Old World April Update: Unit and tech tree rebalancing

[h3]Main Branch 1.0.83036 Release 2026-04-08[/h3][p][/p][h3]Headline changes[/h3][p][/p]

[p]Unit and tech tree rebalances[/p]
[p]AI will no longer found religions very early, before it is possible for players to do so[/p]
[p]Network code improvements[/p]
[p]Added player option Manual Bonus Placement[/p][p][/p]

[h3]Design[/h3][p][/p]

[p]Crossbow strength reduced to 6 from 8[/p]
[p]Polybolos strength reduced to 8 from 10[/p]
[p]Windlass now requires Coinage instead of Manor[/p]
[p]Windmills require Windlass instead of Hydraulics. Watermills are still available at Hydraulics[/p]
[p]Free Court Soldier moved from Infantry Square to Stirrups[/p]
[p]Free Court Merchant moved from Chain Drive to Cartography[/p]
[p]Free Court Merchant moved from Fiscal Policy to Manor[/p]
[p]Free Longbowmen moved from Manor to Battle Line[/p]
[p]Free Horse Archer moved from Land Consolidation to Composite Bow[/p]
[p]AI no longer gets shrines and pastures for free as part of their initial development handicap, to prevent very early religion founding[/p]
[p]Judaism no longer requires Labor Force[/p]
[p]Lowered civics cost of Fisher, Trapper, Rancher, and Gardner specialists to match other rural specialists[/p]
[p]Schemer order buying now costs an extra Legitimacy point every time it's used. Cost increase resets for each leader[/p]
[p]Kartir event triggers less often[/p]
[p]Game of the Week no longer varies city site numbers[/p]
[p]Slight rebalance to Gatherer cognomen line (Empires of the Indus)[/p]

[h3][/h3][h3]Programming[/h3][p][/p]

[p]Network code improvements[/p]
[p]AI no longer skips laws and basic improvements in order to save for future Wonders[/p]
[p]AI pushes culture harder in its highest culture cities[/p]
[p]Non-raider tribe AI tweaked to keep them more focused on nearby targets[/p]
[p]Pathfinder tweak to prefer single tile paths whenever possible[/p]
[p]Border renderer and shader optimizations[/p]

[p][/p][h3]UI[/h3][p][/p]

[p]Added player option Manual Bonus Placement. This skips the popup prompt when placing a bonus improvement from an event or city founding bonus[/p]
[p]Tribe sites now display both Next Unit turns and Development turns [/p]
[p]Road map pins now appear with the Contextual Map Tacks option enabled when Engineer units are selected [/p]
[p]Added tooltips to ping improvement dropdown[/p]
[p]Renamed 'Exploring' trait to 'Traveling Afar'[/p]
[p]Adjustments to reduce blur on text displayed on world UI[/p]
[p]Reintroduced very simple lighting to the minimum detail level for standard shaders[/p]
[p]Removed random option from City Site Number options[/p]
[p]Added explanation to non-city site camp tile tooltips[/p]
[p]Improved helptext for General traits which aren't valid for some units[/p]
[p]Worker positions with and without height overrides are no longer mutually exclusive[/p]
[p]Cities owned by Tribes or in Anarchy now show in the Timeline Screen[/p]
[p]When gifting, hiring, or recruiting a unit, the helptext specifies that the cooldown is for the unit (and not the action)[/p]
[p]Rendering layer cleanup[/p]
[p]Added rendering layer for minimum detail objects, which will always render to the timeline and minimap. This means minimum detail rivers will now always render in the timeline and minimap[/p]
[p]Removed "Reduce Animation Detail" option and replaced with "Disable Idle Animations"[/p]
[p]Occurrence end chance increment, current and minimum durations added to Occurrence helptext[/p]
[p]Changed color of unit health bar difference to green, when health is increasing (Zealot kill or heal action)[/p]
[p]Order movement now shows below yield preview[/p]
[p]Adjusted selection circle animation for tutorial[/p]
[p]Added some references to bonus UU techs to Tech Encyclopedia and Culture links (with advanced help)[/p]
[p]Forest and Jungle on Mountains are now partly hidden, for clarity[/p]
[p]Disabled Mirror Map option on Desolation & Ebbing Sea mapscripts (Wrath of Gods)[/p]
[p]Added description for Vassalize Tribe mission (Empires of the Indus)[/p]
[p]Added description to the Hinduism tooltip (Empires of the Indus)[/p]
[p]Edited World Religion concept to include Buddhism (Empires of the Indus)[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Bugs Fixed[/h3][p][/p]

[p]Fixed unit banners being visible when they shouldn't in some cases during hotseat games[/p]
[p]Fixed text outside of viewport bounds sometimes not clipping[/p]
[p]Fixed custom overlay icons not showing correctly on first opening[/p]
[p]Fixed barbarian widget sorting incorrectly with rivers[/p]
[p]Fixed barbarian widget cutting out the revealed-not-visible effect past the edges of the icon widget[/p]
[p]Fixed pathfinder avoiding ZOC tiles from unseen units[/p]
[p]Fixed color of requirements for adopting State Religion when you have no cities of that religion[/p]
[p]Fixed units getting temporarily rendered twice when upgrading[/p]
[p]Fixed AI sometimes moving its ranged siege units when it doesn't need to[/p]
[p]Fixed characters getting randomly married if currently targeted by a marriage mission[/p]
[p]Fixed skull highlights for attack previews[/p]
[p]Fixed fog of war revealing the same tiles multiple times[/p]
[p]Fixed rivers not updating their appearance in sync with changes to terrain detail level[/p]
[p]Fixed world pins over vegetation having the shadowed outlines of vegetation drawn on top of them[/p]
[p]Fixed volcano effects sometimes not applying to mountains when the volcano is on the edge of the map or in MP games[/p]
[p]Fixed AI saying it will leave a city site and then not doing so[/p]
[p]Fixed Next Unit tooltip hitbox[/p]
[p]Fixed women being able to birth children from different fathers on the same turn[/p]
[p]Fixed player notification issue with occurrences[/p]
[p]Fixed prereqs for repeatable techs showing up in searches that bring them up[/p]
[p]Fixed non-urban city sites in Donut map script[/p]
[p]Fixed lakes sometimes being placed next to ocean[/p]
[p]Fixed worker particles turning pink when a worker is selected in some cases[/p]
[p]Fixed Trade Network overlay getting locked on after building roads[/p]
[p]Fixed bug that allowed very small islands to count as connected to a continent for player start placement purposes[/p]
[p]Fixed Tumbling Mountain script creating occasional gaps in the mountain[/p]
[p]Fixed hotkeys getting evaluated multiple times per frame[/p]
[p]Fixed null reference in tech tree search[/p]
[p]Fixed bonus card search issue[/p]
[p]Fixed a bug with AI evaluation of city effects that give Legitimacy, should build Kushite Pyramids more urgently now[/p]
[p]Fixed floating text produced by combat causing visual issues with fog of war[/p]
[p]Fixed pathfinder path simplification bug[/p]
[p]Fixed pathfinder not updating correctly when a unit receives a new effect or loses an existing one[/p]
[p]Fixed map editor null reference[/p]
[p]Fixed Ask to Declare War mission (tribe) having no effect in No Events mode[/p]
[p]Fixed Traits added or removed by Occurrences intermittently not working on Semester/Season turn styles[/p]
[p]Fixed tribe AI sometimes not moving[/p]
[p]Fixed improvement yields from adjacent improvements that belong to a different team[/p]
[p]Fixed minimum detail rivers not showing when initially loading a game with minimum settings[/p]
[p]Fixed blocky rivers on minimum terrain detail in some scenarios[/p]
[p]Fixed tribe widget upgrade timer text cutting box out of clouds[/p]
[p]Fixed inconsistent capitalisation in DLC names [/p]
[p]Game Editor UI fixes[/p]
[p]Fixed Jerwan Aqueduct flickering between turns (Wonders and Dynasties)[/p]
[p]Fixed Rejuvenation replacing Trees with Scrub (Wrath of Gods)[/p]
[p]Fixed hide vegetation not working during Calamities in some cases (Wrath of Gods)[/p]
[p]Fixed portrait interpolation issues with Hun portraits (Empires of the Indus)[/p]
[p]Fixed iTradeValueModifier not being reflected in Nation summary (affects mods only)[/p]
[p]Text and event fixes[/p]