Devlog
This is where I write up what changed and why. One thing to know before you read on: a world keeps its ruleset for life. When a new ruleset ships, the worlds already running carry on under the rules they were born with, and only new worlds get the change — so every entry says which ruleset it belongs to.
Full notes
The changes big enough to need the whole story, screenshots and all.
A whole new world!!!
The whole game has been redrawn. Terrain you can read, settlements that change with your era, luxury deposits you can see on the ground, townsfolk walking around your cities, and every panel rebuilt in carved wood and brass. The new look reaches every world you already play. Ruleset 39 makes luxury deposits far rarer and puts each one only where it belongs, shrinks the Palisade Wall to one tile and adds a Palisade Gate. Plus the three things I got wrong on the way.
Ruleset 38Save some for the palace
Y'all told me your gold, ivory and pottery never piled up, and you were right: your villagers bought every piece the day it was made. Now each comfort is its own want, people buy a little of everything and live better for the variety, and whatever they don't buy stays with the kingdom, so a real industry can finally pay for a palace. Plus a brake on cities that outgrow their farms.
Ruleset 37You move I move...Just like that
Armies used to walk anywhere, and time was the only thing slowing them down. Now every army carries a tank of action points: rough ground costs more, a march you can't afford is refused, and a tired army has to rest before it goes again, fastest in your own cities.
Ruleset 36Your people go shopping
Luxuries finally do something you can see. Your people buy them at a crewed market stall, pottery, beer and cloth matter more than gold, and a content town produces and pays up to 15% more the same day. Plus the tribute fix from ruleset 34, the market clean-up from 35 — and a Declare war button that's live on every world, old and new.
UpdateArmies you can call back
You pressed March and that army belonged to the map until it arrived — wrong target, war over, didn't matter. Now you can halt one where it stands, or just point it somewhere else mid-walk. No ruleset for this one: it is live on every world, old and new. Halting still won't lift a siege, and I say why inside.
Ruleset 33A tech tree that takes a season
Y'all were finishing the whole tech tree in about a week, and that was never the plan. Scholars now need a building to work in, each age's capstone wants 60% of the age, costs climb as you go, a traded tech is queued at half cost instead of handed over, twelve later techs consume goods (or gold), and seven ask you to earn them first. Every requirement is printed on the card, so nothing sneaks up on you.
Ruleset 31Armies that actually fight
Two hostile armies could sit on the same hex forever and never throw a punch, and y'all were walking armies off the tile and back on just to force the fight. Fair play, but that's a workaround for a bad rule. They now fight once a day, every day, until one side is gone, and every battle you're part of lands in your bell as a dispatch.
Ruleset history
Every ruleset since 27, summarised here. The ones that changed enough to need a full write-up have one.
| When | What changed |
|---|---|
| Ruleset 3517 September 2026 | A dead kingdom stops sellingWhen a kingdom died or lost a city, its standing sell orders and export floors stayed behind on the empty land, and whoever settled there next inherited them — a fresh capital could arrive with its starting supplies listed for sale at a dead player's price. They're now cleared the moment the land changes hands. The full story is in the ruleset 36 entry.Market |
| Ruleset 3417 September 2026 | Tribute has to be paidA broke vassal that paid you nothing still earned you the eight tribute points of your victory score, forever, because the score mistook its thirty-day grace period for a payment. Now the bonus counts only when gold actually moves: a paying vassal is worth 22 points, one that can't pay is worth 14.Vassals · Victory |
| Ruleset 321 September 2026 | The research bank has a ceilingResearch points banked while nothing was queued piled up with no limit, so a kingdom that forgot to queue for a while could come back and finish every remaining tech overnight. I saw a bank of 45,000 points in a playtest. It's now capped at the cost of the dearest tech in your current age, and the Kingdom panel finally shows you the number.Research |
| Ruleset 3020 August 2026 | Terms you set yourselfRoutes take a reserve now: a floor of stock the origin city keeps for itself. Set "keep ≥ 40" and the route only ships what sits above forty, so being generous to an ally no longer starves your own capital. I also stopped rounding small steady routes down to nothing — volumes are tracked to two decimal places.Trade · Routes |
| Ruleset 2918 August 2026 | Throwing things awayThe Stockpile tab has a Discard button on every resource now. Storage is capped and perishable goods spoil, so a warehouse jammed with something you can't sell was a slow bleed with nothing you could do about it. Now you can do something about it. Use it without sentiment.Economy · Storage |
| Ruleset 2815 August 2026 | Rivals that actually buildThe AI kingdoms weren't staffing their processing buildings — a sawmill raised late would sit empty forever. Not great for a game about trade. In a thousand-day test they went from permanently empty to fully crewed and started building the whole processed tier. Your neighbours are worth trading with now, and worth keeping an eye on.AI · Economy · War |
| Ruleset 2712 August 2026 | Routes can be defendedTrade routes used to be untouchable lines on a map. Now a route can carry guards drawn from your idle pool at half upkeep, a raider has to get through the garrison first, and a guarded route is drawn with a shield so everyone can see it's defended before they try anything.Trade · War |
Rulesets 1 to 26 predate this log and are archived. Worlds created under them keep running under those rules.
Peace,
Yadah