Version 0.50 released
This is a quite unusual version, its purpose is to consolidate things and remove the weak parts. It has few new features but a lot of tinkering with existing ones. Basically, I took a look at all the mechanics and content and decided to get rid of some, permanently or temporarily, or redesign those. Noble Houses got rearranged, their positions, crests, traditions, etc, all to feel them more coherent and to allow me to build later a sort of story and background for those, like some are warlike, some come from an old aristocracy and some are upstart industrial mongers. Reforms and laws were tinkered with as well. Finished two long ago promised features, rare resources and science perks. In addition ministries were redesigned.
– [feature] Rare resources (effects, descriptions, random generation). Note that those are somewhat bleak, definitely to be fine-tuned later. Also description style of those differs a lot, it’s because I wanted to test which style would be better. So it’s more like a first iteration of rare resources, not the final thing.
– [feature] Science perks (for now only one science perk per field is implemented but those fully work).
– [feature] Ministries redesigned. Now the level of ministry is Competence of Minister modified by various bonuses and penalties. Which is more clear and logical. Also, the size of the Empire drastically affects the penalties, so you need to expand ministry offices in order to keep up with growing Empire or face growing government inefficiency.
– [removed] Commerce reform removed (felt that exactly 7 reforms would be the best).
– [removed] Voltar, Fungoids, Automated Worlds removed (probably will be back later, once there are more fleshed out).
– [removed] Crime concept removed.
– [removed] Consumer goods concept removed.
– [misc] Voting Census reform replaced with Imperial Protocol Reform which allows more focus points for the Emperor.
– [misc] Moved Former Ministers Act law effect to Administration reform and the law was removed.
– [misc] Noble Houses crests and colors rearranged (to make it feel better, with left size more peaceful and right side more warlike, etc).
– [misc] Noble Houses traditions rearrangement (now there are 3 primary and 6 secondary traditions).
– [misc] Xeno races decolonize worlds they conquered.
– [misc] Technical: optimization of the executable (a minor thing).
– [misc] Technical: game version now includes build type (Release/Steam/GOG).
– [balance] Noble Houses max squadrons are now mostly based on the number of cities in their fiefs (uncapped) which is more intuitive and logical.
– [balance] Officer Corps Reform grants +25% max squadrons (instead of flat +20 squadrons).
– [content] More laws. Some were added some were removed.
– [interface] Ministers have all unique colors making them easier to identify (ministers’ bars colors, tabs on ministry screen, laws related to ministry colors, etc). Also Advisor and Inspector positions got unique colors.
– [interface] Personnel tooltips have colored stats (Competence/Loyalty/Charisma) with a description how much above/below the average the value is.
– [interface] Cleaned up and beautified diplomacy left side section.
– [interface] Reform button shows progress bar if a reform is in progress.
– [fix] Order of reforms changes after initiating a reform bug.
– [fix] Infinite prototype promotions bug.
– [fix] Small non critical memory overwrites (inside data structures only so most likely overwriting non critical stuff) also additional memory safeguards and cleanup.
Compatibility note: INCOMPATIBLE, this version will not work with old saves (note that each time a savefile compatibility is broken a new Beta branch with the old version is created so you can always finish your game in progress).
