Iceberg Interactive and Amplitude Studios have announced at GDC 2015 the third free update pack, Eye on the Stars, for the fantastic 4X fantasy strategy title Endless Legend for release on March 18. In a private session, Amplitude Studios' COO and Creative Director Romain de Waubert de Genlis as well as Marketing & Communication Director Max von Knorring shared details of each component of this content-driven patch.
Victory quests have been updated with the additional requirement of completing a series of missions that was intended to be included in the original game but wasn't due to time constraints. As the final step in the Faction-based storyline, this quest will ask the player to reach one of five tiles (any of these five titles will do) that hide a spaceship which will eventually lead to the chosen faction to leave the planet.
Doing so is difficult, though, as it requires multiple steps for research, finding a crystal, defending certain points from enemies, and installing the crystal on the spaceship, not to mention the fact that other players will be notified every time another player reaches a new step in the final quest. Either way, this quest will bridge the gap between Endless Legend and Dungeon of the Endless as it will explain more of how life began on Auriga in the first place.
Players can now also select from various map presets instead of an entirely randomly generated map. The "New World" option will have players begin on an island and then explore a new continent for resources, whereas the "Scattered" option will be the same thing except that every player will begin on his or her own island. The final option, "Symmetrical," will spread players across two identical continents in reflective, perfectly mirrored positions. It will be a mode where players can examine how differently separate factions become over time despite having similar starting configurations.
Additionally, diplomacy has been given the welcome option of being able to ask other factions to declare war on an enemy. While this option will be available from the very start, it requires enough influence points that it won't be a viable selection in the first era. That said, the cost of this political option will decrease if players choose to bargain with a warrior faction or if that faction is already bitter rivals with the enemy of choice. Of course, performing this option with the Drakken faction likely won't yield many results since they can force peace with other factions.
Finally, the developers will be giving modders access to the Simulation mode, a graphical overlay that will tell them how certain variables and switches change over time in case they need to test a mod more thoroughly. This will definitely assist modders who have delved into the provided tools from prior free content packs.
Eye on the Stars will be available for both PC and Mac platforms.
