Hi Stewards!
And welcome to another post about post-demo improvements. This time, we will try not to start by saying that this was “one of the most…” anything :) Still, Cultures were definitely one of the systems that many players did not feel much need to pay attention to. So we decided to rethink how their bonuses work and give players much more control over them.
The biggest change is that cultures no longer divide all products between themselves and provide bonuses to everything assigned to them. Instead, each culture now has 6 slots for Traditional Products. Starting from Renown level 2, every new Renown level unlocks two additional slots. And most importantly, you decide which products become traditional for each culture. There is only one restriction: the culture must have been the largest producer of that product during the last 12 months. So Traditional Products still represent what the culture is actually known for producing, while giving you plenty of freedom to shape its specialization.
This change also comes with a complete rework of Culture Traits. The old traits are gone, although don't worry, most of their bonuses have found a new home in another feature we have not announced yet :) The new traits are directly connected to Traditional Products. The basic production bonus provided by a Traditional Product is intentionally fairly small, but the real strength comes from synergies between pairs of Traditional Products created by Culture Traits. For example, one trait increases the bonus when two Traditional Products are ingredients used in the same recipe. Another creates a synergy between products from the beginning and the end of the same production chain. This means that choosing Traditional Products is not only about deciding which individual industries you want to support, but also about finding combinations that work well together.
The population share of each culture within a region also remains important. The larger the culture's share of the regional population, the stronger the bonuses from its Traditional Products become there. For example, if a culture represents more than 75% of the population in a region, its Traditional Product bonuses in that region are multiplied by 2.5×. Traditional Products can also be changed later, so you are not permanently locked into your original choices.
We believe this new system should make cultures much more interesting to interact with. Bonuses are now concentrated on a smaller number of products, which allows them to become significantly stronger, while players have much more freedom to decide where those bonuses should go. And if you are not interested in squeezing every last percentage out of your economy, you do not need to carefully optimize every synergy either. Simply choosing products that are important to your economy should still provide useful bonuses.
We are looking forward to seeing what kinds of cultural specializations you will create!
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