This is just the result of a frantic back and forth between me and a few friends, fuelled by the hype generated from the Cravers announcement.

But we were wondering if you could place in an additional 'game mode' where a big-bad would 'invade' the galaxy on turn X. This'd force the players to work together (or try and lone wolf it) in defence against this invading force.



From this idea, we kinda stemmed off into a sort of 'Campaign' - similar to the Star Wars Battlefront series' (Pre EA) Galactic Conquest.



The idea is something along the lines of a tournament - a cluster of galaxies.

Players/AI fight in each galaxy for supremacy (as per usual). But after a certain discovery (Like 'Door to Infinity' or something - spitballing) the 'Supreme' Empire could be taken to another galaxy, where they could set up and begin to take over.

This could also be used in Multiplayer games, mayhaps someone joins in a game with the 'Big-Bad' game-mode active. That player could start with 1 undiscovered/uncolonised node with a stock-standard defence fleet, and a buff based on how many turns had progressed (and the speed of the game).



Probably wishful thinking - While I've dabbled in creating faction traits in ES1, I am in no way learned in the school of programming and/or game design. So I don't know if either of those ideas are compatible with the way you guys're constructing ES2.



I'd like to hear any thoughts people may have on these two, and any others if someone's thought of another possible game-mode.



Cheers for your time~

Scenario modes are not uncommon in 4x. They can be as simple as a map creation script or as complicated as a new game mode.



A fun example of a map creation script is the New World scenario in Civ 4. There were two major continents; all players started on one of the continents. The player that researched ocean-traversing technology first had a massive advantage as they could settle the "New World" first, which due to the rules of the game had some barbarians on it but was otherwise relatively uninhabited. Do it fast enough and you could have first dibs on a whole continent of resources. This could be translated to Endless Space 2 by having a map script where a part of the galaxy is locked out to all players until wormhole technology is researched, and late game strategic resources are only found in that part of the galaxy.



A game mode example could be to have a King of the Hill mode. You have a relatively ring-shaped galaxy that everyone starts on the outside of, and in the center is the Endless Planet. The goal would be to colonize, hold, and defend the planet, and build a certain high-production wonder in order to win, and that is the only possible victory condition.



Another game mode example is playing as the pirates. A number of ships are generated automatically at certain bases, and your goal is to wipe out all of civilization or acquire a certain amount of gold. Technology is granted automatically at the pace of the other races.



There could be nonsensical scenarios, like every 25 turns you change which race you're in charge of. Or all the race traits swap at random times.



There could even be an RPG mode where each player only starts off with a hero and a single small ship. No tech and no colonies. Each new planet visited has a quest associated with it; selecting the correct response will result in an upgrade for your hero or your ship. Eventually you run into other player's ships and fight on-sight. Last ship standing wins.

This looks awesome!



I would like to particularly support the idea of a "Big-Bad", it would be really interesting to play in a multiplayer coop game. This Big-Bad could as well corrupt conquered planets, so no one could benefit from them.

Plus I would love to see the lore behind such a monstrosity (as long as we're not told it was created by the Endless - that would be too easy :P)



The suggestions of GotEmCoooach are really refreshing too.



I'm eager to see what are the other ideas on this topic!

SireTriste wrote:
This looks awesome!



I would like to particularly support the idea of a "Big-Bad", it would be really interesting to play in a multiplayer coop game. This Big-Bad could as well corrupt conquered planets, so no one could benefit from them.

Plus I would love to see the lore behind such a monstrosity (as long as we're not told it was created by the Endless - that would be too easy :P)



The suggestions of GotEmCoooach are really refreshing too.



I'm eager to see what are the other ideas on this topic!

Maybe Harmony taken up to eleven? They'd make a pretty good big bad, and they'd be easily made OP enough to be the challenge a Coop big bad head to be.

GotEmCoooach wrote:
Scenario modes are not uncommon in 4x. They can be as simple as a map creation script or as complicated as a new game mode.



A fun example of a map creation script is the New World scenario in Civ 4. There were two major continents; all players started on one of the continents. The player that researched ocean-traversing technology first had a massive advantage as they could settle the "New World" first, which due to the rules of the game had some barbarians on it but was otherwise relatively uninhabited. Do it fast enough and you could have first dibs on a whole continent of resources. This could be translated to Endless Space 2 by having a map script where a part of the galaxy is locked out to all players until wormhole technology is researched, and late game strategic resources are only found in that part of the galaxy.



A game mode example could be to have a King of the Hill mode. You have a relatively ring-shaped galaxy that everyone starts on the outside of, and in the center is the Endless Planet. The goal would be to colonize, hold, and defend the planet, and build a certain high-production wonder in order to win, and that is the only possible victory condition.



Another game mode example is playing as the pirates. A number of ships are generated automatically at certain bases, and your goal is to wipe out all of civilization or acquire a certain amount of gold. Technology is granted automatically at the pace of the other races.



There could be nonsensical scenarios, like every 25 turns you change which race you're in charge of. Or all the race traits swap at random times.



There could even be an RPG mode where each player only starts off with a hero and a single small ship. No tech and no colonies. Each new planet visited has a quest associated with it; selecting the correct response will result in an upgrade for your hero or your ship. Eventually you run into other player's ships and fight on-sight. Last ship standing wins.

A lot of the ideas you are mentioning will be implemented one way in another with our new exploration flow, keeping certain anomalies, space lanes etc. locked until later stages of the game. I like the King of the Hill idea, although I'm not sure how feasible it is... but I'm noting it down!



Pirates mode doesn't sound really enjoyable, might as well play a pirate faction altogether.



The nonsensical ones... make no sense. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯







The RPG idea is a completely different game, but I like it!

Just give us an SDK and/or really good map editor, we'll take care of it. =P

Frogsquadron wrote:
I like the King of the Hill idea, although I'm not sure how feasible it is... but I'm noting it down!

Way back in the day, when ES1 modding was introduced, I think King of the Hill was the example mod you guys made lol

Sinnaj63 wrote:
Maybe Harmony taken up to eleven? They'd make a pretty good big bad, and they'd be easily made OP enough to be the challenge a Coop big bad head to be.

Oh man, freakin' loved the Harmony - they would indeed make an epic big bad.

Aside from that; possibly multiple types of big-bads, to change up gameplay. Endless-esc races, not created by them, but with similar technological capabilities. Or even the Endless themselves. If a couple Endless survived to become Heroes in ES1 (not to mention Tarosh) then who's to say the Endless Wars are over? Maybe they come back.

Speedy mode, where all ship and building can be built in 1 second and travel take less than that. Imagine the chaotic and lulz it going to produce when all faction jumping at each other so fast you can't handle a thing.

Game Modes/additional victory conditions: Please implement some sort of team game modes! Like 2 Players VS 2 KI from scratch OR ingame! E.g. we could make a contract and have then a new team goal to reach. I would love to play this with some friends VS KI in a co-op style match.

I think this was missing in Endless Space AND Endless Legend, but unfortunately they won't implement this in those games at this point in time (See: /#/endless-legend/forum/5-general/thread/2789-why-they-don-t-add-a-real-ally-and-victory-condition)

It would be awesome to have this implementation finally in Endless Space 2!!