Hexarchy News

We're excited to announce the next public Hexarchy playtest will go live in just a few days on Monday, April 17 @ 1600 GMT.

Like last time, Single-player and multiplayer game modes will be enabled.

Now is your chance to test out the latest changes including the most recent update that made major changes to how the 10 civilizations play. As always, we want your feedback and look forward to the community continuing to contribute to how the final game shapes out.

Please fill out the in-game survey when you quit. We read all of these responses. Also, if you want to chat with us and other community members, hop on our Discord: https://discord.gg/rySTNdz

Please report bugs on Discord or using the in-game bug report.

See you in the game!

[h3]Civilization Specific Units[/h3]
Units are unlocked by researching any tech at a certain tier. The tier varies per civilization.

Persia - Immortal

• The first attack that would kill the Immortal instead reduces it to half strength.
  

Rome - Legionnaire

• Starts with extra promotion slots
  
• Builds a fort when fortifying
  

Arabia - Mamluk

• Build with gold
  
• Reduced gold supply cost
  

China - Cho-ko-knu

• Attacks twice
  

Greece - Companion Cavalry

• Mounted unit that can claim hexes
  

France - Imperial Guard

• Starts with Vanguard
  

Aztecs - Jaguar

• Can melee attack and ranged attack
  
• Starts with Woodsman
  

Russia - Cossack

• Flank attacks do bonus damage and splash damage
  

Egypt - Horse Archer

• Mounted ranged unit
  
• Starts with Vanguard
  

England - Longbowman

• Shoots over terrain that normally blocks ranged attacks
  
• Ignores enemy terrain defense bonuses
  

[h3]Civilization Passive Bonuses[/h3]

Persia

• 50% reduced unit supply gold cost
  
• 50% reduced city upkeep gold cost
  

Rome

• +1 extra build per turn per city
  
• +1 hammer yield on hexes with a road
  

Arabia

• +1 gold for all resources sold
  
• Holy Sites give +2 culture and +2 gold
  

China

• +1 hammer from mine, workshop, forge, lumber mill, and warehouse
  
• Shuffle cost reduced to 1 gold
  

Greece

• Can adopt multiple civics of the same type
  
• Adopting a civic gives 4 gold
  

France

• +2 culture per city
  
• Easier for border growth to steal an enemy hex
  
• +50% damage from artillery units
  

Aztecs

• Get 3 gold and 2 culture when killing an enemy unit
  
• Get +1 Victory Point when killing an enemy unit
  

Russia

• +2 food on all city hexes
  
• 50% reduced unhappiness yield penalties
  

Egypt

• Wonder gold cost reduced by 100%
  

England

• 25% chance to gain 1 hammer when selling a resource
  
• +1 gold yield from water tiles
  
• Borders expand more quickly over water tiles
  

[h3]Tech Tree Changes[/h3]

• Many things moved in the tech tree. Most techs now have fewer cards
  
• New techs: Animal Husbandry, Mining, Architecture, Astronomy, Logistics
  

[h3]Balance Changes[/h3]

• Units spawned on Barracks are immediately mobilized so they can move that turn
  
• Settlers no longer immune to ranged attacks
  
• Harbor gold increased to 2 and now immediately gives bonus resources when built
  
• Courthouse maintenance reduction increased
  

[h3]Misc[/h3]

• Culture can steal hexes from enemy players
  
• Culture can grow a city's borders multiple times in a turn
  
• Simple culture overlay toggle
  
• Shuffle disabled in daily challenges
  
• Can select your "preferred civilization" for multiplayer games
  
• Various AI changes
  
• Tech tree panel improvements
  
• Multiplayer game start countdown no longer skips seconds
  

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]

• Fix that should address some recurring multiplayer disconnect issues
  
• Other minor fixes
  

Thanks everyone!

[h3]Misc[/h3]

• Cities can now build a unit and a building each turn. Warehouse and Forge add an extra build of both types to the city.
  
• Added a Shuffle button that shuffles your discard pile back into your deck immediately for 4 gold
  
• Slight empire-wide reduction in the percent chance of a We Love You effect each time one is triggered
  
• Maneuvers now also gives a 1 turn movement bonus in addition to ignoring zone of control
  
• Added custom multiplayer game setting for announcing the game code on Discord
  

[h3]UI[/h3]

• Cursor changes when there is a player order being processed
  
• Researching a card now always requires a separate click on the card the player selects to add to their hand
  
• Added crude display of current game settings to game code panel
  

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed a bug where you could start a road on an enemy city
  

Thanks everyone!

We've added new settings to single player skirmishes and private multiplayer matches. This is both to allow players to customize their games and to test potential changes for the default mode. Please give us your feedback on how games go with different settings.

[h3]Misc[/h3]

• Wonders are now built on hexes outside of cities
  
• New menu system (work in progress)
  
• All single player skirmish settings are available in private multiplayer games
  

[h3]New Settings[/h3]

• Bot Difficulty (take "hard" and "insane" with a huge grain of salt for now. More AI improvements to come)
  
• Bot Aggressiveness
  
• Disable bots (multiplayer only)
  
• Fog of War
  
• Always Mobilize (except Settler)
  
• Require 3 hexes between cities
  

Thanks everyone!

That concludes this play test. Thank you, testers!

We've received a whole lot of feedback, suggestions, and bug reports. We have a lot to go through and a ton of work to do. We're continually impressed by how thoughtful the community's feedback is - it inspires us to make Hexarchy the best game it can be.

It won't be long until the next play test so stay tuned. If you're not on Discord, we invite you to join the ongoing discussion with other players and the devs: http://tinyurl.com/hexarchy

[h3]Multiplayer Stats[/h3]

For those of you interested in multiplayer, here's some metrics from the multiplayer games during the play test:






It's a priority for us to ensure that there are multiple pathways to victory in a game, so we split all of the completed multiplayer games into two groups - where the winner captured at least one enemy city and where the winner did not. Here is some data comparing those two groups: