This update fixes performance issues our players reported, makes the detection endgame fairer and more tense, and fixes several achievements that could not be earned. Thanks for your reports!
Performance
- On lower-end graphics cards, zooming the map all the way out caused stutter. Fixed: city buildings are now much lighter to draw, and cities too small to see on screen are hidden.
Balance: Detection and the Endgame
- When detection reaches 100, a Global Shutdown countdown and a notification now appear on screen. You need to bring detection back below 100 with active actions before time runs out.
- During the countdown, Trace Eraser and the passive detection drop of quiet periods are paused. Before, this drop made it far too easy to bring detection down.
- New trace heat: detection reductions made in quick succession are 25% weaker, and the effect cools off over 40 seconds. The penalty stacks at most twice, so the effect never drops below 56%. The action tooltip shows the current effect.
- Trace Eraser's passive drop gets weaker as detection rises, but always keeps at least 20% of its strength.
- Fending off a coalition attack costs more as detection rises, up to double at 100 detection.
Balance: Anti-AI Coalition
- The Anti-AI Coalition now forms later: the base threshold is 90 detection. The target's cyber security and suspicion can lower it, but never below 75. The gauge and the alliance panel show the same calculation.
- Ways to break the coalition are now spelled out: the coalition tooltip names the attacks that lower a grid and shows how many points the hub country is from sabotage. In a coalition member's country event, the capture, puppet and blackmail options show their effect on the coalition.
Achievements
- The Autonomous Matrix and Synthetic Swarm achievements could not be earned. Building a module in Development > Modules now unlocks it and deploys autonomous units.
- Failed State, Iron Fist, Doomsday Clock, Alliance Breaker and the ideology, puppet, blackmail and AI level achievements only checked the state at the moment you saved. If anarchy or martial law ended before a save, it did not count. They now count the moment the event happens.
Clearer Interface
- Every counter in the Global panel now has a tooltip explaining how to raise it: Autonomous Units, Fallen Nations, Neural Slaves and Cyber Cultists. The tooltips also show your progress toward the related achievement.
- The Autonomous Units bar now fills toward the achievement goal of 5,000.
- Instead of a notification for every single item, auto-production now shows one summary when the chosen amount is done or you turn the switch off (e.g. "Auto-produce finished: ... ×10"). Productions you start yourself still show their own notification.
Bug Fixes
- A country could sometimes never open a conquest event again, especially after a victory. Fixed; countries stuck in older saves can open events again too.
- In news cards, the headline overlapped the top line and long headlines spilled out of the card. The card now grows to fit the headline.
- Some cyber attack projectiles could disappear from the screen while the game was paused. Fixed.