The next patch

[Nikolai]

The info for the next patch has been out there for some time now, but no discussion has been done here. Surely some is interested in the details? The full changelist is not out yet, nor is the patch, but this is what we got to know about the changes November 26th:

Beyond Earth's upcoming patch is almost ready
26 November - Hinkle2K


We’d like to thank all our fans for the feedback and reports they have been posting and sending in. The team has been working hard on bug fixing and balancing, and as you’ll see in the change list below, we’re close to locking down this patch. We’ll share more specifics for the gameplay changes shortly while the build is making its way through the approval process.


-Firaxis Games




[GAMEPLAY]
• Implementing additional bug fixes for quests.
• Implementing modified quest rewards based on game speed and which turn they were received in.
• Revisiting difficulty level scaling. Increasing difficulty when playing on Apollo.
• Implementing balance pass on Health system (penalties, bonuses).
• Adjusting certain Virtues for balance.
• Implementing overall unit balance pass (strength, production and strategic resource cost, affinity level requirements, location on tech web).
• Implementing leader/sponsor trait balance pass (Kozlov, Barre, Rejinaldo, and Elodie), as well as some seeded start option adjustments.
• Implementing Covert Ops updates and exploit fixes.
• Implementing Trade Route balance and adjustments, including simpler UI.
• Implementing gameplay bug fixes as reported in the community (Quests, etc.).
• Implementing general AI improvements.
• Adjusting Affinity reward ramping when earning Affinity from Quests.
• Adjusting Station distribution, and arrival timing.
• Improving AI, including energy management, tactical management, tech and victory approaches, etc.


[ENGINE]
• Fixing a memory leak that could potentially crash the game (mostly affected MP)
• Correcting screen resolution problems, particularly related to the 144hz refresh rate full-screen (or lack of full-screen) issue.
• Investigating a start-up problem where the game shuts down with an error immediately following the opening movie.
• Investigating crash issues submitted by users, and through Steam crash reporting.
• Adding an in-game option to disable depth of field effect for players that prefer the game without this.


[UI]
• Ongoing updates to in-game text, tool-tips, etc.
• Correcting an issue where actions could be missing from embarked workers (like repairing a pillaged water improvement)
• Adding "Completed" section to city production menu so players know what they just finished.
• Adding advanced touch controls, gesture support, pen support.
• Adding color icons to the tech web (categorized) with an option to disable.
• Better inform players of approaching AI victory, and updated victory/defeat screen with additional information.


[ACHIEVEMENTS]
• Achievements not firing if Max Turns was set in previous games. Also investigating some other possible causes.


[MODDING]
• Fixing quest mod support.
• Fixing 2D leader fall-back image support for all graphics quality settings.


[MULTIPLAYER]
• Fixing an issue that led to disconnects in cases of content mismatch.
• Fixing an issue that was causing available/researched technologies after a re-sync.
• Correcting multiple desyncs.
• Ongoing multiplayer improvements.
• Increasing geographic range of server browser distance filter.

[Aeson]

Sounds good, but it's all pretty vague.

One thing they don't mention that I think is important is slowing down the Wonder victories.

[mkorin]

The patch came out today and the fixes are quite different than expected. A couple comments. FIrst, It looks like they made the -health penelty worse will making it harder to stay healthy. Not like you ever could if you play expantionist or warlord.

Also, it looks like the things I wanted the most didn't make the final cut. Telling you what is completed, Giving you better information on who close the AI is to win, all the crashes and the video issues. I make this statement based on the readme while it was downloading. I could have missed it.

Mike

[Nikolai]

The patch is live.

From CFC:

We’re happy to report the first major patch for Civilization: Beyond Earth is now available. This patch, a collaborative effort between Firaxis Games and all of you who took the time to provide feedback since launch, will automatically download the next time you start up your Steam client. If the patch is not downloading, try restarting Steam.


Players affected by the 144hz monitor issue should find that is no longer the case. Another issue preventing achievements from unlocking has also been fixed. And, in addition to fixing these and other issues, Firaxis has also addressed a number of gameplay balance requests from the community – like optimizing trade route yields and doing away with one particular Covert Ops exploit. This is a substantial update, so please take a few moments to pore over the full patch notes below before you jump back into Beyond Earth for one ... more ... turn ...




Balance


Wonders and Buildings:
• Holon Chamber provides 3 Science, 4 Energy (was 5 Science)
• Mind Stems cannot be bought with Energy.


Diplomacy:
• Any diplo item can now be traded in exchange for a peace treaty
• Lump Energy trade requires a Cooperation Agreement.


Trade:
• Water trade routes no longer receive any increased yield.
• Revised trade route formula for city-to-city trade, with reduced yields.
• Trade Depots can no longer be purchased with Energy.


Aliens:
• Clearing a friendly alien nest now removes the Xenomass resource from player stockpile.
• Adjusting passive recovery rate for alien opinion to be slower, to permit easier aggression escalation.


Covert Ops:
• Establish Network now has 0 difficulty and produces 0 intrigue. This prevents players from exploiting it to increase intrigue.
Health effects balancing:
• From -20 to -70, Production is penalized -1% per point (up to -50%).
• From -15 to -65, enemy Covert Ops Intrigue is increased +2% per point (up to +100%).
• From -10 to -60, Science is penalized -1% per point (up to -50%).
• From -5 to -55, Culture is penalized -1% per point (up to -50%).
• From 0 to -50, Outpost Growth is penalized -2% per point (up to -100%).
• From 0 to -50, City Growth is penalized -2% per point (up to -100%).
• From 1 to 5, nothing happens.
• From 5 to 25, Production bonus +1% per point (up to +20%).
• From 10 to 30, enemy Covert Ops Intrigue is decreased -2% per point (up to -40%).
• From 15 to 35, Science bonus +1% per point (up to +20%).
• From 20 to 40, Culture bonus +1 per point (up to +20%).
• From 25 to 45, City Growth bonus +1% per point (up to +20%).
• From 25 to 45, Outpost Growth bonus +2% per point (up to +40%).


Virtues:
• Eudaimonia (Tier III Prosperity virtue) now provides -15% less Unhealth (was -25%)
• Learning Centers now provides +1 Science for Academies (was +2)


Game Setup:
• Sponsors:
-Kozlov Ability: Orbital units last 50% longer, +50% Petroleum resource (was Orbital units last 20% longer and first launch grants free technology)
-Barre Ability: +10% Growth when Healthy, all cities start with an Old Earth Relic (was +10% Growth when Healthy)
-Rejinaldo Ability: Melee units +10% Strength, all units +5 Heal when fortified (was +10% Melee combat strength)
-Elodie Ability: provides 1 free Virtue for every 10 Virtues earned normally through Culture (was 1 free Tech for every 10 Virtues earned in any way)
• Colonists:
-Aristocrats now provide +4 Energy per City (no Health bonus)
-Artists now provide +3 Culture per City (no Health bonus)


Tech Web:
• Clear Miasma now unlocks on Ecology (was Alien Biology)
• Miasmic Repulsor now unlocks on Alien Biology (was Ecology)
• Array Science bonus now unlocks on Astrodynamics (was Orbital Automation)
• Planet Carver now unlocks on Orbital Automation (was Astrodynamics)
• Markov Eclipse now unlocks on Transcendental Math (was Artificial Intelligence)


Stations:
• Station start turn base is now 30 (was 20)
• Station minimum allowed distance to another station is now 2 (was 3)
• Station minimum allowed distance to a city is now 6 (was 5)
• Station minimum allowed distance to an outpost is now 5 (was 3)


Affinity Perks:
• Harmony level 1 grants Miasma Immunity to the Explorer unit (was Alien opinion recovers twice as quickly)
• Purity level 1 adds double combat strength when defending to Explorer unit (was Aliens cannot attack Explorers)


Quests:
• Affinity rewarded as a quest reward now ramps up slowly over the first 100 turns (on standard). This ramp will vary with game speed.
• All players now get affinity quests within 1 turn of each other. If it's not possible for all players to receive a quest at the same time, the game waits until this is possible, then immediately gives all players a new affinity quest.
• Autoplant Building Quest grants bonus Production (was +1 Trade Route)


Units:
• Explorers now have 6 combat strength (was 3).
• Sea units now follow the same rules for ranged combat defense as all other units: they use the highest of their combat values (ranged combat or melee combat) when calculating defense.
• Combat Rover unit can no longer fortify, and no longer receives defense bonuses from the terrain it is on.
• Raising the secondary level requirement for the hybrid upgrades of affinity units:
-First affinity unit (ex. Xeno Swarm) now upgrades at level 10 of main affinity and level 4 of secondary affinity (was 10+2)
-Second affinity unit (ex. Xeno Cavalry) now upgrades at 12+5 (was 12+3)
-Third affinity unit (ex. Rocktopus) now upgrades at level 14+6 (was 14+4)
-Fourth affinity unit (ex. Xeno Titan) now upgrades at level 16+7 (was 16+5)
• Lowering strategic resource costs for many affinity units, to ensure consistency across affinities and make top tier units easier to build. The first affinity units require 1 strategic, the second require 2, the third require 3, and the fourth require 5.
-CARVR now costs 2 Firaxite (was 3)
-Rocktopus now costs 2 Xenomass and 1 Floatstone (was 3 Xenomass and 1 Floatstone)
-LEV Tank now costs 3 Floatstone (was 4)
-SABR now costs 3 Firaxite (was 4)
-Xeno Titan now costs 5 Xenomass (was 7)
-LEV Destroyer now costs 5 Floatstone (was 7)
-ANGEL now costs 5 Firaxite (was 6)
• Increased production costs of upgraded Combat Rovers and Missile Rovers:
-Combat Rovers now cost 80, 160, 260, 370 (was 80, 140, 220, 320)
-Missile Rovers now cost 100, 190, 290, 400 (was 100, 180, 270, 370)
• Lowering combat strength progression of Combat Rover:
-Combat Rover combat strength progression is now 12, 18, 28, 52 (was 12, 18, 32, 52)
• Changes to the combat strength of affinity units, to make non-upgraded ones more weak in general:
-Xeno Swarm now has 22 combat strength at start, 54 when upgraded (was 34, 54)
-Xeno Cavalry now has 36, 72 (was 48, 72)
-Rocktopus now has 60, 92 (was 60, 82)
-Xeno Titan now has 86, 114 (was 96, 114)
-Battlesuit now has 24, 66 (was 40, 66)
-Aegis now has 34, 34 double strike (was 40, 40 double strike)
-LEV Tank now has 44, 77 (was 52, 77)
-LEV Destroyer now has 74, 104 (was 84, 104)
-CNDR now has 24, 63 (was 38, 63)
-CARVR now has 38, 76 (was 50, 76)
-SABR now has 52, 86 (was 58, 86)
-ANGEL now has 78 with 78 melee, 102 with 88 melee (was 88 with 88 melee, 102 with 102 melee)


AI:
• Once the game is in Extended mode (after the player clicks the One More Turn button) the AI will now only pursue Domination.
• Warmonger threat per city acquisition is now capped.
• Warmonger calculation now scaled down when cities are taken by Sponsors that are reacting to a war that was declared upon them (that is, when that civ is not the aggressor).
• Adjusted AI bonuses on higher difficulty levels.
• Additional AI tuning, improvements, and tweaks.


Gameplay Feedback:
• Implemented anonymous gameplay telemetry for design feedback.


UI


Settings and Game Setup:
• The menu now displays EQAA modes instead of MSAA modes if in Mantle version and the GPU supports EQAA.
• Added option to disable UI/Map blur.
• The player is now informed that enabling max turns disables victory achievements.


Trade:
• Previous trade routes appear in their own category at top of trade route chooser


City/Production UI:
• Adding Health tooltip help in City View to explain health sources and population cap
• City production pop-up now shows the last item completed.
• Increased city renaming from 15 character max to 23 character max.


Misc:
• Allow "One More Turn" after the default win conditions (Contact, Promised Land, Emancipation, Transcendence, Domination, Time), added text to defeat screen explaining how you were defeated.
• Option to make minimap opaque
• ESC leaves orbital mode instead of raising in game shell menu
• Added a badge to covert ops button in the action corner which will show up, and a warning to the covert ops panel when a player has any cities with high intrigue.
• Tech web - adding color underlays to building and wonder types.
• Added additional Advisors for trade convoy and trade vessel.
• Added support for third party wars in diplo overview.
• Full touch/gesture and pen support added (Ultrabook, Surface Pro, etc.).


Multiplayer


• Setting the internet server browser list distance filtering to worldwide.
• All players are notified when anyone completes a victory wonder.
• Multiple improvements to stability.


Modding


• 2D fallback image now supported for leaders on all video quality settings, not just the lowest.
• Added the ability to mod Quests.


Bugs


• Embarked workers can now correctly repair pillaged improvements.
• Fixed an issue where Max turns was getting set on “Reload”, causing achievements to not fire.
• Fixed bug where victory achievements would only unlock for the first player on a team.
• Fixed empty trade requests that could occur during the AI turn.
• Fixed multiple Quest issues (quest tracking, information, and reward bugs).
• Fixed multiple issues with screen resolution on specific displays (like the 144Hz full-screen issue), and a Mantle issue causing the game to not display on the correct screen.
• Setting MaxTurns only affects timed victory conditions. For a timed victory, you must either not set MaxTurns (of which, there will be a default for the game speed), or set it to 100+ turns. All other victory conditions can be achieved regardless of max turns.
• Friendly aliens no longer blockade cities.
• Fixed some specific issues with resources not appearing properly in the player stockpile.
• Many additional bugs and crashes addressed based on community feedback. Thank you!

[Nikolai]

The patch came out today and the fixes are quite different than expected. A couple comments. FIrst, It looks like they made the -health penelty worse will making it harder to stay healthy. Not like you ever could if you play expantionist or warlord.

Also, it looks like the things I wanted the most didn't make the final cut. Telling you what is completed, Giving you better information on who close the AI is to win, all the crashes and the video issues. I make this statement based on the readme while it was downloading. I could have missed it.

Mike

The mindless ICS is gone, but I still manage to have big empires in my games. In my last game, on mid level diff(because I suck ), I built four cities ASAP and got down to -7 health, then I consolidated and started up two new cities when I hit +10 health. I haven't got longer in yet.

[mkorin]

ICS?

ALso, the list I looked at on Steam stoped just after the third line of UI improvements. I now see completed building etc shows up. I'm about to start a game now and see how it goes.

[Nikolai]

ICS is an old Civ term from Civ1/Civ2 days. Means Infinite City Sprawl, ergo extreme wide strategy.

[gdijedi7]

Yeah. They always seem determined to kill off things I don't mind. ie, having a lot of cities or a lot of roads.

[Nikolai]

Problem is when one approach is so much, much better than the other.

[dannubis]

Great patch. CIV BE won't even start anymore.

[Nikolai]

I haven't seen that reported anywhere. It plays fine for most, except some close to minimum spec machines which crashes on game load. What is your specs?

[dannubis]

Consensus seems that NVIDIA not updating its drivers anymore for the older cards is the main culprit. Still, since it worked perfectly fine before the patch, I hope Firaxis can revert. Otherwise, no more CiVBE for me.

[Nikolai]

Out of curiousity, what card do you have?

[dannubis]

Ancient... GeForce GTX 280 I think. At work now so can't check.

However, I don't think it has to do with the card itself as the game was working flawlessly before the patch.

[Nikolai]

I did a quick search. GTX 280 is slightly slower than the minimum required card 8800. So I doubt it's supported. If it worked before you were lucky. There is a legacy mode made available, using the old patch IIRC. I think I saw it mentioned on CFC.