Hi all! I'm surely not the first one with such question (Yet I didn't found any thread about this), but I've played much ES1 last days and I can't understand: why did the Amplitude changed the combat system? To my mind it's much better to have 3 choices of cards for 3 battle phases with possibility of changing it in battle. Retreat system is also much better in ES1, especially the "Agressive retreat" that allowed us to fire 3 times before leaving the battle, or/and leave the battle not in the beginning, but in the end. And the best thing of combat in ES1 that was changed as well is ship construct that is much flexible. You could make a ship, the purpose of wich is only to take damage, or fill it with arming without any armor. It is much better and allows us to choose strategy, depending on our resources/preferences/ideal and so on. If anyone knows the reason of such changes, I would be happy to hear them in this thread. And don't be angry of me if I missed another thread with such question:)

This is design decision. They wanted full hands-off approach to battles, so that result would be precalculated and consistent. Regardless if player watches the battle, or autoresolve it. 

Ship design had to be streamlined to make balancing between hulls easier. ES1 system allowed a lot of cheesy tactics and made some hulls/modules obsolete.

Well, never thought of that. Yet they could change balance or smth like that. Don't you think it's better when u can affect battles and choose different strategies, not just looking on shiny pixels fighting each other?

You still can affect the battles, though, from designing the ships, through choosing tactics to swapping around ships in flotillas right before the battle starts. The cards could be swapped mid-battle, yeah, but, honestly, it wasn't something that I utilized consistently, while I feel like ES2 system still allows to do a lot in preparation phase, you can tailor the ships against your enemy and current tactics make it easier to accurately predict how enemy will act and counter it accordingly.

Battles always were cinematic spectacle, interactivity in ES1 was minimal and I didn't really enjoy it. So you can say I'm biased because, yeah, I like looking at shiny pixels fighting each other.

I mean, system works, so I have nothing against it. Games with this approach are as needed as games with full control and micromanagement. Endless Space just happens to be the former, and this approach suits the game, as strategic-oriented.

Wasn’t thinking in that way of problem. Guess you I right, yet I still like more old battle system:) thanks for answers, guys:)