Poster 2K_Greg (who works for 2K Games) recently released the following patch notes about the next upcoming patch to be released later this month.

Greg "2K Greg" Laabs:
February Patch Notes!
Hey guys I heard you wanted some patch notes? Well here you go!

Along with these notes, I have an introduction from Dennis, the Civilization V producer at Firaxis. We wanted to give you a little insight in to the thought process behind this patch's changes, so be sure to give it a read before diving in to the changes themselves:

The upcoming patch will contain some significant balance adjustments to Civ V. We thought it would be a good idea to give everyone a quick run-down on our thoughts behind these changes and a look at what further balance work lies ahead….

Click read more to read more about the upcoming patch.


This February patch comes at a great time for making balance changes; The five months since Civ V’s release has given us time to analyze reports of dominant strategies and implement and test deeper changes that will better balance the game in several key areas.

Working with our “Frankenstein” gameplay test group, we have been looking closely at the tradeoffs between building a Wide empire (one with lots of smaller cities sprawling across the map) and a Tall empire (one with just a few highly populous, highly productive cities). With this patch you’ll see a number of changes to the economic side of the game to bring these two play styles in closer balance with each other. City spacing, building effects and the Liberty and Tradition policy trees are where the most extensive changes have occurred. We’re now seeing games where a Tall empire can match or even exceed a Wide one in production and science output even deep into the game.

We wanted to improve the effectiveness of buildings. We also wanted to improve how cities interact with the map. Adjustments to terrain have increased production, while buildings that modify production have been adjusted in tune with these changes. You’ll find many buildings to be easier to build, with extra benefits, especially if you’ve settled near beneficial terrain and resources. We've continued to make improvements to pacing, diplomacy, turn times, the AI, and other aspects of the game.

With future patches we’ll continue to iterate through Civ V systems and fine tune the balance of each one. So far we’ve already identified combat, multiplayer, late-game policies, wonders and civilization-unique bonuses as additional areas that will benefit from this sort of attention. And as this journey progresses we promise to keep an ear to the ground for other areas the Civilization community may want us to address. Continued collaboration between community, our gameplay testers, and the development team will be nothing but a win for Civ V.

And so without further ado, the changes:

ENGINE

• Significant turn time improvements.
• Invisible Rivers now display correctly. This caused many issues because the player could not see some rivers, like fresh water showing up in strange places, unit movement suddenly shortened, etc.. Basically, there were certain rivers that did not display where forks occurred, etc.

• Add combat summary when a city bombards a unit
• Add a new diplomatic status "Denouncing" that displays on the turn that an AI civ is denouncing the player
• Embarked units no longer look like they have 500 strength
• User warned if about to declare war on a city state that is under protection of a major power

• Taper off benefit of excess food when building settlers
• City-States now recognize when a road is connected for their road-connection quest.
• Golden Ages now provide +20% production per city rather than +1 hammer per tile

• Prevent AI from building too many AA units
• Don't allow CSs to build Manhattan Project
• AI calculation of enemy military might are tweaked based on size of enemy gold reserve
• AI calculation of enemy power now takes into account promotions

• Avoid cascades of denunciations against a single player. AI now uses its own current friendliness level with a given power to determine how much weight to place on a denunciation against that power.
• Denunciations expire after 50 turns
• Declarations of Friendship expire after 50 turns

• Added support for policies that provide culture from kills
• Added support for policies that provide extra culture from cultural improvements
• Added support for policies that provide extra embarked movement
• Added support for policies that provide free Great People
• Online Panel now displays TOTAL downloads for a mod and not just the downloads for that specific version.
• When you click on a mod in the online browser, you may now use a dropdown to select a previous version.
• Added Line Control for modders to use when creating graphs, etc.

• Can now use DLC civilizations in multiplayer
• Added Ring, Skirmish and Ancient Lake maps to MP.

• Clear up cases where diplomatic status could show as "Friendly" even after that AI power has denounced the player.
• Fix situations where AI demeanor and verbiage didn't match friendliness level shown in diplomatic status string.
• Additional bug fixes and tweaks.

• Cities must now have three or more tiles in between them (1 more tile than before), unless separated by a sea/coast tile.
• Cities now only get 1 free production and 0 free gold (1 less in both cases)
• Trade routes get bonus gold based on population of capital; formula changed a bit so minimal gold received for hooking up very small cities
• Bonus production from excess food (used when building settlers) tapers off if excess is 3 or more.
• Allied maritime city states provide 3 food per turn to the capital, not 4
• Balance pass on production and maintenance costs throughout the game.

• Aqueduct added (entirely new building). 40% of Food is carried over after a new Citizen is born.
• Palace boosted to 3 gold and 3 production
• Granary gives bonus 1 food for Wheat/Banana Deer; cost reduced
• Market and Bazaar provide 2 gold (as well as +25%)
• Workshop provides 2 production (bonus reduced to +15% but affects ALL production); cost increased
• Windmill now has a +15% production modifier (for buildings only) and provides 2 production
• Stable gives bonus 1 production for Sheep/Cattle/Horse and can be built with Sheep or Cattle; cost reduced
• Lighthouse gives bonus 1 food for Fish; cost reduced
• Ironworks dropped to 8 production (but earlier in tech tree now)
• Factory requires Workshop; add 3 production but boost now just 25%; has 1 more specialist slot (now 2)
• Nuclear and Solar Plants now require Factory but increase to production is now 35% and provide 4 production themselves; these two now mutually exclusive
• Hospital adds 5 food (but no longer retains food), requires Aqueduct
• Forge adds +1 production to each source of Iron
• Reduced Armory maintenance to 2 gold
• Reduced Colosseum happiness to 3, and reduced maintenance to 2 gold
• Reduced Theatre happiness to 4
• Reduced Monastery maintenance to 0 gold
• Reduced Garden maintenance to 1 gold
• Reduced Observatory maintenance to 0 gold
• Reduced Opera House culture to 4, and reduced maintenance to 2 gold
• Removed the Great Person Point from Public School

• Temple -1 Artist
• Mud Pyramid Mosque -1 Artist
• Opera House +1 Artist
• Bank -1 Merchant
• Satraps Court -1 Merchant
• Stock Exchange +1 Merchant
• Observatory -1 Scientist
• University +1 Scientist
• Garden -1 Artist
• Laboratory -1 Scientist
• Public School +1 Scientist

• Production bonus from Railroads reduced to 25%
• Removed 1 extra gold from Mine on Gems, Gold, Silver, Marble.
• Fishing Boats give 1 food, not gold.
• Fishing Boats give 1 gold with Compass.
• Camps on Deer give production instead of food .
• Remove 1 extra food from Sugar plantations.
• Trading Post gold reduced from 2 to 1 (increases back to 2 when hit Economics).
• Trading Post & Camp gold increases by 1 with Economics.
• Lumbermill production increases by 1 with Scientific Theory (moved up from Steam Power).
• Mine & Quarry production increases by 1 with Chemistry.
• Plantation & Pasture food increases by 1 with Fertilizer.
• Well & Offshore Platform boosted to 3 production (from 1).
• Academy increased to 6 Science.
• Landmark increased to 6 Culture.
• Manufactory increased to 4 Production.

• Tradition: Culture border expansion discount in cities placed on Tradition branch opener. Discount increases over the course of the game. Also grants +3 Culture in the capital.
• Aristocracy: Wonder bonus reduced by 5% to 20%.
• Legalism: Provides a free Culture building in your first 4 cities.
• Oligarchy: Garrisoned units cost no maintenance, and cities with a garrison gain +100% ranged combat strength.
• Landed Elite: +15% Growth, and +2 Food per city.
• Monarchy: +1 Gold and -1 Unhappiness for every 2 Citizens in your capital.
• Liberty: +1 culture per turn in every city.
• Collective Rule: Settler production increased by 50%, and a free Settler appears near the capital.
• Citizenship: Worker construction rate increased by 25%, and a free Worker appears near the capital.
• Representation: Each city you found will increase the cost of your next Policy by 33% less. Also starts a Golden Age.
• Order: Reduce Order production bonus to 15%.
• Meritocracy: +0.5 Happiness for each city connected to the capital, and a free Great Person of your choice appears near the capital.

• Fish reduced to 1 food (but can be boosted back to 2 with Lighthouse)
• Marble boosts wonder production by 20%, down from 25%

• Scaled up tech costs throughout the game (slight change for early eras; close to double for Modern)
• Move Lumbermills up to Construction
• Move Bridge Building back to Engineering
• Move Ironworks to Machinery

• Workboat cost increased
• Settler cost increased by 25%

• Colossus no longer goes obsolete
• Angkor Wat now provides a 25% discount for the costs (both culture and gold) to gain plots empire-wide.

• Reduce Chu-ko-nu from 10 to 9 ranged strength
• Doubled culture from kills for Aztecs
• Krepost now provides a 25% discount for the costs (both culture and gold) to gain plots in the city.
• Paper Maker only provides 2 gold but no longer requires any building maintenance

• Increased Oil quantity per resource.
• Minimum Uranium is now 2.
• Cut Deer Appearance in Arctic regions.
• Adjusted Sheep placement so it is more spread out.
• Decreased Wheat appearance in Plains.
• Increases Cow appearance overall, including adding up to 2 Cow tiles to heavy grass start positions.[/quote]