New Update after Shadows Rising release

[sofia12]

The latest Distant Worlds 2 update after the Shadows Rising release is here!

This update brings stability improvements, crash fixes, enhanced pirate gameplay, new diplomatic options, and Shadowport improvements.

Download the update: https://ftp.matrixgames.com/pub/Distant ... .3.8.4.zip

Check out the full changelog: https://ftp.matrixgames.com/pub/Distant ... atsnew.pdf

[MaximKI]

See full changelog for 1384 below:

Changes in 1.3.8.4 (October 28th, 2026):

CRASH FIXES
- fixed crash when identifying empire refuelling points
- fixed crash when checking whether facilities can be upgraded
- fixed crash when determining resource prices
- fixed crash when determining migration sources
- fixed crash when fleet assigns queued mission to pickup debris, but debris has already been picked up
- fixed crash when adding character traits via a game event
- fixed rare crash when rendering Fleets screen
- fixed crash when rendering particle effects
- added warning message to player when unable to write SessionLog and other files in game folder at startup due to insufficient file permissions (would previously crash)
- fixed crash when lone pirate evaluates diplomatic relations with independent colonies
- fixed crash when click 'Start New Game' button without Shadows Rising installed

USER INTERFACE
- fixed missing action buttons in Colony Detail screen when Shadows Rising installed (was expecting 11 buttons when there are only 10)
- ensure search textbox is focused and text is selected when switch to Search screen

POLICIES
- added new policy setting for 'Default Diplomatic Strategy for Pirates'. This allows a planetary empire to set all pirate faction relations to Hostile, and thus make it harder for pirates to park near your colonies in an attempt to spread their influence there. Note: setting to ‘Conquer’ option will cancel all current treaties with pirate factions and set them as hostile

CONTRACTS
- ensure that having many simultaneous Atuuk Great Directions does not block acceptance of contracts

DESIGNS
- fixed manually-upgraded fighter designs sometimes getting wrong components in bays
- fixes to pirate ship weapon firing arcs

PIRATE FACILITIES
- pirate facilities are now constructed in their own build queue (i.e. they do not wait for other facilities to complete first)
- ensure that new pirate facilities have their discovery level set higher than colony exploration level (i.e. they are hidden from colony owner)

SHADOWPORTS
- prevent accepting the same Shadowport contract multiple times (and thus gaining multiple rewards from the same contract)
- Shadowport construction ships no longer check whether new Lone Pirate spaceport is being constructed in another empire's territory (was previously blocking construction and preventing Lone Pirate from becoming a Pirate Faction)
- when a Junkyard Shadowport is destroyed, any nearby claimed shipwrecks are released and become normal damaged abandoned ships that can be salvaged

LONE PIRATES
- when player Lone Pirate captures a ship they are now presented with choice to either scrap the captured ship for money (previous behavior) or to instead switch to the captured ship and scrap their previous one (transferring all of their cargo and other items to their new ship). Note that this only applies to ships that are viable for a lone pirate: must be mobile (sub-warp speed + hyperdrive) and one of the following roles: any freighter, Escort, Frigate, Destroyer or Cruiser

EVENTS
- fixed Zenox Homeworld bases being captured by pirates
- fixed Haakonish "Ancient Exploration Ship" event causing a high quality planet to appear in home system
- fixes to various pirate-related events

MODDING
- extended character images so that randomly-generated characters now randomly select image from pool of multiple images for their race and role (i.e. from all images where name starts with '[RACE]_[ROLE]')
- static characters (defined in CharacterDefinitions.xml) can now have random skill levels by setting amount to zero (will auto-select a value between -0.05 and +0.1)