Shadow Empire - Fate and Fervour update v1.26c out now

A new update for Shadow Empire (v1.26c) is out now. This update adds 25 new Fate Stratagems to provide more replayability and surprises. Also a special new History Class “Low Resources” has been added especially for lovers of very challenging Tech Level 3 starts. Furthermore the Colossus Planet Class can now be chosen by players that are looking for some really long games on huge Planets. Last but not least, there has been a lot of finetuning, some important AI improvements, bug fixing and a few rule changes.

Here is the full changelog:

Features + Rule changes:

• AI receives GR Tech Fate Strats nerfed. On beginner every 60 rounds and max 1 per game, on regular every 50 rounds and max 2 per game, on hard every 40 rounds and max 3 per game, on extreme every 30 rounds and max 4 per game.
• Made improvements to AI tech research selection, among others making it easier for the AI to find a path to atomic weapons, this however is not guaranteed to happen. But I feel more confident with the new algorithm.
• Planetary Spin a bit (or a lot) lower on Colossus Planets, further reducing Wind Speeds a bit on them *
• AI will get random access to the new Fate GR Techs (Beginner: once every 40 rounds, Regular: every 30 rounds, hard every 20 rounds, extreme every 10 rounds). This should act as a general difficulty boost at higher difficulty levels.
• Removed the Metrics question when first playing game, as no matter if its yes or no, i am not collecting at the moment.
• Made a low level unit moving algorithm change to how the AI perceives its chances of getting encircled. Made it a bit less scared in most cases.
• Made AI bit more consistent in diplomatics once it doesn’t want to waltz with you anymore. After it starts canceling treaties it will be harder to make them accept a new one again (cooldown timer running in background) *
• Added some code to prevent MTH ship losses against 0 ship enemy fleet.
• Added “Low Resources” History Class which blocks you starting with initial Water Mines and assured deposits around you. Best played on lower Tech level with minimal or no starting armies.
• Wind Traps can now also produce at water scarcity level 4. *
• Wind Traps can now also be constructed in non-mountain areas, but they get a -50% penalty when used in “lowland” areas. *
• Nudged Guardians downwards (more tradition stat, less often trigger of tech sale, fast higher price after first sale) *
• Reduced max recruitment base level from 5% of Population/Worker to 2.5%.
• Gr Mass Driver Fate Stratagem only appears at higher tech level above 5 now. *
• Lowest Tech MG now also benefits from the Chaingun Tech *
• Increase some GR Tech Fate Stratagem costs and decreased GR Equipment Fate Stratagem costs.*
• Air Models now also have their Air attack values divided for having multiple attacks *
• Fate Packs for level increases nerfed upwards. Now Beginner: Fate Pack on Admin,Culture,Tech level rise. Regular: Admin + Tech level rise, Hard+higher: only on Tech level rise *
• Made some changes to better support super long linguistics lists (mod support)
• Ringmail Fate Stratagem cost increased*
• GR Optics Fate Strat cost increased*
• GR Combat Drugs Fate Strat cost decreased*
• *=needs new game start
• **=adding in running games will be stopped, but the bloated stringlists causing slowness will remain, however I also improved the speed of the linguistics algorithms in case of huge stringlists.
• 25 New Fate Stratagems added, including rare and very rare ones. Leading to: 10 New Fate-Strat-only Techs, 5 New Leader Feats, 4 New GR Models and 6 “red” Fate Stratagems.*
• Peripheral Mining Stratagem has been finetuned. It will cause some more Ease of Mining Degradation when played on Mines with really high ease of mining levels (chance for extra level loss: 90% at level 9, 75% at lvl 8, 50% at lvl7, 25% at lvl 6). Also overall extra resources found is lowered a bit with -33%.
• Assault Gun/Tank Destroyer now show their reduced IP production cost properly in the UI (requires making new model to go into effect)
• No longer required to have a Trade Pact Level with other Major to change Tariffs.* That rule made no sense in retrospect as it is you that controls your side of the border and your custom officials can do as they please no matter your absence of an officially agreed upon trade level.
• History replay now shows orange/red icon on air recon target hexes.
• Added Colossus Planet Class. Which is basically just a way to roll huge (and very slow to play) Planets with very probably quite high gravity.
• If you switch to “Discovery Focus” you now loose 66% of your already accumulated Discovery Points. Was a bit of an exploit before.
• Stratagem pics inside Vidcom messages could be swapped around if you looked at them again after playing some earlier received Stratagems in your current turn. This is no longer the case. Requires a new turn to go in effect.
• Blocked the ability of clicking on enemy leader in Decision messages
• Made AI a bit more cautious with constructing Biofuel Assets and made it better understand the Food income required for it to not cause any problems (especially on higher Biofuel Asset Levels)
• Added mouse edge scrolling enable/disable in first subtab of the Prefs Tab
• 160K Bombhatch ammo cost divided by 20.. Was a data entry glitch on my side :/ *

Bugs & Glitch Fixes:

• Fixed Gladiator Unit Feat bonus to also be applied to hitpoints *
• Fixed issues with AI Model Design choices. Should avoid loops with impossible air designs now.
• Fixed a gitch with Wind Speed calculations (planetary spin did not have the correct effect, it should have now) *
• Fixed glitch with lowlands penalty being applied to agriculture as well.
• Fixed Propose Peace Stratagems (major + minor) effect with critical failure. *
• Fixed Mass Driver is now compatible with AT-Gun Models. * (crashes in earlier betas)
• Fixed Breakthrough Stratagem to not be playable if nothing discoverable left *
• Fixed Guardians Decision to not trigger if not enough discoverable left to exclude finishing last discovery same turn *
• Fixed color of Rdn + Supply in Unit Tab to white if the variable is actually unknown due to lack of recon.
• Fixed crash with Air Recon on certain sea Hexes.
• Fixed Wind Speed and Temperature Delta on Mountains for some Colossus Planets *
• Fixed issue with Private Economy building Surveillance Asset
• Fixed an issue with some mods + PBEM games, where in some cases the mod data kept being added **
• Fixed issue with some Regime Feat Zone benefits not being used for the first capital zone in the game.
• Fixed combat preview odds calculations with the use of certain Stratagems like All Out of Offensive.
• Fixed a combat detail report logging glitch that could hide a modifier from being logged (combat calculations themselves were okay)
• Fixed CTD when clicking on transfer button of a Zone without SHQ assigned.
• Fixed issue with not being able to select Gauss MG for aircraft Models *
• Fixed capping of relations after playing MTH Shipyarding Stratagem.*
• Fixed different planetary stats concerning heavy metals PPB / PH between generation and final Planet. *
• Fixed edge case with impossible Faction Demands where Admin,Tech,Cult Level all >8 and happiness and morale are all super high.
• Fixed price reduction for longer MTH Contracts
• Fixed game blocking glitch with enemy unit appearing out of nowhere in a friendly hex (Autumn)
• *=requires new game start
• Fixed some glitches with the AI assigning Posture Stratagems to its OHQs. Performance should be much better now. (thanks to Thibault)