i got a key for testing purpose and i was so happy about it because i loved and love endless space 1 and endless legends for their approach on 4x Strategy. But after playing endless space 2 i think its kind of empty right now. i felt without purpose throughout the game.

in endless space one i loved the science "tree" (let's just call it tree, k? ) you had to chose right and to work with your starting position to make the best out of it. But right now in endless space 2 there is not much science left. Only a few possiblities on three eras. That seems not to be very much. i consider there will be more in a later version of the game.. or more of.. i hope so.

The one part of all the endless game i didn't like (and endless space 2 is no exception) is the battle system. i was happy about the possiblity of endless legends where i could almost play the fights in full controll but that card system seems still a bit... off?

More so that in endless space 2 the battles i didn't automatically decide seem to last for ages. Ships firing at each other without effects for minutes. Which was so annoying that i clicked auto fight after that for every fight. And i enjoyed the space battles in endless space 1.. it reminded me of great games like freespace oder homeworld. (which explosions, lasers, fighters..)

But when in endless space one i liked to explore, to use my hard earned science points and especially to terraform planets all that seems not to be possibly in ES 2 right now. i cannot even manage the tax-rate and i liked that kind of management. i know that endless legends did not have a tax rate too but it has the rescource managment through the people i have to put in different places to create FIDS

and that could be challenging.

so ES2 has some kind of political system i do not get. i really don't know how to influence what my people will vote for and it seemed random to me. but it did have an influence..

it looks like a new approach of the empire plan in endless legends and it feels a little bit like the voting in tropico.. but less fun..

and while i really enjoyed the great written textes in ES1 about anomalys and science.. i miss it in ES2. It has been cut down to a small part of what was great.

also i missed the planetmanager, where i could list all my settled planets and build stuff or look where most of my FIDS are produced...

i know that this is still an early version of the game so i hope some things will change.. and  there will be more features later on.

I'll agree with most of that, except the non-tactical battles which is ok for me. 

So far it feels like this game has only half of what made ES1 great. Sure it's got some new stuff too, but that seems either incomprehensible (politics) or ill-conceived (force truce).  All in all, much work to be done, perhaps they will manage it in six months if they all get only two hours sleep a week.

yes, that force truce thingy is very annoying... i mean.. i think the idea of a penalty for warmongers is good but to be forced to stop with a war every time so easily.. that is ... argh.. 

still a long way to go. i like this game to much and i will wait..

Of course it is half of a game. It is early access and so many things are not yet implemented.

Don't worry, it's still too soon. ;)

Spielesocke wrote:

 i got a key for testing purpose and i was so happy about it because i loved and love endless space 1 and endless legends for their approach on 4x Strategy. But after playing endless space 2 i think its kind of empty right now. i felt without purpose throughout the game.

Well, we're one week into Early Access so I would expect the game to feel very unfinished. I believe the devs called it an alpha, not even a beta so we're still very early in the development process.

in endless space one i loved the science "tree" (let's just call it tree, k? ) you had to chose right and to work with your starting position to make the best out of it. But right now in endless space 2 there is not much science left. Only a few possiblities on three eras. That seems not to be very much. i consider there will be more in a later version of the game.. or more of.. i hope so.

No tree, it's a web. On a more serious note, I don't really have an opinion on ES1 vs. ES2 in this regard. The era system is interesting, especially with the Oracle of Science political bonus which allows you to research one era ahead. It does sound OP but this possibility is balanced by the higher cost of Era 2 and Era 3 techs. You also have to take into account that the game will have 5 Tech Eras, so we've only seen 60 % of the techs. And I bet the most interesting ones will be in Era 5.

The one part of all the endless game i didn't like (and endless space 2 is no exception) is the battle system. i was happy about the possiblity of endless legends where i could almost play the fights in full controll but that card system seems still a bit... off?

More so that in endless space 2 the battles i didn't automatically decide seem to last for ages. Ships firing at each other without effects for minutes. Which was so annoying that i clicked auto fight after that for every fight. And i enjoyed the space battles in endless space 1.. it reminded me of great games like freespace oder homeworld. (which explosions, lasers, fighters..)

They have some kind of TODO list here : https://www.games2gether.com/endless-space-2/forum/65-general/thread/21182-endless-space-2-improve-list-post-early-access and IIRC, battles are pretty high on the list. The system is far from finished.

But when in endless space one i liked to explore, to use my hard earned science points and especially to terraform planets all that seems not to be possibly in ES 2 right now. i cannot even manage the tax-rate and i liked that kind of management. i know that endless legends did not have a tax rate too but it has the rescource managment through the people i have to put in different places to create FIDS

and that could be challenging.

Terraforming will be in. In fact, you'll even be able to terraform stars (same link above).

As for population management in regards to FIDS production, I believe they're trying to get to it, but this needs to be vastly improved.

so ES2 has some kind of political system i do not get. i really don't know how to influence what my people will vote for and it seemed random to me. but it did have an influence..

it looks like a new approach of the empire plan in endless legends and it feels a little bit like the voting in tropico.. but less fun..

Their vote is influenced by many factors. Tooltips give a good deal of indication about that. Buildings will increase the support of each political party based on their specialisation. Diplomatic actions have their influence too (don't praise the minor factions if you don't want a sudden burst of Pacifism in your Senate). People will turn to the Military Party if there is a threat close to where they live, etc... You can actually predict their vote to some extent, although I agree that the system is not entirely clear at the moment.

also i missed the planetmanager, where i could list all my settled planets and build stuff or look where most of my FIDS are produced...

The economy panel gives you a breakdown of your systems and allows you to assign heroes and decide production.

i know that this is still an early version of the game so i hope some things will change.. and  there will be more features later on.

As I said at the very beginning of my post, we're very early in the development process. You can rest assured that many more will come.

To be fair to Speil, it did take me a while to find the planet manager too. :D

It feels a little weird to say "Man, this game doesn't feel half as great as Endless Space 1", when the game itself isn't even out of ALPHA at this point. We are in E.Access and that means it is going to take a while to really get the good stuff. You are seeing the game guild and grow. To really become a worthy name to ES1 so give it time. :) 

Wow we getting ES1 nostalgia or something.It was competent first game for the studio but was bland in most peoples view.EL really got that right and I expect release ES2 too.

Lol. ES2, even as an early Alpha, feels already much richer than ES1 ever did. 

hey, i know its an alpha and waaaay to go. Right now the only thing i can do (rather than write a review) is to wait it out. I never said that this will be a bad game. Just first view frustration. We all have to see what we will have at last  

MidnightSun wrote:

I'll agree with most of that, except the non-tactical battles which is ok for me. 

So far it feels like this game has only half of what made ES1 great. Sure it's got some new stuff too, but that seems either incomprehensible (politics) or ill-conceived (force truce).  All in all, much work to be done, perhaps they will manage it in six months if they all get only two hours sleep a week.

Yeah, same boat here. Some of the things that worked great were needlessly "fixed", and certain other things are so obfuscated that they're simply frustrating at the moment. The latter will undoubtedly improve and QoL improvements roll down the line. The former, sadly, are a confusing design decision that we're stuck with.

For what it's worth, I enjoy the changes to exploration, ship building and graphics. But those aren't enough to consider Endless Space 2 better than the original.