What was the approach to creating the original music score for *Extermination?

The 1997 film soundtrack definitely inspired the music for Starship Troopers: Extermination (ST:E). We wanted to capture the essence of what made the original film’s soundtrack so brilliant with its diverse instrumentation and frequent use of military motifs.

We also created ambient music to coincide with the orchestral music. The duduk, an Armenian instrument, is used to represent the planet Valaka’s vast desert and barren landscape. A lot of the ambient music in Valaka features a pedal point where one note is played (usually a bass note), and a melody is played on top of that note – it’s a very effective way of adding atmosphere and mood.

There are three sets of ambient music: day, dusk, and night, which all have very different music depending on the time of day. The orchestral music also changes with the time of day, with bombastic orchestral arrangements playing during the day, while the dusk and night have much more subdued and somber string ensemble music. There is also darker, scarier music when you enter the Valakan caves.

We were very lucky and grateful to have the chance to record the music with a 60-piece Bratislava Symphony Orchestra, which brings life to the music. We have a lot of great things in store for the future, such as an adaptive music system which will change the music for important gameplay moments.

Will there be any plans to add other maps aside from what we have currently?

Military intelligence will most certainly need a full evaluation of the surface and dare I say the tunnel networks the bugs reside in. –  Our goal is to explore every inch of the known Starship Troopers galaxy that we have the right to use and create our own new worlds to be a part of that galactic fabric.  When it comes to Planet maps, we want to send players all over each planet – above, below, and everywhere in between – to seek out and destroy the Bugs.  Intelligence has shown us some interesting scans of Valaka. However, only the bravest of the Federation will ever attempt to go down those Bug holes. Are you brave enough, Trooper?

What inspired you when you design classes? Are they designed to fit a certain playstyle, or are you planning to expand possible playstyles?

Classes were designed to fulfill the three major roles in cooperative teamwork; Hunter – DPS, Operator – support, and Bastion – tank. The inspiration came from FPS and RPG games, whilst the Trinity exists as old as games themselves. For Starship Troopers: Extermination, we wished to further explore the possibilities of experimentation and play. Through ranking up in a certain discipline, you unlock a variety of perks and equipment that allow you to craft unique builds and synergies with other players, to take on a particular role but avoid being pigeonholed by providing players with enough options to craft something that leans towards more damage, more survivability, or more support no matter the core discipline. Each class still deserves its own identity, and thus there are unique options to each, and the future goal is to capitalize on the variety of fun and experimentation with each class builds.

Where did the origin of the project code name come from?

After the pitch was greenlit, the Project Lead, Art Director, Lead Designer, Producer and a few programmers were eating at a local sushi place just after getting our own office to start on the vertical slice officially. We were staring at the Steam account that day and needed a code name, a bunch flew around, and our Lead Designer at the time looked around the table. Most of the people had made the same order!! So he said… Yakisoba?

Can we for the love of the federation have the ability to friend in-game & form platoons with other players in-game?

We are hard at work designing our social systems.  The first thing we want to get into the game is a way for people to play and connect with their existing friends and, of course, a way to make new friends. On top of that, we are actively designing what our version of clans/guilds are and how we can put our unique Troopers spin on it.  We want to make sure all our features tie into the amazing Starship Trooper universe.

Will there be additional structures added such as spotlights, comm center, radar or other structures that grant benefits to the squads?

Building is one of the key components of our game loop, and we are always looking at new opportunities to add new gameplay mechanics and new structures to the experience.  We want each new structure to have a compelling reason why it exists in the world, ensuring that it has a clear benefit to the player to build. We will be introducing a new mechanic/structure to the game very soon that will enhance how a player uses an existing structure.

Hello, can we get an explanation on how stagger actually works?

Guns have a stagger damage amount and bugs have a stagger damage threshold. Once you deal enough stagger damage, a Bug will stagger, meaning it will be pushed back in the opposite direction of where the last bit of stagger damage came from. Each weapon has a stagger damage value separate from their base damage value. If you want to see stagger in action the easiest way would be to shoot a warrior with a hawkeye and you should see it stumble and take a few steps back. The SAW is also a great choice to see stagger in action. The stagger damage depletes over time so you want to sustain fire on enemies to stagger them.

Marauder Support – Does this mean playable Marauders or just NPCs that show up in Marauders?

Marauders are an iconic part of the Troopers universe and are on our design radar. Nothing is immediately in production, but rest assured there are plans to add them as a playable feature in either Phase 4 or 5 of our Development Roadmap.

Will other vehicles be added and how do you plan on incorporating them?

Nothing is planned for other vehicles in the near future; however, every new world we create is being designed and built to support all different types of vehicles, whether on land or in the air.

What challenges do you face in balancing the game at this state?

Just the sheer number of possible combinations of content is the hardest thing to keep up with.  Think about the permutations of perks, weapons, and abilities combined with level design and difficulty scaling. Combine those challenges with the fact the game isn’t fully completed and is still in active development, making it much harder to balance. One common thought experiment our designers go through is trying to decide if we want to balance for the future ideal state or with what we have in the game now, constantly evaluating internally and through the community feedback if we are making the right call. Case in point, if we leave something alone for too long and players get used to it and then when we finally update the feature with its final intended form, the community can feel like we pulled the rug out from under them, especially when it may relate to their favorite weapon for their favorite class.  We want to avoid these occurrences whenever possible.

Ex: The Hawkeye was sitting in a weird point between a semi-auto sniper and a bolt action for a while trying to fill the roles of both and ended up in this super powerful position where it could kind of do everything. These things will happen as we navigate through the Early Access period.

Will they add a new class?

Our Public Roadmap we released at the beginning of Early Access highlighted that we will be adding at least one.  We are in the early concept phase of that class right now, and we have so many more ideas on different classes we can bring to the universe and game.  We will of course take this charge seriously, as every class we design must fit into the universe and add something new and exciting to the core gameplay experience.

Will there be a gatling gun?

Great question, the official answer is… well… Hmmm… ahhhh… we love all kinds of power weapons here at HQ

Will there be any plans on integrating the larger and more iconic bugs for Military Intelligence to “study” after we eradicate them, like the Tanker Bugs?

Oh my, there are so many  Bugs coming to the game throughout the next 12 months, both novel and familiar… Bugs of every shape and size… one NEW Bug is coming soonish… Oh I said too much…

Wrap up

We want to take a moment and thank you all, our community, for the amount of love we have received from our communities on Steam, X (formally known as Twitter), Facebook, and Discord. It has been overwhelming but nevertheless sincerely appreciated.  We are deeply humbled that you all have embraced the game, the studio, and our commitment to the Early Access process.  Rest assured that everyone who is responsible for the creation of this game are deeply passionate and are fueled every day by the immense kindness coming from our community.  Thank you all so much for coming along on this wild ride with us.  

So what’s coming next ? Well, all we can say is our fall schedule is jammed full of exciting new features and experiences for you all to enjoy.  We are about 3-4 weeks away from revealing our next update, It will be our biggest deployment yet!

Starship Troopers: Extermination Team Out!

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