Update 1.2.5 drops tomorrow!

[FXS_Sar]

Update 1.2.5 lands tomorrow, along with the patch notes! New maps, new city-state types, a much-needed rebalance for Napoleon, and more! Check out the highlights from Firaxian Taymoor in the latest developer update video, and let me know what you're most looking forward to:

 

[Nic@Melbourne]

changes sound good. Making choices more impactful.
Like the building and City State changes

 

[moondog385]

Excited to try these changes out when I get a break from my huge workload. Love the addition of new city-state types and the UI changes look to be very impactful.

 

[WillK96]

City State and Attribute nerfs were much needed. Will be interesting to see if you can still steamroll the AI as easily on the higher difficulties come Modern.

 

[Mudkip1001]

As a Napoleon Emperor enjoyer, I approve...
*Places sanctions against you anyways

 

[uppi]

The building cost scaling is quite the change. That will certainly shake up the strategy (no automatic Economic golden age any more). Do warehouse buildings also increase the cost per building? Because then you might not want to start on that granary on turn 10.

 

[stealth_nsk]

It's funny how total yields rebalance was somehow not mentioned in the last week patch notes, but changes with Napoleon was there.

Looks like Firaxis really wants everyone to connect their games to 2K accounts to gather more data.

P.S. Great patch, btw.

 

[disjointaccount]

Percentage bonuses gone, good riddance! Looks like a great update all round; looking forward to reading through all the details of the yields rebalance.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Some good stuff. I like the yield balance pass. And the new city-state bonuses look great. Looking at you, Demand Tribute

 

[kotpeter]

I wasn't expecting a huge yield rebalance tomorrow for sure And I'm happy and confused at the same time. Happy, because I get to rediscover how I play the game due to extensive balance changes and game economy shakeup. Confused, because yield adjustment clearly aims to satisfy more strategic players, and less so the casual audience. This somewhat indicates that developers know their target audience consists of many different players, and all of them will get their portion of feedback iterated on. Sooner or later.

 

[Xandinho]

Alright, I really liked everything I saw. To be honest, this seems to be the best update since launch.

The scaling of building costs is a much more significant change than it might appear. It will make decisions about what to build far more important, make gold an essential resource, and add more depth to the eras. As a fan of strategy games, I really enjoy thinking carefully about which decision to make and then dealing with the consequences—whether positive or negative.

I still hope for an update that brings a major overhaul to the modern era, though. That said, this update is great and has genuinely made me excited to play again.

 

[stealth_nsk]

The building cost scaling is quite the change. That will certainly shake up the strategy (no automatic Economic golden age any more). Do warehouse buildings also increase the cost per building? Because then you might not want to start on that granary on turn 10.

Another thing to consider here are late age buildings. They were questionable already, unless needed for legacy paths (like Academies if you don't have enough slots), but with buildings increasing cost of future buildings, those could become even less attractive. I'm afraid this could increase the problem of "nothing useful to do" in the second part of the ages.

Or, maybe, the buildings are designed in a way to be more useful in later ages. It will be interesting to check.

 

[pjotroos]

I'll have to see how this feels in practice, but on paper, those balance changes look fantastic.

Happy with some penalty on going too wide. Happy with the restrictions on city-state stacking. Very happy with tougher gold economy and unit upkeep. Ecstatic about stamping down the percentage bonuses. I'm genuinely looking forward to starting a new game and trying this out.

Nice change to Napoleon Emperor, too. He actually looks playable now. I've liked Revolutionary already, but he wasn't overtuned, so the buffs don't hurt there either.

 

[stealth_nsk]

I wasn't expecting a huge yield rebalance tomorrow for sure And I'm happy and confused at the same time. Happy, because I get to rediscover how I play the game due to extensive balance changes and game economy shakeup. Confused, because yield adjustment clearly aims to satisfy more strategic players, and less so the casual audience. This somewhat indicates that developers know their target audience consists of many different players, and all of them will get their portion of feedback iterated on. Sooner or later.

I don't think yield adjustment targets more strategic players. While it should make higher difficulty levels more difficult, it also going to make the game much easier to grasp with changes like flat bonuses.

 

[Lebo44]

The Yield Balance Pass was a pleasant surprise. It's especially encouraging to see that the adjustments to Wide vs. Tall gameplay reflect player feedback and suggestions raised on the Discord feedback channel. I'm glad FXS took those ideas seriously and chose to enhance this aspect of the game. Whether these changes will have a meaningful impact and benefit gameplay remains to be seen.

 

[Daigotsu Max]

Very happy to see the new City-Sates, and as a unique improvement fanatic great to hear the two new types will get one per era!

 

[Krikkit1]

Another thing to consider here are late age buildings. They were questionable already, unless needed for legacy paths (like Academies if you don't have enough slots), but with buildings increasing cost of future buildings, those could become even less attractive. I'm afraid this could increase the problem of "nothing useful to do" in the second part of the ages.

Or, maybe, the buildings are designed in a way to be more useful in later ages. It will be interesting to check.

I could see those late age buildings getting a cut in base costs.

 

[stealth_nsk]

I could see those late age buildings getting a cut in base costs.

I think they get buffed base output compared to adjacency bonuses, making previous age buildings more useful. So all this will have quite new balance and strategies.

 

[CivKirk64]

I love pretty much everything here except the building cost scaling.
As someone who likes to try to build the best cities in as many corners of the world as possible. I'm painting a beautiful picture, now I'm going to not put a museum next to every mountain? I'll have to just say 5 universities is enough? I feel sorry for the people of newly liberated [insert rival's former capital name here] Sorry, looks like I can't improve your standard of living surrounded by 1000 mines by building a granary on top of a couple.. too expensive.

Edit:
I'll add I think the solution to, "People build too much and just build everything everywhere all at once", is to insert MORE things to build. More choices. Should I build basic walls or Super fortress walls. Can we upgrade the roads in the settlement sphere to extend trade routes? Can we build tunnels into mountains? Knowing I can't build everything, and have helpful guides suggesting how to specialize, would go a long way to bring back more choice into the game.
Please also more civilian units, I want little engineers that can build a fort or a dam or road, bridges outside of my territory , more specialized units (units far better at defending territory or terrain)

Every building type should have an extra maybe cheaper building per age, but with creative different adjacency rules.
Do I want this city to be culture-economic? I'll only build a library and one workshop, but I'll get my usual harbor and market, but a 3rd econ building that gets bonuses from farms, and a 3rd cultural building that gets bonuses from specific resources (Dyes, Hardwood, Gems)

 

[Krikkit1]

I love pretty much everything here except the building cost scaling.
As someone who likes to try to build the best cities in as many corners of the world as possible. I'm painting a beautiful picture, now I"m going to not put a museum next to every mountain? I'll have to just say 5 universities is enough? I feel sorry for the people of newly liberated [insert rival's former capital name here] Sorry, looks like I can't improve your standard of living surrounded by 1000 mines by building a granary on top of a couple.. too expensive.

Well that just means you need to wait till the One More turn, once all your enemies have been pacified you can spread the wealth. (they are build costs not maintenance costs)

(Also it provides a good benefit to overbuilding.... If I build on an empty spot my next building costs more, if I overbuild, my next building will cost the same... not counting city changes)

And provides a nice incentive to specialize... do I need to build cultural buildings here? maybe just science and food here. (cultural and production when I undertake my mass beautification project)