Ironclad Games and Stardock Entertainment are very pleased to announce the release of version 1.5 BETA for Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion.  This new update will be available as an opt-in Beta via the Steam client ahead of its final release so that we can get feedback from users on the changes.

NOTE: THE V1.50 UPDATE WILL BREAK SAVE GAMES!

[ Graphics ]

• New high-res planet textures for Terran, Ice, Volcanic, Desert and Dwarf planet types.

[ Gameplay ]

• Corvettes are now affected by Unstable Gas Pockets around Gas Giants.
• The base relationship value for Pacts has been changed to 0.0 (fixes a possible crash bug).
• All planet exploration costs have been reduced from 450/150/75 to 300/75/35 at level 1 and from 550/175/125 to 400/100/85 at level 2.
• Changed Helium Atmosphere and Ionic Storms planet bonuses to no longer require planet exploration to detect. (Ship sensors can detect this from orbit.)
• Increased change to find something via planet exploration from 40% to 60%, except on Competitive map types.
• Titan research now grants certain bonuses on a per faction basis. See below for details.
• All players now start with 2 frigate factories on game start. (This helps the AI tremendously.)
• Fleet supply for all Envoy cruisers has been decreased from 8 to 4.
• Artifacts Overhaul:  Most Artifacts have been buffed to be of greater strategic value (i.e., game changing). The following are in addition/changed to/from current values:
• Jump Drive Relic - Now makes all ships immune to phase jump inhibitors.
• Data Archive - +15% Research Rate
• Resilient Metaloids - +150% Passive HP Regen; +3.0 Base Armor; -10% Planet Bombing Damage Taken
• Relativistic Factories - +4 Civilian Slots
• Phase Accelerator - +33% Phase Jump Charge Rate; +25% Phase Gate Speed
• Manifest Dominion - +4.00 Relationship Bonus; +0.10 Quest Reward Relationship Bonus; -0.05 Quest Failure Penalty to Relationship
• Jump Field Generator - -75% Antimatter Lost from Phase Travel; -3% Phase Jump Exit Distance
• Planetary Organic AI - +60% Population Growth Rate; +25% Maximum Planet Population
• Matter Compressor - +25% Refinery Ship Capacity; +50% Cargo Ship Capacity
• Power Core Relic - +20% Maximum Antimatter; +0.10 Passive Antimatter Regeneration in Culture
• Ion Field Generator - +45% Planet Bombing Range
• TEC
• Ion Blast (Akkan Capitalship) will no longer affect enemy Flagships.
• Garda Flak Frigate range increased from 3900 to 4400.
• Long-Range Jumps research moved from Tier 3 to Tier 4; cost adjusted.
• Advanced Arctic Colonies research moved from Tier 4 to Tier 3; cost adjusted.
• Advanced Civic Design research moved from Tier 3 to Tier 2; cost adjusted.
• TEC Loyalists
• Tier 1 Titan research now grants a +5% global bonus to maximum Shields.
• Tier 2 Titan research now grants a +5% global bonus to maximum Starbase HP.
• Tier 3 Titan research now grants a +5% global bonus to Rate of Fire for all Lasers.
• Disruption Matrix (Ankylon Titan) now disables enemy passive regeneration.
• Group Shield (Ankylon Titan) duration increased from 30/35/40/45 to 40/50/60/70.
• Inspire and Impair (Ankylon Titan) duration increased from 30/45 to 60/75; now affects Titans.
• Battlefield Promotions research moved from Tier 5 to Tier 1; bonus increased from 5% to 10%; number of research levels decreased from 2 to 1; cost adjusted.
• Updated map 'The Void' with correction for TEC Loyalists in Quick Start mode.
• TEC Rebels
• Tier 1 Titan research now grants a +5% global bonus to Rate of Fire for all Autocannons.
• Tier 2 Titan research now grants a +5% global bonus to Population killed from planetary bombardment.
• Tier 3 Titan research now grants a -10% penalty to enemy empire's Culture build rate.
• Advent
• Defense Vessel range increased from 3900 to 4400.
• Meteor Swarm (Starbase) will now deal AoE damage to Corvettes.
• Deliverance Engine will no longer affect friendly planets with an allegiance penalty.
• Distant Visualization research moved from Tier 3 to Tier 4; cost adjusted.
• Psionic Scream (Discord Battleship) now properly affects Corvettes.
• Advent Loyalists
• Tier 1 Titan research now grants a +5% global bonus to Beam weapon damage.
• Tier 2 Titan research now grants a +0.50 global bonus to Base Armor.
• Tier 3 Titan research now grants a +10% global bonus to Culture Resistance.
• Repossession (Coronata Titan) planet upgrade cost bonus increased from 0%/-33% to -33%/-66%.
• Planet for a Planet research moved from Tier 4 to Tier 3; cost adjusted.
• Advent Rebels
• Tier 1 Titan research now grants a +5% global bonus to Plasma weapon damage.
• Tier 2 Titan research now grants a +5% global bonus to maximum Antimatter.
• Tier 3 Titan research now grants +1 strikecraft from Hangar Bays (tactical structure).
• Wail of the Sacrificed will no longer function if enough labs aren't maintained.
• Wail of the Sacrificed damage decreased from 20.0 per population point to 4.5/9.5; research levels increased from 1 to 2.
• Increased damage particle duration on Wail of the Sacrificed from 10 seconds to 60.
• Unyielding Will (Eradica Titan) duration reduced from 240 to 120.
• Mass Communion research reduced from Tier 4 to Tier 3; cost adjusted.
• Fixed null pointer crash with Wail of the Sacrificed.
• Vasari
• Gravity Warhead (Jarrasul Evacuator) will no longer target Titans or affect enemy Flagships.
• Phase Out Hull (Antorak Marauder) will no longer affect Flagships.
• Sentinel range increased from 3900 to 4400.
• Long Range Jumps research moved from Tier 2 to Tier 3; cost adjusted.
• Increased Vasari Starbase weapon upgrade time from 25 to 45 seconds.
• Vasari Loyalists
• Tier 1 Titan research now grants a +5% global bonus to planetary bombardment damage.
• Tier 2 Titan research now grants a +5% global bonus to Wave Cannon weapon damage.
• Tier 3 Titan research now grants a +5% global bonus to capital ship acceleration.
• Desperation (Vorastra Titan) no longer affects Corvettes; duration decreased from 45 to 15.
• The Maw (Vorastra Titan) no longer affects Corvettes; max target count reduced from unlimited to 15/30.
• Vasari Rebels
• Tier 1 Titan research now grants a +5% global bonus to Pulse Beam weapon damage.
• Tier 2 Titan research now grants a +10% bonus to mission deadline times.
• Tier 3 Titan research now grants a +0.10 bonus to your faction's relationship with other empires.
• Dissever (Kultorask Titan) no longer damages Corvettes.
• Starbase Mobilization now only allows Starbases to phase jump between active phase nodes.

[ AI ]

• The AI has been significantly modified to allow it to put aside resources towards expensive projects (i.e., Titans and superweapons). This should prevent the AI from 'starving' from lack of resources when attempting to build expensive projects, appearing to do nothing.
• Normal AI difficulty no longer gets any bonus resource income.
• Increased resource bonus for Hard and Unfair AI types.
• All AI types will now spend at least 50% of income on ships.

[ Misc ]

• Fixed bug that prevented players with Cloud saves from joining a local save hosted game in multiplayer.
• Fixed incorrect planet picture placement for one of the Asteroid planet meshes.
• Optimized particle system file pathing.
• Fixed crash bug in Flagship Victory system.
• Fixed null pointer crash with Wail of the Sacrificed.
• Converted some TGA texture files to DDS where it didn't adversely impact visuals, freeing up more memory.
• Removed unused textures to free up memory.
• Various string updates / changes.
• Removed data files for the old Metal Pact - was causing some crashes.
• Moved around various research techs (no Tier changes).
• Removed unused DLL files.
• Removed reference to MagneticCloudFair in GalaxyScenarioDef - entity never existed.
• Fixed bug with some planet bonus Infocards not displaying values.
• Added null checks to superweapons and titans to prevent possible crashes.
• Made dwarf planet mesh with the huge crater more prevalent.
• Improved Starbase Mobilization description.