Apr 28, 2021

First Major Content Update Release | Changelog 0.5.18292

EVERSPACE™ 2 - ROCKFISH Games

Greetings, pilots!

DRUM ROLL! After being smoke-tested by daring Early Access test-pilots without running into any [major] issues and some last-minute tweaks & fixes to address much-appreciated community feedback on the experimental version, we’re excited to announce that we just pushed the button to release the first content update, EVERSPACE 2: Contracts/Hinterland, on Steam and GOG - WOOT! Make sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and join the Discord for future chances to jump in early on upcoming builds!

While we’ve already shared quite a lot in our previous info update on Steam, we’ve put together a 12 min explanation trailer to wetten your appetite if you don’t mind spoilers, that is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4-SFjsXaXE

Smuggling

The biggest addition, beyond all the new contents, previously revealed on Steam, is a multi-stage smuggling mission taking pilots to several locations in Union through the continued story campaign included in this update. It features cuddly Elek helping you out, drawing enemy fire while you deliver precious, yet highly volatile cargo stored behind your cockpit seat. Meaning, better to keep your finger off the trigger and sneak around hostile units by using the environment to your advantage.

Steer clear of the firefight while hauling an explosive payload! Volatile cargo is dangerous, but it pays top rates. To stabilize hazardous goods between Supralight jumps, quick pit stops will cool things down.

We’d love to hear your feedback about these kinds of missions—we plan to add more smuggling activities in the future for all those space truckers who enjoy making extra credits on the side. Still too early to say how exactly it's gonna work, but illegal smuggling jobs might have an impact on your trading reputation later in the game. Would be dope if we even added special gear and certain ship class capabilities in the future that would come in handy for dubious tasks further down the line, wouldn’t it?

Music Overhaul

Now, before you frantically click on the link to the 100+ entry changelog to find out what else is new in our first major content update, let’s talk about what’s under the hood of Added/Improved various music tracks, plus some general thoughts about music in video games and EVERSPACE 2 in particular.

Disclaimer: Having a great soundtrack alongside everything else we’re making for EVERSPACE 2 is hugely important to us. The team is filled with suckers for great music so this section grew longer than planned; Anyone who always turns off in-game music to listen to their favorite playlist on Spotify, feel free to skip right to the end with the link to the changelog; no hard feelings! :)

Meet our one-man-army sound designer & director Gero! He has been “lost in music, caught in a trap, no turning back” Sister Sledge-style in his sound-proved studio at our office without going nuts all by himself. For over two years, he’s been composing and tweaking well over 60 tracks, mixing a plethora of iconic SFX for primary and secondary weapons, activated ship devices and consumables, distinctive audio clues about environmental events, UI actions, as well as directing and editing countless hours of voice acting. If that wasn’t enough, Gero is also a veteran audio programmer, making all that in-game audio magic happen at the right time and place. Oh, he also does layout edits for the cinematics and in-game cutscenes. It’s been a ton of work and it’s far from being finished, but as long as coffee doesn’t run out, all is good, Gero assures us.

We probably all agree great music and fitting SFX has always been super important in video games. Even if excellent game audio might elevate the game to higher levels for many players just subconsciously, playing your favorite games, from 8-bit classic to the latest AAA blockbuster, without music can make you realize how much of the total experience is missing.

Now, when making an open-world space action RPG, many epic soundtracks from iconic space movies and sci-fi shooters immediately come to mind as inspiration. From Star Wars, Star Trek, and Battlestar Galactica to Halo, Destiny, and Fallout—the list of fantastic sci-fi music is endless. Expectations for a top-notch sci-fi action RPG score are very high, especially when the visual fidelity is so good. However, we don’t have a AAA budget for a highly-decorated composer and full-sized orchestra to produce several hours of in-game music. Even if we did, we think it wouldn’t be the right fit for this title.

So, being budget-limited and wanting to produce as much as possible in-house, we had to come up with a music direction that Gero could produce all by himself on keys and guitar along with high-quality percussion samples and all sorts of SFX from premium sound libraries. Instead of trying to produce an epic space opera score on a budget, we doubled down on Gero’s variety of talents and went for the iconic sound of 80s electronic pop music, like in the first installment, but with some modern EDM vibes thrown into the mix. Whatever your take is on this, we think the new music direction is the right fit for a fast-paced, arcadey spaceship looter-shooter at its core with optional exploration and other activities on the side.

If you want to read a deeper meaning to the change of our music direction for EVERSPACE 2, you could say that EVERSPACE 1 had a rock-solid foundation of top-notch space combat and striking visual but was a bit rough around its UI/UX edges, paired with a grindy roguelite game loop and a pretty dark story campaign, held back by an edgy learning curve. The game was meant to break established rules of the classic space combat & exploration genre while bringing modern roguelike elements to the mix. Hence, its unusual music direction based on 80s synthesizer sounds and 90s electric guitar riffs, combined with modern beats.

With our change of direction for EVERSPACE 2, the stakes are higher than ever. As our new title appeals to a much larger audience and is meant to be more accessible than hardcore space sims, the game’s audio direction had to follow suit. Consequently, fewer quirky sounds or tracks with a strange 7/8 beat hard to jam to, instead a straight 4/4 rhythm going right into your feet, with some off-beat syncopes here and there to keep things interesting. Last but not least, a more positive score is also a better fit for the hero’s journey in EVERSPACE 2 as Adam is growing from a formerly naive clone pilot to a real human being that finds his place in life and a goal that is worth dying for.

Now, if you’re still reading and thinking “man, that sounds quite boring, and I really don’t like that one battle track with its boring theme and stomping Euro techno beat.” Don’t fret! Gero is constantly exploring his creative boundaries and with some sixty tracks already in the game and even more to come, you’re bound to find a favorite track. Gero has an open ear for feedback from the community and from our team.

Ok, everything aside: Gero has been hard at work creating new tracks and sanding off the edges on tracks in progress; while there is still a lot to be done, I gotta say, the team and I are super pleased with some of his latest work for Union.

Check this out:

Changelog

A few more disclaimers before you head on to the full changelog of the EVERSPACE 2 Contracts/Hinterland update below: As the update seems to be very stable and balanced pretty well, we probably won’t have any maintenance updates before the next content drop in Summer. Even if we did, we wouldn’t add the Vanguard, as previously considered, because we wouldn’t want to code freeze production for at least two weeks and lose precious development time just to add one more job between major beats, consequently delaying the next update.

Also, to enable us to add more main and side missions during Early Access, we’ll be working with TTS as placeholders for quite a while and have maybe one or two more voice recording sessions before the full release further down the line. We added a temporary option to disable TTS placeholders if anyone finds them immersion breaking.

Features

Added new main and side missions
Added new player ship class: Bomber (heavy fighter)
Added new companion
Increased level cap to 15 and added three new player perks
Added EMP Missiles
Added new Outlaw units: Bloodstar Prospector, Bloodstar Overseer, Outlaw Drone Carrier
Added new Bloodstar-branded equipment
Added resolution scaling setting
Added NVIDIA DLSS setting
Added experimental HDR support
Added setting for third-person camera stiffness
Added keybindings for cycling through on-screen enemy targets
Added batch actions for processing multiple items at once
Added overview screen for data tab
Added new WIP narrated cinematics
Added new/hint indication marker for some menu tabs and items
Added current conditions bar to ship menu tab
Added dedicated mission inventory to hold mission items instead of ship cargo

Tweaks

Manual saving is now possible anywhere while not in a fight or mission
Balancing: Slower leveling by reducing enemy XP, slightly increased enemy DPS and HP
Enemy levels are more varied now; enemies above player level more common
Slightly reduced Uncommon and Rare drop chances for low levels
There are now cooldowns when installing new weapons/consumables
Homing missiles now require a short lock-on sequence, and missiles will only home in when fired while a target is on screen
Reduced Augmentation bonus from 30 to 20 per Augment
Increase ship slots on Homebase from 3 to 5
Greatly increased resulting Critical Hit Chance bonus from Precision attribute
HUD markers for discovered objects will now be saved and restored when entering a location / loading a save
Modules will now always have a Firepower, Precision, or Structure bonus attribute if rarity is at least Uncommon
Increased heavy ship deceleration with enabled inertia dampening
Show additional offscreen damage indicators in HUD
Reworked movement for most NPC ships, resulting in a less "beeline" attack style
Enemies will now boost when investigating
NPC ships will less likely carry the battle to the location bounds
Reduced Outlaw Sniper Drone focus time
Outlaw Destroyer: Now fires missiles while weakpoints are exposed, easier to spot weakpoints that now also change color when hit, more base hitpoints, higher weakpoint damage multiplier
Sniper Drone will now try to keep 2km distance from player
Consume at least 30% of maximum ULT charge when canceling ULT
Faction item rewards will now have the player level when claimed
Challenge tasks are now tracked individually instead of the whole collection
Increased controller Auto-aiming strength for mines
Auto-aiming will now ignore friends/neutrals
Increased amount of damage needed for a G&B Freighter to turn hostile, but now always turn them hostile when a container was (mostly) destroyed by the player
Changed Speed Booster Recharge Speed from 500% to 300%, increased Recharge Delay from 1s to 2s
With a Cruise Booster equipped, you can now activate Cruise Mode faster (1.8s → 1s) and closer to enemies (2km → 1km)
Increased charge duration and energy consumption of Rail Gun, slightly decreased kinetic base damage
Targets affected by EMP will now receive 30 seconds of EMP immunity after the effect ends
Energy Orbs: Now always floating towards the player, replaced effect bonus perk level with armor recharge, better spawn effect
Slightly decreased signal decoder and color drop chances for some enemy types
Added VFX to make Outlaw Armor Drones stand out more
Slightly increased maneuverability while webbed
Added RESIST and IMMUNE impact labels (e.g. EMP on freighters: Immune, EMP on fighters with EMP Resistance: Resist)
Reduced magnitude of bonus attribute values (Firepower, Resistance, Precision, Utility, Structure)
Decreased Thermo Gun kinetic damage by 33%
Baron Executioner: Increased kinetic damage, removed energy damage
Salvor Jaeger: Decreased spread, slightly increased kinetic damage / decreased energy damage
Show "influence" offscreen indicators for npcs that are debuffing the player (e.g. webbed by Webber)
Dedicated Supralight music in Union system
Optimized sorting options and internal order of item property priorities
Removed unnecessary amount selection for some item transfers
Added small animation and highlight when selling to rebuy shop inventory
Added icons and quality of life improvements for perk upgrade and the investment process
Custom ship style slots now display the selected colors
Hide HUD marker for items pulled with Tractor Beam
Made page indicators in customization screens navigatable and clickable
A small indicator is displayed below the player health bars when inertia dampeners are turned off
Show "tracked" icon in pickup log on top of item icon when tracked for perks
New mesh for the Flying Dutchess trading ship
Freelook/orbit cam is automatically entered when activating autopilot in Supralight
Autopilot can now also be activated/deactivated with target lock binding (middle mouse button is the default)
Player armor, health, and shield bars now all have the same length
Show energy bars in a different color when carrying an energy orb to make it more obvious that energy is unlimited now
Reworked Thermo Gun projectile VFX
Reduced Energized Boost "High Pressure" mode impulse to prevent physics-related issues
Rigged Asteroid UI displays the currently activated and the overall amount of detonator triggers
Changed name and appearance of "Outlaw Ravager" to "Bloodstar Overseer" in the tutorial
The game is now also auto-saved when undocking from a station and having visited a menu or made any changes
Decreased "create new energy sphere" hold duration from 3 seconds to 2 seconds
Show max level info message when reaching Max Level
Prevent save scumming in regards to ship and shop offers
Various UI/Menu tweaks
Updated Unreal Engine to 4.26, potentially fixing some low-level issues (like graphics crashes or problems with available resolutions)

Bugfixes

Fixed Bomb-Thrower re-enabling shield after death
Fixed broken state when loading a save game on Ayres Relay Station with Striker
Fixed player ship not being auto-repaired when levelling up while docked at a station
Fixed energized boost "Compressor" mode stacking
Fixed weapons not always facing straight during supralight
Fixed overlapping dialogues after finishing a job
Fixed finished job locations still showing on Map if they have item rewards that are unclaimed
Fixed Tractor Beam sound not pausing when the game is paused
Fixed camera view occasionally being automatically switched to third-person after using jump gate
Fixed playing time not properly updating after crossing the 144 hours mark
Fixed Interceptors "Power Converter" not using Boost Energy for charging weapons
Fixed Coil and Rail Guns having the "high-velocity" affix
Fixed Corrosion Injector "Mercy Kill" mode not resetting cooldown for insta-kills
Fixed consumable/device keys not showing changed keybindings and also automatically refresh many icons/buttons after a keybinding change
Fixed new high-risk area waypoint not immediately showing after using signal decoder at a location and setting waypoint via map
Fixed "Tag Mines" attribute of Sensor not working correctly
Fixed having to change joystick throttle or other axis input again after pause/resume in order to receive the current axis input
Fixed Missile Defense System sometimes locking up in a loop
Fixed that when trying to use shoulder buttons as modifiers for keybindings the options menu tab would change instead
Fixed that activation of Signal Decoders was not possible if the max amount has been reached and one high-risk area was just discarded
Fixed stat attributes not updating after upgrading an item
Fixed shop discounts falsely granted for non-equipment
Fixed previously used player ship in Hangar still casting a shadow when currently viewing another player ship
Fixed high-risk-location icon looking different in Supralight to what it looks like on the map
Fixed secondary weapon meshes being hidden after having switched to "1st person no cockpit view" and going back to third-person
Fixed dialog window being transparent after plating help message was shown
Fixed interact repair hold sound not stopping when moving out of interact range but still holding the interact button
Fixed that EMPing a mine counted as having cleared the mine although the effect wears off after some time
Fixed reactor repair costs not matching the mission amount
Fixed player mines being hostile after loading a saved game
Fixed minable resources HUD marker being visible after fully mining a resource and then re-entering the location later
Fixed multiple bugs regarding sorting of inventories
Fixed a problem that showed zero credits for all items in shops
Fixed wrong rarity displayed in resource log (HUD) after taking-all-items action in containers was used
Fixed inaccessible Distress Calls being shown on the map
Fixed that upgraded modules may not receive mandatory firepower, precision, or structure attribute
Fixed devices and ULTs becoming less powerful in higher levels

Ok, that was a lot of words; time for some action! Make sure to join our next “ROCKFISH Games Show” to watch Erik Schrader, beloved ROCKFISH Games Community Ambassador and ace space pilot, delve into the EVERSPACE 2: Contracts/Hinterland update live on Twitch and YouTube, Friday, April 30, from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm CEST / 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm EST / 11:00 am to 1:00 pm PST. 🚀👀💥🙌

Keep it civil on the forums, and see you in space!
Michael and your dedicated ROCKFISH Games Team

Apr 14, 2021

Imminent Content Update "Union: Contracts/Hinterland" | SPOILER ALERT

EVERSPACE™ 2 - ROCKFISH Games

Greetings, Pilots!

Time to get excited about the first EVERSPACE 2 content update! Union: Contracts/Hinterland is scheduled to officially drop on Steam and GOG on April 28! As the suffix suggests, there’ll be new things to discover and do in the second star system. While we don’t want to unveil too much, we know that many early pilots are yearning for some teasers, so here we go—there will be spoilers; you have been warned!

We’ve already shared some information about the two new ship classes, the Bomber and the Vanguard, including some detailed concept art in our previous update. While the Vanguard still needs some work in the ROCKFISH shipyard—it’s now scheduled to be deployed with the next maintenance patch after the content update has dropped—we’re excited to share the first in-game screenshot and some more details of the Bomber with you.

First in-game shot of a Cyclops, Bomber Class, Tier 1 in action. Although some pilots perceive subclasses in EVERSPACE 2 to be like different ship types in other space games, it’s worth mentioning that each ship subclass in EVERSPACE 2 will feature subclass-specific wing types as well as different perks.

The heavy-class Bomber is a bulky demolition expert with a virtually unlimited supply of missiles and mines, including the infamous ARC-9000. This much-loved secondary weapon in the first installment makes a comeback in EVERSPACE 2 as the Bomber’s very impressive Ultimate: It fires a massive ball of destruction that damages ANY ship in its vicinity and explodes on impact, so use it with great caution!

The Bomber’s Special "Conversion" is also nothing to sneeze about as secondary weapons use energy instead of ammunition. In combination with a set of random passive perks, like the ability to convert hostile mines [instead of triggering them] or reduced target lock-on duration, plus the upgradable Expertise to self-repair its hull based on a percentage of damage dealt, the Bomber allows for a unique playstyle.

Meeting An Old Friend

It’s no secret that Elek, our Outlaw friend from the EVERSPACE: Encounters expansion, will have a comeback in EVERSPACE 2. As Outlaws do, our furry friend has got himself in quite some trouble.

You might wonder how Elek ended up hanging upside down... trapped in a cocoon... in a dark, spooky cave deep underground at Cephas Downs... you’ll find out soon!

The main mission rescuing Elek will take combat and exploration gameplay underground a notch further compared to what you have experienced in the tutorial by featuring a bigger and more complex cave with several tunnels as well as a new type of alien creature, fittingly named “Cave Crawlers.” While the pests are individually weak, they compensate through quantity and have some nasty tricks up their sleeve.

While you can easily splatter Cave Crawlers with any weapon, make sure to avoid the stacking corrosion damage from their acid spit attacks. Corrosion goes right through your shield and eats your ship’s armor and hull within seconds if hit by too many times. Better to be safe than sorry; a full stack of large nanobots might come in handy!

Once you have figured out how to make it back to the surface, Elek will drop a clue that’ll help you progress further in the main campaign, leading to an all-new type of mission. Later on, Elek will join your companion roster, where you’ll be able to unlock and upgrade his perks.

The chance of Elek joining the fight when Adam is under attack is the first of several perks to unlock and upgrade for our furry pal. Later in the game, Elek’s connections in the DMZ will come in handy, too.

Veteran EVERSPACE - Encounters pilots who have fought together with Elek know him as a skilled wingman; it’s always good to have him flying alongside you, ready to pull yet another ace from up his Outlaw pilot sleeves when things get hairy.

However, Elek being Elek, he’s not a fan of sitting around at the Homebase, waiting for you to call for help, but being busy. By further investing in your relationship, you’ll be able to increase chances that he’ll take your call. IF he shows up, his space combat skills never disappoint.

Chasing Spaceships

Some pilots wondered what those racing challenges scattered all around in Ceto and Union are all about. After all, EVERSPACE 2 is a looter shooter RPG with spaceships, not Mario Kart, right? While this loose quote from a comment on Steam about race challenges in EVERSPACE 2 might be a bit exaggerated, we also understand that racing in a space combat game could feel out of place, especially to fans of hardcore space sims.

However, our creative vision for EVERSPACE 2 is more like an open-world action RPG in space. We want to provide various gameplay mechanics that you can delve into while progressing through the game in your preferred manner. Much of these side quests are optional objectives to pursue whenever you’d like to take a break from the main story campaign.

That said, we aren’t implementing all these different types of gameplay mechanics for nothing. Some super-duper loot will require top maneuvering skillz AND brainz to obtain. No worries, we’re not gonna force anyone to solve lots of complex puzzles and tight pursuit missions to progress through the story campaign à la Uncharted or Tomb Raider. However, many in our team enjoy games that challenge players in lots of different ways, so we also like throwing various challenges at pilots that are up for testing their capabilities outside of established gameplay mechanics in the space combat & exploration / looter-shooter genre.

Watch out for sudden obstacles, unexpected turns, and nasty surprises dropping while chasing an informant through a dense field of asteroids.

A great example of how to keep things interesting off the beaten path are those inglorious exotic weapons quests in Destiny 2, throwing bonkers platforming challenges at Guardians before the final boss fight. At first, you might hate them, but once mastered, it’s all the more rewarding when that precious legendary drops.

With that in mind, look forward to a twisting high-speed pursuit within the busy delivery drone flight routes at Prescott Starbase and an adrenaline-rush spaceship chase through a dense asteroid field to test your maneuvering skills.

Ancient Puzzles

As said earlier, puzzle-solving in EVERSPACE 2 has generated a lot of feedback, especially from hardcore fans of space sims. Be sure that we are constantly reevaluating and changing things throughout Early Access. For example: In the new update, the rigged asteroids puzzles will now show the current amount of activated and total detonators. It's a small change, but it will make this puzzle more accessible without rendering it trivial. Again, no challenge, no fun, right?

Anyhow, looking at 92% positive reviews, it’s fair to say that the vast majority of pilots do like puzzle-solving to keep things varied, so good news for most of you: Union: Contracts/Hinterland will also introduce new types of puzzles in combination with the second boss encounter, featuring another old acquaintance from the predecessor, The Ancient Warden.

Veteran EVERSPACE pilots already know that the Ancient Warden is no push-over with his long-range hyperbolic attacks that can hit you even behind cover and its capability to teleport when receiving too much damage. Make sure you have weapons with high energy damage installed, dodge its attacks, and pay attention to the final combat phase that will be even more devastating in the confined space of a cave.

Overhauled Game Balancing

We’ve heard from a few players struggling with the overall game difficulty, especially when coming from space flight sims featuring more atmosphere-style combat with fewer weapon types and ship capabilities. Some are even using HOTAS, which is a more difficult to use setup in the EVERSPACE series compared to mouse + keyboard and gamepads.

According to a recent survey on the ROCKFISH Games YouTube channel, about two thirds of space pilots prefer mouse + keyboard when playing space combat games; based on current player data, we’re seeing a whopping 82% playing with mouse + keyboard in EVERSPACE 2.

On the other hand, we’ve received a lot of feedback from pilots that the game is much too easy, thus reaching the current level cap of 14 far too fast, a point also shown in anonymously collected player data. To improve player progression throughout the story campaign and local challenges, we’ve reduced XP from kills, buffed some enemy’s hitpoints and damage output. Furthermore, drop chances for uncommon and rare items have been reduced, too.

To make things more interesting across the board, enemy levels are now more varied and more commonly above player level. Speaking of player level, we also decided to increase the new level cap to 15, enabling pilots to unlock a new set of perks:

The new set of perks is all about dealing extra damage that might come in handy when venturing into high-risk areas.

Now, to all pilots that had a hard time in EVERSPACE 2 so far, don’t fret! Once we’ve nailed game balancing of the full game for the vast majority of players, we’ll introduce various difficulty levels plus more granular gameplay and accessibility options to tweak the overall difficulty to everyone’s liking.
That said, our creative vision for EVERSPACE 2 is an open-world action RPG with looter shooter mechanics and various side activities. Meaning, just like any other open-world action RPG, anyone just bee-lining through the story campaign would not only miss a ton of content and features, the game will also be incredibly difficult.

So, we strongly recommend going for side missions, jobs and random events, solving puzzles to get more rare loot, using crafting to always have items at the current player level, and optimizing your ship and gear loadout depending on the current objective. Most importantly, always keep moving and circle-strafe to avoid incoming fire, lead your shots, and use the environment and all ship capabilities to your advantage! This is how EVERSPACE 2 is meant to be played! ;)

Additional Content, Features, Improvements, and Bugfixes

As teased in previous live streams, the first EVERSPACE 2 content update will also introduce the Bloodstar, an all-new Outlaw sub-faction with different combat capabilities, and the chance to drop special Bloodstar gear introducing set-bonuses. Here’s Erik revealing Bloodstar NPCs in a recent live stream.

Bloodstar items only drop from defeated Bloodstar units and come with unique attributes that can significantly boost gear stats when equipped simultaneously.

Beyond adding new content and features, we’ve also tweaked a ton of things. As of writing this production update, I’m counting over 40 improvements currently listed on our internal changelog, ranging from migrating the project to UE4.26 to potentially fix some stability issues, more sophisticated enemy AI, to numerous QoL and UI improvements across the board.

The all-new Batch Actions feature makes dismantling, destroying, selling, or sending several items to Homebase so much easier!

Closing Remarks About Our Vision

Thanks to a ton of great support from our hardcore fans in two wildly successful Kickstarter campaigns, over two million EVERSPACE 1 pilots since its Early Access release in September 2016, and an incredibly successful Early Access launch for the sequel, we’re living the indie dream. With this success, we’ve been able to forge our creative vision of an open-world space action RPG that everyone on the team is really passionate about, while working closely with our community to make it the best game within our financial and crafting capabilities without having to make compromises based on the agenda of a 3rd party.

Now, commercial success of a predecessor alone is not all it takes to make a great sequel. The most important thing is that everyone on the ROCKFISH Games team is on board for the journey and aiming for the same goal, which is harder than it sounds! Our team is composed of a very diverse type of gamers. While some of us prioritize deep storytelling, casual combat, and deep exploration, others mostly want to blow stuff up and maxout their loadout without too much thinking, looking behind each asteroid for hidden treasures, or watching cutscenes. Whereas some, like our “hardcore” players, mostly thrive on challenges that are absolutely insane, like the way Erik enjoys playing, while still appreciating deep lore and compelling storytelling.

Meaning, building accessible loot & shoot gameplay with intuitive shooter-like controls is the common foundation not only for our team but also our promise to our community. We want to offer a decent amount of depth to the EVERSPACE 2 world in various additional mission types, worthwhile gameplay mechanics, and more further down the line. We know that many design decisions may not make every pilot happy, but we hope everyone can appreciate us being as open as possible about our creative, technical, and commercial decisions.

To help digest all this new information and answer any burning questions you might have, make sure to join our next ROCKFISH Games Show on Twitch and YouTube, on Friday, April 16, from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm CET / 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm ET / 11:00 am to 1:00 pm PT. Chances are, things go sideways yet again when showing the latest build, plus even more spoilers heading your way, so it should be fun! 🚀👀💥🙌

If you’re new to the franchise or have waited for a great deal, this might be the time to pull the trigger: Get the first EVERSPACE installment at 85% off (DLCs 70% off) and/or the sequel for 10% less on Steam. Both special promotions end on April 21, 10am PST.

Keep it civil on the forums, and see you in space!
Michael and your dedicated ROCKFISH Games Team

Feb 18, 2021

Roadmap 2021 | New Ship Classes | New Missions | Space Critters

EVERSPACE™ 2 - ROCKFISH Games

Greetings, Pilots!

Our first patch including community-requested features, tweaks, game balancing, and overall performance improvements, as well as several bugfixes, is out. Steam reviews are sitting at 1700+ with 92% positive, sales are beyond expectations, and current outstanding wishlists are through the roof (as in over 3x compared to the predecessor after 30 days post-launch).

There’s no denying that things are looking really good so far. On the other hand, avid space pilots from around the globe have already burned through the current content and are demanding MOARRR! Well, that’s definitely a good problem to have, and we’re already working on lots of new stuff.

Roadmap 2021

Our first content update is on track to be released in April, featuring various additional side and mini-missions as well as new activities taking place in Ceto and Union. There will also be new loot as well as two new player ship sub-classes.

The Vanguard is a lightweight, maneuverable reconnaissance starfighter with a high emphasis on speed, mobility, and defensive measures.

The Bomber is a missile and mine specialist with access to unique explosive weapons and warheads. Think “shoot first, ask questions later…”

Not enough you say? We agree! Even though we originally didn’t plan to add more main story content beyond what’s already in the Early Access release version, we feel you guys. The “cavehanger” is brutal and totally unexpected, making you go: “NOOOOOO!”

TBH, that’s exactly how I felt when reaching the current end of the story campaign. I knew I hadn’t discovered every location and solved all puzzles yet. I’d already reached level 14 because I’d constantly got side-tracked doing side missions, jobs, challenges, distress calls, unknown signals, and high-risk areas. Good job, team!

However, I didn’t move on while playtesting before the Early Access release because I didn’t want to spoil my first playthrough experience for the rest of Union and instead wanted to look at our WIP game from a consumer point of view. It really left me with a weird feeling. On the one hand, I couldn’t wait to see all the cool stuff to experience for myself that I have missed and be able to write about it here—there’s content for 25+ hours of gameplay in the current version if you’re willing to explore. On the other hand, I wanted to preserve that feeling of discovering new locations when new main and side missions will take me there once the new update dropped. Meaning, I can totally understand everyone who’s yearning for more story content.

Along with new cinematics being further polished with great help from the talented folks at Puppet Works, based in Budapest, look forward to continuing the story campaign in Union, bringing back the beloved WIP TTS voice-overs (and maybe some more 4th-wall-breaking dialogues), only available during Early Access.

Now, we’ve also received a ton of questions about what’s coming and when. We love your excitement, yet we also want to manage expectations, as adding new content and features to a complex “open-world action RPG with spaceships” is no joke for a small indie dev team of 25—we already feel the pressure 😅

Even though we just launched in Early Access, some media outlets are touting EVERSPACE 2 as “Roque Squadron meets Diablo,” being “The Witcher of Spacer Shooters,” “Nailing Those Freelancer Vibes So Far,” praising it as “Descent and Privateer had a baby.” No doubt, we love these kinds of headlines, but as an indie studio, we also don’t want an overblown sense of hype around our game, while we also aim to make EVERSPACE 2 stand out on its own.

To manage expectations, as “the hub” in EVERSPACE 2’s game world, Union will be the largest of our planned star systems. While some will be substantially smaller, each star system will feature a unique look & feel and offer new types of activities.

In the star system Zharkov, EVERSPACE 2 pilots will get to the core of Grady & Brunt's shady business operations when infiltrating their ranks and learning about G&B's dark deeds.

Here are the major improvements, new features, and content additions that we’ve PLANNED for this year:

On the EVERSPACE 2 Steam store page, we’ve listed all major improvements, features, and content additions that are PLANNED for v1.0. However, it’s really hard to share detailed milestones beyond the next 12 months [because we honestly don’t know yet]. Of course, we’ll update the roadmap every three to six months, accordingly.

Space Critters

As some of you have already seen in the sneak peek of our live stream from two weeks ago, space critters will be a thing in EVERSPACE 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iReG0syyUo
We’re still working on their “abilities” and experimenting with how they can interact with the player, but look forward to saying hello to Cave Crawlers (the name might change) in the first content update.

Ok, that’s it for now. If you wanna know more, join our next “ROCKFISH Recap,” hosted by Erik the Shredder, Community Ambassador and ace pilot, on Twitch and YouTube, today from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm CET / 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm ET / 11:00 am to 1:00 pm PT. Rumor has it that he’ll have some all-new content to show! 🚀👀💥🙌

Keep it civil on the forums, and see you in space!
Michael and your dedicated ROCKFISH Games Team

Feb 4, 2021

Patch Notes - 0.4.16428 - Changelog

EVERSPACE™ 2 - ROCKFISH Games

Hey pilots,

The latest build just left the experimental stage and is ready to download as Patch 0.4.16428, featuring a few new options, a number of tweaks and bugfixes as well as some performance optimizations. Note that we are now using dx11 as default because it seems to run more stable, and we are not yet using any dx12 features, atm. Here's the detailed list of changes:

Features

Added centered crosshair mouse controls
Added option to show mouse deadzone on screen
Added option to show HUD center on screen

Tweaks

Improved planet surface performance
General performance improvements
Savegames are now compressed sizing them down to about 5% of the previous size
Added in-game option to delete manually created save games
Reduced supralight visual effects intensity
Reduced cruise mode visual effect in First-person Mode
Improved camera dynamics in Cockpit View
Unused Energy Coils and Batteries will now go back to their original position if you re-enter the location/load a savegame
Mine Sweeper job can be solved by disarming mines as well
During Outlaw Chief boss fight drones now focus the player more so they won't fly away too far
The normal shield of the Outlaw Chief boss will not recharge if the "unbreakable" shield is depleted
Save headlights on/off state
Made option slider percentage bars clickable
Show in-game dialogs on top of Unlock Messages
Reduced opacity of Early Access banner

Balancing

Increased Gunship ULT (Turret) charge amount per kill
Reduced Gauss Cannon spread
Increased Flak range
Increased Thermo Gun energy consumption
Reduced Thermo Gun range
Reduced EMP Generator debuff duration
Capital ships and freighters are now immune to "EMP" and "Webbed" debuffs
Reduced Scout Weapon Range expertise bonus

Bugfixes

Fixed crash when equipping consumables to another player ship before launching from the Hangar
Fixed crash when selling a ship, returning to the Homebase, and then switch ships (also retroactively fixes savegames)
Fixed multiple Augments on a single attribute not applying correctly after loading
Fixed engine trails sometimes missing after undocking
Fixed ship being invisible when playing in no cockpit 1st person view and docking to a station other than the Homebase
Fixed focus loss / stuck at the save menu screen when using Gamepad to overwrite an existing save game
Fixed gamepad focus loss when buying a new ship and having it transferred to the Homebase
Fixed installed equipment not being transferred to storage but being lost when selling a ship from the Homebase
Fixed the cockpit seat mesh sometimes being positioned behind the player ship
Fixed gamepad autoroll option affecting joystick input (added a separate option for joystick input)
Fixed not being able to rebind Left Mouse Button
Fixed ships for sale sometimes having falsely increased stats
Fixed signal decoders changing rarities in cargo after a new one has been picked up
Fixed rebuy inventories of traders not clearing after leaving the location, leading to not being able to sell to traders
Fixed Jumpgate VFX render sorting
Fixed Energized Boost "Compressor" not correctly resetting duration after changing locations
Fixed being able to enter photo mode during landing animation, resulting in a weird state
Fixed revealed areas not staying revealed if you re-enter the location/load a savegame (e.g. caves, tunnels, secret rooms)
Fixed Drone Spawners sometimes spawning drones inside of level geometry
Fixed Downtime Warrior perk not resetting for devices that refund charges or reset cooldowns
Fixed multiple stacks of Downtime Warrior perk
Fixed targeted devices being usable on "dead" enemies
Fixed devices vanishing from shops
Fixed fixed container loot not scaling to player level if a location was entered with a lower player level first
Fixed Flak projectiles not detonating nearby mines
Fixed Recharge Speed Bonus of boosters having no effect
Fixed wrong location image for currently active high-risk areas
Fixed wrong position of a few HUD elements in ultra-wide
Fixed sensor modifier "Tag mines at 1500m range" not working correctly
Fixed that some destructible walls cannot be destroyed by rockets
Fixed Magnetic Repulsor mode "Serial Pusher" adding multiple charges
Fixed Perk Upgrade animation gets stuck and blocks screen
Fixed Various navigation and refresh bugs in the crafting screen
Fixed some affixes that do not make sense on all weapons
Fixed some typos

Alrighty, we hope you'll enjoy all the improvements above. We're currently working on another production update covering our roadmap and some cool new stuff that's already in the works, stay tuned!

As always, don't miss our weekly “ROCKFISH Recap,” hosted by our one-and-only Community Ambassador and ace pilot Erik Schrader, on Twitch and YouTube to watch the latest dev build in action, Fridays from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm CET / 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm EDT / 11:00 am to 1:00 pm PDT. 🚀👀💥🙌

Keep it civil on the forums, and see you in space!
Michael and your dedicated ROCKFISH Games Team

PS: If you'd like to see a screenshot of yours featured, like the one above by EVERSPACE 2 pilot bwlambrecht, join our discord and drop them pretties.

Jan 29, 2021

Rocket Launch | Troubleshooting | Pricing | Disliked & Wanted Features | Outlook

EVERSPACE™ 2 - ROCKFISH Games

Greetings, Pilots!

PHEW, what a launch week! EVERSPACE 2’s start in Steam Early Access exceeded our wildest expectations. So far, we’ve received overwhelmingly positive feedback from fans and press all over the world. After we started Early Access with more than 260,000 wishlist entries on Steam, we were very confident. However, we would never have dared to dream that we would land at number 1 on the global Steam Charts in no time and stay in the top ten for six consecutive days, resulting in EVERSPACE 2 becoming Steam's #2 top seller of last week.

Last week’s sneaky reveal: You wanted it, you got it: EVERSPACE 2 is available on NVIDIA Geforce NOW!

After a few hours, we saw over 3,000 concurrent players, which is more than double the record of the lower-priced, original EVERSPACE during its first big summer sale. With currently 93% positive reviews, we seem to have hit the bulls-eye with tens of thousands of space shooter fans. The critical consensus from the media and content creators is also overwhelmingly positive, and we’d like to share a few articles and our favorite video previews with you:

“Everspace 2 is close to being the new gold standard for space shooters | I like tinkering with graphs and plotting galactic domination as much as the next guy, but I'm enjoying Everspace 2's singular focus on energetic combat and exploration. Even though it's an Early Access game that Rockfish says still needs 12 to 18 months of work, Everspace 2 is absolutely worth buying when it releases on January 18.” - PC Gamer

“I’m already heavily impressed by Everspace 2 and think Rockfish Games is doing an incredible job. The combat is excellent, the graphics look great, and the game naturally explains all of its mechanics in an extremely clear manner that makes it more than easy to grasp all of its many facets. The only worrisome thing is that, yes, you’re going to lose your save if you play now. Aside from that, though, the game is very much well worth picking up, as it’s a blast.” - PC Invasion

“EVERSPACE 2 | The Best Space Adventure In A Looong Time. This space shooter brings along a single-player galaxy exploring adventure, fluid controls, worthwhile upgrades, and great combat.” - Boomstick Gaming
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HHeJKBYzf8
Everspace 2 - Excellent Already! Karak with ACG does a 5 point rundown of differences and details he likes in this 5 point inspection preview of the early access. - ACG
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDFYTrhTWqU

Troubleshooting

As with every “major” launch, quite a few users ran into technical issues, especially as the game is still in Early Access. A lot of the issues discovered are on our list already; some require deeper investigation on our side; for others, there are workarounds, a few are engine-related issues where we have to rely on our friends at Epic Games.

Mouse + Keyboard, Gamepad, and HOTAS Input

Some pilots have mentioned MKB input feeling laggy or sluggish, which was surprising since we had received a lot of praise for the tight shooter-like WASD-controls in the predecessor. It’s one of the few code snippets that we didn’t rewrite for EVERSPACE 2, but we made some adjustments as the sequel’s combat is slightly slower-paced. If you prefer a more direct input, go to settings->input->mouse+keyboard and set "mouse position" to "operating system."

If you’re a veteran space pilot coming over from a classic space flight sim and just can’t get the feel of EVERSPACE’s primary gimbal weapons and twitchy aiming, we got good news for you: Due to popular demand, the option to have the crosshair always centered when using the mouse, as well as options to show or hide the mouse deadzone and a small dot indicating the screen center, will be available in the next patch.

If you play with a gamepad controller and are used to it, you should feel fine with at least one of the presets that you can still customize. We also invested quite a lot of time and effort into getting HOTAS/HOSAS support right from the start. While it works fine for all Logitech (Saitek) and Thrustmaster models we tested, the devil seems to be in the details. If you run into any HOTAS issues, please try disabling Steam Input, which did the trick for quite a few HOTAS pilots. If things still don't work properly, we kindly ask for your patience. We will look into these issues soon, but it won't be an easy task. We plan on opening a dedicated thread on the forums regarding key binding issues, and with your help and feedback, we should be able to find out why it isn't working for everyone.

Even if HOTAS input is preferred by “only” 12% of pilots according to our recent poll, we understand it is important for them. We really want to nail this, but we need your feedback if things don’t work as expected and hope for your patience. If anyone wants to add their vote, the poll is still live.

Ongoing Optimization Efforts

Before we go into the details, please bear in mind that playing EVERSPACE 2 with max settings puts a lot of strain on both your CPU and GPU. We’ve done a fair amount of performance optimization, and while there is still some room for improvement, don’t expect any miracles when playing on older hardware. We’ve been working closely with our friends at Nvidia and AMD to performance-test builds - both rated the Early Access version with “good” - and utilize their in-depth feedback for further performance optimization. To get the best experience, always make sure you have the latest graphics drivers installed and try running the game with DX11 if your GPU is older than two years.

Most crash reports were submitted by players running EVERSPACE 2 at max settings on older hardware or Windows versions or on overclocked GPUs. Here’s a pretty good article on how to troubleshoot. Please note that we most likely will not support Windows 7 or Windows 8 as we cannot guarantee that future versions of Unreal Engine 4 will still support those operating systems.

Pricing

One of the biggest discussions on the Steam forums and on social media is about the pricing of EVERSPACE 2 in Early Access. While we understand $39.99 / €37.99 might feel steep compared to typical indie games in Early Access, please bear in mind that EVERSPACE 2 is a AA production with a development cycle over 4+ years by a veteran team of 25, plus a handful of long-term contractors as well as additional external AAA art services. We feel our asking price is right for the current production quality and the amount of content and features already in the game. At full release, we plan to reasonably increase the price to what is common within the genre of high-quality open-world space games.

If the price is not right for you, that’s totally fine. You might pull the trigger sometime down the road or never at all. To manage expectations: We plan to run only a few moderate sales between 10% to 15% during Early Access as we respect and value the financial commitment of our backers who shelled out up to $38/€35 for a digital copy on PC during our crowdfunding campaign back in 2019 when we had only a prototype to show.

Now, we noticed that in some countries, the price for EVERSPACE 2 is somewhat higher, which sucks. However, much like any indie dev, we followed Steam’s suggestion for regional pricing, and we don’t want to open a can of worms by adjusting prices in certain countries. This would inevitably cause outrage in other regions where we don’t adjust the price. Constantly monitoring and adjusting regional pricing, factoring in exchange rates, and purchasing power is big publisher territory.

Disliked Features

Even though EVERSPACE 2 is currently sitting at a staggering 93% positive reviews out of 1275+ right out of the gate even without a day #1 patch, we’re not surprised about some negative feedback, especially from pilots that prefer a more hardcore, “realistic” space sim experience over our arcadey spacer shooter approach. We created EVERSPACE 2 with a focus on high accessibility and fun gameplay mechanics set in a game world with vibrant colors. Well, here’s the good news first: if you prefer a more simulation-style flight mechanic to cut engines and drift through space, etc., you can already do so by binding a key for this in the customize controls menu. The action does not have a default binding right now as we don't want to confuse players who might accidentally press the key and wonder why their ship all of a sudden keeps drifting.

Now the not so good news for space truckers that are not fond of puzzles in EVERSPACE 2. In the widest sense, simple puzzle-solving, like shooting generators to deactivate shields or activating several generators on the clock to power up a service space station, has already been a side gameplay mechanic in the predecessor. Those have all been optional and were intended to add some variety to the overall combat & exploration experience while yielding special rewards without breaking the flow of playing a fast-paced arcade space shooter.

Since exploration and discovery play a much bigger role In EVERSPACE 2, we wanted to test the waters in Early Access and take puzzle-solving a bit further by having a greater variety of puzzles utilizing the new grappling mechanic. This concept was introduced during our Kickstarter campaign back in 2019: https://youtu.be/AxxRcCRo4GA
Long story short, puzzles will stay, but also know that we plan to balance the distribution of these puzzles with combat and other gameplay mechanics we add in the future. We plan to add more engaging puzzles, but the vast majority will still be optional. However, since accessibility is also really important to us, we consider the addition of a gameplay option to adjust puzzle timers.

Furthermore, a few pilots, mostly coming from die-hard space sims, find the short loading screens when entering a new location annoying or at least immersion-breaking, and we understand where you guys are coming from. We too would love to have no loading screens and will look into further optimization towards the full release, but it is not a priority as a lot of things are still subject to change during Early Access. To manage expectations, there will always be a lot of data to be loaded into memory when entering a new location in EVERSPACE 2 for technical reasons. Since we cannot hide the loading process by riding in an elevator or traversing through a tunnel, like in other games, and as streaming is probably not gonna do the trick either as you already can see the destination right in front of you before leaving supralight travel, don’t expect any miracles to happen.

The second "disadvantage" of having a handcrafted game world in an arguably pseudo-open space game is that locations have to have boundaries because space… Well, maps in EVERSPACE 2, or locations as we like to call them, are 10 km x 10 km x 5 km in size and bigger than in any other space game featuring handcrafted locations that we are aware of. We cannot go that much further without running into severe gameplay issues at the far ends of the maps without implementing dynamic world origin shifting, which would be a huge undertaking and may even break the game.

We’re not saying that isn’t technically feasible; we think it is just not worth the effort and the risk. In fact, we’re pretty happy with the size of the locations as they are since it fits our vision to design a great gameplay experience within a controllable area, featuring great maneuvering with robust 3D collision physics while flying at high speed in open space but also inside narrow spaces, like hollow asteroids, derelict space stations, tunnels etc., precision-maneuvering in centimeters - yeah, let this sink in, it’s nuts, we know! :D

Last but not least, bear in mind: EVERY one of those fixed locations you can see on the map in EVERSPACE 2 was carefully designed, manually crafted, and tested by our team. For the final game, we plan to have some 100, each one featuring at least one challenge or mission objective plus various optional activities. In video game development, you gotta pick your battles, especially if you don’t have deep pockets. We went for quality over quantity.

Wanted Features

The closing sentence of the previous topic is also a great intro for this one: We already made a big leap in game development by taking EVERSPACE from an indie roguelike space shooter to an AA open-world space looter shooter with RPG elements plus endgame content. We know space game fans always want more, but there is only so much we can do as a 100% self-funded team of 25.

Consequently, big features like multiplayer (PvP, Co-op, shared online space, you name it), EVA (extravehicular activities aka Space Legs), piloting capital ships, and VR support have never been on our list. There is a plethora of technical, game design, and business reasons that have already been discussed at great length for each one of them, so no need to delve into each topic again here. We are 100% committed to the promises we made in our Kickstarter, and we’re laser-focused on our creative vision to make the best single-player open-world space looter shooter that we possibly can. Yet again, we’re putting everything on the line with EVERSPACE 2, and we don’t have any other irons in the fire. We don’t have any filthy-rich investors, big AAA publishers, or platform holders paying our bills in case things go sideways. This is just us and you, our fans! If you want to know where we’re coming from, here’s our story.

Outlook

With this update, we had planned to share our high-level roadmap with you guys. However, we’re still digesting the enormous amount of feedback we’ve received so far on the Steam and GOG forums (2000+ open threads even after us merging threads wherever reasonable), our discord, and social media channels. While we’re already working on a lot of new content and additional features, we also want to make QoL improvements based on community feedback. There is some really good stuff being shared, so keep it coming!

Now, we don’t want to leave you hanging in the air with this update: System 3 is already in the works and scheduled to drop in summer because we’re not done yet with System 2! We still have some cool new stuff for Union up our sleeves with our first major content update in April. You can also look forward to piloting two new ship sub-classes as soon as the update drops.

Concept Art: Right now, visitors will find a side mission, assignments for various jobs as well as shops to trade goods at Noah Damaris Starport. And there is much more yet to come! Rest assured, we didn’t build this sprawling beast of a station just as a pit stop.

But wait, there is more! We’ve also been busy working on the first patch bringing various bug fixes, QoL improvements, and further performance optimization to be released sometime next week. Here’s the kicker: Everyone can jump right into it by switching to our all-new Experimental Branch on Steam.

To access the EVERSPACE 2 experimental branch, right-click on EVERSPACE 2 in your Steam library -> select Properties -> pick Experimental Branch under BETAS. The Experimental build changelog can be found here.

So, it’s fair to say that overall, things are looking pretty good. And while we will keep reading through every thread no matter if good or bad, glowing feedback like the fan video below makes our day and never gets old:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIjK5TD3Njg

Alrighty, this is it for now! In case you are not familiar with our weekly “ROCKFISH Recap,” hosted by our one-and-only Community Ambassador and ace pilot Erik Schrader, make sure to dock on Twitch and YouTube to watch the latest dev build in action, from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm CET / 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm EDT / 11:00 am to 1:00 pm PDT. 🚀👀💥🙌

Keep it civil on the forums, and see you in space!
Michael and your dedicated ROCKFISH Games Team

Dec 4, 2020

EVERSPACE 2 Production Update #24 | Pre-Release Key Giveaways

EVERSPACE™ 2 - ROCKFISH Games

Greetings, pilots!

Today’s production update will be the last for this year. Obviously, we had a different main topic planned for this one. We’re fully aware that many of you still feel bummed out about our new Early Access release date, even though we have received a lot of understanding for our reasoning from our backers. So thanks again for your support!

We’d like to conclude an unprecedentedly rough year for probably all of us on a high note. Thanks to our new timeline, we got some cool new content and features to share that would not have made it into the Early Access release version (our code freeze was pushed back by two weeks, the content freeze by four weeks).

Ruins Of The Ancients

You might recall from the Kickstarter campaign that you awesome EVERSPACE fans unlocked the stretch goal “The Ancients’ Rifts,” a sector in the endgame offering extra hard challenges and the best loot in the game. In this area, you will encounter remains of a mysterious alien race first found in EVERSPACE, and you’ll get an early taste of what’s to come in the ruins of Ancients’ structures scattered on an all-new moon in the Union system.

Concept art overpaint of ruins of The Ancients on Cephas II, a moon of the gas giant Cephas within the Union system. While you won’t run into any Ancients yet, we squeezed a couple of their mysterious ruins in as a teaser for the initial Early Access release, thanks to the extra time.

Encountering The Ancients without any warning whatsoever was a major highlight in the original EVERSPACE. Their ability to transfer energy into matter as well as control time and space added new challenges in combat, the opportunity of fast-travel, as well as some wicked alien tech to play within the endgame—all must-haves in any great open-world space RPG, right?

So, how better to introduce the mysteries of fast-travel as well as “mind-bending” weapon technology and devices (with a chance of surprising side effects) in the universe of EVERSPACE than utilizing some ancient alien tech that nobody seems to know much about yet, hence the generic name. But what if The Ancients turn out to be deeply connected to the established lore? Definitely not a new concept but proven in popular sci-fi classics many times before, and yet endless possibilities for adding new ideas in EVERSPACE 2…

Prescott Starbase

As revealed in production update #19, the star system Union is a bustling trading hub in EVERSPACE 2. While the newly-introduced and independent Freelancers run extremely profitable businesses in high-tech gear, medical supplies, and mining resources in the clouds high above planet Culver, the omnipresent Outlaws, already known from the predecessor, make a killing by selling loot of any kind from scavenger and piracy hunts for high profit to the highest bidder at the black market of Prescott Starbase.

Think of it as a highly condensed version of an entire city floating in space with various departments, ranging from the neon-light-flooded shopping and entertainment area, the jam-packed residential neighborhood, all the way down to the industrial and dirty space harbor district—you know the gist of such sci-fi megacities because humans and aliens are alike when it comes to basic individuals’ needs and business.

Around Prescott Plaza (concept art overpaint), travelers will be able to delve into all the human, as well as alien, guilty pleasures you can think of; as an antipole to the grim reality of living a harsh life in the DMZ, far, far from Earth, moral and ethics have no home in this place, especially in the uptown district.

Concept art of the casino’s bar from a story campaign cutscene; this is where experienced shooters hang around when on the hunt for challenging high stakes assignments.

Concept art overpaint of the space docks at Prescott Starbase, a rather dark and filthy place. While officially under the control of the Prescott Port Authority, opposing mafia clans call the shots, literally. Even though these families live by different morals and conducts of doing business, unconditional loyalty is non-negotiable. “If you need it, we have it” is the mantra at this infamous black market within the DMZ; just don’t ask where the goods came from. Greed for profit and deep loathing towards the Colonial Fleet and the Okkar Authorities is what holds this sizzling melting pot of questionable human and bizarre alien individuals together. For anyone good at operating under the radar and willing to play by a different set of rules, this is yet another place where to look for risky but very profitable “business opportunities”.

While it is still under development and far from being complete, we’re excited to announce that Prescott Starbase will be explorable on day #1 and that we’ll add more functionality and opportunities to interact over the next year during Early Access.

Enemy Caster

Using an analogy from the movie industry, NPCs in video games are somewhat like actors that have to be cast for each role from a pool of talents and show up on set at the right time—definitely not all at once, except for the inevitable cast photo, maybe.

Our systems were designed to populate locations with the occasional visit from different NPCs for both friend and foe—like background actors, to make a scene lively and convincing that there is more going on in a given fictional world than what you can actually see.

No matter if watching a movie or playing a video game (especially in RPGs), it’s all about triggering that amazing {LINK REMOVED} to make you believe you are actually present in that fictional world of your choice. If not done right, you may not be able to put your finger on it, but you can tell something is off, immediately making you realize you are just sitting in front of a screen.

Obviously, in video games, especially in open-world looter shooter RPGs, you can interact with NPCs in many different ways. At the same time, your current loadout and stats add yet another dimension of complexity “to the scene”. This requires both careful level and combat design to prevent immersion from breaking, no matter what players do.

Most of the time, we’ve worked with groups of enemies sufficient for compelling encounters in the Alpha and Beta. However, as the game world of EVERSPACE 2 will grow a lot over the next 12+ months, so will the need for more encounter variety.

While it seems that we’re off to a good start with the closed Beta, keeping you guys and hopefully many more space pilots hooked in EVERSPACE 2 for tens if not hundreds of hours during Early Access and beyond is by far our biggest challenge. This is why we focus on making each location worth visiting beyond exploring and looking at new stuff—which can get old quickly, no matter how pretty the vista might be.

To get a tighter grip on things, we established a new in-house tool (aka Enemy Caster) to help our designers in trying out different combinations of enemies within seconds and playtesting if they make an exciting challenge without leading to any unfair results—provided players engage within a reasonable level. That said, there's nothing wrong with feeling lucky and testing your skill boundaries against lvl +5 enemies if you so wish… (Erik didn't know that we changed the tool's name to Enemy Caster as the original one was misleading).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fha5CuXiYEA
Generally, every enemy ship has its individual stats (hit points, damage output, speed, agility, etc.), all sorts of equipment as well as specific attack and retreat behavior—it’s almost as complex as designing for the player and can easily turn out being an even deeper rabbit hole than what it looks like on paper. However, the more shortcuts game designers are willing to take by limiting what enemies can do and which items they can use compared to what’s at the player's disposal, the shallower the overall combat experience, the weaker the immersion, and the less fun overall.

Thanks to the comparatively simple player progression through the predecessor’s linear game world, plus not being able to back-travel made things even easier, we were able to balance all enemy stats within long spreadsheets. However, due to the much higher complexity in combat design for our ambitious vision of a top-notch open-world looter shooter RPG with spaceships, we already reached the limits of this method within the first star system of EVERSPACE 2—which is why we’re pretty excited about our new tools. Imagine how nasty it would be if you get pinned by a bunch of pesky Webber Drones and before you even had a chance to stun them with an EMP blast and free yourself, a group of self-destructing drones or a squadron of enemy fighters would appear right next to you... Oh, wait!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bj0HIhBuaw
Long story short, for the Early Access release, we already have quite a few more enemy types than in the Beta, and more to come over the next 12+ months. Thanks to our new in-house tools, we’ll be able to offer you guys an even broader gameplay-variety in combat on your journey through six or eight star systems, plus endgame. To ensure that these combat encounters are properly balanced and fun for as many pilots as possible, we’ll heavily rely on everyone’s feedback during Early Access, so keep it coming and share your thoughts on our discord or in the forums on Steam and https://forum.everspace-game.com/categories/everspace-2.

HOTAS/HOSAS Support

Due to popular demand from EVERSPACE players, we added rudimentary HOTAS support post-launch to the predecessor, even though it had never been a promised feature because we believed it wasn’t a great fit for fast-paced 3D space shooters in general. The implementation did work but required some fiddling to assign input parameters for each model, which led to some frustration and quite a few negative user reviews on Steam. Now, to create a better experience for HOTAS fans in EVERSPACE 2, we’re putting more emphasis on this feature right from the beginning.

For initial test purposes, we already implemented experimental HOTAS support in the closed Alpha/Beta, which still requires some tweaking depending on your hardware and is not as robust as you can expect from an officially released product. After analyzing feedback from test pilots using HOTAS, we decided to overhaul the entire implementation completely and also add presets for the most common setups on day #1 of Early Access for the models below:

T.Flight Hotas X
T.Flight Hotas One
T.Flight Hotas 4
Hotas Warthog
T16000M (Single)
T16000M (Dual Config)
Logitech Extreme 3D Pro
Logitech/Saitek X56
Logitech/Saitek X52
Logitech/Saitek X52 Professional

While this should be solid enough for Early Access (but not the final product!), joystick pilots should bear in mind that piloting a starfighter in EVERSPACE 2 is more like flying an agile assault chopper than a supersonic jet fighter. To defeat ES2-baddies in space, combat is more about 360° two-axis precision aiming and dodging enemy fire by swift two-axis strafing as well as quick-boosting to get out of the fire zone and then turning on a dime to counter-attack. Much different than pulling off barrel rolls, corkscrew loops, or an Immelmann, like in old-school in-atmosphere dogfighting.

Of course, you absolutely can do all that, but fancy dogfight maneuvers won’t help you much in EVERSPACE 2 because your opponents can turn on a dime anytime, too. We know this probably won’t hold back any die-hard space sim fans using their beloved HOTAS/HOSAS gear and disable inertia dampeners for the extra kick of immersion in EVERSPACE 2—which, admittedly, is a fun experience. We’re just saying: be aware of what you are getting yourselves into… it'll be a tough ride! Having said that, we're working hard to give you the best HOTAS experience for such a fast-paced game as possible.

Alrighty, that was quite a lot for our concluding production update in 2020. We hope everyone has enjoyed the space ride so far. If you did, don’t be a stranger and join our fun/informative/goofy live streams every Friday on Twitch and YouTube, from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm CET / 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm ET / 11:00 am to 1:00 pm PT. I’m pretty sure that Erik, our one-and-only Community Ambassador, and host of the weekly RFG show, will spill a few more beans than we agreed and run several giveaways for EVERSPACE 2 pre-release keys incl. immediate closed Beta access, as well 😱

Well, it probably has been an unexpectedly rough year for everyone. So more than ever, we wish you y’all a wonderful winter holiday with your loved ones and hope to see you super relaxed, happy, and excited for the EVERSPACE 2 launch in January.

The hype is real, see you in Early Access in January... 🚀💥👀🙌
Michael and your dedicated ROCKFISH Games Team

PS: If you like what you see, make sure to wishlist, follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and join our community on discord.

Still on the fence? Give the free EVERSPACE 2 demo a try but please note: This demo is the Prototype from last year, so it is quite outdated. We’ve already implemented a lot of improvements based on community feedback on UI and controls as well as new features and content like additional graphics settings, cockpit view, HOTAS support, and a ton more into the upcoming Early Access version.

Oct 30, 2020

EVERSPACE 2 Beta Streaming | Production Update | Key Giveaways

EVERSPACE™ 2 - ROCKFISH Games

Greetings, pilots!

Let’s get the cyber elephant out of the room right away: The Cyberpunk 2077 release has just been pushed back to December 10, which is a major blow to our planned EVERSPACE 2 Early Access release in mid-December. Not only will every media outlet and content creator cover the arguably most-anticipated AAA game in history throughout the entire holiday season (and not much else), we also know that there’s quite a bit of audience overlap within our community (and our team), so...

After a quick consultation with our marketing friends at Evolve PR, Plan Of Attack, and Swordfish PR, we’ve decided to push back the EVERSPACE 2 Early Access release to January. We know that sucks, but hear us out! There’s actually some good in this.

Closed Beta Access For All Eligible Backers

To ease the pain for backers who don’t have access to the closed Beta, we’ve decided to send out pre-release keys to all eligible backers on November 2nd. Yes, you heard right, instead of waiting until mid-December, everyone who pledged for a digital copy will be able to delve into the closed Beta this Monday and start experiencing the first 10ish hours of what we have planned for Early Access. Of course, there’s no time constraint, so feel free to melt your PC as long as you want to and share some pretty screenshots with our awesome community on our discord.

Just do us one favor: please make sure to check your spam folders before sending us messages on all channels and dropping comments all over the place if you haven’t received your key within 24 hours. In case you are still missing your key, the fastest way for us to serve you is by sending us a direct message on Kickstarter so we can look you up in our database with only one click and reply with your key swiftly.

Also, in case anyone is wondering, all(!) pre-release keys will be revoked when we hit Early Access, as we will send out new keys for each platform. Everyone who pledged on a digital copy for PC, will be able to choose between Steam, GOG, and the Epic Game Store (provided Epic Games accepts EVERSPACE 2 on their store, we’re working on that) a few weeks before full release.

Last but not least, opening the Beta to all backers who pledged for a game copy means we will get even more quality feedback from up to another 6K backers. It also gives enough time for us to evaluate and make improvements for the upcoming Early Access thanks to an extra four weeks of development time. Our entire team will have their much-deserved winter holidays to recharge their batteries and spend time with their loved ones without making a single mouse click on the project.

Crafting

With this news out of the way, let’s delve into our plans for crafting in EVERSPACE 2. We have been teasing this major feature in our weekly streams for quite a while, and we’re excited to finally share some snippets with you guys (big disclaimer: everything about crafting is SUBJECT TO CHANGE).

In EVERSPACE 2, everything revolves around flying, shooting, and looting. To help with combat against tougher enemies, better equipment is much-needed. To give us better control over player progress in a narrative-driven RPG as well as overall difficulty balancing within each star system, we chose to have player and item levels. Accordingly, items and enemies scale in strength based on their level.

So, when you level up, you should hunt for better equipment by shooting down slightly stronger enemies or completing higher-level activities providing more powerful equipment as reward - so far, so good, RPG business as usual.

Every open-world RPG player knows, defeating opponents and completing activities at lower-than-player level might be inevitable to progress in the story campaign, but it can also be fun - who doesn’t enjoy ripping through a bunch of low-level mobs every now and then? However, loot drops from lower-level opponents and activities will mostly be underwhelming. Here is where crafting comes into play, supplementing that good shoot-and-loot feeling by providing a convenient way to turn trash loot into valuable gear. This approach helps when tackling issues that especially come with the looter-shooter genre:

Enabling players to turn otherwise worthless loot into better gear
Encouraging players to try out different weapon types, especially in the early- and mid-game, before settling on a few favorites (going Beam laser only e.g.)
Preventing players from hoarding items or crafting resources, so inventory management doesn’t become a chore
Preventing players from being under-equipped in case of “RNG unlucky” or them not bothering about side quests or certain activities that (might) provide much-needed powerful gear to beat the next boss

Now, as you progress through the game, you’ll gather better blueprints which will enable you to have more control over the outcome of the crafting process, albeit at higher costs the more valuable a given crafted item is. We hope that unlocking blueprints will keep you motivated to max out crafting, which might scratch that completionist itch.

To craft or upgrade an item you’ll need a defined amount of crafting resources and in some cases specific items. The required amount of ingredients doesn't depend on item level but its rarity. When crafting a new item, it will always be at your current player level, so you can use it right away.

Here's a preview comparing your freshly crafted item with your currently equipped gear to see if it suits your playstyle - or not.

Generally, crafting items from scratch starts with the lowest rarity (common) for each of the three gear categories. Primary Weapons, Secondary Weapons, and Modules. After choosing which type of gear to craft, you’ll have to spend enough crafting resources to receive a new randomly generated item of your chosen rarity.

Furthermore, by dismantling items, you’ll be able to progress your "crafting experience" which can then be used to unlock new blueprints. These new blueprints will allow you to craft specific item types like pulse lasers, shields, mine launchers, and any other equippable item over time. But that’s not all!: You’ll also be able to unlock higher rarity blueprints via companion perks.

When an item was crafted or is modified, it receives an icon label "Improvised" and cannot be modified any further. That means an item is only upgradable once and a crafted item cannot be upgraded any further. However, we might allow further upgrading/modifying with perks or special NPCs at a later stage - crafting can be a deep rabbit hole.

Gunship Porn

100% clickbait, I know, I know, but no worries: This section is still family-friendly. It’s just we think the all-new Gunship looks really sexy with its shiny all-metal livery and curved hull.

At the moment, this thicc boi is not ready for duty due to some issues with its targeting software. Basically, it currently is only good for punching big holes into the void and for bragging rights - which is a good start, don’t get me wrong, but we want this baddie to live up to its look. With this Gunship sneak peek, we slowly move it back into the hangar for further tweaking. Rest assured, this beast will be playable at launch of Early Access in January.

Say hello to the Gunship, a Heavy Fighter subclass armed to the teeth by using four primary hardpoints as well as a devastating 360° auto turret Ultimate.

Bulky and intimidating, but that’s what fans of this subclass were looking for, right?

Before we move on, I’d like to take this opportunity to give a warm round of applause to our PR experts Aidan, Astrid, Christopher, Freyja, Laura, Lee, and Vytautas doing a fantastic job in helping us spread the word, find and secure promotion opportunities, as well as proof-reading every production update and interview since we finished the Kickstarter campaign successfully. Don’t worry, we’re still indie-style, and every piece you read is from us, but comes with professional polish because top-notch marketing & PR is equally important as making a killer game :)

Well, if you are excited about the new Gunship, want to learn more about crafting in EVERSPACE 2, and maybe even win a pre-release key incl. immediate closed Beta access, make sure to join today’s stream on Twitch and YouTube, from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm CET / 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm ET / 11:00 am to 1:00 pm PT, where Erik will share more details without losing his job for breaking our NDA.

The hype is real, see you in the Beta... 🚀👀💥🙌
Michael and your dedicated ROCKFISH Games Team

PS: If you like what you see, make sure to wishlist, then follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and join our community on discord.

If you are still on the fence, give the free EVERSPACE 2 demo a try. Please note: This demo is the Prototype from last year, so it is quite outdated. We’ve already implemented a lot of improvements based on community feedback on UI and controls as well as new features and content like additional graphics settings, cockpit view, HOTAS support, and a ton more into the upcoming Early Access version.