The latest Civilization V patch v. 1.0.1.332 has been released. The patch adds the long-waited-for HotSeat mode for multiplayer, adds a replay option, and addresses a lot of balance issues.
[NOTES]
Pacing has received a large amount of work. Expect to have more of a challenge managing your empire at higher difficulty levels than you did before. Consider dropping a difficulty level if you have problems.
Existing saves will work correctly. However, the balance pass may make your existing happiness lower than expectedTechnology when loading into your existing save post-patch.
[UI]
Civilopedia now available in the Main Menu (under “Other”)
Replay is now available at the end of the game, and through the main menu. You can choose Map, Graphs, and turn-by-turn. Only games played post-patch will apply.
Great People progress UI addition (upper-left Info Corner UI).
Combat preview for Aircraft UI addition.
Fixed aircraft UI issue causing the aircraft selection UI to duplicate itself when rebasing aircraft.
When loading save game files, you can now order the list by name, or last modified.
Fix aircraft UI bug that was causing Nuclear Missiles and Atomic Bombers to leave behind container UI after it’s destroyed.
Removed dead players from Demographics UI.
[DIPLOMACY]
Made backstab routine more transparent (the dialog will clearly state that they are backstabbing you).
AI now remembers when it has been nuked, for a permanent diplomatic penalty.
AI now recognizes a player that captured their capital for a permanent diplomatic penalty.
End declaration of friendship as soon as war is declared (so can't later get a notification that it has expired).
AI remembers if you satisfied one of their requests (positive modifier, decays over time, based on value of items granted).
AI remembers if you fought against a common foe (positive modifier, decays over time, based on damage done to the common foe).
Track trades between players and allow that to positively influence relationships (the better the deal for the AI, the stronger the modifier). Particularly useful for bribing a hostile AI.
[AI]
Rebalanced AI flavors and strategies for unit training to improve AI army composition and build choices.
Allow the AI to consider Pikeman units for offensive roles when they can't build Swordsman or Longswordsman.
Allow Alexander and Darius to consider Hoplites and Immortals for offensive roles in early game.
AI players may now use a Great General in early rushes on higher difficulties.
Modified flavor tags for Atomic Bomb and Nuclear Missile so AI builds them only when it decides it specifically wants Nukes.
Block City States from building carriers, atomic weapons.
Strategies for building mobile units now persist into Modern era to help AI decisions for when to build tanks and modern armor.
Dampen early game Grand Strategies to give the AI time to expand (AI were sometimes stuck in a single city until late in the game).
Victory adjustments to AI behaviors, including alternate victory paths as “back-ups” (for example, building the Apollo Program, even if they are not going for a Spaceship victory).
Revise code calculating recommended army size (using smaller armies if the threat is low).
Correct issue that was causing late-game continent-bound AI’s to over-build units intending to invade, and never properly execute the amphibious invasion.
Scale recommended army sizes based on difficulty level.
AI grand strategy and flavor weighting balance pass.
AI policy choice weighting balance pass.
AI tech choice weighting balance pass.
[GAMEPLAY]
Player is now given the option to return a CS worker that they free from barbarians.
Roads under captured cities no longer charge maintenance.
Machu Picchu no longer destroyed when capturing a city containing Machu Picchu.
Fixed Oligarchy bug that was causing the effect to expire when loading from a save.
[MULTIPLAYER]
Multiplayer AI is now consistent with Single Player AI.
Hot-Seat is now available through the multiplayer menu.
You can have as many humans playing as available slots in the game.
Password protection is built in.
All maps, including purchased and user-created, are available to play in Hot-Seat.
While play-by-email is not yet implemented, we did include an in-between turn saving option for those that want to play via email.
[BALANCE]
Mechanics
Policy “Finishers” added to all 10 policy trees. Taking all policies in a tree will grant an additional bonus effect. See policy notes below for more information.
Tweaked Policy cost formula (cheaper earlier, more expensive later).
Reduced per-city Policy cost increase by 50%.
Culture from City States tweaked (less early, more later).
Killing a barbarian for a city state now gives 12 influence (was 5).
Production cost adjustments for units/buildings/wonders (mostly a little cheaper, much cheaper late game).
Unhappiness per city increased to 3 from 2.
All great person tile improvements now connect all strategic resources.
Reduced Culture from Goody Huts to 20 from 30.
Defense penalty and city assault bonus promotions are now lost with upgrade.
Research agreements now give a tech boost instead of a free tech. Tech boosts start at 50% of the median value of all techs you can research. Can be boosted to 100% if you both start Rationalism and build the Porcelain Tower.
Terrain, Resources, and Improvements
New bonus resource: Stone (+1 production, improved with a Quarry). See the Stone Works building note below for additional details.
Map generation improvements to integrate Stone into production-poor terrain, reducing the temporary usage of Cows. Additionally, will switch grass bonus resources from Cows to Stone when production is needed.
Marsh and Fallout terrain penalty reduced from -33 to -15.
Academy yield increases with Scientific Theory.
Customs House yield increases with Economics.
Manufactory yield increases with Chemistry.
Marble wonder production mod reduced to 15%.
Luxury resources now give 4 Happiness, down from 5.
Remove penalty for improving Tundra, Snow and Desert.
Railroad improvement now takes 3 turns, down from 7.
Scrub Fallout now takes 2 turns, down from 5.
Repair improvement now takes 2 turns, down from 3.
Well improvements now remove jungle/forest/marsh.
Buildings
New building: Stone Works: +1 Happiness and +1 production, and +1 production for each source of Marble and Stone worked. Requires Marble or Stone.
Burial Tomb now correctly has an Artist slot.
Mud Pyramid Mosque reduced 1 Culture.
Circus moved to Trapping.
Forge maintenance reduced 1 gold.
Windmill production modifier reduced 5% to 10%.
Monastery base Culture reduced from 3 to 2. Per resource Culture unchanged.
Mint gold per resource reduced by 1 gold.
Colosseum maintenance reduced by 1 gold, Happiness reduced by 1.
Theatre maintenance reduced by 1 gold, Happiness reduced by 1.
Stadium maintenance reduced by 1 gold, Happiness reduced by 1.
Broadcast tower cultural modifier reduced to 33% but now gives 3 Culture.
Armory maintenance reduced by 1 gold and moved to Machinery.
Military academy maintenance reduced by 2 gold.
Arsenal moved to rifling and now provides city defense instead of unit production.
Walls now gives 4 Defense (was 5).
Walls of Bablylon now give 6 Defense (was 7.5).
Mughal Fort now gives 6 Defense (was 9).
Castle now gives 4 Defense (was 7.5).
University maintenance reduced by 1 gold and now gives a 33% boost to science instead of 50% (will increase to 50% after adopting Free Thought Policy).
Military Academy now requires Armory instead of Barracks.
Arsenal now requires Castle instead of Military Academy.
Military Base now requires Arsenal.
Wat now requires Library.
Mud Pyramid Mosque now requires Monument.
Harbor naval production reduced 10% but now increases sea resources yield by 1 hammer.
Seaports no longer require a sea resource, they now require a Harbor. Production per sea resource reduced by 1 hammer.
Factory production increased by 1 hammer but modifier decreased to 10%.
Solar/Nuclear plant cost greatly reduced.
Solar/Nuclear plant production increased by 1 hammer but modifier decreased to 15%.
Public School science per population reduced by 50% and now provides a flat 3 science.
Research Laboratory modifier reduced by 50% but now gives a flat 4 science.
Workshop production modifier reduced by 5%.
Barracks, Armory, Military Academy and Krepost now provide experience to all units trained.
Wonders
National College moved to Philosophy and reduced by 2 science.
Oxford University now gives 3 additional science.
Great Lighthouse now also provides a free Lighthouse in the city where it was built.
Great library now gives 3 additional science, and provides a free Library in the city where it was built.
Porcelain tower now additionally increases the Science granted when completing Research Agreements by 50%.
Hermitage moved to Acoustics and much cheaper to build. Now requires Opera Houses but gives only a 50% boost to Culture.
Stonehenge Culture reduced to 6 from 8.
Pyramids worker speed increase reduced to 25% from 50% but now give a free Worker when built
Hanging Gardens now give 10 Food instead of 1 population per city and Happiness.
Great Wall now obsoletes with Dynamite instead of metallurgy and gives 3 Culture. Additionally, a free Wall is provided in the city where it was built.
Hagia Sophia great person modifier reduced to 25% from 34%, and gives a free Great Person of your choice.
Eiffel Tower now give 5 Happiness plus 1 for every 2 Policies adopted.
Chichen Itza now grants an additional 4 Happiness.
Machu Picchu trade route gold increased by 5% and also gives a flat 5 gold.
The Colossus now gives an additional 5 gold.
Notre Dame now gives 10 Happiness, up from 5, and 3 Culture.
Sistine Chapel Culture modifier reduced from 33% to 25%.
Kremlin global city defense mod reduced to 25% from 50% but now gives 12 defense in the city where it's built.
Cristo Redentor Policy discount reduced from 25% to 10% but now gives 4 Culture.
Pentagon upgrade cost reduced to 33% from 50% but now gives 3 Culture.
Sydney Opera House moved to Mass Media and gives 50% Culture in the city where it's built plus 4 Culture.
Big Ben hurry modifier reduced to 15% from 25% but now gives a flat 4 gold.
Himeji bonus reduced to 15% from 25%, and provides a free Castle in the city where it was built.
Forbidden Palace now provides -10% unhappiness from Citizens in non-occupied Cities.
Civilization Unique Abilities
Arabia: Bazaar now gives 2 gold on oil/oasis.
America: Remove river start bias.
America: Increase plot buy modifier to 50% from 25%.
China: Great General trait reduced to 50% from 100%.
Babylon: Great Scientist trait reduced to 50% from 100%.
Germany: Now receives a 25% discount on land unit maintenance.
Ottoman: Now receives a 67% discount on naval unit maintenance, and can upgrade Galley’s to Trireme’s.
Policies
Liberty and Autocracy are no longer mutually exclusive.
Freedom, Autocracy and Order are now mutually exclusive.
Tradition
Aristocracy now provides +15% Production when building Wonders down from 20%.
Landed Elite now provides 1 Happiness at every 10 Citizens in each City.
Tradition Finisher: +15% Growth and +2 Food in each city.
Liberty
Meritocracy: +1 Happiness for each city connected to your capital, and -5% Unhappiness from citizens in non-occupied cities.
Republic now adds an additional 5% building production modifier.
Liberty Finisher: Great Person of your choice.
Honor
Honor Opener now additionally provides Culture for each barbarian killed.
Warrior Code now also gives 15% melee unit production.
Military Caste now provides +1 Happiness and +2 Culture for each city with a garrison.
Professional Army now reduces cost of upgrading units by 33% and provides +1 Happiness per defensive building (Walls, Castle, Arsenal, Military base).
Honor Finisher: Grants gold for each enemy unit killed.
Piety
Piety Opener now provides a 15% production bonus on Culture buildings.
Free Religion now provides only 1 free Policy but increases the Culture from Monuments, Temples and Monasteries by 1.
Organized Religion now gives 1 Happiness per Monument, Temple and Monastery.
Reformation now increases Culture in all cities with a Wonder by 33%, and starts a Golden Age.
Theocracy now increase gold yield by 10% in cities with a Temple.
Piety Finisher: -10% Culture cost of future Policies.
Patronage
Scholasticism reduced from 33% to 25%
Patronage Finisher: Causes other players’ influence with City States to decrease 33% more per turn than usual.
Commerce
Naval Tradition policy now also gives +1 moves to embarked units.
Commerce Finisher: +1 Gold per Specialist.
Rationalism
Rationalist Opener now increases the Science granted when completing Research Agreements by 50%. Stacks with Porcelain Tower.
Free Thought now also increases University science yield by 17%
Humanism now also affects Public Schools and Observatories.
Rationalism Finisher: +1 Gold from Science buildings.
Freedom
Freedom Opener now provides 25% Great Person Points in all cities.
Democracy now provides -50% Unhappiness per Specialist.
Constitution now provides +2 Culture per Wonder.
Free Speech now provides 8 maintenance free units.
Freedom Finisher: +100% yield from Great Tile Improvements and increase length of Golden Ages by 50%.
Autocracy
Police State now provides 3 Happiness per Courthouse, and reduces the time it take to build Courthouses by 50%.
Total War now provides +15% Production when building Military Units and +15 XP for new units.
Autocracy Finisher: 30 turn attack bonus of +20%.
Order
Order Opener now provides +1 Happiness per City.
Socialism and Planned Economy swapped places.
Socialism buff to 15% reduction in building maintenance from 10%.
Planned Economy now increases Science yield by 25% in cities with a Factory.
Communism now provides 2 Production and 10% Production towards buildings in each city.
Order Finisher: +1 Food/Production/Science/Gold/Culture per city.
United Front – Militaristic City States now grant units twice as often when you are at war with a common foe.
Technology
Reduced cost of Calendar, Civil Service, Iron Working, Gunpowder, Rifling and Dynamite.
Scaled up costs of all sciences starting in the mid-renaissance era and on (larger increases later on).
Metal Working requires Construction.
Railroad now requires Dynamite.
Radar now requires Combustion.
Globalization requires Computers, and the cost is increased.
Computers require Radar.
Particle Physics no longer requires Globalization (Space victory now possible without overlapping Diplomatic victory).
Future Tech requires Globalization.
Tech Aesthetics: moved Dynamite and all future technologies around by 1 position for better alignment.
Units/Combat
Destroyers no longer start with extra sight.
Extra Sight promotions are now lost with upgrade (Caravel).
Great General promotion spawning effectiveness reduced by 50%.
Mohawk Jungle/Forest bonus reduced to 25% from 50%.
Gunship anti-armor promotions now work correctly.
Jaguar now gets Woodsman promotion.
Minuteman now start with Drill I.
Mohawk Warriors no longer require Iron.
Carriers no longer require Oil.
Destroyer moved to Combustion.
Mechanized infantry moves reduced from 4 to 3.
Galley now upgrades to Trireme.
Ironclad now upgrades to Battleship.
+1 moves for Tank, Panzer, Modern Armor, with no sight penalty.
Increased combat strength of siege weapons to 50% of their ranged strength, increased intrinsic city attack promotions (10%/30% -> 20%/50%).
Increased Incan slinger combat strength slightly.
Increased Crossbowman and Chu-Ko-Nu combat and ranged strength.
Decreased Longswordsman, Fighter, Bomber, Guided Missile, Jet Fighter and corresponding UUs strength.
Removed Mandekalu Cavalry city attack bonus promotion (but still has no penalty).
Reduced Tank, Panzer, Modern Armor to lower tier city attack penalty (-25%, instead of -33%).
Aztec Culture from kills now stacks with new Honor Policy branch opener for double Culture killing barbarians.
Boosted Chariot Archer to strength 4 and ranged 7 (Egypt War Chariot as well).
Drop combat value of Berserker and Huscarl to match Longswordsman.
[MODDING]
Fixed a bug in Lua where "Events..Remove" was not behaving correctly.
Diodorus Sicilus?!?! Where have you been? Long time no see!
Kept myself busy with Caesar IV, Settlers 6, Europa Universalis, 1701, 1404, and trivialities like raising a family and working. Civ V brought me back to the addiction that is Civ...
Had a chance to play about 100 turns of one game and 220 of another with the new patch, and some of the initial impressions turned out to be false! Contrary to my expectations, Happiness was LESS of a problem than before: not only can you get a lot of Happiness pluses from Social Policies, but the Social Policies (at least up to mid-game) come faster. I would estimate that both myself and the AIs were all about 1 - 2 SPs ahead of where we would have been in a pre-patch game, making it even easier than I had thought to keep both Happiness and Culture in positive areas. Most pre-patch games, I schlepped along at about +10 to +25 Happiness: In my second post-patch game, I was hitting +30 to +42 Happiness as the Iroquois (who are not particularly known as Cultural/Happiness Warriors!) and consequently ran through 3 Golden Ages without sacrificing Great People before Turn 200 - never managed that before with an expanding Empire.
Also had the AI declare War on me twice early in the game - before Turn 50, in fact, which was very unusual in previous games. AI also definitely doesn't balk at using Pikemen for assaults now, which keeps you guessing as to where the attack is coming sometimes. Of course, the AI is still pretty stupid, just a few IQ points better than it was in some areas that I was looking for.
Finally, I didn't really keep track, but City State influence seems to degrade a little more slowly than before - I didn't seems to spend nearly as much Gold as before keeping my Allies and Friends, but I wasn't really watching the numbers so will have to run another game and keep track.
All in all, a much more balanced set of changes than I expected from the reading. Of course, there still (to my mind) aren't enough Negatives attached to low culture or happiness: where are the revolting cities or workers of Civs past? Combined with losing the Earthquakes, Volcanoes, plagues, and other semi-random negatives, I think the game has lost a lot of the problem-solving detail that I enjoyed in prior Civ versions. I'd like to see a a chance for your cities to 'desert' to a neighboring High Culture Civ, or cities revolt if Happiness goes into minus numbers for too long. Haven't seen any sign of either, so in fact as a player you can ignore the Happiness/Cultural numbers for quite a while without any major problems...
Can't exactly pinpoint why, but the game does seem to be paced better so far. At least on epic, anyway. I've having significantly more fun than previously, and I haven't the foggiest notion why.
Having a hell of a time maintaining a balance between happiness, cash flow, and an army large enough to be an effective deterrent, especially with a treacherous and belligerent Catherine on my northern border. Not once, nor twice, nor thrice, but four times a "friendly" Cate declared war on me, and tried to take my most northern city. Had I not made Hanoi, which was sandwiched between us, an ally, I may have actually lost a city or two. But, with their free units and their archers picking off numerous Russian units, I was able to hold her off time and again, until mustering a large enough army to take over four of her cities the fourth time she pulled her little act. Duplicitous *****.
Playing my first ever game as Egypt; can't believe I've never tried them before, seems to fit my play style. Having one marble and two stone in Thebes has been a help. I've also discovered just how kick-ass a force of four or five crossbowmen can be when invading.
I am liking the culture bonus you get for killing barbarians when using the Honor SP.
And like Guynemer said... I had a friendly Egypt to my north, not too close. Never turned them down for anything, always friendly. Then pow they start attacking me, I kill off 4 or 5 of their units. They make peace, for a while, then start it back up again. Don't know why they are so persnickity. If I hadn't allied with a city state in between us earlier it could have been a problem. I wish there was a diplomacy screen that showed a summary of their feelings and history of prior transactions etc. Kind of like how the city states have a point value for how they feel about you.
Two games probably isn't a statistically significant sample, but in both of the games I've started, one of my near neighbors has attacked me early on, in one case from a 'standing start' - no negotiations, no demands, no actions on my part: they just didn't like my looks... In the second case, I'd have to call it AI Suicide, because they not only attacked me three times in a little over 100 turns, but they also Denounced all of their other neighbors. Consequently, when I finally hit them and took their capital and second city away, all their other neighbors ganged up on them (one had been an Ally of theirs at one time!) and finished them off in a few turns.
The AI seems to 'change its diplomatic mind' very quickly, and it isn't always obvious why. I'd definitely like to have some kind of indication of what I'm doing (if anything) to make them nervous/angry, instead of operating largely in the dark and in an atmosphere of near-continuous paranoia.
Much improved, in fact last night I had to force myself to stop playing, first time that has happened in V. Not quite sure what it is but the game really feels like Civ at last.
Washington tried an early rush on me, purely built units in preperation and very nearly took two cities, if he had access to iron I would have been in real trouble. His reason for attacking me was valid, I was intentionnally strangling his expansion options. Better yet, he actually defended his archers properly.
I wish there was a diplomacy screen that showed a summary of their feelings and history of prior transactions etc. Kind of like how the city states have a point value for how they feel about you.
There is, even in the diplomacy screen if you put the mouse cursor over the status (e.g. Friendly) it will display a list of positive and negative modifiers. Still, you're lucky to find a real indication of what's going wrong.
In my game I had Arabia always been friendly with me and after the patch they turned hostile and denounced me. IMO however that makes sense, since we're the last two remaining Civs, I've eliminated all on my continent and he on his content. Naturally we have to fight for the victory (with him being in the lead point-wise).
Strategic resources come later, by tech. You might have a valuable GP improvement there, since you can't know before the tech what's beneath. Luxuries are always present. If you make a GP improvement over it, it's on you, not the game.
The map has Bonus, Strategic, and Luxury Resources. The distinction keeps you from building a Great Improvement over every Resource tile, since as it stands you only keep your resource bonuses on a Strategic, not Bonus or Luxury Resource.
At least, I assume the reasoning is purely Game Play, since I would think that a Manufactury, Academy or Customs House, if they improved the output of any resource would improve them all...
Thoughts over Sunday morning coffee. (Hmm. Oerdin hasn't trashed the new patch, or refuted people saying it actually makes CiV a fun game. The patch must be good, then, and turned the corner for the game. Might be the time for me to finally get the new version.)
more thoughts to myself.... Am I a bad person for using anti-reviews as a benchmark?
Am I a bad person for using anti-reviews as a benchmark?
Hardly, there's a lot of us who not only look at what the positive people say, but also what the negative people say, or don't say. If the negative people wind up nit picking or keeping silent, usually a good indication.
And yes, the latest patch is a big step forward. Admittedly, this was so far behind that its going to take more than one big step to come close to what BTS wound up as, but for the time its out, a decent job, and shows they are listening to the feedback.
A telling point is that I used to play on both the Windows side and Mac side on my iMac, since this patch, I only play on the Windows side until the Mac catches up. A much better game now.
Thoughts over Sunday morning coffee. (Hmm. Oerdin hasn't trashed the new patch, or refuted people saying it actually makes CiV a fun game. The patch must be good, then, and turned the corner for the game. Might be the time for me to finally get the new version.)
more thoughts to myself.... Am I a bad person for using anti-reviews as a benchmark?
It does make the game a bit more fun but on the two games I played I did spend much of my time with negative happiness. Maybe I just need to modify which techs I go for first or which civics I pick though. I'll need to play a bit more before I find out.
I play on prince and have positive happiness most of the game, and a lot at the end. I know of several people who play on emperor and have positive happiness too, so it's not impossible. Finding the right SP for your playstyle/empire type is key.
I am 2/3rd way through my first real (non abortive) post patch game and I can see differences. I have not been denounced at all, despite Egypt actively hating me for no real reason other than I am too close to them. I have made friend pacts with a couple of civs, for the first time ever in a civ 5 game! And so far they haven't flipped and tried to crush me yet.
Happiness is certainly more of an issue, but I am trying to be proactive and front load the happiness scale whenever I can. But of course war and taking over enemy cities throws all that into the river, I think I'm currently at -20 or so happiness because I recently puppeted 3 enemy cities. Once I crush them all I will try to convert them.
Stupid work and family life is standing in my way of finishing this one. I think I might squeeze a cultural victory out of it, I've met all the players and I am whooping them score-wise. But maybe I get bored and just let the tanks roll. Don't know yet.
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