Echoes of the Endless

Overview

"Echoes of the Endless" is the 2nd free add-on released after "Rise of the Automatons", which brings more immersion thanks to features voted by the community, such as Exploration Rewards, Interactive Random Events and Wonders. It also brings new Musics, new Heroes and plenty of game feature enhancements and additions.

Background Story

"...Like an earthquake or a tidal wave, like a birth or a blossoming, something has awakened the ancient infrastructures of the Endless. Empty planets now show signs of Endless technology, which seems to be rebooting itself in response to a strange signal that is propagating across the galaxy -- a signal from the system where we last saw Jana Kryv, almost two years ago. Systems that slept for centuries are coming back on line, and many things are not what they appear to be. What we thought were rocks may be bases, what we thought were wrecks may be viable ships.
But we must walk cautiously among the relics of the Endless; though we seek to pierce their mysteries we are not yet on a level with their knowledge. We must travel farther, think harder, and work faster than ever before. It is more than our holy mission that is at risk now; it is the shape and the future of the galaxy as we know it..."

- Excerpt from a speech by Kamau Savasbat, Patriarch, A.B. 112

Content

CHANGES AND ADDITIONS

• The Galaxy generation seed is displayed with the pause menu

• Added a sentry mode to the available Fleet actions.
• Added an Auto-Cycle button to enable the review of all Fleets without orders.
• The battle timer (when choosing a participating mode: auto/manual) is now a game option. By default, the battle timer is disabled for a single player session, and it is enabled for a multiplayer session.
• Added a new state for the "end turn button" that notifies the player he has pending encounters.
• Refactored the Heroes' ability trees.
• If a system improvement will never be relevant for a System, hide it from the Improvement picklist (credits: by grubnik)

• Added a victory/defeat picture and extra information to the 'Continue' panel.
• Added a ‘Game Introduction’ option in game options (to introduce the new content of an add-on).
• Updated the Tutorial with the new features.
• Added 5 new musics.

INTERACTIVE RANDOM EVENTS

• Refactored the game events system:- The pre 1.0.30 events are compatible
  - Added new event effects
  - Added Interactive Random Events
  - Added a new panel to the Empire Factors panel, which summarizes all the effects of the current random events
  - Added an advanced game option to activate/deactivate the Random Events generation
• Added descriptions and pictures to the new Random Events.

EXPLORATION EVENTS

• Added exploration rewards: small random bonuses for the first player to explore a System.
• Some exploration events are now interactive.
• Added a GUI feedback in the galaxy view to identify Systems with an Exploration Reward. The Amoeba players have a slightly different feedback.
• The effects of the Exploration Events are now displayed in the Empire Factors panel.

WONDERS

• Added natural and Endless Wonders. The Endless Wonders can be restored.
• Lowered number of Wonders depending on the different size.
• Added GFX for Natural and Endless Wonders.
• Added a GUI feedback in the Galaxy view to identify explored Systems with a Wonder.

AMBIENCE - GALAXY MAP

• Added more life to the Galaxy with the random addition of comets, black holes, pulsars, ...

DIPLOMACY

• Removed the waiting period for the cold war status.

• Added diplomatic answers when the player trades with an AI and when an AI is offering a proposal.
• With the previous diplomatic behavior we could have deadlock involving a permanent cold war state between all the factions.

HEROES

• Added a new Pilgrim hero.

• Added 4 heroes of new factions (Sheredyn and minor factions).

MULTIPLAYER

• Set the Steam regional parameter to ‘Worldwide’ for the multiplayer sessions.
• The game disconnections related to the Steam servers should be less frequent.
• All the multiplayer sessions of a given version are now displayed. You can join a game only if you have the same files/mod as the session's host.

AI

• Removed growth and fleet upkeep bonus for the AI.
• AI for newbie is less aggressive and less militarized.
• Lowered normal Pirates difficulty.
• During a deal, the AI values a resource depending on the number he already owns.

BALANCING

• Reduced the science trade route multiplier from 2 to 0.5.

FIXES

• Fixed a potential desync in MP when unlocking a technology by a random event.
• Fixed an issue where the random events frequency is not tied to the game speed.
• Fixed an issue where entering planet view after scraping a population improvement causes an assert.
• Fixed an issue where desert planet does not display all life simulation effects.
• Fixed an issue where life simulation effects are not properly displayed on high population planets.
• Fixed an issue where the ships created by events don't have the good amount of HP.
• Fixed an issue where an assert occurred for a same random event for two empires.
• Fixed an issue with the anomaly reduction of the hell gourds.
• Fixed an issue where an exploration event causes a desync in a multiplayer session.
• Fixed an issue where the constructibles were overridden by the modding.
• Fixed an issue where the warning events "no current technology" & "bankrupt next turn" made the battle notifications disappear.
• Fixed an issue where the wrong ship design was queued after an advanced defender exploration event was encountered.
• Fixed an issue where the advanced defender exploration event used the designs based on affinity.
• Fixed some issues of GUI and localization.