Polish pass & Capital World update — Planet Epoch patch notes, 15 May 2026

15 May 2026: Polish pass & Capital World update

Bug bash · Capital ring + Crisis Zone · Plan cleanup

Capital World designation on every system panel: the new crown button. Designate one of your owned systems as your empire's capital. +50% structure bonus, crisis immune, units fight better defending it. One per game.
House & Nation rename: set or change both from one modal on the Nation page. Each name has its own 24-hour cooldown.
Twelve-template flag designer with horizontal layouts, lock-in option, and a galaxy-wide news article when you unveil it.
Twitch-style live chat overlay on the galaxy map; messages linger 45 seconds, panel fades when quiet.
Ship upgrade slots populated across every race: Light/Medium/Special/Carrier/Bomber/Dropship/Support/Command Cruisers get 2 slots; Heavy and Super Heavy get 3.
Empire Tier news: when your empire crosses into a new tier, the diplomatic registry files it as soft civic news ("The Nation of Belchlings is now a Sovereignty"). The old per-rank achievement-style article is gone.

Rank panel with XP-to-next-rank progress bar, last-24h breakdown, and 7-day sparkline.
Empire Tier ladder showing per-race titles (Humans, Knossons, Feon-Tar, Vatari Cult, Sharne, Derulons).
Military section: flagship card, force-composition bar by RP cost, fleet experience histogram, per-class breakdown table.
Numeral style toggle: three pills under the rank ring let you pick Digital (terminal LCD), Numerals (Roman), or Old World (Arabic-Indic ٠-٩).
XP guide modal: click the ? in the rank panel to see exactly how XP is earned and what each source pays.
Separate RACE + CAPITAL rows in the identity header. Rank and Empire Tier panels now stand equal-height.

Carrier auto-launch is more careful: fighters only scramble when there's a visible enemy in the system that you have declared enemy on. Stale one-sided diplomacy rows and cloaked ships no longer trigger false launches.
Group jumps now travel together. When you select multiple ships, the slowest ship's speed determines arrival and the shortest ship's range gates the destination. No more fast ships outrunning the squadron.
Jump-gate group jumps now bypass the range gate when both source and destination have a matching jump gate: same behaviour as single-ship gate jumps. The cross-galaxy reposition you'd expect.
Misses hidden in combat logs: both Comms → Combat Log and Tactical View's live feed. Data is still recorded; we just don't clutter your screen with every dodge.
Launch All / Recall All Fighters on every system panel (next to Install Upgrades) and inside Tactical View (under Orders). One click, no modal. Works across every carrier you own in the system.
Every race's command ship now opens Tactical View. Previously only Humans and Derulons could; the other four races' command vessels missed the flag.
Crisis Zone marker on the galaxy map for any system you own that's in crisis: pulsing orange ring, kind-specific label (UPRISING, VIRUS OUTBREAK, LOGISTICAL COLLAPSE). Other players can't see your crises.
Capital ring on the map in your nation colour, visible from medium zoom.

Mission Board's top-left filter now reads "Accepted Missions" with race-colour theme.
Re-accepting after abandoning now works. Previously the button silently did nothing if you'd ever abandoned that mission.
Deploy and Locate missions now complete properly when you hit the requirements. A timing bug was rejecting completion right after acceptance.
Faction news v2 with original cover art for each story category and safer fallback when tokens can't resolve.

Messages and Reports tabs now properly separated. Intel / MP overdraft / crisis / maintenance reports live only in the Reports tab. Only real DMs appear in Messages.
The "Intel Reports" pseudo-contact at the top of the contacts list is gone.

Join-game limits removed. Every plan can join unlimited galaxies. Plans now differentiate on hosting (only Admiral hosts), notifications, and the Season Pass.
Galaxy delete in the Admiral dashboard now uses an account-password confirm modal instead of the old "type the galaxy name" prompt.

Galaxy session isolation: your login no longer bleeds between galaxies when you have two open in the same browser. Each galaxy gets its own scoped session cookie.
Mass-dock destroyed-unit handling: clean toast ("Cannot complete action; unit has been destroyed") instead of opaque 500.
Blank RACE field on the Nation page fixed.
Capital news headlines use neutral civic language ("capital seat") instead of "imperial capital", fitting all six races.
Empire Tier ladder correctly shows per-race titles instead of defaulting to the Human ladder for everyone.
Cumulative ATK/DEF removed from Military section; they weren't meaningful at a fleet level.
Nation page Yield/Day now reflects actual mining output (system reserve depletion, miner presence) instead of the theoretical maximum.

Nation moved to the leftmost slot in the top navigation.
Removed the ⚔ glyph from the Tactical action button for visual consistency with sibling buttons.
Capital-related news articles ship with original cover art.