Version 1.30 released

December version introduces a new ironman mode “Surrounded by Traitors” which makes maintaining loyalty of imperial officials much more tricky. Especially over time since the loyalty degrades more when time passes when this ironman mode is selected. This version also introduces a new event related to loyalty and interface improvements.

– [feature] Ironman mode: Surrounded by Traitors. Every 100 turns starting Loyalty of new imperial officials (courtiers, governors, officers) is reduced by -1 (up to -5), except political officers who are unaffected. Much higher chance for “Loyalty decreased” event. “Loyalty increased” event will never happen.
– [feature] New very rare event “Loyalty decreased”. Each imperial official has 50% chance for Loyalty -1. Note that this event is much more frequent if Surrounded by Traitors ironmode is selected.

– [interface] Summary of governors/courtiers/officers on Empire/Summary screen now also displays average competence/loyalty/corruption.
– [interface] Additional accessories for imperial officials portraits (more earrings for females and a new data visor for males). Note that with old saves you might have some existing portraits changed and might see some odd overrepresentation of certain accessories, it’s just a cosmetic thing and affects old saves only.
– [interface] Increased chance for accessories for female portraits.
– [interface] Reverted back to the old faction icons (while the new ones were more sharp and visible, I have to agree with some concerns raised on the forum that the old more blurry ones are more consistent with the style of portraits and since factions icons are displayed mostly on portraits making them look good with portraits is a priority, plus the imperial eagle which is displayed on governors portrait is a blurred one, so I suppose it’s more consistent to make all over portrait icons with blurred versions).

Version 1.29 released

November version focuses on two things. Making native alien population actually provide some in-game effect and replacing remaining icons with the new pixel perfect style. Also many icons/buttons were fine tuned and improved in terms of consistency, intuitiveness and visibility.

– [feature] Native alien population provide bonus to Farms and Mines output proportional to the number of natives.
– [feature] Advanced Customization option for extra native alien population.

– [balance] Presence of native population chance and quantity redone. Natives are never present on Terra (since Terrans are the original natives of this planet). Never on Barren and Lava, unlikely on Ice. Abundant (both chance and quantity of natives) on Jungle, Swamp, Terran planet types. Note this does not affect old saves since native population is generated on game start.
– [balance] Overall native population is more abundant in the galaxy. Note this does not affect old saves since native population is generated on game start.

– [interface] Faction symbols replaced with hand crafted pixel perfect art.
– [interface] Population icons (Terran, Civilized Aliens, Hostile Aliens, Natives) redone. Now it shows “heads” and overall is more intuitive (hostile aliens not only are marked red but also have vicious faces which should incite your natural urge to exterminate them on sight which is consistent with game effects :D). Also done used pixel perfect art.
– [interface] Interface elements (scroller, close, help) adjusted.
– [interface] Improved population display on planets (no 0m Terrans listed if there are no Terrans, which means a less cluttered interface).

Version 1.28 released

October version got improved graphics and interface. The small stuff that was considered too low priority until now. Also a new nameset (Eastern ethnic group).

– [interface] Top menu icons redone (credits, upkeep, stormtroopers, minerals, food, gas, etc). These were redone by a proper pixelartist.
– [interface] Scroller up/down icon buttons, close button icon, help button icon redone.
– [interface] Adjusted minimap bottom buttons sizes and position.

– [misc] Eastern ethnic group got a new nameset (Czech-like sounding). This nameset will be put in to courtier random name generator when Eastern ethnic group is selected (Ethnic Customization option available upon game start).

Version 1.27 released

September version introduced ethnic groups. A purely cosmetic feature which allows you to choose the feel of the names for your courtiers and other imperial officials. All namesets have been divided into 3 ethnic groups. Western group which holds names typical for Western Europe and North America, Eastern group which holds names typical for Eastern Europe and Oriental group which holds names typical to Asia. Also, if you want all of them at once you can use Mixed group. It allows you to adjust the feel of the game and it has no impact on the gameplay. In addition there are traditional small improvements, fixes, etc.

– [feature] Ethnic customization button added to the new game screen which holds cosmetic adjustments options.
– [feature] Ethnic groups introduced (Ethnic customization button). Now you can select Western, Eastern or Oriental ethnic group for your empire which determine the names for all characters. You can also select Mixed ethnic group which will use all those at once.

– [misc] Better names for characters (name generator prefers shorter first name + last name combinations so those fit better and a bigger font can be used in most cases).

– [balance] Different starting stats based on courtier’s faction (Economists tend te be less corrupted, Cancellists more loyal, Traditionalists more competent; Warlords and Genetechnologists no changes). It should add a bit of immersion (like Traditionalists who are the descendants of the old aristocracy being more apt to rule but not so loyal while Cancellists being bureaucrats who want no trouble and therefore being more loyal). It also allows you to predict slightly what to expect when you look at the faction affiliation of a courtier.

– [interface] Additional accessories for males (goggles, monocles).

– [fix] Emperor’s genetic makeup list in the chancellor screen not matching the genetic picks (it was a cosmetic problem only since the perks were accounted properly, so this fix just repairs the list of perks display).
– [fix] Small fixes.