1.12.0 Changes List

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Changes List for 1.12.0.

This post includes bug fixes or minor changes. Any more significant changes will have their own post.

Changes

• Spacemaster can change flags, hull icons and race image for AI races on the Diplomacy window.
• Dust and Radiation Levels can be changed in the Modify Body window.
• Added button to Economics window to allow a change of capital population.
• Parasites are included on the Transported Items tabs for Fleets and Ships on the Naval Organization window.
• When new ground formation construction complexes are built, queued tasks will be added automatically.
• In v1.11, the AI will withdraw from systems that are alien-controlled and relations are neutral or better. For v.1.12, they will also withdraw from systems that are isolated due to the alien control.
• NPR ground forces will always use their active sensors.
• Missile fire controls with point defence modes set will launch AMMs without a specific 'Open Fire' order.
• Fighter-sized craft do not require cargo shuttles to load / unload colonists or cargo. Due to their size they can land and load/unload directly.

Fixes

• Popup menu no longer reappears with previous items when right-clicking on a blank location.
• Changing between Administrators and Naval Officers on the search function of the Commanders Window no longer causes incorrect text in the rank drop downs.
• Fixed auto-assign fire controls when there are more ECCM systems than fire controls.
• Beam weapons using Area PD can no longer fire multiple times within the same 5s tick.
• When Area PD hits targets, the location of the energy impacts are now shown correctly on the tactical map.
• Fixed occasional negative spare berths.
• Medals can no longer be saved without an image
• Deleting a medal now deletes any associated conditions. Otherwise they could still be awarded until the game is restarted.
• Fixed display for species on System View where the species' acceptable temperature range is in the triple digits.
• Fixed bug in order time and distance display for orders including Lagrange point jumps.
• SM: Fill Ship updates the display after adding missiles.
• Fixed occasional weird positioning of systems on Galactic Map
• Fixed AI estimate of hostile point defence strength (AI was firing in some situations when it was futile)
• Taking an action that results in a Fire Delay can no longer shorten an existing Fire Delay
• Fixed the 'Resurrecting Population' bug.
• Prevented New Game process being exited without using Create or Cancel
• Fixed bug where AI would continue to attempt to ram a ship that had left the system
• Fixed bug where you could add multiples of a 'single only' system by using x5, x20, etc.
• Added code to automatically remove ships from overhaul if 'no maintenance' is set.
• Warheads of second-stage missiles will now contribute to magazine explosions.
• It is no longer possible to queue ground force construction on a population without ground force construction complexes.
• Fixed bug that prevented ELINT working as passive sensor unless other passive sensors were present on the same ship.
• Fixed bug that prevented missiles from targeting shipyards.
• Prevented creation of colonies on gas giant on the Minerals window.
• Fixed SM Partial Refuel so it cannot exceed ship max fuel.
• Fixed problem that caused random shipyard task from any shipyard in game to be deleted when a slipway was destroyed.
• Fire control assignments will be cleared if a refit changes fire control components.
• Fixed the bug that reset underway replenishment to zero after closing and restarting game.
• Prevented SM random ruins being created on gas giants
• Prevented fighters of other races appearing as available for ground support.
• Fixed bug that caused ground formation elements with only inherent supply to fire at 1/4 rate.
• Fixed 'unload max items' bug for installations and minerals.
• Fixed problem with changes in capabilities during ground unit design affecting units created earlier. Workaround until 1.12 is to close window between units if changing capabilities.
• Fixed problem where passive sensor buoys can't detect anything unless an active missile or buoy sensor is also present in the same system.
• Fixed fuel consumption bug for tugs towing shipyards.
• Fixed errors in creation of missile projects while Create Component Project window is open.
• Fixed weird bug that happened when turret, create project and economics window were open together and resulted in wrong research project being linked to a new component.
• Fixed bug that caused intel modifier for ground combat to reset after game load.
• Fixed bug that prevented replenishment of inherent supply from parent formation.
• Fixed bug that prevented removal of missile point defence modes.
• Fixed 'Object reference' bug when gaining tech points to complete a non-active research project.
• Added code to prevent creation of comets with very small Orbital Distance to prevent a very rare but serious bug.
• Fixed display bug that showed wrong 'Refit Overhead' cost in Refit Details display.
• Ships with cargo shuttles can now load maintenance supply from a colony without needing a cargo shuttle station or a maintenance facility.
• A refit will adjust the amount of ordnance on a ship if the new design has insufficient capacity to hold them. Any excess ordnance will be offloaded to the population.
• Maintenance failures will only be checked against components that can fail, in order to avoid the maintenance explosion bug for carriers, fuel tankers, etc..
• Delete Empty Populations will not delete populations that have mineral stockpiles.
• Fixed bug that displayed 'Unknown Class' in wreck salvage event when salvaging own ships.
• You can no longer add spinal weapons of different types to the same design.
• Stations with 'No Armour' no longer function with a single armour layer in combat.
• In v.1.11, command and control systems are treated as a single tech line for disassembly, so CIC might give points for AUX. In v1.12, all C&C systems are treated individually.
• Fixed bug in Required Power field in Ship Design Display tab on Naval Organization window.
• Repairing a ship will now clear the damage control queue
• Deleting an admin command will now unassign any assigned commander.
• Fixed a bug where beginning an overhaul at a fleet (rather than a colony) caused the overhauling fleet to stop in space while the system body moved on.
• Fixed the moon-numbering bug for gas giants that also have Trojan asteroids.
• When choosing the "Scrap" options for a shipyard, you can no longer choose civilian ships
• Ground-based and buoy-based geological surveys now use the game-level survey speed modifier.
• Fixed a bug with scrapping that returned full wealth and minerals, plus components.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Earth Death Spiral

I've added a new disaster scenario where the Earth begins to slowly spiral into the Sun, with three available speeds of 0.01, 0.02 and 0.03 AU per year.

Temperature, year length, etc. will be adjusted as the distance to the Sun decreases.

When Earth moves within one million kilometres of the Sun, it is destroyed due to the tidal stresses. Any remaining populations will also be destroyed.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Occupation Strength and Police Modifiers

As a result of my current campaign, I've found two problems in the occupation and police code.

The first is that the Resistance Modifier of a population used for occupation or reducing unrest should be (Determination + Militancy + Xenophobia) / 300, but was actually Determination + Militancy + (Xenophobia / 300). Assuming all stats were 50, that meant the result would be 100.6 rather than the correct 0.5, creating a resistance modifier 200x higher than intended.

The second bug is that the occupation strength of ground units was far higher than intended. A ground element should have occupation strength of SQRT(Size) * Units * (Morale/100) * 0.01. However, I forgot the 0.01, so the actual occupation strength was 100x higher than intended. So the occupation strength bug countered half the effect of the resistance bug

For v1.12.0 the following formulae are used for occupation and police:

Occupation

• Required Occupation Strength = ((Determination + Militancy + Xenophobia) / 300) * Population Amount * Political Status Occupation Modifier.
• Political Status Occupation Modifier = Slave Colony 1.5, Conquered 1.0, Occupied 0.75, Subjugated 0.25, All Others 0
• Actual Occupation Strength is the sum of the individual element occupations strengths.
• Element Occupation Strength = (SQRT(Size) * Units * Morale) / 10000

Reduction in Unrest

• Police Strength = Actual Occupation Strength - Required Occupation Strength
• Effective Population Size = ((Determination + Militancy + Xenophobia) / 300) * Population Amount
• Police Modifier = Police Strength / Effective Population Size
• Unrest points are reduced by 100 * Police Modifier per year

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Change to Greenhouse Gas and Dust Mechanics

The new mechanics for the effect of greenhouses gases and dust on temperature are calculated using the following formulae:

Greenhouse Factor =  1 + (Atmospheric Pressure / 10) + Pressure of Greenhouse Gases
If Greenhouse Factor > 3 Then Greenhouse Factor = 3

Anti-Greenhouse Factor =  1 + (Dust Level / 20000) + Pressure of Anti-Greenhouse Gases
If Anti-Greenhouse Factor > 3 Then Anti-Greenhouse Factor = 3

Surface Temperature (K)  = (Base Temperature (K) * Greenhouse Factor * Albedo) / Anti-Greenhouse Factor

Note
This change was made because in v1.11, anti-greenhouse pressure is deducted from greenhouse gas pressure. However, this gives anti-greenhouse gas a potentially much greater impact than greenhouse gas. For example, assume a planet with no atmosphere to which is added 1 atm of anti-greenhouse gas. The calculation would be:

Greenhouse Factor = 1 + (1/10) -1 = 0.1

In other words, 1 atm of greenhouse gas would reduce the temperature to just 10% of the base temp. Adding 1.2 atm would reduce temp below 0K. The root cause of this problem is that temperature has a minimum value (0K) but no maximum. The new mechanics avoid this by making anti-greenhouse gases a divisor, rather than a subtraction. As dust is effectively a temporary anti-greenhouse gas, it makes sense to treat it as as such for the new mechanics. However, that doesn't mean that terraformers can remove dust.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Tactical Map Events

When Events are active on the Tactical Map, the first line will show the date and increment length, as per the Events Window. This will be shown even if there is no event in the increment.

Events on the Tactical Map will display the same text and background colours as on the Events Window.

Double-clicking an event on the tactical map will centre on the event in the same way as on the Events Window.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Move Fleet to Waypoint

You can already use SM mode to move a fleet instantly to any population.

v1.12 adds the option to use SM mode to move a fleet instantly to any rendezvous waypoint. Existing rendezvous waypoints are listed next to the populations on the Misc tab of the Naval Organization window. New ones can be created from the waypoint tab of the Tactical Map.

This gives a lot more flexibility to SM mode for initial setup or fixing problems.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Rakhas Generation Change

in V1.11, Rakhas need to be within a temperature band about a hundred degrees wide, some oxygen, no dangerous gases, available water, high accessibility minerals and no ruins. The chance of them appearing is based on a random number generated from 1-8. If that is higher than total accessibility, with Duranium counting double, they are generated.

That is proving to be a very difficult combination. Mainly because a lot of accessible minerals don't tend to appear on planets that meet the other requirements and water is often not present.

For v1.12, I am dropping the requirements for water, no dangerous gas and high mineral accessibility. Instead, if the planet meets the other requirements and there is at least one mineral present, there is a 30% chance Rakhas will be present (I may add this as a game parameter). The total mineral accessibility will determine the size of their forces.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

New 'Load All Minerals Until Full' Move Order

I've added a new movement order called 'Load All Minerals Until Full'. This is exactly the same as the Load All Minerals order except that the same order will remain until the fleet's cargo capacity is full. Reserve levels will be observed for this order.

In mechanics terms, when the loading timer runs down to zero the order is completed if the cargo capacity is full. If not, the fleet movement ends for the sub-pulse and the loading clock is reset. The cycle repeats until the cargo holds are full.

This will allow players to set up freighter runs to bring minerals from outlying colonies without micromanagement or fuel waste.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

New 'Pickup Nearest Lifepod' standing order

Fleets can be assigned 'Pickup Nearest Lifepod' as a standing order. This will apply to any lifepods in the same system as the fleet.

Different fleets will coordinate their pickups, so that two fleets do not attempt to pickup the same lifepod.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Assign New Labs

An 'Assign New' button has been added to the Research tab of the Economics window. This is used to toggle an 'Assign New' status to one or more research projects, indicated by (N) after the project name.

When new research facilities are constructed, or become available through completion of other projects that do not have associated queued projects, those facilities will automatically be assigned to projects flagged as 'Assign New' in descending order of existing facilities. Each project in the list will be assigned available facilities until it reaches maximum, then any remaining available facilities will go to the next project in the list, etc.

When research facilities are removed from a population and the number of assigned facilities has to be reduced, they will be taken first from research projects without the 'Assign New' flag. You can toggle 'Assign New' for projects that already have maximum facilities for this purpose.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Deployment Exceeded Condition

A new 'Deployment Exceeded' condition has been added. It will trigger the associated conditional order as soon as a ship exceeds the planned deployment for its class.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Repeat Orders X Times

I've added a small text box next to the Repeat Orders button. Whatever number is in the box is the number of times the orders will repeat, with 1 being the default. 0 or negative numbers will be treated as 1.

For example, if you type 3 in the box, the orders will happen four times; the original orders plus three repeats.

As with all repeat orders, they have to start and finish in the same system to be valid.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

New Conditional Order: Refuel, Resupply and Overhaul

I've added a new conditional order named 'Refuel, Resupply and Overhaul'.

If the associated condition is met, the fleet will be given an Refuel and Resupply order followed by an Overhaul order, with both issued for the population at which the overhaul will take place. The destination check is only made for the existence of sufficient maintenance capacity, not the presence of fuel and supplies. This is to avoid a situation where running out of fuel will prevent conditional overhauls taking place.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Cycle Previous Locations

In v1.12, Aurora keeps track every time the system map is centred. This can be because you clicked on something, used the 'Centre On' options for fleets and mineral search or double-clicked an event related to the map. The locations are tracked in the order in which they were selected.

You can use Alt-F11 and Alt-F12 to cycle back and forth through the list of all centred locations since the game was loaded. This works across all systems. Every time you change locations in this way, the location you move to will be the 'current location'

If the map is centred again for any reason other than cycling through the list, everything in the list after the 'current location' is lost and the new location is added after the 'current location'. The new location will then become the current location. This is to ensure the list stays relevant to your current activity and doesn't get too long to be useful.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Automated Assignment for Colony Governors

Assignment of colony governors has always been manual, due to the difficulty in knowing a players intentions for a given colony. For v1.12, I've added the option for players to specify what type of commander they need for a colony and then let auto-assignment handle the selection. A new Governor tab on the economics window shows details of the current colony governor and provides options for selected. The options work as follows:

• Automated Assignment Checkbox: Toggles automated assignment for the specific colony, which has two effects. Firstly, if no governor is assigned, the colony will undergo automated assignment checks during the construction phase. Secondly, if the current governor increases their admin rating, they will be unassigned. They may also be immediately reassigned, but this allows the auto-assignment code to check for higher priority assignments for that administrator first.
• Colony Importance: When automated assignment takes place, colonies are checked in descending order of importance.
• Required Bonus: A potential governor must have this bonus to be assigned to the colony.
• Secondary/Tertiary Bonus: Governors with the Required Bonus are ranked based on descending value of the required bonus, then by descending value of the secondary bonus, then by descending value of the tertiary bonus. The secondary and tertiary bonuses are not required for an administrator to be assigned. They are used for ranking purposes only.
• Assign Colony Governor: Clicking this button removes the current governor and then assigns the highest ranked available candidate, which may result in re-assignment of the current governor.
• Assign Governor Vacancies: Checks every colony without a governor in descending order of importance and and assigns the best candidate. This is effectively a manual triggering of the construction phase auto-assignment.
• Reassign All Colony Governors: Removes all existing governors then checks every colony in descending order of importance and and assigns the best candidate to each.

I think that manual assignment will still be the best option for important colonies, but the above should significantly reduce micromanagement in governor assignment.