A preview of the v1.9.5.4 Change List

[Erik Rutins]

This build will be available as a public beta today, hopefully as an official update tomorrow.

This build has the following changes from 1.9.5.3:

CRASH FIXES
- fixed rare crash when determining object visibility for an empire

BUG FIXES
- fixed bug where loading a previously saved game was sometimes auto-switching to default theme, even when default theme was already loaded
- building pirate bases, fortresses and Criminal Network using the Facility dropdown list in the Colonies screen now properly assigns facility ownership to player pirate faction
- now ensure that cost for building pirate Criminal Network is always properly deducted
- now ensure that custom ship names (shipNames.txt) are used for new pirate ships built using the Build Order screen
- fixed bug where ship design images were being rotated when received a popup message about new ship type research breakthrough (e.g. Carriers)
- fixed bug where Robotic Troops (BattleBots from Robotic Troop Foundry) were not getting maintenance reduction bonuses when recruited from action button under Selection Panel

RESEARCH AND SHIP DESIGN
- AI ship designer now always adds sufficient reactors to ship designs (possibly more than one) to enable hyperdrive to operate at full speed
- AI ship designer now more willing to shrink new designs to fit within current construction size limits, especially when first obtain hyperdrive technology
- altered size of starting Colonization Module component (now 300 instead of 360, updated components.txt)
- NEW MODDING FEATURE: allow restricting any research project to specific races using the new ALLOWED RACES line in the research.txt file (updated header comments of research.txt explains)
- improved AI research pathing to better emphasize tech focuses from empire policy (ResearchDesignTechFocus1-6), while still researching other important techs
- increased research output for lab components by approximately 50% (components.txt and research.txt)

GAME BALANCE
- Shakturi now have faster construction and lower ship maintenance (updated Shakturi.txt race file)
- Shakturi ship design templates now use more weapons and other components (military ships, medium & large spaceports, defensive bases)
- Shakturi empire policy now builds more large military ships and less small military ships
- reputation gain from attacking pirates is now reduced by 50%
- Robotic Troops are now cheaper to maintain (25% of normal instead of 33%), and now twice as fast to recruit
- empires are now more willing to use excess cash on hand as factor when deciding whether to build new ships (e.g. low or negative cashflow, but large cash reserves on hand), especially when at war
- now much harder to perform intelligence missions against Ancient Guardians (steal maps, tech, etc)

OTHER
- no longer scrap and rebuild fighters after loading a saved game
- all sound effects (button clicks, etc) are now disabled when effect volume is set to zero in options screen
- savegame and settings folder location is now standardized to "My Documents\My Games\Distant Worlds Universe" (this remains the same across version updates)
- now send a message to an empire when one of their colonies is lost to a pirate faction that builds a Criminal Network there
- immediately update empire list in Diplomacy screen when trade Empire contact (can now immediately see new empire in list)

[Nanaki]

Hm... I was hoping to see a fix for counterespionage and some fixes for pirates...

[Dd_01]

- savegame and settings folder location is now standardized to "My Documents\My Games\Distant Worlds Universe" (this remains the same across version updates)

- now send a message to an empire when one of their colonies is lost to a pirate faction that builds a Criminal Network there

Ohhhhhh yeeeesssssss

[Erik Rutins]

We have to pick and choose every week, there's not enough time to hit every point unfortunately. Double-checking counterespionage is still on our list. What Pirate fixes are you looking for?

[Andy06r]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

We have to pick and choose every week, there's not enough time to hit every point unfortunately. Double-checking counterespionage is still on our list. What Pirate fixes are you looking for?

Probably a lofty goal, but I have some feedback

Is it intended behavior that pirate defense missions will attack private sector targets in the system? Makes it hard to use mercs for defense since you can't see if your trade partners have paid for protection.

Example - I was beset by five pirates and a merc answered a defense mission. The raids stopped, but the mercs killed all the traders from other empires.

It also costs 30,000 to defend a colony, but 1,000 to defend the spaceport in orbit.

[Nanaki]

Well, the ones I would probably consider high priority are:

- Counterespionage vs Sabotage
(Note: Not very fun to have a mining station/starport under construction blowing up every week...)
- Development bonus from multiple wonders on the same planet do not stack, it only seems to apply one and ignore the rest. Ruins are also affected by this as their development bonus is counted as a 'wonder'
- Smugglers will not repair if damaged, even if they are idling or docked with an owned spaceport
- Smugglers will not retrofit their ships, even if it is a massive improvement (early-game tech vs late-game tech) and the pirates have more than enough money to afford it
(Note: These are especially bad since you have no control over smugglers (you cannot even scrap them), and you still have to pay their maintenance costs)
- Empires will scan and attack smugglers that are providing resources that the empire requested
- Pirate-built wonders do not count towards the wonder cap. I built a Boskara highspeed shipyard as a pirate and roughly a few years after completion an empire built the same highspeed shipyard, even though I already had one fully built. Because of this pirates can also build multiple wonders of the same type, if they own multiple planets, can be big exploit
- Pirates do not gain any research bonus from research-oriented wonders
(Note: Likely due to the wonders providing the same locational research bonus as anamolies, which pirates cannot benefit from by design, this also makes the research bonus from anamolies completely worthless to research-oriented empires whom acquire the research wonders first, considering no locational-based anamoly will ever match or surpass the +50% bonus from wonders)
- Pirates do not gain any research bonus from scientist skills
- Most Race-wide modifiers do not work with pirates, I only confirmed two to work so far (Extra Intelligence Agents, Military/Civilian Ship Size modifier), rest do not function at all
(Note: This only gives you three viable choices for pirates, Ackdarian, Haakonish, and Ketarov)
- The Facility defense bonus provided by Smuggler/Mercenary pirate playstyles does not appear to do anything
(Note: I play as Smuggler, I watched a few of my pirate bases/fortresses get attacked and I only see the +50% Defender bonus)
- Pirates cannot change their Home Base, and cannot get a new Home Base if their initial one is destroyed
(Note: Important since pirates do not pay maintenance costs on their home base)

[Cauldyth]

Oooooh, lots of interesting goodies in there.

[necaradan666]

checking out nanaki's post looks like we could do with an entirely pirate focused patch.

[feelotraveller]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins
snip
- no longer scrap and rebuild fighters after loading a saved game
snip

That is so cool.

I'm hoping it will apply to savegames from older builds (1.9.5.2)?

[Mandras]

ORIGINAL: Nanaki


- Most Race-wide modifiers do not work with pirates, I only confirmed two to work so far (Extra Intelligence Agents, Military/Civilian Ship Size modifier), rest do not function at all
(Note: This only gives you three viable choices for pirates, Ackdarian, Haakonish, and Ketarov)

I just wanted to point out that racial troop strength still effects boarding pods, which are very useful for raiding, etc. Ackdarians have 44 strength from one pod whereas Ikkuro have 66. And trying to board anything with Ketarov would be very painful at 27 strength per pod. The Boskarans, Mortalens and Ikkuro have the highest troop strength I believe, so these would be the best raider types.

[Nanaki]

ORIGINAL: Mandras
I just wanted to point out that racial troop strength still effects boarding pods, which are very useful for raiding, etc. Ackdarians have 44 strength from one pod whereas Ikkuro have 66. And trying to board anything with Ketarov would be very painful at 27 strength per pod. The Boskarans, Mortalens and Ikkuro have the highest troop strength I believe, so these would be the best raider types.

Are you sure you are accounting for the pirate playstyle differences? Mercenary and Raider gets a +25% bonus to boarding pod strength while Smugglers get a -25% penalty to pod strength. When Pirate Bases/Fortresses get attacked, it seems to not matter weither you are Atuuk or Ikkuro, your troops are exactly the same strength. Also, the facility defense bonus given by Mercenary and Smuggler playstyles also seems to not function at all.

[pkoko]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

- increased research output for lab components by approximately 50% (components.txt and research.txt)

Why?? It is very easy to generate large research points. Whether the empire can actually preform the research is another matter because of the research cap.

[ASHBERY76]

I feel it should be harder to max out research and not easier.I do not see much strategy in that.

[Tcby]

The problem is that we can build enough labs to reach max capacity, but the AI does not. This way everyone is capable of having enough labs. For a human it amounts to clicking the > button a few less times when building designs...not a big deal. Definitely not a loss in strategic depth. I'd be surprised if anyone intentionally didn't build the right number of labs in the past.

[Cauldyth]

Yeah, when you can place as many research labs on your homeworld's starport as you want, there's never any difficulty in maxxing out research, even before this change.

[ekiller]

no longer scrap and rebuild fighters after loading a saved game

Any idea what was issue?

[Nanaki]

But you still had to pay more money and higher maintenance costs for those research labs... if anything it should have gone in the opposite direction, lower research output per lab in order to encourage more labs... Ofc, it still does not fix the problem of centralized labs being king but the required changes necessary would be a DW2 thing.

[Bingeling]

ORIGINAL: ekiller

no longer scrap and rebuild fighters after loading a saved game

Any idea what was issue?

When loading the game, all ships/bases with fighter would only start with half of its fighters present. They would of course rebuild them, but loading without fighters was incorrect.

[ekiller]

Ok, Thanks. I never noticed that.

[ChildServices]

Could you add a similar "allowed races" line to governments?