Welp, apparently Im not good at counting calendar days and update #12 from last Tuesday was not the final update of 2018 after all. This one most definitely is! :) It took me longer than I thought to get the new events system to the point where it generated meaningful random events. For now it only has eight high-level event types with outcomes that affect population, mineral, and energy limits and collection rates as well as combat strength modifiers. In the future updates Ill be adding more outcomes and event types. An event is something that randomly happens at a specific star or globally across all of your stars. It could be a positive event, like a scientific breakthrough, or negative, like a pandemic. Any event has three levels of severity (minor, normal, and major) that determine the outcomes. The outcomes are 2-3 different options affecting your economy and military might that you must choose from. Events generate a constant stream of trade-offs that significantly change the gameplay for the better. Heres a screenshot with a pandemic event that provides the player with three outcomes to choose from:
This screenshot also gives you a glimpse into the new tooltip system that lists all rate and limit modifiers from the star, events, and research. This is helpful when you make decisions about attacks, transportation, and event outcomes. Build 0.5.0 on Steam that I pushed moments ago has both of these changes as well as the following minor changes:

• [GAMEPLAY] Set initial rates for population, minerals, and energy back to zero.
• [GAMEPLAY] Changed combat strength to a number instead of a percentage.
• [AI] Updated AI players to follow specific research paths instead of randomly selecting available research items.
• [GRAPHICS] Increased camera field of view for a more 3D-like look of the battlefield.
• [GRAPHICS] Updated the background generator to include more realistic nebulae.

Next Week