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!
