Hello,

We have brought over many fixes from Crusade to the base game. Please read below for details. 

To enable the patch, please do the following:

• Select Galactic Civilizations III in your Steam Library list
• Right-click and select Properties
•  Select the BETAS tab
•  From the dropdown, select "opt-in"  and click Close (if you don't see this option, restart Steam)

Steam should pull down the changed files; if you ever want to go back, do the same as above but select default

Please note: The opt-in is an early preview of the next update and you might experience bugs or other issues. We encourage players who try the opt-in to report any issues to the support forum or via support ticket so we can address them.

For a list of changes available in the Crusade opt-in, please read here: https://forums.galciv3.com/483565

AI

• Player objects calculations moved into the AI thread (performance)
• Fixed bug that caused AI to potentially get "free credits" due to messaging being disabled
• Pirate AI is more aggressive.
• AI better at defending planets (Crusade tech)
• AI targeting system updated to near Crusade level
• AI keeps track of its fleet inventory, this is used to make better decisions on what to Build
• AI more aggressive in using transports
• Lots and lots of improvements to the AI's ability to target enemies intelligently
• Smarter AI behavior when it comes to asking for money and such
• AI smarter about what ships it wants to build and when
• Much better AI trading system for putting together deals 
• AI trading changed to be a vector so that it can offer multiple trade offers (Crusade feature)
• AI evaluates its money much better
• AI much stingier on ship Trading
• AI much smarter about declaring war on players when someone tries to bribe them to
• AI much better about going to war against those who are at war with its ally
• AI more reactive to parking fleets near its territory
• AI war mongering set up
• Smart auto credit bidder added to the trade window to make trading easier. 
• Greater variance in flavor text in conversations

Gameplay

• Increased the amount of stars, planets and habitable planets when common is chosen
• Planetary Improvement cost generally made higher.
• Production points on colonies and capital planet default to a higher value
• Reduced manufacturing cost but increased mass of special components so that the ramp up time isn't so severe.
• Added new "Complete Tech" event.

Bugs 

• Various crash issues fixed that were due to custom ship designs / ship mods
• Lots and lots of potential crash issues resolved due to better checking of custom/mod data
• Crash fixes from Crusade
• Brought over Crusade optimization for stat updating while unit moving