Virtual Awakening — endlessspace

Overview

Virtual Awakening is the fourth free add-on for Endless Space. It was released on March 11, 2013. It adds four new Heroes, one Technology, two Star System Improvements, two Exploration Events, four Random Events, three Anomalies, the Victory Warnings and Auto Scrap features, and other gameplay additions and fixes.

Background Story

"Driven by their need to terraform and cultivate, it was only a matter of time before the Automatons turned their eyes to the least hospitable planets: Gas giants. A probe ship departed for an uncolonised system, hoping to test technology that could transform these jovian worlds into something livable.

It was a nice plan, but luck and reality had other ideas. The gas giant had a derelict platform orbiting it that had been of the Virtual Endless war effort -- and the Virtuals had left a guard behind. Worse yet, the system was rich in minerals from its asteroid belts, so a small but well-equipped group of Pirates was also keeping an eye on it.

Automaton, Endless, and Pirate -- an interesting enough mix. But there was a fourth unknown actor, watching from the “surface” of the gas giant. Deep in the viscous atmosphere, where the boundaries between gas and liquid and solid are vague and changeable, an intelligent life form tracked the signals from the platform and wondered what was going on.

Up above an uneasy truce was reached: Automatons experimented while the Pirates kept an eye out for profits. The project went smoothly until one of the Automatons, who had shown unusually clever behavior since landing on the Endless platform, noted that the radiation seeping from the planet might be transmissions from a sentient race…

Finish the testing at the risk of genocide? Try again elsewhere, regardless of the costs? Steal the technology and see what you can get for it? There are many questions, not the least of which is: What exactly is going on with that unusually clever Automaton?

The galaxy is about to get even stranger."

Content

Victory Warnings

The player will now be warned if an empire, including the player's own, is approaching the conditions necessary for a certain type of Victory.

Wonder Victory:
- Other players: the warning will appear when another player has acquired the technology.
- Self: the warning will appear when you have built 2/5 buildings.

Supremacy Victory:
- In any case, the warning will appear at 60%.

Expansion Victory:
- Others: when the enemy is at 60%.
- Self: when you are at 55% (We might change this though).

Scientific Victory:
- When an enemy is searching the technology, or when you are yourself about to complete the search for this tech (50%).

Economic Victory:
- Self: at 75%.
- Others: at 80%.

Diplomatic Victory:
- Self: at 90%.
- Others: at 95%.

Score Victory:
- You will get the warning a few turns before the winner is declared, depending on the game speed:
  - 25 turns before it reaches 300 turns, on normal.
  - 12 turns before it reaches 150 turns, on fast.
  - 50 turns before it reaches 450 turns, on slow.

Auto Scrap

The player can Auto Scrap system improvements in the Empire Management screen: useless improvements will then be scrapped from your systems. AI governors will also be able to Auto Scrap.

Anomalies

Main article: Anomaly

Hostile Dust
Endless Trouble
Humeris Insidentes

Exploration Events

Academy refreshed:
- Hero pool is refreshed from scratch
- Alternative: the pool of remaining available heroes is refreshed
Unveil surrounding systems:
- Systems adjacent to the explored system are revealed

Random Events

Main article: Random Events

Virtual Awakening Random Event The New Religion

The New Religion
The Mad Scientist!
Sleeping War Machines
Endless Considerations

Star System Improvements

Main article: Star System Improvement

Deep Space Facility - Due to the low gravity vacuum that surrounds asteroids, they provide a perfect location for a centre of research into the uses and effects of low gravitation. A side effect of this knowledge, of course, is the ability to use the technology and the asteroids themselves to improve system defence.
High Energy Array - A series of massive antenna dishes are installed, creating a network of receptors for signals beamed from space. In this case, they can be used to transfer energy -- for instance in microware form -- from orbiting ships to the surface, aiding in the process of post-invasion reconstruction.