Hello everyone.
We hope that your summer vacation plans worked out well and that you had a great time. We have just finished a new update 1.1.7. with a code name "Trading posts".
In one of the previous faction highlights we informed you about a delay in the release of the Age of Alexander DLC because of some unforeseen issues and the fact that we really want to deliver a bug-free and well-balanced game. As a compensation for this delay, we decided to add in one additional new feature - the Trading posts.
Originally, we planned to release it with the DLC, but it also works in the vanilla game. Now the feature is finished and as a thank you for your patience and understanding we have decided to give it to you in this release, version 1.1.7. which also brings more interesting new stuff, adjustments and improvements.
Let's start with "Trading posts". Like other game mechanics, this is also inspired by historical reality. Cities along trade routes benefit greatly from this traffic. They get more wealthy as both travelers and traders stop there and they also become natural centers of "immigration" as they offer plenty of new opportunities. How has this been incorporated into the Imperiums core? Well, exactly like this.
Trade routes in Imperiums already calculate so called "losses". These are basically the fees paid to traders to transfer your goods. Losses are calculated, based on the length of the trade route, the terrain crossed, accessibility and dangers along the route. Originally, they were subtracted from the traded goods. With Trading posts these fees won't be "lost" but will be distributed among any friendly cities along the trade route. Note that traders do not stop in enemy cities, even if the route passes close by, hence these cities are not considered trading posts on the route.
All the cities which serve as trading posts also get a special migration bonus resulting in faster growth based on their birth rate support level. Their growth will be quicker than other similar towns (with the same birth rate) that are not trading posts.
This has some interesting consequences:
- It may be more worth your while to maintain peace with other factions, as any of your towns that are trading posts on trade routes of other factions passing through your lands will also make a profit.
- Cities without any significant resources around, but with a good trade route location can generate additional income and grow faster.
- Fewer trading posts along a trade route means a higher income for each of them. For example, a very long trade route across the sea, with perhaps a single en-route trading post on an island, would end up pocketing all of the fees paid on the trade route.
Information about the trading posts has been added to the Resource usage window, tooltips, as well as a special map highlight (the "Show all active trade routes" setting in the map menu must be ON).
We hope you enjoy this new feature and accept this as an apology for delaying the DLC. We are really doing the best we can.
But back to the new update. What else has been included in the new version apart from the Trading posts feature?
Here is the changelog:
- Diplomacy improvements - rejections should be explained more clearly.
- AI improvements in diplomacy (cancelling treaties, declaring war, offering federations and confederations, etc).
- AI improvements on the tactical level (when AI unit is trapped without supplies).
- AI improvements of trading offers.
- The map generator was improved - a new setting defining the minimum distance of cities from the map edges was added.
- Game balancing - food consumption was increased for bigger cities.
- Small changes in the Diplomacy window related to trade routes.
- The Graphic Card currently in use is displayed in the graphics tab in game settings (it was added as a "check" to ensure that the correct GPU was set up for the game).
- Autosave file names have been shortened.
- Some Proton improvements.
- Temp folder is now in subfolder of the game root (preventing some issues with Windows permissions).
- Issue with missing battle result window and report in special circumstances was fixed.
- Couple of very rare CTDs fixed.
- Translations added for German, French, Spanish, Czech, Russian and Japanese.
Enjoy the rest of the summer, we hope to get back to you soon;)
Yours,
Kube Games team.