# Unit Experience
* Armies and Ships will now gain experience from combat and rank up. Higher rank armies/ships are more effective in battle
# Galactic Terrain
* Certain systems will now have effects on ships in them. Pulsars, Neutron Stars and Black Holes will affect ships in the same system in various ways, while Nebulas prevent all outside sensors from having a view of the system
# Fleet Manager
* We have added a new interface that lets you manage your fleets. You can manage templates, retrofit designs and reinforce all fleets.
# Technology
* Technologies have been reworked into 5 tiers, and many have had their base costs changed
* Renamed Atmospheric Restoration to Atmospheric Transformation
* Doctrine: Fleet Support no longer unlocks any spaceport modules, but instead increases naval capacity
* Interstellar Fleet Traditions tech no longer unlocks any spaceport module, but instead unlocks two starbase buildings
* Auxiliary Fire-control technology added to the game
* Modular Engineering technology has been added, which reduces starbase building and module build cost by 25%
* Each ship size has two technologies that increases hull points. For example, corvettes can increase their hull points by +100 two times
* Each ship size has a technology to increase the build speed of that ship size by 25%
* Technologies that unlock new ship sizes also increase Fleet Command Limit by +10
* Orbital Hydroponics tech removed from game
* Will to Power tech removed from game
* Wormhole Stabilization technology has been added to the game, and it is required to travel through Wormholes
* Gateway Activation technology has been added to the game, and it is required to activate Gateways and to travel through them
* Gateway Construction technology has been added to the game, and it is required to build new Gateways
# Traits
* Traditional species trait has been added, which increases unity output
* Quarrelsome species trait has been added, which reduces unity output
# Spaceports
* Spaceports as an entity no longer exist, and starbases with shipyards are required to build military ships. Every planet can build civilian ships through the spaceport tab, including Habitats
* All spaceport modules removed from the game. Some were converted into Starbase buildings
# Pirates
* Pirates can now spawn in any unowned system near your borders. Pirate spawns keep getting stronger as the game goes on. Pirates will raid systems to destroy mining and research stations
* Pirates cannot spawn during the first 10 years of the game
# Sensors & Intel
* Sensor range is now a measure of how many FTL jumps away you can see rather than euclidian distance. A sensor range of 1 gives view of only the same system, 2 of same and neighboring system, and so on
* Intel levels have changed. They are as follows: None (Unknown), Low (unsurveyed but known), Medium (surveyed, not in sensor range), High (unsurveyed, in sensor range) and Full (surveyed, in sensor range)
* You no longer need to survey systems owned by other empires you have comms with. Exception is systems owned by Fallen Empires or Marauders
# Edicts
* Edicts now all have an up-front cost and a duration, rather than being able to be toggled on and off. The only exception are one-off edicts such as Land Reclamation
* Removed a bunch of planetary edicts, and many others were turned into empire edicts. In addition, many of them have had their effects tweaked or reworked.
* Recycling Campaign empire edict added to the game, which reduces consumer goods cost
* Healthcare Campaign empire edict added to the game, which increases pop growth
* Education Campaign empire edict added to the game, which increases leader experience gain
* Fear Campaign empire edict added to the game, which increases unity output and xenophobia
# Setup
* Can now set when mid-game and end-game events will start at galaxy setup
* Can now set overall speed at which tech and traditions are unlocked at galaxy setup
* Can now set frequency of wormholes and abandoned gateways at galaxy setup
# Misc.
* Added some new events for gaining additional Precursor artifacts outside of anomalies, this should guarantee that precursor chains can always be completed
* It is now possible to start a game with no other empires in it, but this will disable conquest victory
* You now start with your home system explored, and largely fixed (slightly randomized) number of resources present
* No longer possible to trade star charts with other empires, instead you can trade for communications
* War Philosophy now controls whether or not you can freely make claims on other empires. It is always possible to claim systems of empires that you are fighting a defensive war against
* Broken planets are now their own planet class, instead of using the barren planet class
* The Scyldari are now Spiritualist rather than Materialist, as the prescripted empires were looking a bit Materialist-heavy
* Changed the Iferyx from Xenophobe to Pacifist, and gave them Corporate Dominion, to give them a different AI personality from Yondar attraction
* Added new component reactor booster with 3 levels and accompanying techs - aux slot component that gives extra power to ships, the basic version is available as a start tech
* Mineral Processing technology no longer gives +2000 Mineral storage cap, but rather unlocks Nebula Refinery
* Consolidated mineral storage modifiers from techs into just a few techs instead of spread all over
* Military Stations removed as a buildable station type. They are now Defensive Platforms for starbases.
* Added Resource Replicator building, which converts 50 energy into 30 minerals per month
* Auxiliary Fire-control aux component added to the game, which is an aux slot component that increases weapon hit chance
* Curators now ask if you wish to renew their research agreement when it ends
* Added a new Corvette-section: Picket Ship with 1 point-defense slot and 2 small slots
* Climate Transformation technology is now called Climate Restoration again
* Added Feral Prethoryn events