Early Access 3 is our planned end of EA for Lord of Rigel. The next update includes one feature we had wanted to include in release but was not part of the original roadmap- Leaders.
Leaders
Leaders are empire wide, and have a chance of being rescued from empty star systems or after defeating space monsters guarding a system. They can also be hired on. Leaders can provide technologies and unique bonuses that are applied empire wide to fleets, planetary economies, or the empire wide economy.
With many decisions in LoR, the plan was to have the player feel like an Emperor, you set the overall economic focus of planets and can micromanage construction if wanted but can focus on the higher level issues when using the automation systems without the game "playing itself."
The leader system follows this same idea with them being cabinet members making high level impacts.
Rebellions or loss of a capitol or homeworld all effect your leaders "on the map."
Image 1. Leader System
Tactical Updates
Also requested were some features for tactical. This includes being able to scan visible ships with a tooltip hover when up close.
Additionally, a combat timer that can be set in options (default 5:00) that ends combat in a draw has also been added. This behaves like the existing retreat system.
Image 2. Scanning enemy ships
Image 3. Combat timer
Advanced Settings
Advanced galaxy settings will also be present, letting you set victory conditions, and aspects of the game such as the presence of elder species and doomsday clock or maximum number of planets in a system.
Soundtrack Preview
Finally, as we approach release we aim to have the LoR soundtrack also available, but here is a preview of the soundtrack that doesn't include everything from the game or the planned OST:
Early Access 3 Patch 2024.6
Ticket #1620 QOL - Colonizing in System View
Ticket #1823 QOL – Add climate filter to Empire Menu
Ticket #1827 QOL – Reset Hall of Fame
Ticket #947 QOL – QOL Player can threaten AI on territory and spies
Early Access 3 Patch 2024.6
Ticket #1620 QOL - Colonizing in System View
Ticket #1823 QOL – Add climate filter to Empire Menu
Ticket #1827 QOL – Reset Hall of Fame
Ticket #947 QOL – QOL Player can threaten AI on territory and spies
Community Update: What to expect in the next update.
Greetings Lords of Rigel, to give a brief update on what to expect in the next update later this month:
Players can make diplomacy threats on expansion and spies
Colonization and outposts from system view and planet view
A reset option in the hall of fame
Further AI balancing adjustments and minor bug fixes for issues reported by players
Image 1. Example of Colonize in System View
Image 2. Hall of Fame Reset Option
The leader system is also slowly but surely coming along with core integration into economic and other gameplay systems being the next major step.
Image 3. WIP of Hiring Leader UI
Update- Bugfixes and UI Quality of Life
This patch: Bug fixes and UI quality of life
Bug fixes: Fixes with this update include housing tooltips and housing now only applies bonuses if in the first build queue slot. An issue with multiple cancellations of fleet orders potentially causing fleets to teleport has also been fixed, It also includes more AI adjustments and end turn queued event adjustments.
Quality of Life: We've also worked in some more requested quality of life features. Some new players were concerned about the checkboxes being unclear as they were a highlight color. Now checkboxes have a clear checked on and off icon in them.
Image 1. Updated checkboxes
A fleet select all button was also requested to make it easier to select or deselect fleets in order to issue orders to specific ships.
Image 2. Fleet select all button
Also requested was disabling certain spy mission types during Final War.
Next Update Feature: Additional Diplomacy Demands A feature requested at the beginning of EA was adding more demand options. In LoR the AI can warn the player about expansion or if spies were caught. We wanted the AI to be more transparent to the player on why relations were degrading. So while those messages for the AI were to communicate their mood, the player didn't have the same options to warn the AI.
Two new options will be present- demanding to stop spies and demanding to stop expansion in your territory.
In both cases whether the AI will accept or be insulted depends on their personality type (or if they even have spies!). If accepted, they will stop those actions for a period of time but there's a chance based on personality for breaking it. This might mean some AIs will only honor not spying for a short period of time if caught.
image 3. New demand options
We are slowly but surely plugging away at the leader system, which is the last planned EA3 feature on the roadmap.
Please keep sending us saves, as they help us with AI balancing and resolving issues!
Update- AI Balance and New Logos
This patch: AI balancing, fixes, and new logos This update includes adjustments to event ticker scroll and dismissing events along with some AI rebalancing between expansion and construction of warships.
In addition we've added two new selectable logos in new game and some color grading to make colors and shine details pop out more in scenes. For players with dark monitors we recommend going into settings and increasing the brightness settings.
Recent Updates: Some other recent updates include a hotkey option to move items to the top and bottom of the build queue, and queue items also save construction progress if moved.
When refitting ships the ship design pulldown also can let you select other designs of the same hull class size (ex. Frigate, Destroyer, Cruiser).
Finally, modifications for torpedo weapons are available in weapon designer which means you can create overloaded torpedoes, ones more resistant to ECM, or emissions guided torpedoes that follow the "tailpipe" of a ship causing engine damage.
Image 1. New Logo Options
Roadmap: Leader system In terms of our roadmap of what is next for 1.0- Leaders.
In the same vein of reducing micro management and keeping you running an empire as the colony focus system is intended to do, these leaders are empire-wide leaders. They'll provide bonuses to all worlds or fleets but there will be limited slots and upkeep for leaders. Leaders will also gain experience and provide stronger bonuses.
Image 2. Datatable for Leaders
As always please keep sending us saves as they help us with bug fixing and AI balancing. Image 3. Endgame scenario from one of your games
Please check our Discord if you have questions, comments, or issues! https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdiscord.gg%2F3QK3TKumXJ
Early Access 3 Patch 2024.4
Ticket #1811 QOL – Added two new generic faction logos
Ticket #1810 QOL – Contrast look up texture applied
Ticket #1807 – Event ticker side scroll occurring when hover over X fix
Ticket #1808 – Event ticker items cleared by pressing “X” appearing when entering and exiting galaxy view fix
Ticket #1809 – AI ship construction adjustments
Early Access 3 Patch 2024.3
Ticket #1804 QOL – Don’t include government trait in species trait count
Ticket #1801 QOL – Build Queue arrows – Shift-click moves to top or bottom of queue
Ticket #1795 QOL – Moving items in build queue keeps progress
Ticket #1794 One off diplomacy messages during turn causing GNN messages fix
Ticket #1790 Event ticker clear option in settings off by a turn fix
Ticket #1799 Phantom parked fleet using Planets menu fix
Ticket #1797 Ship Designer – Editing an existing design weapon size and ship design space mismatch fix
Ticket #1796 Torpedo mods not present in ship designer fix
Ticket #1800 QOL – Ship Designer - Reset design button enabled when using pulldown to modify a design
Ticket #1803 Additional fixes for duplicate ship class names when refitting
Ticket #1806 Gravity penalty for Low G fix
Ticket #1798 Blank counter proposal text in Diplomacy fix
Ticket #1802 QOL – Revised war event ticker
EA3 Patch 2 Update- New Technologies and QOL Features
Based on your feedback and save games our latest update has a number of quality of life fixes and bug fixes requested by the community.
Some updates to the refitting system to give refit designs unique names (ex. Lexington-A, Lexington-B) and to allow use of the pulldown menu to select existing designs of a hull class have been added.
Additionally, leftover production on a completed item will now move over to the next item in the build queue.
Image 1. One of your legendary galaxy saves!
One requested technology was added to the high end social science branch, "Advanced Settlement." This technology when researched will upgrade colony ships to automatically produce initial economic buildings if you have already researched them. While in the end game many of these items may quickly produce or be purchased time is a resource and this can save 5-10 turns of starting a new world.
Image 2. Advanced Settlement technology
We also added in a toggle option for pause in tactical (Default: Space Bar) to help with real time with pause combat for players. Bandbox optimizations have also been added.
Image 3. Tactical pause toggle
Sometimes your saves can also show us bugs you haven't reported in this case nebulas, neutron stars, and black holes when together could result in a ship having the reason it can't travel near a black hole as due to fuel range and not due to the black hole.
Image 4. Debugging an issue
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What is coming next?
In addition to any critical bugs reported we're looking at:
Event ticker dismiss- clear turns adjustments.
Saving build progress if an item is moved down build queue.
Torpedo weapon mods.
Threatening the AI in diplomacy. (territory, spies)
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As this patch added new hotkeys, if you are having issues with key bindings, please check the settings menu or look under common issues.
Early Access 3 Patch 2024.2
Ticket #1764 QOL – Disable New Game button if player lacks species name
Ticket #1784 QOL – Default music level adjusted
Ticket #1783 New Game menu music not looping fix
Ticket #911 QOL – Added warfare section to tutorial
Ticket #1774 Elder species first contact based on player arrival fix
Ticket #1772 Tech tree showing blank entries when filter is on fix
Ticket #1787 Housing tooltip display fix
Ticket #1776 QOL - Disable Colony and Outpost buttons if system has no names
Ticket #1778 – Galactic Council threshold adjustments
Ticket #1775 Renaming Outposts fix
Ticket #1785 Tutorial popup resetting on end turn fix
Ticket #1786 Tax update during turn fix
Ticket #1773 Produced ships at Sol not spawning in mixed occupied system fix
Ticket #1769 Ancient homeworld trait fix
Ticket #1768 QOL – Ascension tech listed separately in Info Screen
Ticket #1770 QOL List other faction in colony, outpost, and building tooltip
Ticket #1625 QOL – End turn prompt in system view
Ticket #1791 QOL Custom species ID validator
Ticket #1792 Galactic Council Candidate fix
Ticket #1448 QOL - Advanced colony ship tech
Ticket #1771 Deleting ship designs will delete multiple designs with the same name
Ticket #1793 QOL – Production carryover to next item in build queue
Ticket #1780 Player can manually move through blackhole if nebula is adjacent fix
Ticket #1781 Ship data blanking in cases where neutron shielding is researched fix
Ticket #1782 Skirmish Battlestations and Citadels spawning fix
Ticket #1789 QOL – Pause hotkey added to Tactical
Ticket #1779 QOL – All ship designs of same size class can be accessed in refit menu
Ticket #1788 Pre-warp population not being counted as empire population in Empire screen
