Hello all,

Today, we are excited to announce a new update that comes with a complete overhaul of the planet system, rebalancing of gameplay and galaxy systems, and the incorporation of valuable feedback we've received recently.

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08/01/23 | v1.66 Changelog

Special Thanks to World Ddraig. Checkout his YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@worldddraig

Events 

• Abundant event-type turn cooldown reduced from 5 to 4 (increasing the number of these events). 
• "Break away" colony event temporarily disabled until we can fix the crash that comes from it. 
• Culture point rewards from certain quest choices increased from 1 to 10. 
• Removes Nihilism awareness on event choices where it didn't make sense. 

Gameplay 

• Prestige status window resized to not have a ton of empty space. 
• Prestige victory status window now makes it clear that the various categories are scores rather than representing specific numbers.  Hat tip: World Ddraig. 
• Early Manufacturing improvements neighboring bonus increased from +1 to +2. 
• Colony decay doesn't begin until 10 tiles.  Decay rate reduced from 4% per tile to 3%. 
• Shark Tank made into a Civ Achievement instead of 1 per planet. Made much more powerful. 
• Advisors will warn you when someone really hates you. 
• Military ships near a Xenophobic planet really really makes them mad now. 

Galaxy 

• High quality worlds are slightly more likely to be spawned when a habitable planet is selected to be generated. 
• More variance in the types of worlds that are generated. 
• Extreme planets slightly more common. 
• Galaxy border color changed from light gray to dark gray. 
• General balance pass on star systems and what planets will show up in them.  IN general, there are slightly fewer planets than before but there is more variance. 
• Rewrote the planet class descriptions to better explain what the planets are good for.
• Rare Habitable planet setting reduced from 10% to 4% of planets. 
• Uncommon habitable planett setting reduced from 12% of planets to 9%. 
• Occasional star spawn setting increased from 25% of possible locations being used to 40%. 
• Common star spawn setting increased from 33% of possible locations being used to 50%. 
• Abundant star spawn setting increased from 50% of possible locations being used to 70%. --good luck you crazies! 

Planets 

• Big update to the way planet types now work.  Instead of every type of world having a crummy quality version and a high quality version (as in, some terrestrial planets are really terrible but some are good) instead some types are always good and some types are always bad.  For instance, there is NO nice frozen world.  All Terrestrial worlds are high quality. 
• Barren Worlds no longer require exotic planets to colonize and are more common.  Same for frozen worlds. 
• General balance pass on planet types to make what types of resources they have a lot of more distinct. 
• Barren and Tropical world descriptions given more information to help players know what they are good for. 
• Planets can now build Starbase modules as well. It costs more than doing it at a shipyard (as the module has to be taken up into orbit). This is a new durational project. 
• Balance pass on minerals and tech and wealth that different planet classes have. 
• Tropical worlds are always at least somewhat nice. 

Ships 

• Ship icons are now consistent with their class. 
• Constructor / Starbase area of effect line is slightly brighter, thicker. 
• Iridian siege ship had duplicate name (was using the same name as the Freighter).  While trade ships and giant weapons filled starships equipped with electric death might seem similar, they are, it turns out, quite different. 
• Updated the Survey component to explain that it came from a Precursor dig. That's why you can't just make Flag ships. 
• Constructor module cost increased from 50 to 75. 
• Icon colors for the types of ships updated to correspond with their type rather than everything having its own unique color. 

Text 

• Fixed typo. 
• More greeting types from aliens. 
• Joke about Northern Michigan restored from GC2 (let us know if you dislike our tongue in cheek stuff). 
• German language fix to the +10 to culture points. 
• German version of Siege ships is now called the Crusher (in German Zermalmer). 
• Fixed a crash in German. 
• Additional flavor text entries. 
• Influence Score renamed Sector Ownership Score. 

UI 

• Reduced icon noise on shipyard screen. 
• Specialty label renamed to Featured. 
• Planet screen text uses headers properly. Tested at all resolutions. 
• The Ship Design screen is better about using header fonts. 
• Shipyard updated to be clearer font wise. 
• Moved the citizen list so that it's no longer cut off with 2 rows on the planet screen.