Just like we announced the other day, we are about to start a new open beta. We would like to test the new features and changes, to make sure everyone has the best gameplay experience, before fully releasing it. You can opt in for the beta simply by right clicking on Gladius in your library, clicking on Properties -> Betas and then selecting "open beta" from the scroll-down menu. This update will contain the new options for world customization as well as a revamped and improved AI. We're really eager to hear what you think of it. Changelog: NOTE: Saved games from previous versions may cause inconsistent behavior when using certain weapons and abilities due to balance changes. New - Added world parameters for general region size and density as well as arctic, desert, tropical and volcanic region densities. - Fortifications now capture and keep control of adjacent outposts. - Fortress of Redemption now only gains percentage and flat resources from a controlled outpost. AI - AI will now prefer building units with a cost profile that fits its resource pool and income. - AI will now cease producing units if this would slow the economic buildup. - AI will now cease producing units if this would lead to going bankrupt in one of the resources. - AI will now cease producing units if this would lead to going into negative income for the resource required to power their buildings. - AI is now better at stockpiling the right amount of resources based on its expenditure. - AI will now make sure to have at least one colonizer unit in case it wants more cities. - AI now knows the true value of loyalty and constructs this building when it makes sense. - AI will now research loyalty and habitat buildings even if it doesn't need them yet so it has them available once required. - AI will now take into consideration that loyalty also increases the production capabilities of production buildings and reduces the required count accordingly. - AI will no longer add more research buildings once it reaches the highest research tier. - AI units now prefer moving through forests and imperial ruins in order to gain combat advantages. - AI now considers their production capabilities when choosing what units to research. - AI now chooses better tiles for healing its units. - AI no longer has the urge to explore water tiles. - AI now assumes there are unseen enemies near visible ones. - AI no longer spams colonizer units. - AI is now a signficantly better in grouping its units. - AI now performs more organized retreats. - AI will no longer wait for the population to grow before constructing a building that helps with a resource emergency (even if the required population exceeds the available population). - Fixed Space Marines AI placing several fortresses of redemption on the same resource node. - Fixed an issue with Space Marines AI not acquiring tiles with a city center distance of 5. - Fixed an issue with AI operating on outdated strategy data. - Fixed AI stopping exploration under certain circumstances. General - Made regions more pronounced. - Improved multiplayer UPnP connectivity. - Updated French, German, Russian and Simplified Chinese translations. Bug Fixes - Fixed crash when using an operation after having selected a transport unit. - Fixed unit autocycling moving to the next unit when the item shop is open, resulting in bought items disappearing into the void. - Fixed Ctrl+Y showing unexplored tiles.