Alpha 9 Update - Diplomacy Continued + Graphics Upgrades

New Features

• Improved the map function so that the map no longer has issues with overlapping
• Empire boards are now coloured based on the empire
• Added chess and checkers as options for between turns in multiplayer
  • Added a mini game button to the main menu as well
• Added more information to the audience panel
• Added Defensive pacts, Alliances, and vassals 
  • All treaties take effect automatically 

• Added a menu for tearing up treaties
• Added a menu for confirming declarations of war
  • This will also tell you who will be involved in this war

• Declaring war now brings in their allies and vassals
  • Vassals and alliances will be called in on your side when declaring war
• Improved the AI
  • AI will now uses spies against their opponents
• When attempting to trade with a nation at war it is possible to surrender or demand the enemies surrender
• The game now has an option to use warp movement (1 light year per turn) instead of skip drives (4 turns to go anywhere)
  •     when using warp movement fleets will move across the map each turn until reaching their final destination
• During battle armies will now be sorted when initializing, with the strongest ships in the middle and weakest on the flanks
• If an ally fleet is located at a friendly planet when they are attacked they will help to defend the planet (joint attacks not possible yet, they occur one at a time)
• Added a skip turn button to the battle system
• The Dalts will now recover part of the cost of any ships destroyed whenever they win the battle
• New colonies now start with a small number of factories to help start them off
• In ship design there are now 3 different types of colony modules which can be used
  •     The main differences is these colony modules can have more colonists and more starting industry but they cost more to produce
  •     They also are prepped for the future update which will add in new techs and modules that will be needed for some hostile planets
• Began working on custom races (kind of starting to work in single player, but not in multiplayer yet)
• Edited some race pictures (animations coming soon?)
• Stars are now more randomized
  • The colour of star now impacts the type of planets that can occur at those locations
  • Added an option to set galaxy age (determines colour of stars and by extension the variation of planets available)
• Stars are also now animated using shaders
  •     More colours and variation to be added later
• Created a new turn system which allows better execution of processes (basically things happen in a set order now)
  •     This has been tested, and so far has not caused any issues in single or multiplayer
  •     But please let me know if the game ever seems to partially freeze after hitting next turn as it could be related to the new turn system
  •     Main Advantage is more predictable behaviors as things now occur in a proper order
  •  As a result I was also able to turn down the turn timer, so quicker turns (less than 1 second for all AI's turns)

Bugfixes

• Fixed some screens that were out of place/ not in the right location
• Fixed camera limitation so the camera no longer gets stuck in corners
• Fixed camera limitations to actually match the map
• Added the ability to zoom in and out using a pinch motion on a touch-pad
• Fixed zooming on android
• Fixed the peace and war button not swapping when peace/war is declared between a player and a AI
• Fixed the ship estimator showing engages of the wrong type of ships
• Fixed bug with AI wars in multiplayer
• Fixed bombing planets showing a float instead of a integer
• Fixed issue with tomb worlds having incorrect colours when double clicking
• Fixed issue with double clicking sometime triggering when it should not
• Fixed multiple multiplayer diplomacy bugs
• Fixed bug where player 2+ does not have the ability to build defense satellites
• Fixed a bug that caused some planets to not have images when colonizing
• Fixed some alien races looking smaller than intended
• Changed the name of the human home world from Earth to Sol (star name)
• Fixed issue with pop transfer showing outdated numbers
• Fixed issue with empire screen exit button not working on one half
• Fixed scrolling in solitaire
• Fixed a major bug with the planet range system
• Fixed an issue causing the game to sometimes freeze  if the AI is ba
• Fixed some functions not being available when the game is in the middle of a battle (multiplayer).