Stellar Monarch 2 News

This version introduces Empire wide projects. It is a feature I was planning for a while in order to provide you with more strategic options. A new tab on Industry screen was added and it allows you to initiate various grant projects (like expansion of the imperial palace, construction of a grand industrial complex and so on) which will benefit the Empire in various ways. Those are intended to allows you a more direct interaction with improving the Empire while avoiding the micromanagement by making those on an Empire level instead of a planetary level. Generally you need first to unlock those projects (via reforms or technologies) and then spend a significant number of turns waiting for their completion while paying a significant cost with an option to speed it up for an even greater cost. The second thing I focused on in this version was rebalance of economy. I tweaked many numbers and some rules to provide a more challenging gameplay (some of those are difficulty dependant, so now selected difficulty level also affects economy). Oh yes, there is a also a new hotkey to make worlds core which people who play on a huge galaxy setting should appreciate a lot.

- [feature] Projects (on Industry tab). Basic 3 projects are unlocked at start, each reform unlocks one project (for example Officer corps reform unlocks "War College") also some technologies unlock additional projects.
- [feature] Additional flat bonus to Economy Points for Young Empire (the bonus slowly goes down by -1% per turn, so at turn 100 it perishes completely). The exact value of the bonus depends on difficulty level.

- [misc] Safeguarded the code from potential negative tax rate, trade income or tribute (since if those become negative for any reason, although it should not be possible in the first place, at any point it would make some financial stuff behave quite strangely).
- [misc] Only first 3 levels of diplomatic influence trigger the audience event (since only 3 diplomatic perks are implemented at the moment).
- [misc] Diplomatic stance "Ignore" will cause the negotiation progress bar to no move (also any treaties about to be ratified will not be presented for ratification).
- [misc] Diplomatic stance "War Preparations" doubles the pace of Infiltration progress.
- [misc] Diplomatic stance "War Preparations" and "Ultimatum" chance for that race to declare a war.
- [misc] All hostile diplomatic stances (all which are marked red) slow down all treaty negotiations to half the pace.

- [content] Added 4 new technologies: Synthetic Metals, Peacekeeping rules, Cheap electronics and Stars exploration administration.
- [content] Administrative Act law replaced with Budget Restructurization Act.

- [balance] Significantly reduced base tax income.
- [balance] Tripled squadrons upkeep cost.
- [balance] Old Empire relative difficulty as if +100 turns passed instead of +50.
- [balance] Old Empire starts with basic Trade agreement signed with all races.
- [balance] Increased base bureaucracy cost.
- [balance] Base bureaucracy cost now affected by difficulty level.
- [balance] Increased penalty for exerting budget (note that with new projects & laws, which can affect budget, it might actually be cheaper to overstretch budget assuming you prepare for it).
- [balance] Base tax depends on difficulty.
- [balance] Reduced trade income.
- [balance] Doubled ships manufacturing cost.
- [balance] Making world core cost doubled.

- [interface] Improved Young/Old Empire tooltips.
- [interface] Added agents number to research bonuses screen.
- [interface] Added HotKey 'o' for make core action.

- [fix] Peaceful Coexistence diplomatic stance caused no treaties to be signed.


Compatibility note: NO CHANGE, this version works with v0.70+ 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).

The next version is here. It focuses on the long due diplomatic system overhaul. It was basically redesigned and reimplemented. Diplomatic points are no more, now you select diplomatic stances which tells your diplomats what you want and they try to do it. There are still ways to deal with diplomacy directly by inviting alien ambassadors and many things can be done both ways (like you can declare war directly via Diplomacy screen or invite the ambassador to tell him yourself) with the main difference is that one is doing it instantly and the other at a lower cost. Note that since the diplomatic system was just redesigned it's most like unbalanced (the balance will be done when I gather your feedback about the new system). There were also changes to combat engagement rules and colonization balancing. Of course also the usual share of fixes and interface improvements.


- [feature] Introduced Diplomatic stances (Peaceful Cooperation, War Preparations, Trade Alliance, etc) which let you give direction for imperial diplomats what are your goals and priorities for a given race. This serves as the basis of diplomatic events.
- [feature] Introduced Treaty negotiation. Now you don't use diplomatic points (which were removed) to sign treaties. Instead imperial diplomats will conduct negotiations automatically based on priorities you provided via diplomatic stance setting. There is a progress bar (on Diplomacy screen) which let you see how fast those negotiations progress (the pace is based on Competence & Charisma of diplomats, distance, etc). Once the negotiations are over you are presented with a "Ratify treaty" event for the given race.
- [feature] Diplomatic influence level added (for civilized races only). There is a progress bar how fast the diplomatic influence increases ()based on Charisma of diplomats and other factors, all of those are listed in the tooltip). Once there is sufficient influence accumulated for a next level an audience will pop up with a semi random choice of perks vs this race to choose from.
- [feature] Infiltration level added (for civilized races only for now, but later probably also for Xeno races). Similar to diplomatic influence mechanic but with some changes (for example infiltration progresses during war).
- [feature] Invite ambassador audience options redone, now you can declare war, make peace, make truce and cancel truce.
- [feature] Subsidy Embassy option on Diplomacy screen added. You can spend money and administration points to instantly increase diplomatic influence progress, infiltration progress and treaty negotiations progress.
- [feature] Added two more treaties: Cultural exchange and Excavation rights.

- [remove] Removed diplomatic points (now administration points and other standard resources are used).
- [remove] Removed old espionage system (since it got replaced with a new one).
- [remove] Removed some unimplemented treaties (Alliance and Protectorate), those might be back in future.

- [misc] After signing a truce/peace treaty all military forces will auto retreat from each other's planets (regardless of the reason why they are there).
- [misc] Space forces will not engage if the orbit controller is at peace/truce (to avoid fighting at peace/truce over third party planets), but the forces might stay and see how it resolves (if the planet is taken over by the attacker they will retreat, if the attacker loses orbit control they will attempt to take the planet for themselves).
- [misc] Colonization target algorithm likes planets adjacent to Terra even more and dislikes border and near border planets even more.
- [misc] Diplomatic relations now affect all progress bars (treaty negotiation progress, diplomatic influence progress, infiltration progress).
- [misc] Treaties have no upkeep cost anymore (which might change in future).
- [misc] Other minor changes to diplomacy (renamed Rare resources sale treaty to Resources market treaty, moved some now unused Supremacy to Experimental, etc).

- [balance] AI rebalance (civilized races make more military offensives now).
- [balance] Major races "planets number difference relations bonus" reduced from +30% to +10%.
- [balance] Trade value rebalanced. Base trade value reduced from 50% to 30% (since "Merchants connections" can now provide additional +20%).

- [interface] Outpost and Colonization reports split into separate folders.
- [interface] Treaties are now listed, no buttons (since now treaties are signed/ratified via audience events and there are no diplomatic points anymore).
- [interface] Diplomatic stances selector (War Preparations, Ultimatum, Embargo, Ignore, Peaceful Coexistence, Trade Alliance, Military Alliance, Cultural Unification, Make Protectorate) on Aliens diplomacy/intelligence screen where you can select how imperial diplomats should negotiate.
- [interface] Find Homeworld button on Aliens diplomacy/intelligence screen moved to very bottom.
- [interface] Trade income tooltip redone (much more clear now and lists all factors).
- [interface] Alien race status planetary tooltips (Civilized/Xeno/Minor/Major) all implemented and improved.
- [interface] Other small improvements.

- [fix] Colonization algorithm was using the logical colonization rules for the first colonization ship only which made the subsequent colonization target choices bad.
- [fix] Wrong War/Peace status displayed next to an ambassador of a civilized race on audience window.
- [fix] Incorrect random order range for Light industry and Advanced light industry technologies, which made them appear in reverse orders in some cases.
- [fix] Construction treaty was not working properly (foreign planets constructions always auto destroyed next turn as if during war).


Compatibility note: NO CHANGE, this version works with v0.70+ 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).

The game entered the stage where I'm focusing more on making all the things work together and less on introducing new features. There are some major features not ready yet, but with this version the priorities shift to gameplay, balance, reexamination and redesign of existing features. In short I try to tie all the loose ends and make it all work together as a complete unit. This also means in some areas there might be regressed compared to v0.6x branch if some features are evaluated to be substandard and removed/partially redesigned (like Great Council that is being redesigned right now). This version introduces many small changes and adjustments aimed at finishing existing mechanics (like ministries bonuses), streamlining stuff that might be needlessly complex or confusing (like colonization mechanic or Old Empire mode), explaining things better (tooltips improvements) and rebalancing numbers to provide a better challenge (like food consumption).

- [feature] Diplomats & Xeno Experts get bonus to Competence & Charisma from Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
- [feature] Available additional Extra Rules: Population consume less food, Population consume more food, Minerals processing efficiency reduced (so 3 optional extra rules that let you adjust how much of a problem managing food and minerals will be).

- [remove] Removed unused "Wild" rulesets (now there are 3 rulesets).
- [remove] Removed rebels as a political entity (rebels will be portrayed as an imperial planet property/modifier in future versions).

- [misc] Renamed rulesets to better convey the playstyle for each of those. Also listed additional core rules (not implemented yet, I added those to avoid confusion that those rulesets are only about technologies, now it will give you a better overview what those rulesets are meant to represent) and extended the ruleset tooltips.
- [misc] More logical and intuitive rules how a noble house votes (relations based).
- [misc] Conquest orders will change into establish outpost orders if a planet lost ownership for whatever reason before the conquest was completed (so it assures the planet will be taken over by the player as desired regardless of potential rare cases).
- [misc] Civilized races at peace/truce with the Empire will not target for conquest any planet that has imperial space forces on (this will avoid rare cases when both Empire and a civilized race targeted the same planet for conquest). This rule applies to aliens only, not the player.
- [misc] Outpost speed and Colonization speed redone into a +X% modifier (for consistency with other technological bonuses).
- [misc] Overmind will never spawn on Toxic or Barren planet upon game start (consistency with after game start overmind placement rules).
- [misc] Great Council obligatory bills changed to "Minsters approved" and "Taxes approved" (penalty to efficiency of all ministries and penalty to tax efficiency).
- [misc] On "Old Empire" mode all megalopolises are already placed.
- [misc] On "Old Empire" mode the game starts at turn 1 but aliens starting technology is calculated as if 50 turns have passed, same for base bureaucracy cost and corruption. This will make things less confusing (I noticed some players being puzzled why the starting turn is 50 instead of 1) while achieving the same effect.

- [balance] Slower colonization (previously even on the Young Empire mode with the penalty to colonization it was only two turns, far too fast). But also simplified colonization and now all colonization ships provide an identical pace (so having more colonization ships has a bigger impact now since each one counts as a full efficiency colonization ship).
- [balance] Slightly slower outpost construction speed (also adjacency to colony has lower effect on the outpost speed).
- [balance] Doubled penalty for core worlds adjacency to non core worlds (after analyzing the saves beta player provided, I noticed people don't care too much about core world placement, while it's not a big deal and not a hard rule I wanted to give more incentives to make people want to clump core worlds together).
- [balance] Laws rebalance (no bonus to extension of Ministry of Protocol since it made no sense, no extra bureaucracy cost from Administrative Act, added more extension of a ministry effects to existing laws, some laws removed, some numbers adjusted, etc).
- [balance] Food consumption increased by 20%.

- [content] Techs that grant bonus to Diplomats & Xeno Experts Competence.
- [content] Law which grants bonus to Diplomats Charisma.

- [interface] Added "Political capital" section on house screen (replaces/extends old "Favors" section). It lists favors, secrets and vote promises acquired towards this house.
- [interface] The Great Council screen shows a simplified list of passed bills when there is no voting in progress (showing which house voted on what last time was too confusing and not really needed).
- [interface] The Great Council screen now lists below each crest % of votes the house holds (color coded so you also see the "relations of the votes").
- [interface] Outpost progress tooltip to explain how outposts construction works.
- [interface] After coring a world max cities and cities output bonus are updated instantly.
- [interface] Beautified planet tooltips (since these were one of the oldest tooltips not up to date with the newer ones)
- [interface] Added an exact tax income effect for each tax slider tooltip on Finances/Tax screen.
- [interface] Beautified Finances/Budget tooltips.

- [fix] The Great Council bills not cleared properly upon new council voting (which made bills not on agenda voted on as well).


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).

This is most likely the last version of the v6x branch. It has several interesting features. First, fiefs are finally implemented. I have decided to do a thing I rarely do and I implemented it with the primary goal of adding to the mood to the game rather than as a hard mechanic. Of course fiefs have a gameplay purpose but for this alone I could just replace those with numbers. Still, I felt (also evaluating your feedback on the forums) that such a feature makes sense with the overall premise of the game. Most likely it will be fine-tuned further (like there is no difference which world a house has a fief on) but overall it's a first working model of the fiefs system. Next was Centralization, which was moved from experimental to regular features and altered a bit. Coincidentally, when I was sitting and coding it suddenly occurred to me it could be tied also to reforms which worked out very well. Now reforms also provide Centralization, which is quite logical and intuitive and simple. When Amendments to the Great Imperial Charters are implemented it would be a well rounded feature. Oh yes, Centralization also triggers certain audience events, especially the Modern Aristocracy one is quite fun since it let you remodel feudal society to aristocratic society where nobles care more about their position in the imperial palace that about their feudal fiefs. The last thing is introduction of an option to review imperial officials (for now an experimental feature so it's disabled by default, but it's quite complete so you can try it safely), which is more in the likes of the dynamics of the prequel where you got those audience events that let you deal with various officials in bulk. Now you can do it by your own choice without waiting for an event, but for a price of course. Overall, this version has several features which solve several problems in the game, are intuitive, fit well with the rest of the game and do not introduce extra complexity which is a thing that always makes me quite happy as a designer.


- [feature] Centralization moved from experimental to regular features. Now it is also affected by reforms and it has 2 additional effects (triggers powerful events after reaching a certain centralization threshold). Note that The Great Imperial Charter Amendments, which are a major source of Centralization, are not implemented yet, but the reforms alone can still make you reach the threshold to trigger all events (so, in the final version it will be basically easier to reach it, but the mechanic will be the same).
- [feature] Fiefs implemented (at a basic yet functional level). Those are handled automatically according to the Great Imperial Charter regulations but you can grant other houses extra fiefs.
- [feature] Summoning the head of a house (the noble can be summoned from the house screen) now allows you to grant/revoke fiefs. Granting a fief can earn you favors with noble houses, but revoking a fief is a more costly matter.
- [feature] Experimental feature (needs to be enable via gameplay options), to let you review (dismiss incompetent, etc) officials by your own request (without waiting for an event). It's done via a new button on audience screen (next to banquet button) ant it basically let you pay and you get appropriate "Review" event during the nearest audience.

- [remove] Removed unused Claim to the Imperial Throne.

- [misc] Each implemented reform grants +1 Centralization (in addition to the usual effects).
- [misc] -1 Stability penalty per each lost core world (the penalty is lifted when the core world is retaken).
- [misc] Fiefs now provide authority bonus (similar to monarchism bonus).

- [balance] Negative treasury now causes fixed -1 Stability per turn (instead of progressively more depending on how long the treasury stayed negative). This is a sufficient deterrent already.
- [balance] Monarchism bonus from fiefs reduced but increases fiefs cap.

- [content] Duties of the Modern Aristocracy perk events (active after you selected the default option during Modern Aristocracy event which is triggered after reaching a certain Centralization threshold).

- [interface] House screen tooltips improved (more details, more flavor text, etc). Especially fiefs tooltip improved, now it shows guaranteed share of fiefs according to the Great Imperial Charter and extra fiefs (if granted by the Emperor).
- [interface] Tooltip for 'Make Core' button shows more details regarding fiefs and lists the penalty of losing a core world.

- [fix] Bug where courtiers supporting warlords tradition house were getting competence boost (should be for officers only).


Compatibility note: NO CHANGE, this version works with v0.60+ 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).

This version is a mix of small redesign, cleanup and rebalance. Basically, I removed tiny bits of outdated features and managed to replace them with something that is more logical, more fun, easier to explain and looks prettier on the screen. All of those at the same time (as you can imagine I very rarely manage to pull off something like that, so I'm very content). Fleet screen now has bars with average officers' stats and with all effects listed in tooltips. Staff officers were redesigned, now they provide bonus vs certain alien races. The staff can be promoted/demoted which allows you to decide which bonuses you want to focus on. Also, it let you to change your mind, at a cost of course, if you want to wage a war against another target for example. Note that not all of those effects are handled by the battle engine yet, I wanted first to gather your feedback before the full implementation of those. Next are the old ministry related events. I can't imagine I have delayed it for so long (and even more surprising is that you never complained about those), but finally, all those events are up to date with Stellar Monarch 2 mechanics. Yay! There is also an early attempt on house traditions perks (some effects are placeholder but otherwise it's fully functional), rebalance of rebel points (which are not really meaningful yet since the rebellion is not implemented, but I wanted to fine-tune the numbers before I start implementing the actual rebellion) and two new extra rules which can be enabled via options. There is also a bunch of smaller improvements and fixes.


- [feature] Tradition house perks, unlocked by relations with a noble house (Neutral/Cordial/Friendly). Each relation tier unlocks one perk. Note that some effects are a placeholder in this version and will be replaced with proper effects in future.
- [feature] Two additional optional extra rules "At the Brink of Rebellion" and "Rebels Everywhere".
- [feature] Imperial High Command staff grant tactical bonus vs certain alien race (each officer specializes in different aliens). The bonus depends on the staff rank.
- [feature] Ability to promote/demote Imperial High Command staff.

- [misc] Negative rebel points (reduction) are now only generated by the Court, Stability and events (all other factors can only add rebel points but never remove any).
- [misc] Cleanup of audience events/effects (removed instances of obsolete project pts, finished tooltips for conditional personnel modification, etc).
- [misc] Natural Born Leader trait also affects Vice Admirals.
- [misc] Officers who are supporters of houses with Warlords tradition get +1 Competence.

- [balance] Required 5'000 rebel points (previously 10'000) for rebellion to reach 100% readiness.
- [balance] Court and planet rebel support affects rebel points generation significantly more.
- [balance] Corruption trait of officers impact increased, also now affected by officer's rank (similar to Courtiers).

- [content] Cleanup up of ministry related audience events (all of them are finally redone to match the SM2 mechanics).

- [interface] Replaced unused readiness/morale bars with average officers' stats bars (Competence/Loyalty/Charisma) on Fleets screen.
- [interface] Audience options tooltips show the number of turns a temporary modifier effect will last.
- [interface] Noble Houses traditions tooltips list the effects for house supporters (Old Aristocracy and Warlords bonus).
- [interface] Tooltip for officers stats states the exact impact of stats depending on military rank.

- [fix] Bug where every noble house head shared the same name if the custom emperor's name was chosen.
- [fix] Other potential vulnerabilities fixed (code review).


Compatibility note: NO CHANGE, this version works with v0.60+ 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).