Version 6.30

All the various updates for v6.30 are listed bellow:

General

Added four new buttons to the Task Groups window. Active On and Active Off turn active sensors on/off for the whole task group. GRV and GEO, which are small buttons next to the Default, Conditional or Escort orders section on the 1st tab will set default orders for the fleet of Survey Nearest Survey Location and Survey Next Five System Bodies respectively (without having to go to tab 2 and select them from a list).

The cargo field on the 1st tab of the task groups window now shows the current and maximum fuel of the fleet in litres.

When one ship destroys another, the kill is recorded in the ship history and in the history of the ship commander. Both ships and commanders will maintain running totals for the tonnage of military and commercial ships they have destroyed. The ship that made a kill is also included in the events log.

Minimum Contact Range

For resolution 1 sensors, I have added an extra item to the summary for the sensor. MCR shows the range at which this sensor will detect a contact of minimum size (Size 6 missile or less).

Missile Detection Sensor (1)     GPS 189     Range 20.8m km    MCR 2.3m km    Resolution 1

Automatic Lagrange Point Jumps

There is now an option on the Fleet window for Lagrange Point jumps to be added automatically when they result in a shorter distance than moving directly to the destination. Default for this is On.

For example, if you plot an order to drop off some colonists on a planet, Aurora will check if the distance can be shortened by inserting an LP jump before the drop off order. If you plot a pickup, then several transits and then a drop-off, Aurora will check at each stage whether inserting LP jumps will shorten the individual legs. This saves time and effort because you won't need to work out the shortest route and add the extra orders.

Correct Alien Class Names

At the moment you see the correct alien class name if you have friendly or allied relations with the alien race, or if you share the same homeworld. In v6.30 you can override this and automatically see the correct class names for a specific alien race. Useful for situations such as multi-race starts in the same system :). You probably wouldn't want to use this normally though as it might give away information on Precursors, etc.

Having the correct alien class names option on will also provide you with the correct alien ship names. So if you are playing USA and there is a Russian race for which you have activated this option, you will see actual class name and ship names of all Russian contacts. That still won't tell anything other than the name though - you won't know the capabilities of that class.

There is a new button on the Tactical Intelligence window that allows you to replace all alien class and ship names with the correct names. Useful for same system starts or if you establish friendly relations. It can be used at player discretion for those types of situation - or you can continue to use the current fog-of-war for non-friendly races.

Removal of Precusor Minefields

Precursor Minefields are causing a lot of interrupts. This is usually because they have not been detected by the player and are causing interrupts every time a player ship enters the system in which they are located. I've removed them for v6.30 and it has resulted in a significant reduction in interrupts.

Shock Damage

Ships may now suffer Shock Damage as a result of hostile weapon fire (either energy weapons or missile warheads). A percentile roll is made after any non-shield damage. If the roll is less than Damage^1.3 (rounded down), there is the potential for shock damage. The damage inflicted is equal to: (Damage / 3) * Random Percentage. The result is rounded down to the nearest integer, so it may still result in zero damage

So the base chance of inflcting at least 1 point of shock damage for different amounts of non-shield damage is as follows:

1: 0% 2: 0% 3: 0.03% 4: 1.25% 5: 2.8% 6: 4.5% 7: 6.3% 8: 8.1% 9: 10.7% 10: 12.6% 12: 18.0% 16: 28.4% 20: 40.1% 24: 53.4% 30: 73.8% 36: 95.3%

This has a couple of implications. Firstly, it is possible for a ship to lose a key system even when its armour has not been penetrated. This should lead to more interesting combat situations. Secondly, it gives an advantage to larger energy weapons and missile warheads. You may inflict significant damage with a lucky hit from a large missile warhead and that won't be possible with small missiles.

Order Templates

On the Task Group window, you can save a list of orders as a template and then retrieve them later.

For example, you give a TG a set of orders to pick up automated mines from a colony, travel through several jump points, drop them off at another colony and return to refuel at the start point. You can save that set of orders as a template (giving it a template name) and then select it again for any future TG. Each template is associated with the system in which the first order takes place. A template can only be selected if the currently selected TG is in the system associated with the template and has no orders, or the task group has existing orders that will take it to that system, in which case the template orders will be added to the existing orders.

This is all done from a simple list on the first tab (squeezed in at the side between OOB and default orders) with a list of templates for the current system, a Save button and a Use button.

This addition is something of an experiment, as I am concerned it could lead to unexpected problems. The player will have to use this feature intelligently and not give orders that don't make sense. I don't want to add code to check every possible template for every task group because there are just too many possible factors. So I'll see how it works out and if it does cause problems, I'll remove it for the next version.

Main Empire Theme

Added a Warhammer 40K Empire theme. Has 600+ system names and 100+ class names (using the existing WH40K ship names).

There is already a WH40K commander names theme.

Financial Centre cost

The cost of Financial Centres has been reduced from 240 to 120 for v6.30

unrest

Removed unrest for Minority Status. I don't think this adds much to gameplay and can be annoying since genetic modification was added.

Spinal Lasers

You can now design Spinal Lasers, which are larger weapons than could normally be constructed using available technology. A ship can only mount one spinal weapon and they cannot be mounted in turrets.

A fifth category has been added to laser design, entitled Energy Weapon Mount. The possibilities are Standard Mount, Spinal Mount and Advanced Spinal Mount. The latter two cost 5,000 and 20,000 RP respectively. A spinal mount uses a focal size 25% larger than the maximum possible for a normal laser. The Advanced Spinal Mount uses a focal size 50% larger. Here are three examples using the same technology level but with different mounts. For the moment this is just for lasers but I intend to also add particle beam and railgun versions as well.

25cm C4 Ultraviolet Laser (Standard Mount)

Damage Output 16 Rate of Fire: 20 seconds Range Modifier: 4 Max Range 640,000 km Laser Size: 8 HS Laser HTK: 4 Power Requirement: 16 Power Recharge per 5 Secs: 4 Cost: 64 Crew: 24 Materials Required: 12.8x Duranium 12.8x Boronide 38.4x Corundium Development Cost for Project: 640RP

31cm Spinal C4 Ultraviolet Laser

Damage Output 25 Rate of Fire: 35 seconds Range Modifier: 4 Max Range 1,000,000 km Laser Size: 10 HS Laser HTK: 5 Power Requirement: 25 Power Recharge per 5 Secs: 4 Cost: 80 Crew: 30 Spinal Weapon Only Materials Required: 16x Duranium 16x Boronide 48x Corundium Development Cost for Project: 800RP

38cm C4 Advanced Spinal Ultraviolet Laser

Damage Output 38 Rate of Fire: 50 seconds Range Modifier: 4 Max Range 1,520,000 km Laser Size: 12 HS Laser HTK: 6 Power Requirement: 38 Power Recharge per 5 Secs: 4 Cost: 98 Crew: 36 Spinal Weapon Only Materials Required: 19.6x Duranium 19.6x Boronide 58.8x Corundium Development Cost for Project: 980RP

Cryogenic Combat Drop Modules

Two new systems have been added for v6.30. Cryogenic versions of the existing battalion and company sized combat drop modules. The new versions are twice the size of the existing combat drop modules and function in exactly the same way, except that troops loaded into them do not suffer from combat load fatigue.

• Combat Drop Module (Cryo) - Battalion: Cost 120 BP, Research 10,000 RP, Size 20 HS (1000 tons).
• Combat Drop Module (Cryo) - Company: Cost 30 BP, Research 20,000 RP, Size 4 HS (200 tons).

So for battalion size units you now have the non-military Troop Transport Bay, which is 50 HS, the Combat Drop Module (Cryo) at 20 HS and the normal Combat Drop Module at 10 HS. This should allow some more flexibility in troop transport design, However, you won't be able to mix cryo and normal combat drop modules on the same ship.

Pluto Moons

I see two more moons of Pluto have been officially named so I have added them to the database.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23146454

Missile Engine Size Granularity

The size of missile engines is now in 0.01 MSP increments instead of 0.1 MSP.

Mining Totals

On the mining tab of the population window there is now a Total line after Gallicite. This adds up quantity, annual production, stockpile, etc. The accessibility total is a weighted average of the accessibilities of the available minerals. The years to depeletion total is equal to the longest years to depeletion value of any of the available minerals.

I've also fixed an annoying bug in the Commanders (F4) window that causes the filtered commander list to refresh four times whenever you switched races.

Unit Type Names

For v6.30, you can change the default names of unit types for each Empire using a button on the GU Training tab of the Economics window. For example, in my current campaign the French have changed Assault Infantry to Légion étrangère. You can also change the associated abbreviation.

When you build units of this type it will create a default name based on this new name (so 5th Légion étrangère instead of 5th Mobile Infantry)

Research Anomalies

There is now a chance to find an "Anomaly" on a system body. Anomalies will provide a boost for a single research field from 10% to 100% for all research facilities located on that system body. These will commonly be found at the site of alien ruins but not exclusively. There will be various types of anomalies, starting in v6.30 with the following three (unless I think of more before release)

1. Alien Installation. Usually found at the same location as alien ruins but can be discovered in isolation (any research field)
2. Unusual Radiation from Star. Innermost planet will be classed as having the anomaly (will not be MK, CP or LG)
3. Unusual Magnetic field on Gas Giant. Innermost moon will be classed as having the anomaly (will not be MK, CP or LG)

With 2) and 3) it is possible the anomaly could be on a planet you can't normally colonise, or that has a very high colony cost. In that case you will have to decide whether orbital habitats will be worthwhile.

Note that in the same way as scientists bonuses, you don't pay wealth for the additional RP created as a result of the anomaly bonus.

Homeworld Minerals

I've upped homeworld mineral generation to around double the current level.