OpenPax 0.1.6

A small update to the first release of OpenPax, an open-source engine for Pax Imperia: Eminent Domain. OpenPax comes with none of the game: you need your own copy from GOG.

This is an early release: expect rough edges, and please report what you find.

What's new in 0.1.6

Simple Combat (the sample mod that fights battles on the map) fights more like the original:

• Defenses get to shoot first when they outrange you. A fleet attacking a planet first flies in under the defenses' guns, as in the original's battles: if the missile bases or battle stations reach farther than the fleet's own weapons, they fire on it while it closes, and it cannot answer. How long that takes depends on the difference in reach and the fleet's slowest ship.
• Damage spreads over the fleet. Fire is shared across the ships it falls on, the bigger ones drawing more of it, so a fleet wears down together instead of losing one ship at a time.
• Battered ships fight worse. Some of each hit lands on a ship's parts, as in the original: weapons, shields, sensors and ECM. Damaged weapons fire weaker and a damaged shield stops less, and the worse off a ship is, the more of its parts get hit.
• Two new settings in simple-combat.toml: approach_steps_per_round and most_approach_rounds.

If you have 0.1.3 or later, the game offers this update itself.

Everything else is as in 0.1.5; 0.1.0's notes cover what's in OpenPax.

Getting started

1. Download the bundle for your system below and unpack it.
   • Windows: run OpenPax-0.1.6-win-x64-setup.exe, or unzip OpenPax-0.1.6-win-x64.zip (the whole folder) and run openpax.exe. Windows warns about an unsigned program: click More info, then Run anyway.
   • Linux: OpenPax-0.1.6-linux-x64.tar.gz, then run ./openpax.
   • macOS (Apple Silicon): OpenPax-0.1.6-osx-arm64.tar.gz. Run ./prepare_mac.sh once from the unpacked folder, then open OpenPax.app.
2. On first start, point OpenPax at your copy of the game: an installed copy, or GOG's offline backup installer (setup_pax_imperia_2.0.0.12.exe). The small GOG Galaxy installer holds none of the game.
3. The import converts the game once, into your user folder (a few minutes). Then the game starts.

Source

The bundles include FFmpeg (LGPL libraries, and a GPL movie converter built with x264). The exact FFmpeg and x264 source archives they were built from are attached below as source-…; see THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md.

License

OpenPax is free software under the GPL-3.0. Pax Imperia: Eminent Domain was developed by Heliotrope Studios, and the game and the Pax Imperia name belong to THQ Nordic GmbH. OpenPax is a fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Heliotrope Studios, THQ Nordic or GOG.