Patch Update by Greg @ 2K

[MadRat]

AI

* Worker AI improvements.
* Update to tactical AI pillaging code. Additionally, always check to make sure it’s not trying to pillage in an enemy dominance zone.
* AI victory emphasis improvements (more efficient end-game when focusing on Science and Diplo victories).
* AI should colonize other continents regularly.
* AI will emphasize production of an Ocean going explorer unit when the time comes.
* Adjust Napoleon to make him more likely to go for culture.
* More aggressive second wave expansion (mostly off shore) after initial empire building and consolidation has occurred.
* Optimization when finding routes (pathfinder improvement).
* Multiple tweaks and bug fixes.
* AI will now build ranged and mobile units more in line with the flavor settings.
* Multiple defensive AI tweaks.
* Never use ranged units to provide flanking bonuses. (Added 11/18)
* Improve AI use of protected bombard attacks (melee in front, ranged in the rear). (Added 11/18)
* Worker priority adjustments (prioritize pillaged tiles, etc.). (Added 11/18)
* Further pathfinder optimization. (Added 11/18)
* AI will be more aggressive about pursuing Diplo victory if they are wealthy. (Added 12/3)
* AI more effective with building, moving, and using aircraft and anti-aircraft more effectively. (Added 12/3)
* AI more likely to effectively use siege units in a city attack. (Added 12/3)
* Better nuke targeting by AI. (Added 12/3)
* Tactical AI Tuning: Reduce chance of AI civs making "suicide" attacks. (Added 12/3)
* Multiple tweaks and bug fixes. (Added 12/3)


GAMEPLAY

* Cities heal more quickly.
* Only allow one upgrade per unit from a goody hut.
* Science building track adjustments (cost, specialist slots, GP Points, etc). (Added 11/18)
* Amount of damage caused during naval combat increased. (Added 11/18)
* Melee horse units combat value lowered, and now receive a penalty when attacking cities. (Added 11/18)
* Lowered bonuses received from Maritime city-states. (Added 11/18)
* Removed maintenance from defensive buildings. (Added 11/18)
* Multiple unit upgrade track adjustments. Most (but not all) units now have a full upgrade path from start to finish. (Added 11/18)
* Open terrain penalty lowered. (Added 11/18)
* Policies must be selected the turn they are earned. (Added 11/18)
* Promotions must be selected the turn they are earned. If it’s as a result of combat, then the beginning of the next turn. (Added 11/18)
* Increased city strength ramp-up based on technology. (Added 12/3)
* Catapults and Trebuchets now weaker against units but stronger VS cities, and reduced effectiveness of Archers & Crossbowmen (and their UUs) VS cities. (Added 12/3)
* Have culture cost for policies never go down (trading away cities to reduce culture cost exploit). (Added 12/3)
* Reduced effects of Forbidden Palace and Meritocracy (Happiness per city). (Added 12/3)
* Reduced points from Wonders & Cities, increased points for population. (Added 12/3)
* Reduced culture needed for first plot acquisition. (Added 12/3)
* New Building: Circus Maximus (National Wonder for happiness track). (Added 12/3)
* New Building: National Treasury (National Wonder for economic track). (Added 12/3)
* Unhappiness beyond a certain point breeds rebels within your empire, based on the number of cities a player has. (Added 12/3)
* Reduced amount of food needed for cities to grow at larger sizes. (Added 12/3)
* Tradition branch balance (Landed Elite and Monarchy improvements). (Added 12/3)
* Liberty branch balance (Settler training bonus now only applies to capital). (Added 12/3)
* Buildings can now no longer provide more Happiness than there is population in a city (wonders are excluded from this). (Added 12/3)
* 3 new additional Natural Wonders added to gameplay, with accompanying “rarity” code. (Added 12/3)
* Multiple Tech Tree tweaks to address “slingshot” tech exploits. (Added 12/3)
* Killing a barb inside a city-state's territory now gives a 5-turn buffer where there is no Influence intrusion penalty. (Added 12/3)
* Reduced and balanced combat bonuses. (Added 12/3)


UI

* Tweaked the single-player score list to hide the civs of unmet ai players.
* Added game option to disable automated workers from removing features. (Added 11/18)
* Additional updates to the Global Politics screen. (Added 12/3)
* Added game option to disable turn-blocking promotions and policy choices. (Added 12/3)


DIPLO

* AI's attitude towards you is now visible in the diplo screen and diplo drop-down.
* Added info tooltip for an AI leader's mood. Lists things that are making an AI player happy/upset.
* New diplo system: Declaration of Friendship (public declaration with diplomatic repercussions).
* New diplo system: Denounce (public declaration with diplomatic repercussions).
* New custom leader responses (Serious Expansion Warning, Aggressive Military, Luxury Exchange, Borders Exchange, Gift Request).
* Additional AI attitude tool-tips for cases that were not already covered. (Added 12/3)


MODDING

* Parent category counts now include counts of child categories.
* Selecting/deselecting a category now automatically selects/deselects it's children and its parent.
* Tweaked category name truncation to better fit names.
* Hide categories w/ no children and a count of 0.
* Added support for fallback languages (if mod is not translated, fall-back to English so text keys are not showing).
* Support for mods that perform major restructuring of the tech tree including adding, deleting, and updating techs, buildings, and units. (Added 12/3)
* Added GameEvents system for overriding Gameplay DLL specific functionality. (Added 12/3)
* Fixed "Reload Landmark System" mod flag to now refresh landmarks defined in "ArtDefine_Landmarks". (Added 12/3)
* Multiple SDK Updates (details to come with full patch notes). (Added 12/3)


MISC

* Fixed save format which causes saves to increase the memory footprint of the game drastically when loading frequently over the course of the game.

Last edited by 2K Greg; 1 Hour Ago at 02:08 PM.

 

[gilmore606]

...wow.

 

[Zyxpsilon]

* Added GameEvents system for overriding Gameplay DLL specific functionality. (Added 12/3)

This alone will create an absolutely amazing revolution in every serious Modders' toolbox.

My money was well invested, it seems.

 

[Camikaze]

* Unhappiness beyond a certain point breeds rebels within your empire, based on the number of cities a player has. (Added 12/3)

Now this seems exceptionally interesting.

* Buildings can now no longer provide more Happiness than there is population in a city (wonders are excluded from this). (Added 12/3)

And this seems quite a good limitation.

 

[Left Foot]

Looking impressively good!

All we need now is the actual release date. Come on Firaxis!

 

[Clement]

It's the diplomacy that ruins the game for me and sadly i don't see much there that's new in that department, i have two questions, firstly even if we know what's making the leaders angry are they still going to hate me for liberating their cities?

Secondly will they still be likely to throw away a strong friendship in the final quarter of the game just because their "need to win" over-rides all logical diplomacy?

 

[gilmore606]

Any ICS experts have theories as to whether this kills the strategy? It seems like they were trying hard to do so.

 

[stormerne]

This is no longer a patch. It's a new game.

 

[Helmling]

When?

 

[crismac]

Those are just the changes that have been tested and implemented into the patch up to this point.There is more on the way.2K Greg doesn't post them until they have been completed .

 

[Slowpoke]

Whooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!

 

[bonafide11]

Wow! I'm very impressed. This is a significant patch! I don't ever recall a patch ADDING buildings before! I know naysayers will inevitably complain, but this patch sounds like it will enhance the game quite a bit. Cites will be able to grow larger, unhappiness becomes a bigger issue, small cities seem less powerful. Very interesting. I'm looking forward to it! Hopefully it doesn't take too long.

 

[No_such_reality]

* Unhappiness beyond a certain point breeds rebels within your empire, based on the number of cities a player has. (Added 12/3)
* Reduced amount of food needed for cities to grow at larger sizes. (Added 12/3)
* Tradition branch balance (Landed Elite and Monarchy improvements). (Added 12/3)
* Liberty branch balance (Settler training bonus now only applies to capital). (Added 12/3)
* Buildings can now no longer provide more Happiness than there is population in a city (wonders are excluded from this). (Added 12/3)

Hmm, looks like they're trying to find a choke point on ICS. Looks like happiness is getting tweaked to be the new corruption/maintenance. Hopefully the building happiness isn't cumulative and that my capital population 8 and a Colosseum, theatre and circus will produce 11 happiness but a fringe city with population 2 and the colosseum will only produce 2. So that means, luxury goods will largely need to limit unhappiness from cities.

 

[Ajidica]

So, do we know when this patch is coming out?

 

[Pouakai]

No, but more than likely within the month, at a similar time to the new DLC.

 

[Zydor]

.... I know naysayers will inevitably complain.....

I suspect not - some for sure - however most are genuine Civ Fans who dont want the Strategy side watered down too far in favour of mass market designs. I suspect the response will be guarded, but with a "lets see how it hangs together " conclusion. As a clear naysayer of the initial release its certainly my personal view after the 3 Dec additions.

Clearly there is more to come, as was stated above, he is only adding as each individual "tweek" is completed and tested their end.

It is certainly starting to shape up like a completely new game, and given the state of Civ 5 on release, thats no bad thing. Its certainly starting to get me to look carefully at what they are doing after those 3 Dec additions. My faith in them was destroyed for the first time in 15+ years after that awful initial release.

However, its looking like this "patch" - and the word "patch" is only a euphamism when view in its size and implication - is shaping up into a real serious attempt to sort out the mess, and thats a real plus.

Good for them - lets hope it all hangs together when its finished.

Regards
Zy

 

[Maktaka]

You know what? If simple map packs provide the funding to keep updates like this coming, then bring on the map packs and lets have the folks with spare cash fund the new content that really makes a difference to the game.

 

[elthrasher]

It's the diplomacy that ruins the game for me and sadly i don't see much there that's new in that department, i have two questions, firstly even if we know what's making the leaders angry are they still going to hate me for liberating their cities?

Secondly will they still be likely to throw away a strong friendship in the final quarter of the game just because their "need to win" over-rides all logical diplomacy?

Transparent diplomacy will make it a lot easier to talk about this kind of thing and strike the right balance.

Now: You do something that you don't think should make Napoleon hate you. Napoleon hates you anyway. You complain that diplomacy is broken. Maybe you're right. Maybe you missed something. Maybe it's supposed to be like that. How the heck can we be sure?

Future: You do something that shouldn't make Napoleon hate you. He hates you anyway. You report this bug and they fix it.

 

[Buccaneer]

This is truly getting better. The patch apparently will be here about the same time I finish building my new gaming PC!

 

[Zydor]

You know what? If simple map packs provide the funding to keep updates like this coming, then bring on the map packs and lets have the folks with spare cash fund the new content that really makes a difference to the game.

In theory that shouldnt be the case .... we all paid for a game blah blah.

However, if the "cost" is not pitched too high, and they respond with worthwhile, concrete additions to the game that keeps it firmly in the genuine Strategy Game camp with high immersion factor, I personally would go for that. For my part, I want the Game to succeed as a Strategy Game and be a worthwhile addition to a long standing Franchise, and would bend an awful lot to help them get there if thats what is needed.

But ..... if I get treated like cannon fodder again aka the initial release ....

Loyalty is a two way process, not an exclusive one way road to their bank balance.

Fingers crossed .....

Regards
Zy