v1.0 of the new map is done! I just need to playtest it, bugfix it, and i'm certain there will be issues with balance that need to be addressed.

HUGE project in the works. Stay tuned for little sneak peaks in the coming weeks

The new map actually has a download link now. Play it please so I am not sad

Yo so it has been a fat minute but I got some new content coming your way. This time, it is an unnamed horror map! In the bugfixing and playtesting stage currently; I hope to release it in the next few weeks. Peace

Hello! It's been a while but I just want to say that work on v1.7 of CiM has begun! v1.7 is going to add Religion as well as some new civs! There may also be some changes to combat (making it not RNG), but that heavily depends on how much time I have to work on the project. Just wanted to make a post so people know the project isn't dead!

v1.6 is nearly completed. This update is a smaller update but it will add a lot to overall gameplay quality. I want to do more playtests than I do normally to make sure everything is working correctly as there is some large reworks to many different circuits within the map to make things run smoother, more efficient, and most importantly, free of bugs. Most evident is that the combat circuit is rewired to alleviate some rare bugs that occured. Combat still functions the same as in v1.5. The main lobby and the system used for starting games is also very different than in v1.5. I want to make sure that this is working bug-free before release. v1.6 will probably drop in early to mid July.

We got a playtest of v1.5 in today. Overall, it was not as buggy as I would have guessed. Here are some observations about the state of the game as it is right now:

Espionage:

Overall, I am extremely pleased with how this feature turned out. Works flawlessly, and adds some fun political aspects to the game.

City States:

I was surprised how little impact City States had on playtest. Nobody really felt that inclined to go out and ally City States. Only when there was a threat for a Science Victory did other players seek out City State friendship for a Diplomatic Victory. I feel like there needs to be more incentive to ally with City States. I will look into this further as we do more playtests.

World Congress:

I am pleased with how this feature turned out. Other than some bugs, the actual resolutions themselves worked correctly and felt somewhat impactful. However, tariffs did not have a large enough impact in my opinion. For OCC players who are always seeking out 24 happiness, losing 4 is not a huge deal. I may look into point per turn reduction when a tariff is placed on a player. World's Fair was never passed, so I can not comment on it.

The Meta:

During playtests, there is clearly an optimal playstyle that will always secure a win. Even after the nerfs, OCC is still extremely powerful. This is likely due to the point efficiency of purchasing tiles and the speed at which a player can reach City Planning for optimal tile usage as well as reaching the Renaissance Era for controlling the World Congress. Often you would see players just purchasing 50 tiles in 1 turn. This makes turns extremely slow and boring. This also makes games take less turns than I would like. Tile prices were determined back before happiness from settling cities was a thing. After the addition of 4 happiness reduction from settling cities, the gap in efficiency between settlers and tiles became more glaring. Tiles become more valuable earlier than I would like. I will likely impose a cost reduction on settlers and an adjustment to the cost of tiles. It is also likely that City Planning could see more prerequisite techs added to it.

Ideology:

Currently, it is pretty straight forward when selecting an ideology. If you are OCC, you go Freedom. If you go wide, you go Order. I feel like there should be more incentive to go Autocracy which would also add some warfare to the game. Furthermore, I may diversify the bonuses Order gives to make OCC players consider Order more. The same may occur with Freedom and Wide players.

TL;DR:

Espionage is great, City States feel unimpactful. World Congress, despite bugs, is fun. Maybe more incentive to control World Congress. Tile spam is making games take a long time and makes the game more boring. Cost adjustments for settlers and tiles to shift power away from OCC early. Ideology is too linear; Autocracy is never taken. Make different ideologies viable for different playstyles. Warfare is not present as much as I'd like.

I am pretty sure I have finished v1.5 of CiM. There is a lot of new stuff so I may have forgotten some circuit but we will see. We can't do playtests this weekend, but maybe next weekend. I think that multiple playtests will be needed for this version since there is so much new stuff. I project that v1.5 will launch sometime early in May. I am confident that the new political aspects of the Diplomatic Victory, espionage, and the World Congress will really spice up play. Below are some more specific details as they stand right now:

Diplomatic Victory/City States

• Every player starts with 2 votes
  
• Becoming allies with a City State give 2 more votes and a flat 25 points
  
• Being host of the Congress gives 1 extra vote
  
• Killing a city state reduces happiness by 4 and lowers the amount of votes needed to win a Diplomatic Victory by 1
  
• 10 votes to win Diplomatic Victory by default
  
• Once any player reaches the Information Era, a World Leader vote can be called for 150 points. If a player has greater than or equal to the amount of votes needed to win after 3 turns, that player wins.
  
• Being allies with a City State means no other player can purchase favor with that city state for as long as you are allies.
  

Espionage

• Receive a spy when any player reaches the Renaissance Era
  
• Spies can rig the election of any City State with a 50% chance of success. A success will make you the ally of that City State, reducing all other favor to 0
  
• Spies can become diplomats which grants 1 vote while they are diplomats
  
• Spies can siphon funds from a civilization with a 50% success chance. If it succeeds, you receive 25 points and they lose 25 points.
  

World Congress

• Votes commence every 5 turns starting at the Renaissance Era. Whoever reaches the era first becomes host and can choose the first resolution. You can impose tariffs on a civilization, call for the World's Fair, or vote for a new host.
  
• After 5 turns, every player has the opportunity to place their votes. Yay, Nay, or abstain.
  
• The next vote has a 50% chance of being the host, and a 25% chance for each other player. (This may change)
  
• Tariffs reduce that civilization's happiness by 4
  
• World's Fair costs 310 points to produce and each civ can put 10 points towards the World's Fair at a time. The winner gets 125 points and 6 happiness. Anyone who contributes more than 30 points gets 3 happiness.
  

Yesterday, we got a v1.4 play test in and it went very well. Everyone had a good time and I got a lot of bugs worked out. I have also made a lot of progress on the huge upcoming v1.5 update. Because of all the progress I have made, I have decided to not release v1.4 and instead wait until v1.5 is done and release that instead. I personally feel that it will be worth the wait for sure. It's going to be a juicy one to say the least. Here is a list of what is coming in v1.5:

- New Feature: Espionage (for real this time)
- New Feature: Diplomatic Victory
- New Feature: World Congress
- New Feature: City States
- Probably more bug fixes

Here is what was added in v1.4

- New Feature: Random Map Generation (Fractal)
- New Feature: In-Game Sounds
- New Feature: Eras
- Various quality of life, balance changes, and bug fixes

In regards to another espionage delay: I am going to make v1.4 a smaller update so I can release it sooner. I have very big plans for v1.5 that will involve espionage so I want to implement espionage at the same time that I implement this other big feature to reduce any chance of bugs and such. I also want more time to make sure I implement it right the first time and get all the features I want in. All the proposed changes for v1.4 have been implemented and I am going to set up a time for playtesting. There also may be other small changes as the week goes on but we will see.