Here is the changelog for the 1.15 patch. I think many players will appreciate both the fixes and the additions, and it also holds some good stuff for modders.
- Fixed an issue with the Fletchette cannon and other dual-purpose Anti-Ship/PD weapons not damaging ships as they should.
- Increased the 'time-out range' of all weapons by 25%. You may have noticed your missiles exploding prematurely and other projectiles disappearing before they reached their target, therefore resulting in misses. This was due to the 'time-out' range of projectiles in the engine being equal to the maximum firing range of that weapon, so your ships fire on inevitably moving enemies at a range that means the projectiles can't travel far enough to hit them. This change will result in more satisfying projectile behavior, as projectiles fired at a moving ship that is in range will no longer time out before the target is reached when fired at maximum engagement range unless the enemy ship performs successful evasive manoeuvres.
- The automated freighter system has been patched so that it will no longer assign freighter-class vessels with no cargo capacity to carry cargo. This means that vessels designed on freighter hulls but purposed for other uses (e.g. supply ships, repair ships, 'Q-ship' warships) will no longer have their user-assigned orders overridden by the auto-freight AI if enabled.
- Adjusted the AI's desired ratio of ships to ensure mixed fleets. This now results in the AI splitting its proportions roughly between: Capitals: 3, Cruisers: 5, Frigates: 7, Fighters: 7, Dedicated Bombers: 1. This means that, given 23 ships, the ratio would break down like that. This should result in some more mixed AI fleets, and fix the issue seen at present wherein the AI is only fielding the largest ship type available at once. Expect more dangerous enemies with mixed target types - bring some anti-fighter cannons!
- Flak Cannons are now proximity fused. They therefore do not require direct hits to detonate anymore, and instead detonate either in proximity to any enemy vessel, or at their maximum pre-determined range, so they can be used as area-suppression weapons against fighter swarms.
- Enabled the use of the "ProjectileRadius" tag in weapons files. This will work on any weapons that modders may want to add this functionality to.
- Removed the requirement that you need money to rush production.
You only need production now. I think this was causing a great deal of confusion about the economy, as players would see their income decreasing and have no feedback as why. What is happening is that your governors are spending your cash. Well, no more. Both the AI and the player will benefit from this change so it should be balance-neutral. In fact, I expect the AI will become more dangerous.
- Fixed an issue where Remnant kills weren't tracking properly through saved games which could result in you either missing the event or getting the event multiple times.
- Significant buff to the Disintegrator Cannon (ultimate beam weapon in vanilla SD) so that it is both superior to earlier beams, and also generally just deadly.
- Added a tag for Mod files < DisableDefaultRaces >true< /DisableDefaultRaces > if you want to remove the original StarDrive races from appearing while your mod is loaded.
- The sickbay should now appropriately heal injured troops that are stationed on board the craft
- Fixed the victory music not playing on the victory screen
- Fixed some inconsistencies between the displayed empire income and the calculated empire income. Somehow these could become desynced, but now they use the same function and should not desync.
- And finally..:
Added a satisfying conclusion to the Remnant quest line. Be ready.