Hi everyone a new public beta update today leading up to the new Factions DLC release next week. Changes below:
[18:44]
Changes in 1.1.2.0 (March 9th, 2023):

CRASH FIXES
- fixed various rare crashes

COMPATIBILITY
- added better handling of 'Unsupported Graphics Profile' error (DirectX 11 not supported): auto-reset from DXVK to DirectX 11 if relevant and explain need to upgrade video driver

UI IMPROVEMENTS
- now properly clear active textbox when press Enter so that subsequent keypresses properly handled by UI without additional mouse clicks (e.g. when rename item in Selection Panel)

GAME EVENTS
- fixed some game/colony events not always triggering
- now include bonus descriptions in tooltip for any active Colony Events at top of Selection Panel (when colony selected)
- fixed ruins investigation logic to be more careful when evaluating untriggered game events for investigating race
- extended GenerateShipBase game event action so that can generate ships or bases owned by location empire

REPUTATION
- reduced reputation impact from hunting space creatures and destroying pirates

DIPLOMACY AND WAR WEARINESS
- tweaked how race aggression and caution values affect diplomacy: more aggressive races slightly more likely to pursue conquer strategies. more cautious races more likely to pursue friendly strategies
- properly include war weariness reduction bonus when displaying war weariness for a faction in Diplomacy screen and other places
- tweaked tech trading costs so that other faction does not value items too low
[18:44]
SHIP DESIGN
- slightly reduced energy over-allowance factor when auto-generating ship and base designs so that do not generate designs with insufficient energy collectors
- disallow setting civilian ship and bases to manually retrofit using button 'Mark Selected As Manual Retrofit' in Designs List screen

COLONIZATION AND MIGRATION
- fixed Colony Ships sometimes constantly loading and unloading colonists when preferred colonization target currently has threats (dangerous location) and alternative colonization targets also have threats

RESEARCH
- fixed bonus levels for research project requirements being set to zero in previous beta
- in Research Screen fixed research projects sometimes incorrectly disallowed from moving up in queue when optional random path to parent project not enabled

INTELLIGENCE MISSIONS
- fixed ambassadors not gaining experience from intelligence missions when assigned to pirate factions

CHARACTERS
- decreased minimum total skills before characters are auto-dismissed from 0% to -10% (when Characters are automated) to reduce too rapid turnover
- player faction now never auto-dismisses leader character unless total skills are -50%

OTHER
- added new Empire Nouns and Adjectives for new government types

Changes in 1.1.3.5 (April 21st, 2023):

CRASH AND BUG FIXES
- fixed rare crash when evaluating dominant race for a colony population
- fixed rare crash when calculating population attack strength at invaded colonies
- fixed various threading issues causing a variety of strange behavior

INSTALLATION ISSUES
- fixed installation issue with loading DLC models when purchased from different platform to main game (e.g. Steam vs Matrix), this could cause the DLC factions to not show up in some cases even when installed

FLEET BEHAVIOR
- fixed bug where fleets would sometimes attack creatures at distant locations
- tightened fleet formation when most ships in fleet are set to Core (role within fleet)
- fixed fleets sometimes repeatedly attempting to move to home base when most ships in fleet are set to Core (role within fleet)

FIGHTERS AND CARRIERS
- carriers will now slow even further if waiting for slow fighters to board while preparing to jump
- expanded conditions when fighters are considered stranded and are abandoned (e.g. reactor disabled and thus unable to move fast enough to board moving carrier)
- ensure fighters at colonies (Fighter Base facility) are properly removed when empire destroyed

SHIP MISSIONS
- fixed troop transports sometimes failing to find docking point at colony when loading troops

SHIP MODEL LOADING
- fixed issues with loading some ship models

EXPLORATION
- fixed erroneous repeated ruins investigation at colonies when one of the related game events is disabled

RESOURCES
- tweaked resource mining rate when have many resources at a location (more than 5) so that mining rate for each resource remains at reasonable level (not too slow)

UI IMPROVEMENTS
- added larger step increments for numeric up/down controls (shift-click, ctrl-click, shift-ctrl-click) in areas of the interface that support them

IKKURO AND DHAYUT DLC
- Corrected Dhayut Infantry troop strength
- Fixed Dhayut Resort Base issue
- Fixed Ikkuro Cruiser issues

DATA
- Various data tweaks and fixes to components

Changes in 1.1.3.6 (April 28th, 2023):

CRASH FIXES
- fixed some rare list bugs which were caused by performance improvements

GRAPHICAL IMPROVEMENTS
- fixed index issues causing large models to sometimes not load correctly

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS
- reduced memory usage for nebula path finding

PLANETARY DEFENSE FACILITIES
- fixed fighters at colonies (Fighter Bay facility) not being built or launched
- fixed weapon planetary facilities not updating properly when reload savegame
- fixed weapon planetary facilities so that properly have multiple instances of weapon as defined in PlanetaryFacilityDefinitions.xml

Changes in 1.1.3.9 (May 5th, 2023):

The changes in this update focus on improving fuel shortages in mid-late game that some have experienced as well as fuel tanker issues within fleets. The improvements for this are targeted at several areas:

1. More accurate updating of some critical values in high contention threading scenarios (particularly cargo amounts)
2. Reduced static energy usage for shields and thus much-improved flow-on effects for ship designs (less overall fuel usage, less energy collectors and reactors required, thus more general bays for fuel cells, thus better fuel range)
3. Better fuel tanker behavior within fleets and better coordination between fleets and fuel tankers
4. Better awareness by all fleet ships of event-created threat locations especially with regard to refueling

How should Fuel Tankers work?
- When fuel tankers are low on fuel they will either load fuel from a refueling point or mine fuel from a nearby fuel source
- When assigned to a fleet, fuel tankers will monitor and refuel fleet ships as needed, while attempting to stay clear of any battles
- When not assigned to a fleet, they will refuel any ship in your empire that needs it, starting with fleets, then other military ships, exploration ships, and all other ships
- (New in 1.1.3.9) When fuel tankers are assigned to a fleet: if the fleet detects that it needs to refuel then it will first check whether it's fuel tankers can completely refuel the fleet. If so, and the tankers are within fuel range, and the fleet location is not too dangerous, then the fleet will signal the fuel tankers to top them up. The fleet will wait at it's current location until the tankers finish refueling them

RESOURCE LOGISTICS
- more accurate calculation of some values under high contention threading scenarios
- better handling of resource reservations when cancel refueling or transport missions in high contention threading scenarios

FUEL TANKERS
- improved fleet refuelling - less willing to take on other mission types when fleet ships have low fuel, instead more likely to refuel
- improved fleet usage of Fuel Tankers - automated fleets will now signal their automated Fuel Tankers to refuel them when closer than travelling to fixed refuelling point. Fleet will then wait until tankers refuel them. Fuel Tankers must be idle or mining fuel, within range and able to completely refuel fleet (see further info on Fuel Tankers below)

FLEET BEHAVIOR
- improved fleet troop loading
- fleets and other ships now more careful about going to dangerous locations (refuelling, investigating, etc), especially when considering hostile stationary defenses (bases)
- when adding manually-controlled ships to an automated fleet (Role is not Manual) then also change ship to automated. This is necessary to avoid some edge case issues where reinforcing manual ships were not behaving properly within automated fleets.

SHIELDS
- reduced static energy requirements for Shield components
- added new ShieldRechargeEnergyUsage values for Shield components to replace previous increased static energy usage. This will only use energy when the shield is actually recharging.

UI IMPROVEMENTS
- provide better UI visibility of storm/nebula/location effects (ion damage, direct damage, jump slowdown, etc...): icon and tooltip in system view summary at bottom-center of screen
- added horizontal scrolling for Select Your Race step of Start New Game screen to allow for more than 10 races

GAME EVENTS
- added new GameEventAction condition type to better support story events: EmpireIsPlayer

MUSIC
- added option for when switch music tracks: when scene changes or when track ends

MODDING
- provided better support for static character and race art in Character screen (fixed distortion and ensure have background)

OTHER
- fixed potential bug with Assault Pods when loading savegames
- updated Haakonish ship models with some minor fixes

Changes in 1.1.4.3 (May 17th, 2023):

Please note that for best results, we recommend starting a new game with 1.1.4.3 due to the number of fixes and improvements that won't take full effect without a new start.

CRASH FIXES
- fixed crash when repairing ship or base
- fixed rare crash when selecting random race
- fixed crash when calculating construction yard wait time
- fixed crash when calculating ship retrofit cost
- fixed crash when rendering system badges
- fixed crash when determining default display adapter when running on Linux via Proton

CRASH LOGGING
- improved robustness of session log and exception recording

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS
- improved general performance
- improved performance for some recent changes relating to fleets and fuel tankers
- improved performance when freighters assign bulk transport missions

MEMORY MANAGEMENT
- added precautionary checks when saving SpaceItems (debris, etc) and Trade Offers
- now more active in removing empty temporary locations after ships and creatures leave them

SHIP AND FLEET BEHAVIOR
- further reduce likelihood of fleets failing to refuel (e.g taking on new attack mission without first refuelling)
- improve fleets sometimes taking on miniscule threats (e.g. civilian ships) when could instead attack major targets (bases & military)
- further extend threat strength evaluations (now including strength of bases, not just 'mobile' strength) to systems (in addition to locations)
- improved fighters boarding carriers when under heavy load, thus improving fleet responsiveness

FUEL TANKERS
- ensure fuel tankers move with fleets even when fleet is travelling to random point in deep space
- reduced number of fuel tankers built

COLONIZATION
- improved selection of build location for new colony ships - more likely to build at colonies with desired race for colonization target (but build colony must still have adequate construction resources)

MIGRATION
- fixed colony migration sometimes using races with suitability below threshold specified in empire policy (Minimum Suitability)
- ensure passenger ships load the most suitable race for migration destination from pickup colony (race at pickup colony must either meet load threshold of 500 million population, or have policy set to Resettle)

NEBULAE AND STORMS
- nebula effects (jump slowdown, damage, etc) no longer apply when a ship is skirting the edge of a nebula cloud. Must now be deeper into nebula before ship will be slowed or damaged
- reenabled Nebula Storm sound effects
- added game setting to disable Nebula Storm scene-wide lightning flashes

RESEARCH
- ensure always honor EnabledByDefault setting on research projects when generating tech trees for each faction, even for pirates
- properly exclude disabled research projects from various situations: random exploration tech breakthroughs, etc

RESOURCE LOGISTICS
- now always set default resource stock level values when planet first colonized, regardless of automation settings
- fixed bug where reserved cargo would often not be properly utilized
- tweaked expected Fuel demand level to properly prioritize construction of fuel mining stations and mining ship fuel seeking

DIPLOMACY
- ensure never get negative tribute income from vassals

EXPLORATION
- fixed bug where could investigate ruins multiple times when 'Suppress All Messages' enabled in game settings

SOUND EFFECTS
- split out sound effect volume controls for User Interface and Nebula Storms

MESSAGES
- improved some story messages by highlighting bonuses received from event

VISUAL IMPROVEMENTS
- fixed occasional single-frame flash of full-size ship model and engine exhaust on-screen when ship jumps into currently-viewed location
- ensure deep space locations still have adequate ambient lighting
- fixed ship symbol system to no longer periodically blink

HIVE AND PLANET DESTROYER THREATS
- improved mission selection for Hive and Planet Destroyer ships - thus more performant and more able to find place to self-repair any damage

GAME EDITOR
- ensure Game Editor is properly exited when Exit to Menu

Changes in 1.1.4.4 (May 19th, 2023):

SHIP DESIGN
- fixed dark lighting in design screen when viewing ship or base from below

FACTIONS: IKKURO AND DHAYUT
- corrections for troop values
- corrections for typos in various story events
- model/bundle fixes for the Ikkuro

Changes in 1.1.4.8 (June 2nd, 2023):

CRASH FIXES
- fixed crash in Music System when some audio components are missing
- fixed crash when loading images
- fixed crash when determining items in current view
- fixed Stride bug relating to missing materials when rendering under heavy threading contention
- fixed rare startup bug relating to dxgi.dll
- fixed rare startup bug relating to missing CPU core affinity groups
- fixed rare crash when using Build Order system badges
- fixed rare crash when loading game
- fixed rare crash when adding weapon effects to scene

DANGEROUS LOCATIONS
- fixed problem where dangerous locations were often not being removed after fleets investigated and cleared threats

FLEET AND SHIP BEHAVIOR
- automated fleets now more willing to auto-remove damaged ships from fleet when the ship is too far from repair yard to reach in a timely manner (when Fleet Ship Management is automated)
- fixed bulk transport freighter missions sometimes failing to load adequate cargo
- ensure independent freighters do not travel too far when fulfilling resource orders

OTHER
- fixed some government types altering home colony quality (too high) with PreWarp game start (when build startup facility)
- fixed Show Me button sometimes not working on advisor messages
- fixed Show Me button on messages often not working when related ship is in hyperjump
- adjusted ship model scaling to also include vertical size, not just horizontal dimensions
- fixed repeated construction messages
- fixed startup problems due to incorrect GameStartSettings file

Changes in 1.1.4.9 (June 7th, 2023):

CRASH FIXES
- fixed crash when generating galaxy
- fixed crash when updating research for independents

SHIP AND BASE CONSTRUCTION
- now properly cancel construction ship mission when base being built is attacked and destroyed (e.g. by pirates or space creatures), thus avoiding repeated cycle of rebuilds and consequent drain on private economy
- fixed faulty construction yard wait time when processing many retiring ships

COLONIZATION AND CONQUEST
- ensure that when empire is destroyed (last colony conquered) by last colony becoming independent (rebellion) that only freighters become independent ships, other ship and base types removed
- now clear any generic colony events when conquer a colony (e.g. race-specific events)
- now automatically clear queued colonization when another empire colonizes the target planet

OTHER
- lowered energy output rate for all reactor components to previous values (reduces fuel usage)
- honoring defense treaties no longer incurs reputation penalty from breaking any existing Non Aggression or Defense treaties with war empire
- ensure research breakthroughs always handle all aspects of project (e.g. diplomacy benefits), even when acquired through non-standard means, e.g. salvaging debris, acquiring artifact
- ensure pirate base designs use hull large enough to fit critical components, e.g. mining engine for fuel extraction
- ensure Shakturi race does not accidentally show up for independent colonies, etc
- fixed high-end hyperdrives sometimes jumping too often, even for short range travel (low jump accuracy values)
- ensure some government types do not incorrectly raise quality of home colony when build planetary facility

Changes in 1.1.5.2 (June 22nd, 2023):

Important note: This build includes an update to the game engine, which should further improve performance, as well as address a number of rare crashes. We recommend you start a new game with this build and see if it improves your game.

GAME ENGINE
- upgraded Stride engine to version 4.2.0.1, which means a slight rendering performance improvement and likely fixes some rare crashes

CRASH AND BUG FIXES
- fixed The Hive faction showing up in places it should not (e.g. spy mission targets)

GAME EVENT FEATURES
- added new Game Event condition types: EmpireIsNotPlayer, EmpireIsPirate, EmpireIsNotPirate
- optionally allow some game event actions to suppress any messages (ResearchProgress, ResearchBreakthrough, ResearchProjectEnable)

REPEATABLE TECHS
- implemented Repeatable Techs in Research Screen: level 8 research projects that can be repeatedly researched to improve various aspects of components, facilities and ship hulls
- currently only have some sample research projects to test with: intercept range improvements to Guardian Defense Grid, troop attack and defense bonuses from Titan Manufacturing Center facility

SHIPS AND FLEETS
- improved construction ships repairing disabled ships
- disabled ships that cannot travel for repairs now properly avoid assigning missions they cannot complete
- ensure fleets properly retrofit (use correct fleet template), even when formed using Create New Fleet button

OTHER
- fixed some values not updating in the Game Editor (e.g. Ship fuel levels)
- improved selection of race-specific fleet templates and army templates (now properly prefer race-specific templates over generic templates)
- fixed exploration map pings sometimes not clearing when location is visited by ship

Changes in 1.1.5.3 (June 29th, 2023):

CRASH FIXES
- fixed crash when determining whether an empire is a vassal
- fixed crash when adding items to a location
- fixed crash when rendering system badges

REPEATABLE TECHS
- now show improved values (not current) for components/facilities/hulls in repeatable tech project detail
- fixed incorrect bonus values for Repeatable Ship Hull Techs
- made all bonuses additive on Repeatable Techs (ShipHullValues.Bonuses, PlanetaryFacilityValues.ItemBonuses, PlanetaryFacilityValues.EmpireBonuses)
- fixed some display errors when showing project detail for some Repeatable Techs
- added icon at top-right of research project to indicate that it is a Repeatable Tech
- ensure that Repeatable Techs that are researched at game startup properly have their research count set to 1

RESOURCES AND FUEL
- fixed bug where fuel tankers sometimes did not load fuel from a refuelling point
- ensure freighters and other ships properly preserve salvaged resources and offload them when visit colony or spaceport
- ensure bases not at colonies get their (manually set) resource stock levels fulfilled by cargo deliveries (e.g. fuel) even when they are not mining stations
- ensure ships do not attempt to auto-refuel if they have no fuel capacity (damaged), instead first assign repair mission

OTHER
- fixed ship/base build costs showing differently in Designs List vs Ship Design screen
- fixed Explore System ship mission sometimes ending before entire system explored
- fixed rare bug when loading a savegame
- rebalanced energy usage for Quantum reactors (less fuel consumption)
- Cancel construction action button no longer destroys ship waiting in construction queue if retrofitting, repairing or retiring (only destroys ships when constructing anew)

Changes in 1.1.5.6 (July 14th, 2023):

CRASH FIXES
- fixed crash when assigning exploration mission to ship
- fixed crash when repeatable research project contains improved component values for missing component
- fixed some rare crashes in the Stride engine
- fixed rare crash when generating ship design name

GRAPHICS IMPROVEMENTS
- fixed very dark HDR rendering mode on some systems
- improved ambient lighting in Ship Design screen

UI IMPROVEMENTS
- now display fleet targeting level in Selection Panel when have fleet selected
- improved button text layout in various UI areas
- added any active colony events in your empire to the header in the main view. Hover for details of each, click to select colony with event

RESEARCH FAMILIES AND AI GUIDANCE
- added weapon component families to allow better ship design upgrades and more focused automated research and design. Can specify preferred weapon families for each weapon category in empire policy in the Construction policy sub-section
- setting your preferred component family for each weapon type will guide ship design automation as well as automated research choices
- altered some weapon component categories to better optimize AI research pathing
- rebalanced some of the AI research pathing algorithms
- added more variation to faction research and design choices via policy files

REPEATABLE TECHS
- added minimum floor for repeatable tech values: cannot fall below 1% of original value (for improvements that have reductive values, e.g. weapon fire rate, energy used)
- repeatable techs now have repeat count inside top-level icon when already researched once or more
- project detail for repeatable techs now shows repeat count remaining when approaching limit, when at limit now also properly show 'Final Values' instead of 'Improved Values' (i.e. no next repeat)
- default size multiplier for repeatable techs is now one, i.e. they do not increase in size/cost with each repeat. Size multiplier value is configurable in ResearchProjectDefinitions.xml
- fixed component values sometimes not immediately updating when use repeatable techs
- fixed display values for Static Energy Used in repeatable research projects
- fixed repeatable research projects to work properly when targets of Steal Tech espionage missions

REFUELLING AND FUEL TANKERS
- improved selection of refuelling and repair locations for ships: refuel or repair bases must have docking bays, i.e. bases under construction do not qualify until sufficiently built
- improved how fuel tankers refuel non-fleet ships: more careful to only refuel ships that are beyond range of nearest refuelling point. So will not refuel ships that could otherwise reach refuelling point on their own
- fixed duplicate fleet names when rendering Fuel Tanker list

THREAT EVALUATION
- improved strength evaluation and avoidance of dangerous locations with dormant pirate bases

CHARACTERS
- ensure remove irrelevant character traits when an existing character becomes the new empire leader
- improved application of character appearance chance bonuses, so that even more likely to get characters of desired roles

COLONY POPULATION POLICIES
- colonies that are wiped out due to exterminate population policy (all population eliminated) now automatically transfer any characters or troops of your empire to nearest colony
- altered diplomatic and reputation impact from Extermination population policy: values are now more immediate and predictable instead of being applied over time, similar to how Slavery policy works

COLONY SHIPS
- prevent colony ships from fleeing enemy ships when under construction
- ensure automated colony ships that need repair or construction completion assign repair mission

PLANETARY FACILITIES
- significantly reduced costs for all planetary defense facilities

COLONIZATION AND TERRAFORMING
- reduced natural planet quality damage repair rate for uninhabited planets

MINING AND CONSTRUCTION
- improved evaluation of new mining locations so that accurately indicate when target is beyond construction ship fuel range: targets that mine fuel now use extended fuel range (can refuel at new mining station, thus can use full fuel range). Thus do not disable 'Queue Mining Station' button when new target still within fuel range

GENERAL STORY EVENTS
- changed salvage bonus for Shakturi Debris Field from Firestorm Torpedo tech to system exploration
- reduced radius of story nebula and storm clouds to minimize chance of overlap with home system locations

IKKURO AND DHAYUT DLC
- model bundle and data fixes for Ikkuro and Dhayut

Changes in 1.1.5.8 (July 21st, 2023):

Important Note: We are aware a number of users having issues launching the game due two main reasons: 1) a hang issue relating to the Slitherine launcher, 2) 32-core CPU bug. With version 1.1.5.8 we have introduced a new launcher and CPU bug fix that we hope resolve the launch issues users have been having. We highly recommend any users experiencing launch issues try out this latest build to see if it resolves your game launch issues.

CRASH FIXES
- fixed crash when finding mining target within range
- fixed crash when updating research
- fixed crash when fleet ship assigns escort mission
- fixed crash when rendering colony in Selection Panel that gets removed

COMPATIBILITY ISSUES
- fixed game sometimes not starting on some systems with 32 or more CPU cores

PIRATES
- implemented brand new pirate cruisers: appearance is dependent on pirate strength in game start settings as outlined below:
-- when Very Strong then some pirate factions may start with a cruiser
-- when Normal or higher: when a non-pirate faction first attacks a pirate base then the pirates will auto-spawn a mostly completed cruiser under construction at their base, which will soon exit the hangar and respond to the attackers
-- when Normal or higher: when have sufficient money, pirate faction may build new cruisers (after initial attack on their base by non-pirates above)
- decreased ship costs for pirates to encourage ship construction as they gain money from raids

FLEETS AND FLEET BEHAVIOR
- improved automated fleet formation and fleet ship topup so that more willing to add appropriate ships to fleets while still attempting to maintain fleet cohesion by preferring nearby ships

SHIP BEHAVIOR
- fixed ships sometimes getting stuck at edge of galaxy

TROOP GARRISONS
- improved colony troop garrison logic so that more willing to garrison troops when have high unrest (e.g. soon after colony conquest)

INDEPENDENT COLONIES
- all independent colonies now automatically set appropriate suitability (quality) for populated race, even when they are story-generated locations

POPULATION POLICIES
- greatly reduced rate of extermination population policy so that takes longer

RESEARCH
- ensure research progress acquired through game events or conquest no longer selects research projects that are not currently visible

SPACE COMBAT
- fixed bug where Shields with high resistance could sometimes increase in value when struck by weapons with low damage values (i.e. below resistance level)

SHIP DESIGN AND RETROFIT
- fixed recent bug where auto-generated ship and base design names were not progressing (SSP-1, RS-1, etc)

DIPLOMACY AND REPUTATION
- fixed bug where very low empire reputation could sometimes result in other factions concern over your reputation not being intense enough
- diplomacy advisors will no longer suggest gifts to independent colonies while they are being invaded (by any faction), even when your diplomatic strategy for them is set to 'Diplomacy leading to peaceful integration'

UI IMPROVEMENTS
- Colony Event tooltips now also show end date for event (from Selection Panel and Main View Header)
- separated Empire Bonuses into their own list under Empire section in Control Center (next to Government section)
- fixed some empire bonuses sometimes falling off the end of list in Bonuses screen when have race-specific bonuses, e.g. Gizurean population growth rate modifier
- added new filtering and sorting options for Available Components list in Ship Design screen that include new component families
- added new filters to the Colonies list to show colonies that require terraforming (quality not at maximum) or have reached maximum terraforming level and should have facility removed
- disallowed research projects for a race no longer show disallowed race images in tech tree unless they apply to the player race (less visual clutter)
- ensure New Mining Locations list falls back to make proper use of colonies for build resources if spaceports are missing resources (thus Queue Build buttons are made active)
- ensure Mining Bonanza home system colony event has proper image
- fixed some factions having mismatched colors from their selected flag (e.g. Gizurean)

HDR AND COLOR BALANCE
- added additional game settings for color adjustment which may help with HDR mode brightness (gamma, brightness, contrast, saturation)

NEBULAE AND STORMS
- some nebula effects no longer apply to ships or creatures while hyperjumping: all damage types, shield drain, energy drain, sub-light speed modifier

OTHER
- fixed recent data bug where player empire sometimes had surrounding systems pre-explored

Changes in 1.1.6.0 (July 28th, 2023):

CRASH FIXES
- fixed crash when updating research with repeatable techs
- fixed crash when retrieving current build order
- fixed rare crash when starting new game

HIVE THREAT
- reworked Hive threat to create a more interesting and gradually increasing threat
-- added smaller hive ships in addition to large carriers: there are now Hive frigates and destroyers
-- Hive ships when first discovered are dormant.  They will begin to wake up starting with the smallest ships.  This is influenced by the discovering player's tech level.
-- once the first Hive ship has awoken then all other ships progressively wake up over a period of several years
-- newly woken Hive ships will now band together in fleet to attack targets
-- they will start by attacking pirates, then later faction bases, then finally raiding inhabited worlds
-- they will be placed nearer to empire starting locations
-- the player will now receive periodic sighting messages in Galactic News as various factions spot the Hive fleet

SHIP DESIGN
- fixed ship and base designs not selecting higher levels of Armor (was always using Standard Armor)

COLONIZATION AND SUITABILITY
- fixed home colony quality sometimes too high when using Harsh homeworld game settings

Changes in 1.1.6.1 (August 4th, 2023)

CRASH FIXES
- fixed a number of Stride rendering crashes
- improved memory usage, collecting large memory pools more frequently

WAR AND DIPLOMACY
- improved evaluation of enemy targets so that much less likely to attack targets not at war with unless manually queued for attack

HIVE THREAT
- slightly lowered base tech level of Hive ships
- sleeping hive ships now wake up when attacked, boarded or attempt to repair
- uninvestigated abandoned ships and bases no longer prompt advisor message to repair (e.g. Hive ships)
- ensure initial Hive message from pirates is triggered when pirate nearby player are attacked
- Pirate factions allied with you against the Hive now only join you when you destroy a Hive carrier, not smaller Hive ships
- positive reputation incident when destroy hive ships now scales according to size of destroyed threat
- slightly improved performance of processing for Hive threat
- updated Hive Carrier ship model

PIRATES
- increased defensive strength of all pirate bases
- when pirate strength is normal or stronger in game start settings, initial negative pirate relationship value is more random (likely lower than usual). Thus some pirates may not make an initial offer of protection agreement, but will require some convincing.

NOTIFICATIONS
- reduced chance of multiple first contact messages for same faction

RESEARCH
- fixed repeatable tech improvements not applying on game reload

TROOPS AND COLONY GARRISONS
- ensure troops are not auto-garrisoned when empire-wide Troop Recruitment is manually controlled

WAR AND CONQUEST
- fixed empires sometimes not being properly eliminated when their last colony is conquered
- ensure free tech from colony conquest is not too advanced (e.g. hidden diplomacy techs, etc)

GALAXY SETUP
- Allow Any Government game start setting now applies both to initial game setup and also in-game government selection
- fixed discoverability level for critical resources sometimes being too high in PreWarp home system (too hard to find)

Changes in 1.1.6.4 (August 11th, 2023)

CRASH FIXES, MEMORY AND PERFORMANCE
- fixed a number of crashes
- fixed further Stride rendering crashes
- added some performance and memory improvements

HIVE THREAT
- fixed Hive ships waking prematurely
- fixed player not receiving initial Hive message
- tweaked Hive ship hulls so that have enough general component bays for all essential components
- slowed jump speed of Hive hyperdrive component

PIRATES
- changed Pirate Ambush event so that no longer switches abandoned ship to pirate faction with whom the discovering empire already has a treaty (which would then be broken)
- initial pirate first contact incident now decays higher to target value (i.e. reduces upwards towards zero) over time, while still ultimately remaining negative. But makes it easier to get Protection Agreements with pirate factions when have very negative initial encounter

ENEMY TARGETS LIST AND ATTACK QUEUING
- fixed Queue Attack button for Hive ships - now properly queues/unqueues attacks against each hive ship
- fixed Cancelling Queued Attacks against fleets in Enemy Targets list so that always works properly
- now include major threats in Enemy Targets list when visible (Hive, Planet Destroyer, etc)
- Enemy Targets list now properly always shows known strength for targets

SHIP DESIGN AND SHIP-RELATED BONUSES
- now force immediate update of all empire bonuses when switch government, including ship-specific bonuses like Maintenance Savings
- Ship Design screen now shows comprehensive information on Bonuses from Hull and Empire that are relevant to the current design. These bonuses are also included in all values, thus showing current and accurate values for Weapon Range, Weapon Damage, Hyperjump Speed, Shield Recharge Rate, Mining Rate, Maintenance Savings, etc
- when view Ship status by clicking on Design name in Selection Panel, the Ship Design detail screen now properly shows ship values with current bonuses applied (from empire and ship), thus with accurate weapon range, maintenance cost, etc
- added some missing info to Energy and Defense sections of Ship Design Detail screen
- added support for alternate preferred component families per category. Can thus specify fallback preferred families for each weapon category in empire policy

GALAXY SETUP
- tweaked Caslon abundance levels when generating a new galaxy so that generally higher
- added multiple options for toggling default events in Start New Game screen. Can enable/disable various items: PreWarp Home system events, abandoned ships and bases, debris fields, gravitic locations and major threats (e.g. Hive)

RESEARCH AND REPEATABLE TECHS
- fixed weapon values being cleared when use repeatable techs (weapons not firing)
- boosted research priority for projects with Ancient Knowledge bonus, especially when part of faction victory conditions (e.g. Quameno)

SHIP CONSTRUCTION
- fixed rendering for Construction Yard List: sometimes was not showing all ships under construction in list items

GAME EVENTS
- anchored Mortakosh battleship to starting location so that does not roam around the galaxy once awoken

CHARACTERS
- Inspiring Presence and Demoralizing character traits now properly apply to all characters at a location, even other characters with Inspiring Presence or Demoralizing trait when there are more than one character with the trait at the location

MODDING SUPPORT
- added support for static Characters defined in the file CharacterDefinitions.xml
-- define name, race and role
-- include full set of skills and traits for the character
-- includes support for character images either from bundles or file paths, or can use full Spine character animations
-- can specify appearance order so that a defined set of characters show up in expected order
-- can specify AppearOnlyInFirstEmpireOfRace to ensure that player always gets this character (not other factions of the same race)