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Sins II Dev Journal: The Diplomatic Method (or How I Learned to Hate Effectively)

One of the most (or least) requested updates for Sins of a Solar Empire II has been with its diplomatic system. Half of players want more of it and the other half couldn’t care less. Both points of view have valid points, but what each side couldn’t know is how much diplomacy impacts the AI’s actions. Until now, this has been a black box but no longer! The upcoming 1.50 update shines a bright light on this seemingly insignificant aspect of the game. In this dev diary, we’re going to take a look ... [read more]

11/20/2025 By Yarlen in Sins Dev Journals

Announcing: New Sins II v1.5 Update Includes Major Gameplay Features and Improvements

Overhauled Diplomacy System, New Quick Start Options, AI Improvements and more are coming to new Free Update for Sins of a Solar Empire II Get Sins II Now Sins of a Solar Empire II players are in for an early holiday gift as Stardock Entertainment will release Sins of a Solar Empire II v1.5 - The ‘Diplomatic Repercussions’ Update on December 10, 2025. This major update introduces an enhanced diplomacy system, new quick start options, improved AI, updated modding ... [read more]

11/20/2025 By redskittlesonly in Sins of a Solar Empire News

Ashes II Dev Journal #10: Armies

What if every unit you created in an RTS game was automatically put into the equivalent of a ‘control group’? Let’s call that automatic group an ‘Army’. And what if that Army was a core way you issued orders to your units? You select the Army, much in the same way you’d select a single unit, and tell it to go somewhere. The Army takes care of getting all of the individual vehicles, soldiers, etc. to a location near where you asked the army to go. It has a desired ‘formation’ in mind, so it’ll... [read more]

11/19/2025 By Oxide_BrettN in Ashes Dev Journals

GalCiv IV: Dev Journal #110 - Strategic Space in v3.1

Space Geography In the popular book “Guns, Germs and Steel”, author Jared Diamond argues that geography is destiny. The reason why the “Old World” colonized the “New World” and not vice versa was because the Old World lacked the kinds of resources necessary to build advanced civilizations. Cows, horses, chickens, sheep, wheat, rye, barley, pigs, etc. were not present in the New World. Obviously, the map generator for Earth was pretty badly written. One of my complaints with Galactic Civiliz... [read more]

11/13/2025 By Frogboy in GalCiv IV Dev Journals

Announcing Expansion Pass 2 for Galactic Civilizations IV, Starting with "Tales of the Terran Alliance" DLC

Stardock Entertainment announced today Expansion Pass 2 for the acclaimed space 4X strategy game Galactic Civilizations IV. The first content drop, " Tales of the Terran Alliance ," will launch December 4, 2025. This new expansion focuses on humanity's tumultuous 23rd century and the formative conflicts that shaped the Terran Alliance into a galactic power. Humanity's Defining Moment “Tales of the Terran Alliance” takes players deep into Earth's pivotal era o... [read more]

11/13/2025 By redskittlesonly in GalCiv News

Ashes II Dev Journal #9: A Family of RTS Games

If you’re new to the Ashes of the Singularity RTS universe, let’s start with a primer: Ashes of the Singularity is a real-time strategy game set in the near future in which players fight for control of worlds. The scale of the maps tend to be very large and are broken up into regions. Controlling a region gives the player access to the resources within which can be extracted to be used in the war effort. Each side starts with a central base that if destroyed, causes them to los... [read more]

11/12/2025 By Frogboy in Ashes Dev Journals

GalCiv IV Dev Journal #109: Day & Night

The Phalenoids Advance are a Civilization of light loving moth-like creatures adapted to a world split into many month-long day and night cycles, and today we’re going to take a close look at their game mechanics to see how they play. As always in GalCiv IV, you can play them pretty much however you like, and you can even alter their Civilization Traits and Abilities here in the “Customize your Civilization” screen to make them play more like evil Drengin, or money-grubbing Iridia ... [read more]

11/3/2025 By wasabi_md in GalCiv IV Dev Journals

Ara: History Untold v2.02 Update Released

The latest update introduces significant balance changes, tooltip improvements, and technical fixes. Get Ara: History Untold Now View the Full Changelog Below The latest update for Ara: History Untold, version 2.02, has been released, bringing a variety of adjustments aimed at enhancing gameplay and stability. Culture & Traits Updates Several Culture Traits have been rebalanced to improve their strategic distinctiveness. Key changes include increased influence for ... [read more]

10/30/2025 By redskittlesonly in Ara: History Untold News

Discord AMA for Ashes of the Singularity II on October 28

Join us on October 28th for a Discord AMA on Ashes of the Singularity II Join the Discord The developers at Oxide are going live on Discord October 28th to answer your questions about the creation of Ashes of the Singularity II, the sequel to the massive RTS. 📍 Ashes of the Singularity Discord 🗓️ October 28, 3PM - 4:30PM EST [read more]

10/24/2025 By wasabi_md in Ashes of the Singularity News

Now in Early Access - Elemental: Reforged

Remaster of the Classic Fantasy Strategy Game Series, Enters Early Access Today Join Early Access Now Stardock Entertainment announced that its remaster of the Elemental fantasy strategy game series, Elemental: Reforged , entered Early Access today.  The classic sandbox turn-based 4X game series puts the player in the role of a sovereign of a fledgling kingdom in a world that has been devastated by a war of magic. “ Elemental: Reforged is the cul... [read more]

10/23/2025 By redskittlesonly in Stardock Entertainment Announcements

Ashes II Dev Journal #8: The Actors of War on Stage Pt. 1

The first faction to take the stage, the United Earth Force represents humanity’s fight for survival against impossible odds. In this entry, we explore how realism, grit, and visual clarity define the look and feel of the UEF on the battlefield. The United Earth Force – Discipline and Steel Previously, we spoke about the environment as the grand stage. It’s the backdrop where the player directs an epic performance of conquest and survival. Every stage needs its first actor, and in the Ash... [read more]

10/22/2025 By Oxide_JaseH in Ashes Dev Journals

Sins II Dev Journal: Stellar Cartographer - The Next Step in Map Making

Recently I polled the community to understand where Solar Forge falls short in map creation. It took me about a month to poll the data; after several weeks I’ve come up with a working prototype on what we think will be a massive improvement. Now that the new app is closer to release, I wanted to go over the functionality and improvements we have made to this replacement over Solar Forge. Let's start with the basics: This isn’t Solar Forge, this is all-new from the ground up; and made for... [read more]

10/22/2025 By Unikraken in Sins Dev Journals

Discord AMA for Elemental: Reforged on October 22nd

Join us on October 22nd for a Discord AMA on Elemental: Reforged Join the Discord The developers at Stardock are going live on Discord October 22nd to answer your questions about the creation of  Elemental: Reforged . 📍  Elemental Discord 🗓️ October 22, 2025 3PM - 4:30PM EST [read more]

10/20/2025 By wasabi_md in Elemental News

Early Access Coming to Elemental: Reforged on October 23, 2025

Remaster of Classic Fantasy Strategy Game Series, Elemental: Reforged , will Enter Early Access on October 23 Elemental: Reforged combines War of Magic, Fallen Enchantress and Sorcerer King into a single unified fantasy strategy game experience Add to your Steam Wishlist Stardock Entertainment announced today that its remaster of the Elemental fantasy strategy game series, Elemental: Reforged , will enter Early Access on Thursday, October 23, 2025.  Th... [read more]

10/15/2025 By redskittlesonly in Elemental News

Sins II Video Blog: Unique Faction Tech Pt. 2

Discover how technology shapes the battlefield as we explore the unique strengths and strategies of the TEC Primacy, Vasari Alliance, and Advent Wrath in part 2 of the Unique Faction Tech series. Building on the previous video, we’ll unravel the advanced tech that gives these factions their edge in the fight for dominance. [read more]

10/8/2025 By wasabi_md in Sins Dev Journals

Ashes II Dev Journal #7: Tech Trees vs. Building Upgrades

In Ashes of the Singularity , we had a bit of a hybrid system for unlocking orbital abilities, units, and buildings. If you built the right building, you unlocked a additional units, buildings, and orbital abilities. On the other hand, if you wanted to upgrade your abilities, like armor quality or logistics or weapon power and such, you had to increment a corresponding technology level, which you did by spending the Quanta resource. So here we are again, Ashes of the Singularity II . On... [read more]

10/3/2025 By Frogboy in Ashes Dev Journals

GalCiv IV: Supernova Dev Journal #108 - The Great Flowering

Every Core Civilization in Galactic Civilizations IV plays quite differently and has Civilization Abilities, Traits and many more mechanics that are tuned towards a specific playstyle. What’s great about this system is that you’re not generally hard-locked into that playstyle, which suits GalCiv as a sandbox style 4X and allows you to experiment with different ways to play with that one Civ. There aren’t very many Civilizations that outright lock you out of certain mechanics for this rea... [read more]

9/30/2025 By BATTLEMODE in GalCiv IV Dev Journals

Reinforcements DLC Now Available for Sins of a Solar Empire II

Sins of a Solar Empire II – Reinforcements DLC Now Available New command ship class units and lore-driven factional victory conditions bring fresh strategies to the battlefield Players can also enjoy the free v1.45 update released today , too. Get the Reinforcements DLC   |  Get Sins II The battle for galactic control has evolved as all sides introduce deadly new ships and cunning methods of victory. Stardock has released the Reinforcements DL... [read more]

9/25/2025 By redskittlesonly in Sins of a Solar Empire News

Sins of a Solar Empire II Launches v1.45 Eivonn's Fine Update

New Minor Faction and Quality-of-Life Improvements Enhance Gameplay Experience Buy Sins II   |  View the Full Changlog Welcome to Eivonn’s Fine Update, which re-introduces our favorite used ship dealer as a new minor faction to the Sins II galaxy. Eivonn is all too happy to wheel and deal with those who want to purchase the finest ships of yesteryear. (All transactions final. No refunds.) In addition to Eivonn, we’ve made a number of quality-of-life UI/UX improvement... [read more]

9/25/2025 By redskittlesonly in Sins of a Solar Empire News

Ara: History Untold v2.0 Revolutions Update Now Available

Massive v2.0 Revolutions Update is Now Available Ambitious historical strategy game celebrates its first anniversary by adding nation specific units, unique leader traits, cultural conquest, AI updates and much more Get Ara: History Untold   |  View Full Changelog Stardock Entertainment and Oxide Games, in partnership with Xbox Game Studios, released Ara: History Untold – Version 2.0 today. The Revolutions Update is a massive expansion of new features a... [read more]

9/24/2025 By redskittlesonly in Ara: History Untold News

Dev Journal #9: A Guided Tour of the v2.0 Revolutions Update

Welcome Back First, apologies for breaking save games. We even had to break the Preview save games to add the new map generation system for 2.0! Second, wow! I hope you guys like what we’ve done here. Since the original Sid Meier’s Civilization was first released in 1991, there have only been a handful of strategy games that have attempted to take the player through all of human history. It’s hard. I bet you, reading this right now, know something of this. Ara: History Untold not only sho... [read more]

9/24/2025 By Frogboy in Ara: History Untold Dev Journals

Sins II: Reinforcements - Command Class Ships Pt. 2

This week we’re continuing our reveal of the new command class warships that can be found in the upcoming Reinforcements DLC. As we mentioned last time, these units are designed to expand the background lore of each faction and bring new dynamics to the gameplay - but they are not required to enjoy Sins II. War Year 36 As the long conflict between the TEC, Vasari and Advent factions enters its 36th year, tensions have been rising even higher. Diplomacy has broken down utterly, with only min... [read more]

9/18/2025 By Yarlen in Sins Dev Journals

Launch Livestream: "Reinforcements" DLC and Free Update for Sins II

Join Us for Our "Reinforcements" Livestream Event Mark Your Calendars | Learn More     Join us as we dig deep into the new ships and victory conditions included in the Reinforcements DLC ! 📅 Thursday, September 25th at 1:00 PM EST 📍Location: Sins of a Solar Empire II Steam Page   What to Expect "Reinforcements" DLC The battle for galactic control has evolved as all sides introduce deadly new ships and cunning methods of victory. Stardock has ann... [read more]

9/18/2025 By wasabi_md in Sins of a Solar Empire News

Ara Dev Journal #8: Quotas & Priorities

Version 2.0 keeps players in control without the overwhelming micromanagement. The crafting queue is gone. The crafting quotas and priorities system is in. It is very straightforward: Set how much of a thing you want Decide what priority it has, if any, of the things the crafter can build. There is no step 3. This lets you set your nation up as a well-oiled machine. Once you set it up, you will never be interrupted with a “crafter idle” message again because they a... [read more]

9/18/2025 By Frogboy in Ara: History Untold Dev Journals

Ara Dev Journal #7: Culture & Influence

Culture & Influence in History Soft Power. Strategy games favor focusing on warfare, but culture and influence have mattered far more in shaping the world. While this may seem, to some, to be a change in the post-World War II era, it has been true going all the way back to the Bronze Age: culture and influence matter. Civilization IV lead designer Soren Johnson made cultural influence a major focus of Civ IV, forever changing 4X strategy games. In fact, when we teamed up to make Off... [read more]

9/11/2025 By Frogboy in Ara: History Untold Dev Journals

Ashes II Dev Journal #6: Setting the Stage for Battle

When designing a real-time strategy game, most people think first about the units: the soldiers, tanks, aircraft, and other powerful pieces that players use to dominate the battlefield. But as the art director on Ashes of the Singularity II , I know that the real star of the screen is the environment itself. The terrain is what players spend the majority of their time looking at. It’s not just a backdrop - it’s the stage where every battle is fought, every strategy unfolds, and every story eme... [read more]

9/10/2025 By Oxide_JaseH in Ashes Dev Journals

Sins II: Reinforcements - Command Class Ships Pt. 1

In late September, a new class of warships will be deployed into the Sins of a Solar Empire II universe with the release of the Reinforcements DLC. While not required for play, these new units are designed to expand the background lore of each faction and bring new dynamics to the gameplay. War Year 36 As the long conflict between the TEC, Vasari and Advent factions enters its 36th year, tensions have been rising even higher. Diplomacy has broken down utterly, with only minor fringe groups w... [read more]

9/10/2025 By Yarlen in Sins Dev Journals

v2.0 Revolutions Update for Ara: History Untold Releasing September 24

Ara: History Untold v2.0 Revolutions Update Expands Historical Strategy Through Culture and Influence Ambitious historical strategy game prepares for first anniversary by adding nation specific units, unique leader traits, cultural conquest, AI updates and much more Get Ara: History Untold Stardock Entertainment and Oxide Games, in partnership with Xbox Game Studios, announced Ara: History Untold – Version 2.0 today. Dubbed the Revolutions Update, version 2.0 i... [read more]

9/10/2025 By wasabi_md in Ara: History Untold News

Dev Journal #6: The Great AI Awakening

The Truth about AI in PC Strategy Games Multiplayer will not save your game. Strategy games must have computer opponents as a first-class game mode. They aren’t there to be “practice bots”. Even in games that are allegedly “multiplayer-centric”, fewer than 20% of players will press the multiplayer button, let alone actually play it. Yet many strategy games just handwave, putting in interesting computer opponents. You, reading this, know the folly of that, and yet they still do it. W... [read more]

9/4/2025 By Frogboy in Ara: History Untold Dev Journals

v1.18 "Endorsement Reinforcements" Update for The Political Machine 2024

v1.18 "Endorsement Reinforcements" Update Adding new Endorsements and Issue Get it Now   |  View the Changelog Below The Political Machine 2024 is a political simulation game that allows players to run their own presidential campaigns, navigate complex political landscapes, and engage with various issues and endorsements. The latest update, version 1.18, titled "Endorsement Reinforcements," introduces a few new features aimed at enhancing the gameplay experience without mak... [read more]

9/4/2025 By redskittlesonly in Political Machine News

Ashes II Dev Journal #5: Evolving Production for a Grander Scale

In the original Ashes of the Singularity , we noted some key pain points when it came to producing units and managing armies in the late game. One of the first frustrations was the need to micromanage numerous production buildings during large-scale conflicts as the game progressed. You could dogpile engineers onto a single production building to make it construct faster, but if you were trying to field various cruisers, frigates, etc., you still would need to manage several different buildings... [read more]

9/3/2025 By Oxide_BrettN in Ashes Dev Journals

Sins II Video Blog: Unique Faction Tech Pt. 1

Exploring the Factions of Sins of a Solar Empire II: Unleashing Unique Technologies Sins of a Solar Empire II invites players into a universe of interstellar warfare, featuring three distinct races each split into two warring factions. With a total of six playable sides, each faction boasts its own unique technological innovations aimed at outsmarting and outpacing opponents. In part one of a two part series, we take a closer look at the first three factions and their standout technologie... [read more]

9/3/2025 By wasabi_md in Sins Dev Journals

Date Announcement: Reinforcements DLC for Sins of a Solar Empire II

New command ship class units and lore-driven factional victory conditions Players will experience fresh strategies on the battlefield September 25, 2025 Wishlist Now The battle for galactic control has evolved as all sides introduce deadly new ships and cunning methods of victory. Stardock has announced the Reinforcements DLC for Sins of a Solar Empire II , will launch on September 25, 2025. This content expansion introduces a brand-new command ship class—one u... [read more]

9/3/2025 By redskittlesonly in Sins of a Solar Empire News

Ara Dev Journal #5: The Great Differentiation

How do you make nations more unique? When we began discussing Ara: History Untold 2.0, we asked: how do you make 40 different civilizations feel genuinely unique while maintaining strategic balance? The answer went deeper than a few superficial differences. We discovered that giving players ways to leverage systems and explore new tactics yielded the most rewarding experiences. Distinctive traits and unique units give Nations personality and don’t just challenge the player to find new ro... [read more]

8/28/2025 By wasabi_md in Ara: History Untold Dev Journals

Ashes II Dev Journal #4: Building Better Worlds

Making the map a character When you think about RTS games, what do you spend most of the time looking at? More than your base, more than your armies - it is the terrain itself. It sets the scale of the conflict, shapes how battles unfold, and creates the sense of immersion that keeps players engaged. For Ashes of the Singularity II, we wanted to push this further by creating maps that are larger, more detailed, and more responsive. Our work on Ara: History Untold taught us a lot about h... [read more]

8/27/2025 By Oxide_SatchP in Ashes Dev Journals

GalCiv IV: Supernova Dev Journal #107 - Culture and Influence

In Galactic Civilizations IV, Influence is a measure of your Empire’s overall cultural and logistical reach, and affects many other gameplay elements. Today I’m going to explain how to generate Culture, how that then spreads your Influence across the map, and why all this is important in your race to win the game. First let’s take a look at the bare basics of how Influence is generated. Each planet has a baseline statistic called Cultural Significance , representing it’s potential for the... [read more]

8/26/2025 By BATTLEMODE in GalCiv IV Dev Journals

Ara Dev Journal #4: UI Enhancements in v2.0

I’m a UI guy. Most of my work over the years has been on software such as Fences, Start11, WindowBlinds, IconPackager, and countless other programs designed to improve the Windows experience. On Ara: History Untold , one of the first things we noticed was that the text and icons were blurry. Not a lot, but just enough to feel like an itch you couldn’t scratch. In fact, the entire UI carried that slight fuzziness. The cause was the game rendering at 720p under the hood and then scaling up to... [read more]

8/21/2025 By Frogboy in Ara: History Untold Dev Journals

Sins II Video Blog: Basic Economic Strategies

Your Path to Economic Success in Sins of a Solar Empire II Knowing the basic of the economy in Sins of a Solar Empire II is crucial to your success early on and towards the end of your match. From diplomacy with alien empires, research and development, and the exploration of star systems, this video will explore many different strategies for economic warfare whether you're up against humans or computers. [read more]

8/20/2025 By wasabi_md in Sins Dev Journals

Ashes II Dev Journal #3: Making the "BIG" Accessible

Updated: 22 Aug 2025 Oxide has always loved RTS games that go BIG. Big maps, sprawling bases, units all over the place - the whole chaotic sprawl. While we certainly love more ‘tactical’ RTS games as well, with Ashes of the Singularity, Oxide wanted to go BIG, harkening back to genre stalwarts like Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander . However, as we prepared to develop Ashes of the Singularity II , we wanted to tackle the core problem of “BIG”. One key challenge was that th... [read more]

8/20/2025 By Oxide_BrettN in Ashes Dev Journals

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