Hello everyone!



I'm new in this forum but I'm a big fan of amplitude studio and I spent countless hours playing EL, DotE and, of course ES

I'm very excited about ES2 and I would love to help by giving my feedback here.







Presentation aside, here is the main subject:



As the title says, reading the overview of ES2 left me with some questions about the management of the population.

The dev seem to focus on this point and a senate will be created to reflect the opinions of the population of each system. It looks terribly exciting but here is what I don't understand about it:



- Will the senate be used by every race? For instance, will the cravers have a senate?

I don't see which political influence they could represent aside the warfare one. Indeed, this race gains everything through war (even science!). I'd love to be surprised but I hardly see how their hive system could use a senate.



- In the Gamescom video we can see the Sophons made friends with an other race of farmers. These farmers had a representative in the senate and had the right to elect senators. We can also see this in the overview: " [thesenate] can be composed of a plurality of races and opinions".

But does every races have the right to elect senators as long as they are in your empire? Will it be decided by law with, why not, "pure" and "tolerant" opinions?



- This last point makes me wonder what will happen to the system you conquer: will the population remain the same? Will you be able to choose to "let them be" or to "purify" the system? The way humans became suddenly harmony crystals after your conquests bothered me in ES (even if the malus after the conquest could explain the massive population replacement).



I know it is a bit early in the development of the game but for me theses questions seem important to raise.



Thank you for reading and good game

For now we can only speculate and gather some facts.



If you watch their IGN Video from GamesCom and stop at 2:07 you can see that the third planet has different population. The population is split on this planet between the Sophons and another race. probably the minor faction which was assimilated (like in EL ??? ) and which became the leader off the pacifist senat faction. So I guess it will totally be possible to have all sorts of different species in your empire. Considering the GDD 2 - Overview and what is said about the population we can assume that we will be able to conquer (or through diplomatic means) other species. So perhaps it is possible to conquer many Sophon systems to boost your science. What would be really interesting thoug: What happens if most of your empire consists of conquered Craver systems while playing as Sophons? Will your empire transform into a warmongering empire?



Considering Cravers and a senate: Well perhaps it is possible to transform the Cravers into a more peacfull empire? What would happen if you assimilate and conquer peacefull minor species? I can see a Craver Senat. This Senat would be made of the War Faction for obvious reasons. But there could also be a faction which stands for an industry focus. And even Cravers have some scientists. You need a good industry and science to go to war. But perhaps the senat can be switched off for Cravers via Race affinities. Something only inherent to the Cravers like their trait to not be able to form diplomatic relationships.



Regarding your question about the farmer guy being the leader of the pacifist faction I would guess that he represents this faction in the senat because most of the supporting voters are from his minor species? This is pure speculation. So the pacifist faction could also be represented bye another Sophon just like the warfare faction. What would be interesting is if you can bring in new ideas and ideals through other species. Or if the circumstances (Cravers at the door) are more important. Or if it is a combination. What factors must be present to form a pacifist Craver faction if at all possible?

Yeah, I find this subject fascinating and all the questions it raises essential for an empire.

What happens if most of your empire consists of conquered Craver systems while playing as Sophons? Will your empire transform into a warmongering empire?

Indeed, will conquered people have the right to influence your policies or just the faction you assimilated? And will they be a maximum number of faction you can assimilate, like in EL? Will you be able to choose which one accept and which one reject?

I would guess that he represents this faction in the senat because most of the supporting voters are from his minor species?

So you could have a Sophon empire with the warfare faction in your senate represented by a Craver? I don't know if it is funny or realistic, but it would be very interesting to see!

What factors must be present to form a pacifist Craver faction if at all possible?

With everything we highlighted, probably with a pacifist minor faction powerful enough (in term of influence), without emergency (Threatening neighbour), and with a lot of pacifists laws (I kinda understood laws you choose also affect the influence of each faction, right?).

Bobledanois wrote:


Indeed, will conquered people have the right to influence your policies or just the faction you assimilated? And will they be a maximum number of faction you can assimilate, like in EL? Will you be able to choose which one accept and which one reject?

This is indeed a very interesting point. From a gameplay standpoint it would make sense to limit the number of assimilated minor factions like in EL. This produces player choices. In EL the minor faction which where not assimilated were still a part of your empire in form of population but they didn't influence your gameplay with new traits. But from a lore standpoint in ES2 this would mean you would treat some species as second class cities with less rights then the rest. And since you can conqueor a lot of different species this can complicate the matter further. Will be interesting to see how the assimilation part turns out. As far as I understand it population of other major species add different boni to your FIDSI. But will they also be present in your empire via the senat? Or only the minor factions?