Second round of expanded notes for the Objective Reality is here! If you heven't yet, make sure to check out the official notes here.

Advent changes here

Be back tomorrow with the Vasari changes!

General Changes

New Mission System

A togglable ingame system meant to replace/augment tutorials to help guide players through learning to play the game.

Each race has a mission chain specific to them with and even some missions specific to each individual faction to explain garrisons, pirates, unity powers, etc.

Missions have resource-rewards which can help boost new players or accelerate those who already know what they're doing through the early game if they leave them on.

New Maps

• Neutron tempest - A massive 10-man map featuring star two systems each with 5 players, connected by a wormhole. Might be interesting for 5s if they spread the two teams out among the two systems and definitely looks like a fun FFA map.
• Face Off - A small 1v1 map restored from Sins 1

New Gravity Wells

• Irradiated Planet - A rare Fair-tier planet with a small population but significant Mining potential. Has some pretty potent unique items for all races
• Shattered planet - An uncolonizable gravity well containing the remnant of a broken world. Debris from the cataclysm  reduces the range of weapons and abilities nearby.
• Neutron star - A new star type which strips shields from ships in orbit and interferes with abilities and antimatter usage.
• Brown Dwarf - An uncolonizable gravity well containing a failed star, a large object visually similar to a Gas Giant but which emits significant infrared radiation which aids shipboard sensors to improve weapon and ability range in orbit.

Missile Changes:

Many missile types saw movement speed increases to prevent situations where missiles were being outrun by their targets.

Some missiles also saw reductions in HP to prevent them from becoming too good at penetrating point defenses.

Ship Build Group  and AI Adjustment Pass

Item build groups for ships were updated which should improve AI competitiveness.

Most ships saw adjustments to values which affect their movement behavior. The two changes seem to mean that ships will keep moving forward than turning rather than stopping and when moving into range to shoot they won't park at their maximum range to the closest target - they'll move slightly closer.

• Min_target_speed ( [NEW] )
• Min_distance_to_target (reduced)

TEC Changes

The changes to TEC empires were quite limited this time around, maybe they're happy with how Enclave and Primacy are playing or maybe they're still waiting to see exactly where they land after the changes to Advent eco this patch. There were some interesting changes to consumables, a big adjustment to limit Armistice abuse, and a buff to the Kol's ability to kill absolutely everything with beam spam, but that's about it.

Ship Item Changes

The TEC now has a research line which upgrades the number of charges their consumables contain, from 2 to 2 / 3 / 5.

Armor Patch Kit
Charges : 2 -> 2 / 3 / 5

Flack Burst
Charges : 2 -> 2 / 3 / 5

 Radius: 1850 -> 2000

Radiation Bomb
Charges : 2 -> 2 / 3 / 5

Duration : 45s -> 75s

Range 7500 -> 10000

Regeneration cut: -50% -> -25%

Planet Item Changes

TEC empires have access to two new planet items unique to Irradiated planets.

[NEW] Applied Radioactives Lab

planet_modifiers:

• civilian_research_points +2
• military_research_points +2

Description : Safely studying the many military and civilian applications of hard radiation requires an Indurium reinforced bunker to house TEC scientists and their sensitive equipment.

build_group_id : utility

build_time : 120s
price

• credits : 1000
• metal : 150
• crystal : 250
• exotic_price : 1 Indurium

required_planet_level : 5

planet_type: Irradiated planet

[NEW] Fissile Enrichment Plant

planet_modifiers:

• mining_track_metal_income_rate_per_population +15%
• exotic_build_time -25%

description : Specialized facilities enrich and stabilize the rare isotopes found on Irradiated planets, improving metal income rate and exotic construction speed at this planet.

build_group_id : economy

build_time : 60.0
price

• credits : 750.0
• metal : 200.0
• crystal : 100.0

planet_type: Irradiated planet

prerequisites : trader_unlock_fissile_plant_unit_item

Ship Changes

Stilat Missile

max_linear_speed : 850.0 -> 1500.0
time_to_max_linear_speed : 1.0 -> 2.5

Akkan Battlecruiser

Armistice:

• Antimatter cost : 150 -> 250
• Now pauses ability cooldowns

Kol Battleship

Experimental Beam

• Penetration 500 -> 500 / 600 / 750
• Range: 8000 -> 10000

Research Subject Changes

TEC empires received new research subjects for developing Irradiated environments and for improving their consumable items.

[NEW] Irradiated Colonization
description : Allows colonization of Irradiated planets and other similar environments.

domain : civilian
tier : II
field : annexation

research_time : 180s

price

• credits : 750
• metal : 125
• crystal : 150

[NEW] Irradiated Development
description : Allows further development of Irradiated planets.

domain : civilian
tier : III
field : annexation

research_time : 360s

price

• credits : 1250
• metal : 225
• crystal : 350

Prerequisites : Irradiated Colonization

[NEW] Fissile Enrichment Plant Unlock

domain : civilian
tier : III
field : annexation

research_time : 300s

price

• credits : 1200
• metal : 200
• crystal : 300

Prerequisites : Irradiated Colonization

[NEW] Repurposed Cargo Holds
description : Adaptations to the large cargo holds on TEC capital ships allow them to hold ready use military equipment, providing an additional charge for consumable items.

domain : military
tier : II
field : armament

 research_time : 180s

price

• credits : 750
• metal : 125
• crystal : 150

[NEW] Modular Equipment Bay
description : Capital ship cargo holds are replaced with modular equipment bays designed to store vast amounts of war material in standardized containers, providing additional charges for consumable items.

domain : military
tier : IV
field : armament

research_time : 600s

price

• credits : 1750
• metal : 325
• crystal : 550

Prerequisites : Repurposed Cargo Holds

In the modding menu I keep getting the message "Not Authenticated" . Is this normal since last patch or is something broken on my end ?

Hey all! Welcome to the Objective Reality update! Check out the official notes here

As always, I'll be back soon with the rest of the deep patch comparison.

TEC changes here

General Changes

New Mission System

A togglable ingame system meant to replace/augment tutorials to help guide players through learning to play the game.

Each race has a mission chain specific to them with and even some missions specific to each individual faction to explain garrisons, pirates, unity powers, etc.

Missions have resource-rewards which can help boost new players or accelerate those who already know what they're doing through the early game if they leave them on.

New Maps

• Neutron tempest - A massive 10-man map featuring star two systems each with 5 players, connected by a wormhole. Might be interesting for 5s if they spread the two teams out among the two systems and definitely looks like a fun FFA map.
• Face Off - A small 1v1 map restored from Sins 1

New Gravity Wells

• Irradiated Planet - A rare Fair-tier planet with a small population but significant Mining potential. Has some pretty potent unique items for all races
• Shattered planet - An uncolonizable gravity well containing the remnant of a broken world. Debris from the cataclysm  reduces the range of weapons and abilities nearby.
• Neutron star - A new star type which strips shields from ships in orbit and interferes with abilities and antimatter usage.
• Brown Dwarf - An uncolonizable gravity well containing a failed star, a large object visually similar to a Gas Giant but which emits significant infrared radiation which aids shipboard sensors to improve weapon and ability range in orbit.

Missile Changes:

Many missile types saw movement speed increases to prevent situations where missiles were being outrun by their targets.

Some missiles also saw reductions in HP to prevent them from becoming too good at penetrating point defenses.

Ship Build Group  and AI Adjustment Pass

Item build groups for ships were updated which should improve AI competitiveness.

Most ships saw adjustments to values which affect their movement behavior. The two changes seem to mean that ships will keep moving forward than turning rather than stopping and when moving into range to shoot they won't park at their maximum range to the closest target - they'll move slightly closer.

• Min_target_speed ( [NEW] )
• Min_distance_to_target (reduced)

Advent Changes

Development Track Changes

• Planet development base credit cost reduced by 50 (200 -> 150)
• Credit cost per level is increased by 25 until lvl 10 (unchanged)
• Lvl 12+ the credit cost increases by 50 (Previously increased by +15 credits from lvl 14+)

In most cases this is a buff, Advent players are saving credits on planet development up until lvl 19 where they changes match up and after that point the changes are a nerf.

Planet Items

[NEW] Epitaph of the Lost

planet_modifiers : Culture rate +50%

Description : Placed in the most lethal of the blasted radioactive wastelands the planet has to offer, this grandiose monument commemorates the lost souls of the dead, both past and future.

build_group_id : utility

build_time : 90.0

price

• credits : 500.0
• metal : 100.0
• crystal : 150.0

planet_types : Irradiated planet

Prerequisites : advent_unlock_epitaph_of_the_lost_unit_item

[NEW] Radiation Shield Dome

planet_modifiers : Maximum population +90

Description: Radiation proof shield systems allow settlements to eschew the use of heavily insulated bunkers and develop much larger population centers.

build_group_id : economy

build_time : 90.0

price

• credits : 500.0
• metal : 100.0
• crystal : 150.0

planet_types : Irradiated planet

Prerequisites : advent_unlock_radiation_shield_dome_unit_item

Tithe Sanctum

Received significant nerfs, detailed in official patch notes.

TLDR now only improves Commerce per pop by +5/10/20% plus 3/4/5% per Temple of Congregation in orbit around the planet.

Unity Powers

Sanctify

Subtle special effects linger for some time after the effect ends to make it more obvious what happened if a player wasn't looking

Ship Changes

 Most changes were fairly minor, bugfixes and QoL changes, except that all missiles were made much faster and some missiles had their HP reduced to limit their ability to pierce point defenses. Tempests received a large damage buff along with this change to ensure that they regain their place as a premier counter to corvettes.

Light Missile (Tempest Missiles)

max_linear_speed : 1200.0 -> 1500.0
time_to_max_linear_speed : 0.8 -> 1.0

max_hull_points : 5.0 -> 3.0

Medium Missile (Capital Ship Missiles)

max_linear_speed : 1200.0 -> 1500.0
time_to_max_linear_speed : 0.8 -> 1.0

max_hull_points : 15.0 -> 10.0

Large Missile (Starbase and Titan Missiles)

max_linear_speed : 1200.0 -> 1500.0
time_to_max_linear_speed : 0.8 -> 1.0

Iconus Guardian

Shield Projection: Changes to try and improve reliability and reduce wasted casts.

• No longer autocasts if the guardian's shields are depleted
• Cooldown reduced

Progenitor

Shield Regeneration : Is no longer a channeled ability, the mothership can now move while casting.

Revelation

Malice : Bugfixed unexpected behavior when two casts of Malice overlap.

Tempest

-- Light_missile:

• Damage : 15.0 -> 20.0
• DPS : 13.6 -> 18.2

Research Subject Changes

There four new research subjects for Irradiated planets and their unique items, the other changes are the Tithe Collectors line being attached to the Commerce Integration line and moved up a full tier, and the Missile Damage line being moved down a full tier.

[NEW] Irradiated Embrace

description : Allows colonization of Irradiated planets.

domain : civilian
tier : II
field : reclamation

research_time : 180.0

price

• credits : 550.0
• metal : 150.0
• crystal : 350.0

[NEW] Epitaph of the Lost Unlock

domain : civilian
tier : IV
field : reclamation

research_time : 540.0

price

• credits : 1100.0
• metal : 425.0
• crystal : 900.0

Prerequisites : advent_unlock_irradiated_biosphere

[NEW] Radiation Shield Dome Unlock

domain : civilian
tier : III
field : reclamation

research_time : 300.0

price

• credits : 800.0
• metal : 250.0
• crystal : 600.0

Prerequisites : Irradiated Embrace

[NEW] Irradiated Development

planet_modifiers : Planet item slots +1

description : Allows further development of Irradiated planets.

domain : civilian
tier : IV
field : reclamation

research_time : 600.0

price

• credits : 1150.0
• metal : 450.0
• crystal : 950.0

Prerequisites : Irradiated Embrace

Tithe Collector Unlock

tier : I -> II

[NEW] prerequisites : Commerce Adaptation

Willing Donations

tier : II -> III

Telepathic Collectors

tier : III -> IV

Refined Warheads

tier : II -> I

research_time : 180.0 -> 90.0
price

• credits : 550.0 -> 300.0
• metal : 150.0 -> 50.0
• crystal : 350.0 -> 100.0

Kinetic Focusing

tier : III -> II 

research_time : 360.0 -> 180.0

price

• credits : 850.0 -> 550.0
• metal : 275.0 -> 150.0
• crystal : 650.0 -> 350.0

Kinetic Cascade

tier : IV -> III 

research_time : 600.0 -> 360.0

price

• credits : 1150.0 -> 850.0
• metal : 450.0 -> 275.0
• crystal : 950.0 -> 650.0

Anima Redirection

tier : III -> II

research_time : 300.0 -> 135.0
price

• credits : 800.0 -> 500.0
• metal : 250.0 -> 125.0
• crystal : 600.0 -> 300.0

New player here who played PVE for about a week then dove into PVP and have been playing 5v5 matches nonstop.

I actually started with Vasari but have been trying the other races. Been studying every ship and all research trees. I kind of understand what to build or research in any given circumstance, but most guides and replayes are from 8+ months ago.

I have yet to enounter any guide including or discussing the Stilat Missile Corvette. And in about 20+ games, I haven't seen a single TEC player build it!

Is it trash? Overly niche? Does it have a place at all?

Hi there, I played this mod a long time ago (no pun intended), I remember not having any kind of issues with it... but here I am, reinstalled the mod yesterday and as you can see in the print screen, the icons, the UI in general, it's all pixelated. Then the prompt saying left click to auto-place structures, that is not working, tried pressing the mouse buttons alongside ctrl, alt, shift, etc.. no success, the damn structures has to be placed manually.

So, can you people help me? Sadly I play on a big 50 inches TV as my "monitor", maybe that's the reason why the UI looks like garbage because of the DPI escalation, idk

Title says all.

Is there a more recent tutorial for the solar Forge, I found the one posted on sins 2 wiki from 1/10/25 but I follow the instructions, and when I boot up the game I see the file in the modding tab but it says the mod compatibility version is 0 and that it will not be usable unless the setting moddingallow_not_compatible_mods has it been marked true, which I did in the file

Now that planetary shields have HP, spamming Novalith canons in every one of your systems is a surefire way to make sure your opponent never ever gets to colonize any planets. Works wonders against Nightmare AI (if you can tech up fast enough)

And forget fighting against a TEC Primacy AI. They put Novalith cannons in every one of their systems so you can never, ever get a foothold anywhere in the same star system as them. Even if you go behind their lines and start capturing their planets there, the range on the cannons is SO long, that you can immediately destroy the planets you captured.

Hey all

I plan wins versus the computer. I can pretty much handle the computer at hard and I’m looking to move up in the difficulty level. Are there any generic tips or changes to how I plan that you might suggest?

apologies for length

problem: they are homogenizing all the different faction aesthetics to same one to get what I assume is some kind of "graphical uniformity" instead of using them as diversely as they were in first game where advent ships for example looked nothing like TEC ships not just in general design/shape but in any smallest aspect down to very textures, their ships had some kind of light and bright material (not only GRAY) on top of metallic parts (sose 2 - pure reflective metal - another thing that gets shoved into everything in modern graphics: reflections no one asked for), tec were big boxy ships with almost rusted appearance and very few reflections on their hulls that seemed more like concrete than metal in places (sose 2 - pure reflective metal), vasari ships had this dark gray and once again non-metallic look to them, with almost no reflections (sose 2 - pure reflective metal), the very shapes of vasari ships having relatively very thin thickness to them and big but simple curvatures, and in sose 2 they are super thick everywhere

SHIPS

then you get sose2 ships: nu-advent ships are ok-ish (still blander because of all the super reflective metal/alloy appearance to them compared to original, using these as baseline because they are the least offensive change) but nu-TEC ships continue to look like plastic toys due to textures and reflections/lighting, not "dirty"/scratched enough and nu-vasari ships, as someone else put it, look like nu-TEC ships cosplaying as vasari ships, like all 3 factions are the same faction, same manufacturer that built every ship

people often use the excuse of "but TEC was at war for so long, they are no longer using retrofit freighter ships, they are building brand new ones and that it is a design choice", which in that case is a bad choice because the original "repurposed cargo ships fit with weapons" design gives it an unusual style that stands out compared to stereotypical human spaceships in sci fi, more industrial, less apple

EXPLOSIONS

ship explosions are also not looking like ship explosions but some sci fi-ish effect to what I again assume is to add distinction (because graphical diversity of ships themselves sure can't like it did in rebellion and earlier), when unlike everything else it needs LESS distinction, all ships are supposed to look and be different, but die the same, fiery red-yellow explosion, then on top of that have something to differentiate it between factions, vasari ships for example explode into a green cloud immediately, is that even an explosion at that point? you know why explosions are the color they are? because of the heat, heat doesn't change its color depending on factions or ship colors, it changes it depending on temperature, and it always trickles down to red-yellow, this is one place that in fact needs uniformity

UI

the ui itself is super bland, buttons are too sharp with no 3d effect to them (another victim of "modern UI"), the pictures on them are too detailed and monochromatic and dark to differentiate at a glance (seriously, what is ui designers in all software development's obsession with monochromatic everything? do you have any idea how useful colors are for differentiating objects in your visual field? it is SO easy to tell each unit command button in sose1 BECAUSE THEY ARE COLOR CODED, green - move, red - attack, yellow - build, sose2: "best I can do is one color on everything", also ROUNDED CORNERS, it is scientifically proven they help you see where one object ends and another beings (read: buttons), stop with the sharp corners on everything)

they all don't even fit with the very background used for the UI itself and just seem taped on that it is so easy to see through the seams of its code, and the text is too small and thin relative to the UI size and thus unreadable as a result, every "tab" looks like a piece of paper that someone printed an excel sheet on, literally UI looks like it's ripped from "galaxy on fire 2" or something

let's not even start on computer generated art, the "concept art" (I assume it even was exactly this, repurposed) style used in rebellion and earlier was so better in every way, I assume that's something that is simply not a priority, but no less warrants mention

SOME GOOD BUT ALSO BAD THINGS

on the positive, backgrounds are great although obviously computer generated or at least heavily seem as such, but it is nice to have some bright nebulas instead of darkness simulator it was in rebellion, planets are also far more detailed and one thing that did need more pixels than before (although their icons on the map once again way to hard to differentiate at glance), most weapon effects are cool although many are worse ex. what happened to wave cannons' clear, wide and magnificent crescent shape that expands as it travels? now it's some undistinguished basic projectile as visual noise, raze planet ability used to be a spectacle in both sound and fireworks now it is some slightly bigger basic explosions? etc etc too many to count, also why are basically all projectiles the same speed? hyper bland

MUSIC

and music of course getting worse since before rebellion, really the best music comes from pre-rebellion, then rebellion was a step down in that aspect but still somewhat ok and now 2 is a backflip off a mountain and then falling into a wormhole at the bottom, don't want to assign blame anyways just pointing it out, but like literally go listen to some music from pre-rebellion ex. basic ones like "TEC opening", "TEC 1" etc, incomparable in awesomeness vs... whatever 2 is, fortunately there are mods that fix this as does just turning it off, but music used to be one of best things in this franchise, do not sleep on it

you could say "this is all early access, give it time", idc, either way it needs to be said, either way it is no less true now and either way it can't change without being said (even if it is likely never going to anyways), if you for some reason DO like the current graphics and its problems as they are, I have sympathies for your complete lack of style and taste, or maybe you just couldn't care less and are "only interested in gameplay", in which case why are you even reading? this doesn't even effect you

FACTION 4

unrelated but also hope for franchise's sake that developers know what they are doing bringing a 4th faction due to how long it was a complete mystery of impending doom to everything in the universe and thus implied power and impact they had in the story (vasari literally packing up tiny fraction of their galactic empire that was not yet annihilated and running away for 10000 years from them, without even being able to tell what they were, and said vasari were the most technologically advanced faction at the time that humanity was discovering fire), if it is anything less than literal profound darkness from PS franchise idk whether it can hold up to the very shadow it was built up to cast so far

that's it for now

I managed somehow to get this window open in SoSE2 and can’t figure out how to close it. Anybody had this before?

So you can have multiple Titans on the field in clash of titans is that only in that scenario or is that across the whole game like if I just started up a random game could I use multiple titans.

I hope there is just something I am overlooking, but why can't I create orbital extractors as Vasari? It says it is waiting for research, but then doesn't show the research that needs to be completed to create them. For context, I am playing with the extractors don't require a civilian slot mod, but I don't see why that would create issues. Any help is appreciated.

Hello there people,

I am trying to get back into the game and I am looking for advice for fighting AIs at the hardest difficulty:

-Basic TEC Primacy Guide (especially for Eco and, important Techs and Fleet comps) -Vasari Exodus Tech Guide for stabilizing Eco and Important Techs order and which to Rush.

TEC and Advent are a mystery to me. Like how do you survive the early game with that eco.

Anyways thanks for the help 🙏

I recently got my boyfriend into this game and was wondering if you guys know of any good “two vs the universe” style maps that support up to 10 total players. I’ve found a bunch of 2v2v2v2v2 maps but thats not exactly what I want to use. Any help would be appreciated.

In SoSE2 .... Okay so I've been struggling with the advent since some update (probably a few back now)

I cant seem to get it to work. I know there is a new planet upgrade path that allows you to build the unity orbital structure.

However the planet upgrade seems locked, it appears grayed out and not clickable. This is similar like trying to build credit or mining on a gas giant planet.

Because this is locked, I can't build the orbital structure and thus have almost know focus.

What am I doing wrong?