Welcome to Beta 1 for Sins of a Solar Empire - Diplomacy! This latest micro-expansion is far from feature complete, so I urge players not to jump to conclusions. As I like to say, we're at the beginning of the process, not the end. 
What you'll be getting for Beta 1 is just the groundwork for many things to come and as such is not fun. Think of this initial release more like a technical test, as what will be most valuable to hear about are things like crash bugs, desyncs in multiplayer games, and other weirdness.
If you don't want to deal with bugs, balance issues or providing feedback to improve the game please wait for the final release.
Things in Beta 1:
- Envoy Cruisers: These cruisers are expensive to maintain, but will allow you to establish embassies on foreign homeworlds.
- Embassies: Once established, you can begin working in earnest with other factions.
- Diplomacy Tech Tree: This is where you'll find the required techs to meet and greet with others. Be aware that the new tech tree is far from complete; only the basics are in now (and even those will be changing).
- Mission Generator: At last you'll be able to issue missions to the AI and other players! Setup the mission type, time limit and reward for completion.
- Deadlier Pirates: The Pirates will now become tougher as they collect bounty rewards, but that's just the beginning....
- "Faster" Gameplay: New "Faster" settings have been added to the Game Options that really speed things along.
To install Diplomacy:
- First, you will need the full versions of Sins of a Solar Empire v1.181 and Entrenchment v1.041. These updates can be obtained via Impulse (http://www.impulsedriven.com).
- Once your pre-order is charged, you will see Diplomacy appear in Impulse under your My Games tab. Just click the Install button and Impulse will handle the rest.
- If you don't see Diplomacy appear after getting your order receipt via email from us, try Checking for Updates in Impulse (click the blue button in the upper-left and select Check for Updates).
- If that doesn't work, you can manually register your Diplomacy serial number in Impulse. Click the blue ? in the upper right and select Look Up Serial Number. Your Serial Number will be emailed to you. Once you get your Serial Number, just click the Register Product button in the upper-right of Impulse and fill in the dialog.
- NOTE: Your order number is NOT your serial number.
Posting about Bugs:
Please check out Annatar's stickied thread about providing feedback to us about the beta:
https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/319171
