Big Map Beta is Open

Hi all,

let me invite you to the beta-test of version 0.9 containing an upgraded Map & Quests, Starting civilization Perks, Worker & Wonder redesign and more.

To access the beta, use the experimental branch via pass-key:

[h2]WelshCorgiPembroke[/h2]

Just go to the Steam, find Microcivilization in your library, go to its Properties, Betas and insert your key to the text box.

The branch is already activated and should contain game version 0.9.0
This Beta will run for a minimum of two weeks. Please if you have any feedback, check out the community forum or visit us on discord.

Here's what changed since the last version:

0.9 Major Update

[h2] Map Tiles [/h2]

Map is now much larger in size and Quests have been completely redesigned into Hexagonal grid.
Quest stages have been removed. Tile modifications are completed by just a single Quest run.
You can now explore and annex territory on the map using your units and improve your territory based on its biome.
You can build 6 different Improvements: Farmlands, Forests and Villages on lowlands biome, Quarries, Mines and Fortresses on highlands biome.
Tile Improvements boost each other if compatible neighbours are created. Two separate 'adjacency bonuses' are available for each Tile Improvement type.
First (silver) adjacency bonus is granted to Tiles surrounded by 2 compatible hex tiles (what constitutes compatible differs per improvement type).
Second (golden) adjacency bonus is granted to Tiles surrounded by 6 compatible hex tiles.
Map is generated randomly each run.
Mammoths, Cannibals and Barbarians are now randomly spawned 'Crises' on the map during creation and progress through levels along with your civilization.
Map now contains other Civilizations (after unlocking Medieval Era in ascension tree)
Map now contains exploitable Strategic Resources (after unlocking Classical Era in ascension tree)
Trade routes are no longer gained via special Strategic Resources. Instead you gain them via Tribal Villages or other Civilizations (or Perks - see below)
Trade routes can no longer be 'magnified' by getting more sources of the same Route. Instead they provide a large amount of resource input by default and they scale with Technology and Heroes.
Food trade route is always available (after researching Money).
Your workers are the limit of how many map tiles you can have.
Worker progression based on civilization has been buffed. You will now need roughly 30% population increase to gain another worker every time (i.e. number of Workers grows roughly with the speed of Logarithm with base 1.3)
You can still utilize Villages to increase Workers but you will need to reach its maximum adjacency bonus (i.e. surround the village with 6 non-village improvements)

[h2] Diplomacy & Dilemma Cards [/h2]

Tribal Villages now contain a deck of limited card numbers so you can repeat their quests (number shown on map).
Final Dilemma card always results in the Village disappearance (but the options vary).
Neutral Civilizations offer their own Deck of Dilemmas, but their cards are different.
Neutral Civilizations do not disappear when you exhaust their Dilemma deck. Instead they reshuffle a new deck, or they change to Friendly/Hostile.
Civilizations may also become Allied or Hostile based on some of your Dilemma choices. You can also lead surprise attacks to speed up this process.
You can attack Hostile civilizations and take away their territory.
You can utilize Allied Civilization tiles to provide adjacency bonus to your own tiles without any worker cost.
All dilemmas are redesigned. Some of them offer access to Trade Routes for Wood, Stone or metal. You can now also gain plenty of Rare/Unique Heroes from dilemmas.

[h2] Units, Workshops and Wonders [/h2]

Units over capacity (e.g. after disabling Barracks) are no longer wiped instantly, instead they start consuming Food and will only get wiped one by one when reaching starvation.
Unit cap can now be greatly increased by Village and Fortress map tile improvements. Overall unit cap has increased throughout the eras.
As a result of above, Granary and Barracks no longer grant flat Unit Cap increase.
Barracks now (instead if flat Fort cap) grants Percentage multiplier to ALL unit caps.
Granary now (instead if flat Soldier cap) grants extra Food storage space.
The only way to increase Heavy unit cap (besides unique heroes) is via Fortress with a maximized Adjacency bonus (i.e. surrounded by 6 non-fort improvements).
Aside from growing and feeding people, Stored Food is now used to pay for certain Quests on Map as well as for the Festival ability.
Turning Granary off can now be utilized for rapid consumption of its stored food into growth.
Wonders now occupy workshop slots, meaning you can no longer build everything at the same time.
Wonders can now consume more than one Worker when activated. The number cost is visible on the details as well as on the toggle button.
Player can demolish Workshops to make space for wonders and vice versa.
Wonders can be destroyed by Crises
Wonders economic effects and abilities have been redesigned.
Stonehenge and Pyramids now generate lotus worth via their chargeable 'Ceremony' ability. Ceremonial wonders will create extra risk and social crises if you use them. You also have to carry and protect these wonders until ascension to actually gain Lotus from them.
Stonehenge and Pyramids only work in their respective Tech Eras (neolithic and classical). They become obsolete afterwards, so If you decide to use them to farm Lotuses, you need to invest in them early on.
Free worker Food traits from technology have been removed. Instead Free workers can be tuned by Civilization Perks (see below) to gain various specialist roles.
Free workers are no longer a primary source of Food, instead Farmland tiles are the main way to increase popuplation.
Some workshop visual style changed and some housing types were removed (due to upcoming Class Perks)

[h2] Combat & Crises [/h2]

Shield ability from Fort units now has only a X% chance to block an attack which increases with technological upgrade of the Fort unit.
Multiple fort instances apply to any single attack. E.g. having two 50% forts triggered will effectively create a 75% chance to block the next attack. Thus you can reach near 100% values by using large enough amount of forts.
A Fort which fails its roll to block (and thus fails to deflect the Crisis attack) is kept and can roll again on further attacks.
Fort block chance is now boosted by Barracks ability. Similar to +200% damage It works statistically as if the fort was triggered three times (thus a 50% fort becomes 87.5%).
Similar block improvement effect as Barracks can be granted by Heroes (in smaller percentage). The resulting block chance is now visible in Hero Inventory screen as well as on the Crisis bar during combat.
Some Crises have been nerfed as a result of above, since it is now more costly to defend against crises attacks all the time.
Three Unique Crises have been created. They spawn randomly on the map and can yield Rare or Unique Heroes as their drop.
Cannibals crisis has been added to the game.
Stun duration is now automatically scaled based on Damage of the unit dealing Stun.
Stun has now become more available for Heavy units and more rare for light/militia units.
Drought is now more punishing for your food production (to give more spotlight to the new Granary storage capacity feature).
New Barricade ability was added available from Classical era. Barricade uses Autonomy to create a Shield effect similar to what Fort units do. It has a progressive cost similar to Enlist with each Barricade used (each ability use increasing block chance but not increasing the number of blocks).
Passive Hero block chances (from various Law abilities) should now be visible on Crisis during combat and are combined with any % Shield ability to create a total % chance to block.

[h2] Heroes [/h2]

Primary Resource traits for Wood, Stone or Metal are now boosting all three Resources at once to lower the need for hero swapping.
More Rare/Unique heroes are now granted from Tribal Village quests
Drop mechanism should now drop more Rare/Unique heroes even if the crisis level is low.
You can now have three separate equips and switch between the active one.
Heroes can now be filtered by text search
Hero Screen was slightly adjusted to group new buttons and make more space for longer descriptions.

[h2] Perks [/h2]

At the beginning of all runs (after unlocking Classical era ascension), you can choose your starting location on the map.
Additionally you may pick one Positive civilization Perk. Perks can modify behaviour of Tiles, Free Workers and other features.
You can also choose any number of Negative Perks. Each Negative perk gives you a handicap for the next run, but allows you to pick another Positive Perk.
You can also sacrifice gold lotuses to increase the number of Positive perks for a single run.
You start with only a few Perks available, more Perks are unlocked via Ascension tree (via the central Era unlock nodes)

Note: Civilization Class Perks (mentioned in August update) have been descoped from this exact version- so there is only one class at the moment. The reason is that my final tests have not made me convinced that Class Perks are a significant improvement to the gameplay and so decided to revisit this feature and make some upgrades to it (which is still in progress). I will either release this feature in two weeks into the beta, or in case I fail to finalize them in this short time-frame, they'll be postponed to a later release.