Genre: Shooter, Real Time Strategy (RTS), Strategy, Indie
Executive Assault 2
Patch v0.432.03
Hi, small but important patch today.
New Feature The multiplayer lobby is now multi region so you can join your friends across the planet without having to cycle between regions in the options menu.
Region control has been removed from the options menu and moved to the server creation window where you can choose where you want to host your game, this setting may have changed from your previous settings however once you choose a new region it should remain the default.
You may notice the list is a lot smaller but don't worry I tested the ping between regions plus taking data from since the game was released to selected the best servers for you to choose from. In time if more servers are needing to be added I will look at expanding the list.
Some of you may wonder about the region pings, the way they work are that when you host a game you aren't physically hosting anything, this is all happening on a server on the planet somewhere so what is actually happening is everyone including the person who started the game is connecting to that server so the ping is only between you and it.
Do let me know your thoughts with the new lobby (this is why its in Early Access :D ).
Fixes
There was an issue connecting as an Executron which caused the words "construction" to get stuck on the screen and also sometimes multiple versions of your self to spawn, this particular issue has now been fixed so joining as one should be more stable.
No more CEO making a sort of passing gas sound when the game starts.
Hacking and green circle symbols should no longer get stuck on the screen.
A problem where mining ships would stop moving after an Executron who had captured an outpost had left the game has been fixed.
Cheers,
Rob
Minor patch 0.432.01
Small but important update based on feedback from yesterdays patch.
Access to high level tech should now respond better to if you gain or loose a research outpost.
Purchasing tech from the trader and activating it should no longer affect current research.
One time only buildings should only appear once now.
Loadout tubes on the Executron facility should now work again.
Mech factory build interface should be the correct one now
Star fighters made in the docking bay should no longer auto take off, making a second one will cause the first one to take off.
Turret take over issue on outposts has been fixed.
Docking bay constructor now does a better job checking the build area
Telling a star fighter to dock while its undocking should no longer break it.
Thank you again for the feedback from everyone, please please please though make sure you write out a proper bug report instead of just submitting pictures or saying "It's broken".
Also please don't submit bug reports based on loading old saves from previous patches, there is a reason they are all red with a warning.
Cheers
Rob
Patch 0.432.00
Hi everyone,
Welcome to patch 0.432.00,
Over the past several months I have taken on board a lot of the feedback I've been getting and the general consensus was that the UI was a bit hard to use and didn't make sense. So I’ve tried to make things simpler and easier to understand by integrating elements from other RTS games to help with familiarity. Other concepts of the game have been streamlined such as the defence status and coolant so they make more sense. I hope you will be spending more time enjoying the game and less time fighting the UI.
Below is a list of concept changes.
UI update The UI has been totally updated to be easier to use with all the menus accessible from the RTS screen rather than a separate operations screen. Also building is now done directly from the command screen, along with hot keys and unit grouping like every other RTS game.
Coolant Coolant is now used to boost your stations systems when you need to speed up research or starship construction. The more coolant you mine the longer you can maintain the reactor boost. However if it runs out the reactor will eventually overheat resulting in the station exploding. So either stay on top of your stockpile of coolant or use the override sparingly. Think of it like the Protoss Chrono boost from Star craft 2.
Red alert Primary and secondary power modes have been replaced with a more simple red and green alert system. Switching to red alert will turn on the station defences and shields, while green alert will switch them off.
Unit load outs Units have now been categorised to make designing them easier and also to allow for more interesting ship types and strategies such as scout and long range ships.
Research tree New researchable tech has been added and the whole research tree has been rearranged to cater for the new unit designs as well as new weapons.
First person changes Z11 bots now have primary and secondary weapons as well as limited firing so you need to reload now, this is to help with some of the new weapons such as the bazooka, flame thrower and sniper guns.
Base shield upgrading To address the issue of people just sending in large fleets and trying to win without trying ground assault, I have significantly made the shields much stronger on stations. Ground assault should now be a more important aspect of the game. The station shields now have 3 levels, blue level shields will stop basic attacks, where as red level shields should stop almost all attacks unless the opponent has a very powerful armada. You will still be able to win by bombarding the station with your ships, but this will take much longer. A wiser strategy should now be to try assaulting the stations with your troops. Note gateway probes can pass right through shields.
Frames per second increase I have streamlined a lot of the scripts especially the turret and star ship scripts to help increase the games performance.
Full list new features
New load out system - so you can pick what task you need the ship for and the appropriate researched hulls and tech will appear in the list.
Coolant no longer drains unless you overcharge the reactor, think of it like a station boost when you really need it.
You can now buy basic tech from trader which you activate in the resource menu.
FPS robots now have 2 weapons, a heavy one and a pistol
Currently Excecutrons just have pistols but will be changed later.
When piloting a starship, light weapons will still auto fire but heavy turrets will be controlled by you.
You can now upgrade turrets on outposts as well as the shields, all defence upgrades happen across all your owned structures.
You can now upgrade internal turrets, this again happens across all owned structures.
Units now have a flashlight
Infestors now appear on derelicts
Outposts now have internal defences.
Optimised turret system for big frames per second increase.
Primary power mode has been replaced by red/green alert for ease of understanding.
UI has been updated across the board.
Bot weapons and ship weapons are now separate tech.
Ships now tilt and billow smoke
Mouse speed reduces when zoomed in.
Mining ships/cargo transports can now be told where to go by simply right clicking on what you want it to mine or which station you want them to return to.
Units can now be grouped using Control number and added with shift like most RTS games
Subsystems (Turret and door control) no longer need shift, you simply hover over the turret/door
Escape will exit most things.
Hacked doors now remain open for 30 seconds
When aiming a gun at something a green ring will appear to show its within range.
Experience now gives units +2 damage per star rating
Station segments can now be auto repaired from the defence screen
Music volume has been balanced better.
Can now go straight to the trader from the message.
Things to add
I would like to make the AI stronger and attack better as currently it doesn't seem to attack with the latest tech or strong ships.
AI should respond faster to ground assaults
AI profiles will be added such as Rush, Balanced, Space, Turtle etc.
Would like to work on the galaxy map generation for fairer maps and eventually lead to a custom map generator.
You may notice that energy weapons have been removed from ground assaults, I would like to bring them back in.
Would like to improve the defence against ground attacks and work more on making that aspect of the game more exciting with things like garrisons, traps and better AI
Allow Executrons to carry more variety of weapons.
Please read the updated manual in the game as well as the quick help (TAB) to familiarise yourself with the new features whether you are a veteran to the game or not.
Remember the game is still in Early Access and this patch will still have issues which I am looking forward to hearing your feedback on. Patches to this update should take a lot less time so if you see something that is wrong please report them using the in game bug system (which button has now been moved to ` which is usually left of the 1 key or Z on a mac)
Thank you again for all the help and feedback and for supporting the development of Executive Assault 2, we still have plenty more work to do.
Cheers,
Rob
Patch 0.431.32
Mini patch today.
Can no longer TeleBeam to an opponents station.
Gatewaytrons for the AI now work after loading.
Mining Derelics now spawn again.
Robots getting stuck in doorways have had an AI upgrade to figure out a way through (experimental)
Black screen on Macs now have a work around explained below.
AI controls gateway forcefields switching them on if it detects troops onboard and switches off again afterwards.
Mac Fixes
After a lot of research I found that there is an issue with some Mac's and Unity which causes black screens to appear, however there are 2 fixes for this.
If you press Command-F to make it windowed and press them again to switch back to full screen again this should do it.
Second option is if you Right click on the game in your Steam library -> Properties -> Set Launch Properties and add the following, without quotes "-show-screen-selector" and try launching it. This should force the resolution dialog to come up where you can then set it to windowed and then switch back again afterwards.
If you were testing with the special Mac beta branch I made, thank you for this as you helped fix the issue and you may now opt out of the branch.
Cheers,
Rob
Patch v0.431.2
Hi executives,
Bug fix patch today, I apologise if these patches sometimes break your saves but it is in early access and the patches need doing to give you a better experience.
AI now resends probes after first one is destroyed.
Bug reporting now more stable.
AI troops will no longer just stop and have cup of tea.
Fighters will no longer attack docked Probes.
Music enhancements.
Star fighter construction now more stable.
Texture bug in fighter bay has been fixed.
Capturing research stations over multiplayer now works.
Can now dock star fighter with defence and research outposts.
Shield costs on robots are now correct.
Can no longer warp ships out to a different system the moment it warps in.
This will be the last patch for a bit while I work on some features and bugs and also its Christmas, unless there is some horrific issue that needs sorting.
Hope you all have a good one.
Cheers
Rob
Version 0.431.11
Hi there,
Little bug fix today to patch a few things from yesterday:
Gateway probes now close its connecting door when destroyed.
The correct amount of gateway probes are generated when in multiplayer.
You can no longer use the enemy inter-bridge transport system,
Troop transporter has been removed from the research screen.
Cheers,
Rob
Version 0.431.0 - Invasion update.
Hi Executives,
Today I bring out the invasion update, a revamp of the way stations are attacked.
Troop transports have been removed and replaced with the Gateway facility, each facility comes with a Gateway probe (upgradable to 3) which when flown and docked with another station will open up a spacial fracture between the two allowing instantaneous transport between your base and the theirs (think star gate...but its not a star gate...its a gate way! Cough), it is basically the same as a troop transport only the troops are not on the probe directly but waiting for the gateway to open.
This means that you can send robots and Executrons straight over to the enemy base as long as the Gateway probe is still connected meaning they can join the action very quickly, also means troops can come back through so it is important to monitor this and also raise a forcefield over the gateway if needed by pressing the relevant button. Mechanoids can also use the gateways too.
I hope you will like this update as it really does bring the excitement of space station combat back to the game which was lost when troop transports came pre loaded with troops.
You can of course still use star fighters to fly and dock at stations as well.
The only thing lost is the ability to fly on the troop transport in the back, however this mechanic did not work well over multiplayer as well as troops kept falling out and had all sort of issues with scripting and bugs.
The teleport facility has also been removed but replaced with an Inter-bridge transport system which allows you and your troops to Telebeam between owned stations.
The patch also fixes and improve the following:
Frames per second increase across the board.
Improved Z11 combat dynamics so uses more cover base combat.
Mechanoid direct control has been improved.
Mechanoids now shoot correctly.
Shield power on space stations have been increased slightly
Upgrade tech now loads after save.
Outposts all now have 2 docking ports.
A change to the way the AI attacks so will try and find the CEO.
Battle music now sustained for longer during a battle.
A bug where you could cheat a little with the ships fracture drive and send them to the wrong system.
The next thing I will be working on is making the Mechanoids easier to produce and add more types as well as adding more things to buy from the trader such as certain tech.
Will also been working on better internal security systems.
As always all your feedback and bug reporting is much appreciated.
Let me know if anything significant has happened on the Mac side if things as I have had to switch from Metal rendering to OpenGL due to shader conflicts.
Hope you have a wonderful Christmas.
Cheers,
Rob
Patch notes v0.430.3
Hello Executives,
Just some important bug fixes today.
Reduced the camera wobble when the station is shot
Robots will now follow and guard Executrons
Fixed a bug where if you had less than 100 Ironite you could not build anything
The unit design screen should now show the correct total amount
The correct total Ironite should be deducted now.
Fixed a freeze just after being killed piloting a starfighter.
Fixed star fighters flying through buildings
Shipyard controls should now match the corresponding shipyard.
Fixed robots walking through the fighterbay
Fixed construction limits for ship yards and outposts (should be 3)
Hopefully fixed Executrons being stuck in "Constructing" mode.
Added to key mapper pressing CTRL+F1 to rotate RTS camera
Reduced flicker brightness on shipyard 3d printer
Increased firing range of outposts to match cruisers.
This patch might affect saves (downside to it being in early access)
Cheers
Rob
Patch notes v0.430.2
Hello Executives, happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate it.
Small but important patch out today
Mining ships should no longer hover around fracture points
Fleet cap issue has now been fixed where you were reaching it with almost no ships.
A bug where Z11 bots would not attack Executrons/CEO has been fixed.
Executrons now start with basic gun.
Cargo bay info now stated correctly.
Ships now dock with the closest bay.
Mining outpost explosion now acts correctly.
A few stability issues have been sorted
Non of the changes should break a save file so they should be OK (despite the warning)
Cheers,
Rob
Patch notes v0.430.1
Hello Executives, I hope you have been enjoying the game so far.
This patch adds a save feature and a new way that Executrons are spawned.
Executron Change Executrons are now constructed in a special new facility called...The Executron Facility.
To enable Executrons in your multiplayer game you now need to build an Executron Facility, this will then enable the join as Executron button in the lobby. If the facility is blown up, this button will vanish and all currently joined Executrons will become observers when they die till a new one has been built.
Inside the facility you will find 4 spawning pods and multiple ExecuDisplay areas (no mosh pits now).
You will also now find the a new loadout machine where you can upgrade your Executron or CEO with the latest weapons (look for the purple light)
Finally inside you will also find the employee prison, a CEO can send any rogue Executron there if they are being annoying. If that rogue robot logs out and back in they will still spawn inside the facility.
Executron names now appear above their heads.
Single player save feature A new single player save feature has been added, it is still a little experimental so if you experience a problem with it please include that you are loading from a save in your bug report.
Please note that as we are in Early Access I will be patching the game quite regularly meaning that old saves might not work after a patch, please do try the save but expect corruption, this is the downside to having a save feature at this early stage in development.
There are no plans for a multiplayer save feature at this time.
New Features
New personal shields have been added for all robots, CEO's and Executrons (not Mechanoids at this time).
Executron facility.
Single player save feature.
Loadout machine.
Names above Executrons heads.
Changes
Weapon ranges on space station have been doubled.
Weapon ranges on drones and star fighters have been increased.
Star fighter now has its name back on it.
Apologies if you were expecting a lot of bug fixes with this update, adding a whole new save feature as well as a new facility does take a while. The next patches will address bugs and such.
Thank you again for the bug submissions and suggestions, they are all being logged and looked at, it would be super helpful if when submitting one you could include as much information as possible else I wont be able to fix the problem.
