New in Version 1.8

Changes to happiness

Happiness no longer affects construction time, scrapping time and ship speed

For construction time, scrapping time and ship speed, the unhappiness (maximum happiness − happiness) was added. This has been removed. Happiness now plays a greater role in other areas.

Happiness is per pop

Large systems now need more happiness points than small systems.

Ship happiness is more important and decreases the longer the trip takes

The happiness of the ships drops by one point every 10 years of travel time. It is therefore better to keep the travel time short.
The start is refused if the ship cannot reach the destination with a happiness greater than 0.

In addition, the happiness of the ships is now more important:

• Probes now send happiness ⋅ 10 instead of 100 years
• Colonies now get the happiness of the colony ship instead of 9
• The happiness of battleships is important in battles (new battle algorithm)
• When a battleship is moved to another star system of the Empire, it lowers the happiness points by system happiness − ship happiness if it has a lower happiness than the system.
  The reason for this is that soldiers drag the mood down when they are unhappy. In the worst case, they riot, loot and rape.
• Happiness is also important for the new ship types invasion ship and tech ship
• The culture ship raises the happiness points by ship happiness − system happiness if the culture ship has a higher happiness than the system.

New battle algorithm

An enemy battleship in a system leads to a battle.

Battleships from several players arrive at the same time

If battleships from several players arrive at the same time, which rarely happens, the strongest player must be determined first.

For this purpose, the combat strengths (= happiness) of the individual battleships are added together.
If battleships arrive from the current system owner that could not be stationed due to lack of free population, these ships are also taken into account.

The combat strength of the second strongest player is subtracted from the player with the highest combat strength.

If the strongest player is also the system owner, the battle is over.
If not, he attacks the system.

Combat strength of the system

The combat strength of the system is calculated from the happiness points of the system and the combat strength (=happiness) of the stationed battleships.

The system was successfully defended

If the combat strength of the system is greater than that of the attacker, it has been successfully defended.

Max(stationed battleships, Trunc(attacker's combat strength / system happiness)) stationed battleships are destroyed. And the attacker's combat strength is reduced by the combat strength used for the destruction.

The rest of the attacker's combat strength is subtracted from the defender's happiness points; the combat strength that exceeds the combat strength of the stationed ships is subtracted twice.

The system has been conquered

If the attacker's combat strength is greater than that of the system, it has been conquered.

The system's happiness is set to rebellion, debt to 0 and population development is set back by 50 years.

If the system has been colonized for less than 50 years, it will be destroyed by the battle.

Invasion Ships

The purpose of an invasion ship is to put down rebellions

To put down a rebellion (happiness = 0), you have to send invasion ships into the system.
On arrival the invasion ship's happiness is added to the system's happiness points, but up to a maximum of 1 point per pop.
So you can increase the happiness to 'strike' (happiness = 1).

But before you send a invasion ship, remember that the happiness drops by one point every 10 years. So the travel time to destination should not be too long.

The reason that the system becomes more happy is because many unhappy rebels are killed.
The invasion ships are destroyed in the process.

The suppression of a rebellion throws back the population growth of a system by up to 25 years.

Tech Ships

The purpose of the tech ship is to increase the tech level in the destination system. This allows you to boost systems that cannot launch so many spaceships.

Until now, culture ships have been used for this.
This has the disadvantage that the tech points are only increased after the system has the full number of happiness points points.

The tech ship raises the tech points by ship (tech level − system tech level) ⋅ ship happiness. if the tech ship has a higher tech level than the destination system.

Revised debt system

My aim is to keep the amounts of debt smaller and to eliminate some inconsistencies in the game mechanics.

For smaller amounts, all income and expenditure must inevitably be lower.

The amounts are reduced to 1/5 with the following changes.

Construction costs

Ship construction now only costs ship points ⋅ 2 instead of ship points ⋅ 10

Scrapping revenue

Scrapping only gives ship points instead of ship points ⋅ 5

Ship launch

Launching ships only costs ship points instead of ship points ⋅ distance

Maximum debt per system

Since ship launches now always cost the same for each ship type, it is possible to limit the maximum debt per system.
Only 20 debt are possible per pop. The starting system therefore initially has 100 debt.
The debts also include the construction costs of the stationed ships. This also means that new colonies without a population no longer have any debt.

Simplified trading formula

max dest debt: Maximum debt of the destination system

dest debt: Debt (incl. construction costs of the stationed ships) of the destination system

max add debt = max dest debt − dest debt

Trade income is now Max(0, Min(distance ⋅ ship happiness, max add debt)).
Spectrum of the starting system and happiness of the destination system no longer appear in the formula.

Mineral Richness and Trade Goods

Each system now has a mineral richness.
They are: Ultra Poor, Poor, Abundant, Rich and Ultra Rich.
(The names are exactly the same as in Master of Orion)

The mineral richness is determined from the beginning, but like the maximum pop. and in contrast to the spectral type, it must first be explored.

To start a trade ship, you must now have at least 100 trade goods.
These build up automatically per pop. and year up to a maximum of 100 trade goods * pop.
How many trade goods are built up per pop. and year depends on the mineral richness:
Ultra Poor=1, Poor=2, Abundant=3, Rich=4 and Ultra Rich=5.

When a trade ship is launched, 100 trade goods are removed from the system.

The throne ship works in a similar way to a trade ship. This means that if there are enough trade goods for a trade ship, they are subtracted when the throne ship launches and the system's debt is increased on arrival.
If there are not enough trade goods available or the system no longer belongs to you, the throne ship can still launch, unlike the trade ship. In this case, no debts are increased on arrival.

No more energie regeneration

The "energy regeneration" game mechanic is no longer necessary.

Changes to the tech level

Culture ships no longer increase the tech level, this is now done by tech ships.

The tech points generated at ship launch now equals the research value multiplied by the ship points.
Previously, the tech points generated were equal to the ship points.
The research value depends on the spectral type: A=5, F=4, G=3, K=2 and M=1.

Changes to the UI

The map shows how long it takes for a pop to become available

Construction time, scrapping time and time until the next population growth can now be read on the map.
The ships respectively the years until the next population growth are displayed on a white/green background at the position of the pop.
The proportion of the green area shows how much time has already passed.

Color scheme:

• red background, yellow ship: Planned construction
• blue background, yellow ship: Planned ship launch
• black background, yellow ship: Planned scrapping
• white/green background, red ship: Under construction
• white/green background, blue ship: Scrapping
• white/green background, black number: Population growth

Further changes to the UI

• Planetary nebulae in the background
• Some statistical data can now always be called up, not just when the game is over
• Tables now have a sticky header
• There is a new help dialog that displays the "How to Play" help (previously in the burger menu) and the help for the different ship types (previously in the star info).
• If a ship cannot be built or started, the corresponding button is no longer deactivated but displayed in black.
  If you click on it, the reason why the command cannot be executed is displayed.

All foreign events, except ship launches, removed

The reason was that the events often could not be determined correctly and were not particularly helpful anyway.

• Construction Started
• Constructed
• Ship Arrived
• Ship Scrapped
• Ship Lost