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[p align="start"]First, apologies for breaking save games. We even had to break the Preview save games to add the new map generation system for 2.0![/p][p align="start"]Second, wow! I hope you guys like what we’ve done here. Since the original Sid Meier’s Civilization was first released in 1991, there have only been a handful of strategy games that have attempted to take the player through all of human history. It’s hard. I bet you, reading this right now, know something of this. Ara: History Untold not only shows off how military technology progresses, but also how the quality of life of people changed based on what Goods were developed over time.[/p][p align="start"]It was how Goods were produced in this game that was both its biggest differentiator as well as its most polarizing feature. Specifically, the user interface for controlling the crafting of goods involved a great deal of micromanagement. Addressing this was our top priority for version 2.0. We wanted to ensure players had total control over their economy without them having to micromanage it. We think version 2.0 nails this with the switch to Quotas and Priorities.[/p][p align="start"]Version 2.0 is a big update. It is, by far, the biggest update to a game I’ve ever seen in my career. It’s not a totally new game of course, but let’s just consider a few high-level changes as an example:[/p]- [p]The aforementioned complete redesign of how crafting works along with the corresponding AI changes to use it well for the computer opponents.[/p][/*]
- [p]A revisit of all 40+ leaders in this game to give each nation its own unique unit as well making the leaders and nations play much more distinctly than before.[/p][/*]
- [p]The Culture and Influence system that lets users add new cultural traits, buy new regions, and steal regions from other players.[/p][/*]
- [p]What amounts to a rewrite of the map generation system. Not just the inclusion of truly randomly generated maps (which is why we had to break the save games), but how resources and biomes get distributed.[/p][/*]
- [p]The new UI rendering engine so that icons and text are now essentially “vectorized” to be super sharp at any resolution[/p][/*]
- [p]Optional AI management of city improvements and amenities[/p][/*]
- [p]Optional Adaptive AI where the AI difficulty can go up or down to help make sure your 8-hour game doesn’t become an unchallenging slog.[/p][/*]
- [p]Under the covers, the AI was largely rewritten for v2.0. This expresses itself not just in better economic management but also, we hope, more intuitive diplomatic behaviors.[/p][/*]
