Old World Update #128

[FluffybunnyMohawk]

Update 128 is out and it's a big one!

Main Branch 1.0.74111 Release 2024-09-18

Headline Changes

• 24 new events and 11 new items
• Two new premade maps designed for 1v1 duels
• Tech tree and Law rebalancing
• Performance and AI improvements
• Hall of Fame improvements
• Polishing updates to the Rise of Carthage and Heroes of the Aegean campaigns

Design

Added 19 base game events, 5 Behind the Throne events and 11 new items
Base game events have a focus on Exploring characters and acquiring items that give unique benefits
Behind the Throne events relate to Rising Star leaders. The Rising Star trait is no longer automatically removed on becoming leader
Base game events:

• [CHARACTER]’s Travels
• The Streets of [CITY]
• Ransom
• [CITY] Within Reach
• A Gift
• A Gift (alt)
• A Crown from [NATION]
• Towering Stones
• Under Attack
• A Dream in the Forest
• Taking Root
• The Ground
• Stitched Together
• [CHARACTER]’s Gift
• From the Dead
• Unwavering
• Something to Remember Them By
• Another Sunrise
• The New Face of [NATION]

Behind the Throne events:

• To Rule is to Disappoint
• A Waning Star
• A Towering Reputation
• [NATION] Rules [NATION], for Now
• [NATION] Rules [NATION], for Now (alt)

Tech tree changes:

• Moved Free Akkadian Archer card to Forestry
• Moved Free Battering Ram and Exotic Fur cards to Spoked Wheel
• Free Battering Ram, Akkadian Archer and Hoplite card costs brought in line with other nations free level 1 unique unit cards (200 -> 100)
• Moved Free Scholar tech card from Forestry to Metaphysics
• Moved Architecture and Vaulting back a tier in the tech tree
• Increased the cost of all 7th tier techs to compensate for the reduction in cost of Architecture and Vaulting (1500 -> 1600)
• Architecture requires Drama instead of Portcullis
• Portcullis no longer requires Drama
• Stirrups requires Portcullis instead of Citizenship
• Martial Code now requires Citizenship
• Windlass requires Manor instead of Architecture
• Siege Tower bonus card requires Windlass
• Free Perfume card requires Architecture instead of Portcullis
• Money Boost bonus card increased from 2000 to 4000 money

Law changes:

• Slavery now gives +4 Iron and +4 Stone per city instead of increasing Mine and Quarry output. No longer gives +1 Discontent
• Freedom now gives +1 Happiness and +20% Growth in all cities instead of Money per Specialist
• Tyranny now gives +20% Training in all cities instead of a global Training boost. Money per unit in territory increased from 8 to 10
• Divine Rule now gives +1 Order per Pagan Religion in all cities instead of Happiness per Shrine
• Pilgrimage now gives +25% State Religion spread. Holy City Money per Religion boost increased from +5 to +10. No longer affects Science from Groves

Grove improvements now always give +2 Science in addition to previous effects

Two new 1v1 premade maps added.

• Punic wars: Rome against Carthage
• Median wars: Greece against Persia
• These are accessible using the Premade Map option on the setup screen and from the Scenario menu under World Maps

Most map scripts in multiplayer now place all human players on the same landmass.

1. Exceptions are Archipelago, Continents, Player Islands and Disjunction
2. This is optional on Mediterranean and Lakes and Gulfs maps using 'Connected Player Starts' as this can significantly affect player starting positions

In MP games using the Player Development setting, extra cities have to obey the connection requirements of starting locations. If they can't the player will not get them
Significantly increased the effect of Ruthless AI on player opinion and war declaration modifier
Laurion Mines now enable a Miner specialist on the tile
Undo is no longer available in cloud games using the Strict (Teams) turn style. This does not affect cloud games using Strict (Players) which still have undo.
Slums and Estates are now permanent and cannot be built over or pillaged (Behind the Throne)

Programming

• Performance improvements relating to unit movement and reminders
• Tribal unit movement AI is now somewhat more sophisticated
• AI no longer declares war on tribes to expand when it's already actively fighting other players
• AI is now more likely to build farms around the Jerwan Aqueduct and less likely to build the Cothon in small seas
• Improved player start selection on premade maps that do not dictate specific starting locations
• Added randomization of player start selection on premade maps
• Achievement code cleanup
• Add virtual function for sorting of city site candidates, better for mods
• Improved AI unit danger estimate
• AI now helps their allies count down the capture timer for cities

UI

• Added sorting and filtering dropdowns and a regenerate button to Hall of Fame
• Hall of Fame now has a SP/MP (Singleplayer / Multiplayer) column and this is shown on the game tooltip
• Hall of Fame now shows icons instead of text for Load and Delete
• Added audio option for continuing audio track when switching fullscreen tabs
• Added obsoleting information to unit encyclopedia entries
• Added Religion Opinion tracking to stats screen
• Goals/Ambitions with time limits now show limit in bonus text
• Removed some details of unlocked missions from tech tooltips
• Tiles are now highlighted when hovering over event options that affect specific tiles
• In Rise of Carthage scenario 4 the anchor command will now show an explanatory tooltip if ships can't anchor due to scenario rules
• Added notification for units that you kill during your turn
• City borders now pulse when hovering over the city center
• Pin Character mission removed. Pinning is now performed with a new star icon found under character actions
• Leader icon changed to a crown and non-succession royals to an asterisk to differentiate them from the pin icon
• Notable characters filter now only shows manually pinned characters and is ordered by turn pinned
• Harvested resource tooltip now shows regrow chance as a percentage instead of a die roll
• Family tree toggles now remember their previous state
• Yields are now shown for all agent network cities regardless of agent status when sorting by base yields
• Added support for a more complete set of stats in No Characters mode
• Refactored ignore reminders code. Now supports ignoring reminder types separately for characters with multiple roles
• Smaller tech status icons to reduce overlap on mini tech tree
• All laws and theologies now show yield previews where relevant
• Moved the generic improvement pings to the top of the dropdown list
• Ambitions and goals with multiple requirements now show progress for each requirement on separate lines
• Added yield name and sign in some bonus helptext
• Improved text selection in ping and bug reporting popups
• Heroes of the Aegean scenario 6 now highlights goal cities on the map
• Updated Credits

Bugs Fixed

• Rise of Carthage and Heroes of the Aegean campaign polishing pass, many bugs fixed
• Fixed damaged unit healthbar not always showing
• Fixed resources staying faded when a unit exits a tile
• Fixed fatigue increasing effects (Swift, Zealot leader) not always affecting hired tribal units
• Fixed raiding units not raiding after making peace with their original tribe
• Fixed pinned characters getting removed on leaders death
• Fixed tribe widgets being occluded by terrain in some cases
• Fixed the effect of multiple holy cities in the same city not stacking
• Fixed abdication sometimes leaving permanently exploring leaders
• Fixed mirror maps sometimes not having symmetric vegetation on resource tiles
• Fixed events not popping up on start of turn in hotseat
• Fixed clicks on locked tooltip links not registering actions (e.g. selecting a character)
• Fixed hover effect not showing on tech cards
• Fixed nation/tribe opinion not updating immediately after diplomacy changes
• Fixed city camera state not resetting at start of turn when selecting a city between turns
• Fixed Royal characters sometimes not appearing in family tree
• Fixed Assyrian capital combat preview being blocked by buildings on adjacent tile
• Fixed invalid index exception from rebels spawning from a city without a family
• Fixed raiders disappearing while inside city territory or adjacent to Kemet/Aten units in Pharaohs of the Nile scenario 3
• Fixed Pharaohs of the Nile scenario 4 not completing when playing in Hotseat against the AI
• Fixed errors with portrait interpolation enabled when portraits are not setup for it
• Fixed portraits of characters without a tribe or nation
• Fixed AI hang
• Fixed inheritance preview showing wrong character when there will be no heir
• Fixed AI danger calculation for units that need to be unlimbered
• Fixed AI unit protection bug
• Fixed grammar on Unit Killed notification
• Fixed nested link issue in unit type link with promotions
• Fixed assert from using waypoints to move units
• Fixed critical hit icon sometimes briefly appearing before a unit goes on cooldown
• Fixed undo crash
• Fixed AI building ships where it should not be building any i.e. in small seas
• Fixed Inheritance screen not updating
• Fixed some reminders starting dismissed
• Fixed "No Team Movement" game option
• Fixed autonomous rule cities not repairing
• Fixed units not fully resetting their animation queue when an undo or redo occurs
• Fixed loading of lost games from the Hall of Fame
• Fixed bug preventing the hire of allied tribal units when in a player city
• Fixed loss of existing border expansion preview after selecting an event option
• Fixed credits popup null reference on application close
• Fixed dynastic mechanics of Ptolemy, Ashur-Uballit, Khufu and Mursili in No Events mode (Wonders and Dynasties)
• Text and Event fixes

 

[The_J]

thank you very much.
I added some formatting to the post .

 

[Thrasybulos]

Just a bit of complete outsider feedback:

• Architecture requires Drama instead of Portcullis
• Stirrups requires Portcullis instead of Citizenship

I'm sure that these things make total sense in-game and that those changes improve game balance/pacing.

But seen from outside...
"Drama" needed for Architecture?? Portcullis needed for Stirrups???
Are those things even vaguely related?

 

[Solver]

If we take Drama to be more than a theater play, but rather a broader concept of performing arts and entertainment, that contributed to the development of architecture as larger venues were built for performances and sports (amphitheaters, stadiums), also buildings designed to enhance musical performances of i.e. pipe organs.

Portcullis is part of castle fortifications, and as fortified positions became harder to assault, more warfare would move to battles outside in the open field, where stirrups are an invention that gives an advantage in such battles.

I just made those arguments up but there's usually some way to imagine a justification for the tech tree!

 

[Thrasybulos]

Except the relation isn't "Portcullis" => "can lead to" => "Stirrups" but "Stirrups" => "Cannot have without" => "Portcullis".

When you design a game using "common knowledge", it is usually a good idea to have rules which rely on that, making them "intuitive".
If you have "farmer" units, and "farm" tiles, it's obvious to the player that "farmers" go on "farms".
If your game has "farmers" deployed on "barracks" instead, you have a design problem (even though if might make a lot of sense from a gameplay perspective).

It's easy, though, when fine-tuning game mechanisms, to lose track of that. A "farmer unit" isn't a "farmer" it's that unit with "+2 production".

I was just pointing out this might have happened here.

 

[Solver]

You're not wrong, the problem is especially pronounced with tech trees. When we need an improvement that gives food, it's pretty obvious to call it a farm. Considering the various specialists, it's reasonable that the training one is called an officer, the culture one is a poet, the civics one is a scribe.

Tech trees in my opinion rarely make this much sense. In part because technology doesn't really work that way, and in part because any tech tree, including ours, includes many things that aren't technologies at all.

 

[Dale]

Except the relation isn't "Portcullis" => "can lead to" => "Stirrups" but "Stirrups" => "Cannot have without" => "Portcullis".

When you design a game using "common knowledge", it is usually a good idea to have rules which rely on that, making them "intuitive".
If you have "farmer" units, and "farm" tiles, it's obvious to the player that "farmers" go on "farms".
If your game has "farmers" deployed on "barracks" instead, you have a design problem (even though if might make a lot of sense from a gameplay perspective).

It's easy, though, when fine-tuning game mechanisms, to lose track of that. A "farmer unit" isn't a "farmer" it's that unit with "+2 production".

I was just pointing out this might have happened here.

Stirrups cannot exist without Portcullis for a number of reasons:

- The advancement in metallurgy to make a portcullis gate, enabled smiths the skills to go on to make stirrups.
- A portcullis has small gaps between the bars that archers are able to shoot through. As archers would require greater accuracy and distance, they needed to stand on the back of a moving horse. The existing rope loop which they used in those times to mount the horse was not stable enough to hold the full weight of a man on a moving horse, so they require a metal solution instead.
- Up to that point, a single rope loop on one side of the horse was used to mount the animal. However the full weight of a man, armoured and fully laden with bow, arrows and sometimes sword, would exert extreme force on one side of the horse causing issues. So they needed two such stirrups to stand and shoot.

Thus the stirrup was invented, directly because of the portcullis.

One Bow (or Stirrup) Is Not Equal to Another: A Comparative Look at Hun and Mongol Military Technologies | The Silk Road

Mongols got the stirrup from ancient China, but used it in a military setting as they understood the advantages they would give in the Mongol standard hit and raid tactics of the time.

 

[Thrasybulos]

Nice try!

Still utter BS, though.
You know what, pushing the subject in certain circles... there might be some Ig Nobel potential there!

 

[Dale]

Nice try!

Still utter BS, though.
You know what, pushing the subject in certain circles... there might be some Ig Nobel potential there!

The truth is (and you know it), that at the end of the day, this is a game. Sometimes, game takes precedence over history. And the reality is, having stirrups require portcullis works for the game.

If Old World stuck strictly to history, it'd be a really boring, unfun, unbalanced game. Just sayen'.

Oh, and my comment above linking stirrups to portcullis, isn't utter BS. There is SOME truth to it. The Huns and Mongols needed better stability for their mounted archers to use in their raiding tactics. Mongols had access to the Chinese stirrup and saw the military advantages and used it. So yes, there is SOME truth to the matter that mounted raiders needed something to support their archers when attacking fortifications. the stirrup was it.

 

[Solver]

Yeah, the real reason Stirrups requires Portcullis is after all this

 

[Dale]

Lucky you only need 1 instance of the tech too.

 

[King Jason]

You'll be even more delighted to know that Portcullis is the technology that unlocks spies and the entire espionage layer of the game.

 

[PiR]

Lucky you only need 1 instance of the tech too.

Does that mean the game is ready for multiple research of the same tech as Civ VII seems to be?

 

[Dale]

Does that mean the game is ready for multiple research of the same tech as Civ VII seems to be?

I'm pretty sure you could unlock a tech after researching a repeating tech a number of times. Like the end techs.