we are proud to announce that you can now have a first look at the version 1.0 of Exogate Initiative on the “Preview” beta branch.
You’ll find the changelog below, our longest since the early access release! Including lots of additions and changes directly from the community inputs that we are sure you’ll love.
Among the new things you’ll now compete against (or collaborate with!) up to 3 other factions, define your own victory conditions, use new equipment from a new dedicated tech branch that offers mini exogates to mine directly on other worlds or open portals into stars for infinite energy!
The autominer opens a portal directly in a mine on the other side of the galaxy!
Feel free to test it and give us your feedback through your favorite channel, on Steam forum, Discord or using the in-game report tool. It’s very important for us to hear from you and tweak the game accordingly in this final straight.
Please note that your existing saves will unfortunately not work with this version of the game, but it’s the last time we have to break the save retro-compatibility.
On our side we will continue to hammer remaining issues, and try to include new things before the official release on January 28th.
See you soon through the Exogate!
Safe travels, Maxime MILLET Creative Director, Xeno Bits
Changelog v1.0.0 preview
[CF] = From community feedback
New
New game settings: -Toggle and setup the different victory conditions -Define the number of factions present on the map -Setup the game difficulty between 3 levels: Peaceful, Challenging, Extreme
New factions: Three new factions to compete with -Borderless Conscience: Charity of a tortoise-like race, expanding their territory in the guise of offering aid -Felis Reapers: Predatory, cat-like religious zealots, who expand to eliminate the competition -Zodiac Cohort: The commercial military-industrial complex of a worm-like race, who sells products to an ever-expanding market to make big profits
Trading: you can trade materials and influence with other factions
Treaties: -Non aggression treaties: Sign a treaty to prevent any hostile action with another faction for a fixed period of time -Alliance: Form an alliance with one or more faction to prevent hostile action, share your enemies, improve trading conditions
Diplomatic gift: Retrieve a special artifact from each faction during diplomatic missions on their homeworld, each with bonuses randomly generated at game start.
New campaign objectives to explore factions’ territory and meet factions’ leader
You can now build and upgrade stronghold outposts on claimed worlds to provide automated defenses.
New victory conditions: -Knowledge victory: Win by being the first faction to study the target number of native alien cultures -Scientific victory: Win by being the first faction to research and build an ultimate generator, unlocking unlimited power! -Material victory: Win by being the first faction to collect and store the target quantity of the target material -Influence victory: Win by being the first faction to generate the target amount of influence per day
New panel to track victory conditions progress
[CF] Starmap filters: filters starmap by exploration status or destination rewards
[CF] You can now choose to let the team handle sector defense and invasion by themselves.
New tech: Micro gate, Miniaturized exogate technology, which unlocks advanced applications New equipment: Ultimate generator : Provides infinite energy to power room objects and connect more destinations to the star map, by opening a wormhole inside a distant star New equipment: Auto miner : Retrieves raw ore from an assigned mining destination, via a micro-exogate (requires an engineer to operate, and prevents mining missions being sent to that destination)
[CF] New indicator in gaters list to know if a gater is ready to go on mission or not
[CF] New panel to view gater and team mission status when you click on a team event in the top left list.
[CF] Behavior modes: You can now force gaters to specific behaviors if needed: -Well-being: Gaters will focus on improving their well-being by resting, having fun or socializing with others, ignoring work or training activities -Working: Gaters will focus on their work, ignoring training and recreational activities -Training: Gaters will focus on their training, ignoring work and recreational activities
[CF] New tutorials: -Training -Loneliness -Affinities between gaters -Period budget summary -Leveling -Base defenses -Faction leader contact
Achievements: 44 Steam achievements to unlock
[CF] You can now rename planets
[CF] You can search planets on starmap
[CF] Room efficiency: Rooms not surrounded by walls or doors will be less efficient and gaters fatigue will increase faster while they are in those rooms.
New unlockable med bay upgrades: -Faster ambulance bots -Physical and psychological treatment improvements -Improved ICU -Faster diagnostic pods
New training upgrades: Each training equipment can be upgraded 2 times to greatly improve the experience earned
Gaters class specific tasks management: You can finetune a gater job by toggling some class related tasks in their details panel.
[CF] Doors will now auto rotate on placement
[CF] New 2 and 4 people tables in mess hall [CF] New advanced food distributor that improve mental health
[CF] You can now see the queue of tech to be researched in tech tree
Changes
Increased Xp gained by training equipments Increased mental health healed by recreation equipments New notifications for factions related events New notification when diplomatic level with a faction change [CF] Invaders and factions are now part of the standard settings when starting a new free play game [CF] Improve player comprehension when artifact destination can't be explored by a specific team. Max influence was reduced from 5000 to 1000 Social attribute impact mental health gained during social interactions. Gaters body and mind strength attributes will make gaters sleep less often. [CF] Improved messages when a gater is not able to drop something. [CF] Room equipment selection panel was reworked to be more readable, include sell option and the room efficiency level. [CF] Refund ratio is now displayed on tooltips when selling something [CF] Improved gaters attributes descriptions [CF] New notification when an assignment was completed (e.g. science runs out on a planet) [CF] Improved faction leader contact button visibility on factions list screen [CF] Canopy bed access was changed on set on the same size, moreover it increase mental health, price was increased [CF] Nap pod impact on mental health was removed, price was increased You must now confirm when declaring war to a faction New notification when full artifact bonus is unlocked [CF] Improved gater equipment tooltips to help understand their usage. New logs when gaters meet or their affinity level change [CF] The medic treating a gater in med bed is now displayed on the gater status. Faction badge and color will not be visible on starmap until faction is met [CF] Improved messages displayed when a gater is not able to go on mission to help player understand the reason [CF] Added steps to reach next influence point generated by territory size Trending and flopping patent topics have bigger impact (+ and -50% revenues instead of 30%) Improved initial bedrock placement Reworked campaign objectives order Increased diplomats salary Chance for gater to have bad relationships were increased Clicking on button to view a gater will now close the gater list Liberation missions balancing.
Fixes
Need status were not properly displayed on load [CF] Capped the maximum amount of money that can be owned to avoid a bug [CF] Power label was white instead of gray when power was back on [CF] During mission dialogs, gater's mind and body stat number were flipped Female soldiers in light armor were not properly placed during missions dialogs [CF] Missions stats are now properly updated on starmap when modifying a team. [CF] It was possible to create a culture study mission without the tech unlocked. Fixed a bug where collecting alien corpse objective was not always validated in time [CF] Fixed an issue where gaters would sometimes stop to do anything because they were unable to collect an item somewhere. [CF] Fixed issues with multi ambulance bots and cremation units behaviors. [CF] Fixed issue where it would no longer be possible to place room equipment after being interrupted by a team. [CF] Fixed a bug where gater would be in the wrong animation on game load. The button to display gater with needs on the top of the screen was not properly setup by default. Player were not always notified when there was no available storage for materials.
Exogate Initiative will be available in 1.0 on January 28th
Hello Gaters,
This is it: Exogate Initiative will be released in 1.0 on January 28th. After almost 2 years of Early Access and plenty of new features and content, we are excited to launch the game in the final state we imagined at the beginning of this adventure.
This will be the biggest update since our early access release and it will bring lots new content, like 3 new factions, new victory conditions, new room equipments and much more. Tons of bug fixes and quality of life improvements. And a feature you have asked for almost since the beginning: Steam Achievements. You will have all the info in the changelog on the release day.
Introducing the Borderless conscience: Charity of a tortoise-like race, expanding their territory in the guise of offering aid
This week, you will also be able to play this new version in Beta Mode, and as usual, we appreciate your feedback.
Cheers, Xeno Bits Team
0.9.1 update hotfix 3
Custom game settings are now properly validated Moved options to disable factions and invaders in standard settings
0.9.1 update hotfix 2
Improving builders behavior to avoid them being stuck not doing specific actions
0.9.1 update hotfix 1
-Fixed issues where scholar were not able to pick a study desk to work on properly -Increase priority for scholars to clean up study desk
Daily Deal & Update for Exogate Iniative
Hello Gaters,
We are super excited to share great news with you: Exogate Initiative is at its lowest price ever, as we have a Daily Deal spot with a 35% discount. We also bring you a last small update before the 1.0 release, planned for the beginning of 2025. We are a bit late on our plan, but we are a super small team (3 people) and want to ensure we will reach the quality we want for the game.
Also, after this sale, we will increase the price a bit to $24.99 / 24.99€ to meet the price point that now represents all the new content we added to the game since the early access release. So, if you want to explore the universe with your gaters, you should do it now.
But what's new with this update?
Custom game setup
You can now set up a new game with custom parameters to personalize your adventure fully. You can choose the amount of money you will start with, enable or disable enemy factions or invaders, and more!
A glimpse at all the things you can customize when starting a new game
Campaign rework
We changed the campaign to improve the game learning for new players and have a smoother on boarding. In this campaign, we also included new features that were added during Early Access.
Be sure to check out the full changelog at the end of this post for all the details.
What will you add for 1.0 launch?
We are planning a big update of course! To give you a glimpse of what's coming, there will be three new factions, some new victory conditions and some improvements on the 4X Gameplay, gaters and team management. We will also add the Steam achievements, which were awaited by our community, and a lot more!
We want to take this moment to thank you all for your continued support and incredible feedback. You’ve helped shape the game into what it is today, and we’re eager to hear what you think of this latest update. See you all through the Exogate!
Safe travels!
Changelog 0.9.1
New
New Game Setup Options:
Enable/disable bedrock.
Define score victory game length.
Enable/disable enemy factions.
Enable/disable invaders.
Set up committee budget and duration.
Customize initial money.
Experimental Option: Unlimited gater mode.
Campaign Rework:
Introduced new objectives for features added during Early Access.
Multiple objectives can now be active simultaneously.
New Options:
Disable screen edge scroll.
Disable mouse lock within the game window.
New alternative models for collected biological samples. Improved Gater Management: Right-clicking a gater assigned to an object will now center the camera on that gater. Faction Leader Introduction: The leader of an alien faction will introduce themselves automatically after some time once their faction has been discovered on the starmap.
Changes
Game window can now be resized. Consolidation missions button is hidden until the Alien Affairs room is unlocked. Lowered enemy faction XP gains. Automatic bed or locker assignments for gaters will now prioritize the closest available bed or locker to already assigned ones. Reworked material distribution across the universe. Reduced difficulty of large invasion waves. Lowered levels of native alien destinations. Rebalanced destination level distributions. Adjusted hostility increase of alien factions toward Earth. Alien Affairs room now requires 600 science points to unlock. Heavy exo suits cost reduced from 800 to 500 science points.
Fixes
Improved blast door behavior. Fixed an issue where native alien cultures could be studied indefinitely.
New Major Update: 4X & New Enemy Faction
Greetings Gaters!
After a month in preview the much-anticipated 4X update is now ready for everyone to enjoy!
To celebrate the launch, and as we take part in the Space exploration Steam festival, the game is currently on sale for 30% off!
Please note that due to the extent of the changes, unfortunately previous saves are no longer compatible. However, there is a new branch available on Steam from which you can continue your existing saves (more information in the Changelog beneath this message).
The news dedicated to the preview already listed much of what you can expect to encounter in the update, but we will put it again below just in case you missed it.
Beware, some spoilers follow!
The balance of power in the universe is now up for grabs
New Enemy Faction
The Apocalyptic Archive are an insect-like race, out to colonize new sectors in response to devastating overpopulation on their homeworld. Any sympathy towards them could be dangerous though - they aren’t openly aggressive, but they will defend their territory if pushed, and may seek to claim your sectors for their own. Diplomatic relations with their imperial leader should be handled delicately.
Treat the Empress with respect, lest she declare war on you
Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate - Exogate!
You’ll now need to think about what the enemy faction is doing as you move across the star map, since both you and the Apocalyptic Archive will earn a score, based on claimed territory, gathered resources, and influence generated. The faction with the highest score when the game time is up defeats the other and wins the game! (You can continue the game beyond this point though.) Either side can also be defeated if the other blockades their homeworld (claims 3 or more surrounding sectors), which erodes unity, leaving a faction open to receiving the final blow.
Relations with another faction are also fluid - the more aggressive your activities, the more likely it is they will declare war on you. Missions become more limited during wartime, which only ends when one faction defeats the other, or when both sides agree to make peace.
These are the new mission types that support this contested sector gameplay (the other faction can also send teams on all of these missions):
Invasion: Send a team with at least 1 soldier to invade and claim an enemy sector
Defense: Send a team with at least 1 soldier to repel a sector invasion by the enemy
Liberation: Send a team with at least 1 diplomat to reduce an enemy sector’s influence, eventually releasing their hold so it can be claimed
Consolidation: Send a team with at least 1 diplomat to boost the influence of a sector in your territory, helping prevent its release by the enemy
Diplomatic: Send a team with at least 1 diplomat to improve relations with the enemy, and reduce the chance of war breaking out
Final blow: Send a team with at least 1 soldier and diplomat to the enemy’s blockaded homeworld, after their unity has eroded, to defeat them once and for all
Invasion and defense missions can also trigger a new type of event called Team Fights. Should your team encounter an enemy team on the same world, a text-based combat event will trigger, with choices and dynamic outcomes based on the abilities of the gater classes involved. A team fight only ends when one team is killed, or withdraws.
Encounters with another faction can also trigger unique story events, for both first contact and subsequent interactions. Choices you make in these events will affect diplomatic relations, and may allow you to make an early discovery of the location of the faction’s homeworld. Once their homeworld is located you can contact their leader directly, to try and achieve various political and diplomatic results.
Team Exogate Initiative vs Team Apocalyptic Archive. FIGHT!
Diplomats & Alien Affairs
As mentioned above, the new Diplomat gater class has a key role to play in the new strategic gameplay. They also unlock with a new room, Alien Affairs, whose Intel Console allows diplomats to spy on the activities of another faction, learning their likelihoods to both declare war and make peace, along with other information like their current score. Diplomats are also important during faction events, where they can affect relations and outcomes.
The truth is out there - and a diplomat is going to find it
More New Features
Also new in this patch:
Gater Memorial: Records the name and likeness of a gater that died in the course of their duties (can be built in the Library)
Invasion Waves Rebalancing: A smoother experience from one wave to the next
Game Speed Controls: Addressing one of the most requested community features, you can now speed up the game time until your heart’s content!
Full 1.0 Launch Incoming!
This new update marks the penultimate step towards our full release of the game. It will allow us to gauge your feedback on the 4X elements, so we can ensure they are the best they can be for prime time. So please don’t be shy in letting us know your thoughts about the new features, and what you would like to see in the 1.0 launch version; you can reach us through the in-game feedback tool, the Steam forums, our Discord, or anywhere you prefer!
We’ll also continue to polish and improve the faction AI, and add multiple new factions to the game - come 1.0 you’ll be able to challenge one or more different factions in a single run, or opt out of the 4X challenge completely, if you prefer a more relaxed experience.
Thank you for your continued support, especially as we near the finish line. It’s a critical time for us to make as much noise as possible about the game, so people who might like it know that it exists. It’s difficult for independent studios, especially ones as small as ours, to really make a wormhole-splash on Steam; so we will be extremely grateful for anything you can do to help support us - whether that be wishlisting, leaving a Steam review, sharing your feedback, or just telling your friends.
We’ll be in touch again soon with our plans for the launch. Until then, it’s a dangerous universe out there, so safe travels!
Maxime MILLET Creative Director, Xeno Bits
Changelog 0.9.0
Please note that previous saves are NOT compatible, there is a dedicated branch available to switch back to version 0.8.7 on Steam if you want to continue your current game.
New
Alien factions will now compete with the player on the starmap. The first alien faction is the Apocalyptic Archive. You can contact the alien faction leader as soon as you are introduced to them. They can contact you too if needed. It’s possible to go to war and make peace with the faction, the faction can do it too.
There are now 2 victory conditions Score victory, the winner will be the faction with the highest score after 8 years. The score is based on many factors like territory size or collected materials. Military victory happens when all other factions are eliminated.
New class, Diplomats: diplomats will help improve relations with factions, lower their influence on sectors or spy on them.
New room, Alien affairs: alien affairs will allow you to recruit diplomats. You can build a spying console in it that diplomats will use to gather information about a faction.
New missions types: Invasion missions: Invade a territory owned by another faction, you team must contain a soldier. Defense missions: Defend one of your territory from a faction trying to invade it. Liberation missions: Reduce faction's influence on one of its territories with the help of diplomats. Consolidation missions: Diplomats will increase your influence on one of your territories. Final blow missions: Send a final mission on a faction’s homeworld to defeat it. Diplomatic recurring missions: Send diplomats on faction’s homeworld to improve your relations.
On invasions and defense missions you might encounter opponent teams of gaters that you will have to find during dedicated mission events.
New equipment in Library, Memorial: displays a hologram of gaters you lost, you can select a specific gater or toggle between all the lost ones.
Speed controls: you can now speed up the game.
Changes
Each collected artifact will grant a bonus, with a bigger bonus when all artifacts of the same family are collected. Disabled Dialogue options related to class not present in the team will not be displayed anymore. Increased XP required to reach level 10. Medbay curtains were removed because they were confusing to some players and served no real purpose, they will most likely make a comeback for the full release. Explore artifact planet objective is now retroactive. Process Asteril objective is now retroactive. Foundry connector is not available until material processing technology is unlocked now. Invasions are more balanced, we reduced the highest difficulty and increased time between waves. Soldiers will now stop to eat or sleep during an invasion. Gater will stop losing health while waiting for a medic on the surgery pod. Changed background of armor requirement icon on starmap, to not think it is impossible to explore destinations without the proper equipment. Improved builders priorities regarding equipment maintenance. Current research name is displayed as a tooltip of the research progress bar in the main UI bar. Added an objective to build a heavy armor locker to store the Sqarb patcher. Displayed a new icon on destination when scientific resources are depleted. New visual effects for specimen locker.
Fixes
Improved performances during invasions. Unusual destinations only grant xp bonus during first exploration. Fixed a bug where a gater could remain stuck next to a diagnostic pod on game load. Fixed a bug where it was possible to claim a world that was not connected to a claimed world but just next to it. Fixed a bug where loots from a mission would sometimes get bigger after loading a save. Fixed a bug where an ongoing recruitment campaign would return no candidates after loading a save. Fixed a bug where unconscious gaters needing psychological diagnosis were not treated properly. Improved blast doors placement.
Changes done during preview based on players’ feedback
Added unique names to faction’s gaters Fixed issue with faction random encounter event not properly triggered Balancing faction’s gaters XP gains. Balancing faction’s materials collection speed. Fixed a bug making it easy for diplomats to ask opponents to surrender. Fixed a bug where damage reduction from body armor was not properly displayed during missions and team fights. Fixed a bug where the final blow mission would lock the game.
Now in preview: 4X & New Enemy Faction
Greetings Gaters!
The much-anticipated 4X update is now ready for you to experience on the “Next patch preview” branch! It’s a big one and we thought it would be safer to share this one in preview first. We hope you enjoy the new dynamic this brings, especially in the mid and late game, we are really proud of the result but you will be the best to judge.
Also note that due to the extent of the changes, unfortunately previous saves are no longer compatible.
Let’s look at what you can expect to encounter in the new update - though beware, some spoilers follow!
The balance of power in the universe is now up for grabs
New Enemy Faction
The Apocalyptic Archive are an insect-like race, out to colonize new sectors in response to devastating overpopulation on their homeworld. Any sympathy towards them could be dangerous though - they aren’t openly aggressive, but they will defend their territory if pushed, and may seek to claim your sectors for their own. Diplomatic relations with their imperial leader should be handled delicately.
Treat the Empress with respect, lest she declare war on you
Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate - Exogate!
You’ll now need to think about what the enemy faction is doing as you move across the star map, since both you and the Apocalyptic Archive will earn a score, based on claimed territory, gathered resources, and influence generated. The faction with the highest score when the game time is up defeats the other and wins the game! (You can continue the game beyond this point though.) Either side can also be defeated if the other blockades their homeworld (claims 3 or more surrounding sectors), which erodes unity, leaving a faction open to receiving the final blow.
Relations with another faction are also fluid - the more aggressive your activities, the more likely it is they will declare war on you. Missions become more limited during wartime, which only ends when one faction defeats the other, or when both sides agree to make peace.
These are the new mission types that support this contested sector gameplay (the other faction can also send teams on all of these missions):
Invasion: Send a team with at least 1 soldier to invade and claim an enemy sector
Defense: Send a team with at least 1 soldier to repel a sector invasion by the enemy
Liberation: Send a team with at least 1 diplomat to reduce an enemy sector’s influence, eventually releasing their hold so it can be claimed
Consolidation: Send a team with at least 1 diplomat to boost the influence of a sector in your territory, helping prevent its release by the enemy
Diplomatic: Send a team with at least 1 diplomat to improve relations with the enemy, and reduce the chance of war breaking out
Final blow: Send a team with at least 1 soldier and diplomat to the enemy’s blockaded homeworld, after their unity has eroded, to defeat them once and for all
Invasion and defense missions can also trigger a new type of event called Team Fights. Should your team encounter an enemy team on the same world, a text-based combat event will trigger, with choices and dynamic outcomes based on the abilities of the gater classes involved. A team fight only ends when one team is killed, or withdraws.
Encounters with another faction can also trigger unique story events, for both first contact and subsequent interactions. Choices you make in these events will affect diplomatic relations, and may allow you to make an early discovery of the location of the faction’s homeworld. Once their homeworld is located you can contact their leader directly, to try and achieve various political and diplomatic results.
Team Exogate Initiative vs Team Apocalyptic Archive. FIGHT!
Diplomats & Alien Affairs
As mentioned above, the new Diplomat gater class has a key role to play in the new strategic gameplay. They also unlock with a new room, Alien Affairs, whose Intel Console allows diplomats to spy on the activities of another faction, learning their likelihoods to both declare war and make peace, along with other information like their current score. Diplomats are also important during faction events, where they can affect relations and outcomes.
The truth is out there - and a diplomat is going to find it
More New Features
Also new in this patch:
Gater Memorial: Records the name and likeness of a gater that died in the course of their duties (can be built in the Library)
Invasion Waves Rebalancing: A smoother experience from one wave to the next
Game Speed Controls: Addressing one of the most requested community features, you can now speed up the game time until your heart’s content!
We plan to run the preview for a month during which we will make the required adjustments based on your feedback, but also take some much needed time off. To come back well and rested for the last step of the early access toward the full release. Until then, it’s a dangerous universe out there, so safe travels!
Maxime MILLET Creative Director, Xeno Bits
Changelog 0.9.0 PREVIEW
Please note that previous saves are NOT compatible.
New
Alien factions will now compete with the player on the starmap. The first alien faction is the Apocalyptic Archive. You can contact the alien faction leader as soon as you are introduced to them. They can contact you too if needed. It’s possible to go to war and make peace with the faction, the faction can do it too.
There are now 2 victory conditions Score victory, the winner will be the faction with the highest score after 8 years. The score is based on many factors like territory size or collected materials. Military victory happens when all other factions are eliminated.
New class, Diplomats: diplomats will help improve relations with factions, lower their influence on sectors or spy on them.
New room, Alien affairs: alien affairs will allow you to recruit diplomats. You can build a spying console in it that diplomats will use to gather information about a faction.
New missions types: Invasion missions: Invade a territory owned by another faction, you team must contain a soldier Defense missions: Defend one of your territory from a faction trying to invade it. Liberation missions: Reduce faction's influence on one of its territories with the help of diplomats. Consolidation missions: Diplomats will increase your influence on one of your territories Final blow missions: Send a final mission on a faction’s homeworld to defeat it. Diplomatic recurring missions: Send diplomats on faction’s homeworld to improve your relations.
On invasions and defense missions you might encounter opponent teams of gaters that you will have to find during dedicated mission events.
New equipment in Library, Memorial, displays a hologram of gaters you lost, you can select a specific gater or toggle between all the lost ones.
Speed controls, you can now speed up the game.
Changes
Each collected artifact will grant a bonus, with a bigger bonus when all artifacts of the same family are collected. Disabled Dialogue options related to class not present in the team will not be displayed anymore. Increase XP required to reach level 10. Medbay curtains were removed because they were confusing to some players and served no real purpose, they will most likely make a comeback for the full release. Explore artifact planet objective is now retroactive. Process Asteril objective is now retroactive. Foundry connector is not available until material processing technology is unlocked now. Invasions are more balanced, we reduced the highest difficulty and increased time between waves. Soldiers will now stop to eat or sleep during an invasion. Gater will stop losing health while waiting for a medic on the surgery pod. Changed background of armor requirement icon on starmap, to not think it is impossible to explore destinations without the proper equipment. Improved builders priorities regarding equipment maintenance. Current research name is displayed as a tooltip of the research progress bar in the main UI bar. Added an objective to build an heavy armor locker to store the Sqarb patcher. Displayed a new icon on destination when scientific resources are depleted. New visual effects for specimen locker.
Fixes
Improved performances during invasions. Unusual destinations only grant xp bonus during first exploration. Fixed a bug where a gater could remain stuck next to a diagnostic pod on game load. Fixed a bug where it was possible to claim a world that was not connected to a claimed world but just next to it. Fixed a bug where loots from a mission would sometimes get bigger after loading a save. Fixed a bug where an ongoing recruitment campaign would return no candidates after loading a save. Improved blast doors placement.
Patch Preview 0.9: Bringing 4X to Exogate
Greetings Gaters!
We hope this message from the stars finds you well. Here in the northern hemisphere we’re looking forward to the summer weather - and bringing you the next major update to Exogate Initiative!
As we mentioned in our anniversary message, we’re releasing the 4X update before the 1.0 launch, so we can test the feature, gather your feedback, and make it the best it can be in time for Exogate activation. We’ve been hard at work bringing this to fruition, and we expect to deliver it by the end of July.
But today let’s step through the Gate and talk about alien factions - including the first one you’ll encounter, which will be released alongside the 4X features in Patch 0.9.
Expect some gameplay and lore spoilers below!
Alien Factions
Though you’ve encountered many alien races already in your explorations of the universe, none have possessed the power and technology of the Exogate Initiative - until now. (Apart from perhaps the Sqarbs, and a certain other Earth organization).
The full game will feature 4 new alien factions, whom you’ll compete with on the star map. Each run will be configurable, so you can choose as many or as few of them as you want (including none at all, if you’d prefer to expand without competition), and what level of challenge you’d like. These factions can do everything you can do: send teams to new worlds, meet aliens, exploit resources, collect artifacts, claim sectors. Should the circumstances arise, they’ll also be able to declare war on you. And you can do the same.
Each faction has its own unique identity, appearance, backstory and culture, which you’ll discover through events. How you interact with them, both in events and as you contest territory on the star map, will affect diplomatic relations and your own sphere of influence. Each faction also has a unique leader character, whom you can contact directly for trade and diplomacy, once you’ve discovered (or negotiated the location of) their homeworld.
Apocalyptic Archive
The first faction we’re introducing to the game is called the Apocalyptic Archive. It’s an archival organization representing an imperial, insect-like race called the Decae. Their society crashed due to massive overpopulation on their homeworld, and they lost much of their history and culture. This necessitated their expansion to the stars, which they now traverse in vast ark ships, living museums where they meticulously and obsessively catalogue everything about themselves and their discoveries, should the unthinkable happen again.
How will their encounters with the Exogate Initiative be recorded in their archives?
Next Time!
There’ll be more new content in Patch 0.9 alongside 4X, but we’ll dig into that nearer the time - including the new Diplomat gater class! As mentioned, we’re aiming for the end of July to ship this first 4X update, but we’ll let you know when we have more information.
It won’t be long now until you have some serious competition out there in the universe. Thank you for your continued support, feedback, wishlists and reviews of the game - we’ll see you, and your rival factions soon through the Exogate!
Safe travels, Maxime MILLET Creative Director, Xeno Bits
0.8.7 update hotfix 4
Fixes
Fixed an issue where FPS cap was not properly set in the menu New fixes to prevent games from freezing on launch
