Critical fixes:
- Fixed an issue where the game could crash when battle riders, drones, boarding pods, assault shuttles or bio-missiles were launched in combat.
- Fixed an issue where Swarmers could crash the game while launching from the hive.
- Fixed a crash that was occurring when creating new provinces.
- Fixed a crash caused by incorrect retrieval of achievement states.
- Fixed an issue where failure to load an asset could prevent screens from transitioning.
- Fixed multi-player compatibility issues between 32- and 64-bit versions of the game.
- The Continue Game button is now working.
- Tool tips have been added to the combat UI.
Other fixes and changes:
- Fixed an issue where public games were not being correctly published to the GameSpy master server.
- AI is now more aggressive in combat and starts closer to the action. This was done to address some cases where AI versus AI combat simulation was not resolving.
- Fixed known issues where modules were not being displayed on stations.
- Fixed an issue where certain ship designs were not being assigned default sensor ranges.
- Fixed an issue where planetary missiles were not hitting targets.
- Fixed a ship avoidance issue where ships could become immobilized between a station and the planet is orbits.
- Fixed issues where the game was incorrectly assessing whether players should engage in combat.
- Fixed an issue where the game was not correctly determining when players had discovered each other on the star map.
- Fixed issues where starting system distributions on star maps could be needlessly unbalanced.
- Fixed an issue where missiles and mines were not being assigned the correct structure, causing them to be too easy to pick off.
- Fixed the issue where Swarmers were not correctly pursuing moving targets.
- Fixed an issue where Hiver gates were not being deployed while enemy colonies existed in the system.
- Fixed an issue with lists in the GUI that was causing the Admiral Manager to present misleading data.
- Fixed an issue where Battle Cruisers and Battleships were being unlocked without the correct technologies being acquired.
- Fixed an issue where an incorrect large amount of terraforming damage could be applied by weapons in combat.
- Fixed an issue where the Von Neumann constructs could spawn at the center of a star system.
- Fixed an issue where reserve fleets were being included in sensor range checks
- The System Killer's beam range has been increased.
- Added missing icons to Heavy Beam modules.
- Start positions for certain combat encounters have been brought in closer.
- The ship HUD is no longer displayed when planets are selected in combat.
- There have been a handful of fixes to various weapon and ship art files.
- Fixed an issue where "easter eggs" could be spawned in colonized systems.
Additions
- Game setup now automatically defaults to the maximum players for the selected map.
- Missile warheads will now upgrade.
- Players are now presented with the option of renaming their initial home world as a new colony.
- The game launcher options dialog now includes a "Prefer 64-bit Process" checkbox. This can be unchecked to override default behavior and run the 32-bit version of the game on 64-bit operating systems.
- Features have been added to the station manager:
* Module descriptions have been added.
* The station module build queue now displays cost.
* A Max button has been added to the module build queue controls.
- Changes have been made to the upgrade paths of stations to prevent certain issues where upgrades might never be possible.
- The station manager now shows up as a window on the star map.
- The planet information window now shows up as a window on the star map.
- The redundant confirmation dialog that displayed when loading games has been removed.
- The Defense Manager tray has been hidden in this update to prevent the possibility of fleets becoming on the system map.
- The Liir Protectorate is now locked until the correct technology is acquired.
- As a stop-gap measure the initial window resolution supplied in the game launcher options has been reduced from 1680x1050 to 1280x960. This may help newcomers to the game in cases where the initial window size is too large for certain desktop and display configurations. Others may adjust this value in the options dialog as needed.
