes your King/Queen really matter. But the point is, I specifically waited to play the game until the official release came out because I hate it when core mechanisms change while I am in the middle of a game. Weekly patches are not for that. Create a release which I can opt in or out of and make big balance changes with a look at the big picture, not when suddenly someone feels some strategy is unwanted.
You are basically telling me to put the game on the shelf because it is unfinished. When can I expect the true release?

Sorry for the rant but I am really pissed off by this. Especially because I care about this great game.

 

[PiR]

I would rather accept big gameplay changes than have the game "put on the shelf" by the devs.

 

[fjordan]

I would rather accept big gameplay changes than have the game "put on the shelf" by the devs.

OK, I must admit, it is a bit of a luxury problem compared to 4,5 month of complete radio silence after a buggy patch...

 

[Solver]

But what changed? Muli-tutoring your heir is the most natural thing to do and I am sure everybody did that. It makes your King/Queen really matter. But the point is, I specifically waited to play the game until the official release came out because I hate it when core mechanisms change while I am in the middle of a game. Weekly patches are not for that. Create a release which I can opt in or out of and make big balance changes with a look at the big picture, not when suddenly someone feels some strategy is unwanted.
You are basically telling me to put the game on the shelf because it is unfinished. When can I expect the true release?

Sorry for the rant but I am really pissed off by this. Especially because I care about this great game.

I don't agree that this is a core mechanic change. It's a balance tweak. Tutoring is still there and works very similarly.

What we saw, from people playing the game, was that tutoring often didn't match the design intention. Just as every other mechanic, there's an intent behind tutoring, which is to give your heirs a slight boost if you have a courtier and some resources. It was definitely not intended for players to create super-heirs that are better at age 18 than a king or queen that's ruled for 40 years. So we addressed that case specifically, which in my opinion is a textbook balance tweak. Plus it makes sense historically. Noble/royal children would often have a tutor, perhaps two, they didn't have an army of tutors, kids don't become super well-educated if you give them more and more teachers.

For the time being, we'll keep releasing updates often. They will become less frequent at some point, but now they're common. If you want a game that rarely changes, you'll have to wait a while longer (or skip updating the game), but I honestly think frequent updates are better than going several months between balance patches.

 

[fjordan]

OK, we disagree then about what a balance "tweak" is. I will keep updating because I do want any bug fixes you make.
Part of my reaction comes from fear what I saw in a lot of other games: anytime the community finds something that works there is a patch that nerfs it and you end up with a game where the bugs are fixed but all the flavour is gone (I am talking to you, Stardock).

Anyway, thanks for the quick responses even to an angry post. I appreciate it.

 

[Heathcliff]

Awesome work.

 

[nolegskitten]

But what changed? Muli-tutoring your heir is the most natural thing to do and I am sure everybody did that. It makes your King/Queen really matter. But the point is, I specifically waited to play the game until the official release came out because I hate it when core mechanisms change while I am in the middle of a game. Weekly patches are not for that. Create a release which I can opt in or out of and make big balance changes with a look at the big picture, not when suddenly someone feels some strategy is unwanted.
You are basically telling me to put the game on the shelf because it is unfinished. When can I expect the true release?

Sorry for the rant but I am really pissed off by this. Especially because I care about this great game.

Mutliple tutoring was broken. We were doing sub T50 crossbobow and even polyboloi rushes with it.

 

[Taefin]

Thanks for Very High AI Advantage, I can’t wait to try it

I’m guessing the AI tweets are proprietary (or just dry/confusing) but any news on whether AI building UU has/is being looked at?