Release Status: *** UNAVAILABLE ***
In the March update for Sins of a Solar Empire 2, several significant changes have been made to enhance gameplay, particularly focusing on Minor Factions and Influence, research, and balancing adjustments. Minor Factions and the new Influence mechanic now play an integral role by providing access to new capabilities such as the Pirate's “Looting Crew” and the Viturak's “Construct Phase Gate” and introducing new behaviors such the “Aluxian Resurgence” attempting to reestablish their dynastic rights by conquering neighboring planets.
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It is possible to max out both military and civilian points on a planet. At first glance it would appear there is no tough choice between the two. However, as there are now two new tracks and the costs per track upgrade have changed, the order in which you spend your resources to upgrade that planet is much more important. In this sense they are competing in time and resources between military and civilian research and every other track that planet offers. For example, the time and resource cost to fully max out a Terran planet is now very significant. So, if you decide early on to specialize in military research it will be relatively cheap and fast to acquire. If you then decide to upgrade logistics, mining, commerce or whatever and then decide to come back later and do some civilian research it will be quite prohibitive.
The time it takes to unlock specific research subjects is now very significant, especially as you move up tiers. While you have a default nominal rate, it will quickly become very obvious that orbital research stations are needed to accelerate your progress. This rewards a research focused strategy while also maintaining slot competition with other civilian orbit structures.
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Version 1.20.
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7.
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1 Changelog
Minor Factions:
Added new Minor Faction system.
Added Pranast United Minor Faction.
Added Aluxian Resurgence Minor Faction.
Added more Minor Faction rewards.
Converted Minor Faction reputation levels to use Influence points to increase.
Added Minor Faction reward type for temporary global player modifiers.
Removed Minor Faction reward inventory and culture rewards. Refactored Minor Faction rewards to now be both auction rewards and shop items that are used/purchased from Minor Factions with Influence.
Added reveal Minor Faction with Influence.
Added gravity well fixture target filter to spawn units Minor Faction reward.
Added various Minor Faction reward types.
Removed envoy requirement on using Minor Faction reputation abilities.
Added infrastructure necessary to spawn structures from a global ability.
Added user interface for using Minor Faction reputation rewards at arbitrary positions.
Added targeting circle for Minor Faction abilities if they have radius. (e.g., deploy Gauss defense structure).
Added infrastructure for Minor Factions to use player AI to colonize nearby planets.
Added Minor Faction AI attacking.
Added forced Minor Faction alliances. Allows hostile Minor Factions to be made allied to one another (but not other Minor Factions).
Added finite item panel to Minor Faction window.
Added use Minor Faction reputation reward buttons to Minor Faction window.
Closed Minor Faction window after successfully using targeted reward.
Changed Minor Faction reputation buttons to be aligned vertically instead of horizontally.
Added full grid of Minor Faction reputation buttons to bottom planet window. When Minor Faction planet is selected can now do all possible 8 actions instead of just the first 2.
Added max column count to Minor Faction reputation reward buttons.
Added optional target alerts to Minor Faction spawn unit rewards.
Removed auction interface from Minor Faction window.
Added Minor Faction auction cooldown table.
Removed vestigial Minor Faction inventory slot container.
Changed Minor Factions window to use reputation players instead of players with auctions.
Removed remaining Pirate auctions including Smugglers Den.
Hid excavation buttons for Minor Faction planets. Overlaps space needed for reputation reward buttons.
Added guards to Minor Faction markets to prevent infinite money loops due to modifiers on market buy/sell prices.
Added Phase Gate to Viturak Cabal starting structures.
Added max health to new research planet track tooltips.
Suppressed fleet under attack notifications when damage comes from yourself.
Added notification for breaking minor faction alliance.
Added Pirate Raid vision sharing.
Added Pirate Wager minor faction reward. Roll the dice and see what you’ve won!
Added Pirate Boarding Crew minor faction reward. Yar, that ship be ours!
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Fixed assert sending ping to fleet, will now redirect ping to fleet leader as fleets are unknown to other players.
Fixed "can use ability" query always failing for abilities creating structures without gravity well targeting constraints.
Fixed chance of duplicate Minor Faction players on large maps.
Fixed derelict guardians not being leashed to derelict properly.
Fixed exotic factory build time modifiers for nearby planet only working for structures.
Fixed host saved games on server being broken.
Fixed market monopolization auction notification showing up when auction has no winners (no monopolization).
Fixed move commands sometimes being overridden by unit AI auto attacks.
Fixed newly built strikecraft not always launching when arriving at hyperspace destination.
Fixed Novalith cannon not working if fired in the same gravity well as target planet.
Improved behavior of hull points when crippled hull points are modified.
Fixed units following enemy units through hyperspace when attacking.
Fixed ship loot dropping off the gravity well plane and being impossible to capture.
Fixed game server list filtering out servers with older versions of state.
Fixed gravity warhead non-looping impact sound on targets.
Fixed looping flair effect sounds not stopping.
Fixed looping sounds on buffs being restarted after buff is killed.
Fixed ships in transit between phase gates going invisible if phase gate is destroyed.
Fixed sound-only detached effects from immediately expiring.
Fixed units not always attacking.
Fixed bad specular artifacts.
Fixed bug where planet components would not always be upgraded with research.
Fixed ship unable to capture wreckage.
Fixed missiles appearing to travel right through targets.
Fixed dark fleet units being able to move away from leashed planet by following other units out that can hyperspace.
Fixed special operation units still being controllable when over/retreating.
Fixed starbases not being created with names.
Fixed team games with Vasari Alliance not giving initial detection of friendly minor factions.
Fixed selection window assert.
Fixed broken random maps.
Fixed Minor Faction detection being broken.
Modding
Added support for sound-only flair effects.
Changed special operation units to be data-driven.
Improved ability binding in units.
Added support to disable player AI from colonizing.
Additional modding capabilities from Minor Faction changes.
Added support for buffs owned by player to be put on NPC raids.
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