Ara: History Untold

Version 1.1 - The Invisible Hand Update

Highlights

• [b]National Economy Screen[/b] Manage your nation's crafting, supplies, and policies from a single screen, replacing the crafting panel for streamlined management.
• [b]New Amenities[/b] Over a dozen new craftable amenities added, offering additional strategic choices: [list]
• Anvil: Provide a 150% buff to improvements that can be supplied with them.
• Biscuits: Grant players a +25 to food as an Amenity.
• Mining Pick: Add +50% harvest rate to improvements.
• Fuel Cell: Gives 150% craft rate at improvements, or 100% harvest rate to improvements, +3 City Health.
• Sewing Machines: Sewing Machines add 200% craft rate to improvements.
• Fresh Produce: Grant +200 food per turn, +5 health per turn as an Amenity.
• Scrolls: Grant +15 City Knowledge as an Amenity.
• Baked Goods: Give +50 Food/turn, -5 City Health as an Amenity.
• ...and more!

• Introduces a Sovereign Advisor.
• Each advisor provides suggestions to enhance your strategy.
• This feature will become more intelligent in future releases.

• Britain and Ireland share an enlarged island.
• Features like the Canadian Shield and Gulf Stream are accounted for.
• Enhanced mountain ranges for natural barriers.

Changelog

Performance Enhancements

• [b]Memory Optimization[/b] Improved game performance on lower-end hardware.
• [b]Rendering Optimizations[/b] Enhanced framerate stability for lower-end systems.
• [b]LOD Optimization [/b] Better visuals and object clarity while maintaining higher framerates.
• [b]General Performance Improvements [/b] Several performance enhancements have been made to improve overall game stability and experience.

UI Updates

• [b]Region Yields[/b] Added region yields to the title bar in the city panel for better resource tracking.
• [b]Improvement Renaming[/b] Players can now rename their improvements for personalized management.
• [b]Supply Availability[/b] Improvements with available supplies now glow to indicate their availability.
• [b]Technology Display[/b] Items now display the required technology to unlock them.
• [b]Customization Slider[/b] Added a slider allowing users to customize when the nation overlay and the Living World Buildings fade in/out.
• [b]Notification System[/b] Players receive notifications when they run out of crafting resources.

AI Updates

• [b]Improved Prioritization [/b] AI better prioritizes city improvements and optimal dwelling locations.
• [b]Data-Driven AI[/b] Supports data driving, allowing designers and modders to enhance AI prioritization.
• [b]War Declaration Intelligence[/b] AI becomes more strategic and intelligent in declaring wars.

Map Generation

• [b]Human Priority[/b] Humans are prioritized for mild climate locations during map generation.
• [b]Biome Weighting[/b] Adjusted to make starting positions more interesting with fewer snowy starts.

Gameplay Fixes

• [b]Late Game Stability[/b] Fixed a crash bug occurring in the late game.
• [b]La Grand Place[/b] Resolved the issue of La Grand Place not appearing in Act 1.
• [b]Road Spawning[/b] Prevented detail roads from spawning underneath improvements.
• [b]Duplicated Unlocks[/b] Removed duplicate unlock of animal resources.

Event System

• [b]Triggers Added[/b] Added triggers for improvements when they have no items in the queue and when they begin crafting.

Visual Improvements

• [b]Road Textures[/b] Enhanced road texture fidelity for a more polished look.
• [b]Barracks 3D Asset[/b] Improved the 3D asset of Barracks for better visual appeal.

Modding Support

• [b]Advisor Data Driving[/b] Added data driving capabilities for advisors to support modders.

New Feature Details

Earth Map

• [b]Geographical Features[/b] Canadian Shield and Gulf Stream are now accurately represented.
• [b]Gameplay Connections[/b] - Britain and Ireland connected as a single enlarged island. - Italy and Sicily connected for enhanced gameplay dynamics.
• [b]Natural Barriers[/b] Tweaked mountain ranges to provide more natural (and slightly exaggerated) barriers for improved gameplay.
• [b]Real-World Locations[/b] Added real-world locations for nations, ensuring a balance between accuracy and gameplay.

National Economy Screen Feature Overview

• [b]Centralized Management[/b] Replaced the crafting panel with the National Economy Screen for unified management.
• [b]Automatic Supply Allocation[/b] Set the game to automatically add supplies to various improvements as they become available.
• [b]Supply Order Management[/b] Define the order in which supplies are allocated automatically.
• [b]Global Harvester Management[/b] Control resource harvesting globally across all regions.
• [b]Crafting Management[/b] Manage crafting from the National Economy Screen without needing to visit each city.
• [b]Global Improvement Upgrading[/b] Upgrade improvements on a global scale for efficiency.

Balance Adjustments

Nation and Building Limits

• [b]Print Shop[/b] Nation limit increased to 3.
• [b]Inns[/b] Limited to 1 per city instead of 1 per nation.

Building and Production Buffs

• [b]Barracks[/b] Security set to 15 for level 1 and 25 when an expert is added.
• [b]Blacksmith[/b] Can now be supplied with Tools and Anvil Goods.
• [b]Citadel[/b] Construction no longer requires Concrete.
• [b]Docks[/b] Production buff after adding an expert reduced from 20 to 15.
• [b]Drydock[/b] Default production buff increased from 10 to 20. Production buff after adding an expert increased from 20 to 30.
• [b]Naval Base[/b] Default production buff increased from 10 to 30. Production buff after adding an expert remains 30 with additional benefits.
• [b]Workshops, Factories, Crafting Guilds[/b] Can build Anvils and Mining Picks.
• [b]Residences & Skyscrapers[/b] Residents can now use Soap, improving living standards.
• [b]Foundry & Forge[/b] Can use Anvils and Fuel Cells to increase production.
• [b]Hwaseong Fortress[/b] Available for construction throughout Act 2 and 3.
• [b]Library of Celsus[/b] Available for construction until Act 3, extending its utility.
• [b]London Eye Buff[/b] Corrected; Security buff changed to Prosperity.
• [b]St. Basil's Cathedral[/b] Now only provides 1 Security per Engineer or Artist Paragon.
• [b]Forge[/b] Can now be unlocked by Precision Engineering.

Metallurgy and Steel

• [b]Metallurgy[/b] No longer unlocks Steel. Steel crafting is postponed until later ages when Forges are available.

Fuel Recipe Changes

• [b]Production Cost[/b] Reduced from 1000u to 500u.
• [b]Production Bonus for the Second Ingredient[/b] Reduced from 750u to 500u.

Resource Adjustments

• [b]Marble[/b] Now more common.
• [b]Meteors[/b] Now provide Metal Ingots instead of precious metals, eliminating the need for smelting.
• [b]Obsidian[/b] Now more common.
• [b]Tobacco[/b] Yields less money than before.

Unit and Population Adjustments

• [b]Dragoons & Zamburaks[/b] Can now be produced in Act 3.
• [b]Prestige Reward[/b] Capturing an enemy city now provides a prestige reward.
• [b]Horses[/b] Take slightly longer to tame to balance availability.
• [b]Population Tier Requirements[/b] Slightly increased.
• [b]Stat Penalties[/b] Reduced for low-level cities to gradually introduce urbanization effects.
• [b]Tax Revenue[/b] Cities generate slightly more tax revenue to make governments more impactful.
• [b]City Leveling[/b] - Levels 7-13: Slower leveling for better pacing. - Levels 11-23: Receive an additional amenity slot.

Manufacturing and Production Changes

• [b]Factories[/b] Can now manufacture Toys, PDAs, and Sewing Machines.
• [b]Workshops & Crafting Guilds[/b] Hourglasses can be produced here.
• [b]Ceramic Shops[/b] Can produce Mosaic Tiles, now an ingredient for many Triumphs.
• [b]Clothing Production[/b] More involved to produce but provides significantly bigger buffs.
• [b]Rope Usage[/b] Added as an accelerator for Barrel and Carriage production, and Festival setups.
• [b]Plows[/b] Substantially more expensive to produce without appropriate resources (e.g., horses or oxen). Harvest Buff increased from 50% to 100%. [b]
• Furs[/b] Must be turned into Leather and can no longer substitute for leather directly.
• [b]Sneakers[/b] Can use Plastic instead of Leather.

Technologies

• Hourglass unlocked by Engineering.
• Mosaic Tiles unlocked by Architecture.
• Boots unlocked by Horseshoes.
• Trousers & Sewing Machines unlocked by Industrialization.
• Mass Food Supply Amenity unlocked by Synthetic Fertilizers.
• Toys & Sneakers unlocked by Leisure.
• PDAs unlocked by Internet.
• Fuel Cells unlocked by Robotics.
• Embarkation Pass moved to Navigation for better island nation strategies.
• Ironworking unlocks the Anvil.
• Precision Engineering unlocks the Forge.
• Metallurgy no longer unlocks Steel; Steel crafting is delayed until Forges are available.

Events and Quests

• [b]Forest Fort:[/b] Aesthetics debuff decreased from -3 to -2 for consistency.
• [b]Piercing Request:[/b] Option 2 now asks for Stone Tools and provides a small capital prosperity buff.
• [b]Honoring Their Memory:[/b] First option debuff updated to -1 force strength. Third option now imposes a -2 happiness debuff.
• [b]Political Piety:[/b] Removed happiness debuff from the first option. Wealth is now a required cost.
• [b]Workers of the World Quest:[/b] Removed duplicated reward buff.
• [b]Is It Hot In Here? Event:[/b] The +10 happiness benefit in all cities no longer appears twice.

Armies and Combat Enhancements

• [b]Dragoons[/b] and [b]Zamburaks[/b] can now be produced in Act 3.
• [b]Capturing an enemy city[/b] now provides a prestige reward.

Miscellaneous Improvements

• [b]Customization Slider:[/b] Added a slider allowing users to customize when the nation overlay and the Living World Buildings fade in/out.
• [b]Localization:[/b] Continued updates to all language localizations for better accessibility and user experience.
• [b]Other Improvements:[/b] Several performance enhancements have been made to improve overall game stability and experience.