The Economy Balance Pass

Building costs and extractor yields

Both were derived from formulas that nobody could check against the screen. They are now tables, which is what makes the rest of this pass verifiable.

• ⇄reworked
  Upgrade costs from level 9 up

  WasA formula, which produced cost cells a city could not pay at the tier that unlocked them.

  NowA published table per building. Levels whose progression tier is 8 or lower are frozen at exactly the values they had, so nothing you were part-way through has moved.

  Every cost cell is now payable at its own tier: the storage a city has when the upgrade unlocks is enough to hold what the upgrade costs.

• ⇄reworked
  Extractor yields per collection

  WasA base yield multiplied by a production ratio and normalised against the cooldown.

  NowA yield per level per extractor, read straight from a table. Tier 7 and below are frozen at their previous values, and the top end lands on the 10:8:4:1 wood, stone, clay, metal ratio.
• improved
  Town Hall upgrades require the matching Storehouse

  The Town Hall could outrun the storage meant to support it, leaving a city unable to hold the cost of its own next upgrade.

• improved
  The Welcoming's storage penalty only binds from Town Hall 10

  It applied from the moment the mastery was taken, which could put the Storehouse level that grants the storage out of reach.

Where Cultural Influence comes from

Arriving somewhere was the dominant source and everything else was rounding error. That balance has been inverted: arrivals pay roughly half what they did, and exploring, discovering and hosting pay considerably more.

• reduced
  Arrival Cultural Influence halved

  WasA difference of 1,000 in city score paid 63 Cultural Influence, 5,000 paid 185, 10,000 paid 293.

  Now32, 93 and 146. Every breakpoint on the curve is halved. The score thresholds themselves are unchanged.
• ⇄reworked
  Your envoy's arrival skills no longer compound

  WasEach arrival skill multiplied the result in turn, so holding several of them multiplied out to far more than the sum of their parts.

  NowThey add into a single pool, applied once, capped at +150%. Guest Registry has its own +50% cap inside that pool, because it grows with the size of the world rather than with a choice you made.

  Bonuses from the host's side, and temporary buffs, are unaffected and still apply after the pool.

• improved
  Exploration outcomes pay roughly double

  WasOutcome Cultural Influence was small enough that exploring for it was not worth the cost.

  NowA flat value per outcome: 10 for a minor resource find, 30 for a significant one, 30 for a point of interest, 25 for a buff, 20 for a silent encounter, 10 for a debuff, and 5 to 10 for atmosphere. Buff outcomes also come up more often.

  Lore outcomes are deliberately not on this list. They pay their fragment's own value, which is finite.

• improved
  Discovering a ruin or a wonder pays a flat amount

  WasA base amount plus a first-discovery bonus, worked out from the discoverer's standing.

  Now150 for a ruin and 1,000 for a wonder, the same for everyone.

  A tile holds at most one of either and it can only be found once, so every one of these is a world first by construction. There is nothing for a first-discovery bonus to distinguish.

• improved
  Hosting a school pays the host city

  WasNothing, unless the envoy stationed there held Peer Review.

  NowThe school's city earns 100% of the trainee's base training Cultural Influence, or 150% with Peer Review.

  Measured against the trainee's unbonused base, so a visitor's own bonuses never inflate the host's cut. Training your own envoy at your own school still pays neither side.

• improved
  School training pays through to level 20

  WasThe training curve stopped at School level 16. A School read at a higher level paid nothing at all.

  NowIt continues to level 20, at 105, 110, 115 and 120 per hour.
• reduced
  City influence only counts foreign visitors

  Visits between your own cities were contributing to your city's influence.

Diamonds

• ⇄reworked
  A diamond comes out of the land it was found on

  WasA discovery created a diamond from nothing.

  NowIt draws one from that land's natural reserve, which is finite. The rates below are a drain schedule, not a faucet.
• improved
  Discovery rates doubled

  The Foundry's chance is 1% per level above the first. Claiming a land now rolls 2 to 12 diamonds, multiplied by the land's rarity, where it previously rolled a narrower band.

• ◆new
  NEW:A diamond discovery is announced, and pays the city

  Every discovery raises a toast and grants the city 25 Cultural Influence. It previously appeared only as a change in your balance.

• ⇄reworked
  Keen Expedition and Expedition Stride

  The diamond boost effects have been reworked to follow the new rates rather than the old flat chances.

City and empire mastery

A numeric sweep across the mastery effects that were furthest out of line.

• improved
  Diligence

  Was5% cooldown reduction on a boosted terrain, 8% neutral, 10% on a penalised one.

  Now6%, 9% and 12%.
• improved
  Teaching

  Was+5%.

  Now+7.5%.
• improved
  Overdrive

  WasDepleted the land 5x faster for its 3x output.

  Now3x faster.

  Overdrive also now fires during Collect All, instead of being available only on a single-extractor collection.

• reduced
  Expansion

  Was+40% storage.

  Now+30%.
• ⇄reworked
  Secondary resource output

  WasBetween 15% and 50% of the equivalent-tier production, depending on the pairing.

  NowA flat 17.5%.
• reduced
  Mentor

  Mentoring your own envoy now carries a 15% penalty, so the mastery rewards helping other players rather than yourself.

• improved
  Foundation

  Now discounts upgrades in its own city by 10%, which it never did.

• improved
  Verdant Blessing

  WasDoubled all Cultural Influence.

  NowDoubles exploration Cultural Influence for 72 hours.

  It was described as applying to everything and did not. The card now says exploration.

Trade routes on the map

• ◆new
  NEW:A route indicator on every destination screen

  The Nearby list and the travel confirmation drawer both show whether a city is already routed to yours, so you can see it before committing an envoy to the journey.

• ◆new
  NEW:A filter for routed cities

  A chip on the Nearby panel cycles between all cities, routed cities and unrouted ones.

• reduced
  Envoy actions are disabled while a trade route is unclaimed

  An envoy that had established a route but not yet claimed it could be sent away, stranding the route.

The Embassy panel

• ◆new
  NEW:One home for residencies on the city page

  A Diplomatic Presence row on the city page opens a panel listing the envoys currently in residence at your city, each with their credential and how much of their term is left. The map shows residency nameplates, gold while a term runs and green when it is claimable.

• improved
  An envoy in residence reads as In Residence

  WasIdle.

  NowIn Residence.

Fixes

• Resource caches found while exploring reach the player who found them.
• Depositing at the Library grants its Cultural Influence, and hosting at a hotel grants the host payout.

  Both were being calculated and then not applied.

• Decoding a wound fragment recalculates the envoy's level.
• A trade route that already exists in reverse is refused.
• Creating a trade route checks the envoy is free, not merely that it is visiting.
• A circuit is measured from where each leg actually sets out.
• The first Storehouse requires a Sawmill.
• Route planning no longer previews a seventh waypoint at 6 of 6.

  Clicking the last waypoint you placed now takes it back, the committed route stays visible while you plan, and the preview follows the cardinal path the envoy will actually walk.

• Waypoint numbers stay the same size as you zoom.
• The Nearby list answers whether this envoy has delved a ruin.

  It was answering for any of your envoys, so a ruin already delved by one envoy looked unavailable to all of them.

• The Prospector diamond chance follows the Town Hall, not the extractor.
• The Foundry efficiency card no longer promises a trace resource it does not produce.
• The city roster is not served from the browser cache.

  A residency that had just ended could keep showing as active.

• A finished residency term cannot be forfeited.