I'm wondering about this one. can you elaborate a bit? I just started playing on the last official patch version without UCP and i've done about 250 rounds. I haven't encountered any obvious problems, but then again im new to the whole series. is it worth trashing the save for installing the UCP and start a normal game?

They built the tutorial on an early build version, not the last final official patch release. Some of the features described in the tutorial no longer function correctly, some new features are not explained. I have been told it has a few places where it can hard lock, etc. Since I got asked some questions about it, and fixing it is a real mess, I just disabled it.

If you are happy playing the tutorial no reason to stop that game.

You can always decide to install UCP after completing that game, if you want its fixes and enhancements.

I do not post a lot of info about UCP on GOG, most of the interaction is on steam forums (http://steamcommunity.com/app/298050/discussions/). Reason being is that was about the only forum the developers ever responded to and it just seems to get the most traffic.

Here are just a few of the bugs still present in the game (all fixed by UCP)

Endless loop - you can repeat this loop forever - just leading the AI around:
http://www.orderofmidnight.com/MOO/V56/BadTargetSelection.m4v

Here is one showing the weapon range damage issue (weapons hit but do no damage due to inaccuracte drop off calculations):
Last Official Release: http://www.orderofmidnight.com/MOO/V55/BadRange.m4v
UCP fix: http://www.orderofmidnight.com/MOO/V55/GoodRange.m4v

Here is a potential game breaking bug (combat stalls - leads to the game getting stuck on endless processing of Next Turn) - The attacker ship just never rotates to kill the defenders.
http://www.orderofmidnight.com/MOO/V54/Combatstall.m4v

Torpedo Targeting - This one shows crazy targeting including front firing torpedoes shooting out the back of the ship
http://www.orderofmidnight.com/MOO/V5/oldtorptarget.m4v

of course! sorry for the stupid exclamation but now that you said it, I've seen this case sooo many times in games. I've read the rest of your changelog and think its a better idea to start new. I like the game so far, but wanna try out other races. humans are, well, so typical (but good for newcomers nonetheless).

Thank you for providing software support when the game developer seems to have abandoned the project :)

UCP 5.7a Released

Available on nexus: http://www.nexusmods.com/masteroforionconquerthestars/mods/30

***** Fixes Included in this patch *****
Bug.0.0.5.7a: TacticalSquadronManeuverOrbitFireSupport appears to still be stuck with EA code, where the ships slides around the battlefield with no relationship to how they are rotated
Fix.0.0.5.7a: Corrected squadron maneuver so it at least looks like they are thrusting from the rear, in general adjusted the tactics of this behavior

Bug.0.0.5.7a: TacticalSquadronManeuverOrbitFireSupport never completes due to a bug in end maneuver logic check
Fix.0.0.5.7a: Corrected issue

Bug.0.0.5.7a: Bombers on docking event, when their carrier is destroyed, just circle around forever
Fix.0.0.5.7a: Bombers will now properly disappear (saves processing time and memory during real-time combat) on attempting to dock to a destroyed ship

Bug.0.0.5.7a: Bombers are not always properly docking with carrier ship, they sometimes get stuck just orbiting it
Fix.0.0.5.7a: Corrected logic, in general fighters of all types should be more agressive in their docking orders

Bug.0.0.5.7a: Colony and Node Development Structure Projects that are upgrades production cost is being incorrectly calculated on all production speeds not set to normal
Fix.0.0.5.7a: Corrected production costs to take in account the set production speed of the current game

Bug.0.0.5.7a: Strikers on Colony Screen does not equal strikers on the Empire Management Screen due to an odd way the game decides a worker is on strike. It is also possible for it to report more strikers than the planet has population count if morale is low enough
Fix.0.0.5.7a: Corrected these issues

Bug.0.0.5.7a: In Multiplayer, or with Modded Custom, Race with large number of racial perks the tooltips fail to display
Fix.0.0.5.7a: Just corrected depth issue in SWF so the racial perk tooltips work

Bug.0.0.5.7a: <UCP-5.7 fix> Another adjustment to ProcessBalance and Calculation of Total Income. Total income was including the difficulty multiplier for diplomatic actions which could result in the AI thinking it had too much money to spend.
Fix.0.0.5.7a: Removing erroneous calculation, also cleanup the ProcessBalance method as my previous fix was messy

Bug.0.0.5.7a: <UCP-5.7 fix> Multiplayer crash on audience with AI when you are not running the server locally, by null pointer during Server.GetUniverse call
Fix.0.0.5.7a: Just switched to Client.GetUniverse

Bug.0.0.5.7a: <UCP-5.7 fix> Multiplayer desync being caused by the AI usage of Auto-Cleanup
Fix.0.0.5.7a: Properly sent message to both clients and server to turn this feature on/off thus making certain everyone is aware of its current setting

Bug.0.0.5.7a: <UCP-5.7 fix removed> Observed occasionally the Antaran Attack Fleet Scenario gets into an invalid state after attacking a colony. Their portal never despawns, their attack fleet stays around, and they will never attack again
Fix.0.0.5.7a: <UCP-5.7 fix removed> I have removed this update as while it did correct a single stall event it appears to have made some of the other Antaran AI oddities occur more frequently than before

***** Enhancements *****
Chg.0.0.5.7a: Bombers will now make 2 bomber runs against the same target before returning to carrier for reload, before they where making a single run.

Chg.0.0.5.7a: MOD SUPPORT: Adjusted logic for Cyber Security Link so that it only sets the agent's level if their current level is less than the value for this tech.

Chg.0.0.5.7a: MOD SUPPORT: Enhanced the loading of default settings while creating a new game to better support modded values in the configuration settings

At Nexus there is the patch and down farther in the file list there is a GOG entry with a extra archive with a dll is this needed also? Thanks

You just need the one main file.

I used to package it as individual updates by platform, but decided that was too confusing and too much trouble.

UCP 5.7b Released

Available on nexus: http://www.nexusmods.com/masteroforionconquerthestars/mods/30

***** Fixes Included in this patch *****
Bug.0.0.5.7b: A fleet cannot navigation a link between two nodes that also have terminating jump gates from two different civilizations. Attempts to travel past results in a ghost fleet and game exceptions.
Fix.0.0.5.7b: Corrected logic to drop out of jump gate ETA and use normal travel ETA, instead of just not allowing travel at all

Bug.0.0.5.7b: Loading a save game where a navigation link between two nodes that also have terminating jump gates from two different civilizations does not show up on the galaxy map
Fix.0.0.5.7b: Corrected logic to properly show the link

Bug.0.0.5.7b: A previous owned AI planet that is overtaken by the player can have its focus set to a non-player focus option. This causes the planet screen to display the wrong focus and the empire management screen to display a blank focus to the player.
Fix.0.0.5.7b: Corrected by detecting this issue and displaying a manual focus for that colony. Added code to set the colony's focus to balanced.

Bug.0.0.5.7b: AI can request and build multiplier doom stars (empireUnique blueprint), actually the production manager can request very lopsided armies due to the fact it does not take into account requested armies in it blueprint selection choice or could even stall its warship production
Fix.0.0.5.7b: Modified blueprint selection logic such that it accounts for all currently requested blueprints. This should make the AI build more balanced armies and should prevent it from making multiplier doomstars. Possible for balance an AI personality setting for HeavyArmor needs to be adjusted but leaving it alone for now.

Bug.0.0.5.7b: Espionage Screen will allow you to send multiplier spies to the same enemy colony. Only the first spy can do anything all others will get stuck in a waiting state until you recall them doing nothing.
Fix.0.0.5.7b: Added code to disable colony row when you already have a spy performing an action against that colony to avoid this issue

Bug.0.0.5.7b: On Spy and Leader Colony Selection Screens a colony's Security Level value is not visible, in some non-English language choices, due to the translated word "Level" being inserted in front of the value which is causing the text to truncate
Fix.0.0.5.7b: Just removed this redundant text string from the start, now it just shows the numeric value

Bug.0.0.5.7b: Espionage Screen the XP per turn for a selected spy can truncate due to space limitations on the field length. The Train Spy Button cost field can also wrap.
Fix.0.0.5.7b: Increased field lengths to correct screen issues

Bug.0.0.5.7b: <UCP-5.6 fix> UCP added IGNORE_PRIORITIZE_MODS global setting is causing monsters and orion guardian blueprints to be created without weapons mods
Fix.0.0.5.7b: Corrected this issue by correctly setting flag to enable mods for those designs.

Bug.0.0.5.7b: <UCP-5.7 fix> Colonies on AutoCleanup can still receive High Pollution Notices under certain conditions of pre-cleanup pollution output and planet capacity
Fix.0.0.5.7b: Just corrected this

Bug.0.0.5.7b: <UCP-5.7 fix> Colony focus type "Clean Production" does not take into account leader bonus nor resource production bonuses. Additionally does not support MOD structures that add multipliers to production output.
Fix.0.0.5.7b: Just corrected this - should work better

***** Enhancements *****
Add.0.0.5.7b: Modified High Gravity Tolerant Race Trait to allow colonizing of normal gravity planets without a penalty. This is how it worked in MOO 2 and seems to justify this being a Racial Trait that costs 4 points in the base game. This change is controllable by a global.yaml setting called "GRAVITY_TOLERANT_HIGH_EXPANDED". It will default to "1" which is on, but setting it to "0" will restore old logic.

Add.0.0.5.7b: Espionage Screen risk levels for missions are Low, Medium, and High. Added new categories Very Low, Low, Medium, High, and Very High to make it a little more grainular

Add.0.0.5.7b: MOD SUPPORT: Added support for Morale structures that have both a local and a star system bonus by correcting Colony Morale tooltip so it is not double displayed and only proper bonuses are shown

Add.0.0.5.7b: MOD SUPPORT: Added support for Spud Dastardly's 5X change so the torpedo weapon mod for Fast has the correct icon on the blueprint and tooltip screens

Chg.0.0.5.7b: Loading of configuration settings are disabled for multiplayer for now - prevents an issue with loading saved multiplayer games where you have created a new multiplayer game with different settings.

Add.0.0.5.7b: Added the rival civlization's OathBreakerScore and WarmongerScore to the value calculations the AI attributes to long term payments value.