One of the most significant shifts involves how your fleets engage in combat. Paradox has tweaked movement logic so that fleets now fight further from the center of a system, particularly when dealing with stationary targets. This should help prevent some of the awkward clustering that often happens during massive orbital sieges, making space battles look a bit cleaner and behave more predictably.
For those who enjoy playing tall or specialized styles, the balance changes to Empire Size are a welcome sight. Both the Wilderness and Sovereign Guardianship civics have seen their colony-based penalties reduced. This makes these playstyles more viable in the mid-to-late game, where the weight of expansion usually starts to stifle research and tradition progress. If you've felt punished for playing within your borders, the math just got a lot more forgiving.
Achievement hunters also have a reason to celebrate. The "Grand Fleet" achievement, which previously required a daunting 500 fleet size, has been slashed down to a much more manageable 120. Additionally, several stability issues have been addressed, specifically targeting crashes related to complex diplomatic calculations and graphical glitches that could break immersion during intense galactic sessions.
This patch (checksum 171a) is now live across platforms. If you were testing the beta, you'll find these final tweaks provide the stability needed for long-term save files.
Soren