Hi Guys,



Finally have Endless Legend to complete my collection of amplitude games,



keep up the great work!

Ashbery76 wrote:
It's a shame it takes them an extra year to have half competent A.I included.

AI is always very difficult to design, and the more complex the game is, the worse it gets with AI.

Here's to hoping that Amplitude will invest further resources into improving the AI. Perhaps looking at some of the stuff done by the modding community and incorporating it into the main game ? ...

It's always very difficult to get an AI working super well. The more features and depth a game has, the harder it is to design a challenging AI.



I think multiplayer and human opponents would be your best bet at finding good opponents to play against if you want to fight other super smart and challenging empires.



Right now, I'm modding a lot of things to improve my own experience and keep it fun/fresh.



However, I do think (from a standpoint of fun) that the AI could use stat increases on all their units as opposed to really high tech/economic/production modifiers to produce more challenge.



---



But, the reason I really love Endless Legend is because it's such a well-designed system and it's beyond gorgeous. I'm always finding little things about the game that make me think, "They were really brilliant for making the game like this or that." It just perfectly fits my style.

Endless Legend's AI was never worse than the norm in 4x games. In this type of game, by virtue of them being complex, you're going to have a meh AI. The only 4x AI I've experienced that is better than EL's was Galactic Civilization II's (which is a less complex game, one must add. And even then, you could exploit it easily). A game that is often compared to EL (wrongly imo), AoW3, has an AI that is a joke in certain elements (like diplomacy and strategic spells) and mediocre in everything else.



And I can definitely say that Amplitude is working a lot on improving the AI, which is not something many do with as much dedication and with as much openness to feedback.

KnightofPhoenix wrote:
The only 4x AI I've experienced that is better than EL's was Galactic Civilization II's

Have you played Civ5?

BPrado wrote:
Have you played Civ5?

No, so I can't comment on it.



I have played Civ 4, and I didn't find its AI that substantially better than EL's.



EDIT: also, must be said that Firaxis has more resources to devote to this than Amplitude.

Yeah, civ4 isn´t half as good.



And I understand that, ofc, I´m just kidding. Can´t wait for Endless Legend 5 ^^

icarus86 wrote:
AI is always very difficult to design, and the more complex the game is, the worse it gets with AI.

Here's to hoping that Amplitude will invest further resources into improving the AI. Perhaps looking at some of the stuff done by the modding community and incorporating it into the main game ? ...

The last patch had a lot of A.I work done to help the A.I understand the game and improved the game a great deal..The A.I before that was a lot worse than most 4X games,it required mass cheats and was still terrible.It did not even know basic things like trading being important or did very little diplomacy.



Enough appeasing or we will have to wait for a year until the ES2 A.I can actually understand the game it is playing.

This :

KnightofPhoenix wrote:


And I can definitely say that Amplitude is working a lot on improving the AI, which is not something many do with as much dedication and with as much openness to feedback.

And this :

KnightofPhoenix wrote:


EDIT: also, must be said that Firaxis has more resources to devote to this than Amplitude.

This is why I keep coming back here on this forum, cheering for Amplitude.

It's a shame it takes them an extra year to have half competent A.I included.

Hey, this is also my first comment. I love how all the games have the same "Endless" theme.



So I feel at home playing either Endless Space or Endless Legend. Thanks Amplitude.

Much as I pretend I dislike fishing for compliments, this kind of thread is always a great reminder for our dev teams that someone, somewhere, is really appreciating what they do.



Thanks for sharing the love, guys.

I can only agree 100% with OP. Only game I haven't purchased yet is Endless Legend, but that's mainly because I currently don't have the time to sink into another 4x game.

Having played a lot of games from studios that just seem more interested in rushing out products and making money, Amplitude and their work on Endless Legend in particular have been very refreshing. Not just from a gameplay standpoint but also in seeing their responses in the forums.



EA and Ubisoft in comparison have been terrible. I really enjoy Rainbow Six: Siege and NHL 16. But if you look at their forums and at their updates it is completely lackluster. That's why I'm shocked to come here and see such support for this game.



I used to make mods for Cyanides version of Blood Bowl (the original not the sequel, which also lacks good community support and terrible console updates) and it was a nightmare trying to find support to modify their files. Most of what mattered was hardcoded with zero input from the developer.



As a result, Amplitude my hat is off to you. There are already a lot of promising mods in the works and I love seeing you answering the mod authors. I really have no regrets spending my money on this game. I -am- going to buy Dungeon of the Endless and Endless Space 2. Good developers deserve support.



/fanboy rant over

Taeves wrote:
Having played a lot of games from studios that just seem more interested in rushing out products and making money, Amplitude and their work on Endless Legend in particular have been very refreshing. Not just from a gameplay standpoint but also in seeing their responses in the forums.



EA and Ubisoft in comparison have been terrible. I really enjoy Rainbow Six: Siege and NHL 16. But if you look at their forums and at their updates it is completely lackluster. That's why I'm shocked to come here and see such support for this game.



I used to make mods for Cyanides version of Blood Bowl (the original not the sequel, which also lacks good community support and terrible console updates) and it was a nightmare trying to find support to modify their files. Most of what mattered was hardcoded with zero input from the developer.



As a result, Amplitude my hat is off to you. There are already a lot of promising mods in the works and I love seeing you answering the mod authors. I really have no regrets spending my money on this game. I -am- going to buy Dungeon of the Endless and Endless Space 2. Good developers deserve support.



/fanboy rant over

While I don't really disagree with your views on EA and Ubisoft, bear in mind that you are comparing publishers to an indie game studio.



Publishers are about maximizing profits...period. Goodwill and community support are not even secondary, they are most times just a result of marketing/PR maneuvering on their part. They keep a tight rein on their developer teams.



Indie studios like Amplitude may not have the financial power of the big publishers, but they can make up for that with a much more personal and inviting experience to their customers. Amplitude has done a really good job of this and I hope that trend continues.

You're right Slashman.



The problem is that tight rein on the developer teams. I still can't believe I shelled out $60 for R6: Siege. There's nothing more infuriating then the publishers/developers/whoever listing features that a game "will" have and then releasing said game without them. Technically they're not wrong, the game "may" have these features at some point. Just not now. In the case of R6-Siege, they said the game would have offline Terrorist Hunt. It's online only (aside from Situations mode) and for someone with a terrible internet connection like me, that is a big deal.



In Blood Bowl 2's case, they again advertise way before release that the game would have customizable AI. For that matter they also said they'd have very specific AI that would work differently for each race. We're still waiting on either of those and it's doubtful at best sadly.



So, yay Amplitude! Take my monies!

Taeves wrote:




So, yay Amplitude! Take my monies!

That's just about the only way to get your message across to those big publishers. Make sure you support the little guys who are doing good by us.



What may then eventually happen is that those big publishers want in on that same level of customer support even if it is for the wrong reasons. So they may start to make games with similar features and options. To a certain extent you can sometimes see it happening but then the pendulum is quick to swing the other way because again, at the their core, profits are what they truly care about.

You're probably right but I'm Canadian and we live, breathe and die for hockey. I have to throw money at EA every year for the next NHL game. Even though part of me dies because they just take features away one year to put them back in three years later. I have no choice. And there are far too many people like me for it to matter much. EA gets their take and I get to hate myself a little more each year. :P

Keep sending the love our way -- it helps to get through the times when we're banging our heads against the wall, pulling our hair out, and wondering if we should just be shuffling papers in some huge company



To be fair to the industry (competitors, previous employers, and awesome colleagues all together...), there are a lot of people making games who care and want to listen. We're lucky, being independent, in that we get to pick and decide and move ahead with the flexibility of a studio where everybody works in the same (big) room. Making fun games with cool people and a community that thinks and listens and talks to us... yeah, that's kinda dev heaven

Welcome to the forum!



And like you, Amplitude is also my favorite studio and Endless Legend is my favorite 4x game.



Do participate in the forum a bit. You'd be surprised at how the devs actually read and keep everything in mind. The more feedback they get from diverse sources, the better!