Evil Genius 2

We've been listening, and we've been busy. With this update we have addressed core areas of feedback from you, the Evil Genius 2 community, ranging from progression issues to game pace, and as a result the length of a campaign can be significantly shorter for those of you who want to play more aggressively.

On the World Map, we've increased the amount of Gold earned from longer running Schemes, and ensured that this is earned over the Scheme's entire duration, allowing you to set a Scheme in motion and reap the rewards while your attention is turned elsewhere. These Schemes still add Heat to the Region, but you'll know how much to expect up front, allowing you more effectively manage the strength of the Agents you're willing to face.

Longer "Heat Reduction" Schemes still remove all Heat from a Region, but once they have done so they can either be cancelled, or allowed to continue running for an increased amount of time, preventing Heat from rising in the area. This keeps the Forces of Justice off your back while the Criminal Network continues to bring in its passive income of Gold. We've also increased the variety of Schemes at Tier 1 Criminal Networks, which will allow you to earn increased rewards for sending specialist minions out into the world earlier in the game, so while you'll still be able to rely on workers to bring in Gold in the early game, it can be beneficial to keep a supply of advanced minions on hand.

Additionally, a brand new Scheme Type has been added in the form of Intel Only schemes, representing activating contacts in your existing Criminal Networks by using Intel generated by Computer Consoles, or sourced from Agent Interrogations. These schemes can be run without sending additional minions from the Lair, allowing you to start a scheme instantly and reap enormous rewards. Be aware that setting some of these Schemes in motion will add a substantial amount of Heat to your Region, so be prepared for strong Agents if you activate one at the wrong time.

In the Lair, the first thing we changed was the speed that vehicles arrive and depart from your Island. This allows minions to get out into the World with greater haste, helping you keep your efforts of World Domination ticking over more readily. We've reduced some key training times for specialist minions to reduce stalls in the training room, and we've also taken a look at the messaging of some items of Lair equipment and added some key information, especially in relation to which items of furniture the Forces of Justice are going to be on the lookout for.

Your more valuable minions - despite being inherently less valuable than your own, nefarious Genius - will still expect to be paid for their time...while they're alive, of course. You'll need to keep a keener eye on your income and outgoings from now on, as the penalties for not doing so will be more readily apparent. We've added additional status effects and minion overheads to help you identify the problem cases in your Lair.

The Forces of Justice have also had some attention, with more dangerous Agent specialists now regularly visiting your Lair if you fail to turn away Investigators before they delve too deeply, and some rebalancing of Super Agents and the squads that accompany them. Be wary - the specialists sent by Investigators will always pose a more dangerous threat.

We've also taken care of a range of bugs too of course, addressing known problem areas with stuck or vanishing Super Agents, troublesome Schemes that decided a Region was too crowded to spawn in, and ensuring more players across the world are able to play out their dreams of dominating it, to name just a few. See the bulleted lists below for a few more details of the balance changes and bug fixes.

As always, thank you for your continued support of Evil Genius 2.

The Evil Genius 2 Development Team

Balance Notes

General

• Vehicle speed and responsiveness have been significantly increased, resulting in a faster game pace, and more rapid travel for all characters to and from the Lair.
• Body Bags have been made less punitive, by increasing the duration of the negative status effect, but lowering the Morale drain that results, giving minions more time to reach stat restoring equipment.
• Minions operating furniture will no longer ignore Executions.
• Minion Salaries have been increased in line with the increased income available from the World Map. Evil Genius discounts still apply.
• Specialist minions who are not paid will suffer increased penalties to their Morale, and the messaging of these penalties has been improved.
• Minions will abandon a wider range of Lair activities to travel to the World Map, speeding up Scouting of Regions, Upgrading Criminal Networks, and running Schemes.
• Muscle minions will respond to combat at a slightly increased range, and their base armour and damage values have been increased.
• Suspicion required to attract a wave of Specialist Agents has been lowered.
• The cost of the Bonus Minion Capacity Research Projects has been lowered.
• Agents will spend less time on individual items in the Cover Operation, and are less likely to revisit them.
• The number of Tourists arriving at the Lair will increase with campaign progress.
• Additional categories have been added to the Minion Manager for Guard Posts, Armoury Staging Posts, and the Laboratory.
• Advanced minions types are now available earlier in each campaign.
• Main and Side Story tasks that require minions to be trained now take into account those already present in the Lair.

Difficulty Modes

• When playing on Easy difficulty, free Worker minions are auto-hired at a rate of 6 every 60 seconds, increased from 2 every 60 seconds.
• When playing on Easy difficulty, Worker minions can be manually recruited at a cost of 1,000 Gold per minion, reduced from 2,000 Gold per minion.
• In Hard mode, Agents have had their combat stats increased to ensure they remain a challenge in the face of tougher Muscle minions.

World Map

• Increased duration on long Gold and Heat schemes, and cost adjustments made to allow for more hands-off World Map play.
• Criminal Networks now generate more Gold as a passive income at each level.
• New Scheme Type Added: Intel Only. These schemes do not require minions and have a very short duration.
• Increased variety of Schemes at Tier 1.
• Super Agents and other Antagonists on the World Stage can be attracted to the Lair directly by selecting the character on the map, and then using the "Lure" option on their side panel.
• After exiting Lockdown, residual Heat in a Region remains at 0%/20%/30% when playing on Eay/Medium/Hard difficulty.

Broadcast Strength required to upgrade Criminal Networks has been reduced.

• The time required to upgrade Criminal Networks has been reduced.
• Super Agents ignore Heat Reduction Schemes.

Lair Building

• Gold earned from excavating Gold Tiles has been increased.
• Furniture Modes have additional descriptions.
• Muscle minions now prefer Advanced Guard Posts over Armoury jobs.
• Training time has been reduced for Biologists, Quantum Chemists, Counter Agents, Socialites, and Spin Doctors.
• Internal door access times have been modified to favour shorter times for minions and longer times for agents. The Evil Genius and Henchmen can pass through any door unimpeded.
• External doors to the Lair now open automatically for minions on lower security levels, but not for Agents, cutting down on the time it takes minions to travel to the World or collect new items.
• Minions gain improved benefits from the "Well Fed" Trait, gained by eating at specialised Food Counters in the Mess Hall.

Campaigns

• Scheme durations have been reduced to 10 seconds for the overwhelming majority of Objective Schemes.
• Doomsday Device Fuel Scheme costs have been adjusted to cost only ONE thing: Gold, minions or intel, and had their durations reduced to 10 seconds.
• Doomsday Device Fuel Schemes now require only a level 1 Criminal Network at all stages, making gathering fuel much easier throughout each campaign.
• Schemes spawned from Red Ivan's Doomsday Device reward a number of Muscle minions in addition to a significant quantity of Gold.
• Heat generated by Objective Schemes has been lowered so that Schemes can more reliably be run without being cancelled by the Criminal Network entering Lockdown.
• Intel costs have been reduced for Main Objective Schemes, and entirely removed from Side Objective Schemes.
• The Objectives "A Moment's Calm", "A Moment's Respite", "A Moment of Preparation", and "The Final Respite" have had requirements for Loot, Schemes run, and Research completed entirely removed.

Traits

• Feels No Pain, Good Reflexes / Thick Skin / Owns Armour damage reduction to 10% / 15 / 20% / 25%
• Decent Uppercut / Good Cross Punch / Strong Left Hook / Strong Right Hook / Strong Left Jab / Strong Left Jab bonus melee damage increased 10 / 10 / 15/ 15/ 20 / 20
• Crack Shot / Good Shot bonus damage increased 25 / 10 Ranged damage, and no longer stack with Poor Shot
• Ex-Force of Justice Spotting Power bonus increased against the appropriate Force of Justice
• Perceptive Spotting Power increased against All Agents
• Loves Sleep / Loves food bonus stat restore increased to 10 per minute on affected jobs
• Bad Back Vitality drain while carrying body bags and furniture lowered to 5 Vitality per minute
• Sees Dead People spawn chance lowered slightly. Now restores additional Morale when disposing of bodies

Thrifty / Cheap Salary Reduction increased to a 50% / 75% discount

• Loves 80s Ballads Morale Restore boost on Karaoke Machine doubled
• Hates Needles Morale drain reduced while operating equipment in the Infirmary.
• Embarrassing Tattoo Willingness to train into a minion type who does not have sleeves on their uniform further reduced

Bug Fixes

General

• Crash fixes and stability improvements.
• Evil Genius 2 can now be played and saved if your Windows username contains non-latin characters.
• The setting to "Share Game Information" is reliably saved between games.
• Agents and minions will no longer refuse to die in unusual combat or trap combinations.
• Characters will no longer become stuck in place after triggering Traps in unusual circumstances.
• Geniuses and Henchmen will no longer fail to enter combat with disguised Agents when given a direct command.
• Minion Salaries are correctly removed after desertion.
• Commitments are correctly updated after canceling or rearranging build orders.
• Agents will brazenly don their Disguises in front of minions if those minions lack the Smarts to remove them.
• Interrogating Force of Justice Agents of any quality will correctly generate Intel.
• Research progress on the HUD is displayed consistently.
• IRIS will no longer erroneously advise that the Vault is empty on starting a new game.
• Minion Manager performance has been improved.
• Minions with Traits which recover their stats can be captured correctly.
• Minions will upgrade their weapon after training to become a more advanced minion type, provided better weapons are available for them to do so.
• Event Logs for characters arriving at the Lair now trigger when the vehicle they are in has arrived.
• The Cruise Ship will wait for significantly less time before departing.
• The cooldown on specific IRIS Event Log messages has been increased.
• Loot Items do not indicate one is available to place in the Build Menu after they are stolen by Rogues.
• Causes of death remain on Body Bags after loading a save.
• Dropped Rogue sacks now have a standardised appearance, regardless of their contents.
• Minions can correctly be assigned priorities in the Minion Manager whilst Training.
• Overhead icons for wall-mounted Traps now appear in the correct location above the trap.
• Luxury Beds have had their passive durability decay removed.
• Brainwashing Saboteurs/Rogues/Soldiers will more reliably add Technicians/Valets/Guards to your workforce. *Brainwashing higher level Agents will add higher level minions to your workforce.
• Muscle minions now prefer to use Advanced Guard Posts over the Guard Tables / Staging Posts in the Armoury.

When playing as Maximilian, multiple Conference Tables can be built.

• The area near the Helicopter Tower on Crown Gold is no longer autotagged.

World Map

• Schemes necessary for progressing Objectives spawn more reliably.
• Super Agents no longer become stuck in the "Investigating" state on the World Map.
• Schemes that provide rewards over time have had their presentation modified to improve messaging.
• Criminal Networks can no longer be destroyed while a Region is in Lockdown.
• Super Agents will travel to the Lair after a Scheme has been run in their Region, even if that Scheme is cancelled.
• Super Agents will respawn more rapidly on the World Map after leaving the Lair without being defeated.

Campaigns

• Running Doomsday Fuel Schemes will correctly progress Objectives which require it, even if the Doomsday Device is fully fuelled.

Side Stories

• In the Side Story, "Cunning as a Foxworth", killing any Steele Agent will correctly progress the task to "Kill J. Steeles in the Lair".
• Full Metal Jackie is now easier to recruit.
• The Side Story, "The Other Most Dangerous Game", can no longer be started if one or more Super Agents have been permanently defeated.
• Minions will correctly move away from stat restore equipment during Objectives which impact their maximum stats.
• The Rayguns stolen from Area 51 list the correct minions that can use them.

Sandbox Mode

• All Tech Tree nodes are correctly accessible in Sandbox Mode.
• Research which costs more than 40,000 Gold can now be unlocked in Sandbox Mode.
• Photo Mode stability has been improved in Sandbox Mode.

Developer Update Hi, this is Rob Myall, lead coder on Evil Genius 2, with another development update. We continue to see lively discussion on all our social media channels and hopefully this will help you understand where our priorities are today.

With the release of our In-Genius Items Pack, one of our early decisions to only allow the addition of DLC to new campaigns received a lot of feedback and we’re looking to address that as soon as we possibly can, hopefully in the next major patch. The next patch will focus on further quality of life updates and bug fixes. This is looking promising but is going to take a fair amount of testing so we can’t rush it out of the door. This will ultimately exclude one item of DLC – the Campaign Pack – which, as you’ll see when we start to reveal more details, is not something that can be dropped into a game in progress.

We’re also continuing to look at other points of feedback: many of you have expressed dissatisfaction with the vignette effect around the screen so we’re looking to add an accessibility option to disable this, as well as an option to disable some of the flashing elements in the UI. One of the items we couldn’t address in our large balance patch (V1.3.0) was research still being an item that blocks play, so we’re looking at whether we can retain your progress on one research project while allowing you to switch to another (allowing you to prioritise that World Domination research without having to abandon a longer-term upgrade).

Rich Edwards’ design team are looking at balance issues to do with the spreading of Fire (which may help those struggling with a Red Ivan playthrough!), how Agents interact with the Cover Operation and their initial entry in to the Lair, and looking at making Traps more effective. They’re also fixing a number of Loot items that haven’t quite been working as expected.

Keep engaging with our Community team and we’ll do our best to keep you apprised.

This update focuses on quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes. With this update, additional content can be added to a campaign in progress through the "Enable DLC" option on any Load Game panel, and we intend to continue to support this option for all future DLC, with the exception of the Campaign pack, as noted in the last Development Update.

Deserting minions can now be captured and allowed to reconsider whether betraying you is really a mistake they can afford to make, with the result that their Morale will gradually restore during captivity, and with the new "Release Prisoner" button on all flavours of Holding Cell, said minions can be released and allowed to return to work once you determine they've learned their lesson.

We've also taken a good long look at Decor Items, as though the effects of these were always intended to be subtle, they were clearly not having a sufficiently measurable impact on your Evil Lairs, and as a result have had their effects significantly boosted.

The strength of Force of Justice Agents against Lair defences continues to be a focus area for the Design team, but as a first step with this update you should find Agents are less effective at Sabotaging Traps at all but the highest levels.

Please note: We continue to investigate reports that a number of players have been unable to play Evil Genius 2 since updating to a previous version, and will be releasing a fix for this as soon as we are able to do so.

Thank you all for your continued support of Evil Genius 2: we'll continue to listen to your feedback through the Community team.

The Evil Genius 2 Development Team

General

• Characters now board the Cruise Ship more swiftly.
• Click and hold functionality has been improved for picking-up and moving Items.
• All Decor effects have been significantly boosted. Note that an Item can be affected by only one Decor Item at a time, and we are looking at improving the messaging of this in a future patch.
• Deserting minions can now be captured and imprisoned to make them rethink their life choices, and slowly restore their Morale.
• Warning notification added at the "Point of No Return", after which progressing to the next campaign Objective will prohibit access to any remaining Side Stories.
• The layout of rock types in Montañas Gemelas has been modified to increase options for reaching the lower levels of the Doomsday Cavern. Note that this change will impact new campaigns only.
• Options for Stair placement on the basement floors of the "Crown Gold" and "Caine Key" Island Lairs have been expanded. Note that this change will impact new campaigns only.
• Characters will no longer become trapped inside the Helipad tower in unusual circumstances on the "Caine Key" Island Lair.
• Characters should no longer become temporarily trapped when moving through Doors in unusual circumstances.

Access to the Doomsday Device Cavern can no longer be blocked by placing Items.

• Training Items will no longer enter a state where training is extremely swift or extremely slow in unusual circumstances.
• Characters no longer become clipped with one another and unable to board vehicles in unusual circumstances.
• The frequency of IRIS notifications has been reduced for the Vault, combat, and Training interruptions.
• Fire Extinguishers no longer become less used over time if minions drop them to desert the Lair due to low Morale.
• Using hotkeys to select Henchmen will no longer cause the camera to jump to their location.
• Completion rewards have been added to Objectives that previously had none.
• Commanding a captive to be Escorted to first a Prison Cell, then overriding this with a command for the same captive to be taken to an Interrogation device, will correctly result in the second command being carried out.
• Minions will no longer use Items which boost their maximum stat value unless the stat which will be boosted is already over 45.
• Character Abilities are more clearly differentiated on Side Panels when the character has insufficient stats to activate them.
• New Status messages for the Genius and Henchmen indicating that their stats can be restored at an Impressive Desk or Conference Table respectively.
• Enemy characters using Cover Operation Items are now correctly affected by Gas attacks, such as Fugu Furakawa's "Blowfish Explosion" Ability.
• Additional rare Traits added when minions are spawned, or complete specific jobs around the Lair.
• The Gold cost of broadcast strength Research Projects has been reduced.
• The "Learning Lamp" Archive Item correctly lists Deception minions as Users, and Science minions as Operators.
• The "Intensive Care Pod" Infirmary Item correctly lists All minions as Users, and Science minions & Workers as Operators.
• The doors of the "Rejuvenation Chamber" Lair Item now animate correctly, and the visual effects align correctly with the model.
• Characters no longer play erratic animations before death in unusual circumstances.
• Characters' limbs remain in the intended positions during Interrogation.
• Selecting the final stage of a Doomsday Device, then entering Build Mode will no longer cause the Doomsday Device to temporarily float in place.
• Descriptions have been added for Mode settings on Lair Items.
• Door access times have been slightly adjusted.
• Suspicion is now displayed on the Side Panels of Lair Items awaiting construction.
• The "Laser Disco" Trap no longer clips through area of effect indicators when selecting other Traps.
• Cover Operation glass is no longer visible when constructing Stairs near the windows of the "Montañas Gemelas" Island Lair.
• The Event Log displayed in the Stats Screen now scrolls correctly when clicking and dragging the scroll bar.
• The Research screen will now display a brief explanation if Research has become paused.
• Deception minion descriptions are listed correctly in the Rogues' Gallery.
• Information overlays for Tourist Side Panels have been updated.
• Triggering a Flamethrower Trap will no longer trigger a *Fire-related Event Log message unless minions are caught in the effect.
• Maximilian's Inner Sanctum wall tiles no longer clip through Doors.
• The cursor for ordering prisoners to be moved to an empty cell is no longer misshapen.
• Player-controlled characters no longer rise a short distance into the air when ordered to walk to specific locations near the swimming pool on the "Crown Gold" Island Lair.
• "Move" Tooltip is no longer displayed in the top-left of the screen after placing an Item then immediately selecting it.
• Minion position markers are no longer misaligned when selected while using specific Lair Items.
• Minor improvements to icons when colour blindness settings are enabled.
• The game no longer lags when adjusting the Brightness slider in the Graphics Options screen.

The ability to move Items is no longer prematurely unlocked in the Tutorial.

• Items from the "In-Genius Items" pack can be used to complete Tutorial tasks where appropriate.

The Technician Trainer correctly obeys in-game audio settings.

• A number of Schemes have had their locations adjusted to more suitably match their descriptions.
• A number of Traits have had their effects significantly boosted.
• Improved gamepad support.
• Text and localisation improvements.

Achievements

• The "Fighting Fire With Fire" achievement now unlocks correctly when setting Atomic Olga on fire by using Traps.
• In Zalika's campaign Objective, "Tourist Trap", curing IRIS will no longer count toward Henchman recruitment achievements.
• The "Total Annihilation" achievement no longer unlocks prematurely.

Campaigns

• Emma will no longer become trapped in an Execution animation in unusual circumstances.
• The backfire effect of H.A.V.O.C. has been reduced.
• John Steele Snr's Allies can no longer be brainwashed in Emma's campaign Objective, "Poison Paradise".

Minions will no longer approach John Steele Snr when attempting to Execute him during Emma's campaign Objective, "Dear John".

• Geniuses can no longer be reduced to 0 Smarts by Mocking prisoners repeatedly.
• Main Objective Schemes will spawn more rapidly on the World Map, reducing wait times.
• The appearance of Regions affected by the M.I.D.A.S. Device at maximum power has been improved.
• Investigators who reach 0 Resolve will correctly attempt to escape the Lair during Red Ivan's campaign Objective, "Rumour Has It".
• The "Ambush Air" Scheme displays the correct rewards during Maximilian's campaign Objective, "Trap D'Or".
• Political Aides will no longer gain a brief "Exit" overhead icon in Maximilian's campaign Objective, "The Traditional Method".
• Nigel Mc Reary will attempt to avoid combat during Maximilian's Campaign Objective, "War On Krast".
• Schemes which invite additional Tourists to the Lair have had their visual significance reduced during Maximilian's campaign Objective, "War On Krast".
• Agents assaulting the Lair are attributed to the correct Force of Justice during Maximilian's campaign Objective, "The Golden Age".

Side Stories

• Carl Cafard no longer clips into the "Valuable Paintings" Item while inspecting it during the Side Story, "Body Snatcher".
• Beekeepers will no long attempt to escape the Lair during the Side Story, "One In A Bee-Lion".
• Cameras that have already been constructed will count toward the Side Stories, "Thy Fearful Symmetry" and "Wind Wars: The Wind Strikes Back".
• Travel Agents will no longer put up a fight when tagged for Capture in the Side Story, "North By North".
• The "Antidote" Research Project is no longer removed if the game is played for over 15 hours while remaining on the Side Story "Going Green".
• Full Metal Jackie correctly has the "Temporary Partnership" Trait during the Side Story, "Eighteen With A Bullet".
• The "Time After Time" Research project has had its research time significantly reduced in Side Story, "Outta Time".
• Eli's Guards no longer display a Force of Justice affiliation in the Side Story, "Vox Pop-Eli".
• The Event Log correctly indicates Agent X has arrived at the Lair alone during Side Story, "Manifest Entropy".
• "Attack Robots" no longer arrive prematurely during the Side Story, "I Spy With My Cybernetically Enhanced Eye".

Schemes no longer incorrectly appear as Threats during the Side Story, "Hail To The Chef".

• Espectro no longer hovers in the air above P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Region terrain when he appears on the World Map during Cabal Side Stories.
• Ignacio no longer has a Trait erroneously indicating he is actually Incendio during the Side Story, "Fire In The Hole".

Super Agents

• Side Panel portraits for Agent Steele now match the appearance of the character.
• Super Agents Side Panels include the correct Force of Justice affiliation when they are Lured from the World Stage.
• Specialist Agents accompanying a Super Agent are assigned the correct Force of Justice affiliation.

Henchmen

• Henchman Abilities no longer enter cooldown or have their stat cost taken before they are in the correct position to begin using the selected Ability.
• Jubei will no longer teleport through terrain when his "Windwalk" ability is targeted at very specific points on an Island Lair.
• Jubei no longer becomes unresponsive in unusual circumstances when activating his "Flow" ability while the game is paused.
• Jubei's "Flow" Ability can no longer be activated while he is being Executed.
• Incendio will no longer become stuck in an animation cycle when using his "Magic Trick" ability in unusual circumstances.
• Incendio's Side Panel now correctly lists the Morale cost for using his "Misdirection" character ability.
• Espectro will no longer become unresponsive after being ordered to use his "Clone" ability immediately after completing a move command.
• Selecting Espectro's "Summon Ally" Ability while "Piston Punch" is being activated will correctly focus the camera on the Espectro Clone, if one has already been summoned.
• Fugu Furakawa's "Sleeping With The Fishes" Scheme now correctly removes all Heat from a Region, regardless of the level of the Criminal Network.
• Eli's Silver Revolver should no longer disappear from his hand during idle animations at a Conference Table.
• Clara Jones defeat bark is now paired with the correct text.

Loot Items

• The requirements for a minion to be judged worthy by the Sword In the Stone Loot item have been made easier to meet.

Certain Loot items can no longer be stolen during their

Side Stories.

• The "Cupid's Arrow" Loot item can no longer be destroyed.

Minions will more commonly use the "World's Oldest Bones" Loot Item.

• The "Million Bees" Loot Item no longer requires a minion to deliver it to the Depot before it can be placed.
• Loot Item information is consistently unlocked in the Rogues' Gallery after acquiring it.
• When using a gamepad, navigating between placed Loot Items in the Build Menu no longer skips items in the list.