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Ashes II Dev Journal: Pathfinding for Armies

Ashes of the Singularity II is a game that supports thousands of individual soldiers and combat vehicles, each with their own local decision making. So, when I order some units to go somewhere how does that happen? First off, check out our Dev Journal on Armies for a bit of information on that system. Pathfinding starts with Armies, which are composed of Units. Each Unit isn’t necessarily a single vehicle or solider, it’s a small ‘squad’. The individuals within each U... [read more]

12/17/2025 By Oxide_BrettN in Ashes Dev Journals

Sins II Dev Journal: The Diplomatic Method (How to Win Friends and Influence People)

In the last Diplomatic Method dev journal, Yarlen walked you through all of our new Diplomatic stats like Patience, Trust, Rivals, and other racial and factional modifiers. In the Diplomatic Agreement window you can see a breakdown of all of the factors going into a AI player’s willingness to accept deals. Each field has a tooltip that will tell you what’s contributing to those percentages or an explanation of what they are. Patience, young grasshopper… Under the new Diplomatic system,... [read more]

12/17/2025 By Unikraken in Sins Dev Journals

Elemental: Reforged Launches Beta 2 in Early Access

Fantasy Strategy Game, Elemental: Reforged hits Beta 2 on Steam with Dynasties, Modding, Updated Opponent AI and much more Join Early Access   |  View the changelog Stardock Entertainment has released Beta 2 for Elemental: Reforged , the remaster to Stardock’s classic fantasy strategy series. This early access update introduces significant enhancements, featuring a new Dynasty system for character legacy, customizable modding tools including Steam Workshop support... [read more]

12/16/2025 By redskittlesonly in Elemental News

Ashes II Dev Journal: Weapons and Turrets

In Ashes of the Singularity , both 1 and 2, weapons are a bit of their own unique gameplay component. Units aren’t limited to just a single weapon; they can actually have any number of weapons, and each weapon can define its own firing properties, gameplay effects, etc. While for practical purposes, most units often have only one primary weapon (which suits their combat role), a number of units in Ashes 2 will have multiple weapons, each capable of independent targeting and firing solutions. ... [read more]

12/10/2025 By Oxide_BrettN in Ashes Dev Journals

Now Out: v1.5 Diplomatic Repercussions Update Now Available for Sins II

Sins of a Solar Empire II v1.5 Free Update Releases Today New Update features revamped Diplomacy System, new Quick Start options, AI improvements and more for all who own Sins of a Solar Empire II Get Sins of a Solar Empire II Now Just in time for the holidays, Stardock Entertainment has gifted players a huge free update for Sins of a Solar Empire II today. Sins of a Solar Empire II v1.50 - The ‘Diplomatic Repercussions’ Update features a big overhaul ... [read more]

12/10/2025 By redskittlesonly in Sins of a Solar Empire News

Livestream: First Look at Ashes of the Singularity II

Tune in for the Ashes of the Singularity II Livestream Event Mark your Calendars | Wishlist Now Get a first look at  Ashes of the Singularity II,  the sequel to the massive-scale RTS, with the team! 📅 Tuesday, December 16th at 11:00 AM EST 📍Location:  Ashes of the Singularity II Steam Page In this massive-scale RTS game, command vast armies fighting for control of entire worlds. Control the forces of Earth, the mechanical AI Substrate, or the... [read more]

12/8/2025 By wasabi_md in Ashes of the Singularity News

Livestream: v1.5 "Diplomatic Repercussion" Update for Sins of a Solar Empire II

Tune in for the v1.5 "Diplomatic Repercussions" Livestream Event Mark your Calendars | Learn More Watch the team play through the new features of this massive free update for Sins of a Solar Empire II .   📅 Wednesday, December 10th at 1:00 PM EST 📍Location: Sins of a Solar Empire II Steam Page   What to Expect Overhauled Enhanced Diplomacy System: A reworked diplomacy system allows for greater flexibility and options to players. AI players now con... [read more]

12/5/2025 By wasabi_md in Sins of a Solar Empire News

Tales of the Terran Alliance DLC Now Available for GalCiv IV

Stardock Launches "Tales of the Terran Alliance" DLC for Galactic Civilizations IV , Kicking Off Expansion Pass 2 The first of five new packs in the Expansion Pass 2 is now available, featuring exciting new campaigns, civilizations, and gameplay enhancements for the acclaimed 4X space grand strategy game. Stardock Entertainment announced that "Tales of the Terran Alliance," the first DLC of Expansion Pass 2 for the acclaimed space 4X strategy game Galactic Civilization... [read more]

12/4/2025 By redskittlesonly in GalCiv News

Sins II Dev Journal: A Very Merry Modder Holiday Pt. 2

We’re back with Part 2 on this long winded breakdown of some modder-friendly features, these are coming soon. Let's dive in: Asset Suppression [ Coming in v1.5 ] In Sins 1 there used to be a setting to turn off asserts. Mods that like to do whacky stuff ride the line of what the game can do, and thus often run afoul of asserts, even if they’re functionally harmless. With this in mind, we don't want people to turn off asserts for a mod and then go back to stock and get upset when... [read more]

12/3/2025 By wasabi_md in Sins Dev Journals

First Gameplay Trailer Released for Ashes of the Singularity II

Check out the first gameplay trailer for Ashes of the Singularity II Command vast armies fighting for control of entire worlds in this massive-scale RTS game Add to your Steam wishlist The first gameplay trailer for Ashes of the Singularity II is now live, offering a closer look at the game’s current visuals and gameplay mechanics that fans have been eager to see. This trailer provides a first look into the strategic depth and immersive experience that the sequel pro... [read more]

12/3/2025 By redskittlesonly in Stardock Entertainment Announcements

Frequently Asked Questions for Ashes of the Singularity II

Answering your Top Questions about Ashes of the Singularity II As Ashes of the Singularity II continues to evolve, we’ve gathered the most common questions from across the community into one easy place. Whether you’re curious about new mechanics, returning factions, or what sets this sequel apart, this FAQ will help you get up to speed. As development progresses, we will continue to add questions and update answers. General Q: Do I need to have played the first ... [read more]

12/3/2025 By wasabi_md in Ashes Dev Journals

Play Free this Weekend: Ara History Untold

Experience the epic turn-based historical strategy game, Ara: History Untold , for free this weekend Play Free this Weekend From November 27 to December 1, 2025, players can experience the game at no cost on Steam. Ara: History Untold is a turn-based historical strategy game where you build a nation starting at any point in human history and compete for supremacy. Engage in diplomacy, fight wars, and go head-to-head with other leaders from history. Players can also receive Ar... [read more]

11/27/2025 By wasabi_md in Ara: History Untold News

Ashes II Dev Journal: Will the Real Humans Please Stand Up?

Humanity amidst a Post-Human Future While Ashes of the Singularity I focused on the conflict between the Post-Human Coalition and the Substrate, in Ashes of the Singularity II players have the opportunity to see what’s going down on Earth. And, well, it’s a lot. There’s still a five-day work week on top of a variety of international crises: a fractured Post-Human Coalition circumventing United Earth ordinances, the spread of environmental destruction caused by Turinium, a growing divide bet... [read more]

11/26/2025 By Oxide_Gab in Ashes Dev Journals

Sins II Dev Journal: A Very Merry Modder Holiday Pt. 1

Howdy y’all, As the year comes closer to an end and the successful release of our latest DLC, we have had time to really dig in and start chipping away at all the feature requests that we have had internally and of course the holy grail of sweet sweet modder requests. As someone who got into Sins from the modding side of things its very rewarding to finally put some boots on the ground and start ticking off mod requests both small and large.  Let me start off by saying that the conte... [read more]

11/26/2025 By wasabi_md in Sins Dev Journals

Get Ara: History Untold for 50% Off

Get Ara: History Untold for 50% Off Steam   |   Microsoft Store This epic historical turn-based strategy game is on sale November 21 to December 2. Engage in diplomacy, fight wars, and go head-to-head with other leaders from history.  Ara: History Untold is an evolution in historical grand strategy, featuring beloved classic PC strategy mechanics alongside innovative gameplay like a national crafting economy, true simultaneous turn resolution, a non-line... [read more]

11/21/2025 By wasabi_md in Ara: History Untold News

Ashes II Dev Journal: A Preview of Internal Alpha 1

We’ve been hard at work on our internal Alpha 1 milestone. The focus has been finishing the new faction: the United Earth Forces (UEF). This is a unified military command made up of the United States, China, Russia, the EU, Australia, Japan, Korea, and others, all placed under your control to deal with the so-called “Post-Human Coalition.” Our story so far Those familiar with Ashes of the Singularity (2015) may recall the then far-fetched idea that, in the not-so-distant future, a h... [read more]

11/21/2025 By Frogboy in Ashes Dev Journals

Season 3 Roadmap for Sins II

We’re excited to share our Season 3 roadmap for Sins of a Solar Empire II! As you may know, the v1.5 update is scheduled to launch on December 10, 2025 . This update will introduce an overhauled diplomacy system, new features for the modding community, and much more. In the coming months, we’ll be providing additional details about the highly anticipated 4th faction, so stay tuned for more updates.  [read more]

11/21/2025 By redskittlesonly in Sins of a Solar Empire News

GalCiv IV Dev Journal #111 - Tales of the Terran Alliance: A Tale of Two Terrans

In the upcoming DLC, “Tales of the Terran Alliance”, we revisit the most popular (shocking) of the civilizations in the game, Humans. First we need to remember our basic timeline: Year Event 2178 Humanity (the Terran Alliance) invents Hyperdrive and reveals it (or leaks it) to other major species. The “Great Space Race” begins: the six major species rush to establish interstellar colonies. 2190 The “Altarian Prophecy” surfaces (a ~100,000... [read more]

11/20/2025 By Frogboy in GalCiv IV Dev Journals

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

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