NPCs now make their AI decisions whenever they can, not necessarily after the player is ready. The code for their decision making is now multithreaded. Both of these changes reduce the time you spend waiting for the NPCs greatly. [h2]Improved military access mechanic[/h2] Limited military access: The military access institution aspect no longer allows you to pass through multiple entire countries and use all of your allies' colonies to jump around the world. You can now traverse up to two places using military access, similarly to how you can traverse up to two water places. This should reduce the amount of border gore and seemingly random invasions, while keeping the military access aspect useful. [h2]Other notable changes[/h2] [list] [*] Changed the way selection is represented in the game. [*] The game world is now static, allowing for graphics performance optimizations granting an FPS boost. [*] Improved the UI for the place, region, and country views. [*] The UI for Institutions is now located in the interaction panel, instead of its own fullscreen window. [*] The contemporary (2024) scenario is now called 2025. [*] Updated the situation of Syria for 2025. [*] Added seasonal holiday decorations. [*] Added Lake Titicaca and improved the area around it. [*] Added Arakan and the Burmese civil war. [*] Improved the shape of Iceland. [*] Removed the bloom post-processing effect. [*] The conquer multiple places button will no longer be available to regions or countries where your country can't access any place. [*] Fixed an issue where NPCs could create broken institutions. [*] Fixed the demonym of Cyrenaica: Cyrenaican. [*] Increased the resolution of the space background. [*] The main menu appears on startup again. [/list]