Old World May Update: Crossbow buff, tech cost rebalance and Map Search
Main Branch 1.0.83499 release 2026-05-06
Headline changes
Crossbow strength buff
Tech cost rebalancing
New Map Search function
Design
Crossbows now have +50% strength against melee (from +50% attack)
Tech costs for columns in the tech tree changed to 100, 150, 250, 400, 700, 1100, 1600 (from 80, 120, 200, 400, 600, 1000, 1600)
Increased flat science from difficulty level by 2
At least two non-trashable tech cards will be offered if possible, to prevent all tech choices being bonus cards
Slingers are now obsolete at Bodkin arrow (previously also required Windlass)
Gold and Silver mine output increased to 50 money (from 40)
Reduced culture requirements for Market class improvements (Market requires Weak, Grocer Developing and Fair Strong) and adjusted some ambitions accordingly
Units can repair any improvement they can build (affects Disciples and Brahmins)
Ship build queue options added for each harbor in a city, in addition to each body of water that does not have a harbor, to allow choosing where the ship spawns
Improved city site distribution for 2-team maps
AIs will no longer have child leaders, instead using the next adult in the succession or generating a new character if needed
Rising Star trait now replaces Infamous and Unpopular
All Hindu cities can now build Brahmins, without requiring Holy City/State Religion/Tolerance (Empires of the Indus)
Decreased Indian Unique Unit vision to be in line with other units, with the exception of Steppe Riders which retain extra vision (Empires of the Indus)
The owner of the unit, not the upgrading player, needs Polis to upgrade Steppe Riders (Empires of the Indus)
Mahapadma's unknown mother now has a name (Empires of the Indus)
Added Phidias, a Builder Artist, as a starting courtier to the Pericles dynasty (Heroes of the Aegean / Wonders and Dynasties)
Can no longer recruit Fanatic Raid units in the Wrath of Gods scenario (Wrath of Gods)
Slightly reduced frequency of Jade spawning (Empires of the Indus)
Programming
Renderer initialization split across four 4 frames instead of 1
Improved performance when rendering timeline GIFs
Moved the minimum number of non-trashable techs offered to XML (MIN_NON_TRASHABLE_TECHS_AVAILABLE)
Stale network games are cleared from the database on failed connection
Potential improvements to Bluetooth audio output
Replaced custom map element names with TextTypes on Empires of the Indus premade maps
Family Control scores are now moddable (Empires of the Indus)
UI
Added Map Search function, accessed via the magnifying glass icon on the top left of minimap. Can search for Cities, Units, Improvements and Resources, by player
Added Tech Tree to Extras menu, to allow viewing the tree without being in a game
Added banded overlay effect for cities that will soon have a religion due to building a shrine when the religion is selected
When selecting a unit with a General, the General name is now shown in brackets instead of replacing the unit name
Added a Mission concept to help explain the Maurya ability
Score list now sorts Wonders and Holy Site VPs together
Map element names now take priority over family-defined first city names
Unit effect tooltips show to the right of the promotions panel
Pressing ALT now shows health bar damage preview of non-hostile units, in addition to the damage preview text that is displayed without ALT
Specialists on pillaged tiles are now shown in most city UI counts, with warning color
Map cameras now adjust the center of their view to avoid featuring large out-of-bounds areas
Handling of possessive character names now language dependent
Updated Map Size tooltip to show the actual maximum player count
Bridges now only render over rivers when a road segment is present on the tile leading up to it
AddImprovement bonus is no longer valid when the only valid tiles already have improvements
Added warning text and hint to use CTRL when placing a bonus improvement on a tile with an existing improvement
Religion overlay is now displayed, at a lower opacity, for cities that will soon have a religion (eg via Shrine construction)
Added Ruthless AI text explanation to AI opinion due to being close to winning or having an alliance
Reworked event helptext for "subject not" - "Not Character is X" is now "Character is not X"
Added more detailed mission menu button info
Premade map selection with restricted nations is no longer saved, to prevent issues with leaders not appearing on Choose Leader screen
Localized text updates
No Organized Tribes option renamed to mention the Huns (Empires of the Indus)
Tamil leaders show their preset family on the dynasty selection tooltip (Empires of the Indus)
Updated portrait selections for some Hun portrait sequences to reduce artifacting (Empires of the Indus)
Bugs Fixed
Fixed double client initialization on network reconnection that could crash the host
Fixed map overlays something getting stuck while scrolling
Fixed fog of war toggle in timeline screen
Fixed rare game hang after a tribal invasion
Fixed unit selection circle being rotated incorrectly
Fixed repeated unit movement on server after network reconnection
Fixed Ask to Declare War mission result text not accounting for possibility of declining to pay for war dec
Fixed Esc not closing console/editor
Fixed some mission target text not actually taking a target name parameter, leading to confusing mission button text (e.g. "Divorce")
Fixed addition of temporary characters not updating characters tab
Fixed disabled city family option being clickable in minimized event UI
Fixed large unit models occluding unit widget status icons
Fixed unit models obscuring some elements on tribe widgets
Fixed world map state not returning to normal correctly when timeline screen is closed in cases where the timeline displays changes to terrain type
Fixed tooltip hitbox on stacked unit widgets being in the wrong order
Fixed the AI sometimes not attacking cities that have no defender
Fixed attack preview so that it doesn't show the effects of hidden units to the active player
Fixed counterattack preview being wrong for flanking with hidden units
Fixed dropdowns sometimes getting cut off
Fixed Akhetaten AI getting initial development that does not have a Cleric capital
Fixed succession gendered helptext issue
Fixed some Spanish localization errors
Fixed several scenario loss events not working correctly
Fixed council missions showing in tooltips without required content enabled
Fixed network games sometimes not getting relisted after getting unlisted
Fixed Allied Tribes being able to respawn settlements that are being claimed by player units
Fixed Map Search player dropdown options
Fixed disciple construction animation not being affected by Disable Idle Animations
Fixed minimum detail rivers occluding unit widgets
Fixed positive yield modifier on negative yield issue
Fixed issue when two volcanic eruptions overlap
Fixed some river materials having an incorrect stencil buffer value
Fixed Tribes paying tribute while at war
Fixed Close button being hidden behind Console in Game Editor
Fixed tech buttons not updating in Game Editor consistently
Fixed mission cooldown helptext issue
Fixed SP setup display on ultrawide resolutions
Fixed tooltips spawned from Reminders panel not being lockable
Fixed yield rates not updating after getting units from events
Fixed Hall of Fame Regenerate HOF issues
Fixed mirror map generation artifacts
Fixed scouts getting stuck in foreign territory after Schemer leader change
Fixed some ZOC issues related to visibility
Fixed tribe attacks not being included in turn summary emails
Fixed tribes not capturing other tribes' settlements
Fixed improvements that spread religion not being highlighted when a religion is selected
Fix a rare Hall of Fame regeneration issue
Fixed some AI issues
Fixed missing opinion rate for marriage help when Tribal suitor marries heir
Fixed event portrait tooltip positioning
Fixed being able to push a an allied unit from its own territory
Fixed water control previews not updating with changes in vision
fixed some main menu Tech Tree issues
Fixed event helptext issue with Player/Leader/IndexSubjectNotAny
Fixed TRIBE_F, RELIGION_F, and TRAIT_F event text tags not working
Fixed some ambiguous map element name types
Fixed some Spanish text localization issues
Fixed map terrain not reverting correctly after closing timeline screen
Fixed Modio & local maps not showing in mod browser
Fixed Modio upload not including mod version number (fixes incorrect update ! on install tab for local up-to-date mods)
Fixed null reference when clicking on maps in Mods Manage tab
Fixed modio ModBuilder bug
Fixed leader customization panel breaking if characters exist with fixed portraits but no names (affects mods)
Fixed Improvement yield breakdown showing base yield with mabNoYieldOutput when resource yield is of same type (affects mods)
Fixed Heroes of the Aegean scenario 5 fire display issues (Heroes of the Aegean)
Fixed Elephant Archer achievement text (Empires of the Indus)
Fixed Attila the Hun appearing as a player character instead of a Hun (Empires of the Indus)
Fixed The Monumental Buddhas not being buildable in the Wrath of Gods scenario (Wrath of Gods)
Fixed Venerate mission working for Exiled and other invalid Character Traits in the Wrath of Gods scenario (Wrath of Gods)
Fixed misplaced Fish in Empires of the East premade map (Empires of The Indus)
Fixed Family Control text not updating when council assignments change (Empires of The Indus)
Fixed wood from Jungle replacement by an improvement not equaling the wood from a double chop (Empires of The Indus)
Text and event fixes
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