Lights of Polaris

Overview

Lights of Polaris is a free add-on for Endless Space released on Wednesday December 19th, 2012 that adds Holiday Special content (a new Hero and a new Wonder) as well as new gameplay and Steam features, including Achievements chosen by the community via GAMES2GETHER votes.

Background Story

"There is a strange stillness in the galaxy, a hushed moment when denizens of the many worlds seem to be taking a breath. Perhaps they are preparing themselves for the next phase of work or war, perhaps they are simply relaxing after long toil. In this interlude of unexpected peace, somewhere, far in the northern hemisphere of a great arctic planet, beneath the cold snow and the wailing winds, explorers have made a discovery. Rumbling forever below the glaciers, an old installation of the Endless, still tended by descendants of the original workers, churns tirelessly throughout the frozen nights. Raw materials are collected, goods are produced and packaged, and an endless stream of boxes disappear into ships, portals, and sleds for distribution. What is this unceasing travail? What is the purpose of these strange, colorful, impractical objects that they build? Should you be curious, you must look to Mr Erram Zen Eerbee for an answer. There is an ancient secret there from before the time of space travel; a secret that is hidden behind the twinkle in his eyes..."

Content

CHANGES AND ADDITIONS

• New balance of Factions Traits (first pass).
• Blockade breaker doesn't work with Empire at war
• Added abilities tree pictures for each hero class in "inspect" panel.
• Added Steam Cloud management system for saves.
• New game introduction panel.

• Added a new Hero from minor faction.

• Added a new natural Wonder with associated FX on planet.
• Some additional texts translated in RUS/POL/ITA/GER.

STEAM ACHIEVEMENTS

• Added new Steam Achievements including G2G Votes:

- Marco Polo with Tentacles / Have a Trade Route with every other system in the galaxy [Nosferatiel]
- Alien and Eve / Colonize a Garden of Eden [groovytadpole]
- Cake² / Clone Galdos AI [Adder]
- There's no Place like Home / Terraform a planet to your home planet type [EvilTactician]
- There can only be One / Be the only remaining empire in a game with 8 starting empires [Monthar]
- Cultural Assimilation / Envelop another empire's system in your Influence Area [FreeMarket]

EVENTS

• Added exploration events flag option to remove the visual feedback in the Galaxy view.
• Removed Exploration and Random Events making spawn pirates when the "no pirates" options is enabled.

BATTLES

• New pre-battle cards selection system with adapted GUI and report panel
• AI can use Retreat cards now (not allowed to pirates however).
• New weight-balance of battle cards for AI use.
• Added a new option in game options to enable or not the manual battles.

MULTIPLAYER

• Players (including host) now forward orders to themselves instead of treating these locally.
• Fixed wrong construction gets canceled/bought out leading to desync.
• Fixed construction UID mismatch leading to desync.
• Fixed fleet's orbit assert.
• Fixed an issue where AI tries to buy out infinite improvements.
• Fixed loading issue to MP session when pressing cancel after "Connecting to server" message appeared.
• Fixed an issue when a client quits a session in progress then he will not be able to rejoin from the server list, since the session will no longer be displayed.

FIXES

• Fixed an issue where Dust miser and co-opetition corporate hero abbilities effects were mixed-up.
• Fixed an issue where debug could be noticed on the battle notification.
• Fixed an issue where the selfish dust bonus of the dust rain event was not displayed in the dust income summary tooltip.
• Fixed an issue where the effects from exploration and random events were not properly applied after reloading a save.
• Fixed some issues of GUI and localization.