Version 1.4.2

A stability-and-tuning patch on top of 1.4.1: Alliance Archive territory records, easier early unlocks, stronger defense research, and a Rapid Fire kill-cap fix — plus nebula, asteroid, and research-network adjustments.

Archive tools live under the alliance Archive building. Full rules (current delay / keep curves, what is logged): Alliance Archive. Combat rules are in Fleet Combat. Or open Settings → Quick Guides in-game.

New Features

Alliance Archive Records

• The Archive now records delayed activity for missions that finish in alliance-controlled systems: pirate attacks, player attacks (including vs alliance members), scouts, and debris recycling.
• Visibility delay starts at 6h (Lv1) and steps down 20m per level to 30m (Lv18). Keep time is +6h per Archive level. See the Alliance Archive level table.
• Open the Archive building → Records to browse the log. Relic storage and cosmetic shop behaviour are unchanged.

Planet image cosmetics

• New planet image cosmetics replace the colony’s galaxy-view sprite (families for rocky, hazardous, oceanic, and volcanic surfaces). Unequipping restores the seeded default image. Moons keep their seeded moon sprite.

FCS warp hop for joiners

• When joining an FCS rally, joiners can use the same warp hop rules as a solo / lead launch (PvE, inactive, and neutral targets only), including hop readiness time in travel estimates.

Improvements

Onboarding & early unlocks

• Probe unlocks at Chemical Propulsion 1 and Sensor Technology 1 (was 2 / 2).
• Cargo Ship / Kamikaze unlock at Chemical Propulsion 2 (was 3). Weapon Systems only needs Energy Systems 2 (was 4).
• Fighter unlocks at Shipyard 4 with Chemical Propulsion 3, Weapon Systems 2, and Shield Technology 2 (was Shipyard 7 / Chem 4 / Weapons 4 / Shield 3).
• Onboarding quests add explicit Shipyard and Weapon Systems steps, lower early research and mine targets (mine quest 10 → 8), and grant more starter cargo on that step.

Over-cap Colony Relocate boosts

• Compensated planet abandon now grants 3 Colony Relocate boosts (was 1), capped at 12 rewarded boosts on hand, with a longer expiry window for those rewarded boosts.

Research network

• Research Lab network keep-factor is stronger: about 6.25% faster per networked lab level (was ~5%).
• Colonial Administration levels above your colony count each reduce research time by 2%.

Defense yard floors

• Defense build-time floors are now tiered by the defense’s realm requirement. At Realm 4+, early defenses finish much faster (Realm 1 defenses down to a 1 ms floor).

Second moon Day 14

• Surplus second moons that remained after the two-week window are auto-abandoned with the same compensation as a voluntary Abandon Second Moon. Commanders receive a completion mail listing warehouse, refund, ships, and Building Nano Boosts.

Balance

• Nebula rotations now use easy / medium / hard / extreme / medium or hard. Expedition tech gates follow zone difficulty rather than map position.
• Asteroid ore efficiency from Planetary Engineering 10% → 15% per level and Industrial Supremacy 20% → 25% per level.
• Defense Engineering, Advanced Fortifications, and Planetary Bastion grant substantially higher HP and attack per level for their realm’s defenses. Fortress Doctrine no longer grants defense HP and focuses on shield dome capacity.
• Chemical Propulsion and Warp Technology ship-speed bonus per level 10% → 5% (fuel effects unchanged).
• Probe-only attacks no longer loot resources, drop items, clear pirate strongholds, or write attack-history rewards.
• Pirate / NPC colonies no longer accrue resource production — lootable stockpiles stay at their stored balances.
• Rapid Fire kill cap — each shooter type may only spend kill slots from its own damage share. Soft / logistics hulls with RF=1 can no longer pad capital overkill (e.g. Titans + huge Kamikaze stacks).
• Personal warp gate hops are blocked when the exit colony sits in at-war enemy territory.

Bug Fixes

• PvP Retaliation Window carries correctly when relocating flagged fleets — relocating neither clears nor restarts an in-flight window; a new PvP fight still refreshes the surviving hull.
• Build / research queue locking no longer stalls advancement when the queue head changes under load.
• Combat mail, scout reports, and push delivery are more reliable under concurrent FCS and attack processing.