The full notes are here. There are a bunch of balance adjustments from CRCGamer in this one for units that were over-performanc or under-performing, a couple of fixes from Dismiss, a few quickstarts from Erenussocrates, and then a bunch of additions to the Sidekicks mod from Badger.

Balance Adjustments

Long-time contributor CRCGamer has done a pass on some of the more exotic ships that were just a bit too powerful, or more frequently, not quite useful enough to warrant their cost.

Just to set your mind at ease, the only real nerfs were to Electric Bombers and Phantasmal Hosts, and they needed it. The Electric Bombers are a bit worse at crowd control now, but still excellent. And Phantasmal Hosts don't have so many decoys, which will help with performance as well as their general balance.

Pretty much everything else is some level of buff, a lot of them slight. Fusion Bombers in particular got a big buff against shields, because some years-old balance changes had put them in kind of a not-great spot. But Agravic Pods, Grenade Launcher Corvettes, and Ablative Gatlings are some of the other common ships that are now a lot more useful.

There are other changes as well, so please see the release notes for details.

New QuickStarts

The new quickstarts from Erenussocrates are mod-heavy and help you get your bearings with some of his mods, which is really nice.

Sidekicks Mod

Badger has been adding lots of cool things. Once again, if you're not familiar with this mod, be sure to check it out! As one of the main developers on the game, Badger has essentially created a fourth DLC, for free, for you to check out. Don't miss it!

Exo Badger is a new difficulty level that focuses on having a reduced ship budget, but seeing lots of exo war ships early and often.

Dyson Sidekick now gives both the Templare and the Spire unique moons with their own turrets.

Armada Empire is ANOTHER whole new player type in this mod! It's a coalition of races that will fight the AI. Please bear in mind that this is a first build of this, and Badger notes that it's not particularly well-balanced yet. It's under active development, so expect savegames including this feature to break a few times in the near future. Normally that's not something we do, but for a mod that's in active development, that's up to the modder. Anyway, the purpose of this being released at the moment is for people to try it out and give early feedback.

Heart of the Machine

Heart of the Machine is continuing to evolve. Be sure to keep an eye on it this month. Update 17 just went live yesterday, but there's even more cool stuff coming in the near future.