*** RELEASED 7/27/2021 ***

A huge thank you to all the people who have played the Early Access Alpha build and provided feedback. A lot of the work that went into this update came straight from your requests and you have already made GC4 a better game.

Everyone who owns GC4 will have 2 products in their Epic library. One is the normal "Release" version which will be more stable builds (for an Alpha game) and the other is a "Test" version that we update frequently for players that want to test out the newest changes.

NOTE: This update will break save games. We do everything in our power to maintain save games. We know you put hours into them and don't want to have that progress lost. But the new ideology system fundamentally changed the way the game data was used by code that made prior saves unusable.

Features

• New Ideology System- Ideology is now measured on 7 spectrums. The choices you make in the game will determine your ideology. Where you are on each spectrum determines what traits you can select when you have a culture point. Leaders and citizens may have ideologies as well and will like ideologies that match their own and hate those their ideology is opposed to.
  
  You cannot be on both sides of the same spectrum (for example: you can't be both Opportunity and Equality). But your place in one spectrum doesn't impact your place in another. So you can be Authority/Opportunity/Tradition/Compassion/Secrecy/Harmony/Focus which would give you access to the traits in those ideologies. Have fun picking the ideology you prefer.
  
  The following traits are available for each ideology.
• Liberty vs Authority
  • Liberty
    Self-Governance- +10% Approval on colonies
    Mobility Rights- +2 Starbase Range
    Free Trade- Grants a free freighter and Trader citizen
    Free Markets- +10% Income
    Private Ownership- Starbases no longer pay maintenance
    Enterprise- -25% Colony and Asteroid decay
  • Authority
    Iron Fist- +10 Control
    Prestige- Double Ship Experience
    Service- Soldiers generate approval
    Discipline- Can rush multiple times a turn
    Watchful- Fleets inside our borders receive an escort fighter
    Threatening- 3 free transports
    Dangerous- Transports get escort fighters
•  Opportunity vs Equality
  • Opportunity
    Ambition- Leaders cost less to hire
    Recruiting- Reduced cooldown to recruit leaders
    Incentives- +10 Loyalty for Leaders
    Celebrate Talent- +5% Approval for X turns after recruiting a Leader
    Ruling Class- Leaders cost even less to hire
    Poaching- When you capture a Core World you also get their governor
  • Equality
    Commune- +15% Growth
    Representation- +10% Approval for Colonists
    Generational Homes- +2 Population capacity
    Shared Purpose- +1 citizens Resolve
    Happy Workers- Planets with over 50% Approval get +10% Manufacturing
    Hope- Planets with over 50% Approval get +10% Income
• Tradition vs Innovation
  • Tradition
    Sacred History- +50% Homeworld Influence
    Devotion- +10% Approval for Cleric citizens
    Code of Law- Adds an additional Policy slot
    Alluring- All Starbases generate influence
    Radiant- +10% Influence
    Lorekeepers- Gain 3 free Cleric citizens
    Dogma- Immune to Culture Flipping
  • Innovation- Research
    Eureka- +5% Approval for X turns after discovering a new Tech
    Deep Research- +3 research when surveying an anomaly
    Focus on Education- Gain 3 free Scientist citizens
    Breakthrough- +150 Research
    Logic- +1 citizen Intelligence
    Revere Science- +10% Approval for Scientist citizens
    Quantum Leap- +10% Research
• Compassion vs Cruelty
  • Compassion
    Kindness- Approval bonus based on the players Compassion awareness
    Charity- -10% Crime
    Caregiver- -10% Pollution
    Humility- +2 Diplomacy
    Favored- Anyone at war with us suffers a 10% Approval Penalty
    Popular- Factions that declare war on us anger other civs
    Consensus- All civilizations declare war on anyone who invades our homeworld
  • Cruelty
    Intimidating- +5 Intimidation
    Callous Disregard- +10% Manufacturing, -2% Approval
    Military Reverence- +3 Soldiers, Warforged Favor
    Ruthless- +20% Soldiering
    Attrition- -25% hit points for enemy ships in our borders
    Bloodthirsty- +1% Approval per conquered planet
• Transparency vs Secrecy
  • Transparency
    Amiable- +1 Diplomacy
    Negotiators- +1 Diplomatic Capital per turn
    Shrewd- +25% Credits in Trade
    Trustworthy- +1 citizen Social
    Fair Traders- +2 Diplomacy with civilizations we have trade routes with
    Reliable- Other races will trade more favorably with us
  • Secrecy
    Silver Tongue- +5 Deception
    Criminal Ties- Ally with the Pirates
    Darkness- Enemy ships in our borders are -1 to Sensor Range and Moves
    Paranoia- All of our Leaders are Paranoid
    Crime Lords- 3 free Diplomat leaders and +3% global crime
    Hidden Agenda- No one will declare war on us for the next 50 turns
• Diversity vs Harmony
  • Diversity
    Flexible- +2% to Income, Research and Manufacturing
    Inviting- 3 free random species citizens on your homeworld
    Adaptable- Gain 2 tiles on every planet
    Cultural Appreciation- +20% Tourism
    Acceptance- No Approval penalty for mixed species
    Enticing- All planets and starbases within our influence join us
  • Harmony
    Unification- +15% Approval to your homeworld
    Shared Belief- +20% Resistance
    Preferred Culture- +10% Approval for our civ species, -5% approval for other species
    Unique Voice- Civilizations that declare war on us anger other civilizations
    Core of the Empire- +30% Manufacturing on our homeworld
    Crown of the Empire- +30% Income on our homeworld
• Focus vs Calm
  • Focus
    Efficiency- Reduced Rush costs
    Impulsive- +1 Ship Moves
    Persistence- +1 citizen Diligence
    Constructive- +3 Constructors
    Planning- Increased Logistics
    Resourceful- Mined resources increase 0.1 per turn
    Perfect Production- +20% Manufacturing
  • Calm- Persuasion, Approval
    Patient- +5 Persuasion
    Pioneering- Free colony ship
    Good Neighbor- No penalty from Sharing Borders
    Agrarian- +20% Farming
    Prepared- Ships heal faster
    Cooperative- No approval penalty for overcrowding
• Navigators Civilization- The Navigators are a space-faring species that has only recently become to colonize worlds. Because of this, their starting world is low in resources and available tiles. But they start with an extra colony so they can spread quickly and the Dimensional Mirror artifact power which allows them to quickly reveal nearby solar systems. They also get more charges from Artifacts than any other civilization so artifacts in planets or anomalies are even more valuable for them.
• New Solar System generation- Things generated in a solar system are now based on the type of star. Red stars are more likely to have Durantium, Yellow stars have more habitable planets, Blue stars have more Thulium, etc.
• Placeable Capitals- Capitals are now placeable on core worlds. You choose where you want your capital to be.
• Colony Upgrades- Much like ship upgrades you may be able to find Colony upgrades while exploring the universe. These can be used to improve a colony (no core worlds).
  • Precursor Beacon- Boosts Influence
  • Precursor Elevator- Makes it easier to ship goods offworld.
  • Orbital Factory- Increases minerals.
  • Moisture Generator- Increases farming (on Desert worlds only).
  • Thermal Core- Increases farming (on Frozen worlds only).
  • Tidal Control- Increases approval (on Oceanic worlds only).
  • Orbital Prison- Reduces civilization-wide crime but reduces this planet's approval.
  • Orbital Shield- Increases resistance significantly.
• Reroll Techs- Now when you reroll techs you can decide what type of research you want your scientists to pursue and you are more likely to get techs of that type.
• New Missions
  • Pirate Threat- Another civilization is asking for help fighting off pirate attacks
  • Investigation- Another civilization has had a researcher die in deep space and they are asking you to investigate what happened.
• Sector Size selection- Galaxy options now allows you to select your sector size. So you can play on a full Galaxy with tons of tiny sectors or on a single Parsec with a huge single Sector, or any mix between.
• Citizens on Starbases- The citizen you load on a constructor becomes an Engineer and will now live on the starbase you build. And that citizen's stats will affect the Starbase. Their Social effects the influence growth, Intelligence boosts research on worlds in their Area of Effect, Diligence boosts Manufacturing on worlds in their Area of Effect and Resolve boosts the Starbases defenses. Citizens with high stats are ideal for Starbase engineers, especially for starbases with a few planets in the area.

Fixes

• Lots of crash fixes.
• Fixed missing sort button on the planet list.
• Fix for encounter being cleared by non-survey ship resulting in unconsumable anomaly.
• Fixing siege gfx on load of save game.
• Fixed issues selecting planets in the planet list.
• Fixed an error when attempting to trade negative money.
• Lots of typo fixes.
• Fixed halos sticking around in strategic mode.
• Fixed an issue causing context-specific help issues when two text hotspots were close together.
• Fixed an issue being unable to place a core world capital.
• Fixed the Festron homeworld.
• Fixed an error when the AI was attempting to eject multiple ships at once.
• Fixed an error when the diplomacy screen pops up.
• Fixed an issue causing ships ot look pixelated at certain zoom levels.
• Fixed an issue that showed class 1 planets as class 0 planets.
• Fixed an issue where loyalty differed between the leader screen and planet screen.
• Lots of MP fixes.
• Fixed bug where the ideology and race type tooltips don't update when customizing a civ.
• Fixed issue where anomaly defending fleets were not being spawned early enough for battle effects.
• Fixed an issue where the Shipyard in menu does not change what you are building if you change the order.
• Fixed an issue where main map planet huds would show stale values from other planets rather than 0 for stats, if those stats were.
• Fixed multiplayer issue with FOW where updating the local player does not clear the current exposed areas so it shows both the original local player's area as well as the new local player.
• Fixed an issue keeping the Pirates/Space Monsters/Precursor Sentinels from moving.
• Fixed an issue allowing players to make infinite citizens (aka the "Hanakocz is a cheater" bug).
• Fixed an issue killing colonists when they were placed on worlds with a population capacity penalty.

Balance

• Starvation update: Rather than a flat -10% Approval penalty when you don't have enough food your citizens (that require food) will begin to slowly increase the Approval penalty (starting at -1%) per turn until they reach -30% approval.
• Crime update: Crime is now passed from colonies to their Core World (no more hiding criminals on colonies, the crime will spread). Crime also increases the decay between a colony and a Core World (ie: the higher the Crime the less of the colonies natural resources will make it to your core world).
• Space Monsters and Precursor Sentinels are now impacted by the pirate frequency selection in galaxy setup (ie: if you turn pirates off you won't get any monsters or sentinels either).
• Tech inflation reduced from 2% to 1%.
• Balance pass on planet traits.
• Increased the amount of tiles on homeworlds.
• Pirates can now build ships.
• Pirates/Sentinels/Space monsters have reduced movement.
• Sentinels and Space monsters nerfed slightly.
• Increase base ship sensor range slightly.
• Shipyards only load citizens from sponsor core worlds (not colonies).
• Reduced recommend AI players slightly.
• Reduced the amount of anomalies slightly at common and occasional levels.
• Crimelord ability now starts you allied with the Pirates.
• Survey Module cost increased from 20 to 30.
• Asteroid Module increased from 5 to 20.
• Pulse cannon cost increased from 32 to 40.
• Railgun cost increased from 42 to 60.
• Small hull cost reduced from 30 to 20.
• Medium hull cost reduced from 100 to 60.
• Large hull cost reduced from 200 to 120.
• Huge hull cost reduced from 400 to 240.
• Cargo hull cost reduced from 40 to 30.
• Increased starting Control from 20 to 100.
• Reduced the Draft Colonist executive order cooldown from 100 to 5.
• Rebalanced most of the Colonization events.
• Pirates, Space Monsters, and Precursor Sentinels won't start as close to players.
• AI players won't start as close to the human player.
• Decreased the number of players that start in the players starting sector.
• Constructors don't make Shipyards anymore (they are built from core worlds).
• Added more variance to citizen starting intelligence, social and resolve. So there are definitely citizens that are better and worse at different specializations.
• Increased food on the Navigators homeworld.

AI

• The AI is better at defending their planets.
• This makes the AI try to research a tech to get ships as soon as it can.
• It makes the AI prefer building attack ships over other ships if there are undefended worlds.
• Changed code that picks defender's destinations to use any kind of attack ship.
• Added defenders to early strategies.
• AI builds core world capitals.
• AI does a better job placing districts.
• Space Monsters will not take over or colonize worlds.
• AI is better at colonizing planets.
• AI will no longer send freighters to worlds they can't trade with.
• The AI wont bug you as much with trade offers.

UI

• Added a research complete screen.
• Added a new UI for executive orders.
• Updated governor screen.
• Updated diplomat screen.
• Added sfx for citizen specialization.
• Diplomacy window now shows the resource bar.
• Trade window now shoes the resource bar.
• Added some missing Icons.
• You no longer need to scroll to see all the districts on large UI.
• Fixed Offset halos on Mars and Artemis, Bumped-Up Size of Halos for all Planet Types, Fixed Precursor Worlds to have Halos.
• Updated Black Hole effect.
• Added turns remaining to the research bar.
• Uncolonized planets are now selectable in the planet list.
• Planet tooltip now shows the total number of tiles.
• You can now customize your civ name, description and icon on the customize civ screen.
• Improved ship designer export dialog.
• Removed the filter headers on the quest and alert list.
• Anomalies have different icons depending on what type they are.
• Anomalies icons are yellow if they are guarded and red if they have powerful guards.
• All new quest icons.
• Updated the quick build list.
• Better tooltips on event and mission choices.
• Added a popup explaining subspace streams.
• DL Bradley got Rhinoplasty.
• Improved spacing on the resource bar.
• Updated the racial trait icons.
• New Xeloxi leader movies.
• Rewrote most missions and events by a good writer (ie: not me).
• Added additional advisor recommendations.
• Updated the mission popup screen.
• Zooming is now limited until the player can see subspace streams.
• Lots of new icons.
• Callsigns are no longer mandatory. Removed callsigns for Pirates, Space Monsters and Precursor Sentinels.
• Added events introducing the Executive Order and Leader screen if the player hasn't checked them out yet.
• Added SFX to invasions.
• Updated Galactic Zoom to add power bars and improve the layout.
• Diplomats that steal credits from the civilization they are assigned to now use notifications to tell you rather than an event popup.
• New survey vfx.
• Sponsor planet is now on the ship yard screen (click on it to go to the planet).
• Sponsored shipyard is on the planet screen (click on it to go to the shipyard).
• Adjusted the Mission log popup area.

Ships

• Navigators are a selectable ship style
• New Navigator ships
• New Navigator starbases
• New Festron starbases
• New Mimot starbases