I would also really love to see the Mezari. Either as a playable Empire or as one of the Minor Civilizations. Other then being connected to the UE (As Raians used to be a Mezari colony.) Horatio (Having been born into a Mezari Clan.) It's ties to the Vaulters AND one of the Vodyani Heroes used to be a Mezari clansman they seem to be a widely spread out race....But we don't see them at all. (Unless some of the 'Generic' human soldiers we see in a few art pieces are Mezari since they don't seem to match the UE, Sheredyn, Horatio or Pilgrims.) It's possible they were wiped out but right now everything is a little cloudy on their overall status. 

The UE can turn into the Mazari if you run through their faction quest.  You turn the imperial citizens to  sophen template.  

Vaulters are near the top of my list since they were probably one of my favorite ES1 and EL factions. And chances are good they will be included since their implied to have had some sort of great impact on the Endless setting when they left Auriga aboard the Grey Owl. 

I would also really love to see the Mezari. Either as a playable Empire or as one of the Minor Civilizations. Other then being connected to the UE (As Raians used to be a Mezari colony.) Horatio (Having been born into a Mezari Clan.) It's ties to the Vaulters AND one of the Vodyani Heroes used to be a Mezari clansman they seem to be a widely spread out race....But we don't see them at all. (Unless some of the 'Generic' human soldiers we see in a few art pieces are Mezari since they don't seem to match the UE, Sheredyn, Horatio or Pilgrims.) It's possible they were wiped out but right now everything is a little cloudy on their overall status. 

The question who else I'd like to see is a bit more complicated. I'd love to see the Hissho and Pilgrims but what would you do with their minor factions? Replace them with something else? Or maybe just say that the Minor Faction versions are smaller offshoots? I don't know but I'd imagine they both would be interesting additions. (Pilgrims being a more 'Good' Religious faction to the Vodayni while the Hissho are more Klingon-Samurai to the Cravers war like locusts.) 

I don't think we'll see any playable EL factions. Though maybe a few Minor Civilizations? The Wild Walkers wanted to make something like a space elevator to escape as their end level quest. And the Broken Lord's due to their being uploaded armor shells could have survived the killing winter's. 

No more human and biped factions. I want really "alien" Aliens. I love the Unfallen and Riftborn. I want more like those with even stranger gameplay mechanics.

My vote goes definitely for the more alien aliens as well. While one can write interesting background to human-faction-spin-off #37 overall it feels a bit bland in my eyes. I'm happy Pilgrims are just a minor faction. Mezari and Vaulters are also just reskinned humans basically. Not that they're necessarily bad creations, just that there's already enough classic humanoids around.

How about some shapeshifters? Creatures who's identity is shrouded to everybody, possibly even to themselves as they absorb the traits and appearance of whomever they meet? Could do well with espionage update.

Maybe some slime/jelly kind of aliens? Beings who act as parasites and develop more powerful traits as they evolve on their hosts? They'd do well on fertile planets, giving more emphasis on focused colonization.

One funky idea could be a spin-off of Riftborn. Another extra-dimensional species who'd play differently from RB. Give them stealth ships and teleportation abilities and make them like a corrupted counterpart of their fairly kind-hearted cousins.

A living planet? Singular entity spreading it's influence and control over the galaxy, somewhat akin to Cultists in EL.

Super charismatic snake/naga mind controllers? They could rely heavily on politics and get extra benefits from there. Could also affect their opponents political views.

Possibilities like this are endless IMO and would keep the galaxy and the world setting interesting. Humanoids are cool and all but it's best not to overdo those. A healthy mix of the more traditional humanoids and weird creatures is a good way to go I'd say.

The Harmony, Sowers or Automatons.

I really want more ES1 factions to return.

hissho warmongers and some espionage faction

I don't get it. What's the appeal of the Vaulters?

I expect Harmony, probably Sowers, and I have a dream that I know won't come true of other Legend factions. Maybe also some mindflayer faction that plays like Morgawr.

WireWolf wrote:

I would also really love to see the Mezari. Either as a playable Empire or as one of the Minor Civilizations. Other then being connected to the UE (As Raians used to be a Mezari colony.) Horatio (Having been born into a Mezari Clan.) It's ties to the Vaulters AND one of the Vodyani Heroes used to be a Mezari clansman they seem to be a widely spread out race....But we don't see them at all. (Unless some of the 'Generic' human soldiers we see in a few art pieces are Mezari since they don't seem to match the UE, Sheredyn, Horatio or Pilgrims.) It's possible they were wiped out but right now everything is a little cloudy on their overall status. 

Dude, Mezari are like cromagnon to "present day" ES human factions.  They fractured into UE, Vaulties, Horatio and Pilgrims (my headcanon is that pilgrims are mezari that remained nomad)

Starbound wrote:

Horatio already have pretty shapeshifty trait. Jelly aliens are Amoeba. The evil extradimentionals... I like it. *FRUMPLE*, YOU *SILLY COW*! THE VAULTERS ARE *NOT HERE*!

The living planet is 10/10 idea.

DisnagBurnazog wrote:

I don't get it. What's the appeal of the Vaulters?

I expect Harmony, probably Sowers, and I have a dream that I know won't come true of other Legend factions. Maybe also some mindflayer faction that plays like Morgawr.

WireWolf wrote:

I would also really love to see the Mezari. Either as a playable Empire or as one of the Minor Civilizations. Other then being connected to the UE (As Raians used to be a Mezari colony.) Horatio (Having been born into a Mezari Clan.) It's ties to the Vaulters AND one of the Vodyani Heroes used to be a Mezari clansman they seem to be a widely spread out race....But we don't see them at all. (Unless some of the 'Generic' human soldiers we see in a few art pieces are Mezari since they don't seem to match the UE, Sheredyn, Horatio or Pilgrims.) It's possible they were wiped out but right now everything is a little cloudy on their overall status. 

Dude, Mezari are like cromagnon to "present day" ES human factions.  They fractured into UE, Vaulties, Horatio and Pilgrims (my headcanon is that pilgrims are mezari that remained nomad)

Starbound wrote:

Horatio already have pretty shapeshifty trait. Jelly aliens are Amoeba. The evil extradimentionals... I like it. *FRUMPLE*, YOU *SILLY COW*! THE VAULTERS ARE *NOT HERE*!

The living planet is 10/10 idea.

Well the Vaulters in Endless Legend are an interesting mixture of Dwarves, the Brotherhood of Steel and Vikings and they were dumped in a Clarks Law fantasy setting....So this REALLY stood out, for me and others. And for an advanced faction in a fantasy setting their not so much steampunk as one would expect but a sort of unique "aluminum-steel-electricity" style that also works into their color pallete very well.
In Endless Space One they also have some pretty interesting gameplay mechanics which made them incredibly defensive oriented thanks to their wormhole technology but also such fun stuff as insurgency academies, allied c3 systems, reactive beacons. Even Cravers and Hissho had a hard time blasting Vaulters off their worlds.

Anyway as to the Mezari being the 'Cro Magnon' of the various human factions I don't necessarily disagree but that doesn't preclude them from appearing as a Minor Faction or even some sort of Mezari successor state. But more then anything I just want their to be some information as to what happened to them. Their implied to have been a widely distributed 'Empire' of various Clans but other then the UE being a Mezari Colony and Horatio being a rogue Trillionaire Mezari Noble/Buisness tycoon and one Vodyani hero having been a Mezari engineer we don't really know what happened to them. (We can't really count the Vaulters yet because they haven't been mentioned in the game yet other then us seeing the Grey Owl lift off of Auriga and then presumably suffer a drive malfunction.) I think the Mezari do serve a useful purpose at least as a way of introducing more Human Empires and Minor Factions at least. Their wide distribution and clan structure means you have a lot of options for humans.

I know the game is barely out, but it's still fun to speculate. So, what would you like to see next? It can either be an entirely new concept introduced to the Endless universe, or something from the previous games making a comeback.

Personally I would love to see the Vaulters.

I love the whole look and feel of their faction, and their philosophy and whole design really attracted me to them in past Endless games. What I'd love to see from them in ES2 is a lot of what made them great in EL. I'm sure Amplitude can find really inventive ways of allowing them to manipulate strategic resources with the whole holy resource mechanic they had in EL. I think it could transfer over into ES2 in very interesting ways. Not to mention their teleportation mechanic.

What would you like to see next?

Tdoggs wrote:

I would also really love to see the Mezari. Either as a playable Empire or as one of the Minor Civilizations. Other then being connected to the UE (As Raians used to be a Mezari colony.) Horatio (Having been born into a Mezari Clan.) It's ties to the Vaulters AND one of the Vodyani Heroes used to be a Mezari clansman they seem to be a widely spread out race....But we don't see them at all. (Unless some of the 'Generic' human soldiers we see in a few art pieces are Mezari since they don't seem to match the UE, Sheredyn, Horatio or Pilgrims.) It's possible they were wiped out but right now everything is a little cloudy on their overall status. 

The UE can turn into the Mazari if you run through their faction quest.  You turn the imperial citizens to  sophen template.  

Oh I know that, I also like the Sheredyn option give to players. Those options are a big reason why the UE is one of my favorite playable factions so far (Zelavas's outfit changes, it changes up the name, your pops and so on. And the rewards are awesome.) But it's less you playing as an actual Mezari nation and you playing as the United Empire who decided to put on some of the trappings and practices of the old Mezari Clans atop of the United Empire. 

I would like to see the Sowers.  A religious industrial faction focused on going very wide and not tall.  Right now it seems EU are the only one able to spread without heavy penalties.  It would be neat to have a faction wanting to colonize all the one planet systems.  It would be tough to balance.

Ok here is an idea. following from Nasarog stating.....

Nasarog wrote:

No more human and biped factions. I want really "alien" Aliens. I love the Unfallen and Riftborn. I want more like those with even stranger gameplay mechanics.

Remember when the Harmony were in development? Remember how there was a space virus faction that ended up becoming a single hero? Think about it, intelligent space virus. Personally, i would love to "infect" planets.

Tdoggs wrote:

I would like to see the Sowers.  A religious industrial faction focused on going very wide and not tall.  Right now it seems EU are the only one able to spread without heavy penalties.  It would be neat to have a faction wanting to colonize all the one planet systems.  It would be tough to balance.

 

You already have such - vodyani and cravers (religious build) can slap forced content aproval law and consume every system. Also it's not hard to maintain religious support for federation/republic governments and do the same so you can easilly pull it off as UE or Riftborn. Getting to 20-25 systems count as Unfallen is also a piece of cake with all aproval bonuses they have. The main downside is that game runs really slow on high end pc when you're occupying 30+ systems.

About races, well i'd like to see Harmony return who're always content and can't use dust. But they biggest strenght of Harmony was that you didn't have to worry about ship upkeep and could crush anything in late game with sheer numbers. Atm i've a feeling that every race can support any size of fleet not even worrying about dust (mb dust inflation doesn' apply to upkeep).

I'm just gonna take a few of the first ideas and mush em together... Howsabout, for an Espionage update, we get a faction which is Religious/Pacifist, shapeshifting, charismatic reptilians? Go for an updated, Endless take on the classic lizard people conspiracy and insidious reptilian aliens schtick, like "The Visitors" with possible addition of silly 50's-70's sci-fi aesthetic.

Story wise, they'd be a mix of Lumeris and Sophon tones, with an over the top James Bond/Austin Powers feel to their quests. Or, go dark, and spring for a brooding, introspective noir feel. Bonus points if you're the villain with an eye patch and a lap iguana.

Mechaniy, they would be able to somehow seed any world they saw with a unit of population that fits in, but is secretly a unit of Reptiles who can be turned against the system owner. For balance reasons, you would only be allowed to seed X systems with up to Y fake populations.

Nasarog wrote:

No more human and biped factions. I want really "alien" Aliens. I love the Unfallen and Riftborn. I want more like those with even stranger gameplay mechanics.

This.