ENDLESS™ Space 2 is turn-based 4X space-strategy that launches players into the space colonization age of different civilizations within the ENDLESS™ Universe. Your Vision. Their Future.
I believe that they are building the game with the AI in mind from the start this time and making the AI in a way that should be easier for them to manipulate versus the relative headache it was in EL.
So hopefully this means that races will play to their strengths more and react more realistically to player actions. I'm guessing there will be further AI passes made as release nears. I haven't really heard many people talking about the AI recently...maybe I missed it somewhere.
I think the main issue with the AI is that I want more interaction with factions than I had in Endless Legend. I like that game, but it often felt like I was playing a solo game without much meaningful interaction with the AI, unless I was just conquering their territory.
I missed the push-pull of diplomatic interaction in the mid-game that you get with a game like Civ, where factions jockey for position with trade, alliances, and threats. The mid-game should be heavy with interaction between factions, not just warfare, until the shape of the end-game becomes clear, and the final contest between dominant factions plays out. Ideally, factions that aren't doing so well would be choosing sides by that point, based on prior dealings with the player.
This is one thing I think Stellaris gets right (among a bunch of other things it does wrong). The other factions aren't shy about contacting you and letting you know what they want.
Ya, all of Amplitudes games never really reach a satisfactory level in diplomacy. All I ever see the AI do is declare war. I don't have ES2 yet so I can't comment on this game, however with the other games you can never really make friends with the AI. I feel like they have a rudimentary expansion path and if you are in the way they will just DW without much thought.
For example I was playing Endless Legend and I have 5 cities and 2 stacks of armies just chillin. I kept on complementing my neighbors who only had 2 cities a peice because I really wanted to have friends. Next thing I know im at war with one of them, yada yada I smash em. Then the other on attacks me and its the same sad story. Its frustrating when the AI alah akbar's your ass when all you want to do is be friends. If it was the real world it would essentially be as if Canada declared war on the USA out of no where. Without even saying why.
I digress, the AI is the one thing that has me on the ropes about purchasing this game. Not to boast but I've invested in Amplitude back when Endless Space first came out on steam and I purchase their products because I enjoyed how this studio did business. Which sucks when it feels like their games run off the same AI without too much variability in it.
I do have faith that eventually they will work out these issues, its just whether it happens in Endless Space 2.
I've wondered about this in this thread. One suggestion I've made is using some cultural factors to modify AI attitude toward you. Basically this would give a starting layer to add AI proactive interactions with the player.
I think dynamic diplomacy would help human and AI interactions. I was just thinking wouldn't it be sweet if a minor nation came to you and asked for protection because another major was killing them off. Then you could negociate with them to see how much help they would need and the reward you would get. The help could range lending armies or fleets to full out assimilation (but at the cost of going to war). The same can be done with major factions. Simple things like telling an AI that you want to be friends. And the AI can come back and say hey we need this system and if we don't get it from you being friends would be hard ect. Or something like two factions are at war with the same warmonger the AI after loosing some ships can come to the player and suggest and alliance if they help defend a system or something.
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