Microcivilization News

[p]Hello,[/p][p][/p][p]another small patch is here. More balancing issues including some of those chunky bits that required more testing... Hopefully this removes all known annoying obstructions to progressing. [/p][p]Thanks to everyone sharing their saves in relation to shields struggle. As I mentioned in discussions the problems are quite fragmented. While the common issue is that players are hitting unexpected resistance from shields the root-causes vary. Based on the cases I have seen I decided to separate the general experience with shields between Hard an non-hard difficulties - with normal/easy being more tolerant to unit usage diversity (see details below)[/p][p]As for so called Crises Death Spirals I believe a Horn of Resolve change (mentioned below) will provide a sufficient mechanism to recover from any mistakes player makes in regards to warfare or other risky business. Together with last patch grace card we should have a decent safety net for normal difficulty gameplay.[/p][p]Still I will be keeping an eye on these in case there are any more corner cases ending in hard to recover state. An adviser system is something I have in mind to assist with situational tips ingame - to complement tutorials in the future...[/p][p]This patch is relatively invasive (in terms of code changes) so please do not hesitate to report any new defects or weird behaviour.[/p][p][/p][h3]Bug fixes[/h3]

• [p]Hot-Fixed Tech tree structure and resulting tech cost calculation in Tier 4 Classical era (it was using an obsolete cost model and was badly connected to the correct model resulting in a mish-mash of both). Besides throwing away the old model I've also reduced Tier 4 research costs overall after Classical to soften the current pace and added a Population lock to help steer the player towards minimum expected population count.[/p][p]Note: The resulting state is not perfect and would deserve a full balancing retest, but because the old values were ridiculously wrong I decided to do a quick-fix for this first and fine tune this later. The Full balancing tests of the correct model are by this time invalidated by population/autonomy-affecting changes in prior patches - so the test has to be redone. I now ran two smaller tests through the Classical using very naive build and the timing seems playable (with 'absolutely naive' build they need to fit under 10 mintues per tech). Obviously using midgame features (magnitude, unique heroes, wonders or Idols) and doing a synergic map layout with strategic resources can turn this into under-a-minute matter easily.[/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue with older save containing a shield boost crashing the game.[/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue causing rare crashes when selecting construction projects[/p]
• [p]Fixed Perk and Hero randomness on Civilizations spawned by Flag locks[/p]

[h3]Balancing adjustments[/h3]

• [p]On Normal/easy difficulty, Ottomans, Redcoats and Prussians crises will not spawn with cross-resisting Massive/Furious perk. They will always have the perk more advantageous for the player. Other war crises still spawn with random perk. This is done mostly to prevent first encounters with blue and black shield to carry this extra resistance (it can be effectively a 3x-4x powerup for the crisis depending on level). Hard difficulty is unchanged[/p]
• [p]On Normal/easy difficulty Black shield absorption maximum is lowered by about 1/3. This enables buffed light units to potentially destroy the shields under normal circumstances up to later stages of the game. Hard difficulty is unchanged[/p]
• [p]On Normal/easy difficulty Blue shield absorption is 90% instead of 95%. As above this allows players to use traditional builds (like light unit spam) early on to somehow beat through the initial bosses. Hard difficulty is unchanged[/p]
• [p]Unit and ability preferences are now highlighted with additional green/red chevron icons when the relevant crisis perk or shield is on. This should give a quicker indication which unit to use. This also shows up on Damage Hero abilities when Blue shield is on.[/p]
• [p]Four basic Nemeses (smallpox, inquisition, huns and locusts) levels are now capped to your tech level +10. Other nemeses will still grow beyond without limit. This will kick in retrospectivelly on the next time you face the nemesis but you need to force it to level up at least once (by surviving it). It will cap on the max level.[/p]
• [p]Horn of resolve will now make peace with red hostile civilizations (besides it existing grace period effect).[/p]
• [p]Crises now have a chance to drop Horn of Resolve on normal and easy difficulty if you have none.[/p]
• [p]Added a tutorial for Horn of Resolve in case you are overwhelmed with crises.[/p]
• [p]Added a visual indicator on the Horn of Resolve button during crisis (to not forget you have it when in trouble)[/p]

[h3]Other changes[/h3]

• [p]Added a Show details toggle button on main screen (below Use 10/100) which toggles additional UI details which could otherwise cause a screen clutter. Currently it only displays Unit caps and makes all popups appear instantly without delay. Can be hot-keyed with left Alt key. I plan to add more effects to this button eventually and also distribute it to other screens as needed.[/p]
• [p]Units over capacity now discharge slowly. They also eat less food. Note: There is a plan to actually make over-cap units play a bigger role in a future update - so this is just a 'temporary solution'.[/p]
• [p]Nemesis locks on tech tree now display correct initial nemesis level, mortal condition and cooldown length. This takes effect after new run since the tech tree needs to fully respawn.[/p]
• [p]Rare technology ascension was pushed later after Industrial era which should make players more prepared for first encounter with a Nemesis. It was swapped with one of the worker ascensions.[/p]
• [p]Flipped Rare technology and Strategic resources in Tier 4 tech tree so that Strategic Resorouces are available right after emerging from T3 (i.e. without beating first artist lock). This also helps with research cost problem above (more than it would seem)[/p]
• [p]Strategic resources II in Tier1 was pushed to right after Medieval era and made cheaper. This should make an important upgrade such as this less likely to miss and be available sooner.[/p]
• [p]War locks should no longer be opened by Auto research unless the 'Nemeses option' is turned on[/p]
• [p]Game speed changes now done by 100%s and the indicator is visible while game is paused so that game speed can be easier to change while paused[/p]

[p][/p][p]Cheers,[/p][p][/p][p]Ondrej[/p]

[p]Hello,[/p][p][/p][p]releasing a small patch including small changes to war balancing mainly to reduce the initial spike in difficulty.[/p][p][/p]

• [p]Indigo tutorial message no longer pops up infinitely on tier 3[/p]
• [p]Re-emerging from tier 3 now makes all ascension locks visible correctly.[/p]
• [p]Party Hard, Party Harder and Utopia achievement now granted correctly[/p]
• [p]Fixed a frequent Crash during 'Fast forward' Preview on load screen[/p]
• [p]Added some ui indication to autonomy abilities to hint they can be configured[/p]
• [p]Autoconstruction, exploration and combat now have basic configurations on (this affects only newly created games).[/p]
• [p]Removed the one-off food cost from Festivals (as it is quite irrelevant) and changed the desription to make it more clear it requires food per second.[/p]
• [p]Added a festival cost reduction to Tier 3 to make it affordable (with some food production)[/p]
• [p]Crescent barracks should use Autonomy as stated[/p]
• [p]Unique Crises now spawn later in game (after unlocking Renaissance)[/p]

[h3]Reducing early Hostile crisis difficulty[/h3]

• [p]Hostile crises now only cause 0.5% war risk on distant tiles.[/p]
• [p]Falling from a War crisis while a Hostile Civilization is known (home revealed) will automatically create a Dilemma offering some additional grace period options.[/p]
• [p]Electricity technology's Lock is causing normal hostility on normal difficulty (Forever-Hostile on Hard)[/p]
• [p]Reduced max level limit of tiles on Tier 4 and Hard difficulty (tiles should now be closer to your level)[/p]
• [p]Levels of War crisis spawned from Risk is now semi-capped by highest Hostile Civilization level (but only down to 10 levels of difference). If no such civ is present, it uses your tech level like before (like other risks).[/p]
• [p]Reduced tile attacks amount on Ottomans[/p]
• [p]Slightly Reduced Slave Revolt and Ottomans blue shield amount[/p]
• [p]Reduced initial hostility chance of civilizations in early game.[/p]
• [p]Reduced Tier 1 civilization expansion speed (2 tiles per 4 minutes instead of 3 minutes)[/p]
• [p]Slightly reduced damage resistance of Massive/Furious perks[/p]

[p]Hello,[/p][p][/p][p]today I am releasing the game from Early Access and officially marking it a version 1.0.[/p][p][/p][p]Many thanks to all you all who were brave enough to try the early access in its unstable days, who helped testing the game a gave me new ideas and inspiration over the past two years. It was a lot of fun to work with you and I hope it will continue in the same manner after this milestone.[/p][p][/p][p]As with all major releases, I will be monitoring bug and balancing situation closely for the next few weeks until the version is free of any annoying problems. Do not hesitate to contact me via email ([email protected]) Discord (https://discord.gg/CSuaSBRvGf) or here in the Community forum.[/p][p][/p][p]Have fun,[/p][p][/p][p]Ondrej[/p]

[p]Hello,[/p][p][/p][p]after some consideration I decided to release one more patch before go-live with some hopefully-safe-minor-changes and bugfixes.[/p][p][/p][h2]1.0.8[/h2]

• [p]Quest hurry cost preview now correctly shows even if not having enough gold[/p]
• [p]Fixed bug causing first Judgement lock with Michelangelo to be initially hidden (though reappeared after load)[/p]
• [p]Spawned Civilization will now abort existing quests in its tile preventing various problems.[/p]
• [p]Reduced diplomacy quest war risk to 5%[/p]
• [p]Crisis Tile attacks on midgame crises should now affect tiles on the borders instead of random (making them less impactful to your adjacency bonus network)[/p]
• [p]End of scenario 2 should now eliminate perseverance bonuses and prevent carrying them over to Tier 3.[/p]
• [p]Decreased initial conquistador level to 4 (from 5) but increased their level gain per appearance to 5 (from 3)[/p]
• [p]Vultures now have Housing cost reduction trait with their Sustainment trait instead of a Growth bonus.[/p]
• [p]Chichen itza now reduces festival cost by 50% in addition to its +300 flat Research bonus (which increased from 100)[/p]
• [p]Chichen itza active ability now freezes Predicaments (stops their countdown) while active (the Cannot fall effect still stays). Its duration was boosted (though it cannot stack - you have to micromanage). Its death rate now DROPS with magnitude instead of rising (which is less fun but more practical). Let's go sacrifice some people today![/p]

[p]Cheers[/p][p]Ondrej[/p][p][/p]

[p]Hello,[/p][p][/p][p]after running more testing through beta and some feedback I am sending out another patch containing minor rebalancing. Well technically it is a major rebalancing but only for a small amount of things - mainly in early game (possibly at the cost of making late game a bit more cheesable/easy). But I really did not like how some abilities were providing much value until mid game. [/p][p]This is hopefully last change of this type, now I'll see if I can finish all re-testing and get a stable version towards live release.[/p][p][/p]

• [p]Increased windmill's flat food bonus[/p]
• [p]Moved Strategic Resources I ascension right next to classical era and made it cheaper. This should make it affordable from ascension 1 given its impact on difficulty.[/p]
• [p]Economy skills power and scaling significantly increased to make them usable in early game.[/p]
• [p]Economy skills now require both autonomy and gold to operate (cost of the 'complementary' resource of the faction is still the higher one - i.e. what this faction doesnt produce via free workes)[/p]
• [p]Nerfed ability price bonus on theater, increased its cooldown bonus (can bring skills down to 10s cooldowns if magnified)[/p]
• [p]Fixed Zeal ability time stacking (no longer doubles the duration)[/p]
• [p]Marketplace resource sell rate now has diminishing return (Gold=0.25
• Resource^0.4). In practice this nerfs the effect in mid/late game - making about 60% less gold on 10k resources sold than before patch - but it significantly boosts it in early game.[/p]
• [p]Mercenaries now recharges heavy units to makes the skill more useful and heavy units more accessible for mitigating black shields.[/p]
• [p]Garden ability has returned closer to its former glory with high base value. [/p]
• [p]Nerfed Hero Ability damage bonuses from generic hero traits (they now provide about half the value which matches 'realistic' bonus values from other sources like festival or strategic resources)[/p]
• [p]Increased salvage culture rewards[/p]
• [p]Tier 2 civs now correctly spawn on level 40 instead of 85 [/p]
• [p]Reduced library flat autonomy production to roughly match new marketplace[/p]
• [p]Fixed premature crisis attack trigger with Barricades only[/p]