Changelog: 1.0.18 - The Stellar Prisoner

Time for new things! This update comes with a bit of free content on the side, because who doesn't like free stuff? Those of you who helped us test update preview 1.0.16 might have encountered some of the content early... That's our way of saying thanks for giving a hand in testing out the new update. The new things include a new special node, two unique planets, unique anomalies on Auriga & Bilgeli, and a hero and the quest to rescue it! Also a truckload of performance improvements. Read on for more detail...

**[XML]**

* Added Neutron Star special node
* Added 2 new unique planets, Veil & Teonha
* Added hero Koros Apogee
* Added hero Tiaych Zhilleaq
* Added the quest Invisible Chains (look for the neutron star!)
* Added a unique Anomaly on Auriga & Bilgeli (2 total)
* Reduced Auriga base science as it is now given by Husk of Knowledge anomaly
* Fixed the quest improvement "Craver Dark Ops" being available to be built multiple times
* Fixed custom faction feedback on planet FIDSI tooltips
* Fixed Unfallen home system not having a bonus of 1000 System Manpower
* Fixed cooldown timer for changing battle tactics set not being affected by game speed
* Added Enhanced Astronavigation as a starting skill (tier 0) for Tiaych Zhilleaq
* Fixed incorrect feedback of Sophon Free Move movement points (showed +2, when it gave +4)
* Sophons Free Move now gives +2 Vision Range instead of +1.5
* Sophons Free Move now gives +2 Movement Points instead of +4
* Disabled Apathetic/Fervent Colonists Traits for Factions with Shipbound (since it's irrelevant to them)
* Disabled Guardians Trait for Factions with Shipbound (since it's irrelevant to them)
* Fixed some political traits not affecting politics properly/being wrongly feedbacked
	+ Merchants (Industrialist events support Pacifist political opinion)
	+ Monumentalists (Industrial events support Religious political opinion)
	+ Aggressive (Industrial events support Militaristic political opinion)
	+ Investors (Pacifist events support Industrialist political opinion)
	+ Conservationists (Pacifist events support Ecologist political opinion)
	+ Automatists (Scientists events support Industrialist political opinion)
	+ Sociologists (Scientists events support Pacifists political opinion)
	+ Biologists (Scientists events support Ecologists political opinion)
	+ Dutiful (Religious events support Industrialists political opinion)
	+ Virtuous (Religious events support Pacifists political opinion)
	+ Skeptics (Religious events support Scientists political opinion)
	+ Fanatical (Religious events support Militarists political opinion)
	+ Sanctuarists (Religious events support Ecologists political opinion)
	+ Pragmatic (Militarists events support Scientists political opinion)
	+ Preservationists (Militarists events support Ecologists political opinion)
	+ Harvesters (Ecological events support Industrialists political opinion)
	+ Druids (Ecologists events support Religious political opinion)
	+ Territorial (Ecologists events support Militarists political opinion)
* Exploration quest Mysterious Plague ship is now disabled for the Vodyani Faction
* Horatio Carrier now has 13200 HP instead of 5500 HP
* War exhaustion trend computation will now depend on game speed
* Added Distributed Energy and Gamma Analysis tooltips
* Lumeris refund for outposts is now equal to the Dust spent to colonize
* Updated Gas FIDSI to differentiate the planets
* Populations Collections for Custom Factions are now dissociated from the vanilla factions'. This allows for clearer feedback (we don't show a vanilla faction icon for a population collection bonus applied to a custom faction)
* Fixed a bug where the Horatio population collection bonus level 3 had overpowered, unintended industry effects
* Fixed an issue of Influence provided by Outposts
* “First contact” action with Minor Factions is now free
* The "New Colony Rule" Industrialist law only applies its effect on the newly acquired colony
* Fixed tooltip of the "Explore Binaries" anomaly reduction displaying debug text
* Fixed The Quest Babies not Booms sending population on outpost. Now, it will add population only on Colonies.
* The Quest “The Good Life” is now disabled for custom factions with the Affinity Shipbound
* The Quest “Babies Not Booms” and “An Unexpected Visitor” are now disabled for custom Factions with the Affinity Shipbound
* Relationship trend of Minor Faction now depends on game speed
* Having Pacifists in the senate does not remove the “Eternal War” effect over minor factions
* Fixed Shipbound Custom Factions based on Cravers Visual Affinity being able to create multiple Ark designs

**[PERFORMANCE]**

* Improved influence computation
* Ships designs are not automatically preloaded at the beginning of the game anymore
* Optimize end turn resource collection pass
* Optimized fleet & political events
* Better filtering of onscreen rendering
* Optimized hero assignation and fleet modification
* Reworked retrofit process to reduce CPU consumption and memory allocations

**[FIXES]**

* Fixed the intro cinematic for custom factions
* When the end turn is computing, it is no longer possible to send orders
* Prevented Election actions from all being disabled
* Empire met notification only appears when both empires know each other
* Alliance Victory now properly awards victory to all the members of an alliance
* In multiplayer, players are no longer displayed as having achieved elimination victory when another empire wins
* The "Reset" button did not properly reset the Diplomatic Demand Screen
* The minor population effects are now displayed in their tooltips inside the custom faction
* Fixed Trade company HQ/subsidiary being queueable at the same time on the same system
* Fixed Ground battle notification auto popup setting not working
* Fixed Influence feedback being too large on outposts and Unfallen systems
* Added an icon on fleet labels to feedback the existence of a Planet Destruction module within the fleet
* Fixed the on-click behaviour of merged fleet labels; all fleets represented by the label are visible in the fleets list at the bottom of the screen
* Fixed the dragged population icon for custom populations
* Allowed the trait level reduction in custom faction screen; removing a level n trait will automatically add back the level n-1 of that same trait
* Greyed out the ship design slots that are incompatible with the selected module category in ship design screen
* Users can't join or be invited in multiplayer sessions without the latest game version installed
* User no longer remain stuck on "Ending Turn" after the election in turn 120
* Fixed the creation and edition of Ship designs with the Unfallen medium hulls
* Disabled Multiplayer (Join Game) features if Steam is not running
* Space battles are now correctly resolved when a player enters a session in which another player is attacked by pirates.
* The peaceful conversion icon is no longer redundantly displayed on your own Unfallen systems
* The Seventeen thousand islands bridge" anomaly name no longer overlaps with nearby planets
* Icons of unavailable curiosities are now shown correctly when there is no ship orbiting the  system
* Fixed the tooltip on “Colonize” button in Star system management; now properly tells the planet colonization is queued and not already colonized
* Added AMD Radeon HD 6550D (sep 2011) to the compatibility card; it should now be able to launch the game in compatibility mode
* Changed wording in planet tooltips to avoid confusion regarding base output modifiers
* Fixed text in the "Population Boost Ended" notification when using custom factions
* Fixed the background of in-game screen with "-novideo" command in Steam set launch options
* Fixed issue with moon exploration & anomaly improvement GUI
* Fixed a few tutorial highlights
* Fixed an error when displaying the tooltip of the Evacuate System improvement when playing Unfallen
* Fixed hero recruitment notification having issues with custom textures.
* Fixed an error when hovering the mouse cursor over the "Colonize" button of a destroyed planet in the System Management Screen
* Fixed multiple issues with in-game text fields and added a few quality of life enhancements on these
* Changed the "K" into "M" when reaching millions units for resources
* Fixed the technologies remaining turns count in the technology queue
* The cursor location is reset to the end of the text when clicking on the bottom side of the chat bar

**[AI]**

* The AI should ask for alliances out of perceived necessity less often
* The AI should evaluate truce better when other player is winning the war
* Fixed an issue where the synchronization of game events was failing while the user was saving the game resulting in a crash and an infinite turn
* Fixed an issue in battle situations computing resulting in a crash
* Fixed an issue with Ark handling that was generating an error message
* Fixed an issue where the AI was stopping colonizing systems at some point
* The AI dll now loads correctly when the game is installed in a path that contains accented characters
* Fixed an issue where a mood message was sent multiple times during truce
* The AI should now respond to diplomatic demands based on the odds of winning wars and the value of bribes
* Fixed an issue where AI only took in account war end when a force truce was declared
* Fixed an issue where ship designs were not synchronized correctly
* Fixed an issue where AI would ask for help even if it was not at war
* Fixed an error generated when the Vodyani AI chooses the "Conscription" defensive battle plan
* Fixed an error generated when starting the Beginner Tutorial

[DESYNCS]

* The desync report message box is now only displayed once
* Fixed a desync related to fleet actions
* Fixed a desync related to population migration and political events
* Fixed a desync related to "The Good Life" exploration quest
* Fixed a desync related to manpower

[MODDING]

* In the modding screen, added filters for mod location (Local or Workshop)
* Fixed the scroll wheel functionality in the mod selection menu
* Added a warning when the player enables a mod
* Added display of error messages and feedbacks in Modding Screen
* Fixed modding screen auto-selection and interaction issues
* Added an option to automatically download and enable Missing Mods of a game (both in the Load Game and the Join Game screens)
* Added GUI modding (image replacement)
* Fixed ship reskins not being shown in ship design editor