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Endless Legend 2... What would you want?

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6 years ago
Jun 12, 2019, 11:42:28 PM
Daynen wrote:
Ninjamestari wrote:
Daynen wrote:

Loads of stuff

I really have to counter all of your items, sorry about that ^^


Item 1: The point of a turn limit is that you can force a game that refuses to reach a conclusion to an end, not to play a game that lasts for 300 turns. While I agree that there definitely could be an even faster game speed for online games, like Civ VI has, but the slower paces serve a purpose for people who want to play massive mega-campaigns with larger maps. Also, slower speeds make military much more significant since there's so much more time to conquer everything before the enemy can run away from you technologically. If your games last too long, I sugges dropping the number of opponents and reducing the map size. If you play to win, your games typically don't last that long, if you play to immerse yourself in a fantasy, then the opposite is true because you become loathe to end the game even when you have the decisive advantage and could do so.


Item 2: Yeah, well, can't really argue with you there. In fact, I don't think the faction editor adds anything to the game that is worthwhile, I'd just remove it completely.


Item 3: People who are interested in 4X games generally have a rather high tolerance for learning curves, but you're right here as well, damn my countering doesn't go as planned. I can offer advice though: Just disable all the DLC. The game is a lot more enjoyable that way if you're not interested in having your brain turn into a gordion's knot. You can then reactivate DLCs  one by one as you learn and want to try out new stuff.


Item 4: This is just a no; I prefer the story to be a faction story and I like the way Heroes work and how you can use them for a multitude of things depending on your situation. This is 4X, not an RPG, I want it to stay 4X and not try to be an RPG. This game is made for niche markets and there's no point in alienating existing playerbase while trying to get people that aren't even in your target audience interested.


Item 5: I dont' think it would add to the game that much. You're already liable to suffer from sensory overload with this game, there's just no reason to add any more pointless distractions to make things even worse. Playing this game well requires intense concentration, and any feature that is simply another pointless thing that distracts your attention. I'm sure one could get used to that, but there are noises the game makes that are actually important to hear.

Interesting counterpoint, but I think some of them misinterpret my points:

1: My point about the turn limit is not that there ARE 300 turns; it's that the game's original design was made in the framework that there COULD BE 300 turns.  This informs the original PACING of the game, which as pointed out, got away from the devs as DLC went on.  If games typically end before the halfway mark, do we REALLY want a pacing that can go on for TWICE as long in a stalemate?


2: I think we're far apart on this one.  My point is that the faction editor is GREAT, but not fully fleshed out, tuned or balanced.  With a little work, it could open up infinite possibilities.  Where I'm from, "infinite possibilities" tend to do a LOT for a game's lifespan...


3: It's fair to say that the core playerbase of the 4X genre has such a tolerance for complexity, but I have a warning about that: if you only make games for your core players, eventually you run out of core players.  Players age, change tastes, and eventually grow old and die.  A game MUST be able to attract at least SOME new audiences to survive.  I'm not advocating for a removal of everything that makes 4X deep and challenging; just a smoother way to present information and a more intuitive way to interact and move the game forward.  Don't mistake accessibility and readability for simplicity and shallowness.


4: Why should heroes not play a bigger role?  They're a core feature in all the endless games already; why not see how we can evolve the feature and add to the richness, lore and immersion of the series by giving HEROES a somewhat more pivotal role?  As it is, heroes are nothing more than stat sticks: better units or buffs for your cities.  They could be so much more...


5: This one WOULD have to be handled with finesse, I admit: it's far too easy for voices to become clutter and annoyance, especially when they utter the same few lines a hundred times an hour (coughJRPGScough!)  That said, IF handled with sensibility and a respect for timing and the human attention span, they could add that little touch that brings the game to life just a bit more.  Again, because it cannot be understated:  IF HANDLED WITH FINESSE AND SENSIBILITY.

I'm just gonna jump in here and say a few things.


1. There is no rule that says one or the other thing has to take place. It is down to player skill and sometimes the world generated. You can make the time less by playing on fast or alternatley playing with fewer players. 


2. I'm of the opinion that the faction editor is basically fine where it is and with the amount of attention it gets from the devs. This game does not lack factions and honestly balancing all the possible permutations that an editor can spit out is a taime consuming task...time I'd rather see spent elsewhere.


3. That's an admirable goal and I hope the devs make amore refined experience going forward but it is not always as easy as it looks. This is the side effect of complexity in a 4x. Some things have to be learned. And even if presented in the best way, players will still need to take the time to understand the mechanics of the game...especially one with asymetrical factions.


4. I'd like to see a more diverse hero roster but I would not change the roles they perform now. They sit in a position of good to have but not super crititcal to everything and I think it would take very little to push them over the line.


5. I'm with you on the voice actors up to a point. For faction leaders for sure and for some pop up events. I don't see the harm in it.

Updated 6 years ago.
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6 years ago
Jun 13, 2019, 8:23:54 AM

1. Why not? The idea is to give the players plenty of time to win the game properly. If the turn limit is too low, people will just stop pursuing other victory conditions and simply seek to max out their score to get the score victory when time runs out. I usually play with the turn limit completely disabled because I'd rather run the risk of the game ending in fatigue without a winner than having to run into a situation where I have to worry about the turn limit. All strategy games can get prolonged, sometimes you get longer games, some times you don't, You really are trying to conjure an issue here that doesn't exist.


2. Not really, infinite possibilities tend to slaughter the game's focus and makes for a much more chaotic and overall inferior experience. Infinite possibilities sounds nice to a juvenile mind that hasn't yet have to deal with the limits of his available time and energy, but it's not only an unfeasible goal, it is also an undesirable one. Having very fleshed out factions with drastically different mechanics as a base also inhibits the usefulness of the editor, because all your own factions are just versions of already existing ones; it just leads to the pointless "I made a new broken lords faction that's like the Broken Lords but more powerful/ but with a twist" scenario, you're still playing as the Broken Lords. Compare that to a game like Stellaris where you truly have free reign over your species within the system, but every single race is made from beginning to the end with that system, there are no special mechanics tied to a single race, rather you can pick types and change aesthetics freely. In Stellaris, every single race is made with the system, and it even allows for random species to be made. That's why the system works in stellaris, but doesn't work in EL. The whole idea of a race editor is in conflict with the core design of EL, where as in Stellaris it is a core function in itself.


3: False. New players are born every day and the markets are expanding to new countries and areas. You don't need to attract new audiences if you already have a core audience; in fact for a niche genre like 4X that's simply sabotaging yourself. The kind of people who want to play 4X games want to play 4X games, not 4X-lite games. Aside from this, you're right that the way information is presented could be loads better. The UI could use a lot more work so that it would convey information more efficiently and accurately. Better tooltips and a more intuitive UI are always welcome improvements, also a little "helper" tip system akin to what is found in Civ: Beyond Earth for example could help a lot of new players to learn the ropes faster without compromizing the actual gameplay.


4: They already play a big enough role, you wanted to limit us into a single hero and make the whole journey of the game about that hero. That's not what I want from a 4X game, that's what I want from an RPG. Essentially it sounds like you're not really a 4X player yourself and would want to have a 4X lite/RPG Hybrid game instead, and while that might be interesting to see, I like 4X as is and I want EL to stay 4X. The heroes don't have to be anything more than they already are; they're governors, they're generals, they're spies; I'm all for adding new hero functionality, they could for example also be emissaries, etc, but saying that Heroes are just Stat sticks is simply false, they're very VERSATILE stat sticks, and in a 4X game everything is about stats anyway. Heroes can be more, expanding on the hero concept is all well and good, but your idea of only having a single hero and following his journey is not a good idea for EL. It could be for some other game, WarCraft 3 already proved the concept of combining  RTS with RPG elements, there's no reason it couldn't be done with 4X, but that would be a completely different game, it wouldn't be Endless Legend.


5: I don't think it would be worth the effort. In an RTS unit responses and such serve as cues on what is happening, but EL is turn based and doesn't need that. If it didn't take away significant resources and could be toggled off. I really like the fact that in 4X games generally the units keep their traps shut, I'm trying to come up with plans and figure out optimal routes,

positions and build orders, I really don't want some inane unit mouthing off cheesy one-liners and keeping noise.


All in all, I get the feeling that you're less interested in the game and more interested in the flavor of it. Nothing wrong with that I guess, and I can absolutely see how EL attracts that sort of people. Quite honestly it was the flavor that attracted me to the game in the first place, and only afterwards the actual game began to grow on me. There are tons of actual issues with this game withot adding more clutter just to get more flavor, the problems of this game are structural, the flavor is already awesome and doesn't really need anything more, especially at the expense of the integrity of the gameplay that is already under a lot of strain from feature clutter. Looking forward to EL2, there are lessons to be learned from EL1, and instead of drastically changing the whole structure of the game like you propose, I think it just should be improved. Growth comes from keeping the core and improving upon it, not from completely changing directions erratically like a headless chicken.


Most of the problems this game has comes from the DLC structure, the features don't always mesh very well together and they don't all fit very well into the pacing of the game. The game pace has stayed the same, but now you've had a MASSIVE increase in stuff to do, the base game already had exploration, questing, the main faction quest, expanding and warfare to contend with, and that I think was plenty to do and the game felt right. Now you also have pearl collection, a spy/covert operations system, you have the ocean facilities to compete over, you have ridiculously powerful legendary feats and legendary districts to compete over, you've got your advanced winters to contend with etc etc. Every single DLC adds more stuff to the already cluttered game, and I think the game pace should be adjusted somehow to accomodate for all the new features the game has, and some features I think should simply be removed, like the legendary deeds/districts that throws the game balance completely out of the window because the bonuses are so massive that they can easily win you the game through their snowball effect. This is something that absolutely needs to be adressed in EL2, they need a LOT more disciplined approach to how they make DLCs, so that every single DLC doesn't just mess up the game completely and so that there's not too much going on at the same time.

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6 years ago
Jun 13, 2019, 12:13:55 PM
Ninjamestari wrote:

1. Why not? The idea is to give the players plenty of time to win the game properly. If the turn limit is too low, people will just stop pursuing other victory conditions and simply seek to max out their score to get the score victory when time runs out. I usually play with the turn limit completely disabled because I'd rather run the risk of the game ending in fatigue without a winner than having to run into a situation where I have to worry about the turn limit. All strategy games can get prolonged, sometimes you get longer games, some times you don't, You really are trying to conjure an issue here that doesn't exist.


2. Not really, infinite possibilities tend to slaughter the game's focus and makes for a much more chaotic and overall inferior experience. Infinite possibilities sounds nice to a juvenile mind that hasn't yet have to deal with the limits of his available time and energy, but it's not only an unfeasible goal, it is also an undesirable one. Having very fleshed out factions with drastically different mechanics as a base also inhibits the usefulness of the editor, because all your own factions are just versions of already existing ones; it just leads to the pointless "I made a new broken lords faction that's like the Broken Lords but more powerful/ but with a twist" scenario, you're still playing as the Broken Lords. Compare that to a game like Stellaris where you truly have free reign over your species within the system, but every single race is made from beginning to the end with that system, there are no special mechanics tied to a single race, rather you can pick types and change aesthetics freely. In Stellaris, every single race is made with the system, and it even allows for random species to be made. That's why the system works in stellaris, but doesn't work in EL. The whole idea of a race editor is in conflict with the core design of EL, where as in Stellaris it is a core function in itself.


3: False. New players are born every day and the markets are expanding to new countries and areas. You don't need to attract new audiences if you already have a core audience; in fact for a niche genre like 4X that's simply sabotaging yourself. The kind of people who want to play 4X games want to play 4X games, not 4X-lite games. Aside from this, you're right that the way information is presented could be loads better. The UI could use a lot more work so that it would convey information more efficiently and accurately. Better tooltips and a more intuitive UI are always welcome improvements, also a little "helper" tip system akin to what is found in Civ: Beyond Earth for example could help a lot of new players to learn the ropes faster without compromizing the actual gameplay.


4: They already play a big enough role, you wanted to limit us into a single hero and make the whole journey of the game about that hero. That's not what I want from a 4X game, that's what I want from an RPG. Essentially it sounds like you're not really a 4X player yourself and would want to have a 4X lite/RPG Hybrid game instead, and while that might be interesting to see, I like 4X as is and I want EL to stay 4X. The heroes don't have to be anything more than they already are; they're governors, they're generals, they're spies; I'm all for adding new hero functionality, they could for example also be emissaries, etc, but saying that Heroes are just Stat sticks is simply false, they're very VERSATILE stat sticks, and in a 4X game everything is about stats anyway. Heroes can be more, expanding on the hero concept is all well and good, but your idea of only having a single hero and following his journey is not a good idea for EL. It could be for some other game, WarCraft 3 already proved the concept of combining  RTS with RPG elements, there's no reason it couldn't be done with 4X, but that would be a completely different game, it wouldn't be Endless Legend.


5: I don't think it would be worth the effort. In an RTS unit responses and such serve as cues on what is happening, but EL is turn based and doesn't need that. If it didn't take away significant resources and could be toggled off. I really like the fact that in 4X games generally the units keep their traps shut, I'm trying to come up with plans and figure out optimal routes,

positions and build orders, I really don't want some inane unit mouthing off cheesy one-liners and keeping noise.


All in all, I get the feeling that you're less interested in the game and more interested in the flavor of it. Nothing wrong with that I guess, and I can absolutely see how EL attracts that sort of people. Quite honestly it was the flavor that attracted me to the game in the first place, and only afterwards the actual game began to grow on me. There are tons of actual issues with this game withot adding more clutter just to get more flavor, the problems of this game are structural, the flavor is already awesome and doesn't really need anything more, especially at the expense of the integrity of the gameplay that is already under a lot of strain from feature clutter. Looking forward to EL2, there are lessons to be learned from EL1, and instead of drastically changing the whole structure of the game like you propose, I think it just should be improved. Growth comes from keeping the core and improving upon it, not from completely changing directions erratically like a headless chicken.


Most of the problems this game has comes from the DLC structure, the features don't always mesh very well together and they don't all fit very well into the pacing of the game. The game pace has stayed the same, but now you've had a MASSIVE increase in stuff to do, the base game already had exploration, questing, the main faction quest, expanding and warfare to contend with, and that I think was plenty to do and the game felt right. Now you also have pearl collection, a spy/covert operations system, you have the ocean facilities to compete over, you have ridiculously powerful legendary feats and legendary districts to compete over, you've got your advanced winters to contend with etc etc. Every single DLC adds more stuff to the already cluttered game, and I think the game pace should be adjusted somehow to accomodate for all the new features the game has, and some features I think should simply be removed, like the legendary deeds/districts that throws the game balance completely out of the window because the bonuses are so massive that they can easily win you the game through their snowball effect. This is something that absolutely needs to be adressed in EL2, they need a LOT more disciplined approach to how they make DLCs, so that every single DLC doesn't just mess up the game completely and so that there's not too much going on at the same time.

In the interest of avoiding derailing the thread further with another wall of text, I'll just say you're making a LOT of assumptions.  Especially about me.  All I can tell is that you're a diehard 4X fan who doesn't want change, making me wonder why you're looking at a thread about a hypothetical sequel...

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5 years ago
Jun 20, 2019, 11:25:20 AM

So because I don't want the game to change into something unrecognizable I'm now somehow not allowed to have interest in a hypothetical sequel? Just a friendly advice, that smug tone of yours won't be doing you any favors. Ever. The only thing it'll do is make you sound like one of these modern snowflakes that are kinda ruining everything they touch with their whining. Trust me when I say that you don't want to be associated with that crowd. It also makes it seem like you really have run out of things to say and just want to pretend like you could've won the argument with your next brilliant salvo of secret counterpoints. Don't be vague in your discussions, be specific. The more specific you can be, the better.


As far as derailing the conversation goes, I don't think that is even remotely what we have been doing; first of all the conversation is almost non-existent to begin with and secondly, when making a game, a sequel or otherwise, EVERYTHING begins with the core design philosophy, and that is the guiding force behind every little design decision. The subject we have been discussing really is the very heart of the matter. When you change things just for the heck of it, you're a thousand times more likely to make the game worse than you are to make it better. For every single way there is to make things right there are countless millions of ways to make things wrong, and I don't think you appreciate that fact, nor the conclusion that the more limited your insight is the more limited is the scope of changes you should do. The mechanics of a game are intricately interconnected, and unless you REALLY understand how a certain element is going to interact with the other elements of the game, you REALLY shouldn't touch that certain element at all. The same goes with adding new elements; I think I already brought up the problem that the Legendary deeds/districts caused to the game in a previous post; that whole thing really wasn't very well thought through as the wonder districts and legendary deed bonuses snowball out of control incredibly fast and they also derail the game quite a bit.


So no, we were not derailing the thread, but this particular line of discussion we now embarked upon is. I've said what is relevant to the thread just so people won't start shying away from a deeper discussion on the kind of design philosophy they might want from EL2, and I'm not going to start a debate about what is and is not derailing with you here, that's not why I'm here, I'm here to discuss game design.

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5 years ago
Jun 20, 2019, 10:14:29 PM

Here are my suggestions:


1. Move away from the spreadsheet style of the game a bit. There are too many micro-managy aspects to it. Being able to move every single population point every single turn is too much. Maybe that stuff should only be allowed every (define amount of turns here). and perhaps each city can only move all citizens to one specialty. Moving 1 citizen at a time for the sake of optimization isn't a fun decision, it's tedious.

2. Do more to immerse the players. We need villages to be race specific, and armies to be more fleshed out with individual units. In addition, add major landmarks that would take up more than one hex and be interesting. A massive canyon for example. Or a huge volcano.

3. Re-work the battle system - The battle system, although semi-acceptable isn't thrilling, not is it very strategic. You can't control things in an exact manner, and sometimes units move in a way that is unexpected. (Like when they take the long way to go attack a unit) This can cause battles to go wrong, which is frustrating. And I must ask the question, if you can't be tactical with your battles, and you aren't that immersed by the battlefield, what's the purpose of having a tactical battle mode? To hope that your overall strategy hopefully pans out the way you wanted? :/

4. Reduce the amount of bonuses that each race gets, but make the ones they do get more meaningful. Let's face it, endless legend is full of +this + that. This can get overwhelming quickly for the mind to appreciate, and often, there isn't a need to take these minor bonuses into consideration because they won't have a large impact. 

5. Finally, don't have naval warfare if you aren't going to commit to it being good. The naval game, just like many other systems have been tacked on, but are more of the same. (Similar to the urkans, they are kind of cool, but just like other systems have all these random bonuses, and just like the naval game, aren't balanced well. (The AI doesn't seem to know what to do with them as well)



To recap, cutoff some of the overcomplicated features/bonues, add immersion, make the tactical system more intersting, and allow the player to control it more directly (Or at least make it more clear what actions your troops will take).


I look forward to the second title.

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5 years ago
Jun 21, 2019, 4:38:02 AM
Ninjamestari wrote:

A lot of overly defensive, condescending elitism...that is also wrong.

Fixed that for ya.  Might want to keep the strawman out of this.  I posted things I would like to see and why.  You called my ideas badwrongfun because they're not what you wanted.  Pretty sure the thread's titled: "what would you want to see" and not "you should decide for us whose ideas are right or wrong."  Ease off on the namecalling and check yourself, bud.

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5 years ago
Jun 21, 2019, 8:04:18 AM

Please treat each other politely and with respect. You're free to argue for or against any proposed idea, but personal attacks are not acceptable.

I would hate to have to lock down this thread because a few people are acting out of line.

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5 years ago
Jul 2, 2019, 1:24:29 PM

Honestly, Endless Legend is so good, I don't know how we could make an Endless Legend 2, and what to add to it.
There would be improvements to be made, but I think they could be made directly in the current game.
- Choose the animation speed on the map.
- To be able to rotate the camera 360 degrees.
- Some ergonomic options to launch the automatic improvement of all unit models for basic equipment, when the era changes.
- Be able to zoom out more on the general map, even if the map is small.
- A better dosage and a system that avoids snowball (I think that from era 3, and even era 2 for some, the improvements give such economic advantages, that the game becomes overdosed.)
- Remove the turn limit. (Okay, I played Caveman2cosmos... :-D)

An Endless Legend 2 would be a really different game, with many concepts that have been redesigned.
- The current concept of cities and regions would be different. Perhaps villages could be built in addition to the city, to settle on attractive land, but located far from the city.
- The number of improvements would drop drastically, instead, the improvements would be deployed in the form of a neighbourhood as an expansion (district). The expansion of a city would be much faster. Because what we see in the current game is that a city sprawls relatively little during a game, despite a lot of space to do so. The resource bonuses thus obtained should be offset.
- Each expansion could be looted or destroyed by the enemy, as an independent place, and not as part of the city. So the siege concept would also have to be reviewed.
- It would also be interesting to be able to change the nature of the tiles, if the game sets up mechanisms that use this. Growing forests, building perimeter walls, building a dam, etc...
- I would find a system of collecting various resources and crafting quite addictive, without going as far as Thea the awakening.
- The management of the units could be different. I wish we could do without the tactical view, so that everything can be solved on the map. For me, Endless Legend is great from an ergonomic point of view, because it does something that Civilization doesn't do, for example. In EL, you always remain on the map, even when you access the production of a city.
- However, managing all units one by one can also be a problem. I'd be happy to do it on Civ, but it's still tedious. I don't know if there is a genius idea that would make my dream come true without this problem.
- I like Civ's combat system quite a bit, which is very simple. On the other hand, the Age of wonder 3 combat system, although excellent, is far too time-consuming. Endless Legend is a bit in between. I would prefer a simpler, faster, more intuitive, more ergonomic system. I don't like the Heroes of Might and Magic type combat system, where you switch to a strategic grid during the fight. I prefer something like Battle for Wesnoth. I will be told that it is almost the same thing. But what I like is the lack of change in the environment. We stay on the main map. This keeps you focused and immersed in the game without interruption.
- As soon as I can do a battle in automatic mode, I do it, that's to say! So I like ES2's combat system enough. But I wouldn't like the same on EL. I need to see what's going on.
- No Realtime! (of course!)
- A game mode dedicated to multiplayer. The game would be purified of some of its features, while others would have to be managed automatically. It would therefore be a game mode where everything is done to save time, and make games viable without it taking 3 hours!

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5 years ago
Jul 2, 2019, 9:57:06 PM

Obviously better AI, as others have said, but otherwise, the only improvements that I could see for Endless Legend are things that they already did in Endless Space 2.


The politics system was a huge step up and made Influence actually worth something. Using luxury resources for city upgrades made them more valuable than just "keep them popped 24/7 for moar boost." Plus the luxury distribution was better, since it spread different ones across the galaxy and encouraged trading/expanding.


The Expansion Penalty was handled better too. Rather than just a linear malus per new city, there's the threshold you have to reach before it penalizes you, and you can raise the threshold via techs.

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5 years ago
Jul 15, 2019, 5:16:37 AM

You know they could do what they did with Endless space 1 to 2 and just hit the reset button just make sure the vaulters are still there at least.

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5 years ago
Dec 15, 2019, 9:14:57 PM

I already greatly enjoy endless Legends, there is not much I would change about it. The biggest change I would like to see are more factions, maybe even one based off the Sisters of Mercy. If they were to make a second I think it should take place Auriga, but possibly after the events of Endless Space,  or Maybe at the same time? and should they make a second, if possible I would definitely like to see an ability to combine the Endless Legend and it's sequel together for one larger overall game. Both playable as standalone with separate stories factions and features, but also on one larger overall map with all the factions of both combined, much like Total War: Warhammer does.

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5 years ago
Dec 20, 2019, 7:44:57 AM

Make winter more apocalyptic! The food stockpiles that we had in the original game could become way more useful if you had to stock as much as possible, and if you could use pillaging features to steal food stores from your enemies. I didn't like the stockpile system and thought that in many ways it was broken, but reworking it into an interesting survival feature sounds exciting. Imagine that your city is running out of food, so you hire some privateers to go pillage one of your neighbor's pacified villages and steal their stockpiles for this winter so that you could feed your own. There should always be this threat of dying off and starving each winter, and while technology will allow you to deal with it better over time, the food game should - for thematic reasons - become harder and harder to manage unless you're investing into specialized food-producing cities or technologies.

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5 years ago
Mar 25, 2020, 10:38:41 PM

An idea I've been having recently is that all the EL1 factions should return but in some new form. The ideas I had:

Necrophagues return, but as a Science-focused faction. They retain pityless, but now it is played as them having no mercy in taking subjects for experiments. By destroying armies, they get Science Stockpiles. They get something alongside the lines of Endless Recycling. The flavor is that most hives were exterminated, except for a few who were heavily experimented upon by Vaulters. Then these experiments revolted and took over that Vaulter city.

The Wild Walkers return, but now they are a more Militaristic-focused faction. Their building production perks are changed to Army production perks, and they retain their forest buffs. And they get a building that references The Ogmakwan, but now is used to quickly assimilate new cities. The flavor would be that they were about to build the Temple of the Earth's Core, but their city was taken. Now they believe they need more military focus than before.

The Roving Clans return, but now they have a Spionage and Diplomacy focus. Their Cities can still move, and are have the "Make Trade Not War" penalty, but their Spies can force diplomatic conditions on the enemy and any city where they put a Spy on can open a Black Market Trade Route. The flavor is that they adopted the Forgotten into their clan after a Forgotten-Roving Clans alliance was defeated in the past.

The Cultists return with an Industry focus, and now they can make multiple cities. They can still convert villages and they still cannot build Settlers. New "City Centers" (needs another name) are built on Converted villages with Industry from the Main City, and within the region where they spawn, they can build City Districts adjacent to any Village-turned "City Center". The flavor would be that the Queen was destroyed in the previous conflict. However some Cultist units remained functional in converted villages, and after a while were granted full sentience again in some Dust storm.

The Ardent Mages return as a Dust-focused one-city faction. They'd gain the Dust Lord's Dust Efficient ability, and retain their ability to build Pillars, however now they'd be able to build Pillars outside their region. Pillars would act kinda like Converted Villages extraction-wise, they could be created like Vulcanoformers but with Dust, and last only 10 turns, but you wouldn't be able to destroy them and enemy Empires would be unable to settle in the 7 grids around the Pillar. The flavor would be that having experimented more with Dust, they are becoming partially Dust-beings akin to the Broken Lords.

Not exactly sure about changes to the others. In particular, separating the Morgawr from the sea is a really hard. But that is exactly what happens at the end of their storyline. The Broken Lord's obvious development would be either a Science focus where they try to restore themselves, or a Military focus in which they've gone even more vampiric and draw Dust from enemies in battle. Allayi have some Diplomatic abilities and the flavor is that the Skyfin is worshipped across auriga, so them having a special interaction with Minor Factions just makes sense, but it is hard to not make them Drakken. Kapaku have some Science-focus already, but separating them from Vulcanoformers is difficult. Mykara should probably maintain their one-city, since I removed that from the Cultists. Drakken have some interactions with minor factions that could be played up, but that is still very much on the realm of Diplomacy, and I've seen people who want the Drakken to be more badass typical Dragons, which would mean a military focus.


Obviously, with all these changes, each major faction would probably change their name a bit. Also, old factions and their mechanics could be made available as Customs, or DLC if Amplitude/Sega feel a bit greedy.


Vaulters wouldn't return. They presumably won the previous conflict in Auriga and are in Space now. The Forgotten also fuse with the Roving Clans in flavor because they would have less reasons for their sciencephobia. This leaves room for some existing Minor Faction like the Silics, the Kazanji, or the... Urkan... to turn into playable Civs.

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5 years ago
May 13, 2020, 11:36:10 AM

Love how this post have grown so freaking huge :D I never could have imagined it having so many posts :3
Thanks guys for your opinons :D

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5 years ago
May 18, 2020, 3:41:20 PM

Endless legend is a really good game, especially its science and combat system and its environment stand as its most innovative and impressive features. I would really love to keep the innovative non tech tree science system (not that trees are bad, but we see them in every game), the mix of RPG (unit outfitting) element in a combat system that actually allows for strategic manouvres in a round based combat, and its impressivly beautifull and cozy artwork/environment. All these stuff are exceptially good, but i would really love to see supply lines being included for armies, rising the upkeep the further away from a friendly region the army is, but redusing it when being inside or fairly close to it. Additionally, more techs when compared to endless legend would be awesome, i dont say matching the amound of endless space ones, understandably endless space should have more because of its variety on planets etc, although someone could say that this is countered by the different types of terain enless legend has to offer, thus leading to more terain-specified techs beeing implemented. Generally speaking, everything is fairly sufficient, however on the 90 hours i have put in the game (probably way less than those of other people posting their oponions on this thread, so mine is prety limited compared to them, but they will surley increase) i have found one thing/mechanic, that i REALLY feel needs improvment/enrichment (if it is a word), and this is the alliance mechanic. As soon as i love to play this game with friends (probably the 85 out of the 90 hours), I feel like that alliances really lack options. Some vital (i believe them to be) improvments would be the alliance system  allowing for the members of an alliance to reinforce each other, when of course their army is in range. Furthermore, units should be able to be retrofitted in allied cities so as they can feel helpful in assisting militarry campaigns. In addition to that, when a war would be to declared, or peace to be made, it would be really nice see a vote system implied to manage those decisions. One last thing, if the alliance system is indeed going to be enriched with such options/characteristics, it would be expremelly satisfying to see it implemented in other future game (like humankind) too.

Updated 5 years ago.
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4 years ago
May 8, 2021, 8:14:31 PM

As far as setting goes, it seems to me that there are two possible places you could set an Endless Legend II, namely a revamp of the current continuity on Auriga (à la Endless Spaces I & II) or on a different planet in the Endless Universe (I don't see a "later on from Endless Legend but still on Auriga" working simply because that game is pretty conclusive that reaching the end Auriga is on the verge of freezing over entirely, I don't see how you can squeeze another game with rejigged factions in there). Of these two possibilities I would strongly prefer the latter, as I kinda like the factions of Endless Legend (I) as they are while setting it on another world would allow for mainly original factions (bar the ever-present Vaulters) which recombine the archetypes of the various factions in Endless Legend in interesting ways.


Firstly, in terms of combining existing faction traits I think the most obvious pairings are Roving Clans/Forgotten (inspired by AgostoAzul above) and Drakken/Allayi.


The former would mix something of the nomadic, dust-collecting character of the clans with the technophobic "buy tech with dust" character of the Forgotten. Probably not make them the espionage faction to avoid them getting overpowered. Instead perhaps have discounts for trading technology via diplomacy?


The latter would in essence be the all-round globally diplomacy-focussed faction, including unimpeded full mobility through all terrain types and a unit which is not attacked by minor factions.


I think thematically a faction like the Cultists would need to exist, since the Endless have left such an indelible mark on everywhere in the Universe it's only natural that some kind of cult would rise around them, but that doesn't mean they would work the same way as the Cultists in EL (I). They certainly don't necessarily need to be the "one city" faction, nor do they necessarily need to have the same interaction with minor factions as the Cultists do (e.g. I wonder if they could be a faction which builds on Endless ruins rather than converting minor faction villages).


I think an al-consuming swarm/horde faction like the Nercophage/Cravers would definitely be a nice touch, though probably not with all of the particular additional details of the Necrophage like the necromancy. Perhaps instead of reduced food they instead get reduced science and they gain tech by eating other factions. Or maybe they are in effect a one-city faction, moving their capital to the most recently conquered city and leaving remnant cities behind functioning a bit like Mykara overgrown cities (not sure hoe workable that would be).


You will need a couple of slightly more generic factions, something like a Wild Walker (my personal fave faction btb, I know I have such weird taste) equivalent in terms of just being good at production but otherwise not massively altering the core mechanics of the game. Probably best use a different theme than "taking Tolkien's elves in the other direction to how they usually are" though. Ditto I suppose for Ardent Mages and their abilities, although honestly I still haven't quite worked out what they're about, maybe you take whatever their equivalent is in a more Riftborn-like direction and focus more on playing around with their "magic". Maybe make them take on a bit of the Broken Lords' mechanics with regards to being dependent on dust.


I note that the Kapaku do bear a passing resemblance to daemonic Sophons, so perhaps you could make something like them be the science faction. Perhaps they could be the one-city faction, specialising in getting a ton of science out of one city, and you could combine their volcanoformers and golem camps into independent single districts that can be built in territories outside of their capital.


There's definitely room for at least one naval faction à la the Morgawr, perhaps even ideally two which function differently, as one would hope a second game would lead to a more fleshed-out naval game. Maybe one of them could even found their cities in the sea rather than on land.


Other than that I don't really have any substantial ideas other than that I would have full confidence in the devs' ability to come up with interesting and unique factions which shake up the core gameplay loop.

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2 years ago
Dec 17, 2022, 9:42:47 PM

Is this thread still active?


I started getting into Endless Legend like a year ago around Humankind launch.  Although Humankind is historically cultural, I really enjoy the fantasy 4X style of EL. I would love to see an Endless Legend 2, if that is still in the makings.  The art-style and the lore and the unique factions and hero customization is all fascinating. I bring this up primarily because I think a re-launch of the game would really shed some light on it.

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2 years ago
Dec 19, 2022, 6:18:15 PM
Brustavmaxx wrote:

Is this thread still active?


I started getting into Endless Legend like a year ago around Humankind launch.  Although Humankind is historically cultural, I really enjoy the fantasy 4X style of EL. I would love to see an Endless Legend 2, if that is still in the makings.  The art-style and the lore and the unique factions and hero customization is all fascinating. I bring this up primarily because I think a re-launch of the game would really shed some light on it.

This thread is as active as you want it to be :)
And yeah... considering a very recent tweet, who knows... maybe? ;)

Tweeting a (joking) poll about starting a new Endless game seems... suspicious >:)

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10 months ago
Feb 8, 2024, 2:01:12 PM

I really like the game but what I didn't expect to be that awesome is the music. All of it just clicks for me, every single track. That's first time this happen, and I would like something like this in EL2. 

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9 months ago
Mar 10, 2024, 9:35:04 PM

Endless legend is already an awesome game but if I had more suggestions, it would add be more items, more units, more allies, more meaningful terrain maps and destroyable environments. Hazards on battle maps. Neutral units on battle maps which may or may not join the battle on one side or another. Below surface exploration. Events that could be explorable. Enter a cave and play the event inside with your units. A necromancy type of faction. Battle cutscenes in combat. 


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