At the start of Beta 3 we decided not to do a long list of changes from Beta 2.  This was clearly not a good idea since a large number of testers missed even the most obvious stuff for weeks after we released.   For Beta 4 the change log is back and, while not hitting every little item, does cover a lot.  Look here or in the History section of Stardock Central for future update info.

The Arrival of the Vasari

Ten millennia have passed since you and the few survivors of the once mighty Vasari Empire fled from an unknown threat that all but exterminated your kind. You now find yourself at the fringe of the galaxy in a sector occupied by a pathetically primitive species - one obsessed with trade and lacking any central organization or military technology. They would be ideal slaves in the glorious days of the past, but time is of the essence. Use your mastery of phase-space manipulation, gravity, and nanotechnology to quickly eliminate any local resistance and acquire the necessary resources to fuel the next segment of your continuing exodus.

Beta 4 Hotfix (November 2, 2007 - SDC v0.90.034) -

• Fixed: SupportBuff_WeaponJam issues.
• Fixed: Ability_DisintegrationMuzzle issues.
• Fixed: Phase out hull issues (aka moving wierdly and moving out of gravity well problems).
• Fixed: Magnetic cloud disabling explore.
• Fixed: Self-Repair autocast issues.
• Fixed: Siege Turret not firing.
• Fixed: TEC voices being used on Vasari units.
• Fixed: Not being able to research Wreckage Auto Salvage.
• Fixed: 'IDS_PLANETDETAILSINFOCARD_ALLEGIANCEDETAILS_DELTAFROMCULTURE' error.

Beta 4 (November 1, 2007 - SDC v0.90.033) -

Gameplay / Balance:

• Major Items -
  • Gravity wells now have an inner and outer boundary that form a ring where both sub-light movement and phase jumps are valid. This expands the potential combat space without delaying travel times and opens up a large number of new tactical possibilities. Special thanks to the beta testers for flushing this one out, especially xeryx, lordkosc and Vanderburg.
  • When you initiate a phase jump, your location in the gravity well now determines where you will arrive in the destination gravity well. For example, if you leave from the left side of the source's gravity well you will arrive on the left side of the destination's gravity well (this includes the z-axis). This opens up a large number of new tactical possibilities.
  • Game speed settings adjusted. Slow is the old normal, normal is the old fast, and fast is even faster.
  • Resource asteroids are now infinite (steady intake stream that can be improved by research and refineries).
  • Planet upgrades of all types now provide a consistent benefit per upgrade level across all planet types (differentiation between planets achieved with different numbers of upgrade levels and different initial values). This should make it much easier to compare and base decisions on.
  • New colonies will now drain income until they have received the appropriate levels of investment. Residual tax rate is now a per-level attribute of population upgrades so that players are encouraged to be more selective in how quickly they colonize planets versus upgrading their existing empire.
  • TEC Krosov siege frigates can now unlock the Heavy Fallout ability. Use it to strike your enemy's population centers with radioactive bombs that reduce population growth for a period of time.
• Minor -
  • Added Emergency Infrastructure upgrade path for planets to improve their resistance to enemy forces.
  • Partially built planet modules are auto-scuttled if you lose the planet.
  • Planets in general should provide less benefit in their initially colonized state.
  • Tweaked cost of planet upgrades: now cost more crystal, less metal for higher levels.
  • Reduced the credit cost of all upgrades significantly.
  • Allegiance drops off less steeply than before.
  • Trade ship capacity increased by ~50%.
  • Trade Port credit cost reduced.
  • Reduced credit and crystal cost of labs slightly.
  • Culture center credit cost reduced.
  • Composite DamageType now less effective vs light armor.
  • Plunder ability can no longer put a player below 0 of that resource.
  • Incendiary shells no longer stacks on a target, chance to be applied increased to 100%, damage now scales w/level.
  • Fix for phase jumping between stars being blocked by the artifact that affects this when it is unowned but the player has long range jumps researched.

Graphics:

• After years of fighting a desparate battle against the ever advancing Vasari forces, the TEC have finally completed their first true warship in over a millennia. The prototypes have been scrapped and now the final models of the Kol Battleship are flowing out of the orbital factories to the frontlines.
• Now that "there be aliens" to be robbed and more throats to be cut, the Pirates are converting even more stoken ex-tradeships into raiding vessels so they can collect the ever increasing bounties. Meet the vicious new Pirate Cutthroat.
• Lots of new Vasari artwork.
• Fixed glowing asteroids.
• Renormalized space elevators and sub-orbital traffic.
• Fixed building effects not showing.
• Fixed weapons not firing with correct orientation.
• Fixed missiles not arcing correctly.
• Marza's Missile Barrage now fires the correct missiles and from the proper points.
• Ships are now shown under construction in the appropriate factory. Still no exiting animation.

Sound / Music:

• Lots of new Vasari music.
• Lots of new Vasari sound fx.
• Included temporary Vasari vocals.
• Improved music selection AI and transition types.

AI:

• Lots of new AI, mostly to handle special Vasari abilities, behaviors, research, tactics and strategies.
• Fixed AI target selection problem regarding fighters/bombers/flak frigates when the auto-planet-defense AI is used.
• Improved retreating logic.
• Improved collision avoidance, especially around planets.
• AI now turns off autocasting abilities that are no longer applicable.
• See bottom for more comments.

Networking / Multiplayer:

• Improved various lag issues.
• Eliminated lots of user interface lag in multiplayer games.
• Lobby Screen now properly sets the galaxy picture and info.
• Fix for chat entry not long enough in ICO lobby screen.
• No longer get the "Disconnected from ICO" dialog box when disconnecting normally.
• No longer get the "Character Added" dialog box when add was successful (the text list already changes).
• Fixed loading multiplayer save games.
• Changed the network status latency value to be one-way (divided by 2).
• Made the scenario summary show up in the multiplayer lobby for saved games.
• Fixed bug in ICO server not logging players out properly.
• Fixed only known sync error.

User Interface / HUD:

• Zoom sensitivity option added in user interface options.
• Improved 3D movement interface. ~ or ` still works, but now you can also hold down the movement key (d) while issuing a move order to adjust the height.
• Should no longer get bounty notifications if you are the only person who has raised the bounty.
• Event system no longer sends game events for allied scouts.
• Event system no longer sends planet discovered from allied discoveries.
• Event system no longer tells you of discovering a new "Ice Planet planet" etc.
• Event system no longer sends attack event when attacker is militia.
• Improved how text entry responds to cursor events (before it would be impossible to un-select everything clicking to the right of the text).
• Fixes to in-game save game window. Text list item is deselected when the text entry is changed.
• GetEntityUnderCursor returns the extractor if it is an asteroid.
• Fixed how some floating point values are displayed.
• Tweaked close zoom distance for capital ships and frigates.
• Movement lines are now drawn much more accurately, especially across multiple gravity wells.
• Abilities that toggle a buff being on the caster or not now reflect this w/alternate name and description stuff in the Infocard.
• Infocards no longer autocast condition descriptions to reduce clutter.

Modding:

• Culture rate now has a gamespeed scalar.
• Expanded on isExclusive and isExclusiveForAI buff parameters so you can have buffs that are exclusive but don't replace the existing instance of it when it is reapplied.
• Self targetting abilities now respect BuffExclusivityForAI definition data.
• New buff modifier types to separately control disabling linear or angular sub-light engines.
• New buff condition to check if the entity's attack target is in a valid firing solution.

Misc.:

• Increased multicore support (still more to come).
• User action count changed to be incremented after every mouse or keyboard input.
• Renamed Kharak's Cross to Kronac's Cross. Don't ask.
• Changed save game directory structure to reduce clutter (particularly with autosave games).
• Fixed 95% of all crashes submitted as minidumps. Thanks for sending them in everyone! They really help!

What didn't make it in...

• Lots. In particular, the massive AI overhaul (Vasari AI took precedence), the new diplomacy model, the new culture model, the Tactical Management system, Fleets, various Vasari elements, lots of ideas from the forums and much more that we will be wrapping up in the next few weeks. We'll probably release a fair bit of the outstanding features and content in a patch for testing, but remember we also want to keep some surprises for the final release.