Main Branch 1.0.79872 release 2025-09-24

Scouts now follow new visibility rules, with limits on where hidden units can stay and a cooldown after establishing Agent Networks.

Theology bonuses have been adjusted to rebalance spread chances and monk happiness.

Tribal behavior is less predictable, barbarians wait until raids are possible, and tribes can only adopt world religions.

The AI has been improved in water control, exploration, retreat logic, and performance. It now values tutor missions more, avoids unneeded imports, and is less aggressive with tile buying. Tribe AI has also been refined.

UI changes include new warnings for multiplayer turn timers, updated tooltips, renamed project and tack options, and clearer help text for improvements, trades, and archetype events.

Bug fixes address tribal AI, event handling, mods, Wrath of Gods issues, audio and shader problems, and a wide set of smaller gameplay errors.

Steam Reviews: Help Guide the Next Update

We’ve been reviewing the recent feedback and reviews, and it has been invaluable in shaping our focus for the next phase. Every review helps us understand how you’re experiencing the game and what stands out the most.

If you have a moment, leaving a short review on Steam goes a long way. It not only helps us prioritize improvements, but it also makes the game more visible to new players. Your feedback keeps us on track as we prepare the next update.

Design

• Temporarily hidden units (i.e. Scouts bounced out of Trees) now become visible after 5 turns (or after attacking or moving)

• Temporarily hidden units can no longer occupy territory that they would not be able to occupy if not hidden (i.e. foreign territory while at Truce)

• Scouts are no longer removed from the map after establishing an Agent Network and instead get a 5 turn cooldown and are hidden for 10 turns

• Veneration Theology gives +10% spread chance, up from 5%

• Revelation Theology gives +20% spread chance, down from 25%

• Enlightenment Theology now gives +3 Happiness only for Monks in Monasteries of Religions that have that Theology

• Tribe unit behavior is less predictable

• Barbarians cannot enter a nation's territory before raids are possible

• Increased Discontent per turn on Sufficient, Modest and Fragile Prosperity levels (Glorious, Magnificent and Great difficulty levels)

• Removed free Crossbowmen bonus tech

• Nomad effect now gives +25% strength in Arid as well as Sand tiles - affects Camel Archer, Libyan Cavalry and Elite Libyan Cavalry

• Highlands map script now has 27% more tiles to compensate for less useable area

• Bypassed events are less frequent and tied to event level

• Bypassed relationship penalty increased from 60 to 80

• Automatic (non-event) marriage will prefer candidates with a lower age difference

• Removed orders for refusing tribal truce in No Characters

• Tribes can only adopt world religions

• Poet trait gives positive opinion of other poets

• Further decreased likelihood of AI founding religions early based on AI Development and Aggression (applies for at most first 16 turns)

• Assault bonus to attack against forts no longer applies when forts give no defensive bonus

• Disabled some more ambitions in One City Challenge

• Rightful Heirs can no longer become Missing, Exiled, Imprisoned or Fugitive

• Games with two human players and AI no longer place the humans at opposite ends of the map and the AI in the middle. Instead, they are treated like a FFA.

• Added ambitions for building Wonders added in Wonders and Dynasties

• Delvers have an opinion penalty towards Stewards of the Land. These traits are now mutually exclusive (Wrath of Gods)

Programming

AI improvements:

• AI water control improvements and bug fixes

• Tweaks to exploration and retreat

• Keep potential danger separate from actual danger

• Increased value of heir tutor mission

• No longer guards starting empty city sites unless there is another player nearby

• No longer imports horses until they can build horse units

• Hittite Scouts avoid chopping trees that will unhide them

• Further reduced AI emphasis on tile buying

• Tribe AI improvements

Other programming changes:

• Performance optimization

• AI performance improvements

• Missing shaders in asset bundles are now replaced with game versions where possible (affects mods)

• Updated Epic dev tools and SDK

UI

Turn timer changes (MP):

• There are now 2 warnings that turn time is running out

• First warning triggers at 30 seconds remaining, turns timer text red and plays audio warning

• Second warning triggers at 15 seconds remaining, increases timer text size and plays audio warning again

• These times are configurable using a mod in globalsInt.xml

Other UI changes:

• Renamed Rider projects from Import to Supply

• 'Only Show Map Tacks For Worker' option renamed to 'Contextual Map Tacks'. Now shows improvement pings whenever workers, settlers or disciples are selected

• Improvement helptext and unit build option prereqs take into account tile owner rather than unit owner

• Added helptext warning when trying to build Improvement for teammate who doesn't have required Tech

• Improved some luxury trade help text

• Yield production graphs also display the total accumulated up until the hovered point (after game is over and for observers)

• Learn to Play is removed from the main menu after completing all the LTP or LBP scenarios or on disabling the tutorial

• Added help text for event options that give archetypes in Roleplaying mode

• Imprisoned trait removed from characters on death

• Updated difficulty descriptions

Bugs Fixed

• Tribe AI fixes

• Fixed city and culture limits not showing on Encyclopedia entries for relevant improvements

• Fixed uneven distribution of tribal unit types

• Fixed some bugs with AI use of missions

• Fixed converting a game to play-by-cloud not working when not your turn in Strict turnstyle

• Fixed missions continuing for dead target character

• Fixed camera focus on tile bug

• Fixed changing capital clearing sent luxuries

• Fixed modded asset bundles not loading in some cases

• Fixed load/save error from adjacent unit effects

• Fixed bug with AI exploring units trying to harvest when they cannot

• Fixed AI peace offers sometimes using the no events popup when events are enabled

• Fixed yield stockpiling ambitions being offered when close to already being completed

• Fixed duplicate event option archetype help text

• Fixed tribal camp events not resetting with Reset Random Seed on Load option enabled

• Fixed bug preventing DLC related hints being shown in Encyclopedia

• Fixed potential null reference in Map Editor

• Fixed some temporary invisibility issues

• Fixed audio tracks not always being listed in Main Menu audio options

• Fixed tribal units with a raid target counting towards a tribal camp's defend threshold or raid start threshold

• Fixed mod version mismatch being displayed incorrectly, preventing modded saves from being loaded in some case

• Fixed edge case with Carthage3 African Invasion goal not completing

• Fixed iGovernorCostModifier applying to orders (affects Darius dynasty and mods)

• Fixed unbuildable units and tech cards showing on the tech tooltip (affects mods)

• Fixed foreign occurrence effects on units, movement and visibility not being applied immediately (Wrath of Gods)

• Fixed some occurrence load/save issues (Wrath of Gods)

• Fixed some non-global Occurrences showing as global in helptext (Wrath of Gods)

• Fixed Wrath of Gods scenario map size

• Fixed wrath from difficulty not being applied in the Wrath of Gods scenario

• Fixed displayed prosperity level not matching effect in the Wrath of Gods scenario

• Text and Event fixes

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