Old World test branch update 1.0.82852 Test 2026-03-25
To switch to the test branch, right click Old World in Steam and select Properties, open the Game Versions & Betas tab and select 'test' in the version list.
Design
Crossbow strength reduced to 6 from 8
Polybolos strength reduced to 8 from 10
Windlass now requires Coinage instead of Manor
Windmills require Windlass instead of Hydraulics. Watermills are still available at Hydraulics
Free Court Soldier moved from Infantry Square to Stirrups
Free Court Merchant moved from Chain Drive to Cartography
Free Court Merchant moved from Fiscal Policy to Manor
Free Longbowmen moved from Manor to Battle Line
Free Horse Archer moved from Land Consolidation to Composite Bow
Schemer order buying now costs an extra Legitimacy point every time it's used. Cost increase resets for each leader
Lowered civics cost of Fisher, Trapper, Rancher, and Gardner specialists to match other rural specialists
Judaism no longer requires Labor Force
Kartir event triggers less often
AI no longer gets shrines and pastures for free as part of their initial development handicap, to prevent very early religion founding
Game of the Week no longer varies city site numbers
Programming
AI no longer skips laws and basic improvements in order to save for future Wonders
AI pushes culture harder in its highest culture cities
Non-raider tribe AI tweaked to keep them more focused on nearby targets
Pathfinder tweak to prefer single tile paths whenever possible
Border renderer and shader optimizations
UI
Added player option Manual Bonus Placement. This skips the popup prompt when placing a bonus improvement from an event or city founding bonus
Tribe sites now display both Next Unit turns and Development turns
Road map pins now appear with the Contextual Map Tacks option enabled when Engineer units are selected
Added tooltips to ping improvement dropdown
Renamed 'Exploring' trait to 'Traveling Afar'
Adjustments to reduce blur on text displayed on world UI
Reintroduced very simple lighting to the minimum detail level for standard shaders
Removed random option from City Site Number options
Added explanation to non-city site camp tile tooltips
Improved helptext for General traits which aren't valid for some units
Worker positions with and without height overrides are no longer mutually exclusive
Cities owned by Tribes or in Anarchy now show in the Timeline Screen
When gifting, hiring, or recruiting a unit, the helptext specifies that the cooldown is for the unit (and not the action)
Disabled Mirror Map option on Desolation & Ebbing Sea mapscripts (Wrath of Gods)
Bugs Fixed
Fixed Cyrillic text display regression
Fixed text outside of viewport bounds sometimes not clipping
Fixed custom overlay icons not showing correctly on first opening
Fixed barbarian widget sorting incorrectly with rivers
Fixed barbarian widget cutting out the revealed-not-visible effect past the edges of the icon widget
Fixed pathfinder avoiding ZOC tiles from unseen units
Fixed color of requirements for adopting State Religion when you have no cities of that religion
Fixed units getting temporarily rendered twice when upgrading
Fixed AI sometimes moving its ranged siege units when it doesn't need to
Fixed characters getting randomly married if currently targeted by a marriage mission
Fixed skull highlights for attack previews
Fixed fog of war revealing the same tiles multiple times
Fixed rivers not updating their appearance in sync with changes to terrain detail level
Fixed world pins over vegetation having the shadowed outlines of vegetation drawn on top of them
Fixed volcano effects sometimes not applying to mountains when the volcano is on the edge of the map or in MP games
Fixed AI saying it will leave a city site and then not doing so
Fixed Next Unit tooltip hitbox
Fixed women being able to birth children from different fathers on the same turn
Fixed player notification issue with occurrences
Fixed prereqs for repeatable techs showing up in searches that bring them up
Fixed non-urban city sites in Donut map script
Fixed lakes sometimes being placed next to ocean
Fixed worker particles turning pink when a worker is selected in some cases
Fixed Trade Network overlay getting locked on after building roads
Fixed Jerwan Aqueduct flickering between turns (Wonders and Dynasties)
Fixed Rejuvenation replacing Trees with Scrub (Wrath of Gods)
Text and event fixes