So far (after 7 hours played) I'm rather enjoyed the game even if it's an alpha version of the game. I particularly appreciate that there's a greater number of game mechanics to take care of. And as usual, the game is very beautiful.

But I noticed a few things that really need some love. Before everything, I should probably say that I am aware I played only for 7 hours, so my game experience is only my game experience and I may be totally wrong. If that's the case, please explain me what I'm missing / doing wrong.

1. The Sophons, and to a lesser extent, the Lumeris are overpowered compared to the Vodyani and the Cravers. At first I thought I just sucked, but the AI seems to have the same problem. The Sophons have a huge boost to science, which means that they are better at everything, since science can unlock vastly superior weapons, ships, buildings, etc. The Lumeris can expand quite fast and have a bonus to dust production, and dust is more important in ES2 than in ES or EL (except maybe for the Broken Lords). The Vodyani just can't expand - they would need to acquire Essence for that, so they need to build many ships, but they can't because they don't have have enough dust, because they don't have enough Essence, because they don't have enough ships... you get it. Unless you start just next to a minor faction to feed you, you just can't win. The cravers can expand faster but you need to start next to other factions to conquer, otherwise they'll just consume themselves. Still, they are less powerful than the Sophons. In the four games I've played in normal difficulty, the Sophons have always been very, very successful (including when I played them), the Cravers rather meh, the AI Lumeris were rather bad (they even disappeard in the first turns once, probably started next to the Cravers) but I was rather successful with them, and the Vodyani sucked every time. 
2. The Voyani : I even lost with them after 40 turns against warmonger Sophons - who had a better fleet, better technology, more worlds, and who absorbed two factions, including one that had been brainwashed by me... The litterally took everything I had before crushing me in one unstoppable invasion. I couldn't even collect essence in their systems since my fleet was way weaker than theirs, and I could only wait in my 3-population system until they declared war and crushed me... Also, brainwashing minor factions doesn't seem to have any advantage. They were "allied" to me (which essentially means that they didn't attack me) but it didn't prevent them to be absorbed very fast by the Sophons. And I can't even use dust to get essence, because I need it to maintain my fleet. Which I couldn't repair after I had to retreat against a Sophon death stack, because it would have cost me more than 3000 dust. And as a Vodyani, I can't really play the diplomacy game since I need Essence.
3. Starting next to the Cravers means you'll lose. Cravers need to conquer (at least in the early game) to get new planets faster, and they generally have a better fleet (unless you're playing the Sophons, which are better in everything).
4. Which leads me to this : unless you're playing the Sophons, the place where you start is the only thing that matters. As a craver, you need to start next to a minor or major faction. As a Lumeris, you need to start far from the other major faction. And as a Vodyani, you must start next to a minor faction (I guess).
5. There's no reason to repair your ships, because the cost is way too high. It's better to delete them and rebuild new ones. Their upkeep being quite high, it also allows your empire to enjoy a dust boost in the meantime. It also means that once your fleets are all damaged, there's nothing you can do to protect yourself, except if you have a hoard of dust. Which is unlikely to happen.
6. Buildings and fleets cost A LOT of dust, and disbanding your fleet doesn't change their upkeep cost. Which means that you will bakrupt a lot in the early game. And when you bankrupt, the first things to be cut are... the heroes. Even if they are probably the "things" that have the best production/upkeep ratio. Buildings should be prioritisez over heroes.
7. It's a bit counter-intuitive that in order to speak with minor factions, you are forced to click on their symbol on the map, while you can access to them in the diplomacy screen (unless I'm wrong, maybe I just didn't find the right button).
8. The political system is nice, but it's only interesting if you're playing in a democratic political system. Dictatorship probably needs some love.

Firstly - what difficulty and speed did you play on?

Secondly:

1. Considering that we currently have access to only 3 eras and 4 factions I don't believe that balance should be the top priority. It's been changing very rapidly prior to release as new gameplay elements were being added. I expect it to change just as frequently now that the game is live
2. I am yet to play as them in the release version but my experience as them until now was more positive. How did you play as them? They benefit a lot from an aggressive playstyle. I agree about brainwashing though.
3. No, it doesn't. Go for quality over quantity when fighting Cravers.
4. Interesting way to look at things. I'd say that as any faction you want to simply be left alone with lots of room to expand. Vodyani being the exception, I'll admit that they kinda need a target.
5. Repairing is meant to be expensive and it's not pointless either. Getting your fleet back to 100% instantly can be crucial and it doesn't use up your system's build queue.
6. Yeah, no. Heroes are essential. While you're talking about something that's very situational, I'd generally say that getting rid of buildings is a safer bet. Especially the ones you no longer need (like  buildings). Not only you save dust this way but also gain some from selling a structure. You can then remake that structure and sell it again if necessary.
7. Idk, clicking on the button seems ok for me.

About point 5

I agree that repairing ships instantly to 100% should be expensive, but why take away the ability to heal up a small percentage of the damage each turn? 

I would even be ok if you had to disband the fleet and repair it in the hangars.

So why not?

vahouth wrote:

About point 5

I agree that repairing ships instantly to 100% should be expensive, but why take away the ability to heal up a small percentage of the damage each turn? 

I would even be ok if you had to disband the fleet and repair it in the hangars.

So why not?

That is a good question actually. I'd like to hear the answer myself.

It would be nice if ships automatically repaired slowly to a certain threshold while orbiting a system that isn't owned or owned by a faction that you're at peace with (say 75% of over all health) while a ship orbiting one of your systems or an ally's system repairs much more quickly and all the way to 100% health. Keeps it simple while adding some strategic thinking to ship repair...

vahouth wrote:

About point 5

I agree that repairing ships instantly to 100% should be expensive, but why take away the ability to heal up a small percentage of the damage each turn? 

I would even be ok if you had to disband the fleet and repair it in the hangars.

So why not?

They didn't take it away, it's just a Support Module for ships now. Slap a few of them on a ship and they will regenerate a big % of HP each turn.

The catch is, they use titanium and other resources, so careful management is necessary early-mid game as to not run out.

Hi guys,

Thanks for the feedback !

About the auto repair, it's indeed on our list. Ships should definitely slowly repair when they're under your or an ally's influence. UndeadPuppy's solution should work in the meantime :)

Ezumiyr, you make good points. Just letting you know that currently, all AIs behave the same diplomatically ; eventually each faction will have different ways of reacting to events.

PANCZASU wrote:

Firstly - what difficulty and speed did you play on?

Secondly:

1. Considering that we currently have access to only 3 eras and 4 factions I don't believe that balance should be the top priority. It's been changing very rapidly prior to release as new gameplay elements were being added. I expect it to change just as frequently now that the game is live
2. I am yet to play as them in the release version but my experience as them until now was more positive. How did you play as them? They benefit a lot from an aggressive playstyle. I agree about brainwashing though.
3. No, it doesn't. Go for quality over quantity when fighting Cravers.
4. Interesting way to look at things. I'd say that as any faction you want to simply be left alone with lots of room to expand. Vodyani being the exception, I'll admit that they kinda need a target.
5. Repairing is meant to be expensive and it's not pointless either. Getting your fleet back to 100% instantly can be crucial and it doesn't use up your system's build queue.
6. Yeah, no. Heroes are essential. While you're talking about something that's very situational, I'd generally say that getting rid of buildings is a safer bet. Especially the ones you no longer need (like  buildings). Not only you save dust this way but also gain some from selling a structure. You can then remake that structure and sell it again if necessary.
7. Idk, clicking on the button seems ok for me.

I mention that I played on normal difficulty, but I should add that I played at various game paces. Cravers don't like slower speeds.

1. Well, of course, but still : Sophons stronk.
2. You can only play with a very agrressive playstyle (and I agree that this is the way they're meant to be played) if they have the economy to support it. But to build this economy, they need to have been agressive. See what I mean ?
3. If you want to go for quality, you need time. And if you start just next to the Cravers, you don't have time. Or you'll need to turtle, build ships, and hope they won't attack until you have what you need to beat them. This, or there's an exploit in the combat system that I missed. ^^
4. -
5. Ok, let's say that it is almost pointless, then. I would like a possibility to repair by 20% slices instead. Because there's no way I'll spend 400 dust to repair one of the ships I started with when I can build a nex & better one in 3-4 turns. Maybe later in game it's more important to be able to do so, but in early game, you just need too much dust to waste it like that.
6. It seems I was quite unclear. I wanted to say that Heroes are indeed too important to get rid of. Because when you bakrupt, they're the first one to leave, even if they have a way better economical ratio than any of your buildings. So, basically, I meant the exact contrary of what you understood : heroes are currently the first things that are sacrificed, and it should be the buildings. Sorry for that. And now that I think of it, it would be even better if the game looked for what costs the most and deleted that. I don't really understand why, when I'm at something like -50 dust per turn, my hero costing 8 dust is the first thing to go...
7. -

jhell wrote:

Hi guys,

Thanks for the feedback !

About the auto repair, it's indeed on our list. Ships should definitely slowly repair when they're under your or an ally's influence. UndeadPuppy's solution should work in the meantime :)

Ezumiyr, you make good points. Just letting you know that currently, all AIs behave the same diplomatically ; eventually each faction will have different ways of reacting to events.

That's nice to hear !

I actually would kind of like auto-repair to be restricted to, or at least better, in hangars, since fluff wise that's the more convenient way to use infrastructure to help repairs, and gameplay wise it causes a risk/reward calculation where you have to decide if you can afford to hangar them and risk a surprise invasion, or go with slow/no healing but be able to fight an invading fleet immediately. This only works if hangar access is locked if you're invaded of course (which to me makes sense, but I won't cry if it doesn't get implemented like this).

My best advice for Vodyani aggression is to take the military hull, make a new ship class, and put a harvester and some good weapons, and other gear on it, then make a couple of those by turn 10-15 (which means the ship type tech is high priority, and I'd also suggest the +5 industry upgrade tech that goes with Titanium exploitation). Doing this, making a Leecher in-between if I felt I could, but usually adding one at some later point after my infrastructure was more solid, has gotten me a new ark by turn 20-28 usually, even with enemies who are somewhat distant. It's definitely way better if a minor faction is your neighbour, or at least only a few systems away, but I also managed it when my closest 'food' was the Lumeris capital, five systems away, of which two had ludicrously long strings that took me up and left, before going down and left. Basically be a bully to whoever you can find earlyish (first 12 turns or so ideally), and you'll be fine.

Also, re: Cravers, I'd say they do fine off on their own as well. Sure their science won't develop as quickly, but they won't eat themselves, they'll just have to focus on colony ships and eating a bunch of new planets that way instead of through conquering.