Stellar Monarch 2 News

My personal vendetta against weak and confusing or unclear features continues. This time diplomacy system was the target. Removed agents and Xeno Experts, redesigned diplomats statistics to make it work similar to ministries. Now both Competence and Charisma is added up and used as a base of the Diplomat's efficiency and displayed as a separate number. It's much more clear how it works now. Next, a small thing but a very nice one, you start with 3 megalopolises (Old Empire start) and additional Megalopolises are unlocked via laws. This is the kind of of adjustment I love very much as a designer, very logical and intuitive, no additional complexity and solves various oddities and adds new decisions for the player. The last feature, which was requested like by everyone, is the option to replace leaders of the rebellious noble house during the tribunal. Now, finally, you will get your much desired justice to those traitors! Oh yes, the usual interface tweaks and small fixes are present as usual. Have fun!


- [feature] House who betrayed during rebellion has the house leadership replaced (unless explicitly pardoned by the Emperor).
- [feature] Efficiency of diplomats introduced (similar to Ministries). Now, average of Competence and Charisma of diplomats is used for all diplomatic calculations (treaties, diplomatic perks, infiltration). The value is displayed on Alien/Diplomacy screen (similar to Ministers) with all bonuses in a tooltip. This makes it more clear how it works (no longer separate Competence and Charisma effects) and overall look prettier. Technologies and laws which affected Competence/Charisma of diplomats directly were adjusted accordingly.

- [remove] Removed agents (there was just one technology that affected Agents and overall the mechanic was insignificant and not worth the additional complexity and UI clutter).
- [remove] Removed Xeno Experts (those were of marginal usefulness and added needless clutter with the need to explain what works for Diplomats and what for Xeno Experts, now only civilized races have Diplomats which is clear and straightforward).

- [misc] Now start with 3 megalopolises and can unlock additional 4 via laws (City Rights and Imperial Supremacy, +2 maximum megalopolises each) for a total of 7 megalopolises.

- [interface] Improved several tooltips related to diplomacy.
- [interface] Fleet "C" zone tooltip clearly states it covers Terra only.
- [interface] Unlock project tooltip on technologies screen lists effects of the project to be unlocked.
- [interface] Minor improvements to the description of some audience tooltips.

- [fix] Tooltip position incorrect in some rare cases.
- [fix] Main menu Load screen stays open in some cases.
- [fix] Reforms screen incorrectly closing audience dialogue screen in some cases.
- [fix] Spelling corrections.


Reminders
You can follow my Steam Developer Page if you wish to be notified each time a new game or expansions is being released.

Also, if you have a moment to leave a Steam review of the game it would be appreciated. It makes a big difference to an indie developer like me. Thanks!

This version is a result of digging out stuff from very old forum posts, reviews and comments to reviews. I have analyzed the most common complains over last year (even dug through some ancient Early Access posts as well) and tried to track and examine what are the key and recurring things that should be improved. I made some interesting changes based on this analysis. First, a small change with big repercussions, now the number of Core Worlds is tied to Centralization. This solves micromanagement issue when it comes to making cores, especially in a huge galaxy settings, which also improves the late game balance since it reduces the number of cities in the late game without affecting the early game. Next, High Command Staff mechanic was removed, it got an enormous number of complains and the consensus was that the game would be better without this feature. Rules selection was streamlined and made more clear, now there is an Imperial Mode (default one) and Throne Mode (for people who wish even more "rule from the heights of the imperial throne" gameplay). Modernizations mechanic, which split the community into lovers and haters, got more automatization options (for those who do not enjoy that part of the game), this automatization is also now enforced in Throne Mode. Next comes a bunch of interface improvements, bug fixes and rebalance of ministers.

One request, if you find a bug please post it on the Steam forums. I had to dig through a lot of reviews to find those and those would have been fixed much earlier if I know about them. So, when you find a bug, please post on the forums. Also, if you have certain suggestions, please copy the stuff from your review to the forums as well. It's much easier to find (plus it allows a discussion).

Note that because of the heavy changes in this version I made v1.14 Beta branch available in case you wanted to finish your old game using the old rules.


- [feature] Automatic ship hulls modernization option (if you select the appropriate checkbox in Options AI will automatically decide on ship hulls modernizations and report it each time).
- [feature] Throne Mode (previously called Hands Off ruleset) now enforces "Automatic ship hulls modernization" (regardless of option selected), so you don't deal directly with modernizations in this mode.
- [feature] Now there is a more strict limit to Core Worlds (maximum 30 + 3 Core Worlds per point of Centralization but no more than 50% of planets).

- [removed] Removed Imperial High Command staff mechanic (replaced with a simple static image showing high command in work). Basically, no one liked it and most people voted that the game would be better without it. In future the feature might return in some other form.
- [removed] Removed Total Control ruleset (I feel no one was using it anyway, if requested the effects of this ruleset can be added as "Extra rules" in future versions), now the rules selection looks much more intuitive. If you have a save that runs on this ruleset it will work correctly.

- [misc] Less suicidal diplomacy of minor civilized aliens towards the Empire, they are now much more reluctant to declare war if the Empire is much bigger than them.

- [balance] SpecOps gain per turn scaled to the game length (to make rebellions equally difficult regardless of the game speed settings).
- [balance] Drastically increased ministry expansion cost (it was way too low), also adjusted expansion administration points cost.
- [balance] Adjusted ministry efficiency effect on ministry events chances (was geared too much towards positive events) and added difficulty level bonus/penalty. Also changed the caps to minimum 10% and maximum 90%.

- [art] New Rebellion report image.

- [interface] Civilized races which lost all planets are clearly marked as dormant and have diplomacy options disabled.
- [interface] Improved "Summon head of the house" and "Summon to investigate" tooltips, to make it more clear what it is used for.
- [interface] Military / High Command screen now show maximum squadrons and squadrons production (and loses, in a tooltip), similar to Squadrons screen.
- [interface] Made it more clear that F.E.D. income comes from both fiefs and colonies, also renamed the tab on finances to "F.E.D. Income" for consistency.
- [interface] Rulesets renamed to modes and made much more prominent on the News Game screen. Also renamed "Balanced" to "Imperial Mode" and "Hands Off" to "Throne Mode".
- [interface] Improved New Game screen.
- [interface] Experimental feature (need to enable Experimental Features in Options) report notice buttons have a different color depending on report type.
- [interface] Most reports have a bigger text now (because there was space and bigger is better, especially on small monitors).
- [interface] Legislation and Research reports now have a button to access the appropriate screen (with [SPACE] hotkey).

- [fix] Small spelling corrections.
- [fix] Support reform option still appears when all reforms already completed (in Summon to discuss option only).
- [fix] Incorrect larvaes displayed on exactly one special planet (Early Access leftover).
- [fix] Civilized alien races asking for peace when when they have no planets anymore (aliens with no planets now are considered dormant/extinct).
- [fix] Meaningless and incorrect display "at War with Empire" on aliens overview screen next to Empire.
- [fix] Admiralition still sending forces to unclaimed planets, planets with withdraw order or planets controlled by a race you are at peace with in some circumstances.

This version is a quality of life update, based on the feedback gathered from the forums and Discord. First of all, I realized many players use modernizations in a different way I anticipated, so some extra features to make manipulation of those easier is in order. Next, various small features like time to research, mass orders for unclaimed planets, etc were implemented. In addition there is now a high score section on the main menu (similar to the one from the first Stellar Monarch) and one measly bug fix.

- [feature] High Score table.

- [interface] Research screen lists research points needed to research the current technology and how many turns it will take.
- [interface] Mass order to claim/abandon claims to all uninhabited planets.
- [interface] Military/Ships modernization screen allows to Uninstall/Install modernizations one by one.
- [interface] Military/Ships total modernizations installed tooltip lists all currently installed modernizations.
- [interface] Military/Ships install modernization buttons list the cost (for easier planning).

- [fix] Minimap mouse coordinates.


Reminders
You can follow my Steam Developer Page if you wish to be notified each time a new game or expansions is being released.

Also, if you have a moment to leave a Steam review of the game it would be appreciated. It makes a big difference to an indie developer like me. Thanks!

This version includes various quality of life improvements and small fixes as reported or requested by the players. Adjusted some combat settings to make those more clear, greatly improved planets list to include additional information, new art assets, etc.


- [misc] Removed Auto Conquer option from High Command (it's always ON now). It was a leftover from Early Access where you had alternative ways to order conquering a planet, so now such option makes no sense anymore and is just a source of confusion.
- [misc] Offensive power difference tooltip adjusted to make it more clear and introduced limits of this setting (from 25% to 500%). This should make it more clear how it works and should prevent accidentally setting numbers that would make the conquest impossible to start or succeed.
- [misc] Technical update (newest version of various libraries).

- [interface] New reports images.
- [interface] Planetary development level tooltip made more clear.
- [interface] Planets list "Non core worlds" tab (lists all imperial planets that are not core) and "Colonization" tab (lists all planets being colonized or those that have encourage colonization), also bigger font used.
- [interface] Planets list shows core/colonization status (with colors, makers if can be cored, how much it would cost to core the world, etc) also anomalies are listed similarly to rare resources.

- [fix] Research completed report not displaying properly technology effects in the tooltip.
- [fix] Spelling fixes.

This is a pretty boring update with a few low priority fixes, interface improvements and some technical stuff. The only item from the list below that could potentially make you mildly excited is the optional notification when you accumulate enough legislation points to pas a new law. That is unless you play on SteamDeck or have a bad eyesight, in such case you might find this version revolutionary due to the font sizes adjustments. Basically all texts were reviewed on the size criteria and many texts that were very tiny became upgraded to a decent font size.


- [misc] Technical update (newest version of various libraries).

- [interface] Increased font size in several places, especially the very small font was increased significantly, so now everything is readable even on SteamDeck. Basically all tiny texts were enlarged significantly.
- [interface] Fleet details screen improved (displayed average statistics and officers centered).
- [interface] Optional notification when you have enough legislation points to enact a new law. Can be disabled in options.
- [interface] Other small improvements.

- [fix] Incorrect Stability instead of Centralization on Victory/game over screen.
- [fix] ESC key now always closes any open confirmation window (in some rare circumstances the confirmation window stayed open blocking the whole interface).
- [fix] Reforms priority button glitch.