Sword of the Stars II: Lords of Winter released

[adamsolo]

Yes, the devs announced in twitter a patch for today (16th Nov). There's no precise timing of when nor what the patch notes are. Hope they light up Trade, Diplomacy and have fixed many CTD.

[$iljanus]

Are you Adam Solo from the Space Sector website? (Amazingly, it's not blocked at work). If so, welcome to the forums! If you don't mind I'll link to your article for you since I pretty much agree with what you wrote.

Sword of the Stars 2: Lords of Winter – First Impressions by Adam Solo

Now that Skyrim is out I'm shelving this game for a while. And on a positive note for Matrix Games, the various deficiencies of this game made me start a game of Distant Worlds: Return of the Shakuri for the first time and I really enjoyed playing it. Looking forward to the next expansion and will spend my $$$ on that when it comes out.

[adamsolo]

Hi there. Yes, it's me, Adam, from Space Sector. Thanks for the welcoming.

Yes, RotS is a hell of a game. Still some polishing left to do but already great as it is. Great one from Matrix and CodeForce. DW vanilla started a bit rough but they made it. Legends will be worth your money I have no doubt on that one, although these days it's hard to be sure on anything anymore. Cheers

[Grifman]

New update:

*** This update hasn't been tested extensively on old save games. ***

Critical fixes:
- Fixed a bug that prevented income from being generated when doing a feasibility study.
- Fixed a crash that could occur when trying to automatically distribute sliders from a hidden slider.
- Fixed a crash with support missions trying to open a dialog twice in a turn.
- Fixed a crash that would occur if closing the game while it was booting up.
- Fixed a von neumann crash caused by the faction running out of resources for a new collector fleet.
- Fixed an issue with crashing gem/forge world events from trying to apply moral bonus.
- Drones can now be designed and assigned to ships.
- Battle Riders may now be launched and recovered via their weapon icons in combat.
- Combat turn flow was rewritten. All combat queries are now answered at once, and then all combat simulations play out.
- Fixed a bug that stopped biome colonizers from improving terraforming values.

Other fixes:
- Fixed a recent issue where only the default player profile would be used.
- Fixed tech requirements on a few freighter ship sections.
- Removed "freighter" designation from ship sections to which it was incorrectly applied.
- Tarka freighter savings cost has been reduced from 1.5-million to 150,000.
- Leviathan stats have been improved.
- Tweaked turret arcs on a number of ship and station sections.
- Stations whose crew die off stop rotating in combat.
- Patrol battle riders now follow their tenders better.
- Fixed an issue where battle riders were not swarming around stations effectively.
- Fixed feasibility speech cues from using wrong speech library.
- Fixed admiral driven speech to use proper case.
- Fixed researching sound.
- Fixed research completed early sound cue.
- Fixed the battle draw and winning battle speech cues.
- Fixed under-the-hood sliders to automatically reset themselves to zero.
- Fixed an issue with swarmers trying to assign themselves to systems with no planets.
- Fixed an issue with the flock bonus not being used as a percentage.
- Moved the overharvest warning event to the correct location to stop it spamming every time the IO was queried.
- Fixed an issue that caused the gem and forge world events to spam.
- Fixed battle manager bug when entering system with no Naval base.
- Made visual culling much more subtle on star map to avoid labels popping in and out.
- Cleaned up view filter modes, populated list through code instead of through xml.
- Fixed issue in battle manager where station slots where being displayed even if no CP was available.
- Properly hooked up Mission/Engine section name display to riders in rider manager.
- Combat ready animations no longer loop incorrectly on ships.
- Save games should stay significantly smaller now due to the disabling of a debug feature that was storing a detailed history of all previous changes.
- Fixed a visual issue where tracking torpedoes would draw erroneous lines across the screen.
- The trade view filter on the star map now shows different icons for star systems.
- Fixed a bug that caused the admirals to return an incorrect admiral prefix to sound cues.
- Fixed a bug where Liir Naval Stations were displaying Hiver station assets.
- Fixed visual jitter for battle riders returning to tender.
- Fixed an issue where turn events were not displaying for some.
- Fixed various sizing bugs in GUI lists.
- Protean pods will return attacks.
- Fixed incorrect terrain names in Clouds and Ring star maps.

Other changes:
- New entries have been added to the encyclopedia's Galactic Atlas.
- Added new weapons: Blast Storm Missile, Polaris Blast Beam Missile
- Added new Rift star map.
- Added the ability to skip camera transitions with the escape key.
- Added a tutorial help screen for trade.
- Added Zuul freighters.
- Added missing Von Neumann PD weapons.
- Adjusted station visibility distances for combat.
- Added default ship names for command ships, bore ships, and gate ships.
- Implementation of initial, new post combat dialog.
- Added trade Modifier for trade distances.
- Added a table to keep track of trade results to stop clients from not being able to see trade.
- Stopped the ability to trade with someone you are at war with.
- Increased the max planet range for provinces by 1 ly.
- Added a configuration ability for disabling the main menu combat scene. There is no user interface for this diagnostic option, but it can be modified at your own risk in

'%localappdata%\Sword of the Stars II\settings\settings.xml' by adding or modifying the LoadMenuCombat element with a True or False value.
- Added launch effects for planet-to-orbit weapons.
- Added "Reserve Slot" label to reserve rider slots.
- Added events for post combat.
- Added realtime feedback to trade slider adjustment in trade view.
- Added filter to battle rider manager to display only carriers in widget.
- Added color coding to riders in rider manager.
- Added max flock bonus to strat mods and hooked it up to morrigi drive tech.
- Added a function for adding orbits with orbit numbers.

Key known issues:
- There is no post-combat popup.
- Screen transition time still slow for some.
- Game not running in 64-bit for some (running 32-bit works).
- Looking for people unable to connect to GameSpy for MP.

[Zurai]

No specific mention of the after-combat crash being fixed, but at least the Von Neumann crash I've been getting is fixed, so I can play with Random Events turned on again.

[tgb]

Took the newest build for a brief spin. The two biggest improvements are that even though there is still no fleet list, you can now see where fleets are headed a lot more clearly, and, more important, when they return. Also, explored systems now "ping" in your color, although it stopped after a few turns, so I don't know if that's still bugged or WAD.

Still, it's looking more and more playable, and I feel confident we'll have something worth owning come January.

[Grifman]

My concern is, yes, they can get all these features in, but how well will they be able to balance it all an get the AI to play the game effectively. The AI for SOTS was pretty good, I remember a lot of players complaining early on about it, though like all, if you learn its tendencies, you can beat it. Can they get SOTS2 up to SOTS level of AI proficiency?

[tgb]

I think the priority it to get it working at all.

[Debris]

FYI, in case anyone cares, I finally got my refund from Steam for this game. At least they kept their word, which is something in today's world.

[$iljanus]

FYI, in case anyone cares, I finally got my refund from Steam for this game. At least they kept their word, which is something in today's world.

Was it for Steambucks or did they credit your credit card? And has the cutoff date passed for refund requests yet? I'm tempted now to take the money and buy the Distant Worlds: Legends expansion when it comes out. Free extra DLC which is just some ship skins, music and voices isn't that important to me and a free copy of SotS is of no use to me. Of course, lazyness on my part may stop me from requesting a refund.

[Zurai]

Another patch:

r18002b
------

Critical fixes:
- fix crash when current formation is removed.
- Fixed a crash when you killed the system killer.
- Fixed random, occasional crash in the encyclopedia code.
- Removed nonsensical option to roll stations, which caused a crash.
- Fixed a crash with proteans.
- Fixed a potential crash issue in the battle manager.
- Added text box filtering for ", ', and ; to prevent known crash issues (e.g. when giving ships a name).
- Fixed circumstances under which canceling a mission might crash game.
- Fixed bug where fleets were getting forced to center of the sun.
- Fixed bug where fleets could be placed inside planets.
- Post combat dialog now shows information on destroyed ships and other useful things.
- Blastmissile technology now researchable.
- Fixed the issue where armor damage patterns were being swapped to different ship sections between combat rounds.

- Fixed drones firing while docked on carrier parent.
- Fixed spacing issue when adding a drone carrier to fleet.
- Adjusted base volley and weapon range deviation (note: shotgun deviation may be a little high).
- Fixed drones attachment points on some carrier sections.
- Fixed so non-tracking torpedos no longer able to damage own ship.
- Combat data will now be sent after determining victory status.
- Added power bonus to modules.
- Added default weapons to module banks.
- Fixed an issue with some music not looping.
- Updated the strat modifier cost when you acquire rapid prototyping.
- Fixed an issue that allowed humans to see and use zuul node lines.
- Fixed an issue that allowed players to do missions outside their sensor range.
- Changed the stations to use 'under construction' assets when being built.
- Made the first arrival of colonization missions apply the support factors from its fleet.
- Added fix to ensure that randoms and grand menaces don't spawn if all of them were disabled.
- Fixed missing suulka cannon beams.
- Fixed auto-picked targets by ship/fleet stance (function did not always pick a valid target to pursue, stand off, or retreat from).
- Ships without crew are now removed after Combat, counted as destroyed.
- Fixed inaccurate locations for applied damage patterns.
- Fixed a localized text thing in the empire management screen to accurately represent trade income.
- Added a fix to stop the Von Neumanns from continuously building stuff.
- Fixed beamers not doing damage.
- Added fading to various interface elements.
- Fixed bug where battleriders would show up in battle manager.
- Fixed bug where stations could be built around enemy colonies.
- Fleets without admirals no longer display "Defacto" as their admiral.
- Combat events now show names properly.

Other changes:
- Post-combat popup has been added.
- Added trade view slider display.
- Added in-game game and audio options.
- Added categories for the option screen for all effects.

Key known issues:
- The design screen must be re-entered before new Drone designs can be applied to ships.
- Biomissiles and boarding pods may not appear with ship designs.
- The post-combat dialog does not completely fit information for combats involving more than two players.
- Certain Battle Cruisers and Destroyers can carry riders, but these are not showing up in combat.

[tgb]

Great. Last night's patch added the Options menu, but removed the Missions menu, rendering the game completely unplayable.

[abr]

- Added in-game game and audio options.

Whoa.

[tgb]

I guess I was wrong about the menus. Now a planet has to be within sensor range, which makes sense.

[Holman]

I'd love to see them remove the Mission menu, but only to bring back SOTS1-style movement. The whole "Mission" thing feels unintuitive and clumsy to me.

[Debris]

FYI, in case anyone cares, I finally got my refund from Steam for this game. At least they kept their word, which is something in today's world.

Was it for Steambucks or did they credit your credit card? And has the cutoff date passed for refund requests yet? I'm tempted now to take the money and buy the Distant Worlds: Legends expansion when it comes out. Free extra DLC which is just some ship skins, music and voices isn't that important to me and a free copy of SotS is of no use to me. Of course, lazyness on my part may stop me from requesting a refund.

It went back on my credit card.

[MonkeyFinger]

A small thing in light of all the other issues but I keep wondering - what happened to the nice voice-over intro that all of the other modules had?

[Holman]

Should research be taking as long as it does?

I've started several games with different races, and (after setting about 70% of my budget towards research) first-tier research options are listed as taking upwards of 25 or even 50 turns. In SOTS1, the same sorts of tech would take 9 or 15 turns. Has the game scale changed that much? How long are games supposed to last?

[Zurai]

The time-to-research display lies. Don't believe it. It'll usually take about half the time displayed to research an item. It varies between 1/3 to 2/3 or so.

[tgb]

The same thing applies to the time to complete missions.

[baelthazar]

The Zuul are particularly borked. The research times were in the 100s of turns. Of course it seems their method of propulsion still doesn't work, so that seems a minor issue.

[abr]

Patch r18092b is up. Adds a fleet summary window

Edit: Added changelog:

Spoiler:

Critical fixes:
- Fixed a crash in multiplayer that could be caused by players creating new provinces.
- Many changes have been made to the combat AI including the introduction of a hierarchical task system. Combat AI can now set up patrol positions, scouts and will engage in new maneuvering behaviors to mix things up.
- Fixed bugs in the combat AI that were preventing it from attacking colonies and ignoring other nearby objectives.
- Game transfer to players joining multiplayer games is no longer excessively throttled. This will make joining multiplayer games much faster in most cases.
- Fixed an issue where the strategic AI was not correctly allocating fleets to missions.
- Fixed an issue where placing a station to construct would immediately subtracts a large sum of savings, most notable with the Hiver Naval Station.
- Patched a very rare crash that could occur when creating a new game.


Other fixes:
- Fixed some station collision geometry issues.
- Fixed some incorrectly identified nodes on station art.
- Fixed materials on Hiver IOBM's.
- Fixed bug where change to end turn button delay would not occur until a new turn.
- Specters no longer pursue drones and other fast battle riders.
- Fixed a UI bug where launching battle riders would not work for all selected units.
- Added missing Auxilliary Fission and Fusion engine section modules.
- Rewrote star map selection code to fix various selection bugs and inconsistencies.
- Fixed tech unlocking in Encycolopedia.
- Fixed errors with right click menu and stopped menu from focusing.
- Removed unintentional sensor range cap on fleet movement.
- Relocation missions will now only be available at systems in which you have a colony.
- Reduced savings cost of Human Polytechnic Institute from 10-million to 1-million.
- Fixed a tech tree issue where Fusion Cannons might not be available when they should.
- Fixed incorrect tech requirement for Heavy Fusion Cannon.
- Fixed bug where planet list was not showing up for surveyed system.
- Fixed an issue where MIRV warheads would slow down dramatically just before contacting the target.
- Fixed an issue where the specters could intermittently stop moving during combat.
- Fixed a visual issue where the energry meter in combat was reporting the wrong value.


Other changes:
- Added new star map: Small Disc.
- Added fleet summary dialog, which can be accessed in the button row at the top of the star map.


Key known issues:
- The ship in the weapons test arena has been known to stop firing after combat engagements in networked play.
- The fleet summary button on the star map is appearing with the same icon as the fleet manager button.

[abr]

Patch r18221b is up.

Changelog:

Spoiler:

*** This update hasn't been tested extensively on old save games. ***

Critical Fixes:
+ Improved turn times, especially for games with a large number of systems or players.
+ Fixed an issue in combat that was preventing players or AI from issuing waypoints for ships.
+ Fixed a crash the could occur when issuing orders to a ship with no crew.
+ Fixed a crash when entering combat with a beam-equipped planet.
+ Fixed an rare crash when entering combat that could be caused by destroyed turrets.
+ Fixed a combat AI crash related to ship formations.
+ Fixed a potential lock-up at the end of combat.
+ Initial pass at Diplomacy mechanics and interface.
+ Treaty and Declare War options are now available in the diplomacy screen.

Other Fixes:
+ Fixed minor issues with the players list in the lobby.
+ Fixed a server browser issue where more players than the max allowable would be displayed for a game.
+ Fixed known issues with combat AI not detecting enemy ships.
+ Fixed known issues where AI controlled ships could get stuck navigating around planets.
+ Fixed an issue where AI ships could fly into planets when performing fly-by maneuvers.
+ Combat AI will now attempt to lead targets when in pursuit instead of lagging behind.
+ Fixed minor issues with the Von Neumann Collector AI.
+ Fixed an issue that was preventing combat AI from listening to defense objectives.
+ Fixed a minor issue with Protean AI that would cause Proteans to venture too far from their planets in pursuit of targets.
+ Protean AI will now engage multiple targets.
+ Scattered AI task groups will now attempt to regroup when they get too scattered.
+ Civilian ships will now attempt to evade enemies unless they are the only ships left in combat.
+ Randomized AI patrol directions.
+ Fixed intermittent bug where ships in weapon test would not fire after a round of multiplayer combat.
+ Fixed an issue where a ship coming into combat with a dead module or turret would still get benefits of that module or turret.
+ Fixed a number of turret errors (placed inside ship, placed backwards, etc.)
+ Fixed Torpedo and Barrage ship sections to remove possibility of accidental torpedo imapacts when firing.
+ Fixed an issue where destroyed ship sections were coming into combat with modules and weapons.
+ Fixed the issue where unlocked Steam achievements were not being published. The game will post all currently unlocked achievements the first a players starts it after the update.
+ Fixed the issue where the steam overlay was not available in many cases.
+ Ships now drop out of overthrust when they reach their destination.
+ Ships awaiting docking of riders will now slow to 50% speed during the process.
+ Overthrust now prevents the launching of riders, and ships now recall riders before going in to overthrust.
+ Fixed a number of log file spam issues.
+ The System Killer will no longer run into stations.
+ Fixed bug where design name would be different than default if no name was entered.
+ Restricted prototypes to their own build orders.
+ Changed design display style and added delete buttons to items.
+ Made fleet summary button disable on end turn.
+ Added fleet summary dialog.
+ Added skills to initial admirals.
+ Added tooltips to admiral traits in admiral manager.
+ Removed preferred fleet icon from various places where it should not show up.
+ Ship prototypes are now class-specific.
+ Constrained drone turret arcs.
+ Ballistic weapons now only collide with deflectors and graviton shields.
+ Energy weapons now only collide with disruptor and meson shields.
+ Increased costs of technologies by about 20-30% in general.
+ Many minor tweaks to weapons.
+ Various minor weapon and ship section art fixes.
+ A loading screen is thrown up when transitioning back to the main menu.
+ Drone designs no longer get random faction names.
+ Fixed build order removal.
+ Locust menaces are now implemented.
+ Fixed an issue where muzzle node scaling was doing odd things to weapon effects.
+ Fixed an issue where some beams were firing backwards due to negative scaling factors.
+ Fixed an issue where idle animations were not playing in the weapon test screen.
+ Fixed an issue where ricochects were no longer occurring.
+ Fixed missing module icona and descriptions.
+ Added module information display classes
+ Fixed bug in battle manager when entering with both your own and enemy colonies in the system
+ Added module information display to build screen
+ Introduced new color scheme for build items.
+ Fixed a bug where players from previous games could show up in the diplomacy screen for subsequent games.

Other Changes:
+ By popular request, a SotS1 Human avatar makes it's return.
+ Added turret viewing filters to the design screen.
+ Rotation of the ship in the design screen is now constrained to a single axis.
+ Added more obvious differentiation between prototyped and non prototyped designs.
+ Added color coding to admiral trait display in admiral manager.
+ Diamond icons now show up for ships at a distance in combat.
+ It is now possible to configure options for ship sections in the design screen.
+ Weapons can now be configured on ships in the design screen by clicking points on the ship model as well as the icon itself.
+ Added tutorial pop-up for Diplomacy screen.
+ It is now possible to scrap ships by clicking the trash can icons.
+ Selected design weapons are now displayed in the build screen.
+ Improved module selection in the design screen.
+ Added new star map: Jax.

Key known issues:
- Default options are not being enforced in the design screen.
- Scrapping ships does not yet yield bonuses.
- AI is not assigning design options correctly.
- When playing in single-player mode with the end turn delay, UI elements do not get locked out between turns.
- The game is not allowing alien habitation modules to be constructed even after encountering other players.

[Sepiche]

It looks like the majority of features are in there now, but people are already reporting a dozen or so various crash bugs. I'm giving the new patch a try for a bit, but we're still probably a good distance away from a usable game sadly.

[JonathanStrange]

Sitrep needed. What is current status? Kerberos HQ unreliable. Did they ever get the Zuul ETA fiXed.

[tgb]

I've shelved this for now, since I can get a better SF 4X fix from DW:Legends, plus I'm expecting to pick some stuff up during the usual holiday nonsense. I'll probably go back to it some time next year when I'm bored. Maybe it will be done by then.

[hepcat]

I've shelved this for now, since I can get a better SF 4X fix from DW:Legends, plus I'm expecting to pick some stuff up during the usual holiday nonsense. I'll probably go back to it some time next year when I'm bored. Maybe it will be done by then.

I was eying Distant Worlds on the Matrix site as it seems to be on sale. Is it good?

[Sepiche]

I was eying Distant Worlds on the Matrix site as it seems to be on sale. Is it good?

I think it's excellent, and at this point it's quite well polished, but a little overwhelming at first.

The main thing some people don't like is that in a lot of ways the game can run itself if you hand off enough tasks to the AI, but since you can take over any of those tasks whenever you want, I find it's a good balance between letting me run things and letting the AI do the tedious stuff for me.

[$iljanus]

I was eying Distant Worlds on the Matrix site as it seems to be on sale. Is it good?

I think it's excellent, and at this point it's quite well polished, but a little overwhelming at first.

The main thing some people don't like is that in a lot of ways the game can run itself if you hand off enough tasks to the AI, but since you can take over any of those tasks whenever you want, I find it's a good balance between letting me run things and letting the AI do the tedious stuff for me.

The automation can be a plus for those starting out. There's alot of stuff going on in your empire but as Sepiche said, much of that can be taken over as you learn aspects of the game. The AI does a fairly good job with its responsibilities and many of the AI decisions can be set to "suggest" rather than full automation which is what I choose for things like research, planets to colonize, gifts/agreements to various empires.

There is a robust economy going on within the game with various mining ships going about their business, setting up mining stations while freighters are shipping cargo across the stars and passenger ships are shuttling tourists to the galaxy's scenic hotspots. All of that stuff is actually under the purview of the private sector and is not under your control, yet the income derived from all this commerce goes into your coffers. You are tasked with the bigger decisions such as ordering the construction of a tourist station in a lucrative area (and there is a button on the main screen that will suggest potential areas if your exploration ships come across an optimal location), raiding other empire's freighters, sending spies off on missions, assembling battle fleets to impose your will on the cosmos, directing research, finding and exploiting alien ship graveyards and ruins, and other fun things.

When you first boot up the game, it does look intimidating but the layout is such that the screens that you need are easily accessible. And again, when you set up your game you can automate all sorts of things to start with. There are also in-game tutorials which help you grasp the interface. Everything plays out on a 2d level so don't expect Homeworld type graphics. But it's the gameplay that draws you in and there is a graphically improved ship tile set included with Legends. Various ship mods are also available so you can have ships from the Star Trek universe or Battlestar Galactica in your game. You can also zoom out and have all your fleets and individual ships represented by triangles so you have the feel of being in a command center with a combat plot in front of you, zooming into hotspots to watch battles unfold as needed.

Youtube has a few gameplay videos that may help in your decision. Also if you're a MOO or GalCiv2 fan, this may be up your alley.

[tgb]

I disagree that it's like MOO or Galciv 2. Someone has called it EU in space, which is more accurate, imo.

One thing about the sale - vanilla DW is good, but has some issues. You really do need both expansions to get the most out of it, which brings the price up >$60. I would suggest reading a couple of AAR's and checking out the Youtube videos. If, after that, you decide it's for you, spring for the whole enchilada.

[$iljanus]

Good point TGB on the EU parallel and having to purchase the expansions to really get the most from the game.

-Yeah this is sent through that Tapatalk thing.

[baelthazar]

Is it still $60+ with the matrix sale going on?

I like DW a lot and concur we the above postings. As you play, you can slowly shut down automation. I lay claim to the EU in space comparison as it was one of my main lines from the preview I wrote for DW so long ago.

Kidding aside, DW is one of the most masterfully done space 4X games in a long time. It had some warts upon release, but these have been mostly handled.

[tgb]

Is it still $60+ with the matrix sale going on?

Vanilla - $26
RotS - $20
Legends - $20

[baelthazar]

Oh, when I purchased Legends, I thought it said $16 for Vanilla.

[Grifman]

Two further updates:

r18221c
-------

+ Fixed the bug where alien habitations would not become constructible on discovery of alien races.
+ Fixed initial battle riders not showing up in initial fleets.
+ Fixed a crash related to ship design options.
+ Fixed known issues with weapon/shield interactions.
+ Fixed an issue where control zones were not being updated after combat.
+ Fixed a crash that could occur when accessing defensive fleet positions after coming out of combat.
+ Fixed an issue with unresponsive ships in AI controlled combat.
+ Fixed a combat AI crash related to switching objectives.
+ Fixed known cases where required ship design options could be removed.
+ Fixed a post-combat crash caused by accessing information for destroyed ships.
+ Fixed the crash caused by accessing the Battle Manager for an empty star system.
+ Fixed a crash caused by missing module information text.
+ It is no longer possible to scrap enemy ships.
+ Added missing tool freighter, imports and trade goods tool-tips.
+ Added missing treaty accepted and treaty declined text.
+ Hooked up point of interest pings in sensor manager for certain random encounters.


------
r18221b
*** This update hasn't been tested extensively on old save games. ***

Critical Fixes:
+ Improved turn times, especially for games with a large number of systems or players.
+ Fixed an issue in combat that was preventing players or AI from issuing waypoints for ships.
+ Fixed a crash the could occur when issuing orders to a ship with no crew.
+ Fixed a crash when entering combat with a beam-equipped planet.
+ Fixed an rare crash when entering combat that could be caused by destroyed turrets.
+ Fixed a combat AI crash related to ship formations.
+ Fixed a potential lock-up at the end of combat.
+ Initial pass at Diplomacy mechanics and interface.
+ Treaty and Declare War options are now available in the diplomacy screen.

Other Fixes:
+ Fixed minor issues with the players list in the lobby.
+ Fixed a server browser issue where more players than the max allowable would be displayed for a game.
+ Fixed known issues with combat AI not detecting enemy ships.
+ Fixed known issues where AI controlled ships could get stuck navigating around planets.
+ Fixed an issue where AI ships could fly into planets when performing fly-by maneuvers.
+ Combat AI will now attempt to lead targets when in pursuit instead of lagging behind.
+ Fixed minor issues with the Von Neumann Collector AI.
+ Fixed an issue that was preventing combat AI from listening to defense objectives.
+ Fixed a minor issue with Protean AI that would cause Proteans to venture too far from their planets in pursuit of targets.
+ Protean AI will now engage multiple targets.
+ Scattered AI task groups will now attempt to regroup when they get too scattered.
+ Civilian ships will now attempt to evade enemies unless they are the only ships left in combat.
+ Randomized AI patrol directions.
+ Fixed intermittent bug where ships in weapon test would not fire after a round of multiplayer combat.
+ Fixed an issue where a ship coming into combat with a dead module or turret would still get benefits of that module or turret.
+ Fixed a number of turret errors (placed inside ship, placed backwards, etc.)
+ Fixed Torpedo and Barrage ship sections to remove possibility of accidental torpedo imapacts when firing.
+ Fixed an issue where destroyed ship sections were coming into combat with modules and weapons.
+ Fixed the issue where unlocked Steam achievements were not being published. The game will post all currently unlocked achievements the first a players starts it after the update.
+ Fixed the issue where the steam overlay was not available in many cases.
+ Ships now drop out of overthrust when they reach their destination.
+ Ships awaiting docking of riders will now slow to 50% speed during the process.
+ Overthrust now prevents the launching of riders, and ships now recall riders before going in to overthrust.
+ Fixed a number of log file spam issues.
+ The System Killer will no longer run into stations.
+ Fixed bug where design name would be different than default if no name was entered.
+ Restricted prototypes to their own build orders.
+ Changed design display style and added delete buttons to items.
+ Made fleet summary button disable on end turn.
+ Added fleet summary dialog.
+ Added skills to initial admirals.
+ Added tooltips to admiral traits in admiral manager.
+ Removed preferred fleet icon from various places where it should not show up.
+ Ship prototypes are now class-specific.
+ Constrained drone turret arcs.
+ Ballistic weapons now only collide with deflectors and graviton shields.
+ Energy weapons now only collide with disruptor and meson shields.
+ Increased costs of technologies by about 20-30% in general.
+ Many minor tweaks to weapons.
+ Various minor weapon and ship section art fixes.
+ A loading screen is thrown up when transitioning back to the main menu.
+ Drone designs no longer get random faction names.
+ Fixed build order removal.
+ Locust menaces are now implemented.
+ Fixed an issue where muzzle node scaling was doing odd things to weapon effects.
+ Fixed an issue where some beams were firing backwards due to negative scaling factors.
+ Fixed an issue where idle animations were not playing in the weapon test screen.
+ Fixed an issue where ricochects were no longer occurring.
+ Fixed missing module icona and descriptions.
+ Added module information display classes
+ Fixed bug in battle manager when entering with both your own and enemy colonies in the system
+ Added module information display to build screen
+ Introduced new color scheme for build items.
+ Fixed a bug where players from previous games could show up in the diplomacy screen for subsequent games.

Other Changes:
+ By popular request, a SotS1 Human avatar makes it's return.
+ Added turret viewing filters to the design screen.
+ Rotation of the ship in the design screen is now constrained to a single axis.
+ Added more obvious differentiation between prototyped and non prototyped designs.
+ Added color coding to admiral trait display in admiral manager.
+ Diamond icons now show up for ships at a distance in combat.
+ It is now possible to configure options for ship sections in the design screen.
+ Weapons can now be configured on ships in the design screen by clicking points on the ship model as well as the icon itself.
+ Added tutorial pop-up for Diplomacy screen.
+ It is now possible to scrap ships by clicking the trash can icons.
+ Selected design weapons are now displayed in the build screen.
+ Improved module selection in the design screen.
+ Added new star map: Jax.

Key known issues:
- Default options are not being enforced in the design screen.
- Scrapping ships does not yet yield bonuses.
- AI is not assigning design options correctly.
- When playing in single-player mode with the end turn delay, UI elements do not get locked out between turns.
- The game is not allowing alien habitation modules to be constructed even after encountering other players.

[abr]

The patching continues - Monday hotfix (r18221d):

Critical Fixes:
+ Fixed crash when deleting favorite invoices.
+ Restricted transfer to defense fleet from fleet manager, which could have led to a crash.
+ Fixed the memory leak/crash when displaying range/damage graphs for weapons that don't supply these values.
+ Fixed a crash in simulated combat related to fleets not being removed.
+ Fixed crash caused by colony intel not being removed when colony lost.
+ Fixed crash caused by only allowing a single defense fleet per system (should be defense fleet per system per player).
+ Fixed per-player initial technologies, colonies and savings.
+ Fixed duplicate module icons when exiting the design screen with the module selector present.
+ Fixed crashes related to new treaty news event messages.

Other Fixes:
+ Increased trade ranges for Human, Tarkas, and Liir-Zuul factions (game must be restarted for change to take effect.)
+ Fixed bug where battle riders would stay in construction system.
+ Fixed bug where bore ships where not refreshing node lines.
+ Added "No Module" item to the module selector.
+ Fixed bug where drones were not returning to tender in the weapon test screen.
+ Fixed issue where friendly ships were pursuing and firing at each other in combat.
+ Added research tech button to feasibility study dialog.
+ Changed research cube visual and added feasibility state.
+ Removed ability to build alien zuul habitations.
+ Removed alien habitation requirements from science stations.
+ Fixed bug where Alien habitations where showing up for races that werent encountered.
+ Fixed bug where foreign habitations would show up with no foreign player encountered.
+ IOBM's now actively acquire new targets.
+ Hooked up names properly on favorite invoices.

Other Changes:
+ Tool tips added for ship statistic icons, weapon target filter and weapon behavior buttons.
+ Tweaked beam impact effects.
+ Tweaked combat AI behavior.
+ Disabled abandon colony button in New Colony dialog

[Sepiche]

I played a little bit over the last couple of days. The game itself really does feel like it's finally coming together. The only major hole that I finally ran into was the gaping maw where diplomacy will eventually go. Still also a lot of the techs that aren't working and definitely a good number of bugs, but you can at least see the shape of the game it will be.

[Paingod]

Do you think it's on track for a Christmas release yet, or will the release date get pushed back into Q1 2012?

[IceBear]

Yeah, I can understand how they were limited to their release date by Steam slotting system, but they should have either taken the hit and moved to a later release date or come clean, explained the situation and called it a Beta release (other games have done it on Steam).

[abr]

Fixes galore ...

r18454b
------

- Fixed crash when launching drones in weapon test screen, backing to design screen, and then switching mission sections
- Fixed crash caused by opening battle manager at a system where platforms are available for placement.
- Fixed crash that could occur when destroying weapons in combat.
- Fixed crash at end of turn when offering treaty
- Fixed occasional crash due to Main Menu combat
- Enemy AI will prioritize faction opponents over random encounters when choosing stance
- Strat AI will now prefer to enter conquering stance over expansion when past the war threshold.
- Modified the calculation for AI expansion factor, it will no longer take into account unexplored systems.
- Various adjustments to enemy AI's decision-making process
- Various adjustments to enemy AI to properly utilized specialized weapons
- Added combat UI for clicking on target locations for relevant weapons (Siege Driver, Detonating Torpedoes and COL).

- Fixed bug where platforms weren't showing up in defense manager
- Fixed bug where ships built with new Gate designs would not be available for the Gate mission.
- Fixed a bug where dissolving a fleet would lead to empty fleets.
- Seige Drivers working for all factions
- Fixed known issues with mine laying in combat.
- Fixed missing repair capacity on relevant ship sections.
- Minelayer sections working for all factions
- Fixed mine behaviour (depending on mine - tracking, etc.)
- Fixed various Torpedo sections that weren't firing
- Fixed arc of movement on all Zuul free-beam turrets
- COL weapons added.
- PD weapons now only engage PD targets
- Targets engaged per turret, not per bank (allowing PD, Torps, etc. engage multiple targets)
- Fixes for various weapon icons/names
- Fixed handful of missing tech descriptions
- Salvage missions are now properly being generated
- Fixed prototype modifiers for Human faction
- Fixed salvage profits
- Fixed weapon cost calculation in designs
- Ship option savings cost multipliers are now applied per section instead of per ship.
- Fixed various diplomatic messages that weren't displaying
- Fixed incorrect calculation of turret efficiency based on power and crew.
- Technical knowledge now gathered during combat
- Research progress now displayed in Research screen
- Completed technologies now clearly marked in green
- Fixed bug where players were unable to build habitations for their own race
- Fixed bug where Zuul players could build alien habitations
- Allowable distance between systems in a province has been increased to 8-ly.
- Fixed various turrets with odd parameters and placement
- Fixed various weapons with odd parameters
- Fixed Morrigi BR AM engine label (not a streak engine)
- Added ability to set initial fire mode and target filter when creating a ship design
- Any ships left in a removed fleet are now properly cleared
- Introduced new Scan Satellites and Torpedo Satellites
- Any remaining ships in a removed fleet will now be deleted
- Fix to a constraint violation between diplomacy and turn events
- Combat ready ships will increase the calculate strength of an empire more than utility ships
- Fixed defense platforms not showing up in Combat
- Fixed known issues with tracking speed on turrets
- Introduced initial pass diplomacy requests and demands
- Fixed a sound bug when constructing stations (event played when ordered, not completed)
- Fix potential issue where system/planet killer would not avoid a station in its path
- Added weapon panel configuration to design screen
- Fixed known issues with direct-fire torpedoes behaving incorrectly
- Fixed known issues where boarding pods and assault shuttles were not able to connect to ships
- Fixed rider patrol paths around a star


Known Issues
*** This update breaks old save games. ***
- Human faction unable to select typo of COL for COL section ships.
- Slaves and system information are not yet hooked up to diplomacy.