We got the new beta up tonight.  Lots of tweaks and changes.  Here's what we got in this week:

Notes for v0.77 BETA Release
+ SAVED GAMES FROM PREVIOUS BETAS WON'T WORK
+ New Planetary Approval system (completely new) will need more play testing.
+ New Computer AI relations evaluation system.
+ Several crash and memory leak issues resolved
+ AI now gets rid of older ships.
+ New planetary improvement (requires Planetary Defense) that enables ships in orbit to defend as a fleet
+ Human diplomacy advantage reduced
+ made winbink disable anti-aliasing for the bink movies, which should increase the framerate
+ achievementwnd
+ more support for tooltips
+ build queue in planetwnd is now clickable again changed it so that the
+ default value (if there isn't one specified in the
race config) is neutral.
+ added alignment values to RaceConfig.xml saved planet focus in save
+ game added code to make it not cancel ship destinations if a
+ constructor of the same race reaches a resource first
+ fixed crash in calculating planet defection string fixed a crash in
+ the 3D engine caused by a bug in the code that loads amodel.
+ fixed crash in where a null fleet was trying to set a destination
+ added default definition for custom star system so that custom races
+ don't get random systems, they get one comparable to other races.
+ check for tech victory now uses correct tech; tech victory is now possible.
+ made it so that if your social queue is empty, the planet list entry shows the word Nothing
+ fixed bug where the starport's rallypoint wasn't showing up after setting it
+ made it so that ESC will close options menu added ring size info to
+ custom planet defs tweaked tooltips to resize if they would otherwise cut off text.
+ made tradescreen update as you move slider for money or influence
+ fixed bug where money wasn't being returned to the right list, which should fix crashes as well
+ made tooltips slower to come up
+ fixed bug where AI designed ships show up in the tech complete screen
+ I believe that I've fixed the bug where two starbases could harvest the same resource
+ fixed bug where technology rate was not being saved and loaded added
+ code that should keep newly designed ship designs from losing their tech reqs when saved and restored
+ moved the user designed ship designs + ship configs to the My Documents folder
+ fixed bug where homeworld variable wasn't being saved fixed the strings on the stacked ship list fixed the tint colors on he foreign
+ treaties wnd color legend fixed grammar error in description of earth
+ as homeworld added code to fix broken trade routes; if a mini
+ freighter gets knocked off course, it will reset itself, but it may take a turn before it gives up and resets.
+ Tool tip pop up for planetary approval and planetary improvements.
+ New tool tip system to make it easier to have tool tips for non-buttons to give users more info
+ First Colony event not human Specific Anymore Torian Movies into Game
+ (for Bink Technology Testing) Displaying the Next Upgradable Planet
+ Tile before you have the Tech Fixed Hardpoints on Huge Human ships
+ (Had to All Weapon and Propulsion
points to prevent oddities when auto-placing a component)
+ Propoganda affecting Approval
+ All Trade Goods show up and are Tradable in the Negotiation Screen
+ Hooked-Up Xeno Farm and Research Acadamy to Upgrade List Change Back
+ Rallypoint Cursor when Clicking away from the Map Screen (or
rightclicking while in that mode)
+ Fixed Focus BG so it wasn't clickable
+ Can't offer to go to war on Negotiation Screen if you have less than
+ 2/3
senate control
+ Clicking on Main Interface buttons close already open windows
+ Added CanUpgrade() functions to improvement records.  These functions will determine whether or not a given improvement can upgrade another improvement by walking back up the upgrade path.  I haven’t checked in my code that *uses* these functions (waiting until after this beta release), but they do work so if you have a need for this functionality, they will work as advertised.
+ Fixed a memory leak in IncrementImprovementBuilding().
+ Super Projects and Galactic Achievements are now assigned special IDs by the game; the SpecialID value in PlanetImprovements.xml is only honored for Trade Goods.
+ Implemented the UP Headquarters improvement.
+ Checked Cari’s fix for the crash that happens when you open the Pick Your Race screen but don’t have a custom race defined on your install.
+ Implemented the Hyperion Shipyard and Secret Police Center improvements.
+ In the course of implementing those improvements, I discovered some memory leaks resulting from unreleased planet improvements, so I took a detour to fix those.
+ In the course of fixing those memory leaks, I discovered some problems related to buying and upgrading improvements.
+ In the course of fixing those buying and upgrading issues, I discovered some problems related to the saving and restoring of upgrades.
+ Your military power now takes into account the hitpoints on your ships.
+ Mini freighters were sometimes set by the AI to have a new course which could lock up the game.
+ Implemented Play button to watch ships after full battle is finished
+ Added prompt to switch government type when new government type is
available
+ Smarter ship movement in full battles
+ Fixed bug where explosion would not appear on map after full battle
+ Fixed crash when locking a slider in Economy window Fixed a bug where
+ the number of moves left after a full battle was
lost
+ Fixed bug where damage would not show on a ship after reloading a
saved game
+ Added option for showing fleet battles only if both sides of the
battle are fleets
+ Fixed bug in fleet battles where damage on the ship icons was not in
synch with the action on-screen
+ Fixed several ALT+Tab related crashes
+ Fixed a bug where small ships would sometimes overlap in a fleet
battle
+ Made smoother transitions from place to place for top-down cameras in
full battles
+ Fixed a bug where freighters that were destroyed show up in trade
routes as blown apart ships
+ Fixed a bug where the mini-map zoom was not reset after starting or
loading a new game
+ Added an option for controlling the Edge Scrolling speed

--

Next week: United Planets, Military Governors, and more!