Interstellar Espionage Inc. News

[p]Thank you so much for everyone downloading and playing the demo! And thanks especially to those of you with feedback. Discord PMs and the community hub have received bug reports and feature requests and we've been implementing them.[/p][p][/p][h3]Balance:[/h3]

• [p]Retaliations from corporations start earlier now, on turn 2[/p]
• [p]Retaliations are much more powerful and hurt the player a lot[/p]
• [p]Developed technology is much more powerful (selection is very limited compared to the full game though)[/p]
• [p]Corporations get beefier quicker and start to take out competition earlier[/p]

[h3]Quality of life:[/h3]

• [p]Operations options on a celestial can now be seen when hovering instead of clicking (we probably will add a toggle for this system in the full game if it gains traction in the demo)[/p]
• [p]Filtering all operations and hovering over choices now hilights and brings the hovered options to front making the tool much easier to use[/p]
• [p]Added a UI scaling option for those players who have trouble with the font size (the UI is autoscaled to higher resolutions BUT it's not infallible and at least for ultra wide it's a bit of a hit and miss) - it's a bit of an experimental feature as of now and some UI elements might clash in an ugly way[/p]
• [p]Added an option to start the game from Steam with Vulkan rendering - there were issues with a few players with DX12[/p][p][/p]

[p]Demo will be playable starting Friday 12th of September![/p][p][/p][p]The demo has the full suite of ingame mechanics, but is restricted in:[/p]

• [p]Save is disabled[/p]
• [p]Very limited technology[/p]
• [p]Limited turns to 10[/p]
• [p]Scores aren't saved[/p]
• [p]Only three seeds for maps[/p]
• [p]Difficulty level locked to Demo ( = medium)[/p]
• [p]Only one character[/p]

[p][/p][p]Playtime for tutorial + single run is around 30-45 minutes and you can do as many runs as you want of course.[/p][p]Hopefully we'll catch you out there spying on those corporations![/p]

[p]Playtest is still open for a few days (no new signups though!), so go and give it a try! We're pushing a new build later today that alters the difficulty curve - early game will be much easier, mid-game slightly harder and end game quite a bit harder. We've adjusted the scoring system though, so it'll still be fair![/p][p][/p][p]Try and catch that TOP SECRET ranking, if you can![/p][p][/p][p]The playtest has the following features disabled still:[/p]

• [p]Saving/loading (still a few bugs to iron out)[/p]
• [p]Multiple characters (gotta leave something for the release)[/p]
• [p]Technology and corporations' vendettas are limited to ~50% of the full game (ditto)[/p]

[p]Difficulty levels are now in, so you can go and try to play on "Insane" if you think the game is too easy. Or go for "Baby" if you want a more relaxed experience.[/p][p][/p][p]If you want, join our Discord to give feedback. The main goal of the beta is still to see if the game is balanced, but we're looking for feedback on features too.[/p]

[p]We're opening the playtest for all those willing to participate! Limiting the spots to 200 for now.[/p][p][/p][p]The game is feature complete, but for the playtest we've disabled the following features:[/p]

• [p]Saving/loading (still a few bugs to iron out)[/p]
• [p]Multiple characters (gotta leave something for the release)[/p]
• [p]Technology and corporations' vendettas are limited to ~50% of the full game (ditto)[/p]
• [p]Choosable difficulty levels (will open these as the beta goes forward - currently everyone is locked to medium)[/p]

[p]Come play and if you want, join our Discord to give feedback. The main goal of the beta is to see if the game is balanced, but we're looking for feedback on features as well.[/p]

[p]Our friends at Null Vector Studios, a new Finnish indie team like us, are developing Astro Protocol — a turn-based space strategy game with focused 4X elements, designed to be played in a single session.[/p][p]If you’re into colonizing planets, building fleets, and tactical space battles, be sure to check it out and wishlist Astro Protocol on Steam![/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p][/p]