Greetings Gaters!
After a month in preview the much-anticipated 4X update is now ready for everyone to enjoy!
To celebrate the launch, and as we take part in the Space exploration Steam festival, the game is currently on sale for 30% off!
Please note that due to the extent of the changes, unfortunately previous saves are no longer compatible. However, there is a new branch available on Steam from which you can continue your existing saves (more information in the Changelog beneath this message).
The news dedicated to the preview already listed much of what you can expect to encounter in the update, but we will put it again below just in case you missed it.
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!
Full 1.0 Launch Incoming!
This new update marks the penultimate step towards our full release of the game. It will allow us to gauge your feedback on the 4X elements, so we can ensure they are the best they can be for prime time. So please don’t be shy in letting us know your thoughts about the new features, and what you would like to see in the 1.0 launch version; you can reach us through the in-game feedback tool, the Steam forums, our Discord, or anywhere you prefer!
We’ll also continue to polish and improve the faction AI, and add multiple new factions to the game - come 1.0 you’ll be able to challenge one or more different factions in a single run, or opt out of the 4X challenge completely, if you prefer a more relaxed experience.
Thank you for your continued support, especially as we near the finish line. It’s a critical time for us to make as much noise as possible about the game, so people who might like it know that it exists. It’s difficult for independent studios, especially ones as small as ours, to really make a wormhole-splash on Steam; so we will be extremely grateful for anything you can do to help support us - whether that be wishlisting, leaving a Steam review, sharing your feedback, or just telling your friends.
We’ll be in touch again soon with our plans for the launch. Until then, it’s a dangerous universe out there, so safe travels!
Maxime MILLET
Creative Director, Xeno Bits
Changelog 0.9.0
Please note that previous saves are NOT compatible, there is a dedicated branch available to switch back to version 0.8.7 on Steam if you want to continue your current game.
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.
Increased 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.
Fixed a bug where unconscious gaters needing psychological diagnosis were not treated properly.
Improved blast doors placement.
Changes done during preview based on players’ feedback
Added unique names to faction’s gaters
Fixed issue with faction random encounter event not properly triggered
Balancing faction’s gaters XP gains.
Balancing faction’s materials collection speed.
Fixed a bug making it easy for diplomats to ask opponents to surrender.
Fixed a bug where damage reduction from body armor was not properly displayed during missions and team fights.
Fixed a bug where the final blow mission would lock the game.