Ironclad Games and Stardock Entertainment are pleased to announce the release of version 1.85 of Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion today! This update enables features around the new Outlaw Sectors DLC and adds enhanced modding support.

NOTE: This version may invalidate your save games. You can switch back to v1.84 via the Steam beta opt-in system.

Changes:

• Added Outlaw Sectors DLC support
• Added Smuggling Specialization planet development (Outlaw Sectors DLC Only):
• Steal up to 4.5% (1.5% * 3 stages) of global trade income (all players trade income combined) per planet. 
• The maximum amount of global trade profit that can be stolen is 40% across all players. 
• Each stage of Smuggling adds a 25% tax penalty for that planet up to a max of 75%. -This is mutually exclusive with Social and Industry specialization.
• Added Rampant Militias (Outlaw Sectors DLC Only):
• Every potentially colonizable world except homeworlds and pirate worlds will periodically spawn a random fleet of militia units with a fleet supply value of 20.
• A given planet will not exceed a militia max capacity for that planet.
• The max militia capacity at a planet is: (20 fleet supply + .025 * population at that planet) * a scalar proportional to the maximum fleet capacity researched * a scalar based on the number of planets in the galaxy.
• The frequency of spawning is proportional to the maximum fleet capacity researched in the current match ranging from 10 to 4 minutes with a 25% variance. 
• Capturing a valid militia world will cause future spawned militia at that world to join your side as uncontrollable units so long as you control that planet.
• When the max militia at a planet is reached, the militia will seek an adjacent gravwell target to attack unless they are already engaged. Neutral militia will attack any non-pirate gravwell adjacent and player owned militia will attack any non-pirate gravwell adjacent with enemy units detected.
• Militia at a target planet with no enemies to engage will return to their planet of origin.
• Militia will attack any non-friendly units including raiding pirates, enemy neutral militia, enemy player militia, and enemy normal units.
• Added Pirate Turf (Outlaw Sectors DLC Only):
• Pirates will now simultaneously raid multiple players dependant on the number of players in the game. 
• 1,2,3 players = 1 raid. 
• 4,5,6,7,8 players = 2 raids. 
• 9,10 players = 3 raids.
• The players selected will be the players with the most bounty.
• All bounty applied against a player will receive a 25% bonus amount.
• Pirates will spawn 15% faster.
• Added 12 new maps (Outlaw Sectors DLC Only).
• Maps that can only be played with a specific DLC now show up green if you own the DLC or red if not. A text description is shown when the map is selected indicating the reason for the state.
• Added Enhanced Mod Memory Support:
• Mods now use less memory. 
• Entering, exiting and re-entering a modded game no longer accumulates memory usage.
• Changing mods no longer causes unnecessary memory consumption.
• Overall memory usage is also reduced.
• Players who don't own Outlaw Sectors can still play with a host who does own it.
• Fixed two crashes present in version 1.84.

For more details on modding changes in v1.85, please see this post.