UndeadPuppy wrote:

Frogsquadron wrote:

The Terran world start for minor factions is a temporary change.

That's good to know!

Now that colonisation tech has been changed, does that mean Minor Factions can finally have a wider range of homeworlds that also fit the lore?

Like the Hissho starting on a Jungle planet or the Amoeba starting on a Swamp world?

Also, the fact that the Sophons start on a Veldt planet has always bugged me, as lorewise (and what we've seen from artwork and promotional videos), their homeworld should be a Cold type planet, like Snow or Boreal.

The same with Cravers, who should start off on an Arid planet, not a lush, garden paradise of a Forest world.

I know it seems trivial to ask the devs to consider these minor little details, but they go a long way to show that they're serious and care about the lore of the the game.

I think we might not yet be done with starting homeworld, as—while all will have unique visuals—the position of colonization tech within the new tech tree might change.

Frogsquadron wrote:

They're not just yet, but they'll be later. And they'll also have unique FIDS output.

Neat! That will be much appreciated. Will make rushing for the enemy's home system worthwhile.

They're not just yet, but they'll be later. And they'll also have unique FIDS output.

BECOMM wrote:

GrendelHime wrote:

Having unique homeworlds for the major (and maybe even minor) factions could be quite a fun idea actually. It might be a bit too much work to give them all unique graphics before release, but it would be a nice touch if that was added in at a later date.

Well, the Major factions actually have unique Homeworlds with unique artworks (notification) & textures (in game models), check the wiki for more info: http://wiki.endless-space.com/factions ;)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think they are yet implemented.

For example, Husk is just another forest world and the UE homeworld doesn't even have a unique name! 

GrendelHime wrote:

Having unique homeworlds for the major (and maybe even minor) factions could be quite a fun idea actually. It might be a bit too much work to give them all unique graphics before release, but it would be a nice touch if that was added in at a later date.

Well, the Major factions actually have unique Homeworlds with unique artworks (notification) & textures (in game models), check the wiki for more info: http://wiki.endless-space.com/factions ;)

GrendelHime wrote:

UndeadPuppy wrote:

Most of those issues can be easily solved by tweaking the FIDS values for their homeworld and adding faction specific technologies.

Having unique homeworlds for the major (and maybe even minor) factions could be quite a fun idea actually. It might be a bit too much work to give them all unique graphics before release, but it would be a nice touch if that was added in at a later date.

This would solve lots of problems too : 1 tech for your homeworld, every faction knows theirs, then (only) 1 other Era 1 tech for all 7 other homeworlds.

Limiting Era's tech number is nice so players can have more choices in options, not mandatory fields like today.

Of course, one of the best things would be tech giving points to place on a chess plate, but I don't know if that's too much work.

Hmm... Some crazy idea now :)

A 5x5 chess plate. With a tower, a knight, a bishop, a queen, a king and pawns.

Each colonization tech would give you 1 piece move, each square would give you a colonization tech, and when you're not on a square, you can't colonize... :)

UndeadPuppy wrote:

Most of those issues can be easily solved by tweaking the FIDS values for their homeworld and adding faction specific technologies.

Having unique homeworlds for the major (and maybe even minor) factions could be quite a fun idea actually. It might be a bit too much work to give them all unique graphics before release, but it would be a nice touch if that was added in at a later date.

Kweel_Nakashyn wrote:

The one they seek would be high D output, aka desert planets.

Lumeris wants the D?

I'm sorry, I just needed to share that, carry on everyone.

Kweel_Nakashyn wrote:

Frogsquadron wrote:

I think we might not yet be done with starting homeworld, as—while all will have unique visuals—the position of colonization tech within the new tech tree might change.

Reminder : there is 2 sideeffects solving that with the tech tree.

#1 - Lumeris like ocean planets. Now they get a war vs Cravers and their forest planets. The winning side have to study ocean/forest to conquer the losing side. Depending on how you move the planets in the tech tree, some faction would have to wait for Era 2 or 3 whereas other factions will be able to conquer planets in Era 1.

Since conquering planets & territory is the main benefit in wars, in the end, your best choice in chosing early ennemies will be chosing the ones with the same faction as yourself.

Giving all faction the same planets in the begining isn't really "roleplay" but solves early wars. And those wars are more "roleplay" than specializing factions in the begining because factions are competing with the one they could invade.

#2 - Some factions will gets high F output, or high I output, or high D output, or high S output with early planets.

But those are antisynergic with their way to play.

Lumeris again as a people are supposed to like ocean planets. But those gives high food output. The one they seek would be high D output, aka desert planets.

Desert doesn't seems to be super connected to their oceanic people.

So :

- if tech tree is arranged to give them desert soon, that's fine for them but not very thematic

- if tech tree is arranged to give them desert late, that's thematic but it doesn't synergize very well with their gameplay.

So you would have to give correcting technologies asweel.

AKA something converting food in dust for Lumeris, and study other faction like that.

Of those two, I think the #1 is most dangerous side effect. Again, doing a colonization subsystem like lo_fabre suggests here doesn't solve that war problem too, and it creates unbalance giving great science / ice planet to sophon and poor dust / ocean planet to lumeris.

Solutions:

Maybe you should be able to invade planets that you don't have the technology to colonize ?

Factions should be able to reorganize other faction's housing to their convenience, allowed maybe or maybe not with a small technology ?

After all, all minor factions settles on any planet ?

This solves exactly side effect #1: you would conquer first other faction's planet, and not yours, because you can't colonize other factions' planets.

Making an early war vs someone like you have no special rewards, but vs an ennemy like Sophon when you're a Lumeris could reward you with a nice Science output planet that you could not obtain until say Era 2 or 3 otherwise.

Side effect #2 is something that have to be studied only by you, chosing to give this or this bonus to this or this faction, with this or this early planet.

Giving an ocean planet to Lumeris is not as good as giving a cold planet to Sophons. Because Sophon would start with something very close to their convenience and Lumeris not at all.

So things should be considered by boosting Lumeris and/or nerfing Sophon, depending on how many games are won by factions in multiplayer ?

Most of those issues can be easily solved by tweaking the FIDS values for their homeworld and adding faction specific technologies.

UndeadPuppy wrote:

Frogsquadron wrote:

I'm not sure which planet visual you're referring to specifically?

With the latest update, the artwork for planets partially changed from the old designs,

(Old Swamp planet artwork)

to the new ones,

(New Swamp planet artwork)

What I wanted to suggest, was changing this screen:

To an animated one. More specifically, an animated version of it, kind of like the one presented at Gamescon 2016:

Right now, planets feel too bland, even compared to the ES1 ones, which at least had visual representation for anomalies and cities on their surface.

This would really make planets feel more than just bland resource factories.

Great idea. Also, an 'expanded view' for all the art assets in the game would be appreciated. Squinting at all the pictures of the anomalies in EL was a bit underwhelming after you found the high-res versions of the pictures.

I'm not sure which planet visual you're referring to specifically?

Well now with the addition of the United Empire and some more lore we've also learned a bit more about the the Mezari.

The first and most obvious is that the Mezari is essentially a proto-culture that seems to be the source of all humans in the Endless Franchise. Also given what little we know they appear to be sort of nomadic and highly distributed and could potentially be one of the 'older' space faring cultures (At least when it comes to after the collapse of the Endless.)
We know that the Raian's (The people of the United Empire.) came from a Mezari Splinter Fleet. The Vaulters are also descended from a crashed Mezari ship (Or possibly ships.)  and one of the Vodayni Heroes was explicitly a Mezari who lived in an asteroid colony. I'm sure we'll learn more about them as more updates are released, but if I had to make a guess then I'd hazard that the Vaulters and the Mezari are going to likely to be separate factions in ES2 and I'll bet that they will both be present in the game in some form or another. (Whether in the main release of the game or as an expansion race.)
Further I'm willing to bet that the 'Vaulters' we've seen in art pieces are actually Mezari and not Vaulters. But that's just a guess.

What do you all think? 

Frogsquadron wrote:

The Terran world start for minor factions is a temporary change.

Figured, you folks ain't ones to ignore the details. =)

The Terran world start for minor factions is a temporary change.

UndeadPuppy wrote:

vahouth wrote:

Yeah, maybe its a bug or an Alpha placeholder. 

Besides, if they all start in Terran worlds, why many of them are in major faction homeworlds with a different biome? Makes no sense to me.

BTW having all minor factions tied to different biomes, could help factions that are not so "purists" in their approach, to expand faster by putting such faction pops in colony ships and grab planets they don't have the tech for yet.

That's what I thought. The Hissho used to start on a Tropical world, now they start on a Terran one, it makes no sense to just randomly change it.

Sorta, kinda. This could be a different off-shoot from the Hissho of ES1. Maybe?