NOT COMPATIBLE with saves from previous versions (more information).

TLDR: Improvements to character traits and combat.  Many story events have been added.

Character Traits

The list of standard traits has been reworked.  They now have a stronger effect, and their impact on character reaction to events is shown immediately when the event happens.

• Some traits now give skill bonuses (e.g. "Friendly" gives a bonus to Diplomacy, "Cowardly" gives a penalty to Military, etc.)
• Added "Kind" / "Cruel" and "Intelligent" / "Stupid" trait pairs
• The "Aggressive" trait has been replaced by "Brave"
• The "Generous" trait has been renamed to "Satisfied" to better reflect how it is used
• Removed "Solitary" / "Collaborative" traits (they were boring, and don't interact with a lot)
• The "Vengeful", "Forgiving", "Loyal", "Fickle", "Kind", and "Cruel" traits now modify the amount of empathy a character experiences (e.g. a "Vengeful" character is happier when their enemies are suffering)
• Traits and states are now shown grouped and ordered in the UI to make them easier to digest
• When a character's traits effect their reaction to an event, this is now highlighted on their portrait in the event popup, and more clearly in the list of emotions and opinions
• Fixed a bug where opinion based on personality was sometimes not being shown

Combat

Battles now directly involve characters from the fighting houses, and there are story events when the player is personally involved in a combat.

• Houses must now assign a commander for their forces in a battle, and optionally some additional supporting staff
• A house that has no one available to command their fleet in a battle cannot participate in that battle, and will automatically surrender if defending
• A character cannot be assigned to multiple battles within one turn unless the battles are close to each other on the map
• The commander of the house leading the combat now receives the status bonus or penalty from winning or losing the battle (instead of that house's head)
• Characters gain military skill for participating in battles, but can also get injured or killed
• The Combat Prediction Map Mode now shows a less precise prediction (since the actual probability now depends on what commanders are actually assigned)
• The game will now generate events during significant battles, and an initial set of combat events have been added
• The tooltip breaking down a fleet is now a little easier to read
• When an archon supports a ruler they no longer call their vassal factions to arms
• Raiding rulers can now only draw in one ally to help the raid, and if the latter is a leader, they do not call their vassals to arms

Improvements

• Many story events have been added
• More interesting maps are now generated
• The game can now autosave your progress (set frequency in the Options menu)
• When the player looks at a historical update while an update is wating to be consumed on the map, the map update is now hidden until the player is finished
• The kinship map mode now shades an entire faction by the kinship relationship with its leader, as well as the kinship relationship to each individual ruler
• Falling in love is now slightly rarer
• Being in love without being married or in a secret relationship with that character now makes an admirer distracted
• You can now click on text-based tooltips to see the text in a larger window
• Some systems now have features, such as a nebula or an asteroid belt, which grant some kind of modifier
• When the head of a house and the character that would normally become acting head fall ill simultaneously, someone who is not ill becomes acting head right away

Fixes

• Fixed bug where story events were not correctly showing suggested information panels
• Fixed bug where decision choices on story events were not anticipating house military changes in the description
• Fixed bug where junk data was accumulating in a game saved and loaded multiple times, leading to long load times and causing memory leaks
• Vassal leaders now act correctly when deciding whether to hand over a conquered system to their archon if the latter is involved in a war over it