[2021] Content Update, Smuggling, Music Overhaul, Changelog

First Content Update Released, Smuggling, Music Overhaul, Changelog 0.5.18292

Greetings, pilots!

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

While we’ve already shared quite a lot in our previous Kickstarter update, we’ve put together a 12 min explanation trailer to wetten your appetite if you don’t mind spoilers, that is:

Smuggling

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

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

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

Music Overhaul

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

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

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

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

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

So, being budget-limited and wanting to produce as much as possible in-house, we had to come up with a music direction that Gero could produce all by himself on keys and guitar along with high-quality percussion samples and all sorts of SFX from premium sound libraries. Instead of trying to produce an epic space opera score on a budget, we doubled down on Gero’s variety of talents and went for the iconic sound of 80s electronic pop music, like in the first installment, but with some modern EDM vibes thrown into the mix.

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

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

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

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

Check this out:

All-new Union Supralight Theme

Changelog

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

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

Features

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

Tweaks

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

Bugfixes

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

Ok, that was a lot of words; time for some action! Make sure to join our next “ROCKFISH Games Show” on Twitch and YouTube, on Friday, April 30, from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm CEST / 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm EST / 11:00 am to 1:00 pm PST.