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).

Version 0.71 released

The next version is here. It focuses on the long due diplomatic system overhaul. It was basically redesigned and reimplemented. Diplomatic points are no more, now you select diplomatic stances which tells your diplomats what you want and they try to do it. There are still ways to deal with diplomacy directly by inviting alien ambassadors and many things can be done both ways (like you can declare war directly via Diplomacy screen or invite the ambassador to tell him yourself) with the main difference is that one is doing it instantly and the other at a lower cost. Note that since the diplomatic system was just redesigned it’s most like unbalanced (the balance will be done when I gather your feedback about the new system). There were also changes to combat engagement rules and colonization balancing. Of course also the usual share of fixes and interface improvements.

– [feature] Introduced Diplomatic stances (Peaceful Cooperation, War Preparations, Trade Alliance, etc) which let you give direction for imperial diplomats what are your goals and priorities for a given race. This serves as the basis of diplomatic events.
– [feature] Introduced Treaty negotiation. Now you don’t use diplomatic points (which were removed) to sign treaties. Instead imperial diplomats will conduct negotiations automatically based on priorities you provided via diplomatic stance setting. There is a progress bar (on Diplomacy screen) which let you see how fast those negotiations progress (the pace is based on Competence & Charisma of diplomats, distance, etc). Once the negotiations are over you are presented with a “Ratify treaty” event for the given race.
– [feature] Diplomatic influence level added (for civilized races only). There is a progress bar how fast the diplomatic influence increases ()based on Charisma of diplomats and other factors, all of those are listed in the tooltip). Once there is sufficient influence accumulated for a next level an audience will pop up with a semi random choice of perks vs this race to choose from.
– [feature] Infiltration level added (for civilized races only for now, but later probably also for Xeno races). Similar to diplomatic influence mechanic but with some changes (for example infiltration progresses during war).
– [feature] Invite ambassador audience options redone, now you can declare war, make peace, make truce and cancel truce.
– [feature] Subsidy Embassy option on Diplomacy screen added. You can spend money and administration points to instantly increase diplomatic influence progress, infiltration progress and treaty negotiations progress.
– [feature] Added two more treaties: Cultural exchange and Excavation rights.

– [remove] Removed diplomatic points (now administration points and other standard resources are used).
– [remove] Removed old espionage system (since it got replaced with a new one).
– [remove] Removed some unimplemented treaties (Alliance and Protectorate), those might be back in future.

– [misc] After signing a truce/peace treaty all military forces will auto retreat from each other’s planets (regardless of the reason why they are there).
– [misc] Space forces will not engage if the orbit controller is at peace/truce (to avoid fighting at peace/truce over third party planets), but the forces might stay and see how it resolves (if the planet is taken over by the attacker they will retreat, if the attacker loses orbit control they will attempt to take the planet for themselves).
– [misc] Colonization target algorithm likes planets adjacent to Terra even more and dislikes border and near border planets even more.
– [misc] Diplomatic relations now affect all progress bars (treaty negotiation progress, diplomatic influence progress, infiltration progress).
– [misc] Treaties have no upkeep cost anymore (which might change in future).
– [misc] Other minor changes to diplomacy (renamed Rare resources sale treaty to Resources market treaty, moved some now unused Supremacy to Experimental, etc).

– [balance] AI rebalance (civilized races make more military offensives now).
– [balance] Major races “planets number difference relations bonus” reduced from +30% to +10%.
– [balance] Trade value rebalanced. Base trade value reduced from 50% to 30% (since “Merchants connections” can now provide additional +20%).

– [interface] Outpost and Colonization reports split into separate folders.
– [interface] Treaties are now listed, no buttons (since now treaties are signed/ratified via audience events and there are no diplomatic points anymore).
– [interface] Diplomatic stances selector (War Preparations, Ultimatum, Embargo, Ignore, Peaceful Coexistence, Trade Alliance, Military Alliance, Cultural Unification, Make Protectorate) on Aliens diplomacy/intelligence screen where you can select how imperial diplomats should negotiate.
– [interface] Find Homeworld button on Aliens diplomacy/intelligence screen moved to very bottom.
– [interface] Trade income tooltip redone (much more clear now and lists all factors).
– [interface] Alien race status planetary tooltips (Civilized/Xeno/Minor/Major) all implemented and improved.
– [interface] Other small improvements.

– [fix] Colonization algorithm was using the logical colonization rules for the first colonization ship only which made the subsequent colonization target choices bad.
– [fix] Wrong War/Peace status displayed next to an ambassador of a civilized race on audience window.
– [fix] Incorrect random order range for Light industry and Advanced light industry technologies, which made them appear in reverse orders in some cases.
– [fix] Construction treaty was not working properly (foreign planets constructions always auto destroyed next turn as if during war).

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).