The hull of the Arkship groaned as the vessel was ejected from the hyperspace anomaly into the structure of real space-time. Belit Tseri reeled at her station on the bridge, struggling to maintain her footing as the shift of realities threatened to overwhelm her senses. Realspace was ordered, regular, plodding... a palpably different feel from the chaotic, frenetic flow of hyperspace. Yet distantly familiar... how long had it been? Very long indeed. A glance at her bridge officers showed them seemingly unaffected. She straightened her tunic and tried to clear her head, and set to the task at hand: homeward bound again. But what state would the galaxy be in, after so long?
Greetings, galactic despots! It has been a while... I'm told that time flows differently inside the hyperspace anomalies. Now that we are back in realspace, we have an updated build for you. It mostly includes under-the-hood changes to prepare for future updates, but there are a few new features.
Starmap Overlays
There is a new control at the top right of the strategic map screen called "Starmap Overlays" which allows you to more easily turn map UI features on and off on the fly without having to dive into the Options menu. The list of features also includes a new "Sensor Range Circles" option, which provides a visualization of your current sensor range.
Modding Support
A new "Additional Content" screen has been added, accessible from the Main Menu. This screen allows you to view and manage the active build version of the game, as well as mods that you've configured. Visit the Stars in Shadow modding forums for more info! May the Mods be with you.
Patch Notes for 13 May 2026 (ver. r53270)
Changes and Additions
Fixes and Housekeeping Changes
And now to find the descendants of those ancient admirals who stayed in realspace but owed me money.
Gameplay Additions and Changes
Fixes
Changed balance and AI advantages on Normal, Hard, and Brutal settings. Players may find games on settings above "Easy" to be noticeably harder.
The AI no longer receives resource bonuses on 'Normal' difficulty mode.
The player now receives resource bonuses on 'Easy' modes.
Torpedoes can now be placed in heavy hardpoints.
Orthin and Gremak can now research Heavy Missiles.
Strike fighters will now attack starships using beam weapons if their beam weapons are more powerful than their missiles.
Significantly reduced the range of anti-missiles.
Reduced marauder ship spawn rates.
Reduced the strength of Marauder fleets.
It is now possible to deploy outposts around planets you already control.
Added several new diplomatic issues.
Added the 'Expansion Request' event.
Added the 'Trade War' event.
Added the 'International Incident' event.
Added the 'Wreckage Analyzed' event.
Added the 'Technology Captured' event.
Reduced the research cost of 'Defense Grid'.
Increased many agreement influence costs.
Increased upkeep costs for mid/late game ship hulls.
Phidi no longer start without the 'Military Doctrine' technology.
Changed the hiring cost formula of mercenaries; in most cases this is an increase.
Decreased the spawn rates of mercenaries.
Increased the cost of the 'Artificial Organisms' tech.
Increased mid/late game strategic fleet speeds.
Upgrading tanks no longer increases their build or upkeep costs.
Increased the number of stars in 'small', 'normal', and 'huge' maps.
Citizens from allied factions will now sometimes offer to join your empire.
Allying with an alien faction now removes the "Alien Rulers" morale effect from colonists of their race in your empire.
Increased the research cost of 'Battle Mechs'.
Galactic council votes can now influence reputation.
'Graviton Physics' and 'Advanced Field Theory' now grant increased tactical speed.
Increased mid/late game science boosts from experimenting on slaves.
Reduced the number of technologies offered by the Herald.
Updated mechanics for ancient data archives.
Tinkers AIs should now make use of Asteroid Outposts.
Changes to the random number generator used in planetary bombardment / invasions to improve the accuracy of the predicted outcome display.
'Artificial Sentience' now provides +15 science on all worlds instead of +1 improvement slot.
'Adaptive Energy Grid' now provides +10 labor on all worlds instead of +1 improvement slot.
'Social Engineering' now unlocks a varying number of improvement slots depending on planet size.
Various tweaks to the Strategic AI. (Thanks to Harpy Eagle for his contributions.)
The AI's ship building strategies should now reflect its research strategies, and vice versa.
A variety of fixes and improvements in the AI's economic logic.
A variety of fixes and improvements in the tactical combat AI.
Significant changes to AI behaviors around starting and stopping wars.
The AI should now be less likely to spam colony ships.
Adjustments to the AI's handling of planet production changes.
The AI should now pursue more varied research paths.
The AI should now sometimes transfer population units between planets.
AI's will now be more likely to cooperate with allies.
AI's should now wait at least 15 turns between making peace and restarting a war.
AI's may now demand that you stop trading with their enemies.
AI's may now demand that you release their people from slavery.
AI's may now issue ultimatums before starting a war.
AI's may now insist that your fleets stay outside their territory.
AI's may now request to start joint wars against third parties.
AI's may now demand that you return control of colonies they have a historical claim to.
AI's may now object if you establish colonies/outposts in their territory.
AI's may demand control of splinter colonies founded by members of their own species.
AI's may offer gifts to friendly players.
Allies should now better cooperate when routing defensive fleets.
Tweaks to the logic governing AI tactical retreats.
Changes to the AIs "sue for peace" logic.
Changes to peace concessions.
Changes to formula used in resource request events.
Added a Victory screen that includes a Graphs screen.
Added an "Intelligence Briefing" option to the diplomacy screen which will display Graphs for known factions (hotkey Ctrl-G).
Added a Credits pane to the Main Menu.
Added various faction-specific weapon art assets.
Updated the layout scheme for population icons in the planet information screen.
Added a 'Max Pop' option to the list of sorting criteria in the Planetary Report
