Changelog: 1.2.18 - Balance

One of our main goals with this patch was to rebalance weapon & support modules following your feedback. Energy weapons should now be on par with their projectile counterparts, and Blast Effect Batteries will no longer be able to one-shot bigger ships.  We also gave some much needed buffs to some supports modules that were seeing little use while imposing some limitations to those that were too prominent in combat or could stack too high.

The other main aspect was to rebalance governments, also following player feedback. Republic was king and the idea was to bring the other governments to its level, by increasing their strengths and make them able to fit different playstyles. Along with the purely numerical changes on political event values (building many military ships will no longer force you to become militarist!), we feel this brings new stakes to the political game of Endless Space 2!

**BALANCE**

**Vaulters:**

* Material Expertise: Strategic resources costs multiplier in Modernization upgrades increased from 25% to 50%
* Probe vision range bonus from Vaulters-specific tech decreased from +40% to +25%
* Golden Age does not scale on Game Speed anymore
* Hero skill Geniocrat I: Science bonus reduced from +20% to +15%
* Vaulter populations bonus damage to attacker in ground battle increased from +20 to +25
* Increased cooldown before next free colonization by 2 turns

**Space Battle:**

* Rebalanced Laser & beam DPS values
* Blast Effect battery will now do only 50% damage against medium and large ships
* Energy and Projectile enhancer strategic cost brought from 2 to 3
* Lenser module will grant repair per phase bonus instead of HP bonus
* Jammer module will now grant an evasion boost in addition to its usual bonuses
* Antipersonnel Defense drone now grant 150 manpower in addition to its usual bonuses
* Hardened Shield Generators now grant 100 energy defense in addition to its usual bonuses
* Turret Recovery Fields now grant +10% critical damage in addition to its usual bonuses
* Globally reduced evasion boost on Engine modules
* Antimatter Laser and Beam will now have a superior hull penetration rate instead of a damage boost against shields
* Beams have been boosted back to 75% of their former value
* Energy & Projectile Enhancer Damage boost can now only be equipped once per ship

**Politics:**

* Made Autocracy available for Custom factions
* It is now possible to add governments in mods and they will appear in the interface of the game
* Reworked political event effects:
	+ Reduced power for numerous militarist events
	+ Reduced power for some pacifist events
	+ Increased power for some religious and ecologists events
	+ Building a Wonder now always increases the religious ideology
* Governments revamp:
	+ Federation now gives +1 System before over-colonization per Hero on Empire
	+ Federation now has -20% Luxury cost on System Development Upgrades
	+ Democracy now has -5% Influence upkeep cost reduction per active law from different political parties
	+ Dictatorship now has the strongest forced laws in the game
	+ Dictatorship now grants +50% Effect to Senator skills
	+ Dictatorship’s propaganda now provides an additional System effect as well as boosting party experience
	+ Dictatorship now has two additional law slots unlocked on stage 3 and 5 of Empire Development respectively

**Economy**

* Increased growth upkeep overall for population
* Early game food star system improvements have had their gains reduced

**FIXES**

* Fixed an issue where an unknown Battle Card with placeholder text was displayed in the Battle Tactics screen
* Added Show Location Buttons to Argosy-related notifications
* Fixed critical error when a Vodyani Ark has less than 60% HP, and tries and fails to retreat, resulting in its destruction and causing the game to remain stuck
* Fixed an issue where ships could appear rotated after using the Skip to Action button
* Quest planets no longer remain highlighted after the Pacifist path of the "Guardians and the galaxy" quest has failed
* Fixed some traits filed under the wrong category which caused their description not to appear
* Vaulters Fleet Names are now implemented
* Fixed the Meta-Entactogen Luxury not being impacted by cost reductions
* Fixed Need to Breed Bill not appearing for Republics