Oh? Ah, pfft... I knew THAT...

>.>

<.<

stasik28 wrote:
Yea, the AI is one of the main focuses right now. And the game is like a mix of Distant Worlds and Master of Orion. You need to worry more about planet resources like in MOO but it's gameplay is that of Worlds (thought I find this ship design a lot better than DW)

Reminds me of Armada 2526 Planet-support was a lot to do

Well both were published by Iceberg . Doesn't Armada 2526 have mechs for ground combat?

stasik28 wrote:
Well both were published by Iceberg . Doesn't Armada 2526 have mechs for ground combat?

Many 4X games get/got published by Iceberg.



Yeah, it had ground combat too.

Yea, Iceberg is making it their job to get as many 4X games published as possible. I for one agree with them

Stardrive got some things i like, animated diplomacy screens for example something that i'd love to see in ES, and some i dont with more important its not turn based.

Nomas wrote:
Stardrive got some things i like, animated diplomacy screens for example something that i'd love to see in ES, and some i dont with more important its not turn based.

Honestly excactly the animations of Armada 2526 made me dislike the game - everytime your planets got inviaded, a scene of your people getting slaughtered.



And the animations for diplomacy weren't the burner too.

Quill did a 1 hour preview/"lets try" video for those who want to see more about the actual game instead of reading and watching trailers.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EzMc0Ytlyg

Oh has he? I've mainly been watching his simcity livestream Therefore yay! go quil!

It was uploaded today - you didn't miss anything, hehe.

ZZGashi wrote:
Understandable, especially number 2. Right now program optimizations are the current focus, so that the game runs smoothly and takes advantage of the power offered by modern hardware, as well as UI and general bug squashing. I am sure the AI will get some love in the upcoming weeks.



I enjoy StarDrive more than I do Distant Worlds, as I now find Distant Worlds kind of boring.



Mansen is right though, quality over quantity, I find myself not having that many colonies during the game.

Yea, the AI is one of the main focuses right now. And the game is like a mix of Distant Worlds and Master of Orion. You need to worry more about planet resources like in MOO but it's gameplay is that of Worlds (thought I find this ship design a lot better than DW)

Mansen wrote:
Quill did a 1 hour preview/"lets try" video for those who want to see more about the actual game instead of reading and watching trailers.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EzMc0Ytlyg

Ah! nice. Will watch this tomorrow.

Do note that he doesn't understand the mechanics entirely - hence the "lets try". So don't take all that he says as gospel - the beta forum is open to all though, so you can easily ask any questions there even if you don't own the game.

Mansen wrote:
Quill did a 1 hour preview/"lets try" video for those who want to see more about the actual game instead of reading and watching trailers.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EzMc0Ytlyg

Well done, well done

Just played it through.



Early game is a jewel. Game runs like a dream, no CTD's or such. Ai is competent and punished me for my usual 4X early game colonization rush.



Late game became sluggish and was more about mechanically rolling up the remaining AI's and thus no fun.



There are still some beta-issues, none of which are nothing near the mentioned problems of Pegasus and SoTS2. More like balance issues, scout and freighter pathfinding problems and fleet management clunkiness.



What I like:

- Realistic planetary systems (This is NOT criticism of ES planetary systems screen)

- Space ship customization (Here you can use easily half an hour designing your ship, if you like)

- Space battles (no 3D, but nice, even though I'm not a RTS fan)

- Economy (simple, but interesting). Freighters and specialization of planets.

- Colony management (although late game ruins the fun out of this micromanagement. But this is a problem for all space 4X)

- No colonization rush (pick your targets, develop them)

- Exploration rewards



Dislikes:

- No victory conditions? "Kill all" makes late game tedious

- Fleet management isn't user friendly

- Sluggish in late game

- Balance issues

- Lack of interrace trade



All in all I would give 8,5 as ES gets a 9 from me.



NOTE: the game is still in beta so some issues above might be fixed before release.

PekkaTa wrote:
Just played it through.



Early game is a jewel. Game runs like a dream, no CTD's or such. Ai is competent and punished me for my usual 4X early game colonization rush.



Late game became sluggish and was more about mechanically rolling up the remaining AI's and thus no fun.



There are still some beta-issues, none of which are nothing near the mentioned problems of Pegasus and SoTS2. More like balance issues, scout and freighter pathfinding problems and fleet management clunkiness.



What I like:

- Realistic planetary systems (This is NOT criticism of ES planetary systems screen)

- Space ship customization (Here you can use easily half an hour designing your ship, if you like)

- Space battles (no 3D, but nice, even though I'm not a RTS fan)

- Economy (simple, but interesting). Freighters and specialization of planets.

- Colony management (although late game ruins the fun out of this micromanagement. But this is a problem for all space 4X)

- No colonization rush (pick your targets, develop them)

- Exploration rewards



Dislikes:

- No victory conditions? "Kill all" makes late game tedious

- Fleet management isn't user friendly

- Sluggish in late game

- Balance issues

- Lack of interrace trade



All in all I would give 8,5 as ES gets a 9 from me.



NOTE: the game is still in beta so some issues above might be fixed before release.

Oh well, thanks for the info.

I have to correct you there - Trade with other races is entirely possible. In fact it is a abbreviated as trade is in Endless Space.



Meaning an initial running cost to starting up relations, and then a growing income - an income which is more or less mandatory if you want to expand quickly.

stasik28 wrote:
Everyone is saying that haha. And why is more refined worse? :P I tried Distant worlds but have given up and are currently watching LP's to understand what is going on in it haha, this would be good practice

DIstant worlds might be a deep game, but it's ugly. I mean f'n ugly. In this day and age to put out such an ugly product is beyond me. Star Drive looks like DW, but much cleaner. It reminds me of Star Control 2 in appearance.



I refuse to pay for ugly. I also refuse to pay for pretty garbage, hence the reason why I will never preorder a game again. I've been burned enough times to have finally learned my lesson.

I beg to differ...

Mansen wrote:
Just bought the game myself - It is incredibly ruthless and unforgiving. On easy I actually managed to make everyone wardec me in the first 10 minutes or so.



Initial verdict: Learning curve as steep as a ladder.

Seems to be challenging.



But maybe I'll look into it after my exams are done.

looks interesting; but i'm not sure.



some gameplay footage : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elz077x5PIo



and 25 euros seems maybe a bit too much?

adder wrote:
looks interesting; but i'm not sure.



some gameplay footage : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elz077x5PIo



and 25 euros seems maybe a bit too much?

Understandable, especially with what happened with Legends of Pegasus.

Looks promising,,but I'm never pre-ordering a game again. I am going to wait 6 months before deciding. Sword of the Stars 2 crushed all the hope I had.

Meh, not going to buy it.

I'm actually tempted to buy; but then again i should be working for school instead of playing games..

Just bought the game myself - It is incredibly ruthless and unforgiving. On easy I actually managed to make everyone wardec me in the first 10 minutes or so.



Initial verdict: Learning curve as steep as a ladder.

There is no Multiplayer in this game or?

Sovereign wrote:
There is no Multiplayer in this game or?

Not currently - It only singleplayer against AI players currently. But given how it is a one man project, I wouldn't expect that much of him just yet. The game still has some balancing to sort out before I'd start suggesting it to friends. Not at all disimilar to how ES used to be in the beta. I would expect multiplayer to be a post-release feature though (or possibly at launch but with beta status)



The way I see it - the game has great potential. It mixes realtime with 4X much better than some of the current competitors do. I am not particularly fond of Sins to be honest.

Pre-orders are up for StarDrive on Steam, currently at 15% off with Beta access to the game. I already have my copy and downloaded the beta, it looks really good already and has a lot of potential to it.

You can watch some LP's for tips, I found ES to have a steep learning curve as well, even knowing everything I do now, it seems that every game I play I learn something new, even of stuff I thought I had figured out.

From reading the forums, the AI underestimates your fleet early on resulting in rushing. If you can beat the initial rush you should be golden (they don't do very well later on apparantly).



And don't colonize nearly as much as you would in ES. This game forces you to coddle colonies for a long time having freighters ship food, goods and colonists back. Quality over quantity.

Hmm, unusual, but the game is.. different so I guess that's why. Hopefully the dev will create more variety of AI on release or a patch not long after

It looks like a less complicated and more refined version of distant worlds to me. I'm passing on this one for now.

Nasarog wrote:
It looks like a less complicated and more refined version of distant worlds to me. I'm passing on this one for now.

Everyone is saying that haha. And why is more refined worse? :P I tried Distant worlds but have given up and are currently watching LP's to understand what is going on in it haha, this would be good practice

i just love the animated artwork which i saw in the Lets Plays...this owls which are controlled by that...big..?artificial? intelligence overmind thing...just awesome...exactly this Endless Space needs to bring some life into Diplomacy menue!



and the battles are low graphic battles...but dam...there is action!



i will definitely keep an eye on that game.

pre order...sadly no

cause:

1. Multiplayer is for me very important

2. i never ever pre ordering something after Legends of Pegasus^^

Yeah the alien animations and themes are awesome.

Sovereign wrote:
i just love the animated artwork which i saw in the Lets Plays...this owls which are controlled by that...big..?artificial? intelligence overmind thing...just awesome...exactly this Endless Space needs to bring some life into Diplomacy menue!



and the battles are low graphic battles...but dam...there is action!



i will definitely keep an eye on that game.

pre order...sadly no

cause:

1. Multiplayer is for me very important

2. i never ever pre ordering something after Legends of Pegasus^^

Understandable, especially number 2. Right now program optimizations are the current focus, so that the game runs smoothly and takes advantage of the power offered by modern hardware, as well as UI and general bug squashing. I am sure the AI will get some love in the upcoming weeks.



I enjoy StarDrive more than I do Distant Worlds, as I now find Distant Worlds kind of boring.



Mansen is right though, quality over quantity, I find myself not having that many colonies during the game.