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Wrapping Up 2024 | EVERSPACE 2 Expansion Tease

Greetings pilots! As 2024 comes to a close, the ROCKFISH team is headed out for the winter break. Our end of year gift to the community is a little peek at what we've been working on for EVERSPACE 2 plus a killer discount on EVERSPACE games and DLC! Skip down to the end of the post to check out the teaser, otherwise read on for our recap of the year!
We began 2024 with looks at content coming in the free Incursions update as well as insights into the Unreal Engine 5 migration we released along the same time. Incursions brought a new horde mode event, legendary gear, and reliquaries, as well as even greater endgame challenges. A tremendous amount of work went into this update, giving players more to do and our developers tools to create expansion content for EVERSPACE 2.
We also celebrated the 10 year anniversary of ROCKFISH Games! Our CEO and Creative Director sat down to chat about their experiences working together since the studio was started. Were a small team and many of our developers have been working together for years, even previous to the founding of the studio. Heres to another decade of space games!
Shortly before the release of the Incursions update, EVERSPACE 2 was awarded Best German Game at the 2024 Deutschen Computerspielpreis (German Computer Game Awards)! We couldnt be more proud as this is Germanys biggest game developer event. Winning this was recognition for the incredible work done during the teams six year journey on EVERSPACE 2 and gave us renewed motivation to continue crafting quality space games on PC and consoles! [previewyoutube=PEWg3WQlVco;full][/previewyoutube] Along with Incursions came many engine changes under the hood that brought improvements and a few challenges that have largely been solved. We released a fun blog showing many of the more amusing visual bugs that popped up early in the project. If youre curious about some of the hurdles we faced, check out this article on the Unreal Developer Blog outlining some of the work the RFG team tackled in the update.
Alongside the Incursions update, we also released the EVERSPACE 2: Supporter Pack. The community of space fans had been asking how they could support ROCKFISH while we worked on future content, and this was our answer. The team packed this full of ship skins and customization features, including a cool cybernetic glow look inspired by a bug shown in our Unreal Engine migration bug blog, this optional cosmetic DLC.
We also released a physical print edition of The Art of EVERSPACE 2. Originally, this book was supposed to be a much smaller volume, but with all the amazing concept art created for the game, we got away from ourselves. This fantastic 280+ artbook is still in stock on Amazon and makes a great gift for space and sci-fi fans *hint hint*.
Alienware has supported us at events during our launch journey, so we developed a special free Alienware Ship Skin as a way to say thanks to their team and the PC space game community. The ship skin is still free on Steam! Grab it today to give your ships a sleek white, black, and green look. [previewyoutube=MoOaS6oqMGY;full][/previewyoutube] EVERSPACE 2: Titans is our first gameplay DLC for EVERSPACE 2 and amongst the team, were calling it our smaller one! Teased on the ROCKFISH Games stream shortly before Gamescom, Titans brings two exciting mini-adventures with replayable encounters and a whole armory of new weapons and gear to the table. These new repeatable experiences brought plenty for space fans to do while we focused on more story-based adventures and locations for our upcoming expansion. [previewyoutube=gpCUqct39po;full][/previewyoutube] As part of the Titans reveal, our Community Manager, Garry voiced a fantastic deep dive into the inner flora and fauna of the Leviathan. Perhaps we should get him in the V/O booth as a character someday! Like the idea? Let us know in the comments!
As a German studio, Gamescom is our home show and the Indie Arena Booth is one of the best places to see upcoming games at the eventTheres no better place to see a sheer amount of creativity per square meter in the whole show! We surprised space fans at the show with a hands-on demo of a mission from the Dreadnought mission chain from Titans. It was great seeing familiar faces and new space pilots from all over Europe. Truly, this is one of our favorite events and we cant wait for the next time we have something timely to show there. [previewyoutube=DJlcuD6sr9o;full][/previewyoutube] While we were at Gamescom, we met a bunch of incredible indies to give shoutouts to, many of whom were also from our Studios hometown, Hamburg! If you havent yet watched our ROCKFISH Shoutouts video, check it out! All these developers were excited to share their creations with gamersyou might just find your next favorite indie!
Funny how we always seem to be placed right next to our friends at Egosoft! Meeting fans from Japan, China, and all over the world at Tokyo Game Show was an exciting time as well! We frequently join the German Games Pavilion at events to showcase some of the best games created in Germany to fans around the globe. If you ever hear of us at an event, please drop by to say hi. Its always appreciated! The team has been quiet about what weve been working on, but thats going to change next year! As part of a new adventure, space pilots will return to Aethon, just one of the star systems coming in an all-new EVERSPACE 2 expansion launching in 2025. Thats just the tip of the asteroid, we dont want to give too much awayStay tuned for the full announcement, expansion title, and more info in the new year! [previewyoutube=P2HY4RmXstg;full][/previewyoutube] Also, that cool BOB shirt Garry was wearing on stream is available on the IGN Store. The holidays are here, so treat yourself!
We wish all you space pilots a happy and safe holiday season. See you in the new year! Lee and the ROCKFISH Games team

[ 2024-12-20 21:47:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

EVERSPACE Winter Sale Deals | Series Sneak Peek Stream

The Steam Winter Sale is here and we salute all you deal hunters whove held out until the end of 2023 to pick up games youve 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 isnt done yetWeve 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 studioevery single positive note means the world to independent studios like ours.

EVERSPACE Series Discounts

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

Its been a YEAR. Go on and treat yourself. You deserve it.

EVERSPACE Series Sneak Peek Stream

Want a sneak peek at whats 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 were working on. There may even be some classic EVERSPACE gameplay!

Well 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, well have it up on YouTube shortly after. Thats all for us this year, but theres lots to come next yearthe 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

[ 2023-12-21 18:08:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

New EVERSPACE Pricing Changes

Greetings pilots! Its been more than five years since we released EVERSPACE! What a ride its been and were 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 havent already: [previewyoutube=u8m47pGxGaM;full][/previewyoutube] Now to speak about EVERSPACE specifically, were 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, wed 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 Steams 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 its 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. :) Thats all for now! Weve 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

[ 2023-03-08 15:30:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

EVERSPACE 2 The Drake: Gang Wars Update Is Out | Changelog 0.9.28028

Greetings, pilots! The wait is over: the hotly anticipated Summer Update aka Drake: Gang Wars is finally here! Its our most significant Early Access update, adding tons of new things to the game even though were not done yet - therell 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! [previewyoutube=aGyJxlMMjcE;full][/previewyoutube]

Drake | New Side Missions

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 havent 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 wasnt 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. Its 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.

New Factions

In Drake, youll 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 dont want to spoil too much but heres 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. Its loosely named after the Cohhilition community from top streamer CohhCarnage whos 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 Cohhs logo on his twitch channel.

The next faction youll 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 youll 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.

New Perks

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 Area Mutators

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 piata.

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.

QoL Improvements

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.

Major Rebalancing

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!

TrackIR and AMD FSR Support

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, didnt let go, and were 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.

Changelog - 0.9.28028

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 thats 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 dont, feel free to let us know, too. Rest assured, we read every comment and every review, while we hope for your understanding that we wont be able to please anyone, and that some features would be just too much work or simply dont fit into our vision for EVERSPACE 2. With that, Ill leave you to it, and we hope to see many pilots in our first official Drake: Gang Wars live stream on Twitch 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, well 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. Dont stop being awesome, and see you in Drake! Michael and your dedicated ROCKFISH Games Team

[ 2022-08-13 09:46:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

EVERSPACE 2 2022 Roadmap | Hottest FAQs | Drake System Teaser

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 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 Khat 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 theyre 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, Games Writer, and Joshua Rubin, Narrative Consultant!

2022 Roadmap

Before we talk about whats coming, lets have a quick look at whats 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, Khat 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 wont 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. Well also add more weapon types and sets, as well as more consumables and devices. Id say were at 75% of the gear youll 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 lets take a closer look at what content we plan to release and when:

EVERSPACE 2 Rogues Debut, Spring 2022

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 well 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, well add a bit more story content with English voice acting and substitute all current TTS placeholder dialogues.

EVERSPACE 2 Drake: Gang Wars, Summer 2022

In summer, its 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.

EVERSPACE 2 Ancients Rifts, Autumn 2022

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. Were 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, well be head-down, working towards launch.

EVERSPACE 2 v1.0, Early 2023

Launch! Completing the games 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 (well 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!

Hottest FAQs

Were 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.

Will Save Games Wiped at v1.0?

Were 99.99% sure thats a yes! Sure, we havent 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 were still adding to the game in earlier star systems. Plus, theres 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! ;)

Is EVERSPACE 2 open-world?

Yes! Now, Im 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 thats 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 wouldnt 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 UE4s 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 its just a cluster of a galaxy, were 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 wouldnt make any sense because in EVERSPACE 2 you can already see whats 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 weve changed our communication to semi-open-world to be more accurate.

Will You Get Rid Of Level Scaling?

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 doesnt 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, wouldnt you expect enemies to improve their gear over time, too?

Drake System Teaser Fire & Ice

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 Khat 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 hells 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, theres 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 youll 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.

Surprise Trailer

Last-minute addition: While I was drafting yet another 2K+ words piece, ZeTeam worked on a surprise 2021 recap/2022 teaser trailer, awesome sauce! [previewyoutube=TYD-ELmytWA;full][/previewyoutube] 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 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

[ 2022-01-27 09:55:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

EVERSPACE 2 The Khat Nebula: Stranger Skies Update Is Out

Hey there, pilots! BOOM shaka-laka-laka, dankeschn, auf wiedersehen! The 3rd major EVERSPACE 2 content update, Khat Nebula: Stranger Skies has launched on Steam and GOG WOOHOO! Check out the massive changelog of whats 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 and YouTube you really should swing by if you havent! Its 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! Im behind the keyboard and will answer everything Erik might not be able to cover.

The Khat Nebula

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!): [previewyoutube=RsLXxPjm21w;full][/previewyoutube]

New Faction: The Redeemers

The Redeemers began as part of the "Research Department for Extinct Extraterrestrial Monuments", a group of scientists, adventurers, and mercenaries who entered the Khat Nebula seeking clues to The Ancients 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 Khat 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 Khat 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.

New Gameplay: New Ancient Puzzles

As you can see in the new trailer, weve added a slew of new Ancient puzzles in the Khat Nebula. Now, instead of explaining how they work in detailthat would be super-lamelet 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 franchises iconic fast-paced loot & shoot gameplay to introduce new gameplay mechanicsphew, 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, youve been introduced to the first Ancient puzzle, set in a confined space with hard-to-miss-pointers to its solution. In Zharkov, youll find Ancient puzzles based on established mechanics which require further exploration to solve. In the Khat Nebula, were 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, dont 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 showed that playing a very popular 3D-platforming game increases hippocampal grey matter in older adults; meaning, complex 3D video games prevents Alzheimerscrazy shit; isnt it? Man, I cant 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! Weve also got a brand-new player ship sub-class!

New Player Ship Class: The Vindicator

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 Vindicators 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 Vindicators 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 youre 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

New Story Content, Companion, and Perks

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 Khat Nebula where youll find many new areas, including a strange planetoid.

When you finally catch up to Eduardo, hes 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 the Navigator

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 spaceWoohoo, 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". Shes 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.

Khalas brusque attitude occasionally may clash with the other companions as she finds her way amongst alien species. Though Adams 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 Khalas 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.

Changelog 0.7.22328 (Official)

Features

Added new main and side missions
Added new star system: Khat 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

Tweaks

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