Shadow Empire News

A new update for Shadow Empire is out now. This update focuses on the Arachnids and their presence on almost all planets, allocations, balancing, game improvements and bug fixes.

Here are the patch notes:

During the Galactic Republic era domesticated Arachnids were present on many Planets as they were able to produce the raw materials needed to produce Starlace fabric, an ideal material to produce advanced heat shields for the re-entry into the atmosphere of spacecraft.
After the Dissolution War many domesticated Arachnids starved in their pens, but as they are quite clever, on most worlds, at least some of them managed to escape and they went Feral.
In their Feral stage there can be some reproduction, but it is only when the Arachnids reach their Hive stage (or higher) that they’ll get a Queen and get some serious reproduction going.

The Arachnids Minors have multiple levels now: regular, Hive, Swarm and Nexus. On the higher difficulty levels they’ll be able to spawn special castes as: Defendrix, Dominatrix and Exterminatrix, as well as Queens and Champions.



Allocations give reference to 3 minor rule changes:

• Unit Supply is now prioritizing Food a lot and Oil quite somewhat. This has been done to prevent cases where Ammo uses up all the logistical points and nothing is left for even more vital stuff. Food is vital for obvious reasons (starvation), but oil is also vital because low oil gives actually quite horrible combat penalties.
  
• Finetuned Farm-/Dome-steads building and now allowing maximum 2 Farmsteads to be build in a Zone, from there on upgrading those (until they reach Farm Community Level) is going to be the rule. We want to avoid cases where Farmsteads just clutter too much map. (partially
• -ed)
  
• Finetuned Private Debt rules : Population can now go into debt as well to buy full Private Farm/Dome Communities.*
  

Balancing, Changes and Improvements

• It is now possible to create “Makeshift” Zones on Hexes without a Zone (“No Zone”). However this is more expensive than regular Zone creation (35PP, 500 Credits, 500 freeFolk/soldiers), but it can start a new Zone closer to an existing city (needs to be only 3 hexes away instead of 5, or even without condition if it concerns a small island of 16 Hex or smaller). This seemingly minor addition will give you more flexibility in special cases and open up a large number of possible new strategies concerning expansion by airlift. Note this new feature uses the same “new Zone” button when a “No Zone” Hex is selected.
  
• Unit Supply is now prioritizing Food a lot and Oil quite somewhat. This has been done to prevent cases where Ammo uses up all the logistical points and nothing is left for even more vital stuff. Food is vital for obvious reasons (starvation), but oil is also vital because low oil gives actually quite horrible combat penalties.
  
• Finetuned Farm-/Dome-steads building and now allowing maximum 2 Farmsteads to be build in a Zone, from there on upgrading those (until they reach Farm Community Level) is going to be the rule. We want to avoid cases where Farmsteads just clutter too much map. (partially
• -ed)
  
• Finetuned Private Debt rules : Population can now go into debt as well to buy full Private Farm/Dome Communities.*
  
• The Arachnids Minors have multiple levels now. The higher difficulty level you play the more dangerous they’ll be able to get, spawning special castes as Defendrix, Dominatrix and Exterminatrix, as well as Queens and Champions.*
  
• Added some protective code to avoid Majors starting on island that is inside a lake (not ocean zone).
  

Fixes

• Various big fixes to Slavers, Arachnids and Mutants actually “decimating” population & free folk and getting growth of them, as well as them changing zone culture once population levels reach zero. (partially*-ed)
  
• Fixed exploit where reconquering a Zone (after losing it) gives you a Fate Pack again. (partially*-ed)
  
• Fixed buggy behavior with MTH wants more staff Decision.*
  
• Fixed some serious production penalties for various stuff including lowlands penalty for Wind Traps, Agri Rain PH modifier, Agri Soil Heavy Metal modifier, Solar Panel rain modifier, Agril Rad modifier. This only kicks in with games started with this latest version, otherwise the rule shock might be to violent to many ongoing games.*
  
• Fixed layout bug in Planet Stats Report caused by some rare planet gens.
  
• Fixed Energy Rebate rule to be actually applied
  
• Fixed some Tech mouseovers*
  
• Fixed rare issue with disappearing Free Folk through some Decisions like “Demagogue”
  
• Slight nudge to CAS increase indep of tradition level, very slight though…
  
• Fixed showing of movement arrow with strategic movement when using roads with more than 9999 logistical points on them
  
• Fixed miss-focussing map in some map centering cases on hexes that are close to the “map seam” where the map loops (Asset clicking, probably also history replay)
  
• Fixed a crash causing bug because units were transferred between regimes (like with the new option introduced in subversion D for Arachnids to split off from their core regime) (big thx to Carl)
  
• Fix Fate Stratagem category in Stratagem Encyclopedia crash
  
• Fixed Geyser turbine mouseover text.*
  
• Fixed rare issue with Minor Militia popping up between friendly units (after you conquered their “masked” zone center).
  

A new update for Shadow Empire (v1.26c) is out now. This update adds 25 new Fate Stratagems to provide more replayability and surprises. Also a special new History Class “Low Resources” has been added especially for lovers of very challenging Tech Level 3 starts. Furthermore the Colossus Planet Class can now be chosen by players that are looking for some really long games on huge Planets. Last but not least, there has been a lot of finetuning, some important AI improvements, bug fixing and a few rule changes.



Here is the full changelog:
[expand]
Features + Rule changes:

• AI receives GR Tech Fate Strats nerfed. On beginner every 60 rounds and max 1 per game, on regular every 50 rounds and max 2 per game, on hard every 40 rounds and max 3 per game, on extreme every 30 rounds and max 4 per game.
  
• Made improvements to AI tech research selection, among others making it easier for the AI to find a path to atomic weapons, this however is not guaranteed to happen. But I feel more confident with the new algorithm.
  
• Planetary Spin a bit (or a lot) lower on Colossus Planets, further reducing Wind Speeds a bit on them
• 
  
• AI will get random access to the new Fate GR Techs (Beginner: once every 40 rounds, Regular: every 30 rounds, hard every 20 rounds, extreme every 10 rounds). This should act as a general difficulty boost at higher difficulty levels.
  
• Removed the Metrics question when first playing game, as no matter if its yes or no, i am not collecting at the moment.
  
• Made a low level unit moving algorithm change to how the AI perceives its chances of getting encircled. Made it a bit less scared in most cases.
  
• Made AI bit more consistent in diplomatics once it doesn’t want to waltz with you anymore. After it starts canceling treaties it will be harder to make them accept a new one again (cooldown timer running in background)
• 
  
• Added some code to prevent MTH ship losses against 0 ship enemy fleet.
  
• Added “Low Resources” History Class which blocks you starting with initial Water Mines and assured deposits around you. Best played on lower Tech level with minimal or no starting armies.
  
• Wind Traps can now also produce at water scarcity level 4.
• 
  
• Wind Traps can now also be constructed in non-mountain areas, but they get a -50% penalty when used in “lowland” areas.
• 
  
• Nudged Guardians downwards (more tradition stat, less often trigger of tech sale, fast higher price after first sale)
• 
  
• Reduced max recruitment base level from 5% of Population/Worker to 2.5%.
  
• Gr Mass Driver Fate Stratagem only appears at higher tech level above 5 now.
• 
  
• Lowest Tech MG now also benefits from the Chaingun Tech
• 
  
• Increase some GR Tech Fate Stratagem costs and decreased GR Equipment Fate Stratagem costs.*
  
• Air Models now also have their Air attack values divided for having multiple attacks
• 
  
• Fate Packs for level increases nerfed upwards. Now Beginner: Fate Pack on Admin,Culture,Tech level rise. Regular: Admin + Tech level rise, Hard+higher: only on Tech level rise
• 
  
• Made some changes to better support super long linguistics lists (mod support)
  
• Ringmail Fate Stratagem cost increased*
  
• GR Optics Fate Strat cost increased*
  
• GR Combat Drugs Fate Strat cost decreased*
  
• =needs new game start
  
• *=adding in running games will be stopped, but the bloated stringlists causing slowness will remain, however I also improved the speed of the linguistics algorithms in case of huge stringlists.
  
• 25 New Fate Stratagems added, including rare and very rare ones. Leading to: 10 New Fate-Strat-only Techs, 5 New Leader Feats, 4 New GR Models and 6 “red” Fate Stratagems.*
  
• Peripheral Mining Stratagem has been finetuned. It will cause some more Ease of Mining Degradation when played on Mines with really high ease of mining levels (chance for extra level loss: 90% at level 9, 75% at lvl 8, 50% at lvl7, 25% at lvl 6). Also overall extra resources found is lowered a bit with -33%.
  
• Assault Gun/Tank Destroyer now show their reduced IP production cost properly in the UI (requires making new model to go into effect)
  
• No longer required to have a Trade Pact Level with other Major to change Tariffs.* That rule made no sense in retrospect as it is you that controls your side of the border and your custom officials can do as they please no matter your absence of an officially agreed upon trade level.
  
• History replay now shows orange/red icon on air recon target hexes.
  
• Added Colossus Planet Class. Which is basically just a way to roll huge (and very slow to play) Planets with very probably quite high gravity.
  
• If you switch to “Discovery Focus” you now loose 66% of your already accumulated Discovery Points. Was a bit of an exploit before.
  
• Stratagem pics inside Vidcom messages could be swapped around if you looked at them again after playing some earlier received Stratagems in your current turn. This is no longer the case. Requires a new turn to go in effect.
  
• Blocked the ability of clicking on enemy leader in Decision messages
  
• Made AI a bit more cautious with constructing Biofuel Assets and made it better understand the Food income required for it to not cause any problems (especially on higher Biofuel Asset Levels)
  
• Added mouse edge scrolling enable/disable in first subtab of the Prefs Tab
  
• 160K Bombhatch ammo cost divided by 20.. Was a data entry glitch on my side :/
• 
  

Bugs & Glitch Fixes:

• Fixed Gladiator Unit Feat bonus to also be applied to hitpoints
• 
  
• Fixed issues with AI Model Design choices. Should avoid loops with impossible air designs now.
  
• Fixed a gitch with Wind Speed calculations (planetary spin did not have the correct effect, it should have now)
• 
  
• Fixed glitch with lowlands penalty being applied to agriculture as well.
  
• Fixed Propose Peace Stratagems (major + minor) effect with critical failure.
• 
  
• Fixed Mass Driver is now compatible with AT-Gun Models.
• (crashes in earlier betas)
  
• Fixed Breakthrough Stratagem to not be playable if nothing discoverable left
• 
  
• Fixed Guardians Decision to not trigger if not enough discoverable left to exclude finishing last discovery same turn
• 
  
• Fixed color of Rdn + Supply in Unit Tab to white if the variable is actually unknown due to lack of recon.
  
• Fixed crash with Air Recon on certain sea Hexes.
  
• Fixed Wind Speed and Temperature Delta on Mountains for some Colossus Planets
• 
  
• Fixed issue with Private Economy building Surveillance Asset
  
• Fixed an issue with some mods + PBEM games, where in some cases the mod data kept being added
• *
  
• Fixed issue with some Regime Feat Zone benefits not being used for the first capital zone in the game.
  
• Fixed combat preview odds calculations with the use of certain Stratagems like All Out of Offensive.
  
• Fixed a combat detail report logging glitch that could hide a modifier from being logged (combat calculations themselves were okay)
  
• Fixed CTD when clicking on transfer button of a Zone without SHQ assigned.
  
• Fixed issue with not being able to select Gauss MG for aircraft Models
• 
  
• Fixed capping of relations after playing MTH Shipyarding Stratagem.*
  
• Fixed different planetary stats concerning heavy metals PPB / PH between generation and final Planet.
• 
  
• Fixed edge case with impossible Faction Demands where Admin,Tech,Cult Level all >8 and happiness and morale are all super high.
  
• Fixed price reduction for longer MTH Contracts
  
• Fixed game blocking glitch with enemy unit appearing out of nowhere in a friendly hex (Autumn)
  
• =requires new game start
  
• Fixed some glitches with the AI assigning Posture Stratagems to its OHQs. Performance should be much better now. (thanks to Thibault)
  

[/expand]

Hi everyone,

a new update for Shadow Empire (v1.25e) is out now. This update adds many new subcultures: Guardians, Confeds, Scavengers, Warmongers, Roaders, Mercanteers, Ferals, Beastmen and Demons. These are variations on the existing Minor Cultures, to add more variety during the early game. Last but not least, there are a lot of bug fixing and rule changes.
Read the changelog below to know more and if you want to have a look at what the update adds, please watch this video of DasTactic.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Full Changelog:



v1.25e brings some more flavour and immersion. Nine new subcultures have been added. These act as variations for the existing Minor Cultures.

- Guardians: A subculture of the Farmer Culture Group. These are similar to Farmers but have happened to find themselves with a treasure chest of still functioning GR technology. Note that these Guardians use some GR Tech, but do not understand this Tech, nor can they reproduce it. Their Militia Infantry will be slightly weaker than that of regular Farmers, but will be reinforced with some GR Tech and will get stronger faster over time.

- Confeds: A subculture of the Farmer Culture Group. These are similar to Farmers but they went through a phase of conflict with other Farmer Zones and eventually installed a Confederation that united several small Farmer Zones. Expect Confeds to have higher Populace levels as well as a higher level of eventual Militia mobilization.

- Scavengers: A subculture of the Raider Culture Group. These are similar to Raiders but less aggressive. They tend to focus on low intensity scavenging and as such expect some recuperated GR Tech used by their Militia’s. Also their Militia will get stronger faster over time.

- Warmongers: A subculture of the Raider Culture Group. These are similar to Raiders but even more aggressive. They live in a cult of worship of the physical body and strength. They glorify warfare and will be very eager to engage you.

- Roaders: A subculture of the Nomad Culture Group. These are similar to Nomads but more mechanized and always start the game controlling some serious road network.

- Mercanteers: A subculture of the Nomad Culture Group. These are similar to Nomads but more peaceful and focussed on helping their Traders, at which they are very good (their Traders get a boost similar to Commerce Bonus). They also have a much higher trading volume with other Minors or with Majors that they are at peace with. Due to their close and synergetic cooperation with the Traders they levy a capital tax on their Traders to finance their Militia.

- Ferals, Beastmen and Demons: These are subcultures of the Mutant Culture Group. They are similar in behavior but are stronger. Especially beware of Beastmen and Demons, though these will most likely only appear on higher difficulty levels.

CHANGELIST FOR v1.25e

Features + Rule changes:
- Added 9 Minor Subcultures (2 for Raiders, 2 for Farmers, 2 for Nomads and 3 for Mutants) for more variety during the early game.
- Upon incessant request you can now change Leader names in the Leader Management Tab *
- Upon your resigning of the game being implemented (the turn after the decision) the whole map will become visible now, without fog of war, if it is a single player game
- Difficulty for Offer Protection / Offer Client increased with the Tradition Culture Key of the target Culture.*
- Ammo Factory Level 1 now needs 1000 workers to produce, instead of 500 *
- Natural relation growth is now also possible for Leaders with Ambition 66 or higher. It's just slow and very irregular. Increasingly so when approaching the maximum of Ambition 100.
- Gas powered Rifle base Fire Power reduced from 100 to 85*
- Skewed the initial random portrait selection a bit more towards more caucasian *
- Added option to consult the Battle Report after regular combat during your turn *
- 25mm AT and 25mm Artillery Guns now have Foot movement instead of artillery movement. *
- Added Public Production Penalty to the Asset Log.
- Triple Electric Engine can now longer be installed on the smallest vehicles *

Bugs & Glitch Fixes:
- Fixed Group Move crash if way more than 16 units on a Hex (freak cases) (matthew)
- Fixed issue with SAMs not firing from distance (voker)
- Fixed “rolled” result mouse over for name of advisor that was displayed as -1,-1 in many cases
- Fixed strategem mini map regime targeting issue with regime that had no hexes with recon on it and selecting it in the list to the left (Xebec)
- Fixed turn process crash due to Zone without traders (Voker + Other reports)
- Nudge to ship building for some MTHs in some special cases (Thrake)
- Starting Asset construction on Hex will no longer remove the “start new zone” flag from previous asset construction order (Trake)
- Irregular artillery,tank and walker now get a little bit of structural damage points capability as well (Thrake) *
- Expell Pop now is generated by Staff Council (Cranky) *
- Fixed renaming upon creation of custom independent formation (Cranky)
- Leaders originated from 3rd parties (like corporate) now get included in seniority ranking
- Better drawing of thermal clothing for Militia
- Fixed heavy metals in water display glitch (huge negative value) on Lava Planets.
- Fixed “resign reveals whole map”, it now also works if you resign after losing or winning the game (thanks Das)
- Fixed Unit log glitch that was confusing energy with food consumption
- Made a fix to private economy being blocked from constructing new farms if enough pop present, but suboptimal prodmod average of existing farms
- Fixed a mouse-over production detail glitch in Management’s Assets Tab
- Fixed a crash with attempting to Disband an Asset in a Zone that does not have a City yet. Disband no longer possible in such rare occasions.
- Fixed some farming areal bonus calculations*
- Fixed rather serious double food production of agricultural assets*
- Fixed an issue where a Minor Regime under your protection got attacked by a Maor Regime AI and where Pacts where remaining in place (not that between human player pact levels due to indirect cause of war should stay intact)
- Fixed a rare AI glitch where it could possibly build a second mine Asset in a Hex
- Added the missing graphic for Tech #10 : Furnaces
- Adapted the Zone Border painting algorithm to take into account enemy neighbor Hexes in the same way we take Sea Hexes into account
- AI no longer receives airbase on Zone City if low pop+workers.
- AI no longer abandons “safe” strategic reserve allocation for hex that also has air units.
- Fixed a glitch with sea water heavy metals calculations on ocean worlds that are frozen over

Welcome back  everyone, 

The new major update for Shadow Empire: The Hazards & Hardships , is out now and ready for you to explore.

The Hazards & Harships major update introduces many new features and rules that make the game a new experience for everyone. Some of the main highlights are:

• Hazard Exposure Level (like on a Moon without an atmosphere) increases construction costs and makes combat super lethal due to the fact that even a small puncture in an envirosuit can cause instant death.
  

• With the new modeling of Water Salinity, dissolved Heavy Metals, PH levels (acidity-alkalinity), notably Food and Water production will often not be as obvious anymore.
  

 

• The newly added Battle Report, that is accessible through the History Window and it allows you to inspect the battles fought during the other player’s turns in much more detail than previously.
  

• The Private Economy has been reworked with the addition of Private Farmsteads and the ability for your Population to go into debt. This will allow very small groups of Population to eventually scratch out a viable living in a new Zone.
  
• The Tech Tree has received an additional 20 Tech Fields, including: Furnaces, Ammo Factories, Landmines, Ablat Coating and Techs to obtain Hide Points for your Models. 
  

• The Artificial Intelligence (AI) has received a lot of love and should prove more of a challenge than in v1.20d. Notably it has a better handle on its economy and is more likely to use Tanks now.
  

• New portraits, double the resolution and more moddable
  

• Ammo-usage has been completely revamped and especially offensive warfare supported with artillery and/or mechanized equipment can now become quite expensive, as well as a serious logistical challenge. 
  
• On the contrary: Infantry has now become relatively more economical to use. 
  
• Energy weapons, once developed, will still be powerful, but Ammo-based weaponry should not be ditched that lightly anymore, especially on Planets with low air pressure and/or gravity. 
  
• Ensuring adequate Energy production, especially in the early game, will also be more challenging. However Organic- and Scavenge Furnace Assets have been added to the game.
  

 
But that's not all. For those of you who want to know every detail of this major update, a detailed changelog is available at this link. As always a big update like this one also brings dozens upon dozens of other smaller and bigger improvements, fixes and fine tunings.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1154840/Shadow_Empire/

Welcome back everyone, 

The Hazards & Hardships - v1.25 update, the new major update for Shadow Empire, will be out on November 21st. 

The version 1.25 overhaul brings many new features as well as new rules that make the game more diverse and more challenging. Hazard Exposure Level (like on a Moon without an atmosphere) increases construction costs and makes combat super lethal due to the fact that even a small puncture in an envirosuit can cause instant death. Planet Generation now also simulates Salinity and Acidity of lakes and oceans. Battle reports have been added, which will allow you to inspect the battles fought during the other player's turn in much more detail, the Private Economy has been reworked and enriched with the Private Farmsteads and the Tech Tree has received an additional 20 Tech Fields. These are just a few of the new features of the Hazards & Hardships update and a complete and detailed change list will be published next week. 

With these new additions, players will be able to experience Shadow Empire like never before.



https://store.steampowered.com/app/1154840/Shadow_Empire/