Hi everyone!
Update 3 - the Riftborn Update ships this week, and with it, the first installment of Endless Space 2's multiplayer!
*guns fire, fighter jets zoom by overhead, people in the audience faint, a buff dude sheds a single tear while saluting a flag*
It's been a long time coming, and it's still pretty rough around the edges, but we feel that it's ready to be shown to the world!
In this first installment of Endless Space 2's multiplayer, all seven currently revealed factions will be playable.
We've overhauled the new game screen, and we think this "new new game screen" looks a lot better and is more intuitive to use. Check it out below, and let us know what you think in the comments!
This comes along with the introduction of detailed turn timers, to give you various ways of keeping the game moving along. Here are a few of the new options:
- Classic turn timer
- Last player, where the last person not to have ended their turn has a set timer to complete it
- Tech Stage increments, adding some more time as the game becomes more complex
- Extra System increments, adding some more time for each system you control
- Overtime timer, pulling from an individual time "reserve"
Find these options and many more in the Advanced Gameplay Settings:
When it comes to ending the game, all victory types are implemented & functional! These include:
- Economic victory, for reaching a certain lifetime accumulated Dust threshold.
- Scientific victory, for researching all victory technologies (Genius of the Endless, Wealth of the Endless, Power of the Endless, & Might of the Endless).
- Wonder victory, for building a sufficient number of the Wonder building.
- Conquest victory, for holding a certain percentage of the galaxy within your empire.
- Supremacy victory, for holding all other factions' home systems within your empire.
- Score victory, for having the highest score at the end of the allotted number of turns.
You will be able to form alliances with your friends and/or erstwhile foes to reach victory, so choose carefully who is an enemy and who might help you on your path to victory! Note that allying with a player means sharing victory together, so don't hesitate to team up!
As mentioned above, this is only the first iteration of multiplayer. It will come with its own quirks and bugs, and we'll need your help to iron them out. Please check this thread to see how you may report bugs and what elements we'll need to efficiently reproduce and investigate them!
That's it for multiplayer. Tomorrow, we'll be focusing on other additions to the game brought by the Riftborn Update.
We hope you're as eager as we are!
Our various Major Factions have very different ways of achieving victory, it just would suck if your faction's most reliable way of winning was kept aside "just so we have something to unlock next time", don't you think? 
