Here are all of the changes in the various patches.
1.018
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added destroy X enemy stations war quest (IotA)
added destroy specific station war quest (IotA)
added destroy specific building station war quest (IotA)
now monster space stations go through building stages (IotA)
split monster space stations into missile, beam, ballastics, and fighter versions (IotA)
increased chances of station quests (IotA)
if a race solves a quest they no longer get weak race or long distance bonuses (leader reinforcement issue)
Shadow now have a penalty on credits and minerals production to balance their stealth
races now only get half reward for completing quests for other races
now clear enemies better on a newly colonized planet (Tuidjy/CaptainWinky)
fixed races sending more than 1 bounty hunter at a time (ScrObot)
now if a race splits into 2, the new race gets credits depending on percentage of planets taken
can no longer get orders to kill and save the same race (Steve)
fixed conflicting alliance/war Drox orders (Cardinal Ape) (IotA)
added marine usage to marine text (Steve) (IotA)
no longer show last galaxy in galaxy list twice (IotA)
now old galaxies are listed in a way that is more obvious what they are (IotA)
using consumables on NPCs now checks player's level instead of NPC's (Tuidjy)
can no longer try to increase durability of unbreakable components (Yindo)
population growth should now handle small numbers better (Tuidjy)
now value structure repair/armor repair on scavenger components (IotA)
scavenger components now compare better (Steve) (IotA)
fixed not showing correct race specific slots when looking at another player's inventory (Cardinal Ape)
mineable asteroids now rotate some
can now have more than 1 monster space station quest at a time (IotA)
changed PROTOCOL_VERSION to 21
decreased selection size for monster space stations (IotA)
fixed Doom Missile localization (ScrObot) (IotA)