Space strategy game Sins of a Solar Empire 2 drops its gen-AI artwork amid a huge new UI overhaul

A massive new Sins of a Solar Empire 2 update makes wide-reaching changes across the entire space strategy game, but I'm most pleased by Stardock's decision to strip out the AI-generated art that was leaving an unpleasant taste on the rest of the experience. The huge 'UI Horizons' overhaul offers dramatic redesigns to the front-end menus, helping you better set up your next adventure. It also includes the much-requested return of an in-game map editor, modding improvements, improved enemy AI, and new defensive tools for all three factions.

Sins of a Solar Empire 2 is a very robust sequel to a game I have quite a lot of affinity for, and it largely makes the changes needed to modernize it nearly two decades on from its original launch. The inclusion of AI-generated portraits, however, constantly rubbed me the wrong way, standing out like a sore thumb amid all of the grand-scale intergalactic art. "A lot of people complained about those," Stardock admits in a video covering its new update, explaining that they had been "touched up by human artists," but have now been completely replaced.

"We've actually now gone in and just drawn a whole new set of portraits for your characters, completely from scratch," the developer explains. "These are made by humans." It's also introduced the ability to add faction plate backgrounds to further differentiate your look. I'm glad to see this trend of teams walking back on small, unnecessary gen-AI blemishes, such as upcoming tactical RPG Warhounds getting rid of its placeholder portraits in response to player feedback.

There's much more to this new Sins of a Solar Empire 2 patch, however. The UI overhaul is designed to "surface more information at a glance, cut dead space, and bring a cleaner visual style throughout." There's a new faction selection screen with breakdowns of their identity, abilities, and units, refreshes for the single-player and multiplayer lobby screens, and more customization options for the 'random map' function.

Responding to player requests, an in-game map editor is now available. This gives you a wide range of options to adjust the composition and layout of a galaxy. You can tweak how many resource-rich planets are available in a sector, change skyboxes, or decide which NPCs can appear and in what numbers, including some functionality "that previously you needed access to the dev tools to be able to do." Later this year, the team plans to add integrated sharing with the mod.io platform so you can publish and browse maps right from the client.

There are also balance changes and new additions. All three factions gain new tools that they can use on defensive-line platforms. Several of the Vasari capital ships will now be more expensive to construct, while the cost of building Ship Factories and Fleet Beacons has also been increased. Research items have been shuffled around slightly, with several moving between tiers and/or having their effects altered; most notably, Friendly Jump Telemetry has leapt up from tier two to tier five.

The enemy AI for the Advent faction has been given a dedicated controller designed to manage its Unity abilities. "Expect the AI to start using these strategically rather than sitting on them," Stardock explains. Save games have been compressed, reducing their size "by 70% or more," and engine improvements mean improved missile targeting precision, better unit formation handline, and "a long list of math, physics, and asset-loading optimizations."

Sins of a Solar Empire update 1.6 'UI Horizons' is live now. There are even new features for modders, although the patch will require existing mods to be updated in order to work. If you want to return to an older build in the meantime to continue using them, you can do so using the 'game versions and betas' list, found in the properties menu via your Steam library.