New Features
New Feature: AI Personalities
AI Personalities adds two personality traits to all AI controlled players: the Preference trait and the Strategy trait. The Preference trait determines which things the AI player will like and dislike, this trait may also change their diplomatic behavior. The Strategy trait influences how the AI player runs their empire by changing which things they will research, which units they build and on which sector specializations they will focus.
Preference Traits
- Xenophile
- Xenophobe
- Elitist
- Compassionate
- Militarist
- Pacifist
- Loyal
- Treacherous
- Ruthless
- Warmonger
- Mercantile
- Technologist
- Operative
- Generalist
We added a Diplomatic Feedback system that will inform what certain diplomatic messages from the AI mean or what effects they have. This is done for a number of different messages to help improve feedback from the system making it more transparent. While giving away some of the AI’s plan, this should provide more agency over diplomacy.
Updates
General
- Updated combat cards usage: You can now still set either combat vs the AI or vs humans to something other than use combat cards, like force auto or force manual.
- Added support for trading weapons and mods from your item arsenal with other players.
- The system will now block the AI from choosing leaders that humans have picked.
- Added a PFX to sprawl objects spawning when cities increase in size or new sector upgrades are built
- Reworked Observe Mode and added a 'Follow Enemies Only' option
- Exploration sites are now added almost exclusively through the Global pass rather than through sector definitions. This should result in less clustered Exploration sites and more variation in the types encountered.
- The amount of Exploration Sites that is placed on a map is now linked against the amount of Low Value Landmarks in the Advanced Setup.
- Added a new early-game Paragon NPC faction quest: Natural Order
Interface
- 'Fullscreen' has been renamed to 'Exclusive Mode Fullscreen', 'Borderless' has been renamed to 'Fullscreen'
- Unifier victory will now be hard disabled in the menu when no factions are selected and vice versa, also comes with a warning message.
- The accuracy of abilities listed in tooltips will now update if the unit gains a status effect that changes the accuracy (such as blindness)
- Added visual lines between echo walkers and their clones
- Added visual lines to show which unit mind controlled another unit (only visible if killing the original unit would cancel the mind control)
- Added a new screen to the reinforcements and deserters.
- Changed a number of casting instructions on operations to match their effects more closely.
- Select commander screen's race and special tech dropdown is now sorted.
- Score screen at the end of a game is now sorted
- Prefixes of NPC dwellings changed from 'Dwelling of' to 'Dwelling:'
Tactical Combat Maps
- Water Energy pickups now have their own Tactical Combat Map
- Water Production Pickups now have their own Tactical Combat Map
- Water Cosmite Pickups now have their own Tactical Combat Map
- Water Cosmite Nodes now have their own Tactical Combat Map
- Submarine Spawners now have their own Tactical Combat Map
- Bronze Landmark: Sunken District now has its own Tactical Combat Map
Diplomacy
We’ve gone through a lot of the Diplomatic feedback and made improvements in areas where we think players may have difficulty understanding and engaging with diplomacy. Such as understanding what certain messages mean or what effects have happened, when you can or cannot improve the diplomatic state with another player.
- We have performed an overhaul of the AI planning system in order to expose more of how it works by making all internal modifiers visible in the opinion of an AI player. Additionally we have changed how they determine who to befriend making it more directly related to their opinion of the player.
- When a player surrenders as vassal, any structures they currently occupy that belong to the overlord will be returned. The overlord does take all structures that they occupy. Because it is now easier to become a vassal of an AI player, this will prevent players from quickly absorbing colonies from other players by offering themselves as a vassal.
- The AI now has a neglect timer which will trigger when they share an increased diplomatic state with the player and have not had any interactions from the player for some time. This system will give incentive to continuing to interact with AI players after you have achieved a certain diplomatic state. This neglect can be overcome by changing your diplomatic state, trading and sending a compliment or insult.
- AI players are no longer allowed to actively offer or demand peace/vassalage if they have an attack request against the target player. This is done to prevent them aborting war coordination by quickly leaving the war. The target player may still broker peace with your ally however.
- You can now trade energy- and cosmite for 10 turns again in Teams games and in a vassalage.
- The opinion of human players is no longer visible as it has no gameplay value.
- Open Borders, Shared Vision, Shared Intelligence and Orbital Relay pacts can now be traded during vassalage.
- You can no longer trespass in occupied sectors.
- During a turn you can now exceed the max influence cap if you for example complete a quest or empire task, only at the end of the turn is the maximum applied and will it be set to 200 influence.
- The AI will no longer actively go out of wars during campaign missions where the AI is scripted to go to war.
- The AI will no longer foreshadow about going to war if they are not ready to do so at the time, we've done this to help avoid confusion about AI players threatening war but never following up on it.
- AI players now only look at the tradeable Casus Belli points when declining a trade because of Casus Belli because the player cannot directly act towards removing those.
Balance
General Balance
- Abilities from units that attack with claws (like the Kir'Ko Frenzied and the Wildlife Voradon) or other sharp body parts (such as the Penguin) are now considered to be Claw abilities. These are now able to equip all Biochemical mods except for the Ionic Infusion mod.
- Generic weapon type trees (arc, bio, laser, explosive, firearms, psionic) have been rebalanced and adjusted. These now share upgrade paths, so any type of research here will now allow access to research on the next tier.
- If your unit is in allied territory (defensive pact counts too) and is not trespassing, it now heals faster, like it does in your own territory.
- Psi-Fish, Hopperhound, and Megasow units that have transformed through Metamorphosis now gain a passive property that increases health called Evolved Vitality. The health boost depends on the unit.
- Abilities and Operations that dispel status effects on a AoE or a Jump now only target friendly units.
- Operation Defense from treaties and doctrines will no longer protect your hostile operations from being sabotaged. Operations that target your own colonies will still be protected by this defense however.
- Syndicate Heroes will no longer have access to the watchman hero skill, as they have an improved version from their racial skills.
Economy
- Water Cosmite Node income increased from 5 to 8 Cosmite
- Water Energy Node income increased from 10 to 15 Energy
- Water Food Node income increased from 10 to 15 Food
- Water Production Node income increased from 10 to 15 Production
- Water Production Node now has a Synergy bonus of +5 Production when the sector features a water specialization.
- Water Research Node income increased from 10 to 15 Research
- Water Research Node now has a Synergy bonus of +5 Research when the sector features a water specialization.
- Water (Large) Cosmite Pickup reward tier has been increased from Tier 3 to Tier 5 (compared to Tier 4 on the land equivalent)
- Increased Bronze Water Landmark: Sunken District income from 10 to 20 Research, Food and Energy.
- Increased the income from razing colonies from 10 to 16 Energy and from 4 to 8 Cosmite per colonist. The income from razing sectors is unchanged.
- Military Engineering Guild now applies its buffs on Ship units
Race, Weapons & Secret Techs
The old arrangement of weapon techs meant a lot of investment was needed to reach high level weapon mods, this meant many players never got to use them, since they prioritized other parts of the tech tree which were more widely applicable. We decided to try and tackle this by making the techs cheaper and cross linking the weapon techs, so that researching one tech would also unlock techs for it's partner.
We also looked over some of the less useful weapon tech trees and tried to extend to make them more useful. This involved making some weapon tech defensive in nature for variety, and allowing many biochemical mods to work on melee attacks, which makes them much more useful for Kir'ko players.
Assembly
- Mod 'Flesh Tearer Implants' - Now requires an Assembly Melee unit or a Unit with a Claw ability.
Kir'ko
- Hero Skill 'Guiding Presence' - Decreased Skill Point cost from 8 to 6 Skill Points.
Syndicate
- Indentured 'Arc Power Blast' now makes the unit enter defense mode after use.
- One Way Trust now gives Operation Defense against everything, not just Covert Operations
- Cloak and Dagger now gives Operation Strength with all operations, not just Covert Operations.
Vanguard
- Trooper 'Grenade' changed from Once per Battle to a 2 turn Cooldown.
Heritor
- Siphoner 'Devotion' can no longer be used on enemies
- Mod 'Es'Teq Confiscator' - Essence Drain bonus now correctly excludes Melee attacks and includes Psionic attacks
Promethean
- Moved 'Aegis Tank Corps' tech group from Tier VI toTier V
- Mod 'Thermal Targeting Relay' no longer has empty entries in damage previews
- Doctrine 'Extermination Protocol' no longer shows up in non-damaging abilities
- Hero Skill 'Plasma Surge' has been renamed to Phoenix Surge
- Hero Skill 'Phoenix Surge' is no longer considered a Plasma ability
- Phoenix Walker 'Firestorm' - Damage decreased from 18 to 16
- Phoenix Walker 'Firestorm' - AoE hex radius increased from adjacent to 2 hexes
- Phoenix Walker 'Firestorm' - No longer considered a Melee ability
Psynumbra
- Unit 'Echo of Despair' is now considered non-vital
- Operation 'Flagellation' now states the 75% of health lost in the operation's effect after casting
Synthesis
- Status Effect 'Compromise' now also reduces all other Damage Channels resistance by 1, and Arc Damage resistance by 2 (was 3)
- Operation 'Reactivate Imperial Androids' now states the types of units it can spawn
- Operation 'Deploy Maintenance Daemons' now has an effect description when the operation is cast
Voidtech
- Mod 'Quantum Avatar' no longer staggers displaced enemy units.
- Mod 'Gravity Pulse Grenade' - Can now be equipped by any unit.
- Ability 'Gravity Pulse Grenade' - Dimension Instability increased from 4 to 12
- Ability 'Gravity Pulse Grenade' - Changed from Once per Battle to a 2 turn cooldown
- Echo Walker (Assembly) 'Void Blades' - Increased damage from 9 to 10
- Echo Walker (Amazon) 'Void Glave' - Decreased damage from 17 to 15
- Echo Walker (Dvar) 'Void Hammer' - Decreased damage from 20 to 16
- Operation 'Dimensional Vortex Bomb' can no longer target friendly units
Xenoplague
- Plague Lord 'Lacerating Tentacles' - Now considered a Claw Attack
- Destroyer 'Savage Bite' - Now considered a Claw Attack
- Ability 'Plague Pods' - Infection chance increased from str 8 to str 12
- Ability 'Plague Pods' - Heal increased from 8 to 12
- Mod 'Bio-Spore Purification' - Increased from range 1 to range 3
- Mod 'Parasitic Symbiosis'- Increased Passive health from +15 to +20
Arc Weapon Group
- Mod 'Arc Retaliation Defense' now triggers when the attacker is within 3 hexes (was 2)
- Mod 'Arc Impact Module' now has a 12/8 chance of applying Electrified
Biochemical Weapon Group
- All mods, except for Ionic Infusion, can now be equipped on units with Claw abilities.
Explosive Weapon Group
- Mod 'Explosive: Incendiary' - Decreased cost from 10 Cosmite to 5 Cosmite
Laser Weapon Group
- Mod 'Incinerator Module' - Changed Burning to Immolation
- Mod 'Incinerator Module' - Decreased strength chance from 12/8 to 10/6
- Removed - 'Laser Penetrator Module'
- Removed - 'Shield Breaker Module'
- Added - 'Searing Module' (Tier IV)
- Mod 'Searing Module - Gives Laser Weapons Shield Overheat (Destroy 2 Shields per hit) and a 12 thermal chance (8 for repeating attacks) to apply Charred
- Added - 'Laser Precision Module' (Tier VI)
- Mod 'Laser Precision Module' - Gives Laser Weapons +1 Range and +20% accuracy
- Mod 'Flash Module'- Renamed to 'Dazzler Systems'
- Mod 'Dazzler Systems' is a defensive mod which grants +2 Shields
- Mod 'Dazzler Systems' - Decreased str chance for repeating attacks from 12 to str 8 chance of Blind
- Mod 'Dazzler Systems' can now be equipped by any unit and applies to all weapons
- Mod 'Hard Light Module'- Renamed to 'Hard Light Systems'
- Mod 'Hard Light Systems' is now a defensive mod which grants +1 Shield
- Operation 'Laser Ablation' - Moved to the Tech group in tier IV
Psionics Weapon Group
- Mod 'Focus: Venom' - Decreased Cosmite cost from 10 to 5
- Mod 'Focus: Venom' - Changed Psionic Armor Bypass from All to 2
- Mod 'Focus: Flames' - Additional damage increased from 10% to 20%
- Mod 'Focus: Flames' - Changed Psionic Armor Bypass from All to 2
Arc Status Effects
- Static Charge now lasts for 2 turns.
Thermal Status Effects
- Burning - Increased accuracy against a burning target from 10% to 20%
- Burning Debuff can be applied to units in water TC maps again.
- Immolation - Damage decreased from 12 to 10
- Immolation - Increased accuracy against a burning target from 20% to 30%
- Immolation no longer applies burning on failure.
Independents
- All NPC Faction units are now 20% cheaper to buy
- Growth Soldier Bee - Increased HP from 40 to 45
- Autonom Justicar 'Sentence Target' - Increased Range from 9 to 11
- Autonom Justicar 'Punisher Missile' - Increased Range from 9 to 11
- Psi-Fish Spawn - Increased shields from 1 to 2
- Psi-Fish Spawn - Gained the All-round Awareness Passive Ability
- Psi-Fish Chrysalis - is now a Small Target
- Psi-Fish Chrysalis 'PsiBlast' - Changed to a single action ability
- Forgotten Golem - Increased HP from 40 to 45
- Forgotten Shattered Ark 'Essence Channeler' no longer affect the Ark itself
- Forgotten Shattered Ark 'Essence Channeler' - Decreased Shield cap from 5 to 3
- Paragon Soldier - Increased HP from 35 to 40
- Paragon Soldier 'Grenade' - Changed from Once per Battle to a 2 turn Cooldown
- Paragon Guard - Decreased Shield bypass from flanks from 4 to 2
- Mod 'Overcharged Augment' - Now is on a 3 turn cooldown
- Spacers Truck 'Makeshift Turret' - Increased damage from 16 to 18
- Spacers Truck 'Reckless Crash' - Increased damage from 16 to 22
- Spacers Mad Preacher 'Maddening Rant' - Increased damage from 18 to 22
- Spacers Melter - Increased armor from 2 to 3
- Submarines - Decreased army power value
Fixes
Diplomacy
- Fixed issue where some of the trading messages had lines like 'May our people leave the Dark Age behind us and prosper together' even though the AI could be breaking up an alliance at that point.
- Fixed issue where you would not be able to trade an occupied colony back to its owner.
- Fixed issue where stacks standing on colonies/bases would not be properly teleported away from the structure.
- Fixed issue where sometimes sector bases that were occupied during the war would turn to the occupiers ownerside correctly, but still remain annexed to their original colony if that colony was not occupied. These will now disconnect from the colony.
- Fixed issue where the AI would not store when they last sent a message and thus would have their war declaration timer reset upon saving and reloading.
- Fixed issue where the diplomacy interface was being re-opened after ending a vassalage.
- Fixed issue when trespassing due to external changes expires at the end of your turn it would give the other player 2 Casus Belli instead of 1 for trespassing in their domain.
- Fixed issue where the concealed meeting event panel would pop-up again after saving and reloading the turn in which the player had already dealt with the pop-up. Fix only applies to newly created save games!
- Fixed issue where the player would be unable to buy Vanguard settlements with influence if they shared a despised relationship with the Kir'Ko.
- Fixed issue where Kir'Ko settlements would become twice as expensive to buy with influence if the player shared a disliked relationship with the Syndicate.
- Fixed issue where the Domination Victory Phase 1 and 2 Casus Belli had the wrong denouncement opinion modifiers linked causing the wrong text to appear for the denouncements.
Gameplay
- AI players are now more likely to help/attack settlements.
- Fixed units deserting with low morale not working properly
- Fixed the AI not building enough colonies
- Research and Production income in colonies can no longer go below zero, this would cause issues for the total research income.
- Fixed deco's being rendered in the city tiles of Colonies on the strategic map.
- Fixed an issue where Runners could survive in combat when their commander was killed
- Fixed level 3 Mind Transference not giving essence to air units on combat start
- Fixed water map hazards spawning on top of retreat points in combat maps
- Fixed an issue where the player could be asked to declare war on a defeated player while launching an operation on a defeated player's colony
- Fixed issue related to the 'Heartbringer' and 'Me, the Kingpin' achievement, triggering on contact instead of completion.
- Fixed bug where battling a stack adjacent to a city would pick the wrong tactical combat map.
- Fixed issue where automatic food sharing options wouldn't revert back to share all once fully grown.
- In regards to the automatic food sharing, determining whether a colony is full is calculated more accurately now.
- Fixed issue where razing a sector with an orbital relay specialization would disable other existing orbital relays.
- Fixed issue where having a large number of hazards in one sector could invert income.
- Fixed crash when trying to load a save game while the confirm war declaration panel inside the diplomacy screen was opened.
- Fixed issue in auto exploration which could cause the player not to be able to end their turn in hotseat when they had won the game.
- Fixed crash which could occur if the player had multiple imperial defenses of the same type and one was razed/removed.
- Fixed crash in Heritor 01 when quest completion would trigger and remove the stack the player was trying to attack.
- Fixed wrong rotation of the clustermine mines in TC.
- Fixed extreme lighting in the Psi-fish dwelling making the UI have a different hue.
- Fixed issue where operations would not correctly take into account the diplomatic state of stacks belonging to NPC factions which would cause the player to be able to damage stacks belonging to allied NPC factions.
- Fixed issue where the garrison of imperial defenses would not be cleared if the sector was captured or occupied.
- Fixed issue where the player could end up on a negative relation value with an NPC faction if they would complete quests for other NPC factions.
- Fixed issue where strategic operations that would last for several turns, like the Dvar Earth Crack ability, would not stop the executing unit from moving in consecutive turns.
- Fixed issue where doctrines that would increase your race relations would not always function if the player had the Charismatic trait.
- Fixed crash in tactical combat which could happen if during an attack animation, like Meteor Swoop, multiple events were being triggered during the same frame.
- Fixed issue where the game could hang for some time if a player was defeated and their sectors were being converted to marauder sectors.
- Fixed issue where the game could sometimes crash if the colony was trying to auto assign colonists after new colonist slots had been added.
- Fixed issue where the deploy monitor operation could be used on lava and void locations.
- Fixed issue where auto assigning colonists would over prioritize happiness slots when the city was already generating enough happiness.
- Orbital Relay Reinforcement now correctly makes reinforcement units land on top of enemies, displacing them and dealing minor damage.
- Fixed issue where the unit template would seemingly get stuck on one name or icon
Interface
- Fixed Revelations-specific commander customization backgrounds rendering low resolution on lowest graphics settings.
- Removed debug string when dispelling Virulent Canisters
- Essence Gash now correctly states that its Tactical effects happens every 2 turns
- Fixed selected another players colonizer or prospector showing sector icons on the world map
- Fixed issue related to the Tome of Wonders' previous entry button glitching out on the unit mods section.
- Fixed issue where minimap icons would not disappear when being destroyed by quest or operation.
- Fixed issue where the wrong message would be shown when razing a marker (Monitoring Station)
- Fixed soft lock where A.I.V.A would keep a multiplayer session hostage when one of the players leaves the session during a quest window.
- Colonies being transferred don't show up in the city cycle anymore.
- Choosing a research topic with controller now selects the research instead of queueing it.
- Fixed an issue where razing your own deployed monitor would not update your income
- Fixed Terraformation warning that spawned 2 duplicate messages.
- Fixed issue where the quest tracker and World Event Icon would not be hidden in screenshot mode.
- Fixed issue where the selected hex outline and popup would still be visible in screenshot mode.
- Fixed issue where the blue highlighted hexes would still be visible in controller mode while screenshot mode was active.
- Fixed issue in campaign where the player's commander would have the wrong loadout perk if they changed their secret technology during the campaign.
- Fixed missing event log icon when NPC factions are invading
Units, Mods & Abilities
- Equipping the Hallucinogenic Regulators mod no longer allows a unit to equip Firearms mods
- Vine Sprout summon can now equip and benefit from Crushing Roots if the Vine Bud that summons it has it equipped.
- Fixed Berserker Pheromones from not working on certain melee weapons
- Rite of Revitalization no longer removes positive effects
- Fixed issue where Remote System Purge would jump and dispel enemy cyborgs
- Ancestral Smite now correctly applies the negative Morale debuff
- Roy-2's Distracting Pheromones now correctly only apply to Biological and Cyborg units
- Fixed issue where the Ascended Teacher unit would have multiple Path of Venom mods
- Psynumbra tactical operation: Sacrifice to the Abyss can no longer be used on Heroes
- Fixed an issue where Entangled wouldn't entangle amphibious units
- Essence Link now shows its buff in the unit panel of both linked units
- Turbulence from Aerial Denial System now correctly only lasts 2 turns
- Fixed bug where explosion VFX of a covered section would be shown to the player.
- Fixed Rabid Piglet being really tiny when embarked on water
- Fixed the AI not using summon abilities on flying units
- Fixed a bug where a unit getting action points back would reset the defense bonus from Skitter
- Fixed units with Quantum Avatar teleporting turrets when attacked by them
- The Burden Bearer 'Unburden' - Entropy damage dealt to caster can only be reduced with entropy resistance (now ignores shields and armor).
- The Burden Bearer 'Unburden' - No longer deals more damage when the target would count as flanked.
- The Burden Bearer 'Unburden' - Now correctly dispels debuffs created by enemy units
- The Burden Bearer 'Unburden' - Can no longer target obstacles or units that are not debuffed.
- Fixed units affected by Psi Cage not spawning an echo of despair on death.
- Fixed Reapers losing buffs when they transform back to their starting forms
- Fixed an issue where a summoned unit that ate another unit, would return that eaten unit at the end of battle.
- Fixed an issue that meant damage bonuses from mod were boosting the damage done by damage response abilities, like Pain Mirror.
- Fixed the Storm Wader not having access to the Arc Extension Module
- Fixed the Disassembler getting Bleeding from Ammunition: Fire Burst. It now correctly gets Burning
- Diversion Projector can now correctly be dispelled
- Minor fix to Area of Reprieve not blocking Thorn Roots and Stunning Discharge
- Fixed issue where Tenets of Pacifism could pacify Mindless units
- Fixed issue where Arc Rod was overriding the primary weapon
- Fixed an issue with the Plague Lord's Super Infection suggesting friendly targets
- Arborean Queen's Root Quake can now correctly target Amphibious units
- Hero Skills - Guiding Hand: Now counts as a Psionic Buff for Mantra of Life and Mantra of Clarity
- Wraith Drive will no longer try to apply negate effects to the Wraith Tank
- Fixed issue where the Halo effect from the Quantum Avatar mod was buffing enemy voidtech enemies.
- Sacrifice to the Abyss can now target Flying units
- Mad Preacher's Mad Rant can now correctly graze
- Techno Prophet and Paragon Guard can now correctly carry the Arc Extension Module
- Fixed water Arc Explosives having a theramal explosive indicator
Anomalous Sites
- Fixed issue where Anomalous Site rewards would grant a technology you were already working on.
- Fixed Induce Nightmare not obtaining damage channel swaps
- Fixed Manipulate Sleep triggering on target twice
Audio
- Fixed issue with 'Tactical Operations Ready' VO not trigger on Turn 1 when the spaceport doctrine is active
- The Heritor Doomsday Victory now has voice over
- Lowered the volume of the 'Offer Declined' SFX
- Fixed Abyssal Shroud tech voice over not playing
Localisation
- Fixed two mistakes in the German translation of the 'Ammunition: Flechette' fire-arms unit mod description.
- Fixed a mistake in the German translation of the 'Ammunition: Fire-Burst' fire-arms unit mod description.
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