The-Cat-o-Nine-Tales

5 years ago May 17,2019, 14:59:41 PM

ES2 Community Scenario #04: Your Vision, Their Future

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Hey everybody,

Have you ever found yourself returning to the same settings time and again, all your games following familiar paths? Are you looking to extend your time in the Endless universe, but don't want to return to the same old sights? Then the Community Scenarios might be for you!

Every month, we will share saves and settings (and sometimes story) for our games meant to provide interesting challenges to seasoned players and newcomers alike. You can enter a hall of fame for each Scenario, or just share your experiences and discuss strategies.

Your Vision, Their Future

The plan is in place. Dust is spreading. In every corner of the galaxy, life will grow, survive, and evolve to reveal its true potential. In following its dreams, it will answer my needs. Its search for power, and its thirst for dust, will nourish our return. At that moment, those who stand against us shall all be reminded who their gods are.

In this scenario, we are reviving the Early Access “Your Vision, Their Future” trailer by pitting the Sophons against the Vodyani in a war for supremacy. With limited space for expansion and no constellations protecting you from the aggression of your neighbor, war seems inevitable. How quickly can you overwhelm them by taking their capital? You can play as either the Sophon or the Vodyani, in the same galaxy and starting position.

Savegames: Sophons: CS1905-Sophon.sav; Vodyani: CS1905-Vodyani.sav

You can join us next Friday, May 24th, at 4:00PM CEST for a stream of this scenario. Click here to set your event reminder on Twitch.

Additionally, we are taking the next step towards the real goal of this project: Scenarios by our community for our community. We have opened a submission form for your own Endless Space 2 scenarios. For the time being, we will only feature individual scenarios in the Community Scenario blogs, but we hope to improve our ways of sharing these scenarios with you.

Have fun,

Amplitude

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koxsos

Lumeris Recon

Make ES2 playable again.

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koxsos

Lumeris Recon

50 100g2g pts

5 years ago

May 18, 2019, 10:14:25 AM

Well I did about turn 38 with sophons because of the war influence costs, I guess making vodo force war on you through some ai manipulation shenanigans could probably push it down to a lot less. Like 20 turns less provided the map knowledge + rush tactics OR getting lucky with religious party winning elections and invading and winning on turn 10ish? sophons and vodyani testing

BUT i managed to take and hold enemy home on turn 5 with vodyani provided I have the map knowledge from the sophon playthrough, and produce and deliver a second ark to hold my own home by turn 12. It comes out pretty even between rushing with first ark or second. Both came at 12 turn victory because of the distance and essence required.

So if we consider the "overwhelm them by taking their capital " as a win condition that would be turn 5, I don't really think we can push beyond that.
If we consider the supremacy victory of owning your own home system too, that would be turn 12. I'll deliver vids.

I appreciate this challenge as exceptionally generous to short attention span. ^_^

Updated 5 years ago.

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koxsos

Lumeris Recon

Make ES2 playable again.

Message

koxsos

Lumeris Recon

50 100g2g pts

5 years ago

May 18, 2019, 10:48:40 AM

Submission form is nice, I would extend it with mods beyond DLCs. I can easily make up a challenge utilizing the super duper hard AI mod.

Updated 5 years ago.

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ZenTractor

Mirror Chameleon

I make micro mods.

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ZenTractor

Mirror Chameleon

27 400g2g pts

5 years ago

Jun 8, 2019, 7:54:32 AM

I had a lot of fun with this! It took me... a while.

My start was a little slow. Bellatrix looked like a great system, but seeing I was on the right-hand side of the galaxy I wanted to push forwards to find the sophons early. But then, before I could even build a second arc the Vodyani quest spawned those pirate fleets, and my lone hero was injured while scouting! This was a massive setback and it wasn't until turn 15 that I could get out there once more and had enough ships and technology and upgraded modules to clear my airspace.

Thankfully my Leechers made it to the Epistis on Yisel, and I was able to maintian that so-essential Essence income. But this became the second challenge, as in this time the Sophons had also found this minor civilization! My expansion had been hampered, and when I saw that the Sophons were overtaking me in the race to influence my main food supply, there was only once choice. The hunting grounds gave me a hefty boost to Essence in the short term, and I could accelerate all of my system's development. I knew the boost would run out soon, and we would have to find new hunting grounds, but little did I know there was only one minor faction in the galaxy!

I chose a risky (rather greedy) path with my system development upgrades, and chose to go with Proto-Orchids to maximize future dust income with the Spacebound mechanics on large systems, instead of the abundant Dark Glitter or the quick-fix Dust Trees. I thought my manpower issues were recovering, but after the invasion of the Epistis it would take many, many turns to recover manpower stockpiles. Using the trees to double up on the overpowered Vodyani pops effects was very powerful. Would recommend. I pushed forwards to claim the academy, but then pirates cut off the north of the galaxy and the sophons slipping past to claim my precious Bellatrix system and its luxuries. South of vega was a mystery to me; roving pirates slayed my scouts, and the Vodyani quest was begging my hero go to the wrong side of the galaxy! I knew my manpower couldn't sustain this many fronts, so I pushed forwards and used the religious laws and some free-movement technology to begin to harvest from- and blockade- the Sophons as well as shore up my population growth. A solid Influence income was a godsend.

Turn 40 was very eventful. The Sophon's homeworld was finally discovered, and completion of the Vodyani main quest act 2 gave a massive boon to the manpower problems we had been facing. I knew a ground assault would be painful, but even with all my fleets the sieging was painfully slow. Immediately research was changed to get those titanium siege modules, and just a few turns later Cruisers spec'd out for ground assault were in production.

Yet things were going wrong once again! One unlucky event had traded approval for production bonuses, great for building the fleets I needed, but when Lava planets were colonised and another minor event which boosted approval ended and my primary starship production center was thrown into mutinous rage! Thankfully the Religious laws once-more provided a solution, and approval empire-wide was Forced to Content, at the small cost of some food and essence production.

Testing my new ships and troop upgrades (and getting a little distracted) the pirates were bombed out and cleared and I discovered why the Sophons had been so happy for me to raid their systems: Just as they had snuck past me, they had gotten their colony ships behind the pirates and owned the entire north of the galaxy!

But with Yersh in my clutches, it was only a matter of time for Hekim to fall. I was surprised when that didn't end the game outright, but no, the Sophons would never give up while their world could be reclaimed. So an Arc was sent to settle the matter.

The Arc was anchored. The end-turn button pressed. Then, after a brief election to decide what to do next, the Vodyani reigned Supreme!

----
Turn 70, on the dot! I had a lot of fun with this scenario! After a few setbacks I realised I wasn't setting any records, and took a few detours. I will certainly be trying some more of these scenarios in the future!

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