Hello everyone,

Today we have a new Insider build update available for those that want to try the newest features early and help provide feedback.  This update improves game balance, introduces new “Crisis” events involving classic civs, improves AlienGPT and includes a variety of improvements to both gameplay and planetary improvements.

How to opt-into a specific build:

On Steam:

• Select "Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova in your Steam Library list.

• Right-click and select Properties.

• Select the BETAS tab.

• From the dropdown, select the desired build and exit the dialog.

• Steam should pull down the changed files; if you ever want to go back, do the same as above but select
  default (or None).
  
  

On Epic For Insider Build:

To enable the patch, please do the following:

• Open the Epic Launcher

• Select "Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova - Insider's Edition"

• Install and play!

Epic does not currently support old version downloads.

Please note: The opt-in (Insider Build) is an early preview of the next update, and you might experience bugs or other issues.

08/31/23 | v1.72 Changelog

AlienGPT 

• Ensure AlienGPT requests 9 images every time.   

• Moved templates to be in language folder so that we can use translated text if ChatGPT fails. 

• Image generation is faster.  

• Greatly improved the time it takes to save generated factions. 

• Added a "Re-Roll Selections" get more images like the currently selected one. 

Art  

• Updated planetary improvement icons. 

• Galaxy zoom out view improved (prettier we hope). 

• Slight lighting changes to ships on the main map. 

Audio 

• Implement Sound Cues for Event notifications. 

• Updated Torian theme. 

• Added sfx for adding opponents during game setup. 

Battle Viewer 

• Ensure that a tooltip with an attack preview does not show on hover over of allied ships. 

• Make battle prediction tooltips valid and reliable. 

• Improved lighting. 

• Created a pop-up warning when trying to attack an allied ship. 

Core  

• Major refactors of pathfinding code that should greatly improve late game performance of this system.   

• Fixed a soft lock related to Achievements. 

• Improved culling of graphics and audio object.   

• Reduced the delay when placing Planetary Improvements.   

• Improved the particle and visual trail perf, especially late game. 

Events 

• Added crisis event that spawns the legacy factions (Thalan, Slyne, Xendar, and Snathi).  

• Missionary event reduced in likelihood. 

• New event image for war related events. 

• More events given story counters. 

• Updated Event Choices to have more diverse & narratively accurate ideology implications. 

Factions 

• Silicon based lifeforms should ignore food requirement for growth. 

• Added " Ammonia" biology type increases population growth in polluted environments. 

• Drengi wealth decreased, Tech increased. 

• Iconia influence decreased but given more tiles. 

• Ensure that Humans are default Citizens when creating new civilization. 

• Ensure Phalenoids boost from Season of Dreaming is reflected in UI. 

Galaxy 

• Tweaks to sector size dispersion. 

Gameplay 

• Leader Traits no longer mysteriously change over time. 

• Prevent dead players from doing stuff. 

• Add "auto-fire" to Starbase and Fleets.  At the end of a player's move phase, all fleets and Starbases with long range weapons and first them at enemy targets in range. 

• Adds a "Standby" option to ship UI, allowing the ship to remain dormant even if enemy ships are nearby. 

• Pick best unit profession updated so that they aren't quite so deterministic on what job they'll take.   

• Resource Extraction Techs for Durantium, Promethium, etc.  now properly unlock respective Starbase Modules. 

• Improvements to the AI mean that it can queue up more tasks at a time.  

• Spawned units will now mostly spawn citizens (non-specialists) but will still occasionally spawn specialists but now balanced to be of multiple types (instead of all farmers and entrepreneurs). 

• Number of clusters doesn't affect scoring quite as much as before. 

• Starting credits reduced from 2500 to 1500 to balance with citizens on planets being much more powerful. 

• AI is much better at taking out targets of opportunity. 

• Monsters, pirates, and such are much more aggressive. 

• Hooking prisoners up to electrodes is part of a government policy on a planet no longer treated as a Progressive but instead a Totalitarian. 

• Survey module artifacts are less likely to occur. 

• Money reward from some artifacts is reduced. 

• Core world capitals provide +3 to population cap by default. 

• Low gravity world fertility is now more variable but with a higher range. 

• Citizens (default profession) provide 0.2 minerals per diligence, 0.2 research per intelligence, and 0.2 wealth per social (up from 0). 

• Reduced likelihood of planet terraforming artifacts from being found. 

• Extreme Automation policy buff to manufacturing reduced from an eye watering 50% to 15%. 

• Starbase Defense Module now provides a 50-point shield barrier and enhanced weapons. 

• Advanced Starbase Defense Module now provides a 100-point shield barrier and enhanced weapons. 

• Barrier Field defense shield bonus increased from 50 to 100. 

• AI is slightly more likely to surrender when it's losing a war. 

• Events that spawn factions will still spawn the faction if you hide the event.  

• Starbases in other ZOC diplomatic penalty reduced. 

• New Executive Orders for the Drengin including "Pillage."

Planetary Improvements 

• Added "Recycling Center" improvement. 

• "AI Overseer" now a galactic wonder, reduces from by 20% instead of 10%, level bonus decreases crime by 1% per level. 

• "Bureaucratic Offices" renamed" Office of Control," now a Galactic Wonder, provides 3 Control per turn (instead of 0.1) and an additional 0.1 control per turn per level. 

• The "Ministry of Diplomacy" buffed to provide +1 to player's diplomacy ability but now requires "Auorrus Arboretums." 

• "Spice Market" is now a wonder and Tourism bonus increased from 5% to 10%. 

• "Bob the Galactic Wonder" now requires "Precursor Nanites" to build. 

• "Augmentation Center" now increases all citizens intelligence by 3 but now requires Precursor Nanites to build. 

• The "Prison Labor Camp" fixed. 

• Prison based improvements have their bonuses increased from 10% to 15%. 

• New Planetary Improvement: Holo Theater. 

• AI preferences are now hooked up to improvements to help the AI intelligently pick what to build on its planets and when. 

• "Computer Core" raw research provided reduced from 2 to 1. 

• "Coordination Beacon" Influence per turn per level decreased from 10% to 5%. 

• "Starport Shipyard" buff decreased from 10% per level to 8% per level. 

• "Surveillance Center" now provides a +1 military (shipyard production) adjacency bonus. 

• "Trade Network" per level benefit increased from 2% to 4%. 

• "Financial Districts" per level benefit decreased from 4% to 3%. 

• Agriculture District per level value increased from 5% to 8%. 

• Research Districts per level benefit decreased from 4% to 3% (to balance with population providing a research benefit). 

• Fixed bug where district upgrades were being seen by the AI as durational projects. 

• The Farmer trait  is no longer needed for some of the more basic Xeno agriculture techs and improvements. 

• Farmer civ trait no longer needed for the first couple upgrades to Agriculture districts. 

• "Possibility Engine" base effect lowered from 200% to research to 100% but now increases research by additional 5% per level. 

Ships 

• Warp Drive and Slipstream starship modules added. 

• Turned off Mass Checks for Commander Ships. 

• Ship movement late game is less chunky. 

Techs 

• New tech: Greater Anomaly detection (additional late game anomaly respawn). 

• Engine techs and logistics tech trees separated.  

• "Subspace" Streaming now provides +1 moves. 

• The "Precursor Souvenirs" improvement removed. 

• The "Legal Offices" renamed "Planetary Court." 

• Shadow Temple renamed Temple of Whispers, is now a galactic wonder, provides +1 to diplomacy ability, and gives +5 diplomatic capital income per turn. 

Graphics 

• Adjusted overall lighting 

• When zoomed out, the fleet icon now have trails. 

• Enabled VFX in Starbase Details Screen. 

Text 

• Control per month is now Control Per Month. 

• Starbase modules typo fix. 

• Collectivism Header text fix. 

• Updated UI text for greater clarity. 

• Updated Terran Alliance ship names. 

• Drengin Pillage text added. 

• Slaves renamed Thralls. 

• Improved flavor text. 

• Minor text edits. 

UI

Custom Civ Creator 

• Ensure tooltips appear to the left of the control. 

• Fixed edit button offsets on the Civilization Setup window. 

• Increased window and font sizes, and improved layout consistency. 

Ship Designer 

• Fix ship graphics symmetry. 

• Ensure Ships show all types of weapons and defenses on Infocard. 

• Removed collapsible partitions for components in the Equip Mode of the Ship Designer. 

• Added Resource cost icons on ship component entries in Ship Designer. 

Misc 

• Event Window: Ensure scroll bar utilizes the mouse wheel. 

• Adjusted the Crisis popup text to fit one more line of text before clipping. 

• Make Stats list entry larger to fix longer translations. 

• Update Alignment and sizing of stats on the Diplomacy List window. 

• Planet Upgrade scroll bar no longer resets its position. 

• Fixed a problem on the trades screen that prevented the trade of resources under some circumstances. 

• Tech Tree screen: removed the sidebar list to reduce visual clutter. 

• Remove "Done" button from all Cut Scenes. 

• Fixed size discrepancy in the civ description text boxes. 

• Update all tool tips to say "Hold shift to lock tooltip" if they have more information to show. 

• Fix clipping issue with description text on the Prestige tooltip. 

• Add Tooltip to Show/Hide buttons for summary panel in the upper right. 

• Added a new Game Option to show the planetary grid.