Those of you who have been paying attention know that it's been a few months since 1.0.1 came out. Those who have been paying a lot of attention will know that this is (unfortunately) pretty standard fare as the whole lot of us drag each other into a dormant state, so it could take quite a while for the next patch to come out. (On the bright side, the next major release should herald the return of the Ulthaar and all their goodies, so there's that.)
In any case, 1.0.2 is something of a half-patch, half-release hybrid - it was initially meant to be part of 1.1.0, but with the Ulthaar being particularly late to the show, we decided to wrap up whatever functioning projects we had and release that. Full patch notes can be found at Steamcommunity.com, but here's a rundown of the major changes:
- Several buildings have become drastically cheaper in exchange for the addition of a smallish Ore cost. This is part of the ongoing effort to make Ore (and miners) more valuable in the early game as opposed to being a purely endgame resource.
- Gates and Fling Beacons now use a two-stage research system. The player must first research an 'experimental' form of the technology on the research grid, then build a somewhat expensive orbital which can then spend 200 FTL Energy to unlock the cheaper, standard equipment. It's likely that this research method will later be expanded to other FTL techs, but no details currently exist.
- Outposts can now be customized by using Ore to install various upgrades. This, too, is an attempt to make Ore more valuable.
- A new map has been added, using the Advanced Galaxy Editor! (Cue applause for the editor's developer, Test. :)) More maps will likely appear in later patches, if and when we come up with some ideas. This concept is basically a spin on Sins of a Solar Empire's more exotic maps, putting players in situations that would not normally happen for one reason or another.
- The Rahta and Fasshi races have been unrestricted and can now be played in non-WotH matches! Special mention must go to GGLucas for explaining some of the finer points of what is or isn't allowed with regards to expansion-related content. (We believed that the Glory/Comfort system, being a modification of the expansion's Attitudes system, was firmly in WotH-only territory. He explained why we were wrong, and the upcoming Progenitor tech grid will similarly not be affected by our decision to upgrade from 'overpowered rocket pods' to 'similarly overpowered drone launchers'.)
- Nebulae are back at last, this time in a form that even the AI can comprehend. Instead of requiring the player to drop outposts into them, the player must simply control an adjacent system to absorb the nebula into his territory. (This effect can even be chained across several nebulae.)
