Hello,

We taken some time before our next big patch to address bugs, optimize performance (esp. on larger maps/longer games), and introduce a few improvements to the gameplay and lobby.  Please check out the changes below.

Performance improvements

• Optimized animation system to better handle larger numbers of fleets
• Removed the old logging functions to reduce memory and CPU usage
• Fixed a memory leak related to the shipyards and other graphics that mostly impacted larger maps.  
• Removed some redundant game checks that were slowing down the frame rate in some circumstances.  
• General improvements to make the game cleanup more stable and to prevent hard-to-reproduce crashes.  

Gameplay

• Influence Victory now has an additional requirement: You must be at peace with all of the major races for 10 turns to earn Influence Victory.
• Added an alert for when another faction is close to Influence victory.  
• Rebalanced the "Life Support" mass-to-range ratios.
• "Exploration Treaty" now requires the later Alliance Tech.  Also increased the relations level required to get it.
• The "Exploration Treaty" is now limited to one per faction
• Tweaked "Open Borders" relations values.
• "Open Borders Treaty" and "Exploration Treaty" can no longer be traded with minors as they are of little value to the minors.
• Balanced the Culture Flip diplomacy modifiers to be less punishing.
• Balance pass on all Production Point modifying improvements. Changed all production point adjacency bonus to affect manufacturing.

Starbases

• In the Sponsor Screen, the "Set For All Starbases" button will apply the current settings ( constructor, auto upgrade, and manually manage) to all Starbases.
• Fixed an issue that was preventing the Iridium faction from building Influence Starbase modules.
• Renamed all instances of "Manufacturing per turn" to "Sponsor Manufacturing"
• Changed the starbase sponsor lines only point to shipyards and constructors that currently have modules requested for the starbase.
• Added a tooltip to the spinner that is set on startup and when the spinner is changed.

UI

• Replaced Shipyard's "auto-idling" function with a simpler "do not notify."  If the shipyard has nothing in its queue, regardless of the state of the notifications for the shipyard, it's manufacturing use will not be taken from the planet.
• Fixed various issues long planet names getting clipped
• The game now displays the name of the current faction who is currently moving.
• Fixed instances where the Battle Prediction were incorrectly flipped.
• The "red alert" notification for population cap will now only appear if the population is actually fully, matching the tooltip description.
• Unavailable treaties should appear in the trade list, but should gray out with a helpful tooltip.
• Map Editor: Fixed line breaks for Precursor Anomaly header and random Precursor Anomaly entries
• Map Editor:  Changed all of the random Anomaly entries to be lowercase and colored yellow to make them stand out a little better and to decrease their overall width.
• Disabling the Gel UI option will now make the background black instead of transparent. This will improve the readability of many of the tooltips.  
• Tech tree will no longer occasionally have gray paths instead of colored, the first time you open it.  The issue used to happen if you had previously researched the first or second specialization and not opened the tech tree.
• When clicking the next/back arrows in the Trade screen, it will now switch between any factions you can trade with and keep you on that screen (instead of taking you back to the initial conversation screen).
• Players are now warned if local resources/relics are already claimed by another starbase they own if they attempt to build an "Archeology Lab" or "Mining Ring".
• Ships that have the "One Per Player" component requirement are now disabled instead of hidden in the shipyard.
• The tooltip for those ships with a that have the "One Per Player" component now display a warning when a ship has been built with that component, to notify the player that they can only build one.

MP Lobby improvements

• When joining a multiplayer lobby (or someone joins a lobby you're already in) and the game starts sending custom factions from player to player, a "Loading Factions" message will appear and prevent players from interacting with the lobby until loading is complete."
• Player names are now colored the same as their faction's color
• Fixed an issue where the "Loading Custom Factions" text would appear when a player joins a restored session.
• The game host can now edit a lobby's map and gameplay  settings while in the lobby.
• Single and multiplayer game and galaxy settings are now independent.  That is, the game will remember separate galaxy size setting for single and multiplayer games.
• When Ready in the lobby, you can no longer change your faction or team.
• When Ready in the lobby, clicking the Ready button again will unready you.
• Fixed the player names sometimes appearing as white in the chat window in the lobby.
• Increased the scroll speed of the player list in the lobby.
• Disabled the mouse wheel behavior for the "AI Intelligence" and "Team" spinners, so it doesn't stop the scrolling behavior of the list.

Bugs

• The hull mass scale modifier will not longer reduce the effectiveness of hull-mass tech improvements.  
• If Ascension or Research victory conditions are turned off, the AI will no longer suspect that you are pursuing these victory conditions and penalize you in Diplomacy.  
• Added a minimum tactical speed to all ships.  This prevents battles lasting forever because the ships were getting -100% tactical speed from stacking Starbases effects.
• Campaign now contain the Basic Constructor.
• Fixed the missing Starbase range buff on the military ring.
• Factions relations will no longer modify Peace Treaty trade values
• The Mercenary "Dr. Jondi Ians" now provides the intended double bonus to Precursor Studies instead of triple.  
• Fixed an issue with the Diplomatic Trade Offer Value Multiplier was not always working correctly.
• Added a warning message Starbase Archaeology modules if the nearby Relic is already tapped.
• Trading planets will not longer break the planet scroll list
• Fixing a stuck turn caused by giving a fleet a battle order and then order it to do something else before the battle had started.  
• If an unknown faction captures an Ascension Crystal, the player can longer see the Ascension Crystal's location behind FOW.
• Tactical speed no longer appears as "missing info" in some tooltips
• Changing the AI to wait until all ships are done moving before it starts its move phase.
• Fixed an issue where the shipyard being built when there are no available sponsors prevents the set sponsor window from popping up.
• Games will no longer run out of colonization events.
• Precursor colonization events will no longer appear on non-Precursor Worlds.