Historical strategy game Ara: History Untold will get new culture mechanics in its 2.0 update, developers Oxide Games and publishers Stardock have announced. As with culture features in certain Civilization games and - well, the only other specimen that comes to mind right now is Sins Of A Solar Empire, this will allow you to claim territory without firing a shot, by dint of being way fancier and more refined than all those yokels across the border. Should the aforesaid yokels remain unmoved by your splendour, there's also a new Agitator unit that can be sent into foreign parts to foment rebellion.

Agitators aside, the Revolutions update introduces a bunch of military units specific to each civ, such as Japanese Samurai and Mongol Horse Archers, and treats leader characters to a revamp with distinct traits and abilities.

They've introduced more "realistic natural resource clustering" for map generation together with revised rules for trade, and boldly claim to have made the AI smarter. But returning players may be most beguiled by the hot and spicy talk of cutting down on micromanagement. They've replaced the old production queues with "smarter stockpile and priority controls, freeing players to focus on high-level strategy". Filth!

All of which sounds like it might go some way towards addressing Sin's criticisms in our Ara: History Untold review. "Empire-building re-envisaged as managing elaborate production chains, then re-re-envisaged as another 4X with repetitive micromanagement and weak, bland AI," was her brusque summary. It sounds like the bulk of the audience agreed, for the Revolutions update boasts of being heavily inspired by player feedback.

How does Culture work in Ara? It's a new quality of life category that generates Influence, this being a currency that can be spent on cultural traits and territory expansion, saving you the need for armed invasion. The Agitator unit is the basis for a second form of conquest that becomes available in the game's second act: ideological subversion.

According to Stardock CEO and Oxide co-founder Brad Wardell, these new methods of assimilation are partly designed to liven up the lategame, once the whole map has been exposed and the rival civs are fairly entrenched.

The update will make some technical improvements - "a sharper, scalable UI built for modern displays, with new accessibility and customization options" plus "major engine optimizations [that] deliver faster turns, smoother framerates, and reduced CPU usage". It's out 24th September, but there's a beta version available now - read more on Steam, where Wardell has also posted some lengthy reflections about the workings of strategy game AI.