Welp, apparently Im not good at counting calendar days and update #12 from last Tuesday was not the final update of 2018 after all. This one most definitely is! :) It took me longer than I thought to get the new events system to the point where it generated meaningful random events. For now it only has eight high-level event types with outcomes that affect population, mineral, and energy limits and collection rates as well as combat strength modifiers. In the future updates Ill be adding more outcomes and event types. An event is something that randomly happens at a specific star or globally across all of your stars. It could be a positive event, like a scientific breakthrough, or negative, like a pandemic. Any event has three levels of severity (minor, normal, and major) that determine the outcomes. The outcomes are 2-3 different options affecting your economy and military might that you must choose from. Events generate a constant stream of trade-offs that significantly change the gameplay for the better. Heres a screenshot with a pandemic event that provides the player with three outcomes to choose from:
This screenshot also gives you a glimpse into the new tooltip system that lists all rate and limit modifiers from the star, events, and research. This is helpful when you make decisions about attacks, transportation, and event outcomes. Build 0.5.0 on Steam that I pushed moments ago has both of these changes as well as the following minor changes:

• [GAMEPLAY] Set initial rates for population, minerals, and energy back to zero.
• [GAMEPLAY] Changed combat strength to a number instead of a percentage.
• [AI] Updated AI players to follow specific research paths instead of randomly selecting available research items.
• [GRAPHICS] Increased camera field of view for a more 3D-like look of the battlefield.
• [GRAPHICS] Updated the background generator to include more realistic nebulae.

Next Week

Epic Turn-Based Star Battles

FEATURES

• Build your star empire: take control of an advanced civilization and build mega-structures like hyperspace tunnels, energy spheres, and ring worlds. Develop your economy by collecting star energy, mining asteroids, and growing your population.
  
• Experience the cycle of stellar evolution: new stars are born and ancient ones turn into black holes, white dwarves, or dust over tens of millions of years—all within a single battle!
  
• Explore star systems: create a system of hyperspace tunnels to nearby stars to conquer them.
  
• Research new technologies: capture mysterious space stations to make strategic decisions about your civilization's research.
  
• Unique stellar mechanics: learn how to thrive in an evolving battlefield with stars going supernova, asteroid fields depleting, and new hyperspace tunnels being built by you and your opponents. All stars are procedurally generated based on real physics. Luminosity, mass, and energy output change in accordance with star properties.
  
• Single-player campaign: follow a procedurally generated story of an advanced civilization spanning millions of years and dozens of stars.
  
• Hotseat multiplayer: play on the same computer with up to four friends.

• Processor: AMD Athlon II X4 640 @ 3.0 Ghz or Intel Core 2 Quad 9400 @ 2.66 GhzMemory: 1 GB RAM
• Memory: 1 GB RAM
• Graphics: AMD HD 5770 or Nvidia GTX 460 with 1024MB VRAM
• Storage: 1 GB available space

• Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 850 @ 3.3 Ghz or Intel i3 2100 @ 3.1 Ghz
• Graphics: AMD HD 6850 or Nvidia GTX 560TI with 1024MB VRAM
• Storage: 1 GB available space