Just finished my second game and, while enjoying myself plenty, it felt odd overall. The main reason for this was that by the time I'd done filling my starting systems the game was over. So many of the things I teched were barely used in any systems, the final 2 strategic resources were never even unlocked and over half the galaxy didn't need interacting with at all.

Basically, it felt like the game moved way too quickly for the ideas in it. Am I alone in thinking this? Is it intentional? Have balancing decisions otherwise been discussed? Just curious as to what people think about the current state of play really.

I think you played on a small galaxy on normal or fast speed.

The most enjoyable games I played were on slow and on huge or gigantic galaxies with more players than the "average" number of players in the galaxy.

VieuxChat wrote:

I think you played on a small galaxy on normal or fast speed.

The most enjoyable games I played were on slow and on huge or gigantic galaxies with more players than the "average" number of players in the galaxy.

Nah, it was default settings except difficulty which was just Hard. It could easily have been the fact that I was Sophons doing Science Victory though - that'd tend to move things quickly. That's why I was wondering what others experiences/opinions were rather than just issuing silly blanket statements with a sample size of 2 games!

I'll try with your settings and see how it goes. Cheers.

If I may, I would suggest to try an Endless difficulty game, with Hard minor faction and Low ressources. For me it was the best experiences so far, the last one in particular make the economy far more interesting for me.

Kruos wrote:

If I may, I would suggest to try an Endless difficulty game, with Hard minor faction and Low ressources. For me it was the best experiences so far, the last one in particular make the economy far more interesting for me.

You may, but I'll be slowly working up to that as I'm not very experienced with the Endless series and certainly not brave enough to just jump to the most difficult settings. I'll see how Serious and then Impossible go first.

FB5813 wrote:

VieuxChat wrote:

I think you played on a small galaxy on normal or fast speed.

The most enjoyable games I played were on slow and on huge or gigantic galaxies with more players than the "average" number of players in the galaxy.

Nah, it was default settings except difficulty which was just Hard. It could easily have been the fact that I was Sophons doing Science Victory though - that'd tend to move things quickly. That's why I was wondering what others experiences/opinions were rather than just issuing silly blanket statements with a sample size of 2 games!

I'll try with your settings and see how it goes. Cheers.

turn off score victory and the game regardless of other settings will last a lot longer.  Score victory is limited to a certain number of turns, it never ends up feeling very satisfying to me, but it still has its place. (As long as everyone is away of it from the beginning)

Fyully agree on hera35's observations. Also look at the builgings: Most Era 5 builgings and some era 4 ones are terribly weak.

My own take is that the game is just not balanced for endgame right now. Also some factions are clearly superior to others right now.

Clearing the game of bugs is much more important at the moment, but I hope it doesn't take too long to get into balancing issues.

i only play with domination and supremacy victories. gives me all the time in the world and the gameplay i like: to crush my enemies, see them driven before me and hear the lamanetations of the sophons.

FB5813 wrote:

Just finished my second game and, while enjoying myself plenty, it felt odd overall. The main reason for this was that by the time I'd done filling my starting systems the game was over. So many of the things I teched were barely used in any systems, the final 2 strategic resources were never even unlocked and over half the galaxy didn't need interacting with at all.

Basically, it felt like the game moved way too quickly for the ideas in it. Am I alone in thinking this? Is it intentional? Have balancing decisions otherwise been discussed? Just curious as to what people think about the current state of play really.

Partly agreed. If you keep the default game settings aka all victories, medium galaxy with some 6-8 players (I forgot the exact number) I've had similar experiences. One time I ran as Sophons and was dedicated to Science Victory. Around maybe turn 70-80 I had my corner of the galaxy covered and was just sitting back pumping tech buildings and upping my numbers while doing the odd quest or two. Game ended at.. I don't know, turn 130? Difficulty was Impossible I think. But then there was a game on Endless where Cravers beat me by getting economy victory on turn 100-105!

Basically, the games are overall relatively short if you compare ES2 to some other games. Here your typical run is 100-150 turns long and I think Score Victory hits on turn 200 with normal speed. The biggest problem is probably the fact that most new players run "default game" as their first one and might get disappointed in the finale.

Luckily you can tweak the settings to your liking. If you think 100-200  turns are too short, just disable the appropriate victory conditions.  Change game speed, amount of opponents etc like already suggested.

I'm currently running a gritty campaign as Vodyani on Endless with pretty much default settings, just no economy victory. Happens to be, Cravers are my southern neighbour. From turn 40-50 to 100 or so where I'm right now, there's been a brutal war against them and I'm forced to two fronts as Unfallen to my northeast have strange ideas of expansion. Great fun and I don't need to stress about early Dust runners.

Overall I agree with Hera35 though. Science and Economy seem a bit out of place currently. Wonder Victory isn't as bad (though might still need fine-tuning) as you must ensure access to those rare resources, which requires a bit of extra planning. Balance patches are in the horizon, no doubt about that.