The 1.3 update, which will focus on diplomacy, brings more innovations to the 4X genre.

Ara: History Untold was released in September, and while it had a nice modular city-building experience, it was marred by micromanagement and lacked some key features. It lacked a deep diplomacy system, and there was no way to wipe unfavorable societies and cultures off the map with a little nuke… but both will be addressed in the diplomacy update!

Oxide Games recently announced it, and all we know about its release date is that it’s coming soon. Patch 1.3 will bring a number of features to the game. New diplomacy options and events will be added, as well as the ability to build and launch nuclear weapons. Of course, these weapons of mass destruction are the mainstay of the update, although Oxide Games hasn’t been very specific about how they will be implemented. According to the Steam announcement, we’ll be able to unlock the necessary technologies, but that’s not saying much… instead, the studio shared a few images of the game’s nuclear ICBM technology. They have their priorities straight…

Along with the nukes, the update also aims to expand the game’s diplomatic toolbox, so you don’t have to hit the big red button right away (Mahatma Gandhi did it in Civilization, and India’s leader can do exactly the same in the latest Hearts of Iron IV update…) We’ll be able to bribe, demand taxes, provide military aid, and get better tools for understanding the views of other nations. We’ll also have access to diplomatic history tracking, which will give us a detailed overview of our long-term relationships with other nations, as well as new diplomatic events that will affect AI behavior, especially in the run-up to war.

Oxide Games will be announcing more about the update next week. Hopefully it won’t be possible to create nuclear hell in every single country, but we’ll find out in time…

Source: PCGamer