Enhanced 4X 1.6 and Development Betas news

Hello E4X fans,

As many of you have noticed, Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion has updated to 1.5, which has sadly broken compatibility with E4X 1.5 (dang it Stardock this is confusing, why didn't you call it v1.2?). Perhaps even more significantly, at the same time Stardock released the new Forbidden Worlds DLC. Fortunately I've pretty much figured out how to deal with both of these issues, so read on to figure out how they will affect you.

Forbidden Worlds

First of all, to the big fish, the DLC. The good news it looks like Forbidden Worlds has been coded in such a way that it should fit in right on top of mods without too much issue. That means no one needs to get the DLC to play Enhanced 4X, but those that do get the DLC will have some nice extras that will appear with all the awesome stuff the mod adds. There is a bit of fine print however.

• First, Barren and Oceanic planets happened to be two of the four planet types added by the Forbidden Worlds DLC. However, E4X already added these planet types. Thus, for owners of the DLC, the Barren and Oceanic worlds will be using the textures and stats they had before in Enhanced 4X (though the planet system will be shaken up again in the 1.6 update anyways).
• Second, while the new planet types and bonuses will be added to the Enhanced 4X galaxy forge when that is updated, players who do not have the DLC will not be able to use those particular planets and bonuses.

In short though, it looks like DLC owners will get to continue to use their exclusive Ferrous and Greenhouse planet types, 40 new planet bonuses, and planet specialization system while non-DLC owners can play E4X like they always had. Even better these two groups can still play multiplayer together.

Enhanced 4X 1.6 for Rebellion 1.5

Enhanced 4X 1.6 is nearing completion (my internal build is already playable on 1.5), and in addition to being compatible with Rebellion 1.5, it will features the changes mentioned to the TEC, two new random encounters (one unlike any yet in the mod), a new very special planet type (independent of the DLC), some reworks to various planet types to better fit the new 1.5/DLC changes, and a series of 5 random multistar maps. I hope to have it released in one to two weeks, and will start posting some more details and pictures soon.

Can't wait that long?
For the impatient suffering from the fact almost no mods are available for 1.5, there is some hope. I've started a new development beta system allowing anyone to download the most recent playable version I have. To be sure these are betas, this one has some weird missing icons and probably a few things missing from the DLC, but if you want to give some good feedback or are itching to play E4X again, check out this forum post for details. Not all maybe strong enough to figure it out, nor can I promise any assistance as these are purely unofficial releases, but there is a possibility!