Hello everyone, today I have pushed the 0.12 update, which has for some time been in development on the beta branch to the regular play branch as it is now stable enough for regular play. For those who are familiar with the beta branch, there is little new in this update, but I will take the time in this announcement to explain the new features to those who have not been following the betas developments.
Military Changes
The cost of units has been reworked, as has their recruitment. Units no longer cost money directly, but instead are upkept through the construction of expensive industrial projects which give the needed resources for their recruitment. Units themselves have been rebalanced in order to make sure that there is a proper balance of power between different types of units.
New Unit Types
New unit types can be created with technologies unlocked throughout the game, each one brings something new to the table and changes the balance of war when unlocked.
Landcruiser
The new Headquarters component is very slow, but can be made faster to become a Landcruiser! These behemoths can be up to the size of an aircraft carrier and can serve many functions including logistics, support, and attack roles.
Colossal Airframe
Airplanes are limited in the weapons they can carry, which sometimes reduces their effectiveness when coming up against boats or land armies. This can be circumvented with the use of the Airship, using the Gigantic/Colossal Airframe component. These flying fortresses can be massive, and even carry their own smaller aircraft, but their main strength is the wealth of components they have access to that would ordinarily be constrained to naval or space use. Combined with their fast speed, these war machines can be devastating even by themselves!
Floating Fortress
Aircraft Carriers are big, but sometimes not big enough: when you have this problem, the Floating Fortress has you covered. Weighing in at up to 4x the size of a capital ship, they can bring enough firepower to flatten a continent anywhere on the 7 seas. However, their large size makes them vulnerable to torpedo attack, which means they require a large fleet of protective destroyers to distribute the damage. Regardless, Floating Fortresses live up to their namesake, and can be made incredibly durable.
Special Forces / Super soldiers
As you unlock new technologies, their military applications may involve replacement of limbs and genetic improvements- these can be made to any unit, but increase the cost massively. As such, there is an archetype of unit known as special forces, which are similar in composition to other units but far more capable. The primary use case of these soldiers is to break through heavy enemy defenses, as they can obtain higher breakthrough than any other kind of unit, reducing the enemy's advantage in bad situations.
Strike Craft / Space Changes
A new addition to space is Strike Craft, effectively an analogue of the airplane, but for use in outer space. They are similar in size to their airborne counterparts, and require a carrier for optimal use, but they can deliver crippling blows to much larger vessels, and act defensively in a cost effective manner. As a result, they are a valued part of any space fleet.
Space combat has been improved in general with the addition of new components to benefit Cruisers and Carriers, such that they will now be useful especially in the late game.
Strategic Warfare / Ranged Attacks
A new capability many units have is that of Ranged Attacks, the ability for that unit to make a strike against a target at great distance, sometimes even across the Solar System. This capability also requires extensive command and control, so ranged units will generally require a carrier or headquarters unit to act as a controller. However, once properly set up ranged attacks can deliver massive damage to enemies who may not even be able to respond, allowing you to soften up enemy targets for attack, or devastate them with nuclear hellfire.
Graphical Improvements
You may have noticed from the above screenshots, but units have received a facelift. Not only do they now include multiple models dependent on the total size of the unit, but units now fire component specific weapons at their chosen targets, with the strength and color of the weapon being based on the tech level in use. Now, you can inspect the enemy army to find out how much technology they have, or what weapons they are using. In addition, units will fire real projectiles at their enemies which can sometimes explode in spectacular fashion, giving more satisfaction to a well-earned victory. You can also now customize the look of your units by changing their color!
Economy Changes
As part of the changes to units, a new kind of resource has been implemented: capacities. These represent certain aspects of your civilization, but are very wide in what they can be. Industrial capacities are created through regional projects, and are often very expensive, but they are necessary if you want to build a powerful army or society.
Their use is not only limited to units, however. Logistics capacity can be used on edicts, special abilities which can augment the economy of a region temporarily. Many capacities also have economic or political uses which vary with tech level and time.
Politics
Faction Privileges have received a facelift, with the new ability to create your own custom policies and assign them to your chosen factions. This will give a greater degree of freedom to the player, while also increasing the number of options available, and you can mix and match these new policies to discover new strategies.
Diplomacy and AI
As part of the changes to the economy, diplomatic capacity has been added, which allows you to interact with other countries in some new ways.
Guarantee Independence
If you are worried about a rival taking another country away from you, or otherwise just want to get in the way, you can guarantee the independence of other countries, such that when they are attacked, you will be called in to assist.
Diplomatic Annexation (Make Proxy)
As you improve relations will like-minded civilizations, you can eventually diplomatically control them through making them a Proxy. This will effectively annex them into your country, but as a protectorate, meaning that it will take some extra work to fully integrate them.
War Escalation
Wars will now escalate over time, resulting in less restrictions on weapon usage and greater likelihood of intervention by other countries. By default, wars cannot be intervened in unless you have +100 opinion with either party, but as a war escalates, this requirement will decrease until it ceases to exist. This means that if you have a little too much fun with nuclear bombs, the rest of the world might try to stop you.
Polish
As part of the new changes, I have gone through and optimized many of the mechanics in the game to run much faster. Overall, I expect the performance increase to be around ~30% over 0.11, a significant improvement when accounting for the new changes.
In addition, I have attempted to add polish to as many places as I could, with new hotkeys and intuitive changes to some of the UI to make things easier to navigate, but as always there is more to do. Currently I am investigating further UI improvements, so please voice any recommendations on the discord or via email.
The Future
Now that 0.12 is finished, I have begun work on a new slate of improvements for the 1.0 beta, as I plan to for Solar Nations 2 to leave early access in August. The major improvements I plan on making are:
UI Improvements
Space Stations
Terraforming
Tech Tree Expansion / Rebalance
Saturn and the Asteroid Belt
Mission Trees (Maybe)