Lord of Rigel News

Ticket #995 Diplomatic relation tooltip- Add Diplomatic events
Ticket #1001 Fixed error with planet lists and parked fleets with colony and outpost ships
Ticket #999 Autobuild Purchase Production Fix
Ticket #1002 GNN fix for static space monsters
Ticket #1004 Fixed typos in technology descriptions
Ticket #1003 Fleet combat support ship softlock fix
Ticket #1000 AI combat triggering player achievement fixes
Ticket #1005 Diplomacy AI research treaty ask fixes
Ticket #1006 Camera incorrect system focus on scene transition fix
Ticket #1007 Duplicate alien fleet in event ticker fix
Ticket #1008 Trade and RP treaties with 0 value proposal fix
Ticket #1009 Uncreative research seed fix
Ticket #1011 Clear list fix for diplomacy actions
Ticket #1010 Tactical support ship check.
Ticket #1013 Outpost and Colony ship check in tutorial for planets menu goal
Ticket #1012 Dictatorship morale penalty fix

Hey everyone!

At long last we’re releasing Lord of Rigel to Early Access. In 2018 we launched First Access for players. In the time since, we redeveloped the project in Unreal Engine. It's been quite the journey, and we're so excited to have reached this milestone.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Here's what you can expect from this first phase of Early Access:

• Tutorial scenario to learn the game. Explore the Altair sector and establish first contact with an alien species.
  
• Main game with galaxy generation up to huge galaxies (256 stars) with eight factions.
  
• Test out ship designs and technologies with a fully unlocked skirmish mode.
• Military Victory condition, conquer your foes or build a lasting peace through diplomatic treaties.
  
• Play one of eight species as the hive minded Aranids, diplomatic Humans, the warrior Katraxi, industrious Ornithon, Selach traders, the expansionistic Tharrn, mysterious Xantus, or telepathic Yalkai.
  
• Face space monsters and random events as you explore the galaxy.
  

You can pick up Lord of Rigel now at $19.99/€ 19.99/£17.99 with a 10% launch discount during launch week!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/437440/Lord_of_Rigel/

The next phase of our early access roadmap includes more playable species, larger galaxy sizes, elder species (the Riglelans and Arcturans), and diplomatic victories through the galactic council. More on that at a later date!

Hello everyone!

We’re pleased to announce the release of the Lord of Rigel demo. This is the culmination of two and a half years of redevelopment. If you're curious how that redevelopment process went, you can check out our previous blog here!

Note: the demo will be available during Tacticon (September 22-26th)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/437440/Lord_of_Rigel/

[h2]Early Access Release Date[/h2]
That's not the only news, though. We're also very excited to announce that Lord of Rigel is going into Early Access on October 4th! It's a huge milestone for us, and we can't wait to share our work with you. Check out our trailer, and get hyped! When Lord of Rigel launches into Early Access, you will be able to pick it up for $/€ 19,99 / £17.99.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]The Demo[/h2]
Of course, October 4th is still a short ways away. Thankfully, you can get a first taste of Lord of Rigel in the demo.



The Lord of Rigel demo includes:

• Tutorial scenario to learn the game. Explore the Altair sector and establish first contact with an alien species.
  
• Main campaign with a pregenerated galaxy. Play as the diplomatic Humans, warring Katraxi, Selach traders, or the industrialist Ornithon.
  
• Skirmish mode with early game technologies and four species to select from. Build custom ships and test them in battle.
  
• Military Victory condition, conquer your foes or build a lasting peace through diplomatic treaties.
  

The demo has a 150 turn limit to give a taste of the full game but is otherwise not restricted in your options.



We hope you're as excited as we are for the EA release on October 4th!

Greetings Star Explorers!

There's been a long, dark silence from our end, as we've been doing a ton of redevelopment on Lord of Rigel. While it's been a long road, we're quite pleased with our progress and we expect to have some big updates for you quite soon! In the meantime, we wanted to take a look back, at the history of our work on this game...

Work on Lord of Rigel in one form or another has been ongoing for nearly eight years. One spring weekend in 2014, we were discussing 4X space strategy games. At that time there had not been many in development for years. A few we had followed in the early crowdfunding era changed scopes or didn’t appear that they would ever release. So we sat down and worked out the basic outlines for what we wanted to see in Lord of Rigel, drawing on influences including Babylon 5 and Star Trek Deep Space Nine. We wanted a more in-depth tactical combat system, and some ideas that might help with pacing the end game such as adding in elder species locked in a cold war and grand menaces.

Early Unity Version

In July of 2014 we started Rhombus Studios LLC formally and started sending out game pitches. We assembled a small team and work began in early 2015 in earnest in the Unity engine. Art and music for the project moved at a good pace and programming wise we had basic galaxy generation, economy, and the basics for a turn based tactical system.

In fall of 2015 we launched a Kickstarter campaign with our galaxy generator and tactical demo ...which did not meet its goals. We reached out to Iceberg Interactive in 2016 and partnered up! As we made some adjustments based on their feedback, the interface style changed and tactical turned to real time combat.

In June 2018 we began First Access testing with a small group of testers. One issue we faced was relying on third party tools in Unity, some of which were obsolete. We had to choose between engine updates to fix critical issues, and losing backwards compatibility on tools we were relying on. As time went on, it became increasingly difficult to fix minor issues as we were implementing systems, like the AI. This took a significant strain on the team.

Main Menu 2018 Unity version (Left), 2022 Early Access 1 (Right)


Planet View 2018 Unity version (Left), 2022 Early Access 1 (Right)

Over 2019 we had been experimenting in Unreal 4 for what would hopefully be a future project. In the fall of 2019 we had built galaxy generation and the core data structures in Unreal for a revamped version of Lord of Rigel. With the challenges we were facing with maintaining the Unity codebase we started fresh. We had a few ground rules such as using UE’s blueprint system and not relying on third party plugins or tools. C++ is used for some functions such as galaxy generation and data sorting -- but Lord of Rigel is built from blueprints and made it possible for non-professional programmers to prototype and flesh out a complex game. The transition let us rework art assets, and rebuild systems from the ground up.

Galaxy Map 2018 Unity version (Left), 2022 Early Access 1 (Right)

We worked slowly but surely through the COVID-19 pandemic, and by the end of 2021 reached the end of our build schedule. Our First Access testers for the Unity version have been present through redevelopment. Early 2022 was marked by adding a tutorial system, QA/QC testing, and preparing a demo version for the public.



We are pleased to announce that after two and a half years of redevelopment, we will release the Lord of Rigel demo to the public together with a Steam Early Access date soon!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/437440/Lord_of_Rigel/