We are always performing a careful balancing act of bringing back popular factions and creating new ones. The Harmony, though, would not mesh very well with many of Endless Space 2's system, mostly because their core mechanics (absence of use of Dust, no Heroes, needing oodles of ships for optimum production) would mean adjusting a significant number of ES2 systems to make them work.

You'll hear about the newcomers to ES2... soon.

ES2 vinyl OST might(will) feature Harmony Hero. Explain that, please :)

That's Slowhands-bait if I've ever seen any.

The Harmony certainly exist in the Endless Universe, as do the other ES1 factions. None of them have gone away, they just don't happen to be in the current iteration of the multiverse. More pragmatically, as as Frogsquadron noted, is integrating them into the ES2 gameplay. On top of that, we felt that it would be a cop-out to just copy/paste the ES1 factions into ES2!

Instead, we added Vodyani, Lumeris, Riftborn, and Unfallen. We're just kind of hoping that your new flings would help you forget old loves...

But, hey, nothing is impossible, though to be honest the cost of adding a major faction to the game is HUGE, primarily because of the days/weeks of 2D and 3D art required to do the ships and concept and Hero art. But we're still adding game content, and there are lots of modding possibilities, so who knows?

-Slow

Slowhands wrote:

But we're still adding game content, and there are lots of modding possibilities, so who knows?

-Slow

Ah yes, the classic Amplitudian subtle tease that something may potentially happen in the future 

Sublustris wrote:

There ARE Dust-modified Harmonites, named Pulsos, and they DO have a Hero, but our hero in question (ES2 vinyl bonys) isn't Pulsos, it's clearly Harmony. My question was about that serious inconsistency.

The power of dust (money right here on earth) makes anything possible, my friend.

;)

There was a Harmony hero in ES1 as well, as far as I know. "CuSO4 Ponders" was his name, I believe. The Harmony as a whole have been touched by Dust, which is the main reason they loathe it, as the Dust contanimation disturbed their ability to sense the galactic core they are searching for. The Harmony heroes are probably just individual Harmony who embraced their newfound individuality and abilities granted by Dust.

Of course, Slowhands might correct me here and tell me everything I remembered was wrong.

If you were well off you could just hand amplitude a couple million and ask for the faction of your choice?   that would be my route.  LOL

The hissho are beautiful and scary at the same time.  Whoever did the voice acting was wonderful. 

Adding to the conversation, please note that players also love the way factions are lore wise too. Playing Sowers feels so good because the feel that you are controlling a coalition of non emotional machines, designed and constructed with a set goal in mind. Currently, all factions are emotional in nature, being the Riftborn the most exagerated example. Every line in their quest is filled with the desperation and aversion to the new universe, that can create an interesting duality with their mechanical embodiments. 

Nevertheless we players still cannot enjoy the roleplay of a emotionless, rational, zealot race of selfless neutral beings. Not necesarily should it be machines, examples as parasites, symbiotes, hiveminds, grey goo, or other sci-fi archetypes can fill this endless void. Please, consider this for those players who still have this rational, inhumane hole in our rational, inhumane heart

The Harmony Hero doesn't necessarily have to be Dust Infused/Enhanced/Contaminated, there are a number of non-Dust enhanced Heroes in the game, whose skills are that of a Dust enhanced Hero.