Minor Difficulty Update
Hi,
after a a longer time than I intended I managed to scramble the promised small patch addressing some of the difficulty issues.
Because some of these changes were quite invasive I had to properly consider what to do as part of next major version (which will take a bit of time, being the biggest update so far) and what can be done as a patch.
The main reasoning here is risk management - invasive changes done badly and released in a patch without a proper beta-test can lead to many side effects or eventually a complete rollback of these changes. Also some of the changes can be in conflict with the next major update. A lot can go wrong.
At the same time I did not want to trigger another beta test stage merely for the sake of balancing so I decided to split the work. So what you are getting today is the bit which I considered either safe or worth the risk.
Leaving aside small bugfixes, this patch contains three main 'feature changes':
That is the main stuff which deserves a bit of explanation. Below is the full list of changes inclusing small tweaks and bugfixes.
As usual please report any bugs of problems to the community or discord. I hope there's not many more issues to solve before we can consider 0.10 to be fully stable.
Thanks,
Ondrej
Taj Mahal no longer allows players to ascend at any time. Instead it has become a Ceremonial wonder similar to Pyramids and Stonehenge.
Once per Tier you can Respec your ascensions via a new button on the ascension screen.
You can now quick-buy ascensions with shift-click
Babel tower scenario now works as if a Tier 2 round - has a +40 levels penalty and other difficulty challenges. This is mainly to prevent players from rushing their way to tier 2.
Babel tower Scenario events now kick off 2 minutes later due to a more difficult start
Babel tower heroes are now level 70 instead of 50
Population milestone locks on technologies tweaked to better match reasonable population levels (with respect to difficulty on that level)
Auto research now has a Predicament triggering option.
Auto research no longer triggers Wonder obsoletion locks
Added a few tutorials and warning messages to important moments in the game. This was based on recent feedback where some elements were missed by accident.
Truce dilemma on Tier 2 requires slightly less units.
Early research costs in neolithic era where slightly reduced.
World war 'Era Boss' now correctly spawning before Internet when Future era unlocked.
Theater can now give both a Corruption and a Hero. Also the displayed percentages should now be accurate and make more sense with respect to Magnitude increments.
Messages on screen can now be dismissed in bulk by clicking while holding left shift (useful in late-game or when hero farming)
Should no longer be able to start the game in Sea by selecting a tile and subsequently regenerating the map.
Crisis attack buttons should now have a smaller bounding area allowing correct hover details to pop out when they overlap.
Collecting hero should now use the Currently selected tab if possible.
Inquisition Autonomy mortality condition has been reduced to 40.
Removed some obsolete Locks from the tech tree.
Map tiles can no longer increase their level past your current technology level +5.
Unit damage no longer adjusted by technology level it is unlocked on. Unit damage is now always the same.
Fixed babel tower event messages
Chichen itza is now unlocked by Warrior code instead of agriculture
after a a longer time than I intended I managed to scramble the promised small patch addressing some of the difficulty issues.
Because some of these changes were quite invasive I had to properly consider what to do as part of next major version (which will take a bit of time, being the biggest update so far) and what can be done as a patch.
The main reasoning here is risk management - invasive changes done badly and released in a patch without a proper beta-test can lead to many side effects or eventually a complete rollback of these changes. Also some of the changes can be in conflict with the next major update. A lot can go wrong.
At the same time I did not want to trigger another beta test stage merely for the sake of balancing so I decided to split the work. So what you are getting today is the bit which I considered either safe or worth the risk.
Leaving aside small bugfixes, this patch contains three main 'feature changes':
- Babel tower now runs on Level 40+ - effectively babel Tower is a Tier 2. The objective is to make this scenario act as a proving grounds before entering Tier 2 for real. A gateway of sorts. For players enjoying rushing strategy this should act as a check before irreversibly jumping to higher difficulty where progress can be a lot more pain. Small changes to the Babel tower were also made, but nothing big - only to make this a bit more playable. A lot of bigger changes are planned for later Major Updates.
- Ascension rules have been redesigned. This is a bit of an overstatement as the rules aren't really that complex. But from now on you do not need Taj mahal to ascend mid-game. Instead you will have an opportunity to ascend after defeating Era boss starting from Tier1 Medieval era (I intended to keep this close to where Taj Mahal was available previously). From Tier2 this is available right at the Neolithic. So in case you DO overexpand to Tier 2 with weak ascension build, you have easier way out through lotus grind.
- You can Respec your ascension tree. Because I believe the above two changes address the Tier 2 overexpansion sufficiently I decided I can also add respec to the mix. My reasoning here (as per some community discussion) is that I don't want respec to be a method to commonly use in ascension rushing strategy. The feature should serve in case you make a mistake, or when you get irreversibly affected by a bug or a design problem (as is the case for a few players on version 0.10). The respecs for now are limited to two per game and I did not add any method of 'farming' respec points yet (will probably do at some point). First point is gained with Medieval Era unlock, the second point is gained on Tier 2.
That is the main stuff which deserves a bit of explanation. Below is the full list of changes inclusing small tweaks and bugfixes.
As usual please report any bugs of problems to the community or discord. I hope there's not many more issues to solve before we can consider 0.10 to be fully stable.
Thanks,
Ondrej
0.10.11 Patch
Taj Mahal no longer allows players to ascend at any time. Instead it has become a Ceremonial wonder similar to Pyramids and Stonehenge.
Once per Tier you can Respec your ascensions via a new button on the ascension screen.
You can now quick-buy ascensions with shift-click
Babel tower scenario now works as if a Tier 2 round - has a +40 levels penalty and other difficulty challenges. This is mainly to prevent players from rushing their way to tier 2.
Babel tower Scenario events now kick off 2 minutes later due to a more difficult start
Babel tower heroes are now level 70 instead of 50
Population milestone locks on technologies tweaked to better match reasonable population levels (with respect to difficulty on that level)
Auto research now has a Predicament triggering option.
Auto research no longer triggers Wonder obsoletion locks
Added a few tutorials and warning messages to important moments in the game. This was based on recent feedback where some elements were missed by accident.
Truce dilemma on Tier 2 requires slightly less units.
Early research costs in neolithic era where slightly reduced.
World war 'Era Boss' now correctly spawning before Internet when Future era unlocked.
Theater can now give both a Corruption and a Hero. Also the displayed percentages should now be accurate and make more sense with respect to Magnitude increments.
Messages on screen can now be dismissed in bulk by clicking while holding left shift (useful in late-game or when hero farming)
Should no longer be able to start the game in Sea by selecting a tile and subsequently regenerating the map.
Crisis attack buttons should now have a smaller bounding area allowing correct hover details to pop out when they overlap.
Collecting hero should now use the Currently selected tab if possible.
Inquisition Autonomy mortality condition has been reduced to 40.
Removed some obsolete Locks from the tech tree.
Map tiles can no longer increase their level past your current technology level +5.
Unit damage no longer adjusted by technology level it is unlocked on. Unit damage is now always the same.
Fixed babel tower event messages
Chichen itza is now unlocked by Warrior code instead of agriculture