Version 0.79 released

This version is about finishing the combat mechanics. I reviewed all mechanics related to combat, tracked any unimplemented ones, any not explained properly, etc, etc. Redesigned some technologies related to combat and redesigned or altered some combat mechanics. Overall, everything regarding low level combat should work as intended and be properly explained. In addition, I took a look at balance of research and altered it heavily. Fixed some bugs and included several nice interface improvements.

– [feature] Combat mechanics fully finished and explained.
– [feature] Crew effects redesigned and fully explained (via tooltips and battle simulator events).
– [feature] Competence and Charisma of officers triggers special events during combat. You can also now select an exact fleet on the battle simulator (to observe the officers’ stats effects).
– [feature] Ship modernizations redesigned. Now those use modernization points, split modernizations to regular and specialized and there are certain “discounts” for Compatible modernizations (for example all hulls from Electronics field of science get Encrypted Datalink cheaper).

– [remove] Removed governors economic traits (those were kind of weak regarding the scale of the game anyway, because, why would you care if you have hundreds of those governors).

– [misc] Nukes production enabled (while the old “prohibited by the Great Imperial Charter” felt nice lore wise, I count not figure out how exactly acquiring those should work, so at least for now nukes are considered regular strategic weapons).
– [misc] All Bio hulls got Regenerating ability.
– [misc] Combat rules small adjustments (for example now Hardened Armor also halves damage received from bombs).
– [misc] No ruins, larvae and other unusual features on Terra. Also now Terra always start with a moon and a yellow sun.
– [misc] No larvae and other hostile planetary features within 2 jumps of Terra.
– [misc] Assure Arachnians (and other races) will not spawn within X jumps of Terra (previously it checked only distance in parsecs which, in case of long starlanes, could lead to them starting too near the player).
– [misc] Guaranteed at least 3 Terran type planets within 2 jumps (especially useful for Young Empire start).
– [misc] Ships starting abilities adjusted.

– [balance] Adjusted (increased) most combat bonuses for aliens.
– [balance] Adjusted many combat related bonuses from technologies (many increased significantly).
– [balance] Alien (AI) tech progress each audience, not each season.
– [balance] Alien (AI) ships buffed with abilities.
– [balance] Reduced research points gained per turn significantly (people are too quick to max out techs), also redid the base of research points (now it values more the overall development of the Empire than its size). Note that old saves will show incorrect research points gain until you press end turn.
– [balance] Research cost per tech level increase made more steep (high level techs are now even more expensive than those on the low tier).

– [content] New technologies regarding Thrusters (also maneuverability renamed to thrusters).
– [content] More varied ships for aliens (all Xeno races use an unique ships style while civilized races use one of the three standard ship styles).
– [content] Added several new ship abilities.
– [content] New modernizations: tractor beams, less crew required, cheaper.

– [interface] Most combat related tooltips (HP, Fighters, etc) implemented.
– [interface] Various art assets updated.
– [interface] Houses screen bar widened (now also displays grudges, income, shares, estate level).
– [interface] Displayed full ship tooltip (with all details) on squadron overview.
– [interface] Displayed ships on alien Diplomacy & Intelligence screen (with detailed tooltips containing all parameters and abilities).

– [fix] House relations not updating instantly (but next turn) when sending letters and gifts.
– [fix] When moving from Battle simulator to Ships it switched to Rename ship option.
– [fix] ESC key was incorrectly closing whole Planet window when on subscreen (now it closes subscreens of Planet screen).
– [fix] Battle simulator was using old scroller.
– [fix] Some modernizations were not working correctly.
– [fix] Sometimes ships showing blank lines for abilities.
– [fix] Incorrect finances expenses (not all items included) on Finances screen.
– [fix] Ships which start with Datalink still required taking a Datalink upgrade for Tactical Net and Encrypted Datalink upgrades.

Compatibility note: NO CHANGE, this version works with v0.74+ 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).