Changelog v3 100s - Heliomance/Uncharted-Horizons GitHub Wiki

_{Changelog · Design document — Changelog}

Breakthrough IDs link to the breakthrough that holds the ID today. A few early entries predate a renumbering or a merge, so an ID there may since have passed to another breakthrough.

• A dual path is recorded twice — in the breakthrough's own text ("Also discoverable through …") and in the other focus's "Also reachable in this focus" line — and the two had drifted apart in eight rows. Each is now completed from whichever record had it, so every dual path either record stated is kept:
  • Recorded only in the row's text: Biomass Power Plant (ES03-W), through Farming, and Phase Exchange (TR16), through Chemistry — both added to those foci's lines.
  • Recorded only in the focus's line: Massively Parallel Bio-Processing (GN09), Organic Neural Architecture (GN11) and Animate Intelligence (GN14), through Computing (v3.2's text said so for the first two), and Room Temperature Superconductor (EL12), through Electronics as well as Materials Science — their texts now say so.
  • Naming a focus that no longer exists: the Telegraph (EL04) and the Printing Press (MC06) were "also discoverable" through a Communications focus; the sentences are gone.
• One format for every dual-path line: Computing's line now names each breakthrough's home as the others do, and Energy Systems' two lines are one.
• 22 breakthroughs are reachable through more than one focus, with 26 extra focus entries in all.
• Battery check 21: both records of every dual path agree, and every focus they name exists.

• The fork's eras get their own boundaries on the Insight curve (§2, Era boundaries, a new table). They had been base Civ V's tech-column costs, which left discoveries bunched — about 1.5 a turn in the Ancient era, 1.2 in the Modern and Atomic, 0.4 in the Space era. Redrawn, every era runs at about 0.8 a turn (0.79–0.83 measured), about 260 discoveries over 320 turns. The Ancient era grows from about 21 turns to 31, the Modern from 48 to 60 and the Atomic from 33 to 49; the Early Modern shrinks from 58 to 52 and the Space era from 50 to 29. Era prices follow — the span ÷ the expected discoveries — and were found by iterating against the harness, damped, since the Space era's realised count moves with its span.
• Game length now matches base Civ V at every skill level. The anchor is base Civ V's own: a strong player wins around turn 260, a good one around 320, a casual one around 400 (community records — Hall of Fame and CivFanatics benchmarks, r/civ). The fork had run about 5% faster at every level; redrawn, it takes about 262, 320 and 396. One Insight curve serves all three because the fork's extra Science scales with income.
• The Space era is provisional. It realises only about 24 discoveries, so an even pace makes it short; whether it should instead carry more content or run slower — it is where the FTL puzzle is solved — is decided with the FTL methods' re-audit (deferred).
• Cost scaling is solved by turn, not by era. §7's building column had matched each fork era against the same base era, which held while the two lined up in time; after the redraw it would have let fork cities spend 20–55% more of their Production on buildings than base cities at the same turn. Now, by the end of every fork era, the fork's buildings have taken about 1.1× the share of a city's Production that base Civ V's had by the same turn. Buildings: ×0.72 Primitive to Classical, ×0.86 Medieval, ×0.64 Early Modern, ×0.52 Modern, ×0.48 Atomic, ×0.45 Space and Interstellar. The unit column is unchanged — a city's Production at an era's end depends on its buildings, which arrive by era, not on where the boundaries sit.
• The tools keep two sets of boundaries: the fork's, redrawn, and base Civ V's own, so its calibration (the good player at turn 320) and its era timings are untouched.
• The calendar is unchanged: on Unciv's Standard schedule a game now ends about where base Civ V's does for the same player — the 1700s for a strong player, about 1900 for a good one, about 2000 for a casual one. Whether the fork should have an era-aligned calendar of its own is still open.

• DNA Structure needs Germ Theory discovered, not validated. When Mendelian Genetics merged into it (v3.101), its prerequisite was written as "Germ Theory validated" — Mendelian Genetics had needed only Germ Theory discovered. Germ Theory is attempted everywhere but validates only in Germ worlds, so as written DNA Structure, and the genetics line after it, would have been closed in Miasma and Humoral worlds: about 40% of games. Corrected.
• Battery check 20: a prerequisite on a validated result may appear only on a row that declares the matching world in its own text ("Only in Miasma worlds", "Substance only.", "Germ-exclusive"). Every such row did, except DNA Structure.

• Distillation needs Alchemy again (Alchemy + Controlled Fire, as before v3.105). The merge had carried over Acid/Base Discovery's second route, Charcoal with Iron Smelting, but metalworking leading to the Distillery and Whisky made little sense. With that route gone, the line Distillation opens — Oxygen Theory, Explosives, the Electricity focus, the Voltaic Pile, Refrigeration — needs Alchemy too; Alchemy is a Classical CORE row, so it is always reachable.
• Acid/Base Discovery's Mine Production is dropped. Without the metalworking route it no longer fitted the row, and it is not needed for balance: the Production ledgers never counted civilisation-wide tile bonuses (base Civ V's own Chemistry mine upgrade included), and fork mines still match or beat base mines at every stage — +1 from Deep Shaft Mining in the Ancient era against base's +1 from Chemistry in the Renaissance. What Distillation keeps of Acid/Base Discovery is its place as the gateway to the acid-dependent chemistry and electricity.

• Eight Classical, Medieval and Early Modern merges:
  • Trigonometry → Basic Algebra: the mathematics of Alexandria and Baghdad. Flight, the Flying Buttress and Geodesic Structures follow Basic Algebra.
  • Epistemology → Formal Logic: Aristotle's logic and his account of knowledge. The University, the Renaissance, Scientific Method, Dialectics and Existentialism follow Formal Logic.
  • Acid/Base Discovery → Distillation, which keeps the better-known name: the mineral acids were themselves products of distillation — vitriol into oil of vitriol, saltpetre and alum into aqua fortis. Distillation carries the Distillery, Whisky and the acid-leaching Mine Production, and is reached through Alchemy, or Charcoal with Iron Smelting — the reading Acid/Base Discovery's note always intended, which its prerequisite as written had not said. The Electricity focus, Oxygen Theory, Explosives, Systematic Element Analysis, the Voltaic Pile, Refrigeration and Caloric Storage follow Distillation.
  • Sternpost Rudder → Caravel: the rudder made the great hulls possible. The Caravel carries the Galleass and now also needs the Trireme and Iron Smelting.
  • Double-Entry Bookkeeping → Banking: the Medici kept double-entry books. Banking carries the National Treasury.
  • Static Electricity → Voltaic Pile: Galvani's frogs and Volta's pile were one line of experiment. The Pile takes over Static Electricity's prerequisites and its Museum Culture.
  • Microscope → Telescope: the same lens-makers made both, Janssen around 1590. DNA Structure, Germ Theory and Phage Therapy follow the Telescope.
  • Nation-State → Public Education: the nineteenth-century state schooled and conscripted together. Public Education carries the Constabulary, the Police Station and the extra Unit Supply, and keeps its own prerequisites, so CORE closure holds.
• Prerequisites no longer rely on operator precedence. "CH01 or F03 + ME04" and "(CH01 or F03 + ME04)" look alike but read differently — "+" bound more loosely than "or" outside a parenthesis, and "or" more loosely than "+" inside one. Now, whenever a cell uses both, every group of alternatives is in parentheses ("WA10 + (ME05 or ME08)") and so is every alternative that needs several rows ("G02 + (G07 or (FA01 + FA02))"). The 25 cells that leaned on precedence are rewritten; a comparison of every row's reading before and after shows that none changed except the merges and two intended fixes — Distillation's route, and Electric Aviation, which now reads as superconductors, or batteries with miniaturisation (it had required Miniaturization on both routes). §7's notation says so, and battery check 19 holds every cell to it.
• Effect: the familiar world's realised discoveries fall from about 273 to about 264 — about 0.87 a turn.
• The thinning phase is complete. From v3.99 to here: about 307 realised discoveries a game to about 264 (1.01 to 0.87 a turn), and about 548 breakthroughs to about 493 — stepping stones first, then moderate skeleton merges, with every canonical object kept, every Competing Solution and World Truth row untouched, and UNCOMMON, RARE and UNIQUE rows left as the source of variety between games. Next: bring each World Truth axis level, then redraw the era boundaries.
• Tallies: 493 breakthroughs; CORE 137, STANDARD 204.

• Five Atomic merges:
  • Operating System → Programmable Computer: a computer and the system that makes it usable. Cryptography, Narrow AI, Quantum Computing's silicon route and the Bio-Computing gateway follow Programmable Computer.
  • Networking → Internet, which takes over Networking's prerequisites, its capital-connected Science and its Stock Exchange Gold.
  • Database Systems → Internet: the Database Centre — the networked age keeps its records in data centres.
  • Genetic Crop Engineering → Genetic Engineering: the two were one idea, and Genetic Engineering's own growth was already labelled "engineered crops". Genetic Engineering now also needs Selective Breeding.
  • Kevlar/Armor Textiles → Carbon Fiber: the Flak Jacket promotion; Carbon Fiber now also needs Polymer Science.
• Kept: Machine Learning, part of the tuned machine-intelligence Competing Solution (the Perceptron alternative is balanced against the rewards Machine Learning gives AI Labs) and a prerequisite of a Vitalist row.
• Effect: the Atomic era's realised discoveries fall from about 39 to about 37, but the Space era rises by about one — the late game is limited by game length, and Insight saved in the Atomic era reaches more of the Space era — so the game total moves only from about 274 to about 273.
• Tallies: 501 breakthroughs; CORE 142, STANDARD 207.

• Eight Modern merges:
  • Electric Motor → Electric Generator: the motor is the generator run backwards. The Dirigible's alternative and the Ion Drive follow the Generator.
  • Telephone → Wireless Transmission: Bell and Marconi, telecommunication by wire and without. Wireless Transmission now also needs Precision Machining.
  • Television → Radio: broadcasting by sound and then by picture. Radio carries the Broadcast Tower Gold, the Sydney Opera House, the CN Tower and the City-State influence, and now also needs Lens Grinding.
  • Heat Exchanger → Turbine Design: the steam plant's two halves. Turbine Design now also needs Bessemer steel; the Fission and Fusion Plants and the elemental reactor plant (ES15) follow it, so both worlds keep their route.
  • Cryogenics → Refrigeration: Linde built the refrigerator and then liquefied air. Refrigeration now also needs the Periodic Table; Superconductivity and Cryogenic Preservation follow it, and Helium Extraction's accelerator applies to it.
  • Set Theory / Formal Logic → Topology: the new mathematics of the same decades. Topology takes over Set Theory's prerequisites, so it keeps its depth; Cryptography, Quantum Mechanics and Hidden Variables follow it.
  • Solid Fuel Rocket → Rocket Propellant: the first rockets were weapons, made from the propellant itself. Rocket Propellant carries the Rocket Artillery and Mobile SAM, and still opens the Rocketry focus, whose first row is now Liquid Fuel Rocket.
  • Hydroelectric Dam → Dam Construction: the dam and its turbines. Dam Construction carries the Hydro Plant and now also needs the Electric Generator.
• Kept: the Rigid Airship, part of the airship chain that the Airship Disaster acts on.
• Effect: the Modern era's realised discoveries fall from about 68 to about 60, and the game's from about 282 to about 274. The Modern price rises from 672 to 761.
• Tallies: 506 breakthroughs; CORE 144, STANDARD 210.

• The thinning pass moves to moderate skeleton merges, aiming at about 260 discoveries a game (about 0.85 a turn). Stepping stones alone would have left it near 290. A skeleton merge combines two adjacent foundational steps of the same theme and era into one larger breakthrough; every canonical object keeps a home, CORE closure holds, and nothing moves across eras. The merges fall mostly in the Ancient, Modern and Atomic eras — the densest, at about 1.9, 1.5 and 1.3 discoveries a turn — so that era lengths stay sensible when the boundaries are redrawn.
• Eight Ancient merges:
  • Lever and Pulley → Gearing: lever, pulley and gear together, as in Hellenistic mechanics. Gearing now needs the Wheel and Geometry.
  • Zero and Place Value → Geometry: arithmetic and geometry together, as in Babylon and Alexandria. Geometry keeps its own prerequisites, so roads and arches are not delayed; Basic Algebra, Binary Mathematics, Mayan Vigesimal Mathematics and TR18 follow Geometry.
  • Flood Control → Aqueduct: the two shared their prerequisites. The Aqueduct now carries Remove Marsh, the Polder gate and the Flood-plain Food; the Dam follows it.
  • Postal System → Arch Construction: the Post Office rides the roads.
  • Selective Breeding (Animals) → Selective Breeding: one row for plants and herds, now needing Herd Animal Domestication as well as Seed Saving, and discoverable through Farming or Animal Husbandry (dual-path). Carrier Pigeons and Veterinary Medicine follow it.
  • Sulfur Mining → Geological Observation: sulphur is gathered where vents and springs bring it up. Gunpowder, Pyrotechnics and Greek Fire follow Geological Observation.
  • Megalithic Construction → Monumental Architecture: Stonehenge, the Pyramids and the Mausoleum, with the border-culture discount; the Megalithic Observatory follows it.
  • Maritime Trade → Sail Invention: the Port — the Phoenicians traded as soon as they sailed.
• Four CORE rows gain content that only some civilisations used to reach: the Post Office, the Port, Remove Marsh, and Stonehenge and the Pyramids.
• Effect: the Ancient era's realised discoveries fall from about 39 to about 32, and the game's from about 288 to about 282. The Ancient price rises from 8.2 to 9.6.
• Tallies: 514 breakthroughs; CORE 147, STANDARD 215; about 19 dual-path rows.

• Apiculture is cut outright. Its one effect, +1 Gold from Citrus, fitted no neighbouring row naturally, nothing depended on it, and it did not matter to the balance.
• Ten stepping stones merge into their natural hosts, each effect copied verbatim and every dependent re-pointed:
  • Wool Processing → Weaving: Sheep Production and tundra Happiness, an era earlier.
  • Pitch and Tar → Charcoal Production: tarred roads and caulked hulls — wood tar is the kiln's by-product. Greek Fire now needs Charcoal Production and Sulphur.
  • Mechanical Seed Drill → Gearing: −25% Farm build time; the seed drill is a geared machine, Han-era in China.
  • Camera Obscura → Lens Grinding: +1 Culture per Artist; the two had the same prerequisites in the same era.
  • Insurance → Probability Theory: +10% Gold. Insurance was found by about 40% of civilisations and Probability Theory by about 83%, so Early Modern Gold rises; the Gold budget sat below base and has room. Futures Market now needs TR05 + Probability Theory + Statistics.
  • Mendelian Genetics → DNA Structure, which takes over its prerequisites and its +1 Food from Pasture.
  • Synthetic Fibers → Polymer Science: +15% towards Land units — nylon is a polymer. Kevlar now follows Polymer Science.
  • Supersonic Flight → Jet Engine: Fighter range and strength. Scramjet now needs the Jet Engine, Composite Materials and Carnot Efficiency.
  • Graphene Production → Nanotechnology: +5% Production. Dyson Sphere Materials now follows Nanotechnology.
  • Fiber Optics → Networking: +1 Gold from Stock Exchanges.
• Kept, though the scan flagged them: Satellite Communications, the atomic twin of Aether Telegraphy (merging it into the world-neutral Satellite Technology would give elemental worlds both twins); Carnot Efficiency, whose natural host, Laws of Thermodynamics, dead-ends in Caloric worlds — both wait for the World Truth phase.
• Effect: the familiar world's realised discoveries fall from about 299 to about 288 (307 when the pass began), about 0.95 a turn. With this batch the tree has essentially no stepping stones left.
• Tallies: 522 breakthroughs; STANDARD 220.

• Twelve rows merged, their objects moving with them and every dependent re-pointed:
  • Phalanx Tactics — cut: its fork Phalanx duplicated the canonical Spearman of the row before it.
  • Pike and Shot → Drill and Discipline, which gains the Lancer and the gunpowder-versus-mounted bonus.
  • Road Building → Arch Construction: roads and their bridges together. Roads now need Geometry rather than Specialisation of Labour, both CORE rows of the same era.
  • Prefabrication → Assembly Line, which gains +15% towards all buildings and +25% towards Military Bases.
  • Translation Movement → University, which gains Oxford University.
  • Opera → Renaissance, which gains the Opera House, Ceilidh Hall, Theatre and Sistine Chapel — opera began in Renaissance Florence, and the Sistine ceiling dates from 1512.
  • Empiricism → Scientific Method, which gains the Experimental Laboratory; every civilisation now has it rather than about 85% of them, about +0.3 Science per Early Modern city, inside the Science budget.
  • Mass Media → Television, which gains the Sydney Opera House, the CN Tower and the City-State influence.
  • Cast Iron → Steel Production, which gains +1 Gold from Iron; Cannons and the Atmospheric Engine now accept Steel Production where they accepted Cast Iron.
  • Tinplate/Canning → Nation-State, which gains +2 Unit Supply per city — the nation in arms, fed from cans (Napoleon offered the prize Appert won in 1810).
  • Magnetism Discovery → Geological Observation, which gains the iron sorting and the lodestone's Culture, and becomes the Compass's prerequisite.
  • Newtonian Mechanics — cut: its +1 Range for Siege units duplicated Calculus's, and the two had stacked.
• §7's canonical-object table follows the moves: the Lancer to WA28; the Road to CO03; Oxford University to CU06; the Opera House, Ceilidh Hall, Theatre and Sistine Chapel to CU07; the Sydney Opera House and CN Tower to EN05.
• Effect: the familiar world's realised discoveries fall from about 305 to about 299 (from about 307 when the pass began). Era prices rise most in the Early Modern era, from 412 to 453. The Space era fills as earlier eras thin (about 17 to 20), since freed Insight reaches the late tree sooner.
• Tallies: 533 breakthroughs; CORE 150, STANDARD 231.