Version 0.72 released

This version introduces Empire wide projects. It is a feature I was planning for a while in order to provide you with more strategic options. A new tab on Industry screen was added and it allows you to initiate various grant projects (like expansion of the imperial palace, construction of a grand industrial complex and so on) which will benefit the Empire in various ways. Those are intended to allows you a more direct interaction with improving the Empire while avoiding the micromanagement by making those on an Empire level instead of a planetary level. Generally you need first to unlock those projects (via reforms or technologies) and then spend a significant number of turns waiting for their completion while paying a significant cost with an option to speed it up for an even greater cost. The second thing I focused on in this version was rebalance of economy. I tweaked many numbers and some rules to provide a more challenging gameplay (some of those are difficulty dependant, so now selected difficulty level also affects economy). Oh yes, there is a also a new hotkey to make worlds core which people who play on a huge galaxy setting should appreciate a lot.

– [feature] Projects (on Industry tab). Basic 3 projects are unlocked at start, each reform unlocks one project (for example Officer corps reform unlocks “War College”) also some technologies unlock additional projects.
– [feature] Additional flat bonus to Economy Points for Young Empire (the bonus slowly goes down by -1% per turn, so at turn 100 it perishes completely). The exact value of the bonus depends on difficulty level.

– [misc] Safeguarded the code from potential negative tax rate, trade income or tribute (since if those become negative for any reason, although it should not be possible in the first place, at any point it would make some financial stuff behave quite strangely).
– [misc] Only first 3 levels of diplomatic influence trigger the audience event (since only 3 diplomatic perks are implemented at the moment).
– [misc] Diplomatic stance “Ignore” will cause the negotiation progress bar to no move (also any treaties about to be ratified will not be presented for ratification).
– [misc] Diplomatic stance “War Preparations” doubles the pace of Infiltration progress.
– [misc] Diplomatic stance “War Preparations” and “Ultimatum” chance for that race to declare a war.
– [misc] All hostile diplomatic stances (all which are marked red) slow down all treaty negotiations to half the pace.

– [content] Added 4 new technologies: Synthetic Metals, Peacekeeping rules, Cheap electronics and Stars exploration administration.
– [content] Administrative Act law replaced with Budget Restructurization Act.

– [balance] Significantly reduced base tax income.
– [balance] Tripled squadrons upkeep cost.
– [balance] Old Empire relative difficulty as if +100 turns passed instead of +50.
– [balance] Old Empire starts with basic Trade agreement signed with all races.
– [balance] Increased base bureaucracy cost.
– [balance] Base bureaucracy cost now affected by difficulty level.
– [balance] Increased penalty for exerting budget (note that with new projects & laws, which can affect budget, it might actually be cheaper to overstretch budget assuming you prepare for it).
– [balance] Base tax depends on difficulty.
– [balance] Reduced trade income.
– [balance] Doubled ships manufacturing cost.
– [balance] Making world core cost doubled.

– [interface] Improved Young/Old Empire tooltips.
– [interface] Added agents number to research bonuses screen.
– [interface] Added HotKey ‘o’ for make core action.

– [fix] Peaceful Coexistence diplomatic stance caused no treaties to be signed.

Compatibility note: NO CHANGE, this version works with v0.70+ savefiles (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).