Happy Halloween Partiers!

Warning: There are spooky elements and creepy critters in this limited-time mini-update.

The house looks a little different this Halloween, and so do some of your fellow partygoers!

Madison's decked the place out with a few chilling decorations, and some of the more Halloween-minded guests have put on a sinister special accessory to celebrate. Be sure to fully explore the party, as you’ll encounter spine-chilling seasonal decor and a petrifying new limited-time cosmetic item!

The eerie visuals will revert back to normal after the holiday, so enjoy them while you can!

Note: At this time, the seasonal accessory and household decorations are not available for use in custom stories.

5.522 Secret Factions
(Released October 29th, 2022)

Features

* Galaxy setting "Secret Faction Details" which hides all information about other factions in the game, including any ai personality types and intensity levels. The information is visible once again if the game is won or lost.

Bugfixes

* Fix a typo in the tesla torpedo description
** Thanks to Apthorpe for reporting

* When a unit is hit by an acid effect, it will no longer override an existing acid effect if the existing effect is stronger.
** Reported by Johan

* Fix a bug where Venators would appear in games even when disabled
** Thanks to Lord of Nothing for reporting, and Dismiss for the bugfix

* Reduce the metal cost for Orchid Repair Drones.
** Nothing is done with the metal cost, but the high cost they previously had was distorting some stats
** Thanks to Scourge for reporting

* Fix a typo in some hacking text
** Thanks to Scourge for reporting

* Fix to new Nanocaust 'spawn planet' setting to properly link the planet in.
** Thanks to Lampshade for reporting

* Fix to new Nanocaust 'reinvade frequency' setting to be the proper amount of time instead of dramatically faster than expected.

* Fix to Nanocaust repeatedly choosing the same planet for invasions, with reinvasions enabled.

* Nanocaust invasion now indicated with a countdown timer like Dark Zenith.

* Fix to galaxy map to shown capturables you know are on planets but without current vision of, when searching for unit by text.

* Fix a bug where Border Aggression was not honouring its XML-defined available ships, but was instead using the ships from Waves for that AI type
** This should also be a fun QoL improvement to Classic Fusion, which uses other ships for border aggression
** Thanks to Puffin Emeritus for reporting

Balance

* Adjustments to the Minelayer Frigate (medium hull)
** Line size reduced from 9 to 6
** Ship base hull increased from 100,000 to 130,000
** Ship base shields increased from 50,000 to 65,000
** Metal cost per ship raised from 120,000 to 150,000
** Reload speed of mine deployment increased from four seconds to six
*** For how fast, durable via hardening, and highly damaging this ship is it was over performing. Relative damage output of the line brought more in line with Siege Frigates while still having the enhanced defenses and speed. This just makes it so one line of frigates isn't outperforming cruisers and some officers that actually have an AIP cost to acquire.

* Quick fix to Stupefy Defenses having an oddly low number of mines compared to other battlestation layouts with mines. Paralysis Mines 24 -> 120

* Several adjustments made to Frenzy Golem:
** Explicit kite distance set so it prefers being in range to trigger the triple damage of its Annihilator Lance.
** Vampirism rate of said weapon increased from 20% to 50%.
** Weapon has a 10% bonus against targets of 5tX or more mass so it prefers shooting stuff with higher health totals.

* Explicit kite distance set for Ambush Carrier
** Will attempt to pull back just a bit further than the range its engine stun weapon has. Thus anything it can engine stun it will pull away from.

* Adjusted SpireBattleship's Gravitic Railcannon from EssentiallyInfinite to ExtremelyHigh. The effect being that it should now try to get into closer range to fire its beams too.
* Made the drones used by the Hive Golem and its enhanced hack variants unable to benefit from FRS bonuses. They are essentially part of the golem's kit and thus should not be receiving a boost.

* Renamed the "Wormhole Acceleration" buff (speed modifier for 5 seconds after entering a planet or spawning) to "Rapid Deployment".
** Thanks to CRCGamer for suggesting.

Mods

More System Defenders v1.35
* Cruise Missile Battery metal and energy costs, hull and shield health, and damage output increased.
** Number of said turrets deployable at logistic systems decreased from five to three.
** Number of Shockwave Missiles fired per salvo is now two instead of one.
** Base damage of Nova Missiles doubled.

Dyson Sidekick
* Clicking on the Metal section of the resource bar now reminds a player how to build Science or Metal generators if appropriate
** From a bug report by KDR_11k on steam

* Dyson Sidekick can on longer claim structures they can't use, like metal generators
** From a bug report by KDR_11k on steam

* It feels like Cuendillar is a bit scarce for the Sidekick, so there will be more Cuendillar available in the game. In particular, just getting the Cuendillar to build some Dyson Spheres is harder than I'd like.
** The Dyson Sidekick will get more cuendillar from its usual targets (Cuendillar Fortresses, Asteroids, etc).
** Unlocking higher tier Districts is cheaper. Strongholds are cheaper.
** This is a significant buff to the player

* Simplify the ship-granting structure for the Dyson Sidekick
** Now all District 1 structures grant 10 ships
** All District 2 structures grant 5 ships
** All District 3 structures grant 2 ships
*** Previously the numbers were all over the place, where some of the Races would get a lot more ships than others, which was causing some balance issues. I'd like to keep things simple so players know how many ships they'll get in general

* Reaper Chrysalises prefer to spawn on AI planets, since then the AI gets to mine them too

* Fix a bug with spire flagships being a bit too large
** Thanks to Eric Kitchen on Discord for reporting

* Some minor improvements to auto-defend mode intelligence

Points of Interest
* Rocketeer is now categorized as Brutal difficulty.
* Fairy Grotto/Ward rebalanced.
** Each grotto now has a max of 5 instead of 10 fairies in play.
** Wards now change parents less frequently and also now prefer higher strength parents.
** Wards will not be spawned anymore while a planet is contested.
** Wards now spawn specifically for the faction with highest strength at a planet.

Reclaimers
* Skipping seeding of hackables for necromancer, or other player types that don't use ARS hacks.
* Warp Gates are now indestructible and unscrappable so place your two anywhere but choose wisely.
* Metal Storage Battery increased to 1mil at mark1 + 300k per mark.
* Fixed periodic issue with not being able to build batteries.

AI Lieutenants
* New foe: the Warden Lieutenant
** Wanders choke points building Warden Firebase(s) which act like lairs but pump out special warden guardians for the general Warden Fleet.
** Will join the relentless ai to attack the players planets based on an aggro countdown when within a hop of the LTN.
** Joins the CPA faction during CPA(s) like all lieutenants.
** Upon death the whole Warden Fleet becomes stunned for two minutes.