Hey all,

It's November, the time for Steam Awards Nominations.

Why would we talk about that on an 8 year old game that got its last DLC 5 years ago?

We have a new patch coming, courtesy of the love and labor of two dedicated VIP community members, CaptainCobbs and Ninakoru.

Over the past few months, they have poured their hearts into this patch, addressing bugs from the Reawakening patch, improving the AI, balancing the Nakalim, rebalancing invasions, and more (Full Changelog in the original announcement). All of this started with their deep love and passion for Endless Space 2 and the Endless universe, leading them to work on mods to improve and polish the game. Of course, we noticed those mods, so we brought them on to do this officially with our support, giving them deeper access to what they could work on.

Sadly, the patch is not quite ready for full release yet, as we're still waiting for some localization, but you can already try it by going to the Betas tab of the game's properties and selecting the patch-preview branch.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you, Ninakoru and CaptainCobbs, for working with us to make Endless Space 2 an even better game!

Hey everyone!

We've got a surprise for you today:

Another Community Update for Endless Space 2 is in the works in collaboration with a few of our amazing community members.

This beta is packed with improvements to the AI as well as some balancing for ground invasions and the Nakalim, and more.

Of course, we want to hear from you if you think these changes are a move in the right direction, so we have made the Patch available as an opt-in beta. This beta is only available in English. You can play in other languages, but some text may be shown in English. We're working on this already, but didn't want to wait any longer to get your feedback.

• Numerous AI Improvements and fixes; too many to list a single theme

• Rebalanced most ground combat tactics and defensive improvements

• Rebalanced Nakalim, especially Slumbering Ruins

• Fixed the critical issue with the Academy Quest that could cause pending turns

• Various other fixes: Find the full changelog at the end of this post

If you want to give this update a shot, you can find it on the "patchpreview" branch in the Betas tab of the game's properties on Steam. And if you do, please don't forget to let us know what you think. :)

Many thanks to CaptainCobbs for once again working for us on this update, and a special shoutout to Ninakoru and FearSunn as well for their invaluable input for the AI improvements and fixes, and FrostGremlin for additional writing on some diplomacy messages.

We hope you'll have fun with the new balance changes and improved AI!

- The Amplitude Team

Credit to Ninakoru and FearSunn for donating these fixes

• Fixed AI repeatedly trying to set up a singularity when they already have one set up

• Fixed AI being unable to assign heroes when one of their heroes are injured

• Fixed AI thinking it is low on manpower when manpower is maxed out

• Fixed AI getting confused about systems it is able to colonize

• Fixed AI not properly checking if it is able to invade a system

• Fixed AI not being able to search quest curiosities in some situations

• Fixed AI not making fleet attacks properly

• Fixed several instances of the AI getting stuck, causing the turn to be stuck pending endlessly

• Fixed AI trying to disband a behemoth, when that is not possible

• Fixed AI trying to merge fleets while those fleets are already involved in an encounter

• Fixed AI trying to launch a mining probe when it shouldn’t be able to

• Fixed AI not using ships awarded from assimilating a minor faction

• Fixed AI Lumeris not being able to buyout outposts

• Fixed AI not properly evaluating the need to research expansion techs

• Fixed AI Pirate Slayer factions trying to repeatedly cancel a pirate mark, as they are completely unable to

• Fixed AI improperly queuing orders to Behemoths, Colonizers, and Explorers

• Fixed AI not properly prioritizing population capacity system improvements

• Fixed AI Vodyani trying to increase population capacity, as they are completely unable to

• Fixed AI not prioritizing researching terraformation when the need for it arises

• Fixed AI improperly evaluating the importance of defending outposts

• Fixed AI getting really confused when trying to attack privateers, pirates, or minor factions

• Fixed AI trying to harass an outpost with a scout when it shouldn’t be aware that the outpost even exists

• Fixed AI deprioritizing building a military when it is at an extreme military disadvantage

• Fixed AI being able to complete any “destroy fleet” quest objectives

• Fixed AI getting confused when trying to invade a system for a quest that it doesn’t have access to

• Fixed AI always sending the maximum number of population a spaceport can fit when moving population around

• Fixed AI trying to launch a mining probe when no probes are available

• Fixed AI forgetting science and industry costs when you load a save

• Fixed AI failing to queue items with strategic or luxury resource costs

• Fixed AI being unable to attack fleets within their own system’s influence and also trying to attack invulnerable quest fleets

• Fixed Minor Faction AI trying to attack Major Empires it is friendly with

• Fixed AI getting confused when it is unable to capture a system with influence conversion that is immune to influence conversion

• Fixed AI getting stuck and confused when trying to use queue-blocking resource conversion improvements

• Fixed AI being unable to discern if minor factions are friendly when checking star systems under hostile influence

• Fixed AI not being able to assess that a system may be owned by multiple players (such as with outposts and sanctuaries)

• Fixed AI being unable to add modules to the ships of heroes acquired via quests

• Fixed AI not being able to properly evaluate the number of turns a dust buyout will save

• Fixed AI trying to send all its fleets to the center of the map after loading a save

• Fixed AI being able to attack cloaked fleets they are unable to detect

• Fixed AI getting confused when trying to reduce an already reduced anomaly

• Fixed AI repeatedly trying to offer outdated diplomacy deals

• Fixed AI not being able to use faction-specific variants of white weapon modules

• Fixed AI confusing declaring war with bribing due to a mixup in diplomatic definitions

• Fixed AI not being able to dismiss battle replays from rip singularities, causing endless turn pending

• Fixed AI inconsistently cancelling fleet missions and made them control fleets more responsively

• Fixed AI trying to merge ships into fleets that were already full and Academy fleets

• Fixed AI not checking if it has open borders with the target empire or if the target is the Academy before leeching

• Fixed AI not being able to increase its need for a strategic resource if it wants a module that uses it

• Fixed AI trying to assign a hero to Academy fleets

• Fixed AI trying to collect relics in systems it cannot reach or doesn’t have open borders to

• Fixed AI not being able to search quest curiosities

• Fixed AI Vodyani avoiding attaching Arks to systems with Sanctuaries

• Improved AI ability to detect which technologies strengthen its ability to invade systems

• Improved AI so that it will be more consistent at supporting invasions due to the manpower needed to make it happen

• Fixed AI never wanting to research hull upgrade technologies

• Improved AI motivation to colonize slumbering ruins

• Improved AI motivation to want to build approval improvements

• Improved AI motivation to colonize planets in already owned systems

• Fixed AI dust goals being a little sad, they now scale with population

• Improved AI to start thinking about increasing population capacity a bit earlier

• Improved AI food and population increase motivation unless the system is full

• Fixed AI not researching planet colonization techs when wanting to develop a system

• Improved AI Vodyani by making them favor razing systems to expand their empire

• Improved AI motivation for developing trading companies

• Reduced AI motivation to want to terraform, since it doesn’t give as much as building a new improvement

• Improved AI by making them less likely to want to terraform instead of building improvements

• Fixed AI with the “Innovative” trait wanting more dust rather than science, increased AI motivation to research technologies as the game goes on, with AI factions that get a head-start on techs (like Nakalim) will have lower initial motivation to research

• Improved AI Umbral Choir by motivating them to go for economic victory, and Hissho by motivating them to go for supremacy victory, fixed AI current victory path heavily affecting early-game decision making

• Improved AI Vodyani so that they will evacuate minor faction brainwashed systems as they are closer to their empire than any colonizable system

• Fixed AI trying to assign governors to blockaded systems, and improved AI so that they assign governors to their most important systems first rather than going in order of acquisition

• Fixed AI not properly having motivation for republic custom laws, and increase motivation of custom laws overall

• Added AI ability to understand all currently existing ground battle strategies and any unknown or modded strategies

• Fixed AI not building special improvements like the Academy Embassy, Nakalim’s Awaken System, Lumeris Shadow Banking, or military buildings that improve ships built on that system

• Improved AI by making them not consider buildings they have zero interest in, in order to measure their fast building turns for industry motivation

• Improved AI ability to donate to the Academy

• AI bonuses on harder difficulties will be more relevant to what AI factions actually need

• Fixed AI not properly transitioning to back from other some diplomatic states once concluded

• Fixed AI not properly checking for war state if ally needs help

• Fixed AI repeatedly asking for agreements if they were refused recently (5 turns)

• Fixed AI properly checking if the person they are doing diplomacy with is in an alliance or alliance already

• Fixed AI trying to offer peace or alliance to factions with the Eternal War trait and are not currently pacifists

• Fixed AI threatening for tribute if they are not stronger than you

• Fixed AI so it doesn't get stuck looping between warring states

• Fixed AI asking for a truce with empires in alliances with factions they want to kill

• Fixed AI so they do not try to commit to a war if they are already in a war or not stronger than the faction they are hostile to

• Fixed AI performing sneak attacks on other factions even when they do not have the military to back it up, and also if they do not have military hull techs researched

• Improved AI by adding three distinct types of sneak attack behaviors, one for factions with the “Renegade” trait, one for factions with the “Militarist” trait, and one for everyone else. Non-Renegade and Non-Militarist factions will make sneak attacks on cordial and peace, but not when friendly or in an alliance

• Fixed AI suddenly declaring sneak attacks upon loading a save

• Fixed AI trying and failing to offer Co-Operation Protocol faction pacts when they do not have it researched

• Fixed AI trying to repeatedly declare Diplomatic Embroglio while it is already in effect

• Fixed AI trying to offer Trade or Science Agreements when they don’t have the influence to maintain it

• Fixed AI trying to compute gifts with the Master of Dust as it doesn’t exist anymore

• Added some extra checks to the AI before they commit to diplomatic desires

• Improved AI by making it able to propose Map Sharing, Vision Sharing, and Trade Deals in a broader variety of relation states

• Improved AI Debug Logging

• Improved AI in how they calculate purchasing power

• Improved AI so they are willing to trade for more resources beyond what they need, but at reduced sway

• Fixed AI asking for unreasonable quantities of resources

• Fixed the trade evaluation bar in diplomacy rounding inaccurately

• Improved AI so that they stockpile luxuries they produce and are interested in using for system development

• Improved AI so that they pick system development luxuries more intelligently

• Added AI ability to boost their population, AI will prioritize luxury resources be used on system development, rather than population boosting

• Added AI behaviour for stocking luxury resources for populations they own, and infrequently buying those luxuries from the market

• Fixed AI so that activated laws are refreshed each processing pass rather than each turn

• Fixed AI so that they can properly set and remove tasks that cannot be cancelled

• Improved AI motivation for keeping laws related to approval and FIDSI

• Fixed AI getting confused that they didn’t properly allocate laws that cannot be abolished

• Added AI ability to allocate laws for military power and movement gain

• Fixed AI so that they can abolish laws and are aware of which laws cannot be abolished

• Fixed AI so that they will prioritize laws that cannot be canceled when allocating net income into laws/treaties

• Added AI motivation to enact more military laws

• Expanded scope of some AI gains to include more properties so comparisons are more accurate

• Fixed AI only building important buildings on their best system, rather than sufficiently important systems

• Fixed AI so that they will prefer to build resource-boosting planet improvements when available

• Fixed AI so that they prefer Hissho Fealty Center when available

• Fixed AI Nakalim so that they may build Temples of the Lost on Planets

• Fixed AI Nakalim so that they can evaluate whether they are able to slot a relic into a hero, and so that it tries to apply relics on non-governor heroes

• Fixed AI so that it doesn’t try to assign heroes to unavailable fleets

• Fixed AI so that it doesn’t try to build a behemoth while one is already in the queue

• Improved AI so that it is better at estimating power differences between factions

• Fixed AI so that they will cancel attacking a system if they aren’t able to attack it anymore

• Fixed AI Motivation for Approval on Conquered Systems

• Fixed AI Hissho so that it can place Fealty center properly and so they don’t replace it with something weaker

• Improved AI Cravers so that they can use their special Feeding Pits special improvement

• Fixed AI avoiding systems stuck with outdated motivation

• Fixed AI trying to merge invalid fleets

• Fixed AI getting stuck in failing loops when trying to invade systems

• Improved AI so that it checks if there is enough manpower when trying to invade

• Improved AI so that it will avoid sending invasion support fleets through dangerous systems

• Fixed Umbral Choir AI not being able to return fleets to its home system when they are done with their tasks

• Fixed AI so that they properly evaluate their sympathy for the Academy

• Fixed AI fleets not cancelling their pathing when trying to merge or become privateers

• Improved AI so that they can more consistently go to nodes when trying to discover nodes for other missions

• Improved AI motivation for movement and command point technologies

• Reduced AI motivation for Vodyani Ark modules

• Improved AI so that Economy Behemoths will include an engine module

• Improved AI so that cloak/anti-cloak modules will only be slotted on defenders or coordinators

• Improved AI so that they retrofit and repair their fleets more consistently

• Improved AI so that they waste less time when trying to merge fleets together and merge fleets more consistently

• Improved AI so that they are better able to distribute their fleets for offense and defense

• Improved AI so that they reallocate heroes more effectively

• Fixed AI not being able to disband, cloak, or attack in some situations

• Minor Faction Population Collection Bonus thresholds reduced, from 10-20-50 to 5-10-20

• Sublime University - Lost 1 Science per Population, Gained +5% Science

• Flak damage against squadrons reduced by 50%

• Buffed Flak Damage on the following weapons: Improved Ultradense Slugs (120 -> 150), Improved High-I Slugs (90 -> 120), AGN Slugs (150 -> 180)

• Titanium Slugs bonus changed from improved flak damage to reduced medium range penalty

• Antimatter critical hit chance material bonus reduced from 15% to 10%

• Projectile health now scales with module multiplier

• Increased hull weakness on small ships from 100 to 120 (this should reduce their durability overall)

• Hunter damage bonus increased from 20% to 25%

• Reduced victory requirement scaling of conquest victory for alliances, so that the required systems can no longer exceed the size of the galaxy

• Increased base economic victory threshold by 28% (700k->900k) to be in-line with the timing of the other victory types

• Reduced strategic resource requirement of wonder victory (125 -> 100 Titanium/Hyperium, 80 -> 60 Antimatter/Adamantian)

• Anarchy now takes 4 turns (from 5)

• Removed or reduced dust upkeep on trade buildings

Nakalim Rebalance

• Slumbering Ruins no longer get Sustainable Farms and Epigenetic Crop Seeding upon colonization, and instead get “Holistic Defenses”

• Slumbering Ruins colonization bonus nerfed (10 relics, 300 dust -> 5 relics)

• Slumbering Ruins awakening bonus changed (100 FIDS, 20 Influence -> 20 Food, 20 Dust, -100% Food Consumption)

• Slumbering Ruins now only gives 1 population instead of 2

• Slumbering Ruins now only gives 3 relics instead of 5

• Nakalim now receive ~50% less relics from quests

• Well Founded now only reveals systems up to 30 parsecs away, rather than the entire constellation

• Temples can no longer be built on gas planets

• Nakalim no longer start with a Colonizer

• Nakalim Diplomacy Relic influence gain is now capped at 100%

• Sublime University - Lost 1 Science per Population, Gained +5% Science

• Reduced Spiritual Elucidation Foundation - -5 Science per Relic (from 10)

• Research Retreats - 2 Science per Anomaly (from 5)

• Body Language Institute now gives 25% influence, from 5%

• Academy “Request Fleet” action cost nerfed from 20 to 35

Manpower Rework

• Holistic Defenses - +250 Garrison Capacity, +200 Deployment Limit

• Civilian Emergency Center - +200 Garrison Capacity, +200 Deployment Limit

• Impervious Bunkers - +250 Garrison Capacity, +200 Deployment Limit

• Budakai Bunkers - +300 Garrison Capacity, +400 Deployment Limit

• Exotic Rats - No longer provides Garrison Capacity, +25% Troop Health, +25% Troop Damage

• Patriotic Pills Plant - -10% Food to Manpower, +50 Manpower per Turn (should make this quite a bit better on smaller systems)

• Multi-Mind Combat - No longer provides +1500 Garrison Capacity, +150 Garrison Capacity per Population, +650 Deployment Limit, +10% Deployment Limit

• Tractable Armaments - No longer provides Deployment Limit, No longer provides +250 Garrison Capacity, +40 Garrison Capacity per Population, +600 Bombardment Damage

• Integrated Weaponry - No longer provides Deployment Limit, No longer provides +500 Garrison Capacity, +60 Garrison Capacity per Population, +350 Bombardment Damage

• Electromagnetic Shield - No longer provides Garrison Capacity, No longer provides +100 Deployment limit, +15% deployment limit, +15% troop health, -25% bombardment damage taken, -20% improvement and population destroyed

• Planetary Guard - No longer provides Garrison Capacity, No longer provides +500 Deployment limit, +25% deployment limit, +15% troop health, -35% bombardment damage taken, -30% improvement and population destroyed

• Sophonic Rampart - +125 Garrison Capacity, +100 Deployment Limit, +15% Troop Damage

• Reanimator - No longer provides flat garrison capacity, now provides +20 Manpower per Population, +20 Manpower per Population on Large Planets, +40 Manpower per Turn on Huge Planets

• Ministry of Truth - No longer provides +40 Manpower per Turn, now provides +50 Manpower per Turn per Population

• Sim Camp - Nerfed from 10% Industry per Manpower to 8% (I was nice)

• Nanohaze Defenses - +15% Deployment Limit

• Citadels - +200 Citadel Garrison Capacity, +10% Troop Health and Troop Damage (didn’t work before), +50 Citadel Garrison Capacity per Population

• Obliterator Shield - -50% Bombardment Damage received

• System Battery - +400 Citadel Garrison Capacity

• Advanced System Battery - Now requires System Battery be built

• Coordinated Bunkers - +40 Citadel Garrison Capacity per Population

• Scientific-Military Complex - +10% Damage and Health on Ships built on this System

• Weaponized System - No longer has Food or Dust penalties, No longer provides garrison capacity, +200 Manpower per Turn, +5% Industry per Manpower

• Conscription Complex - No longer provides Garrison Capacity, +50 Manpower per Turn per Population

• Sonic Disruption Net - +100 Garrison Capacity, +100 Deployment Limit

• Blitz - +25% Improvement and Population Destruction Chance

• Swarm Assault - +25% Improvement and Population Destruction Chance

• Guerilla - -50% Improvement and Population Destruction Chance, -85% Bombardment Damage Taken

• Draft - +125 Manpower from Draft and Deployment Limit, +15% Deployment Limit

• Patriotic Duty - +200 Manpower from Draft and Deployment Limit, +15% Deployment Limit

• Protect System - -25% Improvement and Population Destruction Chance, -50% Bombardment Damage Taken

• Militant Defense - -25% Improvement and Population Destruction Chance, Damage changed from 500-800 to 1000, -50% Bombardment Damage Taken

• Sacred Ground (center of effect) - +20% Troop Health, -50% Improvement and Population Destruction Chance, Damage changed from 500-800 to 1500, -60% Bombardment Damage Taken

• Sacred Ground (radial effect)  - +10% Troop Health, -40% Population Destruction Chance, +750 Bombardment Damage, -50% Bombardment Damage Taken

• Draft (Umbral Choir) - +450 Manpower from Draft and Deployment Limit, +15% Deployment Limit

• Protect System (Umbral Choir) - -75% Bombardment Damage Taken

• Orbital Bombardment & Rally - Reduced damage by 30%

• Reduced Flak damage by 20%

• Siege Module siege power reduced by 25%

• Arks anchored to a system can no longer contribute manpower to ground battles

• Fixed a crash when the AI would attempt to hack an Academy-owned system

• Fixed System Labels for Slumbering Ruins sometimes causing endless turn pending

• Fixed a crash when trying to drag Academy-gifted fleets outside of their originally intended fleet

• Fixed building a Behemoth with the Core Miner module while not having enough Adamantian causing the game to crash

• Fixed game freeze when the Academy Quest starts and Academy Expansion is set to None

• Fixed AI not being able to dismiss battle replays from rip singularities, causing endless turn pending

• Fixed AI sometimes trying to move their fleet after a retreating from a battle, causing endless turn pending

• Dark Matter quests that give ships now instead give ship blueprints

• Dark Matter quest prerequisites redone to be more reasonable

• Fixed the Academy Quest not triggering / bugging out depending on your DLC / Academy Settings

• Fixed the Academy being able to convert owned systems

• Added several missing tech links for Nakalim, Horatio, Hissho, and Sophons

• Dust to Dust - Part 1 quest now targets the destination system rather than a random one

• Fixed T1 Food, Influence, and FIDS Planetary Improvements not upgrading to T3 when skipping upgrading to T2

• Added Political Events to many system improvements and technologies missing them

• Updated the Categories of many system improvements

• Fixed Strategic Sustenance population modifier not correctly applying when boosted

• Fixed some hero skills not correctly showing up on the Planet / Trade Breakdowns

• Fixed Slumbering Ruin awakening effect not properly scaling with game speed

• Fixed some Academy boosts not applying properly

• Fixed any effects that scale with Truce Count not doing anything

• Fixed all Anomalies not counting towards total anomalies on a planet/system

• Fixed T3 Hissho collection bonus not applying properly

• Fixed Cube of the Viceroy being able to be enqueued multiple times

• Fixed Awaken System being able to be enqueued multiple times

• Fixed the temporary upkeep increase from the Riled Researchers quest not showing up

• Fixed manpower not properly refilling to full at the end of a turn

• Fixed singularities not being removed properly after cancelling one on a conquered system

• Fixed launching a mining probe not consuming the probe until the animation finishes, allowing you to launch many probes onto the same planet

• Fixed mining probes being visible when you hadn’t explored the system of the planet they were on

• Fixed being able to clone Super Guardians

• Fixed Academy ships from being able to have their manpower participate in ground battles

• Fixed automated ships counting as orbiting friendly/enemy military fleets

• Ships purchased by the Umbral Choir now start invisible

• System improvements that cannot provide a bonus on a system are no longer buildable on those systems

• Riftborn upgraded population creation improvements from their quest no longer consume surplus industry

• Fixed Friendly Fleets Bill not having any effect

• Fixed trade routes never refreshing and being blockaded the whole game

• Variants of all buildings are now exclusive with each other

• Vodyani food consumption now scales with game speed properly (should notice a difference on Slow & Endless)

• Fixed Improved Ultradense Slugs module using the Flak sub-module of Improved High-I Slugs

• Fixed salvos not correctly receiving health modifiers

• Fixed the Gjallafire weapon module not being able to target behemoths

• Fixed some ship design templates trying to fill module slots that do not exist

• Fixed Closed Airspace tactics card not properly buffing the damage of Energy Squadrons

• Fixed Flotilla Shields not applying their buff to the fleet correctly (did nothing previously)

• Fix an error with Energy Weapons having a much larger cooldown than intended

• Fixed an issue where boosting a population type with a trait shared by another population type with boost either of them

• Fixed several population assimilation traits

• Fixed “Infallible Authority” Vodyani skill did not scale with hero level

• Fixed ships not having a base-repair rate when in friendly territory

• Fixed Nakalim science buildings counted all Relics instead of unassigned relics

• Fixed Nakalim “-50% science from ship destruction” was applied twice

• Fixed “Research Cities” having a partially hidden tooltip

• Fixed Improvement and Building loss not applying properly on some Nakalim ground battle strategies

• Fixed Lost Cities applying “Happiness per Population²” instead of “Happiness per Population”

• Fixed Scour and Rise Up ground battle strategies not properly replacing Preemptive Bombing and Rally when available

• Fixed progression of the Unexpected Entropy quest

• Fixed Nakalim empire relic bonuses not being applied properly

• Fixed Planet FIDSI could not be negative

• Fixed Gjallafire and Pirate Laser weapons having no weapon type

• Fixed “Hardship Ready” not applying the correct resource penalty

• Changed Pug Hero’s classification to Overseer to match their skill tree

• Fixed +10% Troop Health and Troop Damage from Citadels not working before

• Fixed some issues with not being able to attack other empires while within Academy territory

• Fixed Nakalim building effects that target systems with Cathedrals not working

• Fixed Nakalim “Donate systems to the Academy” quest choice being available when the Academy is disabled

• Fixed “Relation on Minor Factions” effect on the Nakalim Diplomacy relic not working

• Changed default “Academy Expansion” setting to Low

• Fixed awakened slumbering ruins being able to be re-colonized to re-apply slumbering ruin bonuses

• Fixed Horatio’s Faction Quest Chapter 2, Part 1 - Industrialist path not being able to be progressed if another empire destroys the quest fleet

Credit to FrostGremlin for providing additional writing

• Fixed several typos

• Fixed many links to Amplifiers (was Games2Gether) not working

• Fixed the news feed in the main menu not being able to receive posts

• Fixed Flak Damage not correctly displaying on weapon cards

• Fixed many techs not correctly being labeled as faction-specific

• Fixed the Basryxo population art being missized

• Moved some technologies around slightly on the technology tree so that spacing was more even

• Fixed Academy boosts not having GUI Elements in the FIDSI Breakdown

• Fixed Approval effects from luxuries not being hidden from the Hissho

• Removed Overall Cooldown from Weapon Panels

• Fixed some properties not showing up properly / being improperly labeled on Weapon Panels

• Fixed Deployable Ramparts not having a GUI Category

• Fixed FIDSI from Mining Probes not having a GUI Title

• Renamed the Tier 3 Strategic Fighter / Bomber to match the naming convention of the other bombers

• Fixed the tooltip of some fleet damage / critical chance modules incorrectly saying they affected flotillas

• Fixed the tooltip of Endless Augmentation Factory showing up twice

• Fixed Magnate Council’s tooltip being hidden in the breakdown while ecstatic

• Fixed Luxuries showing “Effects on planet” instead of “Effects within a system development upgrade” when zoomed into system orbit

• Fixed Academy “gift system” icon appearing on any system under an influence

• Fixed Arks not having the correct module multiplier in the ship design screen

• Fixed hacking program cost changes not properly updating the GUI

• Wonder anomalies are now properly categorized as such in the GUI

• Fixed some types of system improvements not being correctly organized in the improvement list

• Fixed System Development not having the correct improvement subcategory

• Nakalim Political Relic now shows the multiplier by parties represented

• Added an “infinite improvement” filter category in the system constructibles panel

• Added “Infinite Improvement” system improvement category to differentiate infinite improvements in the tech tree

• Added tooltip effect notes for some planet-based constructible prerequisites

• Fixed the Academy Diplomacy “Request System” action not having an error message for not having vision over the desired system

• Resources that the AI wants to trade are now properly shown with a “+” symbol in the diplomacy screen

• Added \[citadelDefenseColored] Icon

• Reworded a lot of poorly worded tooltips relating to space and ground combat

• Many unclear, confusing, and outdated tooltips have been reworded

• System Defense has been renamed to “Garrison Capacity”

• Citadel Defense has been renamed to “Citadel Garrison Capacity”

• Ship Manpower has been renamed to “Crew Manpower”

• Tooltips that specified “On Happy” and “On Ecstatic” (or the Hissho equivalent) should now just say “On Happy or Above”, assuming the effect isn’t different

• Fixed influence gained from Gossamer not displaying on the system influence breakdown

• Fixed Cultural Invertics being shown as a faction-specific technology for all factions

• Fixed bombardment damage improvements so they do not all show the same value

• Fixed Mavros Skunkworks not showing the correct amount of health

• Fixed an error where invading/defending troop damage was displayed as bombardment damage

• Swapped Unstable Isotopes and Focused Plasma icons

• Fixed missing UI elements on the Nakalim Political Relic

• Fixed Xirmisala “Dust Dowsing” law not displaying properly

• Fixed problems with Immaterial Connection and Sublime University icons

• Fixed the tooltip of the Low-Quality Foundations anomaly

• Fixed Planet FIDSI tooltips

• Fixed Transcendental Outlook skill not removing upkeep on governors

• Fixed inflation rounding on ship tooltips

• Fixed the “Mind Matters” quest using a generic tooltip

• Fixed “A Matter of Black and White” tooltip hint not showing the correct amount of laws

• Removed the newline after empire relic effects

• Fixed slumbering ruins colonization button not having a description in some situations

• Fixed desync when Pirate Bases are destroyed, however, you no longer gain academy relation when destroying pirates

• Added new tab to the Simulation Debugger “Roots”, which allows you to view the simulation tree for ongoing fights, the galaxy, and other “non-empire” simulation objects

• Fixed GameSettingPrerequisite “inverted” property not working properly

• Added several new anomaly qualities for use by modders

• The Debug fleet now has engines and no longer moves 3 parsecs per turn

• Fixed Market Prices repeatedly crashing to the minimum price

• Fixed Mechsuit Quarter & Riftborn Miners Corp not being buildable

• Fixed Advanced System Battery not being buildable

• Fixed Nakalim Temples not having correct building category

• Fixed several desyncs and pending turn errors related to temporary effects

• Fixed Advanced Node Analyzer not replacing Basic Node Analyzer in the ship design screen

• Gave Core Miner its own module category, so now it’ll show up separately from other mining modules

• Fixed several AI issues from the beta that cause strange behaviors and desyncs

• Fixed Riftborn Scrap Kings law not appearing in the law list

• Fixed Riftborn Communion’s Guidance, Inner Panopticon, and Tainted Dust quest effects not working

• Made Hay Makers minor faction trait be “on happy or above” like other similar effects

• Buffed Coordinated Bunkers from +100 Deployment Limit to +500

• Advanced System Battery now gives +2 Vision Range and an additional +10% Health Regeneration Rate on Orbiting Fleets

• Updated all references to Games2Gether to now refer to Amplifiers

• Fixed Orbital Bombardment Damage not showing up in tooltips

• Fixed the error message for not having enough relics for a Temple not having a string

• Fixed Sim Camp building not showing the correct value

• Fixed save game button not being enabled unless you click back onto the text field

• Fixed some instances where the save game button wouldn’t enable on non-steam platforms

• Updated EmpireRelicSlotDefinition schema for modding

• Achilles Update for Humankind: We overhauled the War Support and Surrender system.
  
• Claim for Free Cultures of Latin America
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1819410/
• Free Wallpapers
  
• And many surprises under the Stretch Goals that all the community will unlock!
  

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  We’ll see you on Saiadha,
  The Amplitude Team
  
  

Originally posted by author:

Our studio is backed by strong and meaningful franchises and our team is committed to creating the best games possible. With our extensive experiences in strategy game development and two exciting titles currently in progress, we are confident in our ability to deliver outstanding experience to players. This decision allows us to be more agile in our approach while continuing to shape the vision that has been ours from the very beginning, empowering us to push boundaries and be closer as ever of our community.

Originally posted by author:

Stephen: Thanks, Daarkarrow! I’ve been with Amplitude over ten years now (wow, time flies!), working mainly on Endless projects like Endless Legend and Endless Space 2, but also on Amplitude’s entry into the historical strategy genre, Humankind. Science-fiction is my first love though—and the reason I ended up a games writer at Amplitude—so when the opportunity came up to write a novel set in the Endless universe I jumped at the chance. Space travel, precursor civilizations, and existential cosmic questions—all these things have fascinated me from my earliest years, and the Endless universe is the perfect backdrop to explore these elements!

Originally posted by author:

Stephen: Let’s dive right in!

Originally posted by author:

Stephen: Essentially, Shadow of the Endless is about a young Pilgrim named Sewa, who uncovers a plot to betray her people, resulting in a wild adventure across the galaxy. For those who don’t know, the Pilgrims are an offshoot of the United Empire, who fled into space in a dozen or so fleets when Emperor Zelevas sought to eradicate their Endless-worshipping religion. As a hunted people, the Pilgrims are constantly on the run, and as such, Sewa’s first duty is to her people’s survival. She wants to be a caver, but it seems fate has other ideas...

Originally posted by author:

Stephen: Yes, exactly. Strange worlds, starships, weird and horrifying aliens. All the classic stuff. The novel delves deeper into many elements of the Endless universe, such as the nature of Dust, the inner workings of the Academy, and the United Empire homeworld, but at heart it’s a story about a young woman coming to terms with her place in the world (or galaxy!). If you like (or fear!) the idea of caving deep into subterranean places, the novel should give you a lot of feels too!

Originally posted by author:

Stephen: Definitely. The main character, Sewa, hails from the Pilgrims, a high-tech, religious faction who are obsessed with the Endless, but remain in the cross-hairs of Emperor Zelevas’ United Empire who hunt down the Pilgrims ruthlessly. The novel features a lot of insights into both factions, and the eagle-eyed reader will spot many more characters of other factions who cross Sewa’s path during her adventures. A Niris commander working on behalf of the United Empire plays a key role.

Originally posted by author:

Stephen: The Academy is a secretive organization led by a charismatic individual named Isyander St Shaiad. The central role of the Academy is to find and train those few individuals who have been altered by the mysterious substance known as Dust (and survived). The organization helps these "Heroes" to control and exploit the powers that Dust gives them, before sending them back out into the galaxy to work for client-empires. The Academy is an energetic political player on the galactic stage, and its fascination with Dust and the ancient Endless civilization leads it to a mastery of arcane knowledge.

Originally posted by author:

Stephen: In ‘Shadow of the Endless’ readers will get a front-row seat view of the Academy from the inside, as one of Sewa’s companions takes her into the heart of the Harrow star-system where the famous Academy ‘pyramid-city’ is located. As well as wandering through the city, Sewa’s journey will also take her into the catacombs below...

• In which language is the book available?

  Originally posted by author:

  The book is only available in English

• Do you have any plans to include additional languages?

  Originally posted by author:

  We are first going into the English-speaking market, and we hope to have more exciting news to share in the future about potential additional languages.

• Is there a way I could get a signed book?

  Originally posted by author:

  We are all chasing Stephen to get signed copies, you are not the only one! He will be participating in several Events in the UK to sign copies, but we will share more details on our social media channels.

• Will the book have an audio edition?

  Originally posted by author:

  The Audio edition is confirmed! The team is working really hard to bring it as soon as possible.

• Weapon and Defense modules were rebalanced, including a significant buff to shield capacities 
• Flak and missile fire rates were adjusted for better interactions between them 
• Special weapons (e.g. Swarm Missiles, Railguns) have been rebalanced so they should fill specialized niches 
• Support module have been rebalanced, including modules that can only be mounted on Coordinators or can only affect each flotilla once 
• Rebalanced battle tactics including new powerful but specialized tactics as curiosity rewards 

• Academy fleets will no longer siege player systems while you are at neutral relations with them 
• The strength of Academy fleets now scaled with Academy level and starts much weaker than before 
• The Advanced Game Setup screen now includes a setting for how much the Academy will expand, from not at all to aggressively 
• The Academy Difficulty setting on the Advanced Game Setup screen has been expanded with an additional "Endless" level of difficulty 

• Added new interactions with the Academy accessed on a separate screen: 
  • Earn favor with the Academy by donating during role assignment 
  • Nakalim may also donate systems to gain a lot of favor 
  • Spend favor to use various interactions, like requesting control of an Academy system 
  • Each faction also has access to one unique action 
• The Master of Dust has become the Legate: Declare Crusades against other empires to let other players attack them freely 

• The Last Empire: Nakalim now suffer a 50% penalty to planetary FIDS production by default, but this penalty can be removed by using relics to construct the Temple planetary improvement. With enough Temples, you will be able to construct Cathedrals of the Lost as system improvements, which give huge bonuses to the system and unlock Relic Slots for your empire that provide powerful boost. 
• Well-founded: The Nakalim begin the game with knowledge of their entire constellation (or a large radius on single-constellation maps) 
• Slumbering Ruins: You can find "Slumbering Ruins" that will give new colonies a big boost if awakened by a Nakalim player 
• Beliefs not Breakthroughs: This trait now allows you to trade technologies with other empires at increased cost, but science gained from ship destruction after battles is reduced. 
• Rebalancing: Various adjustments to faction traits used by the Nakalim, Nakalim-specific system improvements and hero skills, and the spawn distribution of relics 

• Weapon/Defense/Support Module related changes: 
  • Defense module stats are rebalanced, and Shield Capacities are substantially buffed. 
  • Weapon DPS values, fire rates, effective ranges, Weapon Hull & Shield penetration values are tweaked. 
  • Strategic modules, EMP Weapons, Railguns, Swarm Missiles, Blast Effect Batteries, and Squadrons are adjusted in terms of their stats, effects, and use cases. 
  • Support modules are balanced, some are reworked, and new ones are added. Flotilla-wide effects are expanded. 
• Ship Hull changes: 
  • Ship Health, Hull weakness, and manpower capacities are adjusted. Carriers are significantly nerfed. 
  • Coordinator and Protector ship bonuses are significantly buffed, and new effects are added. 
  • Ship targeting priorities are changed and made visible in the ship design view under the ship "Role" UI. 
  • New Attacker and Protector Ship Hull Upgrades are added to the tech tree, increasing their module multiplier to x1.25 
• Battle Tactics changes: 
  • Battle Tactic effects, ranges, and tech stage placements are changed. Their UI is made to be more descriptive. 
  • New situational but powerful battle tactics and upgraded versions of existing tactics are added to the curiosity rewards. 
• Squadron changes: 
  • Squadron movement speeds are substantially buffed. 
  • Fixed squadrons dealing significantly more damage than intended 
  • Squadron stats are adjusted in line with new squadron roles: Light & Heavy Bombers, Interceptor & Strike Fighters. 
• Mechanics & Other Changes: 
  • Flak damage, Flak fire rate, and projectile health values are adjusted. Flak targeting orders are adjusted. Swarm missile, BEB, EMP missile, and normal missile fire rates are aligned. UI is updated to provide more information. 
  • Fixed Evasion: Evasion used to provide only half of the intended effect; now works correctly. 
  • Ship level-up effects are adjusted. 
  • Fixed ship experience on construction. 
  • New tags for modules are added: "Only once per ship" "Only once per flotilla" "Can only be used on Medium Support Ships" 
  • Curiosity rewards and drop rates have been rebalanced. 
  • Re-added removed technology "Vacuum Protection", moved the following items onto it: 
    • Advanced Explosive Drones (Empire Improvement)
      Increased bombardment damage from ground battle strategies 
    • Extreme Swarm Missile (module) 
    • EMP Disruption Field (module) 
    • Repulsive Plates (module)
  • "Weapon Interference Beam" unlock with either Advanced Game Theory or Tensor Algorithms 
  • "Shield Interference Missiles" unlock with either Advanced Fusion Power or Hyperium Magnetics 
  • Cleaver module has had its damage and manpower damage increased to match its tier 

• Reduced Academy Aggression 
  • Academy fleets no longer siege player colonies and outposts while at neutral relations 
  • Academy fleet power now scales with Academy level and starts much lower 
  • Introduced "Endless" Difficulty setting for the Academy 
  • Introduced "Academy Expansion" setting 
  • Adjusted the speed at which the Academy gains levels to better align with players 
• Introduced Academy Diplomacy 
  • Improve your relationship by donating during role assignment periods 
  • Nakalim gain favor by donating systems to the Academy 
  • Ask for favors at the cost of relations 
  • Each faction has access to one unique favor 
• Adjusted Legate role (formerly Master of Dust): can declare a Crusade against a player, which allows any other empire to attack their fleets regardless of their diplomatic relation. 
• Each major faction now has its own preferred Academy roles 
• Academy ship equipment and fleet strength have been entirely reworked 
• Ships loaned from the Academy are now prohibited from invading 

• Gameplay Affinity: The Last Empire 
  • -50% Base FIDS on Planets by default 
  • Can build Temples (Cost 1 Relic and 1 Turn), which remove the FIDS malus and convert Base Science into Influence. 
  • Systems that have temples on all planets can build a Cathedral (Cost 1120 Industry, no Relics), which provide the following bonuses on their system: 
    • +10% FIDSI 
    • +30% Influence Radius 
    • +5 Vision 
    • 5% Enemy Health damaged per turn of Fleets in Influence Radius 
    • 20% Friendly Health repaired per turn of Fleets in Influence Radius 
    • Increases number of total empire relics that can be allocated (See below) 
• Cathedrals provide empire relic slots, which provide powerful empire-wide bonuses and require multiple relics to activate. Any bonus may be activated at any time, but only one per Cathedral may be active. These replace Food/Industry/Dust/Influence relics, and are toggleable on / off. Empire relics focus on increasing one of the innate strengths of the Nakalim, with one changing based off of leading political party 
  • Exploration Slot - +25% Movement Point efficiency, +5 Vision Range on Fleets & Systems 
  • Expansion Slot - +1 Colonization Threshold per Cathedral, No disapproval from planet type on planets with temples 
  • Diplomacy Slot - provides a constant amount of minor faction relation and increased influence radius 
  • Political Slot: Get bonuses for all elected parties, but government types with fewer political parties get more powerful bonuses 
    • Industrialist - +50% Strategic Deposit Generation on Temples 
    • Scientist - +20 Dust, +10 Influence, +10 Manpower per Unassigned Relic 
    • Pacifist - +100% Trade Value on Systems with Cathedrals, +40% Fleet Health Regeneration in Friendly Territory, +20% Troop Health per Temple in System 
    • Ecologist - +100% Luxury Deposit Generation on Temples 
    • Religious – Heroes are earned faster and can be assigned outside of Borders 
    • Militarist - -20% retrofit Dust cost, Fleets can be retrofitted outside of Friendly Territory 
• Can assign a relic to a hero, which provides the following bonuses (you can no longer assign multiple relics to a hero, the effect is now binary): 
  • +25% XP on Hero 
  • +50% Hero Recovery Rate 
  • +10% FIDSI on Fervent, +5 Approval per Temple on System 
  • +10% Fleet Health, +10% Fleet Damage, +10% Fleet Evasion, +10% Fleet Shields 
• Unassigned relics generate 50 science, can be upgraded via empire improvements 
• Adjusted relic spawning formulas to respawn them once they reach a certain threshold and to focus their spawning location on getting further and further, eventially stopping near the middle of the galaxy. 
• Trait: Beliefs not Breakthroughs 
  • Planets do not generate science 
  • Systems only produce half science 
  • Science gained from battle rewards is halved 
  • Technologies can be traded at higher than normal cost 
• Trait: Forgotten Lore 
  • Technologies granted by Forgotten Lore now do not reduce the Sophon research bonus 
  • Created a lower level version of Forgotten Lore that only unlocks tier 1 technologies 
• New Trait: Slumbering Ruins 
  • Some systems will be marked as Slumbering Ruins per Nakalim player. These systems are marked to all Nakalim players, and retain their status even if colonized by another empire or obliterated (though, owned by another player it needs to first be conquered, or if obliterated it needs to be repaired). 
  • The system can be awakened from its dormant state by colonizing it. 
  • Awakening a Slumbering Ruin provides a small amount of Major Population, a few early game buildings (if not already constructed), and a temporary flat FIDSI bonus. 
  • Once Awakened, a system cannot be reawakened by another Nakalim player, but all Nakalim players can see that it was reawakened. 
• New trait: Well Founded 
  • Starts with the area around them revealed (Starting constellation on non-unique galaxies, radius of systems around them on unique galaxies) 
• Trait: Apathetic Colonists 
  • Outposts generate 25% less food 
  • Colonies ship 25% less food to outposts 
• Systems can now be gifted to the Academy as an invasion outcome 
• Added an "Align" Minor Faction interaction that allows "vassalizing" a minor faction 
• Nakalim heroes: Rebalanced most skills 
• Nakalim Population 
  • +2 Approval (+1 Approval Spliced) 
  • +2 FIDSI on Happy (+0.5 FIDSI Spliced) 
  • Collection Bonuses 
    • 10 Population: Boosts Religious politics 
    • 20 Population: +10 Approval on systems with Nakalim 
    • 50 Population: Unlocks a new offensive and defensive ground battle strategy 
  • Politics: Religious, Relativist (Science -> Religious), Utopian (Industrial -> Ecologist) 
• Xirmisala Population 
  • +1 Food 
  • +4 Dust on Happy 
  • Collection Bonuses 
    • 10 Population: Boosts Religious politics 
    • 20 Population: +10% Dust on systems with Xirmisala 
    • 50 Population: Unlocks the Dust Dowsing Law 
  • Politics: Religious, Relativist (Science -> Religious), Utopian (Industrial -> Ecologist) 
• Relics can now be collected while a fleet is cloaked 
• Nakalim now start with a colonizer and 2 explorers 

• Adding new modifier operations, Minimum & Maximum 
• Increased the ability of modders to change Academy diplomacy, AI, ship spawns, etc. 
• Exposed multiple new formulas in the registry, along with the ability to revert the academy back to using "stress" instead of relying on academy levels 

• Slightly increased infantry health and damage 
• Unfallen now start with an additional vineship 
• Influence conversion unlock tech has been moved to T2 Empire Development 
• Explorer hull upgrade tech has been moved to T2 Science and Exploration 
• Reduced the military support requirement of the Sophons Quest "Chapter 2. Seeding the Cloud - Part 1" and the "Masters of the Arena" quests so that they were reasonably achievable 
• Changed screen placement of several T3 &T4 Military technologies (no gameplay changes) 
• Clarified some confusing tooltips 
• Dust Bonanza no longer has an upkeep cost 
• Denarque University industry cost reduced by 2/3 
• Improved AI from using some incorrect module combinations 

• Battle Result Notifications no longer block the turn, while keeping the big stability improvement that originally caused this issue (Note: This fix works for Single Player and Multiplayer hosts only, but not Multiplayer clients, who will still need to dismiss the battle report notification to let the end turn progress) 
• The Academy's aggression & power level scaling has been fixed 
• Isolated systems are no longer blocked from being colonized by the quest Death Without a Corpse 
• Horatio's Main Quest: Chapter 2 (Industrialist) will no longer get stuck if another empire destroys the fleets (It will complete) 
• Relics gained from converting will always be 2, it is no longer scaled by gamespeed which resulted in 1.33 relics on slow 
• Quest "Forged in Battle" Now is 25-55 turns instead of 10-70 by galaxy size 
• System Trade Value no longer scales with Game Speed 
• The mining probe lifetime of multiple Behemoth modules is no longer additive, now taking the highest instead 
• Influence gained from Lumeris pop bonus is now shown in the Empire Influence tooltip 
• Unfallen Terraform Options (Hot types to Forest) now use the forest art (previously all were Savannah) 
• Optics Research Lab's yield is now shown in the System Science Tooltip 
• All Singularities now affect heroes as intended 
• The Diagnostics.xml file should no longer be filled with errors if the Nakalim main menu screen is displayed 
• Fixed Nakalim being after the Umbral Choir in the faction selection 
• Behemoths no longer shown under Faction Hulls for every faction 
• Capped many cost reductions from reaching 0% 
• GasWarm now has the Temperate tag 
• Fixed Custom Umbral Shadows not having GUI Elements 
• Fixed Influence Radius flickering and huge influence border growth projects 
• Fixed many slots on Academy ships not functioning properly 
• Fixed Behemoth Mining not properly transferring its FIDSI to your planets 
• Fixed some icons some icons appearing as much lower resolution than they should 
• Fixed malus for missing colonization tech not showing up in planet FIDSI breakdowns 
• Fixed some empire relic effects not toggling correctly 
• Fix miscellaneous tooltips from not showing up properly / being duplicated 
• Fixed starting Behemoth modules not unlocking when you research the Behemoth hull technology 
• Fixed Bait / Jammer modules not correctly applying movement effect 
• Added missing EmpireAttitude localization strings 
• Adding missing warning strings 
• Fixed many typos 
• Fixed Hero Skill GUI showing an incorrect amount of available relics 
• FIDSI per Population bonuses on Planets no longer appear as though they are giving you a large percentage 
• Fixed Aligning a minor faction not failing any assimilation quests associated with it 
• Fixing colonization module tooltip appearing in the incorrect category 
• Fixed some modules appearing as though they require a different strategic resource in the tech tree 
• Minor factions can no longer run out of quests to give 
• Fixed brainwashed faction still allowing their boosts to be used 
• Fixed terraformation not showing difference between planet FIDSI 

• Ruins can no longer spawn on Minor Faction systems, their spawn ranges have been tweaked to be more fair.
  
• Slightly increased infantry health and damage
  
• Xirmisala assimilation traits and law have been reworked
  
• Relics can now be collected while a fleet is cloaked
  
• Diplomacy relic effect has been entirely replaced due to community feedback. Now provides a constant amount of minor faction relation and increased influence radius
  
• Added new Nakalim minor faction interaction, Align
  
• Nakalim politics have been adjusted
  
• Nakalim now start with a colonizer
  
• Unfallen now start with an additional vineship
  
• Cathedrals now damage enemies within their system's influence radius
  
• Each major faction now has its own preferred Academy roles
  
• Added an "Academy Expansion" slider
  
• Added Endless difficulty for the "Academy Difficulty" slider
  
• Ships loaned from the Academy are now prohibited from invading
  
• Influence conversion unlock tech has been moved to T2 Empire Development
  
• Explorer hull upgrade tech has been moved to T2 Science and Exploration
  
• Academy ship equipment and fleet strength have been entirely reworked
  
• Increased the rate at which the Academy levels up to more match player progression
  
• The "Master of Dust" role has been replaced with the "Legate", which has the primary benefit of choosing a faction to declare a Crusade against, which allows any other empire to attack their fleets regardless of their diplomatic relation.

• Academy now has its own diplomacy screen, accessible by clicking on the icon above their systems or by the Academy button in the diplomacy menu.
  
• Factions who participate in the Academy auction will receive an amount of relation points, which can be redeemed for a selection of favors from the Academy.
  
• The Nakalim may donate systems to the Academy for a large amount of academy relation. They also have a new faction trait with grants a variety of Academy-related bonuses
  
• Each faction has a unique favor they may ask the Academy for.

• Adding new modifier operations, Minimum & Maximum
  
• Vastly increased the ability of modders to change Academy diplomacy, AI, ship spawns, etc.
  
• Multiple new formulas exposed in the registry, along with the ability to revert the academy back to using "stress" instead of relying on academy levels

1. The discrepancy between the effective defensive capabilities provided by Shields & Plating modules, and the resulting unilateral play style.
   
2. The lack of fleet composition variety in terms of ship types, their amounts, and the individual builds of the ships.
   
3. The lack of countermeasures against specialized fleets (EMP, Critical Strike, Squadron, Carrier)

• Defense module stats are rebalanced, and Shield Capacities are substantially buffed.
  
• Weapon DPS values, fire rates, effective ranges, Weapon Hull & Shield penetration values are tweaked.
  
• Strategic modules, EMP Weapons, Railguns, Swarm Missiles, Blast Effect Batteries, and Squadrons are adjusted in terms of their stats, effects, and use cases.
  
• Support modules are balanced, some are reworked, and new ones are added. Flotilla-wide effects are expanded.

• Ship Health, Hull weakness, and manpower capacities are adjusted. Carriers are significantly nerfed.
  
• Coordinator and Protector ship bonuses are significantly buffed, and new effects are added.
  
• Ship targeting priorities are changed and made visible in the ship design view under the ship “Role” UI.
  
• New Attacker and Protector Ship Hull Upgrades are added to the tech tree, increasing their module multiplier to x1.25

• Battle Tactic effects, ranges, and tech stage placements are changed. Their UI is made to be more descriptive.
  
• New situational but powerful battle tactics and upgraded versions of existing tactics are added to the curiosity rewards.

• Squadron movement speeds are substantially buffed.
  
• Squadron stats are adjusted in line with new squadron roles: Light & Heavy Bombers, Interceptor & Strike Fighters.

• Flak damage, Flak fire rate, and projectile health values are adjusted. Flak targeting orders are adjusted. Swarm missile, BEB, EMP missile, and normal missile fire rates are aligned. UI is updated to provide more information.
  
• Evasion used to provide only half of the intended effect, now works correctly.
  
• Ship level-up effects are adjusted. Ship experience on construction now works correctly.
  
• New tags for modules are added: “Only once per ship” “Only once per flotilla” “Can only be used on Medium Support Ships”
  Curiosity rewards and drop rates are reworked.

• Fixed Influence Radius flickering and huge influence border growth projects
  
• Fixed building a Cathedral putting you over the production limit
  
• Fixed many slots on Academy ships not functioning properly
  
• Fixed Behemoth Mining not properly transferring its FIDSI to your planets
  
• Fixed some new content missing their images
  
• Fixed some icons some icons appearing as much lower resolution than they should
  
• Fixed Nakalim planet FIDS malus not applying
  
• Fixed malus for missing colonization tech not showing up in planet FIDSI breakdowns
  
• Fixed some empire relic effects not toggling correctly
  
• Fix miscellaneous tooltips from not showing up properly / being duplicated
  
• Fixed some new tooltips having variables that do not resolve
  
• Fixed starting Behemoth modules not unlocking when you research the Behemoth hull technology

• Reduced the military support requirement of the Sophons Quest "Chapter 2. Seeding the Cloud - Part 1" and the "Masters of the Arena" quests so that they were reasonably achievable
  
• Re-added removed technology "Vacuum Protection", moved the following items onto it:
  
  • Advanced Explosive Drones (Empire Improvement)
    
  • Increased bombardment damage from ground battle strategies
    
  • Extreme Swarm Missile (module)
    
  • EMP Disruption Field (module)
    
  • Repulsive Plates (module)
• Moved "Weapon Interference Beam" to Advanced Game Theory
  
• Made "Shield Interference Slugs" exclusive to Tensor Algorithms
  
• Moved several technologies around in T3 &T4 Military (This has no effect on gameplay)
  
• Clarified some confusing tooltips
  
• Dust Bonanza no longer has an upkeep cost
  
• Denarque University industry cost reduced by 2/3
  
• Decreased speed at which the Academy ranks up
  
• Cleaver module has had its damage and manpower damage increased to match its tier
  
• Improved AI from using some incorrect module combinations

• Fixed the game crashing if you don't have Awakening enabled
  
• Fixed Bait / Jammer modules not correctly applying movement effect
  
• Fixed Nakalim Ground Strategy variants missing images
  
• Fixed Nakalim Relic Boost missing image
  
• Added missing EmpireAttitude localization strings
  
• Adding missing warning strings
  
• Fixed many typos
  
• Fixed Hero Skill GUI showing an incorrect amount of available relics
  
• Fixed building a Cathedral not always unlocking the appropriate slot
  
• Fixed only the first two relic slots being able to be unlocked
  
• Academy Expansion: None setting now functions properly
  
• Fixed temples not showing the correct turn count in the construction queue
  
• Increased scroll speed in Academy Diplomacy
  
• Toggling the Empire Relic now updates the Empire UI Screen
  
• Fixed Unfallen not having the Influence Conversion technology
  
• FIDSI per Population bonuses on Planets no longer appear as though they are giving you a large percentage
  
• Fixed Aligning a minor faction not failing any assimilation quests associated with it
  
• Fixing colonization module tooltip appearing in the incorrect category
  
• Fixed some modules appearing as though they require a different strategic resource in the tech tree
  
• Minor factions can no longer run out of quests to give
  
• Fixed brainwashed faction still allowing their boosts to be used
  
• Fixed terraformation not showing delta between planet FIDSI

Originally posted by Captain Cobbs:

Captain Cobbs: We are testing the effects of allowing every faction to grow multiple population each turn, feedback and bug reports are appreciated.

• -50% Base FIDS on Planets by default
• Can build Temples (Cost 1 Relic and 1 Turn), which remove the FIDS malus and convert Base Science into Influence.
• Systems that have temples on all planets can build a Cathedral (Cost 1120 Industry, no Relics), which provide the following bonuses on their system:
  • +10% FIDSI
  • +30% Influence Radius
  • +5 Vision
  • 5% Enemy Health damaged per turn of Fleets in Influence Radius
  • 20% Friendly Health repaired per turn of Fleets in Influence Radius
  • Increases number of total empire relics that can be allocated
• Cathedrals provide empire relic slots, which provide powerful empire-wide bonuses and require multiple relics to activate. Any bonus may be activated at any time, but only one per Cathedral may be active. These replace Food/Industry/Dust/Influence relics, and are toggleable on / off. Empire relics focus on increasing one of the innate strengths of the Nakalim, with one changing based off of leading political party
  • Exploration Slot - +25% Movement Point efficiency, +25% Vision Range on Fleets & Ships
  • Expansion Slot - +1 Colonization Threshold per Cathedral, No disapproval from planet type on planets with temples
  • Diplomacy Slot - Increased bonus from Co-Operative Protocol, Can use all minor faction boosts regardless of personality type
  • Political Slot: Get bonuses for all elected parties, but government types with fewer political parties get more powerful bonuses
    • Industrialist - +50% Strategic Deposit Generation on Temples
    • Scientist - +20 Dust, +10 Influence, +10 Manpower per Unassigned Relic
    • Pacifist - Systems with Cathedrals are counted as having subsidiaries. If that system already has a subsidiary, then it has x1.5 trade value.
    • Ecologist - +50% Luxury Deposit Generation on Temples
    • Religious - Heroes can be assigned outside of Borders
    • Militarist - Fleets can be retrofitted outside of Friendly Territory
• Can assign a relic to a hero, which provides the following bonuses (you can no longer assign multiple relics to a hero, the effect is now binary):
  • +25% XP on Hero
  • +50% Hero Recovery Rate
  • +10% FIDSI on Fervent, +5 Approval per Temple on System
  • +10% Fleet Health, +10% Fleet Damage, +10% Fleet Evasion, +10% Fleet Shields
• Unassigned relics generate 50 science, can be upgraded via empire improvements
• Adjusted relic spawning formulas to respawn them once they reach a certain threshold and to focus their spawning location on getting further and further, eventially stopping near the middle of the galaxy.

• Starts with the area around them revealed (Starting constellation on non-unique galaxies, radius of systems around them on unique galaxies)

• Default Forgotten Lore trait remains unchanged: Starts with first 2 tiers of techs researched, Sophons not affected
• Added an alternate "Forgotten Lore" trait that only unlocks the first tier to be used by custom factions

• Planets do not generate science
• all science improvements are 50% less effective
• Trading technologies with other empires is possible but very expensive
• -50% Science per CP from Scrapping

• Two systems will be marked as Slumbering Ruins per Nakalim player. These systems are marked to all Nakalim players, and retain their status even if colonized by another empire or obliterated (though, owned by another player it needs to first be conquered, or if obliterated it needs to be repaired).
• The system can be awakened from its dormant state via some sort of fleet action that takes 8 turns, or an influence constructible if the system is already colonized.
• Awakening a Slumbering Ruin provides a small amount of Major Population, a few early game buildings (if not already constructed), and a temporary flat FIDSI bonus for about 10 turns.
• Once Awakened, a system cannot be reawakened by another Nakalim player, but all Nakalim players can see that it was reawakened.
• Slumbering Ruins systems are specially targeted by quest rewards, temples, and cathedrals (we'll decide on the bonuses later).

• Outposts generate 25% less food and are shipped 25% less

• All but one hero skill have been adjusted

• Population Trait: Fervent Diligence
  • Primary: +2 Approval (+1 Approval Spliced)
  • Secondary: +2 FIDSI on Happy (+0.5 FIDSI Spliced)
• Collection Bonuses not implemented yet
• Politics
  • Religious
  • Anti-Scientist
  • Preservationists (Militarist -> Ecologist)

• Starts with Xirmisala citizens
• Xirmisala Traits
  • Primary: +1 Food
  • Secondary: +4 Dust on Happy
• Collection Bonus and Assimilation Traits not implemented yet
• Politics:
  • Religious
  • Anti-Scientific
  • Pious (Pacifist->Religious)

• Battle Result Notifications no longer block the turn, while keeping the big stability improvement that originally caused this issue (Note: This fix works for Single Player and Multiplayer hosts only, but not Multiplayer clients, who will still need to dismiss the battle report notification to let the end turn progress)
• The Academy's aggression & power level now starts at 0 and grows slower, before it started out near or above max due to the galaxy generation process triggering it
• Isolated systems are no longer blocked from being colonized by the quest Death Without a Corpse
• Horatio's Main Quest: Chapter 2 (Industrialist) will no longer get stuck if another empire destroys the fleets (It will complete)
• Relics gained from converting will always be 2, it is no longer scaled by gamespeed which resulted in 1.33 relics on slow
• Quest "Forged in Battle" Now is 25-55 turns instead of 10-70 by galaxy size
• System Trade Value no longer scales with Game Speed
• The mining probe lifetime of multiple Behemoth modules is no longer additive, now taking the highest instead
• Influence gained from Lumeris pop bonus is now shown in the Empire Influence tooltip
• Unfallen Terraform Options (Hot types to Forest) now use the forest art (previously all were Savannah)
• Optics Research Lab's Yield is now shown in the System Science Tooltip
• All Singularities now affect heroes as intended
• The Diagnostics.xml file should no longer be filled with errors if the Nakalim main menu screen is displayed
• Fixed Nakalim being after the Umbral Choir in the faction selection
• Behemoths no longer shown under Faction Hulls for every faction
• Capped many cost reductions from reaching 0%
• GasWarm now has the Temperate tag
• Fixed Custom Umbral Shadows not having GUI Elements

• Adjusted Academy Roles
• Nerfed fleet for the Spear, including inability to invade systems
• New "Rally" system defense strategy for ground battles
• Nakalim Specific Science System Improvements
• Nakalim Quest Rebalance (Objectives and Rewards)
• New Nakalim Population Collection Bonus: 1. +Religious, 2. +15 Approval, 3. Improved Orbital Bombardment strategy, Improved Rally strategy
• New Xirmisala Population Collection Bonus: 1. +Religious, 2.+15% Dust on Systems, 3. Collection Law - Dust Sensitive: Reveals Arcane Curiosities, which when searched will provide a large amount of Dust
• New Xirmisala Assimilation Traits