Jul 28, 2022

HUMANKIND™ - The-Cat-o-Nine-Tales

Balance is an important topic for many of you, as it informs your strategies and your choice of cultures, which in turn affects how different your games will feel. Since replayability is important for a 4X game, with the Battuta Update, we focused on improving many of the less popular or less picked cultures to make them more appealing. Some of you may have already tried these changes in the beta, and we’ve seen some excitement for the options the reworked cultures offer. For those of you who did not play the beta or haven’t heard about the Battuta Patch before, here’s a quick recap of the main features (click on the names in bold or see below for more details):

Culture Balancing (see below): Rebalanced numerous cultures, including various new effects and abilities
Improved Militarist Action (see below): Added an option to upgrade militia into proper combat units, and fixed various bugs with the ability
Rebalanced Influence costs(See below): Cost of enacting civics, attaching territories, and merging cities grows far less over the course of the game
Improved Religious Districts: Various Tenets now provide economic bonuses on religious districts and religious districts are clearly marked in their tooltip
Better Civics Tooltips: Civics tooltips now show the effects of both options, even before you unlock them
Immersive Player Names: Diplomatic notifications now focus on the persona and give them a title appropriate for their government
Line of Sight Rework: Improved Line of Sight rules to generate more intuitive results and allow easier use of direct fire units
City visuals: Improved variety of Commons Quarters and facing of quarters to reduce repetitive patterns in large cities

We hope you’ll have fun exploring new strategies in the Battuta Update!

Balance Changes

If you have been around for the beta you will be familiar with these changes, BUT we have tweaked a couple of things (underlined), these tweaks can be "real" changes or changes that weren't on the previous blog but that they were on the beta.

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. We also fixed the bug where (re-)vassalizing an empire after they tried to break free wasn't free as intended.

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)
Fixed Militia units being free to heal
Fixed an exploit that created population when upgrading and disbanding units
Adjusted Ability Cooldown to scale with gamespeed and army size

Harbor Construction

To give you additional options when building your cities, Harbors will now serve as a "construction anchor" the same way Hamlets do, letting you build new districts next to them. We think this will particularly benefit naval cultures with "counts as" effects on their Emblematic Harbors, or otherwise maritime cultures. (Looking at you, Dutch V.O.C. Warehouse...)

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

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
EQ gets Influence yield raised to +3 (was +2)

Myceneans

EQ loses additional industry bonus
EQ Stability bonus is now +5 (instead of +15)

Olmec

LT now gives +3 Influence per territory (was +1)

Egyptians

EU loses “Indirect Fire”

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
LT lost -30% Research Cost for Imperial Power
Praetorian Guard lose 1CS (now 29)

Goths

LT: Removed Ransack Combat Strength Bonus
LT: Added "+5% of Ransack Gains earned as Science per Army Unit (bonus scales with amount of units in ransacking army)
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 removed +1Food per adjacent Rocky Field and Stone Field
EQ gains +1 food on exploitation on territory (there is a bug on the UI that doesn't mention "on territory")
EQ now must be build next to Sterile, Stony Field, or Rocky Field
EU losses “Indirect Fire”

ERA 3

Aztecs

EQ now counts as Commons Quarter
EQ now gives +10 Stability (was +5)
Sacrifice Action now causes each EQ to get +100% to their stability output
Additional Sacrifice effect gives +1 CS to Heavily Damaged (<33%) Units per Sacrificing settlements

Mongols

LT: Added -25% Vassalization cost reduction

Khmer

EU loses “Move and Fire”
EU gain Elephant Platform (no penalty from melee attacks).
EU loses “Indirect Fire”

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: +1 influence per district in same territory as emblematic quarter

Poles

EQ now counts as Commons Quarter

Venetians

LT: +1 influence per trade route, +1 money per trade route, +2 money per naval route
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

LT effect boosted to +10 Science on Garrisons (was +5)
LT 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 only 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 inherent synergy effect with Makers and Research quarters (infrastructures that give synergy to Makers and Research quarters still work)
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

India

EQ: count as Common Quarter and Religious District
EQ: exploits industry and food of tiles (as Hamlets)
EQ: does not need to be placed next to another district
EQ: loses +2 Faith per population
EQ: provide +1 Science, +1 Influence on Religious District
LT: +5 influence (instead of +3), +2% money per territory under influence

Cuba

EQ: count as Science Quarter
EQ: removed +1 Food per population per Pharmaceuticals on all Cities
EQ: +1 Food per Food Worker per Pharmaceuticals on Overpopulated cities
EQ on Settled cities (>90% Stability)
- +1 Industry per Pharmaceutical access per Industry worker
- +1 Money per Pharmaceutical access per money worker
- +1 Science per Pharmaceutical access per Science worker

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
Mississippians

In addition to that, we have added an additional effect 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

Jul 28, 2022

Smokebox Union Pacific Challenger - Out Now!

Train Simulator Classic - DTG_Alex

Smokebox locomotives for Train Simulator Classic are renowned for their ground-breaking quality, exquisite detail, authentic controls, and realism of performance – and the new and now available Smokebox Union Pacific Heavy Challenger extends all those features to yet another level of excellence!

The Union Pacific Heavy Challenger as developed by Smokebox for Train Simulator Classic meticulously represents the 45 Union Pacific 4-6-6-4s (known as groups 4664-3 and 4664-4) built by Alco (American Locomotive Company) during the World War II years of 1943 and 1944.

Designed to burn coal and haul tonnage on Union Pacific’s demanding transcontinental route, but equally adept at hustling passenger trains, these superlative locomotives served the Union Pacific into the late 1950s, and one – Union Pacific 3985 – went on to contemporary fame as a member of Union Pacific’s Heritage Fleet.

As Union Pacific’s Heavy Challengers (which weighed in at over a million pounds with tender) rolled out of Alco’s Schenectady (New York) works during WWII, six virtually identical UP-design 4-6-6-4s were allocated by the War Production Board to work for the Denver & Rio Grande Western (D&RGW), where the locomotives served capably until heading to the UP at the end of the war, then to the Clinchfield Railroad in 1947. And the new Smokebox Heavy Challenger DLC includes the 4-6-6-4 in Rio Grande livery.

The Smokebox Heavy Challenger for Train Simulator Classic delivers unmatched visual realism and the full, exhilarating experience of operating this massive locomotive, with the cab of the Challenger featuring nearly 90 working controls, gauges, or animations! The 4-6-6-4 offers a real-life engineer’s authentic railroading challenges, but it is also accessible and enjoyable whatever your level of expertise, featuring integrated complex or simple controls and with an auto-fireman and even an auto-engineer option.

The Heavy Challenger’s remarkable features also include a wide range of customizable details (which can be adjusted while in game). Among these are the addition of "wind wings" (smoke deflectors), pilot door and front coupler open or closed, clamshell smoke stack hood open or closed, changing classification light colors, and even changes to the amount of lagging around the steam pipe arms and elbows. As with all Smokebox locomotives, the Challenger features superb sounds and realistic air braking, firing, water usage, sanding, and additional operating features, all of which are explained in an accompanying information-rich 72-page manual.

The Smokebox Heavy Challenger is provided in four livery variations: Union Pacific steam-era clean and dirty; Union Pacific silver striping (as worn by famed UP 3985), and in D&RGW livery. And both HD (high detail) and SD (standard detail) variants are included.

To put you to work, the Challenger DLC includes a selection of period-appropriate refrigerator cars, a Union Pacific CA-4 caboose, and a selection of three career scenarios on the Train Simulator Classic Wasatch Grade route (as developed by Milepost Simulations and available on Steam as a separate DLC). The 4-6-6-4 is also QD (Quick Drive) enabled. And there’s no doubt enthusiasts will be creating a variety of Steam Workshop scenarios for the Union Pacific 4-6-6-4 on routes such as Wasatch Grade and Sherman Hill, as well as the Rio Grande edition on Train Simulator Classic’s popular D&RGW Soldier Summit route.

Previous Smokebox releases have included its highly acclaimed Union Pacific FEF-3 4-8-4 and iconic Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 Big Boy. Together with the new 3900-class Heavy Challenger, these locomotives represented the Union Pacific’s extraordinary “Big Three” late-era steam locomotives, which will provide Train Simulator Classic enthusiasts the opportunity to relive the full glory of the “Big Steam” era on the Union Pacific.

Put on your engineer’s gloves and take the throttle of one of America’s greatest and most renowned steam locomotives. The heavy – and heavenly – Union Pacific Challenger from Smokebox, is now available for Train Simulator Classic at the Steam and Dovetail Games stores!

From steam locomotive creator extraordinaire Smokebox now comes Union Pacific’s legendary 3900-class “Heavy” 4-6-6-4 Challenger for Train Simulator Classic! Constructed by Alco (American Locomotive Works) during World War II, the coal-burning behemoths were designed to tote tonnage but were equally adept at hustling passengers. Note: Screenshots may depict content while in development.

The new Smokebox Heavy Challenger is provided in four livery variations: Union Pacific steam-era clean and dirty and Union Pacific silver striping (above), and in Denver & Rio Grande Western livery (below). And both HD (high detail) and SD (standard detail) variants are included. Screenshots by Gary Dolzall.

The UP Heavy Challenger for Train Simulator Classic delivers unmatched visual realism and the full, exhilarating experience of operating this massive locomotive, with the cab of the Challenger (above and below) featuring nearly 90 working controls, gauges, or animations. The 4-6-6-4 provides a wide variety of available “in cab” views to enjoy as your operate the locomotive.

The Challenger’s features include customizable details (which can be adjusted while in game). Among these are the addition of "wind wings" (smoke deflectors), pilot door and front coupler open or closed, clamshell smoke stack hood open or closed, and changing classification light colors. UP 4-6-6-4 3989 is in standard configuration as it pulls from Echo (above), while sister 3957 is equipped with smoke deflectors (below) at Curvo, Utah.

Million-pound (with tender) Union Pacific 3989 is making its way up scenic Echo Canyon (above and below). Accompanying the Challenger in this new Smokebox DLC are refrigerator cars in multiple liveries, a UP CA-4 caboose, and a selection of three career scenarios on the Wasatch Grade route (as developed by Milepost Simulations and available separately at Steam).

The Heavy Challenger as developed by Smokebox meticulously represents the 45 Union Pacific 4-6-6-4s (known as groups 4664-3 and 4664-4) built during in 1943 and 1944. With a string of yellow reefers in tow, Union Pacific 3950 is climbing Weber Canyon (above) on the Train Simulator Classic Wasatch Grade route, while sister UP 3989 rolls below the often-photographed red rock cliffs of Echo Canyon (below).

With the arrival of the 3900-class Challenger, Smokebox now has created Union Pacific’s “Big Three” of the late-steam era, the beautiful FEF-3 4-8-4 (left), Heavy Challenger (center), and iconic 4-8-8-4 Big Boy (right). As with all Smokebox locomotives, the Challenger features superb sounds and realistic air braking, firing, water usage, sanding, and additional operating features, all of which are explained in an accompanying information-rich 72-page manual.

Put on your engineer’s gloves and take the throttle of one of America’s greatest and most renowned steam locomotives. The heavy – and heavenly – Union Pacific Challenger from Smokebox, is now available for Train Simulator Classic at the Steam and Dovetail Games stores!

Jul 28, 2022

Update 08-22

Stormbound - kamil.mroczkowski

Hello Stormbounders! A new version of Stormbound is coming early August, bringing balance tweaks, 2 new legendary cards, exclusive offers and some information about the new login beta!

Disclaimer
Balance Changes
New cards
New Brawls
Heroes League queueing
New login beta
FAQ

DISCLAIMER

We’re right in the middle of the summer, so most of our team members are currently on holiday. This leaves us with limited capacity to build new features, but we should be able to speed up the pace in September. Thank you for understanding!

BALANCE CHANGES

This release, just like any other, will bring some balance changes.

Eloth the Ignited now costs 4 mana (down from 5), but his strength is now 3/4/5/6/7 (down from 5/6/7/8/10) and its ability deals 2/3/4/5/6 damage (down from 3/4/5/6/7).
Visions of the Grove now cost 6 mana (down from 8) and have one movement (up from 0), but their strength is now 6/7/8/9/10 (down from 8/10/12/15/18). Finally, their ability is linearized across all levels, converting every 3 mana point remaining into 1 damage.
Flaming Stream now costs 4 mana (down from 5) but its ability deals 3/4/5/6/7 damage (down from 4/5/6/7/8).
Soap Cleanse now gives (instead of restoring) 1/2/3/4/5 strength (down from 3/4/5/6/7) to friendly poisoned units.
Snake Eyes now costs 4 mana (down from 5) but their strength is 4/5/6/7/9 (down from 6/7/8/10/12).

NEW CARDS

Two new neutral legendary cards coming this month!

VA’VEL THE LOOPER (DRAGON ANCIENT HERO)

Before moving, teleport to the first empty tile behind

Mana:3
Str: 5/6/7/8/9
Mov: 1/1/1/1/1

GUARDI THE LIGHTBRINGER (ANCIENT HERO)

Before moving, if there are no enemy units in front, create a 0 cost level X single‑use non‑common Temple card and add it to your deck

Mana:3
Ability: 1/2/3/4/5
Str: 6/7/8/10/12
Mov: 0/0/0/0/0

As usual, there will be $9.99 exclusive packs for both cards to get 1 copy as well as 750 coins and 5 fusion stones.

NEW BRAWLS

A brand new Brawl is introduced to the game: Focused Energy. In this mode, all units benefit from an additional movement. Think of it as if there was a Temple of Focus behind them. This causes Ancient units to trigger their ability twice.

Additionally — similar to what we did in the last months — we will introduce 2 new Brawl modifiers for the 2 new cards. We think it’s a good way for you to be able to try, play with and enjoy newly added cards before you start collecting them.

Like last time, a 0-mana level 1 (unless owned and leveled) copy of the new card will be added to everyone’s deck (thus causing all decks to have 13 cards).

The Warrior Brawl starting on the August 18th will be for Va’vel the Looper.
The Warrior Brawl starting on the August 25th will be for Guardi the Lightbringer.

HEROES LEAGUE QUEUEING

Over the last few weeks, our backend engineers worked hard to optimize the queueing time in the Heroes League. From approximately mid-August onwards, you should no longer have to wait long to find opponents to challenge!

NEW LOGIN BETA

As announced last month, we have started beta-testing the new login system. The iOS beta ended with great results. We will start the Android beta during the first week of August.

In the meantime we’re still waiting for some work to be done from Kongregate’s side to make login work perfectly via Steam, so we can’t really give a date about Steam’s login beta yet.

FAQ

When is the update going to be released?

The balance changes will be deployed with the season reset as usual. The 2 cards will be introduced on August 12th for Va’vel and August 19th for Guardi.

Jul 28, 2022

[1.0.13.2719] "Ibn Battuta Update" Version Notes

HUMANKIND™ - Camilleski

IMPORTANT CHANGES AND ADDITIONS

Introduced the new Empire Name system.
Heavily rebalanced cultures, including Militarist Iron Reserves rework, Phoenicians EU becoming naval transport, etc.
Rebalanced influence costs, especially late game: Enact Civic, Attach Territory and Merge City influence costs grow slower.
New Line of Sight calculation (should be more intuitive).

Please find all balance changes here : https://www.games2gether.com/amplitude-studios/humankind/forums/168-general/threads/49496-battuta-patch-balance-changes?page=1#post-357922

OTHER ADDITIONS AND CHANGES

New Loading screens.
New Loading tips.
Borders are now turned off when removing the UI overlay with Shift+F10 (for nicer screenshots!)
Civic Bonuses shown in tooltips for locked civics.
Improved rotation of quarters, buliding placement in city plans and variety of Commons Quarters to avoid repetitive patterns in large cities.

FIXES OF ISSUES SPOTTED BY THE COMMUNITY (THANKS!)

Vassalizing an enemy after they try to break free should now cost 0 war support
Fixed several issues with the Wonder-Full achievement not unlocking properly.
Fixed an issue with the Pacesetter achievement not unlocking properly.
Fixed an issue where "Falling Out" achievement was not unlocking correctly.
Fixed an issue where the "International Trading" civic was not unlocking when the prerequisites were met.
Fixed an issue where War Support changes did not match between the battle aftermath and diplomacy screen.
Fixed an issue where an AI controlled empire could get stuck in the Neolithic.
Fixed an issue with no texture appearing on the Great Zimbabwe wonder.
Fixed an issue where the community folder could have too many folders when building mods often.
Fixed an issue where Air and Artillery strikes could corrupt a save in very rare occasions.
Fixed an issue where units with the Bombard ability could not attack a unit on a tile with destroyed fortifications.
Fixed an issue where armies standing on an outpost of an empire that just signed a non-aggression pact would get destroyed.
Fixed an issue with resource pins not correctly updating when replacing an embematic resource with different types of resource extractor.
Fixed an issue where the yields of the Aesthete ability were working differently than described in the tooltip.

OTHER FIXES

Fixed an issue where a player who was not the host could change DLC content spawn probability settings in the multiplayer lobby.
Fixed an issue with the Mississipians' emblematic quarter wasn't giving money to adjacent districts.
Fixed an issue where resource pins remained on tiles that became Wastelands.
Fixed an issue where the "See more" button in the new update panel on the main menu was incorrectly localized in several languages.
Fixed an issue where armies could not ransack tiles belonging to one of their vassal empires.

CULTURES OF LATIN AMERICA FIXES

[Community] Fixed an issue with the Baira Hunter's tooltip not correctly showing the Indirect Fire ability.
[Community] Fixed an issue where the Inca's emblematic quarter could not be build next to some mountain tiles.
[Community] Fixed an issue where the Inca's emblematic quarter could not be built next to mountain natural wonders.
[Community] Fixed an issue where Sapa Inca Guards had their Anti-cavalry bonus applied twice.
[Community] Fixed an issue where the Taino emblematic unit did not replace the crossbowmen.
[Community] Fixed an issue where units minor factions added with the Cultures of Latin America had incorrect art.
[Community] Fixed an issue where the Machu Pichu wonder would lose functionality after its territory was split, upgraded to a city, then merged.
Fixed an issue where bonuses from Machu Picchu also applied to outposts.