i know dark matter may be the last dlc/expansion for ES2, but considering how Tempest was expected to Be E.L's last expansion only to have inferno 2 years later, and how there is no apparent sequel or spiritual successor for ES2, (humankind is a spiritual successor for E.L and endless dungeon is a spiritual successor to dungeon of the endless) I still have some confidence that we may still see future dlc for ES2.

But what type of dlc should come next, well i have 2 types in mind.

the first one Named Preservation, i feel like would be focused on diplomacy, influence and preservation of endless relics. A new faction would appear, The  Aurigan faction of the drakken, they find and repair a 3rd crashed ship, the Success, from the dungeon of the endless game, and manage to escape from Auriga as well.

The drakken would have traits similar to their E.L version, They would be a pacifist faction, due to their old force truce but their traits would have a more advanced version of force truce, being able to not only force a truce between nations, but also force peace, and then alliances as well, which was their old ability in E.L, they would also have another unique trait that would allow them to discover the locations of endless relics faster and get more fidsi out of the relics.

Their heroes would only be 4, just like the other factions introduced in dlc's, but who would be those heroes is still up for debate.

Researcher Namkang is a clear obvious for being a hero, being the only drakken in E.L with a unique design and style, also being referenced at least 2, with a pearl helmet looking like her head and i believe making a appearence in monstrous tales quest as well, Nachampassesa would also be another good choice for a hero, being the starting hero of the drakken, it would only be fitting to be the starting hero as well. Jiraduveja's bio would make him the perfect militarist hero for the drakken. The 4th hero i am still unsure about though, if anyone has thoughts about the 4th one, please let me know.

The minor faction that comes with them as well should be the nidya, their implied roots as a distant relative of the hissho and possible connections to the survivors of the grey owl makes them a good candidate for a minor faction.

for gameplay additions, im thinking about adding 2 victory conditions, a diplomacy victory condition, a victory that is in ES1 and E.L but not in ES2, it would work the same as in E.L. The more peace treaties and alliance you have, the more diplomatic points you accumulate each turn, until you hit a certain amount and win the game.

The second victory condition is set around the Drakkens desire to preserve history. There would be relics scattered throughout the galaxy, once collected can be used to increase a empires FISDI or be used for special bonuses like a a free technology, or a free ship, etc. collect enough relics depending on the size and the player can begin construction of a wonder building, This building will bring a victory once built. Its a wonder victory but with a nice twist.

The second dlc i would like to see is a dlc not centered on a new gameplay but rather to build on a existing aspect, a aspect that i believe is one of the more neglected parts of the game, Custom nations, and it would be used to bring content from ES1 to ES2.

The dlc would allow players to use minor faction pops as their main population, such as being able to play as the tikanen, pulsos, kalgeros etc, give more traits to have and faction abilities to use.

But what would be my favorite part, bringing ES1 ships and heroes from ES1 and update them for use in ES2. Imagine, the ability to be able to play as the yussho, and use the old ship designs, and in a way, bring back the hissho from ES1, with the same heroes from ES1 as well, same with the pilgrims, sowers and harmony. And ontop of that, new ship design and new original heroes for the minor factions. This would be a amazing thing to play around with.

I know my ideas for 2 dlc's do sound ambitious, and also not likely, but the idea of these 2 dlc's is something i would love to see, i also want to know what ideas you guys have, what would you want to see in future possible dlc?

If anything I think the Cultists should make their way back into the game. Not the Drakken. Theoretically the Cultist Queen is still out there and nothing stopping her from becoming a space-faring empire.

IcedVenom wrote:

If anything I think the Cultists should make their way back into the game. Not the Drakken. Theoretically the Cultist Queen is still out there and nothing stopping her from becoming a space-faring empire.

True, but i came up with the dlc with the thought of bringing diplomatic and wonder/relic victory's into es2 in mind, and the drakken would be the perfect race to be brought in alongside, due to their nature of wanting unity and peace as well as preservation of history and relics.

Does anyone else think the Amoeba was a really cool race and they should return? :D

As a strictly ES1 and ES2 player, I´d prefer fantasy taking a back seat in the space opera.

I hope for new expansions, es2 is for me the best space strategy game of all time, but its still imperfect and while playing alone or with friends i always find myself thinking about ideas that would make this game even better for example:

1. Conquest, now in es2 you have 3 options, conquer fully system, pillage it or destroy. But what about true occupancy? Imagine being able to seize other empire and make it your vassal, there would be some autonomy for vassal player but some FIDSI and resources would go to your liege. Often when i play with my friends i find that even if i'am much more powerful i don't want to go to war with them cause if i destroy them they will just leave and don't play anymore, this idea of occupancy or vassalization would solve this problem and would make conquering other empires just more fun cause you will not worry about happiness and expanding your empire but earn more power in other way. It would also make possibility of some civil war and expansion on idea of revolt. Even some kind of making puppet city like in Civ5 where you gain only small proportion of advantages would make some sense.

The faction in this dlc would be religious maybe cultist like empire that would benefit more from this idea of vassalization and could have more vassals. 

2.More hostile and dangerous world. This idea isn't 100% original, before es2 i played Master of Orion (and this game is not that great in comparison to es2) and there you could meet cosmic monsters while exploring and there was empire from another dimension attacking random player. And after playing es2 i find that galaxy in this game is very peaceful and welcoming. My idea of dlc is to make world more hostile toward all living entities. First space isn't so safe to fly around. black holes, supernovas or just big stars that can destroy whole fleet would make game map much more interesting. Another thing is big asteroids, solar flares or even dying or exploding stars. Imagine giant asteroid coming towards your capital system, ofc there would be a way to stop this random disasters or just time to escape but this change could make whole world much more real. And last space monsters, cosmic horrors flying in the system waiting to be defeated or aggressive creatures living on planets. It could change exploration and colonization to much more interesting. Also these monsters would make use of military while u are not in war, just cleaning systems to colonize or cleaning roadblocks but also some kind of bounty hunt mechanic where you search for monsters or special pirate fleets just to defeat them and earn special ship upgrades or just money and resources. I think this would be tremendous change to game play, thing like this makes galaxy feel more real and gives you new things to do.

Empire coming with dlc would be real crime syndicate not lumeris money makers, this fraction would assimilate and make political relations with pirates like other faction with minor factions. Also would be militaristic faction but more focused on new bounty hunting and other sketchy ways to do a war and earn money.

3. Magic, the dust is said to be strong as magic but in game its only a currency. My idea is to add new hero specialization of dust psykers, they would level up like other heroes but instead of just buffs to system or planet they could cast dust spells. There would be minor and cheap spells and powerful but insane in dust cost game changing spells. There would 3 spell tries, supporting system or planets, world map spells and battle spells. Supporting spells e.g tier 1 - summon rain that gives you food bonus tier 2 - shield system of being attacked for some turns tier 3 - create new random planet to system World map e.g tier 1 - gain vision of one random system in galaxy  tier 2 - teleport your fleet to your system tier 3 - destroy star Battle spells e.g  Tier 1 - repair random ship tier 2 - disable random enemy ship tier 3 - resurrect random ship . I not sure how could it work and i came up with example spells just now but i thing some kind of dust magic would be fun and fits this high fantasy space world. Fraction would be some kind of mages like in endless legend maybe race focused on expansion and terraforming.

4. In time of covid i noticed how healthy and clean is es2 world. How about making a dlc including some kind of healthcare rating, epidemics and bio-weapon. Maybe instead of happines debuff overcrowded planets could have a chance to start epidemic. Also you could use bio weapon to easlly kill population of system without destroying it or even starting a war. For example cravers would be more immune diseases but sophons would get easily sick. Healthcare and bio weapon would be branch of technology tree that currently is kinda boring in late game. Faction for dlc would be rat-humanoid race that would specialize in bioweapon and would be immune to diseases. 

These were my main ideas for new es2 additions, i'm not sure how they could be implemented to the game, but features like especially first 2 ideas would make this great game even greater and less boring. Endless Space 2 have strong foundations, great graphic, great core gameplay, great game design and great faction, but for it lacks diversity. I couldn't play the game without dlcs to be honest, but with every new addition i got more and more exited about potential of this game. But unfortunately the support is over, my dreams die and potential is killed. I hope devs will come back and make new dlcs or make es3(maybe some big update that links features of es2 and brings new like total war warhammer games) in near future i really love this universe and this studio and this game but always after 200 turns i find myself complaining and dreaming how good this game could be if there would be more and more new contents. 

I'm sorry if it was hard to read, English is my second language and i often f*** sentence structure, also this is very emotional to me cause i find out today from amplitude discord moderator that support is gone.