Amplitude's said there will be faction specific research (they're probably waiting for most factions to be in so they can get feedback on which areas would be best to shore up with research for each group)

I'm sure modules will come along with that.   Currently the only unique modules are the leech ones for Vodyani I think.   I'd love it if each race had a signature weapon of some sort for instance.

UE seem missile/space torpedo folks,  Sophons probably a pulse weapon,  Vodyani using a weaponized leech beam,  Cravers with heavy ballistic cannons,  Unfallen probably shooting some sort of hull eating spore, etc.

Mokinokaro wrote:

Amplitude's said there will be faction specific research (they're probably waiting for most factions to be in so they can get feedback on which areas would be best to shore up with research for each group)

I'm sure modules will come along with that.   Currently the only unique modules are the leech ones for Vodyani I think.   I'd love it if each race had a signature weapon of some sort for instance.

This seems like a damn good idea. There could be railguns, plasma weapons, long-range beams, spread cannons (think of shotguns), cannons and missile variants (cluster rockets, rocket swarms) or even some more crazy stuff.

Mokinokaro wrote:

I'd love it if each race had a signature weapon of some sort for instance.

On the opposite, I hope they won't stuck factions with specific guns :s

"If you don't use torpedoes then you're not a good UE" quite carve weakenesses & strength in stone :/

Actually if they give gun bonuses, I think IMHO they first need to includes battle maneuvers. Or else it will be this picture:

Circles of "good UE designs > good Sophon designs > good Craver designs > UE designs" => "I'll be your UE friend because you're strong against Cravers" => leading to lowering replayability.

It's not fine when all your army is only cav, only archer or only infantery with no tactical control. This is RISK the (stupid & outdated) boardgame.

It's fine when you have a mix of archers / infantery / cavalery, with maneuvers, like in total war.

Actually, I think if you look only war mecanics, the boardgame the closest to ES2's rock-paper-scisors stacks & forteresses, is RISK Europe (2015). It's nice & all. But only #653 boardgame on war games bgg.

The only way to have mixed armies is giving fleet some control & choices in the battle. Maybe limited. But some.

Being with real-time gameplay, or not-real time with a programation mecanic (for exemple cards from ES1 or https://www.games2gether.com/endless-space-2/ideas/43-battle-orders-focus-fire or other stuff people may have posted or any super secret plan devs have maybe), or any other mecanic idea coming from any good boardgame.

Mokinokaro wrote:

Well, I mean in ADDITION to what's currently there.

I submitted it to the ideas, but basically each faction has a unique weapon module of a specific type in addition to the current options.

Oh.

I was thinking ala Eve Online aka "this people use artillery, this one hybrid, this other one missiles, this last one lasers".

I don't really know the exact rock-paper-scisors cycle order of ES weapons but in ES this would not work. It works in Eve because it doesn't have an order.

With additional modules, it could work if there was a 4th type of slot only for this special weapon modules.

The problem using normal slots would be "reductio ad dps vs defense" : who cares if you're shooting special potatoes and me shooting special carrots : if shooting carrots is more dps than normal guns, I'll use it 100% and if shooting carrots is less than normal guns, I will never use this. Ending with one faction using boosted dps with potatoes and the other one normal guns.

This is not giving you an additional choice, this would just give you more optimal tools.

I'd rather have special support modules than weapon or defense because those are giving additional choices.

That would give advanced ship roles. I can imagine opening all ship roles to everyone (maybe but 1 role per faction) and specializing one module per faction with more effective versions.

On top of this, IMHO again, the "Battle order: focus fire" aka the cherry pick option :

- to shoot those pesky special ships <-> more roles should go with more aim, more control in battle. Or it will be big stacks hiding a role against big stacks hiding a role & throw a dice 1-3 special ship survices / 4-6 special ship goes boom, retry with another stack Y/N.

- this also makes having more non-planet wargoals on the map. aka "where is his portal ship, I need to get rid of it to prepare or prevent an invasion. Ally dude, do you see it ?".

- this also put some programmation mecanics in battle for those who wants, trading this with dps for those who don't want. So this never removes you a choice again.

Aim vs damage in short, is a very effective way of giving control back to players in battle.