Good question ... and here is a good answer -> a couple of days.

The update will be for all four versions of the mod.

And here are some of the changes,

Planets
- Added new planets with animation: Dyson Swarm, Extinct World, Aura World, Legendary planet, Stellar Anomaly
- Added animation effects to planets ancients, binary, fortified

Militia and Pirates
- added unstable asteroids to uncolonized planets
- added carrier for militia player
- added pirate colonizing capital
- re-balanced pirates

Pictures and Icons
- added icons for fighter, bomber dock/launch for new races
- re-sized mainview icons for frigates and constructors, trade-ship, refinery-ship icons
- added new character pictures
- added new races game win/defeat pictures

Sound
- shorten sound effects on some planet modules
- added new music

Abilities
- fixed anti-matter converter ability flicker for Replicator capital ships
- fixed abilities for binary planet
- fixed replicator tractor beams
- added black hole event horizon and gravity ability
- fixed self destruct on Trade Alliance defense module
- fixed Trade Alliance 'armistice' ability so now it only disables weapons and abilities
- removed 'nanite infiltration' ability and research for Replicator Darkstar cruiser
- removed 'antimatter field' ability and research for Replicator Dominion cruiser
- removed ability 'sabotage module' for replicator defense platforms
- removed ability 'booby trap' for Trade Alliance defense platforms
- updated Replicator Starbase 'antimatter converter' ability
- updated Replicator Starbase manufactured Hord so they have a maximum 'use by date' of 15 minutes
- reduced Norlamin Malladax cruiser's 'capture & decoy' ability - increased expiry time, increased antimatter cost, reduced range
- reduced Norlamin Skylark 2 cruisers 'capture & decoy' ability - increased expiry time, increased antimatter cost, reduced range
- updated Norlamin cruiser's 'capture' abilities so research requires 2 less research platforms
- updated Trade Alliance's Starbase tradeport level by one, i.e now there are two levels
- updated Replicator Production Centre ability and the abilities stack for multiple Centre's
- updated Replicator Capitalship ability 'antimatter converts', shield mitigation changed from 20% to 10%
- fixed Replicator's Equalizer Cruiser's 'replicate' ability so that it only produces one copy of itself
- fixed Replicator's Ranger Host's 'replicate' ability so that it only produces one copy of itself
- updated Replicator's ability 'replicate' for all frigates to have increased cooldown times

Balance
- reduced the maximum number of mines from 150 to 50(except on Terran or Desert home world max mines 150). Explosive force of mines doubled. Note this is for all six races
- increased the maximum number of Starbases for ancients, Dyson swarm planets from one to two
- reduced the power and range of defense platform's for all the new races
- reduced the available resources for some of the new planets

Optimization
- integrated the majority of the TSOP into mod
- reduced the number of Fighter, Bombers, Trade-ships, Refinery-ships, Mines (halved) but increased their fire power or cargo capacity (doubled)
- for most frigates increased slot count, build credits, build metal, build crystal, build time, hull, shields, armor, weapon damage, mass (doubled)
- also for carrier cruises doubled their command points
- also for siege frigates doubled their planet bombing firepower

Research
- reduced the number of levels for maximum planet population size for Replicators
- reduced research to 'decrease resource buy cost' for Norlamins
- reduced shield mitigation for Norlamin ships
- removed 'antimatter storage' research for Replicators
- fixed a number of research prerequisites levels fixed for Norlamins
- fixed a number of research prerequisites levels fixed for Replicators

Weapons
- defense platform of the Norlamins use lasers
- defense platform of the Trade Alliance use Autocannons
- thumper defense platform of the Replicators use Plasma
- fighters of the Trade Alliance use Autocannons
- bombers of the Trade Alliance use Autocannons
- bombers of the Replicators use Plasma
- scout ships of the Replicators have auto attack off when built
- heavy cruiser of the Trade Alliance uses autocannons
- siege frigate of the Trade Alliance uses lasers
- orbital cannon's of the Trade Alliance and Norlamins re-balanced
- orbital cannon of the Norlamins now take 150 population from enemy planet on impact

Other
- only Replicators Starbases move.
- fixed game quickstart
- a number of descriptions fixed
- small culture spread for Trade Alliance orbital Tradeport
- dreadnoughts, once upgraded to Starbases, can leave the gravity well, though their maximum speed is reduced by 50%
- expiry time for the dreadnought generated horde is level dependent. Also the Hord have a maximum 'shelf life' of 30 minutes
- updated Replicator Dreadnought model

woah.

this... will be amazing.

Thanks for the amazing ammount of work you put into this.

No problems.

The nice thing about the new release is that the optimization (memory and also speed) has been a success. I think I'm about 50-100MB from having effects all on highest settings.

Also, in terms of game speed, the worst case scenario is a huge single random map with 10 players ... no late game slowdown (2Rep, 2TA, 2Norms, 2Tec, 1Ad, 1Vars) on 3 tests.

Awesome stuff soase. Been gone a good while, but going to take this beauty for a spin right now.

By the way, are dreads in diplomacy version in next release or just serving as replacement for starbase in regular sins?

Hi Malanthor,

Glad to have you back.

You will have to wait a day or two. I'm currently compressing and uploading the mods to various sites, updating websites, etc.

As you know R2 was focused mainly on optimization, hence Dreadnoughts are still only in the Original Maelstrom Expansion. Based on results, from R2, I think I can put the Dreadnoughts in all versions as standard (for R3 on).

By the way the Dreadnoughts have changed somewhat in R2, this is based on the tests and experiments of Quiet_Man, who like you is keen to see the Dreadnoughts progress further.

Great mod. You have done amazing work. I am really enjoying the Trade Alliance. Looking forward to the update. Thanks for making a great mod.

Glad you like it. Hope you will like the next release.

I took the old girl for a spin, now eagerly awaiting the new version hehe.

And very much looking forward to the dreads beeing in diplomacy. <grins>

So am I, something to soften up enemy Starbases!

Release 2 of Maelstrom is now available. Also the Maelstrom website has been updated.

Have fun!

very nice. downloading now.

Good Hunting ...

Downloading the new updates. I am interested in the new planets. What are there abilities?

I don't want to spoil your adventure ...

I'm having the game crash a lot is any one else having that problem it crashes at random time or is it just me i have it set up like it says in the notes

P.S

this is awesome mod keep up the good work i love the planets you made i hope there more coming

sorry i think i fixed it i forget to patch it with the 4gb for 64bit OS errrr I'm slow lol

First, let me just congratulate the entire mod team for making an absolutely beautiful mod. All the ships are textured, and look very unique.

My ONLY problem with this mod is that the Trade Alliance absolutely SUCK. I played a game as the Replicators, and dominated the entire game. I then decided that I wanted to play as the Trade Alliance, and I got annihilated consistently. My capital ships would just get destroyed one after the other. And I was playing against the same race, on the same difficulty. The Trade Alliance ships just... lose.

It seems almost like a bug, to me. I had all the offensive/defensive upgrades, and it seemed to make little to no difference at all.

Anyway, thanks for all your effort into the mod, and I look forward to your next release

"My ONLY problem with this mod is that the Trade Alliance absolutely SUCK."

It's funny as I have others complain that their too powerful. I think it might be your TA gaming style. If you haven't tried this already I would

1. get their economy going fast.

2. protect their capitals till they are level 5-6, the high-end abilities of the siege and support caps are very useful.

3. fighter/bombers are their strength

4. Utility frigates have useful abilities.

Overpowered? Really? If any of the races is OP'd, I'd say it's the Replicators. Once I had 2 cap ships and 5 missile frigates, that was all the fleet I needed as I had replicate forces on autocast. My fleet never went down in size -- if one ship was destroyed, two took it's place. 

Anyway, thanks for your response. I still love the mod and look forward to any future releases.

Are you playing release 1 of the mod, because this was fixed in release 2.

I was playing R2. I was just alluding to replicators being like hydras. However, during each battle my number of ships ALWAYS increased.

Yes, if it is a long battle, you have done the 'antimatter converter' research and the enemy fleet is not large.

Also balancing of the replicate ability still needs work.