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Lord of Rigel - Roundup #25

Greetings Lords of Rigel,

This week we’ve incorporated more bug fixes and QOL adjustments based on feedback.

This upcoming patch:
• Rebellion behavior adjustments- initial rebel message and fixes for rebelling fleets
• Diplomacy demand behavior fixes
• QOL- Duplicate key bindings check

We’re making more progress on the auto ship design generator and build queues, again fixing reported bugs has been our priority.

Another upcoming QOL improvement suggested is adding a skip cutscenes option to game settings. Currently any keypress will skip cutscenes in the game but this would auto-skip scenes when enabled.
Additionally, we’ve been doing some slow but steady AI improvements. Again AI and tactical will be the main focus of EA2 as we unlock the Tulocks, Synth, and features including the Galactic Council and diplomacy victory.

As for this week’s deep dive:

Ground Combat!


Early on we wanted ground combat to keep the same core as Master of Orion 2 where it’d be determined by species traits (combat bonuses, gravity tolerance), technologies, and troop composition. Some species such as the Ornithon have major disadvantages to ground combat while the Katraxi have major advantages. Invasions occur when planetary defenses are down and you have either Troop Transport ships or ships with Troop Pods. Troop Pods let you have combat ships that can do ground invasions.

Species with the telepathic trait can instead opt to use mind control to take over a planet, which is determined by the number of ships they have and the telepathic abilities of the other faction and their population size.

Ground combat is automated but you can see the units move on the landscape and units taking damage. Under the hood combat is split into rounds with different units using their combat rolls for firing and taking damage, with it resolved once a side has been destroyed. The amount of “hits” each unit can take depends on species traits, technologies, and the types of ground units deployed. By default marines generally take one hit while defending heavy armor can take two. Ground units have particle effects for kicking up dust and their thruster glows, and the weapon effects use the same materials based approach as the weapons in tactical.

Once combat is over, if the player the one who’s successfully invaded a planet you’ll see your military advisor give some options for capturing a planet. This will depend in your government type and species traits. Democracies can’t exterminate a population and place one settler of their species there. The Tharrn will consume captured population. Generally though “enculturate” means you capture a planet and the population gets slowly accustomed to the new government that has taken over.

In coming weeks we’ll do more deep dives on species models, other weapon types, and some of the various gameplay mechanics in Lord of Rigel!

Image 1. Invading a planet.
Image 2. Closeup of Ground Combat
Image 3. Closeup of a Human heavy hovertank.
Image 4. Fusion cannon material
Image 5. Capturing a Planet
Image 6. Earth Falls to the Yalkai

Let us know what further changes you would like to see or if you have encountered any technical issues. Please post on the forums, reach out to us via Discord or send an email: [email protected] Saved games and clear steps to reproduce the bug are critical. It helps us more quickly track down the bug and get it fixed. Additional information on bug reporting tips can be found here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/437440/discussions/.


As always, we appreciate the feedback, conversations, and support from all of you!

EA Build 2023.11 Hotfix

  • Addresses issue with building spawning.

Early Access 1 Patch 2023.11

  • Ticket #1514 QOL – Warning for dark custom species color choice
  • Ticket #1506 Colonize secondary star in binary system fix
  • Ticket #1512 Stolen techs not adding to tech tree fix
  • Ticket #1507 Omniscient planet list updating for expanding planet fix
  • Ticket #1510 Ships not repairing at friendly starbases if colony damaged fix
  • Ticket #1509 Scrap prompt appears on next turn if pressing turn hot key when cancelling colony base construction fix
  • Ticket #1508 Closing Fleet Combat UI turn sequence fix
  • Ticket #1501 Aquatic species Gaia transformation clarifications
  • Ticket #1511 space amoeba not targetable in tactical fix

Lord of Rigel - Roundup #24

Greetings Lords of Rigel,

This patch continues with our bug fixes and quality of life adjustments including some from recent feedback.

This upcoming patch:

• Quality of life: A warning for when selected custom primary or secondary colors may be too dark for in game use.
• Space monster hitbox fixes.
• Colonization and combat UI fixes.
• Aquatic species terraforming fixes.
• AI Expansion improvements.

While this seems like a shorter patch in terms of fixes, it’s based on those reported by players. Also we’ve made more progress on the auto ship design generator and build queues, again fixing reported bugs has been our priority.

As for this week’s deep dive:
Torpedoes!

Torpedo weapons are unique in that there are direct fire and indirect fire (seeking) versions. Torpedoes use the attack rolls of missile weapons, and can be spoofed by ECM systems and enhanced by ECCM mods and special systems that improve missile accuracy. Direct fire torpedoes (Ion, Proton) effectively act like beam weapons while indirect fire torpedoes (Antimatter, Plasma) are like missiles that can’t be shot down with point defense.

Torpedo weapons don’t have ammunition, but have long cooldown periods. These can be very long if you stack lots of mods onto a torpedo, making them good alpha strike weapons. Each torpedo type can also have unique behaviors. Plasma torpedoes lose damage over time and so work best in close range, combining them with cloaking lets you maximize their potential. Similarly, proton torpedoes can have the ENG modification and cause damage directly to a ship’s engine system so using them with anti-shield weapons like disruptor cannons is powerful.

Torpedo effects are particle effects using a procedural material. The material uses noise and gradients in the pixel shader so that the flare effects of torpedoes animate as they move.
In coming weeks we’ll do more deep dives on species models, other weapon types, and some of the various gameplay mechanics in Lord of Rigel!

Image 1. Human ships firing a combo of direct and indirect fire torpedoes
Image 2. Phased cloaked Xantus ships firing plasma torpedoes

Image 3. Proton Torpedo Material

Let us know what further changes you would like to see or if you have encountered any technical issues. Please post on the forums, reach out to us via Discord or send an email: [email protected] Saved games and clear steps to reproduce the bug are critical. It helps us more quickly track down the bug and get it fixed. Additional information on bug reporting tips can be found here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/437440/discussions/.


As always, we appreciate the feedback, conversations, and support from all of you!

Early Access 1 Patch 2023.10

  • Ticket #1066 QOL – Multi auto explore fleets
  • Ticket #1115 Taxation calculation fixes
  • Ticket #1472 Ship hit point table fix for designs
  • Ticket #1493 QOL – Volumetric clouds added to Colony view
  • Ticket #1492 Espionage “Mission Complete” repeat fix
  • Ticket #1495 Custom ship designs missile name fix
  • Ticket #1494 Pulsar weapon in tactical soft lock fix
  • Ticket #1456 Player fleet merge order of operations fix
  • Ticket #1496 Duplicate planet listing in expansion screen fix
  • Ticket #1286 Covert influence effect fix
  • Ticket #1504 Auto turn not ending on click fix
  • Ticket #1503 Colony view planet research point display fix
  • Ticket #1500 Stargate construction cutscene playback fix
  • Ticket #1488 Autosaved game available if saved game cannot be loaded fix
  • Ticket #1498 Blank colony list item fix