Version 0.80 released

Originally, I planned to make this a feature complete version but, well, I didn’t make it in time. There are still some features missing related to military and aliens but other than that, in this version, most features are in place. So, let’s say it’s an almost feature complete version. Numerous small things were finished (all laws, all effects of all reforms, ruins, etc), all Xenos are active, steam online achievements can be unlocked and so on. Note that by features I mean game mechanics, not content (so not all technologies all there yet for example) and that those features are in the basic form in some cases and might require further refining and redesign. Still, it’s a pretty solid version. In addition I decided to change the font, I decided to prioritize readability over the aesthetics. The new font is simpler, and kind of less sci-fi like, but definitely much more readable. As a bonus I managed to rearrange the UI a bit which allowed me to make the default font size slightly bigger, so it’s even more readable. I also made many adjustments to the game rules, and many rebalances, that make it more logical and playable and a few smaller features (like administrative points being more widely used, courtier starts redesign, allowed replacing ministers during rebellion, ground combat made faster, rebel points from audience events increased, added option to persuade courtiers to change house affiliation, etc).

Overall, if there are no major setbacks, I estimate the game should reach v1.00 in no more than 3 months.

– [feature] All political agendas implemented (Desires Ministerial Positions, Desires Court Influence, Desires Honorary Titles).
– [feature] Option to persuade courtiers to change the house affiliation (except closely affiliated ones). Useful for managing new political agendas of noble houses.
– [feature] Redesign and cleanup of courtiers positions effects. Ministers and Advisors have their stats impact x3 (listed in tooltip), no more Competence boost for Advisors. Removed Inspectors.
– [feature] All laws implemented.
– [feature] All projects implemented.
– [feature] Online achievements.
– [feature] High Command Directives which allows you to alter how the High Command operates, especially sending reinforcements to planets under invasion.
– [feature] Spawn Space Borne Creatures on rim planets. Also now imperial border guard will station space units on planets with cosmic radiation since those are considered permanently in danger.
– [feature] Slugs and Cyber March basic behavior (those races will launch attacks now).
– [feature] Slugs spread biohazard (-5 Habitability) on planets they control (note that the biohazard icon is a placeholder and will be replaced later with a proper one).

– [remove] Unused Artifacts tab removed (it might be back in future if I get a good idea how to use it).
– [remove] Removed unused Goals tab.

– [misc] Technologies tiers adjusted.
– [misc] All court and ministers actions (appoint, dismiss, etc) now also require Administrative points in addition to Emperor focus points.
– [misc] Allowed Ministers and Courtiers actions during rebellion but at much higher cost and no option to banish from the Court. Traitor Ministers can be purged for an extra Stability hit.
– [misc] Added a flat bonus to rebel points generation based on houses relations below neutral (listed as “Nobles secretly supporting rebels”).
– [misc] Ruins increase the chance and rarity of the Archeology audience event.
– [misc] Enabled production of bio bombs. Bio bombs are cheaper than chemical bombs but spread biohazard.
– [misc] Adjusted ground combat rules. Now you take over the planet if you have more ground power (not twice more) and control orbit. This should speed up ground battles and make the rules more intuitive.
– [misc] Default Minimum Offensive Power Difference increased to 300% (to take into account defensive installations). Also removed global M.O.P.D. setting (really no need to clutter the interface when it’s just a few clicks to adjust it for all races anyway).
– [misc] Adjusted ground combat rules. Ground troops are started being dropped when the attacked has twice more squadrons (regardless of quality of those) on orbit than defender (note that you still need to control the orbit to take over the planet, so ground situation alone is not enough, but since ground troops can destroy defensive installations it also impacts the space battle).

– [balance] Reduced communication range increase from budget (now it should be more tricky to assure a decent coverage).
– [balance] Audience rebel options increase/decrease rebel points by at least 100 each (everything below 100 is insignificant by audience standards).
– [balance] Increased modernization points gained from the Ongoing Modernization science perk.
– [balance] Start with extra I.S.M. and bombs (because it’s fun to be able to use those from the start).
– [balance] Reduced ground defensive installations for aliens (more in par of how many the player has).
– [balance] Fine-tuned battle loses to make space battles faster when one side is clearly inferior.
– [balance] Increased ships manufacturing cost.

– [content] Archeology audience event gives more options to choose from.

– [interface] Manage officials button moved from experimental features to regular.
– [interface] Finished all research bonuses/statistics tooltips (also rearranged order of those those).
– [interface] Displayed ruins and research points gain per turn (with proper tooltips) on Technologies screen.
– [interface] Font changed to a more readable one. Also adjusted the UI so a bigger default font size can fit (so it’s even more readable now). (maybe with an option to keep the old font for people who like it but let’s see if people request it; Also, as a bonus I somehow managed to rearrange stuff on the UI and the base font could be enlarged as well (so the average font size will be also bigger!)
– [interface] Display total power of ground units on the planet view and on reports.
– [interface] Many other smaller interface improvements.

– [fix] Load button was only greyed out but still allowed loading a wrong save file if you clicked (BTW, no one ever reported clicking it).
– [fix] Bug causing excessive reinforcements for aliens.

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).