ENDLESS™ Space 2 - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Dominic Tarason)
The Endless universe continues to live up to its name – both Endless Legend and Endless Space 2 are expanding once more next week. On January 24th, Endless Space 2 bulks out its espionage options in Penumbra, while Endless Legend’s Symbiosis expansion will let players control a race of sentient mushrooms and tussle with giant roaming crab-beasties. It’s nice to see Amplitude Studios still pouring time, love and vision into these two rather lovely games, even if only the maddest of players will have the time to master both. Trailers for the expansions below.
Amplitude has announced details and released trailers for the Endless Space 2 and Endless Legend Penumbra and Symbiosis expansions. They're both out next week.
First up, Endless Space 2: Penumbra will introduce a new, wraith-like faction, the Umbral Choir. Since the dawn of time, the Umbral Choir have remained silent, observing the difficulties the galaxy faced, but now they've decided to take action and "rush to the aid of those who suffered." Here's more from Amplitude on how the Umbral Choir came to be:
"10 months ago, we started out on a journey to co-create the Umbral Choir faction with our community. We held a series of votes on everything from species origin, morphology, nomenclature, ship structure, lore & much more…. This series of 11 community votes helped us create the badass spectral faction we’ve arrived at today, which looks unlike all the factions we’ve created before. Thank you to everyone who contributed!"
In addition to the new faction, hacking and invisibility will also be introduced. You'll be able to attempt to hack into others' home systems, regardless of the faction you're playing. Invisibility modules for ships will also be introduced, allowing you to hide from enemy view, though detection modules to counter them will also be available.
You can check out the trailer below.
Symbiosis, meanwhile, will be Endless Legend's last expansion, over four years after the game originally launched. Amplitude has teamed up with NGD Studios again for the this one (they previously worked together on the Inferno expansion), which will see the introduction of a new faction, the Mykara, and new tameable beasts, the Urkan.
You can see both the Mykara and Urkans in action in the trailer below.
Both Penumbra and Symbiosis expansions are available for pre-order now at a base price of $12.99/£10.99, though both are available with an additional ten percent off on Steam. And if you're interested in owning both, you'll nab a 20 percent discount if you purchase them together.
Endless Space 2: Penumbra and Endless Legend: Symbiosis are set for release next week on January 24.
Developer Amplitude Studios has announced a double whammy of new expansions heading to Endless Legend and Endless Space 2 later this month on PC, titled Symbiosis and Penumbra respectively.
Symbiosis, which releases on Steam on January 24th, brings new colossal beasts and a new faction to the turn-based 4X fantasy series. The new faction, known as the Mykara, are described as an ancient civilisation that "rose from unicellular beings to full grown warriors" with the singular goal of bringing balance back to the world.
According to Amplitude, "The Mykara originate from a unique stem city and overgrow points of interest to fuel their economy. While they cannot settle new land, they can turn conquered enemy cities into ghost towns from which they get bonus resources. After a few turns, their symbiosis with the conquered town allow them to gain bonus traits..."
After the resounding success of our previous content packs, Untold Tales&Lost Symphony, we thought: why not give the people what they want? So we're back with a music content pack, Harmonic Memories, & a quest content pack, Celestial Worlds. Both content packs are priced at $2.99 / 2.99€ / £2.49with a 10% discount until Thursday, November 22nd! Want more details on the good stuff within? Read on!
Harmonic Memories
There's nothing quite like music for immersion, and the Endless Universe is no exception. We've worked with our one and only FlybyNo to reimagine, remaster and remix 9 tracks from Endless Space, first of its name, and bring them to Endless Space 2. If you're looking for one more excuse to go ahead and get the content pack, read what our favorite composer had to say:
"For this musical add-on, I chose my 9 favorite songs from Endless Space and modernized them with new instruments and musicians.
In two pieces we recorded some “duduk”, the Armenian flute emblematic of ES1's main theme. I also recorded a duet of singers for all the choir parts (that I had sung myself at the time, and I can tell you that I sing particularly badly!). All the rhythmic parts were redone by my assistant Alexandre, and I replaced most of the synthesizers with brand new ones. The new synths include John Bowen’s Solaris and The River, a rare French synthesizer of which only 20 copies have been produced to date. I hope you enjoy listening to this creation as much as I did producing it."
The content pack also includes the Harmony hero, FES2 Reflects. Reflects is a fatalist hero who has decided to accept Dust as a natural part of life to be understood, resulting in Reflects’ integration to the Academy.
In a new huuuuge quest line featuring 14 chapters and multiple endings, Isyander begins to lose his grip on Academy operations. Restless heroes start to make their own decisions, as they realize Unique Planets are sources of power that could be anybody’s property… Places to be, people to meet.
Additionally, discover 2 new Unique Planets, 6 new Weapon Modules, and 8 new Empire improvements.
Patch 1.3.27
[BALANCE]
Lumeris:
Added a repeatable improvement to reduce inflation on Empire by 25%
Added an effect to tier 3 population collection: 5% of net Dust added to influence
Colonisation cost is now less impacted by inflation
Added 2 new traits to the faction:
"Free Market Experts" trait gives -5% inflation per Trading Company on Empire
"Alternative Imports" trait gives -50% on Marketplace tax
Vodyani:
Unlocked Ark ship designs (yes, finally!)
Added an effect to tier 3 population collection: +2 movement points on Fleets
Added a natural conversion of Essence -> Manpower (5% of Essence consumed, granting the equivalent of 10% to Manpower)
Added an "Essence upkeep" to keep track of consumed Essence
Changed Vodyani Food consumption: it will now scale depending on the proportion of Vodyani pops on the system, up to -50% like before
Lowered advanced leeching module techs by 1 stage (they're now in S3 and S4 of Science and Exploration)
Leeching modules effects will now scale with hull size
Lowered all % values of "All must..." modules
Leeching module will now also grant Essence per destroyed CP in battle
Horatio:
Added a weapon availability on existing slots for the following ships:
Small attacker
Small support
Medium attacker
Carrier
Reduced the custom faction cost of Perfect genes from 20 to 10
Tweaked the Price of Perfection trait:
Industry malus has been reduced from 25 to 20%
Added a 10% damage bonus to ships
Reduced the cost of the trait for custom factions from -20 to -10
Converting a population into a new Horatio with Genetic Alteration Lab will now only cost 640 Industry
Riftborn:
Biophobic trait will now add population slots on Sterile planets and remove some on Fertile planets
Added a star system improvement and an empire improvement to add population slots on Sterile planets
Reduced Riftborn Singularities Empire effects from 25% to 10% Empire-wide bonus
Swapped Freeze and Rip Empire-wide effects
Hissho:
Observances can not be stacked anymore
Hissho will now suffer a malus of 5% FIDS on their Home System (or Best System) for each system above over-colonization threshold
Lowered over-colonization threshold by 1
Hissho AI now has a base Keii income (stronger when under colonization threshold) depending on game difficulty
Unfallen:
Unfallen vines will now take time to recede even when incomplete
Unfallen vining modules are now 20% faster
United Empire:
Mezari Population will now grant +0.5 Influence and + 1 Science per pop
Mezari Population collection bonus 2 will now grant +10% Science on system with Mezari pops (instead of + 15%)
Mezari Population collection bonus 3 will now grant -10% Technology cost (instead of -20%)
Martial Science will now grant a + 10% Science on Empire (instead of +15%)
Sheredyn population will now grant +0.5 Influence and +20 Manpower capacity on System
Increased Science gains of Science agreement
Mount of Zelevas will now grant +2% industry on System per pop type in Empire in addition to its other bonuses
United Empire Population Collection Bonus will now grant +0.1 Influence per Industry spent (cumulative with the original bonus due to Emperor's Will)
Silken Diplomacy was replaced by Iron Will which grant a +10% Industry to all Systems when staying United Empire
United Empire military choice of "A hidden Rebellion - Part 1" quest will now only ask the player to reach 800 maximum Manpower on Empire
Sheredyn 50 population collection bonus will now grant +5 Influence per 100 Manpower on System
Accompanying tweaks:
Economy:
Militarist super-law now doesn't grant an approval bonus for wars with Minor Empires
Inflation formula now also depends on the number of players on a map
Trading companies:
Costs of Dust/Luxury improvements are now more tightly linked to their types (there still is a base increase for each bought upgrade)
Lowered Costs of Dust/Luxury improvements
Space Battle:
Changed starting tactics
Put some tactics usually found in curiosities inside the tech tree so as to remove effects that were too similar or situational
Put some tactics that were in the tech tree but didn't fit with the new repartition anymore in curiosities
Removed tactics playdecks granted in the 5th era of the military quadrant to reduce the clutter in the total amount of tactics
Rebalanced the effect of some of the tactics as they were put in the tech tree
Changed the composition of tactics playdeck in the tech tree
Boosted DPS of Basic Plasma Beam to 11 (instead of 9)
Science from scrap will now grant 20 science per CP destroyed
Others:
Dirty Hand Acts is now 50% weaker
Corsair faction trait now only costs 5 points
Sowers "Planet Menders" trait reduced from -1 depletion points to -0.5
[FIXES]
Fixed game getting stuck when a mining probe is placed on a Lodestone (Academy quest) and the Lodestone is captured by any side of the quest (as reported in this thread)
Illo hero (Tlikkit Goktok) was changed to Technologist - Overseer as intended (had the class but not the related skill tree). Any skill point invested in the Counselor or Primitive branches of Tlikkit Goktok in previous saves will be lost, as the branches have been replaced with the Technologist and Overseer branches. This implies a potential re-lock of higher tier skills, depending on how the remaining skill points have been spent
Fixed an issue that made the Behemoth Discoverer trait not appear in the Empire summary
Fixed an issue where Wrath of Tonatsi would appear in the list of available modules when equipping a destruction module
Fixed Ancestral reverence conversion description in System Food & Industry tooltip
Fixed non-functional boost experience module for hero ships
Solved custom faction Ship Bound + any affinity mapping that caused a crash
Corrected an issue where 2 technologies were overlapping when playing as a custom Vaulters Gene Hunter faction
AI's Behemoth Terraform Planet action can no longer be used by players when clicking on Behemoth then on the orbited System
All Juggernaut weapons are now functional, fully loaded and operational
We hope you all enjoy this chance to make the game even more immersive! What's your favorite ES1 track?
Over the last few weeks, we've published several articles letting you have a behind-the-scenes look at how we are creating the faction of the upcoming spying-themed expansion, the Umbral Choir. How do they play? What do they look like? Who are they exactly?
Find the answers to these questions and more in the articles below!
Umbral Choir Making-Of, Pt 1: Game Design Click here!
Umbral Choir Making-Of, Pt 2: Inside a Game Design meeting Click here!
[FIXES] Fixed a compatibility issue with machines using Intel Iris 5100 & Pro 5200 that resulted in an indefinite hang on loading Fixed compatibility issue with the following integrated graphic chipsets: HD Graphics 5000, 5100, 5200, 5300, 5600
Fixed an issue in which industry production was permanently sapped to 0 if a planet terraformation type was switched with another while an infinite improvement was queued - this could be exploited multiple times to get more resources
[ES2 STORIES] Fixed the German version of a comic displaying Spanish dialog, por razones qué no sabemos
Last month, you had a whole Amplitude Free Week-end to play any of our games and unlock cool fleet skins for Endless Space 2. Today, these skins have arrived! Here's a quick look at the Renegade Fleets update.
Cravers "Prime" The Cravers Prime are an offshoot of the hive closely tied to the Virtual Endless. Whether they are a threat or a boon to the nest, only time will tell... (previously only accessible to early access players: now available to all!)
Sophon "Mavros" Though the Sophons are occasionally jealous of the swaggering, alpha-being image of the Mavros, in fact they believe that the Mavros are too erratic to do anything of value (i.e. serious research). However, every once in a while, the Sophons like to remind other civilizations that they are entirely capable of blowing up other people’s moons as well…
Unfallen "Firekeepers" The Firekeepers have the critical role of tending the brush fires that support the Unfallen life cycle. The fires both remove scrub to prepare the fields to receive a new generation of Firsts, but also melt the resin that covers and protects the incredibly hardy Unfallen seeds. These ceremonial hulls commemorate the dedication of this organization.
Vodyani "Heretic" When Isyander St. Shaiad decided to throw away his lifetime of beliefs in the Church of the Virtual Saints and become Isyander Shumèd, he changed more than just his name. He rebuilt his own Cloth and the armor of his ships in crimson and white, the colors that he believed were initially used on the Endless altars to the Lost.
Lumeris "Buccaneer" A little piracy between friends was common before the relations between the Four Families became structured and formalized. While this hull cladding is a nod to those earlier times, there are also rumors that some fleets bearing these colors did not originate from Lancellum dockyards, but a rogue operation run by a shadowy figure known as Captain Roth.
Riftborn "Redshifted" Particles in zones inhabited by Riftborn are occasionally redshifted as a temporary adaptation to slow the local effects of corruption. This is an aftereffect of their time manipulation technologies, but has become an important tool in itself to offset some of the problems that their equipment—and ships—encounter in the Endless galaxy.
Horatio "Emerald" Horatio liked emerald green this weekend. That is all.
To celebrate the release of these skins, Endless Space 2 is discounted at 66% off, and the Vaulters expansion as well as Untold Tales & Lost Symphony content packs are 50% off for the next 48 hours. Now's a great time to complete your collection, or gift them to a friend!
NEW CONTENT - Renegade Fleets Skins
NEW CONTENT - Hissho Comic The new Hissho comic, Blood & Blade, is available in your install folder, by default: C:\Steam\steamapps\common\Endless Space 2\Stories
[FIXES] [AI] Fixed a bug where the diplomatic anti-spam feature would work all to well: AIs can once again send contracts to players
[FLEETS] Fixed Behemoth VFX lasting after destruction Fixed Mining probe rate label being too large for the panel it was in Fixed Core Cracker module tooltip saying it can be equipped on Arks although it no longer can
[HEROES] Corrected the Senator skill for United Empire heroes Hissho Clerical correction Overseer Hero skill now has an influence boost at level 2 Fixed some glitches in the armor of the starting Hissho Hero Kogewa Brightblade
[FACTIONS] Corrected the formula of the "Aggressive" population trait for more consistency amongst the population traits Honor Bound affinity no longer displays misleading information regarding starting with a Behemoth
[QUESTS] Fixed various small errors & placeholders in quest text & rewards The militarist objective of the Hissho main quest: "Chapter 1: The Blade and the Eagle - Part 2" no longer mentions Pirate lairs as a possible target for invasion
[DIPLOMACY] Due to an issue, diplomatic counter-offers between players are disabled. Offers that are refused are still fully refunded The "Accept" choice from "Remove Tendrils" contextual term notification no longer suggests that Tendrils will also be removed from Entwined planets The tooltip of the Attitude Status no longer displays debug text when receiving a notification regarding an obliterated system
[SYSTEM MANAGEMENT] Fixed debug text appearing in system growth tooltip when using Ancestral Reverence Added a missing signal seeker Cravers system improvement visual The Tooltip of the Virtual Dustylizer via Expedition Successful notification no longer displays debug text
[TECHNOLOGIES] Placeholder description is no longer displayed for the tooltip effect of the System Development Level 4 Upgrade Fixed Effects wording from level 4 system upgrade unlock which was inconsistent with the one from level 2 and 3 unlocks
[PERFORMANCES] Fixed an infinite turn issue. The source of the problem is still being investigated, but the provided game saves should now be usable
Fixed an issue when AI would not properly seek to unlock a technological stage
Fixed an issue where pathfinding would use an invalid node
Fixed an issue where Behemoths would not be able to restore planets properly
Fixed AI Hissho being able to interact with pirates
Fixed an issue where debug text was displayed when the United Empire AI proposed contracts or sent mood messages
Fixed an issue where AIs would not send diplomatic contracts when they *totally* should
[BALANCE]
Vodyani "Hunt" and "Raze" actions will no longer have an Approval penalty
Changed Hissho population trait to +1 Manpower per turn
Obliterator cooldown reduction exclusive tech is now at -25% on all game speeds
[IMPROVEMENTS]
Added a scroll view to the Side Panels Area to avoid side panels exiting through the bottom of the screen in the System Management View in some rare cases
Added a tooltip to inform players about unlocking population slots when upgrading their Arks
Added a new Empire Improvement to unlock more Singularity slots for Riftborn empires on stages 3, 4 and 5 of the Science and Exploration quadrant
[FIXES] [BEHEMOTHS]
Fixed health discrepancy issue between ship designer and ship design for Behemoths when technologies increasing Behemoths health were researched
Fixed an issue where the Behemoth bonuses system label icon was not visible when playing as a custom faction with the Extreme Foremen Population Bonus
Fixed an error when a Behemoth terraformation was cancelled due to fleets having moved
Vodyani Behemoth-specific technologies in the Science and Exploration quadrant now have the correct Vodyani-specific icon
Unfallen will no longer obtain an automatic Citadel shield on captured enemy Home Systems
Fixed an inconsistency between the "Launch Mining Probe" tooltip and the tooltip of empire resources regarding mined resource income rounding
Fixed Citadels having no upkeep (it is now feedbacked in the System Dust)
C3 Centers will also affect Citadel upkeep
Added a cap to C3 Center upkeep multiplier
Technology stage cost reductions from Behemoths will now cap at 75% even if you stack Behemoths on a node
Made starting with a juggernaut a faction trait instead of a specific of the Hissho affinity
[ECONOMY]
Having low Approval while having a negative Dust upkeep will not generate Dust anymore
[POLITICS]
The Z'vali unique law will now bypass blockades and sieges
Fixed an assert upon accessing the Senate screen with an empty political assembly
Added Keii cost to changing government for Hissho empires
[RELICS]
Slightly increased probability for curiosities to spawn for pirate lairs and minor faction assimilation system relics
The System Relics: Pre-Galactic Markers notification no longer lists the names of custom factions as debug text
Fixed an issue where the anomaly spawned from Remains that are generated after ground battles did not have an image
[ACHIEVEMENTS]
Fixed "Are you not entertained" achievement unlocking at the end of the turn it was actually unlocked
[FACTIONS]
Fixed Illo assimilation trait
Added missing tooltips for minor factions in the Custom Faction Screen
Fixed minor relations bonuses and quests not being lost when the minor faction's system is razed
Extracted unfallen specific empire improvement from coordination pact unlock (caused confusion)
Fixed an issue where a misleading message was displayed on a system for pirate marks when the player plays as the Hissho faction
The "Meditation" module for the Vodyani will no longer be displayed for custom factions with the Vodyani visual affinity
Corrected the Sisters of Mercy Citizen trait not being grayed out when Illo Citizen was selected
[TECHNOLOGIES]
Fixed an issue where debug text was displayed when hovering over technology unlocks from the "Research completed" notification
Fixed issue with Hissho being unable to colonize Steppe and Tundra planets with Hardship ready
Fixed Description of Fealty Fundation level 2 & 3 (used the same title and description as level 1)
[QUESTS]
Fixed an issue where the reward for the Take Arms objective of the "To do or not to do" Sower population quest was not fully visible when playing as Hissho
The "Words in Private" Behemoth quest is not triggered anymore when the Supremacy DLC is disabled
Fixed an issue where the tooltip of the Academy Quest special Attack Fleet Action displayed an incorrect battle icon
Changed the objective of Cultural Appropriation in order to add Dust-related buildings (like trading Companies" or "Buyout"
Population quests are no longer triggered for custom factions
The Pilgrims "Muddled Mystics" minor faction quest objective made reference to the Approval mechanic when playing with an Honor Bound faction, now it's over
In Galvran "The Good Old Days" minor faction: "House" quest option made reference to the Approval mechanic when playing with an Honor Bound faction
"Ghosts and Dust" Academy quest: if there is no Trade route: the quest is failed. There is no specific failure message (waiting for a proper translation)
The "Reclaim" objective of the "Veneration or Vilification" Hissho population quest can be completed via invasion if Sykagoja is colonized by another faction
[SYSTEM MANAGEMENT]
Fixed an issue where the Fealty Foundation Hissho specific planetary specialization displayed a placeholder icon in the system scan view
Fixed an issue where the Fealty Foundation specialization was not grayed out when the user did not have enough Keii
Fixed two issues with Hissho's ancestral reverence (couldn't be queued on Major Home System that belonged to other Major factions and had no effect if used on minor faction home system)
Corrected the effect description tooltip of the "Resilience" trait
Modified inner working of Ancestral Deference to solve a tooltip issue
Fixed an issue where the Spaceport section of the System Command Banner exits through the base of the screen when a wrecked ark is present in the system
Added a tooltip to warn players you can't reconstruct unique planets
[FLEET]
Fixed an issue where the "Merge" fleet action button was available when selecting a non-specialized Behemoth and a Hero only fleet
Fixed wrong base loadout of the Hissho medium coordinator
Removed Kamikaze fleet action on Argosy of custom faction with Hissho gameplay + involuntary nomad
Removed exception when healing the fighter bombers at the end of a battle
Fixed vision sharing not working properly when a fleet is created
Fixed mining probe (stacked even though they shouldn't)
Fixed hissho specific mining module "Gouge of the Tonatsi" which didn't have a FIDS mining effect
Fixed honor zone being displayed in scan view (MAC)
Basic Entropy Missiles are now going straight to avoid missing
Ground Battle: Fixed defender damage multiplier being multiplied by 1000 when applying the Amianthoid system upgrade recipe
[HEROES]
Fixed an issue where the "Select a Hero" button in the Military screen fleet list was enabled for non-specialized Behemoths
Hero Management Screen tutorial doesn't display a flat amount of turns before the next assignment in order to avoid confusion
[NOTIFICATIONS]
Added a notification toggle option for the post ground battle decision notification in the Options screen
Players are no longer falsely informed at the end of the ground battle cinematic when claiming a decisive victory against a pirate lair that they can choose the fate of the system
Reduced the appearance parameters for the Remains notification in order to have them pop only for involved empires
The Mining Probe tutorial does trigger when conditions are met: right after the Behemoth tutorial
Several parts of the tutorial mentioned Approval when playing as Hissho
The player is no longer falsely informed that the ground invasion may continue next turn when he is defeated during a failed ground invasion attempt
Fixed an issue where the "Outpost alert" notification displayed the same image as the Hissho specific "Outpost maxed out" notification
Added option to enable/disable notification about minor introduced in rev#40801
Fixed Hissho outpost actions tutorial not showing up when the "Enable colonization cutscenes" option is set to true
[MULTIPLAYER]
Fixed desync on hot join related to Special node control effects
Fixed desync on unfallen colonization
Fixed desync on visibility caused by guard/blockade combo
Fixed desync on hot join caused by alliance & vision sharing
Fixed desync on hot join related to relation with pirates
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