A good spring clean is cathartic after the long and dark winter, and Firaxis will surely feel better after releasing the Spring 2018 Update for Civilization VI later today. Along with improving joint wars, tweaking balance, fixing bug, and making the AI slightly less of a big silly, it adds some new Historic Moments for a fresh breath of springtime air in the Rise And Fall expansion. These include such world-changing moments as the building of the first seaside resort, the founding of the first national park, and the completion of the first totally rad tricked-out water park with a pool, aquarium, Ferris wheel, and all that. Ah, to be stuck indoors on a beautiful day like this…

The changes are many, but here are some that caught my eye:

Joint Wars/Third Party War Update

-Players can now ask other players or AI to join wars they are already in.

-Trade screen allows Casus Belli to be chosen when declaring a Joint War.

-Joint War now requires one party to have denounced the enemy for 5 turns.

-Leader screen makes it clear that war declaration is part of a joint war. Religion can now affect the Loyalty of a city. For players who founded a religion, cities get +3 Loyalty for following that religion, but -3 Loyalty per turn if following another player’s religion.

Governor Magnus Groundbreaker ability reduced from +100% to +50%.

Government Balance Pass

-Communism: Bonus Production per population from .4 to .6. Overall Production bonus from 10% to 15%.

-Democracy: Production per district from 2 to 1.

-Fascism: Combat Strength from 4 to 5. Bonus unit production from 20% to 50%. Policy Rebalance:

-Military Research gives +2 Science from Military Academies, Seaports, and Renaissance Walls (was +1 and did not include Renaissance Walls).

-Public Transport gives 100 Gold per Appeal when replacing a Farm with a Neighborhood (was 50).

-Ecommerce gives +2 Production and +5 Gold for all your Trade Routes (was +5 and +10 but only for international Trade Routes). Made it so when somebody wins the game in the Information Era, it reset all players to be in a Normal Age and take away all Dedication bonuses. This puts everyone on a level playing field for “One More Turn” mode. (If somebody wins in an earlier era, continue the progression of eras and Ages as normal.)

Made Turtles Luxury Resource more common.

AI evaluates joint and third party wars based on the chosen casus belli, and applies casus belli to its own offers

Fixed issues with AI strategies, including yield priorities and era strategies (as reported on community forums, thanks!).

Fixed government bonus analysis problem. AI will no longer focus entirely on monarchy.

The mention of “yield priorities” is an embarrassing bug. Turns out, the AI’s brainguts had a typo–“YEILD” instead of “YIELD”–that broke their priorities and made them behave weird, a bug which was spotted by a player. Oh dear.

The update is hitting both base Civ 6 and Rise And Fall today. See the patch notes for all the changes and details on what affects which.