Developer Amplitude Studios' Endless series of strategy games, including Endless Legend and Endless Space 2 (but minus its predecessor, for reasons which will later become clear), is free to play on Steam until next week.
Amplitude's free weekend, which coincides with the launch of new expansions for Endless Space 2 and Endless Legend (titled Penumbra and Symbiosis respectively), runs from today, January 24th, until Monday, January 28th. During that time, the aforementioned Endless titles, plus Dungeon of the Endless, will be available to play for nowt.
That's not quite the end of it, however. Pretty much the entirety of Amplitude's back-catalogue is currently discounted on Steam, meaning that you can continue your strategic adventures for significantly less than the usual price once the free weekend is over.
ENDLESS™ Space - Definitive Edition - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Dominic Tarason)
Spectral space-spies and mushroom people have arrived today in Endless Space 2 and Endless Legend. The two expansions – Penumbra and Symbiosis, respectively – each add a new playable faction to the already-massive 4X strategy games, plus a major game-changing new feature that can impact everyone. Below, a developer stream taking an hours-long dive into both expansions.
Those new to the Endless universe (a sprawling sci-fi setting shared by all of Amplitude’s games, including Endless Space 1 & 2, Dungeon Of The Endless and Endless Legend), all the games in the series are free to try on Steam for the weekend, along with discounts to keep. Endless Space 1 is forever if you sign up and link your Steam account over on their Games2Gether site here.
In case you've been stranded on an asteroid for the last week, you may have missed our announcement that we have a new expansion releasing today, Endless Space 2: Penumbra!
The shadowy, wraith-like spy faction known as the Umbral Choir will be infiltrating the Endless Universe, alongside cool new espionage features like hacking and invisibility. Roaming the universe since the dawn of time, the Umbral Choir are silent observers of the woes of the galaxy. At last, they heard the death cry of another dimension and decided to rush to the aid of those who suffered.
The Umbral Choir
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!
Hacking & Invisibility
Ever wanted to feel like a real-life hack3r? Well now’s your chance. No matter what faction you’re playing, you will able to attempt to hack into others’ home systems. Penumbra also brings new invisibility modules for ships, powerful tools to help you hid from your enemies. Or counter them by installing detection modules!
We are also introducing a new expansion for Endless Legend, called Endless Legend: Symbiosis! Check out this link for more info.
Endless Free Weekend
All of our games are also playable for free this week-end, and we even have something special cooked up for Endless Space 2 players! Check this site for more info.
Both expansions are already available, at a base price of $12.99 / €12.99 / £10.99.
But until February 4th, you can grab them at a discount!
Get Penumbra HERE at 10% off! Get Symbiosis HERE at 10% off! Or just grab them both in the bundle HERE at a 20% discount!
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
Click here!
Click here!
Click here!
Click here!
Click here!
Click here!
