Hi Everybody.
I've been a bit quiet on the forum the last couple of days, because I wanted to get some work done on an update. Hopefully will be ready by the end of the week.

Whats done so far

• Fixed a freeze bug
  
• Fixed bug that lets you accidentally disband a newly arrived leader by dragging in the recruitment panel. Turns out that doing this screws up you game in all sorts of strange ways, so try not to do it until the update arrives.
  
• Settlements do not surrender until all defenders are destroyed, or an attacker reaches an undefended breach. Fixes early game problem of A.I. bodyguard units killing whole stacks in unwalled settlements.
  
• Trade now works as advertised, with roads giving a bonus. Trade routes automatically update when a new road is built, or a hex cleared.
  
• Unit selection sounds have been forced to mono for the person who complained of left ear ache.
  
• Some other small stuff that I've forgotten, because I don't have my list in front of me.

Still to do

• Add some tool tips on settlement location icons to show distances to nearby settlements.
  
• Add some info to trade buildings to show some expected return.
  
• Add an option to turn off shadows.
  
• Add an edict of self criticism to reduce disaster unrest.
  
• Tweak edict costs.

I'd like to add a couple of improvements to combat too, but not going to promise them for this update.

Update for 4 Oct.

Sorry it took a while to get this update out, but as you'll see, there's lots in it.


Battle

• Cities don't fall until all defenders destroyed or an undefended breach is attacked
  
• Fixed issue with destroyed units fleeing
  
• Fixed bug with units retreating to settlements
  
• Can't pillage if lost a battle
  
• Attackers won't assault city until any sallying units are engaged
  
• Improved pathfinding around settlements
  
• Fixed routing from siege battles
  
• Fixed bug that sometimes let an unwalled settlement be captured by attackers ignoring sallying defenders
  
• Settlement will not be attacked, unless a specific attack on the settlement was ordered.
  
• Improved behavior of archers in sieges.
  
• Improved behavior of missile chariots and cavalry

Trade

• Trade routes follow roads. Roads give a trade bonus
  
• Trade routes updates when forest cleared.
  
• Fixed removal of trade routes when war declared
  
• Fixed various issues with trade routes when a settlement changes owner, a trade building is destroyed or peace is made
  
• All hexes count as one hex for trade route distance
  
• Reduced basic trade income to compensate for road bonus

Settlements

• Increased shrine upkeep costs
  
• Made military unit suppression dependent on city population
  
• Fixed growth button not opening details panel. Changed growth display to percentage
  
• Bumper harvest doesn't increase population to more than 1 over sustainable level
  
• Granaries store food faster when there is a surplus.
  
• Enhanced tooltips on potential settlement hexes
  
• Reduced effect of drought
  
• Limited how much event effect can stack up depending on difficulty level
  
• Increased rate that labor unrest is forgotten.
  
• Fixed Legalist school tax bonus

Misc

• Forced unit selection sound to mono.
  
• Fix invisible armies
  
• Fixed floating city tab problem
  
• Fixed stack and leader display staying open on loading screen
  
• Fixed lock up in execution phase
  
• Stopped players disbanding a new leader by dragging in the recruitment panel
  
• Tool tips on map items don't disappear as soon as mouse moved. Also appear faster.
  
• NB Noble Cavalry now marked as cavalry.
  
• Fixed issue with crash on load caused by stack with no units having a formation
  
• No bandits due to unrest in first 50 turns on easy. Further reduced early game bandits on easy
  
• Moved Advice file location. Hopefully fixes problem of advice restarting each session.
  
• Added disable grass check box. Should help with stuttering.
  
• Fixed upkeep of trained heavy spear unit. Adjusted upkeep of some other trained units
  
• Changed militia unit names to peasants to help people understand why they revolt
  
• Amended some text for historical reasons
  
• Added advice to help players find in game manual.
  
• Reduced cost of some edicts that recruit characters
  
• Reduced income from Well Field System and Equal Field System edicts

Hello Everyone

Here's a new update for you all. Something to do while waiting for your Civ download to finish :). Hopefully the changes will make the end game less grindy, and alleviate some of the frustrations with sieges.

Here are the changes.

Battle

• Fixed an issue with cannons (and potentially other engines) firing on invalid trajectories
  
• Fixed problem with missiles from walls hitting ship
  
• Removed debug markers under ships in battle
  
• Fixed naval units going up on land to shoot at walls
  
• Chariots shoot faster and have higher attack.
  
• Fixed issue with a destroyed garrison stack blocking city occupation
  
• Tweaked battle inclusion rules. Less units dragged into battles.
  
• Rewrote core unit allocation routine for battles.
  
• Tweaked rules for advance after indecisive battles so that reinforcements can approach besieged city
  
• Fatigue is based on actions in battle. Units that take no part can recover fatigue
  
• Increased fatigue recovery rate

Graphics and Animation

• Odd number of stories for Buddhist temples
  
• Some new combat anims for some units
  
• Soldiers at rear of units in combat have some animations (not all types implemented yet)
  
• Fixed some lod and texture issues

Settlements

• Looted hexes revert to cleared terrain.
  
• Can't recruit at a gate if an enemy is adjacent
  
• Can't recruit into a garrison if enemy adjacent to all gates
  
• Reduced suppression effect of Legalist school and removed militia recruitment
  
• Added militia recruitment bonus to Mohist temples level 2 and 3
  
• Adjusted recruitment rates and set limits on numbers from population
  
• Reduced fertility of Mongolian farms

Misc

• Fixed advice not being saved
  
• Fixed problem with leaders being disassociated with bodyguard. This caused multiple problems including zero income.
  
• Fixed gray screen of death.
  
• Fixed not being able to close trap encounter if you don't have enough money
  
• Fixed being able to escape from trap encounter by pressing Escape
  
• Fixed diplomacy not showing reasons for rejecting offers. Added more text to explain why they wont become your vassal.
  AI can build armorers. Tweaked AI to produce more bazaars.

Update 28 October 2016

This one is mainly fixing issues in a few games that people have sent me, plus some more animations, and a new set of personal and place names contributed by the Chinese community.

• New city and personal names contributed by Chinese community members
  
• Fixed freeze in battle when under crewed artillery engines used. Most likely an issue for people in long games with large artillery stacks.
  
• Fixed garrison banner sometimes exiting city. Fixed save games that were corrupted by this bug. If the last update didn't fix your zero income bug problem, hopefully this will.
  
• Fixed units sometimes running off to the map edges when making a 180 degree turn.
  
• Fixed soldier graphics disappearing when a unit recovers casualties
  
• Improved archer behavior around walls
  
• Fixed firing sounds and skill bonuses for crossbows
  
• More animations
  
• Cart animation fixed
  
• Reduced tendency of units to path find with final 180 turns. Allow a final wheel up to 135 degrees to avoid presenting rear to enemy
  
• Increased starting pops to 10 for all factions in the grand campaign.

The Chinese beta has been updated with these changes, but doesn't yet have any fixes for the text issues that have been found.

Update 24 Nov 2016

Just a small update this time, as recent work has been focusing on multiplayer and language support.

llist]

• Added tech rate settings
  
• Added option to disable cultural victory
  
• Bandits and peasant rebels dispersed more easily
  
• More improved animations.
  
• Fixed issue with new faction leader sometimes being spawned in odd place for factions with only one city
  
• Fixed issue with armor upgrade for some army units. This also Fixes an issue where recruitment didn't work in some cities.
  
• Fixed operation of auto manage spending slider and added tool tip to it
  
• Some tech icons changed to be more chinese looking

The Chinese beta has also been updated with these changes, all text translations completed, and many revisions to improve the text.

Update 13 December 2016

The main purpose of this update is to enable Chinese language support on the default branch.

It also fixes two bugs. One to do with peasant revolts causing a player to have no income, and the other fixes the issue that settlements with artillery in the garrison can't be captured.

Update 17 Feb 2017

NOTE This update is currently available on the public_beta branch and the new text added has not yet been translated into Chinese.

Hi everybody. Sorry it's been a bit of while since the last update, but we've been working mainly on multiplayer. However, since that's not quite ready for release, we took some time out to make another update for single player. Currently it's only on the beta branch, but hopefully will be made a general release next weak. If some of you have the time to test the beta though, it'd be a big help. Please remember to state that you're using the beta if you make any posts about it.

The main theme of this update, is improving diplomacy.

Diplomacy Changes

• Added limited trading of settlements. Settlements may be traded as part of a peace deal, or if returned to the previous owner or founder, or if small enough to be disbanded.
  
• Added trade embargo declaration.
  
• Added option to trade info about enemies
  
• Added diplomatic agreement to attack other players
  
• AI and Player can make counter offers during negotiations
  
• Number of diplomatic offers a player can make per turn is limited to 3.
  
• Can only initiate negotiations with other factions if city or character location is known
  
• Trade status shown on diplomacy screen
  
• AI more likely to combine against player who is winning
  
• Improved ai algorithm for detecting if player is likely to attack them
  
• AI and player offer fraternal harmony pacts of same length (40 turns)
  
• Looting reduces diplomatic liking
  
• Vassals can't loot or block trade if player has an agreement with their overlord. Similarly if a player has an agreement with an overlord, they can't loot their vassals.
  
• Can't make own noble rebels into vassals

Other Changes

• Looting messages now given for each stack looting, so that zoom button can function
  
• Stacks can't replenish if they've been in a battle
  
• Fixed problem with trade routes being duplicated when a settlement changes hands
  
• Fixed freeze bug when shooting
  
• Fixed being able to click improvement icons through UI
  
• Fixed cities starving in first turn of custom game.
  
• Fixed issues with trade routes not being removed when at war
  
• Improved handling of eliminated players
  
• Fixed a couple more bugs relating to freezes and lost income.
  
• More animation improvements.
  
• Added a notification for when there isn't enough money to start a queued building.

The diplomacy update is now live. See above post for details. Chinese language support is now included.

Update 28 Feb 2017

Just a small update to fix a problem that the game wouldn't work properly if you loaded a game started before the recent update, into the latest version. Also included some improved Chinese translation.

Unfortunately, if you've already loaded a game from before into the 24 Feb update, your game and any saves you've made will be messed up and unplayable. My apologies for any progress lost.I take save game compatibility seriously, but it's something that's really easy to screw up.

Beta Update Cinco de Mayo.

This update is currently on the public beta branch. Changes have not yet been translated to Chinese.

Battles

• Units line up before battles
  
• Tweaked battle plans to work with lining up system
  
• Fully implemented ambush and withdraw plans
  
• Reserve battle plan re-branded as "support"
  
• Infantry units entirely armed with missile weapons can skirmish
  
• General bug fixing and improvement of behavior in battle
  
• Dropped fancy but impractical 180 turn drill for chariots
  
• Some tweaking to missile and chariot combat factors
  
• Defense penalty if hit by missile while moving.
  
• Improved help and tool tips for battle plans
  
• Reduced effect of friendly fire
  
• Allowed more uneven lines in formations

UI

• Fixed issue displaying some event messages with double click
  
• Per climate type picture in custom map screen
  
• Improved settlement tab tool tip
  
• Fixed stuck selected tab on tech screen
  
• Fixed hex grid not being togglable on fastest graphics if disabled in settings
  
• Fixed display not updating when all units in a settlement disbanded

Settlements

• Added text for improvement completed messages
  
• Added warning when a queued building can't be paid for
  
• Fixed issue where no labor unrest was acrued on the last turn of construction if no more items were queued
  
• Reduced unrest from labor service in easy and normal difficulty levels
  
• Map resources in use by a friendly settlement are highlighted
  
• Added a glow to tab of settlements with unrest problems
  
• Fixed occasional duplicate settlement tab
  
• Forests adjacent to plateau can be cleared
  
• Fixed incorrect height of settlement bases created while under fog of war
  
• Fixed incorrect display of settler availability in settlement list

Unit Movement

• Stacks can move through stacks of other players outside of their own territory
  
• Chariots and artillery can enter woods at 1 hex per turn
  
• Rivers can be crossed from forests, but not marshes or hills
  
• Can't cross rivers from flooded terrain
  
• Increased cost of infantry moving in marsh, and some other move costs

Misc

• Some climate types not allowed for small custom maps
  
• Fixed deer animation
  
• Fixed duplicate battle reports

I'm pretty excited about the new battle system. I think it really moves the combat forwards, and makes the selection of battle plans and formations much more interesting and understandable. Looking forward to hearing what you all think of t.

Details of Update May 24. This update is mainly about battles and movement. Armies now line up against each other before engaging in open field battles, and the battle plans have been reworked to operate with the new battle lines, and make them clearer and more useful. A new help page has been added detailing them.

This update contains all the changes from the beta version, together with a number of new improvements. This list details all the changes since the Feb 28 release.

Battles

• Units line up before battles
  
• Tweaked battle plans to work with lining up system
  
• Fully implemented ambush and withdraw plans
  
• Reserve battle plan re-branded as "support"
  
• Infantry units entirely armed with missile weapons can skirmish
  
• General bug fixing and improvement of behavior in battle
  
• Dropped fancy but impractical 180 turn drill for chariots
  
• Some tweaking to missile and chariot combat factors
  
• Defense penalty if hit by missile while moving.
  
• Improved help and tool tips for battle plans
  
• Reduced effect of friendly fire
  
• Allowed more uneven lines in formations
  
• In battles that include a settlement but are not an assault, archers only attack towers that are close to friends
  
• In battles that include a settlement, but are not an assault, the battle finishes if one side only has garrison units left
  
• Defeated stacks in a drawn battle don't return to position
  
• When a settlement is captured in a battle that has multiple players attacking, the settlement is given to the player whose unit reaches the first undefended breach, or to their overlord if the overlord has combat units in the battle.

UI

• Fixed issue displaying some event messages with double click
  
• Per climate type picture in custom map screen
  
• Improved settlement tab tool tip
  
• Fixed stuck selected tab on tech screen
  
• Fixed hex grid not being togglable on fastest graphics if disabled in settings
  
• Fixed display not updating when all units in a settlement disbanded

Settlements

• Added text for improvement completed messages
  
• Added warning when a queued building can't be paid for
  
• Fixed issue where no labor unrest was acrued on the last turn of construction if no more items were queued
  
• Reduced unrest from labor service in easy and normal difficulty levels
  
• Map resources in use by a friendly settlement are highlighted
  
• Added a glow to tab of settlements with unrest problems
  
• Fixed occasional duplicate settlement tab
  
• Forests adjacent to plateau can be cleared
  
• Fixed incorrect height of settlement bases created while under fog of war
  
• Fixed incorrect display of settler availability in settlement list

Unit Movement

• Stacks can move through stacks of other players outside of the other player's territory. I.e. you can still block other players inside your own territory.
  
• Chariots and artillery can enter woods at 1 hex per turn
  
• Rivers can be crossed from forests, but not marshes or hills
  
• Can't cross rivers from flooded terrain
  
• Increased cost of infantry moving in marsh, and some other move costs

Misc

• Fixed Noble Cav armour upgrade
  
• Picked light infantry move fast in terrain and have terrain combat bonuses
  
• Capturing a settlement without a battle now fulfills a diplomatic agreement to attack.
  
• Some climate types not allowed for small custom maps
  
• Fixed deer animation
  
• Fixed duplicate battle reports

Sorry it's taken a while to get this update out. Now that work on multiplayer is almost complete, I expect update to be more frequent.

Just put up a new build on the public beta branch. Fixes a number of bugs and has some balance changes aimed at encouraging earlier buildings. Also some UI improvements

UI

• Right clicking or double tapping a unit card brings up a detailed stats display
  
• Added tool tips on some unit card indicators
  
• Added indicator on unit card to show when a unit can replenish
  
• Added many new hotkeys and improved display of hot keys
  
  • 1 -8 Set battle plans
    
  • Ctrl 1 - 4 Set Formation
    
  • ,. and rotate stack
    
  • Keys for cancel move, delete, sleep and auto-explore
    
  • B to open construction panel
    
  • R To open recruitment panel
    
  • ,. To cycle between settlements
    
  • F5 - F10 to open major game windows
    
  • ,. To cycle between messages
  
  
• Diplomatic offers from AI don't have to be decided immediately
  
• Current number of settlements shown on authority tool tip
  
• Added tool tip for why settlement can't be founded.
  
• Increased range of settlement foundation locations shown
  
• Extended tech card turn display to three digits

Economy

• Reduced upkeep for ports and shipyards
  
• Level 2 shrine only produces level 1 piligrims
  
• Copper increases value of bronze production
  
• Reduced tech value boosts for ceramics trade
  
• Reduced building upkeep for palaces temples and schools, foundry, weapon smith sword smith, bazaar, artillery workshop, cannon maker, silk weaver, granary,siege granary , bowyer and CB maker.
  
• Added upkeep cost for cities and huge cities
  
• Decreased trade value of copper, jade, ceramics, and silk
  
• Increased trade value of bronze

Misc

• Roads on gentle hills allowed
  
• Added edict to move capital
  
• Added edict to cancel disaster effects
  
• Stacks with defensive battle plans can move adjacent to settlements
  
• Battle plan defense modifiers don't count in settlements
  
• No bandits generated in first 5 turns, or on map edges
  
• Fixed some issues with dagger axe and halberd units
  
• Some Chinese text improvements

Bug Fixes

• Fixed bug that breaks UI when a loaded game has units on ships
  
• Fixed occasional freeze in AI during diplomacy
  
• Fixed freeze due to units with withdraw orders in attacked settlement
  
• Fixed an issue triggering a battle when moving adjacent to settlement with a stack that had moved in earlier in the turn
  
• Fixed bug that reopened trade routes when at war or embargoed
  
• Fixed issue with units not being available to defend breaches if settlement attacked twice in same turn

The economic changes are a bit experimental, so I'd welcome any feedback on how well they work.

17 August. Small update to the beta branch.

• AI will construct roads
  
• Improved siege AI. Archers have better target priority, and assaulting units get into position sooner.
  
• Fixed various issues related to roads and trade routes when upgrading settlements
  
• A few minor AI diplomacy tweaks. Less offensive alliance spam.
  
• Increased time to act on offensive alliance to 7 turns
  
• Implemented sword skill bonuses
  
• Reduced effectiveness of land units against naval. Made naval skill bonus count against land.
  
• Some more UI and tooltip tweaks
  
• Added some more pieces of pop up advice.

Hopefully will release this as a general update next week when I get the Chinese translation.

September 14 Release Update Details. (Actually says September 12 on game). Many of these fixes have been in the beta build for some time, but I've included them here for people not using the beta.

Major New Features

• Multiplayer Mode
  
• New Warring States Scenario
  
• 4 New factions for custom games.
  
• German, French, Russian and Polish language support.

Smaller fixes and improvements

UI

• Right clicking or double tapping a unit card brings up a detailed stats display
  
• Added tool tips on some unit card indicators
  
• Added indicator on unit card to show when a unit can replenish
  
• Added many new hotkeys and improved display of hot keys
  
  • 1 -8 Set battle plans
    
  • Ctrl 1 - 4 Set Formation
    
  • ,. and rotate stack
    
  • Keys for cancel move, delete, sleep and auto-explore
    
  • B to open construction panel
    
  • R To open recruitment panel
    
  • ,. To cycle between settlements
    
  • F5 - F10 to open major game windows
    
  • ,. To cycle between messages
  
  
• Diplomatic offers from AI don't have to be decided immediately
  
• Current number of settlements shown on authority tool tip
  
• Added tool tip for why settlement can't be founded.
  
• Increased range of settlement foundation locations shown
  
• Extended tech card turn display to three digits
  
• Added some more pieces of pop up advice.

Economy

• Reduced upkeep for ports and shipyards
  
• Level 2 shrine only produces level 1 piligrims
  
• Copper increases value of bronze production
  
• Reduced tech value boosts for ceramics trade
  
• Reduced building upkeep for palaces temples and schools, foundry, weapon smith sword smith, bazaar, artillery workshop, cannon maker, silk weaver, granary,siege granary , bowyer and CB maker.
  
• Added upkeep cost for cities and huge cities
  
• Decreased trade value of copper, jade, ceramics, and silk
  
• Increased trade value of bronze

Battle

• Improved siege AI. Archers have better target priority, and assaulting units get into position sooner.
  
• Implemented sword skill bonuses
  
• Reduced effectiveness of land units against naval. Made naval skill bonus count against land.
  
• Stacks with defensive battle plans can move adjacent to settlements
  
• Battle plan defense modifiers don't count in settlements
  
• Fixed some issues with dagger axe and halberd units
  
• Added some nicer chariot textures for nobles and bodyguard.

AI

• AI will construct roads
  
• Improved AI for choosing settlement locations
  
• Improved AI force composition, particularly in mid to late game.
  
• Harder to get AI to recognize you as emperor. Harder to just buy SOH victory
  
• AI can sack and destroy captured settlements.
  
• AI won't overbuild infrastructure in peacetime such that it can't afford an army.
  
• A few minor AI diplomacy tweaks. Less offensive alliance spam.

Misc

• Roads on gentle hills allowed
  
• Added edict to move capital
  
• Added edict to cancel disaster effects
  
• No bandits generated in first 5 turns, or on map edges
  
• Increased time to act on offensive alliance to 7 turns
  
• Added some faction special units for some factions.
  
• Some Chinese text improvements
  
• Noble units on foot can longer be recruited in Imperial Era, as it's grossly unhistorical. Must issue "Gentlemen Ride Horses" edict to get nobles in this era.
  
• Reduced suppression effect of cavalry and chariots. No longer greater than infantry units.

Significant Bug Fixes

• Fixed bug that breaks UI when a loaded game has units on ships
  
• Fixed occasional freeze in AI during diplomacy
  
• Fixed freeze due to units with withdraw orders in attacked settlement
  
• Fixed an issue triggering a battle when moving adjacent to settlement with a stack that had moved in earlier in the turn
  
• Fixed bug that reopened trade routes when at war or embargoed
  
• Fixed issue with units not being available to defend breaches if settlement attacked twice in same turn
  
• Fixed various issues related to roads and trade routes when upgrading settlements

Update 22 September 2017

A small update that fixes a few issues that were found after release.

• Fixed bug in WS scenario where some cities couldn't be attacked if they didn't have a garrison
  
• Fixed game freeze
  
• Fixed graphics quality setting not working in non english versions
  
• Fixed UI problem with list panel
  
• Implemented compression sending saved game in MP. Should help with any issues reloading large games, as well as speeding up loading.
  
• Fixed some little black triangles around settlements
  
• Updated Polish text
  
• Chokuno and guns increase firing rate of towers
  
• Construction stalled message check moved to after point income has been collected. Stops players seeing construction stalled messages when they apparently have enough money for the building.
  
• Corrected Yue capital name in Chinese
  
• Starting cities in Warring States scenario have tiled roofs.

Plan to have another update in a week or two with some battle improvements.