hm wonder if there will be alpha/beta-access for pre-orders

Steph'nie wrote:




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!
  
  

Economy in EL was much better than in ES. Multiple anomalies, districts, adjacency, etc all created more interesting dynamics. Please try to incorporate some of this if possible.



Good to hear that the EL luxury/strategic system will be in place though!



Finally, what is this levelling system / crafting blueprints about?

I do like the sounds of the Trade companies, as the lack of economic play as always annoyed me a little. Especially since I found it impossible to know if Cooperation/economic agreements would pay off with the automatic trade routes.

Also, I would love to see cooperative gameplay, both pre-made teams and allied victories. I always figured the biggest issue there was research, though, as your team would either be researching much faster, or different techs at the same time.

As far as the research is concerned, I'm afraid I have to agree to a certain extend with those who call EL's research system false freedom, but so was ES to an extent. In Endless Legend, I usually end up picking up the same technologies, and in Endless Space rushing ahead in one of the sectors was possible, but in the long run you had to pick up most technologies.



Most importantly, though, I agree with all the people stating that non-interactive battles will quickly end up being ignored. Without any direct involvement, most players will only want to know the results instead of waiting for the game to load a separate battle view, play out a cut-scene, then take time to reload the galaxy map. Especially not in multiplayer where you might have to contest with turn timers. Since I don't think a full tactical combat would suit Endless Space, though, I am wondering if there might be some way to have the battle play in a window. In Endless Legend I would often manage my empire while a big battle played out somewhere else, and not taking players out of the strategic map might encourage them to watch the battles in ES2.

And please do not wait too long to share the design document on combat, and make it detailed. If the community gets enough information about how the systems work, we'll probably tear it apart to the smallest detail and search for any possible exploit. I don't think any of us want another situation in which one weapon type or one attribute is clearly superior to all others.

Awesome, can't wait to see more of ES2 , i really like the probe system , you can make a really isolated system with something fun in it like an easter egg or a specific ruin of the endless that lies in near void space( i mean near the border or a bit out of the galaxy) , gives you the idea that you might find something hidden in that corner that you left unexplored.



QUESTION



Say that i want to go aggressive or i find a main race that i don't like /want to mix with ex : craven and i happen to conquer one of their planets , can i kill all their population and avoid letting them have a voice in the way that i manage the planet( possible making them extinct) or have to deal with the craven population ( regardless of the bonus they offer)?



Ty for you attention.

I share concerns about research tree with other players. You're saying that EL research tree gives more open choices and it does in a way, but additionally you are constricting a player to unlocking an era before he will be able to go for more advanced technologies. I really love ES for what it is, it has its issues as every game, but still it is a great game. As for EL I got bored with it really fast. Unlocking same technologies over and over again, because I was constricted by eras created an extremely boring research gameplay for me. In ES I had to think alot where should I put my research points first in various situations and that created a really interesting research gameplay.

Lets say my empire is a scientific power-house. My power-house could easily go for more advanced technologies that would give me some advantage over other empires for some time. That time could provide me with a great strategic advantage. Due to your era system my scientific power-house will not give such advantage, because I will be forced to research technologies I don't want, so it will basically be a wasted power-house.

You said you've learned things from your earlier games and I see that you did indeed, but sadly not in the case of a research tree. Your additions to it does sound interesting, but era system breaks it for me nonetheless. The only thing that would save this system for me, would be less amount of eras and much more technologies than in EL. So how many eras do you plan to add in ES2?



As for battles I don't want to see another Sins of a Solar Empire in ES2 so I'm all for pre-planned cinematics. Though I agree with The-Cat-o-Nine-Tales that this eventually will be ignored, so maybe a little management in those battles wouldn't hurt - but I'm not talking here about watching a tactical map!

As for other things you say, ES2 really does sound interesting. I'm looking forward to trying it out.

The research in EL is free in a structural sense - once you reach a Technological Tier, you never need a tech that generates one thing to get a tech that generates another thing. The trade-off is purely up to the player (instead of pre-made to a certain degree by mechanics), and that reflects perhaps on a low flexbility because of the commonly recognized "best paths".



But there is flexbility imo, even if just "a little" based on your reactions to terrain. I´ve often found in other games that this little, when put in the paper, is actually pretty large, so I can only assume that´s still true in a game that varies outputs so radically throughout a match like EL.



It´s sort of a leap of faith to give up a tested strategy based on certain tech path to try something different in a competitive or high difficulty game, but EL has rewarded me enough. I think research in EL is very solid.





ps - which doesn´t meant it can´t be improved, I´m sure that´s the way ES2 is headed, I think a little help from the developer in those trade-offs is always a good thing.

I, for one, am rather fond of eras. I'm interested to see how this new tech tree works out.

I especially look forward to Population, research and economy



Anyway would galaxies larger that what was availeble in larger sizes than ES1? because i often found them quite restricting when playing with a full set of AI this would be quite devestating for the exploration part of the game.

I was just wondering, will you implement, as in endless space 1, production to food/dust/science transformation, or there will be stockpiles as in endless legend, if you do implement the endless space system I would like to see a possibility to set up a timer for it, 5 turns, 6 etc.. rather than just infinite turns worth of transformation, I know the idea really eases up micromanagment but with larger empires I feel it would be a nice addition.

Other things I read so far seem just great, game looks beautiful and I'm really hyped to see it finally released

@BPrado



Yeah I know what you're talking about and I agree with you. ES tree was somewhat too constricted by connections. I'm just saying that I would rather to see a tree like in ES (one big tree without eras) with ideas they want to implement in ES2 (only some technologies connected, some technologies excluding others and so on).

Well, maybe it's time to create a poll for see how many people want to have a tree more like ES or more like EL ?

than i would need to play EL or get screens about the tree in EL. Never buyed it, i didn't get much familiar with fantasy in games like EL.

uqcu wrote:
@BPrado



Yeah I know what you're talking about and I agree with you. ES tree was somewhat too constricted by connections. I'm just saying that I would rather to see a tree like in ES (one big tree without eras) with ideas they want to implement in ES2 (only some technologies connected, some technologies excluding others and so on).

You can still have a big tree, even with eras. Just put concentric circles on your tech tree and voilà.

@Henan

I agree with Akuma, not everyone played EL or ES, so I suppose this poll wouldn't be very truthful.



@Talfos

Its not about how it looks, but how it works. In ES we were constricted by connections, in EL by eras instead of connections. Now we will have some of both. I personally prefer connections instead of eras. Still, devs at Amplitude have their own vision and we already know what we will get, we like it or not. Its best to accept it and move on. Maybe it will work out in the end, we will see.

Yep, that's a good point.



So... just wait and see the new system.

Akuma wrote:
than i would need to play EL or get screens about the tree in EL. Never buyed it, i didn't get much familiar with fantasy in games like EL.

There isn't much of a tree in EL.

Each era has a couple of technologies you can research without prequisits and when you researched 9 technologies (or got them through trade/quests) the next era unlocks.

I'm really excited for this!



I'm glad that you're pushing the game concepts even further. The Tax slider can be abused and oftentimes doesn't add much to gameplay, just having to look at the menu to move it up or down. Now that it's tied to politics (I shudder to think of Neo-NeoCons taking power when I'm strapped for cash), then it becomes an interesting game-play mechanism.



Deeper systems can sometimes feel daunting for players, but if the gameplay rewards are there, people will try to find alternate paths to just violent conquest.



Just from the top of my head the concept of 'peaceful' annexation comes to mind. With population/political control it could be a really interesting political outcome from aggressive settlement policies, but would also create a diplomatic quagmire with the previous owner.



Outcomes that depend of decisions in policy (military, science, exploration, etc) should, citing ES1, "generate risk" (an reward) for players.

I need my fix... TT_TT

Steph'nie wrote:




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
  
  

This both gives me an idea about a new affinity for a new race. I'm not sure if it goes here, but it's specific for this new features.



The affinity gives the faction the ability to manipulate the composition of the other faction's senate opinions.

You may choose to do it quickly (2-3 turns) or slowly (19 turns, just one lees than the period between elections).

It has a cost, that always consumes Influence. A part from this it can consume other FIDSI, depending on how fast you want the change, and how different is from the original faction's population ideas (much faster, much different ---> higher costs).

Also it could be perceived by the other faction, having a different risk and response, depending on the same factors as the cost. In this way if the change is minimal and slow, may be the other faction doesn't notices, but if it's hard and fast it notices and has diplomatic consequences, ranging from a warning to a declaration of war.

If its applied to a human player, the player will have to notice form him/herself when the changes are slow and soft, but will receive a notification over certain threshold.





The logic about this?



Imagine you're between cravers and hisso, got your army prepared, and suddenly in the next elections, another faction has changed all your militarist senate for a bunch of pacifist who will get angered (with consequent unhappiness increase) if you go to war.



Or image you've got this affinity. You're trying a science victory, and just one tech behind those ****** sophons. What about changing their scientist senate for an industrialist or whatever you can imagine that gets angered with science?







Well, that's an idea just come. If needs to move to another threat, please do so. IF you like the idea, just tell me and I'll develop this further

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

Looks pretty good. I've some questions about companies:

- Will be ans specific GDD?

- Are they acting on their own or tied to factions? In other words, each faction has its companies or there are companies which works with all factions at same time?

- Are they acting like a different thing than factions, and has specific traits?

- May you influence them and favor one over others?

- Will be able to create their own outposts or specific improvements on systems/planets in their own way, depending on what players do and what's their best interest?