Humanity long ago shed its mortal skin and developed into beings of pure consciousness. But the Singularity is a thing of the past and the very future of human existence is being threatened. Though the post-humans wield godlike power, they find themselves at war for domination of not just the Milky Way but all galaxies with Haalee, the sentient AI, who is bent on saving the universe from post-human predation.

Pouring your human consciousness into thousands of deadly constructs, the time has come for you to join epic confrontations where countless robotic manifestations of war smash each other into scrap only to be replaced as factories convert all available matter into a steady stream of fresh war machines. In this war for ever-more intelligence, where control of matter to fuel the expansion of computing power is the only goal, the struggle will inevitably consume the galaxy...one planet at a time.

“Fans have been asking for game replay for a while now, so we’re really excited to implement it,” said Derek Paxton, Stardock’s Vice President of Entertainment. “The replays remove the fog of war so that you can see the entire map and all its players, which can be really valuable for formulating new strategies and learning where old ones may have gone wrong.”

v2.2 also introduces sizeable game rebalances. Callum McCole of General’s Gentlemen has joined the team to take over the day-to-day design aspects of Escalation.This update focused on the following:

1. Refining the counter system
2. Increasing strategic diversity
3. Opening up late game tech
4. Making Substrate less radioactives-intensive
5. Weakening exploitative “cheese” strategies
6. Improving game flow
7. Making the game more welcoming for newer players
8. Preventing double-capturing of resource points at the beginning of a game.

To see more detailed specifics about the adjustments listed above and other balance changes made for Escalation, visit CEO Brad Wardell’s Dev Diary.

In addition to rebalancing, v2.2 adds three new maps. Manannan, a 12-player Terran map and Aenghus, a 10-player desert map, are both excellent for free-for-all games. Brighid is a smaller arctic map meant for 8 players and is ideal for a tightly enclosed 4v4 or a more widely spread game of 4 teams with 2 players each.

Modders have something to look forward to in this update as well. Players will be able to mod game files, add maps and scenarios, and enable or disable mods for their games. For more details on modding in Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation, visit the Modder’s Guide.

For a complete list of the updates in v2.2, please view the changelog on the forums here. You can also see the patch overview video here.

A real-time strategy game on a scale never before seen, where even the smallest units have diverse, independent weapons systems on them and every shot fired has its own targeting solution and ballistics model, Ashes of the Singularity explores entirely new and engaging gameplay fundamentals coupled with jaw-dropping visuals. With literally thousands of units acting independently on screen at the same time, players are introduced to a familiar infrastructure of real-time strategy gameplay while focusing their attention not on small engagements between a handful of units, but instead waging large-scale wars across multiple simultaneous battlefronts.

Ashes of the Singularity offers innovative multiplayer alongside its epic single-player campaign that tells the tale of the Singularity and complications arising from humanity's evolution away from physical form. League structures, leaderboards, stats and other features will be announced as development continues, powered by Stardock's cloud-based Project Tachyon metagaming services (led by lead architect Adrian Luff, who helped build Blizzard's Battle.net).

Key Features:

• Massive numbers of units in the world that can be easily organized into armies that allow players to fight wars across several different fronts simultaneously.
• The world's first multi-core real-time AI allowing for a non-cheating AI that can beat most players.
• A story-driven, non-linear campaign that tells the story of a United Earth in the 23rd century.
• A focus on single player replayability while including a wealth of multiplayer features.
• The future-proofed Nitrous 3D engine whose 64-bit, multi-core foundation supports DirectX 11, DirectX 12 and multiple GPUs.

Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation retails on Steam or through Stardock for $39.99.