Master of Orion - Patch Notes v46.4

Welcome to Early Access 6! I have to keep this short because we're near the character limit, so read on for the patch notes! For the bugfixes, please visit this forum thread.

Master of Orion - Patch Notes v46.4

General

• Added gamepad support
  • Added options for Start button, new navigation bindings, tactical camera modifier
    L1 + right stick rotates tactical camera

• Added Tobii eye-tracking support
• Added profile for Logitech keyboards
• Added Steam Cloud support for saved games
• Race-specific civilian transports can now be built to expand assimilation gameplay
• Added auto-turn option
• Added 100 achievements
• New and improved tutorial
• Updated cluster galaxy visuals
• Small improvement to planet rating regarding max pop. size
• Changed fleet repair and upgrade logic, to allow it on any colony owned or from an ally or any finished node development with a military structure
• Updated logic for learning techs via perks
• Blueprint limit is now increased when discovering a new blueprint
• Added victory cutscenes for every race for the Conquest, Technological and Economic victory conditions

• Added new Game Pace option that uses predefined Research, Production and Population Growth speeds; pacing can still be manually set in Advanced Options
• Added perks validation when creating a custom race
• Additional options added for Research, Production and Population Growth speed

AI

• Improved planet evaluation for colonization
• Fix for invasion issue where it was regrouping next to the target and it would expect "already moved" ships to move with the invasion forces, but they were exhausted and they couldn't
• Improved strategic analysis
• Heat maps are now connected to memory system
• Improved Share Charts evaluation to account for revealed colony information
• Improved Alliance evaluation to consider alliances imply a vote in the Galactic Council
• AI will now offer Share Charts in a smarter way
• Improved Invasion by building closer to targets
• Improved Bombard by considering invasion targets
• Improved heat map by considering only dynamic FP (making the AI more aggressive)
• Workers optimization for military outpost construction according to heat map. Now also considers war when settling colonies.
• Fix for colonization and unreachable planets
• The AI now focuses on colony expansion in their early stages before starting research
• Protects new colonies from pirates, considers hostile firepower when colonizing and tries to build escorts
• Production Focus will be set when building ships and at war, or terraforming
• New colonization & civil transports heuristics and AI flow: Avoids low food production planets,
• Optimized Needs for security and economy, better handling of pirates by AI races
• Removed duplicated targets for blocking fleets
• Rebalanced Alkari so that they build heavier ships

Balance

• Revamped combat victory chance heuristics
• Shield & Armor Rescaling
  • Increased Base Armor Cost (2/3/4/5/6/7 -> 2/4/6/8/10/11)
  • Increased Base Shield Cost (4/5/6/7/8 -> 4/7/10/16/20)(Higher Shield Tech remains increasingly more SP per Size Efficient, Shields and Armor Tech now become increasingly less HP/SP per PP efficient)

• Battle Pod changes
  • Added a Size Cost to Battle Pods (Base Size 0 -> 20, size Factor 0 -> 1)(Battle Pods are now less suited for Frigates and Destroyers, more efficient in Larger Hulls)

• Guardian of Orion changes
  • Hull Space Reduced (3000 -> 2500)
  • Hull Points Reduced (3000 -> 2000)

• Terraforming incremental cost factor reduced from 2 to 1.5
• Fixed Gravity Tolerance costs
• Balanced food requirements per planet size
• Pirate spawn rates are now connected to game difficulty
• Food requirement curve adapts to changing population limit instead of using final planet capacity
• Rebalanced Share Charts so that it's not so exploitable
• Rebalanced Accept Embassy option to make symmetric deals easier
• Balance Tweaks:
  • CO Mod Cost & Size (0.5 -> 0.25)
  • Lightning Field Base Size (4 -> 2)
  • Augmented Engines Size (5/2.5 -> 4/2.2)

• Fixed conservative rule about hostile systems that blocked the movement of scouts with auto explore on the presence of pirates
• Nebula missile avoidance bonus changed from 100% to 50%

• Changed strafing to look more natural
• New abstract representation in zoomed-out view
• Added specific Blueprints for each Race when played by AI
• Ship health bars now display with mouseover
• Pixel ships FX & Prefabs fixes
• Battle results: Beam accuracy and PD accuracy changed
• Trails are now solid lines instead of dotted
• Added Battle Pods to Player Destroyer as an Improvement
• Transition intro is now mirrored depending on which side the player is placed

Diplomacy

• Added confirmation before declaring war
• Disposition changes are now highlighted in the UI

Multiplayer

• AI in multiplayer from load will now automatically connect

UI

• Colonies with a star base now have an icon in the galaxy view
• New design for most buttons in game
• Victory chance and power are now shown for colonies on mouseover
• Diplomatic information toggle is now saved
• Improved cell modifiers feedback in colony management
• Improved planet degradation Feedback
• Added Upgrade All button
• Added filter to selection of colony where to request invasion ships
• Added Auto turn beside the TURN counter
• Added colonize icon to colonize button
• Improvements in audience screen
• Flipping combat assets horizontally so they match the civilians assets facing left
• New in-progress animation for planet and build popup
• Now Population circle in Colony widget becomes red when starving
• Renamed SHIP DESIGN button to BLUEPRINTS for consistency
• Workers now show a "+" icon when the number is bigger than the one displayed
• Added icon space factory in references of tech-tree
• Fix for Equipped core system modules icons can overlap module scrap hint
• Added notification for loading a game from main menu when a current game is in progress
• Add new icons tooltip for tactical
• Added confirmation dialogs for new game, load and exit if unsaved changes will be lost
• Added notification for loading a game from main menu when a current game is in progress
• Art pass for tutorial widgets and positions
• New icon Anti-Gravity Harness for tech apps
• Added diplomacy icon for empire top bar
• Added icon for electronic computer in tech apps
• Added bg to each button in the Empire top bar
• Added URGENCY PULSING ANIMATION to Food widget when starvation occurs

UX

• Colonies are now shown in alphabetical order when pressing next and previous colony buttons

Audio

• Added sounds: Wormhole, Jump Gate, Ship Specials, Repair Beam and Pulsar Fire
• Added Star Map click on planet
• Added audio for Scientific and Conquest victory cutscenes
• Added Audience Sounds for Bulrathi Emperor

Visual

• Updated background for cluster galaxies

Localization

• Subtitles language is now independent from UI and Voices
• Subtitles added to research screen
• Added demonyms keys
• Marine Pods description fix (removed the "marines defend the ship and board enemy ships" bit)
• Updated localizations
• VO: Silicoid Advisor updated. Now it has the same sound effect as the english version
  Victory subtitles synchronization (ENG/SPA)