The moment you have been waiting for has arrived – the Difficulty Options update is here!
Alongside general bug fixes, this update brings you four difficulty options to choose from, meaning you can now customize your IXION experience.
Read on for full patch notes.
Thank you again, Administrators, for your valued feedback and support.
Any new playthrough will now begin with a choice of three difficulty modes:
Journey: This mode is for players who want to enjoy the game’s narrative and is recommended for those unfamiliar with the city-builder genre.
Default: This is the intended IXION experience and is recommended for players familiar with city builders.
Challenge: An unrelenting fight for survival; this mode is for Administrators who really want to test their skills.
Want a bit more customization so you can play IXION how you envisioned? Then this fourth option is for you. In Custom mode, you can adjust a wide variety of game mechanics to your taste. Tired of the constant hull degradation. Turn it off. Not getting enough workers from cryopods? Change the ratio. Accidents happening too often? Decrease the frequency.
You can also adjust these difficulty parameters via the pause menu mid-playthrough – including in your existing saves!
Fixed an issue where players couldn’t build in the top-left tile of Sector 2.
Story-related technologies can now be unlocked when you have 0 Science.
Fixed an issue for some players where ‘restart chapter’ would take them to the previous chapter rather than the current.
Fixed issues that arose from exiting the “Walking into the Lion’s Den” event.
The player can no longer soft-lock their game by ignoring events in chapter 3.
Fixed an issue where repeatedly clicking the credits button increased its scroll speed.
Fixed an issue where crew would disappear if a save game was loaded mid-population transfer.
Food is no longer produced if all food production buildings are turned off.
Arrowheads no longer disappear in the resource transfer window.
Difficulty Options Date Announcement
Attention Administrators,
We are excited to announce that from Monday 8th May 2023, you will be able to play IXION your way with the release of our new difficulty options update!
Pave your own pathway to the stars by customising your IXION playthrough with our all-new difficulty settings; Journey, Default, Challenge and of course a fully customisable option.
You’ll be able to update IXION from around 6pm BST/10am EST on the 8th and we hope to see you there!
While you wait, why not join our dedicated Discord to discuss IXION with other Administrators.
Achievement Art Competition Winner
Attention Administrators,
We received over 500 submissions for our competition to name the new hard difficulty achievement, which has both blown us away and made it incredibly hard to pick just one.
After narrowing it down to our top five, developers Bulwark Studios chose the winner.
We are delighted to announce that the new Hard Difficulty Achievement will be named…
Congratulations to Threlkish and @Ask_Again_Later for this submission.
We want to thank everyone for submitting their entries and we look forward to releasing the Difficulty Options very soon so you can customise your IXION experience.
Name Our New Achievement!
Attention Administrators,
As part of the Difficulty Options update coming next month, we are introducing a brand new achievement for the completion of the ‘Hard’ difficulty setting, and we want you to name it.
For your chance of making a permanent mark on IXION, all you need to do is come up with a great name for the achievement and submit it via this Google Form.
Please keep in mind that submissions must be appropriate, non-NSFW, and suitable for the ‘Hard’ difficulty achievement.
The submissions window closes on Thursday 20th April at 2pm BST. The best entry will be chosen by us, with the winner announced via Steam, Discord and social media platforms, so keep your eyes peeled for the announcement.
Show us your creativity, Administrators!
IXION: Difficulty Options Update Coming Soon
Attention Administrators,
We’re excited to announce that a new update, which will bring a range of difficulty presets and advanced difficulty customisation options to IXION, will be dropping next month.
Following the announcement in January of our proposed update plan, and due to your valued feedback in our Discord and Steam forums, we decided to bring forward the Difficulty Options update in the schedule to allow more players to enjoy IXION sooner.
Since release in December, a lot of players have expressed a desire for a less punishing experience that would give them a better chance of seeing the game’s gripping narrative through to its epic conclusion. With that in mind, the update will include an ‘Easy’ difficulty mode that will present a more manageable challenge, ensuring the Tiqqun’s hull, and its crew’s trust in you, are easier to maintain.
For those hard-bitten Administrators seeking an even greater challenge than the original, intended gameplay experience (which will now be classified as ‘Normal’ mode), there’ll be a ‘Hard’ difficulty setting available, too. If you finished the game soon after launch, this is a great excuse to return to the Administrator’s chair and experience all our post-release updates while putting your station-management skills to the test.
Each of the three aforementioned modes have been carefully tuned to ensure a balanced experience that never feels either trivial nor unachievable. You will, however, have the opportunity to tweak and tune the game’s individual difficulty parameters yourself in the fourth and final game mode, ‘Custom’; here you will find a dizzying array of parameters to adjust, allowing you to put on your game designer hat* and set your own level of challenge.
In terms of what this schedule change means for our other planned updates, such as Accessibility and Visual Tech Support, we’ll provide an update on in due course.
*Update does not come with hat
Update 1.0.3.6
Attention Administrators,
The first update of 2023 is live and consists of general bug fixes, UI changes and starvation mechanic changes.
We will continue to look at all feedback and bug reports on Steam and our Discord as our focus is on items raised by our players
The patch notes for Build 1.0.3.6 are below.
Also this week, we are hosting an AMA on Reddit where Bulwark Studios will answer your IXION questions. The AMA will take place on Thursday 23rd February at 7 pm UTC, on the R/Gaming subreddit.
We have updated the way the starvation mechanic works in IXION.
The crew will continue to eat at set intervals, with meal cycles occurring every 5 cycles. If they are not provided with food at this time they will begin to starve. After missing three meals, the starving population will progressively die.
A crew member will now recover from starvation after eating a single meal. (Previously for starvation to resolve, a crew member would need to consume as many meals as they had missed).
Additionally, rather than waiting for up to 5 cycles till the next meal cycle, starving crew members have the option to eat at the start of the next cycle in which enough food is available. This behavior can be toggled on or off for a Sector from within the Mess Hall's building panel.
Technologies related to the critical path of the game will now only require time to research, with no associated science point cost.
Resource Transfer: implemented a simplified version of the resource transfer UI (the previous settings will still be available as a toggle option)
Cryonics Center: Simplified the building’s UI and removed the Sector limit to better convey that the Cryonics Center’s options only determine the destination of awakened crew, and not the type of crew to be woken
Fixed an issue where some planets had a graphical issue Fixed solar panel construction placeholders displaying extremely brightly
Fixed an issue where game could stutter or crash when deleting roads
Fixed an issue where saving during Edden dialogue in Chapter 4 disabled the Piranesi
Fixed an issue where the VOHLE jump button got stuck post jump
Fixed an issue with starvation not resolving correctly
Fixed an endless loading issue with save games
Fixed an issue where certain trust negatives could get stuck and loop endlessly (leading to 0% trust and game over)
Fixed an issue where opening events in Chapter 4 resulted in a dimmed screen and no way to resolve the event
Fixed the 'Delivery!' ‘Drill Dozer’ & 'What they hide from us' achievements not triggering correctly
Farms are now required to be built next to each other (and gaps cannot be created by farm deletion)
Fixed an issue where multiple science ships / crews could be lost if at same event location
Sector 6 can now be correctly opened from Sector 1
Fixed a power issue with the Hull Temple where it could become possible not to be able to turn it on under certain conditions
Fixed an issue with Solar Panel repair getting stuck if multiple panels were damaged during space weather
Fixed an issue with accident warnings and accompanying Edden lines not triggering correctly
Fixed an issue where blackouts did not trigger correctly during waste purging in the Nuclear Power Plant
Fixed an issue where the Exo-fighting Dome’s stability bonus did not trigger correctly
Fixed an issue where the Legislative Strengthening Center’s stability bonus did not trigger correctly
Fixed an issue where the Exo-fighting Dome’s associated events did not appear correctly
Three Factor authentication upgrade for Nuclear Power Plants will now function correctly
Fixed an issue where if the Docking Bay’s storage was full, colonists would be lost if transferred to the building for a colonization event
Cargo ships now correctly respond to priority gather
Fixed an issue where working conditions would be delayed in updating following population transfer
Fixed an issue where the ‘Sarcophagus To Eternity’ event would trigger incorrectly
Fixed an issue where farms could continue to produce food when unpowered
VOHLE jump hull damage now triggers correctly post VOHLE jump rather than at charge initiation
The Health Center’s bonuses should now only apply when full constructed (rather than as soon as the construction site is placed down)
Fixed an issue where the Health Center wasn’t being detected in Sectors connected by Train
Fixed an issue where mass producing ships in multiple docking bays could lead to game breaking bugs
The tier 2 food stability bonus now applies correctly
Fixed an issue where if the Steel Mill was marked for dismantling, and then the dismantling canceled, iron would be caught in an endless loop of being taken and removed from the building
When opening a new Sector, crew transfer will not take place until the Sector’s Gateway has a connecting road
Fixed an issue where you could have double overlapping weather events in Chapter 3
Fixed an issue where the stability bonus of a memorial persisted while building was being dismantled
The ‘max’ values of the top resource bar should now correctly update
Fixed an issue where credits would be triggered incorrectly on return to main menu
Fixed an issue where the incorrect crew member was displayed as dead at the end of the ‘12D - High Temperature’ event
Fixed some minor issues with how the Exo-Fighting Dome and Drone Bay displayed in the powered / unpowered view
Fixed some minor issues with text being cut off on planet panels in the Planetary System Map
Resource movement lines from buildings being dismantled now move in the correct direction
A number of minor fixes to the text of various tooltips and certain objective’s tracking percentages
Update On The Next Patch
Hello Administrators,
The next IXION update is coming soon - we are looking to release before the end of February.
Alongside a large number of bug fixes, we wanted to detail a little more about what’s coming in this next update:
Starvation changes - We have tweaked how starvation resolves. Understandably there was some frustration (e.g. around EKP travel initiation) with having to wait 5 cycles till the next meal cycle for starvation to resolve when enough food was on hand.
We are still testing the changes to ensure they feel right, but now, if a crew member enters starvation, they will be able to access food supplies via the Mess Hall between meal cycles. (There will be a small UI update on the Mess Hall to convey this to the player).
Cryonics Center UI - We have simplified the building UI and removed the Sector limit to better convey that the Cryonics Center’s options only determine the destination of awakened crew, and not the type of crew to be woken.
Resource transfer - We have created a simplified version of the resource transfer UI (the existing settings will still be available as a toggle option). This should provide a more intuitive experience to the player when moving resources between Sectors.
Also in the update will be DLSS support as well as a change to the Chapter 1 and 2 story technologies - these will now only cost time, rather than Science points to prevent gameplay locks.
(The update will apply to both new and existing saves)
There are a large number of fixes to the issues that have been reported, we are grateful for your continued feedback and bug reports as they have helped us improve the game and, ultimately, your experience playing IXION.
IXION 2023 Update
Attention Administrators,
The team is back from the holidays and we’ve been setting our 2023 plan for IXION in motion, starting off with analysing bug reports and working on fixes.
Now, we can announce what the upcoming updates to IXION will entail.
Update 1 (coming soon!) - Fixes and UI updates
Update 2 - Accessibility and Visual Tech Support
Update 3 - Difficulty Options
More information will follow in the coming weeks.
We want to thank you for all of your support; it’s great to see such a wonderful and supportive community form for IXION.
Patch 1.0.2.2 - Bug Fixes and Future Plans
Hello Administrators!
Patch - 1.0.2.2 is live!
Both the Bulwark and Kasedo teams will soon be winding down for Christmas and as such, this will be the last patch of the year.
We have been processing all the appreciated feedback we have received so far. This has informed some of our next steps for 2023 - here’s a look ahead to the start of the new year and the areas we will be focusing on:
Continued Balancing - We feel passionately about continuing to refine and update IXION’s balancing to bring you the best experience possible.
UI improvements - There are some areas of the UI we would like to review and improve, to ensure player understanding and enjoyment.
Accessibility Options - We would like to add further accessibility options to support IXION’s players.
Difficulty Options - The big one. IXION is intended to be a challenging game. We are looking at implementing a range of options and/or sliders to influence the game’s systems and difficulty. It is too early to detail how this will look, but we will provide optional presets alongside this - to identify the intended experience, to provide an option for a (very) hard mode, and to allow the player to focus on, and enjoy, the game’s story.
We are a small team, but a passionate one. The reception to the game has been overwhelming in the best way possible. Please allow us the time to continue to respond to, and address, the items being raised by our wonderful community.
We look forward to the new year, and the future of IXION.
Changelog - 1.0.2.2 19/12/2022
Balancing:
Stability:
The stability debuff from stored cryonic pods has been updated - you will now get -1 in a Sector that is storing more cryonic pods than the total active population of the Sector, rather than the previous station-wide debuff of -1 per group of 250 stored cryonic pods.
Internal events:
The ‘Sector Growth’ internal event now triggers slightly later in gameplay.
Chapter 1:
Increased the worker to non-worker ratio of cryonic pods in Chapter 1.
Tutorials:
Updated resource transfer tutorial Updated cryonics center tutorial Added details to weather tutorial Added details to requests tutorial Added details to Sectors tutorial Added details to workplace safety tutorial Added details to Starvation tutorial
Fixes:
Critical path:
Fix to an issue where a game over event could supersede an ending cutscene Fixed an issue with an end game objective getting stuck at 99% Fixed an issue where saving and loading during Edden dialogue broke a Chapter 4 mechanic Fixed an issue where Chapter 4 objectives would not progress correctly
Accidents:
Fixed a bug where accidents were being triggered at the same time in different Sectors sharing the same Overwork level. Fixed a bug where accidents were being triggered instantly linked to the player switching buildings back on manually.
Visual:
Fixed an issue where a Science Ship icon could appear over a planet arrival cutscene Fixed an issue with how textures would appear during Train Station construction Fixed issues with visuals during auxiliary ship construction
Cutscenes:
Fixed an issue where cutscene audio could continue to play while in settings menu Fixed an issue where the player was unable to use the pause menu during VOHLE exit cutscenes Fixed an issue where cutscenes were automatically being skipped Set the Space bar as the button to skip cutscenes
Pathing:
Fixed a number of pathing issues, where roads were not being correctly recognised
Saves:
Fix to issue where erasing old save did not erase ‘restart chapter’ save Fix to issue where ‘restart chapter’ was taking players back to incorrect chapter start Fixed a number of issues with saves, save corruption and infinite loading
Achievements:
Achievements should now function correctly
Localisation:
Fixes to a number of UI elements where localized texts would overlap fields
Mining Ships:
Tier 3 Mining Ships should now have the correct extraction rate
Other fixes: Fix to Alternative life center’s stability modifier not correctly disappearing on deconstruction Exo-fighting Dome stability bonus should now function correctly (with Train Stations) Exo-fighting Dome tech upgrades should now correctly apply Fixes to Population specialization not functioning correctly with upgraded Mess Hall Fixes to a number of starvation issues (we do want to look further into starvation, its systems, and its associated UI) Fix where auxiliary ships that had been previously dismantled were still returning for maintenance (spooky) Further GPU optimization Fixed issue where if a ship assigned to be dismantled was destroyed on its return journey to the Tiqqun, it could prevent the Docking Bay from functioning Cryonic pods should now spawn correctly on the Chapter 4 event ‘Wrecks – Remnants’ Fix to issue where canceling a building’s destruction could remove UI elements Fix to issue where EVA airlock wouldn’t deconstruct if mid-repair Fixes to certain areas of text displaying code instead of ship names Fix to ‘set decree’ objective having incorrect time limits Fix to ‘Pulsar - The monster's awakening’ event incorrectly displaying 'technology: {0}' Fixed an issue where powering off a Docking Bay mid maintenance broke some UI elements Fixed an issue with game movement freezing (related to EKP movement) Mushroom Wall building description should now be correct Fixed an issue where Blackouts occurred despite charged batteries being present Gateway electronics cost reduction upgrade should now work correctly Fixed an issue where loading an autosave of a fail-state would make Edden dialogue non dismissible Tech tree tier unlocking should now account for critical path techs as well
Patch 1.0.1.4 is now live
Let’s try this again (the similarities between the Tiqqun’s first VOHLE jump and our first patch going live are not lost on us…)
Both teams have been working furiously to fix the issues caused by the hotfix last night. The patch is now fixed and live, and here's what's changed:
Accident Balancing
Updated general balancing around accident frequency
Updated accident triggers (for a more friendly learning curve)
Fixed a number of accident frequency bugs
Improved link between Overwork levels and accident frequency
Other Fixes
Corrected Cryonics Center functionality
Optimization around activating hull repair and the associated VFX
Fixes to some Chapter 5 objective triggers & display
Fix to a late game building’s production not progressing
Unity Analytics disabled
Edden’s VO on falling trust should now trigger at a more appropriate trust level
Fix to homelessness warning triggering incorrectly (when deleting houses)
Fix to incorrect cycle count appearing in notifications list
Fix to Stockpile UI panel button (now enables correctly and can be clicked to enter resource transfer window)
