When I played endless space 1 I was happy to buy it and play it to support a new comer into the 4X genre and it looked exciting. I got bored or endless space 1 rather quickly as it just becomes a number slog with the AI and micro managing all the planets are are basically the same. Well I'm sorry to say that endless space 2 is just the same. I realise it is early access and there is a lot of polishing to do but I really feel that fundamentally it is repetitive, predictable and boring as was endless space 1. I'm not saying this to be malicious, I really would love to support any games maker for the genre I love and that is why I bought the early access and am giving my feed back. I thought endless space 2 would fix waht was missing in endless space 1 but it has just hasn't. There are a few more features added such as government etc but thats it (so far).

What makes it boring:

Star systems:

All the star systems behave in the same way. There are no unique building for each planet type for example. All improvements just add FIDS to the base units and so it just becomes, boring and predictable. I don't care for my planets like I should because they are all the same pretty much.

Ships/Battles:

Ships/battles are just a numbers game mostly. Sure if your ships have better weapons than the enemy then numbers arent so important but there is no strategy involved. Cinematics are cool but tedious after a while when you need to see what is going on in the battle. Battles are not interactive enough, endless space 1 battles were actually better in my opinion because you could make decisions though out the battle.

Once again I dont care for my fleets because they are just clones of each other, my planet pooped one out in 2 turns so if it's destroyed... so what.... I'll just poop another one out.

Ship design:

Pointless. Sorry but the only thing that I feel I'm customising is how much of a particular type of resource I'm going to be using on that class which is a balance of resources produced vs number of ships. I understand everyone wants to see big space battles which means a large quantity of 1,2 or 3  classes of ship but I believe this can be achieved in a number of much more interesting ways adding customisation and making the player 'feel' for a ship/fleet. 

Tech:

The tech tree is soulless much like the points above. There is no race to a super weapon or weapon types, again its just increasing the numbers on the already boring weapon classes, adding meaningless buildings that increase numbers on a systems output etc I kinda feel lost as to which tech I should research as non of them seem to lead to a particular goal in terms of ideology or empire direction etc. 

What I'd like to see:

Star systems:

Deeper interaction within planets, perhaps akin to ascendancy (the old game) with options that my decisions will directly affect for example on a border system I would build bunkers, planetary missile bases to fight invading fleets, barracks for troops etc. While in a core systems I'd build food production (on a particular planet type) to distribute through out my empire or dust production specialization planet etc. This sets planets/systems apart from one another meaning I start to care about whether I lose it or not. 

Ships/design:

Personally I'd like to see MUCH more ship customisation. All races have the same techs, the same slots etc. I appreciate that you don't want to be bogged down in a game with too many fine details but one idea off the top of my head: how about allowing a finer level of detail for say a capital ship with intricate customisations such as specific weapons gained via quests or tech tree spurs, upgrades to capacity, special abilities perhaps unique to each race etc there is so much more you can do. For other ships (clones of one another) I accept these can have simple customisations. During a battle the player can select a strategy for his capital ship and the 'clones' react accordingly and so on. This idea makes you care for your capital ship but retains the large battles sequences some players want to see. Imagine after building up a capital ship from the start of the game, then a huge mid-game battle sees an enemy fleet destroy you nurtured capital whip with all those special customisations.... I would hate that enemy and vow to destroy them.... This makes an exciting game, I now feel for my race.

One special ability I'd like to see is capturing enemy ships. Imagine the prize of capturing an enemy capital ship (albeit damaged and some of its customisations lost etc) again this add to the feel of the game that is currently extremely lacking.

Tech:

I think the whole thing needs revising. It kinda seems like a merge of endless space 1 and endless legend. Once again it doesnt excite me.

It needs better progressive steps to an end goal technology, maybe different races have different techs?! 

EXOR (exclusive or) branches where a player chooses superior assault weaponry, defense weaponry, dust production or trade/diplomacy but can't have them all (unless it's a race trait to have 2 for example).

Tech tree spurs that a player can choose to invest in that will give a certain reward (a weapon for example) that doesn't lead to anything else but itself. A risk/reward decision.... this makes it exciting.

I really don't want to be so scathing but I really think this game could be great although there need to be major changes in my opinion and I really don't think it'll happen :( Above are just some ideas I thought of while writing this. I have so many more ideas and if the devs are reading this I'd love to be contacted to give you more if you wish. I could write about this for ages. I really think this could be an amazing game and I wish you the best of luck for the future.

P.S I'm looking forward to Endless Legend 2. I hope it knocks the pants off of Civilization 6 which now looks like a game designed for a phone.

I too wish tho have some kind of unique system, for exemple, craver could build something like the Queen hive only once per game and thata system would be unique and not just another system.  

MV7400 wrote:

When I played endless space 1 I was happy to buy it and play it to support a new comer into the 4X genre and it looked exciting. I got bored or endless space 1 rather quickly as it just becomes a number slog with the AI and micro managing all the planets are are basically the same. Well I'm sorry to say that endless space 2 is just the same. I realise it is early access and there is a lot of polishing to do but I really feel that fundamentally it is repetitive, predictable and boring as was endless space 1. I'm not saying this to be malicious, I really would love to support any games maker for the genre I love and that is why I bought the early access and am giving my feed back. I thought endless space 2 would fix waht was missing in endless space 1 but it has just hasn't. There are a few more features added such as government etc but thats it (so far).

What makes it boring:

Star systems:

All the star systems behave in the same way. There are no unique building for each planet type for example. All improvements just add FIDS to the base units and so it just becomes, boring and predictable. I don't care for my planets like I should because they are all the same pretty much.

Ships/Battles:

Ships/battles are just a numbers game mostly. Sure if your ships have better weapons than the enemy then numbers arent so important but there is no strategy involved. Cinematics are cool but tedious after a while when you need to see what is going on in the battle. Battles are not interactive enough, endless space 1 battles were actually better in my opinion because you could make decisions though out the battle.

Once again I dont care for my fleets because they are just clones of each other, my planet pooped one out in 2 turns so if it's destroyed... so what.... I'll just poop another one out.

Ship design:

Pointless. Sorry but the only thing that I feel I'm customising is how much of a particular type of resource I'm going to be using on that class which is a balance of resources produced vs number of ships. I understand everyone wants to see big space battles which means a large quantity of 1,2 or 3  classes of ship but I believe this can be achieved in a number of much more interesting ways adding customisation and making the player 'feel' for a ship/fleet. 

Tech:

The tech tree is soulless much like the points above. There is no race to a super weapon or weapon types, again its just increasing the numbers on the already boring weapon classes, adding meaningless buildings that increase numbers on a systems output etc I kinda feel lost as to which tech I should research as non of them seem to lead to a particular goal in terms of ideology or empire direction etc. 

What I'd like to see:

Star systems:

Deeper interaction within planets, perhaps akin to ascendancy (the old game) with options that my decisions will directly affect for example on a border system I would build bunkers, planetary missile bases to fight invading fleets, barracks for troops etc. While in a core systems I'd build food production (on a particular planet type) to distribute through out my empire or dust production specialization planet etc. This sets planets/systems apart from one another meaning I start to care about whether I lose it or not. 

Ships/design:

Personally I'd like to see MUCH more ship customisation. All races have the same techs, the same slots etc. I appreciate that you don't want to be bogged down in a game with too many fine details but one idea off the top of my head: how about allowing a finer level of detail for say a capital ship with intricate customisations such as specific weapons gained via quests or tech tree spurs, upgrades to capacity, special abilities perhaps unique to each race etc there is so much more you can do. For other ships (clones of one another) I accept these can have simple customisations. During a battle the player can select a strategy for his capital ship and the 'clones' react accordingly and so on. This idea makes you care for your capital ship but retains the large battles sequences some players want to see. Imagine after building up a capital ship from the start of the game, then a huge mid-game battle sees an enemy fleet destroy you nurtured capital whip with all those special customisations.... I would hate that enemy and vow to destroy them.... This makes an exciting game, I now feel for my race.

One special ability I'd like to see is capturing enemy ships. Imagine the prize of capturing an enemy capital ship (albeit damaged and some of its customisations lost etc) again this add to the feel of the game that is currently extremely lacking.

Tech:

I think the whole thing needs revising. It kinda seems like a merge of endless space 1 and endless legend. Once again it doesnt excite me.

It needs better progressive steps to an end goal technology, maybe different races have different techs?! 

EXOR (exclusive or) branches where a player chooses superior assault weaponry, defense weaponry, dust production or trade/diplomacy but can't have them all (unless it's a race trait to have 2 for example).

Tech tree spurs that a player can choose to invest in that will give a certain reward (a weapon for example) that doesn't lead to anything else but itself. A risk/reward decision.... this makes it exciting.

I really don't want to be so scathing but I really think this game could be great although there need to be major changes in my opinion and I really don't think it'll happen :( Above are just some ideas I thought of while writing this. I have so many more ideas and if the devs are reading this I'd love to be contacted to give you more if you wish. I could write about this for ages. I really think this could be an amazing game and I wish you the best of luck for the future.

P.S I'm looking forward to Endless Legend 2. I hope it knocks the pants off of Civilization 6 which now looks like a game designed for a phone.

So I agree with most of the issues you mention, and love some of your points. The idea of capital ships that you can customize sounds amazing, it seems akin to the idea of heroes currently in the game but much better. I would prefer instead of the heroes having their own ships you could build them customs ships like you where talking about. Maybe not Capital ships from the beginning but improved versions of your base designs. In addition I have always liked the idea of having a special Flagship of sorts, something that can be customized quite a bit and is inherently more powerful than the other ships but you can only build the one, or one at a time if your bad at war.

I am going to give them more time for the star systems because at this point it is really not fleshed out much but I do want more fluff to make me care about losing a system or not.

The tech tree I agree with you on not liking it, truth be told that was one of my major turn offs for endless legend I don't like the area system much, it makes even less since in a sci-fi game to be honest. I disagree partially with your idea I do not like the idea of the MOO style pick one lose the other style. Another early access game I have predestination has a similar style and honestly has caused me to stop playing it, but I understand it fits your play style better so what I would propose is a modified system more similar to Civ beyond earths tech tree, where their is an option for you to go in depth in a specific groups of tech but you don't have to, instead routing to go further in the tree.  I am also ok with the idea of a tech that you can get multiple bonuses from but can only research one, Galactic Civilizations 3 had those but they also have tech trading and brokering where if you wanted multiple bonuses for the same tech you would have to look to other empires. I think that coupled with faction specific techs, or restrictions on techs being researched by certain factions,  maybe the carvers scientists cannot research advanced diplomacy, would add a lot to the game where I see issues as well. 

I wouldn't say I'm bored, but I will say I'm not crazy about quite a few of the changes. Still, Amplitude has never burned me before, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt here.