Rockfish Games, creators of Everspace 2, AMA

[AcceleRacer]

I am enthusiastic about EVERSPACE 2. Is there any new plans for the next year?

 

[fizzgig]

Nice to have you here! Any chances of you guys pushing out VR support at some point?? That would be amazing!!

 

[joxterthemighty]

will there be any mod support

 

[MasterE]

Will there be a goods trading system of some sort like in GoF2? There I used to grind the money in order to obtain the endgame ships.

 

[Crogoth]

Is Steam Workshop or general mod support something that we'll see?

 

[DarkStalker]

Will there be multiplayer in any form?

 

[DarkFrostX]

Will you take advance of the new SSDs that are appearing so the loading s are not impacted so much?

 

[Calibraxxis]

What will the tone of the story be?

 

[RFG_Erik]

Do you plan any co-op mode in the future?

Will there be multiplayer in any form?

We do not plan on doing any kind of multiplayer/coop support; EVERSPACE 2 was started as a single-player experience, and will be completed as one.

 

[RFG_Erik]

I am enthusiastic about EVERSPACE 2. Is there any new plans for the next year?

Truth be told, early access (starting at the end of this year) is going to be a very big deal, and we'll be making many new reveals along the way up until full release.

If what we've currently shown has intrigued you, you're going to enjoy the ride!

 

[elevenfall]

What's the first thing from the first game that you kicked out for everspace 2?

 

[RFG_Erik]

Nice to have you here! Any chances of you guys pushing out VR support at some point?? That would be amazing!!

VR is a very tricky beast. We did VR for ES1, and it was met with a wild amount of criticism. To this, we're quite certain it is because we added VR on as a bonus to the game, so you simply got it. However, individuals playing ES1 specifically for VR found it a bit less than adequate.

Through this feedback, we adjusted and modified the VR experience heavily, and we're happy with the end result. But we've also learned that VR has to be done exceptionally well, as though the entirety of the experience was meant for VR in the first place.

EVERSPACE 2 does not have VR scheduled at this time. We're very hesitant, because we'd rather devote our many working hours into building content for the game. But IF (and this is a big bold IF) we go into VR territory with ES2, it'll be a separate application. This means, we'll devote all of our time and energy to making it a full-blown VR experience, not just a bonus to the base game., that you would buy separately.

 

[RFG_Erik]

will there be any mod support

Is Steam Workshop or general mod support something that we'll see?

We want to make ES2 accessible for modding, but it is not a priority at this point in development. We'll have to follow-up about this one later. But in short, know that your desires and our own are aligning!

 

[TofuDumplings]

What ES2 expansions/dlcs do you have plans or ideas for?

 

[RFG_Erik]

Will there be a goods trading system of some sort like in GoF2? There I used to grind the money in order to obtain the endgame ships.

Yup, there absolutely will be. In our current alpha build, there's a rough idea of one. But the overall goal for the finished product is to establish trade routes, unique station desires, and clever resource-rich locations to give player reward for mining and mercantile work.

 

[RFG_Erik]

What's the first thing from the first game that you kicked out for everspace 2?

The genre. I'm serious!

EVERSPACE 1 is an arcade-y space shooter with roguelike mechanics. It falls under "roguelite."
EVERSPACE 2 is an arcade-y space looter shooter in an open world RPG setting.

 

[RFG_Erik]

What will the tone of the story be?

Through this narrative, EVERSPACE 2 will be mostly serious, while also having some underlying tones of mystery, humor, discovery, and even horror this time around.

 

[RFG_Erik]

What ES2 expansions/dlcs do you have plans or ideas for?

We certainly want to expand on the foundation of the game, as that multiplies the experience as a whole. So, for example, we're currently working on three ship classes and three subclasses. With how much variation there can be to a single ship, this is already a large amount of player ship variety. So, if we were to add in another ship with DLC, it cascades into an even more absurd level of customization.

And overall, that's the type of focus will be once we get to the DLC: foundational expansion. Possibly new ships, new locations, new items, etc. But while we do have ideas of what we want to do after the main game is done, I know we'll also take heavy inspiration from our community's feedback through the beta, early access, and full release of the game.

But, let's get through this year first, and then get a full game released, before we get into DLC details.

 

[pizzahut]

How long did you spend on making this new game?
Did you fail along the way? Any cool things you learned from that experience?

 

[Misguided]

Can we get a weapon that launches hydra onto ships to drain energy from them?

 

[Red Rum is Yum]

Big fan of galaxy on fire 2 here. Everspace 2 is looking to be better in basically every aspect and I’m here for it! As for my question: Is there a chance to fly exotic looking ships, potentially by other factions? All the ships I’ve seen at the moment even though can look quite different aesthetically from different colours, modules etc, don’t have that special variety that it’s in GOF2.

All the ships have this clean robust look that seem to be modified colonial vessels just like ES1. Reminds me of what the Terran ships were like from GOF. But what about flying a ship that looks like something from vossk? Exotic, spiky, unique etc? Heck even flying the three winged outlaw scout ship would be amazing. Since the models are already there, I’d imagine that the only thing that would need to be done is copy the cockpits you are working on currently and paste them into these different ships for us to fly. Anyways thanks for doing this AMA and good luck!

 

[Joolez]

What kind of freedom can we expect on the way we approach missions?

 

[RFG_HCK]

Big fan of galaxy on fire 2 here. Everspace 2 is looking to be better in basically every aspect and I’m here for it! As for my question: Is there a chance to fly exotic looking ships, potentially by other factions? All the ships I’ve seen at the moment even though can look quite different aesthetically from different colours, modules etc, don’t have that specially variety that it’s in GOF2.

All the ships have this clean robust look that seem to be modified colonial vessels just like ES1. Reminds me of what the Terran ships were like from GOF. But what about flying a ship that looks like something from vossk? Exotic, spiky, unique etc? Heck even flying the three winged outlaw scout ship would be amazing. Since the models are already there, I’d imagine that the only thing that would need to be done is copy the cockpits you are working on currently and paste them into these different ships for us to fly. Anyways thanks for doing this AMA and good luck!

There is always a chance but it is currently not planned to give the player access to ships from other factions. In GOF2, there was just a 3d ship model with a texture. It was easy to let the player fly basically anything. In Everspace 2, player ships are built in a quite complex way to allow for module changing, colorization, cockpit view and further customization. We are glad that we don't have to do that all that for the NPC ships as well. And if we took this effort for only a few ships, I guess everyone would fly these in the end so that's also something we want to avoid. Maybe in the next game

 

[RFG_HCK]

What kind of freedom can we expect on the way we approach missions?

Well, you can use the ship of your choice with the equipment of your choice, so that's one thing. Sometimes, a mission will have a goal that can be achieved in different ways or it can have optional tasks. Just don't expect a hitman-style type of freedom where we give you ten different options to infiltrate a station.

 

[mperkins37]

interesting game , never played it, sounds rockin..