The Steam Winter Sale is here and we salute all you deal hunters who’ve held out until the end of 2023 to pick up games you’ve had your eye on. The ROCKFISH Games team is about to head off for a much-deserved winter break. Before we go, we wanted to share a studio update!

This year has had us busy! After more than two years in Early Access, EVERSPACE 2 launched on PC to critical and community acclaim and we followed shortly on consoles. The Armed & Dangerous Update made news and super-fans fell in love with our digital artbook and soundtrack. Development on EVERSPACE 2 isn’t done yet—We’ve got big plans for 2024!

Without support from fans, our journey through the stars would not have been the same. We truly value the feedback and praise the EVERSPACE community has shared over the course of development and we hope our frequent updates adding content, tweaking gameplay, and making community-requested changes are appreciated. This holiday season, we ask that you leave a review on our games or those of another indie studio—every single positive note means the world to independent studios like ours.

Everything EVERSPACE is on sale! Both of our games and all of our expansion and DLC content is discounted for the Winter Sale. If you already own an EVERSPACE base game, make sure to check out the bundle deals to maximize your discount.

Winter Sale Deals:
EVERSPACE 2

• EVERSPACE 2 - 40% off
  
• EVERSPACE 2 Official Soundtrack - 20% off
  
• The Art of EVERSPACE 2 (digital edition) - 20% off

EVERSPACE

• EVERSPACE - 85% off
  
• EVERSPACE: Encounters - 67% off
  
• EVERSPACE: Upgrade to Deluxe Edition - 67% off

It’s been a YEAR. Go on and treat yourself. You deserve it.


Want a sneak peek at what’s coming for the EVERSPACE series in 2024? Make sure to tune into our last stream of the year! In addition to a look back at our launch year, Erik and Garry, our Community Ambassador and Community Manager, will be showing off a few legendary items coming in the EVERSPACE 2 Incursions update and a new feature we’re working on. There may even be some classic EVERSPACE gameplay!

We’ll be live on Twitch, YouTube, Steam Broadcast, and Facebook this Friday, December 22nd at 11am PT / 2pm ET / 7pm CET. If you miss the stream, we’ll have it up on YouTube shortly after.

That’s all for us this year, but there’s lots to come next year—the series roadmap is just the tip of the iceberg! We hope you all have a wonderful holiday season filled with gaming. See you in 2024!

Lee and your dedicated ROCKFISH Games team 🚀🫡

Greetings pilots!

It’s been more than five years since we released EVERSPACE! What a ride it’s been… and we’re not done yet: EVERSPACE 2 v1.0 launches in just a few weeks on April 6, 2023, and the adventures in the DMZ of Cluster 34 will continue beyond the launch of this sequel. Make sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and to join our Discord for the latest! Definitely check out our major news about the imminent v1.0 release and the story trailer if you haven’t already:

Now to speak about EVERSPACE specifically, we’re lowering the price of the game to $19.99 USD, €19.99, £16.99 and adjusting regional pricing globally to best reflect this change. With EVERSPACE 2 on the horizon, we’d like to give more pilots the opportunity to pick up the first instalment of the series at an affordable price even when the game is not discounted.

Despite this price drop, in some cases EVERSPACE will be more expensive in a few regions as we examine both Steam’s recommended price adjustments and regional currency changes over the past year. Part of this is due to people taking advantage of extremely low prices in other regions via VPN. We understand it’s a way to get a game darn cheap, but this practice has become a significant issue for developers and publishers on Steam including ourselves.

All these changes will go into effect on March 17 at 10am PT/1pm ET/6pm CET. :)

That’s all for now! We’ve got a deadline to hit on EVERSPACE 2, so back to work. Thanks for sticking with us for so long!

Michael & your dedicated ROCKFISH Games Team 🚀🪐👽

Greetings, pilots!

The wait is over: the hotly anticipated Summer Update aka Drake: Gang Wars is finally here! It’s our most significant Early Access update, adding tons of new things to the game even though we’re not done yet - there’ll be one more update later this year before we wrap things up and work on the v1.0 release which is still scheduled for early 2023.

For now, you can enjoy Drake, an all-new star system featuring well over a dozen carefully hand-crafted locations with stunning lava and ice environments, underwater exploration, exciting new enemy types and status effects, brand new challenges and puzzles as well as a three-chapter side quest, introducing daring pilots to the new system, and much more. Have a look at our official release trailer!

Drake is undoubtedly the star (pun intended) of the summer update with its mesmerizing new lava, ice, and underwater locations. These environments not only look darn pretty; they also feature new damage types that players have to deal with on planets and in open space, too.

I think both the lava and ice locations are absolutely awesome. However, I was just blown away when I had to go underwater to disable mines and plant my “own” explosives in a gigantic, half-sunken space station. I haven’t seen anything like this in any other game before, and from my own wreck-diving experience I can testify this is precisely how it looks and feels. Granted, I wasn’t scuba diving on another water planet, but you get me. Gosh, I wished we had even more underwater content, but our team already said we might be revisiting those locations, again at v1.0; fingers crossed!

You get to Drake via a side quest you must pick up from Elek at the Homebase in Ceto. It’s quite a deep side quest, expanding over three missions, and will introduce you to the new system, its most prominent locations, new gameplay mechanics, and three new factions.

In Drake, you’ll have to deal with three new Factions, the Coalition, Retaliators, and Zurilia. They have quite a vicious beef with each other which will escalate into a massive space battle. I don’t want to spoil too much but here’s some basic info about them.

The Coalition is a faction that veteran pilots probably still remember from Elek, one of the five side characters in the EVERSPACE — Encounters expansion. It’s loosely named after the Cohhilition community from top streamer CohhCarnage who’s a huge fan of the EVERSPACE series and one of our top Kickstarter backers. This time, he even went for the Space Architect pledge, which allowed helping name and design a space station in the game: The massive Letho Star Port, the main hub in Drake you have seen in the trailer, is what Cohh has been working on together with Uwe, our Creative Director. This is also where the three-chapter side quest kicks into gear — if you know what I mean when checking out Cohh’s logo on his twitch channel[www.twitch.tv].

The next faction you’ll encounter is another fan-inspired faction, The Zurilia, named after Zurilia, another top-tier Kickstarter backer of ours. They control all locations that are fire-themed. Naturally, they are a pretty hot-headed bunch, and even their ships and gear make good use of some fancy heat-based technology, which can severely damage your ship components.

The third faction is The Retaliators, who control the water/ice-themed locations in Drake. You might expect them to be cool-headed, but they are also aggressive when you enter their territory, attacking with frosty weapons and dealing stun damage to your ship which can have some dire consequences when hit in the heat of a fight. Ok, my puns are not getting any better, but you’ll get the gist when listening to their dialog. ;)

BTW, since we know that not everyone is a fan of our TTS placeholders, keep in mind the new story content will be voiced at v1.0; the same goes for localization as things are still subject to change, and to make sure that voice-recording and translating text and UI are worthwhile, we need to hit a certain amount of lines.

With the new update, we raised the player level cap to 25 and added three new player perks. Pro-tip: Retaliation, reflecting 30% of incoming damage to your attackers, is especially useful when dealing with the new damage types within the Drake system.

Good ol’ buddy Tareen, also known from the Encounters expansion, received new perks for ship dealers.

Lastly, HIVE also offers a new perk, improving your ability to switch secondaries mid-battle.

High-risk areas have received a major upgrade by adding Mutators into the mix. These expand upon the gameplay variety while creating a higher challenge for those who want to get a taste of what to expect in the upcoming endgame of EVERSPACE 2. And yes, HRA bosses are now a delicious loot piñata.

There are a number of positive mutators, like “Enemies dropping lots of credits upon death”, “G&B reinforcements on-site”, or “Spawn a protector sphere generator, which can be grabbed and used to get immunity to debuffs. On the negative, you might have to deal with “Enemies deal area damage upon death”, “Enemies drop proximity mines upon death”, “Enemies slowly repair their hull”, “Two bosses”, “Enemies are resistant to EMP”, “Enemies leave behind corrosion fields when killed”, and more nasty surprises.

Furthermore, the team has been working on several Quality of Life improvements, many of which were community-inspired. For instance, the possibility to craft consumables. But that's not all! You can now craft components from resources, too, so you can build that much-desired Catalyst even though you might not have every single component in place but plenty of others — you're welcome!

Tracking required resources for crafting is an all-new feature that goes nicely together with the new resources map mode. Not only will you see right away what resources are still required to make that nifty new piece of equipment, but with one click on the map's submenu, you'll see right away where chances are high to find that precious ore or crystal that's still missing.

Hot-swapping armor was long in the making and a hot community demand, too, so now it's here! Furthermore, some perks like Percussive Maintenance have been overhauled to better work with regenerating armor.

Not really a QoL improvement but very noticeable: Gero, our Sound Director, has implemented significantly improved weapon SFX based on item rarity, giving primaries more oomph and distinction.

With Drake: Gang Wars Early Access pilots are also receiving a massive round of rebalancing based on internal playtests and community feedback, which is one of the main reasons for our open-development approach. Therefore, we highly encourage everyone to start a new game and let us know how the progression/difficulty feels on the Steam forums. Especially around level 10, the difficulty curve should feel much better now. That said, we also want to give all pilots a heads-up that Drake sits at a much higher difficulty level, so you will have to use all your weaponry, consumables, ship devices and mainframe expansions to the fullest while also keeping your gear up to your current player level to succeed. Also, we strongly recommend doing side activities and not just beeline through the story content — Drake is no picnic in space!

On the technical side, TrackIR support and AMD FSR have also been added to the game. The implementation of TrackIR was much more complicated than we thought — the devil was in the details, as it always is. However, Ingmar, our technical programmer, didn’t let go, and we’re pleased with the result. He was also responsible for implementing AMD FSR and is still working with our friends at AMD on improving the experience with FSR 2.0 further down the road.

Features

• Added new star system: Drake
  
• Added new side missions
  
• Added new faction: Coalition
  
• Added new enemy faction: Retaliators
  
• Added new enemy faction: Zurilia
  
• Added mutators to high-risk areas
  
• Added crafting of consumables
  
• Added new companion perks
  
• Added new player perks
  
• Increased level cap to 25
  
• Added new music
  
• Added new challenges
  
• Added new consumables
  
• Tier 3 ships are now available at ship dealers
  
• Added new ship modules
  
• Added new decals
  
• Added new weapon sounds
  
• Added new secondary weapon bonus attributes
  
• Added new passives for all ship sub-classes
  
• Added new map mode to show resource deposits
  
• Added new job type in Drake system: "Battle Support"
  
• Added option to enable TrackIR v5
  
• Added option to enable AMD FidelityFX™ Super Resolution
  
• Added option to hide XP numbers
  
• Added tracking of resources
  
• Added action to craft from an empty equipment slot
  
• Added an info banner when all secrets have been discovered in a location
  
• Added shortcut keys (and bindings) to directly open specific menu pages like "Missions" and "Perks"
  
• Added pre-caching and quick refresh for crafting tab to improve performance
  
• Added proper (gamepad-) navigation for crafting inventory incl. implicit scrolling
  
• Added various new G&B turrets

Tweaks

• Armor can now be swapped out at any time
  
• Prevent Flak projectiles from triggering while player is inside damage radius (prevents most cases of accidental self-damage)
  
• Armor hits will now also trigger the "Percussive Maintenance" perk
  
• Consumables now have item rarities assigned to them
  
• Freshly installed primary weapons now start with 0 energy and need to charge first
  
• Potential mining yield display on the star map can now be unlocked earlier with a HIVE perk
  
• Vanguard Time Extender ULT will now leave the ship mostly unaffected by the time dilation
  
• Changed movement pattern and speed of first Outlaw boss' ship so it can be hit easier
  
• Wrecks will now fully repair a Vindicator drone when used
  
• Enemies now have better accuracy when firing at stationary targets
  
• ARC-9000 explosion can now be triggered manually by deactivating the ULT prematurely
  
• The Flying Dutchess is now also offering a handful of ships (via perk)
  
• An alternative set of passives of offered ships can now be chosen (via perk)
  
• Ship dealer offers can now be rerolled every 10 minutes (via perk)
  
• Shops will now sometimes offer equipment 1 or 2 levels above the player level
  
• Jobs now give faction-independent "renown" instead of faction-based "standing" (consolidated old save files by transferring "standing" into "renown")
  
• Decals are now unlocked after completing certain side missions, reaching a certain renown rank, or when completing Prescott Starbase location 100% (when loading old save games decals are given retroactively)
  
• The small lines at the top and bottom of the HUD now turn red while in combat (if any enemy is targeting the player or if any enemy is within 2km range)
  
• Tweaked look of G&B ships and turrets
  
• Tweaked look of Maddocks' freighter
  
• Refined many environments and assets
  
• Moved autosave file generation after undocking to start of animation to avoid freeze while flying out
  
• Integrated localization changes suggested from Crowdin community
  
• EMP Generator "Shield Surge" mode will now restore 10% shield hitpoints for each target hit, instead of an explicit value
  
• Fusion Hook now takes ship mass into account
  
• Balancing: Rebalanced loot rarity drop chance
  
• Balancing: Doubled effect of high-velocity affix
  
• Balancing: Mainframe Expansions will now increase an attribute's value by 5%, not by 20 points
  
• Balancing: Reduced player ship base shield and plating hitpoints
  
• Balancing: Increased armor and shield bonuses of most player ships across the board
  
• Balancing: Increased player ship hitpoint scaling from tier level
  
• Balancing: Reduced Structure attribute scaling
  
• Balancing: Increased base weapon damage but reduced Firepower scaling
  
• Balancing: Revised energy economy and leveled out shield, boost, and weapon energy to equal ranges
  
• Balancing: Reduced Quantum Tether duration from 20s to 16s
  
• Balancing: Buffed "Prime Zapper" and "Equalizer" coil guns and made them feel more unique
  
• Balancing: Increased Corrosion Injector damage
  
• Balancing: Reduced Armor Drone buff radius
  
• Balancing: Increased Annihilator Virus cooldown, slightly reduced range and damage
  
• Balancing: Switched Annihilator Virus damage types so it will primarily deal kinetic damage
  
• Balancing: Dismantling items will now yield fewer lower rarity parts
  
• Balancing: Increasing the rarity of an item now also requires lower rarity parts
  
• Balancing: High-Risk Area bosses and Elite units will have a greater chance to drop higher rarity loot
  
• Balancing: Decreased Outlaw Drone Carrier deployment frequency for Link Drones
  
• Balancing: Reduced Scatter Gun charge duration by 50%
  
• Balancing: Increased Flak range and damage radius
  
• Balancing: Reduced Rail Gun energy consumption
  
• Balancing: Increased Missile Defense System duration
  
• Balancing: Decreased Recharge Booster's recharge delay
  
• Balancing: Revised Bloodstar Repeater, making it more competitive
  
• Balancing: Significantly increased Scatter Gun damage
  
• UI: Reworked catalyst selection including craft & install functionality
  
• UI: Added option to craft missing components to speed up catalyst and consumable crafting
  
• UI: Reworked error-prone "tap to show" (unlock-) banner behavior and added proper queuing
  
• UI: Added and improved multiple smaller features for the perk tab like invest indicators
  
• UI: Perks - Changed that invest indicator is only visible if player can upgrade the perk
  
• UI: The state of having the dialog board open or closed in the pause menu is now saved
  
• UI: Added option to immediately resume the game from the "game saved" screen
  
• UI: Change style of HUD warning that warns players that a mission will fail when leaving the location
  
• UI: Prototype and Starforged Items now stand out more
  
• UI: Added border to clickable buttons
  
• UI: Items now display the name of the companion perk and the current invest ratio if this item is tracked
  
• UI: Added complete new indicator logic for the crafting tab (e.g. unlocked blueprints)
  
• UI: Stackable items in shop or container now show the owned item amount in the upper right corner of their item info widget
  
• UI: Optimized display logic of the item level arrow indication
  
• UI: Added quick jump markers when buying resources
  
• UI: Crafting inventory now lists already found resources even if current amount is zero. (To make them trackable)
  
• UI: Crafting panel - Multiple design adjustments and optimizations (e.g. requirements)
  
• UI: Crafting: Removed result screen for catalysts and components to speed up the process
  
• UI: Crafting tab - Added ship cargo empty slot ratio
  
• UI: Added an error message after trying to unequip an overheated item
  
• UI: Added an animation for the compare slot indicator image
  
• UI: Added "new" indicator for devices within device pool (will be reset after device was equipped for the first time)

Bugfixes

• Fixed Gunship turret tracking targets without line of sight
  
• Fixed Plating Item not receiving condition change when armor hitpoints are healed via Void Swarm
  
• Fixed that Outlaw ships launched from Redeemer base hangars
  
• Fixed that some pillar-shaped asteroids in random Zharkov locations still could have a wrong rotation
  
• Fixed that some "Rips in Space" tasks did not succeed when having them active at the time of installing update 0.8
  
• Fixed location progression bug where one secret was counted multiple times, leading to > 5/4 display and >100% completion rate
  
• Fixed question marks shown for location progression on some occasions
  
• Fixed missing Expertise name for Stinger in Ship Dealer screen
  
• Fixed compare values falsely transferring from Ship Dealer tooltips to Ship tab tooltips
  
• Fixed health and ULT ratio falsely taken from different ship when switching ships on Homebase and undocking
  
• Fixed Gunship turret not being hidden when arriving via Spatial Bypass
  
• Fixed Excessive Force perk falsely working without a shield installed
  
• Fixed high-capacity secondary weapons not using less energy when flying the Bomber
  
• Fixed Teleporter's "Parting Gift" Mode mine damage not scaling with Utility
  
• Fixed ARC-9000 and Quantum Tether recharging their own ULT energy
  
• Fixed Scorpion Missile having an infinite range
  
• Fixed upgrading rarity of plating items
  
• Fixed ULT icon and charge ratio not immediately updating after changing ships on Homebase
  
• Fixed destroying enemies with mines not repairing armor
  
• Mounted turrets are less likely to hit their owner and do not cause damage if they do
  
• Fixed Spatial Bypass locations not being selectable on any zoom level
  
• Fixed that there was an Outlaw Turret in one of the random Redeemer bases
  
• Fixed hud marker of vindicator drone wrecks disappearing after ULT use
  
• Fixed that under certain conditions it was possible to infect yourself with your own Annihilator Virus
  
• Fixed that some location actors like turrets were not respawning after some hours
  
• Fixed that weapon characteristics like splash damage could carry over if you swap weapons before the projectile hits
  
• Fixed optimized affix still present on item after installing new affix catalyst
  
• Fixed corrosion mines spawned from minefields applying too much corrosion damage
  
• Fixed zero amount pickups being spawned for hardened ore patch explosion
  
• Fixed that when completing a job with item rewards and pressing tab while "claim rewards" was shown, no xp, credits, or renown (used to be standing) were given if item reward was then claimed before leaving the current location
  
• Fixed that Eclipse weapon switch buff was not granted when directly equipping weapons via hotkey
  
• Fixed that modify action wasn't displayed for purchased equipment
  
• Fixed that missile locking animation and sound persisted when uninstalling all secondary weapons while currently in the process of locking
  
• Fixed Fusion Hook activation VFX
  
• Fixed that Vindicator drones would attack and potentially kill Maddocks during chase
  
• UI: Fixed that amount of items in crafting inventory was sometimes clipped while scrolling
  
• UI: Fixed that longer item names may have been cut off in the shop tab
  
• UI: Fixed multiple smaller spacing and alignment problems with the numeric font
  
• UI: Fixed item selection button design in crafting modify panel
  
• UI: Repair widget gamepad navigation was sometimes broken
  
• UI: Fixed some minor rendering issues of inventory sorting icons
  
• UI: Fixed Quickly CTRL+Left click on a lot of items for mass-marking sometimes skips one
  
• UI: Fixed that item icon shine animation wasn't always working
  
• UI: Fixed that using the mouse-wheel in the device selection menu could lead to unexpected selection behavior
  
• UI: Fixed misleading outdated equipment indicator on coilgun in tutorial
  
• UI: Fixed missing refresh of cooldown slot animation after "craft and equip" of secondaries
  
• UI: Item selection - Fixed that slot indication frame of source item wasn't properly rendered sometimes
  
• UI: Item selection - Scroll indication bar at bottom was accidentally shown in case there was nothing to equip
  
• UI: Item selection - Fixed bug that ship inventory was invisible when trying to swap fully stacked consumables of the same type
  
• UI: Item selection - Fixed bug in "other ships" category that was listing empty slots after ships slots expansion via Tareen perk
  
• UI: Item selection - Fixed multiple bugs when installing consumables from another ship
  
• UI: Item selection - Fixed that initial slot information may have been wrong for modules in some cases
  
• UI: Fixed bug that ingame inventory could be rendered haft transparent due to stuck fadeIn-animation
  
• UI: Fixed Preferred compare target slot logic was not fully working in some cases
  
• UI: Fixed that moving the mouse during crafting (hold-) action may reset the progress sometimes
  
• UI: Fixed Elek perk requirements. For new games, upgrading the Elek perk now requires an Equalizer (coil gun)

Tweaks (Only relevant when having played on the experimental branch before)

• Increased Advanced Combat Challenge Reward Buff duration from 10 to 20 seconds
  
• Changed secondary autofire bonus attribute to only work for locked targets and missiles

Bugfixes (Only relevant when having played on the experimental branch before)

• Fixed that there could be floating turrets and other weird issues in a generic Zurilia base
  
• Fixed that some cargo drone containers could be opened by shooting them instead of requiring interaction
  
• Fixed that there was an engine trail missing on some of the new ship modules
  
• Fixed that upgrading prototype gear did not change the ring color
  
• Fixed asteroid turrets in high-risk areas not giving XP and armor refill
  
• Fixed that "Wealthy Foes" mutator could spawn Bloodstar equipment and credits for boss entourage in high-risk areas
  
• Fixed Advanced Combat Challenge Reward Buff triggering after loading
  
• Fixed that the "Flying Dutchess sells ships" perk was not considered for shop/ship dealer icons on the map and in space
  
• Fixed Fusion Hook being usable underwater
  
• UI: Fixed that inventory mark action was active in some cases even though no slot was selected

Ok, and that’s that for our summer update! We hope you will enjoy all the new content, improvements, and fixes, and we very much look forward to your esteemed feedback. If you like the experience, please give us a thumbs up, leave a comment, or even a positive review, which really does help a lot. If you don’t, feel free to let us know, too. Rest assured, we read every comment and every review, while we hope for your understanding that we won’t be able to please anyone, and that some features would be just too much work or simply don’t fit into our vision for EVERSPACE 2.

With that, I’ll leave you to it, and we hope to see many pilots in our first official Drake: Gang Wars live stream on Twitch[www.twitch.tv] and YouTube, every Friday from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm CEST / 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm EDT / 11:00 am to 1:00 pm PDT. This time, we’ll have another premiere, as Garry, aka GeekByteUK, long-term EVERSPACE fan and Kickstarter backer for both titles will be your host since Erik, aka Giraffasaur, our beloved Community Ambassador, is on another short break. 🚀💥🙌

Don’t stop being awesome, and see you in Drake!
Michael and your dedicated ROCKFISH Games Team

Greetings, pilots!

Holy scrap, what a journey so far! After over three years of hard work, we launched EVERSPACE 2 in Early Access with a rocket launch release[www.pcgamesn.com] in January 2021. We sold three times as many copies as the predecessor within the first week and hit 91% positive reviews right out of the gate. This massive success was followed by the release of two major content packs, Zharkov: The Vortex and Khaït Nebula: Stranger Skies, both extremely well received, with the game currently sitting at 93% positive reviews. Last but not least, we also partnered with our friends at Microsoft, again, to bring EVERSPACE 2 to Xbox Game Pass for PC allowing us to make an even better space game for all pilots no matter what platform they’re playing on.

Thanks so much to every single pilot who has put their faith in us. Apart from all the glowing but also critical feedback to help us make a better game, the financial commitment from daring test pilots means a ton to us. This enables us to stay fully independent, allowing us to make a game that our team is super excited about. EVERSPACE 2 is probably one of the most expensive Early Access titles out there, so yeah, thanks again for your trust.

Galactic thanks from the RFG Family & Friends, Bernie Duffy[www.linkedin.com], Games Writer, and Joshua Rubin[www.linkedin.com], Narrative Consultant!

Before we talk about what’s coming, let’s have a quick look at what’s already been added to EVERSPACE 2! We see the question about how complete the game is popping up quite a lot, which is very understandable.

With the most recent content update, Khaït Nebula: Stranger Skies, about 65-70% of the planned story content is in the game, and five out of six or seven planned companions have joined Adam on his journey. That said, we might still add more perks to some or all companions if we have enough time and, most importantly, cool ideas (knowing our team, the latter won’t be the bottleneck).

We also brought back some beloved features from the Prototype (aka the demo), like the Shadow creatures and, hopefully, the side mission with those dodgy scientists asking you to realign a bunch of solar panels in a future update (this was meant to be a multi-staged side mission spanning across multiple solar systems, so pencil this in as a maybe).

Screenshot of the “solar panel” side mission from the 2019 Prototype.

There are currently four out of seven star systems to explore. With Ceto and Union being the largest, the current world content is close to 70%, not factoring in any endgame content or procedurally generated locations, though.

We have eight out of nine player ship classes (89%), with tier 3 and 4 models as well as additional wing types yet to come, so the current player ship content is actually closer to 50%. Gear-wise, we have four out of five tiers already implemented. Legendaries will be introduced in 2022. We’ll also add more weapon types and sets, as well as more consumables and devices. I’d say we’re at 75% of the gear you’ll see at launch.

Except for trading features, all gameplay systems are in place. However, not all are done yet. For instance, crafting will receive a significant overhaul. Then, there are essential features like localization, difficulty and accessibility settings, as well as porting EVERSPACE 2 to Linux, Mac, Xbox, and PlayStation. In terms of total dev time, we're close to 80% of a 5+ year-long production, not including any potential post-launch DLC.

Ok, now let’s take a closer look at what content we plan to release and when:

The spring update will bring the Rogue player ship sub-class, the remaining light fighter class as well as additional rear engines and hulls for all lights and heavies. Furthermore, look forward to a major crafting overhaul, where you can unlock blueprints by acquiring them in different ways (loot, buy, dismantle) and determine the outcome of your items' attributes as well as better trading opportunities and resource gathering/processing. Along with new equipment and challenges, we also plan to raise the player level, introducing another set of player perks.

International pilots will be pleased to hear that we’ll add UI and text language support for German, French, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Polish, Czech, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, too. Last but not least, we’ll add a bit more story content with English voice acting and substitute all current TTS placeholder dialogues.

In summer, it’s gonna be all about Drake, the new star system. Drake introduces an intense conflict between three rival factions. Unlike previous reveals of new star systems in EVERSPACE 2, Drake will be accessible via a new side mission starting in Union and can be explored even before playing through the campaign thus far, adding more open-world appeal to the game. For more information on what new adventures await, check out the teaser at the bottom of this news update.

This update Introduces a sliver of endgame content and will be released sometime after Gamescom. Using these first Ancient Rifts, daring pilots will be able to venture into the most dangerous areas of the game and hunt legendary equipment. We’re still working on the game design, but imagine some high-risk/reward mechanics you may have come across in other looter titles, but in space! This should provide plenty of (new) content to toy around with until the full release.

Ancient Rifts will likely be our last big release for 2022. From there, we’ll be head-down, working towards launch.

Launch! Completing the game’s content, adding final polish, squashing as many pesky bugs as possible, and porting EVERSPACE 2 to Linux, Mac, Xbox, and PlayStation will take us six to nine months after the previous beat (we’ll partner with a specialized porting house for the console ports, though, so we can put all our effort in the PC version of the game).

Apart from the final act of the campaign and additional side missions, the full release will also feature all tier 3 and tier 4 player ships as well as much-requested difficulty and accessibility settings. Oh, and a bunch of nice achievements, of course!

We’re constantly updating the FAQ channel on our Discord, but we thought it might be worth highlighting three hot topics that continue to pop up on the Steam forums and our social media channels.

We’re 99.99% sure that’s a yes! Sure, we haven’t had to wipe saves since the Early Access release, which is great, but do understand it could happen due to major technical changes along the way, especially when implementing the endgame. Even if backed up save games would still be compatible at v1.0, we cannot guarantee those would work (we know some pilots will still try).

After all, Early Access pilots zooming to the finale of the campaign and into the endgame will miss out on all the content that we’re still adding to the game in earlier star systems. Plus, there’s a high chance that balancing could be completely off for anyone still using an Early Access save after full release.

Frankly speaking, no one should play our game during its Early Access phase if they can't live with the thought that they are going to lose all of their progress. Fair warning to everyone on the fence: We'll raise the price reasonably, yet significantly, at full release. So, no complaining! You have been warned, no matter what! ;)

Yes! Now, I’m aware that this will inevitably cause some pilots to make a case about why THEY think EVERSPACE 2 is NOT an open-world game (because of brief loading screens, story-gated content, level boundaries), and that’s perfectly fine. In fact, we perfectly understand their point of view. However, we think it is not all black and white, and there are plenty of examples of iconic “open-worldish” ARPGs that wouldn’t match their high expectations, either.

The popular vote is clear: Not only is EVERSPACE 2 considered to be open-world by thousands of space pilots, making “open-world” one of the top tags on Steam, Valve was also perfectly fine to feature the game in the 2021 Open-World Sale under:

• Space/Action/Open-World
  
• Space/RPG/Open-World
  
• Space/Simulation/Open-World
  
• Space/Controller/Open-World
  
• Sci-fi/Action/Open-World
  
• Sci-fi/RPG/Open-World
  
• Sci-fi/Controller/Open-World
  
• Open-world/Action/Exploration
  
• Open-world/Action/Shooter
  
• Open-world/Action/Single-Player
  
• Open-world/Action/First-Person
  
• Open-world/Action/Third-Person
  
• Open-world/RPG/Exploration
  
• Open-world/RPG/Singleplayer
  
• Open-world/RPG/Third-Person

Making the leap from a linear roguelike to an open-world action RPG in space has been the very centerpiece of all our communication about EVERSPACE 2. While you cannot travel in any direction “forever” like in proc-gen space games, we have spent a ton of time and effort to make exploration of locations meaningful. We want you to roam and do your thing at your own pace and order mostly independent from progression through the campaign.

Putting quality over quantity, we went for a hand-crafted game world with high-quality assets and baked global illumination in EVERSPACE 2. Consequently, there are technical limitations because of this major design choice, like sending pilots back when reaching the boundary of a location and having brief loading screens between supralight travel and maps.

For one, streaming world data on the fly has never been UE4’s strong suit, so we had to divide our massive, hand-crafted(!) game world into chunks (EVERSPACE 2 is probably the largest, most versatile, and ambitious space combat game ever made NOT relying on procedural content generation). Secondly, even though it’s just a cluster of a galaxy, we’re using two separate game scenes to handle the vastness of open space and the high level of detail required even deep down in underground caves, while collision detection and hit-scan must still work at 10km away at the boundary of any location. Even if SSDs were 10x faster, there would always be a “loading screen” because your CPU is working hard on initiating the next new game scene when swapping back and forth between supralight and open space or planetary scenes.

Since it has been suggested a few times, playing some animation to hide the transition wouldn’t make any sense because in EVERSPACE 2 you can already see what’s right in front of you, making the experience arguably more immersive than hiding a hub-based open-world structure with wormholes and jump gates between hand-crafted maps like in other iconic space sims/shooters. And no, creating a sheer endless amount of animations for each possible approach to any given location is just not feasible for obvious reasons. Open space games are technical beasts. 😅

That said, we understand that some pilots have a very specific take on the open-world (space) genre, especially when certain areas are story-gated for obvious dramaturgic reasons, so we’ve changed our communication to semi-open-world to be more accurate.

Nope! While we understand that some pilots really hate any kind of level-scaling, we believe there are good reasons to adjust enemy difficulty when coming back to lower-level areas. Like, one-shotting a formerly mighty destroyer is just bollocks and doesn’t make any sense in terms of plausible world-building unless you want to throw any kind of immersion right out the window. Of course, pilots should feel much more powerful when going back to Ceto or Union because they earned it, so we only make subtle changes to enemy stats and their behavior, still tweaking the system along with the overall game balancing. Think of level ranges that enemies can adapt to. I mean, lore-wise, wouldn’t you expect enemies to improve their gear over time, too?

The release of the Drake system will be our biggest beat in 2022, scheduled for June/July when the big online gaming events are happening. Following the two comparatively smaller star systems, Zharkov and the Khaït Nebula, Drake will not only be significantly larger but also our most extreme system yet! Look forward to mesmerizing locations featuring fire, ice, and everything in between!

Planet Mota is as dangerous as it looks: the entire place is like hell’s kitchen, with lava pretty much everywhere causing stacking heat damage, while erupting lava geysers can tear apart shields and armor with ease. For risk-takers, there’s a high-tech thermal power plant defying the ocean of lava that might be worth exploring...

On Gilbert, water can be your ally or your enemy! Dive underwater to escape from enemy attacks like a classic submarine, but fair warning: dive too deep for too long and the pressure warning will be the last thing you’ll see!

Set in a system of natural extremes, three rival factions fight for dominance over the rich resources of the Drake system. You will have to keep a low profile to not be caught in the crossfire, while also not becoming a victim to the harsh environment. Lucky for you, one of your companions will be able to pull some strings with one of the gangs to get a foot in the door while you wait for an opportunity to take advantage of the complex situation.

Last-minute addition: While I was drafting yet another 2K+ words piece, ZeTeam worked on a surprise 2021 recap/2022 teaser trailer, awesome sauce!

Well, we hope everyone is enjoying the EVERSPACE 2 Early Access so far and to see pilots at the weekly ROCKFISH Games Show on Twitch[www.twitch.tv] and YouTube. Erik Schrader, ace pilot and beloved Community Ambassador, will take you on a tour through the latest dev build and answer all your questions. It's always a ton of fun, so be there, or be square, Fridays from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm CET / 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm ET / 11:00 am to 1:00 pm PT. 🚀💥🙌

Keep it civil on the forums, and have a wonderful winter holiday season!
Michael and your dedicated ROCKFISH Games Team, aka ZeFelsenfische

Hey there, pilots!

BOOM shaka-laka-laka, dankeschön, auf wiedersehen! The 3rd major EVERSPACE 2 content update, Khaït Nebula: Stranger Skies has launched on Steam and GOG— WOOHOO! Check out the massive changelog of what’s new, or just delve right into our strangest star system yet, featuring a new faction and gear, new gameplay mechanics, new alien lifeforms, new story content, another companion bringing freaking FaaaaaaST tRAveLlllll to your space map and more, as well as an all-new player ship class that will make you go “awww, look at those pretties…!”

This is me genuinely enjoying reaching out to 8K backers and 150K Early Access pilots directly, while also testing the limits of how goofy and entertaining we can go in our communication very similar to how Erik does in our weekly gamedev & community streams on Twitch[www.twitch.tv] and YouTube — you really should swing by if you haven’t! It’s always a ton of fun, especially when things go wrong while showing the very latest dev build. Also, if you have a burning question that has to be answered the heck right now, drop it in chat! I’m behind the keyboard and will answer everything Erik might not be able to cover.

There are space games that fascinate with billions of proc-gen locations to explore, seamless transitions, and the ability to exit the spacecraft to drive vehicles and walk on planets with loads of alien flora and fauna, and they have been massively successful with this space sim formula.

However, in EVERSPACE 2, we deliberately took a completely different approach by focusing on fast-paced space combat and close-range exploration with 100 to 120 carefully handcrafted locations, each filled with secrets to unveil, puzzles to solve, and precious loot to find. Having full control over gameplay at any given time and being able to design the environment by utilizing the amazing graphics power of Unreal Engine 4 to the fullest, allows us to create limited yet unique experiences within the space game genre.

With the 4th star system in EVERSPACE 2, our intention was to take this promise to a whole new level (WARNING: MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD!):

The Redeemers began as part of the "Research Department for Extinct Extraterrestrial Monuments", a group of scientists, adventurers, and mercenaries who entered the Khaït Nebula seeking clues to The Ancient’s past and keys to their technology. After unlocking an ancient portal and capturing the Ancient Warden within, obsession and the dark energies from the portal have driven these researchers to worship everything related to The Ancients.

Corrupted and slavishly obsessed with The Ancients, The Redeemers are now a cult dedicated to the understanding of this precursor race. Drawn by mysterious stories, new recruits travel to Khaït to learn about the wisdom of The Ancients. Here they are forced to make a "rite of passage" by leaving all their material belongings outside the jumpgate and passing through without their vessels, "unburdened by their past". Successful recruits (namely those with useful skills) are brought to a "sacred location" in order to be bombarded with strange Ancient dark energy and initiated into the cult. Those who do not pass muster, are left in the vacuum of the void.

This sub-faction is hostile to all to enter the Khaït Nebula, using a mixture of Freelancer gear and adapted Ancient technology to destroy or capture travelers within the star system. They survive off illegal trade (arms, drugs, slaves), but also offer Ancient tech and artifacts to those with the right connections.

As you can see in the new trailer, we’ve added a slew of new Ancient puzzles in the Khaït Nebula. Now, instead of explaining how they work in detail—that would be super-lame—let me share why we did this.

One of our secondary pillars for EVERSPACE 2 was creating a distinctive look & feel for every star system; not just through variation in key world design assets, signature color & lighting theme, new enemy types, and focus on game lore, but also by slightly shifting the focus from the franchise’s iconic fast-paced loot & shoot gameplay to introduce new gameplay mechanics—phew, what a sentence!

To keep things fresh and interesting and make world exploration worthwhile; we have spent a lot of time and effort introducing new types of activities with each star system. In some cases we explore new twists on already-introduced mechanics, but they always bring something new to the cockpit.

In Union, you’ve been introduced to the first Ancient puzzle, set in a confined space with hard-to-miss-pointers to its solution. In Zharkov, you’ll find Ancient puzzles based on established mechanics which require further exploration to solve. In the Khaït Nebula, we’re introducing entirely new mechanics and more complex puzzles that can even spread across an entire location, making for some jaw-dropping moments when things fall into place.

Before moving on: To all space pilots not fans of puzzle-solving, again, don’t you worry! Most of them are optional, while the few that are part of the campaign are really not that hard. BTW, a scientific study in 2017[journals.plos.org] showed that playing a very popular 3D-platforming game increases hippocampal grey matter in older adults; meaning, complex 3D video games prevents Alzheimer’s—crazy shit; isn’t it? Man, I can’t wait to turn 70 and play video games all day long and maybe go for a walk at least every other day just not to get rusty. Where was I? Right! We’ve also got a brand-new player ship sub-class!

This new Heavy Fighter type ship class switches it up with the highest mobility of all Heavies and the unique capability of using drones to deal damage. The Vindicator’s drone focus is supported by both its expertise, which increases drone hull hit points, and its Ultimate ability, Phalanx, to immediately spawn all missing drones, greatly increase their fire rate, and synchronize them to attack your locked target.

The Vindicator’s Special ability, Reanimator, turns the wrecks of destroyed enemies to your advantage. Interacting with wrecks spawns or repairs your currently active drones. These reanimated drones have an unlimited lifetime and you can have up to 5 active at a time.

Just like all other player ship sub-classes, tier 1 and 2 Vindicators can be purchased at any Ship Dealer in the DMZ if you’re lucky. Before you pull the trigger, though, you might take a closer look if the roll of Passive Perks suits your playstyle:

• Maximum number of active drones increased by 1
  
• Drones are invulnerable during Phalanx
  
• Drones regenerate 1% hull per second
  
• 50% reduced damage from enemy drones
  
• Drones explode in a violent blast, damaging and slowing down nearby enemies

Picking up where the story left off, Maddocks has caught up with Adam back at the base. He needs help finding his other companion Eduardo who has the last piece of information leading to the treasure Maddocks and Dax have been seeking for many years. An audio log will lead you on a merry chase through the Khaït Nebula where you’ll find many new areas, including a strange planetoid.

When you finally catch up to Eduardo, he’s not alone, and things are getting just even more complicated. Despite tension in the air, your new acquaintance proves to be a valuable addition to the team thanks to some impressive star navigation skills.


Khala belongs to an alien species previously unknown to the crew. Her remarkable astro-navigation skills make her a valuable companion. Khala can create jump nodes for shortcuts through space—Woohoo, Fast Travel unlocked! Furthermore, by unlocking the Location Scanner perk additional information details will show on the map, like how many secrets are still to be found.

Khala has been stranded on the asteroid for years after crash landing during a battle with adversaries she describes as "The Greel". She’s been stuck with only Eduardo as recent company, time used to learn his language. She is extremely quick-witted and has an extraordinary knowledge of the galaxy, although much of what she describes seems to belong to a part of the galaxy unknown to anybody else.

Having nowhere else to go, Khala joins the crew at Home Base, putting her knowledge to use mapping and finding shortcuts between systems as the base navigator. Much of the surrounding area, however, is unfamiliar to her, and she uses her time, and newfound equipment, to seek geographical markers which will help her find home.

Khala’s brusque attitude occasionally may clash with the other companions as she finds her way amongst alien species. Though Adam’s other companions may initially distrust her, especially Maddocks, and Elek may fear she is going to eat him, Khala has a lot to offer to the crew.

Pilots will discover more about Khala’s background and species as she comes along as a companion. As one of the first new races introduced in EVERSPACE 2, Khala is just a tiny glimpse into the wider universe.

• Added new main and side missions
  
• Added new star system: Khaït Nebula
  
• Added new player ship class: Vindicator
  
• Added new companion
  
• Added new enemy faction: Redeemers
  
• Added new lifeforms
  
• Added new puzzle mechanics
  
• Added fast travel mechanics (companion perk)
  
• Added map completion display (companion perk)
  
• Added more resources
  
• Added new star map assets to represent planets and celestial objects more accurately
  
• Added "relative mouse controls" option for centered mouse crosshair controls
  
• Added new Pulse Laser type
  
• Added projectile sounds
  
• Added new WIP narrated cinematics
  
• Added new music tracks
  
• Increased level cap to 20 and added three new player perks
  
• UI: Info widget - Added support for disabling tooltip style via settings when using M&K

• Player ships now have names depending on ship class and ship modules
  
• HUD markers for pickups now have a new look and individual icons for each category (weapon, module, resource...)
  
• Enabled target lock for outlaw station cores
  
• Made fighting G&B in "In Transit" mission a bit more challenging
  
• Added planet names to supralight and star map
  
• Sniper Drones will now telegraph their shots more accurately
  
• Made Sniper Drone shots easier to evade
  
• Increased distance at which boundary warning is shown and ship turns around
  
• Show time since last save in pause menu and game over screen
  
• If saved on station, show station name in save game slot
  
• Limited the number of Quantum Tether targets to 5 and reduced the damage bonus from 10% to 5% per target
  
• Renamed "Aeterna Bypass" to "Mainframe Expansion"
  
• Once initiated, holding F to pull multiple items at once with tractor beam now does not break if item is not hovered anymore
  
• Allow "High Capacity" affix on primary weapons which increases energy capacity
  
• Slightly increased Outlaw Sniper precision
  
• Improved texture memory allocation
  
• Improved Fusion Hook "Kunai" mode target acquisition
  
• Increased Nano Transmitter "Distribution" mode range to 1km
  
• UI: Added action bar divider to improve readability
  
• UI: Perks tab - Added animations for selection highlight and "new" indicator
  
• UI: Item info widget - Added input specific scrollbars and indicators
  
• UI: Item info widget - Switches display style implicitly based on last navigation input (WASD=static or mouse=tooltip)
  
• UI: Item info widget - Optimized side-by-side compare window interaction and (sfx-) feedback
  
• UI: Shortened hold action durations like dismantle, destroy, store and more
  
• UI: Added a rarity dependent duration bonus to the new default dismantle hold duration
  
• UI: Added actual object name to loot screen headline (e.g. "Shipwreck" instead of "container")
  
• UI: Shop - Default amount when buying resources set to 1 instead of stack limit
  
• UI: Crafting - Saving last used crafting rarity independently instead of per category
  
• UI: Item management - Batch move - Added implicit sorting on gamepad
  
• UI: Item management - Batch move - Added info banner in case action did not move all items
  
• UI: Changing modify action from simple press to hold action to be more consistent with crafting
  
• UI: Added new indicator logic for devices and the ship tab
  
• UI: Tutorial - The plating Adam got from Dax has a new marker now
  
• UI: Perks - "Last opened perk tree" changes to "first not fully upgraded perk tree" in case it is fully upgraded
  
• UI: Hyper travel - Gamepad <select> button opens map tab instead of inventory tab
  
• UI: Reworked special item action bar. (WIP)
  
• UI: Added new ingame menu footer action styles like "pair" and mouse-only

• Fixed that "Union Border Control" location was unlocked too early
  
• Fixed bug where upgrading items in cargo boosted the stats
  
• Fixed wrong max hull hitpoints calculation when repairing your ship while any Augment is put into Structure
  
• Fixed Vesna Mining Colony shop not being shown on map
  
• Fixed occasionally wrong navigation result when using gamepad or WASD to select colors/decals
  
• Fixed that the Bomber perk that converts mines would break Minesweeper jobs
  
• Fixed flickering of outlaw station cores
  
• Fixed "Ultimate Ready" display not showing the correct icon
  
• Fixed that secondary weapons will not count towards "Upgrade a weapon's level" achievement
  
• Fixed that the "Accelerated" affix for shields wasn't changing any stats
  
• Fixed Recharge Speed attribute for shields falsely decreasing with higher levels
  
• Fixed bomb indicators in the mission "Tipping the Scales", which didn't stop pinging after interaction
  
• Fixed calculation of Flying Dutchess spawn position
  
• Fixed that some equipment received affixes that did not change any attributes, e.g. "Swift Repeater"
  
• Fixed being able to re-enter invalidated, already cleared high-risk locations
  
• Fixed being able to leave the location using jump drive right after retrieving the signature in "The Vortex", before the suppressor drones even become active
  
• Fixed slide door open/close sounds playing although door was already opened/closed
  
• Fixed outlaws being able to spawn below surface during "Spares & Scrap" mission at Nepthys Plains
  
• Fixed not receiving all rewards when finishing multiple jobs at once by docking
  
• Fixed not receiving a reward when bringing the Flying Dutchess her designated quest item
  
• Fixed an exploit that made it possible to create energy spheres without time limit
  
• Fixed same keybinding for "increase setting" and "decrease setting" being shown in photo mode when using gamepad
  
• Fixed set bonus background border not aligning correctly when comparing items
  
• Fixed that containers did not drop loot when hit by player from further than 2km away
  
• Fixed a case in which dialogs could overlap after undocking from Nephtys Plains station during a mission and immediately docking again
  
• Fixed blocked paths for secrets in Volta Nebula
  
• Fixed "Low" texture quality setting not being applied correctly
  
• Fixed that setting gamma value via pause menu while docked looked weird/broken
  
• Fixed missing location image for "Union Outer Rim"
  
• Fixed Fusion Hook "Kunai" mode pulling disabled targets at ludicrous speeds
  
• Fixed Okkar Corvettes flying straight out of locations
  
• Fixed one frame input lag in auto-aim
  
• Fixed that an item bonus was not displayed for an attribute like Utility if there are more than 5 items with a bonus equipped
  
• UI: Fixed that drag and drop actions of weapons within equipment inventory could lead to wrong slot highlighting
  
• UI: Fixed item management - Batch move - Missing consolidate when using Hive's "send to homebase" feature
  
• UI: Fixed item management - Batch move - Sometimes not all items were moved even though there was space in the target inventory
  
• UI: Fixed item management - Batch move - Disabled multi-selection of items located in container or shop
  
• UI: Fixed data tab - Empty slots in mission items inventory
  
• UI: Fixed focusing wrong slot after consumable fillup via item selection
  
• UI: Fixed issues with inventory sorting type "Latest"
  
• UI: Fixed a bug where the player could get soft-locked in the crafting materials screen after minimizing the game
  
• UI: Fixed item info widget - Side-by-side compare getting stuck when hovering over non-comparable items
  
• UI: Fixed perks - Some companion avatar images were cut on top during animation
  
• UI: Fixed loud SFX when selling multiple items at once
  
• UI: Fixed item selection - Reset item info scroll progress after selected slot changed
  
• UI: Fixed ship selector - Change ship actions were active in tabs that didn't support it
  
• UI: Fixed item repair costs could be zero in case they were between 0 and 1

• (Exp) Added new Redeemer Drone Beam Laser VFX

• (Exp) Some performance optimizations
  
• (Exp) Added list of required resources to mission log of mission "Rips in Space"
  
• (Exp) Renamed three Redeemer ships
  
• (Exp) Increased initial delay for invasions
  
• (Exp) Do not spawn invasions at Prescott Starbase
  
• (Exp) Reduced Synchro Pulse range by 100m
  
• (Exp) Slightly increased Synchro Pulse energy consumption

• (Exp) Fixed location progression not correctly counting devices or mainframe expansions in armored containers
  
• (Exp) Fixed location progression not correctly counting some objects (Ancient Jars, Wrecks in Anemones)
  
• (Exp) Fixed location progression display not showing a full circle at 100%
  
• (Exp) Fixed planet names in the Khaït Nebula system
  
• (Exp) Fixed a dialog being repeated while searching the shipwreck during "Picking Up The Pieces"
  
• (Exp) Fixed the collision of iris hatches in location "BRI Bioplant"
  
• (Exp) Fixed being able to enter the bottom interior of the ancient structure in "Chabar Tower"
  
• (Exp) Fixed entry dialog in the first location of the Khaït Nebula system
  
• (Exp) Do not spawn invasions in High-Risk areas
  
• (Exp) Fixed ancient door open sound being played again although door was already opened
  
• (Exp) Fixed "Travel here" button being visible on spatial bypass locations in map mode while not using a spatial bypass
  
• (Exp) Fixed that enemies could spawn before the gate to the Khaït Nebula system was unlocked
  
• (Exp) Fixed a bug in which, during a certain stage of "X Marks The Spot", no enemies would spawn when not continuing the mission
  
• (Exp) Fixed a bug in "X Marks The Spot" that prevented enemies from spawning if mission was not continued
  
• (Exp) Fixed skybox elements missing in randomized locations (Unknown Signals, High-Risk Areas, etc.)

Phew, this was quite a hefty news update, but we’re aware that many of you also want to know what’s next. To be brutally honest, we haven’t fleshed out all the details for our 2022 roadmap yet as the team has been hard at work getting as much community feedback on the experimental build incorporated into the official release.

However, we can share that the next update is planned for spring; it won’t feature any new story pieces as we hit about 70% of the campaign content with today’s update and we need to keep some of our powder dry for the full release.

Now, before anyone goes (╯*□*)╯︵ ┻━┻, we plan to have another star system and maybe even a teaser of the endgame, as well as the third Light Fighter sub-class in the next update. Furthermore, we also plan to have UI and text language support in German, French, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Polish, Czech, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, and Korean for all content released so far, which was very high on the list for many Early Access pilots.

As always, check out our weekly ROCKFISH Games Show on Twitch[www.twitch.tv] and YouTube where, Erik Schrader, ace pilot and beloved Community Ambassador will take you on a mesmerizing tour. Be there, or be square, this Friday from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm CEST / 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm EST / 11:00 am to 1:00 pm PST! 🚀💥🙌

Keep it civil on the forums, and see you in space!
Michael and your dedicated ROCKFISH Games Team

Greetings, pilots!

Grab a drink, sit back, and relax! What was intended to be a short & snappy news beat about the official Zharkov release on top of all the information shared in recent news updates, became our longest news update so far, covering new topics of the 2nd major content update of EVERSPACE 2 in-depth as well as some important studio and community-related news.

First off, a big shout to all the daring test pilots who smoke tested the experimental release opened up a few days ago. You all provided very useful feedback on the overhauled game balancing and also flagged a number of bugs that slipped through the cracks. The team acknowledged and fixed most of them, while a few improvements have to wait until the next major content update, currently scheduled for fall (or spring if your home base is on the Southern hemisphere of planet Earth). You’ll find the official changelog at the bottom of this news. Changes based on the experimental build are marked with the prefix (Exp).

Now, before you jump cut to the bottom of this release to check out the 150+ changes this update brings, let me put a spotlight on several team members and external partners who’ve been hard at work to hammer out yet another meaty content update.

It sounds easy, but one of the most critical tasks for any update is left to Sven Lohse, our Technical Director, who has moved his mouse and clicked a few buttons to open the jump gate to Zharkov on Steam and GOG for all Early Access/GiD pilots. Technically, you’ll have to play through the new main story to unlock the jump gate yourself, but you’ll find the way. And yes, all new and previous content is fully voice-acted... except for Banjack, the adorable scrapyard robot.

He has his charming TTS voice back by popular demand from the community and because we also think TTS just perfectly fits his character. In fact, since he became such a beloved shop dealer, we’ve decided to write a proper side mission for Banjack, shedding some light on how he ended up in that abandoned scrapyard in the first place. But that’s for a future content update. Now, let’s have a look at our new gameplay trailer, produced by Lol_bye, one of our Kickstarter backers (of course, we’ve compensated him like a pro for his excellent work)!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn0kEi4e_-c

For those who haven’t watched Erik Schrader, our one-and-only Community Ambassador talking about the all-new Vanguard light fighter class during its reveal stream, here’s the nuts and bolts description and a nice äktschon shot from GeometryPrime, one of the most active space photographers on our Discord[discord.gg]:

The Vanguard is a lightweight, highly maneuverable reconnaissance ship with a high emphasis on speed/mobility and defensive measures. The Vanguard’s Special “overcharges” the shield to up to 200% capacity when boosting or when in Cruise Mode allowing for shield-buffed attacks. Thanks to its Expertise of increased critical hit chance when attacking enemies from the rear, clever combat positioning can provide a significant advantage in dogfights. When things get too messy, the Vanguard’s Ultimate “Time Extender” slows down the action, allowing pilots to regain the upper hand in any given combat situation. Vanguards also come with one out of four random Passive Perks that let cruise drive be activated with enemies nearby, reduces Web effect by 50%, lowers up to 20% support device cooldown depending on overcharge percentage, or makes Time Extender immediately restore all weapon and boost energy.

But wait, we’ve got even more ship news coming from Matthias Kummer (Senior 3D Artist) who’s exclusively been working on all player ships for over two and a half years. With the new update, pilots will have access to Tier 2 ships of all currently existing ship classes, featuring fancier wing types and better base stats, such as increased cargo space.

In the new content update, the plot thickens. You’ll finally catch up with Maddocks in Union and get a better understanding of how all the parties involved so far are connected to each other. After you found out how to activate the Outlaw’s jump gate, Zharkov will be your new oyster, filled with new secrets, activities, alien mystery, puzzles (yes!), and loot, but lots of danger too. Watch out for lightning rods that cause havoc when flying too close as shown in the Zharkov teaser trailer and other environmental hazards.

In the continued campaign, you’ll meet another old friend: Tareen, the Okkar trader from the EVERSPACE: Encounters expansion, will join your roster of companions and provide some very useful perks. As your new quartermaster, Tareen will allow you to expand storage and increase the number of ships to park at your Homebase. He’ll become even more useful later in the game, but that’s a topic for another day.

One particular highlight of the main campaign that we haven’t talked about yet are the all-new drone missions. These are all about your 6DOF maneuvering skills as you remote-control a maintenance drone through narrow tunnels and bypass moving security barriers deep underground of the G&B Lunar Mining Colony to prevent an undercover job from going down the drain. So no looty-shooty for a change but no touchy-touchy those lasers either, or AAAALERRRRT!!! No worries, there’s no time limit so you can take it slow and careful, and you can immediately try again if discovered.

Some fans of hardcore space sims might think: “RC drone gameplay and even more puzzle-solving, what the heck!? I thought this was supposed to be a space game…? I didn’t sign up for this, I want more space combat and exploration!" Well, our vision for EVERSPACE 2 has always included introducing new gameplay mechanics and objectives to keep things fresh, like puzzle-solving or, in this case, remote controlling a drone à la Descent. If you’re also a fan, go check out the Overload Kickstarter, the spiritual successor created by the same devs; Overload is currently sitting at 94% positive on Steam, and they even have a free demo, also currently sitting at 94% positive.

Now, even though we’ve talked about this before, anyone not into puzzle-solving or 6DOF drone gameplay, please understand that EVERSPACE 2 is meant to stand for its own within the space game genre. There are much bigger titles already out there or in the making, so there would be no point in us trying to compete against the juggernauts of space games. While on the creative side, we believe there’s enough room for an arcadey space action RPG with looter-shooter mechanics bringing new things to the space game genre, which our team is very much excited about. On the whole, allowing our designers the freedom to flex their creative muscles with additions like these is going to make for a stronger game overall.

Continuing the main mission, you will be introduced to another gameplay mechanic right before bumping into the next boss encounter, testing everything you should have learned so far. Without saying too much, HOTAS pilots don’t throw your precious gear at the screen! It’s gonna be rough, but don’t you worry! We’ll have various difficulty and accessibility options at full release, so it’ll be fine™! For now, you might want to fly some of the more challenging missions with a mouse + keyboard or a gamepad of your choice, though.

Along with voice recordings that are replacing the TTS voices of the story content of the previous update Contracts/Hinterland, Gero Goerlich (Sound Director), Uwe Wütherich (Creative Director), and Bernie Duffy (external Lead Story Writer) have worked with 20 voice talents to record 2180 new lines with over 20,000 words for more than 40 roles just in the most recent recording session alone. In the final game, we’ll have well over 6,000 lines / 60,000 words of voiced dialogue, putting EVERSPACE 2 on par with various iconic AAA action adventures/RPGs[gamicus.fandom.com].

Gero, Uwe, and Bernie have also worked closely with our friends from Puppetworks[puppetworks.eu] to add new quality cinematics based on concept art by Moritz Manhart (our in-house Concept Artist) and Tobias Frank (external Concept Artist on artstation[www.artstation.com], but part of the RFG family since the very beginning).

So yeah, while we won’t have gazillions of proc-gen planets in a vast, seamless universe, we hope that experiencing our carefully handcrafted content in a pseudo-open world while playing through a proper sci-fi story is a journey worth your while. And we’re not even done yet!

Speaking of more story content being in the works: with a heavy heart, we have to share that Kevin Mentz, our very much esteemed Quest Designer, has left the RFG family on good terms.

We have very much enjoyed working with Kevin for three full years. He was the mastermind behind the EVERSPACE 2 tutorial and most of the side missions. Kevin also worked closely with our story writing team on the main campaign, bringing lots of great narrative ideas into the mix. If you’ve been laughing over some of the absurd 4th-wall-breaking TTS jokes or bloopers of yet unfinished missions, that was also him. Here are some fond memories of watching top content creator Cohh Carnage losing it when he played the closed Alpha:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDvycrt32Ys&t=1200

Kevin will be joining Osmotic Studios[www.osmoticstudios.com] to work on more narrative-driven and less action-heavy games. Everybody at ROCKFISH Games wishes him nothing but the best for his future, and godspeed to our indie dev friends at Osmotic with their offices pretty much just around the corner, while our doors will always be open for Kevin to return just in case... nudge-nudge, wink-wink!

Ok, put away your tissues because here’s the good news: a) Kevin left us with a ton of more wicked ideas for future side missions, and b) since the core gameplay mechanics of EVERSPACE 2 are mostly in place, you can look forward to Andi, Senior Game Designer and Programmer, who’s been working with us for over 15 years(!), as well as the creative-minded Gameplay Programmer, Thorben Kohler, who already was a former colleague of Kevin when they were working together at Daedalic Entertainment[www.daedalic.com] taking over.

They’re both super excited about creating new main and side missions for you, and I can say from experience, you won’t be disappointed. In fact, Thorben already got his hands dirty by designing and programming the side mission VaultWorthy in this very update, while Andi, in case you didn’t know, worked together with HCK, our Lead Game Designer, on all main and side mission of the Galaxy on Fire 2 - Supernova add-on (arguably the closest thing to Freelancer on mobile, but that’s a looooong story maybe for another day).

All that said, with Kevin leaving and no substitute in sight, we have to slightly reduce the complexity of the game world. Meaning, instead of having eight star systems at full release as originally planned, we decided to go with seven — imaging Erik playing his inglorious BOO! sound on stream before telling everybody to calm down — but to hear us out: System 8, as we call it internally, has always been designed to be a rather small star system primarily meant to stage a major plot point in the campaign. Thus, we can integrate it into one of the other seven systems without cutting any super relevant content.

Playing through the new content would be only half as fun if there wasn’t any new gear! We’ve got all you loadout tinkerers covered with a slew of new weapons and devices. Get ready to try the already teased Fusion Hook for some cool Zero-G swing maneuvers, new types of secondaries, such as the (mostly) self-explanatory Corrosion, Armorbreaker, Shieldbreaker, and Destabilizer Missiles, and the Web and Corrosion Mine Launchers for more sophisticated crowd control. Last but not least, we’ve also added set bonuses for Bloodstar items and introduced a new item affix Swift, which reduces ramp up and charge time of certain weapons by 30%—you’re gonna love this one!

Swift auto cannons now take less time to go DAKADAKADAKA, significantly reducing TTK, if you can land all your shots, that is. However, you'll notice that weapon ramp up / charge time is not shown; this might change in the future when we're done designing all weapon attributes.

Thilo Eggers (UI/UX Designer) and Mathias (Thies) Ebell (Senior UI/UX Programmer) have been working hand-in-hand to make crafting more intuitive and more streamlined. Not only can you now perform any action with both mouse click or hitting a key. Use is also visually and functionally the same for both mouse and keyboard users and gamepad pilots so that neither side has to sacrifice comfort options or usability. Another new feature added is the Material Overview Overlay, which can be summoned over the crafting interface. It shows which materials you already have and how to obtain any further required resources.

Thilo & Thies have also significantly improved the UX of unlocking blueprints. New unlocks are now visually highlighted with a shine animation, while upcoming unlocks are teased. So when unlocking a blueprint, you can immediately see the next two unlockables.

Furthermore, you can now change the rarity of an item directly without losing focus on your selected item. The selection will remember the last slot selected, even if you toggle through rarities or reenter the crafting interface to improve user experience by letting players start over where they left off.

Thilo & Thies also improved the side-by-side compare function before and after successful crafting, so you are always aware of possible changes and improvements. Also, all interactions are now more mouse-friendly.

Finally, we’ve made significant technical changes under the hood. For instance, game assets are now compressed to save disk space and are distributed among several PAK files to speed up patch installation via Steam, so no more hours of copying data from your jampacked SSD to your HDD and back for incremental updates. That said, due to all the handcrafted content and baked high-quality GI lighting still to be added, we’ll probably hit the 75 GB mark for the final game. To help running EVERSPACE 2 on lower-spec systems, we optimized texture memory usage even further, but please don’t expect any miracles when running EVERSPACE 2 on a potato from several years ago.

To smooth out some spikes in the overall game balancing, especially when fighting against ten or more enemies simultaneously, Sven also tweaked our in-house developed AI director (we went a bit too far in the experimental build, so we had to scale it back for this official release; thanks again for providing community feedback). It’s a pretty complex beast, so if you want to know more and see it in action, check out Erik’s most recent gamedev stream where he talks about us addressing game difficulty issues in highly populated areas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38ENARXfAZk&t=1567

While Sven was knee-deep in the technical code of the game, he also improved floating-point precision for more accurate hitscan and long-range weapon targeting. Bonus news: this allowed us to even add weapon zoom for Rail Guns, a much-requested feature by several marksman pilots. 🎯

• Added new main and side missions
  
• Added new star system: Zharkov
  
• Added new player ship class: Vanguard
  
• Added new companion: Tareen (spoiler)
  
• Added new device: Fusion Hook
  
• Added new missile weapon types: Corrosion, Armorbreaker, Shieldbreaker, Destabilizer
  
• Added Bloodstar items set bonuses
  
• Added new item affix "Swift" (reduces ramp up and charge time by 30%)
  
• Added "Union Explorer" challenges + challenge reward for "Explorer" challenges, allowing to fast-forward in supralight
  
• Tier 2 ships are now available at ship dealers
  
• Added English voice acting for all dialogs that were added since the previous Contracts/Hinterlands update
  
• Cinematics now feature improved animation and professional voice-overs (but are still WIP)
  
• Added new music tracks
  
• Increased max level to 18
  
• Added 10 new ship colors to collect
  
• UI: Added "new" and "invest" indicators to the perks tab
  
• UI: Item crafting and modification rework including item preview and materials overview

• Game assets are now compressed to save disk space
  
• Distributed game assets among several .pak files to speed up patch installation via Steam
  
• Optimized texture memory usage
  
• Improved Thermo Gun projectile performance
  
• Overhauled enemy damage and hitpoint balancing
  
• Balanced difficulty when fighting against multiple enemies at the same time
  
• Fewer Outlaws in Siren's Sea and Palaemon's Wound
  
• Cargo space will now increase with higher ship tiers
  
• Slightly reduced Scout agility
  
• Increased ship acceleration while not boosting
  
• Outlaw Ravager and Bloodstar Overseer now have fewer and more prominent weak points
  
• Outlaw Vipers now leave behind a corrosion field when destroyed
  
• Creatures and cruisers can no longer be targeted by the Magnetic Repulsor
  
• Nanobots and Nano Injector will now repair a percentage of hull hp, not a fixed value
  
• Improved Teleporter collision detection to prevent getting stuck in geometry
  
• Corrosion will now first damage the armor before damaging the hull
  
• Annihilator Virus: reduced explosion delay and doubled infect interval
  
• Annihilator Virus: reduced kinetic damage from 150 to 90
  
• Annihilator Virus: limited maximum number of infected targets to 6
  
• Annihilator Virus: increased range from 400m to 600m
  
• Annihilator Virus "Symptomatic" mode: increased target damage reduction from 20% to 50%
  
• Annihilator Virus "Incubation" mode: renamed to "R-Naught" - now increases the maximum number of targets by 2
  
• Corrosion Injector, Annihilator Virus, Quantum Entangler, and Quantum Tether (Striker ULT) can now be used on capital ships
  
• Doubled Quantum Tether (Striker ULT) effect range
  
• Rail Gun: Reduced energy consumption
  
• Rail Gun: Added zoom when charging
  
• Rail Gun: Increased full charge damage by 50%
  
• Baron Executioner: Increased max spread angle from 0.5 to 1.5 degrees
  
• Beam Laser: Increased energy consumption by 20%
  
• Elek will only jump in if the player is in a fight with more than 2 enemies
  
• Reduced "Play It Safe" perk effect duration from 12s to 5s
  
• NPCs will now gain EMP resistance immediately after receiving the EMP debuff to prevent stun locking
  
• EMP resistance duration is now scaled with the duration of the EMP itself
  
• Increased hull hitpoints of G&B and Freelancer freighters
  
• Decreased probability of Interceptor passive perk that recharges Weapon Overdrive with critical hits from 50% to 20%
  
• Increased global elite enemy probability
  
• Signal Decoders will now reveal a high-risk area inside the current region of the system
  
• Signal Decoders will now always have a higher rarity (no more common signal decoders)
  
• The first boss now gives more and better loot
  
• Improved support for mixed input methods like joystick + mouse (added option to specify input method or use auto-detect)
  
• Prevented crafting exploits via reloading
  
• Fully mine ore deposit when using Flak or Missile Launcher
  
• Portable debris can now be picked up from a further distance
  
• Only play detonator drone warning sound when it is flying towards a target
  
• The pinging sound and icon-effect of invisible containers continue until the container is emptied
  
• Added options to quickly invert camera pitch/yaw (in addition to the already present invert option in the "customize controls" screen)
  
• Force fields now have two distinct textures representing their access state
  
• Flying Dutchess will now spawn-kill enemies when jumping in
  
• Post effects produced by conditions, devices, and damage are now hidden in Photo Mode
  
• UI: Added dedicated HUD marker icons for different drone types
  
• UI: Improved speed when first opening the map
  
• UI: Joystick keybindings are now displayed in HUD when a joystick binding is assigned
  
• UI: Tractor Beam Range is now shown in "Ship" screen
  
• UI: Master rewards for challenges are now instantly revealed
  
• UI: Added implicit cargo sorting for M&K in case sorting was active on the last menu visit
  
• UI: Repair and device hold actions trigger an error on the start of hold action in case of insufficient credits/points
  
• UI: Clickable action buttons in crafting result screen
  
• UI: (Batch) marked items now feature an animation
  
• UI: Added ingame menu tab pre-loading for Inventory, Ship, Perks, Mission, Data, and Map
  
• UI: Better explanation of locked player perks when in space
  
• UI: "Crafting XP" is now called "Crafting Data"
  
• UI: Opening ingame menu with gamepad implicitly sorts inventory and selects the first slot
  
• UI: Dismantling and destroying while using a controller now implicitly sorts inventory (removes empty slots in-between)
  
• UI: Enabled "Expand Cargo View" / batch actions in loot container view
  
• UI: Enabled "Send To Homebase" action in loot container view
  
• UI: Added navigation SFX to mission item inventory
  
• UI: Hovering one of the six main attributes will now show the items that contribute to the respective value
  
• UI: Added descriptions for condition tooltips in ship screen
  
• UI: Added storage slot ratio to inventory headline
  
• UI: When activating a high-risk area and choosing to show it on the map it's now highlighted and centered

• Fixed ship selector sometimes not being displayed in Homebase despite owning multiple ships
  
• Fixed floating-point precision issues related to weapon aim
  
• Fixed already destroyed Bomb Thrower Turrets sometimes still throwing bombs
  
• Fixed energy orbs not restoring armor
  
• Fixed not being able to activate buttons using a flak cannon
  
• Fixed a potential blocker and a wrong dialog being played in "I Heart Scrap" side mission
  
• Fixed dialogs related to fights being played when colliding with level geometry
  
• Fixed destroying Okkar units not yielding correct XP
  
• Fixed Okkar being spawned by the Wanted System giving loot and XP after re-entering a location.
  
• Fixed player stats not being updated immediately after re-entering stats screen
  
• Fixed highlight effect on some structures being visible from far away
  
• Fixed "Data Fishing" side mission briefing dialog being played again when docking before leaving the location
  
• Fixed mission item "Drone Debris" not getting removed from inventory after becoming obsolete
  
• Fixed Gauss Cannon and Rail Gun having improper affixes
  
• Fixed Baron Executioner weapon receiving energy damage modifiers
  
• Fixed item bonus attributes that grant extra damage not working properly
  
• Fixed bounty not increasing when defeating an enemy with a device like the Corrosion Injector
  
• Fixed problems with axis inversions also affecting other logical axes that were bound to the same physical axis
  
• Fixed that Elek could appear multiple times in a location
  
• Fixed that Elek sometimes left too soon
  
• Fixed that Elek and Dax could die when acting as wingmen
  
• Fixed enqueued hull repairs being lost when docking to a station
  
• Fixed faction rewards not being displayed for accepted jobs in the missions tab
  
• Fixed being able to use warfare devices on allies
  
• Fixed timestamps of items accidentally being renewed after having been moved to a different inventory slot
  
• Fixed device inventory did not update after changing ships under some circumstances
  
• Fixed quick equip with right mouse button in loot container screen might send an item to Homebase instead of equipping it
  
• Fixed that some item attribute bonus values (like Resistance) would not spawn
  
• Fixed Sentinel ULT (Static Overload) not scaling with Utility attribute
  
• Fixed Sentinel passive "20% reduced cooldowns for warfare devices." falsely stacking until cooldown was zero
  
• Fixed that missiles could not be destroyed after the ship or turret that fired them died
  
• Fixed additionally spawned Okkars not leaving location after having paid bounty
  
• Fixed "ULT ready" not being triggered by Interceptor passive perk
  
• Prevent being able to switch camera while in "1st person no cockpit" view and having activated auto-pilot
  
• Fixed that retractable turrets could be destroyed by very high damage, e.g. Annihilator Virus
  
• UI: Fixed that only one missing attribute was shown when comparing items
  
• UI: Fixed item actions for Aeterna Bypasses and Signal Decoders being visible in multi-select mode
  
• UI: Fixed equip action being visible in multi-select mode
  
• UI: Fixed focus and hud visibility problems after very quickly opening and closing ingame menu
  
• UI: Fixed wrong device slot length in item selection
  
• UI: Fixed wrong implicit cargo sorting when using a gamepad and first opening the menu
  
• UI: Fixed inventory items clipping through scroll indicators
  
• UI: Fixed icons for companion perk upgrade requirements sometimes being wrong
  
• UI: Fixed that when using mouse+keyboard, gamepad icons were displayed on a device icon and consumable slots in the menu
  
• UI: Fixed stats and condition tooltips sometimes still being shown on screen after changing ships
  
• UI: Using dedicated icon for ship special in the stats panel
  
• UI: Fixed that log sometimes displayed items with the wrong affix
  
• UI: Fixed that pressing Tab while "Press Tab to Show" was shown for completed or new challenges not opening the challenges screen
  
• UI: Fixed slot focus being lost after clicking on various regions in ingame menu header
  
• UI: Fixed item sorting type 'Latest' (newest item first) not working properly
  
• UI: Fixed "Quick equip" action of selected equipment in storage inventory being broken after changing ships on Homebase
  
• UI: Fixed icon scale for devices that can't be used not being reset after being replaced by another device
  
• UI: Fixed damage numbers not shown for damage-over-time conditions like Corrosion
  
• UI: Fixed shop icon not being shown on Map for Flying Dutchess beacons
  
• UI: Fixed Ben's speaker image not showing implants after his operation
  
• UI: Fixed "Outdated Equipment" message appearing at a bad time
  
• (Exp) Fixed a bug that resulted in inadvertently easy fights against large numbers of enemies
  
• (Exp) Fixed that energy spheres would show resist marker in radiation fields
  
• (Exp) Fixed false unlock of random system regions when entering supralight which leads to Union Explorer Challenge unlock banner not being shown
  
• (Exp) Fixed being able to activate gas harvester boss from the outside
  
• (Exp) Fixed invisible forcefield spawning right above shield generators after beating gas harvester boss and loading checkpoint save
  
• (Exp) Fixed being able to damage the Okkar Corvette during "Tipping The Scales" Side Mission
  
• (Exp) Fail "The Vortex" main mission when attacking G&B at Vesna Mining Colony
  
• (Exp) Fixed colliding with invisible ships on ship dealer platforms
  
• (Exp) Fixed that fast-forwarding in travel mode affected playtime
  
• (Exp) Fixed faction standing not increasing after completing a job
  
• (Exp) Fixed fast-forwarding not pausing when opening menu
  
• (Exp) Fixed camera being inside remote drone occasionally
  
• (Exp) Fixed that the Raid Booster's "Boost After Kill" bonus was stackable

Phew, that was quite something! We hope everyone will enjoy all the new content and improvements. If not, let us know, and we’ll have a look into your concerns; Again, that’s why we’re doing Early Access to constantly improve the game based on community feedback. While full transparency is of utmost importance to us, so every space game enthusiast can find out where EVERSPACE 2 is heading, but also where it isn’t.

To get everything, you gotta read all our news material, though. Or, even better, join our weekly ROCKFISH Games Show on Twitch[www.twitch.tv] and YouTube to watch the latest dev build in action and hear it directly from the dev horse’s mouth, Erik Schrader, ace pilot and beloved Community Ambassador. He’s there for you to answer all your questions every Friday from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm CEST / 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm EST / 11:00 am to 1:00 pm PST. 🚀💥🙌

In case you missed grabbing EVERSPACE 2 during the summer sale at 20% off, we deliberately timed another weeklong 20% sale with the release of Zharkov: The Vortex, so here’s another chance to get in the cockpit and save a few more bucks. Note that we’ll raise the price at full release, so you won’t find a better deal to grab a copy of EVERSPACE 2 anytime soon.

Keep it civil on the forums, and see you in space!
Michael and your dedicated ROCKFISH Games Team

Greetings, Pilots!

In this actual gameplay teaser trailer, space game enthusiasts get a glimpse of the third star system that leads deeper into the mystery of the Ancients, a powerful alien race, as well as shady business being done by the Grady & Brunt mining operation, two factions that were already established in the original EVERSPACE. Keep an eye out for new natural hazards, weapon types, and a new planetary location that is briefly shown. Time to get excited, pilots!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeBPY56nm10

Make sure to swing by tomorrow's ROCKFISH Games Show when our beloved Community Ambassador Erik Schrader will give a sneak peek of Zharkov on Twitch[www.twitch.tv] and YouTube from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm CSET / 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm EST / 11:00 am to 1:00 pm PST. Chances are, things go sideways yet again when showing the latest build, plus even more spoilers heading your way, so it should be fun! 🚀👀💥🙌

Keep it civil on the forums, and see you in space!
Michael and your dedicated ROCKFISH Games Team

Greetings, pilots!

DRUM ROLL! After being smoke-tested by daring Early Access test-pilots without running into any [major] issues and some last-minute tweaks & fixes to address much-appreciated community feedback on the experimental version, we’re excited to announce that we just pushed the button to release the first content update, EVERSPACE 2: Contracts/Hinterland, on Steam and GOG - WOOT! Make sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook[www.facebook.com], Reddit, and join the Discord[discord.gg] for future chances to jump in early on upcoming builds!

While we’ve already shared quite a lot in our previous info update on Steam, we’ve put together a 12 min explanation trailer to wetten your appetite if you don’t mind spoilers, that is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4-SFjsXaXE

The biggest addition, beyond all the new contents, previously revealed on Steam, is a multi-stage smuggling mission taking pilots to several locations in Union through the continued story campaign included in this update. It features cuddly Elek helping you out, drawing enemy fire while you deliver precious, yet highly volatile cargo stored behind your cockpit seat. Meaning, better to keep your finger off the trigger and sneak around hostile units by using the environment to your advantage.

Steer clear of the firefight while hauling an explosive payload! Volatile cargo is dangerous, but it pays top rates. To stabilize hazardous goods between Supralight jumps, quick pit stops will cool things down.

We’d love to hear your feedback about these kinds of missions—we plan to add more smuggling activities in the future for all those space truckers who enjoy making extra credits on the side. Still too early to say how exactly it's gonna work, but illegal smuggling jobs might have an impact on your trading reputation later in the game. Would be dope if we even added special gear and certain ship class capabilities in the future that would come in handy for dubious tasks further down the line, wouldn’t it?

Now, before you frantically click on the link to the 100+ entry changelog to find out what else is new in our first major content update, let’s talk about what’s under the hood of Added/Improved various music tracks, plus some general thoughts about music in video games and EVERSPACE 2 in particular.

Disclaimer: Having a great soundtrack alongside everything else we’re making for EVERSPACE 2 is hugely important to us. The team is filled with suckers for great music so this section grew longer than planned; Anyone who always turns off in-game music to listen to their favorite playlist on Spotify, feel free to skip right to the end with the link to the changelog; no hard feelings! :)

Meet our one-man-army sound designer & director Gero! He has been “lost in music, caught in a trap, no turning back” Sister Sledge-style in his sound-proved studio at our office without going nuts all by himself. For over two years, he’s been composing and tweaking well over 60 tracks, mixing a plethora of iconic SFX for primary and secondary weapons, activated ship devices and consumables, distinctive audio clues about environmental events, UI actions, as well as directing and editing countless hours of voice acting. If that wasn’t enough, Gero is also a veteran audio programmer, making all that in-game audio magic happen at the right time and place. Oh, he also does layout edits for the cinematics and in-game cutscenes. It’s been a ton of work and it’s far from being finished, but as long as coffee doesn’t run out, all is good, Gero assures us.

We probably all agree great music and fitting SFX has always been super important in video games. Even if excellent game audio might elevate the game to higher levels for many players just subconsciously, playing your favorite games, from 8-bit classic to the latest AAA blockbuster, without music can make you realize how much of the total experience is missing.

Now, when making an open-world space action RPG, many epic soundtracks from iconic space movies and sci-fi shooters immediately come to mind as inspiration. From Star Wars, Star Trek, and Battlestar Galactica to Halo, Destiny, and Fallout—the list of fantastic sci-fi music is endless. Expectations for a top-notch sci-fi action RPG score are very high, especially when the visual fidelity is so good. However, we don’t have a AAA budget for a highly-decorated composer and full-sized orchestra to produce several hours of in-game music. Even if we did, we think it wouldn’t be the right fit for this title.

So, being budget-limited and wanting to produce as much as possible in-house, we had to come up with a music direction that Gero could produce all by himself on keys and guitar along with high-quality percussion samples and all sorts of SFX from premium sound libraries. Instead of trying to produce an epic space opera score on a budget, we doubled down on Gero’s variety of talents and went for the iconic sound of 80s electronic pop music, like in the first installment, but with some modern EDM vibes thrown into the mix. Whatever your take is on this, we think the new music direction is the right fit for a fast-paced, arcadey spaceship looter-shooter at its core with optional exploration and other activities on the side.

If you want to read a deeper meaning to the change of our music direction for EVERSPACE 2, you could say that EVERSPACE 1 had a rock-solid foundation of top-notch space combat and striking visual but was a bit rough around its UI/UX edges, paired with a grindy roguelite game loop and a pretty dark story campaign, held back by an edgy learning curve. The game was meant to break established rules of the classic space combat & exploration genre while bringing modern roguelike elements to the mix. Hence, its unusual music direction based on 80s synthesizer sounds and 90s electric guitar riffs, combined with modern beats.

With our change of direction for EVERSPACE 2, the stakes are higher than ever. As our new title appeals to a much larger audience and is meant to be more accessible than hardcore space sims, the game’s audio direction had to follow suit. Consequently, fewer quirky sounds or tracks with a strange 7/8 beat hard to jam to, instead a straight 4/4 rhythm going right into your feet, with some off-beat syncopes here and there to keep things interesting. Last but not least, a more positive score is also a better fit for the hero’s journey in EVERSPACE 2 as Adam is growing from a formerly naive clone pilot to a real human being that finds his place in life and a goal that is worth dying for.

Now, if you’re still reading and thinking “man, that sounds quite boring, and I really don’t like that one battle track with its boring theme and stomping Euro techno beat.” Don’t fret! Gero is constantly exploring his creative boundaries and with some sixty tracks already in the game and even more to come, you’re bound to find a favorite track. Gero has an open ear for feedback from the community and from our team.

Ok, everything aside: Gero has been hard at work creating new tracks and sanding off the edges on tracks in progress; while there is still a lot to be done, I gotta say, the team and I are super pleased with some of his latest work for Union.

Check this out:

• All-new Union Supralight Theme[soundcloud.com]
  
• All-new Union battle theme ramp up 01[soundcloud.com]
  
• All-new Union battle theme ramp up 02[soundcloud.com]
  
• All-new Union battle theme ramp up 03[soundcloud.com]

A few more disclaimers before you head on to the full changelog of the EVERSPACE 2 Contracts/Hinterland update below: As the update seems to be very stable and balanced pretty well, we probably won’t have any maintenance updates before the next content drop in Summer. Even if we did, we wouldn’t add the Vanguard, as previously considered, because we wouldn’t want to code freeze production for at least two weeks and lose precious development time just to add one more job between major beats, consequently delaying the next update.

Also, to enable us to add more main and side missions during Early Access, we’ll be working with TTS as placeholders for quite a while and have maybe one or two more voice recording sessions before the full release further down the line. We added a temporary option to disable TTS placeholders if anyone finds them immersion breaking.

• Added new main and side missions
  
• Added new player ship class: Bomber (heavy fighter)
  
• Added new companion
  
• Increased level cap to 15 and added three new player perks
  
• Added EMP Missiles
  
• Added new Outlaw units: Bloodstar Prospector, Bloodstar Overseer, Outlaw Drone Carrier
  
• Added new Bloodstar-branded equipment
  
• Added resolution scaling setting
  
• Added NVIDIA DLSS setting
  
• Added experimental HDR support
  
• Added setting for third-person camera stiffness
  
• Added keybindings for cycling through on-screen enemy targets
  
• Added batch actions for processing multiple items at once
  
• Added overview screen for data tab
  
• Added new WIP narrated cinematics
  
• Added new/hint indication marker for some menu tabs and items
  
• Added current conditions bar to ship menu tab
  
• Added dedicated mission inventory to hold mission items instead of ship cargo

• Manual saving is now possible anywhere while not in a fight or mission
  
• Balancing: Slower leveling by reducing enemy XP, slightly increased enemy DPS and HP
  
• Enemy levels are more varied now; enemies above player level more common
  
• Slightly reduced Uncommon and Rare drop chances for low levels
  
• There are now cooldowns when installing new weapons/consumables
  
• Homing missiles now require a short lock-on sequence, and missiles will only home in when fired while a target is on screen
  
• Reduced Augmentation bonus from 30 to 20 per Augment
  
• Increase ship slots on Homebase from 3 to 5
  
• Greatly increased resulting Critical Hit Chance bonus from Precision attribute
  
• HUD markers for discovered objects will now be saved and restored when entering a location / loading a save
  
• Modules will now always have a Firepower, Precision, or Structure bonus attribute if rarity is at least Uncommon
  
• Increased heavy ship deceleration with enabled inertia dampening
  
• Show additional offscreen damage indicators in HUD
  
• Reworked movement for most NPC ships, resulting in a less "beeline" attack style
  
• Enemies will now boost when investigating
  
• NPC ships will less likely carry the battle to the location bounds
  
• Reduced Outlaw Sniper Drone focus time
  
• Outlaw Destroyer: Now fires missiles while weakpoints are exposed, easier to spot weakpoints that now also change color when hit, more base hitpoints, higher weakpoint damage multiplier
  
• Sniper Drone will now try to keep 2km distance from player
  
• Consume at least 30% of maximum ULT charge when canceling ULT
  
• Faction item rewards will now have the player level when claimed
  
• Challenge tasks are now tracked individually instead of the whole collection
  
• Increased controller Auto-aiming strength for mines
  
• Auto-aiming will now ignore friends/neutrals
  
• Increased amount of damage needed for a G&B Freighter to turn hostile, but now always turn them hostile when a container was (mostly) destroyed by the player
  
• Changed Speed Booster Recharge Speed from 500% to 300%, increased Recharge Delay from 1s to 2s
  
• With a Cruise Booster equipped, you can now activate Cruise Mode faster (1.8s → 1s) and closer to enemies (2km → 1km)
  
• Increased charge duration and energy consumption of Rail Gun, slightly decreased kinetic base damage
  
• Targets affected by EMP will now receive 30 seconds of EMP immunity after the effect ends
  
• Energy Orbs: Now always floating towards the player, replaced effect bonus perk level with armor recharge, better spawn effect
  
• Slightly decreased signal decoder and color drop chances for some enemy types
  
• Added VFX to make Outlaw Armor Drones stand out more
  
• Slightly increased maneuverability while webbed
  
• Added RESIST and IMMUNE impact labels (e.g. EMP on freighters: Immune, EMP on fighters with EMP Resistance: Resist)
  
• Reduced magnitude of bonus attribute values (Firepower, Resistance, Precision, Utility, Structure)
  
• Decreased Thermo Gun kinetic damage by 33%
  
• Baron Executioner: Increased kinetic damage, removed energy damage
  
• Salvor Jaeger: Decreased spread, slightly increased kinetic damage / decreased energy damage
  
• Show "influence" offscreen indicators for npcs that are debuffing the player (e.g. webbed by Webber)
  
• Dedicated Supralight music in Union system
  
• Optimized sorting options and internal order of item property priorities
  
• Removed unnecessary amount selection for some item transfers
  
• Added small animation and highlight when selling to rebuy shop inventory
  
• Added icons and quality of life improvements for perk upgrade and the investment process
  
• Custom ship style slots now display the selected colors
  
• Hide HUD marker for items pulled with Tractor Beam
  
• Made page indicators in customization screens navigatable and clickable
  
• A small indicator is displayed below the player health bars when inertia dampeners are turned off
  
• Show "tracked" icon in pickup log on top of item icon when tracked for perks
  
• New mesh for the Flying Dutchess trading ship
  
• Freelook/orbit cam is automatically entered when activating autopilot in Supralight
  
• Autopilot can now also be activated/deactivated with target lock binding (middle mouse button is the default)
  
• Player armor, health, and shield bars now all have the same length
  
• Show energy bars in a different color when carrying an energy orb to make it more obvious that energy is unlimited now
  
• Reworked Thermo Gun projectile VFX
  
• Reduced Energized Boost "High Pressure" mode impulse to prevent physics-related issues
  
• Rigged Asteroid UI displays the currently activated and the overall amount of detonator triggers
  
• Changed name and appearance of "Outlaw Ravager" to "Bloodstar Overseer" in the tutorial
  
• The game is now also auto-saved when undocking from a station and having visited a menu or made any changes
  
• Decreased "create new energy sphere" hold duration from 3 seconds to 2 seconds
  
• Show max level info message when reaching Max Level
  
• Prevent save scumming in regards to ship and shop offers
  
• Various UI/Menu tweaks
  
• Updated Unreal Engine to 4.26, potentially fixing some low-level issues (like graphics crashes or problems with available resolutions)

• Fixed Bomb-Thrower re-enabling shield after death
  
• Fixed broken state when loading a save game on Ayres Relay Station with Striker
  
• Fixed player ship not being auto-repaired when levelling up while docked at a station
  
• Fixed energized boost "Compressor" mode stacking
  
• Fixed weapons not always facing straight during supralight
  
• Fixed overlapping dialogues after finishing a job
  
• Fixed finished job locations still showing on Map if they have item rewards that are unclaimed
  
• Fixed Tractor Beam sound not pausing when the game is paused
  
• Fixed camera view occasionally being automatically switched to third-person after using jump gate
  
• Fixed playing time not properly updating after crossing the 144 hours mark
  
• Fixed Interceptors "Power Converter" not using Boost Energy for charging weapons
  
• Fixed Coil and Rail Guns having the "high-velocity" affix
  
• Fixed Corrosion Injector "Mercy Kill" mode not resetting cooldown for insta-kills
  
• Fixed consumable/device keys not showing changed keybindings and also automatically refresh many icons/buttons after a keybinding change
  
• Fixed new high-risk area waypoint not immediately showing after using signal decoder at a location and setting waypoint via map
  
• Fixed "Tag Mines" attribute of Sensor not working correctly
  
• Fixed having to change joystick throttle or other axis input again after pause/resume in order to receive the current axis input
  
• Fixed Missile Defense System sometimes locking up in a loop
  
• Fixed that when trying to use shoulder buttons as modifiers for keybindings the options menu tab would change instead
  
• Fixed that activation of Signal Decoders was not possible if the max amount has been reached and one high-risk area was just discarded
  
• Fixed stat attributes not updating after upgrading an item
  
• Fixed shop discounts falsely granted for non-equipment
  
• Fixed previously used player ship in Hangar still casting a shadow when currently viewing another player ship
  
• Fixed high-risk-location icon looking different in Supralight to what it looks like on the map
  
• Fixed secondary weapon meshes being hidden after having switched to "1st person no cockpit view" and going back to third-person
  
• Fixed dialog window being transparent after plating help message was shown
  
• Fixed interact repair hold sound not stopping when moving out of interact range but still holding the interact button
  
• Fixed that EMPing a mine counted as having cleared the mine although the effect wears off after some time
  
• Fixed reactor repair costs not matching the mission amount
  
• Fixed player mines being hostile after loading a saved game
  
• Fixed minable resources HUD marker being visible after fully mining a resource and then re-entering the location later
  
• Fixed multiple bugs regarding sorting of inventories
  
• Fixed a problem that showed zero credits for all items in shops
  
• Fixed wrong rarity displayed in resource log (HUD) after taking-all-items action in containers was used
  
• Fixed inaccessible Distress Calls being shown on the map
  
• Fixed that upgraded modules may not receive mandatory firepower, precision, or structure attribute
  
• Fixed devices and ULTs becoming less powerful in higher levels

Ok, that was a lot of words; time for some action! Make sure to join our next “ROCKFISH Games Show” to watch Erik Schrader, beloved ROCKFISH Games Community Ambassador and ace space pilot, delve into the EVERSPACE 2: Contracts/Hinterland update live on Twitch[www.twitch.tv] and YouTube, Friday, April 30, from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm CEST / 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm EST / 11:00 am to 1:00 pm PST. 🚀👀💥🙌

Keep it civil on the forums, and see you in space!
Michael and your dedicated ROCKFISH Games Team

Greetings, Pilots!

Time to get excited about the first EVERSPACE 2 content update! Union: Contracts/Hinterland is scheduled to officially drop on Steam and GOG on April 28! As the suffix suggests, there’ll be new things to discover and do in the second star system. While we don’t want to unveil too much, we know that many early pilots are yearning for some teasers, so here we go—there will be spoilers; you have been warned!

We’ve already shared some information about the two new ship classes, the Bomber and the Vanguard, including some detailed concept art in our previous update. While the Vanguard still needs some work in the ROCKFISH shipyard—it’s now scheduled to be deployed with the next maintenance patch after the content update has dropped—we’re excited to share the first in-game screenshot and some more details of the Bomber with you.

First in-game shot of a Cyclops, Bomber Class, Tier 1 in action. Although some pilots perceive subclasses in EVERSPACE 2 to be like different ship types in other space games, it’s worth mentioning that each ship subclass in EVERSPACE 2 will feature subclass-specific wing types as well as different perks.

The heavy-class Bomber is a bulky demolition expert with a virtually unlimited supply of missiles and mines, including the infamous ARC-9000. This much-loved secondary weapon in the first installment makes a comeback in EVERSPACE 2 as the Bomber’s very impressive Ultimate: It fires a massive ball of destruction that damages ANY ship in its vicinity and explodes on impact, so use it with great caution!

The Bomber’s Special "Conversion" is also nothing to sneeze about as secondary weapons use energy instead of ammunition. In combination with a set of random passive perks, like the ability to convert hostile mines [instead of triggering them] or reduced target lock-on duration, plus the upgradable Expertise to self-repair its hull based on a percentage of damage dealt, the Bomber allows for a unique playstyle.

It’s no secret that Elek, our Outlaw friend from the EVERSPACE: Encounters expansion, will have a comeback in EVERSPACE 2. As Outlaws do, our furry friend has got himself in quite some trouble.

You might wonder how Elek ended up hanging upside down... trapped in a cocoon... in a dark, spooky cave deep underground at Cephas Downs... you’ll find out soon!

The main mission rescuing Elek will take combat and exploration gameplay underground a notch further compared to what you have experienced in the tutorial by featuring a bigger and more complex cave with several tunnels as well as a new type of alien creature, fittingly named “Cave Crawlers.” While the pests are individually weak, they compensate through quantity and have some nasty tricks up their sleeve.

While you can easily splatter Cave Crawlers with any weapon, make sure to avoid the stacking corrosion damage from their acid spit attacks. Corrosion goes right through your shield and eats your ship’s armor and hull within seconds if hit by too many times. Better to be safe than sorry; a full stack of large nanobots might come in handy!

Once you have figured out how to make it back to the surface, Elek will drop a clue that’ll help you progress further in the main campaign, leading to an all-new type of mission. Later on, Elek will join your companion roster, where you’ll be able to unlock and upgrade his perks.

The chance of Elek joining the fight when Adam is under attack is the first of several perks to unlock and upgrade for our furry pal. Later in the game, Elek’s connections in the DMZ will come in handy, too.

Veteran EVERSPACE - Encounters pilots who have fought together with Elek know him as a skilled wingman; it’s always good to have him flying alongside you, ready to pull yet another ace from up his Outlaw pilot sleeves when things get hairy.

However, Elek being Elek, he’s not a fan of sitting around at the Homebase, waiting for you to call for help, but being busy. By further investing in your relationship, you’ll be able to increase chances that he’ll take your call. IF he shows up, his space combat skills never disappoint.

Some pilots wondered what those racing challenges scattered all around in Ceto and Union are all about. After all, EVERSPACE 2 is a looter shooter RPG with spaceships, not Mario Kart, right? While this loose quote from a comment on Steam about race challenges in EVERSPACE 2 might be a bit exaggerated, we also understand that racing in a space combat game could feel out of place, especially to fans of hardcore space sims.

However, our creative vision for EVERSPACE 2 is more like an open-world action RPG in space. We want to provide various gameplay mechanics that you can delve into while progressing through the game in your preferred manner. Much of these side quests are optional objectives to pursue whenever you’d like to take a break from the main story campaign.

That said, we aren’t implementing all these different types of gameplay mechanics for nothing. Some super-duper loot will require top maneuvering skillz AND brainz to obtain. No worries, we’re not gonna force anyone to solve lots of complex puzzles and tight pursuit missions to progress through the story campaign à la Uncharted or Tomb Raider. However, many in our team enjoy games that challenge players in lots of different ways, so we also like throwing various challenges at pilots that are up for testing their capabilities outside of established gameplay mechanics in the space combat & exploration / looter-shooter genre.

Watch out for sudden obstacles, unexpected turns, and nasty surprises dropping while chasing an informant through a dense field of asteroids.A great example of how to keep things interesting off the beaten path are those inglorious exotic weapons quests in Destiny 2, throwing bonkers platforming challenges at Guardians before the final boss fight. At first, you might hate them, but once mastered, it’s all the more rewarding when that precious legendary drops.

With that in mind, look forward to a twisting high-speed pursuit within the busy delivery drone flight routes at Prescott Starbase and an adrenaline-rush spaceship chase through a dense asteroid field to test your maneuvering skills.

As said earlier, puzzle-solving in EVERSPACE 2 has generated a lot of feedback, especially from hardcore fans of space sims. Be sure that we are constantly reevaluating and changing things throughout Early Access. For example: In the new update, the rigged asteroids puzzles will now show the current amount of activated and total detonators. It's a small change, but it will make this puzzle more accessible without rendering it trivial. Again, no challenge, no fun, right?

Anyhow, looking at 92% positive reviews, it’s fair to say that the vast majority of pilots do like puzzle-solving to keep things varied, so good news for most of you: Union: Contracts/Hinterland will also introduce new types of puzzles in combination with the second boss encounter, featuring another old acquaintance from the predecessor, The Ancient Warden.

Veteran EVERSPACE pilots already know that the Ancient Warden is no push-over with his long-range hyperbolic attacks that can hit you even behind cover and its capability to teleport when receiving too much damage. Make sure you have weapons with high energy damage installed, dodge its attacks, and pay attention to the final combat phase that will be even more devastating in the confined space of a cave.

We’ve heard from a few players struggling with the overall game difficulty, especially when coming from space flight sims featuring more atmosphere-style combat with fewer weapon types and ship capabilities. Some are even using HOTAS, which is a more difficult to use setup in the EVERSPACE series compared to mouse + keyboard and gamepads.

According to a recent survey on the ROCKFISH Games YouTube channel, about two thirds of space pilots prefer mouse + keyboard when playing space combat games; based on current player data, we’re seeing a whopping 82% playing with mouse + keyboard in EVERSPACE 2.

On the other hand, we’ve received a lot of feedback from pilots that the game is much too easy, thus reaching the current level cap of 14 far too fast, a point also shown in anonymously collected player data. To improve player progression throughout the story campaign and local challenges, we’ve reduced XP from kills, buffed some enemy’s hitpoints and damage output. Furthermore, drop chances for uncommon and rare items have been reduced, too.

To make things more interesting across the board, enemy levels are now more varied and more commonly above player level. Speaking of player level, we also decided to increase the new level cap to 15, enabling pilots to unlock a new set of perks:

The new set of perks is all about dealing extra damage that might come in handy when venturing into high-risk areas.

Now, to all pilots that had a hard time in EVERSPACE 2 so far, don’t fret! Once we’ve nailed game balancing of the full game for the vast majority of players, we’ll introduce various difficulty levels plus more granular gameplay and accessibility options to tweak the overall difficulty to everyone’s liking.
That said, our creative vision for EVERSPACE 2 is an open-world action RPG with looter shooter mechanics and various side activities. Meaning, just like any other open-world action RPG, anyone just bee-lining through the story campaign would not only miss a ton of content and features, the game will also be incredibly difficult.

So, we strongly recommend going for side missions, jobs and random events, solving puzzles to get more rare loot, using crafting to always have items at the current player level, and optimizing your ship and gear loadout depending on the current objective. Most importantly, always keep moving and circle-strafe to avoid incoming fire, lead your shots, and use the environment and all ship capabilities to your advantage! This is how EVERSPACE 2 is meant to be played! ;)

As teased in previous live streams, the first EVERSPACE 2 content update will also introduce the Bloodstar, an all-new Outlaw sub-faction with different combat capabilities, and the chance to drop special Bloodstar gear introducing set-bonuses. Here’s Erik revealing Bloodstar NPCs in a recent live stream.

Bloodstar items only drop from defeated Bloodstar units and come with unique attributes that can significantly boost gear stats when equipped simultaneously.

Beyond adding new content and features, we’ve also tweaked a ton of things. As of writing this production update, I’m counting over 40 improvements currently listed on our internal changelog, ranging from migrating the project to UE4.26 to potentially fix some stability issues, more sophisticated enemy AI, to numerous QoL and UI improvements across the board.

The all-new Batch Actions feature makes dismantling, destroying, selling, or sending several items to Homebase so much easier!

Thanks to a ton of great support from our hardcore fans in two wildly successful Kickstarter campaigns, over two million EVERSPACE 1 pilots since its Early Access release in September 2016, and an incredibly successful Early Access launch for the sequel, we’re living the indie dream. With this success, we’ve been able to forge our creative vision of an open-world space action RPG that everyone on the team is really passionate about, while working closely with our community to make it the best game within our financial and crafting capabilities without having to make compromises based on the agenda of a 3rd party.

Now, commercial success of a predecessor alone is not all it takes to make a great sequel. The most important thing is that everyone on the ROCKFISH Games team is on board for the journey and aiming for the same goal, which is harder than it sounds! Our team is composed of a very diverse type of gamers. While some of us prioritize deep storytelling, casual combat, and deep exploration, others mostly want to blow stuff up and maxout their loadout without too much thinking, looking behind each asteroid for hidden treasures, or watching cutscenes. Whereas some, like our “hardcore” players, mostly thrive on challenges that are absolutely insane, like the way Erik enjoys playing, while still appreciating deep lore and compelling storytelling.

Meaning, building accessible loot & shoot gameplay with intuitive shooter-like controls is the common foundation not only for our team but also our promise to our community. We want to offer a decent amount of depth to the EVERSPACE 2 world in various additional mission types, worthwhile gameplay mechanics, and more further down the line. We know that many design decisions may not make every pilot happy, but we hope everyone can appreciate us being as open as possible about our creative, technical, and commercial decisions.

To help digest all this new information and answer any burning questions you might have, make sure to join our next ROCKFISH Games Show on Twitch[www.twitch.tv] and YouTube, on Friday, April 16, from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm CET / 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm ET / 11:00 am to 1:00 pm PT. Chances are, things go sideways yet again when showing the latest build, plus even more spoilers heading your way, so it should be fun! 🚀👀💥🙌

If you’re new to the franchise or have waited for a great deal, this might be the time to pull the trigger: Get the first EVERSPACE installment at 85% off (DLCs 70% off) and/or the sequel for 10% less on Steam. Both special promotions end on April 21, 10am PST.

Keep it civil on the forums, and see you in space!
Michael and your dedicated ROCKFISH Games Team