The Future of Endless Space 2: A New Faction With Old Friends

Opinons, as Iarainn said, are nice and everyone is entitled to them.

I also personally don't feel like Supremacy or Penumbra were strike-outs; actually, I feel they were quite the opposite. They introduced a lot of new interesting mechanics into the game and a faction with some indepth and interesting backstory to them that feel incredibly individual from the others. Do I understand the in's and outs of hacking as a mechanic? No. Do I think that makes it bad? Not at all. It's just another challenge to tackle in the game. The Hissho as well have been a really cool and interesting addition to proceedings too. Especially with their background. Could Behemoths do with some tweaking? Yes. Does that make them bad? Not necessarily.

Expansions are always going to be something of a a case of trial and error, and a lot of working out what needs tweaking and what doesn't, but the only way that can be achieved is by productive feedback from the community at large. A big part, I feel, of why Amplitude does so much community feedback stuff and actively listens to the community at large is to address issues exactly like these.

None of this, to my mind, warrants the accusation that Ampitude is pushing sub-par expansions all to meet quotas from Sega.

My impression is, many people tend to expect playing Endless Space 2 the same way they are used to do by previous gaming experiences and fail. Overcolonization and overpopulation mechanics don't bother me at all, as long as I know how to prevent from its negative effects. Lack of knowledge and/or ignorance seem to be the source of beeing punished from my experience. I really like these mechanics.

Supremacy could need some rework, sure. I don't make that much use of behemoths in my games, yet (apart from citadel against AI players especially - placed in my home system, as long as AI tends to attack this one, only). Penumbra offers really good gameplay, as long as you learn how to hack effectively. When playing against human players I experienced a challenge even at a point I thought anyone can stop me no more. This stampede followed by unrest hacking is terrible to deal with - if your enemy knows how to do so. I have much fun and don't want to miss it. I have to admit in the learning phase my impression was different. Past release Amplitude did add additional information about hacking mechanics what helped me a lot to understand. Same here, I don't want to miss ist no more.

Cernunan wrote:

So some of the DOOMM!!! posters in this thread are all over steam saying this colaberation means Amplitude has abanndoned ES2 to NGD and is no longer supporting the game. Could a dev please respond to this so I have an awsner to such claims one way or the other

Hi Cernunan, there is a thread in the general channel about this very topic, and @The-Cat-o-Nine-Tales did respond to that question. In short Amplitude is not leaving this DLC entirely up to NGD and will be collaborating with them on this specific project. They also do not have plans to abandon Endless Space 2 anytime soon. 

The link to that thread is right here

Did you take any inspiration from other games or stories for the 'fading empire' faction concept? It reminds me a little of the Western and Eastern Roman Empire factions from Total War: Attila, which got me wondering about the creative process of Amplitude and the NGD team. 

Outside of community votes, how do you come up with your faction/expansion ideas? I've always loved how unique and atypical the mechanical and aesthetic design of the Endless series is, and I was wondering whether you could give us (the community) some insight into how the creative process starts for the team and studio as a whole.

"This faction will be a complete departure for Amplitude and the 4X genre. Rather than leading a vigorous young civilization reaching out toward the stars, the player will be fighting to restore an ancient, declining faction; this people is dreaming of their past glory and striving to recapture it."   Great idea, one of my all time favorite sci-fi scenarios!  Was done well in the paper game world back when with "Imperium" by GDW  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperium_(board_game)   Will be looking forward to it, as one of those peope who found the whole "hacking a planet" thing offputting, I haven't been able to play the game more than an hour or so since "Penumbra" (1689 hours on record before "Penumbra").  This sounds like something I might go back for.

I love the idea of an empire that's struggling to overcome their decline. It's such a common fate for empires, and there's some interesting examples of old empires limping along until their inevitable collapse (Byzantine Empire, Holy Roman Empire, British Empire), and the potential for organic and thematically powerful defeats involving this faction make for an interesting scenario. Will it be overextension, a devestating Craver attack that ends with the capital sacked, maybe a technological advance from without that ends with the empire losing its' power base?
Heck, maybe they'll have a similar mechanic to the Cravers where the planets or population cease providing the same bonuses they once provided and that were essential for growth.

It'll also be interesting to see how they're differentiated from the United Empire, and what their relationship might be with the Endless. 

I'm so impatient ! J'ai tellement hâte de voir ça ! :) 

Cinder33 wrote:

All I want to say is LESS focus on factions and MORE focus on improving gameplay and the turn by turn boredom.  Give the universe some life.  I have no idea why you ignore the community when they say improve the gameplay.  Who in here is saying I want more factions?!

I want more factions... At least, until they add Wild Walkers... Then I'm happy xD

two months pasted l hope the developer team could disclose something about the new dlc

Quite curious, I'll watch with great interest. (Maybe the Drakken will make a cameo in ES3. Long live the Space Dragons!)

Waiting anxiously, I think the past two expansions were great and added much needed depth to the game even if they did/do need more balancing. Just hope after this expansion the devs go full board tweaking before ending development, or we're going to need another great modder to fix the issues ala Endless Legend Community Patch

Most of players want improvement of gameplay not a new another faction ! Lets vote! >:)

Hmm i would like to have Bouth ;-)

I still havent found my most loved Faction in this game so i hope the next one maybe will be it!

For my part i love Factions with only 1 Hyper System, but i am also a bit more War oriented and war with the Umbral CHoir at the Moment is bullshit you cant fill your fleets with Manpower.

What would be nice is an Political Rework, more Blanced Governements, better Hacking, Rework of the luxury resources ..........

More Glaxy Settings!

We will se what the Future brings

Sounds amazing!

Really excited for the future of Endless Space 2. The art direction, faction designs and lore is really something else that you have here.

I've been playing  the new Total War games (Warhammer & Three Kingdoms) obsessively of late, and have been excited with the new direction of the campaign gameplay the devs over there have taken. Also, Stellaris has been receiving interesting updates, too. I've also been dreaming of ways in which the future may bring us games that combine the amazing faction designs and art of the Endless universe with new innovations in turn-based and real time strategy games.

Here's to the Future's Future! Can't wait to see the new faction!

All I really want is Harmony from es1 and some more stability fixes since recently I've had a lot of problems with desync when I play with friends (no matter who hosts) 

Definately a new faction must looks like space cats O:) ...for example like the new generation of ALLAYI from Endless Legend... my daughter just love em so musch =D

Very exciting. I look forward to any news! Interesting is to strive for Issender or remains Eternal? In any case, all players are waiting for your new achievements. We believe in you! 

I appreciate the work you have done so far. I have confidence in the team to carry out this new expansion. The idea of playing a faction on the decline instead of a faction in devellopement intrigues me already !