*** RELEASED 8/24/2021 ***

Features

• Commanders- Every faction has a set of seven command ships they have access to if they meet the technology requirements and assign a Leader to commander them. These are unique ships, once they are destroyed they are gone forever, and they have unique abilities. Also, the Leader assigned to them will modify the ship's stats. The leader's Intelligence modifies the ship's Experience, Diligence modifies the ship's Hit Points and Resolve modifies the ship's Attack.
• Battle Actions- We are bringing the battle to the main map. The first step of that was the multi-turn battles that have been in from the beginning, allowing players to flee or seek reinforcements for prolonged battles. The next step comes in this update with ranged Missile attacks. Missile ships are now able to fire at enemies up to 3-7 tiles away depending on the strength of the missile. You no longer have to chase after that lone pirate ship, send a missile to take care of him.
• Passive Actions- Ships have also been given the ability to apply passive effects to allies and enemies in their Area of Effect. Ships have been added that automatically Repair allied ships near them, provide Point Defense to allies around them and Slow nearby enemies.
• Reform Government- A new Executive Order has been added that allows you to attempt to reform your government. More advanced governments provide significant bonuses but require an election to pass. Elections are based on the Approval of your citizens, so you will need to keep your citizens happy if you want to advance. More advanced governments also increase the Expectations of your citizens, making it more difficult to keep them happy enough to continue advancing.
• Policies- Policies are the primary way your ideology is determined. You start with two policy slots available and earn more with government upgrades (there are also some ability and culture traits that can provide more). They allow you to customize your empire, and make changes during periods of crisis, as well as determine the type of empire you want to run. Are you creating a compassionate utopia or a dystopian regime build on the broken backs of your citizens?
  • Conscription
  • Craftsmanship
  • Cultural Values
  • Rationing
  • Unregulated Corporations
  • Unregulated Research
  • Ban Dissent
  • Block Embassies
  • Bureaucracy
  • Emergency Coalition
  • Eugenics
  • Foreign Dumping
  • Free Housing
  • Free Media
  • Free Trade
  • Mandatory Service
  • Open Gun Markets
  • Open Immigration
  • Police State
  • Protect the Planet
  • Research Grants
  • Slave Labor
  • Universal Health Care
  • Urban Planning
  • Wealth Tax
  • You Are Just a Number
• Diplomatic Capital- A new resource has been added. This is generated by your Diplomats and can also be an award from missions and events. Diplomatic Capital is used in trades, and good for getting deals from the AI without having to sacrifice other assets. Or for storing up when you really need the AI to be on your side. It will also be used in the United Planets in a future update.
• Influence is a Planet Stat- Every planet now has a certain amount of Influence along with its Wealth, Technology, Fertility and Minerals. When it is colonized this Influence is provided to its Core World. 
• Imprison your Citizens- Need a way to deal with criminal citizens that are causing more trouble on your planets than they are worth? Or maybe a citizen is just dragging down your planet's Approval with his libertarian ideals and he needs to spend some time in the gulug to learn to appreciate you more. By spending a little Control you can Imprison your citizens, which keeps them from being productive, but also removes them from contributing to the planet's Approval. Once imprisoned they must stay in for at least 25 turns. Imprisoning a citizen will remove the Criminal trait, but they will get the Ex-Convict trait.
• Terran Update- The Terrans gained a selection of new Command Ships.
  • Terran Command Ships
    • Victory- Able to launch ranged missile attacks which get more powerful per Level.
    • Curiosity- Generates research when surveying anomalies.
    • Perseverance- A strong defensive ship that generates Approval for any planet it is defending.
    • The Gaze- Boosts the Beam weapons and Shields of all ships in its fleet.
    • Hivebase One- This mobile drone platform boosts the Manufacturing of any planet it is stationed at and automatically repairs any damaged ships within 3 tiles.
    • Apex- A very strong defensive ship with a Stasis Field that slows all enemies that come near it.
    • The Sickle- A far-reaching missile whip that can fire across a solar system to destroy enemies.
• Navigator Update- The Navigators were released with the 0.45 update, but more changes are coming for them. They now start with the ability to see and travel on Subspace streams, giving them a jump on intra-sector travel. But their alien nature keeps them form being able to form treaties with other civilizations. They can still trade, but they are blocked from more advanced 
  • Navigator Command Ships
    • Unblinking Eye- A survey ship with unlimited range.
    • Curiosity- Generates research when surveying anomalies.
    • Slip's Comet- A small fighter that gains additional Moves with every Level.
    • The Core- Generates Antimatter from Surveying.
    • Last Memory- Generates Research from every battle.
    • The Eternal City- Strong, slow defensive ship that completely heals after every battle and boosts the Approval and Research of any planet it is stationed at.
    • Voyager- A massive warship with unlimited range.
• Drengin Unlocked- Imprisoning citizens is a useful tool for the occasional problematic citizen in most empires. But the Drengin are much more adept at it. Not only do they have access to the Slave Labor policy, but they can build the Prison Labor Camp improvement which boosts Manufacturing for every Prisoner on the planet and the Prison Research Lab which boosts Research for every Prisoner on the planet (what are prisoners for if not for dangerous and unethical experiments?). Look forward to a civilization full of happy citizens (well, those we don't have locked up at least).
  • Drengin Command Ships
    • The Path of Rhuin- A small fighter that doesn't need any Logistics so it can strengthen any fleet.
    • The Anvil- This small ships Beam Attack gets stronger with every Level.
    • Iron Fist- Boosts Manufacturing for any world it is stationed at.
    • Unyielding Will- Generates Control for each battle it wins and provides Point Defense for any Fleet within 3 tiles.
    • The Lash- A strong attack ship that completely heals after every battle.
    • Skyfire- A strong warship that increases the Kinetic Attack of its entire Fleet and boosts the Manufacturing of any world it is stationed at.
    • Heart of Conquest- The Drengin flagship that boosts the Beam Attack of its entire Fleet and boosts Approval of any world it is stationed at.
• Festron Unlocked- Anyone who has played against the Festron knows that once they get onto your planets they slowly start to consume your citizens and replace them with new Festron. But, playing as the Festron you get to control this process. Anytime you have a foreign species on your planet (not counting the Yor or Onyx Hive, who are immune to this) you can select to Consume the foreign citizen. Doing so produces a new Festron with all the traits of the citizen they consumed, as well as a bonus trait bases ont he species they consumed (for example, consuming a Navigator citizen will spawn a Festron citizen with the "Hatched from Navigator" trait which gives that Festron an Intelligence bonus). Consuming a citizen also gives a temporary Approval bonus to the world. So the next time an event asks you if you want to allow a foreign species to make its home on one of your Festron worlds... the answer is "Yes, just in time for dinner."
  • Festron Command Ships
    • The Path of Rhuin- A small fighter that doesn't need any Logistics so it can strengthen any fleet.
    • The Mantis- Scrap ship that generates Credits from each successful battle.
    • The Claw- A hull full of eggs allows them to capture 25% of the ships they defeat in battle and replace them with a new Festron crew.
    • Last Memory- Generates Research from every battle.
    • The Lash- A strong attack ship that completely heals after every battle.
    • Charon- A legendary ship that gains Moves for every level and has 100% chance to capture any ship it defeats in battle.
    • The Sickle- A far-reaching missile whip that can fire across a solar system to destroy enemies.
• Mission system gained the ability to dynamically add objectives.
• New Ministry positions
  • Ministry of Recruitment- Increases the number of Leaders available for Recruitment and lowers their cost based on the minister's Social.
  • Ministry of Production- Increases Manufacturing for your empire based on the minister's Diligence.
  • Ministry of Defense- Increases Hit Points of all of your ships based on the minister's Resolve.
• The game remembers your settings the last time you customized a faction and gives you the choice to reload those settings next time you play as them.
• Proximity to other Players added as a game setup option. You can decide if you want to start close to AI, up to totally alone in your starting sector.
• Good Will Tour- A new Executive Order. Spend Control to get a temporary Diplomacy boost with other factions.
• New Colony Upgrades- Two new colony upgrades have been added. These aren't unique and require to be found through missions or events. They are always available as long as you have the Nanobots available to build them. Nanobots are a manufactured resource that you can build at your shipyards.
  • Communications Satellite- connecting the colony to your communication and entertainment networks will improve the Approval of anyone living there.
  • Orbital Storage- Adding a depot for transport will reduce the decay of resources being sent from the colony.

Balance

• All precursor worlds are now planets that start with a Colony Upgrade.
• Ships are now produced with the best possible weapon of the type they support.
• Added a tech prereq to the Galactic Festival Executive Order.
• Removed the tech prereq from the Invite Leaders Executive Order.
• Players start with 1 Culture Point.
• Removed the Cleric specialization.
• Bioagriculturists also reduce the world's Pollution.
• Entrepreneurs also improve the world's Manufacturing.
• Celebrities also improve the world's Influence.
• Switched Devotion culture trait to Ancestral Home.
• Switched Lorekeepers culture trait to Devotion.
• Iron Fist Culture trait gives +50 Control instead of +10.
• Updated some random events to only occur on Core Worlds.
• Rebalanced all Starbase modules.
• Added the Oceanic Worlds mission for Aquatic players.
• Rebalanced Crime to lower it now that it flows from Colonies to Core Worlds it was overwhelming.
• Reduced the amount of Research gained from the Deep Investigation culture trait.
• Ancient civilization trait provides an additional Policy slot.
• Reduced the max players in huge sectors from 5 to 4.
• Random tech generation now favors providing a tech in each category to select from. And will be more likely to provide techs in the selected category when you are focusing.
• The Guard command now keeps the ship idle unless an enemy ship comes within range (it used to only stay idle until any ship came within range).
• Multiple commanders can be in a fleet together.

Fixes

• Fixed an issue causing languages to get set incorrectly.
• Fixed an issue causing lights to show up on all sides of the planet (instead of just the dark side).
• Fixed an issue where Credit and Control costs aren't being shown correctly in Executive Order displays.
• Fixed an issue making it impossible to colonize Oceanic worlds.
• Ctrl+N to regenerate the galaxy no longer causes you to lose customization options.
• Typo fixes!
• Fixed an issue where leaders weren't getting their species modifiers to stats.
• Fixed the Protest event that was giving a Manufacturing bonus instead of a penalty (best protest ever!).
• Fixed an issue where Financial Districts could be upgraded indefinitely.
• Fixed several events that incorrectly said the player would get X credits per colony.
• Fixed Neken, which didn't have a planet trait.
• Fixed an issue where a popup could have options disabled even if they didn't have any requirements.
• Fixed an issue where Festron eating citizens wasn't updating the citizen portrait (so they would still look like the old race).
• Fixed an issue where fighters were being spawned whenever missiles were fired.
• Fixed an issue where anomalies wouldn't provide ship attack upgrades if the ship didn't already have that attack type.
• Fixed an issue where anomalies that provided ship attack upgrades would wear off after a turn.

UI

• New Kyrnn leader.
• Unlocked the Baratak ship style for customizing factions.
• Unlocked the Manti ship style for customizing factions.
• Redid the Leader screen to make better use of the space.
• Governor window does a better job of showing the Planet information.
• Added tooltips to the Starbase options, explaining what they are.
• Improved the look of ships.
• Updated the specialize citizen popup to be right by the citizen.
• You can simply click on a Culture trait to buy it instead of needing to double-click it.
• Colony Upgrades now modify the planet graphic so you can see the change from the main map.
• New Xeloxi Ships.
• Updated the Use Design and Favorites button in the Shipyard to stand out more.
• Updated some Culture Traits names based on feedback from admiralWillyWilber.
• Ship Graveyards now have a red glow to indicate that they are guarded.
• New Baratak ships.
• Updated technology art to provide more variance.

AI

• Fixed an issue keeping the AI from researching the Universal Translator tech.
• AI more likely to research tech to get to larger Hull sizes.
• AI does a better job colonizing.

Audio

• New Festron theme.
• Added sfx to the Executive Orders.