Welcome Back
First, apologies for breaking save games. We even had to break the Preview save games to add the new map generation system for 2.0!
Second, wow! I hope you guys like what we’ve done here. Since the original Sid Meier’s Civilization was first released in 1991, there have only been a handful of strategy games that have attempted to take the player through all of human history. It’s hard. I bet you, reading this right now, know something of this. Ara: History Untold not only shows off how military technology progresses, but also how the quality of life of people changed based on what Goods were developed over time.
It was how Goods were produced in this game that was both its biggest differentiator as well as its most polarizing feature. Specifically, the user interface for controlling the crafting of goods involved a great deal of micromanagement. Addressing this was our top priority for version 2.0. We wanted to ensure players had total control over their economy without them having to micromanage it. We think version 2.0 nails this with the switch to Quotas and Priorities.
Version 2.0 is a big update. It is, by far, the biggest update to a game I’ve ever seen in my career. It’s not a totally new game of course, but let’s just consider a few high-level changes as an example:
The aforementioned complete redesign of how crafting works along with the corresponding AI changes to use it well for the computer opponents.
A revisit of all 40+ leaders in this game to give each nation its own unique unit as well making the leaders and nations play much more distinctly than before.
The Culture and Influence system that lets users add new cultural traits, buy new regions, and steal regions from other players.
What amounts to a rewrite of the map generation system. Not just the inclusion of truly randomly generated maps (which is why we had to break the save games), but how resources and biomes get distributed.
The new UI rendering engine so that icons and text are now essentially “vectorized” to be super sharp at any resolution
Optional AI management of city improvements and amenities
Optional Adaptive AI where the AI difficulty can go up or down to help make sure your 8-hour game doesn’t become an unchallenging slog.
Under the covers, the AI was largely rewritten for v2.0. This expresses itself not just in better economic management but also, we hope, more intuitive diplomatic behaviors.
Now, all that said, let’s talk about things we hope you notice right away:
Things we hope you notice right away
If you’re coming from version 1.x, the question is, what changes will you likely notice right away? These aren’t necessarily big features, just things you will likely notice.
#1 It’s sharp!
Text and UI elements are super sharp now.
You’ll probably notice the new loading screen first, but you will probably notice how sharp and crisp the UI is. Text, icons, etc, are all now super clear.
#2 It’s faster
Whether it was moving the map with WASD or with the mouse, the performance is vastly snappier. The moment you drag the map, you’ll immediately notice how much faster the framerate is. And I don’t mean a little faster, but massively, drastically more responsive.
#3 The map generation is better
This is especially true if you choose one of the new Map styles at the start (Terra or Random).
The natural resources spawn in ways that feel better, are more satisfying, and just make sense.
Many resources that get clumped together only get clumped in that one spot in the entire world, making them rare and valuable (Coffee for instance). Note that this screenshot is atypical. If you get this good of a start, beware. The game balances a lot more than just resources (like in this case, the Mongols were placed as my neighbors).
#4 Crafting is just a lot better
You can place items as accelerators in advance of having those items now.
#5 Unique units
You may not notice the new units in the UI, but you will probably notice that there are new units out there. The computer opponents like their unique units (because they’re awesome).
#6 A new quality of life item
Some sort of harp? Sort of! It’s CULTURE!
Culture. Your cities have a culture quality of life now which generates influence.
#7 Influence Stat
That scroll = Influence.
Influence is generated by your cities and is buffed by the culture quality of life and cultural improvements. It lets you buy claims, cultural traits and eventually lets the agitator steal regions.
#8 I can see subregions
You can see subregions on the map as dotted lines.
This is a small thing, but you can now see the sub regions on the map a subtle dotted lines.
#9 Region info on the map
What region the mouse is over will be displayed at the bottom center of the screen. Particularly handy when on the city screen.
Mousing over a region shows who owns it, its biome, and its tile yield.
#10 The City List
At the top left, you will probably soon notice a new notification:
Clicking on it brings up the new City List panel.
This tells you which cities need your attention. Experts available, amenities need updating, etc. It also provides information on all your stats and what the cities are doing.
#11 The Tooltips aren’t annoying you
A lot of time was spent making sure the tooltips are jumping in front of things that you care about. You may not consciously notice this, but you will probably soon notice that you’re not fighting tooltips covering up other things you want to know about.
#12 That pleasant chime: You have enough influence!
#13 You can upgrade your undeployed forces
Forces no longer need to be deployed to upgrade them.
#14 Way less micromanagement
At some point you notice that you’re not being bugged about idle crafters or having to figure out how much you need for what.
Here we see Fabric is being crafted. It’s 2nd priority, but my quota on rope was 5 and I have a stockpile of 16. If for some reason I run low on rope, it will automatically switch back.
#15 Prestige matters again
Even if you have Culling turned off, there are other reasons to care about prestige: You get rewards at the end of an Act based on where you finish.
The City Cap is now a soft limit which means you can now build as many cities as you want, but if you go over your cap, you start to take accelerating quality of life penalties. However, prestige, triumphs and other things can raise that cap. We greatly reduced having techs and governments simply raise your city cap.
Your prestige tier at the end of an act is a major way of gaining additional city slots.
#16 Pacing feels…better
Takes about 100 fewer turns to get to Act 2 and yet…it took slightly more turns to research a tech.
Hyper specific techs were removed and their benefits given to other techs to make them more meaningful and turns required slightly increased.
#17 Tooltip Explanations
Because we moved the tooltips further away from the mouse, it was important that we communicated to players that you can hold the SHIFT key to lock them in place.
#18 The computer players play…much better
There’s a new series of screens that lets you see line graphs of lots of stats. So, you can easily tell how you’re doing versus the other players.
You will likely need to turn the difficulty level down at least a couple notches because the computer players run their nations so much better.
It’s in your hands now
We are already working on the next roadmap. 2.01, 2.1, 2.2, etc. The scope of that next roadmap is going to be based on the player count of 2.0. As this journal is written, Ara: History Untold has a 24-hour peak count of around 200. Millenia is at 50. Humankind 800. Civilization VII 6,000, Civilization VI 36,000, Civilization V 36,000. Civilization IV 700, Old World, 400. If you like what you see, please help us spread the word. The more people playing this game, the more we can do!
In the meantime, let us know what you think! We read the forums, Discord, Reddit, etc. Hopefully 2.0 demonstrates that all those suggestion posts and comments were read and looked at with care and consideration. Cheers!