Ara: History Untold News

[h3]Ara: History Untold - The ambitious historical strategy game celebrates its first anniversary by adding nation specific units, unique leader traits, cultural conquest, AI updates and much more with the v2.0 Revolutions Update[/h3][p]View Full Changelog[/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p] [/p][p]Stardock Entertainment and Oxide Games, in partnership with Xbox Game Studios, released Ara: History Untold – Version 2.0 today. The Revolutions Update is a massive expansion of new features and content.[/p][p]Informed by community feedback, the Revolutions Update adds a new Culture and Influence System, gives each nation its own unique unit, gives greater player control while simultaneously reducing micromanagement, improves performance, includes a major AI revamp and much more.[/p][p][/p][h3]Key Features of the Revolutions Update:[/h3]

• [p]Culture & Influence Systems – Cities gain a new quality of life category called Culture. Culture generates Influence, a new currency used to acquire cultural traits and expand territory through claims. This creates meaningful alternatives to military expansion.[/p]

• [p]Agitator Unit – Introduced with the Revolutions technology at the end of the Renaissance, Agitators can be sent into adjacent foreign regions to stir rebellion and, through Influence, bring those territories into your nation. This unlocks a second form of conquest in Act II: ideological subversion.[/p]

• [p]Per-Nation Units – Every civilization now commands unique historical forces, from Mongol Horse Archers to Japanese Samurai, adding tactical depth and flavor.[/p]

• [p]Leader Redesigns – Every leader has been reimagined with unique mechanics, traits, and abilities, ensuring more replayability and personality-driven diplomacy.[/p]

• [p]Priority & Quota Crafting System – Micromanaged production queues are replaced with smarter stockpile and priority controls, freeing players to focus on high-level strategy.[/p]

• [p]Adaptive AI – A more dynamic and personality-driven AI responds to player performance, making diplomacy, warfare, and resource management more challenging and believable.[/p]

• [p]Map Generation Overhaul – Realistic natural resource clustering plus new exclusivity rules modeling historical trade and competition.[/p]

• [p]High DPI UI & Visual Update – A sharper, scalable UI built for modern displays, with new accessibility and customization options.[/p]

• [p]Performance Boosts – Major engine optimizations deliver faster turns, smoother framerates, and reduced CPU usage.[/p]

[p]Ara: History Untold offers a fresh take on historical turn-based strategy where players can build a nation that spans all of human history. Heavily inspired by player feedback, the v2.0 update delivers new and refined features that make the game more approachable for new and existing players.[/p][p][/p][p]"We're thrilled to introduce Culture as a gameplay element in Ara: History Untold," stated Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock and Oxide. "The importance of 'soft power' is immense. Although military conquest is the most straightforward method for territorial expansion, we aimed to provide players with alternative strategies for asserting their influence over the world. This becomes particularly significant in the late game, when exploration and expansion have already reached their limits."[/p][p][/p][p]For the latest information on updates, community initiatives, and future content, visit the official website at www.arahistoryuntold.com.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p]

[h2]Welcome Back[/h2][p]First, apologies for breaking save games. We even had to break the Preview save games to add the new map generation system for 2.0![/p][p]Second, wow! I hope you guys like what we’ve done here. Since the original Sid Meier’s Civilization was first released in 1991, there have only been a handful of strategy games that have attempted to take the player through all of human history. It’s hard. I bet you, reading this right now, know something of this. Ara: History Untold not only shows off how military technology progresses, but also how the quality of life of people changed based on what Goods were developed over time.[/p][p]It was how Goods were produced in this game that was both its biggest differentiator as well as its most polarizing feature. Specifically, the user interface for controlling the crafting of goods involved a great deal of micromanagement. Addressing this was our top priority for version 2.0. We wanted to ensure players had total control over their economy without them having to micromanage it. We think version 2.0 nails this with the switch to Quotas and Priorities.[/p][p]Version 2.0 is a big update. It is, by far, the biggest update to a game I’ve ever seen in my career. It’s not a totally new game of course, but let’s just consider a few high-level changes as an example:[/p]

• [p]The aforementioned complete redesign of how crafting works along with the corresponding AI changes to use it well for the computer opponents.[/p]
• [p]A revisit of all 40+ leaders in this game to give each nation its own unique unit as well making the leaders and nations play much more distinctly than before.[/p]
• [p]The Culture and Influence system that lets users add new cultural traits, buy new regions, and steal regions from other players.[/p]
• [p]What amounts to a rewrite of the map generation system. Not just the inclusion of truly randomly generated maps (which is why we had to break the save games), but how resources and biomes get distributed.[/p]
• [p]The new UI rendering engine so that icons and text are now essentially “vectorized” to be super sharp at any resolution[/p]
• [p]Optional AI management of city improvements and amenities[/p]
• [p]Optional Adaptive AI where the AI difficulty can go up or down to help make sure your 8-hour game doesn’t become an unchallenging slog.[/p]
• [p]Under the covers, the AI was largely rewritten for v2.0. This expresses itself not just in better economic management but also, we hope, more intuitive diplomatic behaviors.[/p]

[p]Now, all that said, let’s talk about things we hope you notice right away:[/p][p][/p][h2]Things we hope you notice right away[/h2][p]If you’re coming from version 1.x, the question is, what changes will you likely notice right away? These aren’t necessarily big features, just things you will likely notice.[/p][p][/p][h3]#1 It’s sharp![/h3][p][/p][p][/p][p]Text and UI elements are super sharp now.[/p][p]You’ll probably notice the new loading screen first, but you will probably notice how sharp and crisp the UI is. Text, icons, etc, are all now super clear.[/p][p][/p][h3]#2 It’s faster[/h3][p]Whether it was moving the map with WASD or with the mouse, the performance is vastly snappier. The moment you drag the map, you’ll immediately notice how much faster the framerate is. And I don’t mean a little faster, but massively, drastically more responsive.[/p][p][/p][h3]#3 The map generation is better[/h3][p]This is especially true if you choose one of the new Map styles at the start (Terra or Random).[/p][p]The natural resources spawn in ways that feel better, are more satisfying, and just make sense.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Many resources that get clumped together only get clumped in that one spot in the entire world, making them rare and valuable (Coffee for instance). Note that this screenshot is atypical. If you get this good of a start, beware. The game balances a lot more than just resources (like in this case, the Mongols were placed as my neighbors).[/p][p] [/p][h3]#4 Crafting is just a lot better[/h3][p][/p][p][/p][p]You can place items as accelerators in advance of having those items now.[/p][p] [/p][h3]#5 Unique units[/h3][p]You may not notice the new units in the UI, but you will probably notice that there are new units out there. The computer opponents like their unique units (because they’re awesome).[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]#6 A new quality of life item[/h3][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Some sort of harp? Sort of! It’s CULTURE![/p][p]Culture. Your cities have a culture quality of life now which generates influence.[/p][p] [/p][h3]#7 Influence Stat[/h3][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]That scroll = Influence.[/p][p]Influence is generated by your cities and is buffed by the culture quality of life and cultural improvements. It lets you buy claims, cultural traits and eventually lets the agitator steal regions.[/p][p] [/p][h3]#8 I can see subregions[/h3][p][/p][p][/p][p]You can see subregions on the map as dotted lines.[/p][p]This is a small thing, but you can now see the sub regions on the map a subtle dotted lines.[/p][p] [/p][h3]#9 Region info on the map[/h3][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]What region the mouse is over will be displayed at the bottom center of the screen. Particularly handy when on the city screen.[/p][p]Mousing over a region shows who owns it, its biome, and its tile yield.[/p][p] [/p][h3]#10 The City List[/h3][p]At the top left, you will probably soon notice a new notification:[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Clicking on it brings up the new City List panel.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]This tells you which cities need your attention. Experts available, amenities need updating, etc. It also provides information on all your stats and what the cities are doing.[/p][p] [/p][h3]#11 The Tooltips aren’t annoying you[/h3][p]A lot of time was spent making sure the tooltips are jumping in front of things that you care about. You may not consciously notice this, but you will probably soon notice that you’re not fighting tooltips covering up other things you want to know about.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]#12 That pleasant chime: You have enough influence![/h3][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]#13 You can upgrade your undeployed forces[/h3][p][/p][p][/p][p]Forces no longer need to be deployed to upgrade them.[/p][p] [/p][h3]#14 Way less micromanagement[/h3][p]At some point you notice that you’re not being bugged about idle crafters or having to figure out how much you need for what.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Here we see Fabric is being crafted. It’s 2nd priority, but my quota on rope was 5 and I have a stockpile of 16. If for some reason I run low on rope, it will automatically switch back.[/p][p][/p][h3]#15 Prestige matters again[/h3][p]Even if you have Culling turned off, there are other reasons to care about prestige: You get rewards at the end of an Act based on where you finish.[/p][p]The City Cap is now a soft limit which means you can now build as many cities as you want, but if you go over your cap, you start to take accelerating quality of life penalties. However, prestige, triumphs and other things can raise that cap. We greatly reduced having techs and governments simply raise your city cap.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Your prestige tier at the end of an act is a major way of gaining additional city slots.[/p][p][/p][h3]#16 Pacing feels…better[/h3][p][/p][p][/p][p]Takes about 100 fewer turns to get to Act 2 and yet…it took slightly more turns to research a tech.[/p][p]Hyper specific techs were removed and their benefits given to other techs to make them more meaningful and turns required slightly increased.[/p][p] [/p][h3]#17 Tooltip Explanations[/h3][p]Because we moved the tooltips further away from the mouse, it was important that we communicated to players that you can hold the SHIFT key to lock them in place.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]#18 The computer players play…much better[/h3][p]There’s a new series of screens that lets you see line graphs of lots of stats. So, you can easily tell how you’re doing versus the other players.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]You will likely need to turn the difficulty level down at least a couple notches because the computer players run their nations so much better.[/p][p][/p][p]We are already working on the next roadmap. 2.01, 2.1, 2.2, etc. The scope of that next roadmap is going to be based on the player count of 2.0. As this journal is written, Ara: History Untold has a 24-hour peak count of around 200. Millenia is at 50. Humankind 800. Civilization VII 6,000, Civilization VI 36,000, Civilization V 36,000. Civilization IV 700, Old World, 400. If you like what you see, please help us spread the word. The more people playing this game, the more we can do![/p][p]In the meantime, let us know what you think! We read the forums, Discord, Reddit, etc. Hopefully 2.0 demonstrates that all those suggestion posts and comments were read and looked at with care and consideration. Cheers![/p]

[p]Version 2.0 keeps players in control without the overwhelming micromanagement.[/p][p]The crafting queue is gone.[/p][p]The crafting quotas and priorities system is in.[/p][p]It is very straightforward:[/p]

1. [p]Set how much of a thing you want[/p]
2. [p]Decide what priority it has, if any, of the things the crafter can build.[/p]
3. [p]There is no step 3.[/p]

[p]This lets you set your nation up as a well-oiled machine. Once you set it up, you will never be interrupted with a “crafter idle” message again because they are never idle – unless you want them to be due to having enough of whatever item they were crafting and you want those resources to go elsewhere.[/p][p]Let’s take a look:[/p][p][/p][h2]Crafting at the city level[/h2][p]Here we have a weaver. This is one of the more complicated supply chains in the game and yet now, it’s just so obvious and simple once you get past the excessively gridded looking UI.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]So here I always want to have 25 rope in my nation. That’s because a lot of construction projects, especially Triumphs, need rope. So, I set that to 25. Once I have 25, it goes to the next item: fabric. However, if at any time I go below 25 rope, it will switch back to working on rope until I get back to 25.[/p][p]Then I have fabric which is used everywhere, but if I do manage to stockpile 30 fabric, it’ll go down to the tunics which use fabric. I only need, say, 10 of those. Tunics, in turn, are an element of garments. I only want to keep a stockpile of 5 since it’s just used as an amenity and as long as I have 5 spare, I should be good to go.[/p][p][/p][h2]Crafting at the national level[/h2][h2][/h2][h2]Late Game: Self Manage[/h2][p]So, you’ve taken over an enemy city on around turn 600. I know in early game, you were so diligent about every little thing in the cities you care about, but the city of Zamora? I conquered it. And I don’t care. I mean, I care, because I’m a really caring kind of dictator, but I don’t care care and the game is asking me to set up the 17 little shops in this conquered city. This is where you just let the Zamorians handle it. They seem nice. They lived here. They know what’s up. So, in 2.0, there’s a new button next to “Rename”:[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]. . .and the next turn it has set up the entire priority list here. Sure, it put “Indoor Toilets” as the lowest priority, but we’re not here to judge. This is a place of love. Not a place of sanitation. We wouldn’t want to shake hands with the Zamorians, but as you can see, it set up the priority list and it intelligently chose ingredients, and it made sure I have lots of money before using that (I’m running a huge surplus). It didn’t fill some of the slots with anything because I didn’t have enough of that in stock, but someday, we will have toilets, because as soon as that first toilet is done, it’s going to London. It needs it.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]I’m not sure what it says about me that I have a slot for “Piano” but not a slot for “Toilet” in housing improvements, but it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to touch that piano.[/p]

[p]Soft Power. Strategy games favor focusing on warfare, but culture and influence have mattered far more in shaping the world. While this may seem, to some, to be a change in the post-World War II era, it has been true going all the way back to the Bronze Age: culture and influence matter.[/p][p]Civilization IV lead designer Soren Johnson made cultural influence a major focus of Civ IV, forever changing 4X strategy games. In fact, when we teamed up to make Offworld Trading Company, we wanted to make a game in which you had to achieve your ends using what amounts to culture and influence.[/p][p]Now, when Ara: History Untold shipped, it included a religion feature. The goal, successfully achieved or not, was to use it as a means to get more prestige. As a player, I want multiple game mechanics to choose from to achieve my strategic objectives. When they put me in charge of Ara, I was adamant that we find a way to get culture and influence in the game. Moreover, it could not be a DLC or expansion. As a premium, first-party Xbox Games Studio title, the new features involved deserved to be a part of the base complete experience, no matter how large.[/p][p]So here they are in Ara v2.0![/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]Adding Culture and Influence without Redesigning the Game[/h2][p]To do it right, we needed to implement it so that it feels like it was always part of the game design. So, how do you do that? Well, we already have the concept of religion allowing you to pick verses that give your nation various buffs and abilities; we already have the idea of obtaining "claims" when cities level up; and we already have a 'Quality of Life' system: Happiness, Health, Security, Education, and Prosperity. I'd argue that this game was ready-made for culture and influence.[/p][p]Therefore:[/p]

1. [p]Cities should generate Influence points just like they generate Research. The bigger the city, the more Influence it generates.[/p]
2. [p]You add a new quality of life stat: Culture. High Culture greatly increases Influence generation; low Culture reduces it.[/p]
3. [p]Influence becomes a currency that you use to buy and sell claims and new traits. I feel dirty writing that, but it's true![/p]

[p]As part of this, we were also able to address two long-time requests from players:[/p][p]First request: Cities shouldn't be stuck unable to expand simply because they don't have enough local food. Las Vegas is a thing.[/p][p]Second request: Slow down the city leveling up speed as you end up with a massive city before the end of the Iron Age![/p][p]Before Culture and Influence, we didn't really have any game mechanics to solve those two requests. Now we did. Nations focusing on culture can buy claims and expand cities out in the middle of the desert if they want and we could also make it so that city size (in terms of regions) was a balance between food availability and culture.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]Cost of Claims and Traits[/h3][p]Each time you buy a claim or trait, the cost goes up. As your nation grows and generates more influence, the cost of enhancing it will also go up. Additionally, 10% of the cost of a claim or a culture trait is based on how many other nations have done the same. So, while not overpowering, there is a slight inflation in cost based on how much other players are doing it.[/p][p][/p][h2]But what about Cultural Conquest?[/h2][p]But what about using influence as a tool of conquest? This was a lot trickier. Because Improvements are built per region and are not simply part of the city, we couldn't implement this like Civilization IV did. We needed a way to nibble away the edges of someone's nation where the two of you are bumping up against each other, but we needed this to be a pretty big deal. After all, you might have the Pyramids in one of these regions, and having it get taken over by cultural influence would be extremely frustrating.[/p][p]Therefore, we needed cultural conquest to be a deliberate act rather than a passive expansion of cultural influence. This dilemma led to the creation of a new unit. . .[/p][p][/p][h3]The Agitator[/h3][p]We struggled a lot with what to name this unit. We liked Agent Provocateur, but no one can spell that word. It's like restaurant. No one can spell it right. Well, I can't anyway. So, we eventually settled on Agitator.[/p][p]The Agitator can be sent into a region and then spend a claim's worth of Influence. The Agitator shows up with the new tech called Revolutions. This comes at the end of the Renaissance era when normal region claims start to matter less because most of the regions that matter are claimed.[/p][p]Now, using the Agitator will make computer players very, very angry. In fact, it makes them angry enough that they will potentially declare war on you even if you're stronger and they're busy with other wars. Like I said, it makes them really mad and they will tell you, but they won't necessarily go to war with you either. It depends on your relationship history.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]Not so fun when it’s done to you[/h3][p]Initially, we had it set up so that you would put the Agitator in a region, press the incite rebellion button, and if the region was adjacent to your territory, it would flip. However, we then had the AI utilize it. Well, obviously, then we learned this is a stupid game for jerks. After a few minutes of insisting that I was taking the game "back to the store," we came up with the idea of it taking 10 turns and sending notifications to let you know it was being done to you, so that you could react.[/p][p][/p][h2]Fleshing out gameplay[/h2][p]Having Culture & Influence gives players an additional set of tools to execute their strategy. It also helps us with our long-term goal of ensuring that each Act of the game plays differently. You don't want Turn 500 to play the same as Turn 50. You want the gameplay in a game like this to evolve and grow over time.[/p][p]Hopefully, you find this mechanic as fun and interesting as we do. We will, undoubtedly, have to tweak some values over time as someone, probably you, figures out some way to exploit it in an interesting way. I say to you: Bravo. Good job! Because soft power is the most exploitable power.[/p]