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Frogsquadron

Frogsquadron

8 years ago Mar 21,2017, 17:01:58 PM

Riftborn Update - Focus on immersion!

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Hi everyone!


Update 3 - the Riftborn Update is arriving in two days. That's right, only two days before we add oodles of new content for you to dive in. Speaking of plunging into water, this blog post is all about... immersion! (get it? we'll be here all week)



GALAXY LIFE


We've added many galaxy life animations to the main screen: scintillating stars, layers of nebula, shooting stars, day and night cycles for planets in the star system view, and population growth is now reflected in what's going on on a planet's surface and orbit!



System view showing the two center planets with high population, and a stream of solar winds


Atoll planet with night activity and orbital traffic


Savannah planet with night activity and orbital traffic


NEW GALAXY SHAPES


Two new galaxy shapes are available, the Spiral 8 shape and the Ovoid galaxy. Each offers its own challenges and possibilities. Check out what they look like below!


Spiral 8 galaxy


Ovoid galaxy



NEW BATTLE ARENAS


Four more battle arenas have been included for you to vie for supremacy in. Take a peek below:


Artificial sun


Dyson sphere


Sunless system


White dwarf



MINOR FACTION INTERACTIONS


The new Minor Faction system has been designed to make interacting with Minor Factions more meaningful by making the relationship more of a long-term investment, spreading its progression over time and giving the player more ways to improve their relationship with the factions: a (modified) praise action, searching curiosities on the Minor Faction's system, and influence absorption.

Now, gaining a certain amount of relationship points, the different relationship modifiers now increase a trend that will define the fluctuations of the relationship bar. This relationship bar is now ranging from 0 to 100 with thresholds every 25 points, with each successive threshold granting a better tribute-like reward every turn. We also added a new ideology, the Pragmatists, who represent a sort of middle ground between Warmongers and Pacifists.
On top of this, the player with the best relationship with a Minor Faction (and if this relationship is high enough) is now able to spend Luxury Resources to trigger special Minor Factions actions.



That's it for immersion. Tomorrow, we'll be focusing on other additions to the game brought by the Riftborn Update.




Stay tuned!





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8 years ago
Mar 22, 2017, 2:35:08 PM
wakerfy wrote:

Thanks Frogsquadron!


I too thought they looked like futuristic shuttles.


Is there any chance we could use them or we can only destroy them?

You can buy minor faction's ships in the market already.

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8 years ago
Mar 21, 2017, 8:46:01 PM

I just have one question: To wich races belongs the ships on the white dwarf phot? I thought they were human or  lumeris at first but UE are black and Lumeris aren't like that so... Are they for minor factions or for a new race?

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8 years ago
Mar 22, 2017, 12:30:14 AM

The visuals look so fucking good ! 


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8 years ago
Mar 22, 2017, 2:08:59 AM

Wow the new systems are amazing! I also like the new diplomacy with minor factions...seems far more interesting than before. Can't wait to test it.

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8 years ago
Mar 22, 2017, 9:08:55 AM
Hopliteofthestars wrote:
Sublustris wrote:

Immersion question: what is the light source for Sunless system?

 you just answered you're own question. there is no light source....all the celestial bodies in that system will probably be arctic, barren, asteroids or debris.

Welp, it looks like Amplitude sure will disagree with you:


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8 years ago
Mar 22, 2017, 9:21:06 AM

Sublustris: The light source for the sunless system is a nearby blue star. Consensus was that we needed a light source of some sort, otherwise the whole battle would happen in darkness, besides the weapon and engine VFX. It remains by far the darkest of our battle arenas.


Bethezer: None of this will impact performance in a meaningful way.


Sotnik: The special action depends on the Minor Faction (the foreign corps are a warmonger action) and its attitude to war/peace. Minor Factions are randomly assigned a luxury at game creation.


Vahouth: 1 This will be a release feature. 2 It's working on my dev version so I'm assuming this is fixed. 3 This is a toggle option in the game options: "order systems by temperature" or something. The drawback is that it makes for rather similar-looking systems, but it pleases players who like their planet ordering to be logical.


Wakerfy: Primitive-type ships from Minor Factions. They like very much like our own space shuttles, maybe 50-100 years into the future... clearly a favorite of mine!


Divinicus: Changes to the Battle system are part of today's blog post.

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8 years ago
Mar 22, 2017, 10:45:32 AM

This game is shaping up nicely, good work to you all.  Can't wait to test out the new faction.  Heading to Andromeda for a while but really want to get back into this game.

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8 years ago
Mar 22, 2017, 1:03:06 PM

Your 4x games are my favorite because on top of solid game play they have beautiful and unique visiuals and flashed out races . I am always happy to se more of it. It fuels the imagination and immersion. gj

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8 years ago
Mar 22, 2017, 2:24:46 PM

Thanks Frogsquadron!


I too thought they looked like futuristic shuttles.


Is there any chance we could use them or we can only destroy them?

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8 years ago
Mar 21, 2017, 8:17:30 PM

I love the new minor faction system... The old one was kinda boring...

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8 years ago
Mar 22, 2017, 4:15:02 PM

I love the visuals. I am so impatient. I have a question ! Is that planned that each faction impact the visual differently on planets ? Like the unfallen make some green stuff ebcause they are plants ? Or cravers depleted planet look gross and terrible ? Or UE are full of industrial lights and smoke? Or horatio make the planet golden ? Or what if ... Ok i stop there ! Great work ! 

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8 years ago
Mar 23, 2017, 5:03:01 AM

Well, this update sure looks great - but what's that I see, hidden in the part about minor factions? A new ideology, the Pragmatists? Verrrrrry intriguing. Ss this going to be a major ideology like the other six - was it one of the ideologies you had previously removed?


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8 years ago
Mar 23, 2017, 6:27:49 AM
TheTakenKing wrote:

A new ideology, the Pragmatists? Verrrrrry intriguing. Ss this going to be a major ideology like the other six - was it one of the ideologies you had previously removed?


It's not a major ideology, it's a minor faction ideology used to describe their interaction with major factions. Two other minor faction ideologies are warmongers and pacifists. Perhaps they should've use other term to avoid confusion.

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8 years ago
Mar 23, 2017, 3:26:51 PM
Sublustris wrote:
TheTakenKing wrote:

A new ideology, the Pragmatists? Verrrrrry intriguing. Ss this going to be a major ideology like the other six - was it one of the ideologies you had previously removed?


It's not a major ideology, it's a minor faction ideology used to describe their interaction with major factions. Two other minor faction ideologies are warmongers and pacifists. Perhaps they should've use other term to avoid confusion.

Ah, thank you for the clarification. That makes more sense than adding a new major ideology. Hopefully it'll have a significant impact on minor faction diplomacy.

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8 years ago
Mar 28, 2017, 12:35:45 AM

I think what helps immersion is that smooth ui that Endless games are famous for.  In many games, the interface gets in the way of enjoyment.  However, for Endless games not only is is beautiful, but it tens to be no intuitive that one barely notices it.  You really must put a lot of thought into the development.

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8 years ago
Mar 21, 2017, 5:16:59 PM

If I ever have a battle in a system with a white dwarf star, I'll spend it looking at the scenery. XD

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8 years ago
Mar 21, 2017, 5:28:09 PM

Great, so you can't just insta buy a minor faction in one round which should make them feel more like actual factions instead of perks that you just "buy" on a whim. I also like that you don't have to assimilate them anymore in order to benefit from them, so those who choose to not focus on influence can still gain something from minor factions. 

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8 years ago
Mar 21, 2017, 5:34:43 PM

Visuals are astounding!

Question about planet types (i don't know, probably this was answered before, but i could easily missed it): in ES1 there was a specific "type" of planet - asteroids/debris (i don't remember the exact name), with a unique station that only can be build there. Is something like that planned for ES2?

Updated 8 years ago.
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8 years ago
Mar 21, 2017, 5:48:55 PM

Immersion question: what is the light source for Sunless system?

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8 years ago
Mar 21, 2017, 6:26:46 PM

I wish you upload a video with it, Frogsquadron. ;) Still - this really sounds awesome, I hope it does not hit the performance... And I love the added bits for Minor Factions!

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8 years ago
Mar 21, 2017, 6:28:13 PM

An unit?


I think it is better to have 2 options for which luxury resource to spend on special actions. Otherwise you risk losing this opportunity even regardless of trade.

Updated 8 years ago.
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8 years ago
Mar 21, 2017, 6:54:27 PM

As always the visuals look stunning, but I'm really happy to see more depth to minor factions.  Its a system that appears in a lot of games, but is rarely done well, so I'm glad to see effort being taken to really make it more interesting rather than occasional quest speedbumps.

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8 years ago
Mar 21, 2017, 7:09:25 PM

This is really stunning.

I like a lot the sun effects on the system, this feel really warm and nice. Congratulations.

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8 years ago
Mar 21, 2017, 7:29:26 PM

I'm ecstatic that you improved planet visuals! I was worried that they would stay the same for full release as they were on launch: more lifeless than the ones of ES1.


And knowing that Minor Factions are getting more love is great too!



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8 years ago
Mar 21, 2017, 7:47:40 PM

This is great! 

I kinda need of a confirmation about a couple of things though when it comes to immersion.

1) Are we also having sometime soon the visual indications of a Craver-induced depletion of a planet? 

https://www.games2gether.com/endless-space-2/ideas/18-craver-depletion-of-a-planet

2) When hovering over a star there is no description as to what kind of star that is, only what it does. Is this fixed?

3) Are we 100% sure that there won't be anymore instances where the closest planet to a star is a tundra, while the furthest is a hot jupiter?

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8 years ago
Mar 21, 2017, 8:09:23 PM
Sublustris wrote:

Immersion question: what is the light source for Sunless system?

 you just answered you're own question. there is no light source....all the celestial bodies in that system will probably be arctic, barren, asteroids or debris.

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8 years ago
Mar 21, 2017, 8:12:39 PM
vahouth wrote:

This is great! 

I kinda need of a confirmation about a couple of things though when it comes to immersion.

1) Are we also having sometime soon the visual indications of a Craver-induced depletion of a planet? 

https://www.games2gether.com/endless-space-2/ideas/18-craver-depletion-of-a-planet

2) When hovering over a star there is no description as to what kind of star that is, only what it does. Is this fixed?

3) Are we 100% sure that there won't be anymore instances where the closest planet to a star is a tundra, while the furthest is a hot jupiter?

I agree with the first one this is something fans have been wanting since ES1 PLS !!

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8 years ago
Mar 21, 2017, 8:16:38 PM
vahouth wrote:

2) When hovering over a star there is no description as to what kind of star that is, only what it does. Is this fixed?

Node type is shown with node's name now. You can see it in Update 3 stream video.

Updated 8 years ago.
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