New in Version 1.9

Reputation

The former happiness system has been replaced by the new reputation system.
The term “happiness” is now only used for ships to indicate their remaining reputation upon arrival.
Unlike happiness, every player—not just the owner—has a reputation score in every star system.

Just as with previous happiness, reputation increases when a culture ship arrives.

In battles, the combat strength of the warring factions is calculated based on the happiness of their battleships and their reputation in the system.

Reputation can decrease in a star system due to battles or disasters.

Nicer Rules

Reducing Construction Costs

Previously, building a ship cost Ship Points ⋅ 2 debt.
In the current version, the construction cost has been reduced to Ship Points debt, which is now equal to the starting cost. The scrap costs, which previously was Ship Points debt, has been completely removed.

Reducing Construction Time

Furthermore, scrapping no longer takes any time; previously, the construction time was equal to the ship points.
Instead, the construction time has been reduced from Ship Points ⋅ 2 to Ship Points years.

Adjustment of Ship Points

These changes made it possible to adjust the ship's stats without causing the construction costs and construction times to become too high.

The ship points for the colony ship have been increased from 5 to 10, because it seems more realistic to me that a colony ship is 10 instead of 5 times more expensive than a scout and that construction takes 10 instead of 5 times as long.
However, by reducing the construction cost to Ship Points, the colony ship costs exactly the same as before, and by reducing the construction time to Ship Points, building the colony ship takes exactly as long as before. However, the starting costs have doubled due to the higher ship points.

All ship points that were previously 3 have been increased to 5. This applies to merchant ships, culture ships, tech ships, battleships, and invasion ships.
The construction time is slightly shorter, at 5 years instead of 6.
The construction cost is slightly lower, at 5 Debt instead of 6.
The starting cost is higher, at 5 Debt instead of 3.

The probes' ship points remain the same, so construction costs and construction time are now only half what they were before; launch costs remain the same.

Strikes Removed

Strikes occurred when reputation (previously known as happiness) was 1.
Strikes didn't make much sense; while commands sent to the system weren't executed, ships wouldn't get very far even without a strike if reputation was that low.

Maximum Reputation Adjusted

The maximum reputation value is now 10 instead of 9. As a result, the maximum travel time of a ship increases from 89 to the nicer number of 99 years.

Free Worlds

Free worlds have no owners, but you can trade with them or conquer them.
However, your own stationed merchant and invasion ships ensure that you receive up-to-date information from the system.

Trade with Free Worlds

Merchant ships can be sent to free worlds.
Upon the merchant ship’s arrival, there are no debts that can be increased, which is an advantage for the system but a disadvantage for the empire.
On the other hand, launching the merchant ship costs nothing.

If there are multiple merchant ships stationed in the system, all of them want to depart at the same time, and there aren't enough trade goods, the merchant ship that has been stationed there the longest gets the cargo.

Freight cargo from free worlds generate twice as much revenue as those from colonies.
So it can sometimes make sense not to own all the worlds, but simply to harvest the goods from them.

Culture Ships

Cultural ships can be sent to free and also enemy worlds to boost your reputation there.

Tech Ships

Tech ships can also be sent to free and enemy worlds. This can be advantageous because the return journey of merchant ships from free worlds is faster, or because you want to prepare the system for conquest.

Ship Lifespan

Merchant and invasion ships stationed in free worlds have a remaining lifespan after arrival.

The calculation is the same as for the transmission duration of scouts in other star systems.

The goal is to ensure that the happiness of merchant and invasion ships remains significant even in free systems.
In terms of the story, this is explained by the fact that ships from free systems are neither built nor maintained there.

The remaining lifespan is displayed using a circular progress bar around the stationed ship.

Man-made Disasters

Free worlds have no owner and therefore no owner reputation on which the probability of man-made disasters depends.
For this reason, the probability is calculated as if free worlds always had the maximum reputation.

Modified Victory Condition

You can now win the game even if you've destroyed all your opponents but still don't have two-thirds of all the stars, which is possible because there are now free worlds.

Battles

The population no longer decreases as a result of battles. That can only happen during disasters.
The narrative explanation is that battles take place in space far beyond the inhabited planets.

A system can no longer be conquered through battles, but if the owner’s reputation drops to 0 (which can also happen due to disasters), the system becomes free and can then be conquered using invasion and protector ships.

Battles can also take place in free systems.
There, they destroy any enemy trade and invasion ships that may be stationed there.

New Rules for Invasion Ships

Until now, systems have been captured directly during battles.
Invasion ships were used solely to suppress rebellions and were sent into the system by their owner.

Now, systems can only be freed during battles.
To incorporate them into your own empire, they must be conquered using invasion and protector ships.

A free world is occupied by one invasion ship per pop.
Once all pops have been occupied, a protector ship must be sent to the system so that the system becomes the property of the conqueror.
The invasion ships are then disbanded.

Protector Ship

The name is a euphemism; the current owner protects the system from the other empires, which, unlike our own empire, are of course evil.

The symbol is a shield, fitting for the name.

Only systems with a protector ship belong to an empire.

The protector ship is not visible if the system belongs to an empire and does not take up a pop's slot.

The protector ship must be built on the homeworld.

Once all pops have been occupied by invasion ships, a protector ship must be sent to complete the invasion.

A protector ship can be scrapped, freeing up the system again—though that rarely makes sense. Perhaps you want to take advantage of the higher trade revenues from the now free system.

After colonization, systems are needed to produce resources, such as the first trade ships, so the colonies would first have to belong to the empire; otherwise, the debt would not be enough to colonize and conquer 5 systems at the start.
The solution is that colony ships sent from the home system automatically belong to the empire, meaning they automatically get a protector ship.
The other systems are free until they are conquered.

Map

More Useful Information on Destination Systems

For destination systems—that is, when a launch system has been selected—the star name and mineral wealth are no longer displayed, since neither of these ever changes.
Instead, the following values are also displayed:

• the happiness with which a ship would arrive
• the tech points that a tech ship would add
• the happiness points that a culture ship would add
• the debt that a merchant ship would add

This way, you don't have to check the move info as often.

Highlighting Objects

Selected stars, ships, and commands are highlighted while the others are darkened.

Destination stars that are currently unreachable from the selected starting system are darkened.

Further Changes and Bug Fixes

Almost all modal dialogs have been eliminated and largely replaced by expandable sections.

Switched from WebGL to WebGL2

FIX: Landscape did not take into account the safe-area-inset-variables of the iPhone.

The culture ship has a new symbol , and the colony ship will take on the Culture Ship's old symbol .
The reason for this is that the old colony ship symbol was often difficult to distinguish from the scout.

"Trade ship" renamed to "merchant ship".

"Probe" renamed to "scout"

The number of empires was calculated from the hexbase in many places.
Now it is only calculated from the number of home systems in the save game.
So you can make your own maps where the number of empires is determined by yourself.
However, there is still no map editor; the only option is to write the map yourself in JSON and load it into the game.

Trade goods are now also reduced in the event of disasters.