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 am an Amplitude veteran (ES, EL) and am fairly familiar with their early access. I just bought into the early access by accident (steam had a supposedly sale, but charged me full price, yet i did not refund as i like Amplitude and ES2) and want to give some feedback:
Bugs:
These are the most annoying outside the few technical ones:
1) the enemy gets stuck on deciding what action to choose when you invade their planets. needless to say that this bug makes warfare unplayable
2) very rarely when you watch the battles the camera would stay at the system zoom level and you do not see any ships
3) sometimes the enemy takes quite a while to make it's decision when you engage in space combat. in contrast to 1) this just takes some time to resolve.
Gameplay impressions:
Preface: I played the United Empire and the Vodyani to the mid/end game (got most techs, but only got 1-2 constellations):
1) The camera in space combat is imho worse than in ES, because it mostly focusses on single ships and cuts a bit too fast. While the ship models are gorgeous both in design and graphical fidelity i also would like to have more camera angles that present the larger battles between the ship formations.
2) Mechanically space combat seems a bit weird: you still get cards with some minor bonus, yet they also present different formations and i don't see any difference that the formation choice makes. Personally i would like to see more options with the card/formation choice that changes the engagement timers, e.g.:
a) Surge: reduce the duration of the long and medium range combat phases, extend the duration of the melee combat phase
b) Bombardment: increase the duration of the long range phase
c) Ambush: Skip the long range phase
d) Kiting: skip the melee phase (is countered by surge)
...
basically cards that play to the strengths of your ship designs and the weaknesses of your enemy. in my Vodyani game i tried a fleet with short ranged lasers (very high damage, but only usable in the melee phase) and no matter what i tried i could never compete with ships that simply took medium/long range weaponry. just switching the short range lasers with the long range ones gave me much better results.
3) Besides the United Empire, influence seems almost useless. You can spend a bit changing the election results, enacting laws and for interactions with other races, yet none of those influence sinks are important enough to warrant any influence specialization/research.
4) Internal politics seems a bit lacklustre. On the one hand the way your population reacts to outside events and the elections in general are great, but on the other hand you can't really do much. You get a few different laws depending on the election result and that is it. Imho there needs to be a deeper mechanic regarding internal politics. this could also fix 3)
5) Technology:
5a) I really like the technology wheel it is a very good blend of ES and EL, however i don't like mutually exclusive ship upgrades as this just arbitrarily reduces design space for your fleets.
5b) Some rewards for the Legendary Deeds (i use the EL term here) are lacklustre, instead of some 200 Dust i would prefer a unique ship component or a unique law etc.
5c) I would like to see a lot more unique technologies tied to the different species, similar to ES (although i would like to see even more) that tie in with their unique abilities
5d) Overall the technology tree seems rather small/quickly researched, but this is a minor balancing issue. I guess there are more eras coming
6) Ship design:
6a) This is obvious: we really need more module options, e.g. special weapons are just resource dumps for a very minor damage gain.
6b) Ship roles should be switched up between the species, e.g. as far as i can tell the battleship is always a carrier (i suppose fighter/bombers come later) no matter the species.
6c) Some modules need explanation e.g. does the weapon damage support module (+25% dmg) stack? Do fleet wide modules stack? Do shields absorb kinetic/missile weapons? ...
Beside those points i really like the ship design especially the dedicated hard points give some consistency in contrast with ES where you could make ridiculous ship designs (all defence etc.)
7) Invasion/Manpower: In general i really like the manpower system and to a lesser extend the invasion system, but there are some concerns:
7a) Invasion of systems and the drain of manpower in besieged systems happens way too fast. i can basically drain system of all it's manpower in 1-2 turns and invade with very low casualties. In my opinion even EL struggled on the defensive side and i much prefer the ES system where you need to bring dedicated invasion ships and even then it takes 5-8 turns to invade a system. currently you can overrun an enemy in very few turns giving him little time to react.
7b) I would like to see global manpower displayed in the main screen (next to dust/science etc.) and balance it around a large pool that regenerates slowly (similar to EU4), so that at some point you need to quit a war because you ran out of manpower.
8) Laws: I would like to see more species specific laws, e.g. the Vodyani could have a law that very slowly turns non Vodyani population into essence at a cost of happiness reduction per non-Vodyani population, similarly the Cravers could kill off non-Craver populations to get a food bonus (with major diplomatic repercussion with other species).
Overall the game is quite good and on a clearly visible trajectory to greatness :)
9) Fleet designer: Similar to the ship designer i can design fleets, i.e. choose from the my ship designs and create a ship composition (i.e. fleet). i could then use this template to create the fleet instead of ordering the ships one by one and i could also replenish fleets with a single button, instead of looking up what ships a lost, ordering them at a near system an manually fly them to the fleet to reinforce.
10) Waypoints for military ships (i did not find any) that can be attached to systems or fleets.
9) Fleet designer: Similar to the ship designer i can design fleets, i.e. choose from the my ship designs and create a ship composition (i.e. fleet). i could then use this template to create the fleet instead of ordering the ships one by one and i could also replenish fleets with a single button, instead of looking up what ships a lost, ordering them at a near system an manually fly them to the fleet to reinforce.
1) The camera in space combat is imho worse than in ES, because it mostly focusses on single ships and cuts a bit too fast. While the ship models are gorgeous both in design and graphical fidelity i also would like to have more camera angles that present the larger battles between the ship formations.
Yes, that definitely needs tweaking.
3) Besides the United Empire, influence seems almost useless. You can spend a bit changing the election results, enacting laws and for interactions with other races, yet none of those influence sinks are important enough to warrant any influence specialization/research.
Don't forget that Influence also lets you peacefully screw over your neighbours just through existance, and also changes how punitive things like closed borders can be. I'd actually argue that Influence in this game is more important than it was in Endless Legend.
4) Internal politics seems a bit lacklustre. On the one hand the way your population reacts to outside events and the elections in general are great, but on the other hand you can't really do much. You get a few different laws depending on the election result and that is it. Imho there needs to be a deeper mechanic regarding internal politics.
Yeah, I think everyone is in agreement with you there.
5) Technology:
5a) I really like the technology wheel it is a very good blend of ES and EL, however i don't like mutually exclusive ship upgrades as this just arbitrarily reduces design space for your fleets.
5b) Some rewards for the Legendary Deeds (i use the EL term here) are lacklustre, instead of some 200 Dust i would prefer a unique ship component or a unique law etc.
5c) I would like to see a lot more unique technologies tied to the different species, similar to ES (although i would like to see even more) that tie in with their unique abilities
5d) Overall the technology tree seems rather small/quickly researched, but this is a minor balancing issue. I guess there are more eras coming
A) It's a lot better than it was before the update.
B) God yes. Always annoyed me in Endless Legend that two things were totally unique, and the third was just a boring gift.
C) Agreed fully. We'll have to see whether than happens on its own, or whether the modders will have to handle it. I would suspect the former though.
D) Yeah, supposedly it ain't fully done yet (There's another thread about that exact topic on here).
6) Ship design:
6a) This is obvious: we really need more module options, e.g. special weapons are just resource dumps for a very minor damage gain.
6b) Ship roles should be switched up between the species, e.g. as far as i can tell the battleship is always a carrier (i suppose fighter/bombers come later) no matter the species.
6c) Some modules need explanation e.g. does the weapon damage support module (+25% dmg) stack? Do fleet wide modules stack? Do shields absorb kinetic/missile weapons? ...
Beside those points i really like the ship design especially the dedicated hard points give some consistency in contrast with ES where you could make ridiculous ship designs (all defence etc.)
Agree with it all.
7) Invasion/Manpower: In general i really like the manpower system and to a lesser extend the invasion system, but there are some concerns:
7a) Invasion of systems and the drain of manpower in besieged systems happens way too fast. i can basically drain system of all it's manpower in 1-2 turns and invade with very low casualties. In my opinion even EL struggled on the defensive side and i much prefer the ES system where you need to bring dedicated invasion ships and even then it takes 5-8 turns to invade a system. currently you can overrun an enemy in very few turns giving him little time to react.
7b) I would like to see global manpower displayed in the main screen (next to dust/science etc.) and balance it around a large pool that regenerates slowly (similar to EU4), so that at some point you need to quit a war because you ran out of manpower.
A) Yes, I thought defense was weak in Endless Legend, and its far worse here.
B) Not sure I agree with that, but hey, could be interesting.
8) Laws: I would like to see more species specific laws, e.g. the Vodyani could have a law that very slowly turns non Vodyani population into essence at a cost of happiness reduction per non-Vodyani population, similarly the Cravers could kill off non-Craver populations to get a food bonus (with major diplomatic repercussion with other species).
Yeah, that'd be interesting, especially if adopted Minor Races could contribute. Would make taking them over an even more strategic balancing act.
tesb wrote:
I forgot two features i would really love to see:
9) Fleet designer: Similar to the ship designer i can design fleets, i.e. choose from the my ship designs and create a ship composition (i.e. fleet). i could then use this template to create the fleet instead of ordering the ships one by one and i could also replenish fleets with a single button, instead of looking up what ships a lost, ordering them at a near system an manually fly them to the fleet to reinforce.
5c) I would like to see a lot more unique technologies tied to the different species, similar to ES (although i would like to see even more) that tie in with their unique abilities
1) The camera in space combat is imho worse than in ES, because it mostly focusses on single ships and cuts a bit too fast. While the ship models are gorgeous both in design and graphical fidelity i also would like to have more camera angles that present the larger battles between the ship formations.
Yes, that definitely needs tweaking.
+1
3) Besides the United Empire, influence seems almost useless. You can spend a bit changing the election results, enacting laws and for interactions with other races, yet none of those influence sinks are important enough to warrant any influence specialization/research.
Don't forget that Influence also lets you peacefully screw over your neighbours just through existance, and also changes how punitive things like closed borders can be. I'd actually argue that Influence in this game is more important than it was in Endless Legend.
That's Influence generation, not Influence. The game rewards you for generating lots of Influence on the long term, but there's nothing to do with it, especially with Dictatorship. This means you would have a dictator that dictates, well, nothing. Law are free, with influence stockpile his voice is strong but you can't use that.
I think Influence could (and should) be used to calm rebellions, and should also be used in combat to get a scalable bonus on cards (say you want it x2, then pay influence for that. You want x3, pay more). As I said elsewhere, this Influence could be some generals you formed, at least Cravers would have a use for the very few influence they have that they can't use on diplomacy.
4) Internal politics seems a bit lacklustre. On the one hand the way your population reacts to outside events and the elections in general are great, but on the other hand you can't really do much. You get a few different laws depending on the election result and that is it. Imho there needs to be a deeper mechanic regarding internal politics.
Yeah, I think everyone is in agreement with you there.
I want to mod this but currently, there is an impossibility... If I do this, I break the AI :/
(well, ok, that's my excuse)
5) Technology:
5a) I really like the technology wheel it is a very good blend of ES and EL, however i don't like mutually exclusive ship upgrades as this just arbitrarily reduces design space for your fleets.
5b) Some rewards for the Legendary Deeds (i use the EL term here) are lacklustre, instead of some 200 Dust i would prefer a unique ship component or a unique law etc.
5c) I would like to see a lot more unique technologies tied to the different species, similar to ES (although i would like to see even more) that tie in with their unique abilities
5d) Overall the technology tree seems rather small/quickly researched, but this is a minor balancing issue. I guess there are more eras coming
A) It's a lot better than it was before the update.
B) God yes. Always annoyed me in Endless Legend that two things were totally unique, and the third was just a boring gift.
C) Agreed fully. We'll have to see whether than happens on its own, or whether the modders will have to handle it. I would suspect the former though.
D) Yeah, supposedly it ain't fully done yet (There's another thread about that exact topic on here).
About C, you can both have a look at the update calendar, this is planned at some point :)
About D... I think there may be an Era 6. Because of the guns and the tech tree preview screen a month ago, but that would imply new ressources that are not "traditional" in the endless serie. So who knows !
6) Ship design:
6a) This is obvious: we really need more module options, e.g. special weapons are just resource dumps for a very minor damage gain.
6b) Ship roles should be switched up between the species, e.g. as far as i can tell the battleship is always a carrier (i suppose fighter/bombers come later) no matter the species.
6c) Some modules need explanation e.g. does the weapon damage support module (+25% dmg) stack? Do fleet wide modules stack? Do shields absorb kinetic/missile weapons? ...
Beside those points i really like the ship design especially the dedicated hard points give some consistency in contrast with ES where you could make ridiculous ship designs (all defence etc.)
Agree with it all.
6a) there is no damage gain. It's the same stats (I studied those guns stats for days, literally). However, there is something planned on ressources guns if you read the xml :)
6c) yes, damage should stack like this: +25% + +25% =+50%. / flottilla shield should stack / yes, but very badly. Although you'd want @Mysteryarts's confirmation there.
7) Invasion/Manpower: In general i really like the manpower system and to a lesser extend the invasion system, but there are some concerns:
7a) Invasion of systems and the drain of manpower in besieged systems happens way too fast. i can basically drain system of all it's manpower in 1-2 turns and invade with very low casualties. In my opinion even EL struggled on the defensive side and i much prefer the ES system where you need to bring dedicated invasion ships and even then it takes 5-8 turns to invade a system. currently you can overrun an enemy in very few turns giving him little time to react.
7b) I would like to see global manpower displayed in the main screen (next to dust/science etc.) and balance it around a large pool that regenerates slowly (similar to EU4), so that at some point you need to quit a war because you ran out of manpower.
A) Yes, I thought defense was weak in Endless Legend, and its far worse here.
B) Not sure I agree with that, but hey, could be interesting.
Agree with the OP on A & B.
Having empire manpower displayed there makes sense, since you allready have Empire dust / influence put there, and that some manpower is used to buy some game effects.
8) Laws: I would like to see more species specific laws, e.g. the Vodyani could have a law that very slowly turns non Vodyani population into essence at a cost of happiness reduction per non-Vodyani population, similarly the Cravers could kill off non-Craver populations to get a food bonus (with major diplomatic repercussion with other species).
Yeah, that'd be interesting, especially if adopted Minor Races could contribute. Would make taking them over an even more strategic balancing act.
I'd say no for a gamedesign reason, i think races have to be balanced before the laws are in.
Because you can't say "I'd make cravers laws super strong to fix my broken stuff". This would cost them a law slot, (the only they have in their vanilla fonctionnement) and remove some of their law options in definitive (even if they get more law slots in the future).
That idea is as treacherous as the "let's give special guns for factions" : either it would be "why use the vanilla stuff if these are better" or "why use them at all if they are lesser".
I think each faction should be able to win a game before transforming the faction balance any further. (I also think each faction should be able to loose a game :) ).
tesb wrote:
I forgot two features i would really love to see:
9) Fleet designer: Similar to the ship designer i can design fleets, i.e. choose from the my ship designs and create a ship composition (i.e. fleet). i could then use this template to create the fleet instead of ordering the ships one by one and i could also replenish fleets with a single button, instead of looking up what ships a lost, ordering them at a near system an manually fly them to the fleet to reinforce.
Fantastic idea.
You would need another screen I guess ?
tesb wrote:
10) Waypoints for military ships (i did not find any) that can be attached to systems or fleets.
I'd rather know what button to push to force lane-less jumps :)
What you want would ask ships to go out of hangar and then travel 1 by 1 to a system : I would never use this but on some very special occasions.
9) Fleet designer: Similar to the ship designer i can design fleets, i.e. choose from the my ship designs and create a ship composition (i.e. fleet). i could then use this template to create the fleet instead of ordering the ships one by one and i could also replenish fleets with a single button, instead of looking up what ships a lost, ordering them at a near system an manually fly them to the fleet to reinforce.
OK, Devs. I like this idea! and most of these points are great.
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Regarding the discount: ES2 is currently 25% off, but this isn't displayed on Steam. Steam doesn't allow for discounts to last longer than a week, so our long-term discount means we've just directly factored it in the price itself.
8) Laws: I would like to see more species specific laws, e.g. the Vodyani could have a law that very slowly turns non Vodyani population into essence at a cost of happiness reduction per non-Vodyani population, similarly the Cravers could kill off non-Craver populations to get a food bonus (with major diplomatic repercussion with other species).
Yeah, that'd be interesting, especially if adopted Minor Races could contribute. Would make taking them over an even more strategic balancing act.
I'd say no for a gamedesign reason, i think races have to be balanced before the laws are in.
Because you can't say "I'd make cravers laws super strong to fix my broken stuff". This would cost them a law slot, (the only they have in their vanilla fonctionnement) and remove some of their law options in definitive (even if they get more law slots in the future).
That idea is as treacherous as the "let's give special guns for factions" : either it would be "why use the vanilla stuff if these are better" or "why use them at all if they are lesser".
I think each faction should be able to win a game before transforming the faction balance any further. (I also think each faction should be able to loose a game :) ).
Well the idea was to give gameplay options that would be more on the immersive side. maybe i am too familiar with w40k or purging my way through the galaxy in stellaris, but i would like to see options for the Cravers and Vodyani to use up occupied populations.
tesb wrote:
I forgot two features i would really love to see:
9) Fleet designer: Similar to the ship designer i can design fleets, i.e. choose from the my ship designs and create a ship composition (i.e. fleet). i could then use this template to create the fleet instead of ordering the ships one by one and i could also replenish fleets with a single button, instead of looking up what ships a lost, ordering them at a near system an manually fly them to the fleet to reinforce.
Fantastic idea.
You would need another screen I guess ?
For the fleet creation certainly, but i am familiar with paradox games so i acquired the taste for menus within menus.
tesb wrote:
10) Waypoints for military ships (i did not find any) that can be attached to systems or fleets.
I'd rather know what button to push to force lane-less jumps :)
What you want would ask ships to go out of hangar and then travel 1 by 1 to a system : I would never use this but on some very special occasions.
The main reason for waypoints are the automatic reinforcement of fleets or choke-points, e.g. if i produce ships in 7+ systems and want to reinforce border systems/attack fleets a simple option for a waypoint would reduce micromanagement a lot.
edit: for clarification i meant rally points, i.e. a location where produced military ships will automatically travel to once a ship in a system is finished.
phanemy wrote:
tesb wrote:
5c) I would like to see a lot more unique technologies tied to the different species, similar to ES (although i would like to see even more) that tie in with their unique abilities
thank you, i did not look at that list in detail beforehand. it is good to see that this is already planned.
Frogsquadron wrote:
Regarding the discount: ES2 is currently 25% off, but this isn't displayed on Steam. Steam doesn't allow for discounts to last longer than a week, so our long-term discount means we've just directly factored it in the price itself.
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