Hey everyone! I've been working to refine the game and the first playable faction to try and get it to a state where it is ready for release. It isn't quite there yet but this update is a huge step closer with a whole mess of changes to a lot of systems and other stuff.

There is still a lot more I want to improve, and there are several things that I'm still not happy with even after the changes in this update, but I believe the game is already a lot better with this update so I wanted to get it out there while I work on further improvements. With all the changes that also means that there are likely plenty of bugs I missed. I tried to find as much as I could but if you encounter a problem feel free to use the in game bug reporter (Or post about it here or in the discord.)

So what's next?

Well, more system changes. I think Defense needs a bit more work for one, including the visual design for some of the panels. Probably some improvement to the crisis system design. More balance and possibly some more content added to systems that need it.

Beyond that there are two things that stand out. I'm considering expanding the faction selection a bit. Instead of factions call them races or species or something and then give each one 3 actual factions of that race/species you can choose between. These factions would have a different set of starting planets, some kind of unique modifier, and possibly some special unique buildings.

Also, I want to get save/load functionality in at some point as well. It may not make it into the next update but I think each 'run' is long enough that being able to stop whenever you want would be important to have in the full game.

Anyway, the most notable changes to the game in this update are listed below.

Major Additions and Refinements:

• Added a lot more sound effects to various areas of the game, especially in response to player actions.

• Major improvements to the main menu and faction selection screen.

• Redesigned the 'Phase controller' The button to advance lock in selected planets and for advancing to the next turn has been moved to the lower center of the screen.

• Added a faction intro story that appears before getting to capitol selection.

Systems:

• Production

  • Adjusted the cost of several buildings to better balance them.

  • Greatly reduced the production cost of wonders to make them reasonable affordable.

  • Adjusted requirements in other systems to make it a bit easier to unlock their wonders.

  • Added an indicator in each tier of buildings as to how many buildings there are left to unlock of that tier.

  • Production and resources are now shown in a vertical bar on the side instead of above the buildings.

  • Building button design improvements. Better shape and now each button shows a fill level for if you have enough production to build it. Ones you can build being more lit up.

  • Added a 'storage' icon. Storage given by buildings on a planet is now also shown on the planet in with the planet's point values.

• Defense

  • Major rework. Rather than multiple bosses there is now a defense coverage meter indicating how much control over your space you have.

  • Shooting an enemy costs a base amount of defense but it increases with each shot that turn until reset at the end of the turn.

  • Any defense not used to shoot is sent to the coverage meter to fill it up. When full you earn a reward and advance to the next meter which increases the system difficulty.

  • Completing the last meter level spawns the final boss and defeating it will achieve a defense victory.

  • Weapon upgrades are now earned from the number of ships you destroy. Each ship killed gives you xp and collecting enough will level up your cannon, granting the new weapon upgrade.

  • Earning a weapon upgrade pops up it's own selection panel just for that level instead of showing you the whole panel of upgrades for every level.

  • Updated enemy ship designs. New images for each ship. Cleaner design with the turns until they act and a tooltip with more information about the ship such as what it actually does.

• Wellness

  • Major design and visual changes. Expanded content with 50% more rewards and bonuses available.

  • Wellness is now displayed as a tree with multiple branches. Wellness points fill the trunk/stem of the tree. When reaching a branch further points will be added to the branch 'leaves', filling one at a time and awarding a building, orbital, or bonus for each.

  • When a branch is completed the associated decay marker will activate, meaning the more branches you fill the more decay occurs each turn.

  • Oh also, decay now triggers at the start of the turn rather than the end so that bonuses aren't unexpectedly lost when forgetting to account for the decay.

  • Decay will take points for the furthest reached uncompleted leaf or from the stem. Filled leaves wont be drained but bonuses will still be lost when falling below the level of the branch it is on.

  • If there is no wellness to take decay will go to the pot at the base of the tree and be converted into crises points when it is filled. In addition this will also drop the decay level by one branch, making it easier to recover. Reaching that branch again though will restore the higher decay level.

  • Added Wellness Requests. Each turn your people will ask something of you. If you complete the task it will give you a little extra wellness as a reward. There is no penalty for not completing these though.

  • At the top of the tree is the victory leaf. You need to fill it and maintain that level for a couple turns in order to win.

• Exploration

  • Removed 'missions'. Exploration points are spend directly on exploring a tile.

  • If you have enough exploration to explore a tile you have to use it. No saving it for future turns.

  • On the exploration grid the upper panel now hows the number of tiles you need to explore to unlock the next larger grid instead of the number of events still to be found on that grid.

  • New exploration event panel design.

  • When an event offers a specific planet or building it is displayed in the panel so you can examine it and see if you actually want it.

  • Major visual improvement. The panel now displays a solar system that progressively fills just like the science system has.

  • Rather than a separate button for each grid now there is a single button that opens the largest grid you have unlocked and there are buttons in the grid panel to switch between grids if you wish.

• Science

  • The tech tree has been changed to hide what techs are set where. You can now only see one tech beyond those you have researched. The node design still indicates what kind of tech though between buildings, planets, and upgrades.

  • Tech cost is now shown directly in the tech tree instead of needing to view the tooltip to see the cost.

  • Multiple visual improvements to the system and the tech tree.

  • Added flavor text to techs.

• Crisis

  • Crises now start a bit weaker but grow stronger over time. Each has three levels of effects, the first activated when the crisis appears and the others activating after so many turns.

  • Multiple crises have been changed in what they do and how they work from the previous version and some new crises have been added.

  • Crises are now more limited in how you can clear them. Fewer point types are now able to be used to clear each crises when it first appears but more are unlocked each time the crisis level increases.

General Changes:

• A bunch of balance changes and refinements to techs, exploration events, wellness bonuses, and more

• Mousing over planets now has a small interaction effect following the mouse position.

• Adjusted some of the music tracks to balance volume a bit better.

• Removed the min character count limit on the in game reporter.

• Adjusted capitol planet generation to make the choice more interesting and the planet options move valuable overall.

• Adjusted the description on some effects to make it clearer what the effect was.

• The 'Free play' indicator on planets is now shown down in the planetary resource and effects panel rather than floating off to the upper left of the planet.

• Added 'eye' markers to several popup panels that hide the associated panel when mousing over it so that you can see the current state of your systems if you want to check them when trying to make a decision.

Fixes:

• A bunch of fixes that may no longer be relevant with all the system changes.

• Fixed some issues relating to values not properly being cleared when starting a new game without restarting the application.

• Fixed a weird loud noise that sometimes appeared when the game switched between music tracks.