Starting options - Endless Legend

Starting options

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VIPVaradhon

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VIPVaradhon

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11 years ago

Feb 18, 2014, 6:15:12 AM

What starting options should we expect to have. I know that we have some options in terms of the layout of the game map per the GDD. It's probably safe to assume that we have the option of choosing the number of opponents and what factions/races they represent. Here are the other things I'd guess at and would like:

1. Rarity/commonness of strategic resources, luxury resources and special tiles

2. Rarity/commonness of random events

3. Rarity/commonness of minor factions

Some things I'd like:

4. Advanced starting setting: start at at a time period further along than just the foundation of your initial city

5. Heavily populated planet: lots of neutral cities not aligned with a major or minor faction

6. Mild Dark Season/Severe Dark Season slider: modify the extremity and/or length of the Dark Season

7. Wandering wild beasts/barbarian forces slider: much like the sliding scale option for pirates in ES

8. Quest reward slider: modify the degree of reward granted by completing quests

Any others anyone else would like to see?

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VIPNasarog

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VIPNasarog

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11 years ago

Feb 18, 2014, 12:56:50 PM

As much as I would love #5, I doubt we'll see that. A neutral city like that would have to function like a CIV 5 city state. I think they need to give us more than 3 minor civ allies.

I'd like to add #9.

I've put a lot of thought into it, and Hexagons are better than squares, but it's all about the Octagons. I am not kidding. With hexes, if you want to move in a single direction, (north/south/east/west) you'll need to move two times. The only way to move efficiently in a hexagon grid is to move diagonally. I think an Octagon would be the ultimate grid pattern. I like the 1UPT of CIV 5, and in a Octagon scenario, you'd get to be a lot more strategic and deliberate.

That's what I would love to see at some point.

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VIPVaradhon

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VIPVaradhon

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11 years ago

Feb 18, 2014, 6:16:54 PM

#9 - Wouldn't you have to have small squares in between the octagonal tiles? Octagons don't fit cleanly next to each other the way that equilateral triangles, squares, and hexagons do. I did find the layout below, though. Maybe something truly experimental?

#5 - I agree that this doesn't look like it's presently in the game plan, but the model is a pretty simple one and it existed in MoM: they were just free cities that did their own thing and had one of the game's basic races (as opposed to these special minor factions that are already part of the game). You could conquer them, they could threaten you with forces of their own; there was even a random event that gave you a neutral city through a diplomatic marriage. It was quite a useful thing in MoM because population units were racial, not totally fungible and indistinguishable as in ES.

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VIPNasarog

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VIPNasarog

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11 years ago

Feb 18, 2014, 6:41:46 PM

You make a great point. I didn't even give it that much thought. Hexagons it is. What I really don't want is the re-skining of the 2 or 3 civs from ES. I'd love for each civ to be unique and play differently. Different techs trees would work as well as different subroutines for the A.I. Also different buildings and different units. I know it's a lot to ask/wish for, but I want EL to be very successful.

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VIPVaradhon

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VIPVaradhon

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11 years ago

Feb 18, 2014, 6:53:14 PM

Based on what we've seen so far, I think it's headed in the right direction. The Broken Lords don't really look like a re-skinning of anything. Maybe they have some functional similarities with the Cravers, but too little information has been released so far to know. The "mad faeries" or whatever the stand-in for elves are look totally different from the Broken Lords.

You'll also notice that the city depicted in the screenie we have reflects the architecture of the Broken Lords wallpapers we've seen so far, down to the cathedral-like thing being supported by nothing more than flying buttresses. Even the windows have the same bluish glow that the wallpapers do. I'd expect that the mad faeries' cities look like the wallpapers we've seen for them so far too.

My biggest disappointment will be if population units aren't racial.

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VIPNasarog

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VIPNasarog

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11 years ago

Feb 18, 2014, 7:06:22 PM

Varadhon wrote:

My biggest disappointment will be if population units aren't racial.

That's what bugged me about the heroes of ES/ES

smiley: biggrin

. Why would a Hero from faction A work for Faction B? unless there is a specific story behind it. That's why I kept asking about minor heroes/leaders promoted through distinction within the ranks. It really bothered me to the point that I wouldn't recruit a hero that wasn't the same faction as I was.

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VIPVaradhon

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VIPVaradhon

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11 years ago

Feb 18, 2014, 7:25:27 PM

The ones that were most confounding to me:

the Harmony: why would they suddenly acquire an affinity for dust after being essentially allergic to the stuff forever?

the Sowers: why would their food/production consumption needs change merely because they've been conquered by someone else?

the Amoeba: how could they suddenly lose the ability to see the whole map after being conquered?

The fact that other racial stats disappear after conquest is also annoying. Sophons shouldn't suddenly become scientific dolts just because they've been taken over by Cravers.

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VIPNasarog

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VIPNasarog

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11 years ago

Feb 18, 2014, 9:36:31 PM

Varadhon wrote:
The ones that were most confounding to me:

the Harmony: why would they suddenly acquire an affinity for dust after being essentially allergic to the stuff forever?

the Sowers: why would their food/production consumption needs change merely because they've been conquered by someone else?

the Amoeba: how could they suddenly lose the ability to see the whole map after being conquered?

The fact that other racial stats disappear after conquest is also annoying. Sophons shouldn't suddenly become scientific dolts just because they've been taken over by Cravers.

I think there was a bit of genocide with ethnic cleansing going on behind the scenes. Older games gave you an option of controlling a world with multiple alien species, ES/ES: D didn't make that distinction evident. That's what I always assumed. I love ES, but some of these plot/story holes are glaring.

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VIPAnwyl

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VIPAnwyl

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11 years ago

Feb 18, 2014, 11:49:27 PM

I'm sure in endless space where Santa's workshop and space trees exist, many things can happen including violent genocide beyond public view. If you have the technology to raze an entire star system of its inhabitants and all traces of them, then why not use it on the population of aliens that don't like you. also, there are two separate percentages of control and ownership, maybe that is the indication that something unusual is going on.

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VIPVaradhon

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VIPVaradhon

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11 years ago

Feb 19, 2014, 10:30:11 PM

Adventurer_Blitz wrote:
I'm sure in endless space where Santa's workshop and space trees exist, many things can happen including violent genocide beyond public view. If you have the technology to raze an entire star system of its inhabitants and all traces of them, then why not use it on the population of aliens that don't like you. also, there are two separate percentages of control and ownership, maybe that is the indication that something unusual is going on.

Haha, don't even get me started on the Tree of Worlds . . . or any of the other anomalies that appear on planet types that can't possibly play host to them.

While a genocide model can explain away the problem, it's pretty dissatisfying. That's the same model that the original MoO used: you just sent a giant chunk of your population from one planet to one inhabited by your opponent and then watched them duke it out until only one side remained. That model at least seems more honest. ES just fails to account for any actual movement of population.

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VIPAnwyl

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VIPAnwyl

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11 years ago

Feb 19, 2014, 11:08:38 PM

all behind the dust curtain

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VIPVaradhon

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VIPVaradhon

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11 years ago

Feb 19, 2014, 11:10:37 PM

Adventurer_Blitz wrote:
all behind the dust curtain

That's it! It's all because of dust! Always knew it was magic =)

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VIPAnwyl

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VIPAnwyl

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11 years ago

Feb 20, 2014, 7:15:41 PM

you know, in endless space people are changed into heros by dust, but only the strongest survive its effects. however, they do not use magic so how could it be dust?

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VIPVaradhon

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VIPVaradhon

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11 years ago

Mar 7, 2014, 4:30:03 AM

Much of the literature in the media covering EL makes it sound like the default starting position will be 1 city and a small number of military units. Any speculation as to the size of the city and number/type of units? Any clue as to how much of the world map will be known at the beginning?

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