The first free add-on pack for Endless Space, Rise of the Automatons,is now warping onto Steam.
Iceberg Interactive and developers Amplitude Studios have released the first expansion to the popular 4X strategy title as a result of the feedback and suggestions they’ve gotten direct from fans of the game.
“We have to thank our community for its help in defining the add-on — GAMES2GETHER’s votes were used to determine half the improvements,” said Amplitude CEO Mathieu Girard. “We really appreciate our players’ devotion and ideas; they’ve given us ammo for many more updates and upgrades beyond this one. They’re numerous, argumentative, and occasionally challenging, but we wouldn’t have it any other way.”
It’s always nice to see a developer actually listen to (not to mention implement) what the folks buying into their experience have to say about it. As far as the list of add-ons and upgrades, it’s actually pretty deep and is extremely impressive for a free download:
- Addition of the new Automatons custom faction (thanks to the community hero ‘Panzer‘)
- GUI changes such as a new Trade Route panel and Empire Management screen
- Upgraded and updated diplomacy and alliance options
- Improved hero management
- Improved AI
- Fixes, amendments and changes
And that’s just a taste, the full list of what’s new can be found here. Now before you get too excited, you should know there is a caveat with Rise of the Automatons, and it’s kind of a big deal. Because of the massive amount of changes Amplitude has made to the core game, it’s now incompatible with any saved games you might have going on.
That’s totally understandable, but it really doesn’t help someone who’s poured a ton of time into the game and now has to choose between seeing their game to its end or upgrading and (probably) having a better time in general. Can’t win ’em all I guess, but hey- at least it’s free.
