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. Please note: 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 last Node 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 colonize 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 against 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 bad Relations

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 instead 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
• Research treaty cost changes
• Toxic Processor, Gravity Generators and Planetary Radiation Shield buyout restriction removed
• Added a global value for initial 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 Offensive Pact and Defensive Pact 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 Processor 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 185 PP
• Changed Economic victory so the condition takes into account the size of the galaxy and changes accordingly

Tactical

• Amoeba and Squid now approach within melee distance 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
• Anti Cloaking device added
• Added different deploy position for defenses/outpost structures and fixed opening move when the structure is an outpost
• Rate Of Fire 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

• When you end an audience, you are now sent back to the diplomacy screen rather than the galaxy screen
• 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

• Fix for LOC-264 System tags are empty in Korean localization
• Fixed Czech not being selectable (title was overlapping the dropdown row blocking the mouse)
• Fixed total Colonies in Score
• Alliance Diplomatic Status being shown as Peace.
• Fixed Very Hard difficulty not appearing in Match Setup
• [Linux] Fixed materials for for Klackon & Alkari mentats
• Fix for The "Ultraplanar Dimorphic Prospector is complete" has an error on it's key
• Fixed several Blur issues
• Fix for Clear unique buildings when a revolted colony returns to its civilization control
• Fix for Mrrshan empress Council win fix
• Fix for Klackon emperor council fix
• Fixed Timeline issues
• Fix for Long names overlap Multiplayer players amount
• Fix for Race card changes to none on match setup
• Fix for missing automerge action when user selects disengage in a node
• Fix for Star Bases have no Weapons:
  • Reduced Hull Class on all Planetary Defenses (4/5/6 -> 4)
  • Increased Hull Size (300/450/800 -> 450/600/800)
  • Removed several Special Systems from Planetary Defense BPs
  • Estimated Effective Space for each Structure: 70/180/290 (After Drive, Shields, Specials and PDs)
• Fix for severe fps drop in Ship Design screen
• Fix for Retreat now analyzes its chances using ALSO the Shield Integrity, not just Hull Integrity
• Fix for Capital tooltip text overlaps a button on Build at planet screen in Russian localization
• Fix Candidates Controllers of Mrrshan, bulrathi, Darlok, Human and Terran Emperors. Tie animations on the left side weren´t working
• Fix for Validation of share charts to read relationship in the right direction
• Fix for Bad citizen allocation when dragging to blocked tiles
• Fix for 4K display issues, Strategy Controls and Tactical Controls buttons scale wrong
• Fix for Hull Capacity points do not refresh when removing weapon. Points are calculated using the previous values taking into consideration the weapon that was removed
• fix for After using Active Specials you will retreat
• Fix for Multiple combats on same turn by same races caused a SoftLock
• Fix for Player is able to exploit 'Vote for' while trading with AI
• Fixed EULAS
• Fix to allow civilian ships to guard over nodes
• Fix for incompatible perks.
• Fix for Planetary stock exchange
• Timeline/Path to victory bug fix
• Custom Race - Lithovore trait cost
• Fixed a crash in multiplayer after player leaved the game and replaced by AI.
• Fix for All passive specials except Wide Area Jammer have Cooldown and Range in these special modules tooltips.
• Fix for Troop Transport Description Update (English and Spanish LA)
• Fix for colonial taxes no longer depend on the presence of a building, feature was disabled.
• Fix for After Pirate Base destruction, Pirate Raider loses control and stays at the same place and do not perform any actions.
• If no DLC defined, dlcs are available by default
• Fix for Admiral Victory Chances evaluation for Retreat now uses REAL hull Integrity instead of Strategy's HP.
• Fixed AI issue when ETA is 0 when calculating Building Score
• Fixed AI issue with System Unique buildings not being properly considered when scoring them
• Fixes for intro cinematics when colonizing
• Fix for softlock when abandoning a battle
• Fix for open Borders & Alliance will not allow colonization in systems where I already am
• Fix for hide action buttons while fleet movement
• Fix for Empire TopBar not becoming visible after Tutorial Match
• Fix for Scientific victory building progression. Buildings of 2nd and 3rd stages now upgrades the previous one
• Fixed Stealthy perk having the wrong value
• Fixed Automated Repair Unit interceptors beams 'fire' at the center of tactical battlefront after passing the half of the battlefront
• Fixed The ships models disappear after using the Timeline
• Fixed It is possible to spin the ship model on the Blueprint Slot Editor screen
• Fixed Disengage button still active after fleet movement
• Get Chances Against now doesn't throw an error if provided with only civilian ships. Just returns a "0% winning chance"
• Prevented Retreat to same node
• Fix options issues for 4k displays
• Fix for Colony Ship, Space Factory, Scout, Interplanetary Security transmitter and Global DNA scanner holograms