I am really loving this game. I am loving all the little details this game has. One of my problems with the game is the combat. I hate it. Maybe it's just I don't understand how it's suppose to work. I don't understand the purpose of it. Maybe it's a me problem. I want to understand or at least try to understand the purpose or reasoning behind the combat and the way it works.

Is combat like this for multiplayer reasons to speed up the game? Is this suppose to be something like Magic or Pokemon with card collecting? Sorry I don't get this "card" thing. Instead of me thinking they are actual playing cards should I be thinking of these things as "tactics"? After all I am playing a video game not cards. Cards are something suppose to be in real life. Maybe I am old. Maybe I live under my rock to long and I don't know the latest terminology. 

To show you my way of seeing this, maybe I can see where I am looking at it wrong. The way I see it, combat is just automated and it's like two cars going down the highway going "pew pew" at each other. I don't understand what is really going on. I click on the icon (sorry forget the name in the top right) and it gives me details. I don't understand what the blue line on the curve going up and down means. I see a few other things moving that I don't understand either. Do they actually mean something or just for show to make it look more pretty?

I know I am in only the early phases of the game but not sure if the cards are working or not. How can I tell they are doing what they are suppose to do? 

I don't see how combat is fun here. I am having more fun with ground combat that I am having space battles. Yes I have read the threads on how combat is suppose to work but I still don't get it. I don't get the long medium short thing. So if something is long at 100% and medium 50% does that mean damage is only half at medium range? How do I know when I am at medium range? Again we are all on the highway on the same lanes. The distance never changes. So how do I know what is long medium or short range?

I am not dissing the design, just trying to understand. After all you can't please everyone. So what am I not seeing about space combat in Endless Legend 2, and how can I make it or view it better to make it more fun. 

Thanks for any help you can give me. 

Phew, so many questions! First and foremost, it is true that not everything is crystal clear regarding the battle mechanics and there are far more mechanical minded people here than I am to answer these questions. What I can say though, regarding lanes, battle cards etc. is that I do not think they are that hard to decipher.

Yes, they are tactics cards, and they do pretty much what they say on them, I'm sorry but I think it is pretty obvious. If you click on the plus sign at the bottom of the battle pop up screen, you will also see how lanes work. Every battle card represents different tactics that you have to select depending on your current scenario. If you hover over the enemy ships, you should be able to tell more or less what arsenal they have. Your goal is to counter them and beat them. Now, if you can tell that they are loaded with rockets and you are loaded with beams, for example, an automatic choice would be Turtle which increases your protection against rockets and puts you close to the enemy ships rendering them ineffective against you.

Of course, the enemy will choose a tactic as well and this will result in the battle (that you don't have to watch if it confuses you that much, just press "auto", and you'll be presented with the outcome).

The point is, to select the battle card most suited to the outfit of your ships. If you have enough ships, you can move them between the different lanes to further optimize your damage output. Your fleet info should tell you how strong you are in different proximities. Hovering over your individual ships in advanced battle loadout will tell you how these individual ships fare in those different ranges. If they are good in close range, choose a tactic that supports that.

I think the current system is very tactical and fun to watch although there have been ongoing balancing issues that are being worked on constantly.

Try to approach the mechanics in a more simple manner, it seems to me that you are overcomplicating things in your head. I know, there is a lot of stuff, as I said, I am only scratching the surface in understanding all, but the base mechanics I believe are quite straightforward. (meaning lanes and battle cards)

Well, that's all from me, there is always YouTube, where I'm sure you'll always be able to find people explaining further details, or, someone knowledgeable here might wanna take the time and break it down in a digestible manner.

Happy gaming!

Thanks very much Twimpix. That does help. I will try and simplify if I can. There are Youtube videos that explain combat? I didn't know that. I will go there now and see if I can find any. Greatly appreciate your time in helping me out. 

Sadly Youtube videos did not work and I didn't find the explanation I am looking for. Anyone know of any good videos or explanations to read?

Maybe we can request for better explaination Video or more extra tutorial about how batle works.

try check this

https://www.games2gether.com/endless-space-2/forums/69-tips-tricks/threads/25072-space-battles-explanation?page=1#post-233713

Thanks for the link Nuyu. My question I still have lingering is how can I tell what position my ships and the enemy ships are in ? How do I tell what phase I am in? Where do I look to see if my ships are at long/med/short range? How do I tell for the enemy? 

This is a reason why I can't put to what I read into understanding because I am guessing the first 15 seconds is long range or phase one, next 15 secones is medium range or phase 2 and last 15 seconds is short range or phase 3. 

So I can't tell if what I am putting into practice is working. 

https://www.games2gether.com/endless-space-2/forums/65-general/threads/18857-es2-gdd-4-battle-overview?page=1 Saw this link from the link Nuyu gave. Again thank you, you have helped me now understand better.

This thread explains the reasoning why combat is like it is. I finally understand the why it's done. I can respect the devs for trying something different and understanding why they are doing it differntly. The way I see it, it's like Star Trek the Birth of the Federation combat. At least with BotF in the phases we could choose to change our battle plans or tactics and then see it resolved in that phase. 

Maybe in an expansion they can add in that at the end of a phase we can change or tactics (really hate using the word cards, I am not playing Magic or Pokemon). Don't make it real time like ES1 since that is the reason I quit the game in the first place. Or at least give us the option to pause and think. Then we can see the next phase in action and adjust acordingly. 

Also what is the purpose of highway combat? I mean seeing to runners racing towards the finish line shooting each other doesn't scream exciting space battles to me. What am I not seeing here?

As many people said it before me already, this is a 4X and not an RTS game so I wouldn't expect full control over battles, I get the impression that it only would make it exciting for you.

From where I am standing this all comes down to personal taste.

I am not sure I or anyone can reveal any information here that will make space combat exciting for you all of a sudden if you have such predisposition towards the system. It's like me deciding to go to an American football match and spending the whole time telling the person next to me how the game is just not exciting to me and asking them to tell me something that will make me like it better. Some things are just like this. If you don't like the space combat, auto-resolve them. Nobody is forced to watch. If you like everything else in the game, good. Personally, I don't like to watch ground combat, so I auto-resolve. I am happy with that. Also, if American football is so not exciting to me since I can't wrap my head around the rules and just, in general, the way the game is played, I'll just ignore it.

Using the overview during combat, the lanes become clear...

That said it's all about the Lanes and the Columns you choose before the battle. Your tactics CARD is very important in many ways, you can move certain ships to certain lanes to either sacrifice them, have them protect other ships in that lane from various ennemy weapons and so forth. Various reasons will see you want to group ships together in certain lanes or even colums depending on your intent when you designed them.

The actual percentages of L/M/S are obviously a chance to hit % so properly countering the design of the ennemy ships you are facing by using the correct columns to efficiently fight your opponent. Meaning if he has a fleet of 3 ships showing 100/50/10, well you would choose a tactics card that starts your ships at front mostly, tho of course, you might have ships who need to be placed back in rear columns due to their range designs or personal strategy you chose in relation to your fleet concept...

What am saying here is the space battles and tactics cards are WAY more complex than you would think. I have won battles that would have been lost if i had not only chosen the RIGHT tactics card BUT also made extensive ship placements before the battle, having analyzed many factors before the fight started.

You should take the time to review battles, replay them in slow motion even to see how random luck also influences certain hits and damages while in the battle. I made tests by saving before a battle and then trying out different tactics cards and placement and I GUARANTEE you that proper placementof ships in the "right" columns and lanes makes a HUGE difference in winning or losing some battles.

This said, I agree most simpler battles can be easily solved with just the right tactics card. When you face human players in PVP, you better have all your ducks in a row... :)

I hope this helps you, I might be ranting a bit here... :P

Look into a Youtuber named 4X Alchemist

He does good videos, a few of them are 9 months old but he explains very well and gives great starting tips.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr-lQjl79Fnmlwki4mCrNTw

Hi HsojVad, the battle is something like you try to arrange your fleet at best position and combo against your opponent. It also depend on what card you want to use. You can set your whole fleet based on your card settings, if you aim for certain resourse, eg: Influence, there is card that give influence based on CP destroyed.

As for weapon type, we need to specialized it at late game, but for defense we can use it both armor and sheild, see what your enemy focus is and try to put more defense into that and spare more resource that required it. Sometimes if you lucky some deeds advance armor reward tech if you complete it.

Thanks everyone for the comments. I believe the real problem is the lack of explanation on how combat actually works. That is the devs faults here. That said, I am enjoying combat more now thanks to the help of Nuyu. 

Also thank you joejean10 for the link. Will go watch this now.

A note to the devs. I really like this great game. Thing is, I want to be playing the game instead of watching youtube. I bought all the remaining DLC I could buy today. I want to support this great work. But please have better explanations on how things work please. 

Sometimes I spend 15 minutes watching a battle in slow motion, just to make sure the edge I think I have with my ship placement does come thru. After a while you figure out paths and can rely on assumptions about the ennemy tactic card of choice.

So many variations can occur it's great fun, to me at least... :P

This is the best game i ever played and I started gaming in the 70's on a Commodore VIC-20... Look it up, am old... :P