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Hey everyone,
The Riftborn update [0.3.2] is now live! This major update introduces the Riftborn major civilization, an Early Access iteration of Multiplayer mode (we're counting on your feedback to make this optimal for the release!), new visual elements to bring more life to the galaxy, AI improvements, Battle improvements, changes to the Technology Tree, and more!
RELEASE NOTES [0.3.2]
[New Content]
The Riftborn major faction has been added [Wiki]
Two additional minor factions have been added: the Bhagaba & the Niris
Multiplayer has been enabled
Games can now be played with up to 8 empires
Added the “Large” size galaxies
Added two new galaxy shapes: Spiral-8 and Ovoid
Hero ships are now visible on the fleet by left-clicking on the hero's portrait in the galaxy view
Hero renaming has been enabled
Empire / player renaming has been enabled
3D feedback of certain anomalies has been added
Game settings are now visible and some are modifiable ingame (only timers and animation speed)
Galaxy life animations have been added
Market events: market context can trigger highs and lows of prices
Population growth control: all population is linked to a luxury that can be used to favor its growth within the empire
The election process has been redone: now the political parties that will not end in the Senate report their votes to the closest party, which can change the winner at the last minute!
Added Natural Wonders (no visuals yet)
[Narrative Content]
Added chapter 3 & 4 of the Horatio quest
Added chapter 1 & 2 of the Riftborn quest
Added most of Tutorial, Advanced level
Updated Expert Tutorial
Added 6 new Minor Faction Quests
Added 5 new Population Quests
Added Community Quest (Mysterious Plague Ship is now known as “The Living Plague”)
Added 7 Alternative Deeds
Added Community Event (An Unexpected Visitor is now known as “An Unexpected Guest”
Added Community Event (Hear my Last Cry)
[Manpower & Ground Battle]
Manpower is now divided in three elements:
Manpower on empire is a resource consumed by Systems and Ships
On system: defenses defines the strength of the system defense and how much troops it will generate
On ships: crews provide a boost in space battle, and is consumed for invasion. They can also be killed during space battle
All empires start with a full stock of Manpower on their empire
Manpower is now equally split between all entities requiring some.
Improved feedback related to troop generation (directly display how the system defense and crews will be converted)
Added a specific Ground Battle strategy and Space Battle Tactic for the Privateers and Minor Factions
Triggered a notification when the manpower drops close to 0
[Minor Faction Rework]
Revamped the Minor Faction interface
Added a new Minor Factions Ideology: Pragmatist
More actions to improve relations with Minor Factions
Actions are now based on a trend rather than a flat point value
Changed thresholds on the bar as follows: Neutral, Cordial, Amicable, Friendly. Each threshold corresponds to a different level of reward
Having the best relation with a Minor Faction may now grant access to special actions with a cost in Luxury Resources
[Pirates]
Harmonized Pirate ship designs
Nerfed certain Prowler designs that were too strong
Buffed certain Positron designs that were too weak
Changed the way Pirates spawn to prevent the unwanted Pirate spam
Pirates now spawn at a slightly slower rate
Pirates are now limited in number and won't spawn anymore if there's already a certain number of them.
Pirates have been given new behaviors allowing them to blockade systems, and target specific nodes
[Senate & Politics ]
Rebellion: now the government after a rebellion depends on the current government, cycling through all of them.
Removed Rebellion progress while in Anarchy
Added an experience systems for political parties: reaching certain experience levels unlocks new laws
Added independent laws that are always available, and free to maintain
Refined laws content: there are less but more powerful, and they cost an influence upkeep to be maintained
Reinforce differences between each government
Democracy: no election actions to influence the result, but better diversity in senate and provide approval boost on population
Republic: election actions using Dust and stronger alternative version of the Laws
Federation: bonuses on industry and expansion
Dictatorship: one party that you select and higher chance of rebellion
[Space Battle]
Ship Design
Refactored UI
New module icons that reflect the power progression
Added detailed data about ship (DPS per weapon, efficiency, DPS per range, defense absorption, energy / projectile balance, upgrade cost), also displayed in ship tooltip
Added toggle to hide / show obsolete modules
Added the possibility to drag and drop modules between slots
Added double click on any player’s ship thumbnail to open the ship design (in military screen but also in the galaxy)
Removed module symmetrical multiplayer cost
Harmonized module multiplayer cost per ship size
Tweaked heavy mounted slot and add effect explanation in tooltip
Added a button in the Military Screen under the Ship Designs frame.
One click upgrades all the modules of the selected Ship Design to their latest version
Does not replace or remove existing modules, does not fill empty slots
Deck panel
Cards are now called tactics
You can open the battle tactics (new deck panel) even during battle
Added description in tactics’ tooltip
Advanced battle screen
Improved trajectories / stats display
Improved ship hover feedback (don’t forget: you can move them among flotillas!)
Added flotilla compatibility feedback of the ship when dragging it
Added command point required to unlock flotillas
During battle
Improved scan view (damage lines, trajectories, shaders etc.)
Added overview (show entire battle with appropriate feedback included range between paired flotilla)
Added locked ship feedback
Added zoom with mouse wheel in free cam even without ship locked
Battle Report
Added advanced battle report (first version)
Added damage gauges with detailed data (weapon type, defense absorption, misses shot, critical hit)
Added range per paired flotillas per phase with damage ratio
Battle system
Changed critic damage: if critical hit, the salvo dismisses all defense absorptions
Added ship damage bonus when crew on board (some weapons kill crew)
Added theatre effect: check the battle effect on the special nodes
Changed the random generator which should give you the same result if you load a save
Content
Added 15 support modules to diversify the strategies
The module that affects fleet and flotilla are exclusive to support ships
Fixed and increased several battle order effects (battle card new name)
Increased flak effect (and feedback it in the weapon tooltip)
Balanced / Tweaked Weapons, Defenses and Hulls (reduced cost, reduced progression, damage and health x2, increase strategic module interest)
[Technology]
Reworked the whole Military Quadrant to implement the new modules
Reworked the Science & Exploration Quadrant to implement support modules
Also added new modules for the Ark, and technologies to unlock them through the game
Added political impact on technologies
[AI]
Diplomacy:
The AI now handles Peace behaviors
The AI now handles minimal Alliance behaviors
The AI is now able to detect player actions (regarding itself) and send reactions
The AI can now create and balance contracts to propose to players
Improved AI attitudes and attitude annotations
Improved contract evaluation overall
Economy:
System improvement and technologies gains have been reworked
The AI can now use more exotic improvements like infinite buildings and manpower conversion
The AI should colonize in a better fashion (more grouped)
The AI can now handle the new Minor Faction system
The AI should use the marketplace better overall
The AI can now buy mercenaries on the marketplace to complete its taskforces
The AI now make event choices
Many many tweaks in the decision making process
Military:
The AI changes its tactics set according its current strengths and weaknesses
The AI should now select the most efficient play considering its fleet
The AI should now redesign its ships to counter its main enemy
The AI is now capable of understanding when fleets which will be auto-merged before it will attack
The AI should be more reactive especially in early game
The AI should keep less ships in its hangars
Heroes:
The AI can now assign heroes as admirals
The AI now assigns all hero skills (governors and admirals) depending on hero role
The AI can now buy heroes on the marketplace
Quests:
The AI can now solve certain quests
Multiplayer:
The AI can now take over in "minimal" mode for a few turns if a player drops out
Faction:
The AI is able to play as a Riftborn with its specific gameplay
Performance:
A LOT of memory and CPU optimizations
[User Interface]
The Diplomatic and negotiation screens have been reworked
The ship design screen has been reworked
The new game screen has been redone
Reworked the left banner in all menus
Polished Diplomacy screen
Demand button now located on the Negotiation screen (above the pressure gauge)
HD GUI for any resolution
New scaling option improved (4K mode)
Modules icons are brand new! (quest icons are not done yet)
New display options are now available for tooltip display: Compact, Full & Progressive. By default, Progressive is enabled, which goes from a Compact to a Full Display after a short moment when hovering the mouse. This setting can be changed in the UI Options menu
[Balancing]
- Horatio ideology is now Ecologists (foood!)
Government changes are more accessible (less anarchy and lower happiness prerequisite) but they have a dynamic influence cost
Reworked the Lumeris outpost buyout curve to lower their explosive expansion
Reworked the technology cost curve: the game pace will be slower and feel more engaging
Diplomatic costs are now dynamic and based on the number of systems owned by the Empire
Assimilation costs is now dynamic and based on the number of systems owned by the Empire
First balancing of Minor Faction Quests (not complete yet)
Strategic deposits quantity has been halved but their individual production increased (1 / 3 / 5 instead of 1 / 2 / 3)
Hero skills: effects related to size has been generalized
Hero skills: effects on deposit output has been nerfed
Rebellion: lowered the threshold which triggers the start of the rebellion
Increased the number of nodes generated for all sizes
Added a limit on how many ships can be send to an outpost at a time, making distant outpost harder to feed
[Known Issues]
Possible loss of sync in Multiplayer if Fast speed animations are used
Possible loss of sync in Multiplayer if two players have the same wonder in the construction queue and finish it on the same turn
In Multiplayer, players get a message when another player joins that they have been renamed with that player’s name. This message actually has no effect
In the diplomacy screen, the contract evaluation bar sometimes fails to update
In the Advanced Play settings, enemy flotillas sometimes do not appear if the Advanced Play button is clicked too fast. In the case this happens, right click and re-enter the window
The Riftborn have a strategic issue on their home system: with Many constellations, they won't have their starting resources. With Few/Unique, they will have Titanium & Hyperium on all planets in their home system. We still recommend playing with Few or Unique constellations if you want a challenging game (this issue will be fixed in an upcoming patch)
Selecting a "Random" galaxy type in multiplayer results in the host and other players not necessarily having the same galaxy appearance (eg a Spiral 8
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