Heroes of Science and Fiction News

Hi everybody, the biggest update of Silence of the Siren so far has just dropped! Say hello to the UNSS faction coming all the way from the distant Solar System and enjoy the second campaign that the team has worked hard on in the last few months.

The update also contains a new skirmish map and quite a few small improvements and changes, feel free to have a look at the details below.

And, as the game is still in Early Access, we'll appreciate any bug reports, feedback regarding game balance, possible exploits and all the good stuff.

Also, to accompany the release, we're running a custom sale, so the game is now discounted by 35%.
Feel free to tell your friends - and have fun! :)



[h2]Content[/h2]

• UNSS - the United Nations of the Solar System!
  
• Commanders, base, 7 units x 2 tiers
  
• Campaign with 4 levels, and we somehow ended up with about 25% more dialog than in the Fossorian campaign :)
  
• Faction skill: Squad Leader allows you to split unit stacks during combat
  
• Faction buildings: Resting place restores movement, Holodeck allows you to hire commanders with higher attribute values, Corporate Lair gives various discounts when hiring expensive units
  
• New skirmish map: Chaos
  

[h2]Features and improvements - version 117c9dab[/h2]

• Difficulty settings are now also available for campaign levels (experimental)
  
• Increased visible inventory space in commander panel (3 columns instead of 2)
  
• Added an option to reduce the visual impact/transitions between different times of day
  
• Added info about unit special attack cooldowns to the unit info panels
  
• Added a custom icon and tooltip for all limited range (run and gun) units to the unit info panels
  
• Commanders that originated in a different faction than the one they are in now have faction skills matching their origin (for example Pick is Sovereign but has the Fossorian skill)
  
• Added more versions of the garrison/ungarrison buttons at the base to make it more clear what happens in which situation (a single commander, commander and a base with an army etc.)
  
• Implemented automatic garrisoning system at the end of each turn: if you leave a commander "at the gates" and they get attacked during one of next players turns, they will be automatically defending behind the walls. If not, everything returns to the original state at the start of next turn
  
• Good progress in the optimization of AI turn times
  
• Sovereign Antimat (7th tier) unit's special attack now only allows horizontal direction
  
• Added outline around affected range of builder-skill objects when being placed on the map
  
• Added a highlight behind the outpost button in negotiator panel in case some units won't fit into the commander's army, but there's an outpost that can accept them
  

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed units sometimes getting slowly pushed outside of their hexes in combat
  
• Fixed random units appearing at bases recently taken over from AI players
  
• Fixed Earthshaker MK2 doesn't shoot twice against army consisting only of buried upgraded worms
  
• Fixed hazard indicated at threatened tile shows real threat even when the threatening neutral army is only discovered and the hazard should be unknown
  
• Fixed disabled teleport not automatically enabled when passing through.
  
• Fixed buried worm can get morale extra turn when skipping turn
  
• Fixed the game not always correctly detecting 16:10 aspect ratio for UI and combat camera fov, this was causing buttons on top of commander portraits to overlap stack number of bottom stack
  
• Fixed AI UPG mortar plays shoot animation only once sometimes
  
• Fixed orbital light preset stuck on when switching from a hero in orbit to a hero on the ground using the next hero button
  
• Fixed Bolts and Crowd Suppressors/Crushers didn't damage walls
  
• Fixed a couple of rare cases of AI players getting stuck
  
• Fixed object outlines in exploration rendered over other UI
  
• Fixed 'don't show again' options not saved when clicking the icon in dialog panel
  
• Fixed boosted mining probe could collect resources above limit
  

Thanks and enjoy!

The United Nations of the Solar System have governed humanity for several decades now. Their influence reaches from the tops of sky-scraping arcologies that house some of the largest corporations to the bottoms of craters on distant moons, sheltering the most insignificant colonies. Unified language and culture. Unified taxation and army. That’s what keeps it all together. Free markets and economies provide the right amount of social Darwinism to keep the general society in a “healthy” struggle. And over all those things, the unquestionable faith that “They” will take us to a brighter future.



But who are “They”? Of course, I am speaking about the Hesperidians, the last remnants of an alien race that took refuge in the Solar System and bonded their fate to the human race. These humanoid moths arrived on board an interstellar Ark, an ancient generation ship, severely damaged and nearly uninhabitable after hundreds of years on its perilous journey. The initial fear of the uncanny was softened by generous offers of technology and know-how. The Hesperidians learned the intricacies of our society with surprising grace and managed to integrate within a single decade. Well, by integration I do not mean you will find any of them working as a cashier at a corner store. Instead, they mostly took the leading roles. Politicians, scientists, physicians and lawyers, these are the occupations that are best suited to their superior intellect. By this point, the first foundation stones of the UNSS had been laid, but nobody knew how many floors were yet to be built and what problems may occur during construction.



“UNSS - the best thing that has ever happened to humanity!” - at least this is the slogan printed on posters pasted all over the colonies. “Cow-house - the best thing that has ever happened to cows!” is what some sick individual has sprayed over. But, new posters will soon cover the old ones, making a fresh canvas for the graffiti artist. It's the same perpetual struggle that accompanies societies since one monkey said to another: “If you want to stay in my tribe, you must hand over half of your bananas!”
Even today, some people just don't want to hand over their share. These people would be represented by Sovereign Colonies.



The Sovereign Colonies formed a natural opposition to the Earth-centered government and rejected the Hesperidians along with their offer of help. As the relationship went cold, the gap between Earth and the Sovereign Colonies widened. A conflict was inevitable, but really, what chance did the Sovereigns have without Hesperidian technology? What did they believe they could achieve against the supreme intellect of Hesperidian strategists? And why were they so eager to fight in the first place? Two things are clear as the sky though, the war was short, and the Colonies lost.



The Colonies were defeated, but as the UNSS did not wish for more civilian losses, not all Sovereigns got eradicated. Many have escaped aboard starships. They became pirates and terrorists and adopted the name Sovereign Fleet. For decades they kept bothering the edge territories, but only disturbing the peace as much as a mosquito bite would trouble a sleeping lion.



The biggest test of this newfound balance started with the discovery of interstellar travel and the colonization of the Siren System that followed. From Day One, the UNSS became the de-facto ruling faction of the whole system. Not a bunch of Fossorian revolutionaries that narrowly escaped their homeworld, nor the Children of the Source, decimated by centuries of holy wars, could stand against the might of the Solar System supporting the UNSS here. All seemed bright, even though it was only a brief moment of peace. A short calm before a storm, the storm that still keeps raging today.



The Gate Station. An ancient and unique device made by the lost civilization of Primals. This very device, making interstellar travel possible, got severely damaged during a terrorist attack staged by an unknown group. The lifeline of goods and reinforcements from the Solar System was severed. As the repairs may take several months or even years, every mosquito from the whole swamp now flies closer to take a bite. The UNSS in the Solar System will continue to thrive, but what fate awaits the UNSS here in the Siren System? All will depend on the grit and dedication of its commanders and their faith that the Gate Station will be repaired and the path back to the Solar System will open once again.

Hi everybody, we're happy to announce that the second update from the Winter roadmap is out! New maps, units and a lot of improvements, while we're also finishing the UNSS faction for the upcoming big expansion update! Feel free to check out the updated roadmap a few paragraphs further down in this post.



Here are full release notes - Silence of the Siren version 83353e54:

[h2]New content[/h2]

• New planet in Skirmish mode with three large maps
  
• New colorful Crystal biome
  
• The main gameplay theme for the maps: Gates and keys! There's up to eight different colored pairs of gates and key generators
  
• One of the maps has a new victory condition: hold a base for a given period of time
  
• Added modified versions of a couple of existing maps now with 6 and 8 players (you can find these under custom scenarios)
  
• Two new neutral units will now appear on the maps: Apex and Primal Pylon
  
• Added Movement Node map object that refills commander's movement points
  

[h2]Features and improvements[/h2]

• The Swordmaster building now gives the choice of which of commander's attributes to level up
  
• Status effects on units in combat now display the remaining duration in the unit info panel
  
• Added more info about units which transform during different phases of the day-night cycle to the unit info panel
  
• Added an indicator to highlight commanders bypassing turrets, cybersnares and other hazards thanks to their Scout skill
  
• Added the "switch commander to training mode" button also to the active commander button on the right
  
• It's now possible to change starting factions and commanders in the scenario menus with the mouse wheel
  
• Switched the "build for a fusion core" button in base building catalog panels from gold to white
  
• Camera now follows commanders traveling between bases to their destination
  
• Mining probes now indicate they have a production limit of 20 turns
  
• Added numbers to the Black Market UI to show how many items of each kind a commander has to sell
  
• Added support for custom tooltips on static map objects, like the shuttle in the Fossorian campaign
  
• When a low level commander has full skill slots, higher level skills show in the level up dialog instead
  
• Added a custom message to Liberator's special attack tooltip when there are no targets
  
• Range of buried worms gets displayed when holding shift
  
• Added custom texts for the retreat button when retreating is not available
  
• Factions of neutral bases in scenarios/skirmish maps get randomized when starting a new game
  
• AI now sells extra items in markets
  
• Improved use of the Scout skill by AI commanders
  

[h2]Community translations[/h2]

• Brazilian Portuguese is now the third community-translated language in the game!
  
• Updated Hungarian and Russian translations with texts for this update
  

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed a couple of sneaky memory leaks
  
• AI commanders could get killed due to multiple threats on a tile
  
• AI commanders could get stuck on getting scouting bonus from building
  
• Fixed when AI siege defender had only melee units in loopholes, they didn't charge
  
• Fixed stack status effect preview on Meatboys was breaking the 'special' button tooltip
  
• Fixed when units go outside of shield and attack a Saw-ty, the Saw-ty retaliated against the shield even though the attacker is already outside
  
• Fixed Saw-ty pre-retaliation when attacked from a loophole
  
• Fixed a rare bug with overlapping units and objects on the world map flickering
  
• Fixed Regenerate ability at level 2 cost 1/10th of what it should have
  
• Fixed empty object preview in the dialog panel when re-opening a visited building by a commander that's out of frame by moving the camera to them first
  
• Fixed war machines couldn't be picked up after dropping one unit to a slot and then placing the rest of the moved stack
  
• Fixed trading buildings at some bases did cost other resources than coins, a possible soft lock in player progression
  
• Fixed dead units stuck with with white flash in auto combat
  
• Fixed retreated commanders were given the 'dead' flag, sometimes causing a player to be defeated too early
  
• Fixed a few sounds playing from the darkness during AI player turns
  
• Fixed random units on some maps always spawning as their upgraded versions, limiting variety
  
• Fixed inventory slots stuck as disabled once their item was once shown as disabled after encountering a supercharged cloud
  
• Fixed teleports on the map were becoming visible in the fog of war too early
  
• Disabled dangerous objects, traps and turrets getting triggered by commanders at nearby bases
  
• Fixed remembered armies in the orbital fog of war layer lost after load
  
• Fixed orbital layer showing editor random item markers when viewed after scenario start
  
• Fixed layout of objectives was sometimes a bit wonky after a new objective replaced one of the existing ones
  
• Fixed combat manuals and datascrolls giving movement bonus when picked up
  
• Fixed building biofarms on biofarm veins could block some neighboring tiles
  
• Hopefully fixed units artifacting on certain HW configurations on Linux
  

[h2]Known issues[/h2]

• While we've been working on optimization, the AI turns are still relatively slow on the 6+8 player maps or the biggest maps with open layouts
  

Hi everybody! While we are busy working on more content for the bigger updates planned for February and March, in the meantime here's a smaller patch with some fixes and translation updates.

[h3]Community translations[/h3]

• Added Russian community translation
  
• Fixed missing outline on the JosefinExt font used with Russian texts
  
• Added Hungarian texts for the Festive Features update
  

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed progression blocker in the Await map if you chose a commander with only two units in their army and entered your base
  
• Fixed disappearing Aura Coin Storage in fog of war if a unit is standing on its first tile/position
  
• Fixed pressing [Alt] to highlight objects was breaking the game when there was no active commander
  

[h3]Misc[/h3]

• Enabled support for streaming the game on GeForce Now, feel free to send your game requests in the GeForce Now app or upvote here: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/gfn-game-requests/44/551525/span-classhighlightsilencespan-of-the-span-classhi/

Hi everybody,

As every year, we would like to wish all of you Happy Holidays and also give you a bit of an update about how things have been going at Oxymoron Games.

The big news is - of course - the release of Silence of the Siren in Early Access and four updates that went live since. The game's soundtrack by Matúš Široký is now available too! Silence of the Siren has released with amazing reviews, so big thanks to everybody who gave us thumbs up or helped with feedback and testing before release!
We also keep supporting Project Hospital and quite a few bugfixes should release with patch #42 in January.

Next, we have a more recent bit of news: Vojtěch Nepraš has joined the team to fill the role of social media manager/content creator, so you can look forward to more posts, updates and behind the scenes. We also made an account on Bluesky and can already see a lot of activity there.

Now, it's time for us to take some time off after a very demanding season, so most of the team will be out of town until January 2nd. If you encounter any issues, don’t hesitate to ask our amazing community here on the Steam forum or on discord, otherwise we should be able to get back to you at the beginning of January.

So, enjoy the Winter Sale and then Merry Holiday and see you in the New Year!