Release v0.1.0b

Detailed release notes can be found in the forums.

Release Highlights:

*** The global scale of the universe has been increased based on dolynick's outstanding work with DOF.
Movement has been rebalanced to achieve a more realistic feel and, combined with a reduction in population growth and a serious dent in budget due to longer colony ship travel time, make expansion much slower, more costly and less of a colony spam.
Resources and economy have been rebalanced to support these changes in a way that gameplay progression still feels dynamic and rewarding. Some existing buildings and orbitals have been modified and new ones have been added to boost economy where needed (including budget). New synergies allow to take advantage of the environment or of the presence of other infrastructure.
This new balance is also designed to make infrastructure building and careful expansion a (hopefully) viable alternative to fast expansion and allow smaller, well developed empires to compete with larger empires with empty systems and planets.

*** The universe arrangement has been revised to be closer to current scientific knowledge, including two common planet types: gas and ice giants.

*** Planets can be explored in order to discover sites of interests whose study may help your progression.

*** The research grid has been completely rearranged into a thematic structure designed to maximize options.

*** The game AI has been improved. It is a work in progress and most of the current improvements are a basis for future features but some of them already have a visible impact.

*** Sensors from ABEM (the ancestor of Rising Stars) have been reimplemented with a completely different approach. All flagship and station hulls now have integrated basic sensors. Sight range is moderate, slightly scaled with size and can be upgraded through research.
Specific sensor subsystems can be added to flagship and station designs to further enhance sight range but their design is completely different.
Planets and orbitals also have sight range which can also be upgraded through research.
Players always have full vision on their starting systems as if they had fully explored it.

*** This version introduces the first set of new weapon exclusive modifications, similar to generic modifiers, allowing to install weapon-specific modifiers granting special effects or changing certain parameters. Weapon modifications are (generally) mutually exclusive.

*** This version is a beta. Balance is experimental and far from final. Game progression may also feel a bit slow, especially in the beginning of the game; this will be fine-tuned and balanced with more content in future versions.
Star Children and Ancient lifestyles are not completely balanced for the new features and will have an economic disadvantage.
Ringworlders have temporarily been deactivated until they are balanced for the new features.
Competitive multiplayer games are not recommended until balance is fine-tuned.