I'll leave these two posts I made when discussing in the ES2 speculation threads:

WhiteWeasel wrote:
Also the current blockade mechanics have got to get a revamp. They are to exploity/unfair depending on which end you are on.



For undefended systems:



1) The systems normal defenses will provide it with it's own ower: (albeit not a ton) . This system MP factor into if it can be blockaded. If the blockading fleet has less MP than the system, it cannot be blockaded. It's silly how a scout can shut down a whole systems trade lanes (when that system has anti-ship measures as part of it's defenses mind you). The system MP won't stop a full fleet, but will alleviate the scout blockade exploit.



2) Be it upgrades to existing structures (like cloud rippers) or a standalone, add structure that can damage an enemy fleet in orbit. These anti-ship measures will deal damage divided evenly amongst all enemy ships in the fleet. The damage is applied on a per fleet basis. The damage will have the enemies defensive modules factored in. Because of this a single ship fleet could be ripped apart in a turn or two, while a full fleet could take very little to no damage at all as a sorts of herd resistance. So say your system defense does 600 damage per turn. You have a 450 corvette that has a total defensive value of 100. A single ship fleet (or a dozen since the damage is reapplied per fleet) will get destroyed. But a single fleet of 6+ of those corvettes will take no damage at all. This will discourage blockading with a bunch of singular weak ships and stalling massive fleets with a bunch of throwaway ships and encourage the condensing of fleets.





For defended systems



1) Your fleet must have at least >=75% of the total enemy ower: (system(if any) + fleet in orbit) in order to blockade it. As I find it silly a hilariously outclassed scout or unarmed invasion fleet can stop your trade routes AND stall your heavily armed forces.



2) A fleet can battle again based on it's CP value. In essence a 12 CP fleet can fight a same sized or larger fleet once, or can fight twelve 1 fleets, four 3 fleets etc... Maybe I'm bashing this over the head now that I don't like fleet spam.

WhiteWeasel wrote:
Yeah I hope for an ES2. While ES is good, that are still so many things that can be improved. Many of which would just be better off making a new game that trying to revamp an old one. While I love the cinematic flare to it, and hope it's as pretty looking in ES2, I hope combat becomes more in depth than pick your formation, targeting, battle cards and watching the fireworks. Also based on my post here, empire-side mechanics could be changed to prevent fleet spam abuse. Or alternatively do away with it all and have your ships in the actual star system like Sins of a solar empire with the turn based elements of Endless legend/Last federation. Now that would be cool.



Also diplomacy in ES could use some love. I have not played very much of endless Legend, but I heard it improves upon the diplomacy issues ES had. I would like the AI to take your resources into account when making a deal and should not be as offended when you refuse a deal that is obviously in their favor. They should expect to get refused or offer much in return if they ask for a resource and it breaks my monopoly on it or have a near monopoly on it (or offer me another resource that I'm a near monopoly in so I could get that bonus instead). And asking for a strategic resource that I have only one unit of is not an option, etc... Adding the ability to renegotiate a lopsided deal would be awesome thing to have. Another thing that peeves me off is that the AI factions will seem to run the same. They will out of the blue declare war on me because they are running out of space for their people, which is a believable action for the hissho or UE to do, but I should NOT be getting that message from the automatons.



Lastly faction diversity. Lore, aesthetics, and trait wise amplitude has got it down. But their tech trees are pretty much the same. I think there should be much more than 10 or so faction specific techs you can research. Also I saw one guy say that there should be little nuances for each faction like altering the UI and adding special background music for each faction like starcraft.



I want Endless space 2 to fix the problems endless space had, have the 4x improvements Endless legend made (where applicable) and do what endless space does right better. Call me idealistic.

magnuskn wrote:
Well, I'm throwing in my vote for tactical combat and hotseat.

I was happy with EL tactical combat, and then I kept playing. I found some glaring weaknesses that have yet to be adjusted. I'm not as fond of it as I was before.

Add tactical combat and have a simple check box for "AutoCombat" for the people who think it slows the game too much. Kinda like the old Heroes of Might and Magic games (#3 being my favorite).

If you have tactical it will never truly be replaced by auto combat as the player will always do better.

After playing Paradox's games, I have been thinking about there being some sort of politics in ES2. Even if it would be a shallow mechanic such as the enactment of reforms or changing the government type, I would still welcome it.

I must be one of the few that thinks that combat in Endless Space is perfectly fine, all it would need as far as I am concerned is better balancing (no op LR kinetics), and perhaps having formations have a bigger impact.



But from formations, to fleet behavior, to heroes, to abilities, and range and rate of fire considerations, there is a lot more depth and control to Endless Space's combat than say Galactic Civilizations (which I love incidentally), or most space 4x games that I know of. I think it had enough depth without taking away or distracting us from strategic gameplay and empire management.

I agree knightofphoenix.

KnightofPhoenix wrote:
I must be one of the few that thinks that combat in Endless Space is perfectly fine, all it would need as far as I am concerned is better balancing (no op LR kinetics), and perhaps having formations have a bigger impact.



But from formations, to fleet behavior, to heroes, to abilities, and range and rate of fire considerations, there is a lot more depth and control to Endless Space's combat than say Galactic Civilizations (which I love incidentally), or most space 4x games that I know of. I think it had enough depth without taking away or distracting us from strategic gameplay and empire management.

The problem of endless spaces combat is not lack of depth, it's lack of interactivity in the battle. At first I didn't mind it, but after coming back from a long break of ES. I feel as if, combat -though not terrible by any means- feels a bit...on rails-y. Other than fitting my ships, formations and battle cards, I don't have much agency in the actual fight.

WhiteWeasel wrote:
The problem of endless spaces combat is not lack of depth, it's lack of interactivity in the battle. At first I didn't mind it, but after coming back from a long break of ES. I feel as if, combat -though not terrible by any means- feels a bit...on rails-y. Other than fitting my ships, formations and battle cards, I don't have much agency in the actual fight.

That is still more control than games like Galactic Civ. I don`t mind it at all. I`d much rather have that, than have a meh tactical system where spamming is the name of the game, like almost every other RTS / games with RTS elements out there.



Of course in an ideal world, I'd love to have amazing tactical gameplay, where superior tactics are vital. But I personally do not consider it to be the priority in a game like ES. But of course that is just my opinion.

Im a bigger fan of being able to empire build in my 4X games.



As I don't really like to micromanage.

Eysteinh wrote:
I agree knightofphoenix.

Yes, well spoken. Gametime can never be more then 100%, I want most, or all, of that time of game design centered arround interesting strategy rather then tedious tactics.

KnightofPhoenix wrote:
That is still more control than games like Galactic Civ. I don`t mind it at all. I`d much rather have that, than have a meh tactical system where spamming is the name of the game, like almost every other RTS / games with RTS elements out there.



Of course in an ideal world, I'd love to have amazing tactical gameplay, where superior tactics are vital. But I personally do not consider it to be the priority in a game like ES. But of course that is just my opinion.

My biggest hope for change in ES2 combat is actually a fix to fleet spam. Perhaps something akin to a supply/ cap system, where you have to research and/or build planetary improvements in increase the number of ships you can field at once. And of course different factions would have different limits, like say the cravers having a higher than normal supply limit to account for their spammy, throw away ships and whatnot.