Another month, another update.



We've added a little more flavor to major and minor factions,  improved some victory objectives, stopped the AI from sniping you while you're still reading a notification, and gave the Necrophage a bit of a safety net, among many other improvements and bugfixes.



* 🌊 New Awakening Quests
* ⚖ Improved Minor Faction Asymmetry
* 🏆 Updated Victory Conditions
* 🕙 Delayed AI Movement
* 🐞 Necrophage Improvements



You can read more about these improvements below, and find the full patch notes at the end of the blog.



# HIGHLIGHTS

In this update we focused on adding a little more flavor to major and minor factions, while also fixing numerous bugs.



# New Awakening Quests

One of the strong points of the Endless games is the asymmetry between factions in both gameplay and lore. Each of them offers their own distinct perspective on the Endless Universe. However, in Endless Legend 2 this perspective was only reflected in the main faction quest and the custom lines in other quests. When it came to the awakening of Saiadha, perhaps the most important event of their lifetimes, every faction encountered the same characters, had the same interactions and reactions. Until now.

With the Summer Solstice update, we're introducing distinct Awakening Quests for each major factions, giving you a better look into how they react to this cataclysmic upheaval. You can see an example below, if you don't mind spoilers.



# Improved Minor Faction Asymmetry

The major factions are not the only ones to get more flavor in this update. While the minor factions already had their own pacification quests and flavor through their units and assimilation bonuses, they all felt very similar when you first encountered them. They all started spawning roaming armies at the same time and the same pace, their armies were all the same size. Apart from the peaceful/hostile distinction, they behaved very similarly on the map. With this update, we're introducing more variety to that. Different minor factions will spawn armies sooner or later, more or less frequently, field larger or smaller armies, or even provide special bonuses when defeating them. Some examples below:

* Ochlings spawn new armies frequently, and they can have more armies than other minor factions, swarming your territory if you do not deal with them.
* Blackhammers have bigger garrisons in their villages
* Consortium armies provide greater battle spoils as you ~~steal~~ salvage their trade goods.



# Updated Victory Condition

The old Victory objective to "Pacify X villages" has been changed to control X Pacified Villages. This prevents a problem where it could become impossible to win via this victory because there aren't enough un-pacified villages left to reach the objective. But it also means that now you can always take territories to pursue this victory, or take territories from your opponents to keep them from winning.

There is a separate victory condition about the total amount of territories claimed, but we like that for this one specific territories (especially those with 3 villages) matter more and will cause you to consider the map differently as you attempt to conquer Saiadha.



# Delayed AI Movements

Since the beginning of Amplitude with Endless Space, our games have always used simultaneous turns to keep you playing rather than waiting for the AI to finish their turns. However, it can be frustrating when the AI attacks you while you are busy dealing with something else, especially if you are a new player and don't expect it. So with this Update we are introducing a change to the turn structure: The AI will now not move any of its armies until after you click the "end turn" button. They will still do their economic and diplomatic actions, though, to keep the time waiting for them to take their turn as short as possible.

For those of you who prefer the old simultaneous turns, you can re-enable them in the game settings in the New Game lobby.



# Necrophage Improvements

As an aggressive, ever-warring faction, the Necrophage can be quite difficult to tackle. Their success is built on the momentum of their victories and conquests, so big losses might leave you struggling to find your footing, especially early on. We've been reading your feedback and we're introducing a few changes that should help you recover from setbacks and losses. Broadly speaking:

* More Passive Sources of Corpses: Some effects that generated Corpses for you every turn have been expanded to affect all admin centers or farms, not just your capital. This should provide a steady supply of corpses with which to upgrade new larva into a proper fighting force in case you find your army too weak to gather corpses the old-fashioned, murderous way.
* Expanded Pop Collection Bonuses: The Necrophage are the first and only population type that will grant you an additional bonus for reaching 50 population in your empire. We've also reworked most of the old collection bonuses. Now, as your population grows, it will get easier to expand your city and territory and to maintain a large military without going bankrupt.

The Necrophage still work best when they are constantly devouring their enemies, but hopefully these changes will give you something to fall back on if your battles go badly.

Update #32 - Summer Solstice