I'd rather see the Automatons or the Sowers back as new Ecologist and Religious factions. If not, then please for the love of God, give us non-humanoid aliens.

Also, a good compromise would be to mix the old with a new twist....like for example, rogue spinoff factions (Like the Mavros are a faction of Sophons with completely different ideologies and designs). 

We could have a shadowy illuminati faction of Amoeba focused on dividing and weakening the galaxy so they can rule it from the shadows by using espionage or other sneaky stuff.

Or a religious faction of Hissho's that worship the Endless and have egyptian styled armour and ships based on Ra or Horus, etc.

This would be a great way to both, bring back older factions and give us something new.

Just for it not to be lost in the chat of the stream. I guess it was a Vaulters reference? They didn't add Opbot yet he is mostly done and they say that they are working on a new faction...

Or it is just me, looking for Vaulters anywhere... I just want to see their ES2 design. They looked really nice back in ES1, their cities in EL are my favourite...

It may be off topic, but what their next genre will be? May be EL2 while working on a proper grand rpg like divinity in EL?

IceGremlin wrote:

I'm hedging my bets on some dashing rogues of some description, as the Vodyani unfortunately don't scratch the pirate/thief/spy itch quite well enough. Perhaps a faction that plays around with Curiosities a lot, for that treasure map feeling, alongside a revamped Curiosity and exploration focused DLC. "Space Forgotten," if you will. Alternately a Scientific faction playing into a new Science-centric virtual espionage DLC, with a cyberpunk thing going on, also "Space Forgotten" but as a concept and gameplay feel, not aesthetic.

A religious faction could work well for an espionage-focused DLC too, especially with the law that lets you attack during Cold War. Some sort of secret society-type faction, possibly connected to the academy questline.

IceGremlin wrote:

Right now we have multiple Industrialist and Pacifist factions who function pretty normally, but the other four are a bit short. Particularly the only Ecologist faction is anti-diversity and requires unique variant laws as a result, so a pure Ecologist faction would be a nice addition. We have two factions who are Scientist adjacent (Riftborn and Unfallen) but only one Scientist faction explicitly; we only have one Religious and one Militarist faction, each of which functions in a really weird way.

So I expect our next big faction to be one of those four politics- Ecologist, Religious, Militarist, Scientist- with a focus on exploration, or a focus on some heretofore unknown new set of mechanics.

Agreed. Maybe a pure Ecologist faction could come with a DLC focused on added more depth to the minor factions? (which I'd love to see)  Ecologist might work for an exploration-focused faction too.

DrTechman42 wrote:

Just for it not to be lost in the chat of the stream. I guess it was a Vaulters reference? They didn't add Opbot yet he is mostly done and they say that they are working on a new faction...

By Vaulters reference are you refering to the unimplemented Opbot, or has there been another hint that I've missed?

Sublustris wrote:

And I really want to have major faction with teleports :3

Personally I would sort of prefer teleportation as a late-game singularity for the Riftborn. The current late-game singularities seemed pretty lackluster last time I played as Riftborn, and it could fit well with the faction.

Vendata wrote:

… if we assume Endless Space 2 is going to end up with 12 factions like ES1 and EL, then I'm guessing we're going to get two factions for each political affinity. Since Pacifists (Unfallen and Lumeris) and Industrialists (UE and Riftborn) already have two factions each, it would make sense that Ecologists, Scientists, Religious, and Militarists will each get an additional faction. …

That seems a likely assumption to me too. Here is my take on things:

Hissho — already a minor faction so unlikely but would be great as a second militarist faction. (5% longshot)

Amoeba — already a minor faction and made redundant by the Unfallen. (0%)

Sowers — they have an interesting and different backstory, they would fit as a second ecologist faction. (25%)

Automatons — I really liked them, they were on of my favourites from ES1, but unfortunately I suspect not. (0%)

Pilgrims — already a minor faction so unlikely. (0%)

Harmony — Being anti-dust they certainly would bring a very different take to gameplay, but with trade companies a major gameplay feature, I do not see how. (10%)

Vaulters — for game lore reasons yes, but otherwise unlikely imho. (10%)

Sheredyn — no, part of the United Empire. (0%)

Endless — no.

Something New — Most likely. (50%)

I doubt there will be any new ES1 major factions soon, though I expect the Automatons to be another Minor. However, given that, it is more difficult to speculate about something we don't know yet(Excpet Green Artwork Frogs, but we never gonna get those), I say Sowers, Vaulters(Certainly gonna be in the game at some point!) and Harmony are likely candidates who would fit well as majors.

Sinnaj63 wrote:

I doubt there will be any new ES1 major factions soon, though I expect the Automatons to be another Minor. 

Speaking of minor factions, I'm guessing we'll be getting another two minors too. One more pacifist, one more religious, to bring us up to three minors factions per political ideology.

Sinnaj63 wrote:

Excpet Green Artwork Frogs, but we never gonna get those

Oh yeah, those guys. They show up in a few places. There's also a few more artwork aliens that haven't shown up as factions yet:

-Three-eyes (they also appear with the frogs here)

-Polyhedron heads

-Harmony looks-alikes

-Militarist androids

There are also a number of ship designs in the artwork (most notably this one, which appears in the few images) and early artwork that shows a number of species not currently in game. I'd imagine in most of these cases artwork aliens or ships are either early concepts that were later abandoned or just something the artist came up with to fill out the scene. 

It might be possible that some of these might show up eventually, but it seems unlikely, as you noted. I'm guessing that whatever's coming next is being kept under wraps, at least for now.

These aren't Harmony look-alikes. They are literally the remenants of the Harmony.

Personally I would love if they went back to old alien designs and made them actual factions.

Just something new, really new. Without banal anthropomorphism and really worthy of being called "fantasy". 

I hope there will be new "Faction creation" contest, because I have something to offer based on the ideas I'm working on.

Anything we get is going to be "new" in a sense. I think it's the gameplay that really matters, and every faction we have in ES2 already, including the "returning" ones, has new gameplay. To me they could use nothing but existing factions from ES1 and EL and it would still feel like a fresh new experience as long as they have that new gameplay. That said a faction returning from EL and carrying on that story would have a lot of weight to their lore that would be more interesting to me than something random and new.

Personally I would like to see more "humans" or factions very close to looking human. Easier to identify with them and recognize their heroes and characters. My minds sees many of the other factions as "generic aliens" and none of them really stand out to me visually. 

I still have no doubt we will see Vaulters soon, though I'd prefer something like Forgotten.

You can pretty much rule out anything that's already a minor faction ingame, so no Hissho, Amoeba, or Pilgrims.

One of the curiosity quests implies the Harmony are long-gone, too, so I doubt they're coming back (despite them being my absolute favorite in ES1).

I'm pretty sure we get Vaulters at some point, since they're always there and it'd be weird not to find a single trace of them in ES2. Otherwise I'd love to see an Aurigan race, if only because it makes me sad to see the snowball planet and remember what used to be there.

dragontyron wrote:

You can pretty much rule out anything that's already a minor faction ingame, so no Hissho, Amoeba, or Pilgrims.

One of the curiosity quests implies the Harmony are long-gone, too, so I doubt they're coming back (despite them being my absolute favorite in ES1).

I'm pretty sure we get Vaulters at some point, since they're always there and it'd be weird not to find a single trace of them in ES2. Otherwise I'd love to see an Aurigan race, if only because it makes me sad to see the snowball planet and remember what used to be there.

To be fair, all races start on a single planet, so some of the minor factions could be turned into a major ones, and some of the major factions could be turned into minor ones (think of cravers as having lost the spaceflight tech, and being permahostile). It would certainly make for more

Following the way the unfallen begin their journey to the stars, I'm pretty sure Harmony could do the same. I wouldn't want to see the return of their spaceship docking bonus, since that was always a headache to manage lategame. 

 I have nothing against turning Minor Factions into Major ones in future updates. Some of them would be amazing to play. 

Yeah I highly suspect we'll see vaulters eventually, given some of the hints the devs have dropped since even before release.

And the lore leaves plenty of room to change their focus.  Who knows what they've become after leaving Auriga.

Yeah I highly suspect we'll see vaulters eventually, given some of the hints the devs have dropped since even before release.

And the lore leaves plenty of room to change their focus.  Who knows what they've become after leaving Auriga.

GIVE ME MY CULTISTS

Strato wrote:

I would like to see the next major faction be somewhere along the lines of isolationists which have strong anomoly probe traits and ability of cloaking their own systems, and the only way you can reveal them is if you suspect their somewhere with advanced probes researched. The negative would be that they have a high negative approval for expanding, so they will be more efficient if they have fewer systems. 

Sir... this sounds pretty awesome to me!

Vendata wrote:

The question is whether it's a new faction, or one returning from a previous game. If I had to make a wild guess, I'd say Hissho. It would make sense for a species with innate skills as aviators to follow in the wake of the fighter/bomber update, and I'm not sure when the Cartographer's Request quest was added, but that points you towards Sykagoja (where the Hissho originated) when completed.

Of course, there isn't really much to go on at this point, so it's just a shot in the dark (unless there's some clues I've missed).

Hopefully we do get some hints dropped soon! (Or find ones we missed.) I bet we'll get some when the fighter/bomber update comes around, I'll keep my eyes peeled.

Vendata wrote:

So as much as I love their ships, it seems unlikely the Amoeba will return as a major faction (especially since they had many of the same traits of the Unfallen). However, I'd definitely want to see a major faction as 'alien' looking as them in ES2. Something completely non-humanoid. And while there's definitely factions I'd love to see return to ES2, especially the Hissho, Pilgrims (though probably unlikely), and Eyeless Ones (two words: Xenomorph Jedi), what I'm most looking forward to is the new factions and seeing what unique aspects they add to the game.

Agreed! I am definetly hope we get something entirely non-humanoid. 

The most important aspect of a new faction really is the added gameplay, but I can't pretend I'm not super excited for new lore and art, that's what drew me to Endless Space in the first place.

My choice would remain Cultist, Wild Walker or Mogwar from EL but since they aren't in the poll I'm thinking either Pilgrims, Sowers or something else.

Why Sheredyn is an option, they are already in game.

Return at the cost of undoing UE? Not going to happen, buddy.

I vote for Amoeba those space ents need a friend faction 

Everyone is a friend to the Unfallen! Come... Join us.

But seriously since we already have a super pacifist faction wouldn't it make more sense to get someone else. Mind you I'm sure the Amoeba play much differently so feel free to argue.

MetalCommander wrote:

Everyone is a friend to the Unfallen! Come... Join us.

But seriously since we already have a super pacifist faction wouldn't it make more sense to get someone else. Mind you I'm sure the Amoeba play much differently so feel free to argue.

They would be more than just friends, they would be BFF. It would make sense if they are planning to add diplomatic victory. Besides, it's a unique concept for an alien race. They are aquatic race living on an ocean planet unlike others, they got character, cool looking ships and they have been around for a while so they need to be there. Not all humanoid looking factions from EL have to make it to space, priorities first. 

Since the discussion has moved to this thread, I'll move my comment from the old thread here.

Frogsquadron wrote:

I think if you were to speculate on the new faction, you might as well recreate a thread, this one's voting options are a bit outdated... :D

It seems like it's time to speculate again given the comments in the various "Meet the Team" devblogs, especially Olivier's, where it is explictly stated that they've started "working on the comic of the faction that we want to add next". A number of devs have also indicated that they're working on something secret, which I assume is the new faction.

The question is whether it's a new faction, or one returning from a previous game. If I had to make a wild guess, I'd say Hissho. It would make sense for a species with innate skills as aviators to follow in the wake of the fighter/bomber update, and I'm not sure when the Cartographer's Request quest was added, but that points you towards Sykagoja (where the Hissho originated) when completed.

Of course, there isn't really much to go on at this point, so it's just a shot in the dark (unless there's some clues I've missed).

In addition, if we assume Endless Space 2 is going to end up with 12 factions like ES1 and EL, then I'm guessing we're going to get two factions for each political affinity. Since Pacifists (Unfallen and Lumeris) and Industrialists (UE and Riftborn) already have two factions each, it would make sense that Ecologists, Scientists, Religious, and Militarists will each get an additional faction. 

So as much as I love their ships, it seems unlikely the Amoeba will return as a major faction (especially since they had many of the same traits of the Unfallen). However, I'd definitely want to see a major faction as 'alien' looking as them in ES2. Something completely non-humanoid. And while there's definitely factions I'd love to see return to ES2, especially the Hissho, Pilgrims (though probably unlikely), and Eyeless Ones (two words: Xenomorph Jedi), what I'm most looking forward to is the new factions and seeing what unique aspects they add to the game.

I think a luxury-ressources related faction would be nice. Whatever this means...

As Frogsquadron sugessted, I have made a new thread so we can speculate on the upcoming new factions. I would have liked to add more options but I was limited to ten. 

Personally I am hoping we get the Automatons, they were my favorite from ES1.

I want a faction from endless legend so much :'(

Every time i find Auriga frozen to death in endless space 2 i feel so sad :'(

Aurigans could be a super cool thing, a cosmopolite and polyvalent empire, allying most of the factions of Auriga, differents ships looks...

Something new I hope.

I would like to see something new / something that isn't in ES2 yet. So changing minor faction to major faction or for example UE's Mezari and Sheredyn is no option for me. Also - Mezari/Vaulters are from Auriga and only them managed to escape the planet, so it's ok for me if we'll not see Broken Lords or Roving Clans (but it would be VERY nice to see some quests or other flavour related to them! Maybe some heroes kidnapped from Auriga long time ago by Vodyani or Riftborn time-related-dark-magic-stuff)

Sowers, Automatons and Harmony sound great. But Endless... well, I don't know. It's tempting but they always looked for me like some sort of demigods, much stronger than anything in the game and I have no idea how you could balance that guys.

Ok! Time to vote! I belive we'll get old ES1 factions (Sowers, Automatons, Harmony) sooner or later, so my vote goes to "something new" :)

I truely  hope one of the new ones will be the Harmony, but i doubt it will happen. 

When you cut all dust related content, more than 1/3 of all will be missing. 

But then again with the new influence ressource, maybe that can be an utiliser. 

On the other hand, they would then be a less effective UE without heroes or a market or a buyout function (Influence buyout is reserved by UE), they would need a truly unique trait, bigger than any other one.

Voted for Something New, because that seems the most likely to me: many of the races from ES1 are already in-game either as minor factions or through quest decisions. If Amplitude were to refresh an old faction for ES2, I'd guess either Harmony (as scientists?) or Amoeba (as ecologists), due to their interestingly different gameplay options. 

Groo wrote:

I think a luxury-ressources related faction would be nice. Whatever this means...

Horatio are already somewhat luxuries-focused with their unique improvements and hero skills, which reduces the likelihood of such a faction in my opinion. One whose gameplay affinity revolved around luxuries would be interesting, though...

For my part, I'd like to see... the Allayi return as a major faction! Never gonna happen, but a guy can dream.

I seriously doubt that it will be a returning ES1 faction.

Seriously, seriously hope it's not, either.

Amplitude shines when they think outside the box. The Allayi and Morgawr are two of the best 4X factions I have ever played or seen. Let us pray that their creativity and imagination are once again tapped like they were with those.

DevildogFF wrote:

I seriously doubt that it will be a returning ES1 faction.

Seriously, seriously hope it's not, either.

Amplitude shines when they think outside the box. The Allayi and Morgawr are two of the best 4X factions I have ever played or seen. Let us pray that their creativity and imagination are once again tapped like they were with those.

I'd like to see one faction return at some point down the line, so long as it adds something new to the game. For the other three however (assuming we're going to end up with 12 again) I'd like to see something new, and I'm sure Amplitude will come up with something interesting.

thesweetbabyray wrote:

Hopefully we do get some hints dropped soon! (Or find ones we missed.) I bet we'll get some when the fighter/bomber update comes around, I'll keep my eyes peeled.

Well, the early version of the new update is out. It features a new quest, which is said to "give players a chance to discover who exactly has been assembling huge amounts of fighters and letting them loose on the galaxy". Perhaps this will give a peek a what's coming next. As CyRob noted in the announcement thread, the pirate hero added in this update was originally labelled HeroDLC01Pirate01 in the localization files, suggesting that it was orginally going to be part of a major expansion but has been moved forward.

Has anyone had a chance to try out the new quest?