Civilization VI Australian Summer 2017 Update out now

The Civilization VI update outlined earlier in the week has been released today, bringing various modding tools and Steam Workshop support to the game. In addition, the Australia DLC is also out, and costs $5.00 USD.

Firaxis’ original update announcement post has been amended to include full patch notes. The Civilization VI development tools bundle includes “ModBuddy, Tools, FireTuner, and the Steam Workshop Uploader”. It’s noted that ‘ModBuddy’ will receive further support as part of a future modding SDK update.

The patch notes for the game itself include multiple balance changes, and what appears to be pretty major fixes to the AI. You can see all of that, plus the list of bug fixes, in the patch notes below. Some of the bullet-pointing is a bit eccentric, but for once that’s not my fault.

[NEW]

• TEAMS:

• Multiplayer Teams have been added to Civilization VI and this feature builds on updates to the Alliance agreement. Players on teams gain additional benefits (beyond those of an alliance), as follows:
  • When one teammate finishes research on a tech or civic, their teammate(s) receive a boost for that tech or civic.
  • Teammates share war status against opponents not on their team.
  • Teammates share allied status with opponents not on their team.
  • Teammates work together to win or lose the game as a single entity.  The Religion and Culture Victories have been reworked so they are more cooperative.
    • The Religion Victory requires you to convert all civs to ONE of the religions started by your team.
    • The Culture Victory requires ONE member of your team to be culturally dominant over all players NOT on your team.
  • MODDING TOOLS
    • Updated lobby and in-game UI to better show Additional Content details.
    • Added Sid Meier’s Civilization VI Development Tools, which includes ModBuddy, Tools, FireTuner, and the Steam Workshop Uploader.
      • ModBuddy: A packaging and development tool.
      • Art/Asset Tools: Import FBX files into a format usable by the game, as well as customize existing art.
      • FireTuner: In-game debugging and editing tool.
    • Added Sid Meier’s Civiliation VI Development Assets, which includes the game art assets. This is a large download (approximately 7GB compressed download and 27GB on disk) which contains game assets, including models, textures, and interface elements.
    • STEAM WORKSHOP
      • Access mods created by the Steam community via Steam Workshop
      • Share your mods with the Steam community with the Steam Workshop uploader.

ModBuddy will also receive additional updates in the future, as part of a modding SDK update later. These tools do not include DLL source for Civilization VI at this time.

[MISC]

• Added True Start Location feature, where civs start on the world map at their geographic origin.
• Added a City-State slider to game setup.

[BALANCE CHANGES]

• Start position and map generation has been tuned.
• Updated ice generation to allow more for circumnavigation.
• Commercial Hub and Harbor both provide +1 Trade Route capacity, but only the first one applies (used to stack for +2 capacity total).
• Units that are embarked now use an era-based strength value instead of their base combat value.
• Many of the techs that reveal strategic resources have been changed to reveal the resource before it is needed to build a resource-dependent unit.
• Players can now build obsoleted units if they do not have access to the strategic resource required by the upgrade unit.
• Tech Tree balance. Adding several prerequisites to address paths through the tree that were too quick and led to era transitions too early.
  • Horseback Riding now requires Archery. Archery is no longer a leaf tech.
  • Stirrups is now in the late Medieval era and costs 390 (was early Medieval and cost 300).
  • Industrialization now requires Square Rigging.
  • Scientific Theory now requires Banking.
  • Steel now requires Rifling.
  • Computers now requires Radio.
• Updated the cost and strength of some Air units.
• Change movement rules after disembarkation.  Cannot land on shore with more movement than your Land Movement allowance.
• Updated Vikings Scenario to 60 turns.

[AI TUNING]

• Increased desire and ability to use nukes and aircraft, and maintain a standing military. General AI attack improvements.
• Increased desire to declare friendship.
• Reduced frequency of “your troops are on my border“ warning.
• Updated settlement preferences.
• Barbarians now rampage when their camp is destroyed.
• Will now liberate minor civs and cities of current allies.
• Tuned strategic and luxury resource trading.
• Will now be more aware of gold income, and work to bring in more.
• Support units will recognize that they are not under threat if they share a hex with a friendly unit.
• Added a grace period of 2 turns after the end of open borders before the AI starts complaining you’re too close to their territory.
• Barbarians may now pillage tiles to heal.
• AI will now continue to research repeatable techs and civics.

[BUG FIXES]

• Kongo relics no longer get multiplied Faith yields if more than one is in the same building
• Fixed some bugs with Great People not interacting correctly with Vikings natural wonders.
• Sumeria will no longer share joint war experience with a player when killing barbarians.
• Corrected tourism calculation from National Parks to ensure correct awarding.
• Fixed an issue where you could sometimes not offer Joint War.
• Spies will not have the Steal Tech mission available when you have already completed all techs.
• City States gain territory for influence even if they get the influence before founding their city.
• When a player is destroyed, his captured spies die with him.
• All of your active spy missions stop in a city that you or an ally has just captured.
• Fixed problem in tactical combat that was preventing units from capturing builders
• You are no longer allowed to declare war on declared friends (or in an enforced peace period) from the “troops near me” warning.
• Increased Jet Fighter and Jet Bomber sight range (up from 2 to 5).
• Additional bug fixes.

[VISUALS]

• Added snow environmental VFX.
• Added sand environmental VFX.

[MULTIPLAYER]

• Added “Turn Unready” button.

[UI]

• Added more bindable keys (Toggle Resource Icons, Toggle Tourism Lens, Alert action).
• Added a notification for when a player loses territory to a culture bomb.

[AUDIO]

• Adding some missing UI sounds.
• VIKINGS DLC:
  • Added VO, and updated quotes, for three Natural Wonders.
  • Added VO to Natural Wonders while in the scenario.

[MISC]

• Credits updated.
• Fixed some missing ARX images.
• Updating game concepts for City-States, Trade Routes, and Great People. Explained some things that were not there before (ex. Patronage, gold income for foreign routes passing through city), as well as some clarifications.

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