Hola!
As you have seen we have tweak a couple of things in terms of balance, such as influence cost, tenets or cultures. Here is the list with all the details of the changes.
Influence Balancing
You probably know how many players bring up the rapidly growing influence costs for various actions in the game. To be honest, some of those costs did spiral a bit out of control in the mid to late game. So we are adjusting some factors to the following:
- Civics: Reduced the cost impact of Number of Enacted Civics
- Attaching Outposts: Reduced the impact of already attached territories by 40%
- Merging Cities: Reduced the impact of Infrastructure Buyout Cost by over 50%
Vassalization
Forcefully Vassalizing an opponent after a war will now be cheaper if you have more Fame than them. Roughly every 200 Fame should provide a 10 point reduction in War Score Cost.
Militarist Affinity:
While the Iron Reserves ability is incredibly powerful when exploited by an experienced player, we found that most more casual players find it extremely weak and almost never use it. So, we are making some tweaks to it to make it feel better to use for casual players, while fixing some bugs and unintended uses:
- Militia units in Eras 5 and 6 now cost 2 pop each to raise (sieges unaffected)
- Militia units can be upgraded into professional units in the Anti Cavalry branch (starting from Spearmen up to Rifles in the 6th era)
- Militia units are no longer free to heal
- Fixed an exploit that created population when upgrading and disbanding units
- Adjusted Ability Cooldown to scale with gamespeed and army size
Cultures
Now we're getting into the meat of the balancing
[ERA 1]
Phoenicians
- Phoenician LT loses early naval tech cost reductions, gains +1 CS and +1 Movement Speed on naval units
- EU becomes Naval Transport, unlocked with Fishing. 13CS, 2 Movement Speed (14CS and 3 Move Speed with LT)
- Phoenicians gain access to Pentekonter
- EQ gains a +1 Food worker slot (as money is not that powerful in the Ancient Era)
Hittites
- LT: tech cost reduction to wheel replaced with "+20 to FIMS per Occupied City on each of their Own Cities" (Note: This effect ends with the war.)
- Emblematic Quarter provides +3 Money and +20 Health Regen to friendly units in territory
Assyria
- Dunnu counts as Commons Quarter
Myceneans
- EQ loses additional industry bonus
Olmec
- LT now gives +3 Influence per territory (was +1)
[ERA 2]
Romans
- EQ now permanently gives +5 Influence, +5 Stability for each adjacent district
- EQ now counts as Commons Quarter
- EQ gives +50 Fame if completed while city is Victorious
- LT –30% upkeep reduction replaced with +50% experience gain on unit (as army upkeep seems to rarely be a concern for players)
- LT lost -30% Research Cost for Imperial Power
- Praetorian Guard lose 1CS (now 29)
Goths
- LT: Removed Ransack Combat Strength Bonus (difficult to understand for players)
- LT: Added "+25% of Ransack Gains earned as Science per Army Unit" Currently bugged: Provides 50% bonus instead
- EQ Base Yields unchanged, but no Stability penalty
- EQ also increases overall ransack bounty by +5%
- EQ now counts as Commons Quarter
Era 2+ nomads (Huns, Mongols)
- No longer gain food as combat spoils
- Now can collect special “Pasture” curiosities that spawn on Prairie and Dry Grass which give food
Huns
- LT: Added +5 science per Unit on hostile territory
Garamantes
- EQ now provides +1 food on exploitation on local territory territory
- EQ provides +2 food per adjacent sterile tile
- EQ now must be build next to Sterile, Stony Field, or Rocky Field
[ERA 3]
Aztecs
- EQ now counts as Commons Quater
- EQ now gives +10 Stability (was +5)
- EQ provides double yield while Sacrificing
- EQ provides +1CS to all units per sacrificing city
Mongols
- LT: Added -25% Vassalization cost reduction
[ERA 4]
Ming
- LT: Replaced "+1 Influence on Territory" with "+10 Influence per enacted Civic"
- EQ: No longer provides Stability, but counts as Commons Quarter instead
- EQ: restricted +1 Influence on District effect to local territory
Poles
- EQ now counts as Commons Quarter
Venetians
- LT: Added +1 Influence per trade route to existing effect
- EQ: +2 Money base yield (was +1)
- EQ: +2 Influence per adjacent District (was +1 per market before)
Spain
- EQ now gives +5 stability (was -10)
- EQ now counts as Commons Quarter
[ERA 5]
Ethiopia
- Legacy Trait Effect boosted to +10 Science on Garrisons (was +5)
- Legacy Trait gains "CS of hostile units within borders gained as Science"
- EQ now counts as Commons Quarter
- EQ now properly counts as Garrison
Zulu
- EQ now counts as Farmers Quarter
- EQ now serves as construction anchor like Hamlet
- EQ now gives +25XP on new units (was +10)
French
- EQ loses "Collective Minds" effect
- EQ gains +2 Science per trade route
Russians
- LT loses old effects
- LT gains "-25% outpost creation cost"
- LT gains +10 Fortification on settlements
[ERA 6]
USSR
- Resource now only applies CS bonus if unit is Supplied
Americans
- EQ loses "strength on adjacent units"
- EQ no longer reduces Stability
- EQ gains gold synergy with Garrisons
- EQ counts as Market Quarter
- EQ counts as Commons Quarter?
- EQ gives +3 Bombardment Strength (Yes, this is global.)
Japan
- EQ loses explicit synergy effect with Makers and Research quarters (provided by infrastructures through "counts as")
- EQ: Restricted +2 Science and +2 Industry effects to local territory
Turks
- LT buffed to +3 Food per pop (was +1)
Brazil
- EQ: gains "+3 Science per adjacent Farmers Quarter"
- EQ: gains +1 Researcher slot
- EQ now counts as research quarter
Religious Districts and Tenets
We've added an explicit line in the "counts as" section for religious districts. Currently, the list of Religious Districts includes all Holy Sites ("normal" and cultural wonders, but this may not be displayed yet), and the the following Emblematic Quarters
- Aztec
- Maya
- Edo Japanese
- Spanish
- Russian
- Umayyads
- Maurya
- Celts
- Goths
- Aksumites
- Teutons
- Ottomans
- Nazca
- (Yes, we know the list isn't complete. Feel free to point out any missing ones so we can include them in the post release patch.)
In addition to that, we have added an additional effects to the following Tenets
- Tier 1
- Respect the seas’ bounties : +2 Food on Religious District
- Abstain from Intoxicants: +2 Industry on Religious District
- Seek Wisdom: +2 Science on Religious District
- Shelter the True Oracles: +2 Influence on Religious District
- Be virtuous as Water: +2 Stability on Religious District
- Reject Luxury: +2 Money on Religious District
- Tier 2
- Undertake Pilgrimage: +2 Influence on Religious District
- Bear not False Witness: +2 Science on Religious District
- Give Alms: +2 Money on Religious District
- Observe Fasts : +2 Food on Religious District
- Protect the Weak: +2 Stability on Religious District
- Tier 3
- Develop the Intellect: +2 Science on Religious District
- Purge Idleness: +2 Industry on Religious District
- Mandate Patronage: +2 Money on Religious District
- Proselytize Daily: +2 Influence on Religious District
- Tier 4
- Raise Monuments: +2 Science on Religious District
- Donate Generously: +2 Money on Religious District
- Sustain the Faithful: +2 Stability on Religious District
We hope you like these changes and have fun with the beta.