Welcome to Early Access 5!

We have an update from the game director coming later today, so we'll keep this short and let you get right into the patch notes.

While save files from previous versions should work with this build, we recommend starting fresh to fully experience the changes in this update. This is especially important when it comes to colony and empire management feedback, as there are some substantial balance changes--particularly in the early parts of the game.

Master of Orion - Patch Notes v45.3

General

Fixed combat chances so it is not affected by Civilian Ships

Changed retreat position to use the fleet's lastNode filtered by canTravelTo

Added Stop camera re-focus during AI turn as an option

Added Timeline option to game setup to control how frequently the game is saved, including the ability to disable the Timeline

Pirates can now build Cruiser-class ships (Ravager)

Space Monsters will now roam within their star system and attack settled colonies

Added Victory Scenes placeholders

Pirate colonies now spawn near every major race, not only player controlled ones

19 achievements were implemented

It is now possible to choose a random race and set your opponents to random in game setup

Easy and Extreme difficulties have been added

Excellence has been renamed Score to better convey the type of victory condition it is

Many additional technologies now require a decision

Custom race creation has been updated with new traits, and the point costs have been adjusted to coincide with 10 starting points, rather than the previous system's 100

Artificial Intelligence

Colony ships will move and colonzie in the same turn now

Additional improvements have been made to colony management AI

Personality now factors into colony needs

AIs now use heuristics when deciding in which colony to build System Unique Research Buildings

Refresh Strategic Analysis before evaluating a deal, to avoid strange behaviours

Updated General Strategy: if a civilization is still marked as Bad Relations or Opportunity, then continue war

Economy Manager now handles different reserves. Each AI transaction is validated againt the specific reserve

Exposed Threshold for Cold War Disposition

Added Assist, useful for escorting civilian ships (Colony Ships and Transports)

Added Fleet: Destination pair matching algorithm with ETA Cache

Improved report on AutoPlay AI

Considers racial tech biases when trading techs

Improved evaluation of Offensive Pact, will now consider warInclination trait if ally

Allies will be twice as likely to accept an Offensive Pact

AI now builds Scientific Victory buildings and buyout buildings more smartly

Improvements for research evaluation algorithm, will consider blackboard requests with more importance

Updated Investment Strategy to try to stop others from winning

Ship building now considers war status.

Invasion will now consider hostiles in their path to destination, it will request assistance and assemble a convoy in order to complete its mission

AI will pick the one it's angriest at and is weakest, when picking badRelations

Balance

We have overhauled many race traits in the game and have introduced new traits for a number of races, including the iconic Creative and Uncreative

Trade Goods project is now available at the start of the game

Population growth has been adjusted

Maintenance cost removed from Colony Base

Colony Base no longer provides a bonus to Research, Food or Production

Deep Sea Cooling can no longer be built on the Swamp biome

Technology Victory formula modified. Now Research Score factor is 0.25 instea of 1

Made global balance factor RESEARCH_SCORE_FACTOR apply only to accumulated research points

Fixed gameplay rule, bombarding a colony will leave at least 1 population as the last possible target

Planet biomes have been overhauled to increase the disparity between biomes, particularly when it comes to available food

Reduced Silicoid growth rate further to bring it more inline with food-based growth rates

Updated Silicoid personality traits (primarily used by AI to determine how they interact with other races)

Rebalanced share charts

Command Points discount added to small ships

Production cost for Toxic Procesor increased from 80PP to 160PP.

Production cost for Gravity Generators increased from 100PP to 160 PP.

Production cost for Planetary Radiation Shield increased from 145PP to 185PP.

Research treaty cost changes

Toxic Processor, Gravity Generators and Planetary Radiation Shield buyout restriction removed

Added a global value for inital colony food supply, to avoid citizens dying in the first turn on unsustainable colonies

Restored Full Claiming of controlled systems, whether I have a colony in there or not to support the new Alliance system

Removed Food flat bonuses from colony base

Rebalanced OffensivePact and DefensivePact evaluation, considering strategic importance

Changed PEACE Diplomatic Status to NEUTRAL

Added NEUTRAL Diplomatic Status need for Non-Aggression Pact

Changed the way Combat Chances are shown to make them more predictable for the player

Changed research treaty cost

Production cost for Toxic Procesor increased from 80PP to 160PP

Production cost for Gravity Generators increased from 100PP to 160 PP

Production cost for Planetary Radiation Shield increased from 145PP to 185PP

Changed Economic victory so the condition takes into account the size of the galaxy and changes accordingly

Tactical

Amoeba and Squid now aproach within melee distince and try to stay at that distance

Behaviour: Orion's guardian tries to fight and Blink away to recharge his shields

Added special targeting options for the special modules

Power Boost Special for Military Outpost

Added Hold action

Basic intro transitions to avoid starting directly in abstract view

Fix for Weapon Ranges

Several UI updates to buttons and controls

Anticloaking device added

Added different deploy position for defenses/outpost structures and fixed opening move when the structure is an outpost

RateOfFire battle pacing revamp + AutoFire feedback improved

New Bomb Weapons for Space Monsters

Height projection lines not drawn if ship is concealed

Added Artemis System network, Phasing Cloak and Cloaking Device

Diplomacy

Reduced the rate at which the AI will offer gifts

Removed Colony Cessions from Deal Feedback in Trade Table, when not negotiating Cease Fire

Fear value now exists only if enemy is actually afraid

Afraid status is now set if race feels threatened

Unfair deals require a difference of at least 1000 credits before being evaluated as demands

User Interface

When clicking on a victory condition in the Path to Victory, it now flips to a new pane that displays information on what is contributing to your score for that victory type

Espionage risk assestment is now indicated before a mission

Improvements for race skills icons

Workers can now be moved in bulk

Added armor count to bombing estimation

Added YELLOW color for "balanced" compare bar for combat chances

Hide Disposition and Info if Race is defeated

Added subtitles to GNN

Fixed tooltip context on uncolonized planets

Added Weapon Types to weapons descriptions

Added Resource tooltips

Added feedback for bombing and fighting in Starmap

Breakthroughs are now Tech based and can show multiple techs when stolen / found in anomalies / traded

New EULA design

Localization

New Terran Emperor Spanish LA

SFX

Ambient sounds for all races added to audiences

Fixes on Play/Stop Ambience Music in Audience

Art

New shaders and new materials for holograms.

New Monsters modules added (Squid, Dragon, Eel, and Amoeba)

Bug Fixes