Hello everyone!
We're happy to be hosting an AMA session on r/HorrorGaming right now!

Come ask us questions about the game, its development and more here:

Hey everyone! We are very glad about the super positive reception of U12 and want to quickly follow up with some more improvements.


The new AMD-65 is a hard hitting common assault rifle with brutal recoil and bleeding ammunition.

The classic coil gun is a fast firing and accurate shotgun with powerful charged shot stacks.

Do the famed roundhouse kick with the roundhouse boots. Applies shock combos aswell.

A new workbench with 3 strong weapon upgrade choices can appear in the late-game.

Using the power of 3D, hitting enemies now can cause oil splats on the walls!




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We made various improvements to server performance.
These changes aim to address the "desync" issues (invisible enemies, shop malfunctions, game breaking entirely, etc.). We need your feedback to determine if these changes resolve any issues you've experienced.

We continue to work on improving performance, but it's challenging to gauge the impact without your input since we cannot reproduce such problems in-house.

- In testing: new region selection when opening lobbies.
- Dropping items no longer resets cooldowns.
- Fixed lobby ready button mismatching the player.
- Various minor improvements.

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Item and ability rarities have been adjusted. This results in healing abilities and items costing less to upgrade compared to other abilities. This change offers more choices in determining which items to upgrade, thus presenting players with more strategic options.

Further improvements to item and weapon shop rarities and some costs have been adjusted to be more logical. Varied costs are reduced a bit, but epics in the uncommon weapon shop now cost 200 more, highlighting the uncommon items.
Fixed the issue of the uncommon item shop having items of too low rarity.
Corrected the bug where scavenging yielded an excessive number of upgrade kits. We are still monitoring this.

Loop enemy movement speed reduced from 50% bonus to 30% bonus.
Loop armor bonus decreased from 40% to 20%.
Fixed the issue of players not receiving the loop debuff.
Further loop improvements and additional loot are planned for the near future.

New icons for weapon chests, item chests, players, pickups.



Variant Override added to the tinkerer shop.
Weapon tuning now provides +1 upgrade kit.
Mystery trader's power has been significantly increased.
Dodgy pills and Titanium legs have been upgraded to epic tier.
Grenade arm now also boosts ejection speed.
Chaos Technology Insertion now grants 2 perks.
Fixed issues with Ammo Refit.

A new workbench with 3 strong weapon upgrade choices can appear in the late-game.

Twin link has been reworked.
Cryo Cannon is now automatically triggered.
Various fixes and improvements to the Shield Dome.

Chrono Interceptor: Fixed and enhanced various evolutions.
Power Kick/Breaching Kick now reduces damage taken by 50% during the kick.
Riotguard Crisis Medical Kit: Removed acid shot to prevent friendly fire, added handgun benefits.
Fixed the issue with the nano launcher restoring 3 shots instead of 0 upon ammo pickup; it now restores 1 shot (currently in testing).
Blockade Breaker cooldown reduced from 14s to 12s.
Guillotine now accumulates 2 stacks in games with 3 or more players.
Guillotine ejection speed bonus reduced from 40% to 25%.
Guillotine now grants a 5% passive speed bonus.
Sniper speed adjustment changed from -10% to -5%.
Smoke Discharge now also affects the main player.
Various improvements to Demolisher abilities and kits.
Dragon's Masterkey is now correctly classified as a specialization ability.
Damage for certain burning effects increased from 50 to 100 (includes Masterkey, Plasma grenade, among others).
Protector's Badge now additionally provides 10 armor; duration clarified.
Visual effects reduced on Nitro Methadone.
Negative effects of Blade Reflect no longer scale.

Harpoon now stuns for 2 seconds and offers AOE suppression.
Enhancements made to the breaching shotgun's point-blank perk.
Squad-9 carbine received improvements and a new perk.
Acid Pistol ammo damage reduced from 0.5 to 0.3 due to new stacking mechanics.
Updated Tokko and C80, LR-400 visuals



Numerous improvements.
Introduced a new alternative style for the cooling floor.
Added a loop style for the cooling floor.
Removed traps in Cooling Chambers to optimize enemy pathing.

Several improvements to arena masters.
Dogs have been refined: they now have appropriate visual effects, are slowed after one hit, and deal 40% reduced health damage afterwards for 3 seconds.
Multiple adjustments to enemy specs and attributes for better balance and gameplay.
Improved enemy impact animations.
Reduced certain oil effects upon impact.
Fixed the issue where shields dropped by shielded enemies lacked collision.

Improved visuals for the bleeding effect.
Reduced gunshot sound intensity.
Reworked Acid debuff:
Can stack up to 2 times.
Offers up to -30/-60% armor reduction.
Fixed Chinese language showing wrong letters on class evolution.
Fixed other languages having certain wrong colors for UI elements.

We updated from 2022.3.6 to 2022.3.9, which might or might not fix some engine issues people are having on Integrated GPUs / GPUs below minimum requirements where the game does not start. Let us know if things work better now.



The end boss appears twice.
Oil splats can appear on players.
AMD65 ammo says it has 20% bleed chance, which is 30%
Certain particles have a wrong setting, making them look boxy

Modders, take note: stuns and root results can now only target the user, similar to the modify stat action. To target others, create an action or use our existing stun actions.



Patchnotes of the U12 hotfix in case you missed them: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1471410/discussions/0/3819669865031720617/


We are following up with another update by the end of the month.
Have fun! - Team FFG

- Optimization

Fretless' combat system is centered around music: guitars are weapons, and melody is power! As you choose your instrument, you'll have to select your favorite riffs to defeat your enemies in awesome music battles.

How does it work behind the scenes? How do you create music-centered combats that are exciting to hear and interesting to play?

As part of Save&Sound week, Fretless' music composers Jeff and Jeff have produced an audio deep-dive explaining the game's particular battle system and how music is created. Discover everything from the tools they use on our Steam page Broadcast!

Feel the music in real-time by downloading the demo today and make sure to wishlist the game to get the full experience in 2024 🤘

If you wanna know more about the game, make sure to follow our newsletter and follow us on X, TikTok, and YouTube.

Dear Onbu Riders,

I hope you have been enjoying the new birthday update 😀
Later this week, we will present you the winners of our firework competition, which is still running until September 14th on our Discord. We’re amazed by all your creative submissions already, and can’t wait to see what’s more to come!

In the meantime, we have started to work on the next update, planned later this year:
The Villager Update. We are overhauling the way villager happiness works and how it is displayed while trying to also improve villager AI in the process.



We’ve also been working on quite a few other improvements. One of the most significant ones is the improved map generation with which we want to decrease RNG, especially in Novice and Adept difficulty levels, and lower the maximum difficulty in Novice. The new generator will also allow us to preview hundreds of generated worlds in a heartbeat, making it much easier to see whether everything is fair and fun! This involves some bigger changes to the game, and will be coming to the game sometime after the Villager Update.




We speak way too rarely of the game’s music/sound design in these development updates!
All the more reason to do so now, since the game is taking part in the ‘Save & Sound’ Steam event running from September 11 - 21.



Our composer/sound designer NukeTan recorded a behind the scenes video of his creative process. Make sure to tune in and watch it as part of the event on Wednesday at 1PM PDT. To celebrate the occasion, we’re running a 20% discount for our soundtrack and an extra 20% on top for the game’s collectors’ edition which includes our digital artbook.

Thank you for your ongoing support!

Cheers & Thanks,
Stray Fawn Studio

Dear players,

We estimate that the season maintenance will last between 00:00 to 15:00 (UTC+8) on September 14th. The servers will be unavailable during the maintenance, and for that, we are sorry.

This update will bring with it a ton of new content as well as changes to previous content. We will be performing updates and maintenance on our systems, and we estimate this will take around 15 hours. We will issue the following compensation following the update:


Runs from September 14th after maintenance until September 27th before maintenance

- Lotus Ash Sea
- Dragonrise Island
- Jaderock Creek
- Sandstorm Gorge (UTC+8)
- Available between 12:00-14:00 and 18:00-22:00 every day.

- Espada Forest (UTC-4)
- Available between 10:00-13:00 and 16:00-19:00 every day.

Press J to open the Matchmaking interface and choose Colosseum Fierce Fray to enter.

You've got a chance to earn Poem Collections throughout the Colosseum Fierce Fray mode. Up to 50 Poem Collections drop each week.
- Poem Collection: Grants 500 Glory when used.
- Drop count resets every Thursday at 00:00 (server time).

- Maps:



- Each team will have 500 points at first, and the team gains points when they're the only ones with heroes inside the capture range.
- When the time runs out, the team with the higher points wins.
- When the time runs out, the team with zero points loses.

- The status of the flag changes as the match progresses.
- Preparing: The Flag area will be locked.
- Stage 1: The flag area will be unlocked and can be contended.
- Stage 2: The scope of the flag will be reduced, and the speed of points deduction is accelerated.

- Soldiers are entering the fray: Third-party units will burst into the battlefield and attack players on both teams.
- The Tyrant Enters: The Tyrant and third-party units will appear near the flag area and attack both teams.
- Defeat the Tyrant or gladiators to gain the Leadership Supply for your team.
- When stage changes, all players will get Leadership Supply.

- You'll be provided with armor, artilleries, and units.

- It costs leadership to draft units from supply points or the deployment menu. You'll be refunded leadership based on how many soldiers remain of a unit you withdraw.
- Retreated units cannot be used again.

- There are Recruiting Agents on both sides; players can draw/retreat units after talking to them.




1. The Epic Leadership Doctrine can now only be purchased 1 time.
2. New addition to Daybreak Doctrine Selection Boxes: the Ardent Knight doctrine.

You get 1 Daybreak Seal for free by reaching rank 100 in the Season Pass and another one by completing the fifth stage of the season's 5-star unit challenge.

- Applicable Units: Chivalric Units
- Effect: When taking ranged damage, 100 points are converted into bleed damage, during which damage and movement speed is increased by 15%.


The item plan has been changed since Knightfall season with new addition Exchange Resource War Token.

1. The 7-day mission reward One-Match Double Latent Potential Drops x5 of Sovereign Proof of Wealth will be changed into War Token*15 after the maintenance.
2. Each of One-Match Double Latent Potential Drops that has not yet been used will be recycled into War Token*3 after the maintenance.


The Shooting Stars Attire Treasure and Sun Emperor Attire Treasurer will be available, bow attire Sagittarius Star and hero attire Sunborn's Radiance return for a limited time!
Runs from Sep 14 (after maintenance) through Sep 27 (until maintenance).


1. Snowstorm: Scourge of Winter sealed seasonal attires and Dynasty: The Golden Silhouette sealed seasonal attires will be replaced

A new patch is available for Under the Waves! This patch focuses on fixing bugs and issues with achievements.

We would like to thank you again for all your support, and for sharing feedback about the game. It really helps us improve the experience.

We are still committed to offering the best possible experience when playing Under the Waves, and the team is currently working on future patches that will offer more graphical setting options. Stay tuned for more on that!

On to today’s patch notes:

● Fixed Trophy01 “Under The Waves” still being locked after completing
● Fixed some trophies not being unlocked when completing them in sector maps.
● Already completed trophies will be correctly unlocked when loading the saved game.
● Added Collectible Yellow boot inside the U-Sub WWII (J0 does not give it on day 14 anymore)
● Fixed a hole in the landscape.
● Fixed a parasite frame before the cinematic after Stan’s choice.
● Fixed looted chests still having a marker on map
● Fixed plastic boots not having their basic appearance but always the yellow one.
● Fixed proteus rocks being burnt in sectors maps not counting for the quest.
● Added an intermediate marker to lead towards the server room in Bunker Office in sector B.
● Fixed Stan not able to exit Moon during low integrity warning.
● Fixed photo quest not working with sleeping whales.
● Fixed “Cleaning Operation” quest that couldn’t be completed from sector areas.
● Fixed “Cleaning Operation” quest where the progression for the objective “Clean the Area” was not correctly saved.
● Fixed Moon still boosting during the reveal Submarine WWII cinematic if the player arrives in the area while boosting.
● Fixed an issue on Elevator Engine going out of the axis.
● Fixed a blocker issue where reloading a save after day 14 where the player exits the submarine “WWII” would end up in a black screen.
● Fixed an issue where Moon spawned in a rock when reloading inside the submarine “WWII” after day 14.
● Fixed a loot zone marker looking like a big white dot on the map.
● Fixed a crash that may happen when visualizing photos taken with the Camera.
● Fixed visual glitch happening sometimes in the Life Module.
● Fixed a bug where the Moon Hangar door would stay open, making a hole to go under the game map.

Greetings Lords of Rigel!

This patch includes a major update that many have been waiting for: Custom Species!

While originally this was going to be phased with EA3 as we wanted to get balance on the default species to help with the AI, the feedback we’ve received on Lithovore and Mechanoid species has let us hammer out and refine the AI further on its basic economy use. Now, we’re shifting our focus over towards the military part of the AI.

As always your feedback has been crucial for improving the game and saves from the mid to late game have helped us with tuning the AI and adjustments beyond issues you might be reporting in them.
Specific UI feedback and improvements helps us improve the game. As can be seen from previous patches we’ve worked hard to implement quality of life improvements and UI adjustments, and we wouldn't be able to implement these changes or make these bug fixes without your feedback.

This patch:

Major Updates:
• Custom Species

Q.O.L./Balance:
• Recommended techs different for Mechanoid and Lithovore species
• Stargate icons in galaxy map
• Different indicators for home worlds and outposts in galaxy map
• Scrap and buy prompts show total treasury
• Animations for entering and exiting system view
• Auto-select all units on tactical start

Bugfixes:
• Scrapping support ship fix
• Scrapping colony buildings fix
• Subterranean and Tolerant evolutionary mutation max population count fix
• Critical- GNN soft-lock fixes
• AI out of range fix
• Colony focus UI refresh fix

Upcoming fixes and Q.O.L. adjustments:
• Further refinements to auto construction
• Scuttling enabled for ships not at a colony (but no refund)
• AI improvements on building combat fleets
• Adjustments to random monster attacks
• Event ticker filters

EA2 coming features:
• Elder Races
• Doomsday Clock

EA3 features will include:
• Research Victory
• Grand Menaces
• Legendary Galaxies (1024 stars)

For this week’s deep dive we’re going to look into the Custom Species!
A much requested feature, you can adjust all of the species traits for a selected species in a new game by selecting the custom button. You’ll cosmetically have the ships, home-world, and appearance of the species selected but you can change their name and all traits. You have a total of 10 traits you can select overall and “picks” are the overall points which can be from 10 to -10. This will increase or decrease your end game score. So you can create a powerful Creative, Democracy, Lithovore species but it’ll have a massive impact on your final score. This provides a lot of flexibility!


Image 1. Custom Species Menu

Let us know what further changes you would like to see or if you have encountered any technical issues. Please post on the forums, reach out to us via Discord or send an email: contact@rhombus-studios.net Saved games and clear steps to reproduce the bug are critical. It helps us to quickly track down the bug and get it fixed. Additional information on bug reporting tips can be found here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/437440/discussions/.


As always, we appreciate the feedback, conversations, and support from all of you!

Greetings, fellow gamers and intergalactic strategists! Today, we delve into the fascinating world of Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova, where we explore the cutting-edge addition to the game, AlienGPT. This groundbreaking feature, developed by Stardock, leverages the power of GPT technology to redefine the way we create custom civilizations in this iconic space 4X gaming series.

In this blog post, we'll take you on a journey through the exciting universe of Galactic Civilizations, highlighting the evolution of custom civilization creation and the game-changing impact of AlienGPT.



The Galactic Civilizations series has always been known for its ability to cater to a wide spectrum of gamers. Whether you're a meticulous min-maxer or a laid-back sandbox enthusiast, this game series has something for everyone. Since Galactic Civilizations II, players have had the opportunity to craft their unique civilizations to bring their gaming fantasies to life.

Core factions like the Terran Alliance, the formidable Drengin, and the iconic Yor have always adhered to the same set of game mechanics available to players when designing custom civilizations. This seamless integration between core and custom civilizations has been a hallmark of the series. However, crafting custom civilizations traditionally involved manual efforts, from writing background stories to selecting pre-generated images that match your vision.

This approach also had its drawbacks, as creating new core civilizations required significant resources in terms of writing, art assets, and game balancing. Stardock recognized the need for innovation.

Enter AlienGPT, a revolutionary addition to Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova. GPT, short for "Generative Pre-trained Transformer," is a remarkable language model developed by OpenAI. It's capable of generating natural language text based on user prompts and can provide responses that are remarkably human-like.

Stardock saw an opportunity to harness this technology to enhance their games. AlienGPT was born, and it brings with it the potential to transform the gaming landscape. This technology can generate text content for various elements of gameplay, including civilization overviews, lore, in-game events, and diplomatic conversations. It's a game-changer, offering unprecedented levels of creativity and uniqueness in gameplay.

AlienGPT seamlessly integrates into Stardock's cloud-based metagaming technology, Tachyon. With a single prompt, the background and lore of a civilization can be generated. Pre-generated images of aliens are then presented to players to represent their newly created civilization. These images, crafted by Stardock's in-house artists, ensure a diverse range of visuals that align with the player's vision.

If AlienGPT encounters a prompt that it can't fulfill with existing images, it prompts Stardock's development team to create suitable assets for future use. This dynamic collaboration between AI and human creativity ensures a continually evolving gaming experience.

To illustrate how AlienGPT works, let's dive into creating a custom civilization. Imagine you're in the mood for a war-focused gameplay experience with a touch of wild fun. You enter a prompt like "ancient dinosaurs that found advanced alien technology, fused with it, and became a race of war-hungry, cybernetic feudal lizard-knights." You also select various attributes like Biology, Cultural Affinity, and Behaviors, which not only influence civilization generation but also have in-game effects.

The result is a rich and detailed Startup Screen for your civilization, complete with a slogan, description, strengths, and weaknesses. Of course, you can edit these details to fine-tune your creation. AlienGPT then helps you choose a leader portrait, giving life to your new civilization.

From there, you can further customize your civilization's logo, map theme, theme tune, abilities, citizens, commander ships, and traits. With a touch of imagination and the power of AlienGPT, you've created a unique race of spacefaring dino-knights ready to conquer the galaxy.

With AlienGPT and Tachyon, Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova introduces AI tools that significantly expand the volume of personalized, high-quality content. This translates into a more diverse range of gameplay options, deeper immersion in the game's universe, and enhanced replayability.

As we wrap up, we invite you to embark on this exciting journey of custom civilization creation with AlienGPT. Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova continues to push the boundaries of what's possible in the 4X strategy gaming genre. Thank you for joining us in exploring this remarkable advancement in gaming technology, and as always, happy gaming!