Old World News

Old World - Empires of the Indus Release Date Announced!

The next DLC for Old World, Empires of the Indus, is coming on March 30, 2026.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Empires of the Indus throws you into a vibrant, turbulent world that's grappling with the rise of mighty dynasties and their illustrious realms across the subcontinent. Grow the powerful Mauryan Empire to its heights, lead the great tribes of the Yuezhi to forge a new destiny as the Kushan Empire, or raise Tamilakam to glory with the three great Sangam kingdoms. Spread forth from the Indus and bring the old world under your rule!

Here's a brief rundown of everything that will be included in the Empires of the Indus DLC:

Three new playable nations: the Mauryas, the Yuezhi, and the Tamilakam. Each represents a major player across a 600-year period of upheaval and opportunity that would shape the subcontinent for centuries to come.
New tribe: The Huns. From the Steppes comes a tribe more formidable to would-be conquerors than any of its counterparts. Includes unique events that cover the emergence of their most famous son, Attila the Hun.
Religions: Hinduism and Buddhism. All three new nations begin with Hinduism, while the Mauryans can establish Buddhism as a new World Religion through a unique project.
Four new Wonders, one for each cultural level:
- The Great Stupa at Sanchi, a peace-era monument that allows a new improvement called Pillar Edicts, which boosts legitimacy and civics.
- The prestigious Mahavihara, a place of great learning that boosts science and civics.
- The Monumental Buddhas, a testament to religious unity that boosts opinion and culture for each religion within a nation.
- The Mighty Chittorgarh Hill Fort, which grants its host city extra health and heals units within all city territory.
The Jungle vegetation type, which acts like woods but with increased ranged defense and movement penalties
Over 200 new events, 60 new ambitions, 11 new Cognomens, and 4 new rare resources (Jade, Silk, Spices, Ebony).
Three new mapscripts and five pre-made maps, covering everything from the entire subcontinent to smaller duel maps set in the Indus Valley or land-locked Bactria.

Unite the world of South Asia, and establish a golden age for the people of the Indus when Empires of the Indus releases on March 30, 2026.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4129630/Old_World__Empires_of_the_Indus/

Old World February 26th Hotfix update

[h2]Main Branch 1.0.82387 Release 2026-02-26[/h2][p][/p][p]This is a hotfix release that fixes several bugs introduced in the previous update[/p][p][/p][h3]Bugs Fixed[/h3][p][/p]

[p]Fixed Portrait Interpolation and re-enabled[/p]
[p]Fixed terrain display issues[/p]
[p]Fixed partially hidden free promotion icon[/p]
[p]Fixed network game timeout issues[/p]
[p]Fixed End Turn button in Simultaneous MP games[/p]
[p]Fixed tooltip flicker on game browser[/p]
[p]Fixed ping wheel initial position[/p]
[p]Fixed specialist icon display[/p]

Old World February 25th Updated Test Build

[h3]Old World test branch update 1.0.82358 Test 2026-02-25[/h3][p][/p][p]To switch to the test branch, right click Old World in Steam and select Properties, open the Game Versions & Betas tab and select 'test' in the version list.[/p][p][/p][h3]Design[/h3][p][/p]

[p]Flanking now protects from counterattack damage (affects all units)[/p]
[p]Yield per opinion level effect now starts from 0 at Furious to a maximum of 5 at Friendly. Affects Statesmen Civics, Estates Training and Culture, and Corruption Reform Civics[/p]
[p]Enlightenment Cathedrals give growth per population, not per citizen[/p]
[p]Redemption gives +50% to harbors and hamlets (was +20%)[/p]
[p]Redemption Cathedrals allow hurrying specialists and projects with training[/p]
[p]Zealot leaders can now only rush units with training[/p]
[p]Disciples generate 1 Culture per turn on their Holy Sites[/p]
[p]Guilds maintenance is now orders instead of money[/p]
[p]The presence of Rebels in Hunters family cities no longer affects family opinion[/p]
[p]Clergy traits now have a minimum age of 18 (Sacred and Profane)[/p]
[p]Player now starts with Divine Rule active in Pharaohs of the Nile scenarios 2 and 3[/p]
[p]Major defeat/victory in Pharaohs of the Nile scenarios also awards minor defeat/victory achievements
[/p]

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

[p]Non-hostile and hidden unit damage is now included in the text on mouseover[/p]
[p]Health bar shows damage only from hostile units with visibility, as before[/p]
[p]Added Disable Turn Start Cycling and Disable Automatic Cycling player options[/p]
[p]Improvement tooltip shows unit cooldown warning when relevant[/p]
[p]Changed ship anchoring color from white to a more transparent version of the already anchored color[/p]
[p]Removed camera snapback when clicking on minimap on city screen[/p]
[p]Non-host observers of network games can now send chat messages[/p]
[p]Added an in-game menu button to directly rehost a network game if it becomes unlisted, which otherwise prevents additional players from joining[/p]
[p]Add Worker Turns stat to Records Screen[/p]
[p]Added some explanation text to the hurry tooltip when an invalid specialist cannot be hurried[/p]
[p]Added "Tutorial: Grand Vizier" to Encyclopedia[/p]
[p]Added "Councilors" section to DLC Summary pages[/p]
[p]Removed unhelpful Clergy links on Clergy Encyclopedia help[/p]
[p]Merged Council Encyclopedia concept with Councilor concept[/p]
[p]Updated Caravan Mission concept text to include how to gain Caravan access[/p]
[p]Increased sampling point size for better Cyrillic support[/p]
[p]Family tag grammar pass[/p]

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

[p]Fixed Portrait Interpolation and re-enabled[/p]
[p]Fixed terrain display issues[/p]
[p]Fixed partially hidden free promotion icon[/p]
[p]Fixed network game timeout issues[/p]
[p]Fixed ping wheel initial position[/p]
[p]Fixed specialist icon display[/p]
[p]Fixed Event Browser loading of dependent mods[/p]
[p]Fixed city counterattack not being shown in the preview[/p]
[p]Fixed unit damage text sometimes being incorrectly updated[/p]
[p]Fixed roadbuilding pathfinder to not pass through rival nation territory[/p]
[p]Fixed Cmd key interaction when assigning hotkeys on Mac[/p]
[p]Fixed some Custom Overlay interaction issues[/p]
[p]Fixed damage text showing on units other than the top defender[/p]
[p]Fixed Remove Dissent projects being able to be queued multiple times[/p]
[p]Fixed Marsh tiles being replaced by Urban during map generation[/p]
[p]Fixed Egypt getting improvement cost discounts for adjacent improvements of a different team[/p]
[p]Fixed Rebel and Anarchy units receiving Tribe Level fatigue bonus[/p]
[p]Fixed automatic placement of bonus improvements sometimes being placed on a bad tile[/p]
[p]Fixed map script not being preserved when using Reroll Game option with random map script selected[/p]
[p]Fixed Player 1 name and player archetypes not being saved from MP setup screen[/p]
[p]Fixed help text typo about alliance with Ruthless AI[/p]
[p]Fixed "Blackmailed by" relationship text[/p]
[p]Fixed some player info panels not getting hidden when selecting unmet nation[/p]
[p]Fixed icons sometimes not showing on city production list[/p]
[p]Fixed governor tooltip flickering on city list screen[/p]
[p]Fixed family/religion order on tab tooltip[/p]
[p]Fixed tribe units sometimes not moving when they wanted to move[/p]
[p]Fixed anchor ranges sometimes not showing[/p]
[p]Fixed selection not clearing when closing event popups[/p]
[p]Fixed timeline rendering on the first turn in Pharaohs of the Nile scenarios[/p]
[p]Fixed mod-loading strict mode on startup when loading external mods[/p]

Save 75% on Old World

[p]Old World is now 75% off with discounts on the DLC as well.

Old World is a revolutionary historical strategy game where you lead your dynasty over generations of rule against rival kings and queens. Wage massive wars, manage your court, and build a dynasty, or watch your empire crumble to dust.
[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]
[dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p]

Old World February Update: Engine and rendering upgrade

[h3]Main Branch 1.0.82189 Release 2026-02-18[/h3][p][/p][h3]Headline changes[/h3][p][/p]

[p]Major Unity and rendering system update [/p]
[p]Improved graphics performance and memory optimization[/p]
[p]Unique Unit (UU) tech bonus cards are now unlocked through culture instead of tech[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Known Issues[/h3][p][/p]

[p]Portrait Age Interpolation is not working and has been disabled regardless of the player setting[/p]
[p]Fog of War can flicker on and off following movement in some cases[/p]
[p]Unit models and banners can fail to display consistently during AI turn[/p]
[p]Free promotion icon partially hidden[/p]
[p]Cycling to a stacked unit can show their icon behind other units[/p]
[p]Volcano display issues[/p]

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

[p]Unique Unit (UU) tech bonus cards are now unlocked through culture instead of tech[/p]
[p]First tier UU bonus cards have had their cost increased from 100 to 200, give 2 units, and require a city with Strong culture[/p]
[p]Second tier UU bonus cards require a city with Legendary culture[/p]
[p]Zealot leader general now performs a Heal action after each kill, instead of being able to Apply Enlist[/p]
[p]Fervent (Piye's unique trait) now enables Apply Enlist as a leader general, at a cost of 100 civics (Wonders and Dynasties)[/p]
[p]Ballista strength reduced from 6 to 5[/p]
[p]Carthage city founding bonus reduced from 200 to 100 civics[/p]
[p]Founding Christianity no longer requires ownership of a Jewish city, now requires 3 Jewish cities globally[/p]
[p]Engineer promotion and general trait allows road building instead of bonus against siege/ships[/p]
[p]Added new national ambition - Control three of each Legendary Improvement[/p]
[p]Changed Control Six Legendary Cities national ambition to Control Five Legendary Cities[/p]
[p]Send 20 luxuries is now a tier 9 ambition instead of a national ambition[/p]
[p]Disciples can now clear vegetation[/p]
[p]Cannot build an improvement that removes vegetation if the unit cannot clear the vegetation[/p]
[p]Traders no longer get a court merchant when founding their seat [/p]
[p]Prevented building improvements on Marsh, except for Farms with Centralization[/p]
[p]All fresh water sources supply fresh water to their own tile in addition to adjacent tiles[/p]
[p]Remove Free Silk and Free Ebony bonus tech cards[/p]
[p]Moved Free Porcelain bonus card to be unlocked by Coinage and reduced tech cost accordingly[/p]
[p]Free Porcelain and Free Perfume bonus cards now give 2 instances of their luxuries[/p]
[p]Autonomous Rule project is removed when a city is breached[/p]
[p]Characters cannot give birth more than once a year (relevant for non-yearly turn scales)[/p]
[p]Free laws that replace an existing law do not increment the law change count[/p]
[p]Raiders can capture empty cities and city sites[/p]
[p]Adjustments to Family Archetype character tendencies:[/p]
[p]Champions have more Zealots and less Heroes[/p]
[p]Riders have more Heroes and less Zealots[/p]
[p]When randomly assigning archetypes, characters with governor effect traits are much more likely to be assigned a governor archetype, and similarly general archetypes for characters with general traits[/p]
[p]Killing Raiders now contributes towards goals to kill units of their original tribe[/p]
[p]Raiders are less stubborn about raiding, if the shortest path is blocked, and will hit opportunity targets instead[/p]
[p]Doubled Master/Elder Scribe money per Citizen, to +2/+4[/p]
[p]Anchoring and Unlimbering states are not interrupted by attacks that apply new cooldowns (i.e. Immobilize, Stun)[/p]
[p]Killed civilian units now count for Assyrian orders, Hero Leader Training, Epics Culture, etc[/p]
[p]Units can pass through hostile civilian units, as long as they don't end their movement on their tile[/p]
[p]Families and Religions suffer -40 opinion for 20 turns when their Workers and Disciples are killed[/p]
[p]Improvements to Carthage campaign persistency[/p]
[p]Increased maximum effect of god opinion on religion opinion in Wrath of Gods scenario (200 -> 500)[/p]
[p]Reduced Tribal raid range in Wrath of Gods scenario[/p]
[p]Disabled Venerate mission for and demands being given by Abandoned god in Wrath of Gods scenario [/p]

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

[p]Unity updated from 2022.3 to 6.3[/p]
[p]Graphics code converted to Unity's Universal Rendering Pipeline[/p]
[p]The URP upgrade improves graphics performance, letting the game render with fewer draw calls and use fewer shader variants[/p]
[p]Many UI optimizations[/p]
[p]Memory leak fixes[/p]
[p]Improvements to Safe Mode[/p]
[p]AI border expansion tweaks[/p]
[p]AI law value correction to avoid frequent changes[/p]
[p]Better AI legitimacy evaluation[/p]
[p]AI builds slightly fewer units[/p]
[p]Updated unity packages (relay and lobby replaced by multiplayer services)[/p]
[p]Added Latin supplemental characters U+100 to U+17F to Avalon, Trajan and Judson assets, to assist Polish translation mods[/p]
[p]Added support for bonus cards to use bonus names in tooltips (affects mods only)[/p]

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

[p]Families are now shown before Religions on the tab panel[/p]
[p]Swapped Worker Filters and basic actions panels on Selected Worker UI[/p]
[p]Valid Improvements, Rural, and Urban worker filters show improvements valid anywhere in the city rather than just for current tile[/p]
[p]Restart Game button renamed Reroll Game. This keeps the same map and preserves nation/dynasty of random AI opponents but now rerolls the random seed[/p]
[p]New Map button renamed to Reroll Map. This button is not shown for games on predefined maps[/p]
[p]End Turn button can now always be clicked on your turn, will cycle to required items if needed[/p]
[p]Added hotkey for suppressing tooltips (hold Ctrl + X)[/p]
[p]Added hotkey for extending turn time (Alt-E)[/p]
[p]Added Reset option when editing hotkeys[/p]
[p]Added Unimproved Resources overlay to Overlay Customizer[/p]
[p]Character XP is now shown when they have upgraded at least once but progress to next level is 0[/p]
[p]Added Peak Legitimacy and Peak Legitimacy per Leader to Hall of Fame (requires regenerating HOF for existing games, won't display on very old saves)[/p]
[p]Added on-map icon to units that have been disarmed[/p]
[p]Updated ZOC help text[/p]
[p]Enabled gold cost to buy yields for recommended improvements tooltip[/p]
[p]Added color-coding for Send/Return text in Luxury Management[/p]
[p]Improved consistency of city build production cost tooltips[/p]
[p]Trait opinion of leader now shown in trait tooltip even without advanced help text[/p]
[p]Pagan religions are shown in the Adopt State Religion menu even without Divine Rule, with explanatory text[/p]
[p]Yields from disciples on improvements are shown when disciples are selected[/p]
[p]Anchor mission help text includes water control range[/p]
[p]Condensed enlist ability help text[/p]
[p]Greyed out effect for dead character portraits applied more consistently[/p]
[p]Improved Settler Found City tooltip[/p]
[p]Cities with zero yield are included in the nation yield breakdown[/p]
[p]When a non-server network game has disconnected human players and the turn timer is counting down, a warning is displayed next to the turn time [/p]
[p]Improvements to Citrus resource, Grove, Ruins and Alter of the Aten models[/p]
[p]Improvements to Luxury Management display, especially when no luxuries available[/p]
[p]End Turn button now always active, clicking it will cycle to decisions preventing turn from ending[/p]
[p]Free improvement bonuses now show as normal event popups first[/p]
[p]Place improvement overlay not shown while bonus event is active[/p]
[p]When placing free improvements, ctrl+click is required to replace existing improvements[/p]
[p]Games with custom victories are skipped for unloaded scenario mods in Hall of Fame[/p]
[p]Improved fidelity of shadows on high settings[/p][p][/p]

[h3]Bugs Fixed[/h3]

[p]Fixed Valid Improvements worker filter [/p]
[p]Fixed map generation sometimes placing trees under water[/p]
[p]Fixed Hall of Fame display for scenario custom victories[/p]
[p]Fixed units passing through hostile civilians cancelling under construction improvements [/p]
[p]Fixed Dynasty being displayed as "default" with selected Archetype[/p]
[p]Fixed starting a game with more instances of a nation using a preset leader than existing dynasties for that nation[/p]
[p]Fixed hotkeys not triggering unit cycling[/p]
[p]Fixed per citizen generic specialist help text[/p]
[p]Fixed Timeline screen display issues[/p]
[p]Fixed Marshes affecting display of adjacent tiles[/p]
[p]Fixed Rebel units from events sometimes not being assigned to a player[/p]
[p]Fixed some popup scaling aspect ratio issues[/p]
[p]Fixed exception during loading of incompatible asset bundles[/p]
[p]Fixed Coastal Rain Basin boundary mountain range[/p]
[p]Fixed Hardwood Forest player start position issues[/p]
[p]Fixed missing clutter materials on Honey groves[/p]
[p]Fixed opinion graph hover exception[/p]
[p]Fixed hotkey assignments sometimes incorrectly being labeled as conflicts[/p]
[p]Fixed inaccurate opinion sometimes showing in city governor tooltip for Grand Viziers[/p]
[p]Fixed some Chinese text localization issues[/p]
[p]Fixed stun, immobilize, and panic effects sometimes being applied to units inside cities[/p]
[p]Fixed events that kill units not incrementing stats and goal counters[/p]
[p]Fixed temporarily hidden unit pathfinding[/p]
[p]Fixed some AI unit movement cases where it would trip over itself when there were units in the way[/p]
[p]Fixed some minor AI combat issues[/p]
[p]Fixed audio bug that occurred when only one music track was enabled[/p]
[p]Fixed some unit panel icon issues[/p]
[p]Fixed some tribal events incorrectly remaining after tribal elimination[/p]
[p]Fixed Caravan mission button saying that there are no players when out of orders[/p]
[p]Fixed some cases where city effects were not displayed[/p]
[p]Fixed boundary tiles in Caucasus on the Old World map[/p]
[p]Fixed character opinion load/save bugs[/p]
[p]Fixed family seat icon data bug[/p]
[p]Fixed State Religion reminder not opening submenu[/p]
[p]Fixed build specialist tile highlights not showing with border expansion[/p]
[p]Fixed Foreign Marriage mission in No Events mode[/p]
[p]Fixed temporarily hidden units sometimes still being rendered for other players[/p]
[p]Fixed village upgrade turns and improvement help text with Lighthouse[/p]
[p]Fixed Bulwark Cuirass UI issue[/p]
[p]Fixed Unyielding Banner reassigning general to non-player units[/p]
[p]Fixed scores not updating after effectPlayers change[/p]
[p]Fixed event decisions not getting restored after clearing selection[/p]
[p]Fixed tutorial videos not showing in the encyclopedia on Linux[/p]
[p]Fixed missing theology info on tech tooltips[/p]
[p]Fixed bonus yield text bug[/p]
[p]Fixed Unit Seen notification not firing if unit becomes visible mid-move[/p]
[p]Fixed Default Governor bugs[/p]
[p]Fixed Peaks adjacency requirement being ignored by Clerics on Sand tiles[/p]
[p]Fixed Encyclopedia display issue[/p]
[p]Fixed Research UI not showing after renaming landmark[/p]
[p]Fixed MP games with one human team getting stuck after victory[/p]
[p]Fixed Ask to Declare War mission helptext[/p]
[p]Fixed tile tooltip to show improvement defensive modifier in neutral territory[/p]
[p]Fixed overlay customizer issues[/p]
[p]Fixed load/save error that was possibly invalidating replay data[/p]
[p]Fixed scenario selection getting cleared when moving to MP setup screen[/p]
[p]Fixed Occurrence effects not being removed when ended by an event/bonus (Wrath of Gods)[/p]
[p]Fixed Veneration jealousy penalty being applied to both religion and god in Wrath of Gods scenario [/p]
[p]Fixed tech helptext not listing non religion-based project unlocks in Wrath of Gods scenario[/p]
[p]Fixed Carthage scenario 3 load/save bug[/p]
[p]Fixed ModManager panel trying to update when not active[/p]
[p]Text and event fixes[/p]