Hello there! Update 4 is now fully released. The build number is 1.0.20480.F. The update contains highly requested balance changes as well as a new Quality of Life feature, "Game Speed," which allows you to play at different speeds if you prefer a faster or slower experience. Here below is also our updated Roadmap!
This update also marks the last one before the traditional summer break, as we call it in Sweden. The next update (Update 5) will release alongside the first DLC, "Ancient Worlds," sometime in Q3. We will provide more information about that in August. We hope you enjoy this update and see you after the summer! Now let's get into the changelog!
Update 4 Changelog
Featured Changes
- A new Nation default has been added – South Korea (defaults to “careful” AI personality and a new Age III: Arts XP Starting Bonus).
- A new Challenge Mode has been added as a Game Rule. Selecting Challenge Mode adjusts a number of defaults.
Age of Blood – Barbarian Warlords spawn with an entourage.
Age of Plague – Outbreaks are more likely.
Age of Intolerance – Diplomacy penalties for Nations with different Religions are increased.
Age of Heresy – The Crisis charge is faster and more Cultists spawn at the start of the Age.
Age of Ignorance – More Rebels appear when using Domain Powers that reduce Tech costs.
Age of Dystopia – Riots are more likely.
Age of Visitors – Additional Motherships spawn per Region at the start of the Age.
Age of Conquest, Harmony, Generals, and Singularity – Victory requirements are more difficult.
Also – Chaos in the Challenge Mode has been modified so that it is (effectively) “doubled.” By default, you have 100 points of Chaos before a Chaos Event can occur and every Chaos point above 100 increased the chance by 1%. With Challenge Mode, Chaos Events are possible after 50 Chaos has accumulated and each point above 50 is a 2% chance of a Chaos Event.
- Added new Game Rules to adjust the speed of the game. In Faster, the costs of Tech and Production costs are half the default amount. In Slower, Techs are twice the default cost and Production costs are 150% of default. The Faster (Normalized) option leaves Ages 1 and 2 as they are (as they are already compressed relative to later Ages) and introduces the speed increase during Ages 3 and 4.
(A number of other factors are also adjusted for the speed settings, including territorial expansion speed, rate of Culture Power gain, Eureka effects, Vassal population growth, when Barbarian Units upgrade to more powerful versions.)
- Related to Game Speeds, Turn limit for each speed setting is as follows:
- Faster (Normalized) - 350
- Faster - 250
- Standard - 500
- Slower - 900
- Added a new map – Three Continents. This new map generates a world with starting positions divided between three different continents.
- Events for Barbarian Camps, Expeditions, Quests, Landmarks, Unrest, and Tribal Camps have new art.
- Made a heap of balance changes (see below for details).
Balance
PLEASE REMEMBER THAT BALANCE CHANGES WILL ONLY APPLY TO NEW GAMES.
- Changed Oath of Fealty to a Domain Power, added a cooldown (3 turns) and progressive Government Domain XP cost.
- Added a cooldown (3 turns) to Clone Pod (Visitors) and Visa Sponsorship (Finance) Domain Powers.
- Changed the Communist Government Soviet Farms Ideal bonus from +2 Food and +2 Ideology when worked to +4 Food and +2 Ideology per turn (does not need to be worked).
- Changed the Communist Government Soviet Housing Ideal bonus from +2 Housing and +2 Ideology when worked to +4 Housing and +2 Ideology per turn (does not need to be worked).
- Changed the Communist Government From Each Ideal bonus from +1 Production for the Soviet Factory per adjacent Mining Improvement to +2 Production per.
- Changed the Communist Government To Each Ideal bonus from +1 Ideology for the Soviet Factory per adjacent Mining Improvement to +2 Ideology per.
- Age of Transcendence now increases Social Fabric maximums to 15.
- Age of Revolutions now spawns fewer Rebels per Region if the Region has no Unrest when the event fires. (The same amount of Rebels spawn if the Region has “Protests” -- at least 30 Unrest.)
- All Age 9 tech costs have been increased by 200 Knowledge.
- Added Workable Power Cost (2) to the Concrete Plant (try it out, Gemai).
- Increased Soviet Factory throughput, now converts 4 Steel to 4 Power Tools (increased from 2-to-2).
- Reduced the amount of Food from Delicacies from 10 to 6 (now on-par with Flour instead of Bread, with bonus Luxury on top), reduced Luxury from 4 to 2.
- Reduced the amount of Luxury from Artwork (deployed Artists) from 4 to 2.
- Increased the amount of Luxury from Jewelry from 2 to 4.
- Increased the amount of Luxury from Cigars from 2 to 6, increased Wealth from 6 to 12.
- Reduced efficiency of Levy Project (1 IP for every 5 Production to 1 per every 10).
- Reduced efficiency of Treatise Project (1 Knowledge for every 10 Production to 1 per every 15).
- Reduced efficiency of Political Campaign Project (1 Ideology for every 4 Production to 1 per every 10).
- Reduced efficiency of Consumerism Project (1 Culture for every 3 Production to 1 per every 15).
- Added Knowledge to each of the "Computers" converted Goods, equal to the value of Computers:
- Data - 4 Knowledge, 4 Information
- War Games - 4 Knowledge, 4 Warfare XP
- Video Games - 4 Knowledge, 1 Culture, 15 Wealth
- Removed Warfare XP cost from the Siege Defenses Unit Action.
- Reduced base value and terrain bonuses for Wind Farm (3 power, +3 worked, +3 from Hills, +1 for each adjacent Water tile -> 2 Power, +2 worked, +2 from Hills, +2 if at least one adjacent water tile).
- Reduced base value and terrain bonuses for Solar Farm (10 power, +5 worked, +10 from desert -> 5 power, +5 worked, +5 from desert).
- Changed Laboratory Improvements to take in Books to produce Inventions or Analytics.
- Increased the value of Inventions from 1 (+1 from Ideal) Knowledge to 2 (+2 from Ideal).
- Increased the value of Analytics from 2 to 4 Knowledge.
- Increased the value of Exhibitions from 4 Knowledge, 1 Culture, 25 Wealth to 6 Knowledge, 1 Culture, 25 Wealth.
- Bribe now works on all Barbarian and Rebel owned units, including units spawned via Chaos Events and other Nation's Units that get converted when the Nation is eliminated.
- If Siege Defense is used in range of multiple valid targets, it will now damage them all.
- Standard Housing District in Age of Dystopia changed from providing 24 Sanitation to providing 8 Sanitation.
- Trash Incinerator in Age of Dystopia changed from providing 6 Sanitation to providing 12 Sanitation.
- Age of Intolerance Innovation Events no longer occur if you do not have a Religion.
- The Inquisition Innovation no longer spawns Inquisitors at Vassals and Outposts.
- The Republic Government's Open Markets Ideal now applies to Stores (Age 3), Container Yard (Age 7), and Fulfillment Center (Age 9).
- Decreased Silicon Valley's Supercomputer cost reduction from 50% to 20%.
- Decreased Intolerance's Religious School cost from 45 to 30 IP.
- Increased Sultan's Courtyard Homes cost from 18 to 30 IP.
- Increased Political Science's Welfare State Culture Power to better satisfy Needs (50 Food, 50 Housing, 50 Sanitation, 20 Luxury, 20 Education, 10 Power, 10 Ideology, 10 Information).
- Reshuffled the order of Political Science's Ideals to move Welfare State to Tier 4 (Radicalization is Tier 2, Immigration Marketing is Tier 3, and Welfare State is Tier 4).
- Increased Distribution Center from 4 Production 2 IP per worker, to 6/6, and reduced Power required from 5 to 2.
- Added more International Finance Venture Capitalist targets (Age of Departure Corporate Office and Age of Kings Treasury).
- Reduced Age of Plague Market Manager Wealth Regional Efficiency from +20% to +10%.
- Added Taxation City Project to Age of Plague Market Capture Tech.
- Moved the International Finance +10 Wealth bonus on Banks from Venture Capitalists to Secret Vaults.
- Moved International Finance Compound Interest Ideal to Tier 4.
- Increased the Prosperity gained from International Finance's Foreign Investment Power to 100% boost (from 50%).
- Changed International Finance's Visa Sponsorship from a Domain Power that gives +1 Population to a single Vassal, to a Culture Power that gives +1 to all of your Vassals.
- Reshuffled the order of International Finance's Ideals (Secret Vaults Ideal is Tier 1, Offshore Banking is Tier 3, Compound Interest is Tier 4, and Visa Sponsorship is Tier 4).
- Increased Media Conglomerate Fireside Chat Unrest Suppression and Unrest reduction (from 2 Unrest Suppression to 10, and 30 reduced Unrest to 50), and increased the Unrest Suppression buff duration from 4 turns to 6 turns.
- Reshuffled the order of Modernization's Ideals (Rapid Development is Tier 3 and Worker Cooperative is Tier 4).
- Increased Celebrity's Red Carpet Gala Unit Action from 40 Arts XP to 100 XP.
- Decreased Pop Culture's Influencer bonus to give 1.5 Culture Power meters (down from 2 per consumed Celebrity).
- Increased Fashion Line Good from 1 Luxury, 1 Arts XP, 1 Wealth, 1 Innovation, and 1 Culture, to 6 Luxury, 1 Arts XP, 10 Wealth, and 1 Culture (removed Innovation).
- Increased Silicon Valley Machine Learning buff for Computer Simulations to +2 Knowledge (from +1).
- Silicon Valley Machine Learning Ideal also applies to War Games from Age of Generals.
- Replaced Silicon Valley Great Firewall Ideal (granted +10 Unrest Suppression to Computer Factory Improvements) with new Worker Training Ideal that grants +6 Education Need to Data Goods.
- Moved Great Firewall buff to a Silicon Valley Innovation.
- Increased Silicon Valley Computer Scientists buff from +1 Specialists on Computer Lab Improvements when worked to +4 when worked (now also affects War Games Computer in Age of Generals).
- Added +4 Knowledge, +3 Education Demand, and +1 Power Demand to National Aerospace Research Facility.
- Reduced Space Center Education Demand to +2 (from +3).
- Increased Communications Satellite Knowledge from 9 to 10, added +3 Education Demand and +10% Space Race Success Chance.
- Increased Space Race Megaproject Wealth cost (from 300 per stage to 500) and increased the Culture Reward (from flat 100 per stage & 200 for final stage, to automatically filling the Culture meter per stage, and giving 2x Culture meter for final stage).
Gameplay
- Added three new Starting Bonuses – Age I: +Exploration XP (+5 Exploration XP), Age II: +Engineering XP (+5 Engineering XP), Age II: +Diplomacy XP (+5 Diplomacy XP).
UI / Art
- Revised the Quest marker.
- Revised the UI shown at entry to a new Age. This now shows your place in moving into the Age and if you received the Innovation bonus for being first.
- Revised wording on Starting Bonuses (bonuses that were “Start:” now use “Age I:” instead).
- Added tooltips for the links at the bottom right of the Main Menu.
- Added information regarding Outpost Specialization to Infopedia and tooltips.
- Added Infopedia entry and tooltips for “Upgrade Lines.”
- Updated information about Naval Bombardment in Siege Unit Infopedia and tooltip.
- Added a help topic for Naval Bombardment that appears when you first unlock a Naval Siege Unit.
- Added information to tooltip for Shogun’s Unit Actions.
- Now show information about Chaos and Accumulated Chaos minimums in tooltip and Infopedia.
- Renamed Age of Departure's Power Plant Improvement to the more accurate Ultra-Supercritical Power Plant (named after the standard categorization for certain high-end power plants). This prevents you from upgrading from a Mega Power Plant (Age of Dystopia) to a plain Power Plant (Age of Departure).
- Now present a list of possible Outpost Improvements available at certain Outpost Specializations.
- Updated tooltips, help topics, and Infopedia to reflect balance changes listed above.
- Updated the flag for Brazil.
- Added new Capital socket for Sanitation Bots.
- Added new Capital socket for Construction Bots.
- Added new Capital socket for Worker Bots.
- Bonus chances of success in Space Race now show as percents in tooltips.
- Adjusted the Game Settings UI.
- Added new Capital socket for Subway.
- The Divine Inspiration Ideal from Theologians now shows the amount for Arts XP generated per Population.
- Now show build adjacency requirements on Improvements.
- Added hotkeys (mappable, default are Q and E) for moving between Regions. Available when the arrows for moving between Regions are displayed.
- Added a new icon for Museum to differentiate the Improvement and Capital Building.
- Adjusted end of game UIs to prevent text overflow in some languages.
Bugfixes
- Fixed Theologians Divine Inspiration Ideal incorrectly stating that it applies only to Large Temples.
- Fixed Specialists Age unlock tooltip just saying “Specialists.”
- Fixed an issue where Space Race stages could still be completed after a Nation had lost its Space Center.
- Warrior Priest Sacrifice Power can no longer be targeted on Regions with less than 3 population.
- Fixed a number of Improvements that were not handled by Undo.
- Fixed a number of Outpost and Town Specialization tooltips that incorrectly linked to National Spirit tooltips.
- Fixed missing text about Outbreaks in Age of Plague.
- Fixed additional spaces in Crusader Ideal descriptions in some translations.
- Fixed an issue with Petroleum and Underwater Petroleum causing double entries in Infopedia.
- Fixed an issue where certain Unit movement into locations under fog of war would cause the dissipation of the fog of war to appear very laggy.
- Fixed an issue with the display of what is currently being built in the City view for a Region not being selectable and not showing a tooltip.
- Updated elements of our terrain blending to correctly display certain Landmarks and terrain features. Also adjusted various terrain and features (mountains, rivers, Wild Rice) to work best with this change.
- Fixed an issue with certain Units (like Cultists) not grouping into Armies with other Units correctly.
- Fixed an issue where you could not repair some buildings (like the Pyramids or Colony Ship) using their in-world repair button.
Misc
- Added FPS Limiter and VSync options. After investigating reports of high GPU usage and uncapped FPS, we found that certain system setting configurations could override our existing frame rate limiter. We have added these options with the intent to resolve this issue for the affected players.