La grosse news Civilization du vendredi

Firaxis continue d'améliorer Civilization IV Beyond The Sword et a sorti aujourd'hui un nouveau patch pour le jeu. Baptisé 3.17 et pesant 170 Mo, il corrige un bon paquet de choses notamment dans les scenarii Final Frontier et Next War. La liste des changements est ci-dessous.

Par ailleurs, on découvre en vidéo la version DS de Civilization Revolution. On rappelle que le cœur du jeu (gameplay et IA) est exactement le même sur DS, PS3 et 360, seuls les graphismes et les contrôles changent. Ca explique les grosses simplifications du jeu histoire de tourner convenablement sur les petits CPU de la DS.

Si sur consoles next-gen ces simplifications sont un peu dures à avaler, elles deviennent largement acceptables sur console portable et l'idée de se faire un Civ dans le train est fort agréable. En plus, les animations de bataille ont un côté Advance Wars sympathique.



Civilization IV : Beyond The Sword 3.17

GAMEPLAY
Cavalry and Cuirassiers can Flank attack Cannons and all earlier siege weapons
Gunships can Flank Attack Cannons, Artillery, Mobile Artillery
Flanking damage now depends on strength of defending unit, not on strength of siege weapon
Flank attack now has a maximum number of siege units it can affect
Horse archers no longer receive attack bonus against Trebuchets
Destroyer: no longer upgrades to anything
Stealth Destroyer: lower cost, 2 first strikes, no bombard, no interception
Attack Submarine: Increased cost
Airship no longer gets bonus attacking ships
Airship does 20% maximum air strike damage
Machine Gun and Anti-Tank get 20% air interception chance
No withdrawal when attacking amphibiously
Siege weapons cannot attack amphibiously
Reduced war weariness
New Colonies have their parent civ's tech brokering restrictions
New Colonies have knowledge of their parent civ's maps
New Colonies cannot trade away their motherland techs under "No tech Brokering" option
New Colonies no longer affect domination limit
Significantly increased barbarian ship spawn
Bunkers also protect against collateral damage from air units
Units in ships no longer gain fortification/espionage bonus
Goody hut gold now scales with game speed
Increased "support city revolt" cost
Explorers cannot be drafted
Combat line of promotions not available to Siege
"Friendly locals" event expires with Nationalism
"Mother lode" event: yields more gold on average
"Miracle" event expires with Rifling
"Partisans" event active in every game
"Blessed Sea" event no longer tied to a specific ship
Barbarian uprising events can occur only if you can build a counter unit
Global warming in forests and jungles just removes those features, without turning plot to desert
Global warming takes into account the number of forests and jungles in the world
Global Warming is affected by unhealthy buildings in addition to nuclear explosions.
Re-added cap to number of active Corporation Executives (5)

AI
Automated Workers no longer idle when railroading is possible
AI units considered unsuitable for city defense are no longer prevented from healing in cities
Improved worker threat assessment
Fixed bug that caused the AI to trade for resources it already had
Spies no longer interrupt their mission when moving next to an enemy unit
Own vassal cannot be considered "Worst Enemy" by the AI.
AI less likely to build Executives if they can't afford to use them or already have enough of them
AI takes time already worked into consideration when selecting plot to work
No AI relationship penalty for declaring war on a third party if that AI is at war with the third party as well
Can found Corporations in Mercantilism
Vassals of a capitulating Master do not automatically sign peace with the victor
Lowered capitulation threshold
Missile carriers carying missiles are no longer as reluctant to defend

ENHANCEMENTS
Added "No Espionage" game option
Withdrawing units get unselected from their selection group
- just like they get unselected if they win and cannot advance
Espionage ratio for humans displayed in score tooltip
Fixed city Healthy/Unhealthy bonus display (events)
No messages about empire splits of players you have not yet met
Globe layer sub-options saved in user profile
Liberate city nag no longer occurs twice for the same city in the same session
City advisor nags do not occur when city is in disorder
Advanced start: All team starting plot locations indicated with red circles
- any team member can use any starting plot
Players get an announcement when a Defensive Pact is signed
Added stationary spy discount mouseover
Added popup for when spaceship mission fails
Added some extra mouseover information to diplomacy screen
Fixed main interface to correctly fit all advisor buttons on the right
MapRandSeed = 1 has no effect in multiplayer games
Cleaned up debug menu
Can't exit to main menu after having used the debug menu (Ctrl-D)
- Prevents multiplayer cheats, as well as possible hangs and crashes
Mods read previous game options from .ini unless they have the ForceGameOptions = 1 in their own mod .ini
Removed some unused code (SDK)
Added tectonics map script (thanks LDiCesare)
Added Earth2 map script (thanks GRM7584)
Added RandomScriptMap map script (thanks Refar)
Added three new options to Team Battleground map script (thanks ruff_hi)
Exposed some trade screen functionality to the SDK
Added ability for AI Diplomacy screen to display icons in the text
WorldBuilder saves named units
Fixed XML read issue (for mods)
Added a faster file enumeration method for modular XML loading (unused)
Removed inlined code from CvXMLLoadUtility (inlining breaks DLL mods)
Added ability for mods to specify minimum version (MIN_VERSION in GlobalDefines.xml)
Unit graphic on main interface updates when unit art changes (mods)
Aded Python wrapper function: CyPlot::setOwnerNoUnitCheck.
Added Mesoamerica Mod


BUG FIXES
Fixed bug with building culture bonus mouseover
Fixed multiplayer hang when loading a game without all human players present
Fixed reload crash
Fixed info screen demographics Import/Export rank reversal
Ships in foreign ports no longer get bumped to strange places upon war declaration
Fixed bug with Great General threshold in team games
Fixed "cityAcquiredAndKept" python event bug
Preventing key clicks from going through the MP diplomacy screen to the main interface
Fixed bug with barbarian unit spawn
Fixed Donut map script Italian and Spanish desert/ocean translations
Fixed auto-raze bug with certain game option combinations
Fixed selection issue with Warlords attaching to units when the Great General is part of a selection group
Spies no longer bumped out of enemy borders when declaring war
Workers on Transports no longer capture cities (thereby displacing all other units) when city is captured
Privateers cannot enter other teams' empty cities
Fixed empire splitting bug where a previously-existing civ could be resurected
Fixed Worldbuilder python exception
Can no longer base an unlimited number of air units in foreign cities
Mouse-over for Worker actively working a plot no longer counts Worker twice
Fixed bug in recommended graphics settings
Fixed bug with spy inability to destroy any buildings in certain cities
Fixed bug that increased spy interception chance
Fixed some UN/AP voting time-delay issues
Fixed a text bug caused by cached translations
Worldbuilder no longer allows you to unreveal visible plots
"Fugitive" event: fixed text bug
Fixed "Impeachment" event
Fixed "Partisans" event to trigger only under emancipation
Civilopedia correction: Custom House affects all foreign trade routes, not only intercontinental.
Fixed AI crash
Fixed Barrage promotion bug
Fixed combat message log for hidden nationality units
Fixed bug with espionage culture mission
Fixed minimap update on reload
Fixed crash on city conquer
Fixed bug in event city and unit random selection
Gifting a city upon conquest gives liberation diplomatic benefits.
Fixed Advanced Start hang when starting without enough points to buy first city
Fixed Advanced Start stored food inconsistency on population buy/sell
Fixed bug with non-global, non-team quests not clearing upon completion
Fixed bug where you would not get a palace if you captured a city before founding one
Fixed potential AI infinite loop
Next war update to match epic game
Fixed rare bug where Barbarian Horse Archers could sometimes bump your units out of your cities
Autorun saves are now loadable
Updated Next War and Gods of Old with epic game changes
Fixed AI another crash
Fixed AI infinite loop
Fixed improvement yield change mouse-over
Fixed python exception in Improvement civilopedia (mod-specific)
Fixed recommended unit button in build popup (mod-specific)
Improvement construction cost is deducted when a project begins, rather than when it's finished
- fixes Starbase exploit in Final Frontier

FINAL FRONTIER
The Forge now gets +2 Production in its capital and +1 in all other Systems
Fixed bug where very advanced Pirate ships could spawn early in the game
Fix for clicking the subtract population button too quickly could cause a Planet's population be negative
Reduced interception chance for Destroyers
Halved amount of points gained from territory
Red Syndicate only gets 1 free trade route instead of 2
Fixing bug in map script with star system density
Double-clicking Star Systems now gives system info, instead of single click (thanks Nemesis Rex)
Older Starbases now have cultural border preference over newer ones as intended (thanks Nemesis Rex)
Starbases no longer create missiles
AI City population distribution no longer calculated every turn for every city...
- improves performance but may make the AI dumber
Bumped Forge back to no default production bonus in any Systems (undoing previous change)
Red Syndicate now only gets 1 free Trade Route in newly colonized Systems
Red Syndicate now gets Trade Route bonus in captured Systems
Paradise now gets free MagLevs in captured Systems
System Health and Happiness penalty for New Earth reduced from 2 to 1
Fixed minor text error in Top Civs screen ("Most Influence")

NEXT WAR
Thanks to jkp1187 (John Palchak) for the following updates from his "Not just another Next War Mod"
Most of the Space Race projects assigned to new technologies.
The idea is to delay the Space Race until the players were using the additional NextWar technologies.
MISSION TO MARS (formerly APOLLO PROGRAM) requires ASTROGATION (formerly ROCKETRY)
Cost for MISSION TO MARS (formerly APOLLO PROGRAM) increased to 2250 hammers)
SS ENGINE: requires COLD FUSION (formerly FUSION)
SS COCKPIT: requires CYBERNETICS (formerly FIBER OPTICS)
SS DOCKING BAY: requires SHIELDING (formerly SATELLITES)
SS LIFE SUPPORT: requires HYDROPONICS (formerly ECOLOGY)
SS STASIS CHAMBER: requires CLONING (formerly GENETICS)
SS CASING: requires COMPOSITES (unchanged)
SPACE ELEVATOR: requires ROBOTICS + SATELLITES + FUSION (formerly just ROBOTICS + SATELLITES).
ARCOLOGY/ARCOLOGY SHIELDING/DEFLECTOR SHIELDING: The cost of all three of these buildings has been doubled.
Arcology now requires both Hydroponics and Composites
Nuke "CRACKED LIKE AN EGG" now only applies to Next War Scenario
Every game speed option now has 5% more turns
Added all of the random events from JKP1187's Random Events Mod.
I added three new NextWar-specific random events: "The Cylons", "Sensors", "Slip and Fall"
Added voice-overs for all of the Next War technologies
Added a new icon (by bmarnz) showing C. Everett Koop's likeness for the Center for Desease Control National Wonder
Added new icons for the Next War specific Unit Categories (Clones, Assault Mech, Bioweapons, Dreadnought)
Resource depletion only has a chance of occurring in the Scenario, no depletion in epic game.
Replaced regular bomber images with B-52 by Snafusmith.