Jan 24 Update

This was a fun update. I really fiddled in the guts on this one and things should be running a lot faster in a number of different areas. Plus, I fixed some things that I think have been broken for a long while. For example, check out how ships fire their cannons now. They come out of the wings and such now--much more visually pleasing.

• Overhauled system for loading assets. Game loads much faster now.
  
• Optimized the strategy map’s idle computations to reduce late game lag
  
• Optimized the end of turn processing to reduce hiccups when the turn button is pressed
  
• Subspace projectors now have graphics on the strategy map
  
• Substantially increased projectile speeds for lasers and disruptors to make them more exciting. I will probably update other cannons in the coming days as I work through them.
  
• Overhauled visual fx for ships taking damage and leaking fire and plasma into space
  
• Need to go through all ships
  
• Overhaul ship shooting fx so ships create projectiles from sensible locations on their hulls
  
• The AI will no longer use the expansion pack ship hulls, to keep something special for the player
  
• Fixed Russian localization problems
  
• Fixed UI scaling issue affecting widescreen setups
  
• Fixed an issue where event popups could sometimes appear to have no choices due to a scrolling error
  
• Fixed a problem with the Avnar Minor Race event, where not all discussion options resulted in the proper outcome