v3.96 Improves Planet Visuals, Gameplay, and Several Bug Fixes

• The planetary map generation system now prefers placing tiles near the equator.  The result is fewer, isolated tiles near the poles. Change does not affect the total number of tiles placed.  
• Improvements to the planetary material system that allows for greater detail and color. 
• Continent shorelines blend better with the water.
• City lights on the dark side of some planets (e.g. earth) get will get to max bright brightness when the population is 15 (was 30).
• Jupiter has been told to "stay in its lane" and use its own gradient colors instead of Mars'

Gameplay

• Players start with a shipyard. This has been added back because there is now sufficiently tight starting choices that we feel that holding back the shipyard simply creates an unnecessary repetitive starting condition
• Retribution: New starting improvement: Industrial Center (one per player). Good way to boost initial manufacturing
• Intrigue: Increased the number of colonies the higher level govs support. The highest level govs now support infinite colonies.
• Fixed a bug where the AI would sometimes delete a rally point if it found an object in it (as in, its own fleet!).
• AI combat ships are more willing to travel through dangerous territory to defend threatened planets.
• AI will ignore reinforcing planets that are already defended and not under threat.
• AI will focus on its primary enemy more so when targeting ships to attack.

Bugs

• Fixed a trade exploit with Hypergates.  
• Fixed a problem with colonization events that aren't imagined yet.
• Updated the Planet window so the Build Queue buttons don't break out of their frame in Normal UI scale

Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation New Hunter / Prey Expansion
and v2.9 Update Announced
Enjoy new strategic depth with new units, base defenses, and a scenario

Today, Stardock announced the new Hunter / Prey Expansion for its massive-scale RTS game, Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation. New Substrate units and PHC base defenses add depth to players’ strategic options in skirmish, multiplayer, campaign, and scenarios.

“This expansion further differentiates the two factions,” said Callum McCole, lead designer for Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation. “The PHC are now much better at locking down territory, while the Substrate’s new units provide versatile tools for assaulting enemy strongholds.” 

In Hunter / Prey, Substrate players can take advantage of the devastating capabilities of the new Heart of the Phoenix juggernaut, unleash swarms of mechanical Hatchlings using the Clutch of Eggs, and disable enemy defenses with the Falling Star. PHC players can defend their territory with the powerful and heavy-hitting Minos Cannon, wipe out enemy shields using the Nova Tower, or freeze units dead in their tracks using the Stasis Hammer. There are more units and structures to try out and explore, which means greater battles and deeper strategy.

To introduce players to the new units and defenses, a brand new scenario focusing on the Substrate’s expansion onto a PHC-occupied world is included. Multiple paths lead to the main enemy base, each with different defenses, so players will have to deploy their armies carefully. Each Nexus they destroy unlocks more of the new units, further building up their reinforcements.

The v2.9 update to the base game will release concurrently with the expansion. It includes a highly requested “Hold Ground” unit command, audio and visual improvements, a significant balance overhaul, and more. 

Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation  - Hunter / Prey expansion and the v2.9 update are coming soon. Visit Steam to wishlist the expansion today. For more information, visit www.ashesgame.com.  

Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes is getting an update.

Changes include:

• Unit movement engine optimizations
• AI update to be more greedy about getting goodie huts
• Early game technology costs reduced
• Default unit movement increased from 2 to 3 tiles.
• Sovereign default combat speed increased from 22 to 32
• Sovereign default HP increased from 20 to 28.
• Several bug fixes to late game instability

Release date: Now!

Screenshots (at 5K)

Higher Stakes

A new expansion is announced for Offworld Trading Company, Stardock goes to a streamer meetup, and highlights from content creators are all part of this edition of the community newsletter.

The Horizon

New Expansion "The Europa Wager" Announced for Soren Johnson's Offworld Trading Company!

Travel to the smallest of Jupiter's Galilean moons and carve out a name for yourself against your competition! Head to the frozen moon of Europa, where numerous cracks on the moon's surface and multiple methane geysers will make building and sustaining structures a whole new challenge.

Made of silicate rock and possessing a water-ice crust, Europa's atmosphere is thin but comprised mostly of oxygen, which makes it the next natural step for space-bound entrepreneurs.

Read the full announcement and add to your wishlist on Steam today!

Continue Reading...

Offworld Trading Company Announces Brand New Expansion
"The Europa Wager"
Add it to your Steam wishlist today! 
Travel to the smallest of Jupiter's Galilean moons and carve out a name for yourself against your competition! Head to the frozen moon of Europa, where numerous cracks on the moon's surface and multiple methane geysers will make building and sustaining structures a whole new challenge. Made of silicate rock and possessing a water-ice crust, Europa's atmosphere is thin but comprised mostly of oxygen, which makes it the next natural step for space-bound entrepreneurs.

---- Features ----

Offworld Trading Company: The Europa Wager is coming soon. 
Add it to your wishlist on Steam so you don't miss out when it releases!

www.offworldgame.com/europa

Stardock Releases Earth Rising - Part 3: The Syndicate 
for Star Control: Origins

Get the Earth Rising Expansion Now
Play Part 1: Aftermath, Part 2: Return of the Lexites, and Part 3: The Syndicate today!

Stardock released Part 3 of its expansion to Star Control: Origins today. Humanity’s alliance is fraying and their plans for expanding into the galaxy are waylaid when they are faced with a new threat. Earth Rising - Part 3: The Syndicate introduces players to two warring factions: the Liberators and the Syndicate, both of whom want the assistance of humanity and won’t tolerate anyone working for their rival.

Set in the late 21st century, the player is the Captain of Earth's first interstellar starship with the mission to explore the galaxy, find allies to help protect Earth from hostile aliens, and find the resources necessary to help Earth begin to expand to the stars.

The Syndicate is the third part in a four-part expansion pack called Earth Rising. The expansion adds a host of new aliens, ships, adventures and destinations to the already rich universe introduced in Star Control: Origins. Because Star Control is a non-linear action/RPG game, the new content does not require the player to have already completed the main story arc from the base game.

Highlights in The Syndicate include:

• New Characters and Factions - Interact with a new cast of characters and choose a side in the war between the Syndicate and the Liberators.
• New Missions & Quests - Between the refugees fleeing the Scryve empire and two factions warring for the player’s alliance, there is no shortage of new content to explore.
• New Ships - Both the Syndicate and the Liberators have some powerful vessels available for recruitment, depending on where the player’s loyalties lie.
• New Weapons - Take on challenges as you face enemies with a new arsenal.

Get the Earth Rising Expansion Now
Check out the features and quests in:
Part 1 | Part 2

More is on the way!
Following The Syndicate, the final part of the expansion will release. Purchasing the Earth Rising expansion will
give access to each part as they become available.

Part 1: Aftermath (Now Available)  |  Part 2: Return of the Lexites (Now Available)

Part 3: The Syndicate (Now Available)  |  Part 4: Earth Rises (Winter 2020)

Star Control: Origins is available for $29.99 on Steam, GOG, or www.starcontrol.com

A Time For Heroes

Siege of Centauri comes out of early access, the first Turinium Cup has its first champion and more Star Control is on its way!

The Horizon

Saving Centauri

After three phases of beta testing in we are proud to announce that Siege of Centauri has officially come out of early access.

Communications to Earth's first interstellar colony in Proxima Centauri have gone dark. In response, Earth has dispatched the Carpathia to investigate. Upon arrival, you find a colony under siege: Your mission: save the colony from these brutal alien invaders.

Siege of Centauri puts you in command of the defense of Earth's first interstellar colony. Set in the Ashes of the Singularity universe, thousands of alien machines are attacking and only you, with your arsenal of deployable defense structures and strategic orbital abilities, can stop them.

Customize the Carpathia turrets in order to best handle the challenges of each individual mission, battle across the surface of an alien world through a series of story-driven campaigns, or see how long you can survive in a doomed region where the enemy waves are truly endless.

The enemy comes in all shapes and sizes, challenging you to counter them with the right defense in the right place. Siege of Centauri combines the best elements of classic tower defense games with the strategic depth Stardock has delivered in past titles, including Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion and Ashes of the Singularity.

You can get Siege of Centauri on Steam or direct from Stardock.

Continue Reading...

Siege of Centauri is Now Available!
Play Stardock's Take on the Tower Defense Genre

Get Siege of Centauri Today
Also available at: Stardock

Communications to Earth's first interstellar colony in Proxima Centauri have gone dark. In response, Earth has dispatched the Carpathia to investigate. Upon arrival, you find a colony under siege. Your mission: save the colony from these brutal alien invaders.

Siege of Centauri puts you in command of the defense of Earth's first interstellar colony. Set in the Ashes of the Singularity universe, thousands of alien machines are attacking and only you, with your arsenal of deployable defense structures and strategic orbital abilities, can stop them.

Customize the Carpathia in order to best handle the challenges of each individual mission, battle across the surface of an alien world through a series of story-driven campaigns, or see how long you can survive in a doomed region where the enemy waves are truly endless.

The enemy comes in all shapes and sizes, challenging you to counter them with the right defense in the right place. Siege of Centauri combines the best elements of classic tower defense games with the strategic depth Stardock has delivered in past titles, including Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion and Ashes of the Singularity.

Features

Defend the Colony
Proxima Centauri is under attack from hordes of alien invaders! Play through a vast campaign full of challenging missions. Deploy defenses, use powerful orbital abilities, and call units at the right time and place in order to win.

Create your own Missions 
Use the in-game workshop, then upload and share them with other players. Download new missions created by other users, too. Get started with the Modder's Guide here.

Customize your Defenses
Choose from dozens of tower upgrades and determine what you need in order to survive. Upgrade your particle cannon to slow its target, your Artillery Post to leave fire in areas it has attacks, or your Corrosion Mortars so that victims infect the allies around them. 

Survive the Onslaught
See how long you can survive against relentless enemy waves in Endless Mode! Try to outlast other players and compare your scores on the leaderboards.

Fight against Dozens of Enemies
The alien invaders have many unique attacks and defenses. Beware the Falling Star that disables defenses when it explodes, or the Heart of the Phoenix that forms a chrysalis when destroyed that can be reborn as a new Heart.

Get Siege of Centauri Today
Also available at: Stardock

Siege of Centauri comes out on September 12th. It's less than a week away!

I know we have all been playing for a while, and I genuinely appreciate everyone who joined us for the beta, and especially those that provided feedback. All that goes into making sure it is the best possible game next week.

So what does the development team spend our last week doing?

You can see the full list of things we are working on for release day here: https://forums.stardock.net/496769/siege-of-centauri-beta-3-update-2

But at this very moment I'm working on making the Plains of Fire mission less confusing.

Plains of Fire was originally inspired by a plinko machine, where you drop a ball from the top and it bounces down randomly before finally coming to rest in a slot at the bottom. Except out plinko machine was upside down. Ships entered from the top, and then took random lefts and rights, but all ended up at your Colony.

That was not fun. The whole point of a strategy game was to make interesting decisions based on information. The choice should be if you are over committing on the west path compared to the east, not wondering if the units would go to the west or east. This was hard in Plains of Fire where there was a lot of directions the enemies could take, and you really had to play a few times to figure out where they would go (which wasn't fun).

So instead I added blocking terrain in two places to make four distinct paths clear. We still have one branching path (red and blue) but it break right from the beginning. Most importantly there are a lot of interesting places to put defenses depending on what path you are more concerned about. There is a good chokepoint against orange/red and another for red/blue. You can decide to stretch your defenses to make sure the Metal Refinery or Fission Reactor is defended, or pull closer to your Colony and be able to use that tower against more threats.

I also placed two outposts to make it more interesting, some players may decide to let those go, and others may want to defend them for the score bonus. It makes for a more strategic and fun map.

Which missions do you like the best? Which would you like us to update before release?

Stardock announced a September 12th release date for its take on the tower defense genre, Siege of Centauri, today. Set in the Ashes of the Singularity universe, the player takes on the role of defender of Earth's first colony on Proxima Centauri. 

In Siege of Centauri, players defend their colony against relentless waves of thousands of enemies. In the campaign, they will follow the story of Earth’s defenders and progress through increasingly difficult scenarios in their mission to protect the colony at all costs. Dozens of upgrades are available for the defense towers, leaving the player with important decisions regarding how best to equip their defenses on each map.

"With tens of thousands of enemy machines pouring toward your base, we wanted to give players a very new experience of what it means to defend themselves against overwhelming odds," said lead designer Derek Paxton. "In addition, we’ve incorporated several strategic elements into the genre, including defending resources and deploying rapid response teams to battle. Our goal was to provide players with difficult choices about which areas to defend and which areas to let go, leading to greater strategic depth.”

Players can also create their own missions with the Scenario Workshop, then upload them to Steam for others to try.

“It’s always been important for us here at Stardock to put customization into the hands of the players,” said Paxton. “Now, people who have always wanted to design their own tower defense games can create their own maps and missions.” Players can learn more about how to make their own scenarios with the Modder’s Guide.

Siege of Centauri is currently in early access on Steam for $14.99 and will release on September 12, 2019. For more information, visit www.siegeofcentauri.com.

Get Siege of Centauri now on Steam or Stardock

Contact: press@stardock.com

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