The final countdown is now underway!
Note that there are still many bugs and issues, but I have decided to push Phase III live regardless and fix things in the next few days instead of delaying further.

Current activity:

• Fixing last minute issues and bugs

Completed:

• Removing abandoned planets
• Bugfix: Duplicate Artifacts could spawn if created within the same tick
• Bugfix: Durstenfeld shuffle was not shuffling properly
• Bugfix: Another issue with converting stockpiles
• Bugfix: Artifacts could spawn with more than 15 modifiers
• Updating graphics
• Updating descriptions
• Adding missing graphics
• Bugfix: Division by zero if stockpiles were empty
• Bugfix: Missing city-centers
• Spawning treasures
• Database conversion to Phase III+ format
• Database backup

Phase III current patch notes:
GAMEPLAY

• New mechanic: Space elevators
• New mechanic: Shipyards
  • Colony ship unlocked
• New mechanic: Colonization
• Complete rework of goods production
• Complete rework of resources
• Complete rework of buildings
• New mechanic: Building Artifacts
• New mechanic: Population based slot unlocks
• New mechanic: Crafting
• New mechanic: Craftable Artifacts
• New mechanic: Artifact tiers/quality

LORE

• Several things added around the universe

SYSTEM

• Gods and Idols is now DPI aware
• Many performance improvements in UI rendering

INTERFACE

• UI scaling can now be set
• Major overhaul of UI design and layout

BUGS

• Transparent objects could be rendered out of order
• Fixed infinite startup loop - Thanks SuperNova
• Fixed several cases of UI alignment issues
• Fixed crash after changing resolution
• Light no longer penetrates planets - Thanks everyone who reported this
• Fixed chat not always scrolling to bottom when switching channels
• Tooltips can no longer go off-screen
• Fixed chat becoming invisible when switching channels
• Fixed chat history appearing offset
• Fixed several cases of lag stuttering when moving around the galaxy

SERVER

• All Planet Services now stop if another Planet Service has crashed and is in the process of recovering in order to prevent unfair advantages
• All Planet Services now stop if the Data Relay Service crashes to prevent planets from being processed if players can't see them

Additional notes:
The Ecumenopolis feature has been postponed in order to leave more time to fine-tune production rates and resource collection. This is so that I can make sure the cost of an Ecumenopolis accurately reflect the mechanics it unlocks.