We know, we know. We might be a little late with introducing Sword of the Stars, but we promise we'll be faster with covering interesting and exciting MMO games from here on. And because we promised, we won't be late in bringing you this bit of news: You can now download the second patch for Sword of the Stars.

This MMO game is a space strategy sim from Kerberos Productions and Lighthouse Interactive where gamers can enjoy and relive the classic 4X style in gaming - "eXplore", "eXpand", "eXploit", and "eXterminate" - all in their quest to take control of empires in space.

Several new features and fixes that will upgrade and improve the gameplay are included in this patch.

Content Additions:

• Added new badges, including winners from the badge contest!
• Added new player color options.
• Added new system encounter
  

GUI Additions:

• Enemy colony list now shows ownership.
• The default fleet at a star system is now marked with an asterisk (*). This is the fleet that newly built ships will be placed into.
• Reserves can now be sorted in the fleet management screen.
• Lobby now shows estimated turn time remaining for players joining a game in progress.
• The squad assignment buttons in the fleet manager screen can now be selected with the 1-5 keys.

Enhancements:

• Partial save game file transfers are now deleted.
• Default Extended Range and Defence Platform design names are now abbreviated.

Gameplay Changes:

• Special project research efficiency increased.
• Double-right-click to place a waypoint now tells ships to break formation in Normal stance and go FULL speed.

Fixes:

• Fixed bug where ships might auto-target their own colony if a firing solution was available.
• Sol Force is no longer allowed to enter into NAP or alliance agreements in A New Hope.
• Allied ships lost in battle are no longer registered as "enemy ships destroyed" in the TAR.
• Fixed bug where dreadnoughts in fleet lists would sometimes display 0/0 range.

Mind you, these are just excerpts from the complete list of new features and changes that will come with the second patch. You might want to head on over to the Lighthouse Interactive Forum (click on the Read link at the bottom of the article) to read the entire changelog and to find the DL link to the patches. You'll be surprised at the massive changes promised for the game.

Here's a very important piece of advice from Sword of the Stars' developers: Do not apply the boxed retail patch to other versions of the game, particularly direct download versions.

Now that's out of the way, you can now get the second patch and explore the game's universe once more. Enjoy the game.