Greetings Gaters!
The much-anticipated 4X update is now ready for you to experience on the “Next patch preview” branch! It’s a big one and we thought it would be safer to share this one in preview first.
We hope you enjoy the new dynamic this brings, especially in the mid and late game, we are really proud of the result but you will be the best to judge.
Also note that due to the extent of the changes, unfortunately previous saves are no longer compatible.
Let’s look at what you can expect to encounter in the new update - though beware, some spoilers follow!
The balance of power in the universe is now up for grabs
New Enemy Faction
The Apocalyptic Archive are an insect-like race, out to colonize new sectors in response to devastating overpopulation on their homeworld. Any sympathy towards them could be dangerous though - they aren’t openly aggressive, but they will defend their territory if pushed, and may seek to claim your sectors for their own. Diplomatic relations with their imperial leader should be handled delicately.
Treat the Empress with respect, lest she declare war on you
Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate - Exogate!
You’ll now need to think about what the enemy faction is doing as you move across the star map, since both you and the Apocalyptic Archive will earn a score, based on claimed territory, gathered resources, and influence generated. The faction with the highest score when the game time is up defeats the other and wins the game! (You can continue the game beyond this point though.) Either side can also be defeated if the other blockades their homeworld (claims 3 or more surrounding sectors), which erodes unity, leaving a faction open to receiving the final blow.
Relations with another faction are also fluid - the more aggressive your activities, the more likely it is they will declare war on you. Missions become more limited during wartime, which only ends when one faction defeats the other, or when both sides agree to make peace.
These are the new mission types that support this contested sector gameplay (the other faction can also send teams on all of these missions):
- Invasion: Send a team with at least 1 soldier to invade and claim an enemy sector
- Defense: Send a team with at least 1 soldier to repel a sector invasion by the enemy
- Liberation: Send a team with at least 1 diplomat to reduce an enemy sector’s influence, eventually releasing their hold so it can be claimed
- Consolidation: Send a team with at least 1 diplomat to boost the influence of a sector in your territory, helping prevent its release by the enemy
- Diplomatic: Send a team with at least 1 diplomat to improve relations with the enemy, and reduce the chance of war breaking out
- Final blow: Send a team with at least 1 soldier and diplomat to the enemy’s blockaded homeworld, after their unity has eroded, to defeat them once and for all
Invasion and defense missions can also trigger a new type of event called Team Fights. Should your team encounter an enemy team on the same world, a text-based combat event will trigger, with choices and dynamic outcomes based on the abilities of the gater classes involved. A team fight only ends when one team is killed, or withdraws.
Encounters with another faction can also trigger unique story events, for both first contact and subsequent interactions. Choices you make in these events will affect diplomatic relations, and may allow you to make an early discovery of the location of the faction’s homeworld. Once their homeworld is located you can contact their leader directly, to try and achieve various political and diplomatic results.
Team Exogate Initiative vs Team Apocalyptic Archive. FIGHT!
Diplomats & Alien Affairs
As mentioned above, the new Diplomat gater class has a key role to play in the new strategic gameplay. They also unlock with a new room, Alien Affairs, whose Intel Console allows diplomats to spy on the activities of another faction, learning their likelihoods to both declare war and make peace, along with other information like their current score. Diplomats are also important during faction events, where they can affect relations and outcomes.
The truth is out there - and a diplomat is going to find it
More New Features
Also new in this patch:
- Gater Memorial: Records the name and likeness of a gater that died in the course of their duties (can be built in the Library)
- Invasion Waves Rebalancing: A smoother experience from one wave to the next
- Game Speed Controls: Addressing one of the most requested community features, you can now speed up the game time until your heart’s content!
We plan to run the preview for a month during which we will make the required adjustments based on your feedback, but also take some much needed time off. To come back well and rested for the last step of the early access toward the full release.
Until then, it’s a dangerous universe out there, so safe travels!
Maxime MILLET
Creative Director, Xeno Bits
Changelog 0.9.0 PREVIEW
Please note that previous saves are NOT compatible.
New
Alien factions will now compete with the player on the starmap. The first alien faction is the Apocalyptic Archive.
You can contact the alien faction leader as soon as you are introduced to them. They can contact you too if needed.
It’s possible to go to war and make peace with the faction, the faction can do it too.
There are now 2 victory conditions
Score victory, the winner will be the faction with the highest score after 8 years. The score is based on many factors like territory size or collected materials.
Military victory happens when all other factions are eliminated.
New class, Diplomats: diplomats will help improve relations with factions, lower their influence on sectors or spy on them.
New room, Alien affairs: alien affairs will allow you to recruit diplomats. You can build a spying console in it that diplomats will use to gather information about a faction.
New missions types:
Invasion missions: Invade a territory owned by another faction, you team must contain a soldier
Defense missions: Defend one of your territory from a faction trying to invade it.
Liberation missions: Reduce faction's influence on one of its territories with the help of diplomats.
Consolidation missions: Diplomats will increase your influence on one of your territories
Final blow missions: Send a final mission on a faction’s homeworld to defeat it.
Diplomatic recurring missions: Send diplomats on faction’s homeworld to improve your relations.
On invasions and defense missions you might encounter opponent teams of gaters that you will have to find during dedicated mission events.
New equipment in Library, Memorial, displays a hologram of gaters you lost, you can select a specific gater or toggle between all the lost ones.
Speed controls, you can now speed up the game.
Changes
Each collected artifact will grant a bonus, with a bigger bonus when all artifacts of the same family are collected.
Disabled Dialogue options related to class not present in the team will not be displayed anymore.
Increase XP required to reach level 10.
Medbay curtains were removed because they were confusing to some players and served no real purpose, they will most likely make a comeback for the full release.
Explore artifact planet objective is now retroactive.
Process Asteril objective is now retroactive.
Foundry connector is not available until material processing technology is unlocked now.
Invasions are more balanced, we reduced the highest difficulty and increased time between waves.
Soldiers will now stop to eat or sleep during an invasion.
Gater will stop losing health while waiting for a medic on the surgery pod.
Changed background of armor requirement icon on starmap, to not think it is impossible to explore destinations without the proper equipment.
Improved builders priorities regarding equipment maintenance.
Current research name is displayed as a tooltip of the research progress bar in the main UI bar.
Added an objective to build a heavy armor locker to store the Sqarb patcher.
Displayed a new icon on destination when scientific resources are depleted.
New visual effects for specimen locker.
Fixes
Improved performances during invasions.
Unusual destinations only grant xp bonus during first exploration.
Fixed a bug where a gater could remain stuck next to a diagnostic pod on game load.
Fixed a bug where it was possible to claim a world that was not connected to a claimed world but just next to it.
Fixed a bug where loots from a mission would sometimes get bigger after loading a save.
Fixed a bug where an ongoing recruitment campaign would return no candidates after loading a save.
Improved blast doors placement.