Undocumented Changes in Patch #3

[anweRU]

Alright, we have an extensive list of changes that came out with the patch. Not all items on that list are true, but there are two threads for that already.

This is for something else entirely. I noticed that the starting positions of several countries have changed, which are not documented. We obviously have to start new campaigns to notice these. So far I only took a brief look at GB & Spain. Here's what I have seen:

General:
The number of ships in the starting fleets have been reduced. GB has lost a total of three ships, Spain one. The Dutch & French fleets near England have also been nerfed.

GB Specific:
- One extra trade port at the start in England.
- Ireland has been revamped. One of the two villages is now available at the start - and is the 1st level iron smith. The order of the villages popping up has been changed as well.

I'm still on turn 1 on my GB campaign, so I'm not sure how this will affect my economic position. The "race to the trade ports" may not be a viable option with the existing fleets anymore - but GB can now spam 7 IM/turn. It can also get a total of 9 trade pacts at turn 1, which is significant. Has this made GB even more powerful vis-a-vis the rest?

What have you noticed such changes in other new campaigns?

[Maleficus]

Am I imagining things, or has Portugal's colour on the campaign map changed?

[joe4iz]

The pirates appear to me to be more aggressive so just spamming Indianmen may not work as well. I still was able to secure my share of tradespots as GB. Not as many as in the past, but war will clear some of the other spots out.

I find I am building more brigs to go in my fleets now.

[Slaists]

I'm still on turn 1 on my GB campaign, so I'm not sure how this will affect my economic position. The "race to the trade ports" may not be a viable option with the existing fleets anymore - but GB can now spam 7 IM/turn. It can also get a total of 9 trade pacts at turn 1, which is significant. Has this made GB even more powerful vis-a-vis the rest?

What have you noticed such changes in other new campaigns?

Post-patch, playing GB (turn 30'ish or so): trade is by far my largest source of income.

Using the starting fleets to 'reserve' spots in trade theaters is still a viable option. Maybe even an exploitative option since the starting pirate fleets in the trade theaters still do not attack ships (any ships) sitting on anchors. Actually, using the American fleet to defend the Caribbean from the pirates (and attack their islands), I managed to secure 4 trade spots near Madagascar (the highest ivory output) and 3 in Indonesia using the other two British starting fleets from Europe.

In general, it seems, at the start of the campaign, the AI is not as prone to rush to the trade theaters. With the same fleets I secured more slots (near West Africa and South America) once the first indiamen arrived to the 'reserved' slots.

I suspect, the trade prices have been nerfed though and have become more a function of supply/demand. Once I had a single indiaman sitting on each of my 'reserved' 4 slots near Madagaskar (the pirates had the 5th), adding more indiamen to ivory anchors seemed to produce only miniscule increases in total trade revenue.

Grabbing more anchors is still important though: helps one monopolize the trade and control the output volume (market price).

[al Roumi]

As the UP, you start with developed towns (that hadn't been before) in both Cuarcao and Ceylon.

I also think you start with a larger fleet in the East indies (approx 4 indiamen, 2 fluyts and maybe a couple of sloops/brigs) -enough to occupy all trade slots in turn one (if you can get around the pirate fleet...)

[maestro]

Yup - I've had about 10 starts as the UK pre-patch and wa\s just staring at the screen thinking wtf for ages trying to work out what was different.

I THINK that GB is two installations up: Bristol is an extra port which I don't think we used to get at the start and (as someone else said) we now get Cork as an Ironsmith. The fleets are down but land units are all the same but I think we're now better placed for the trade rush simply because we can get more IM out quicker

[Relic]

I just looked at Russia. I never played as them before, but as Sweden, I thought the School was west of Moscow, not east?

[anweRU]

I'm pretty sure the university I tore down when I captured Moscow as Sweden (pre-patch) was to the east of Moscow.

[Negative]

I haven't had a chance to play since the patch came out, but can someone tell me if the bug that caused artillery to keep firing even when you turn off fire-at-will and tell it to cease firing is fixed?

[A Very Super Market]

I would think so. I haven't had that problem any more.

[Marquis of Roland]

Maybe you want the pirates to be more aggressive on raiding trade routes instead. If they sank all the merchantmen, wouldn't they be broke and out of a job?

[Karash]

Maybe you want the pirates to be more aggressive on raiding trade routes instead. If they sank all the merchantmen, wouldn't they be broke and out of a job?

That is actually a good point, I wonder if CA has coded it this way so they can just live off the lambs and not kill the herd.

[Maleficus]

I THINK that GB is two installations up: Bristol is an extra port which I don't think we used to get at the start and (as someone else said) we now get Cork as an Ironsmith.

The farmland in Norfolk, Scotland and Ireland is also more developed than before.

[Fridgebadger]

Sorry if this was documented... but finally, selected units now show up as a different colour on the minimap. Like Medievil. And Rome

Actually makes the minimap useful now...!

[Skott]

Prepatch the Russia college was northeast of Moscow. I always thought it was placed out of the way considering how far away it was from the capitol. Did they move it? I havent started a Russia campaign under the new patch yet.

[seireikhaan]

AI battle behavior:

1) Taking cover behind walls now works every time like it should(at least thus far). I like this a lot, makes me very happy. AI takes decent enough advantage of this.

2) If the AI has decides to garrison troops in a building and you start shelling the building with artillery, the AI will evacuate the building when it gets around 60% damage. Again, makes me very happy the AI is using sense.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

If a general dies his bodyguard disappears like it was in RTW and M2TW. Luckily this doesn't apply to an admiral.

[anweRU]

Here are a couple of more things I noticed:
Spain now has the mine on Sardinia at the start of the game, instead of having to build it.

UP has both mines in Dutch Guyana. IIRC, both needed to be built pre-patch.

[Slaists]

Not sure, if that's a feature or a bug. Industrialization used to cause significant unrest before the patch. Post-patch: none of the industrial buildings add to population unhappiness.

I lean towards thinking it's a bug. Now, it's possible to have maximum enlightenment research, absolute monarchy + maximum industrialization and almost zero unhappiness... Makes the game too easy in my opinion.

[Grumfoss]

I noticed a little thing to do with Naval AI.
I noticed that when I was trying to use chainshot to bring down the rigging on a ship, every time my ship went to fire, the enemy furled its sails and the shots went buy harmlessly, as soon as my ship had fired, the sails were un-furled and away the ship went Very very impressive that they could know exactly when my ship was to fire.. (they probably could see through all the huge holes they were putting in the side of my ship.)

I have only seen this so far with Pirates as I have not fought any of the other AI factions since the patch.

Very similar to the old problem with troops stopping just outside of canister shot range whenever you clicked from solid to canister.

[anweRU]

"- Various trade bug fixes."

I'm not sure which various, but I noticed that the basic trade port can deliver only 30 bales of goods. So you need to upgrade your ports if you have:
(i) abundant, high yield plantations you want to upgrade (e.g. Martinique).
(ii) have two or more plantations per trade port (i.e. Cuba & Hispaniola, New Spain's starting territories, India).

[nafod]

I didn't see it listed, but squares now fire simultaneously from multiple sides.