Heroes of Science and Fiction News

Hi everybody! As we've recently enabled and tested this feature, here's a quick guide how to set up Silence of the Siren hot-seat multiplayer as an online game with your friends using Remote Play Together.

[h3]Setup - "host" side[/h3]

• Shift + Tab to open Steam overlay
  
• Switch to the Remote Play section and invite your friends from here
  
• When they join, make sure to enable keyboard and mouse controls for them
  

• Start a custom scenario and set your players to "human", feel free to choose the same team if you'd like to play a co-op game
  
• It's a good idea to run a voice call in parallel with the game session to coordinate who "holds" the controls at which point :)
  

[h3]Technical issues/troubleshooting[/h3]

• If one of the players is on Linux, the video stream might not work, but it works the other way around, if the Linux player hosts the game
  
• Increase streaming quality to improve text readability
  

We hope you get to enjoy the game with your friends and we'll be curious to hear your feedback!

Hi everybody, we're very happy to bring you the first update from the Winter roadmap. Features, fixes, new skills and a big balance update!
We hope you will enjoy the game over Holidays - and let's jump straight to release notes.

[h3]Features and improvements - version (commit) 493fe698[/h3]

• Selectable starting factions
  
• Local coop / team support with shared Fog of War and resource gifting UI
  
• Saves in zip format and a new archive folder for autosaves to better organize them
  
• All globetrotter abilities now have icons in commander action menu
  
• Damage preview shows inflicted status effects and their probability
  
• Implemented canceling unit move by escape in hero meeting
  
• Added small/medium/large map info to scenario descriptions
  
• Cloud saves have been enabled for player made saves, will be enabled for autosaves soon (after the game has updated for most of you and has sorted out the archive folder)
  
• Remote play together on Steam has been enabled, so you can use local multiplayer as a simple way how to play online with your friends! [QUICK GUIDE]

[h3]NEW: Factions skills[/h3]

• Available to be learned by any commander of the matching faction
  
• Children of the Source - Renewed Spirit - victory in battle restores movement on the map
  
• Fossorians - Bloodlust - units have up to 100% chance to get an extra move after killing a hostile unit stack
  
• Sovereign Fleet - Field Repair - your units get healed when attacking units of the same class (tech-tech or bio-bio)
  

[h3]Balance update[/h3]
Welcome to the longest section of the release notes. A lot of smaller and bigger changes aimed at making all the skills, abilities, attributes and play styles more balanced. These are based both on the feedback we gathered since the Early Access launch and on our own testing.

• Exploration attribute: lowered movement points gain when the attribute increases
  
• Combat attribute: much higher damage bonus for units
  
• Ability attribute: lowered energy regeneration, more expensive abilities
  
  
• Brawler skill: double bonus for damage, no unit movement bonus
  
• Sniper skill: double bonus
  
• Chess master skill: double morale bonus
  
• Defensive specialist skill: 100% extra retaliation on level 3
  
• NEW War Hawk skill: movement and initiative bonus for units in combat
  
• Collector skill: up to 30% lower energy cost for equipping items, no fusion core reward bonus
  
• Scavenger skill: double resources
  
• Engineer skill: no energy pool bonus, lower energy cost for equipping items moved to Collector
  
• NEW Raiden skill: increases energy pool, increases effect of the Recharge Cell consumable
  
• Explorer skill: bonus increased to plus 4 - 8 - 12 movement points, movement attribute adds more movement points
  
• Scout skill: bonus to exploration XP, movement partially replenished when visiting buildings, removes movement cost for transferring armies between commanders, removed vision bonus and ? icon in fog of war showing various resources and buildings
  
• Tracker skill: removes penalty for bad terrain, extra fusion core moved here from Collector, removed Xenoslime breaking discount
  
  
• Eagle eye ability: now uncovers hostile commanders within certain range
  
• Show resources and Show treasures have been merged
  
• Supercharged cloud ability: available as level 2 ability, longer duration
  
• Invisibility ability: available only on level 3
  
  
• Acid Projectile ability: added damage on hit, was only over time
  
• Lighten Armor: increased effect
  
• Lure Local Beast: now available from level 2
  
• Walking Rations: also prevents affected unit from retaliating
  
• Armor Incrustation and Artificial Muscle Fibers have been merged, available from level 1
  
• Restoring Biofilm ability: available from level 1
  
• Glue Grenade ability: available from level 1
  
• Blast Wave ability: also pushes the targeted unit itself, not only units around it
  
• Resurrect ability: is now cheaper
  
  
• Vortex Mines ability: removed as hero ability, the feature stays as a defensive structure at bases
  
• Draining Coil ability: always drains half of remaining energy
  
• Teleport ability: now available from level 2 (friendly only, level 3 teleports any unit)
  
• System Equilibrium ability: available from level 1
  
• Sentry Airdrop ability: available from level 2
  
• Orbital Strike ability: increased damage
  

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• Upgraded Unity engine from 2020.3.17 to 2020.3.48, this fixes some issues with windowed mode and resolution switching on Linux
  
• Fixed progress blocker in some campaign levels in the rare case of an enemy commander killing themselves on a neutral army
  
• Disabled starting commander selection for AI players in maps with locked factions, fixed starting commanders getting overridden for maps with locked factions (Await specifically)
  
• Fixed Crusaders siege loophole had double health
  
• Fix Unit counts in combat are not updated on certain events(damage from mines, healing)
  
• Fixed unit count UI in combat not scaling correctly when showing damage preview
  
• Fixed Evacuation could leave the commander on an energy fields tile if it is right next the target base access point
  
• Fixed Evacuation ability not taking energy points after being used, because commander landed in base and was refiled automatically, but did not actually enter the base
  
• Fixed end tactics button stuck on in the next battle when retreating during tactics
  
• Fixed random neutral armies sometimes generating zero unit stacks and erroring out
  
• Fixed starting commanders with ability skills getting one random ability and one ability specified in their xml after first load
  
• Fixed broken tooltip on energy cost icon in inventory slots
  
• Fixed "neutral units run" dialog wasn't taking in account different effects modifying neutral army size
  
• Fixed Meatboy Shredder doesn't attack twice with activated berserker mode after waiting
  
• Fixed scroll bar enabled at exploration skill academy/pirate skill acedemy even if there's nothing for a commander to learn
  
• Fixed ability icons in ability book and commander action selector were not sorted in the database order but according to when they were learned
  
• Fixed Replay crashes on hiring new commander
  
• Fixed Fog of war is not updated on visibility change cycle event
  
• Fxed a lot of typos :)
  

As the Early Access development continues, we're happy to share more details about what is coming in the nearby future!
Apart from smaller patches with bugfixes, these will be the bigger feature and content updates that you can look forward to.
One big topic based on all the feedback we gathered is re-balancing the different skills and abilities, which will come in the next update already - and we'll be curious to hear what you think.

Hi everybody, the third patch of Silence of the Siren is now live on Steam!

The update brings the usual round of improvements and fixes of issues we gathered from reports on Discord and also here in Discussions.

We're mostly done with our roadmap update, at this point we can tease that you can look forward to more features and big balance changes before holidays, then it will be time for more map content and the first big Early Access expansion/update with UNSS as playable faction #4 and their whole campaign. More details coming soon!


Silence of the Siren version 0b78c099.

[h2]Content and changes[/h2]
- Added a version of the Josefin font that includes Cyrillic characters
- Unified which cursor shows and what clicking on a base does when all commanders are garrisoned: clicking on any tile open the base
- Updated academy ability selection so at least one ability for each skill is ensured at each base, made the academy panel more compact
- Implemented ordering commanders by drag and drop also in the list on the right, cleaned up the prefab a bit
- Implemented canceling unit move by pressing escape in the commander card, commander meeting, neutral army join panel and at bases
- Added close button to both options panels so the reset options button is not the one big thing you're bound to accidentally click on
- Implemented closing of conquest window and its map info panel by pressing escape
- Switched save screenshot background in load dialog so it doesn't show the community translations banner but a 'standard siren logo'
- Added limit to base camera FOV to ensure all buildings stay on screen in 16:10 and narrower aspect ratios, updated all base graphics to correctly fill the screen all the way to ultra-ultrawide (32:9)



[h2]Fixes[/h2]
- Fixed an exploit that allowed unit multiplication by disabling unit movement undo button while moving a unit
- Fixed an exploit caused by the slave camp panel not correctly reset (not for the right base) when switching bases while the panel is still open
- Fixed dismissing war machines from unit info/split panel didn't work
- Fixed integrated Radeon graphics starting with 4K textures by default
- Fixed active commander marker not rendered over bridges, for example at the very start of Fossorian Campaign map 4
- Fixed both levels of pirates mortar building had the same lore text
- Fixed neutral base names not randomized when starting a scenario
- Fixed the "all" filter in inventory not resetting backpack to the default view with empty slots, implemented automatic compaction/removal of empty slots in backpack and consumables when switching between commanders in commander card
- Disabled on hover reactions of skill icons in combat ability book and in the level up dialog

[h2]Audio[/h2]
- Increased overall max audio volume
- Implemented a short audio fadeout when exiting the game to prevent audio from being abruptly cut off, disabled audio when the game window loses focus
- Added a few missing death sounds (Bright ones and Liberators)

Hi everybody, the second patch of Silence of the Siren is now live on Steam!

While this update contains mostly fixes of issues we gathered from reports on Discord and also here in Discussions, the art and design team have also been busy in the meantime, working on content for the upcoming major updates: new UNSS units, Sovereign Fleet campaign and also new skirmish maps.
Also, following feedback we received and some of our own observations, we're also working on a balance update of skills, abilities and items.
Last, but not least, we're preparing a detailed plan for the bigger updates that will arrive during the first stage of the Early Access development. Stay tuned!

Release notes - version 84d98610:

[h2]Features and changes[/h2]
- Implemented selectable starting commanders for all players in custom scenario/hotseat setup, more improvements to come!
- Disabled retreat from bases
- Disabled 'neutral army join' dialog buttons while moving a unit
- Pirates Captain unit: added custom shoot up and down animations
- Blast wave cannon attack now has proper vfx
- Updated Capt. Holester's lore shown in the commander card
- Improved AI estimate losses on enemy turrets and outposts
- Unified how clicking on commander portraits works in the right panel and in the gateway panel
- Added QLoc and QLoc translators to credits/language tooltips, switched Chinese to '简体中文' in the language list in options



[h2]Fixes[/h2]
- Hotfixed a rare crash that happens when showing the tooltip which calculates enemy hazard
- Fixed corrupted save prevents other saves from loading in the load dialog
- Fixed events on commanders not triggered on AI heroes attacking the player, this is a possible cause of some progress blockers reported in the campaign
- Fixed inventory still remembering last consumable slot when a consumable is used on commanders portrait, other items would then be returned to this slot even if they're from another class
- Disabled switching of unit stacks after splitting a stack by dropping one unit by right clicking. This could lead to a situation where the unit on the cursor wouldn't have a place to return to and could cause the player to get extra units when closing the panel while still holding the unit
- Fixed switching from moles' base slave camp to other panels using the buttons/keyboard shortcuts didn't save which units have been hired so allowing the player to hire infinite units
- Fixed admiral's portraits in Campaign 3 and 4
- Fixed 'Lure local beast' bio ability doesn't take into account daytime for monsters that transform
- Fixed lights from turrets stuck on after the turret has been destroyed
- Fixed commander list not scaling correctly with "narrow" resolutions like 16:10 or 5:4 and causing a gap in the panel on the right
- Fixed wrong font used in headings of black market and boot camp
- Fixed unit can sometime move after it is stopped by a turret in siege
- Fixed wrong tooltip on fusion core icon in resources in dialog panel
- Fixed a few reported issues on the following maps: Confluence, Fossorian campaign 3, Bridges too far
- Fixed commanders moved in the campaign via scripted events weren't correctly removed from the base they were visiting
- Fixed heavy turret missing its lore text and had wrong image
- Fixed training commanders were getting selected by the next commander button
- Fixed wrong hit positioning on turrets
- Fixed commanders starting with the collector skill do not have extra equipment slot, fix error when forgetting collector at altar of clean slate
- Fixed broken layout in unit tooltip (the one shown over unit icons under buildings in building catalog)
- Fixed most of unit attribute icons wouldn't show tooltips in the smaller unit hiring panels
- A lot of fixes in English texts (typos, use of elipses, ...)
- A lot of fixes in Hungarian texts