So forgive me if this just seems like a stream of consciousness ramble, because I thought about it as I was falling asleep.



I was thinking about how the Sowers' existence revolves around preparing for the return of the Endless, forever terraforming planets in anticipation.



What if in ES2, the Endless return suddenly in the late game?



We've already see with Guardians in EL that Amplitude is trying to introduce new elements to the late game to make it more interesting/engaging, so something like this doesn't seem like too far of a stretch.



Maybe even make them an unlockable playable species for completing special quests?



Either that, or Amplitude should just make their next game take place before and during the Concrete/Virtual schism and Dust Wars.

I like the way your mind wanders when you drift off, as this was indeed one of the big open questions left by the Sowers.



However, knowing the second coming is on the way can condition your way of acting without necessarily paying off.



It's certainly an interesting plot point, however!

Frogsquadron wrote:
It's certainly an interesting plot point, however!

Placing the Endless in the actual game will be really unlikely, but maybe if there will be victory through faction story quest like Endless Legend...

I think that will be cool if the Sowers see signs of the Endless return if they win that way, even if the Endless don't make appearence directly...

Maybe they find one of the trascended Endless, one Virual sleeping in stasis, coded in some pure Dust unpowered artifact... they will reanimate him and then follow his lead! Cool happy ending! ^^

They would be cool as some sort of late game high threat event. Like portals open up all over the map and Endless ships start pouring in to destroy everything. Like they feel they left a "mess" in the galaxy and are back to clean it up and start fresh. Not as some sort of ultimate evil or sinister force, but like how when you leave your front door open and a few mosquitoes get inside, and you grab a newspaper and swat a few of them.

Frogsquadron wrote:


However, knowing the second coming is on the way can condition your way of acting without necessarily paying off.

Well... here me out now, there's a way to still do this...



What if in ES2 there's some sort of probability mechanic when the game starts. Like start up the game, there's a 50/50 chance that the endless showing up is even POSSIBLE.

If possible, the first turn has a 1 in 1,000,000 chance (on standard) to spawn the endless and begin the endless return events. The 2nd turn has a 1 in 999,999 chance. And so on and so forth.

So basically, the endless might not even show up within the time frame of the game even if they are on the way. But IF they ARE on the way, each passing turn makes it more likely.



This way, there is no real way of knowing IF the endless will show up. It's highly unlikely, but it could conceivably happen at any time if it happens at all.

Just saying, depending on what exactly the return of the endless entails, this here could be an epic game changer.

Lorewise, this gives some credibility to the paranoia some factions have concerning the endless.

Gameplaywise, preparing for the return of the endless could be slightly detrimental in some way to normal empire growth but be the ultimate payoff if the return should occur. Thereby mechanically validating an attitude of skepticism concerning the endless while simultaneously validating paranoia...



If their return means the endless faction shows up and starts messing everything up for everyone,

unlocking their faction could require that you encounter them in a game and survive their return and/or defeat them.

I seem to remember a few episodes of Stargate where they found some Ancients who were in stasis/Time dilated and had not ascended yet. Seems like a decent event, You find a living Endless from before they were OP.

The endless didn't "ascend" or go to some higher place. They self destructed in a massive civil war. Many still remain in the universe, fragmented beyond the point where they could be called a single civilization any more. Some work as mercenaries, you can hire a couple in ES1, both a concrete and a virtual. It sounds like many of the fragmented clusters of the endless could still be around and growing as new civilizations, possibly some of the already existing factions in the game are descendants of Tor without knowing it (*cough*vaulters*cough*). It's also possible some larger portion of their civilization survived somewhere else, another galaxy, universe, time, or dimension, and could return in force, in all their glory.



http://endlessspace.wikia.com/wiki/Endless

I think that would be too predictable and boring to have the Endless return, and it has been done ten million times before. The Endless are scattered and broken, with vestiges here and there (the amoeba for instance are what remains of Concrete Endless, they just don't remember it. At least according to the Art book). Keep them that way.



I think it would be a lot more interesting if Dust is what is trying to return. What if dust was a crystalline living entity (the likes of which have been theorized by scientists, actually) that was corrupted by Endless nanite technology and re-purposed to serve them. Now dust is seeking to liberate itself, and is manipulating behind the scenes. That's how I interpreted the trailer. "I had reached perfect harmony, before they came and destroyed everything."

KnightofPhoenix wrote:
I think it would be a lot more interesting if Dust is what is trying to return. What if dust was a crystalline living entity (the likes of which have been theorized by scientists, actually) that was corrupted by Endless nanite technology and re-purposed to serve them. Now dust is seeking to liberate itself, and is manipulating behind the scenes. That's how I interpreted the trailer. "I had reached perfect harmony, before they came and destroyed everything."

According to ES lore, Dust isn't used in Endless nanite technology, Dust IS the refinement of the Endless nanite technology...

Dust is an advanced version of that technology, it became super small, super mobile and able to pull energy from radiation.

Then it learned to self-network, self-organize, auto-reproducing and auto-assemble.

That's why Dust is so dangerous for the Harmony, it consume the high energy crystalline body in order to reproduce...

For Dust, Harmonys are just a perfect substrate for reproduction.

Also big quantities of un-guided Dust, eventually start to agglomerate and show sign of apparent consciousness, doing weird stuff around...

So maybe yes, some form of living Dust entity may exist...

Keymaster89 wrote:
According to ES lore, Dust isn't used in Endless nanite technology, Dust IS the refinement of the Endless nanite technology...

Dust is an advanced version of that technology, it became super small, super mobile and able to pull energy from radiation.

Then it learned to self-network and self-organize, auto-reproducing and auto-assemble.

Un-guided Dust, eventually start to agglomerate and show sign of apparent consciousness, doing weird stuff around...

So maybe yes, some form of living Dust entity may exist...

Yes, I am aware that is the case in the original ES lore. That is what we are told, at least. But I see ES2 as a reboot of sorts, or at least I hope it will be. I find it more interesting than the Endless coming back or nanites acquiring consciousness.

really? Nobody is biting on the maybe so maybe not mechanic idea?

Dangit, I thought it was awesome. Granted, I'm the one that suggested it, but still.



I suppose it would be a lot of work to put into something like that.... oh well.

Actually it does sound fun to be suddenly fighting the dust.



C'mon, imagine if most of your empires dust just got up and walked away, formed the endless equivalent of voltron and tried tearing through the galaxy?