Looks like the most major change is one world and by extension, I assume one bubble. Likewise, no afterlives that can hold living population probably means no alternate dimensions that can hold living population period. This seems to be an effort to prevent blokes from distancing themselves too much from the reach of other players. Something I admit to being guilty of in the past (although I don't regret it, it was fun
).
Removal of Flux and Ichor is a big one from round 2 but I'm already used to that from round 1. I suppose the increase of Essence cap is still a thing?
On that note, while I don't remember the formula for Essence gain in the old Ye Gods, it looks like it's currently well scaled for preventing gods with huge amounts of followers from having too much of an Essence income advantage over others. That'll probably
force encourage the wise to engage in as much teamwork as possible.
Seems like race creation and generic racial modifiers have been simplified now. A good call in my opinion. At the very least, I would have gone crazy for calculating the birth and death rates of so many species with so many different traits. It seemed to overcomplicate things and promote excessive min-maxing. The basic tier system of ranks seems much easier to use even from a player's perspective.
No named / official Council? We did have the world creation vote but otherwise I don't see anything council like. Player made alliances seemed to work better anyway.
Magic seems similar. Technology was simplified(?) into a tier system. Limits are put in place to prevent races with significant tech advantages which did definitely occur in the past.
Contracts are an official thing now. I remember using them in the past but it's interesting that more people may have been using them for it to become an official aspect of the game stated in the rules.
I think that's all I noticed. Anything I missed? Anyone want to elaborate on anything?