As I promised, a new version of Federation Dawn has arrived with some bugfixes and hopefully a more stable build. A bit later than I planned because my GPU fried and I had to wait payday to get a replacement.
This version should not have any game breaking bugs. Note though that there are some "eccentricities" that have to be blamed on the Fleet Operations engine and I can't really do anything about it. Two major things come in mind, the first is the mining ships occasionally stopping if they are upgraded during an Era change. The AI can handle it well so it's up to you to look after your miners. The other one is that sometimes the Era advancement seems to be blocked by a research station. This issue was only reported with the Federation Starship Design Bureau so far, but I couldn't find any bugs in the code, so I have to assume that this is a bug in the game engine and it can happen to any faction. The workaround is to dismantle the station and rebuild it. Don't worry, your researches won't be lost. Interestingly this issue doesn't seem to affect the AI at all.
Thanks to Archonon, hellodean, Mavrick and ValkyresGrace for the bug hunting!
There are a few new features too. The Federation got new weapon sounds and textures: blue phasers with that eerie sound we're all so fond of since TOS. The United Earth ships got new Phaser textures as well.
For the complete changelog please check out the ReadMe file of the mod.
Because some reported troubles when they tried to extract the compressed file, I also upload this version with an installer. Note though that this installer will most likely trigger any antivirus you may have, simply because it's from an unknown, unconfirmed source. But it's completely safe. If you don't take my word install the mod on a safe device and check its contents for yourselves :P
Finally, some of you requested longer Eras, so a new quick patch is available for you too. This patch increases the time of each Era from 15 to 20 minutes on normal speed. This should be enough for everyone to make every research and build up a strong fleet from any Era. But please note that I did not test the AI with the longer Eras so I have no idea how this change will affect the balance. My guess is that the Romulans will be slightly stronger.
Sorry for not having any new pictures to show off, this is only a quick article to let you know I'm still around.
As always, please report any bug you find. And don't hesitate to ask me, if you have any questions!
Now some more rest, then up to the TOS era!
