Patches and Updates

Beyond the Sword's last patch is 3.19, released on Steam on Jun 11, 2009; the base game's patch 1.61 (out by Apr 2006) came with the SDK and the Pitboss server, Warlords reached 2.13 by Mar 2008, and the Steamworks update of Jun 5, 2014 replaced GameSpy for online play.

The latest version of Civilization 4 is Beyond the Sword 3.19, the expansion's final patch, which Valve released on Steam on Jun 11, 2009 with AI fixes, a cleaner No Espionage option and dozens of rule fixes; the Steam version also carries the Steamworks update of Jun 5, 2014, which replaced the closed GameSpy service for online play. Before that, the base game's patch 1.61 (on 2K's downloads page by Apr 13, 2006) rebalanced the rules and arrived with the SDK, the game core's source code for modders, and the Pitboss server for long online games, and Warlords reached version 2.13 by Mar 12, 2008. Major mods such as Realism Invictus and AdvCiv are built for 3.19. The release dates of the games themselves are on Release History.

Quick facts

Latest version	Beyond the Sword 3.19, Jun 11, 2009 (Steam)
Base game patches	1.52 by Jan 4, 2006; 1.61 by Apr 13, 2006
SDK and Pitboss	On 2K's downloads page by Apr 13, 2006
Warlords	2.13 on PC by Mar 12, 2008
Colonization	Patch 1.01 on 2K's site
Steamworks update	Jun 5, 2014, after GameSpy closed; Direct IP removed
Mac	Aspyr's 1.61 Rev A (Jul 2006) and Rev B (Jan 2007), Warlords 2.13 (Mar 2008), a Yosemite fix (Nov 2014)

Version history

Version	Game	When	What it brought
1.00	Civilization 4	Oct 25, 2005	The release, without Pitboss or the SDK
1.52	Civilization 4	By Jan 4, 2006	The patch then on 2K's downloads page
1.61	Civilization 4	By Apr 13, 2006	"a major upgrade": rule changes, new maps and scenarios, with the SDK and Pitboss
1.61 Rev A, Rev B	Civilization 4 (Mac)	Jul 2006, Jan 2007	Aspyr's fixes; Rev B added online play with PC players
2.13	Warlords	By Mar 12, 2008	Warlords' last version on PC; the Mac version matched it
1.01	Colonization	2008 or later	2K's patch for Colonization
3.19	Beyond the Sword	Jun 11, 2009	The final patch: AI, espionage and rule fixes
Steamworks	All four games on Steam	Jun 5, 2014	Steam replaces GameSpy for online play; Direct IP removed

Sources: 2K's downloads page (Jan 4, 2006, Apr 13, 2006); GameSpot's review; Macworld (Jul 30, 2006, Jan 23, 2007, Mar 12, 2008); 2K's Colonization patch page (archived Dec 2, 2010); Steam (Jun 11, 2009, Jun 5, 2014).

Patch 1.61: the base game's big update

Patch 1.61 was the base game's major update. 2K's downloads page called it "a major upgrade" with new scenarios and map scripts and listed it beside the SDK and the Pitboss application by Apr 13, 2006; on Jan 4, 2006 the page had offered patch 1.52. Firaxis's v1.61 patch notes run to well over a hundred changes, fixes and additions.

The rule changes reshaped early play. According to the v1.61 notes:

Horseback Riding became a classical tech.
Forest chops yield 20 hammers, fewer the farther the tile is from the city, and Mathematics raises chop yields by 50%.
The Kremlin cuts hurry costs by 33%; the SDI costs more and needs the Manhattan Project first.
The Expansive trait gives +3 health; the Financial trait no longer adds production to Banks.
Representation gives +2 happiness in the biggest cities and has Medium upkeep; Hereditary Rule and State Property have Low upkeep and Nationhood none.
Wonders keep producing Great Person points after they go obsolete, and the game no longer ends on a tie.
Marines and SAM Infantry upgrade to Mechanized Infantry, and Gunships move faster on railroads.

The Warlords manual's "The Updates" pages (pp. 102-105) collect the patch rules players of later versions live with, among them Barracks at 50 hammers giving 3 experience points instead of 4, West Point needing a level 6 unit and the Heroic Epic a level 5 unit, and the Spiral Minaret's +2 gold per State Religion building. The current rules are on Wonders, Civics and Leader Traits.

Patch 1.61 also rebuilt multiplayer and the map list. It added the Africa, Europe, East Asia, Eastern U.S. and South America maps, the Fantasy Realm, Fractal and Shuffle map scripts, a Require Complete Kills option, Hotseat and Play-By-Email scenarios, an admin password for online games, warnings when a joining player's XML or Python files differ, and many Pitboss fixes; it renamed the No Cheating option "Lock Modified Assets" and made "Timelines more uniform across game speeds" (v1.61 notes). The same page tells players behind a firewall without an exception list to open UDP port 2056.

The SDK and Pitboss

The SDK and Pitboss were promised at launch and delivered with patch 1.61. GameSpot's review noted that the game shipped without "the 'pit boss' persistent online multiplayer options or the software development kit". Before launch 2K had said that "In early 2006, Firaxis will give Civ fans the ultimate moddability tool in the form of an SDK", with which modders "can do anything short of changing the basic graphics engine, the core Civ engine, or the network code" (2K Games blog, Sep 20, 2005). By Apr 13, 2006 the downloads page offered the Software Development Kit, "the core game DLL source code", as a 6 MB download. Derek Paxton, maker of Fall from Heaven, recalls that Firaxis released the source code publicly in Apr 2006 after he had beta tested it (Designer Notes, Jan 5, 2009); the exact day is not on record. What modders built with it is on Mods.

Pitboss keeps a game running for players who come and go. 2K describes it as "a lightweight application" that lets players "log in and continue their progress in a game at any time" (2K Games, archived downloads page), and the Warlords manual says it came "in the game patches" as well as with Warlords (Warlords manual, p. 105). How to use it is on Multiplayer.

Warlords 2.13

Warlords' last PC version is 2.13. Steam's feature list says the expansion includes "All patches and additions to date" (Steam: Warlords), and Aspyr's Mac update to 2.13 "brings the Mac version up to date with its PC counterpart", Macworld reported on Mar 12, 2008. The day 2.13 first reached PC players is not documented by an official or press source.

Beyond the Sword 3.19

Patch 3.19 is the last official update to Civ 4. Valve's product update of Jun 11, 2009 says the changes "will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted", and Italian press reported it as a free download from Firaxis's site (Everyeye.it, Jun 15, 2009). An earlier Beyond the Sword patch, 3.17, is the version the mod Fall from Heaven II's download page asks for (Fall from Heaven: Downloads).

The 3.19 notes are mostly AI and rule fixes. Among the changes Valve lists (Steam, Jun 11, 2009):

The No Espionage option now also removes the free Great Spy from Communism and espionage-related events, and the Info screen always shows demographics when espionage is off.
The Conquistador ignores walls, "to be consistent with Cuirassier".
Barrage promotions are no longer offered to units that cannot already cause collateral damage, and collateral damage modifiers, collateral damage immunity and air defense modifiers multiply instead of add.
A bug that made culture gained through espionage "100 times lower than intended" was fixed.
Players can no longer receive obsolete resources through trade, and building or destroying a fort refreshes resource connections.
The AI changes civics during Golden Ages, uses Warlords to make "super-medic units", evacuates ships and planes from cities in danger, and no longer joins Great People to threatened cities; its Great Engineers no longer hurry Wonders in other players' cities.
Captured cities no longer give a double bonus for the Apostolic Palace, and events that invalidate the Secretary General or the Apostolic Palace's Resident force the next vote to be an election.
Sea patrols no longer attack at less than a 50% chance of winning, and Hidden Nationality units can enter friendly rival territory when starting in a city.
The Foreign Advisor's "Glance" screen returned, and "some gamecore-specific code" moved into the DLL.

Modders treat 3.19 as the standard. Realism Invictus targets Beyond the Sword or the Complete Edition "patched to 3.19" (ModDB: Realism Invictus, archived), and AdvCiv describes itself as a "Mod for Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword 3.19" (GitHub: AdvCiv). More on Beyond the Sword.

Steamworks replaces GameSpy

The Steamworks update of 2014 kept online play alive. When GameSpy closed, 2K said Civ 4 and its expansions would "temporarily go offline after May 31 while the migration takes place" (Game Informer, Apr 22, 2014). The patch posted on Steam on Jun 5, 2014 "replaces GameSpy with Steamworks for multiplayer functionality", and the game "functions identically to the previous GameSpy version with the exception that the 'Direct IP' option has been removed"; owners of disc copies could ask 2K's support for the update.

Players who wanted Direct IP got an unsupported way back. 2K put the original GameSpy-era build on Steam as a beta branch, "Original Release - UNSUPPORTED", for PC only, chosen under the game's Properties, then Betas (2K Support, archived). The Mac versions on Steam did not receive the Steamworks update, the same 2K article says, and Steam's page now says "Mac version's Online Multiplayer is no longer supported" (Steam: Sid Meier's Civilization IV).

Mac updates

Aspyr patched the Mac versions separately. Its 1.61 Rev A, announced in Jul 2006, fixed high processor use on G5 Macs, sound problems and "Globe graphical corruption"; Rev B in Jan 2007 added "cross-compatibility with the PC version of the game through Gamespy", alongside a Rev B update for Mac Warlords. In Nov 2014 Aspyr briefly pulled OS X 10.10 Yosemite support for Civ 4 and Colonization over "a python library issue", then posted "A fix is now live!". Aspyr stopped selling its 32-bit Mac games, Civ 4 among them, on Jun 17, 2019, ahead of macOS Catalina. Running the game on today's machines is covered on Running Civilization 4 Today.

What is not known

Some version facts have no official record. No official or press page names the base game's last patch after 1.61: 2K's downloads page still listed 1.61 when it was archived in Mar 2019, so this page gives no later base-game number. The exact days the SDK and Pitboss went up, the day Warlords 2.13 reached PC players and the date of Colonization's patch 1.01 are not documented either.

Frequently asked questions

What is the latest version of Civ 4? The latest version of Civilization 4 is Beyond the Sword 3.19, released on Steam on Jun 11, 2009; Steam copies also carry the 2014 Steamworks update for online play.

What did Civ 4 patch 3.19 change? Civilization 4's patch 3.19 for Beyond the Sword fixed AI behavior, made Conquistadors ignore walls like Cuirassiers, made collateral damage modifiers multiply, fixed espionage culture and Apostolic Palace bugs, and extended the No Espionage option (Steam).

What did Civ 4 patch 1.61 change? Civilization 4's patch 1.61 (2006) made Horseback Riding a classical tech, cut forest chops to 20 hammers, rebalanced traits and civic upkeep, added maps and map scripts, and came with the SDK and Pitboss (v1.61 notes).

When was the Civ 4 SDK released? The Civilization 4 SDK, the game core's source code, was on 2K's downloads page by Apr 13, 2006, and Fall from Heaven's creator recalls its public release in Apr 2006; the exact day is not documented.

Does Civ 4 still work online after GameSpy? Yes on Windows: 2K's Steamworks update of Jun 5, 2014 moved Civilization 4's online play to Steam, without Direct IP. Steam says online multiplayer on the Mac version is no longer supported.

How do I get Direct IP back in Civ 4? On Steam, Civilization 4's pre-Steamworks build is available as the unsupported beta branch "Original Release - UNSUPPORTED" (PC only), chosen in the game's Properties under Betas, per 2K Support.

Do I need to patch Civ 4 on Steam? No: Steam applies Civilization 4's updates automatically, and Valve's notice for patch 3.19 says the changes apply "when your Steam client is restarted" (Steam, Jun 11, 2009).