ISG Dev Diary #22: Update 1.6 Beta on unstable Steam branch

Hello everyone!

We’re thrilled to announce that the new and free! 1.6 major update is now available and ready for public testing on Steam’s unstable Beta branch!

Let’s explore some of the major changes of 1.6 Beta, and later on you can check out the details of the update and on how you can try it for your self and offer your feedback to the Devs!

New Victory Conditions

This was a highly popular feature request by the community, and something we really wanted to offer at some point, and it finally makes it in for 1.6!

In addition to the existing Election and Alliance victory conditions, and the traditional winner conquers all way to win (now called Conquest Victory), you now have the following new ways to win: Wonder, Domination, Science, and Score victory conditions! Here’s a brief breakdown.

To win a Wonder victory, you need to control a certain number of Galactic Wonders, which are super projects you can build in your colonies.

To win via Domination, you must control a defined number of the original homeworlds of the playing races.

To win a Science victory, your empire has to reach a combined ultra tech level, by researching the most advanced technologies in each research field, a certain amount of times.

A Score victory is achieved by whoever has the highest score in the last turn of the game game. This is the overall score reported in the ‘Empire Overview’ screen.

The new victory conditions can be configured by clicking in the “Advanced Options” button, as can be seen below.

On top of the new victory conditions, you can also configure the new ones but also the pre-existing Election and Conquest victory conditions. You can choose the number of wonders required to build, the percentage of colonized systems that need to be controlled, the frequency in which the Galactic Council will reconvene to try and elect the galactic ruler, and more.

Below, on how to access the new victory conditions screen during the game.

Also, if you wish, you can continue playing after winning or losing due to any victory condition being triggered, and win (or lose) again through other means.

Balance tweaks, and QoL improvements

Along with the new victory conditions, the 1.6 Beta update also offers other new features, many tweaks and improvements, and bug fixes, many in reply to your suggestions.

Included in the new features and improvements is a revamped ‘Deep Space Initiative’ culture perk, that now also provides free remote exploration on adjacent sectors to the ones just explored. This should provide a more balanced remote exploration experience in bigger maps. The ‘Powerful Creatures’ planet special now also provides an empire-wide ground combat bonus.

There’s also the ability to adjust the wormhole lines’ brightness (including disabling them); the ability to move weapon components up and down in the ship design screen; the possibility of listing leaders by their status (unassigned or assigned first). Also, hovering over torpedoes and missiles will now highlight the ships’ they’re targeting, just to name a few changes.

You can see the full list of changes below.

I Want To Try It and Provide Feedback!

Excellent! We’re looking forward to it!

As of posting of this dev diary, the 1.6 Beta update should be live on Steam.

Please note that the 1.6 Beta is an optional beta update. You have to manually opt in to access it.

In your Steam library, right click on Interstellar Space: Genesis -> Properties -> Betas tab -> select the “unstable – Unstable Beta Branch for Testing” branch. The game will update and you’ll be able to start playing with the new additions and improvements.

Version 1.6 Beta – Full Release Note

Compatibility note: Saves from previous versions may be compatible with 1.6 beta. However, it is advisable to start fresh new games to benefit from this update’s changes fully.

We will be monitoring your reports for bugs in the next few days and fixing them. Please report them in our Steam forums, official forums, on our Discord server, or if you prefer just send an email to contact@praxis-games.com (or contact form here) with a save and the Player and Player-prev log files you can find in this folder: C:\Users\<your_username>\AppData\LocalLow\Praxis Games\ISG

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy the new 1.6 Beta update! Let us know if you find any issues.

The Dev Team
Praxis Games