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Stellar Monarch 2 News

Version 0.82 released

This version is one big rebalance. Overall, now economy is easier to handle at the beginning and more tricky later. When you load an old save with a well established Empire expect to immediately adjust your finances (bankruptcy danger). The overall goal was to get rid of mid-late game excess money and manufacturing. There is also a new feature some of you requested a lot. Now you can give a directive to the Imperial High Command to retake lost planets. This is done by marking a planet as claimed by the Empire. In addition more forces were allocated to strategic reserves, which combined with shipyards output rebalance, makes the imperial forces being utilized at a much higher pace. The last thing is experimental orders priority which let you control which planets should be conquered first.


- [feature] Claim/Unclaim planet button on planet screen. It marks the planet as target for auto conquest/reconquest/outpost construction. It can be set/unset manually or automatically (if such directive is given to the Imperial High Command). Withdraw order overrides claims. Claims on non owned planets are shown on the starmap (similarly to orders).
- [feature] Experimental feature (first needs to be enabled via Options) High Priority conquest order. It allows you to control which planets should be conquered first. Note that it does not fit well with interface (that's why it's marked as experimental feature), so if you have ideas how to rearrange that part of UI let me know.

- [balance] Homeworld gets +100% to cities output for being Capital of the Empire and additional +30 max cities.
- [balance] Salaries doubled.
- [balance] Trade value halved.
- [balance] Bureaucracy upkeep adjusted.
- [balance] Taxable economy points are now non linear (which means relatively higher taxes per economy point when fewer economy points but still it's better to have more economy points). Also increased base taxes.
- [balance] Shipyards output is now non linear (effective manufacturing output being lower than nominal value). Made to reduce massive stockpiles of squadrons in storage for very economically potent Empires.
- [balance] Forces allocation percentages adjusted (more forces allocated for strategic reserves at the expense of fleets forces).
- [balance] Space combat made faster (especially vs weaker enemy).

- [misc] Noble fiefs income simplified (now just a % of total economy, not just from core worlds). It's a minor thing, intended more to make it simpler to explain, since most economy comes from core planets anyway.
- [misc] "Bureaucracy" renamed to "Bureaucracy upkeep" for clarity.
- [misc] "Squadrons in reserve" renamed to "Squadrons in storage" to make it more distinctive from strategic reserves.

- [fix] Missing level 8 electronics technology on Total Control ruleset.


Compatibility note: NO CHANGE, this version works with v0.80+ savefiles (note that each time a savefile compatibility is broken a new Beta branch with the old version is created so you can always finish your game in progress).

Version 0.81 released

Just a quick update to address various bugs and imbalances introduced in the previous version.

- [balance] More turns need to pass before squadrons start being decommissioned due to an old age. But very old squadrons fall apart (get decommissioned) much faster now.
- [balance] Rebalanced manufacturing and minerals so in general you need less minerals.
- [balance] Added a free quota of raw minerals (especially useful for Young Empire starts), listed as "Mining from asteroids".
- [balance] Space borne creatures attack pattern and power redesigned.
- [balance] Cyber March made much less aggressive.

- [interface] Improved squadrons tooltips. Added number of squadrons decommissioned last turn (individually per squadron and globally as a summary).
- [interface] Biohazard tooltip improved (mentioned Slugs spread it).
- [interface] Rare resources tooltips unified and cleaned up.

- [fix] Stalemate on leftover existing forces when an alien race was annihilated while attempting to conquer imperial worlds (now all annihilated races have all their forces disbanded).
- [fix] Grand Legislator online achievement not triggering properly.
- [fix] Datalink upgrade incorrectly possible to install when the ship already had Datalink as standard.
- [fix] Space borne creatures being spawned only on a single planet at once instead of on all planets on the galactic rim.


Compatibility note: NO CHANGE, this version works with v0.80+ savefiles (note that each time a savefile compatibility is broken a new Beta branch with the old version is created so you can always finish your game in progress).

Version 0.80 released

Originally, I planned to make this a feature complete version but, well, I didn't make it in time. There are still some features missing related to military and aliens but other than that, in this version, most features are in place. So, let's say it's an almost feature complete version. Numerous small things were finished (all laws, all effects of all reforms, ruins, etc), all Xenos are active, steam online achievements can be unlocked and so on. Note that by features I mean game mechanics, not content (so not all technologies all there yet for example) and that those features are in the basic form in some cases and might require further refining and redesign. Still, it's a pretty solid version. In addition I decided to change the font, I decided to prioritize readability over the aesthetics. The new font is simpler, and kind of less sci-fi like, but definitely much more readable. As a bonus I managed to rearrange the UI a bit which allowed me to make the default font size slightly bigger, so it's even more readable. I also made many adjustments to the game rules, and many rebalances, that make it more logical and playable and a few smaller features (like administrative points being more widely used, courtier starts redesign, allowed replacing ministers during rebellion, ground combat made faster, rebel points from audience events increased, added option to persuade courtiers to change house affiliation, etc).

Overall, if there are no major setbacks, I estimate the game should reach v1.00 in no more than 3 months.


- [feature] All political agendas implemented (Desires Ministerial Positions, Desires Court Influence, Desires Honorary Titles).
- [feature] Option to persuade courtiers to change the house affiliation (except closely affiliated ones). Useful for managing new political agendas of noble houses.
- [feature] Redesign and cleanup of courtiers positions effects. Ministers and Advisors have their stats impact x3 (listed in tooltip), no more Competence boost for Advisors. Removed Inspectors.
- [feature] All laws implemented.
- [feature] All projects implemented.
- [feature] Online achievements.
- [feature] High Command Directives which allows you to alter how the High Command operates, especially sending reinforcements to planets under invasion.
- [feature] Spawn Space Borne Creatures on rim planets. Also now imperial border guard will station space units on planets with cosmic radiation since those are considered permanently in danger.
- [feature] Slugs and Cyber March basic behavior (those races will launch attacks now).
- [feature] Slugs spread biohazard (-5 Habitability) on planets they control (note that the biohazard icon is a placeholder and will be replaced later with a proper one).

- [remove] Unused Artifacts tab removed (it might be back in future if I get a good idea how to use it).
- [remove] Removed unused Goals tab.

- [misc] Technologies tiers adjusted.
- [misc] All court and ministers actions (appoint, dismiss, etc) now also require Administrative points in addition to Emperor focus points.
- [misc] Allowed Ministers and Courtiers actions during rebellion but at much higher cost and no option to banish from the Court. Traitor Ministers can be purged for an extra Stability hit.
- [misc] Added a flat bonus to rebel points generation based on houses relations below neutral (listed as "Nobles secretly supporting rebels").
- [misc] Ruins increase the chance and rarity of the Archeology audience event.
- [misc] Enabled production of bio bombs. Bio bombs are cheaper than chemical bombs but spread biohazard.
- [misc] Adjusted ground combat rules. Now you take over the planet if you have more ground power (not twice more) and control orbit. This should speed up ground battles and make the rules more intuitive.
- [misc] Default Minimum Offensive Power Difference increased to 300% (to take into account defensive installations). Also removed global M.O.P.D. setting (really no need to clutter the interface when it's just a few clicks to adjust it for all races anyway).
- [misc] Adjusted ground combat rules. Ground troops are started being dropped when the attacked has twice more squadrons (regardless of quality of those) on orbit than defender (note that you still need to control the orbit to take over the planet, so ground situation alone is not enough, but since ground troops can destroy defensive installations it also impacts the space battle).

- [balance] Reduced communication range increase from budget (now it should be more tricky to assure a decent coverage).
- [balance] Audience rebel options increase/decrease rebel points by at least 100 each (everything below 100 is insignificant by audience standards).
- [balance] Increased modernization points gained from the Ongoing Modernization science perk.
- [balance] Start with extra I.S.M. and bombs (because it's fun to be able to use those from the start).
- [balance] Reduced ground defensive installations for aliens (more in par of how many the player has).
- [balance] Fine-tuned battle loses to make space battles faster when one side is clearly inferior.
- [balance] Increased ships manufacturing cost.

- [content] Archeology audience event gives more options to choose from.

- [interface] Manage officials button moved from experimental features to regular.
- [interface] Finished all research bonuses/statistics tooltips (also rearranged order of those those).
- [interface] Displayed ruins and research points gain per turn (with proper tooltips) on Technologies screen.
- [interface] Font changed to a more readable one. Also adjusted the UI so a bigger default font size can fit (so it's even more readable now). (maybe with an option to keep the old font for people who like it but let's see if people request it; Also, as a bonus I somehow managed to rearrange stuff on the UI and the base font could be enlarged as well (so the average font size will be also bigger!)
- [interface] Display total power of ground units on the planet view and on reports.
- [interface] Many other smaller interface improvements.

- [fix] Load button was only greyed out but still allowed loading a wrong save file if you clicked (BTW, no one ever reported clicking it).
- [fix] Bug causing excessive reinforcements for aliens.


Compatibility note: INCOMPATIBLE, this version will not work with old saves (note that each time a savefile compatibility is broken a new Beta branch with the old version is created so you can always finish your game in progress).

Version 0.79 released

This version is about finishing the combat mechanics. I reviewed all mechanics related to combat, tracked any unimplemented ones, any not explained properly, etc, etc. Redesigned some technologies related to combat and redesigned or altered some combat mechanics. Overall, everything regarding low level combat should work as intended and be properly explained. In addition, I took a look at balance of research and altered it heavily. Fixed some bugs and included several nice interface improvements.

- [feature] Combat mechanics fully finished and explained.
- [feature] Crew effects redesigned and fully explained (via tooltips and battle simulator events).
- [feature] Competence and Charisma of officers triggers special events during combat. You can also now select an exact fleet on the battle simulator (to observe the officers' stats effects).
- [feature] Ship modernizations redesigned. Now those use modernization points, split modernizations to regular and specialized and there are certain "discounts" for Compatible modernizations (for example all hulls from Electronics field of science get Encrypted Datalink cheaper).

- [remove] Removed governors economic traits (those were kind of weak regarding the scale of the game anyway, because, why would you care if you have hundreds of those governors).

- [misc] Nukes production enabled (while the old "prohibited by the Great Imperial Charter" felt nice lore wise, I count not figure out how exactly acquiring those should work, so at least for now nukes are considered regular strategic weapons).
- [misc] All Bio hulls got Regenerating ability.
- [misc] Combat rules small adjustments (for example now Hardened Armor also halves damage received from bombs).
- [misc] No ruins, larvae and other unusual features on Terra. Also now Terra always start with a moon and a yellow sun.
- [misc] No larvae and other hostile planetary features within 2 jumps of Terra.
- [misc] Assure Arachnians (and other races) will not spawn within X jumps of Terra (previously it checked only distance in parsecs which, in case of long starlanes, could lead to them starting too near the player).
- [misc] Guaranteed at least 3 Terran type planets within 2 jumps (especially useful for Young Empire start).
- [misc] Ships starting abilities adjusted.

- [balance] Adjusted (increased) most combat bonuses for aliens.
- [balance] Adjusted many combat related bonuses from technologies (many increased significantly).
- [balance] Alien (AI) tech progress each audience, not each season.
- [balance] Alien (AI) ships buffed with abilities.
- [balance] Reduced research points gained per turn significantly (people are too quick to max out techs), also redid the base of research points (now it values more the overall development of the Empire than its size). Note that old saves will show incorrect research points gain until you press end turn.
- [balance] Research cost per tech level increase made more steep (high level techs are now even more expensive than those on the low tier).

- [content] New technologies regarding Thrusters (also maneuverability renamed to thrusters).
- [content] More varied ships for aliens (all Xeno races use an unique ships style while civilized races use one of the three standard ship styles).
- [content] Added several new ship abilities.
- [content] New modernizations: tractor beams, less crew required, cheaper.

- [interface] Most combat related tooltips (HP, Fighters, etc) implemented.
- [interface] Various art assets updated.
- [interface] Houses screen bar widened (now also displays grudges, income, shares, estate level).
- [interface] Displayed full ship tooltip (with all details) on squadron overview.
- [interface] Displayed ships on alien Diplomacy & Intelligence screen (with detailed tooltips containing all parameters and abilities).

- [fix] House relations not updating instantly (but next turn) when sending letters and gifts.
- [fix] When moving from Battle simulator to Ships it switched to Rename ship option.
- [fix] ESC key was incorrectly closing whole Planet window when on subscreen (now it closes subscreens of Planet screen).
- [fix] Battle simulator was using old scroller.
- [fix] Some modernizations were not working correctly.
- [fix] Sometimes ships showing blank lines for abilities.
- [fix] Incorrect finances expenses (not all items included) on Finances screen.
- [fix] Ships which start with Datalink still required taking a Datalink upgrade for Tactical Net and Encrypted Datalink upgrades.


Compatibility note: NO CHANGE, this version works with v0.74+ savefiles (note that each time a savefile compatibility is broken a new Beta branch with the old version is created so you can always finish your game in progress).

Version 0.78 released

It was foretold this version would be one big bug fix and rebalance. Well, it turned out to not be that bad after all. A bunch of bugs were reported in the big v0.77 which needed fixing. Some stuff needed to be rebalanced and a few more things were improved. No new features introduced in this version (well, maybe except the Decadence mechanic but it's more about balancing).

- [misc] All ship hulls now have at least one ability (just because!)

- [balance] Introduced Happiness "From Decadence" -1 per 10 turns (capped at turn 500).
- [balance] Happiness cap on loyalty reduced to +50% (from +100%).
- [balance] Happiness "neutral" threshold introduced. Now everything below 50 happiness is considered bad and gives a penalty, above 50 if good and grants bonus.
- [balance] Happiness grants cities output bonus (positive if above 50 happiness, negative otherwise).
- [balance] Happiness from technologies increased a bit.
- [balance] Happiness from government (court) increased massively (now you can not afford to overlook Charisma of your high rank personnel). Also increased the threshold so it's easier to get positive happiness bonus from courtiers.
- [balance] Base happiness reduced and now also is affected by difficulty.
- [balance] Happiness from food adjusted so it's a big penalty when food is negative but provides only a small boost when there is food surplus.
- [balance] Max stored Emperor Focus Points increased to 24 (from 12).

- [interface] Separate reporting for losing/retaking planet control from rebels (to have a better overview which planets were taken by aliens).
- [interface] Ships screen tooltips added. Not all implemented but it looks better.
- [interface] Bigger scroller (all screens).

- [fix] Organize rest of the Emperor option cost being ridiculously low.
- [fix] Modernization not being persistent (deactivated after end turn).
- [fix] Milestone for crushing the rebellion not triggering at the end of the rebellion.
- [fix] Power vacuum event had incorrect display of the house name in third option.


Compatibility note: NO CHANGE, this version works with v0.74+ savefiles (note that each time a savefile compatibility is broken a new Beta branch with the old version is created so you can always finish your game in progress).