Hi guys,


Endless Space’s first add-on, “Rise of the Automatons”, will bring some new features such as the Alliance System, Trade Routes, Galaxy Balancing, and of course, the Automatons custom faction. You probably remember the lore, our community member Panzer wrote for the Faction Creation Competition. But, here is a focus on the Automatons’ gameplay: what is their affinity, which changes to expect in the GUI, and do they have special buildings?


Focus: The Automatons

Affinity
[LIST=1]
  • At the end of the turn, if there is an overproduction, it is actually stacked instead of being reported.
  • At the beginning of a turn, an interest is applied to the stacked Industry, allowing it to increase a bit.
  • The stacked industry is capped at X * system’s Industry.
  • If the overproduction cannot be stacked, it’s saved for the next turn like the current mechanism.
  • When the automatons build improvements & ships, the Industry is used in the following order:
    • System’s Industry
    • Overproduction
    • Stacked Industry
  • When a system from the Automaton is invaded, the stacked industry is destroyed and reset to 0, even if the invader is an Automaton.
    • [/LIST]

    GUI
    The stacked industry is displayed thanks to a gauge with two numbers, each of them representing:
    [LIST=1]
  • Current stacked Industry.
  • Max stackable Industry.
    • [/LIST]

    Special Buildings
    [LIST=1]
  • Detecting its ships orbiting around a system in order to provide a bonus
  • Modifying the interest applied to the stacked Industry
  • Converting the stacked Industry into Defense.
    • [/LIST]


    Short focus: Custom Faction Affinity

    Indeed, we have also implemented a previous G2G vote: the ability to separate the custom faction affinity to the ship visuals. It has been often requested by the community so here you go:


    Custom faction screen


    We will tell you more about the changes in the Automatons' tech tree, the modding additions, the release date and maybe a guide written by our Game Designer, so you learn how to play the Automatons!

    ***


    Oh and before I forget, here's Ronan (Solentis) drawing the Automatons; We will publish their portrait soon!:


    By the way, he is wearing the official Endless Space T-shirt we have worn at Gamescom.