Dear Developers!

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I am not going to make suggestions to make the game into something else entirely, only because I liked chunk X of game Y better. My feedback will strictly resolve as a comparison of ES1 vs ES2 with the exception of how I wholeheartedly dislike all things combat.

Let me start by saying that back then I received Endless Space 1 Collection + Disharmony as a gift and I liked it for some of it's features and the niché it carved for itself in the turn based scifi strategy realm. That being said, I don't think I would've bought Endless Space myself due to some personal gameplay preferences which mostly come down to how combat is handled.

For the most part, I appreciate the iterations done to ES1. I don't know how much of the game changes once the ES2 expansion packs are applied though, so please correct me about things I (dis)liked in ES2 based on that point of view.

My starting point:

The biggest, most dense two-disk galaxy with 11 opponents - all other settings left on normal. Victory conditions off except killing all factions and the highest (600 turn) limit. Why no "endless" option? :) I also don't like the AI take over my stuff and royally botch it, so I manage everything by hand. I played a custom faction from the get-go... and this is the first bone I had to pick before even entering the game:

Why am I limited to 8 traits and others being locked away and grouped in specific dropdown menus? I had to install the "Sandbox mod" to get rid of the 8 trait limit so I could make a faction I was comfortable with. Please know this; I barely ever play any game with mods, and then they are very few, so this is a huge thing and a letdown compared to ES1 creation choice. I did not exceed the regular point limit, only removed the trait limit.

That allowed me to cobble a satisfying faction together. Well... as satisfying as it can get when needing to use a faction that still adheres to this poisonous DUST... :) Sadly, Harmony was not among the selectable choices (I know they are a cheap DLC though). That being said; I always liked the very unique mechanics of factions in ES1, and this is a trend that thankfully continues in ES2. That alongside faction specific tech trees makes for good replay value.

Now actual in game, here are my condensed thoughts, roughly put together:

          A) Events and Quests

PRO:
1.) Since they certainly also happen in multiplayer sessions I think they make a great way to spice up the game and give you something additional to chase.

2.) My only real diplomatic exchange was to gain access to one system I should control in a quest, that was way over on the other galaxy disk. I wouldn't have bothered much with diplomacy otherwise.

CON:

1.) Some of the time based events like "who has the highest food production planet" obfuscate progress of other factions.

2.) There should be a gameplay option that allows you to switch from "keep in the dark" to "show details".

          B) Resources

PRO:

1.) Adding Influence as tangible border growth and currency.

2.) No longer needing to research luxury goods to garner their effect.

3.) Resources and luxuries are now incrementally growing in a pool to use instead of a "abundance / monopoly" on/off switch that affects entire technologies.

4.) Marketplace for balancing out resources

CON:

1.) Capping resources at 999, without even autoselling them on the market.

          C) Galaxy Map

PRO:

1.) Actual exploration ships that survey for anomalies and can launch probes to spy beyond your own borders.

2.) "Extras" like nebulae that apply bonuses once within influence range.

3.) Systems and Extras that are "off the grid" where you actually have to search for them, and those systems were usually better than the rest too.

4.) Constellation control bonuses.

CON:

1.) The giant two-disk map I played had a total of THREE constellations. One per disk and one between them. I did not change the constellation settings. Bug or feature? if feature -> terrible. I expected 1 constellation per player plus spares in between. Not ONE constellation for 5 players.

2.) Zoom level should NOT force what I should see or not. If I want to see pie-chart info of systems all zoomed out, I should be able to do so. Same with trade routes. It would be easy enough to add icons / shortcuts to switch between map modes regardless of zoom level.

          D) Political System

PRO:

1.) I like the way it's implemented and that elections and laws are giving you always something beneficial. It is a useful addition to Endless Space.

2.) You can make it as chaotic (read; democratic) as you want or remain a steadfast course that never changes. Other games can have their diplomacy system so out of whack that you see your own empire crumble beneath you because it wouldn't let you do what requires to fix it.

3.) You can look at all the basic laws beforehand to know where you want to expand to.

CON:

1.) I cannot undo the "forced law" based on the primary election holder. I should be able to and replace it with a related law (so if I'm scientist, I should be able to remove the first law and replace it with something that's scientist only).

2.) There seems to be no consensus on how much a certain thing impacts a certain political inclination. It's mostly guesswork, despite the labels on most actions you can perform. Having a "factor" displayed somewhere would be good. It's certainly not just research point cost or resource cost.

3.) You can't preview laws given to you by reaching a certain population threshold, for example with the Guardians. So you never know if it's worth to keep the population around or not.

          E) Technology Tree

PRO:

1.) The tree doesn't appear to be as gamebreaking as ES1 in terms of combat or other faction specific tech (I didn't get through all of it, was only on 160 turns, but I parsed all techs in overview in search for very specific things of which I only found one that I would call gamebreaking compared to the... 5+ in ES1).

2.) Search function is FAR better. Thanks a lot! Still misses a few things though.

3.) Tiered techtree with individual unlocks instead of fixed pathways.

4.) Good iconization and use of colors (for example planet specializations vs. system upgrades, and for which type they are without even mousing over it.)

CON:

1.) Search function does not include techs/benefits that are unlocked by moving to the next tier (I mean the little icons nested on the rings).

2.) In ES1 it was far easier to see which technology was because of your inherent faction choice, even zoomed out because they were an entirely different color. The little icon in ES2 underneath is not sufficient.

3.) Some technologies clash due to custom faction creation. I took Vodyani appearance with Empire spec, which lead me to receive a tech that adds module slots to an empire hull which I don't have access to. What?

4.) Mutually exclusive tech choices. Makes no sense if I can research A, why can't I research B?

5.) A much darker background and more pronounced foreground icons would benefit the clarity of colors and icons when looking over things.

          F) User Interface

PRO:

It has a bit more space for some things in a few areas compared to ES1 but that's about it.

CON:

I'm not going to name all the things that I find horrendous in the Endless Space UI design, instead I really only focus on the comparisons to ES1. It didn't have a great UI, but ES2 made it worse. The one driving factor that made a bad UI worse is:

1.) You ditched a very easily accessible way to identify what upgrade or tech is good for what based on the coloured triangle. That was flat out fantastic. In ES2, while you sometimes succeed in overall color grading so we at least get an idea (green for food), it falls apart in others. Orange for industry and red for military completely clashes in the blurr of icons on the system build window.

2.) Other than that, the lack of intuitive use from ES1 is still very present. ES1 was just lacking functionality. ES2 slaps a "style over substance" insult on top of it. There are so many things that get in the way of me fluidly playing the game that are too numerous to mention here.

I would make a full list if I was asked to do so by the devs however.

          G) Ship Design

PRO:

1.) I found the design interesting in ES1 that we had capacity determining how much we can stuff in it, but also limitations on hardpoints. ES2 seems to simplify the storage space (increasing module effect based on size) but allows more design flexibility by having hardpoints shared and you can put more types of one system into place instead of fiddling with storage space.

2.) The idea of having one BIG weapon hardpoint is good, I would've loved to see that BIG hardpoint being universally usable though to make some other modules more powerful.

CON:

1.) Three hull sizes with a grand total of 9 variations are fairly lackluster, even if we're able to upgrade the slots on them later on, because they are fairly dead set in what you can do with them. Especially since 2 of these variations are basically small explore and small colony, which could've easily been fixed with JUST using specific modules instead.

2.) I still don't think that I have an actual choice in how the ships look and feel because they're just a hull with predetermined bonuses and limitations we can't change, and the choice for hardpoint types are also taken away.

3.) ...on second thought, the hardpoints actually limits choice even further. I can NOT make glasscannons or tanks the way I see fit like I could in ES1, or full blown invasion vehicles.

          H) Combat

PRO:

1.) No longer 3-way targeting priority in ES1 which meant you could easily game the system.

2.) More cards that are actually meaningful and more varied (I think it still plays down to the same cards once you research the high military tree though). In ES1, I kept playing the same 2 cards indefinitely.

CON:

1.) You removed the emphasis of actually watching the battles because in ES1 you could at least swap cards depending on what happened in the previous phase. So in some tight battles when you were uncertain how the first phase went down, you had an inclination to sit and watch if you can do ANYTHING to help your fleet.

2.) Enforced ranges on cards.

3.) Flotillas don't continue to attack after their designated counterpart is successfully killed.

4.) ...Flotillas in general.

          I) Diplomacy

I would have loved to explore the Diplomacy system because it looks like there is a lot more depth to it, and of the continued reactions and prompts of the others compared to what I did on the map, it felt like it actually was populated by others. I mostly didn't bother due to the limited time I had available to test.

The one thing that I did NOT like is again UI related: The diplomacy overview, especially playing with 12 total players, is bad. It wasn't good in ES1, but it is worse in ES2. Specifically: hiding factions behind others on the pie chart with no way of panning the thing around. I sometimes can't even see the faction symbol because another holographic image obfuscates it.

          J) General Gameplay

PRO:

1.) Having actually different population types per faction.

2.) Mixing different populations and having each of them have separate bonuses and group bonuses after a certain total number. It gave me incentive to care about certain populations and micromanage them around the empire.

3.) Allowing individual population units to go where I want to, even across systems. Seriously, thank you!

4.) Allowing outposts to be fed from established colonies to grow quicker.

5.) Ability to block generated transport types from enemy factions and wipe them.

6.) Removing some "gamebreaking" (aka: too-good-not-to-pick) choices from ES1 in faction creation.

7.) Addition of trade companies, subsidiaries and upgrading their routes.

8.) Upgrading and managing the split of the 3 ground force parts.

9.) Minor factions do NOT feel like a nuisance. I didn't want to kill them right away.

CON:

1.) I can not choose from which system transports are sent to which outpost to decrease travel time and to decide how much food I want to send.

2.) Routes are also sometimes going through enemy territory instead of flying directly to avoid danger once the tech is unlocked.

3.) No way to manually move these transports around or protect them with a fleet.

4.) I still can't make colonies with more than 1 unit, and I also can't decrease outpost time by making bigger colony ships carrying more infrastructure.

5.) The amount of food needed for the next population does not increase properly. It should be taking longer for each subsequent unit the less space is available.

6.) I actually have no idea how trading properly works. I just tried to make the lines touch as many of my systems as possible and it still left me wondering why the trade company decided why it came to the conclusion of these results per turn.

7.) One-per-galaxy buildings are always a terrible idea. Makes no sense why suddenly the efforts spent should suddenly be wasted and abandoned. Make it so that the first one who finishes the building get a bonus to it and the others STILL can finish / start it.

8.) I still wish there was a way to put a hero on the ship YOU want them to, instead of needing to have them tug along with the fleet in a tiny ship. Or you should be able to upgrade their unique ship instead at a higher-than-normal cost.

UNBIASED:

I didn't get around to do much Terraforming but it somehow made more sense in ES1 where I did a LOT of Terraforming. There seem to be too many different planet types in ES2 and they kinda don't flow together well, but I didn't really look into it due to time constraints.

          Things I couldn't resolve

I don't know if the Fighter/Bomber spam is still the best way to go about combat, just like it was in ES1. What I seriously disliked in ES1 was the fact that you could not defend against fighters and bombers properly, except using your own fighters and bombers and stack hitpoints and repair. Because the Point defense systems that you had to choose instead of Fighters and Bombers were largely meaningless, no matter how much Defense you stacked up that it supposedly scaled with. It seemed the damage of F/Bs in ES1 was completely unmitigated by defense, at least according to the combat report. I don't know how bad the situation is in ES2, I did not have enough time to test that high in the military research tree.

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          The last word, and it's about combat...

Actually, only saying "Flotillas" in the entire "CON" section of "Combat" would've sufficed but I need to elaborate, because this is the main reason why I wouldn't have bought Endless Space 1 for myself, and is also the reason why I'm not going to buy ES2.

I could easily abuse the combat system in ES1 to never lose a battle ever again once I figured out the target priorities, and it didn't take me long to figure out how to game the system in ES2 as well. Maybe not as effective but still doable.

#) Flotillas are totally unituitive, especially combined with cards.
#) The game does not manage to properly auto-distribute my ships, and it does not save my selection per card either.
#) My biggest complaint about Flotillas is: you are FORCED to divide your Flotillas because they will NOT attack other Flotillas once they are done with their designated target!

I was actually getting a little flustered when I watched all my ships I pooled in Flotilla 2 get shot at by the two remaining enemy Flotillas without retaliating. Clearly the enemy was capable of targeting my single Flotilla, why am I not allowed to target back then when the next phase comes? Especially when I had my mix of long, medium and short weapons.

This had me almost quit the game but I decided to try a few more times.

The next time I put the most ships into the third Flotilla and some tanky support ships in Flotilla 2.I had a nice card that benefitted long range combat in F3 that gently sweeped in from the side. I expected it to clear up the enemy Flotilla 2 and 1 in Phase 2 and 3.**But they didn't.**Killed their F3 counterpart and then just floated to the end of the arrow while my Flotilla 2 kept being shot at.In the end I settled at "I divide by three, tailor the Flotillas to exactly one card to always play and just have the bigger/better equipped fleet" and from then on I never watched a single combat any more out of sheer frustration.

It's literally fire and forget and due to the Flotilla Mechanic you can still game the system. Maybe not as easy as in ES1, but still. It benefits the "who has more total command points per fleet" than actual reserves or industry to pump out ships. While I appreciate that better tech gives you an edge, sometimes a ridiculous overpowered one, the hardlocked fleet cap makes it impossible to break a teched player as an industrial player. Because the tech player has better ships and more ships per fleet. And you can't do anything about it.

In both ES1 and ES2 you can hold an entire system for an indefinite amount of time, and keep fending off wave after wave of enemies who have a combined fleet strength that is TWENTY TIMES as big as yours. They should, by all intents and purposes, mop the floor with you. But they don't.

Due to the gated combat, and thanks to phase-repair, you're ready to go for the next battle.

          The bottom line...

[quote]Endless Space 2 gives me far more empire engagement than it's predecessor and I really appreciate that. It went even far enough that I thought, maybe I could convince the group of people I played other things with to give it a try now that it's on sale. I would love to have a nice turn based multiplayer scifi game for my group, and it looked like ES2 would've been it, but the combat is such a mess that it's a solid pass, same for ES1.

It's kind of a bummer that for the grand strategy game that Endless Space is, there is next to no strategy, tactic or meaningful choice involved in combat. It's tedium ad nauseum.

And it's making me sad :([/quote]

one thing is you can choose from which system tranports are sent for ouposts

Additional feedback to your points this place in Steam forum: [FEEDBACK] Why I NOT bought ES2 after the free weekend despite the many improvements over ES1

Some of the feedback here is incredibly valid, I've noticed it too, but I do have to agree with Sublustris in that you don't seem to have learned enough about the game to fully judge it, though, that's probably not your concern. The hidden complication is hard for a lot of people to get into.

What stung the most is the lack of Harmony major faction :(

Dlc in question doesn't make them playable.