everyone knows that endless space was never the most balanced game as far as expansion was concerned. you had to keep expanding and cannot settle for a few systems because there are no penalties for large empires and larger empires can pump out ships very quickly. what i want to know is if there are systems in endless legend to allow for a few strong cities to stand a chance against a giant horde of enemy cities. from what i have seen of things like limited strategic resources i believe that endless legend is heading that way. however i would love if larger empires have disadvantages like science penalties or prestige penalties. just a question that i would love answered.

Well that was in the vanilla the case but imo since Disharmony Expansion is far more difficult to handle (on hard and above).



-Your Approval and so your Economy can easly crush

-you are easy prey for rush races.



When it will be the same as in Disharmony it would be fine for me.





Only in the late game i have to agree in the late game there are not many ways for a little empire to defeat an empire twice the size if both have the same buffs and debuffs on thier fleet.

But hey larger Empires with more people are in common and also in real life stonger.

Switzerland would need Lazors to get a super Kill Death Ratio per Soldier to defeat Germany for example.



so yeah a little science bonus for isolation races could be nice but still in the end bigger empires needs to be stonger cause everything else would be unlogical.

well if you want to add some logical bonuses for small empires then how about this:



communication realistically is much harder in a larger empire than a smaller one, especially since this a fantasy game before things like radio communication would take a long time to reach the outskirts of a larger empire.. Smaller empires spend less money than their larger counterparts but can still make a lot of money. Smaller nations are harder to attack, usually relying on natural defenses to protect them i.e. mountains, water, cold, etc. Larger empires will also have much larger travel distances for their armies and the larger the empire, the looser the control you have over it is. the more people you have, the more likely they are to secede. How effectively can your soldiers quell an uprising when it is 400 miles away and word has just reached you that it started months ago? The larger the empire the more likely outside forces will want to come in and attack it to take some of its riches. To govern a larger empire effectively your government has to be a lot larger and more complex than a smaller empire's. And finally larger empires in real life tend to collapse quite easily. Nationalism in conquered people will make them only hate the larger empire. An example of a large empire that has gone quite downhill is the Byzantine Empire, they started out with half of the Roman Empire but that territory was taken away gradually by forces that were much smaller despite them having more manpower and having a very strong economy. Also religion plays a factor and so does ideologies, rivalries, and hatreds. Venice for example, a tiny nation played a very important part in bringing down the much larger Byzantine empire by using the fourth crusade to sack Constantinople.



As a counter argument to your example, envision Germany using swords, pikes, horses, and magic. Without high level technology like the kind we have today. Germany might take Switzerland but it would have a much harder time of it. Switzerland is full of snow and mountains. A large amount of any forces Germany would send to Switzerland would die to the elements. Switzerland would also have defenses such as castles indoors that could keep their forces warm and they would be used to the cold. Also larger empires tend to be more hated and have fewer diplomatic relations than say Switzerland. If Switzerland went to war with Germany then i'm sure thy could get quite a few allies, maybe Austria, Hungary, or even Poland. I can see where you are coming from with you r argument but there are quite a few real life advantages smaller nations have.

The fall of the Byzantine Empire (which was a process of over 1000 years) has many reasons, their armys were outdated and in the end they relayed almost only on mercaneries. Which i already agreed that smaller empires should get an science bonus (to a certain extend). And i also agree with a defense bonus but again to a certain extend cause every fortress can be just simply overrrun if you just have enough man. If the Romans REALY BAD would have wanted to conquer Free Germania they would have succeeded even after their crushing defeat at their first try but it was just not worth it.But i disagree that larger empires tend to be more hated and have fewer diplomatic relations, in fact if u are big enough everyone wants to kiss your ass.



In Terms of Trade and Influence and something like that there has to lot to be done and i realy hope it is better then in ES. (Where Trade races are still not worth it and no one ever uses them)



(it would be awesome to actually realy play something like Venice which indeed was quite powerfull and even possesed a decent navy and military forces)

one of the things i thought endless space lacked was the ability to build up defenses that could actually inflict damage on enemy fleets. right now you could build all of the defensive structures in the game but you cant actually damage enemy fleets. i mean that it would be nice to build strong platforms that cant move but defend the system and attack enemy ships in the system. i mean to say that small empires should have more developed systems that have time to build defenses rather than the frontier systems of other factions that have small populations and focus on building industry and food rather than ships, but they can still purchase a fully outfitted fleet at those systems and even with your defenses you cant actually defend yoyrself without a fleet of your own. i personally like a system in which you can build permanent forts in endless legend that may act as a major deterrant to enemies even if you have a small army. i believe that well developed cities should have many advantages over frontier cities. i think that they should always be able to build defenses that allow them to maintain isolation and defy expansion by bigger powers.



also, as a counter argument, the persian empire was large, powerful, and productive when they went out to conquer greece. they failed even though they were up against a small group of city-states much smaller than they were. and it wasn't for lack of determination either because there were multiple wars but they lost them. and this is a much better example for endless legend than your example of modern germany versus modern switzerland i believe because endless legend takes place in a period where factions still use swords rather than guns.

I always found it annoying with ES that your defensive structures didn't actually do anything to the enemy fleets but just hindered attack. I have to agree with Blitz that there needs to be some way for defenses to actually prevent and harm attackers.

Or at least the defensive structure could bring important bonus for the fleed defending.

it would be awesome if amplitude added space bases as an actual defense against enemy ships. mechanics like ships and you design them and what modules they have maybe? possibility for forward listening posts and military forward operating bases. maybe even cloaking devices to stay hidden from scouts and surprise the big fleets?

ES is Amplitude first game so it would probably have to wait until either another game is created. I do believe they learnt a lot from developing ES I hope to see that in Endless Legend.



DarkMeph

knowledge is power and so is endless supermarkets. go amplitude.

would prefer the endless space way with bottlenecks at worm holes etc until you research the needed tech

well in endless legend they have bottlenecks with water.

Two things:



1. ES already had advantages for multiple small empires because heroes were INSANELY powerful and limited.

2. If you give too many advantages to small empires you never really have to play diplomacy and work with allies to take down a larger threat.

i suppose that is true enough, however larger empires already have better production, dust, science, and food but it is a little unfair that they can easily build defenses for there new frontier systems. we talked about being able to stay isolated and stockpiling defenses instead of expanding outward. i personally would not like to see tall empires better than larger ones, but giving them some more bonuses would be nice. right now, the vaulters are probably at the most advantage as a smaller empire but i would like to see some changes that allow older more populated systems to be far superior to low population, newer, undeveloped systems. maybe a small increasing percent bonus over time?