Hello there!

Today we have exciting news for all of you that are fans of the Endless Universe! Stephen Gaskell, one of our writers here at Amplitude, has been working on this project for several years, and it is SHOWTIME, it is time to introduce the novel, Shadow of the Endless.

It is the first novel that has been setin the Endless Universe, and today you can get this magnificent book! ✨


Daarkarrow: Stephen, I would love it if you could tell the players a bit more about who you are, the work you have done here at Amplitude, and well anything you want.

author lähetti viestin:

Stephen: Thanks, Daarkarrow! I’ve been with Amplitude over ten years now (wow, time flies!), working mainly on Endless projects like Endless Legend and Endless Space 2, but also on Amplitude’s entry into the historical strategy genre, Humankind. Science-fiction is my first love though—and the reason I ended up a games writer at Amplitude—so when the opportunity came up to write a novel set in the Endless universe I jumped at the chance. Space travel, precursor civilizations, and existential cosmic questions—all these things have fascinated me from my earliest years, and the Endless universe is the perfect backdrop to explore these elements!

Daarkarrow: Thanks for the introduction. I think players are eager to know a bit more about the book you have been writing, should we go straight to that?

author lähetti viestin:

Stephen: Let’s dive right in!

Daarkarrow: Okay Stephen, could you explain to us what Shadow of the Endless is about?

author lähetti viestin:

Stephen: Essentially, Shadow of the Endless is about a young Pilgrim named Sewa, who uncovers a plot to betray her people, resulting in a wild adventure across the galaxy. For those who don’t know, the Pilgrims are an offshoot of the United Empire, who fled into space in a dozen or so fleets when Emperor Zelevas sought to eradicate their Endless-worshipping religion. As a hunted people, the Pilgrims are constantly on the run, and as such, Sewa’s first duty is to her people’s survival. She wants to be a caver, but it seems fate has other ideas...

Daarkarrow: Okay so based on what I can see it is a sci-fi + adventure novel, right?

author lähetti viestin:

Stephen: Yes, exactly. Strange worlds, starships, weird and horrifying aliens. All the classic stuff. The novel delves deeper into many elements of the Endless universe, such as the nature of Dust, the inner workings of the Academy, and the United Empire homeworld, but at heart it’s a story about a young woman coming to terms with her place in the world (or galaxy!). If you like (or fear!) the idea of caving deep into subterranean places, the novel should give you a lot of feels too!

Daarkarrow: Amazing, thanks for the details!

As we all know you wanted to start reading it, no worries! We’ve prepared a small sample of the book so you can start having fun and get your eyes on the first pages while you wait for the book to arrive.
FREE to download in Games2Gether[community.amplitude-studios.com].

[community.amplitude-studios.com]
We know you are wondering “Okay but where can I get the book? I need it!”

The book is only available in English (we are checking other languages), but you will be able to get it in most countries, as the book is available on Amazon[mybook.to] (but do not hesitate to check other online retailers)

You can click on the banner to go to the retailer page[ampli.click]! 👇

[ampli.click]If you get to this point, Thanks for sticking with us! Now we’d like to take a moment to develop on the lore from the book and perhaps to present/reveal certain elements.


Daarkarrow: Stephen, since the book is based in the ENDLESS Universe, are we going to see some familiar factions in the story?

author lähetti viestin:

Stephen: Definitely. The main character, Sewa, hails from the Pilgrims, a high-tech, religious faction who are obsessed with the Endless, but remain in the cross-hairs of Emperor Zelevas’ United Empire who hunt down the Pilgrims ruthlessly. The novel features a lot of insights into both factions, and the eagle-eyed reader will spot many more characters of other factions who cross Sewa’s path during her adventures. A Niris commander working on behalf of the United Empire plays a key role.

Daarkarrow: For anyone new to the Endless Universe (or just less knowledge from Endless Space 2), here it is a quick synopsis of the factions Stephen just mentioned.


Daarkarrow: The Academy has a big role in the book. Players of Endless Space 2 might already know it, but for new readers and/or players, could you explain to them what it is?

author lähetti viestin:

Stephen: The Academy is a secretive organization led by a charismatic individual named Isyander St Shaiad. The central role of the Academy is to find and train those few individuals who have been altered by the mysterious substance known as Dust (and survived). The organization helps these "Heroes" to control and exploit the powers that Dust gives them, before sending them back out into the galaxy to work for client-empires. The Academy is an energetic political player on the galactic stage, and its fascination with Dust and the ancient Endless civilization leads it to a mastery of arcane knowledge.

Daarkarrow: We "discovered" the Academy in Endless Space 2, but didn’t go into much details. How does ‘Shadow of the Endless’ give us a deeper look at it?

author lähetti viestin:

Stephen: In ‘Shadow of the Endless’ readers will get a front-row seat view of the Academy from the inside, as one of Sewa’s companions takes her into the heart of the Harrow star-system where the famous Academy ‘pyramid-city’ is located. As well as wandering through the city, Sewa’s journey will also take her into the catacombs below...

---

It is time to close for today, as we could keep talking and talking about this book and the lore for quite a long time!

Do not hesitate to share with us (and Stephen), if you have any questions, or if there is anything you are curious about!

Have a nice day ^-^

---

We’ve prepared a quick FAQ, but if you have any other questions, we will do our best to answer them and I will include them here

• In which language is the book available?

  author lähetti viestin:

  The book is only available in English

• Do you have any plans to include additional languages?

  author lähetti viestin:

  We are first going into the English-speaking market, and we hope to have more exciting news to share in the future about potential additional languages.

• Is there a way I could get a signed book?

  author lähetti viestin:

  We are all chasing Stephen to get signed copies, you are not the only one! He will be participating in several Events in the UK to sign copies, but we will share more details on our social media channels.

• Will the book have an audio edition?

  author lähetti viestin:

  The Audio edition is confirmed! The team is working really hard to bring it as soon as possible.

Hello everybody, 

We've got truly exciting news for fans of Endless Space 2 today: The Nakalim are reawakening thanks to a new patch! We had received a lot of feedback about the Awakening DLC, both about the new gameplay features it adds and the faction featured in it: Many players felt that the content of this DLC did not live up to its promise, so we knew big changes had to be made. While we were working on that, we also took the opportunity to overhaul the balance of space combat. Some of you may have already been testing this on a beta branch, but the patch is now ready for full release so all our players can enjoy the many changes. 

Before we talk about the features of this patch, we want to take a moment to thank the people who helped us make this a reality. We contracted our VIPs Cyrob and CaptainCobbs to work on this patch, because we knew they understood the game at a deep level and were also familiar with the relevant community feedback. They in turn consulted ChaosWillRise and Frostgremlin for advice and help with the combat rebalance. 

Now, what does this new update bring to the game and to the Awakening DLC? Let's briefly cover some of the highlights (but the full patch notes are available for the curious at the end of this post): 



Reading the strategy discussions and feedback in our community, we could see that only a few combat strategies were considered powerful by experienced players. We want our players to feel like they can experiment with different approached to combat and adapt to their enemies, so we have made extensive changes to the balance of ships and modules to encourage more varied tactics and fleet compositions as well as strategic counterplay. You can find an extensive list of changes in the full patch notes, but here's a short summary of important changes: 

• Weapon and Defense modules were rebalanced, including a significant buff to shield capacities 
• Flak and missile fire rates were adjusted for better interactions between them 
• Special weapons (e.g. Swarm Missiles, Railguns) have been rebalanced so they should fill specialized niches 
• Support module have been rebalanced, including modules that can only be mounted on Coordinators or can only affect each flotilla once 
• Rebalanced battle tactics including new powerful but specialized tactics as curiosity rewards 

One common complaint about the Academy in the Awakening DLC was that they expand too quickly and interfere with your expansion by claiming systems and sieging yours. At the same time, their fleet was too powerful to pick a fight with them until later in the game. While many players disliked the impact this had on gameplay, some also felt it did not make narrative sense for Isyander's organization. With the Re-Awakening Update, we are introducing a few changes that should help players get their desired experience: 

• Academy fleets will no longer siege player systems while you are at neutral relations with them 
• The strength of Academy fleets now scaled with Academy level and starts much weaker than before 
• The Advanced Game Setup screen now includes a setting for how much the Academy will expand, from not at all to aggressively 
• The Academy Difficulty setting on the Advanced Game Setup screen has been expanded with an additional "Endless" level of difficulty 

For those players who enjoy the added challenge of dealing with the Academy, or who like the idea of more actively supporting or opposing Isyander's plans, we have also expanded the ways to interact with the Academy and rebalanced some of the roles. The key features of this change are: 

• Added new interactions with the Academy accessed on a separate screen: 
  • Earn favor with the Academy by donating during role assignment 
  • Nakalim may also donate systems to gain a lot of favor 
  • Spend favor to use various interactions, like requesting control of an Academy system 
  • Each faction also has access to one unique action 
• The Master of Dust has become the Legate: Declare Crusades against other empires to let other players attack them freely 

Given the feedback we have seen about the Nakalim, we realized that many players felt this faction was not living up to the promise of awakening an ancient empire. Dealing with their slow research was an uphill struggle, while the affinity did not provide many tools to compensate for this. To address this, we have expanded the Nakalim Affinity with new features that should improve the feeling of reclaiming old glory. Some of the core changes are: 

• The Last Empire: Nakalim now suffer a 50% penalty to planetary FIDS production by default, but this penalty can be removed by using relics to construct the Temple planetary improvement. With enough Temples, you will be able to construct Cathedrals of the Lost as system improvements, which give huge bonuses to the system and unlock Relic Slots for your empire that provide powerful boost. 
• Well-founded: The Nakalim begin the game with knowledge of their entire constellation (or a large radius on single-constellation maps) 
• Slumbering Ruins: You can find "Slumbering Ruins" that will give new colonies a big boost if awakened by a Nakalim player 
• Beliefs not Breakthroughs: This trait now allows you to trade technologies with other empires at increased cost, but science gained from ship destruction after battles is reduced. 
• Rebalancing: Various adjustments to faction traits used by the Nakalim, Nakalim-specific system improvements and hero skills, and the spawn distribution of relics 

Based on the feedback we got from our beta testers, we're confident that these changes will allow all our players to explore new battle tactics and fleet compositions, while enriching the experience of dealing with the Academy or restoring the ancient empire of the Nakalim. 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/392110/ENDLESS_Space_2/

To celebrate the release of this update, we are putting Endless Space 2, the Awakening DLC, and all other DLCs on sale! Now is a great time to round out your collection and explore these new options. 


Have fun, 

The Amplitude Team 

 

• Weapon/Defense/Support Module related changes: 
  • Defense module stats are rebalanced, and Shield Capacities are substantially buffed. 
  • Weapon DPS values, fire rates, effective ranges, Weapon Hull & Shield penetration values are tweaked. 
  • Strategic modules, EMP Weapons, Railguns, Swarm Missiles, Blast Effect Batteries, and Squadrons are adjusted in terms of their stats, effects, and use cases. 
  • Support modules are balanced, some are reworked, and new ones are added. Flotilla-wide effects are expanded. 
• Ship Hull changes: 
  • Ship Health, Hull weakness, and manpower capacities are adjusted. Carriers are significantly nerfed. 
  • Coordinator and Protector ship bonuses are significantly buffed, and new effects are added. 
  • Ship targeting priorities are changed and made visible in the ship design view under the ship "Role" UI. 
  • New Attacker and Protector Ship Hull Upgrades are added to the tech tree, increasing their module multiplier to x1.25 
• Battle Tactics changes: 
  • Battle Tactic effects, ranges, and tech stage placements are changed. Their UI is made to be more descriptive. 
  • New situational but powerful battle tactics and upgraded versions of existing tactics are added to the curiosity rewards. 
• Squadron changes: 
  • Squadron movement speeds are substantially buffed. 
  • Fixed squadrons dealing significantly more damage than intended 
  • Squadron stats are adjusted in line with new squadron roles: Light & Heavy Bombers, Interceptor & Strike Fighters. 
• Mechanics & Other Changes: 
  • Flak damage, Flak fire rate, and projectile health values are adjusted. Flak targeting orders are adjusted. Swarm missile, BEB, EMP missile, and normal missile fire rates are aligned. UI is updated to provide more information. 
  • Fixed Evasion: Evasion used to provide only half of the intended effect; now works correctly. 
  • Ship level-up effects are adjusted. 
  • Fixed ship experience on construction. 
  • New tags for modules are added: "Only once per ship" "Only once per flotilla" "Can only be used on Medium Support Ships" 
  • Curiosity rewards and drop rates have been rebalanced. 
  • Re-added removed technology "Vacuum Protection", moved the following items onto it: 
    • Advanced Explosive Drones (Empire Improvement)
      Increased bombardment damage from ground battle strategies 
    • Extreme Swarm Missile (module) 
    • EMP Disruption Field (module) 
    • Repulsive Plates (module)
  • "Weapon Interference Beam" unlock with either Advanced Game Theory or Tensor Algorithms 
  • "Shield Interference Missiles" unlock with either Advanced Fusion Power or Hyperium Magnetics 
  • Cleaver module has had its damage and manpower damage increased to match its tier 

 

• Reduced Academy Aggression 
  • Academy fleets no longer siege player colonies and outposts while at neutral relations 
  • Academy fleet power now scales with Academy level and starts much lower 
  • Introduced "Endless" Difficulty setting for the Academy 
  • Introduced "Academy Expansion" setting 
  • Adjusted the speed at which the Academy gains levels to better align with players 
• Introduced Academy Diplomacy 
  • Improve your relationship by donating during role assignment periods 
  • Nakalim gain favor by donating systems to the Academy 
  • Ask for favors at the cost of relations 
  • Each faction has access to one unique favor 
• Adjusted Legate role (formerly Master of Dust): can declare a Crusade against a player, which allows any other empire to attack their fleets regardless of their diplomatic relation. 
• Each major faction now has its own preferred Academy roles 
• Academy ship equipment and fleet strength have been entirely reworked 
• Ships loaned from the Academy are now prohibited from invading 

• Gameplay Affinity: The Last Empire 
  • -50% Base FIDS on Planets by default 
  • Can build Temples (Cost 1 Relic and 1 Turn), which remove the FIDS malus and convert Base Science into Influence. 
  • Systems that have temples on all planets can build a Cathedral (Cost 1120 Industry, no Relics), which provide the following bonuses on their system: 
    • +10% FIDSI 
    • +30% Influence Radius 
    • +5 Vision 
    • 5% Enemy Health damaged per turn of Fleets in Influence Radius 
    • 20% Friendly Health repaired per turn of Fleets in Influence Radius 
    • Increases number of total empire relics that can be allocated (See below) 
• Cathedrals provide empire relic slots, which provide powerful empire-wide bonuses and require multiple relics to activate. Any bonus may be activated at any time, but only one per Cathedral may be active. These replace Food/Industry/Dust/Influence relics, and are toggleable on / off. Empire relics focus on increasing one of the innate strengths of the Nakalim, with one changing based off of leading political party 
  • Exploration Slot - +25% Movement Point efficiency, +5 Vision Range on Fleets & Systems 
  • Expansion Slot - +1 Colonization Threshold per Cathedral, No disapproval from planet type on planets with temples 
  • Diplomacy Slot - provides a constant amount of minor faction relation and increased influence radius 
  • Political Slot: Get bonuses for all elected parties, but government types with fewer political parties get more powerful bonuses 
    • Industrialist - +50% Strategic Deposit Generation on Temples 
    • Scientist - +20 Dust, +10 Influence, +10 Manpower per Unassigned Relic 
    • Pacifist - +100% Trade Value on Systems with Cathedrals, +40% Fleet Health Regeneration in Friendly Territory, +20% Troop Health per Temple in System 
    • Ecologist - +100% Luxury Deposit Generation on Temples 
    • Religious – Heroes are earned faster and can be assigned outside of Borders 
    • Militarist - -20% retrofit Dust cost, Fleets can be retrofitted outside of Friendly Territory 
• Can assign a relic to a hero, which provides the following bonuses (you can no longer assign multiple relics to a hero, the effect is now binary): 
  • +25% XP on Hero 
  • +50% Hero Recovery Rate 
  • +10% FIDSI on Fervent, +5 Approval per Temple on System 
  • +10% Fleet Health, +10% Fleet Damage, +10% Fleet Evasion, +10% Fleet Shields 
• Unassigned relics generate 50 science, can be upgraded via empire improvements 
• Adjusted relic spawning formulas to respawn them once they reach a certain threshold and to focus their spawning location on getting further and further, eventially stopping near the middle of the galaxy. 
• Trait: Beliefs not Breakthroughs 
  • Planets do not generate science 
  • Systems only produce half science 
  • Science gained from battle rewards is halved 
  • Technologies can be traded at higher than normal cost 
• Trait: Forgotten Lore 
  • Technologies granted by Forgotten Lore now do not reduce the Sophon research bonus 
  • Created a lower level version of Forgotten Lore that only unlocks tier 1 technologies 
• New Trait: Slumbering Ruins 
  • Some systems will be marked as Slumbering Ruins per Nakalim player. These systems are marked to all Nakalim players, and retain their status even if colonized by another empire or obliterated (though, owned by another player it needs to first be conquered, or if obliterated it needs to be repaired). 
  • The system can be awakened from its dormant state by colonizing it. 
  • Awakening a Slumbering Ruin provides a small amount of Major Population, a few early game buildings (if not already constructed), and a temporary flat FIDSI bonus. 
  • Once Awakened, a system cannot be reawakened by another Nakalim player, but all Nakalim players can see that it was reawakened. 
• New trait: Well Founded 
  • Starts with the area around them revealed (Starting constellation on non-unique galaxies, radius of systems around them on unique galaxies) 
• Trait: Apathetic Colonists 
  • Outposts generate 25% less food 
  • Colonies ship 25% less food to outposts 
• Systems can now be gifted to the Academy as an invasion outcome 
• Added an "Align" Minor Faction interaction that allows "vassalizing" a minor faction 
• Nakalim heroes: Rebalanced most skills 
• Nakalim Population 
  • +2 Approval (+1 Approval Spliced) 
  • +2 FIDSI on Happy (+0.5 FIDSI Spliced) 
  • Collection Bonuses 
    • 10 Population: Boosts Religious politics 
    • 20 Population: +10 Approval on systems with Nakalim 
    • 50 Population: Unlocks a new offensive and defensive ground battle strategy 
  • Politics: Religious, Relativist (Science -> Religious), Utopian (Industrial -> Ecologist) 
• Xirmisala Population 
  • +1 Food 
  • +4 Dust on Happy 
  • Collection Bonuses 
    • 10 Population: Boosts Religious politics 
    • 20 Population: +10% Dust on systems with Xirmisala 
    • 50 Population: Unlocks the Dust Dowsing Law 
  • Politics: Religious, Relativist (Science -> Religious), Utopian (Industrial -> Ecologist) 
• Relics can now be collected while a fleet is cloaked 
• Nakalim now start with a colonizer and 2 explorers 

 

• Adding new modifier operations, Minimum & Maximum 
• Increased the ability of modders to change Academy diplomacy, AI, ship spawns, etc. 
• Exposed multiple new formulas in the registry, along with the ability to revert the academy back to using "stress" instead of relying on academy levels 

 

• Slightly increased infantry health and damage 
• Unfallen now start with an additional vineship 
• Influence conversion unlock tech has been moved to T2 Empire Development 
• Explorer hull upgrade tech has been moved to T2 Science and Exploration 
• Reduced the military support requirement of the Sophons Quest "Chapter 2. Seeding the Cloud - Part 1" and the "Masters of the Arena" quests so that they were reasonably achievable 
• Changed screen placement of several T3 &T4 Military technologies (no gameplay changes) 
• Clarified some confusing tooltips 
• Dust Bonanza no longer has an upkeep cost 
• Denarque University industry cost reduced by 2/3 
• Improved AI from using some incorrect module combinations 

 

• Battle Result Notifications no longer block the turn, while keeping the big stability improvement that originally caused this issue (Note: This fix works for Single Player and Multiplayer hosts only, but not Multiplayer clients, who will still need to dismiss the battle report notification to let the end turn progress) 
• The Academy's aggression & power level scaling has been fixed 
• Isolated systems are no longer blocked from being colonized by the quest Death Without a Corpse 
• Horatio's Main Quest: Chapter 2 (Industrialist) will no longer get stuck if another empire destroys the fleets (It will complete) 
• Relics gained from converting will always be 2, it is no longer scaled by gamespeed which resulted in 1.33 relics on slow 
• Quest "Forged in Battle" Now is 25-55 turns instead of 10-70 by galaxy size 
• System Trade Value no longer scales with Game Speed 
• The mining probe lifetime of multiple Behemoth modules is no longer additive, now taking the highest instead 
• Influence gained from Lumeris pop bonus is now shown in the Empire Influence tooltip 
• Unfallen Terraform Options (Hot types to Forest) now use the forest art (previously all were Savannah) 
• Optics Research Lab's yield is now shown in the System Science Tooltip 
• All Singularities now affect heroes as intended 
• The Diagnostics.xml file should no longer be filled with errors if the Nakalim main menu screen is displayed 
• Fixed Nakalim being after the Umbral Choir in the faction selection 
• Behemoths no longer shown under Faction Hulls for every faction 
• Capped many cost reductions from reaching 0% 
• GasWarm now has the Temperate tag 
• Fixed Custom Umbral Shadows not having GUI Elements 
• Fixed Influence Radius flickering and huge influence border growth projects 
• Fixed many slots on Academy ships not functioning properly 
• Fixed Behemoth Mining not properly transferring its FIDSI to your planets 
• Fixed some icons some icons appearing as much lower resolution than they should 
• Fixed malus for missing colonization tech not showing up in planet FIDSI breakdowns 
• Fixed some empire relic effects not toggling correctly 
• Fix miscellaneous tooltips from not showing up properly / being duplicated 
• Fixed starting Behemoth modules not unlocking when you research the Behemoth hull technology 
• Fixed Bait / Jammer modules not correctly applying movement effect 
• Added missing EmpireAttitude localization strings 
• Adding missing warning strings 
• Fixed many typos 
• Fixed Hero Skill GUI showing an incorrect amount of available relics 
• FIDSI per Population bonuses on Planets no longer appear as though they are giving you a large percentage 
• Fixed Aligning a minor faction not failing any assimilation quests associated with it 
• Fixing colonization module tooltip appearing in the incorrect category 
• Fixed some modules appearing as though they require a different strategic resource in the tech tree 
• Minor factions can no longer run out of quests to give 
• Fixed brainwashed faction still allowing their boosts to be used 
• Fixed terraformation not showing difference between planet FIDSI 

Hello everyone!
Thanks to all of you that has been around playing the beta version and giving feedback.

If it is the first time you heard about this Patch. Here you have the first blog that contains a general idea about it.

Today we have an update to the build that brings a lot of changes.

• Ruins can no longer spawn on Minor Faction systems, their spawn ranges have been tweaked to be more fair.
  
• Slightly increased infantry health and damage
  
• Xirmisala assimilation traits and law have been reworked
  
• Relics can now be collected while a fleet is cloaked
  
• Diplomacy relic effect has been entirely replaced due to community feedback. Now provides a constant amount of minor faction relation and increased influence radius
  
• Added new Nakalim minor faction interaction, Align
  
• Nakalim politics have been adjusted
  
• Nakalim now start with a colonizer
  
• Unfallen now start with an additional vineship
  
• Cathedrals now damage enemies within their system's influence radius
  
• Each major faction now has its own preferred Academy roles
  
• Added an "Academy Expansion" slider
  
• Added Endless difficulty for the "Academy Difficulty" slider
  
• Ships loaned from the Academy are now prohibited from invading
  
• Influence conversion unlock tech has been moved to T2 Empire Development
  
• Explorer hull upgrade tech has been moved to T2 Science and Exploration
  
• Academy ship equipment and fleet strength have been entirely reworked
  
• Increased the rate at which the Academy levels up to more match player progression
  
• The "Master of Dust" role has been replaced with the "Legate", which has the primary benefit of choosing a faction to declare a Crusade against, which allows any other empire to attack their fleets regardless of their diplomatic relation.

• Academy now has its own diplomacy screen, accessible by clicking on the icon above their systems or by the Academy button in the diplomacy menu.
  
• Factions who participate in the Academy auction will receive an amount of relation points, which can be redeemed for a selection of favors from the Academy.
  
• The Nakalim may donate systems to the Academy for a large amount of academy relation. They also have a new faction trait with grants a variety of Academy-related bonuses
  
• Each faction has a unique favor they may ask the Academy for.

• Adding new modifier operations, Minimum & Maximum
  
• Vastly increased the ability of modders to change Academy diplomacy, AI, ship spawns, etc.
  
• Multiple new formulas exposed in the registry, along with the ability to revert the academy back to using "stress" instead of relying on academy levels

On the combat and game balance side of the changes, ChaosWillRise provides the following breakdown of goals & changes.

“The most prominent combat-related problems known in ES2 can be summarized as:

1. The discrepancy between the effective defensive capabilities provided by Shields & Plating modules, and the resulting unilateral play style.
   
2. The lack of fleet composition variety in terms of ship types, their amounts, and the individual builds of the ships.
   
3. The lack of countermeasures against specialized fleets (EMP, Critical Strike, Squadron, Carrier)

The patch aims to address these major issues, and by doing so, hopes to revitalize the untapped parts of the combat system and enable the experimentation of different play styles. It balances existing modules, ships, battle tactics, and many other combat-related components, enabling even deeper gameplay. It also fixes some of the faulty mechanics and makes the UI more descriptive. Thus, players who desire to dive deeper, can understand the meaning behind the numbers and better strategize. On top of that, it adds new battle tactics, new modules, new unlocks, curiosity discoveries, and rearranges combat-related technologies. Have fun exploring!”

• Defense module stats are rebalanced, and Shield Capacities are substantially buffed.
  
• Weapon DPS values, fire rates, effective ranges, Weapon Hull & Shield penetration values are tweaked.
  
• Strategic modules, EMP Weapons, Railguns, Swarm Missiles, Blast Effect Batteries, and Squadrons are adjusted in terms of their stats, effects, and use cases.
  
• Support modules are balanced, some are reworked, and new ones are added. Flotilla-wide effects are expanded.

• Ship Health, Hull weakness, and manpower capacities are adjusted. Carriers are significantly nerfed.
  
• Coordinator and Protector ship bonuses are significantly buffed, and new effects are added.
  
• Ship targeting priorities are changed and made visible in the ship design view under the ship “Role” UI.
  
• New Attacker and Protector Ship Hull Upgrades are added to the tech tree, increasing their module multiplier to x1.25

• Battle Tactic effects, ranges, and tech stage placements are changed. Their UI is made to be more descriptive.
  
• New situational but powerful battle tactics and upgraded versions of existing tactics are added to the curiosity rewards.

• Squadron movement speeds are substantially buffed.
  
• Squadron stats are adjusted in line with new squadron roles: Light & Heavy Bombers, Interceptor & Strike Fighters.

• Flak damage, Flak fire rate, and projectile health values are adjusted. Flak targeting orders are adjusted. Swarm missile, BEB, EMP missile, and normal missile fire rates are aligned. UI is updated to provide more information.
  
• Evasion used to provide only half of the intended effect, now works correctly.
  
• Ship level-up effects are adjusted. Ship experience on construction now works correctly.
  
• New tags for modules are added: “Only once per ship” “Only once per flotilla” “Can only be used on Medium Support Ships”
  Curiosity rewards and drop rates are reworked.

---

• Fixed Influence Radius flickering and huge influence border growth projects
  
• Fixed building a Cathedral putting you over the production limit
  
• Fixed many slots on Academy ships not functioning properly
  
• Fixed Behemoth Mining not properly transferring its FIDSI to your planets
  
• Fixed some new content missing their images
  
• Fixed some icons some icons appearing as much lower resolution than they should
  
• Fixed Nakalim planet FIDS malus not applying
  
• Fixed malus for missing colonization tech not showing up in planet FIDSI breakdowns
  
• Fixed some empire relic effects not toggling correctly
  
• Fix miscellaneous tooltips from not showing up properly / being duplicated
  
• Fixed some new tooltips having variables that do not resolve
  
• Fixed starting Behemoth modules not unlocking when you research the Behemoth hull technology

---

---

• Reduced the military support requirement of the Sophons Quest "Chapter 2. Seeding the Cloud - Part 1" and the "Masters of the Arena" quests so that they were reasonably achievable
  
• Re-added removed technology "Vacuum Protection", moved the following items onto it:
  
  • Advanced Explosive Drones (Empire Improvement)
    
  • Increased bombardment damage from ground battle strategies
    
  • Extreme Swarm Missile (module)
    
  • EMP Disruption Field (module)
    
  • Repulsive Plates (module)
• Moved "Weapon Interference Beam" to Advanced Game Theory
  
• Made "Shield Interference Slugs" exclusive to Tensor Algorithms
  
• Moved several technologies around in T3 &T4 Military (This has no effect on gameplay)
  
• Clarified some confusing tooltips
  
• Dust Bonanza no longer has an upkeep cost
  
• Denarque University industry cost reduced by 2/3
  
• Decreased speed at which the Academy ranks up
  
• Cleaver module has had its damage and manpower damage increased to match its tier
  
• Improved AI from using some incorrect module combinations

• Fixed the game crashing if you don't have Awakening enabled
  
• Fixed Bait / Jammer modules not correctly applying movement effect
  
• Fixed Nakalim Ground Strategy variants missing images
  
• Fixed Nakalim Relic Boost missing image
  
• Added missing EmpireAttitude localization strings
  
• Adding missing warning strings
  
• Fixed many typos
  
• Fixed Hero Skill GUI showing an incorrect amount of available relics
  
• Fixed building a Cathedral not always unlocking the appropriate slot
  
• Fixed only the first two relic slots being able to be unlocked
  
• Academy Expansion: None setting now functions properly
  
• Fixed temples not showing the correct turn count in the construction queue
  
• Increased scroll speed in Academy Diplomacy
  
• Toggling the Empire Relic now updates the Empire UI Screen
  
• Fixed Unfallen not having the Influence Conversion technology
  
• FIDSI per Population bonuses on Planets no longer appear as though they are giving you a large percentage
  
• Fixed Aligning a minor faction not failing any assimilation quests associated with it
  
• Fixing colonization module tooltip appearing in the incorrect category
  
• Fixed some modules appearing as though they require a different strategic resource in the tech tree
  
• Minor factions can no longer run out of quests to give
  
• Fixed brainwashed faction still allowing their boosts to be used
  
• Fixed terraformation not showing delta between planet FIDSI

Captain Cobbs lähetti viestin:

Captain Cobbs: We are testing the effects of allowing every faction to grow multiple population each turn, feedback and bug reports are appreciated.

You can access this beta version by going to to the Betas tab of the game properties on Steam and choosing the patchpreview branch. If you try the beta, please make sure you have disabled all mods. (If you previously used a mod that adds additional options to the new game settings, make sure to return to settings available in the base game before turning off the mod.)

Thanks to CaptainCobbs, Cyrob and the rest of the team for the amazing work they are doing on this patch!

Do not hesitate to share any additional feedback you have!

Hello everybody!


We've got one last surprise for you for this Endless Summer: A beta for an upcoming Endless Space 2 patch.

As we mentioned during Amplified, we have contracted our VIPs CaptainCobbs and Cyrob to help us improve Endless Space 2 and the Awakening DLC in particular according to the feedback from the community. We have been working on this for some time, but so far only a beta version of the bugfixes had been available. Now, we're finally ready to release a beta of some of the upcoming design and balance changes, and we're eager to hear what you think.


You can access this beta version by opening the game's properties on Steam, going to the Betas tab, and selecting the PatchPreview beta branch.

Please be aware that this is a work in progress. Some changes may be incomplete, and several will have UI errors, including missing localization (though most string names should explain what the effects do). These will be addressed for the official release, but as we want your feedback on the new Nakalim, we did not want to delay this beta.


Here's a summary of what you can find in this version:


Note: For many of these changes, localization has not been done yet, so they may display localization keys instead of localized text


The Academy will no longer siege your systems while you have neutral relations with them, and their fleets should now be smaller and less aggressive in the early game, as we fixed a bug with the scaling of academy "stress" across the game.


The Nakalim have been changed significantly to alleviate some of the aspects our players found frustrating and put them on a more even playing field to other factions across the game, while trying to maintain their theme of an ancient empire reclaiming their lost knowledge and holdings.

• -50% Base FIDS on Planets by default
• Can build Temples (Cost 1 Relic and 1 Turn), which remove the FIDS malus and convert Base Science into Influence.
• Systems that have temples on all planets can build a Cathedral (Cost 1120 Industry, no Relics), which provide the following bonuses on their system:
  • +10% FIDSI
  • +30% Influence Radius
  • +5 Vision
  • 5% Enemy Health damaged per turn of Fleets in Influence Radius
  • 20% Friendly Health repaired per turn of Fleets in Influence Radius
  • Increases number of total empire relics that can be allocated
• Cathedrals provide empire relic slots, which provide powerful empire-wide bonuses and require multiple relics to activate. Any bonus may be activated at any time, but only one per Cathedral may be active. These replace Food/Industry/Dust/Influence relics, and are toggleable on / off. Empire relics focus on increasing one of the innate strengths of the Nakalim, with one changing based off of leading political party
  • Exploration Slot - +25% Movement Point efficiency, +25% Vision Range on Fleets & Ships
  • Expansion Slot - +1 Colonization Threshold per Cathedral, No disapproval from planet type on planets with temples
  • Diplomacy Slot - Increased bonus from Co-Operative Protocol, Can use all minor faction boosts regardless of personality type
  • Political Slot: Get bonuses for all elected parties, but government types with fewer political parties get more powerful bonuses
    • Industrialist - +50% Strategic Deposit Generation on Temples
    • Scientist - +20 Dust, +10 Influence, +10 Manpower per Unassigned Relic
    • Pacifist - Systems with Cathedrals are counted as having subsidiaries. If that system already has a subsidiary, then it has x1.5 trade value.
    • Ecologist - +50% Luxury Deposit Generation on Temples
    • Religious - Heroes can be assigned outside of Borders
    • Militarist - Fleets can be retrofitted outside of Friendly Territory
• Can assign a relic to a hero, which provides the following bonuses (you can no longer assign multiple relics to a hero, the effect is now binary):
  • +25% XP on Hero
  • +50% Hero Recovery Rate
  • +10% FIDSI on Fervent, +5 Approval per Temple on System
  • +10% Fleet Health, +10% Fleet Damage, +10% Fleet Evasion, +10% Fleet Shields
• Unassigned relics generate 50 science, can be upgraded via empire improvements
• Adjusted relic spawning formulas to respawn them once they reach a certain threshold and to focus their spawning location on getting further and further, eventially stopping near the middle of the galaxy.

• Starts with the area around them revealed (Starting constellation on non-unique galaxies, radius of systems around them on unique galaxies)

• Default Forgotten Lore trait remains unchanged: Starts with first 2 tiers of techs researched, Sophons not affected
• Added an alternate "Forgotten Lore" trait that only unlocks the first tier to be used by custom factions

• Planets do not generate science
• all science improvements are 50% less effective
• Trading technologies with other empires is possible but very expensive
• -50% Science per CP from Scrapping

• Two systems will be marked as Slumbering Ruins per Nakalim player. These systems are marked to all Nakalim players, and retain their status even if colonized by another empire or obliterated (though, owned by another player it needs to first be conquered, or if obliterated it needs to be repaired).
• The system can be awakened from its dormant state via some sort of fleet action that takes 8 turns, or an influence constructible if the system is already colonized.
• Awakening a Slumbering Ruin provides a small amount of Major Population, a few early game buildings (if not already constructed), and a temporary flat FIDSI bonus for about 10 turns.
• Once Awakened, a system cannot be reawakened by another Nakalim player, but all Nakalim players can see that it was reawakened.
• Slumbering Ruins systems are specially targeted by quest rewards, temples, and cathedrals (we'll decide on the bonuses later).

• Outposts generate 25% less food and are shipped 25% less

• All but one hero skill have been adjusted

• Population Trait: Fervent Diligence
  • Primary: +2 Approval (+1 Approval Spliced)
  • Secondary: +2 FIDSI on Happy (+0.5 FIDSI Spliced)
• Collection Bonuses not implemented yet
• Politics
  • Religious
  • Anti-Scientist
  • Preservationists (Militarist -> Ecologist)

• Starts with Xirmisala citizens
• Xirmisala Traits
  • Primary: +1 Food
  • Secondary: +4 Dust on Happy
• Collection Bonus and Assimilation Traits not implemented yet
• Politics:
  • Religious
  • Anti-Scientific
  • Pious (Pacifist->Religious)

• Battle Result Notifications no longer block the turn, while keeping the big stability improvement that originally caused this issue (Note: This fix works for Single Player and Multiplayer hosts only, but not Multiplayer clients, who will still need to dismiss the battle report notification to let the end turn progress)
• The Academy's aggression & power level now starts at 0 and grows slower, before it started out near or above max due to the galaxy generation process triggering it
• Isolated systems are no longer blocked from being colonized by the quest Death Without a Corpse
• Horatio's Main Quest: Chapter 2 (Industrialist) will no longer get stuck if another empire destroys the fleets (It will complete)
• Relics gained from converting will always be 2, it is no longer scaled by gamespeed which resulted in 1.33 relics on slow
• Quest "Forged in Battle" Now is 25-55 turns instead of 10-70 by galaxy size
• System Trade Value no longer scales with Game Speed
• The mining probe lifetime of multiple Behemoth modules is no longer additive, now taking the highest instead
• Influence gained from Lumeris pop bonus is now shown in the Empire Influence tooltip
• Unfallen Terraform Options (Hot types to Forest) now use the forest art (previously all were Savannah)
• Optics Research Lab's Yield is now shown in the System Science Tooltip
• All Singularities now affect heroes as intended
• The Diagnostics.xml file should no longer be filled with errors if the Nakalim main menu screen is displayed
• Fixed Nakalim being after the Umbral Choir in the faction selection
• Behemoths no longer shown under Faction Hulls for every faction
• Capped many cost reductions from reaching 0%
• GasWarm now has the Temperate tag
• Fixed Custom Umbral Shadows not having GUI Elements

There are some other changes we want to make, but which were not ready in time for this beta. Nonetheless, we'd like to give you an overview of what we're working on:

• Adjusted Academy Roles
• Nerfed fleet for the Spear, including inability to invade systems
• New "Rally" system defense strategy for ground battles
• Nakalim Specific Science System Improvements
• Nakalim Quest Rebalance (Objectives and Rewards)
• New Nakalim Population Collection Bonus: 1. +Religious, 2. +15 Approval, 3. Improved Orbital Bombardment strategy, Improved Rally strategy
• New Xirmisala Population Collection Bonus: 1. +Religious, 2.+15% Dust on Systems, 3. Collection Law - Dust Sensitive: Reveals Arcane Curiosities, which when searched will provide a large amount of Dust
• New Xirmisala Assimilation Traits

Once we are satisfied with the changes to the Nakalim and the Academy, we would also like to examine the combat system and the economy to see what needs rebalancing. However, we will need to assess if we will have the capacity and time to do this once the Awakening improvements are finished, so this more general balancing pass may not happen.

We hope you'll enjoy playing with the new Nakalim, even if we have more changes in store for them and the Academy, and look forward to hearing your feedback.

It is the second day of Amplified and it is time to go with Endless Day. Today we have quite a few news, but perhaps the most notable will be the beginning of Pre-Orders on Endless Dungeon.


We know most of you have been reading the different Endless Space 2 Stories that we have been publishing in the reward section. But we didn’t want to stop it there.


That is why we have partnered with the publisher, Titan Comics, to have a physical edition which will contain all the Endless™ Space 2: Stories, that will be releasing on the 7th of March. Apart from the stories, this edition will bring more lore and some “behind the scenes” of the design.

If you are interested and wanted to pre-order it you should check Amazon, or if you are in the UK you can go to Forbidden Planet.

Now that we are talking about Endless Space 2... Super excited to announce that we are working with some members of the community on a patch for Endless Space 2, with a focus on the last DLC, Awakening, and some bug fixing and balance. Keep an eye as we might release a Beta, Soon™, for you to try the different changes and get extra feedback on it.



Yes! It has been a long time, and we want to finally share with you that the release date for Endless Dungeon will be 18th of May 2023

With that wonderful news we wanted to start the pre-orders today, which will grant you access to a closed OpenDev, “Final Rodeo”, for the next 10 days, until the 30th of January, to try new things, compared to the latest “Second Chance” OpenDev.

What a trailer, I got goosebumps. I know... I am biased because I am working here... perhaps ?

So before we go into the details, to get access to the “Final Rodeo” you will need to preorder the digital Last Wish Edition. At the end of the blog we will explain in more detail all the different editions.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1485590/ENDLESS_Dungeon/

I know a lot of you will be asking what content will be available on "Final Rodeo", here you have it:

• New Boss: Yes, you can meet the Shelldiver (where? Well, we will let you discover it). What about the previous boss, Bug Momma? You already, more or less, know how to handle survive her.
• New Hero: Meet Comrade (the Gunsmith):
• Passive: Can heal generators and research machines
• Active: Place the Gunny turret (neutral damage). No turret slot needed
• Ultimate: Gunsmith becomes the Smith gun. Immovable, his weapon switches to a heavy-neutral damage- gun with high knockback
Apart from the Gunsmith, you can play Bunker, Blaze and Shroom. Zed is taking a nap right now.
• New event, the blackout: during your runs you may find some terminals (max 2), with which you can interact to get extra science. But once you have discovered two, it could happen that the entire district gets dark, and you will have to go back to those terminals to hack them to restore the electricity
• New languages (Ohhh Yeah!!): most parts of the game will be available in > English, French, German, Spanish, Polish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese
• New weapons, hero chips, beverages etc.

Here is all the different content that will be available in the digital editions on PC and the physical edition (pre-orders will start Soon™), which will include an exclusive card game and the digital art book.
Note that to get access to the closed OpenDev "Final Rodeo": It will be available only with the PC Last Wish Digital Edition.


We wanted to take the opportunity to remind you of the different rewards that started alongside Amplified 2023.

• We are giving Dungeon of the Endless, DOTE (while supplies last) for FREE + the DLC, Deep Freeze
• IF you are subscribed to our newsletter, you will get the DLC, Deep Freeze for DOTE
• We are have some Stretch goals[community.amplitude-studios.com] going on with you, the community, with quite a few interesting rewards, such as the Hero Creation for Endless Dungeon, Rescue Team DLC on DOTE or the Lost Symphony Soundtrack for ES2

You can claim the different rewards here[www.games2gether.com].

That’s All Folks, hope you are excited about everything that is happening in the Endless Universe, but hey, we will have more exciting news prepared for you this year.

- The AmpliTeam

Hola / Hello

Today we have short news for you, next week we will have Amplified, which is our Studio Anniversary. During these 3 days (from the 18th - 20th of January), we will be streaming content about all of our games.

What can I say about it? You don't want to miss it, there will be some interesting news!

See you next week,
The AmpliTeam

Amplified may be coming to an end, but there's still time to talk about the Endless! Space, Legends, and Dungeons, you name it, we got it all for you today:



You've seen her in previous trailers, and you've voted on her nickname, but today we want to take a closer look at Zed, and how she ended up on this blasted station:


We're sure crashing into an Endless wreck wasn't the end she had in mind when rocking out. Maybe she'd be better off with a different style of music? Well, it's up to you, in our new vote on an alternate skin for Zed:


[www.games2gether.com]Being stuck in deep space isn't for everybody. For those looking for a more grounded experience, we're releasing the https://humankind.mod.io/official-endless-mod, a cross-over putting the Endless Universe in Humankind. It was worth the wait, as the mod is full of new content:

• 32 events
• 30 illustrations
• 2 civics
• 2 technologies
• 4 infrastructures
• 1 district
• 2 national projects
• 1 artificial wonder

And best of all, if you finish a game with this mod, you will unlock none other than Horatio as a persona!


Of course, Humankind fans may not have experienced the perfection of Horatio before, so they might not know what all the fuss is about...

Well, great news: From now until Monday at 7pm, all the Endless games are free to try on Steam! So if you haven't played them before, give them a spin. You'll even contribute to our community challenge and unlock more rewards for Humankind.



For our fans of Endless Legend, we got a double treat: The Official Auriga map, and the Official Auriga Map! Wait...

No, that's right, we got not one, but two versions of the official Auriga Map for you! We're happy to present you the official Auriga map for Humankind, courtesy of our VIP PangolinAdvisor and https://humankind.mod.io/official-auriga-map! We look forward to hearing your tales of human history on Auriga, though if you're just looking for a map to stick on your desktop, or to use in your RPG campaign, a high resolution map of Auriga is now also available in the rewards section[www.games2gether.com]!




[humankind.mod.io] [www.games2gether.com]Finally, we got the final entry in the Endless Space 2 Stories: Marusia's Prayer. Witness the fall of the Nakalim empire and their young heir's fateful bid to save her people. Check it out in the rewards section.


[www.games2gether.com]We hope you had fun with Amplified 2022 and all the new rewards!

- The Amplitude Team

Let's get this party started!

We're here to celebrate Amplitude Studios: 11 years, 5 games, and an amazing community! Over the next few days, we'll be adding more rewards to Games2gether for all of you to enjoy, hang out with you and our guests on Twitch, and even pose a couple of challenges to you!


Speaking of challenges, like almost every year, we are holding another Community Challenge for the duration of Amplified: From now until Monday, January 24th, 7PM CET, every match you start in Humankind, Endless Legend, or Endless Space 2 will count towards unlocking additional Humankind rewards for all players. The first reward is a set of player emblems inspired by African cultures, and further rewards will be revealed as we get closer to unlocking them. The final two rewards in particular are quite interesting. All rewards unlocked in this community challenge will be added to the game when they are ready at a later date.


In the meantime, we have several other rewards for you to enjoy:

The beautiful Amplified keyart is available in various formats for use as a wallpaper, from your desktop to your phone or perhaps your social media banners. This time, we even have an animated version for your phone!

You can also unlock a new Cultural Wonder for Humankind right now, the Great Zimbabwe! To claim it, you need to subscribe to the Amplitude newsletter[account.games2gether.com] (or already be subscribed), then go to your rewards page[www.games2gether.com] and redeem this reward to add this wonder to your game.


Finally, and perhaps most exciting, we have a giveaway courtesy of our colleagues at Relic: Company of Heroes 2 for Steam! The ultimate WWII RTS platform, the base game gives you access to two classic multiplayer armies from the Eastern Front: the Red Army (SOV) and the Wehrmacht Ostheer (GER), as well as an epic single-player campaign that will familiarize you with the classic Company of Heroes gameplay experience. This offer is only valid while supplies last, though, so don't sleep on it!


[www.games2gether.com]That's all for today, but come back tomorrow for Humankind Day, with news about the future of Humankind, community challenges, and more!

At Amplified back in late January, we announced 2 new DLCs for the Endless Universe games, Dark Matter for Endless Space 2 and Monstrous Tales for Endless Legend. Unfortunately, we had to shift their release back twice for various reasons, but today both DLCs are ready to be played, alongside some new free content!



So, what do you get with Dark Matter?

A heap of new quests exploring some of the more surreptitious elements active in the Endless Galaxy. Face the threat to your wealth posed by the Autonomous Bastards Collective. Get involved in the machinations of the Academy and its heroes. Race to uncover the secrets of an ancient Endless superweapon, before somebody else gets a hold of it and tries to point it at you. This, and more, awaits you in about a dozen new quests, including one new multi-chapter quest, with stunning new art.

For the release of this new DLC, pretty much all other Endless content is 75% off, so if you are missing anything in your collection, now’s a great time to grab it!



Even if you don’t pick up the new (or any of the old) DLCs, we still got some new content for you to enjoy: The pug hero!

Sbejru Mashmir follows a long line of pugs in Endless games, and an even longer line of Aurigan pugs, tracing all the way back to the famous Ayairi Whairydd of Dungeon of the Endless fame. Your star systems will be in good paws under her oversight, but be careful not to cross her: She knows how to use that hammer for more than just construction.


The free update also includes the Tech Tree Lore Rewrite (currently only in English; other localizations will be patched in later), and from here we will move to try addressing several issues with the game and specifically with Awakening:

• Battle Result Notifications stopping the turn from ending without reminding the player they are a notification that needs to be manually dismissed
• The Academy Fleets (both offensive and defensive) do not scale with game speed and progress as intended
• Effect stacking issues like Mining Probes and Backdoors
• Academy fleets sieging player systems while at neutral relations
• Diplomatic messages (e.g. Forced Truce) can be ignored by minimizing and ending the turn

We may not be able to address all of these for the next (non-localization) patch, but we will endeavor to fix as many issues raised by the community as we can.


In the meantime, have fun with the new content!