Version 1.15 released

This version is a result of digging out stuff from very old forum posts, reviews and comments to reviews. I have analyzed the most common complains over last year (even dug through some ancient Early Access posts as well) and tried to track and examine what are the key and recurring things that should be improved. I made some interesting changes based on this analysis. First, a small change with big repercussions, now the number of Core Worlds is tied to Centralization. This solves micromanagement issue when it comes to making cores, especially in a huge galaxy settings, which also improves the late game balance since it reduces the number of cities in the late game without affecting the early game. Next, High Command Staff mechanic was removed, it got an enormous number of complains and the consensus was that the game would be better without this feature. Rules selection was streamlined and made more clear, now there is an Imperial Mode (default one) and Throne Mode (for people who wish even more “rule from the heights of the imperial throne” gameplay). Modernizations mechanic, which split the community into lovers and haters, got more automatization options (for those who do not enjoy that part of the game), this automatization is also now enforced in Throne Mode. Next comes a bunch of interface improvements, bug fixes and rebalance of ministers.

One request, if you find a bug please post it on the Steam forums. I had to dig through a lot of reviews to find those and those would have been fixed much earlier if I know about them. So, when you find a bug, please post on the forums. Also, if you have certain suggestions, please copy the stuff from your review to the forums as well. It’s much easier to find (plus it allows a discussion).

Note that because of the heavy changes in this version I made v1.14 Beta branch available in case you wanted to finish your old game using the old rules.

– [feature] Automatic ship hulls modernization option (if you select the appropriate checkbox in Options AI will automatically decide on ship hulls modernizations and report it each time).
– [feature] Throne Mode (previously called Hands Off ruleset) now enforces “Automatic ship hulls modernization” (regardless of option selected), so you don’t deal directly with modernizations in this mode.
– [feature] Now there is a more strict limit to Core Worlds (maximum 30 + 3 Core Worlds per point of Centralization but no more than 50% of planets).

– [removed] Removed Imperial High Command staff mechanic (replaced with a simple static image showing high command in work). Basically, no one liked it and most people voted that the game would be better without it. In future the feature might return in some other form.
– [removed] Removed Total Control ruleset (I feel no one was using it anyway, if requested the effects of this ruleset can be added as “Extra rules” in future versions), now the rules selection looks much more intuitive. If you have a save that runs on this ruleset it will work correctly.

– [misc] Less suicidal diplomacy of minor civilized aliens towards the Empire, they are now much more reluctant to declare war if the Empire is much bigger than them.

– [balance] SpecOps gain per turn scaled to the game length (to make rebellions equally difficult regardless of the game speed settings).
– [balance] Drastically increased ministry expansion cost (it was way too low), also adjusted expansion administration points cost.
– [balance] Adjusted ministry efficiency effect on ministry events chances (was geared too much towards positive events) and added difficulty level bonus/penalty. Also changed the caps to minimum 10% and maximum 90%.

– [art] New Rebellion report image.

– [interface] Civilized races which lost all planets are clearly marked as dormant and have diplomacy options disabled.
– [interface] Improved “Summon head of the house” and “Summon to investigate” tooltips, to make it more clear what it is used for.
– [interface] Military / High Command screen now show maximum squadrons and squadrons production (and loses, in a tooltip), similar to Squadrons screen.
– [interface] Made it more clear that F.E.D. income comes from both fiefs and colonies, also renamed the tab on finances to “F.E.D. Income” for consistency.
– [interface] Rulesets renamed to modes and made much more prominent on the News Game screen. Also renamed “Balanced” to “Imperial Mode” and “Hands Off” to “Throne Mode”.
– [interface] Improved New Game screen.
– [interface] Experimental feature (need to enable Experimental Features in Options) report notice buttons have a different color depending on report type.
– [interface] Most reports have a bigger text now (because there was space and bigger is better, especially on small monitors).
– [interface] Legislation and Research reports now have a button to access the appropriate screen (with [SPACE] hotkey).

– [fix] Small spelling corrections.
– [fix] Support reform option still appears when all reforms already completed (in Summon to discuss option only).
– [fix] Incorrect larvaes displayed on exactly one special planet (Early Access leftover).
– [fix] Civilized alien races asking for peace when when they have no planets anymore (aliens with no planets now are considered dormant/extinct).
– [fix] Meaningless and incorrect display “at War with Empire” on aliens overview screen next to Empire.
– [fix] Admiralition still sending forces to unclaimed planets, planets with withdraw order or planets controlled by a race you are at peace with in some circumstances.

Reminders
You can follow my Steam Developer Page if you wish to be notified each time a new game or expansions is being released.

Also, if you have a moment to leave a Steam review of the game it would be appreciated. It makes a big difference to an indie developer like me. Thanks!

Version 1.14 released

This version is a quality of life update, based on the feedback gathered from the forums and Discord. First of all, I realized many players use modernizations in a different way I anticipated, so some extra features to make manipulation of those easier is in order. Next, various small features like time to research, mass orders for unclaimed planets, etc were implemented. In addition there is now a high score section on the main menu (similar to the one from the first Stellar Monarch) and one measly bug fix.

– [feature] High Score table.

– [interface] Research screen lists research points needed to research the current technology and how many turns it will take.
– [interface] Mass order to claim/abandon claims to all uninhabited planets.
– [interface] Military/Ships modernization screen allows to Uninstall/Install modernizations one by one.
– [interface] Military/Ships total modernizations installed tooltip lists all currently installed modernizations.
– [interface] Military/Ships install modernization buttons list the cost (for easier planning).

– [fix] Minimap mouse coordinates.

Reminders
You can follow my Steam Developer Page if you wish to be notified each time a new game or expansions is being released.

Also, if you have a moment to leave a Steam review of the game it would be appreciated. It makes a big difference to an indie developer like me. Thanks!

Version 1.13 released

This version includes various quality of life improvements and small fixes as reported or requested by the players. Adjusted some combat settings to make those more clear, greatly improved planets list to include additional information, new art assets, etc.

– [misc] Removed Auto Conquer option from High Command (it’s always ON now). It was a leftover from Early Access where you had alternative ways to order conquering a planet, so now such option makes no sense anymore and is just a source of confusion.
– [misc] Offensive power difference tooltip adjusted to make it more clear and introduced limits of this setting (from 25% to 500%). This should make it more clear how it works and should prevent accidentally setting numbers that would make the conquest impossible to start or succeed.
– [misc] Technical update (newest version of various libraries).

– [interface] New reports images.
– [interface] Planetary development level tooltip made more clear.
– [interface] Planets list “Non core worlds” tab (lists all imperial planets that are not core) and “Colonization” tab (lists all planets being colonized or those that have encourage colonization), also bigger font used.
– [interface] Planets list shows core/colonization status (with colors, makers if can be cored, how much it would cost to core the world, etc) also anomalies are listed similarly to rare resources.

– [fix] Research completed report not displaying properly technology effects in the tooltip.
– [fix] Spelling fixes.

Version 1.12 released

This is a pretty boring update with a few low priority fixes, interface improvements and some technical stuff. The only item from the list below that could potentially make you mildly excited is the optional notification when you accumulate enough legislation points to pas a new law. That is unless you play on SteamDeck or have a bad eyesight, in such case you might find this version revolutionary due to the font sizes adjustments. Basically all texts were reviewed on the size criteria and many texts that were very tiny became upgraded to a decent font size.

– [misc] Technical update (newest version of various libraries).

– [interface] Increased font size in several places, especially the very small font was increased significantly, so now everything is readable even on SteamDeck. Basically all tiny texts were enlarged significantly.
– [interface] Fleet details screen improved (displayed average statistics and officers centered).
– [interface] Optional notification when you have enough legislation points to enact a new law. Can be disabled in options.
– [interface] Other small improvements.

– [fix] Incorrect Stability instead of Centralization on Victory/game over screen.
– [fix] ESC key now always closes any open confirmation window (in some rare circumstances the confirmation window stayed open blocking the whole interface).
– [fix] Reforms priority button glitch.

Reminders
You can follow my Steam Developer Page if you wish to be notified each time a new game or expansions is being released.

Also, if you have a moment to leave a Steam review of the game it would be appreciated. It makes a big difference to an indie developer like me. Thanks!

Version 1.11 released

This version is intended to address various points raised in the “What do you find confusing” forum topic. While I tried to explain various concepts, I got a few times an idea how to better implement the thing that was confusing. For example governors’ statistics were adjusted heavily (instead of an unintuitive security rating boost now competence of governors simply adds a bonus to cities output and infrastructure points generation). There are now more descriptive tooltips and extended manual with more details. In addition, several changes were made which were at the border between a feature and a fix (mostly related to aliens). The last thing is an improvement of the interface, mostly aimed at better visibility on high resolutions (bigger fonts and dynamic sized fonts where possible). Overall, there is a bunch of changes but all those are very intuitive.

– [feature] Mechatrons implemented (can activate at an unspecified turn).

– [misc] Updated in-game help (added Rebellion chapter and listed all effects of all statistics of personnel).
– [misc] Arachnians will no longer wake up if their homeworld is lost, they will also instantly hibernate in such case.
– [misc] CyberMarch will become inactive (no more offensive operations) if their capital is lost.
– [misc] Governor’s Competence grants a bonus to cities output and infrastructure points generation. Governor’s Competence no longer affects Security rating of the planet.
– [misc] Fleets Loyalty affects SpecOps during rebellion.

– [balance] Extra defenses for CyberMarch near their capital. Also increased their power.

– [interface] Help improved (back buttons on all pages, bigger default font size).
– [interface] Ministry expansion naming unified (in some tooltips it was called level, in some called expansion and in some extension). Also added a better explanation that it increases effective Competence of the minister.
– [interface] Improved Aliens overview (list peace/war status, bigger fonts, more colors, etc).
– [interface] Bigger font size on Aliens description screen (will auto shrink to a smaller one if does not fit on the screen).
– [interface] Bigger font size on aliens portrait name (will auto shrink to a smaller one if does not fit).
– [interface] Bigger font size on Resources and Astronomy minimap planet highlight.
– [interface] Governor’s tooltip lists all effects of all statistics.

– [fix] Charisma of governors had no effect whatsoever. Now it’s added properly as a source of happiness from government. For clarity, the happiness from government on the happiness tooltip was split into two sources, one for Court and one for Governors.
– [fix] CyberMarch marking all planets as ready for conquest after losing their capital.
– [fix] Incorrect display of research points from blue sun on the Astronomy minimap tooltip.

Version 1.10 released

This version is intended to address the early v1.00 feedback, mostly related to things which are confusing when playing the first time and some minor features. In addition AI was fine-tuned and it contains one fix which altogether will make Admirals and Imperial High Command react to your orders better. There was also reset modernizations button added.

– [feature] Reset modernizations option (on ships screen) to let experiment freely with ships setup.

– [misc] Emergency reinforcements for planets under invasion made a higher priority than conquest/retake lost planet orders.
– [misc] Improved Admirals & High Command AI to better prioritize targets.

– [interface] Made granting honorary titles more intuitive (now all noble born have “Grant honorary title” button, but greyed out if ineligible, also with a tooltip explaining who and why).
– [interface] Rename noble house option (on houses screen).
– [interface] Help supports colored “bold” text.

– [fix] Admirals AI not sending emergency reinforcements to planets under ground invasion.
– [fix] Small spelling fixes.

Reminders
You can follow my Steam Developer Page if you wish to be notified each time a new game or expansions is being released.

Also, if you have a moment to leave a Steam review of the game it would be appreciated. It makes a big difference to an indie developer like me. Thanks!

Version 1.00 released

Finally, the day has come. The final version 1.00 is out! It does not mean the development has ended, but from now on the focus will be different. No more experimental drastic changes and crazy ideas, but more polish, balance adjustments, interface improvements and so on. This version has very few changes compared to the v0.90 since almost no bugs were reported in the meantime.

I would like to thank the early access community, all the people who provided comments, saves, bug reports, etc. It was a pleasure making this game with you all! Thanks!

– [feature] In-game manual (replacing the old encyclopedia).

– [balance] Event with 10’000 administrative points cost adjusted to make it cost less.

– [fix] Rare Absolute Monarchy bug not removing “red” agendas when those triggered the same turn the Absolute Monarchy went into effect.

Compatibility note: All savefiles from Early Access are incompatible with the full release version. Note that all E.A. beta branches will stay for around a month to let you finish any potential game in progress and then those E.A. betas will be deleted. From this point on saves compatibility is considered a high priority and it’s very likely those will never change.

Version 0.90 released

The long, long adventure of Early Access is coming to an end. Unless something drastic happens this will be the last Early Access version. This version focus was on finishing various unfinished parts, redesign of planetary orders, redesign of strategic weapons and command and control redesign. Overall, a lot of smaller but interesting tweaks were introduced.

Early Access is planned to conclude at the beginning of the next month with release of v1.00. This, of course, does not mean the end of the development. It’s more like from now on the priority would be on content, balance and interface improvements rather than addition of major features and experimenting with what would be most fun. Just like with my previous games.

I would also like to take the opportunity to thank all participants of the Early Access adventure. For all the posts, feedback, sending me saves, testing, etc. It was a pleasure!

– [feature] Planetary orders redesign. No more “Conquest” orders, now you just “Claim” the planet and the military will do the rest. With additional prioritization options, withdrawal orders, etc.
– [feature] Strategic weapons redesign (chemical and biological weapons merged into bio-chemical weapons, heavy radiation effect reduced, no need for orbit control to drop bombs now just space forces presence suffices, made strategic weapons cheaper). Overall, those are now less potent but can be used in many more situations.
– [feature] Encyclopedia (basic but functional, contains essential information and beginner tips).
– [feature] New event “Absolute Monarchy” triggered at Centralization 11 which adjusts some game rules (Votes counting procedure, Reasonable political agendas, Fiefs supervision). You will be presented an option to take those or not.

– [remove] Removed context help, instead Encyclopedia is used (hotkey “H”).

– [misc] New effect for Centralization, now it decreases slightly Opinion of noble houses.
– [misc] Authority and Monarchism can never fall below 1 (to avoid negative voting power and other strange side effects).
– [misc] Glorious achievement “Crush rebellion at least once” and “No rebel worlds” replaced with “Never let any rebellion to happen” and “Do not let rebellion to happen more than once” (in order to reward preventing the rebellion in the first place).
– [misc] Final score now also takes Centralization into account (not that anyone actually cares about score).
– [misc] Redesigned Command & Control (max active squadrons). Now houses provide squadrons command directly to their fleets and Border Guard and Strategic Reserves use separate Commands with separate pool of C&C. This makes it a bit more complex but more intuitive and easier to explain.

– [balance] Adjusted honorary titles generation chance to make the higher titles more likely to be generated.
– [balance] AI technological level now have a cap (useful for very long games at high difficulty levels).

– [content] All science perks implemented.
– [content] Added 3 new glorious achievements related to noble houses.
– [content] Additional mid and late game events.

– [interface] Military section of planet screen redesigned.
– [interface] Combat starmap markers redesigned.
– [interface] Improved crew skill tooltip to make it more intuitive.

– [fix] Various small fixes.

Compatibility note: NO CHANGE, this version works with v0.84+ 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).