I love the idea of more diversa modules that gives other effects, like the ES cravers Spaceships that gives Approval while on orbit. For a race that is better in dust generation or economics, would be great a module that improves the dust or commerce earnings in the system where it orbits, or even a racial moving branch for enterprises. Even a explorer ship with a module that improves the benefits of discovering planets in science or dust... IT would be a great way to give use the ships apart from battles , exploring o colonization...

Just one notice. In ES1 I sometimes loose a battle and sometimes win and I'm not sure why. I wish there were some good detailed statistics after a battle. Like efficiency of each weapon type per phase of battle.

Ragshak wrote:
I hope that ES2 will have better retrofit sustem implemented.

I really would like to be able to create several subtemplates for one design. So unit "A" could be improved to "A.1" or "A.2" and vice versa - from "A.1" to "A"; without that awful shipdesign01 names.

That always been a pet peeve when playing ES and EL for me too. It would be nice to be able to retrofit a specific unit to any other variation of that same unit.

I hope that ES2 will have better retrofit sustem implemented.

I really would like to be able to create several subtemplates for one design. So unit "A" could be improved to "A.1" or "A.2" and vice versa - from "A.1" to "A"; without that awful shipdesign01 names.

How will resource typing affect ship construction?



Will a weapon made out of titanium be able to contend with, say, a weapon made of adamantium (just having a different utility/role) or will one objectively be better than the other?



In other words, is the tech tree designed in a way that makes a weapon made out of titanium inferior to an adamantium weapon of the same type?

Or is it possible for titanium to scale with later era materials?

To firstly address a general question about the ship design screen. The image is a mock-up from FIGS who do a lot of GUI conception in Amplitude games, so its not represenatative of exactly what the screen exactly will look like. In visual style it will be very similar, but in terms of feedback of gameplay there will be some changes.

Regarding FIGS, there is an excellent article on Endless Legend GUI design: Click Me

lo_fabre wrote:


Some questions:

- Can you tell us your new ideas about support modules in ES2? In ES1 i found more valuable putting weapons and defences (in general way, which doesn't means I never used support modules).

- You said that the lateral slots are symmetrical. In the second picture there are 9 slots, are all of them symmetric or some are upper or lower, and the other side is unseen? Just curious about it.

- A sword and a shield on the module over the thruster? Yea! You can really fire your thrusters over another player ships? lol I like it!!

1. I cannot be too specific - we have a ton of ideas, but there are production constraints. Mostly the current implemented things are tests of our capabilities from XML - but we have to translate that into visual feedback as well.

2. Of the 9 sections, the three on the side (front right, right and back right) are mirrored to left. The core, front and back are not mirrored.

3. Again, this is a mock-up - it does not realise any existing gameplay at all!

Tridus wrote:
Is there a way to organize an attack to cope with a ship being partially destroyed? For example, if all my port weapons are destroyed (because the ship got pounded on the port side), is there anything I can do to try and make that ship try to navigate such that it can bring it's top and starboard weapons to bear instead? Will that happen automatically?



I'm less in love with the names "beams" and "lasers" being two different things, because they sound like two versions of the same thing. I don't have a better name for them, but I hope the UI will have very distinct icons and such for them to make it clear that they're distinct types entirely, rather than lasers being a type of beam.

For you first question: currently no. In terms of automation, we may address this later, but if you could just switch, there wouldn't be any point For now, we hope that the battle is dynamic and interesting without actions in the middle of the battle -> see Battle GDD for why ^^



As for 'beam' and 'lasers', at one point lasers were called Plasma as well. Also, we haven't done a 'lore pass' on modules yet, so Slowhands may mix up the naming later. The GDD still contains the general 'gameplay' of each though

Hotage wrote:
I feel like it will be really complicated for not really great improvements :s I'm probably wrong, but 9 sections, with modules in it etc etc... I feel it will be hard to understand how it really works. But i'm really impatient to see the early access to test it

This is also one of my concerns, but I hope we have done a proper job on feedback and simplifying the math behind the scenes. Some of the simplification is in health of the entire ship normalizing at the end of battles and such. We are keeping a close eye on this

HappyHead wrote:
How will resource typing affect ship construction?



Will a weapon made out of titanium be able to contend with, say, a weapon made of adamantium (just having a different utility/role) or will one objectively be better than the other?



In other words, is the tech tree designed in a way that makes a weapon made out of titanium inferior to an adamantium weapon of the same type?

Or is it possible for titanium to scale with later era materials?

I have been pushing for for a significantly less severe progression curve. However, we do want 'stuff unlocked later to be better' -> though we may upgrade the era 1 strategic modules over the course of the game while increasing their cost as well. This is still something we're considering how we want to do exactly. Its not that complicated to do, however!



The primary goal of strategic resources is variation/specialization and not power. Though to keep the feeling of progression, we have to do a little of both.

Sublustris wrote:
Uh... questions though:

1. What is that silhouette outline under ship's model and why does it split in red and blue sections with text 120/200 nearby?

2. Does auto-design button will always create the same blueprints from available set of modules, or will they very in some way? Will that auto-design blueprint always be general-purpose, or may it be role-depended?

BlackBird1696 wrote:
1.)the silhouette/outline beneath the ship looks like it shows the sections of the ship and how well they are protected.

2.) No idea about this.

All in all this new ship design method is a definate improvement than the tonnage system of Endless Space. And to top it all of we get to see artwork for ships we haven't had the chance to see before!

As Blackbird said, the silhuette is a represenation of the section.

The auto-design will be role based. We're still considering the best way to address automation like this and how our new AI systems can help us.

SeventeenthShard wrote:
I'm psyched to hear that you are ensuring that smaller ships always have a useful role in combat.

In line with this, I would love to see "fleet buff" modules specific to smaller ships that function much like the unit buffs from heroes in Endless Legend. This might include things like com networks, ECM/ECCM, maybe even auxiliary targeting computers. It makes including smaller ships more important, and it also makes taking them out early in combat important. Perhaps smaller ships that provide strong buffs would be automatically be higher priority targets, or maybe that would be part of a Play.



I'm also interested in enemy fleet debuffs, such as reduction of maneuverability via tractor beams, sensor/communications scrambling, etc.



I wouldn't be surprised to find out that this is already part of your internal brainstorming, of course. I'll be interested to see what you finally settle on. After the runaway success that was Endless Legend, it'd be hard to be more excited about ES2. Thanks for sharing your design documents, reading them is almost a game unto itself

For fleet buffs, it will more likely be 'flotilla' buffs (i.e. buffs that only affect the flotilla the ship is in) -> and these will be limited to roles as well. For example, currently no large support ships exist, and support ships can add effects such as a shield that covers the entire flotilla or a buff on the flotilla.



Debuffs on enemies is also possible and something we will use

Falkner wrote:
I think this is of paramount importance. Rushing to the largest ship size and making endless fleets of a single design was boring. Ship Design and Combat should foster the use of mixed fleets.

I agree! The Play will limit flotillas in terms of size of ships and CP amounts and roles on ships will have unique flotilla effects. Hopefully this will foster mixed fleets indeed

GotEmCoooach wrote:
• Anything that reduces the amount of time spent in ship design and upgrading is appreciated. There were times where I would avoid the military tree just because it meant I would be spending some time in the design section. To this regard, maybe you click a button and it shows all available weapon modules, and you drag and drop them into the module slots. Then you click another button and it shows all support modules, etc.

• Game variation should be enough so I would want to create varied ship designs, either from game to game or within single game. Like "several of the races are specializing in this, so I should specialize in countering weapons and defenses." Or "This is a large map so I focus on having more move point support modules." But then actually implementing that on the ships shouldn't take long.

• There were a few times I had to redesign my ships immediately because I didn't have a strategic resource. It would be great if there was a prompt that warned you if you were saving a ship that you didn't have a strategic resource for (or at least an optional prompt).

• Thoughts on stealth/espionage modules? Jammers? Gravity weapons/tractor beams/capture modules?

Your first comment sort of ties into the entire retrofit system. We hope that we can speed up the process by allowing to auto upgrade to latest iterations of weapons/defenses, so the only thing you focus on is the support/unique modules - which hopefully are interesting choices.

For your redesign due to missing resources was implemented in EL and it should be in ES2 as well! The way it was done was the 'normal filter' would hide modules that required resources you neither had stock nor income of. This filter could be turned off of course

Tractor beams that stop retreats is currently on the table. Stealth and espionage I can't say anything - but its unlikely that if its implemented that it will be tied to ship design (well stealth could be) - it is more likely to be closer to EL.

Other support modules, is a maybe -> see my previous comments on support modules

Hiyouren wrote:
As for a module, what about a lock-down module that acts as internal anti-personnel, giving a defence against boarding parties. - Or something along those lines.



One thing we're (myself and friends) are curious about is the implementation of a 'way point' feature. ES1, Late game saw many fleets being produced in many systems, and it got kinda tedious to create each individual fleet and have them coursed for a specific system.

Are you guys thinking of adding in such a feature?

Or (and preferably) would ES2 just not have the same fleet-spamming that ES1 had?

If we end up having ship boarding -> we will have counter measures like that!

We currently have no plans for a way point feature, though we are planning to reduce fleet spam significantly. We're aiming for unit counts closer to Legend than ES1.

At one point we did talk about being able to 'build fleets' instead of 'ships', but we do not have any clear plans on the subject yet. Features like this are more likely to happen based on feedback from community during early access



There, All caught up! Thank you all for the excellent questions and comments And looking forward for more ^^

Love the new ship design. It's so close to my all-time favourite from Sword of the Stars II, but hopefully the game itself would be much more playable. I have a suggestion, though. Or a wish.

Heavy spinal mounts! Basically, a ship built around a huge cannon, which is either an oversized (both in terms of size and damage) beamer or an oversized slug thrower. Different factions can have ships of different sizes as that, from mosquito swarms with frigate-class weapons all the way to leviathan-sized Eclipse-class star destroyers! They are also researched at different stages by different factions, e.g. Cravers have spinal corvettes in second age, while Sophons have spinal leviathan in age 5. This will not only push the difference between factions (which, I think, is a good thing to do), but also look extremely cool.

Oh, and another one, really old. In ES1, lasers weren't shooting like, you know, lasers. Maybe you should call them "Pulse Blasters"? Because that's what they are. And will beam cannons shoot actual beams?

lo_fabre wrote:




Remaining question, but I doubt you can answer: those ships on the first image doesn't look like sophon or cravers. are they from a new faction or another faction from ES1? Just art to look beautiful? Any clue about them?

They're "generic ships", much like when you see humans in Endless Legend's notifications. This is so we don't have to duplicate assets for every faction, as this particular piece of art will be one of the game's notifications.



So sorry no, this isn't a sneaky faction reveal.

Liking everything in this GDD. (Ramming sounds super fun, a little disappointed on that front).



As for a module, what about a lock-down module that acts as internal anti-personnel, giving a defence against boarding parties. - Or something along those lines.



One thing we're (myself and friends) are curious about is the implementation of a 'way point' feature. ES1, Late game saw many fleets being produced in many systems, and it got kinda tedious to create each individual fleet and have them coursed for a specific system.

Are you guys thinking of adding in such a feature?

Or (and preferably) would ES2 just not have the same fleet-spamming that ES1 had?

• Anything that reduces the amount of time spent in ship design and upgrading is appreciated. There were times where I would avoid the military tree just because it meant I would be spending some time in the design section. To this regard, maybe you click a button and it shows all available weapon modules, and you drag and drop them into the module slots. Then you click another button and it shows all support modules, etc.

• Game variation should be enough so I would want to create varied ship designs, either from game to game or within single game. Like "several of the races are specializing in this, so I should specialize in countering weapons and defenses." Or "This is a large map so I focus on having more move point support modules." But then actually implementing that on the ships shouldn't take long.

• There were a few times I had to redesign my ships immediately because I didn't have a strategic resource. It would be great if there was a prompt that warned you if you were saving a ship that you didn't have a strategic resource for (or at least an optional prompt).

• Thoughts on stealth/espionage modules? Jammers? Gravity weapons/tractor beams/capture modules?

Falkner wrote:
I think this is of paramount importance. Rushing to the largest ship size and making endless fleets of a single design was boring. Ship Design and Combat should foster the use of mixed fleets.

^^

The hope is that having smaller ships protect larger ships will balance out the use of all ship sizes throughout the game, instead of defaulting to the 'largest available ship'.

I think this is of paramount importance. Rushing to the largest ship size and making endless fleets of a single design was boring. Ship Design and Combat should foster the use of mixed fleets.

SeventeenthShard wrote:
I'm psyched to hear that you are ensuring that smaller ships always have a useful role in combat.



In line with this, I would love to see "fleet buff" modules specific to smaller ships that function much like the unit buffs from heroes in Endless Legend. This might include things like com networks, ECM/ECCM, maybe even auxiliary targeting computers. It makes including smaller ships more important, and it also makes taking them out early in combat important. Perhaps smaller ships that provide strong buffs would be automatically be higher priority targets, or maybe that would be part of a Play.



I'm also interested in enemy fleet debuffs, such as reduction of maneuverability via tractor beams, sensor/communications scrambling, etc.



I wouldn't be surprised to find out that this is already part of your internal brainstorming, of course. I'll be interested to see what you finally settle on. After the runaway success that was Endless Legend, it'd be hard to be more excited about ES2. Thanks for sharing your design documents, reading them is almost a game unto itself

In ES1 at some point you reached power support modules that rather than buffing the ship buffed the whole fleet which made small ships quite a lot more powerful.

1.)the silhouette/outline beneath the ship looks like it shows the sections of the ship and how well they are protected.



2.) No idea about this.



All in all this new ship design method is a definate improvement than the tonnage system of Endless Space. And to top it all of we get to see artwork for ships we haven't had the chance to see before!

I'm psyched to hear that you are ensuring that smaller ships always have a useful role in combat.



In line with this, I would love to see "fleet buff" modules specific to smaller ships that function much like the unit buffs from heroes in Endless Legend. This might include things like com networks, ECM/ECCM, maybe even auxiliary targeting computers. It makes including smaller ships more important, and it also makes taking them out early in combat important. Perhaps smaller ships that provide strong buffs would be automatically be higher priority targets, or maybe that would be part of a Play.



I'm also interested in enemy fleet debuffs, such as reduction of maneuverability via tractor beams, sensor/communications scrambling, etc.



I wouldn't be surprised to find out that this is already part of your internal brainstorming, of course. I'll be interested to see what you finally settle on. After the runaway success that was Endless Legend, it'd be hard to be more excited about ES2. Thanks for sharing your design documents, reading them is almost a game unto itself

Very thrilled about this one, sounds like a huge improvement over ES1 while maintaining it's roots.



Uh... questions though:

1. What is that silhouette outline under ship's model and why does it split in red and blue sections with text 120/200 nearby?

2. Does auto-design button will always create the same blueprints from available set of modules, or will they very in some way? Will that auto-design blueprint always be general-purpose, or may it be role-depended?

Metalynx wrote:
For you first question: currently no. In terms of automation, we may address this later, but if you could just switch, there wouldn't be any point For now, we hope that the battle is dynamic and interesting without actions in the middle of the battle -> see Battle GDD for why ^^

My concern here is between battles, largely. If a ship gets blown up on the port side and is kinda stuck there in one fight, that makes sense, given that the enemy would want to keep themselves to the port side if they could so it could be hard to get out of that.



In another battle on the next turn, if the ship still has a blown up port side with no weapons and still flies that way, meaning it largely can't shoot? That would strike me as odd. Is the normalizing health at the end of a battle intended to correct this, such that the ship would start the next turn's battle with a damaged but once again functional port side?

As for 'beam' and 'lasers', at one point lasers were called Plasma as well. Also, we haven't done a 'lore pass' on modules yet, so Slowhands may mix up the naming later. The GDD still contains the general 'gameplay' of each though

Cool. I like the gameplay side of it a lot.

Frogsquadron wrote:
Question regarding Ship Mass and Ramming

These are systems that are not currently planned for implementation!

Apologies for the heartbreak PANCZASU.

Apologies accepted. Now if you excuse me, I'm gonna go cry myself to sleep

Hotage wrote:
I feel like it will be really complicated for not really great improvements :s I'm probably wrong, but 9 sections, with modules in it etc etc... I feel it will be hard to understand how it really works. But i'm really impatient to see the early access to test it

It's pretty easy to understand though. A ship is made of 9 sub-parts, that have their own HP, 8 of which are just outer hull that can be destroyed with that only disabling whatever modules there, and 1 of which is the ships core(Reactor, Bridge...) which mustn't be destroyed for the ship to survive. Each ship part has a slot for a module(Or several for bigger ships if I understood it correctly), which can be either used as a hardpoint to mount a weapons turret(Which will have a different arc depedning on where the turret is) or armor plating or shield generators. If I understood it correctly there'll also be utility slots for things that used to be support and special modules before.

I feel like it will be really complicated for not really great improvements :s I'm probably wrong, but 9 sections, with modules in it etc etc... I feel it will be hard to understand how it really works. But i'm really impatient to see the early access to test it

Frogsquadron wrote:
You're just trying to compliment us for no reason, there's no way you had time to read the entirety of this document already!

I have read it. Twice.



This is amazing. Can't wait to grab this in early access.