Logo Platform
logo amplifiers simplified
The-Cat-o-Nine-Tales

The-Cat-o-Nine-Tales

a year ago Dec 13,2023, 14:03:03 PM

George Sand Beta

Reply
4 039 Views
27 Comments

Hello everyone! 

 

We've got some cool news for you today, as we have a preview of the next update, and it's playable right now. With the George Sand Update, arriving in January, we want to give you more ways to customize your experience, from new map settings and personas to non-exclusive cultures and debug tools for our diligent modders.

So, what have we got for you? 

  • Culture Rebalancing: Many cultures from the base game, Together We Rule, and all DLCs have been tweaked 
  • Added a Dev Mode Menu: To help modders test their creations, we have added a dev mode tool (see below on how to use it) 
  • Non-Exclusive Cultures Option: A new game setup option to allow more than one empire to play the same culture 
  • More Map Generation Options: Map Ratio, Natural Wonder Density, and Independent People Density 
  • New and Rebalanced AI personas: We’ve added over a dozen new personas for you to play against 
  • Buffed Transcendence: Sticking to your culture will now also give you a permanent bonus based on your affinity 
  • Various Other Improvements and Fixes: Find the full list at the end of this post 

 

So, how can you try this Update right now? Just open the properties of the game in your Steam library, go to the betas tab, and select the update_preview branch. Steam should then download the beta version of this update. (If it does not, try restarting Steam or verifying the integrity of the game files.) 

If you’re a modder, want to create specific situations or scenarios, or maybe just want to prepare some nice screenshots, you might want to try the dev mode tools as well. To do so, you need to open the properties of the game and add the “--allowmodtools” launch option. With this enabled, you can access a dev menu by pressing Shift+F1, and select starting era and cultures during game setup. 



Have fun with the beta and let us know what you think! 


[1.0.26.4406] "George Sand Update" - Version Notes  (Click to expand)

CHANGES & ADDITIONS 

  • Added the possibility to access a version of our Debug Menu, and the ability to chose your starting Era, through a Command Line. 
  • Added access to some Community Scenarios through the Main Menu instead of downloading a save from Games2Gether. 
  • Added a "Bug Report" button in the Main Menu and Pause Menu to allow you to report any occuring bug more easily. 
  • Added new stackable Neolithic Legacy Traits, one for each Era Star. 
  • Added new AI Personas to play against. 
  • Balanced existing AI Personas Difficulty Levels, Strengths & Biases. 
  • Added a new difficulty level for AI Personas, as well as a feedback of that difficulty in the lobby. 
  • Added a random AI Personas selection in the lobby slots when starting a new game based on your last world Difficulty Level. 
  • Added all new and existing AI Personas as Avatar Preset (exception of Victor Hugo and Lucy). 
  • Added the possibility to buy more things with Influence in Outposts such as Train Stations and Airports. 
  • Added an option to use non-exclusive Cultures during a game, meaning no more Culture rush. 
  • Added a "Buy All" button for Luxury Resources. 
  • Reworked the way Public Ceremonies work to make them more interesting by adding a big resource bonus. 
  • Added adjacency bonus on Holy Sites. 
  • Added a warning on a City pin when a Construction Queue is blocked. 
  • Added the automatic move of the victorious Army in the center of the conquered City. 
  • Added an improvement that allows to load a save made with an inactive but owned DLC. 
  • Added an option to Raze a City. 
  • Added an option to remove specific Districts. 
  • Added an option to remove Infrastructures. 
  • Added an improvement to ignore Train Stations and Airports in placement suggestion. 
  • Added a new icon for the Cultural Entente Embassy Agreement. 
  • Added a setting option to setup the density of Natural Wonders on the map. 
  • Added a setting option to change the map ratio. 
  • Added a setting option to change the spawn density of Independent People. 
  • Added a new Outgame View. 
  • Balanced a lot of different Cultures form all previous DLCs and Tentpole game. 
  • Balanced the Transcendence Legacy Trait to make them more interesting by adding an Affinity bonus in addition to the existing Fame bonus. 
  • Made Microbiolgy technology a prerequisite for Research Institute technology. 
  • Changed some era 5 tech position in the tech tree. 
  • Religious quarter: give a +1 FIMS bonus on basic FIMS districts, and reduced faith bonus to +2 

  

FIXES OF ISSUES SPOTTED BY THE COMMUNITY (THANKS!) 

  • Fixed an issue where Neolithic map curiosities bonuses were not received when the unit is spawned on them. 
  • Fixed an issue where claimed island territories displayed a 0% influence. 
  • Fixed an issue where the Era Star money value was displayed as negative value past 2.1 million gold. 
  • Fixed an issue that could cause the save to be corrupted and couldn't be loaded anymore. 
  • Fixed an issue where the End Turn was blocked because of an unskipable mandatory action on a Army movement. 
  • Fixed an issue where Liberating a City that has a Paper deposit cause a Pending Turn. 
  • Fixed an issue where Ransacking Satelites's and Space Exploration's Shared projects didn't cancel the construction. 
  • Fixed an issue where we were unable to access an Iron Resource with the Power Investor. 
  • Fixed an issue where Agreements were available with an enemy vassal if an agreement has been sent just before becoming a vassal. 
  • Fixed an issue where Salted Beef's bonus on upkeep was listed as Unknown in the breakdown. 
  • Fixed an issue where in a certain case a Cyclopean Fortress that belonged to an enemy can keep its ZoC once the Player took the territory. 
  • Fixed an issue where often the Close button was missing in the Empire screen. 
  • Fixed an issue where the Polar Base tooltip did not include that it does not require to be adjacent to other districts. 
  • Fixed an issue where Thermonuclear weapons did not unlock the Bring The Heat deed. 
  • Fixed an issue where the Mississippians' Legacy Trait wasn't computed in the Placement Preview. 
  • Fixed an issue where a session of a player ends just one turn after the player has reach Era VI. 
  • Fixed an issue where there were no loot when the Unit you finish a battle with dies even if there are other Units left alive. 

  

OTHER FIXES 

  • Fixed an issue where a save game that was started with DLC-content cannot be loaded without an internet connection. 
  • Fixed an issue where an exception error was generated when a Client attacked another empires City when a few seconds were left on the End Turn timer. 
  • Fixed an issue where the Cultured Land deed is not unlocked when influencing an entire continent. 
  • Fixed an issue that occured when attempting to refresh the persona collection while having no internet connection. 
  • Fixed an issue where Decorations and Symbols are missing from Multiplayer. 
  • Fixed an issue where the applied functionality of the Trade Insurance and WorldWide Exchanges empire unlocks is unclear to the users. 
  • Fixed an issue where incorrect wording is displayed when an enemy army is poaching one of your Trade nodes. 
  • Fixed an issue where Violent Independent Peoples can ransack Trade Nodes of Empire they have a 2nd tier Treaty with. 
  • Fixed an issue where Maori emblematic Unit (Waka Taua) tooltip provided misleading information. 
  • Fixed an issue where Trade view's International Trade window doesn't correctly update when loading saves. 
  • Fixed an issue where Byzantines Emblematic Quarter only gives +1 Money per access to Horses instead of +2. 
  • Fixed an issue where "An Envious Eye" can trigger before the player has met any other Empire. 
  • Fixed an issue where disrupted Resource Deposits aren't listed in the ongoing Disruption in the Trade view. 
  • Fixed an issue where Temporary cities' Status are not applied on their last turn. 
  • Fixed an issue where the game doesn't remember player settings for World Generation. 
  • [Mods] Fixed an issue where overriding a localization key reset the search result in the localization database. 
  • Fixed an issue where Stability from Units only applies after moving. 
  • Fixed an issue where an incorrect visual for Independent People Harbor was used on map scheme view. 
  • Fixed an issue where wrong Combat Strength value was displayed for destroyed Units in the Battle aftermath UI when fighting Independent People. 
  • Fixed an issue where there was a spelling mistake in "Formidable Steeds" culture trait. 
  • Fixed an issue where manufacture's build condition mention counting the number of "Deposits" while it's counting "Access". 
  • Fixed an issue where unexpected visuals appear on Porcelain deposit when building an extractor. 
  • Fixed an issue where Unit health and damage taken each turn is no longer displayed if the total is 0. 
  • Fixed an issue where Caribbean Pirates Main Plaza asset protrudes from the edge of a cliff under certain angles. 
  • Fixed an issue where loading a manual save causes Food, Industry, Money and Science prediction to ignore certain bonuses. 
  • Fixed an issue where an unclear message was displayed when trying to do an Air Strike using planes attached to an Aircraft Carrier in Battle. 
  • Fixed an issue where Faulua's sail becomes invisible depending of its orientation. 
  • Fixed an issue where the city of the Visigoths Independent People and the first City of the Spanish were both called "Toledo". 
  • Fixed an issue where Transcendance bonus was unclear. 
  • Fixed an issue where there is a Tile mismatch between the visual and actual location for parts of the Bungle Bungle Natural Wonder. 

Hotfix - 20 December

  • Fixed an issue where the Public Ceremonies tooltip status where not localized.
  • Fixed an issue where the winning siege Army didn't teleported to the city center after an instant resolve.
  • Fixed an issue where the Reinforcement pin was showing even when a Battle was ongoing.
  • Fixed an issue where an error on Razing District povented it from downgrading to Ruins.
  • Fixed an issue where you coud assimilate an Independent People while you City was under Siege.
  • Fixed an issue where the Diplomat Transcendance bonus was reducing the Leverage action cost by less than 5%.
  • Fixed an issue where the Stability bonus was not applied on Districts.
  • Fixed an issue where the Avatar Presets of Influencers and Historical figures where editable.
  • Balanced the gains on the Hunter and Growth Neolithic Era Star events.
  • Fixed an issue where all folders in the mod.io folder where not fully remove when deleting mods.

CULTURE BALANCING 

CORE 

  • Assyrian LT: Add a 100% ransack bonus. 
  • Egyptian EU: Reduce Combat Strength (-2).  
  • Harappan LT: Food bonus now only applies to dry grass 
  • Olmec EU: Reduced Combat Strength (-1). 
  • Zhou China EQ : Reduced science bonus per near mountains to +4 and added +1 influence bonus per adjacent mountains.  
  • Celtic LT: boost food bonus to +3 per farmers. 
  • Goth LT : Upped the ransack to science bonus.  
  • Mauryan EU: changed resource prerequisite (copper). 
  • Byzantine EU: Boost Combat Strength (+2). 
  • Byzantine EQ: up money bonus per horse access to +2. 
  • Teuton EU: Reduced Combat Strength (-1). 
  • Haudenosaunee EU: Boost CS (+2). 
  • Mughal EQ: Reduced industry bonus per industry workers to +1 and make religious quarter, give +2 culture and +1 faith per population. 
  • Persian: LT: reduced the industry bonus for common projects from 25% to 10%. 
  • Russian LT: add -25% outpost attachment cost 
  • Russian EQ: add +3 influence per adjacent district 
  • Russian EU: up CS to 48. 
  • Zulu EU: Lowered CS. 
  • American EQ : Changed extension type to science district, lowered the science bonus on garrison, apply its bonus to all garrison of the settlement.  
  • Chinese LT: up money bonus to 15%. 
  • Egyptian EQ: Add +3 science bonus per cultural wonder in settlement. 
  • Soviet EQ Luxury: Boosted the weapon luxury militia bonus from 5% to 10%. 
  • Indian LT: The money bonus only applies on capital and is up to +3%. 

AFRICA 

  • Garamantes EQ : added +2 food per adjacent rocky fields & stone fields. 
  • Nigerian EQ : +5 oil access  
  • Nigerian LT : +3 industry per farmers. 

LATAM 

  • Caralan EU : boost healing to +10. 
  • Taino LT : lowered food per territory to +3 and add +2 food on common quarters. 

Together We Rule 

  • Han Chinese EQ : add +2 science per Paper access. 
  • Bulgarian EQ : applied : +3 science +3 faith. 
  • Singaporean EQ : +1 workplace per adjacent base district. (the workplace fims is define by the fims of the distric). 

OCEANIA 

  • New Zealand : lowered Legacy Trait science bonus on coastal water from +20 to +8. 


New AI PERSONAS 

  • King Arthur 
  • Salomon 
  • Tarquin the Elder 
  • Jimmu 
  • Māui  
  • Queen of Shebah 
  • Brynhildr 
  • Tomyris 
  • Khaina 
  • Arawelo 
  • Alii Ranni 
  • Kiviuq 
  • Malsumis
  • Hunor 
  • Dushyanta 
  • Shennong 
  • Nokomis 

 

Copied to clipboard!
a year ago
Dec 13, 2023, 2:06:55 PM

How long will the beta last? I want to see if I will be able to play before the release since I only have time off after the end of this week.

0Send private message
a year ago
Dec 13, 2023, 2:27:26 PM

The beta will be playable until the patch releases in January, though obviously the final changes for the release version need to be committed a little before that. Still, you should have some time.

0Send private message
a year ago
Dec 13, 2023, 2:55:47 PM
  • Added the automatic move of the victorious Army in the center of the conquered City.

It's...so beautiful. Finally, no more "We have heroically breached the city and conquered it before the enemy reinforcements arrived. Now to head back to where we initiated the fight from for a well-earned nap. No, just leave the keys in the door, what's the worst that could happen"

0Send private message
0Send private message0Send private message
a year ago
Dec 13, 2023, 5:11:01 PM

Ohhhh "Non-Exclusive Cultures" options could be fun! I personally like the exclusivity of it but I know its been a sticking point for some. Glad to see it as an option now :) 

0Send private message
a year ago
Dec 13, 2023, 10:04:58 PM

Happy to see more options regarding world generation added, and the ability to have multiple players as the same culture is a nice thing to have available.


The ability to directly play community scenarios is a nice touch. I'm still not certain they're the kind of content I would be most interested in, but I'm hopeful that the ease of access will help players that might otherwise have missed out.


The 'move to hold' interaction for armies conquering cities feels long overdue and is much appreciated; same with Razing cities, seeing as I'd often be Ransacking cities after claiming them, etc.


Very glad to see so many new AI personas, whether they release with some kind of event or not, more content is a good thing and would be appreciated, hopefully they're accompanied by new avatar/persona items to boot (not that I'm assuming King Arthur will release with some modern specs I can steal for my Persona).


I do have to wonder, though this is a lovely update, and very welcome, is there something approaching a roadmap for future content still floating about, or updated for the time being, and are there plans to add some form of 'leader pool' mechanic to better customise the AI that will load into the game beyond this 'random based around last game's difficulty' addition?


Thanks so much!


Also, the extended patchnotes say 'OEANIA' instead of 'OCEANIA', which is the most minor quibble in the history of quibbles but, seeing as I was a little confused, I thought I'd mention it..

0Send private message
0Send private message0Send private message0Send private message0Send private message
a year ago
Dec 14, 2023, 8:01:43 PM

You should have included a bottom allowing each culture, when selected, to use its own icon/symbol. Some players feel that it's less immersive to stick to one single icon the entire game when we're changing cultures all the time.

0Send private message
0Send private message
a year ago
Dec 20, 2023, 2:25:34 PM

Hey, just to let you know. We just released a hotfix to solve some issues. 

You will find them in the section "Other Fixes" I labeled as Hotfix - 20 December.


Enjoy the Beta during Christmas and do not hesitate if you have any particular feedback regarding the balancing of cultures :)

0Send private message
a year ago
Dec 21, 2023, 2:38:51 PM

props on adding a lot of new personas to the roster, the previous dearth of opponents was one of the things I would mark HK down a grade if recommending it to a new player. I still really think you should pull the trigger on letting users create their own personas but this change is a good one until such a time as that happens (if ever).
The culture balance changes are across the board good and I'm particularly pleased that many of the VIP mod changes have been adopted. Some cultures are still sub optimal choices no matter what - Caralans, Hittites and Russians all come to mind. I think VIP russia is in a good niche but is maybe wordier than youd like a culture LT to be.
Love the subtler QoL additions such as being able to upgrade all units of a given type in an army.

The additional map options are welcome, particularly independant people as the RNG on getting hostile vs peaceful nation states and having to deal with spawns that happen from other cultures era-ing up is often too much to deal with in games at higher difficulties.
The changes to public ceremonies are bad IMO. The feast is good when its unlocked and is probably broken in late game with the right culture picks, but holy day is terrible for its cost as faith really matters most in the eras when you lack the industry to utilise it. the VIP holy day is a much better alternative to what you have gone with. The Crépissage mosque repeatable is now totally garbage as it only applies for 10 turns, that repeatable needs a ground up revision now.

An unintended interaction of influence purchase of train stations is you can get the railroad competitive deed by putting stations in adjacent outposts. otherwise this option is a good addition.
I'd love to see more patches like this that focus on areas of the game that need work instead of patches introducing pointless mechanisms like poaching, please expend your resources on these sorts of patches henceforth

0Send private message
a year ago
Dec 22, 2023, 3:37:10 PM
Thighs wrote:

...


Very glad to see so many new AI personas, whether they release with some kind of event or not, more content is a good thing and would be appreciated, hopefully they're accompanied by new avatar/persona items to boot (not that I'm assuming King Arthur will release with some modern specs I can steal for my Persona).


...

I was pleased to see the long list as well!


Personally, a small Longfellow-ian part of me hopes Nokomis speaks in trochaic tetrameter when conversing. 

e.g., when proposing a peace treaty:

“I am weary of your quarrels,

Weary of your wars and bloodshed,

Weary of your prayers for vengeance,

Of your wranglings and dissensions;

All your strength is in your union,
All your danger is in discord;
Therefore be at peace henceforward,
And as brothers live together.”

0Send private message
0Send private message
10 months ago
Dec 30, 2023, 9:59:25 AM

Very nice update, laying the foundation for future DLCs. 


Hopefully we can see a major expansion in the way of dynamic terrain and not endless additions of new cultures. I would love to see bushfires, avalanches, floods, volcanoes, earthquakes, droughts, tsunamis, tornadoes, hurricanes (mostly on water killing ships)….

These could also work nice with the pollution mechanic, for example increased pollution could lead to increased droughts and eventual desertificarion of tiles, rising sea levels drowning islands and cities near the coast or entire regions where we have flatlands. Yes its something present in civ6, but they never took it far enough. HK is a far more complex game but it fails to shake things up once we have a stable empire bulit. The addition of dynamic terrain  would greatly enhance the late game which always becomes a grind. For me such an expansion would easily be a day-one purchase, unlike the culture dlcs which I always wait to drop to 2-3 eur, and it could breed new life into the game bringing back old players.

Updated 10 months ago.
0Send private message
10 months ago
Dec 31, 2023, 1:22:20 PM

 I enjoy the new features and opinions in the this update very much, Thank you. Hope to see scenario editor became an official feature.

0Send private message
10 months ago
Jan 8, 2024, 10:57:15 AM
Nevensky wrote:

Very nice update, laying the foundation for future DLCs. 


Hopefully we can see a major expansion in the way of dynamic terrain and not endless additions of new cultures. I would love to see bushfires, avalanches, floods, volcanoes, earthquakes, droughts, tsunamis, tornadoes, hurricanes (mostly on water killing ships)….

These could also work nice with the pollution mechanic, for example increased pollution could lead to increased droughts and eventual desertificarion of tiles, rising sea levels drowning islands and cities near the coast or entire regions where we have flatlands. Yes its something present in civ6, but they never took it far enough. HK is a far more complex game but it fails to shake things up once we have a stable empire bulit. The addition of dynamic terrain  would greatly enhance the late game which always becomes a grind. For me such an expansion would easily be a day-one purchase, unlike the culture dlcs which I always wait to drop to 2-3 eur, and it could breed new life into the game bringing back old players.

As much as I like the idea myself, I'm afraid that's unlikely to happen. I discussed the idea of changing terrain with the prod team long ago, and as far as I understood, the way the game handles the map is not well-suited to these kinds of changes (especially the changing sea level), and overhauling that would have taken too much work compared to the other improvements we have done. Opportunity costs, and all that...

0Send private message
?

Click here to login

Reply
Comment