The colony system has gone through further significant changes. Testing from the last update quickly revealed that it was causing players to have too many different colonies, many of them very minor strategic positions for the player. The new rules attempt to keep clusters of colonies under a single owner if they have only system level assets. The clearest example is a player adding orbital stations to the moons of their homeworld now retains ownership of those stations and by extension any shipyards built there. If players later establish an outpost or colony on one of those moons, the orbital station ownership shifts to belong to the colony.

This update also unlocks 3 more races; the Breel, the Gulthian and the Dicapse. This brings the number of playable factions up to 13. We've also reduced the galaxy sizes. In testing we found it spread players too far across the galaxy. This will continue to be evaluated and additional advanced options for size are planned.

• Three new factions available
  
• Changes to colonization system
  
• --- Orbital stations on moons will stay owned by the same faction where possible
  
• --- Taking a planet will switch the Orbital Station ownership when relevant
  
• --- Fixes to taking territory on non-breathable worlds
  
• --- Colonies of colonies become colonies of the empire
  
• --- Colonies providing initial stock of goods and personnel
  
• Fixes and improvements to diplomatic trades
  
• Galaxy sizes reduced by half - may be increased again later in development
  
• Ballistic shot graphic colour at space level updated
  
• Improvements to Tutorial chapters 2 and 3
  
• Fixes to 3D model lighting system
  
• Improvements to galaxy generation - asteroid placement
  
• Fixes to resource trading with Merchant AI
  
• Fixes to crate management
  
• Fixes to beam weapon system
  
• Updates to game cursor system
  
• Various sound, UI and graphics updates
  
• Unit Orders list now has tooltips for order details (partially written, ongoing)
  
• Planet type names shown, might create some mismatch types (work ongoing)
  
• 4K scaling fixes to slider bar graphics
  
• Tech tree changes, FTL transport ship now available earlier
  
• Added self destruct order
  

We also recorded a livestream a few days ago that shows off a bunch of the updated features.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7SpqSBevSw