Interstellar Space: Genesis - Evolving Empires Available Now!
Hello everyone!
We're thrilled to introduce to you today our second paid expansion pack, Interstellar Space: Genesis - Evolving Empires!
In Evolving Empires, we're taking your galactic empire to a whole new level through the introduction of exciting new gameplay features. This expansion's focus is to provide you with new playstyles to pursue, a host of new strategies to execute, and near endless replayability. In addition, it brings in more to explore, with the addition of emerging societies that serve as hidden treasures waiting to be discovered, studied, and potentially incorporated into your empire.
Play with all the races in meaningful new ways and evolve your strategies through the introduction of highly thematic, unique and asymmetric abilities that are specific to each race.
Hire android leaders, swap your unique abilities at will, crash your ships into your rivals for massive damage, mutate your populace to live in any environment without a care, instantly assimilate your rivals, and create a formidable capital defense force capable of defending your holdings. These are but a few of the many possibilities and divergent paths waiting to be explored and used in your pursuit of galactic prosperity or domination!
Each evolution ability tree is usable by its own race as well as all custom races assigned to use its affinity. And yes when we say all races, we really do mean all races, as any expansion race you own will also receive their own unique evolution tree!
Minor Civilizations
Discover a wide variety of unique minor civilizations and reap their powerful benefits. Study these emerging societies and unlock their full potential, taking your relationships to a whole new level.
But don't delay, as you'll need to race against your rivals as they seek out these minor civilizations and look to gain the benefits for themselves. While you can choose to share their benefits, you may instead desire to form an exclusive relationship and keep them all to yourself... and if you can't do that, you may even decide to destroy them and deny their benefits to others. The choice is yours.
With 7 different categories of minor civilizations, and a total of 21 minor civilizations, there's always mysteries to uncover as you’ll never know for sure which civilizations exist in your galaxy!
7 New Leaders
You can hire 7 new exclusive leaders, a representative from each minor civilization category. These new leaders await the opportunity to put their skills to work for a mighty empire like your own. That is, of course, if you prove yourself worthy of their trust first.
2 New Music Tracks
You will get 2 additional galaxy map tracks inspired by the new Evolutions and Minor Civilizations features.
Free 1.4 update
Players can now update to Interstellar Space: Genesis version 1.4 for free. This version was previously tested in a beta branch for almost 3 weeks.
Version 1.4 - Full change log
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NEW
Added new strike craft 3D models for fighters and bombers.
Added new Surveillance, Metalworker and Curator leader skills.
Added new option to the New Game setup screen to allow randomizing the AI players' colors at game start.
The Deep Cover espionage leader skill now reveals rival's space culture choices.
Added leader level information and tooltip to the various leader screens. Shows the leader level, current experience and required experience to reach the next level (leader opinion information now presented below the desires icon).
Added two new ship explosion effects for a total of three for added variety. There was only one explosion effect before.
Added 8 new Steam Achievements for the Evolving Empires expansion.
AI IMPROVEMENTS
The AI now doesn't order exploration fleets, sometimes with lone frigates and survey ships, to attack rival systems in suicidal runs.
The AI ships now fire their weapons in combat before they flee.
The AI now tends to equip more Spinal Mount on the Draguul and Moltar titans of their prefered weapon type (kinetic weapons for the Draguul, beams for the Moltar).
Fixed a bug that could sometimes allow an AI ship with broken engines to move after the AI overloaded its broken engines.
GAMEPLAY
The 'Galaxy View' is now available to be displayed on every battle encounter and not only when the AI attacks the player.
Revised Space Dragon, Space Amoeba and Crystal Entity's adults and offspring designs.
Manual updated with more details on how formal contact is established.
The leader secondary skill level up will now always try to upgrade an existing skill (the left one) when the leader has 3 or more skills.
Alliance victory now triggered when one empire is allied with all other empires. Before everyone needed to be allied with everyone else.
Slight bias now for the first couple leader proposals to be Human-like leaders when playing with a Human appearance race.
Added 30 new star system names
Player fleets now travel a bit faster in the early game (with nuclear engines). Fleets traveled a bit too slowly in the beginning.
BALANCE
Gigantic maps now have a little bit more Helium-3 resources with the 'average' strategic resources option. There were too few before.
PERFORMANCE
Optimizations made to the amount of space required for installing the game. The game now requires around 1GB less available storage space (many old and obsolete assets were deleted).
Significantly faster turn execution speeds now, especially noticeable at the start and the early game.
UI / GRAPHICS
Data core artifacts the empire possesses now displayed in the research screen.
When saving a game, after writing the save file name it's now possible to save when hitting the 'Enter' key without having to hit the 'Save' button.
Tooltip of Wars in Diplomatic Summary in the Empire Overview screen now lists the number of turns the empires are at war.
The Neutron Beam stun ability feedback text reworded to be more concise.
Scrolling with the mouse wheel now works when dragging projects in the colony development queue. This allows moving an item in the queue at the very bottom to the top in one go.
Detailed production tooltip now also shown in colonies overview panel.
Flat production title in the production tooltip now displayed in orange to highlight flat production better.
Overcrowding penalty in colonies reworded to "High bureaucracy" to clarify the penalty's context.
The tooltip of orbital station module techs now clarifies modules are automatically added upon tech research.
Uplift concept clarified in the ecological technologies' tooltip and the manual.
The fleet icon tooltip in the galaxy map now shows the ETA of the fleet to its destination
The strike craft animations now a bit slower in combat.
The damage number animations displayed near ships when they take damage now move a bit slower.
Added percentage to the Tech field Tool-tip for Government Modifiers.
The Garrison buildings' techs now highlight they unlock Assault Ship construction more evidently. Also, the manual was updated to reinforce that Garrison facilities are unlocked by Garrison techs in the 'Defenses' research field.
The Outpost Ship tooltip was revised to reinforce that Outpost Ships can be used to generate tourism. An entry on 'Tourism' was also added to the manual, and a text hint now also appears in the loading game screen to help clarify the game's 'Tourism' concept.
Adding a refit project to the colony queue now dismisses the 'Idle construction icon' notification. Previously, only normal building and ships projects would clear the notification.
The birds in the Human colony view are now a bit smaller, the ones on the top left that sometimes appear behind the UI.
'Request Defense Fleet' leader desire's description revised to make it clearer the turns required to achieve the desire includes the time a fleet is stationed on the system to be defended.
BUG FIXES
Fixed a glitch that would change the empire research percentage values when the 'Enter' key was pressed to proceed to the next turn. This happened when adjusting the research percentage and then hitting the 'Enter' key immediately after.
Fixed an issue with could sometimes cause the wrong zoom level to be applied after a war declaration pop up was displayed from a system view random encounter.
Fixed a bug where sometimes the AI would send multiple fleets to a system and take multiple system objects on the same turn.
Fixed a bug where sometimes captured ships would appear as killed in the battle report.
Fixed a bug that was not allowing leaders to level up their spy skills from buildings (e.g. Intelligence
Headquarters) when all leaders in the empire already had the maximum number of 5 skills.
Fixed a rare hang in the colony view with the Swamp Biome with the 'High' graphics settings in 4K resolutions.
Fixed a glitch in space combat where sometimes trator beam effects could be left hanging in the battlefield when the target was destroyed or fled.
Fixed a bug where Ion Cannons could sometimes re-activate the shields on a target with broken shields.
Fixed a bug that could cause strike craft to sometimes keep resupplying and working, or just be left hanging in the battlefield, after their mothership fled.
Fixed a glitch that caused ships in colony view to not show the correct lighting (were too dark) at game start. The issues would correct itself when desiging a ship or loading a game.
Fixed an issue in the 'Divide by Zero' event that could cause the RP penalty number to change on each time the event was closed without making a decision and re-openning it again.
Fixed an overflow glitch when showing culture values with 4 digits in the colony view.
Fixed a rare bug that would cause the same spy leader skill to be offered as both options when the Intelligence Headquarters facility was built.
Fixed a bug that was causing the wrong amount of neutronium to be used for the 'Neutronium Shells' bonus calculations. It was using the rival's supply of neutronium instead of the player's own supply.
Fixed a bug that was causing shield piercing weapons to not bypass shields when those were overloaded.
Fixed a bug that was causing the damage bonuses from 'Neutronium Shells', 'Beam Accelerators' and 'Antimatter Warheads' to not being taken into account for the purposes of Crew XP level damage bonus calculations.
Fixed a rare bug that could cause a battle to hang and leave the UI unresponsive when all the player's ships would flee except a single one, which was disabled and with its engines broken.
Fixed a glitch when showing the 'Galaxy View' (to show where the battle took place) upon a battle encounter occurs when the 'Very Sparse' nebula density option was set.
Fixed a bug that could prevent a monster from attacking the player when multiple fleets arrive at same time. Now always attacks.
Fixed an issue in the Ship Attack from Crew XP Bonus that could show many decimal places. Now shows at most 1 decimal place.
Fixed a bug that was causing an increased chance to kill a leader in combat and adding more crew XP than it should when the killer blow was using a weapon with the autofire modification.
Fixed a rare bug that could create a hang and not allow the game to proceed when a colony was razed exactly before that colony got an infrastructure upgrade. This was caused by razing the colony when invasion fleets had already been sent to take that colony.
Fixed a bug that was allowing boarding to be enabled for any ship in the battleship with no distance limit when at least one ship was in boarding range (no cursor feedback was shown but all ships were boardable).
Fixed a typo in the More than a Diplomat Event. "Your people is" now "Your people are".
Fixed a typo in the Milia system name, it had an extra space in the system object.
Fixed a typo on the More than a Diplomat event, "cohesistance" is now "coexistence".
Fixed a bug that could cause a Titan with slow combat speed to remain immobile in the battlefield, or move in an odd pattern, in auto-combat or when played by the AI.
Fixed a bug that could sometimes cause an orbital station to keep issuing shields overload even when the station's shields were in perfect health, causing the station to explode from heat.
Fixed a typo in the ship refit notifications that could sometimes cause the text to wrap and present a poorly formatted tooltip.
Fixed an issue where multiple "Ruins can be explored" notifications would be displayed when multiple fleets arrived at the system with ruins at the same time.
Fixed an issue in the Temple of the Peacemaker event. The ruins were removed from the system and colony views but would remain on galaxy map until next turn.
Fixed a glitch that could sometimes show ships in the colony screen with a more bright or different color.
Fixed a bug that could cause a subject of a new subject to establish a surrender pact with its new overlord but without formal contact being established between the two.
Fixed a rare hang when an AI had an orbital station but no orbital station techs. This happened when a colony with an orbital station rebelled.
Fixed a bug that could sometimes cause AI ships to increase the heat level on their ships more than they should.
Fixed a bug that could sometimes frame an empire for a job on another empire who they didn't know yet.
Fixed a typo in the Trusting trait where it read "leader threatens to leave" now reads "leader threaten to leave".
Fixed a bug where in rare occasions ships could be left hanging in the battlefield and could be selected/rolled-over although they had effectively been destroyed already.
Fixed a bug that was causing salvage obtained from battle not being retrieved when auto-resolve was used without entering manual combat.
Fixed a bug that could cause salvaged techs to not be correctly added to the player list of techs researched when those were already in the tech queue.
Fixed an issue that was preventing players from having full visibility on all of their allies' systems and colonies.
Fixed a glitch that could cause systems to become misaligned on galaxy map after system gift given.
Fixed an issue that could cause a line break before the ":" mark in the Tolerable Gravity type in the Empire Status Screen in ultra-wide resolutions.
Fixed an issue in the Impossible difficulty tooltip which wrongly stated the human player could have unfavorable starts In Impossible, when it's the AIs that tend to have favorable starts instead.
Fixed a bug that was allowing torpedoes installed in bombers to not obey their cooldowns.
Fixed an issue that was causing the wrong infrastructure level to be displayed in planets with the 'Ancient Shipyard' planet special.
Fixed a glitch in a diplomacy text entry for the Nova when text was displayed for exchanging technologies.
Fixed a typo "accept the rulling" is now "accept the ruling".
Fixed a typo in the rebellion notification, where it said "Our people has fought fiercely now reads "Our people have fought fiercely".
Fixed a typo in one event where one read "and hero’s welcome" now "and a hero’s welcome".
Fixed a typo in Cyrus Olken biography, said "for the a museum" now is "for a museum”.
Fixed a typo in the Imperial Archive empire project, the effects description had text repetition.
Fixed a typo in the Cloning Facility, where was "remarkable fast rate" now "remarkably fast rate.
Fixed a typo where "Election vitory" is now "Election victory".
Fixed a bug that was allowing spy actions to be conducted in the turn the targetted empire was vanquished.
Fixed a bug that caused the galaxy map to be displayed incorrectly after establishing a diplomatic deal.
Fixed a glitch that would allow the effects of some Kinetic weapons to disappear too soon when hitting their target.
Fixed a bug that was causing the Raid log to show the wrong boarding bonuses.
Fixed an issue with the 'Planetary Prospectors' culture perk that would cause borders to not expand and richness values to not update in the colony overview panel immediately, but only in the next turn.
Fixed a glitch that could sometimes cause fighters and bombers to not face their targets correctly after destroying them and/or when returning to the mothership for re-arm and refueling.
Fixed a rounding issue in the espionage detection chances presented in the available espionage assignments.
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Compatibility and finishing an ongoing game
Saves from previous versions are not compatible with 1.4.
If you want to finish your current game with the previous version (1.3.4) please go to the Steam client -> Games -> View Games Library -> Right-Click on Interstellar Space: Genesis -> Choose Betas tab -> Select the "old_version" branch.
Thanks
We want to thank everyone who has helped create this new expansion and helped test the new 1.4 update. Big thanks to everyone who has bought the game so far. A big thank you also to our artists Darío Martín Dominguez (3D), Camilo Abelayras (2D), Igor Puškarić (3D) and Ryan McQuinn (Music) for producing the beautiful new art and music for the Evolving Empires expansion. Thank you.
We hope you like this second expansion and the free 1.4 update. If you haven't bought the Natural Law expansion yet, please consider buying as it adds 2 very nice playable races to the game, that will have their own Evolution tree with the Evolving Empires expansion, among other features and music tracks. If you have a few minutes to spare, and have been enjoying what we do, please leave us a review on Steam! ❤️
One more update to the 1.4 Beta was uploaded to the 'unstable' branch. This is version 1.4 Beta 5.
These were the changes:
Version 1.4 Beta 5
'Request Defense Fleet' leader desire's description revised to make it clearer the turns required to achieve the desire includes the time a fleet is stationed on the system to be defended.
Fixed an issue with the 'Planetary Prospectors' culture perk that would cause borders to not expand and richness values to not update in the colony overview panel immediately, but only in the next turn.
Fixed a rounding issue in the espionage detection chances presented in the available espionage assignments.
Fixed a glitch that could sometimes cause fighters and bombers to not face their targets correctly after destroying them and/or when returning to the mothership for re-arm and refueling.
I remind that the 1.4 Beta update is not yet available for everyone. To play the '1.4 Beta 5' version you need to opt in for Steam's Beta branch. On the Steam client go to Games -> View Games Library -> Right-Click on Interstellar Space: Genesis -> Choose Betas tab -> Select the "unstable" Beta branch. The game shall start updating to 1.4 Beta 5.
Please keep sending us your feedback to our Steam forums, official forums, on our Discord server, or if you prefer just send an email to contact@praxis-games.com (or contact form here) with a save and the Player and Player-prev log files you can find in this folder: C:\Users\\AppData\LocalLow\Praxis Games\ISG
If the game doesn't launch or you find any issue please delete your custom races that are stored in this folder: C:\Users\\AppData\LocalLow\Praxis Games\ISG\Races\
Thanks a lot for the feedback!
ISG Dev Diary #18: Evolving Empires - Natural Law Evolutions
With the release of Evolving Empires rapidly approaching, we've got just enough time for one final dev diary. I’m Keith, back one final time to cover something we’ve hinted at a few times now, the Evolutions coming for the races introduced in Natural Law!
Evolving an Expansion
When I first sat down to write the biographies and design the lore for the two races introduced in Natural Law, the Cerixx Sentinels and Palacean Assembly, I had grand visions for who they were and how their societies operated. While the concept of evolutions was not yet on the table or in any way set in stone at that time, the groundwork was laid to allow them to evolve into something even greater should an opportunity present itself.
When we later decided to implement Evolutions and began to design the sets for each race, that opportunity finally arrived. There was just no way we could leave the Cerixx and Palacean out of the equation. Even though we knew this would ultimately lead to designing content that not every player got to see, we felt strongly that both of these races deserved the chance to tell their own unique and interesting stories.
The end result of this endeavor was even better than we'd hoped, as ultimately this process led to some truly unique and highly thematic mechanics being introduced into the game. While their core concepts are not too complex to understand, there is a strategic depth to the decisions involved that provides a challenging learning curve to play them at their best.
As alluded to above, in order to use these Evolution sets it is necessary to own both Evolving Empires (which introduces the Evolutions) and the Natural Law expansion (which contains the Cerixx and the Palacean races). While both expansions work wonderfully apart, like chocolate and peanut butter, you may enjoy them even more when they are together.
Cerixx Evolution
Technophiles (Tier 1)
They say there’s almost nothing that money can’t buy and technology is certainly high on your empire’s shopping list. Your empire can now purchase any technology currently available to be researched (following normal prerequisite rules) using money (BC). Knowing how important and valuable technology is, your empire guards it with its life. Your ships now self-destruct if they’d be captured and your technology can never be obtained as combat salvage, through raids, or through invasion. Lacking any sort of technical knowhow, your empire’s POPs no longer produce any research.
Peacekeeper Protocols (Tier 2a)
In order to protect its investment in technology, your empire has financed the development of a new and unique type of hangar bay. The Peacekeeper Bay is a new equippable special system which houses 4 unique Peacekeeper strike craft. Each Peacekeeper is equipped with a pair of custom PD ion cannons designed to disable the armament of enemy ships. As with other hangar bays, this system can be equipped for free on titans if you have the Command Carrier titan ability.
Empire Patrols (Tier 2b)
Serving and protecting may be important, but so is collecting your fair share. Your empire’s patrols allow you to claim large swaths of galactic space as your own, greatly increasing the size of your borders. For each known system within your borders, your empire collects a protection fee as a result of the inspections and other various services its patrols provide. This extra income comes in quite handy as you seek to purchase the latest technologies.
Extended Hangar Bays (Tier 3a)
By increasing the size of your strike craft hangars, your ships have become versatile and deadly combat carriers. Your cruisers and star bases gain +1 strike craft per bay. Your battleships and battle stations gain +2 strike craft per bay. Your titans and star fortresses gain +3 strike craft per bay. Due to the change in engineering philosophy this requires, all of your ships can no longer use any overload actions.
Galactic Security Initiative (Tier 3b)
Through the Galactic Security initiative, your empire has convinced its people that it is vital they provide you with all the necessary resources to protect them. In order to ensure a fast response to incoming threats, your military ship construction rush costs are significantly reduced. In addition, your ships travel faster when moving to any system within your borders. The contributions of Minor Civilizations are critical to your defenses, and the assistance of each Minor Civilization within your borders provides additional ship support points to your empire. Due to its desire to protect and benefit from their assistance, your empire can no longer destroy any Minor Civilizations.
Palacean Evolution
Natural Allies (Tier 1)
Your empire’s fellowship with nature has allowed you to form unusually close bonds with things that attune with it. As a result, any uncontrolled space monster will now offer to join your empire when encountered. In addition, the ideal living conditions provided by your uplifted (eco-3) colonies will cause an adult space monster to appear and join your cause. All space monsters that join you are ready and willing to fight alongside you in battle. Due to the fact that your people have fully adapted to living in these idyllic conditions, even tolerable biomes are unfortunately now considered hostile to them.
Spawning Grounds (Tier 2a)
The reproductive process of an adult space monster is exceedingly complex, but your empire’s nurturing ways have finally allowed you to begin truly enjoying the fruits of their labor. Your adult space monsters will now begin spawning offspring on a periodic basis. This process is sped up based on the number of strategic resources within your empire available to feed them. Progress until the next spawning can be tracked on the empire overview screen. Keeping your adults alive is key to benefiting from this evolution.
Fertile Deposits (Tier 2b)
When it comes to organic fertilizer, there is simply no substitute for the nutrient rich waste of your space monsters. Your adult space monsters now provide planetary engineering production and population growth to all colonies in your empire. The amount of each bonus provided is based upon the total number of strategic resources available to you to feed them.
Nourishment (Tier 3a)
With an insatiable appetite and seemingly endless potential for growth, the strength of your monsters is bound only by the resources you have available for them. Your space monsters, both adult and offspring, will now be able to grow stronger based upon the number of strategic resources you have available to you. This will provide them with extra armor and structure, ship attack, and even additional weapons. Since your monsters will consume every resource you have available, your empire can no longer make use of any strategic resource based technologies.
Nature's Helping Hands (Tier 3b)
No longer content to sit idle while you do all the work, the flora and fauna of your planets have evolved and are now capable of assisting you in your efforts to serve and protect them. As a result of their efforts, the infrastructure development speed, ship refit speed, and ground combat strength of all your colonies are significantly increased. The benefits provided are based upon the eco level of the planet, with uplifted (eco-3) worlds receiving the most benefits. Unfortunately, your unnatural connection to plants and animals leaves other empires weary of interacting with you and hinders your diplomatic efforts.
Your Journey Begins
We’ve now covered all the Evolution sets available, both for base game races as well as those in Natural Law. We’ve also covered the many wondrous Minor Civilizations you’ll soon be able to discover, survey, and exploit. And with that, our chapter of the Evolving Empires story comes to an end, and yours shall soon begin.
We’re just a few days away from the release now, so please be sure to wishlist and prepare yourself for the release of Evolving Empires! I can’t tell you how excited we are to finally get this into your hands!
ISG Dev Diary #17 : Evolving Empires - Minor Civilizations
Now that our empires have begun to evolve, it’s time for our next dev diary on Evolving Empires! I'm Keith, here again to be your captain as we survey the galaxy together in search of answers regarding the many wondrous hidden civilizations waiting to be discovered in this expansion.
New Life and New Opportunities
From an early stage, player feedback as well as our own experiences made it clear that the exploration aspect of the game was both well regarded and ripe for expansion. It seems there’s just something about discovering hidden things, be it planetary specials and ruins, strategic resources, or even entire stars and planets, that brings a great deal of excitement and joy to our play experiences. With this in mind, taking the opportunity to expand upon this system is something we are very enthusiastic about pursuing.
At the same time, another objective we've had was to add some new mechanics to spice up and enhance the early and mid game a bit. While asteroid explorations and strategic resources make for great strategic targets, and planetary specials make for nice colonization targets, we felt there was still room for even bigger prizes to be added to the galaxy. By adding something new to fight over, we’d also be able to provide additional reasons and rewards for military conflict, especially early on.
When considering how to best accomplish these two objectives, the concept we’d come up with for Minor Civilizations was a natural fit. These hidden societies provide an increased emphasis on exploration, a prime target for military conflict between major empires, and bring an improved sense of life into the galaxy.
Hidden Within the Stars
Minor Civilizations are pre-FTL societies, hidden throughout the stars, living their daily lives on their planets. With few exceptions, they’re oblivious to the galactic empires beginning to rise up around them, but that's soon about to change. Empires have several ways to learn about the presence of minor civilizations.
The most common method of learning about a minor civilization is to obtain a full scan of a system which contains one. As in the base game, this level of scan can be obtained as a result of repeated remote exploration, a survey ship (more on their importance later!), a galactic event, or even from a map found in ruins.
A second method to learn about them is through your allies. Once an alliance is formed, all allies share information with one another about any minor civilizations they are aware of. Not only that, but they also share access to them and their bonuses, but we’ll discuss this in more detail when we cover exclusivity further down.
A third method comes by way of an enhancement to the deep cover spy skill. In addition to providing you with all the information it did before about your targeted empire, deep cover now also lets you know about all the minor civilizations your target knows about, including their homeworld locations and whether they have access to them.
Exploring the Many Types of Minors
All Minor Civilizations start in an unsurveyed state when first discovered. While your empire is aware of their existence, and has a basic understanding of how they operate, you have not yet taken the time to understand who they truly are. For this reason, the only information initially revealed about a newly discovered minor civilization will be its type.
There are 7 types of minor civilization present within the game: Exploration, Research, Industrial, Economic, Cultural, Militaristic, and Espionage. Even without knowing their true identity, any empire who has access to them will still be able to benefit from some of their unique talents and abilities. A relationship bonus is available for each type of minor civilization. These bonuses are designed to scale throughout the game, and include supply range, research, production, money, culture, ship support points, and diplomatic bonuses depending on type.
Each of the 7 types of minor civilization also brings a new high level ambassador leader into the game. These ambassadors are anxious to spread word of their culture and ensure it survives the conflicts to come. They must remain cautious though, as trusting the wrong empire could lead to disaster, so they will only offer to work for empires who have established a peaceful relationship with their civilization type for a period of time.
A Deeper Understanding
While it is relatively easy to obtain a basic understanding of how a minor civilization operates, the intricacies of their society are far more complex to understand. From how they govern themselves, to their spiritual beliefs, culture, and morals, and even down to their hobbies, there are countless bizarre and unique lessons one must learn before they can truly understand who they are as a people.
It is only through the time and effort of a dedicated and devoted crew of linguists, scientists, xenoanthropologists, and many others aboard a survey ship that progress can ever hope to be made. As missing even a single key event can lead to crucial setbacks, it is necessary for a survey ship to remain in orbit for a consecutive number of turns in order to reveal a minor civilization’s true identity. If a survey ship leaves to pursue other endeavors, or is forced out or destroyed by a rival, all its empire’s progress towards studying the minor civilization is lost.
To the Surveyor Goes the Spoils
Surveying a minor civilization is a winner take all endeavor. The first empire to complete the survey will fully reveal the civilization’s identity to all empires who have knowledge of it. All other survey ships who happen to be studying that empire lose all progress and will no longer be able to study it. The relationship bonus for the minor civilization type is immediately doubled for all empires who have access to it.
The first empire to complete the surveying of a minor civilization also receives several unique benefits.
The first benefit received is an immediate one-time bonus. There are several unique one-time bonuses for each minor civilization, and multiple minor civilization per type, so you never know exactly which one you may receive.
The second benefit you receive is the ability to select the permanent bonus this minor civilization will provide to any empire who has access to it. These bonuses are also unique to each minor civilization, meaning that no two minor civilizations will offer the same rewards, even if they are the same type.
Access and Exploit
In order to be eligible for any of the bonuses a minor civilization has to offer, whether it has been surveyed or not, your empire must meet several criteria. First, your empire must have knowledge of their existence. Second, their homeworld must be within your supply range, as otherwise you have no way to interact with them. Third, another empire must not have exclusive access to them.
An empire gains exclusive access to a minor civilization anytime it brings that civilization within its borders. When your empire has exclusive access, it gains all the benefits of a minor civilization and denies them to all other empires except its allies. While a very rewarding opportunity for you, other empires are less pleased with this arrangement and will become upset when they lose access to these bonuses in the process. In addition, when playing with the galactic council victory condition enabled, having exclusive access to a minor civilization also provides that empire with galactic council votes.
As minor civilizations have little defensive capability, they are always at risk of being destroyed by jealous rivals who wish to deny their benefits to others. All it takes is a colony ship filled with eager pioneers or an assault ship of trained recruits to put an end to their existence. Therefore, if you want to keep their benefits, you'll need to remain weary of visiting starships and be ready to stand up for the defense of the defenseless.
If Evolutions are enabled, a few empires have unique ways to interact with Minor Civilizations. Using their Sacrificial Lambs ability, the Draguul automatically assimilate any minor civilization that becomes exclusive to their empire. This permanently grants the Draguul all of their benefits while also removing them from the galaxy map and denying them to others. On the other hand, the Cerixx's Galactic Security Initiative actually prevents their empire from being able to destroy minor civilizations at all. This is for good reason though, as each minor civilization within their borders grants them additional ship support points.
A Little Something Extra
At this point, all of the content available in Evolving Empires that is applicable to the base game has now been discussed. As you’ve seen, there’s a huge amount of content waiting for you, and I’m sure by now you’re anxious to get your hands on it!
There is… just one more thing though. For those that own our first expansion, Natural Law, as well as those who may be interested in picking it up, you may be wondering what Evolving Empires means for the Cerixx and Palacean. If you count yourself among this group, all I can say is I highly encourage you to keep an eye out for our next dev diary early next week!
Don’t forget that Evolving Empires is coming out on May 25th! It’s right around the corner! Please don’t forget to wishlist so you'll be informed the moment it releases! If you wish to get important news from our game and company please consider subscribing to our newsletter.
A small update to the 1.4 Beta is now available in the 'unstable' branch. This is version 1.4 Beta 4.
These were the changes:
Version 1.4 Beta 4
Captured ships were still being reported wrongly in some specific instances. This should be fixed now.
The birds in the Human colony view are now a bit smaller, the ones on the top left that sometimes appear behind the UI.
I remind that the 1.4 Beta update is not yet available for everyone. To play the '1.4 Beta 4' version you need to opt in for Steam's Beta branch. On the Steam client go to Games -> View Games Library -> Right-Click on Interstellar Space: Genesis -> Choose Betas tab -> Select the "unstable" Beta branch. The game shall start updating to 1.4 Beta 4.
Please keep sending us your feedback to our Steam forums, official forums, on our Discord server, or if you prefer just send an email to contact@praxis-games.com (or contact form here) with a save and the Player and Player-prev log files you can find in this folder: C:\Users\\AppData\LocalLow\Praxis Games\ISG
If the game doesn't launch or you find any issue please delete your custom races that are stored in this folder: C:\Users\\AppData\LocalLow\Praxis Games\ISG\Races\
Thanks a lot for the feedback. Please, keep it coming!
Interstellar Space: Genesis - Evolving Empires release date announced!
Hello everyone!
We're thrilled to announce that Evolving Empires, our second paid expansion pack to Interstellar Space: Genesis will release on May 25th!
We'll also release the 1.4 free! update to everyone who owns the game alongside the expansion release. This update adds new leader skills, revamped strike craft 3D models (fighters and bombers), leader level information, AI improvements, many QoL improvements and tweaks, bug fixes, and much more. The full patch notes will be revealed on May 25th. However, here's the bulk of the changes.
News and Dev Diaries
Keep an eye out for our next dev diary on Evolving Empires to learn more about the new Minor Civilizations gameplay feature! In the meantime, you can check out our previous dev diaries on the other game-changing feature of this expansion, Evolutions and the Evolution Perks.
To stay on top of news related to ISG and Praxis Games, don't forget to also subscribe to our newsletter!
Trailer and Wishlist
In the meantime, check out the Interstellar Space: Genesis - Evolving Empires trailer and wishlist the expansion on Steam!
One more small update to the 1.4 Beta is now available in the 'unstable' branch! This is version 1.4 Beta 3.
These were the changes:
Version 1.4 Beta 3
When saving a game, after writing the save file name it's now possible to save when hitting the 'Enter' key without having to hit the 'Save' button.
Fixed an issue where sometimes AI fleets would not be displayed when visible or could be seen travelling too fast in the galaxy map (only the animation). This issue had been introduced by 1.4 Beta 2 and is now fixed.
Fixed an issue where techs obtained from salvaging debris in the battlefield could raise the wrong research notification, which could mislead one into thinking the techs had been obtained by normal research when in fact they were obtained by salvaging. Bug introduced by 1.4 Beta, now fixed.
Fixed a rare bug that would cause the same spy leader skill to be offered as both options when the Intelligence Headquarters facility was built.
Fixed an issue where multiple "Ruins can be explored" notifications would be displayed when multiple fleets arrived at the system with ruins at the same time.
Adding a refit project to the colony queue now dismisses the 'Idle construction icon' notification. Previously, only normal building and ships projects would clear the notification.
Fixed a glitch in a diplomacy text entry for the Nova when text was displayed for exchanging technologies.
I remind that the 1.4 Beta update is not yet available for everyone. To play the '1.4 Beta 3' version you need to opt in for Steam's Beta branch. On the Steam client go to Games -> View Games Library -> Right-Click on Interstellar Space: Genesis -> Choose Betas tab -> Select the "unstable" Beta branch. The game shall start updating to 1.4 Beta 3.
Please keep sending us your feedback to our Steam forums, official forums, on our Discord server, or if you prefer just send an email to contact@praxis-games.com (or contact form here) with a save and the Player and Player-prev log files you can find in this folder: C:\Users\\AppData\LocalLow\Praxis Games\ISG
If the game doesn't launch or you find any issue please delete your custom races that are stored in this folder: C:\Users\\AppData\LocalLow\Praxis Games\ISG\Races\
Thanks a lot for the feedback. Please, keep it coming!
ISG Dev Diary #16 : Evolving Empires - Evolution Perks
Welcome back everyone for our second dev diary on Evolving Empires! I'm Keith, here today to be your guide as we take a closer look at the game changing abilities you'll soon be able to unlock across this expansion’s Evolution trees!
Note that this particular diary will contain the Evolution sets for the base game races only. Check back for a future diary which will cover the races from Natural Law.
Before we begin, if you haven’t had a chance yet, I’d highly recommend checking out Dev Diary #15 where we take a deeper dive into what Evolutions are as well as how they work.
Evolution through affinity
A race’s affinity impacts various aspects about a race including the AI personality traits which influence how it behaves as well as some parameters (infrastructure, technologies, etc.) that serve to give it some initial direction. For base game races, their affinity will always match their race, but for custom races you can choose any affinity you have access to (including expansion races, if owned) on the race customization screen.
With Evolving Empires, your race affinity now also controls the Evolution set you’ll have available to you. This connection exists in order to provide the AI with the most suitable personality for the perks it has available to it.
Human Evolution
Artificial Directive (Tier 1)
Your empire’s focus on creating intelligent artificial life has led to the creation of android leaders. Far more art than science, not every intelligent android can be trusted as a leader, and as a result you'll unlock one android ship or colony leader of your choice with every culture level-up. The androids you receive are reliable, loyal, and cheap. Their only real downside is their inexperience. However, due to your empire’s focus on leadership, you’re no longer able to dismiss any leaders you choose to employ.
Alien Ambassadors (Tier 2a)
As the galaxy's preeminent diplomats, your empire reaps extra rewards from its relationships. Each of your active mining treaties provides you with additional production and diplomatic relation bonuses. Your true strength lines in the alliances you form though, as each active alliance you have will provide you with a significant empire-wide morale boost.
Achilles Defense System (Tier 2b)
Your efforts to make your ships nearly impenetrable has led to the development of the ultimate shield system. Whenever a shield overload action is taken, your shield will now fully recharge and actually lower, rather than raise, the heat level of the ship. In addition, your ship’s systems have been reinforced giving them increased uptime due to their additional health points.
A Better Tomorrow (Tier 3a)
Your empire sees a brighter future for the galaxy and inspires others to unite behind its cause. As the leader of your alliances, you'll be forced to break off any relations with their rivals. Your partners will however be more likely to accept your requests for coordination. They’ll also provide you with access to their supply range and a portion of all their strategic resources. As your relation grows with your allies over time, your relationship with their rivals will ultimately wither as well.
Multi-Dimensional War (Tier 3b)
Wars are fought and won on many fronts, not all of which are obvious. For every active war your empire is in, you’ll receive additional weapon and defense research bonuses and additional income from your populace. As your political connections worsen relations between your treaty partners and your rivals, your propaganda machine will cumulatively lower the morale of your rivals every turn you remain at war with them. Due to your empire’s focus on war, cultural and planetary engineering matters become much more difficult to achieve.
Draguul Evolution
Supreme Predators (Tier 1)
Your empire believes that “might makes right” and takes great pride in its military prowess. Your ship crews are unparalleled and gain additional combat bonuses. Every weapon and defense technology tier unlocked provides additional culture to your empire. In addition, your predatory warriors hunt the great beasts, and each trophy (kill) they obtain provides even further cultural bonuses. As a society built on strength, weakness and fear are abhorred, and your warriors would sooner die than face the shame of fleeing a battle.
Kinetic Mastery (Tier 2a)
Believing that the most impactful statements can only come from the barrel of a gun, your empire is focused on improving its kinetic weaponry. Your ships have increased accuracy with kinetic weapons, and combined with their crew bonuses, can make more effective use of them and their mods. In addition, your ships do more damage with all kinetic weapons.
Sacrificial Lambs (Tier 2b)
With your journey towards galactic conquest well underway, the only thing that still stands in your way is the willful disobedience of those you conquer. To quickly assert your authority, your empire can now sacrifice a portion of a colony’s population to instantly assimilate it. In addition, from now on any minor civilizations located within your borders will now be assimilated, granting you all their bonuses and removing any risk that anyone can ever take them from you.
Battle-scarred (Tier 3a)
In order to improve their ability to withstand and recover from damage, your empire has integrated biological materials into its ship designs. This built-in special system has no additional cost or space utilization and provides additional armor as well as regenerative capabilities. As scars are seen as the true measure of a warrior, your crews are no longer willing to be seen hiding behind an energy shield. Shields can no longer be equipped on your ships or stations.
World Takers (Tier 3b)
Your weak and pathetic rivals have failed their worlds and it is time for your empire to take its place as their rightful ruler. Your siege speed is dramatically increased and you now receive two assault ships every time one is built. You also receive up to two technologies with every successful invasion. As conquerors, your people have little desire to deal with domestic matters and are no longer willing to dedicate effort to building colony, outpost, or survey ships.
Moltar Evolution
Boundless Breakthroughs (Tier 1)
Facing fierce competition, every scientist in your empire struggles to stand-out. Every early breakthrough you achieve inspires your scientists and provides you with a free colony ship they hope will lead to new opportunities. Every research outpost you control provides additional info and increases the odds of a breakthrough occurring. Your scientists also unlock ultra technologies faster than normal. With a taste for science, rather than conquest, your assault ships take significantly longer to build.
Cultural Diffusion (Tier 2a)
As your empire spreads out across the stars, its culture continues to grow and expand along with it. For every unique type of biome you’ve colonized, you’ll begin to generate culture at an accelerated pace. In addition, you can now have early culture breakthroughs, just like early research breakthroughs, and every culture breakthrough also provides a free colony ship.
Energy Adepts (Tier 2b)
Your scientists have focused on improved ways to manipulate energy. Your beam weapons now have additional power provided to them when they are overloaded in combat, allowing them to do substantially more damage for that attack. In addition, they’ve devised methods to incorporate beam modifications in a simpler manner, reducing the miniaturization level requirements for their modifiers.
Extreme Transformation (Tier 3a)
Your people have adapted and evolved to the point that their physical form is completely malleable. They can now live in every biome and gravity type without penalty. Such adaptability is not without consequence though, as your ability to colonize anywhere is seen as a clear threat to other races. Combined with your often grotesque appearance, all empires are now unwilling to conduct any type of diplomacy with you aside from declarations of war or peace.
Interlinked Systems (Tier 3b)
With all your ship’s power systems now interconnected, your empire has eliminated the need to choose how to overload them. Your overload actions are now interlinked, allowing your ships to activate weapon, shield, and engine overloads simultaneously at no additional cost. In addition, refinements have led to an increase in the maximum heat threshold of your ships and a reduction in their overload cooldown timers. Unfortunately, due to the tight integration of components to make this viable, your ships suffer double damage to their systems when hit.
Sulak Evolution
Swarm Specialists (Tier 1)
Like a plague of locusts, your empire prefers to swarm upon its enemies with deadly intent. All your ships now gain bonus damage based on the number of similarly sized ships fighting alongside them. Your frigates and destroyers start at a higher experience level than normal, and your destroyers also use less support points to field. To support the swarm, your colonies also generate additional ship production towards military ships. With a focus on swarm tactics, your empire views its ships as expendable, and therefore sees no value in refitting its existing ships.
Astral Acrobats (Tier 2a)
Capable of death defying feats of agility and breakneck speeds, your ship pilots are true daredevils. Your frigates and destroyers move exceptionally fast, even for their size, and can easily maneuver across the battlefield. These ship classes also have a chance to dodge incoming missiles completely, regardless of the ship attack or ship defense of the ships involved.
Cloak and Daggers (Tier 2b)
Your ships are adept at stealthily seeking out and striking the most vulnerable parts of their targets. Your frigates and destroyers have a chance to cause double damage to any ship larger than themselves. In addition, their ability to avoid detection grants them the chance to dodge incoming kinetic and beam weapons regardless of the ship attack or ship defense of the ships involved.
Death Wish (Tier 3a)
For those seeking the ultimate thrill, it is said that nothing can compare to going out in one final blaze of glory. The salvage action of your ships is replaced with a collide action which allows crashing into larger enemy ships. As both speed and hull play a role, the faster and stronger your ships are, the more damage they will do. With little regard for their own ships, it’s not surprising that your crews are uninterested and unable to collect any combat salvage left behind by others.
Starjackers (Tier 3b)
As ultimate mischief makers, your empire is exceptional at taking things that don’t belong to it. Your empire’s saboteur actions now steal targeted enemy ships instead of destroying them. To help support this, several leaders will gain the saboteur skill or level it up. In addition, your frigates and destroyers can now board enemy ships without requiring they be immobile. Always up to no good, your empire is blamed for every undetected spy action in the galaxy.
Kaek Evolution
Hub and Spoke (Tier 1)
The use of a hub and spoke distribution system has greatly enhanced your empire’s ability to support remote colonies. Your capital becomes the central hub of your empire, providing a portion of its production capabilities to all your other colonies. The capital’s production and research output is further increased with every space culture level-up. To defend it, your capital gains a built-in Capital Defense Force which defends it from attack and which grows in strength with each unlocked evolution perk. This system requires absolute obedience and has no room for strong personalities, including leaders, who you are no longer able to employ.
Network Assembly (Tier 2a)
Assembly line techniques and automation have improved the efficiency of your empire’s ships. Your empire can now apply a colony’s refit production simultaneously to any number of ships at the same time, allowing you to very quickly upgrade and redeploy them. Due to efficiency improvements, battle pods equipped in your ships now provide additional space as well.
Structural Masterminds (Tier 2b)
The innovative structural design techniques of your engineers are a clear indicator that practice makes perfect. The use of insulating materials throughout your ships grants them a complete immunity to ion weapons and has significantly reduced the costs involved in hull reinforcement. You also receive more infrastructure development speed for every production asteroid exploitation controlled by your empire.
Telepathic Command (Tier 3a)
Your population has developed the means to learn, communicate, and receive commands telepathically. As a collective mind, your ship crews are immune to crew stunning and mind control effects. Every experience is shared, causing all your ship crews to receive XP whenever any of your fleets engage in battle. Outsiders are easily identified and independent thoughts unwanted, causing your empire to be immune to all spy actions. With no room for creativity, your empire is no longer able to achieve any early research breakthroughs.
Supercolony (Tier 3b)
Having reached the pinnacle of the hub and spoke paradigm, your capital’s influence transcends the bounds of a single system. Your capital can now be relocated to any colony within your empire. The capital generates additional population growth and ground combat strength and also extends these benefits to all nearby colonies. In addition, nearby colonies also receive access to their own Capital Defense Force. Given the ultimate importance of your capital, losing it either forces a surrender (for the AI) or acts as a loss condition (for the player).
Nova Evolution
Relics of the Past (Tier 1)
Your race's history is deeply intertwined with an ancient relic of unknown origin that it possesses. When you unlock this perk, you receive a research bonus across all research categories as well as bonus research from any data core artifacts you possess. In order to find other artifacts, the relic immediately reveals the location of all ancient ruin throughout the galaxy. As it guides you to these artifacts, your chance to discover them also increases. Unfortunately, the relics power is fickle, and it seems at time to enjoy meddling in your affairs, leading to an increase in negative events for your empire.
Giving Spirits (Tier 2a)
Through the generous power of your ancient relic, it truly is better to give than to receive. All diplomatic gifts now provide you with bonus effects in addition to the standard diplomatic benefits. Whenever you send a gift of BC, your empire will receive a significant amount of space culture in return. Whenever you gift a ship, you will reduce the cooldown of your unique abilities a number of turns based on the ship size. Whenever you gift a system, you will receive an empire-wide morale boost based on the number of pops and the amount of infrastructure gifted.
Web Weavers (Tier 2b)
Your relic opens every door to you and grants you unfettered access to far away places in your, or perhaps its, quest for further artifacts. Your empire immediately gains full knowledge of every system containing a wormhole revealing all wormhole paths. In addition, the relic will open any wormhole, even closed ones, for your ships to travel through.
Spiritual Awakening (Tier 3a)
After resisting its destructive temptations, the ancient relic cleanses your spirits and opens your minds to endless possibilities. Adventure, Wealth, and Knowledge space culture perks are no longer mutually exclusive and all strategic resource techs, regardless of path selection, are now immediately available to use. Your empire receives production bonuses for each of its data core artifacts and additional space culture for each colony it has containing ruins. The relic no longer provides additional negative events and provides additional positive ones instead. With your most destructive tendencies removed, your empire will no longer take part in bombing, invading, or raiding colonies.
Unbridled Power (Tier 3b)
With the true power of your relic finally unleashed, your empire has been granted incredible destructive powers. Your unique abilities can now be freely swapped at any time as long as they aren't on cooldown. In addition, for every colony you have with ancient ruins, you receive additional ship support points, and for every data core artifact you've collected, your ships will do increased damage. Unleashing these powers is not without consequence though, and your capital is immediately and permanently turned into a barren wasteland.
Hidden civilizations await you
Now that you know about the Evolution sets coming to all base game races, you may be anxious to hear more about this expansion's other key feature, Minor Civilizations. If so, come back later this week for a deep dive into how they work!
Also, if you like what you've seen, please don't forget to wishlist so you'll be informed when Evolving Empires releases! If you wish to get important news from our game and company please consider subscribing to our newsletter.
