Update #32 - Summer Solstice

Another month, another update.

We've added a little more flavor to major and minor factions, improved some victory objectives, stopped the AI from sniping you while you're still reading a notification, and gave the Necrophage a bit of a safety net, among many other improvements and bugfixes.

• 🌊 New Awakening Quests

• ⚖ Improved Minor Faction Asymmetry

• 🏆 Updated Victory Conditions

• 🕙 Delayed AI Movement

• 🐞 Necrophage Improvements

You can read more about these improvements below, and find the full patch notes at the end of the blog.

HIGHLIGHTS

In this update we focused on adding a little more flavor to major and minor factions, while also fixing numerous bugs.

New Awakening Quests

One of the strong points of the Endless games is the asymmetry between factions in both gameplay and lore. Each of them offers their own distinct perspective on the Endless Universe. However, in Endless Legend 2 this perspective was only reflected in the main faction quest and the custom lines in other quests. When it came to the awakening of Saiadha, perhaps the most important event of their lifetimes, every faction encountered the same characters, had the same interactions and reactions. Until now.

With the Summer Solstice update, we're introducing distinct Awakening Quests for each major factions, giving you a better look into how they react to this cataclysmic upheaval. You can see an example below, if you don't mind spoilers.

Improved Minor Faction Asymmetry

The major factions are not the only ones to get more flavor in this update. While the minor factions already had their own pacification quests and flavor through their units and assimilation bonuses, they all felt very similar when you first encountered them. They all started spawning roaming armies at the same time and the same pace, their armies were all the same size. Apart from the peaceful/hostile distinction, they behaved very similarly on the map. With this update, we're introducing more variety to that. Different minor factions will spawn armies sooner or later, more or less frequently, field larger or smaller armies, or even provide special bonuses when defeating them. Some examples below:

• Ochlings spawn new armies frequently, and they can have more armies than other minor factions, swarming your territory if you do not deal with them.

• Blackhammers have bigger garrisons in their villages

• Consortium armies provide greater battle spoils as you steal salvage their trade goods.

Updated Victory Condition

The old Victory objective to "Pacify X villages" has been changed to control X Pacified Villages. This prevents a problem where it could become impossible to win via this victory because there aren't enough un-pacified villages left to reach the objective. But it also means that now you can always take territories to pursue this victory, or take territories from your opponents to keep them from winning.

There is a separate victory condition about the total amount of territories claimed, but we like that for this one specific territories (especially those with 3 villages) matter more and will cause you to consider the map differently as you attempt to conquer Saiadha.

Delayed AI Movements

Since the beginning of Amplitude with Endless Space, our games have always used simultaneous turns to keep you playing rather than waiting for the AI to finish their turns. However, it can be frustrating when the AI attacks you while you are busy dealing with something else, especially if you are a new player and don't expect it. So with this Update we are introducing a change to the turn structure: The AI will now not move any of its armies until after you click the "end turn" button. They will still do their economic and diplomatic actions, though, to keep the time waiting for them to take their turn as short as possible.

For those of you who prefer the old simultaneous turns, you can re-enable them in the game settings in the New Game lobby.

Necrophage Improvements

As an aggressive, ever-warring faction, the Necrophage can be quite difficult to tackle. Their success is built on the momentum of their victories and conquests, so big losses might leave you struggling to find your footing, especially early on. We've been reading your feedback and we're introducing a few changes that should help you recover from setbacks and losses. Broadly speaking:

• AddedMore Passive Sources of CorpsesSome effects that generated Corpses for you every turn have been expanded to affect all admin centers or farms, not just your capital. This should provide a steady supply of corpses with which to upgrade new larva into a proper fighting force in case you find your army too weak to gather corpses the old-fashioned, murderous way.
• AdjustedExpanded Pop Collection BonusesThe Necrophage are the first and only population type that will grant you an additional bonus for reaching 50 population in your empire. We've also reworked most of the old collection bonuses. Now, as your population grows, it will get easier to expand your city and territory and to maintain a large military without going bankrupt.

The Necrophage still work best when they are constantly devouring their enemies, but hopefully these changes will give you something to fall back on if your battles go badly.

CHANGELOG

VERSION NUMBER: 0.83.316

Known Issues:

• Horrors cannot be upgraded into Doomwraiths

• Sometimes yield previews when placing a district are wrong if a district will level up

• Custom factions with the Necrophage affinity lack access to base districts

Economy

• Increased Subjugation costs

• Updated Oneiroi Warren improvement from +1 population slots to giving a full upgraded army

• Fixed improvements unlocked through major faction population collection bonuses not available for any faction who has the population to unlock them

• Fixed player not losing if they lost their armies before founding the capital

• Fixed district tooltips for all factions showing the option to reach to level 3 (Thanks to Bohr41 for the report!)

• Fixed missing district tooltip in Stock Exchange technology

• Fixed missing effect in the era 2 unlock of the Aspects

• Fixed missing text in the Crusader councilor trait’s tooltip

• Fixed “Governor’s Soiree” present in two different technologies

• Fixed Feudalism technology effect not giving dust on each citizens population

• Fixed a bug where ministry level would start at 0 in tooltips (Thanks to kuio and EarlGrey for the report!).

• Fixed a bug in resources outcome in Kin district tooltips.

• Fixed a visual bug in resource yields when building a city.

• Fixed a bug where Empire bonuses would not refresh when reopening panel.

• Fixed performance issues when adding items in the construction queue after resizing the game window.

• Fixed a bug where yield preview would display incorrect numbers.

Military

• Added a visual feedback for the Zone of Control in battle

• Fixed the minimum damage previewed in the units' tooltips (it was always showing 0)

• Moved the battle phase banner up to see better the battlefield

• Fixed the tooltips not displaying real values in the specialization tree (Thanks to BarriaKarl for the report!)

• Fixed impossibility to go through the opponent’s reinforcements

• Fixed box showing how to use a skill staying after the battle

• Removed militia of undiscovered enemy cities in the militia list

AI

• AddedAdded a game setting to remove simultaneous turns for AIif the setting is set to off, the AI will do all army actions (moving, attacking, placing a camp, etc.) when the player passes the turn, otherwise it will be the same as right now (it’s defaulted to off for all new games)

• Added the possibility to build minor faction armies and use them in their roster

• Added the possibility to use the “Confiscate retaliation” skill

• Fixed AI not “finishing the job” and abandoning the Subjugation of a Borough after it successfully besieged it

• Fixed AI never considering to Raze and prioritize it instead of Sack action

• Updated AI to better defend cities when they are besieged

• Improved AI use of the Aspects' battle affinity

• Improved AI skill use in battle

• Added a delay of one turn for AI to upgrade their camps

• Improved AI decision on missions and objectives for their armies

• Improved how AI pursue the “Villages controlled” victory condition

• Fixed auto-exploring armies going rogue and starting fights or parleying with minor factions without the player’s consent

Diplomacy

• Updated the AI personalities for factions:

  • Aspect is Diplomatic: Easy to get along with if treaties are shared. Difficult and prone to attack if they don't.

    • Like open borders and exchanging maps

    • Slightly less likely to launch opportunity attacks in their own lands

    • Less likely to launch opportunity attacks in neutral lands

    • Much less likely to launch opportunity attacks in other players lands

  • Kin of Sheredyn is Defensive: Slow to expand but defend their territories well.

    • More willing to join military alliances. Their turtle nature makes them less effective as a helper, but its also less risky for them

    • Self-sufficient. Less likely to ask for trade or treaties

    • Significantly more likely to opportunity attack other armies in their lands

    • Gives a higher value to military

    • AI less likely to sign open borders treaties

  • Last Lords is Isolationist: They don’t want much to do with other players or to interfere with them.

    • They are slow to change their attitude (increased from double to 3x).

    • They prefer territories that aren't adjacent to other players territories.

    • They strongly dislike open borders, shared maps, vision exchange, and shared research. Their secrets are their own.

• Added a “Never Attacked” Public Opinion modifier which provides a bonus if the two players have never attacked each other and is removed if either party attacks the other (“Belligerent” factions such as the necrophage don’t provide this bonus)

• Improved public opinion tooltips and texts

• Balanced the public opinion values

• Fixed a bug where influence cost was wrong when war was declared during a military alliance.

Minor Factions

• Updated minor factions to be more asymmetrical and diverse:

  • Ametrine drop resources as battle spoils and have slow spawn rate

  • Blackhammer population lose the industry boost and grant fortifications instead

  • Blackhammer villages are better defended than other minor factions as they start with 4 defenders instead of 3

  • Consortium have double the battle spoils of other minor factions

  • Daughters of Bor have a slow spawn rate

  • Gorog have single unit armies and are more powerful, their units are great but expensive and their population is terrible, providing no additional bonuses and consuming more food

  • Noquensii population loses the influence bonus and gives approval instead

  • Ochlings spawn very frequently and have a high army cap, their units are cheap but weaker than other minor factions

  • Sollusk spawn armies more frequently than other minor factions

  • All minor faction units except Hydracorns lose critical chance

  • Hydracorn critical chance reduced to 5%/10%/15% (at each upgrade level)

  • All peaceful minor factions spawn earlier than all hostile minor factions (except the Oneiroi which spawn even later)

  • Updated the assimilation cost from 150 + 10 per assimilation to +100 per assimilation (so the first one is free)

  • Sollusk population collection improvement has been replaced to a new version which gives +200 dust per ransack

• Removed the 10 Dust upkeep from Hoy & Ladhran

Necrophage

• Updated “Ocular Evolution” effects to:

  • +1 vision range on all districts

  • +5 Influence on Admin centers

  • +5 Influence on City centers

• Moved the +1 corpse on Admin/City center from the faction affinity to the “Queen’s City” trait so it can be used in the custom faction creation

• Updated the Necrophage technologies:

  • Fungal Lab from +1 corpse on capital to +1 cadaver on farms and only cost industry

  • Matriarch Glory from +1 corpse on capital to +1 corpse on admin center and +1 corpse in the city center

  • Collective Will from cannot be researched to can be researched

  • Voices of the mass from Unlock Forums and Unlock Matriarch’s eye to Unlock Forums and +4 Influence on City Center

  • Era 2 now unlocks “Swarm Eruption” which unlocks Matriarch's Eye

• Updated the population collection bonuses:

  • 10 populations new bonus giving -30% industry cost to districts and foundations

  • 15 populations from +2 food on Necrophage population to -30% cost for nests, burrows and camps

  • 30 populations from +10 % Food on city with Necrophage population to Necrophage population gains:

    • +1 Food on citizen

    • +1 industry on artisans

    • +1 influence on scribes

  • 50 new bonus giving -100% Dust upkeep on non-hero units

• Fixed the icons for Matriarch’s Eye and Feedhole in the technology screen

Last Lords

• Display Food bonuses for Last Lords even if it’s useless for them so it’s easier to understand

• Removed the councilor trait “Cream of the Crop” for Last Lords (it was giving an useless Food bonus)

• Balanced Mineral inquisition:

  • Bonus from Primordial Last Lord population to Last Lord population went from +2 science to +1 science

  • Now gives a flat +5 science in addition to the population bonus

Kin of Sheredyn

• Fixed notification stating you would gain 2 divine populations instead of 1 (Thanks to CalmBreakfast for the report!)

Victory Conditions

• Changed the Pacify victory condition from “Pacify X villages“ to “Have X villages in your territories“

• Removed difficulty scaling in the Population condition (target is now always 120)

• Removed difficulty scaling in the Monuments condition (target is now always 7)

• Added strategic resources cost to Monuments (25 Hyperium and 5 Thalitine)

• Removed difficulty scaling in the Science condition (target is now always 2)

• Updated the formula of the Pacified villages condition to have a smoother scaling with territory number

• Updated the formula of the Controlled Territories condition to have a smoother scaling with territory number

• Removed difficulty scaling and lowered the target for the Controlled Tormented condition (target is now always 6)

• Updated the trait “Peaceful Mind” from +3 influence on pacified villages to +2 influence on pacified villages

• Fixed “Monument to the Lost” applying -5 approval to communal habitations

Quests and Events

• Added a new Awakening quest for the end game for all factions! (English only for now)

• Balanced pacification quests that have armies to fight to have an army harder after each recess (for example for the Hydracorn, before the first recess, the quest will require to beat a basic army, and after the second recess, that army will have an elite and better units)

• Fixed the unclear objective of the quest “From Many One”

• Added retroactivity to the Necrophage quest’s objective asking for burrows (already built burrows count)

• Added retroactivity to the Tahuks quest’s objective asking for observatories (already built observatories count)

• Added retroactivity to 10 other quest’s objectives throughout the game

• Removed the upkeep from the free unit in the “Artistic License” quest

• Fixed quest “The Disciples” automatically completed when loading the save (Thanks to Glasscannon for the report!)

• Fixed locate objective not working for the quest “Still Waters”

• Fixed cropped narrator text

• Fixed army that needs to be destroyed as objective of the "Artistic License" quest can be attacked by other empires

• Fixed missing localization for the unlock and the technology which comes as a reward of the chapter 6 of the Tahuks' faction quest

• Fixed wring icon used in the reward of the quest “A Greater Harmony”

• Fixed the quest “A Nose Knows” being too easy

• Updated the Tahuks quest “A Gamble” objective to be more in line with the narrative

• Removed for the Aspects the pacification quest of the Ochlings asking for merchant house (Thanks to DvRk for the report!)

• Fixed wrong dialog line at the end of the chapter 5 of the Necrophage quest

• Added a Dust reward for the Tahuks' technology “Machine Disassembly” to be researched in their quest

• Fixed “Future Frenzy” quest showing an old quest reward (Thanks to Drunkman for the report!)

• Fixed the objective of the quest “You scratch my back” (Thanks to cicero45 for the report!)

• Lowered the Science requirements form 100 to 20 for Chapter 6 of Tahuk quest.

• Fixed a bug where the objective of Chapter 6 of the Tahuk quest would not display in tracked quests (Thanks to Jordao for the report!).

General UI

• Added the current technology researched in HUD next to the quest objective

• Added a tooltip to explain the archetypes of each faction in the faction selection screens

• Added the difficulty of each faction in the faction selection screen on hover

• Added a tooltip to explain the level up of districts

• Polished the players card in multiplayer lobby

• Fixed stretched out background in diplomacy screen

• Fixed stretched out hero illustrations in heroes’ circle screen

• Fixed wrong tooltip for the Scribe population category

• Fixed fake unread dot on the Victory Screen button

• Fixed scroll in the dialog window being too fast with gamepad

• Fixed quest pin not disappearing properly

• Fixed credits button not at the right opacity

• Fixed tooltip text issue for the zone of control

• Fixed missing text for the “Alpha Strike” skill’s effect

• Fixed double turn symbol in multiple texts

• Fixed missing tooltip for “Illuminated Foes II” unlock

• Fixed haven’s pin disappearing when reloading a save

• Fixed faction traits not feedbacked properly in tooltips

• Fixed terrain tooltip showing up for no reason on the first screen in gamepad layout

• Fixed cut-off tooltips at the bottom that are too tall by cutting them at the top instead

• Fixed gauges spilling over the maximum

• Fixed tutorial saves showing “game speed” as the game speed instead of “normal”

• Fixed duplicate factions used in the lobby when adding a new faction

• Fixed the hints in tutorial in gamepad not visible because of the terrain tooltip

• Fixed minor faction villages not using the custom color chosen by the player

• Removed missing text in the faction color picker

• Added missing texts throughout the game

• Fixed a bug that made the survey button unresponsive.

Visual and Audio

• Added new visuals for leveled up districts for:

  • Last Lords' Estate and Soul Repository

  • Heroes' havens

  • Trading posts

  • Dams

  • Extractors

  • Kin’s city center

• Added quest illustrations for the Ochling and Unseeing Seer minor factions

• Added the Intel XeSS upscaling in the video settings

• Added the NVIDIA DLSS upscaling in the video settings

• Fixed terrain matching between biomes

• Fixed weird visual effects on water

• Fixed missing sound when the turn begins

Tutorial and hints

• Updated the tutorial map to make it up to date with recent world changes

• Simplified the tutorial steps a bit

• Fixed the retaliation hint in gamepad interface layout

• Fixed the hero equipment hint popping too early in gamepad interface layout

• Fixed hint “Engaging Battle” stuck on screen if the player is too quick (Thanks to Xakim fort the report!)

• Fixed hints in the hero tabs

• Fixed a bug where Kin of Sheredyn quest Chapter 2 would not trigger during tutorial.

World generation

• Reduced lakes probability on all settings

Localization

• New translations in all languages.

Misc

• Fixed an issue preventing from loading an old save

• Fixed 8 technical issues