This patch will provide a fix for people who have had problems loading the game after uninstalling a mod. I'm also continuing my efforts to bring long-range cannon weapons into line. I'm getting consistent reports that Mass Drivers continue to dominate the battlefield, and they are only a tier 2 tech. I want them to have the potential to be incredible with an experienced crew and good targeting computers, but otherwise I want you to have to get into a closer range to shine.

To that end, the biggest change here is a targeting penalty that is introduced at long ranges. The penalty can be negated with an experienced crew + targeting computers. I am assuming that players will be doing this, so the second change is some added functionality to the ECM and advanced ECM jammers. These jammers will now provide a "Targeting Defense" which will reduce the accuracy of incoming fire directed against the ship. For now the effect will stack, but this will be subject to change depending on how wild this gets.

Notes:

• Fixed an issue where ship designs from an uninstalled Mod would cause your game to hang on load
• Added a targeting penalty for long-range shooting ( >300). The longer the range, the greater the penalty. This penalty can be alleviated with experience
• The ECM Jammer and Advanced ECM jammer will now provide what I'm calling "Targeting Defense". Ships shooting ballistic weapons at ships with these Jammers will now receive a stackable penalty to their accuracy
• After running the numbers on a bunch of energy cannon weapons, I have determined that basic lasers are still, relative to other energy cannon weapons, overpowered. So I have the option of either buffing the other cannon weapons, or reducing the effectiveness of lasers. I'm doing a little bit of both. So lasers are again being reduced in damage, but disruptors and other energy cannon weapons are gaining bonuses. Just FYI I'm balancing these cannon weapons by their DPS per slot footprint at point blank range. We'll see much smoother and noticable arc of improvement as you obtain better cannon weaponry
• Anti-Matter Cannon gets a graphical improvement with its rework. Added a 2x3 spinal anti-matter cannon. The AM cannon is brought more in line with the Plasma Cannon - it's got really high point blank damage but a quicker fall-off, but no dissipation vs. shields. Increased Ordnance costs for the weapon. It's meant to be a point blank dominator
• Eliminated a bug where, if your fleet was blockading a planet, and the planet finished construction of a space station, then you would switch roles and end up having to fight your own fleet!
• The AI will now attempt to rally its war fleets in safer places. Previously they would choose a system that was free of enemy threats, but they wouldn't think too hard about what was in between the rallying fleet and the rally position, which could lead to some poor strategic deployments
• The Ai will be a bit more patient when regrouping its forces now before going on offense. They had some behaviors where they would send an offensive fleet out while several other task forces were trying to rendezvous, leading to a potential conga line of ships
• On Easy, Normal, and Hard, the AI is going to be less Homicidal over small grievances like refusing to pay tribute. They will need to be madder at you to declare a war, with different thresholds depending on the difficulty and their needs