I'd like to see "free movement" from Endless Space 1 make a return. While I prefer games with lanes and no inherent free movement (like Gal Civ), I also like it when they give us the ability to bypass them through tech advancement to open up opportunities for encirclement and outflanking.

Apocalypse wrote:
Actually I really don't mind repeating factions, I just would like some theming in such cases to have actually represent them as sub-factions who did split from each other. Kind like the endless did.

Well, it would take a lot of work to create a backstory and graphics to make a split-off (but very similar) faction look and feel different enough to the player. And then what do you do if the RNG throws more than two identical factions? I'd rather see that much work put into additional interesting factions.



Even the splinter factions in ES felt a little weird to me, especially trying to figure out the timeline. I mean, how long would it have taken for the Horatio and Pilgrims to develop such a different culture from the UE they left? And why wouldn't the UE know where they were? Did the UE go into deep freeze for a few hundred years? Cultural/technological shifts like that don't happen overnight. And if you're playing as any of these three factions, it clashes with the classic space 4X idea that you're heading out into the black for the first time, not knowing what's out there. I guess I just like my aliens to be aliens. And one-of-a-kind.

Zenicetus wrote:
Well, it would take a lot of work to create a backstory and graphics to make a split-off (but very similar) faction look and feel different enough to the player. And then what do you do if the RNG throws more than two identical factions? I'd rather see that much work put into additional interesting factions.



Even the splinter factions in ES felt a little weird to me, especially trying to figure out the timeline. I mean, how long would it have taken for the Horatio and Pilgrims to develop such a different culture from the UE they left? And why wouldn't the UE know where they were? Did the UE go into deep freeze for a few hundred years? Cultural/technological shifts like that don't happen overnight. And if you're playing as any of these three factions, it clashes with the classic space 4X idea that you're heading out into the black for the first time, not knowing what's out there. I guess I just like my aliens to be aliens. And one-of-a-kind.

I think you missunderstood me. I was not aiming to create splinter factions that are as diverse as the UE to the Sheredyn. I was thinking me along the lines of texans and new englanders. Same tech, same ships, same traits, just a different leader with a different AI behavior because of a recent secession. This would be enough for me to not break the suspension of disbelief for me and keep the games atmospheres intact. Unlike that one game in which I ended up with FIVE FREAKING PILGRIM AIs in a 8 player game. I tell you that ruined the mood. ;-)



PS. For the Horatio? About as long as the endless device needed to fill the planet with enough clones to sustain a culture

The Pilgrims at the other hand had a different culture before their secession from the UE in the first place. Put a few million amish into a colony ship, send them to Mars, wait a generation or two and you have something that is not like earth as well. ;-)

Lucky for the gameplay, the Pilgrims are instead geek amish, but in essence they did the same, stole a colony ship and got as far away from the empire as they could to get rid of its influence.

From the lore, the Pilgrims have only been a splinter group for about a century. Their culture evolved from a common mindset as much as the rejection of the United Empire's ideals.

I too would like some sort of cooperative mode.



Even if it still can't be a true cooperative victory it would be nice to have more options for being in an Alliance and in the case of this game it'd be interesting if perhaps alliances could have increasing effects on cooperating political systems. This could be as simple as just have a percent bonus to a certain faction supported by the allied empire or it could even go as far as to allow passes of special laws that can only come from an alliance like signing join plans that would allow for bonuses science, industry, or commercial revenue increase through maybe changes in imported good taxes (this is probably too in depth but you get the idea).



I think there need to be preset teams for this but I just would like an increase of diplomatic foreign affairs which would be especially important if there are to be more none hostile victory agreements as the developers say there will.

Speaking of cooperative. I would like to see a return of the reinforcement mechanics from endless, but with the option for 3-ways and 4-ways in case that allied forces are in range to reinforce your own fleets. Same naturally for opponents allies.

The one and only item you might want to review from beyond earth is the unit upgrade system. Yes, I broke down last weekend and played it for 10$ on steam. Everything mentioned in the beyond earth posts is true. The factions are bland, diplomacy is stale, the UI is worse than CIV5.



But under the steaming pile, the unit development system was smooth balanced and offered unique game play. Players could build certain units if they had unique resources. The units are strong but not game breaking. The upgraded units automatically cost more energy (dust). It was a smart choice that reduce army and empire friction management. The rest of the game could be used to clean your backside. They had a bug two years after release that wouldn't let me fire artillery over flat area... I reported the bug and they told me to report it some where else. I rage quit. I think 2K channeled their inter EA.



All that being said, ES II could review the system. The star ship classes could improve and change in one smooth motion with your empire's access to resources. You wouldn't have to rebuild or overhaul your fleets every single time new tech comes out. The play testing could be balanced easier and you wouldn't have one super fleet with one hero destroy 40 enemy fleets like ES I.

Ship design

In ES1 it was was awful. It's the aspect I want to see completely redone in ES2. from the scratch.

Diplomacy

Never actually touched the screen in my parties of ES1. Was near-useless.

I'd like to see enhanced Battle system with additionally support by allied force if they do have that kind of alliance, have the needed battle plans to allow such combined forces and do have common goals about the battle outcome.



Outlined the idea allready in the battle thread, but like to share here too.



So I'd prefer a pre-battle request for allied players to



A - share command

One commander will get battle authority and does command all allied ships.



B - land lease

Commanders could request additional support from allies at same battle arena.



C - hasty retreat

If you see your allies facing overwhelming enemy or you do not prefer your 'ally' to win too much that early, get the choice to leave battlefield immediatly. ...probably for the price to leave alliance and the cost of some civilian or minor ships.

Actually I really don't mind repeating factions, I just would like some theming in such cases to have actually represent them as sub-factions who did split from each other. Kind like the endless did.

Things i would love to see on ES2



1. I would love to see the horatio back ( most original race i have to say after the hamony) again and the sowers ( favorite race remind me of the geth from mass effect dont know why)-



2. A more dynamic ground combat by more dynamic i mean some sort of cool animations of cravers landing on planets giant sophon mechs fighting harmony mechbots over a burning city of course something simple something to make the ground combat more alive it doesnt have to be a micro demanding activity just some animations :P would be awsome



3. More cosmetic effects on planets like for example its a planet its orbital bombarded make it look like a mess i mean its the future there is space travel and stuff even today humans have weapon capable of turning the planet into a husk im sure the ES factions should have nasty stuff too, or that after having a coruscant lite planet after having a biig population on it, some ships and small space station around it.



4. Last thing please Amplitude do this just this!! make the craver change the aspect of a planet after depleting it something like an "forced transformation" how i like to call it, i mean make non barren worlds look like barren planets after depleting the resources on them it always seem strange to me that even when the craver cinematic shows planets being messed up by the craver they look the same in game, also it could be applied to bombardment to make a terran planet "terraform" to a lava/barren planet or even a frozen planet ( nuclear winter guys) after an invasion or a bombardment or maybe terraform cold planets by throwing comets to them and well thats all i can think now and i have to say that i love your games <3 so even if none of my suggestion appear on ES2 im sure you are going to make an 10/10 game! -

The-Cat-o-Nine-Tales wrote:
Here are a few of the features I would like to see:

• A fully integrated, detailed encyclopedia, with all relevant gameplay information and lore.
• A proper tutorial for new players and those with experience in 4x games.
• A visual representation of systems on the map. It seems we'll be getting that, and it will help a lot against claims of lifelessness.
• Trade routes visible on the strategic map as small ships, with an option to raid trade routes while at (cold) war.
• More balanced ship combat and modules. In vanilla ES, it was all about cheap missile glasscannons, and in disharmony, long range kinetics usually ruled supreme.
• A combat system that relies less on hard counters. I've always prefered having multiple different soft counters of varying effectiveness to a single hard counter.
• More unique heroes. The stat differences were often not really enough to set one Commander/Pilot apart from another, as with increasing level the initial relative difference shrunk.
• More traits (or with the internal politics system, laws) that open up new options and play styles instead of just offering stat bonuses and penalties.
• Unique Random Factions option during game setup
• Preset-teams and victories shared across alliances (or perhaps a new, stronger diplomatic bond, the Federation)
• Drastic Improvements to the siege and blockade systems.
• A marketplace that is properly functional, with frequent transactions by the AI, and prices that are more thoroughly based on supply and demand instead of rising steadily through the game and then being adjusted a bit.
  
  

This guy summed up all that I want in the new ES sequel. Also, give us some way to view the ship models so we can marvel at them (I model in 3D so I greatly appreciate ship designs). Also, multiple faction portraits for custom factions!



And add some more ship designs too. Like, a frigate class, a cruiser class, a dedicated carrier class. It'd be nice to optimize ship designs with the modules we'd lodge into it. And hmmmm, customizable figher/bomber squadrons?

MuhSophonScience wrote:
This guy summed up all that I want in the new ES sequel. Also, give us some way to view the ship models so we can marvel at them (I model in 3D so I greatly appreciate ship designs). Also, multiple faction portraits for custom factions!



And add some more ship designs too. Like, a frigate class, a cruiser class, a dedicated carrier class. It'd be nice to optimize ship designs with the modules we'd lodge into it. And hmmmm, customizable figher/bomber squadrons?

It shouldn't be too restrictive right now. Like right now, you already have what is basically a carrier hull in for example the second sophon medium hull(Or other factions ships with -bomber/fighter weight), but you can still kinda use it for other things.

Scaling of number hero's/leaders based on number of star systems held or size of galaxy. If galaxy size is extra large, the cap on the number of hero's/leaders you gain per #of hero's tech is proportional to the size of the galaxy. If I have an empire of 100 star systems, I would expect to have a lot more leaders to manage my fleets/star systems than an empire of 20 star systems.



What about shipyards, starbase size etc.. Do we repair 100% of all damage on any size fleet in any star system including brand new colonies like in ES1? Can the repair be based on the economy of the star system or the facilities available? Including dedicated repair systems on board ships and/or dedicated repair ships?

Stripe7 wrote:
Scaling of number hero's/leaders based on number of star systems held or size of galaxy. If galaxy size is extra large, the cap on the number of hero's/leaders you gain per #of hero's tech is proportional to the size of the galaxy. If I have an empire of 100 star systems, I would expect to have a lot more leaders to manage my fleets/star systems than an empire of 20 star systems.

I'm sure the large snowballing faction needs more help face rolling their nearest neighbors.



What I'd move to see in ES2:

Land Battles: more then just a single module and result window.

A tutorial for new players. Some players have trouble beating the AI on low difficulty.

Espionage: Sabotage, misinformation, smuggling, spy, corruption, bribes, and more interstellar drugs (luxuries)

Influence Area mattering. Such as: being able to take over systems with influence.

I am more interested in scaling the number of leaders based on Galaxy size. So all empires can end up with the same maximum number of leaders, just that if I am playing with a extra huge galaxy I would expect to have more leaders available to handle the larger empires that will exist in the game.

In the original Endless Space, the United Empire had armor techs that gave +X% HP armor mods extremely early. This allowed the UE exclusive access to HP tanks early, and differentiated them greatly from their peers in combat. This was removed and changed over time (like everything else), and was both a tremendous loss to the faction, and the game as a whole.



The thing I want in ES2 is this: mechanical differences in faction tech' trees that have substantial, noticeable combat implications. I want to struggle to choose between a wealth of interesting factions that field vastly different feeling fleets. Disharmony's efforts to make each faction's ships have differing bonuses didn't really do much to make the factions feel different, save to make certain factions with good bonuses better than others. It was not fun, and a large reason why I stopped playing the game.



For example, giving the Harmony access to a unique fighter/bomber tech at tier one. Make it balanced for being at that tech' level. Find combat niches for each faction (even if their niche is to not have one, which would be fine for a single faction), and make them available early. I want to feel like this is a universe populated by vastly different life forms, especially in combat, as that tends to be what Endless titles favor.

JIntegrity wrote:
In the original Endless Space, the United Empire had armor techs that gave +X% HP armor mods extremely early. This allowed the UE exclusive access to HP tanks early, and differentiated them greatly from their peers in combat. This was removed and changed over time (like everything else), and was both a tremendous loss to the faction, and the game as a whole.



The thing I want in ES2 is this: mechanical differences in faction tech' trees that have substantial, noticeable combat implications. I want to struggle to choose between a wealth of interesting factions that field vastly different feeling fleets. Disharmony's efforts to make each faction's ships have differing bonuses didn't really do much to make the factions feel different, save to make certain factions with good bonuses better than others. It was not fun, and a large reason why I stopped playing the game.



For example, giving the Harmony access to a unique fighter/bomber tech at tier one. Make it balanced for being at that tech' level. Find combat niches for each faction (even if their niche is to not have one, which would be fine for a single faction), and make them available early. I want to feel like this is a universe populated by vastly different life forms, especially in combat, as that tends to be what Endless titles favor.

I can agree to that. Ideally, I'd like the factions to feel different in both empire management (which may be possible through the new "Senate" system and the attached laws, as well as system improvements) and combat. And it is indeed quiet important that the difference should start showing early, as otherwise games might end before the factions begin to differ.

In addition to random factions = non-repeating factions (up to the number of available factions), as mentioned in the other thread, I'd like to see two things regarding Heroes:



* A check box in the Options screen for "Heroes From Your Faction Only." Maybe it's just me, but it never made sense in the Endless games that you'd have Heroes available for hire from a faction you were at odds with, even to the extent of genocide. Why would someone from that faction offer to help destroy their own species? It would help immersion for warlike expansion if we could choose to limit Heroes only to our own faction. If we're playing a more peace-loving faction and going for a diplomacy or science win, we might choose to leave that box unchecked.



* Heroes from other factions shouldn't be available for hire before we have met their faction in space. As a classic 4X space game design, the idea here is that we're expanding into the unknown for the first time. Having an alien show up on our doorstep for hire in the early game, before ever meeting their faction, just doesn't make any sense. It also telegraphs too much information if we've chose "random factions" in the setup options.

Hey exnihil nice to see a post from a true veteran of the Endless Space multiplayer here on the forum.



For all the listed points of you I can vouch for.

exnihil wrote:
Will kick DMT's ass there as well

Good ol' days, good ol' days.