Old World News

Calling all great leaders – Nominations are underway for this year’s Steam Awards, and we’re hoping you’ll show your support for Old World in the Labor of Love category.



Over the last year, Old World has received 14 major updates – including the Free Content Update, the Shrine Rebalancing Update, & the AI Improvement Update. These updates have added loads of new content (maps, items, etc) and several new events, made permanent improvements to the AI, and implemented other significant enhancements to the UI and the gameplay.

We also released two DLCs: Wonders & Dynasties and Behind the Throne. Together, these DLCs offered new ways to play Old World, introduced new events & gameplay mechanics, added new Dynastic leaders, and brought new historical figures to the playing field.

We’re proud of everything we’ve accomplished so far, and you can expect to see plenty more from us.

Since development began many years ago, Old World has been a labor of love. The only thing more rewarding than building a dynasty has been building the Old World community. You all have been a steadfast source of inspiration for our team, and your feedback has been invaluable to improving the game. We’re grateful for your ongoing support of this project.

To nominate Old World for the 2024 Labor of Love Award, please click the “Nominate” button that’s part of this post.

Thanks again,
The Old World Team

[h2]Main Branch 1.0.75065 Release 2024-11-20[/h2]

[h3]Changes Overview[/h3]

• More kids: Increased chances for leaders to have children
  
• Permanent improvements: Shrines, Slums, and Estates are now permanent improvements
  
• AI improvements

[h3]Design[/h3]

• More kids: leaders with no children now have a higher chance to have kids
  
• VP calculation: Points required to win are now increased when projects that grant VP are available (i.e. Opulence in Behind the Throne)
  
• Permanent improvements: Shrines, Slums, and Estates are now permanent improvements that can be pillaged but do not get destroyed, and cannot be replaced
  
• Tribal Divorces: Divorcing a tribal spouse now results in a negative opinion with that tribe
  
• Distant raids: No longer include ships
  
• AI unit building:
  
• The traits of Grand Viziers and AI leaders now influence their decisions of how many units they build
  
• Heroes, Commanders, Tacticians, and Warlike characters build more units and Builders, Scholars, Diplomats, and Timid characters build fewer units
  
• AI is more likely to build units in cities that give unit promotions and experience
  
• Alliance events: Most alliance and tribal alliance events now either require a diplomat leader or are disabled in competitive mode
  
• City reveal: Cities are now revealed from a greater distance, like settlements
  
• City capture: Cities now take 1 turn longer to capture
  
• Unit spawn location: Rebels from Slums spawn on Slum tiles and Religious Dissent rebels spawn on religious buildings, if possible
  
• Starting units no longer spawn on the same tile, even if they are allowed to do so
  

[h3]Programming[/h3]
AI improvements:

• Less aggressive in saving yields for many turns when spending results in an immediate, albeit lesser, benefit
  
• Better evaluation of laws to properly take into account the unlocking of unique units
  
• Increased the value of growth for a city that is building Settlers/Workers
  
• Decreased value of disciples, AI avoids building them if has no use for them
  
• Revised AI build hurrying priorities
  
• Improved AI danger assessment and retreating
  
• Improved AI unit build selection
  

Headless autoplay:

• Added support for AI auto-runs in headless mode
  
• Run OldWorldAutorun.bat in the same folder as the game executable
  
• All players in the save are controlled by the AI for the specified number of turns, after which the game exits
  
• Can examine runs by opening the autosaves that are placed in the Auto folder
  

Other programming changes:

• Performance optimizations: Improved performance of terrain rendering, tile ownership changes and event processing
  
• Improvement and Project Legitimacy: now tied to effectCity and always converted to orders in no characters mode
  
• Added triggers: EVENTTRIGGER_PLAYER_DIPLOMACY_CHANGED and EVENTTRIGGER_TRIBE_DIPLOMACY_CHANGED
  
• Moving capital: Added support for moving the capital. Player's original capital is now remembered and exposed to the event system
  
• Roads from improvements: Added support for improvements adding roads to the tile
  
• ZOC changes from improvements: Added support for improvements allowing units to ignore enemy ZOC
  
• Mission bonus rework: InfoMission.miXP replaced with SubjectCharacterBonus
  
• Diplomacy methods: now take players as arguments instead of teams, to that events are triggered for the most relevant players
  

[h3]UI[/h3]

• Family tab icons: removed player color
  
• Marriage missions: now grouped together
  
• Inheritance and Tech Tree screens: now scrollable with camera keys (WASD)
  
• Religion Tooltips: Active Clergy and Current Followers no longer shown if there are none. Added +2 civics to Holy City line
  
• City Tooltips: Added tile tooltip content to bottom of city tooltip
  
• Royal characters: Changed 'your Relative' to 'A Royal'
  
• Nation tooltips: Now always show number of cities on nation tooltips
  
• Honey resource audio: Reduced volume of honey environmental audio
  
• Custom campaign audio: Added custom sounds for priest attacks in Pharoahs of the Nile scenario 3
  
• Tutorial events: Adjusted timing and added more to No Events mode
  
• Button dragging: Disabled unnecessary button clone when dragging buttons
  
• Laurion Mines: No longer show extra text on map
  

[h3]Bugs Fixed[/h3]

• Fixed recruitment with legitimacy penalty not getting applied on loading a save
  
• Fixed info loading bug that could cause new games to fail to start
  
• Fixed undo/redo related to tribal invasions
  
• Fixed bug with random seed for event story trigger test not matching the seed of the actual triggered event
  
• Fixed silent event failures caused by type cast issue
  
• Fixed units failing to spawn from improvements in Barbarian Horde games after the invasion had started
  
• Fixed disable environment audio toggle not taking effect immediately
  
• Fixed Fickle Band effects not triggering when divorce happened from an event
  
• Fixed ships exiting Great Cothon not always getting their size updated
  
• Fixed multiple selection highlights
• Fixed title of MP setup screen when coming from Mod selection screen
  
• Fixed improvement spawned units not respecting DLC checks
  
• Fixed project ambitions not respecting DLC checks
  
• Fixed border expansion preview not updating when selecting option in minimized event
  
• Fixed issues with unit list scrolling and units becoming unselectable
  
• Fixed AI value placed on Strongholds and Citadels (will now be built more often)
  
• Fixed spurious assert triggering when a nation is eliminated
  
• Fixed graphical display issue affecting Arid Hills
• Fixed inconsistency with the number of capture turns of cities
• Fixed eliminated tribes being eligible for forming an alliance
  
• Fixed improvement max player count not working for improvements with no improvement class
  
• Fixed exception when submenus scrolled off-screen
• Fixed bug where goal subject weight could result in an ineligible subject being chosen
  
• Fixed acquired techs cost in Encyclopedia and added cost to tooltips in tech tree
  
• Fixed some rebel spawn issues
  
• Fixed event cache bug
  
• Fixed modified collection exception
  
• Fixed sort exception
  
• Fixed incorrect iTriggerExtra in EVENTTRIGGER_CITY_CAPTURED
  
• Fixed bug with bSingle effectCity effects that spawn rebels possibly being counted multiple times (affects mods only)
  
• Text and event fixes
  

Greetings, strategists of the ancient world!

We’re here to share the latest developments for Old World, including new maps, events, and gameplay refinements added in recent updates. Additionally, Old World is part of the Hooded Horse November Publisher Sale, offering 50% off the base game, 90% off Heroes of the Aegean DLC, and 30% off other DLCs until November 23rd.

Hooded Horse November Publisher Sale 2024



[h3]Latest Updates: New Maps, Events, and Gameplay Improvements[/h3]
Since its release, Old World has continued to evolve, with recent updates bringing new content and refinements shaped by community feedback. The latest updates introduce two premade duel maps, a collection of unique events, new items, and significant gameplay adjustments. Here’s a look at the recent major additions to Old World.

[h3]New Content and Feature Highlights[/h3]

• New Duel Maps: Players can experience focused, one-on-one battles with:
  
• Punic Duel: Recreate the rivalry between Carthage and Rome.
  
• Median Duel: Relive the tension between Greece and Persia in a historical context.
  
• Unique Events: Over 20 new narrative-driven events have been added, including four exclusive to Behind the Throne. Scenarios like Ransom, Towering Stones, Under Attack, and To Rule is to Disappoint offer deeper decision-making opportunities.
  
• New Items for Leaders: Eleven new items, such as the Harvest Crown, Banner of Loyalty, and Crown of the Just, now provide unique abilities to enrich gameplay and influence character interactions.
  

[hr][/hr][h3]Gameplay Adjustments and Improvements[/h3]
Key refinements have been implemented to improve balance, progression, and overall gameplay quality:

• Law and Tech Tree Adjustments: The progression system has been rebalanced to provide more meaningful and logical choices.
  
• Hall of Fame Updates: Reflect achievements and legacies more accurately, enhancing the end-of-game experience.
  
• Campaign Balancing: Adjustments to Rise of Carthage and Heroes of the Aegean ensure smoother pacing and progression.
  
• AI and Performance Optimizations: Improved AI decision-making and better performance during late-game scenarios enhance overall playability.
  
• Shrine Updates: Effects for shrines, such as bonuses for water tiles or unique promotions, have been reworked for better gameplay impact.
  

See the recent patch notes for even more details.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/597180/view/4515514058306224140?l=english
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/597180/view/4700158472323743314?l=english

[hr][/hr][h3]Hooded Horse November Publisher Sale[/h3]

As a reminder, Old World is currently available at 50% off, with Heroes of the Aegean DLC at 90% off, and other DLCs at 30% off as part of the Hooded Horse November Publisher Sale, which ends on November 23rd.
[hr][/hr]
We value your feedback and encourage you to share your thoughts on the latest updates and gameplay adjustments. Thank you for being part of the Old World community and for your continued support.

Main Branch Hotfix 1.0.75012 Release 2024-11-15

[h2]Bugs Fixed[/h2]

• Fixed crash issue affecting players using Chinese language
  

[h2]Test Branch 1.0.74986 Test 2024-11-13[/h2]

[h3]Design[/h3]

• Childbirth rate: leaders with no children now have a higher chance to have kids
  
• VP calculation: Points required to win are now affected by projects that grant VP (i.e. Opulence in Behind the Throne)
  
• Permanent improvements: Shrines, Slums, and Estates are now permanent improvements that can be pillaged but do not get destroyed, and cannot be replaced
  

[h3]Programming[/h3]

• Diplomacy methods: now take players as arguments instead of teams, to that events are triggered for the most relevant players
  
• AI improvements:
  
• Less aggressive in saving yields for many turns, when spending results in an immediate, albeit lesser, benefit
  
• Better evaluation of laws to properly take into account the unlocking of unique units
  
• Increased the value of growth for a city that is building Settlers/Workers
  
• Decreased value of disciples, AI avoids building them if has no use for them
  
• Revised AI build hurrying priorities
  
• Improved AI danger assessment and retreating
  

[h3]UI[/h3]

• Researched bonus techs: now included in the timeline and turn summary
  
• Hall of Fame: added difficulty to game tooltips and sort dropdown
  
• Turn/scenario text: now sorted behind research popup
  

[h3]Bugs Fixed[/h3]

• Fixed potential crash for players using Simplified Chinese language
  
• Fixed AI development not adding tile improvements
  
• Fixed missing Sand Pits event project icon
• Fixed map overlays not updating immediately on improvement changes
  
• Fixed tribe leader info showing in no characters mode
  
• Fixed some minor issues with Learn to Play scenarios
• Fixed peace with Thracians blocking completion of Learn to Play 4
• Fixed bugs with VP threshold calculation
• Fixed religion heads getting duplicated in religion characters list
• Fixed potential issues with save/load dialog system
  
• Fixed non-deterministic event seeds in Pharaohs of the Nile scenarios
• Fixed AI bug that was placing undue attack priority on cities
  
• Fixed AI bug that caused it not to build enough units in some cases
  
• Fixed AI improvement priority for stacking workers
  
• Fixed AI supporting attacks
  
• Fixed AI tactics bug where it was not taking full advantage of adjacent unit bonus
  
• Fixed Assassination missions not getting canceled if the target becomes a leader
  
• Fixed fields on Mods Upload page not height expanding when text entered
  
• Fixed researched bonus techs no longer showing on the tech tree after loading a save
  
• Fixed build queue information being visible on a foreign nation's cities tooltip
• Text and event fixes