I loved Automatons' ship design in ES1 so would be awesome to have them re-imagined in ES2. Also agree that the faction roster is sorely missing a mechanical race.

Kweel_Nakashyn wrote:

UndeadPuppy wrote: I guess this means we can kiss the Automatons and Sowers goodbye.

I wouldn't.
My theory is I think the Automatons, or at least robots (but not Sowers), are the Timelords for a number of reasons.

- Robots are not in the game yet, and I think they were playable in all Endless games. opbot needs an home :)
- Sowers are a virtual creation, like the cravers. And like what Vodyani became. I think this is too much traces of virtuals compared to concretes, so that's why I don't they will be major for that reason.

- My intuition says the Unfallen would be manpower/food related. I think there is something there to be exploited by the game. They are told to be pacifists so Dust could enter the equation at some point.

- If the unfallen are not ecologists, then there is no natural ecologist faction.

--> Ecologist and robots = automatons.

Plus there is one screen where I seemed to see an automaton speaking in a street to a Sophon. I don't remember which screen though.

Now all of this can be one milllion purcent wrong ! :)

The devs mentioned the last unknown major faction will be a new entry to the series so no Automatons, sorry. 

Strawberry wrote:

Kweel_Nakashyn wrote:

UndeadPuppy wrote: I guess this means we can kiss the Automatons and Sowers goodbye.

I wouldn't.
My theory is I think the Automatons, or at least robots (but not Sowers), are the Timelords for a number of reasons.

- Robots are not in the game yet, and I think they were playable in all Endless games. opbot needs an home :)
- Sowers are a virtual creation, like the cravers. And like what Vodyani became. I think this is too much traces of virtuals compared to concretes, so that's why I don't they will be major for that reason.

- My intuition says the Unfallen would be manpower/food related. I think there is something there to be exploited by the game. They are told to be pacifists so Dust could enter the equation at some point.

- If the unfallen are not ecologists, then there is no natural ecologist faction.

--> Ecologist and robots = automatons.

Plus there is one screen where I seemed to see an automaton speaking in a street to a Sophon. I don't remember which screen though.

Now all of this can be one milllion purcent wrong ! :)

The devs mentioned the last unknown major faction will be a new entry to the series so no Automatons, sorry. 

The only way we're getting the Automatons in ES2 is either by DLC or Expansion. 

Though I love the Vaulters, I feel the two necessary expansion races are Sowers and Harmony because both would be nice gamechangers, mechanics wise.

Mokinokaro wrote:

Though I love the Vaulters, I feel the two necessary expansion races are Sowers and Harmony because both would be nice gamechangers, mechanics wise.

I'd love to see EL factions in the game at one point as well.

I thought that maybe the Devs could add an event related to terraforming Auriga, where you get a choice between three heroes: Drakken (Ecologist), Necrophage (Militarist) or Broken Lord (Pacifist).

I am hopeful to see some of the ES1 and EL races as DLC Major Factions in the future.

I do hope that if they do this, they would have the DLC for a good reason and not just because it plays on the nostalgia factor. Historically, Amplitude has been really good with their DLCs not being cashgrabs, but with the current climate in the gaming industry I'm rather wary. I'm all for Broken Lords in space though!

Mokinokaro wrote:

Though I love the Vaulters, I feel the two necessary expansion races are Sowers and Harmony because both would be nice gamechangers, mechanics wise.

Idk much about the Sowers but the Harmony are in the game for sure. They even show up/are mentioned in that one quest. I do hope they become a playable race, though, since their mechanic was rather fun (I'm a fan of not being able to use a certain resource and working around that). Harmony vs Broken Lords DLC ftw!

Yeah, living crystal outlanders debating in senate, voting for laws, creating trading companies (not for dust but for luxuries), building cities on planets, with factories, cropfields, museums and labs, researching colonization and sociology, fitting their crystal ships with titanium or antimatter modules, without market and heroes - don't looks like in ES1. Now the setting's atmosphere is much for humanoids (through mechanics or icons for example).

No, the last faction is not formed of members of the Ministry of Magic.

There are 2 Major factions left; The Unfallen and some faction called Time Lords in the game files

What are The Unfallen? Another semi craver race?

nalgasucia507 wrote:

What are The Unfallen? Another semi craver race?

The Unfallen were the winners of the Games2Gether faction creation contest. If you're interested there's more info on them if you follow the links in this dev post: https://www.games2gether.com/endless-space-2/blog/484-faction-creation-contest-and-the-winner-is

As much as I'd like the Harmony, the faction referred to as "TimeLords" in the files is probably a new faction - it'd give a nice balance of 4 returning Major Factions and 4 New ones.

Didn't the DEV's say in that stream for update 2 that they wanted to balance out the Major Factions with 4 new and 4 classic?

I'm pretty sure it'll be new.

The 7th faction will indeed be a newcomer to the Endless Space universe.

I'll leave you to your speculations.

The robotic theme though has not been used so far, so I'd consider it very likely. 

A possible not use of food is in order, but I hope there is more to it. 

Arf, so no Automaton / Sowers ?

I'm thinking about some parasite people that could settle on other's players moon.

They should be science / dust people I think.

Space science hoboes idea died with Pilgrims as a minor, but something like that (but not hoboes) :)

I'm not against magic in a Sci-Fi universe (or Sci-Fan), quite the opposite. As Clarke put it, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

In Startide Rising, one of the factions (I don't recall the name), basically wills things into existence. It's pretty rad, and nobody bats an eye that it's just the way they do things.