Hello all!
0.7.1 is built mostly from the things people asked for after playing 0.7.0. It adds interface scaling, more control over ideologies, better subject information, stricter naval AI rules, a new Bloc map mode and several fixes for the simulation underneath them.
Thank you to everyone who reported a problem or explained where a tool was difficult to use. This update is the direct result of that feedback.
Interface Scaling
The interface can now be made larger or smaller from the options menu. This applies across the game, including the main HUD and the Scenario Editor.
The Scenario Editor also supports edge scrolling now. It uses the same edge scrolling option as the main game, so map makers do not need to manage two separate settings.
More Control Over Ideologies
Ideologies can now change more parts of a country. New bonus types cover military, economic, political and population systems. Every bonus has a tooltip which explains what it changes.
An ideology can also forbid actions. For example, you can create an ideology which cannot colonise. These are rules rather than small numerical penalties, so a country following that ideology will not perform the forbidden action.
The ideology editor has been reorganised so bonuses, doctrines and rules are easier to read, and the Save Changes button now sits after all of them.
Subject Countries and Blocs
The country panel now states when a country is a colony, puppet, protectorate, dominion or sphere member. It also names the sovereign country which controls it.
Subjects remain visually distinct on the normal political map, but their colour is tinted toward their sovereign. This makes an empire easier to recognise without hiding the countries inside it.
The Bloc map mode
A new map mode shows subject empires as complete political blocs. A sovereign and all of its subjects use the sovereign's exact colour, individual subject labels are hidden, and the combined territory receives one curved label such as Germany Bloc.
Independent countries keep their normal names and colours. Alliances remain separate because an ally is not the same thing as a subject.
Bloc mode is available with F6. Culture, Terrain and Nuclear modes have moved to F7, F8 and F9.
Subject fixes
Two subjects of the same sovereign can no longer remain at war with each other. Subject relationships now replace conflicting alliance relationships correctly, and a country cannot build a chain of puppets beneath other puppets.
Subjugation now requires the defeat of a country rather than the capture of one distant possession. The losing country must have 30% stability or less, suffer major losses in its homeland and send a peace offer. The winning bloc must also have at least one and a half times its military strength. Colonial raids, nuclear damage and casualties alone cannot hand an otherwise successful country to a new sovereign.
Subjects can no longer be grown into permanently obedient super-armies. A subject which reaches 60% of its sovereign's army attempts an independence war. Puppets and colonies also capture new territory for their sovereign instead of growing into separate empires behind it. Dominions and protectorates retain their conquests because they have greater autonomy.
Subject colours also remain stable during battles and invasions instead of briefly flashing the country's untinted colour.
God Mode
God Mode can now move a country's capital while the simulation is running. Select the country, choose the capital tool and choose one of its regions.
Forced wars are also truly forced now. God Mode overrides truces and removes an alliance or subject relationship when it directly conflicts with the war you requested. The declaration then uses the complete war system, so fronts, news, aggressor records and subject participation are created correctly.
The live rules page now includes the default AI naval reach rule. You can keep naval invasions local, open the world to longer invasions, or change the rule while watching the simulation.
Smarter Late-Game Rivalry
Large countries used to judge themselves and their enemies as individual countries. An overlord could control a huge subject empire but still believe it had no border with the rival standing immediately beyond one of its subjects. Several superpowers could therefore divide the world and then refuse to fight.
The AI now judges the total land, military strength and borders of a sovereign bloc. Borders held by subjects count as the sovereign's strategic frontier, and late-game powers can recognise the rival blocs around them.
Large countries now receive one protected expansion decision before integration, administration and construction can consume the turn. When a country begins building tension against a rival, it also keeps that target in focus until the crisis matures or the target is no longer valid. This prevents a superpower from considering a different neighbour every turn and never declaring any war.
Peace decisions have also changed. A healthy country which is clearly winning by territory or casualties refuses white peace, regardless of how long the war has lasted. A country normally asks for peace because it is losing land, suffering much greater losses or facing an actual collapse. Long, genuine stalemates can still end peacefully.
AI personalities can change
A personality chosen by a scenario author remains permanent. A personality which the game assigned automatically can now change as the country and the world develop. An isolated country may become maritime, an unstable country may become defensive, and a large power may become aggressive or opportunistic. This prevents a randomly assigned Pacifist or Isolationist personality from freezing one country for the entire game.
Aggressive Collapse
Rulesets now have an Aggressive collapse option for unstable empires. Normal rebellions can release one country at a time. Aggressive collapse makes a state which cannot recover lose control much faster.
The collapse grows with the crisis. An overlord with very low stability can release half of its subjects. If it is also in debt, it can lose all of them, including puppets. At lower stability, conquered peoples return to their former countries in large waves instead of waiting for individual rebellion rolls.
This does not replace civil wars, independence revolts or national liberation. It works alongside them and only runs while rebellions are enabled. Realistic rulesets enable Aggressive collapse by default. Classic leaves it disabled.
Realistic also applies 1.5 times the normal stability penalty to unintegrated foreign land. Its simultaneous-war limit has increased from two wars to five, giving large powers room to finish several connected conflicts while overextension places more pressure on the empire at home.
Naval AI Rules
Realistic rulesets now keep default AI naval invasions close to the attacker's sea zones while a local target exists. The AI cannot ignore a nearby opponent simply because a distant coast looks easier.
The rule relaxes only when there is no valid local target. It also does not block an invasion needed to continue a war which has already started, so an existing distant war cannot become impossible to finish.
Culture Editor
The Scenario Editor can now create a completely empty culture database. You can build a culture system for a fictional world without first deleting the historical groups included with the game.
Fixes and Performance
Population: population growth can no longer overflow and turn a large population into an invalid or negative value.
Large numbers: army, manpower, casualty and world population totals now use safe limits instead of overflowing their display or simulation values.
Performace: Optimized a few areas that were causing performance issues.
Thank you for playing Observe and for continuing to help improve it!