Hey all,

The Rise of the Automatons free add-on is coming next week! AmpliMath has posted a detailed explanation on the forums, on the update plan to improve Endless Space. Here is the entire post, for those who missed it:

Folks,

I see some cries of anguish here, and I think it deserves some clarifications.

First of all, we are not losing focus and the team is still dedicated to improving Endless Space. Instead of doing post-release quick-patches, we have changed this to Free Add-On, for several reasons:
• As we develop more and more complex improvements, the dev time cannot accommodate a quick fix production scheme. We need to do some QA, localization, to make sure nothing is broken. We faced a regression a few weeks ago (on the random events) because we released too early without verifying everything
• When we were releasing weekly patches, the feeling was that there were no big improvements. Now that we regroup improvements into Free Add-on, or content update or whatever (we had to come up with a name), the feeling is that updates are not frequent enough. Kind of a Catch 22, but I think macro updates are better than micro patches if we want to change bigger stuff.

Reading this post, it seems your priorities are diplomacy, AI, scenarios. Actually other people also want immersion, more modding options. I also read comparison with AAA games. Remember we are a small team, and we do not charge this game for the same price as AAA games. This will not stop our commitment to the game however.

We are addressing different requests at the same time, because the community want different stuff. We integrated the Automated voted by the community. Our tools engineer is finding a way to import 3D ship models without going through Unity (a real brainer) so that modders can expand the game in crazy ways. We also improve the GUI, add new immersive content (because some people want it).

Rise of the Automatons (Add-On 1) will already contain improvements fixes on diplomacy / AI. Check out the release notes to see what’s in there. So will the two next Add-ons, but I cannot reveal their content yet as some of it will be voted by the community. I can however confirm that AI improvements will be done anyway in Add-On 2 (not put to vote).

Also there is a last development, that our external AI consultant has started a few weeks ago. I did not want to reveal it, because we are not sure it is going to deliver. Basically, we are adding a new adaptive multi-agent system (AMAS) inside the AI, to better arbitrate decisions. The main focus for this new AI subsystem will be diplomacy. This is a 3 months development R&D, tested inside Endless Space on a separate branch. There is no guaranteed success for R&D and the way this functions is pretty much rocket science to me (even as former programmer) ; but I want to show we are still heavily investing in improving into Endless Space. I will let you know how this evolves.

Now regarding the expansion pack : we will have our hands full with Free Add-ons until the end of 2012, so actual code development on the expansion pack will not start until 2013. There may be some concept arts before that, but no game features developed. I read that the expansion pack content is mysterious, maybe we were not clear enough. The focus of the first expansion pack will be to bring a new dimension to battles, with new battle control, fighters/bombers, large ships, etc. As this is a new part of the game, which requires months of art and code, we are going to charge it, but we do not know at which price yet. But I think we have proven that we are not a greedy company. We just have to make sure that we can survive and continue expanding Endless Space.

Thanks for your attention!



Also, we've published the Rise of the Automatons' Release notes in the forums, in order for you to get a sneak peek at what is coming early next week. Here they are:


Here is a preview of the release note of the next version. Some elements can be modified/added/removed.
Your current game saves will not be compatible with the new version, as we have added lots of modifications, especially in the Alliance System. Please, make sure you finish your current game!



CHANGES AND ADDITIONS
  • Separated the visual affinity from the gameplay affinity. [G2Gvote]
    For instance, you can now customize your own faction with the gameplay of the Cravers and the art of the Amoeba.
  • Added the "System Population Balancing" in the Galaxy's advanced options. Ranges from "Random" to "Perfect". For "Perfect", constellations with homeworlds now possess the same number of systems (with a maximum difference of 1 system).
  • Added a panel for the Empire wide factors in the Empire view.
  • Added a disclaimer when entering the Mods section for the first time.
  • Changed the faction colors to differentiate the shades of green.
  • Added Polish language.
  • Added the possibility to load custom 3D models and textures for planet and ship modding.


AUTOMATONS [G2Gvote]
  • Added the Automatons faction with a specific gameplay affinity and properties for specific buildings, according to Panzer, the winner of the faction contest.
    Automatons Affinity:
    1. At the end of the turn, if there is an overproduction, it's stacked instead of being reported.
    2. At the beginning of a turn, an interest is applied to the stacked industry, allowing it to increase a bit.
    3. The stacked industry is capped at 5 * system's industry.
    4. If the overproduction cannot be stacked, it's conserved for the next turn like the current mechanism.
    5. When the automatons build improvements & ships, the industry is used in the following order:
    a. system's industry
    b. overproduction
    c. stacked industry

    6. When a system from the Automatons is invaded, the stacked industry is destroyed, reset to 0 even if the invader is an Automaton.
  • Added Automatons unique tech icons.
  • Added a gauge bar for the stacked industry of each system in the Empire view.
  • Added the stacked industry value on tooltip of each system in the Galaxy view.
  • Placed the Automatons' overproduction stack in the Development bar (in System view).
  • Added the Automatons' portrait, diplomacy hologram and loading screen. Automatons will use Cravers' ships 3D models.


TRADE ROUTES [G2Gvote]
  • Added a trade routes summary panel in the Empire view.
  • Added the possibility to directly click on a trade route's origin system in the trade routes panel, to enter this system's view.
  • Added a trade routes panel link on the System view.
  • Added several tooltips for the trade routes panel.


AI
  • Added several AIPrerequisites from the community mod (by Ail, Grubsnik and Davea), globally improving AI when building star system improvements.
  • Improved the tax rate management for the AI.
  • Improved the formula that computes the response given by an AI to an alliance request.
  • Changed the formula for trading a technology with the AI. Before, the price was related to the most wanted technology, now, it is related to the most expensive technology available.


HEROES & ACADEMY
  • Added arrows to switch from a hero to another in the Inspection view.
  • Added arrows to switch from a hero to another in the Academy.
  • When recruiting a hero, he is now automatically selected in the active tab.
  • Added an "Accept" button when assigning new abilities to a hero and the possibility to click on a selected ability to remove it before validating the final choice.
  • Added empty slots to show how many heroes can still be recruited in the Academy.
  • Added a tooltip to heroes' attributes to show what effect they have.
  • Added a visual hero identifier in the Academy, to determine if a hero is in a system, a fleet or unassigned.


ALLIANCE & DIPLOMACY [G2Gvote]
  • Updated the alliance management system.
    When offering a treaty with someone outside of an alliance, a request is sent to allies. They can now either:
    1. Accept the treaty
    2. Decide to leave the alliance.
  • Added a tendency panel for diplomatic negotiations. Shows how an ally AI will likely respond to a treaty you offer to someone outside the alliance. Human players will always respond "Undecided".


BALANCING
  • Changed the upkeep formula (cost 1 per CP --> cost 0.4*CP max per CP).
  • Reduced the deflectors' evolution in stats, they were too efficient in late game: (3,5,8,11,14,20,25,30,36,45 => 2,4,7,10,13,17,22,27,33,39)
  • Increased the hulls' HP to increase the probability to reach the melee phase: (small:300, medium:600,large:1200 => small:450, medium:1200, large:3000)
  • Increased the cost of tonnage and repair modules' industry cost as well as modules related to strategic resources (to reward abundance).
  • Reduced the Hissho's Bushido (20% on FIDS => 15% on FID).
  • Increased the length of the Bushido but without the reset after an invasion (15 turns WITH reset => 45 turns WITHOUT reset after an invasion).
  • Changed the Revenge trait's condition of activation (activated whenever a lost system was re-invaded by the player => will only activate during invasion if the lost system was previously owned at 100%).
  • Changed the length of the different Cooperation Agreement steps (0/15/30 => 0/10/15).
  • Reduced the AI bonus on weapons, defense and buyout to balance the difficulty. AI has been heavily improved and therefore needs less powerful bonuses.


FIXES
IMPORTANT FIXES
  • Fixed an issue where trying to display the “end of auto explore” alert message after destroying the corresponding fleet provoked a NullReferenceException.
  • Fixed an issue where displaying the trade routes panel without trade routes provoked a NullReferenceException.
  • Fixed an issue where global random events were not synchronized for all players.
  • Fixed an issue where the AI was using obsolete ship template designs.
  • Fixed an issue where the AI didn't use tonnage modules, resulting in partially empty ships.
  • Fixed an issue where the number of turns, before a peace treaty was made available, was not saved. The peace treaty was then automatically available after loading a game.
  • Fixed an issue where the interception module still intercepted attacks even when the defense module had 0 in interception.
  • Fixed an issue where the game would hang when loading a game without available ship designs.


OTHER FIXES
  • Fixed an issue where Pilgrims' fleet errant wasn't concerned by faction traits that improve ships HP.
  • Fixed an issue where the scroll bar would overlap with the resources in the diplomatic negotiations screen.
  • Fixed application of approval bonus on improvement using percent.
  • Fixed an issue where loading a saved game could remove contracts for many empires.
  • Fixed an issue where creating an alliance did not spread the cease fire status across the allied factions.
  • Fixed an issue where the beginning of a cease fire wasn't synchronized for all allies.
  • Fixed an issue where infinite improvements in the queue could prevent using over production stacking.
  • Fixed an issue where after invading a system with infinite improvement buildings, the modifier stayed active until the end of the game.
  • Fixed an issue where diplomatic status resolution wasn't correctly done in an alliance vs alliance situation.
  • Fixed an issue where the worst diplomatic status wasn't correctly spread when one of the 2 allies didn't know the third empire.
  • Fixed an issue where the AI lost use of some of its fleets, leaving them unattended in a system.
  • Fixed several GUI issues.
  • Fixed several localization issues.
  • Fixed several text issues.