v2.0.0 Changes List (also known as v1.14.0)

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Water without Atmosphere

In v1.13, a body generated without atmosphere will automatically be generated without water.

For v2.0, a body without atmosphere has a 20% of an ice sheet if the temperature is 223K (-50C) or less and has gravity of at least 0.1G.

If an ice sheet is present, the hydro extent will be generated normally.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Terraforming Installations

Ground-based Terraforming Installations have several disadvantages over the space-based Terraforming Modules.

• They are more expensive, at 600 BP vs 500 BP.
• They require 250,000 population to operate and that population will require support from infrastructure.
• They are 5x larger

I considered making space-based terraformers more expensive or larger but I am happy with them in general, so I have decided to make the following changes to the ground-based Terraforming Installations:

• Cost is reduced from 600 BP to 300 BP
• Required Population is reduced from 250k to 125k
• Transport size is reduced from 125,000 CP to 75,000 CP.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Stockpile Transfers

v2.0 adds new 'Transfer Comp' and 'Transfer Missile' buttons to the GU/Stockpile tab of the Economics window. Both function in a similar way.

If you select either a component type or ordnance type from the stockpile and click the corresponding button, there is a popup window listing every other population on the same body, including known alien populations, and the available amount of the component or ordnance type. You select a destination population and the amount to transfer and click OK to make the transfer. There is also a Cancel option.

The populations are listed with Population Name, Population Race (using alien race name where needed) and Population Species, which allows differentiation between different target populations.

If the amount is altered to zero or less, no transfer takes place. If the amount is altered to an amount greater than the available amount, then the available amount is used.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Class Design Highlighting

On the treeview for the components contained within a class, any obsolete components will be displayed in orange. Components for which the parent race has no research data, usually alien in origin, will be displayed in red.

Obsolete components in the Race Components list will also be highlighted in orange (which can only happen if the Obsolete checkbox is checked).

A new checkbox called Obsolete Comp has been added below the class treeview. When this is checked, any classes that contain obsolete components will be displayed in orange. Any class containing non-researched components will be displayed in red. I've included a checkbox option in this case because most classes are likely to be in this category in a longer game.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

AI Threat Assessment Changes

The AI in C# Aurora makes an assessment of the threat presented by each hostile ship and uses that threat level in decision-making. This is partly based on Tactical Intelligence information and partly filled in by using factors such as engine type, size, speed, etc.

Currently, the AI is giving too much weight to the high speed of small craft such as fighters when considering their threat level, so I have made adjustments in that area.

I've also added an AI ability to make assessments about whether a hostile ship may still be in jump shock (time since transit, whether it has fired since transit, etc.) and to reduce threat considerably if that is a positive assessment. This should improve the AI reaction to jump assaults.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Hostility Modifier

A new Hostility Modifier option has been added to the Game Options.

Whatever number is chosen (default zero) will be added to the Xenophobia and Militancy attributes of each NPR and deducted from their Diplomacy and Trade attributes. The minimum and maximum attribute values are 1 and 100.

If an NPR has Xenophobia of 100, it will automatically assign any other race as hostile and make no attempt to communicate.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Black Holes

Black holes have been added to v2.0

These are 'normal' black holes, rather than the more dramatic VB6 black holes, and do not affect the movement of ships. There are fifteen types, ranging in mass from 1 to 120 solar masses. All black holes are planetless.

In a random stars game, they have a 1.5% chance of being generated and may have one or more companion stars.

In a real stars game, eighty random black holes are generated and added to the Known Stars list (currently 4417 stars). Their location is based on random XYZ coordinates with a range of plus or minus one hundred light years. They do not have companion stars, with the rationale being that these are currently undetected black holes.

Black holes with a mass of 20 or more gain a fixed number of additional jump points, with that number depending on mass. This is in addition to the higher chance of jump points associated with massive stars.

Their main game impact will be the creation of systems that are hard to survey but generally have more jump points.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Mass Modifier for Jump Points

The distance from the system primary to the outer ring of survey locations and the number of points to survey each location is modified by the mass of the system primary. The maximum distance for a jump point is the same as the outer ring.

In v1.13, this modifier is the square root of the primary mass in solar masses. Sol is the basis, with 400 points per location and 40 AU (6b km) as the max distance of the outer ring of survey locations.

For example, a star like Altair, with 3.1 solar masses, would require 704 points per location with a max jump point distance of 70 AU. Ras Alhague with nine point six solar masses would be 1239 points and 123 AU, while Rigel, at 21 solar masses would be 1833 points and 183 AU.

For v2.0, this modifier is changing to the cube root for any stars greater than one solar mass. For example, Altair will now be 583 points and 58 AU, Ras Alhague will be 850 points and 85 AU (18.6b km) and Rigel will be 1103 point and 110 AU.

This is to make very large systems easier to survey, although still a considerable effort.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Cloaks and Combat

This is more of a bug-fix, but I thought it was worth mentioning separately.

In v1.13, a ship with a cloak is always treated as having the cloaked cross-section, even if the cloak is damaged. For v2.0, the current state of the cloak will be taken into account, so the cross-section will change to normal for detection and combat purposes if the cloak is damaged

I also fixed a bug that allowed missile fire controls to lock on to a cloaked ship using the full cross-section, rather than the cloaked cross-section

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Wealth History

I've added a new section to the Wealth/Trade tab of the Economics window. This shows the wealth balance in each previous construction phase (with the current phase at the top).

The new table includes the date and length of the construction phase, the amount of wealth at that point, the total change in wealth since the previous increment and the daily rate of change (as different increments are different lengths).

This replaces the wealth change amount in the title bar, which was unreliable anyway.