Hi all,



We hope you've enjoyed the background story of Endless Space 2 we've shared here. Keep on giving us your impressions and feedback: we always find it very interesting! As you know, we were at Gamescom last week and had the pleasure to demo a pre-alpha version of Endless Space 2 to the press and very lucky VIP players we invited to the event!



This new game design document will give an overview of the available features you will discover in ES 2.







INTRODUCTION



Welcome to this galaxy, once the home to a starfaring race known as the Endless. Though the Endless are long gone, and their civilization burned out in a violent civil war, the legacy they left behind echoes into the future and the past. Now you arrive on the scene -- you, leader of a strong and eager nation that has only just discovered space travel. To the stars! The forbidding vacuum of space will not deter us from the glory of discovery! You wonder what mysteries you will find there -- strange alien races, powerful opposing nations, fantastic astronomical anomalies, vast riches, and perhaps even ruins of the fabled Endless.



As the emperor you have at your disposal a panoply of tools to aid your development. Powerful heroes to lead your fleets and govern your systems; a Senate who expresses the desires of your population and who will -- you hope -- pass laws that will support your vision; advanced sciences and technologies to permit you to build ever-greater cities and ever-deadlier ships... Well, what are you waiting for?! Onward! Upward! Your destiny awaits!













GAME DESIGN



THE POPULATION



Rationale

We want the population to be at the heart of empire management. The population of each faction will have its own unique character in terms of economic outlook, political preferences, and perception of the world. The player will need to pay attention to the composition of the population of their empire in order to make decisions that won’t anger their citizens.



Key points



The population

• provides FIDSI bonuses specific to their faction
• interacts with minor factions
• supports and oppose various government policies
• perceives the world their own way
• can be composed of a plurality of races and opinions
• is affected by a player’s decisions
  
  

THE SENATE



Rationale

The Senate represents the citizens of the empire, and is the tool the player will use to customize its empire throughout the game.

The Senate represents the voice of the population, forcing the player to adapt to and influence those opinions in order to achieve his or her goals. The player will be able to choose the type of government, which will affect the limits of the Senate’s influence.

Managing the Senate is mandatory if you want to grow and develop your empire! The player will have an additional level of challenge, as decisions might affect the population and, on a larger scale, the Senate.



Key points



The Senate

• can enact laws depending on the available policies and the public support they have
• is beholden to elections run every 20 turns
• elections can be influenced by the player
• and the population they represent are in constant flux
  
  

THE GALAXY



Rationale

The galaxy is filled with points of intersection, around which fleets can orbit. These "nodes" are connected to each other, forming a graph-like structure. Their connectivity influences the tactical aspect of the navigation. Exploration will be both more important and more challenging than in ES1.

To keep each game fresh, the galaxy is procedurally generated and customizable through numerous options -- from the shape and size to the composition of the galaxy itself. The galaxy is also full of randomly assigned elements that render every planet, system, and constellation unique to that game.



Key points



The galaxy

• features randomly generated planets
• is procedurally generated and fully customizable
• is full of surprises! Anomalies, resource-rich backwaters, incredible aliens, wondrous sights, …
• will support deeper exploration gameplay with a larger role than in ES1
• is constantly evolving over the course of the game (new elements, events, discoveries, quests…)
  
  

ECONOMY



Rationale

We want the economy to be easy to comprehend. Therefore, resources are generated based on colonized planets and then multiplied by the population living on it. We build the economy around five elementary resources: Dust (money), Food, Industry,Science, and Influence. The player can thus choose what they want to focus on by distributing their population over different planets or systems to gain the needed resources.

In addition, the player can harvest more specific resources called Strategic and Luxury resources, which will allow him/her to access powerful bonuses to the elementary resources, construction, fleets, etc.



Key points



The economy

• is predicated on the outpost and colony system as in ES1
• is limited by the empire’s area of influence, which determines limits of control and frontiers
• is influenced by the faction's unique aspects (traits, specialities, etc.)
• builds on planet types to create a simple economic system
• supports levelling systems through crafting blueprints!
  
  

BATTLES



Rationale

We want the player to enjoy watching battles and avoid micromanagement. To that end, we focus gameplay on all the many decisions that are taken before the battle:

• Choice of the place where the battle occurs
• Composition of the fleet (numbers and types of ships and their modules and armament)
• The selection of a tactical plan that takes best advantage of the fleet construction strategy
  
  

For the cinematic aspect, we want to develop elements that allow a huge variety of situations in order to feel that each battle is unique and worth watching.



Key points



Battles

• support grand strategical thinking, building off fleet composition and tactics
• take place in a range of arenas, encompassing varied astronomical hazards
• are cinematic! Beautiful to watch, and each one unique!
  
  

HEROES



Rationale

Heroes are powerful tools that aid the player in shaping their empire; they can be assigned as an Admiral on a fleet or a Governor in a solar system. Executing missions help them progress and unlock new skills that make them even more powerful. Each hero has a specialty, though they are all a useful bonus in any situation (up to a certain point).

The heroes will also develop their own story over the course of the game and acquire titles based on their feats.



Key points



The Heroes

• progress through an RPG levelling system (skills, specialization)
• experience a dynamic storyline (biography and titles)
• are acquired over time depending on the player’s choices (focusing on war will tend to create Admiral heroes, for instance)
  
  

SHIP DESIGN



Rationale

The goal is not to expand the time required for ship design, but to make it more interesting and allow for better choices and more personalization. A battle will not be won by ship design, but it will play an important role in the outcome when combined with the ‘play’ tactical system for pre-battle planning.



Key points



Ship Design

• is supported by a slot system
• allows systems to be linked to create synergistic designs
• is predicated on "one hull = one role"
• evolves with technology breakthroughs (new modules, unlock slots / links)
  
  

RESEARCH



Rationale

The technology tree is key to helping the empire progress through the game; it both enhances the available game mechanics and unlocks new ones.

We want to give freedom to the player so they can decide how to approach the available technologies. However, we will add a link system between some of the technologies in order to create a puzzle-type gameplay, reflecting the course of scientific endeavour.



Key points



Research

• controls the pace of the game (Era split)
• gives unique choices for each faction
• of certain technologies will require prior technologies to have been unlocked (logical science/science-fiction based reason)
• technologies will sometimes be unlocked through unique quests and events
  
  

DIPLOMACY



Rationale

Since Endless Legend, we’ve tried to make diplomacy more real in terms of relationship dynamics, including a resource to tie it closely to the economy and avoid hectic behaviours. We will continue on working this path for Endless Space 2.

There are three main areas of interaction: Diplomatic treaties, coordination, and trade.



Key points



Diplomacy

• allows coordination between empires
• needs to be thought on the long term
• is built on treaties, gifts, agreements and betrayal…
• reinforces the geopolitical aspect of the game
• is bound to the political systems
• allows impressive reversal
  
  

TRADE



Rationale

We want the player to have an active gameplay that revolves around trade routes; the gameplay should be as challenging, interesting, and rewarding as military gameplay. Still, we want to avoid micromanagement.



For that, we’re going to place them as managers of vast trading companies which have to build their networks. By doing this, we encourage the player to focus on working on the big picture instead of doing micromanagement.



Key points



Trade

• like in EL will be supported by a Marketplace
• companies are developed by placing concrete elements (stations, offices, etc.) to create trade routes
• allows players to accumulate Dust, Science and other resources
• can be increased by building trade ships, and investing in the development of trade companies to increase their power
• can be made more lucrative by investing in trade companies to receive a part of their profits
  
  

NARRATIVE EXPERIENCE



Rationale

We want the player to enjoy the whole journey and not only the end of the game. For that we’re going to use different tools to reinforce the narrative experience. These will include quests that reveal the background of the galaxy and the major and minor factions and After Action Reports that can be shared with friends. We want the player to feel that each game is a unique story with a unique outcome driven by their choices.



Key points



Narrative experience

• will be supported by faction quests and background stories of the galaxy
• will feature side quests and events!
• will be enhanced by heroes' narrative evolution
• is strengthened by After Action Reports
• can be shared through G2G via game story albums
  
  

WINNING THE GAME

In a sandbox game like ours, it is important to provide the tools and motivation that allows the player to play and win as they wish. War is only one way to succeed, because we will encourage players to show superiority in other important fields such as economics, science and diplomacy. In total we have at least eight possible victory conditions, all of which are totally different.







VIP Feedback



Tax rate

• There won’t be any tax rate as in endless space, but some laws will influence taxes.

Economy

• We’ll work on differentiating the production of the different resources.
• Binding luxuries to specific planet type, to restrict terraformation is a nice idea!

Galaxy

• Systems still contains planet

Research

• We don’t think; we’ll go for random technology (except those you acquire through quests).
• Weapons and defences will be more inspired from Endless Legend than Endless Space, meaning you will have more variety within a same weapon’s family.

Game Dynamics

• We’re going to make the game for pacifist player more interactive and deep by working on the trade and diplomatic system.

Battles

• Of course, we got a lot of posts regarding battles, but this will be discussed deeply in another Game Design Document.

Sounds very interesting. I do wish you luck on improving play for a pacifist player, hopefully you can make it an ideal stance even in multiplayer.

Sounds great!



So if I conquer a Sophon planet I will add the Sophons as population to my empire, is this right? And the Sophon populaion would give my a science bonus while for example the Amobea(if they are still there) would give my some influence bonus. Did I understand this the right way?

Teslaflux wrote:


So if I conquer a Sophon planet I will add the Sophons as population to my empire, is this right? And the Sophon populaion would give my a science bonus while for example the Amobea(if they are still there) would give my some influence bonus. Did I understand this the right way?

I think the specific population won't have a bonus to certain FIDS. You still shift population around like you do in the other E* games. Although it is possible that this will be implemented.

What adding a lot of Sophons to your empire will do is that the Science and Pacifism political parties will get stronger changing the laws you can pass and might even force you to some concessions to keep the population happy.

All looks good, came up with some questions/ideas for people to talk over and stuff



Introduction;

Any stuff coming from Legend? The main quest from EL would lead us to believe that one of the races could have ascended into space and joined the Endless Space line of story so will that be reflected in any way in ES2? We have hints of Auriga in the special trailer already but clearly not all the ES races come from EL due to the massive design differences.



Population;

Does information of our actions travel instantly to the population? will it be effected by empire size? If a system is far away from the focal point of an event could it take longer for the population on that planet to be effected?

How about a system where you could purposefully restrict information and effect the approval or effectiveness of your workers



that way as well.



Senate;

So does the player count as a king or as an elected minister/president? Can we decide to ignore the senate? If we conquer the system of another race how would the different race in the population effect the senate? As a craver/necrophage player will we still have a senate because that sounds awfully sophon-esque more then cravers.

How would heroes effect the senate? because surely a hero of well renown would be a hero of the people and would effect the senate!



Galaxy;

Could more planets/systems arise as time goes on. If there's a huge time scale then the shape of the galaxy might change and new connections be made. Could we possibly make systems or planets on late game tech? I can imagine a wormhole opening tech being available later on in the techtree - maybe a limit on fleet size that can go through to make them more hit and run.



Economy;

Is there going to be an easier way to transport population from one planet to another in the same system to improve the generation of a certain resource? Could trading posts be built on cosmic strings to boost resource by getting stockpiles and such?



I hope to add more thoughts on the other sections as well.

Please continue the in-depth evolution of the planets as your civilization advances and cities, satellites and wonders appear on and around the planets like in ES(1) but this time hopefully with more detail!!!!. If there could be sentient aspects added like space-craft flying around the planets when you zoom in; as they evolve and become more advanced; anything that will help add the edge and in-depth feeling that your civilization is alive and growing visually is awesome. You guys did a wonderful job with that in ES(1) and I hope you continue to do so with ES(2), in fact far better!!!! In addition, like it seems you already have pointed out but making the factions more involved when it comes to story-line and interaction is a great idea. Thank you so much. I love you guys!

This sounds really interesting.Internal politics is something that space 4X games have been lacking.I am curious how deep the system is.



I am happy trade is getting a but more involved.It was pretty boring in past Endless games.

Any changes to how expansion disapproval works? You're making a lot of improvements regarding population, I would like to see some changes there too.



I never understood that mechanic. I mean why would someone disapprove me expanding to other planets or star systems? It's just an empty planet with lots of resources and we're creating a new way of life there? Not like we're forcing people to go.



If I was destroying existing buildings and killing the inhabitants or something I could understand that my people thought I was being aggressive, but colonizing an empty star system should be mostly hassle free IMO, no?

Steph'nie wrote:


Economy

• We’ll work on differentiating the production of the different resources.
• Binding luxuries to specific planet type, to restrict terraformation is a nice idea!

Bolded fragment: What does that mean? Will we be able to produce a specific luxury resource thanks to terraforming? or will we be unable to terraform a planet which produces a luxury resource?

uqcu wrote:
Bolded fragment: What does that mean? Will we be able to produce a specific luxury resource thanks to terraforming? or will we be unable to terraform a planet which produces a luxury resource?

I think it just means that some planet types won't support certain luxuries, so if you have a luxury with a certain requirement(like it can only happen in a Tundra or T1 planets in general) and terraform the planet to some other planet type that doesn't support it, you basically lose the luxury resource. That's what I understand at least.



Essentially it kinda feels like a nerf to "let's terraform all planets into Gas Giants" type of game style.

uqcu wrote:
Bolded fragment: What does that mean? Will we be able to produce a specific luxury resource thanks to terraforming? or will we be unable to terraform a planet which produces a luxury resource?

You will probably still be able to terraform a planet but you will lose the luxury good unless it can also grew on the post terraformed planet. No spice on non-desert planets.

rockmassif wrote:


I never understood that mechanic [empireexpansiondisapproval]. I mean why would someone disapprove me expanding to other planets or star systems? It's just an empty planet with lots of resources and we're creating a new way of life there? Not like we're forcing people to go.



If I was destroying existing buildings and killing the inhabitants or something I could understand that my people thought I was being aggressive, but colonizing an empty star system should be mostly hassle free IMO, no?

You´re kind of forcing people to go. I haven´t played Endless Space, but judging the concept and its implementation on Endless Legend, yeah that´s a factor.



There´s also the simple effect of spreading a civilization - more infrastructure to be built (or desired) and maintained, larger area to cover with bureaucracy, health and sanitation systems, law enforcement, entertainment access, resource and energy distribution.



The upside is observed in your increase in the different yields, while Expansion Disapproval tries to represent the bad side of a inflating a government body.



At least the way I see it.

I was hoping to see the outpost/colony mechanics fleshed out or changed from ES 1. I found there are some systems which (at least in the early game) you might only want a presence in without commiting a lot of resources to building system improvements, population growth etc. Perhaps they have only gas giants, or no food/production rich worlds.



I wondered if we might be able to set up trade posts or science stations as a type of outpost that doesn't develop into a colony or have any population or growth. These could contribute to global science production or boost trade income and also act as focus points for early conflict before planetary invasions. They would not need to be in your empires influence to provide their bonuses and not add to your expansion disapproval. I imagine they would naturally want to be on planets/orbitting planets which have anomalies or Endless wonders.



I also wondered if there might be some way of making 'food' work on a more empire than system by system basis. So if you have an 'agri' rich system it can produce a large food surplus to feed your empire. I just think of the huge city worlds in lots of sci-fi (e.g. Trantor) and how they relied on food shipments to sustain them. Just like Rome relied on food from Alexandria. This would add more strategy to empire wide conflicts - as blockading enemy food heavy systems would 'starve' the rest of the empire.



This might be more or mid-late game thing when empire spanning trade has been established?

ImperiumRex wrote:
Forgive double post please.



I also wondered if there might be some way of making 'food' work on a more empire than system by system basis. So if you have an 'agri' rich system it can produce a large food surplus to feed your empire. I just think of the huge city worlds in lots of sci-fi (e.g. Trantor) and how they relied on food shipments to sustain them. Just like Rome relied on food from Alexandria. This would add more strategy to empire wide conflicts - as blockading enemy food heavy systems would 'starve' the rest of the empire.



This might be more or mid-late game thing when empire spanning trade has been established?

You can edit your posts, you know.



I barely played Endless Space, so I'm not sure if this was a thing in that, but in EL, you can research a tech that lets you build stockpiles of food, industry, or science in one city, which you can then use in another city later. These stockpiles are all built using industry, though, so you can't actually send excess food to another city, you just send excess industry to another city in the form of food.

ImperiumRex wrote:
Forgive double post please.



I also wondered if there might be some way of making 'food' work on a more empire than system by system basis. So if you have an 'agri' rich system it can produce a large food surplus to feed your empire. I just think of the huge city worlds in lots of sci-fi (e.g. Trantor) and how they relied on food shipments to sustain them. Just like Rome relied on food from Alexandria. This would add more strategy to empire wide conflicts - as blockading enemy food heavy systems would 'starve' the rest of the empire.



This might be more or mid-late game thing when empire spanning trade has been established?

+ I really like this idea and it would add more strategy to the game.

Surpluses are generated in Endless Legend through excess approval - since your infrastructure is running smoothly, you´re able to generate a base +X% of your local yield for example.



The problem imo of creating a global surplus mechanic just for food (like in total war:rome series for example) is that it would need another counter and another function between local and global food; and that kind of goes against the idea of keeping it easily comprehensible I think.

My opinion: Its better to lean towards the side of micro-management then to remove gameplay features.





Population/Senate: Interesting concept and changes, looking forward to more details and how this will truly affect gameplay. As Sharklion mentioned, how the player interacts with it will be key.



Galaxy: Not clear how it is more important and challenging then ES1.... The teaser video is confusing with the probes. Do you use the connecting lines or not? I did not like is ES1 when AI ships would randomly appear halfway across the galaxy at my home system when they should of been locked down at the frontlines later game



Economy: Sounds fairly straightforward. What about approval? Anyway to increase population on a world with low food? How will expansion work? Will my empire hate me for establishing that border colony on they key travel terminal between me and the Cravers?



Battles: Doesnt sound like an improvement over ES1. What seems missed here is that after a few long scenamatic battles early in the game they lose their appeal. If the user is not having active input during the battle (and it sounds like they wont), most of these "cinematic! Beautiful to watch" battles will end up being skipped (sad but true).



Heros: The acquired over time takes away one user input (hero selection). Does this mean I cant tailor which hero's I want? It will be interesting to see how economic, scientific, and mixed heros are earned.



Ships: Straightforward.



Research: Straightforward, sounds like EL. So nothing crazy :P. Would of liked to see a "new" attempt at research.



Diplomacy: Important. Will be interesting to see how it improves. Goes hand in hand with AI.



Trade: Sounds better then EL, which is a plus! How much you can control it will determine its usability.

That's a ginormous mech... ground combat perhaps?

Continued from a post I made earlier. Not as much to say in this one though.



Battles;

Felt like ES1 battles were nonsensical. Definitely the worse part of the first game since there felt like there was no big benefit to not just auto resolving the battle. Most of this may come with being clearer how the combat system works.



Heroes;

Could heroes have more map wide presence? If their feats are great enough since they're heroes after all and on the back of Dungeon of the Endless we know there's some pretty cool stuff out there.



Ship Design;

Both Endless Legend's and Endless Space's system worked pretty well and I imagine most of this bit would come from how the combat system works. maybe you could have crew specializations and more non-combat ships used for surveying and preserving.



Research Tree;

Not sure I like the idea of eras for Endless Space. It worked for Endless Legend because of the theme and the structure of the tech tree. If you kept the same style of tree as Endless Space then eras wouldn't work. Maybe empire theming based on



what kinds of tech you've predominantly researched? so instead of eras being determined by the amount of tech you have but the style of tech.

I want to note that I REALLY liked how tech was in ES and the way unique techs for races was done.



Diplomacy;

I imagine this will be effected by the Endless Legend Shadows DLC? Maybe if both empires are fighting a common enemy you



could direct specific systems to attack or fight in fleet battles together? Something to help holding back one large empire with two smaller ones would be great.



Trade;

I like the sound of trade companies those sound cool. Same with adding an EL style marketplace. More interaction with trading would be nice and I think avoiding micromanagement isn't too much of an issue if people are going to be going



economic/dimplomatic runs rather then military ones since they won't have to manage lots of fleets. More clarity with how trades work and making some trade routes non-automatic would be good as EL trade routes seemed mystical to me.





Narrative and Winning I don't have much to say for.



VIP Feedback;

I'd like to keep the tax system from Endless Space since it gave more control and helped with approval. Control is good.

More pacifists options would be good. Endless Legend was pretty good for that but still often devolves into war.

Will there be any move toward cooperative gameplay? I love Endless Space, and Endless Legend would suck away years of my life, except I'd rather play games with friends than alone, I'd rather play with than against my friends.



While I love the idea of senate, let's not forget that democracy isn't the only functional form of government. Give me the chance to dissolve the senate if I've got a problem with them. And deal with the consequences, of course.