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Old World at the Hooded Horse Spring Publisher Sale

Here's a news roundup for Old World!

The Old World team has been hard at work, bringing a major update and the launch of the Wrath of the Gods DLC. The update expands maps, refines AI behavior, and adds new game setup options, UI improvements, and gameplay adjustments. Meanwhile, the Wrath of the Gods DLC introduces natural disasters, a new scenario, over 200 events, and the playable kingdom of Aksum, adding fresh challenges and strategic depth.

As part of the Hooded Horse Publisher Sale, Old World is 75% off, with DLC also discounted.

Hooded Horse Spring Publisher Sale 2025

[h3]Recent Update News[/h3][hr][/hr]The devs have been hard at work, with a recent update bringing expanded maps, new setup options, and AI improvements. The Old World premade map was significantly expanded to accommodate Aksum, while other premade maps saw adjustments. New game setup options were added, including Allow Negative Cognomens and Balanced starting resources for single-player.

Read the full details here:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/597180/announcements/detail/631169797212602971

[h3]Wrath of Gods DLC[/h3][hr][/hr]The Wrath of the Gods DLC recently launched, introducing natural disasters as a gameplay element. Nine calamities—including droughts, tsunamis, and earthquakes—bring new strategic challenges. The Wrath of the Gods scenario tasks players with balancing the demands of four pagan gods, weighing blessings against calamities. Over 200 new events, 26 projects, 8 character traits, and new missions expand strategic depth. Two new map scripts add evolving terrain mechanics, and the kingdom of Aksum is now playable, featuring five historical leaders, unique units, and specialized buildings.

Learn more about the DLC here!
https://steamcommunity.com/games/597180/announcements/detail/527587373100305017

https://store.steampowered.com/app/597180/Old_World/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3406150/Old_World__Wrath_of_Gods/




Old World March 12th Updated Test Build

[h2]Test Branch 1.0.76797 Test 2025-03-12[/h2]

[h3]Design[/h3]

National Ambitions:
  • The final ambition is now called a National Ambition and may be offered early, after a player has completed 5 ambitions
  • The offer is triggered soon after the player reaches 75% progress towards one of the national ambitions
  • National Ambitions are not used for tier counting purposes i.e. they do not make regular ambition offers harder
  • All National Ambitions are listed in the Encyclopedia under their own category
  • Added new National Ambition '+250 Food, Iron, Stone, Wood and Money per turn'. This replaces the previous ambition to stockpile 2000 of each resource
  • Added new regular Ambition 'Control 4 Hamlet class improvements'
  • Adjusted ambition threshold calculations and ambition events to allow a greater variety of ambitions to be offered


Continent map script changes:
  • Continent is now the default map script
  • Added new Extreme Terrain suboption 'None' and made this the default
  • Tribal Lands placement option removed


Other design changes:
  • 7 new events relating to Calamities happening to other players (Wrath of Gods)
  • Reduced other religion opinion penalty duration for Venerate mission (Wrath of Gods)
  • Increased chance of Scrub appearing on new Arid tiles on Ebbing Sea map from 2% to 10% (Wrath of Gods)


[h3]Programming[/h3]

  • Mod manager no longer fully loads installed maps when fetching subscription info
  • Unit XP overflow into training uses TRAINING_PER_XP for consistency
  • Buildable projects now use a ProductionType such as YIELD_CIVICS. Non-buildable projects do not require this
  • iCivics has been renamed to iCost in project.xml


[h3]UI[/h3]

  • Popup text minimum scaling reduced
  • Can now queue the same tile multiple times without the unit executing the queued moves
  • When the last tile in a move queue is right-clicked, the unit executes the queue
  • Flipped luxury panel buttons
  • Tweaked alignment for scenario-specific goal info
  • Archetypes now shown in line of succession panel
  • Improvement pings are no longer removed by an occurrence rendering a tile impassable (Wrath of Gods)
  • Boosted plague fog visibility (Wrath of Gods)
  • Boosted volcano animation speed (Wrath of Gods)


[h3]Bugs Fixed[/h3]

  • Fixed Korean text sometimes not displaying
  • Fixed text autosizing issues
  • Fixed popup text not updating immediately after changing scaling
  • Fixed assert when removing player ownership from a tile with a religion attached
  • Fixed forest on lake tile in Middle East map
  • Fixed bad city border preview on Old World Map by removing an urban tile to the west of Pella
  • Fixed a threading issue that could cause server-side exceptions
  • Fixed unit queuing bugs
  • Fixed units not being selectable through overlays
  • Fixed some UI elements not updating properly after undoing initial found
  • Fixed occasional opinion arrow misalignment in event popup
  • Fixed city recommendation assert
  • Fixed hire and recruit buttons not showing for Tribal units (affects previous Test build only)
  • Fixed submenus sometimes not appearing or being interactable (affects previous Test build only)
  • Fixed inheritance screen submenu positioning (affects previous Test build only)
  • Fixed research bar showing in city view (affects previous Test build only)
  • Fixed hidden names on mini tech tree (affects previous Test build only)
  • Fixed minimized decisions showing on city screen (affects previous Test build only)
  • Fixed city production and unit submenus getting cut off (affects previous Test build only)
  • Fixed calamity postprocessing profiles overriding postprocessing settings from graphics settings i.e. Motion Blur (Wrath of Gods)
  • Fixed some rendering issues when terrain changes height (Wrath of Gods)
  • Fixed calamity effects being removed from rivers too early in some cases (Wrath of Gods)
  • Fixed eruptions displaying on volcanos obscured by fog of war (Wrath of Gods)
  • Fixed double legitimacy penalty when abandoning a Demand (Wrath of Gods)
  • Fixed trees removed from building improvements not being counted for demands (Wrath of Gods)
  • Fixed issue where some global calamities that target tiles were instead targeting all tiles (Wrath of Gods)
  • Fixed Wrath of Gods scenario failure when random nation and random archetype chosen (Wrath of Gods)
  • Fixed Wrath of Gods scenario victory event not triggering when next victory becomes impossible (Wrath of Gods)
  • Fixed Wrath of Gods scenario duplicate victory threshold events in some cases
  • Text and event fixes

Civ like 4X game Old World bombards you with plagues and tsunamis in new DLC

While Manor Lords goes medieval and Terra Invicta takes things to space, Old World is the strategy game in Hooded Horse's excellent lineup that Civilization fans will really gravitate to. One of the first projects to be published by the label, Old World is still going strong, and it's just dropped a new DLC that is full of disasters. Don't fret, I'm not talking about game-breaking bugs or questionable mechanics, I'm talking about the ones cooked up by Mother Nature - or the gods, in this case. So, get ready for your hexes to be battered by tsunamis, wildfires, sandstorms, and more in the Wrath of Gods DLC, which also adds a new faction, dozens of new events, and much more.


Read the rest of the story...


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Old World March 5th Updated Test Build

[h2]Test Branch 1.0.76691 Test 2025-03-05[/h2]

[h3]Design[/h3]

Launch Offensive changes:
  • Offensive effects do not apply to the leader unit
  • Cannot launch offensive when on cooldown
  • Leader unit goes on new launched offensive cooldown
  • For team games, bonus orders from the offensive go to the unit owners


Other design changes
  • Critical hits on cities are no longer possible
  • Stun is now possible when attacking a unit in a city without any HP left
  • Commander leaders always grant +10XP per turn to all units (previously units had to be idle)
  • Free improvements are now allowed on resource tiles with a generic improvement ping. Placing a free urban improvement on a resource removes the resource without harvesting it
  • Adjusted ambition threshold calculations so a greater variety of ambitions gets offered
  • Events where the AI offers Truce on breaching a city now trigger when the city is captured instead
  • Can no longer build roads and improvements in territory of an ally
  • Water tiles no longer need to be adjacent to land in order to transfer them from one of your cities to another
  • Units that earn XP past the maximum level convert that XP to training
  • Ezana's Evangelist trait only gives new units Christianity/Adept in city where he is governor (Wrath of Gods)


[h3]Programming[/h3]

  • Rendering API change: Linux / Steam Deck now default to Vulkan. Windows supports Vulkan with a command-line switch
  • Epic Mac build now runs natively when run outside of the Epic launcher, i.e. using alternative launcher such as Heroic
  • Improved UI responsiveness when cycling through workers
  • Performance improvements
  • AI combat improvements
  • Improved AI use of Launch Offensive
  • Improved AI order predictions when planning moves
  • AI is more aggressive in moving towards enemy cities when at war
  • AI more likely to place ranged units in forest when defending its territory with a Tactician leader
  • AI fort building now less common
  • AI tries harder to delay using anchored units so that land units don't get stranded
  • AI now less eager to build some wonders that are not very useful (e.g. Jebel Barkal without world religion)
  • Added ALLOW_CITY_CRITICAL_HITS to globalsInt, for use by modders


[h3] UI[/h3]

Setup screen changes:
  • Removed Options Preset dropdown from Simple setup and added Event Level
  • Added Reset Options button to Advanced and MP setup screens
  • Added difficulty mode to Advanced setup screen
  • Simple setup settings are saved separately from advanced setup settings. Going back and forth between Advanced and Simple screens retains only nation and dynasty settings
  • Entering the setup screens with a premade map that restricts nation choices stored in the options file will no longer keep that map choice, to ensure all nations are shown
  • Enabled DLC no longer gets reset every time


Other UI changes:
  • Selected characters now appear in the upper right side of the screen and Ambitions in the upper left
  • Strategic resource icons for unit production shown on city categories when available
  • Temporary unit effects now show the remaining turn count on their icons
  • Changed all happiness/discontent yield displays to use relevant icon instead of signed text
  • Added worker list to tile tooltip when multiple workers are stacked
  • Selecting a character centers the camera on job-relevant city or unit
  • Research UI is now always shown regardless of selection
  • Added reminder for pillaged tiles
  • Added ability to hide improvement tooltips by holding CTRL
  • Timeline now shows map terrain changes over time
  • Timeline now shows current revealed-not-visible state for borders when it is set to show the current turn
  • With a land unit selected, hovering over a water tile in anchor range will show "Must end move on land tile"
  • Network games are now paused automatically when the game is over
  • Cannot surrender a multiplayer game if you are the last player remaining
  • World tile text now shows over city UI
  • Unworked wonders show Requires Worker text with worker selected
  • Right-click toggles tab panel menus off if already open
  • Improved unit strength tooltip text
  • Updated premade map descriptions
  • Removed some of the yield breakdown from the specialist tooltip and added modified total yield
  • Removed line break from event option tooltips that start goals
  • Removed 'New Event in Wizard' button from Event Browser
  • City links that do not open the city screen now pan the camera to the city when clicked (i.e. tribal raid notifications)
  • Starting a game using a parameter string no longer updates the options file with the game's settings
  • Added custom savegame prefix to standalone scenarios
  • Added more promotion and effectUnit information to encyclopedia
  • Updated Shapur's dynasty description to clarify that Strike applies to melee and ship units (Wonders and Dynasties)
  • Plague flies are only shown on units with the Plagued effect. Plague fog effect is confined to city territory (Wrath of Gods)
  • Wildfire visual effect is less extreme (Wrath of Gods)


[h3]Bugs Fixed[/h3]
  • Fixed workers and ships in cities with no defenses not taking damage from attacks
  • Fixed clicks on parts of the UI selecting map elements behind them
  • Fixed Continents map script bug
  • Fixed Caravans being unable to travel through anarchy territory
  • Fixed improvements being repairable inside hostile territory
  • Fixed unit health bars appearing incorrectly for some attack previews
  • Fixed the Ignore Map Nation Starts option not working on some maps
  • Fixed Family Seat founding bonus not showing in the setup screens and in game before player has founded their capital
  • Fixed Road To overlay not updating when changing mouseover tile
  • Fixed flickering issue when hovering over build recommendations on some parts of the screen
  • Fixed bug where AI could still win in some cases when player achieves victory on the same turn
  • Fixed goal threshold bug incorrectly making ambitions invalid
  • Fixed Barbarian Horde MP achievement not working in hotseat
  • Fixed Greek and Assyrian capitol buildings not being shown when adjacent to rivers
  • Fixed Allow Negative Cognomens option appearing when no characters option selected
  • Fixed Free Court Minister encyclopedia entry with null icon
  • Fixed encyclopedia prompt showing on traits with no encyclopedia page
  • Fixed encyclopedia null references
  • Fixed succession law preview tooltip showing wrong law
  • Fixed Courtiers Added stat not increasing when recruiting an existing foreign courtier
  • Fixed Organized tribes not healing
  • Fixed some AI bugs
  • Fixed research UI not updating immediately when yield rates change
  • Fixed Carthage scenarios giving a lower-tier victory than earned if one of the goals was completed indirectly
  • Fixed Calamities causing city sites to become impassable
  • Fixed Flood not displaying correctly in some cases (Wrath of Gods)
  • Fixed Calamity level showing on in-game difficulty mode and game parameters tooltips, if the content is disabled in the current game (Wrath of Gods)
  • Text and event fixes

Old World March 4th Hotfix

Main Branch 1.0.76679 Release 2025-03-04

Hotfix release that fixes a bug preventing mountains from being removed on the Tumbling Mountain map script. This fix applies to new games only. Apologies for the issue!