The entire front-end UI has been rebuilt from the ground up. The new layout surfaces more information at a glance, cuts dead space, and brings a cleaner visual style throughout. A new Faction Selection screen gives you a breakdown of each faction's identity, special abilities, and units, including a live 3D Unit Preview Window where you can rotate and inspect any ship or structure, complete with any unlocked mesh upgrades. Single- and Multiplayer lobby windows have been refreshed, and the Random Map UI now lets you pick your star type and skybox before you ever hit launch. Player colors have also been expanded with a new set of team colors and sliders for saturation and brightness so you can dial in exactly the look you want.
In-Game Map Editor
Back by popular demand (literally), a simple, easy-to-use map editor is now built right into the game. Create a map, and it automatically imports to your local map listing. Later this year we'll add mod.io sharing so you can publish and browse community maps without ever leaving the client.
New Defense Platform Abilities
All three factions are getting new tools for their defensive lines:
TEC The Autocannon Defense Structure gains Flechette Blast, an arc-radius burst ability. The Gauss Defense Structure gains Meson Bolt, which debuffs target armor. The Hangar Defense Structure gains Enhanced Production to reduce strikecraft build times.
Advent The Beam Defense Structure gains Synergetic Ward, generating a protective AoE field. The Hangar Defense Structure gains Empowered Anima, boosting strikecraft weapons and shields. The Laser Defense Structure gains Psionic Burst, a penetrating beam attack that passes through targets. The Transcencia Starbase also gets two new items: Power Surge and Pulse Resonance.
Vasari The Missile Defense Structure gains Disruptor Nanites. The Pulse Defense Structure gains Phasic Trap.
Advent AI: Unity Ability Use
Advent AI players now have a dedicated controller for managing Unity abilities. Expect the AI to start using these strategically rather than sitting on them.
Lobby & Setup Improvements
You can now drag and drop player starting positions directly on the map preview screen, and map selection can be swapped from inside a multiplayer lobby. No more backing all the way out just to try a different map, and no more guessing where everyone spawns.
Performance & Engine Work
New game saves are now automatically compressed, reducing save file sizes by 70% or more. This update also includes a significant number of additional under-the-hood improvements: a reworked spatial grid system, optimized mesh and shader rendering, improved missile targeting precision, better unit formation handling, refactored visible object culling, and a long list of math, physics, and asset loading optimizations. The full list is in the changelog.
Vasari Balance
Several Vasari capital ships (Kortul Devastator, Skirantra Carrier, Vulkoras Desolator, Marauder, Jarrasul Evacuator) have had their resource costs increased. Ship Factory and Fleet Beacon costs have also been adjusted. A number of research items have moved tiers or had their effects tuned. See the full changelog for details.
Modding
v1.6 adds new constraint types, a new autocast type for long-range abilities (pick_unit_anywhere), research buff provider definitions, NOT constraint logic, and improved buff stacking limit support. Note: this update will break most mods until authors update them.
Release Status:*** AVAILABLE ***
Our April update contains a couple of big changes and an even larger number of under the hood improvements! Firstly, we have updated the entire front-end UI for the game. The new layout provides more information without having to scroll, eliminates dead space, and uses new visuals. Next, back by popular demand (literally) is a brand new, in-game map editor. The new editor is simple to use and even auto-imports your creations to the game’s listing. Last, not not least, there are dozens of improvements and optimizations to the game engine.
To Use Older Versions
On Steam
Select ‘Sins of a Solar Empire II’ in your Steam Library.
Click the gear icon in the upper right.
Select Properties → Game Versions & Betas
Select the version you want from the Beta Participation list.
Steam will update you to that version.
NOTE: Be aware that updates will break most mods until the mod author updates them.
We are aware of some overflow and alignment issues in some non-English languages. We’ll be hotfixing to clean these up.
Changelog v1.60.1 → v1.60.2
Gameplay
Updated AI behavior so that units will not attack scouts, trade or traffic ships unless they’re already in weapons' range. This also prevents units from chasing down low-value targets.
TEC
Increased Argonev’s Flak Field cooldown from 90 to 120 sec.
Increased Autocannon Defense structure’s Flechette Blast arc from 15 to 45 degrees.
Increased Gauss Defense structure’s Meson Bolt cooldown from 40 to 80 sec.
Advent
Laser Defense structure’s Kinetic Blast cooldown increased from 15 to 30 sec.
Added Phase Jamming Ability - passively increases phase charge time for enemy units in the gravity well.
Map Editor
Fixed bugs with random map generation in the new in-game editor.
Now uses proper game rules for generation.
NPC/Pirate planet placement is fixed.
Updated random map parameter options.
Added slider controls over text boxes.
Added zoom to map preview.
Added dropdown control for phase lane type in random maps.
UI
Refined faction selection window to improve localization overflow.
Added right-click option for faction quick-select.
Modding - Added the ability to add single-player faction screens.
Modding - Added six additional hidden categories to use on faction selection menu
Modding - Added manual references for units and structures in gui file
Changelog v1.55
Gameplay
NEW: In-game map editor! By popular request, we have added a simple, easy to use map editor inside the game. Generated maps will automatically be imported to your map listing locally. Later this year, we will add the ability to easily share custom maps from in-game via mod.io along with more improvements to the modding menu.
Starting positions can now be managed via the map preview. Just drag and drop the player icon.
NEW: Added new AI controller for Advent Unity ability use. Advent AI players will now strategically use Unity abilities.
NEW: Added one new ability for all Weapon Defense Platforms and Hangar Defense Platforms.
Players can now change map selection in the lobby in multiplayer games. No more having to exit out to pick a different map!
Improved ability active/passive autocast definitions to enhance state tracking. Autocast abilities should trigger more effectively.
Improved unit formation slot assignment and synchronization in fleet movement.
TEC
Autocannon Defense Structure
New Ability: Flechette Blast (direct damage in an arc radius)
Autocast No longer targets friendly units; added minimum target unit level (4) requirement; cannot be recast on the same target
Cost increased from 0/1680/1320 to 0/1950/1440
Jarrasul Evacuator Capital Ship
Gravity Warhead Ability
Can now target starbases capable of phase jumping.
Cost increased from 0/1680/1320 to 0/1950/1440
Ship Factory cost increased from 0/300/120 to 0/480/120
Fleet Beacon cost increased from 600/600/120 seconds to 900/720/150 seconds
Research Changes
Friendly Jump Telemetry research moved from Tier 2 to Tier 5
Sulsurak Blueprint research moved from Tier 1 to Tier 2
Junsurak Blueprint research moved from Tier 2 to Tier 1.
Mobile Resonance Capacitor Blueprint
Cost changed from 0/810/900, 525 seconds to 0/840/960, 600 seconds.
Resonance Mastery research moved from Tier 4 to Tier 5; now requires 1 quarnium.
Phase Resonance bonus duration increased from 120 to 240 seconds.
Atomic Engineering and Flawless Armor no longer provide mobility bonuses. These have been moved to Atomic Lattice Armor.
Phase Missile Predictors shield bypass chance increased from 20% to 24%
Phasic Strike Resonance bonus duration decreased from 120 to 60 seconds.
Visuals / UI
NEW: Front-end UI has been overhauled.
News window added which displays the most recent information about the game.
Faction selection screen added, which gives a breakdown of each faction, their special abilities, units and more.
Replaced all previous faction portraits with custom, 2D hand-painted versions. Also added a number of additional selections.
Unit Preview Window added to faction selection screen. Players can now view each 3D unit, rotate the camera, etc. including any mesh upgrades (e.g., starbases).
Updated Single- and Multiplayer lobby windows.
Updated random map UI/UX. Players can now select their star type and skybox.
Updated Settings window layout and options.
NEW: Added new Player Colors and customization options!
Players can now customize color saturation and brightness for each team color.
Added new aiming system for missile and projectile weapons. Missiles will now target aim zones instead of the unit center.
Projectile and beam weapons can now aim at any part of the target unit.
Improved unit selection box rendering.
Improved various UI elements:
Enhanced sizing and layout calculations (performance)
Improved text rendering with drop shadow support
Enhanced text entry input handling and validation
Improved item rendering and scrolling performance in list boxes
Improved window management and rendering
Misc
Improved spacial grid system to improve performance, query and update systems. Should improve overall game performance, camera movement and unit selection.
Improved physics data manager to improve calculation caching.
Added new system for missile targeting precision. Missiles should handle hitting fast-moving targets more accurately.
Improved state machine for ability usage tracking. Should improve queued ability behavior to process correctly.
New game saves are now automatically compressed to reduce file size. This change reduces save game file size by 70% or more.
Enhanced save file checksumming to better detect save files with errors.
Performance Related
Improved player mission tracking system.
Improved bookmark storage system.
Improved control group assignment and recall system.
Improved unit Item tracking with improved removal/addition logic.
Refactored visible object culling system. Should improve FPS dips when panning across populated systems.
Optimized entity definition load system with improved error validation.
Optimized mesh rendering system.
Improved self-shadowing volume computation.
Enhanced 3D primitive drawing.
Improved shader compilation and caching.
Enhanced video playback performance.
Improved multi-line text rendering.
Enhanced asset loading of UI elements with better error handling.
Improved various math and physics calculations/operations.
Fixed bug that prevented the sound system from resetting properly on mod unloading. This would cause assert/crashes on exit.
Improved Recorded Game Management
Added Delete All button for bulk removal
Added Open in File Explorer button for direct access. NOTE: For changes to be registered in Steam Cloud, the game must be running during any file operation.
Modding
Buff stacking limits now support more than one stacking limit type.
stacking_ownership_type and stacking_limit_met_behavior switch places in the data fields because we want different ownership types per limit, but only one limit_met_behavior.
If any limit is hit, then the stacking limit is considered reached
The old format is maintained for backwards compatibility with existing mods.
Added new constraint: has_missing_planet_health
Checks if planet unit is damaged
Added new constraint: is_channeling_ability
Checks if the unit is currently channeling
Added NOTconstraint. Inverts constraint logic with additional safeguards.
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