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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