Old World Update: New map size, Multiple Victory adjustments, AI improvements

Main Branch 1.0.79513 release 2025-08-27

Design

• Duel map size is now smaller (45x45) and defaults to 2 players

• Added new map size Tiny, which is the same size as the old Duel

• Maximum Number of Opponents allowed is now set per map size at twice the default number of players

• Random map size can no longer result in an actual map size that is too small to accommodate the chosen number of players

• Added new Ultra-wide aspect ratio option to MP setup (map width is 40% of map height)

• Each Victory condition is disabled for other players after first being achieved

• It is no longer possible to lose the game after being the first to complete a victory condition

• Tribes, Raiders, Rebels and Barbarians now more likely to pillage improvements and attack units rather than cities

• All members of a team with a nation allied to a tribe can found cities on that tribe's sites, for an extra cost

• The AI avoids founding a religion for a certain number of turns, depending on AI aggression and development levels

• The AI can no longer start with improvements that are required for founding a religion (Shrines and Pastures)

• Units that are no longer hidden because of an effect being removed remain hidden until they move or attack

• Hidden scouts no longer get bounced several tiles away just to remain hidden in Trees

• Make Peace/Alliance with a Tribe ambitions no longer require tribe contact and don't fail if the last contacted tribe is eliminated

• Adad-Guppi and Ramesses II cannot die for the first 50 years (Wonders and Dynasties)

• Slum improvements are now Urban (Behind the Throne)

• Added new map script Desolation, a fertile land with deserts that expand over time (Wrath of Gods)

• Occurrences no longer change terrain on a tile with an improvement (excluding roads) to a terrain type that is not supported by that improvement (Wrath of Gods)

• Occurrences no longer remove roads when changing terrain to a type that doesn't support roads, unless impassable (Wrath of Gods)

• Added new Sacrifice Courtier goal to the Wrath of Gods scenario

• Drought raid event in the Wrath of Gods scenario can no longer occur in the first 20 turns or at all on Weak Tribe Level

Programming

AI improvements:

• Pathfinder enhancements

• Improved movement plans on congested maps

• Combat tactics improvements

• Fixed AI being less aggressive against other players than intended

• Improved attacks out of staging areas

• Founds cities for protection instead of retreating

• Less likely to retreat healthy units after attacking in the same area

• Better accounting for enemy power when allocating units to city defense and attack staging

• Anchored ships are higher priority targets

• More urgent repair of pillaged improvements

• Revised specialist and improvement building priorities

Other programming changes:

• Minor performance improvements

• Occurrences are processed for each player separately during their turn

• New game loading screen no longer waits for the prehistory to finish, improving load times on fast machines

• Expanded and tweaked wording of warning of potential crashes on Raptor Lake CPUs

• Owned DLCs on GoG are now cached in memory after receiving ownership

• Better handling of modded XML paths on Windows

UI

• Victory screen is updated when a player has met one of the victory conditions

• Victory popup on game over mentions the last victory earned instead of the first

• Score threshold for victory no longer shown after double/points victory achieved

• Net yield tooltip now groups yields that subtract from each other (affects mods only)

• Added loading screen hint about Advanced Help Text

• Specialist help text without the advanced help text option now includes a simple yield total in the place of net modified yields

• Cleaned up culture help text

• Player and tribe tooltips no longer show relationship with unmet entities

• Replaced icons for Strength and Weakness

• Removed tile change notifications from game log

• Localization text updates

• More UI related actions allowed during another players turn (i.e. renaming cities, setting reminders)

• Cloud notification emails no longer show details in Summary section if they appear in another category

• Network games are now removed from the Current Games list for eliminated players

Bugs Fixed

• Fixed 11th ambition / 2nd National ambition sometimes getting offered

• Fixed null reference on exit to menu

• Fixed tooltips clearing unnecessarily between turns

• Fixed governor icon not updating after losing control of a city

• Fixed tile recommendation icon interactability when tile status is active

• Fixed possible crash if a mod eliminates a council position

• Fixed tile border expansion when using the Game Editor

• Fixed leader trait achievements not working when new leader already has trait

• Fixed AI behavior for congested battlefields

• Fixed pinned characters being shared between players

• Fixed some game editor actions not working when it's not the active player's turn

• Fixed AI building too many forts and in bad locations

• Fixed incorrect AI danger calculations

• Fixed Caravan animation being affected by "Follow AI moves" setting

• Fixes to Multiple Continents map script

• Fixed trigger text for some city culture events

• Fixed assign governor tooltip showing incorrect opinion change

• Fixed some duplicate titles in cloud email notifications

• Fixed caravan missions not being able to be completed through unrevealed territory

• Fixed governor project reminders not being dismissable

• Fixed toggle buttons closing reminders panel

• Fixed yield previews showing for improvement placement on invalid tiles with map tacks

• Fixed custom overlay not restoring properly after hovering to build a road

• Fixed a city site assignment bug that could result in AI cities on higher development levels not being grouped together

• Fixed null icon in eliminated player text on MP game tooltips

• Fixed cities not being able to be razed in no-character mode

• Fixed AI sometimes not clearing or claiming city sites

• Fixed net yield change tooltip for adjacent improvement modifiers

• Fixed events incorrectly showing origin of foreign occurrence

• Fixed display of family tab when large numbers of luxuries are sent to family

• Fixed helptext performance issue

• Fixed units sometimes not getting bounced from occurrence impassable tiles

• Fixed XP floating text sometimes not appearing

• Fixed map scripts allowing unreachable non-boundary tiles

• Fixed missing Tribal Truce and Peace missions in No Characters

• Fixed ethnicity helptext issue in Heroes of the Aegean 6

• Fixed Kingship god icon positioning (Wrath of Gods)

• Fixed global Occurrences (e.g. Drought, Plague) being more frequent than intended (Wrath of Gods)

• Text and event fixes