Hello SectorLords!
I am very pleased to release Summer Content Patch 2! Because there is just so much content and new/reworked mechanics in this release, there is a very good chance of some bugs in this release, though hopefully not game-breaking and can be quickly hotfixed! I would recommend that you start a new game if your game was started before Content Patch 1, so you don't miss out on the content! And to celebrate, the game will be on sale for the week!
First off, I'm releasing the Settler Career Path and Endgame for players to try! The Settler gets bonuses to founding colonies and has a special ability to automatically sell off stockpiled production at colonies so you can assign your Captains to other missions instead of FERRY. But using that ability might trigger colonial unrest.
Next major feature released in this patch, is the Citadel! Citadels are player-owned mobile stations with the ability to repair/refuel and park your ship! They aren't cheap to build and move around though! And before you can even think about building one, you'll need a Federation Commission in order to be authorized to romp around with a moonlet sized mobile base.
To gain a Federation Commission, you'll have to meet certain standards the Federation maintains for commissions and perform acts of service in the form of Duty Tours with the Federation Navy. It's not all gloom though, service in the Navy brings you a number of benefits the more tours you complete.
Gameplay & Graphical Changes:
The menu system for the Federation Capital has been revamped to be more compact and individual items no longer open individual screens but are now displayed as a subpanel in the Federation Capital panel.
Career Path Selection screen has been reworked to be more descriptive and explicitly describe each career path's abilities, strength and weaknesses.
NPC Corp Power & Aggression rates have been tweaked.
Pirate Raid on Colony rate adjusted.
Faction Standing calculation has been reworked, main issue was it was too easy to trade your way to Allied standing level by just trading between 2 faction ports.
More Combat Balancing tweaks.
Fixed issue where fleet captains did not contribute to colony defense against raids.
Numerous minor bugfixes.
And more!
As always, if you enjoy the game, please leave a Steam review! Every little bit helps!