2.94 Key Features Optimized Galaxy Map Generation Galaxy Maps are more optimized for player placement and player turn time. Gameplay Balance Improvements. We have updated citizen specialties, combat, ship hulls, and resources to make for a more enjoyable experience. UI Screen Refinement We enhanced the player UI by fixing bugs on the Planetary Improvement Screen, Shipyard Screen and Ship Designer Screen. January 23rd, 2025 Change Log AI AI prioritizes culture techs more Genius AI bonuses reduced from 33% warfare buff to 25%. Fixed stuck turn issue when AI tries to build a Starbase on top of one of its rally points Art Updated Battle Arenas Replaced old Earth Image Updated missing ship designer thumbnails Fixed low resolution “The Criminals Syndicate” event image Updated Minor Race and Hostile Entry sliders Updated ship materials, lighting and textures Fixed thumbnail for Drengin Worker ships Crash Fixes Fixed a game crash where the AI is looking for wars that don't exist. “Secret Policy Crime” reduction changed from eliminating all crime on colonies to reducing crime by 3% Gameplay Citizen Specialty Rework Populations provide a percentage buff to Research and Manufacturing “Minister of Justice” crime reduction reduced slightly “Atmospheric Scrubbers” only available to Amphibious races now Prisons are available earlier in the tech tree Citizens and their specializations now provide a multiplier bonus rather than a flat bonus Colonies Colony Capitals now provide a flat wealth reward instead of a percentage when leveled up Farm Level’s effect on food production is increased from 5% to 10% Taxation makes citizens more angry Prison cost is reduced from 5 to 1 Duranitum Corrosive worlds can potentially be colonized “Colonial Law" and “Policy Crime” reduction on planets reduced from -0.1 to -0.03 Combat Weapon ranges slightly increased Missiles now get an additional shot and give +1 more damage Armor Degradation restored to 5% per turn “Fighter Module Evasion” fixed to be flat instead of a multiplier Diplomacy Players can trade Colonies and Starbases with each other in the Trade Screen The AI will now ignore certain diplomatic conditions if other diplomatic conditions are in place Missions Fixed bug where players are unable to complete “A Distant Signal” in “The Opportunity” mission Updated “The Opportunity” mission to use “Space War Tactics” Research “Aid Research” project now available as soon as the “Tech Capital” is built “Subspace Scanning” moved behind “Artificial Gravity” in the tech tree Tech costs now go up slightly faster Fixed bug where “Cybnetic Ability” couldn't get the “Regenerative Gels” tech “Nanite Repair Cloud” repairs per round reduced from 10% to 2% Fixed bug where the tech tree does not show up correctly when loading an older save Balance update for Starbase Relic bonuses from being harvested Resources Buying and selling resources is much more market driven than before Luxury resources have been made much rarer and more valuable Bombarded worlds are much more likely to have luxury resources Ship Hull Medium ships space increased from 32 to 36 Large ship space increased from 60 to 80 Huge ship space increased from 100 to 200 Cargo ship space increased from 20 to 30 Fixed bug where engine components weren't considering the mass of the ship as part of their space requirement Orbitals Orbitals have been added behind a tech Made Orbital icons smaller Changed “Logistics Network” Orbital Icon Victory Conditions Adjusted Prestige Victory to make it more difficult to achieve Localization Fixed formatting and translation issues for all available languages Map Generation Update the Auto-Explore system to be much faster, more intelligent and focus on Stars exploration Increased the size of the largest single sector map Planets will spawn more consistently with their spawn type Maps spawn more stars than before Abundant habitable planet spawn setting spawns more habitable planets Max habitable planet cap is increased Blackholes, in general, are slightly more common Fixed a crash that occurs when a game has a lot of players, and the players are set in close proximity on a very large map Distant player setting will attempt to evenly spread-out players amongst sectors FOW Refresh System New caching system has been created for FOW that drastically reduced late game turn times on large maps FOW is more optimized for turn systems, modifier systems, fleet systems and waypoint systems Fixed the issue where the FOW will do a full refresh for its own objects, effecting late game performance FOW no longer updates in real-time when an AI moves its ships Player Placement Player placement will now attempt to put players mostly on their own in their own sector if the player chooses "very far" on the setting and there are multiple sectors Players placed in the same sector will be separated by distance based the player distance settings AI Players are no longer clumped together in a single sector if there are other sectors Starting locations are fairer for each player based on the player settings Player placement in maps is now faster and place players in satisfying and different locations Multiplayer Fix bug when players try to leave a finished multiplayer game it will not allow them to return to the main menu Fixed early desync when players attempt to mine with an asteroid ship Optimization Decreased the time it takes to load a saved game Improved save game load speed Reduction in the late game frequency of AI ship designs Tutorial If a game is already in progress the first-time tutorial screen will no longer appear UI Fixed bug where the Diplomats wrongly reported they were providing a bonus to diplomacy in UI Cultural Points are displayed in the Resource Bar Fixed Report Button to bring up the Fleet Details screen Fixed Tiny UI scaling issues Planet Screen Added in planetary improvement filters District list is smaller Ship Designer Screen Ship Designer is updated to guarantee a ship is being designed for the player Shipyard Screen Fixed text clipping bug for items in the build queue Removed redundant "available projects" text in the Shipyard list Obsolete and Favorite buttons easier to click Resizing UI to make the list of ships cleaner Fixed bug when Shipyard displays “N/A” for the owner after invading another planet Build list in Shipyard properly fades out Megastructures DLC AI Fixed AI from investing too much Gigamass into non-Megastructures Architect Improved Architect construction effects Fixed bug when building a Megastructure in a fleet, ships will still build if the architect had been ejected from the fleet Art Updated Megastructure Materials and Orbitals Minor Civilization Ringworlder quest is much less common Resources Gas Giant Gigamass increased from 2 to 5 Gigamass techs are more expensive Some ship components now use Energy instead of Gigamass Balanced energy generation to Gigamass cost for Solar Farms and Dyson Spheres Ship Components New ship components moved to be later in the tech tree New ship components are not automatically designed by the AI for the player anymore Stellar Gateways Toggle button is properly disabled when a Megastructure is under construction Added correct icons for decommissioning a Stellar Gateway UI Added “This Planet Has No Gigamass” text when a dead world has no Gigamass
Optimized Galaxy Map Generation Galaxy Maps are more optimized for player placement and player turn time.
Gameplay Balance Improvements. We have updated citizen specialties, combat, ship hulls, and resources to make for a more enjoyable experience.
UI Screen Refinement We enhanced the player UI by fixing bugs on the Planetary Improvement Screen, Shipyard Screen and Ship Designer Screen.
AI prioritizes culture techs more
Genius AI bonuses reduced from 33% warfare buff to 25%.
Fixed stuck turn issue when AI tries to build a Starbase on top of one of its rally points
Updated Battle Arenas
Replaced old Earth Image
Updated missing ship designer thumbnails
Fixed low resolution “The Criminals Syndicate” event image
Updated Minor Race and Hostile Entry sliders
Updated ship materials, lighting and textures
Fixed thumbnail for Drengin Worker ships
Fixed a game crash where the AI is looking for wars that don't exist.
“Secret Policy Crime” reduction changed from eliminating all crime on colonies to reducing crime by 3%
Citizen Specialty Rework
Populations provide a percentage buff to Research and Manufacturing
“Minister of Justice” crime reduction reduced slightly
“Atmospheric Scrubbers” only available to Amphibious races now
Prisons are available earlier in the tech tree
Citizens and their specializations now provide a multiplier bonus rather than a flat bonus
Colony Capitals now provide a flat wealth reward instead of a percentage when leveled up
Farm Level’s effect on food production is increased from 5% to 10%
Taxation makes citizens more angry
Prison cost is reduced from 5 to 1 Duranitum
Corrosive worlds can potentially be colonized
“Colonial Law" and “Policy Crime” reduction on planets reduced from -0.1 to -0.03
Weapon ranges slightly increased
Missiles now get an additional shot and give +1 more damage
Armor Degradation restored to 5% per turn
“Fighter Module Evasion” fixed to be flat instead of a multiplier
Players can trade Colonies and Starbases with each other in the Trade Screen
The AI will now ignore certain diplomatic conditions if other diplomatic conditions are in place
Fixed bug where players are unable to complete “A Distant Signal” in “The Opportunity” mission
Updated “The Opportunity” mission to use “Space War Tactics”
“Aid Research” project now available as soon as the “Tech Capital” is built
“Subspace Scanning” moved behind “Artificial Gravity” in the tech tree
Tech costs now go up slightly faster
Fixed bug where “Cybnetic Ability” couldn't get the “Regenerative Gels” tech
“Nanite Repair Cloud” repairs per round reduced from 10% to 2%
Fixed bug where the tech tree does not show up correctly when loading an older save
Balance update for Starbase Relic bonuses from being harvested
Buying and selling resources is much more market driven than before
Luxury resources have been made much rarer and more valuable
Bombarded worlds are much more likely to have luxury resources
Medium ships space increased from 32 to 36
Large ship space increased from 60 to 80
Huge ship space increased from 100 to 200
Cargo ship space increased from 20 to 30
Fixed bug where engine components weren't considering the mass of the ship as part of their space requirement
Orbitals have been added behind a tech
Made Orbital icons smaller
Changed “Logistics Network” Orbital Icon
Adjusted Prestige Victory to make it more difficult to achieve
Fixed formatting and translation issues for all available languages
Update the Auto-Explore system to be much faster, more intelligent and focus on Stars exploration
Increased the size of the largest single sector map
Planets will spawn more consistently with their spawn type
Maps spawn more stars than before
Abundant habitable planet spawn setting spawns more habitable planets
Max habitable planet cap is increased
Blackholes, in general, are slightly more common
Fixed a crash that occurs when a game has a lot of players, and the players are set in close proximity on a very large map
Distant player setting will attempt to evenly spread-out players amongst sectors
New caching system has been created for FOW that drastically reduced late game turn times on large maps
FOW is more optimized for turn systems, modifier systems, fleet systems and waypoint systems
Fixed the issue where the FOW will do a full refresh for its own objects, effecting late game performance
FOW no longer updates in real-time when an AI moves its ships
Player placement will now attempt to put players mostly on their own in their own sector if the player chooses "very far" on the setting and there are multiple sectors
Players placed in the same sector will be separated by distance based the player distance settings
AI Players are no longer clumped together in a single sector if there are other sectors
Starting locations are fairer for each player based on the player settings
Player placement in maps is now faster and place players in satisfying and different locations
Fix bug when players try to leave a finished multiplayer game it will not allow them to return to the main menu
Fixed early desync when players attempt to mine with an asteroid ship
Decreased the time it takes to load a saved game
Improved save game load speed
Reduction in the late game frequency of AI ship designs
If a game is already in progress the first-time tutorial screen will no longer appear
Fixed bug where the Diplomats wrongly reported they were providing a bonus to diplomacy in UI
Cultural Points are displayed in the Resource Bar
Fixed Report Button to bring up the Fleet Details screen
Fixed Tiny UI scaling issues
Added in planetary improvement filters
District list is smaller
Ship Designer is updated to guarantee a ship is being designed for the player
Fixed text clipping bug for items in the build queue
Removed redundant "available projects" text in the Shipyard list
Obsolete and Favorite buttons easier to click
Resizing UI to make the list of ships cleaner
Fixed bug when Shipyard displays “N/A” for the owner after invading another planet
Build list in Shipyard properly fades out
Fixed AI from investing too much Gigamass into non-Megastructures
Improved Architect construction effects
Fixed bug when building a Megastructure in a fleet, ships will still build if the architect had been ejected from the fleet
Updated Megastructure Materials and Orbitals
Ringworlder quest is much less common
Gas Giant Gigamass increased from 2 to 5
Gigamass techs are more expensive
Some ship components now use Energy instead of Gigamass
Balanced energy generation to Gigamass cost for Solar Farms and Dyson Spheres
New ship components moved to be later in the tech tree
New ship components are not automatically designed by the AI for the player anymore
Toggle button is properly disabled when a Megastructure is under construction
Added correct icons for decommissioning a Stellar Gateway
Added “This Planet Has No Gigamass” text when a dead world has no Gigamass
I started several new games with my custom Civ and 1 with the Terrans just as a double check. Each game has every citizen (not just criminals) contributing 1.5% to crime, 3% for my Civ, plus an additional 3% for Criminal trait. Not sure where that Criminal trait is coming from - nothing I picked it setting up my custom Civ says anything about crime and it's linked to the Terrans also. That's a starting point of 11-14% crime. I hate having to give up one or more of my hexes to crime maintenance and really hate using one of my "way too valuable" orbitals for a prison. On top of that you nerfed:
If this is all a big coding error please fix asap. If it's your new vision for the updated game, please - please, rethink it. At least back off on the population impact of every citizen contributing.
(plus, an additional 3% for Criminal trait) Check your pops you will find that for each "Criminal trait" one of your pops will be a Criminal.
As far as I know each and every one of these changes is WAD as the "Powers That Be" and others thought crime penalties were a joke as they stood because crime could be almost totally removed just by the Justice Minister.
gypsy2299 - I figured as much. I've voiced my opinion about the crime mechanic in this game several times before. I don't buy Space 4X games to play whack-a-mole with criminals. The Gigamass DLC was a big win for me, but they need to take this down a couple of notches because IMHO it takes the FUN out of the game.
We are in complete agreement here.
Why I turn off the hostiles.
Monsters ect
Why I turn off the hostiles.Monsters ect
I do the same. Maybe Draver can come up with a Mod to turn off the Criminal Trait. And every citizen shouldn't be boosting crime by 1.5%! I run my home planet & Ringworlds with 20 Pop. What's the point of large pops if everyone is a criminal?
Only 48 turns into game and look at the mess crime is making. I don't mind different mechanics to make the game interesting, but this is not my idea of fun guys. I shouldn't have to worry about crime more than the real focus of the game - 4X!!!
I believe Draver has done one
I'd noticed that when I unlock the fighter and bomber, for some reason I have kinetic fighter and missile bomber, but no energy fighter. Not sure why all the base designs aren't unlocking
Hey, thanks for your feedback on crime. Afaik, crime was previously reported to barely exist, due to some policies and techs countering it. So this is a balance change based on that feedback. I see how this may be a not welcomed surprise for such a veteran player like you. If you do not want to search for new strategies to combat crime, I think it should be possible to mod in crime reduction pretty easily.
Mostly it's because I don't think it belongs in the game! There are so many more interesting things you could be enhancing, like all the wonderful new bells & whistles you added with Megastructures.
BTW - I try to play without Mods so that I know any strange occurrences I report come from the basic game itself.
Very much appreciated! Your feedback is always extra helpful!
The criminal trait has been in a game since GC4 Epic I believe. For sure since supernova. You've always gotten 3% crime per colony. However, it's been fully negated through many techs like the Colonial law and policy that reduced crime from colonies by 10. Which was overkill since colonies only only generated about 3 to 6 crime + extra from some of the factions or other abilites.
New in patch 2.94- Citizens now generate 1.5 crime per citizens. So a ring world with 20 pops will have 30% crime.
- Colonial wealth and policy used changed from reducing crime by 3% to - Minister of Justice was giving 1% crime reduction per diligence to .01%. But it means if you can get 30 digilience minister and colonial law and policy you'll get negate most of the effects of crime. Even a 10 diligience minister would reduce it by quite a bit.
Mechanics that have been in the game prior to 2.94 that still apply
- Crime reduces wealth by up to 100%.
- It's additive so even with a 500 wealth% from improvements you will still get 400% wealth.
-Criminals do not suffer from approval penalties from crime so you can transport all the criminals to manufacturing world if you don't want to build prisons.
- the higher the crime on the planet the higher chance for more criminals. - you can always imprision them after turn 24 and they will convert to ex-convicts. I generally dont worry about this but its possible if you want to keep crime low. I generally just ship them off world. - crime is part of Xeloxis game mechanics and even they could get to a point they could ignore it. They can push crime on others. All their citizens are also criminals. You can still make tons of credits per turn playing them as I mentioned its additive.- different races have
- There is traits that also reduce crime from criminals. Such as Traditionalism Social Ties. Although will have to confirm its working.
- There are many other methods of handling it that have been in the game to so for most players it will eventually be a non issue. - Crime creates a minor approval penalty however the approval district was greatly buffed.
Oh one thing to mention too. There are a few crime reductions that worked prior to 2.94 that are not working now. These include some events, leader traits, etc...
The thing that I really don't like about it, and which is made worse by the "high crime produces more criminals" snowball effect, is that it forces - or at least pushes you very heavily - to have to micro your citizens and check every new one for whether they're a criminal and then deal with them (in whatever fashion). No other trait does that.
Between the management hassle it adds and the fact that it's kind of redundant with the new crime rate per citizen mechanic, I'd really like to see that trait axed entirely.
The criminal trait has been in the game since Xeloxi were added. Its worked basically the same way since day 1. There is an urge to make all good numbers go up and make bad numbers go 0. You really dont need to micro your citizens just leave them as criminals. The largest source of crime is still colonies. There is a minor increase from poplation and is lowered through many methods. Crime has two effects- Approval reduction for non criminals. If your at 96% approval this doesn't matter. The approval district was also increased in potency. This only matters for research and production worlds
- reduces wealth which only matters for wealth worlds. Put your prisons on these worlds. You can also build financial districts to offset it
FWIW, I agree with others here that the change went a bit too far on crime. Granted in the past it wasn't an issue (at all) once you got your minister of justice in place, so it might have been too mild before. But now it's too much. Even with a minister and the planetary orbital improvement on your core that lowers crime 20, I'm getting > 40 crime with few ways to mitigate it. You can build the prison complex improvement, yes, but even then it wouldn't be enough - is it something you just have to live with? Big core planets are always inefficient from corruption? I'm not one of those people but I'd think it stops you from "playing tall" or having cores with a lot of satellites (the way I prefer to play).
Otherwise, if it isn't backed down some, I think there needs to be a few more ways to deal with it. Even just a couple new anti-crime buildings that would give adjacency bonuses might be enough - I can live with losing 3 tiles better than just living with crime-riddled core planets (especially if, like housing, they give a +1 to all adjacency bonus - consider it a "cheap prison workforce"). This might have been the thinking with the random event (that pops for meat least 3-5 times per game) that gives you a choice of lowering crime 5% or taking a handful precursor nanites, but I need them nanites fer my core taps Also, I know you can put them in jail, but 24 turns of non-productive citizen? How about a tech called "cyber-lobotomy" that lowers crime and removes the attribute but at that point they can only work as either workers or entertainers (hah!)
Best regards.
I think the module changes weren't for the better. Paying a little giga mass is better than a constant energy upkeep per dreadnaught.
I humbly disagree with your opinion. There are several ways to create more energy but Gigamass is a limited resource, once it's gone you can't get it back.
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