Space combat title Everspace 2 has received its final early access update, Ancient Rifts, on PC. Developer Rockfish Games also confirmed that version 1.0 would release in early 2023 for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and PC while also being optimized for the Steam Deck.
Michael Schade, co-founder and CEO of Rockfish Games said, “We envisioned Ancient Rifts to bring back some of the crazy mechanics and challenges and that ‘one-more-run-feeling’ of the first Everspace that our space game fans loved. We can’t wait for the day when Everspace 2 version 1.0 drops, offering a unique mix of high-plasma action gameplay, deep space exploration, lots of activities, and an exciting campaign set in a stunning zero-G environment.”
As for the Ancient Rifts update, it’s essentially a way for players to up the difficulty during a playthrough. When opening a rift, you can choose different modifiers when traveling to the next stage. Along with better loot, there’s an increased chance for Legendaries to drop. Don’t count on hiding behind asteroids to survive – you’ll need to kill enemies quickly and maintain a Resolve score while ensuring your hull integrity doesn’t hit zero.
Other content in the update includes new jobs, distress signals, puzzles, and side missions in Union and Khaït Nebula. Racing events have also been overhauled, and you now upgrade the Bomber into the Titan while the Gunship can become the Dominator. New Outlaw units, the Raider and Tormentor, and a Front Shield Generator that can reflect shots, convert damage blocked into energy for weapons, or automatically orient shields to the nearest enemy, have also been added.
If that weren’t enough, the level scaling has changed so that enemy levels are now “attached to world progression.” As a result, players can level past their foes. For more details, check out the full patch notes here.
The Ancient Rifts Update | Changelog – 0.10.30110
Features
- Removed most of the dynamic enemy level scaling and added a few specific, system-wide leveling events
- Added the first version of Ancient Rifts
- Added new side quests
- Added Legendary items
- Added new Outlaw units: Outlaw Raider and Outlaw Tormentor
- Added new secondary weapon: Cruise Missiles
- Added new device: Front Shield Generator
- Added new Bomber: Titan
- Added new Gunship: Dominator
- Device Mastery modes can now be previewed
- Added new job types (and job board for Kato)
- Added new unknown signal/distress call types
- Added option to keep audio playing when game is unfocused
- Added new data sub-tab “The Story So Far” to rewatch cinematics and recap the latest story development (mainly placeholder content)
- Added AMD FidelityFX™ v2.1.1 to the AI-Upscaling methods
- Overhauled racing activity
- Overhauled ship dealer
- UI: Overhauled ship selector
- UI: Stats tab rework – Added racing stats overview
Tweaks
- Reworked Sentinel special: now increases primary weapon fire rate by up to 20%, depending on shield charge percentage
- Zurilia Bombers will now briefly disable their front shield when firing missiles
- Striker ULT will now automatically deactivate if no further enemies are in range
- Reduced drop chance for signal decoders as High-Risk Area boss loot
- Some structures like tanks will now also sometimes drop scrap metal when destroyed
- Improved speed of save game creation to reduce lag during saving
- Saving during Enemy Wave Challenge is now no longer possible due to exploitative behavior
- Missiles fired by the “auto-fire at critical hit” attribute now have a 60% reduced damage/effect
- Changed look of Service Drone
- Changed look of Elek’s ship
- Improved boss fight in Ghost Fleet: Better flight behavior that makes it easier to hit the boss
- Improved boss fight in Ceto before entering Union: More health and better weapons
- Increased loot quality bonuses of High-Risk Area mutators
- Improved Fusion Hook “Kunai” behavior to prevent targets from overshooting
- Completing certain unknown signal or distress call events will now grant a small amount of renown
- Improved Reflecting Panel behavior for better handling
- Item indicators for outleveled equipment now take rarity into account as well
- Weapons are aligned straight forward in sequences now
- Crafting – Removed general restriction that crafted items cannot be modified
- Crafting – Added restriction that items above player level cannot be adapted if gap is higher than 2
- Balancing: Buffed Retaliator units
- Balancing: Reduced “Downtime Warrior” perk effect from 25% to 15%
- Balancing: Increased Thermo Gun projectile homing agility
- Balancing: Reduced Zurilia Drone damage
- Balancing: Brought damage and hitpoints scaling to equal levels, i.e. reduced both enemy health and player damage potential
- Balancing: Slightly increased “Very Hard” difficulty
- Balancing: Increased some NPC armor/shield hitpoints
- Balancing: Increased Sentinel Expertise scaling
- Balancing: Increased “Percussive Maintenance” perk proc chance but reduced effect
- Balancing: Increased Vindicator Expertise scaling for drone HP and damage
- Balancing: Reduced Executioner damage and increased spread
- Balancing: Increased Bomber base HP and shield/armor bonuses
- Balancing: Reduced Bomber secondary energy consumption
- Balancing: Reduced Gunship Expertise scaling
- Balancing: Reduced Gunship boost speed passive bonus
- Balancing: Increased Structure scaling
- Balancing: Slightly increased Corrosion Injector damage
- Balancing: Improved aiming precision of Vindicator drones
- Balancing: Increased credits earned from jobs but decreased XP
- Balancing: Increased Utility damage scaling
- Balancing: Increased Bloodstar Repeater kinetic damage
- Balancing: Increased Cave Crawler corrosion damage
- Balancing: The primary attributes, Firepower, Precision and Structure, can now roll simultaneously on items
- Balancing: Increased Umbra DPS
- Balancing: Increased Homing Missile damage but reduced their fire rate
- Balancing: Increased missile ammo across the board
- Balancing: Increased Ceto Ghost Hunt boss hull and armor hitpoints
- Balancing: Slightly reduced mine ammo across the board
- Balancing: Reduced mine fire rates across the board
- Balancing: Slightly reduced Rail Gun charge duration
- Balancing: Adjusted some device cooldown values depending on device level
- Balancing: Increased Energy Shield consumable hitpoints fraction
- Performance: Fixed performance lag when a random travel map encounter is popping up
- UI: High-Risk areas now display with proper HUD marker in supralight even if not hovered or targeted
- UI: Secondary weapons with low fire rates now display a cooldown in HUD to indicate when they can be fired again
- UI: Overhauled Game Over screen design
- UI: Added message banner for harmless/underleveled signal decoders on activation
- UI: Added message banner for harmless/underleveled high-risk areas when trying to set waypoint
- UI: Added indicators to missions and renown screens for rewards that can be claimed
- UX: The Crafting tab is now hidden until the first crafting inventory item was added
- UX: Crafting parts of the respective rarity will now be hidden until the first item was dismantled
- UX: Crafting tab now stays on selected category until ingame menu was closed
- UX: Made refinements to Crafting inventory when using gamepad and keyboard to navigate to new items
- UX: Reworked Perks tab navigation and selection priority logic (e.g. implicit selection of investable perks after companion was changed)
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