Hello Galactic Survivalists!

Welcome to the experimental phase of our summer update with version 1.13

First of all: We have made some profound changes to the galaxy, POIs, and missions. To get all the new features, you will unfortunately need to start a new save game. All save games prior to 1.13 may also experience problems with the old story missions after the update, as locations, dialogues, and mission sequences have changed significantly in some cases. 

We hope this doesn't affect you too much and that you'll take this as an opportunity to experience the summer update as a refreshed experience in terms of galaxy exploration and story gameplay.

To shorten your travel time a bit, the new update includes the Warp Drive T2 and, for the first time for those of you who are familiar with the old gamestarts, Frontline Conflict, a new, difficult gamestart that is completely randomized.

Therefore, we would be extremely grateful if you would give the current experimental version your attention and, as always, let us know what you liked and where you see room for improvement.

As always, you can find all the changes for the current version in detail in the changelog below.

Yours,

Empyrion Dev Team

As always, please use the following forums for this - For bugs in the EXP version:

https://empyriononline.com/forums/bugs.34/

- For feedback on the content of the EXP version:

https://empyriononline.com/forums/experimental-features-discussion.35/

PS: When version 1.13 is released to the public, we will also perform a full wipe of our Official Multiplayer Servers.

Please note: 

A new savegame IS required for testing ALL the new contents of v1.13, especially new playfields, POI and updated/added missions. Savegames that have been started BEFORE this update will NOT contain the new additions!

Changelog: v1.13 B4783 2025-07-15

Changes:

• Main Storyline: Operation Phoenix Lost & Found (new)

• Reworked old main storyline chapters into a consistent 5-part mission campaign to close the gap to Operation Phoenix New Terra campaign (Old missions: Intro, Crashed Bird, Glacial Grave, Meet the Glad, Sigma Fulcrum, Wins & Losses).

• Note: The remaining old mains story missions have been disabled for now and will be reworked into a new 5-part mission campaign in the future.

• Testing note: the new mission arc can be started from the PDA when arriving at Omicron Orbit. IDA will notify about the mission being available.

• Main Storyline: TERMINAL NEXUS (new)

• Added 5-part story campaign ‘Terminal Nexus’ for Talon/Talon’Ar which is concluding the main storyline. A new savegame IS required.

• Testing note: As a convenience, the mission can be started without having played other story missions : Open the PDA, then go to the Solo Mission Tab > Talon and activate the mission ‘Next: TERMINAL NEXUS (Main Story)’ and follow the instructions. The quest giver is Tharkan which, in the mission part 1 + 2 is available on Omicron Station as a Hologram. Later he will be available from another place.

• Local Story missions:

• All local story missions on Akua (Clear Skies), Ningues (Andromeda Strain), Masperon (Bad Wolf), Skillon (Deserted Powers) and Ashon (To Good Business) have been reworked and updated

• Missions in general:

• All new/reworked story missions (main and local) have gotten additional helper chapters that will both allow to see what to do next (f.ex.: “Next: Talk to…”) or resume a deactivated mission without having to speak to the mission quest giver.

• Please note that the new story dialogues and texts have not yet been translated.

• General Info for story testing (not only related to this mission arc): Please avoid using gm, gm iv and gm fly when teleporting or console-teleporting to destinations while testing. This might/will break the PDA operations that are tied to a lot of tasks. Same accounts for teleporting to playfields/suns/orbits with the same gm tools enabled: this can lead to broken jump-bookmarks which cannot be removed by the game afterwards anymore (you can remove them manually, when you are in their target playfield/sector/sun orbit).

POI

• Added several new POI for the story mission

• Updated several POI for the rest of the game (thx to all our builders!)

• Several fixes and improvements (eg. adding better visual guidance to the HeKaTon Cup Game Manager, etc) Thx to everyone reporting the issues!

• For all POI-related fixes a new savegame IS required OR the playfield has not been visited before the update.

Models & Technical

• Added Warp Drive T2 for Capital vessels (60LY range)

• Increased Pentaxid cost per AU jump (inside a solar system)

• Talon’ar Faction Entity update: Added several colored variants of the “modern” Talon (Talon’ar) both walking and stationary; Note: Civilians and any stationary Talon’Ar fight back when being attacked.

• The Talon’ar soldiers are using charged crossbow weapons with energy beams (high damage against everything that is biological; The player can use these weapons as 2-mode weapon in the Terminal Nexus mission 3 and as a reward afterwards; It cannot be crafted; It does only damage biological beings!)

• Changed explosive effect of explosive blocks (self and radius)

• Added new Portal blocks: Tech portal (with frame) and “free standing” spherical portals in different sizes from 3x3 to 87x87 blocks (only the anchor point is set as a destroy/multitool collider; Overlapping of the sphere with regular blocks is possible; All of the sphere is a contact trigger for teleport).

New starter planet:

• Seed-randomized, hard veteran start on an improved Arid playfield (Medium size)

• Several large alien factions battle for dominance on an unforgiving world… with you crashing into their midst, trying to survive.

• Multiple hostile patrol vessels; drones, aggressive wildlife, toxic atmosphere, radiated fog.

• No Crashsite protection!

Galaxy rework (Default scenario)

New galaxy structure:

• Higher diversity: At least 17 new stars, double star systems, 9 new nebulae

• Largely reworked star system layouts, with different chances for playfields and distances. Added dedicated warp-in sectors,

• Galaxy regions: Core, inner and outer galactic arms, low-density mid galaxy, periphery stars, dwarf galaxies.

• Added region markers to help with navigation and orientation.

• Two regions allowing to spawn in local challenge playfields

• WIP setup to have faction-themed trading stations

New playfields (Story):

• Onyx Progenitor structures (Destroyed and Whole)

New playfields (WIP):

• CarbonPlateau

• Hothouse

• NitrogenVolcanic

• TemperatePrairie (Omicron)

• MoonIceDusted

New playfields (Sketches):

• NitrogenIce, and its orbit

• RadiatedIce

• LavaCollided 1 & 2, and their orbits

• LavaOcean

• BarrenCooled

• Two dedicated space playfields for Pentaxid asteroids close to radiated stars

• (Note: ‘Sketch’ and ‘WIP’ state playfields might still change a lot in the next updates.)

Playfield distribution rework:

• Most star types prefer specific regions of the galaxy.

• Different planets, moons and asteroids prefer certain star types, and spawn more fitting to how close they are to the star.

• Distances in-system and between stars vary a lot. Navigation at a giant star or at the edges of the galaxy might need a better warp drive.

Resource distribution rework:

• High tier materials in large quantities: At Lava planets.

• Find them at Protostars (P), young systems (My, Ky) or dying stars (Md).

• There is still a small chance to encounter a Lava variant in standard systems.

• High tier materials in Medium amounts::BarrenMetal, LavaNascent, Hothouse and Scorched

• Their resources are usually harder to reach without Autominers.

• Resource asteroids: The more exotic or dangerous a place is, the higher are the chances for precious finds.

• Pentaxid asteroids spawn with high chances at radiated and dead stars. (M<!>, M-M<!>, WR, N, BH, D, Dd, SmBH)

• Trade stations: More reliable spawns outside of faction territory for Civilians and Pirates. Prenn territory may have multiple stations in a system.

• The pirate ‘trading station’ is now less obvious and hides as a far-out asteroid field on the map- possibly even in other faction territories. Silent Quarter region has rare but clearly visible Pirate stations.

Playfield generation:

• Added new terrain stamps: TechSurface, TechSurfaceHigh, TechCanyon_1, TechCanyon_2, TechBlockTower_1. TechBlockTower_2, TechLines, CraterDented, Rift_Fissure_4

Misc:

• Made adjustments to AI turret targeting: AI turrets will now check for a new target immediately when their old target has been killed. This change relates primarily to targets like NPCs or Drones.

Fixes:

• Possible fix for: 01527: NPC can be found under the POI

• Removed floating blocks from UCH Dronebase

• Set faction for UCH soldiers on Orbital Mining Outposts to UCH (before: Hostile/Alien)

• Elevation of UCH Farming Hub was too high

• Ningues Mission ‘Andromeda Strain’ : Hostile drones after finale should not appear anymore

• Fixed dialogue crash for Spanish loca on GIN Consoles

• Wrong offset for egg pile (BAN_EggPileLarge):

• Trading station Masperon (TSP_Masperon) was not airtight

• Legacy asteroid fields may have no legacy patrol vessels or POI

• Trading station playfields occasionally without Trading stations

• Couldn't start the Invader vs Defender scenario in CooP