Hmpf, I don't want ES2... 'cause I see a lot of potential for ES, for ES-Expansions. And I payed for ES, I don't want to buy every year a new game... ES is great, you can made a Expansion with new ships, new weapons, new factions, more different heroes... with a lot of nice expansions you can Play ES really endless... Like Hearts of Iron 2, it's very old but still very funny and intresting 'cause there are many "expansions"/"stand alone-games" like Darkest hour that made the game expirience just awesome.



Greez

Vladec

WhiteWeasel wrote:
That sounds like a really good idea, think it would mix well with my hangar idea? Also perhaps "tall" empires could get a bonus (or more than normal) for staying under the cap. It would certainly make each faction more unique.

Sure, but in the end of the day we're just sharing ideas. Tall vs. Wide is a classic debate in these types of games. Though I 'm not a coder so I wouldn't know how to implement any of this anyways.

Nasarog wrote:
Yea, but then you create an optimal combination and game over. There is a soft cap and a hard cap.



Let me elaborate a little. The soft cap controls the fleet size and the number of ships you can have. The hard cap is supported by the economy, but and this is the big one, if you go up against an enemy that has less money than you, but they do not exceed the soft cap, their ships are better run. If you go over the soft cap, than your can sport more fleets or maybe even larger fleets but then you have problems with logistics. Not enough trained mid ship officers, or poor maintenance, corruption etc. This way someone with a massive empire doesn't overwhelm the smaller one by sheer size. Think of classic science fiction and space opera, the little guy always stands a chance.



Something along this lines.

That sounds like a really good idea, think it would mix well with my hangar idea? Also perhaps "tall" empires could get a bonus (or more than normal) for staying under the cap. It would certainly make each faction more unique.

WhiteWeasel wrote:
That is what I said. An overall cap on deployed CP will limit the number of fleets you have. Say you have 12 CP fleet capacity and a supply of 150. That's 12 full fleets and partial fleet leftover.

Yea, but then you create an optimal combination and game over. There is a soft cap and a hard cap.



Let me elaborate a little. The soft cap controls the fleet size and the number of ships you can have. The hard cap is supported by the economy, but and this is the big one, if you go up against an enemy that has less money than you, but they do not exceed the soft cap, their ships are better run. If you go over the soft cap, than your can sport more fleets or maybe even larger fleets but then you have problems with logistics. Not enough trained mid ship officers, or poor maintenance, corruption etc. This way someone with a massive empire doesn't overwhelm the smaller one by sheer size. Think of classic science fiction and space opera, the little guy always stands a chance.



Something along this lines.

Nasarog wrote:
A cap on the total number of fleets that you have. Not the number of ships in a fleet.

That is what I said. An overall cap on deployed CP will limit the number of fleets you have. Say you have 12 CP fleet capacity and a supply of 150. That's 12 full fleets and partial fleet leftover.

A cap on the total number of fleets that you have. Not the number of ships in a fleet.



You can have more than the maximum number of command point ships. The CP only control your main battle group, but you can have more that are not under your direct control. This way you can have massive fleets, but only so many. I hate fighting the A.I. when I have a dozen finely tuned fleets and it has hundreds that it throws at me and they are constantly retreating. Ugh. Can't I set a system to self distrust and wipe out his/her whole navy? I wish I could target specific fleets.

I'd like to see a CP cap (that can be upgraded with research of course) on fleets where you can only have a certain amount of ships deployed at once, to stop endless spamming and make individual battles more important. As when you reach the cp cap (say 100) you physically can't build any more ships. So if you were to lose a couple fleets, you have queue up more ships-which will take a few turns.



I also want to see more strategic uses for hangars:

Put a CP cap on your hangar-so you can only put a limited number ships in it. Say it starts with a 4 CP capacity by default and by endgame it can be around 35 (about 1 1/2 fleets worth of ships). However this CP cap for the hangar does not count towards the main one. So if you're at the cap, you can still build ships; provided you have room in that planets respective hangar. Also have a repair module type improvement(s) you can build on your star system, so the hangar provides more use than parking space for your reserve ships. I know you can repair your ships with , but that is expensive and this will provide an alternative way of repair your fleets. Cheap, but slow.

I like the UI for ES, but it could always be improved. Better A.I., ground invasions, unique tech for each faction and diplomacy.

Indeed a good game to get into the 5 star genre/ratings. It has nice artwork, streamlined and lots of free dlcs. This game (Endless Space) is a great game if you have time, patience and a love for strategy. The game is worth a shot.

If you've read some of my other posts, you'll find I usually defend ES. However, I have to agree with the need for UI improvements. There is all this space on the screen, and we have to scroll down to see all the ships in combat? Or there are only four items you can see in your build queue and--worst of all--there is no move to top of queue button? I have spent hundreds of hours playing ES, and I expect to play hundreds more; I love this game. However, the UI has a few significant, irritating flaws (which could be so easily fixed).

Igncom1 wrote:
So much UI stuff is needed to make playing ES less of a hassle for everyone.

Omg yes. Whats up with tiny tiny information panels that can only get smaller? Its like they were thinking "Oh no! The game is totally blocking my view of the background. Better get rid of all this important information." I really hope the next ES plays more like a 4x and less like a cell phone game. IMO it looks like they just wanted to leave the door open for a touch interface, but left that door open too long and never followed through.



geez, Im being a negative nancy today

LordVladec wrote:
Hmpf, I don't want ES2... 'cause I see a lot of potential for ES, for ES-Expansions. And I payed for ES, I don't want to buy every year a new game... ES is great, you can made a Expansion with new ships, new weapons, new factions, more different heroes... with a lot of nice expansions you can Play ES really endless... Like Hearts of Iron 2, it's very old but still very funny and intresting 'cause there are many "expansions"/"stand alone-games" like Darkest hour that made the game expirience just awesome.



Greez

Vladec

Fully agree. To quote another one: Crusader Kings 2, which is about the same age as Endless Space and is still very actively supported (DLCs and patchs).

Hello,

I love Endless Space it is a great game but reading the earlier the thread about ‘What next for Endless Space’ I think it currently has a number of limitations that a sequel could overcome.



The following are just thoughts that have occurred to me while playing which I think could improve its overall enjoyment while maintaining the feel of the game. I understand many may not be desirable when considering detailed game mechanics but maybe they will provide a foundation for potential development by the talented people that make the game (I cannot even mod particularly successfully and ES not at all).



Suggestions:

Wider range of Galaxy shapes with variation such as perhaps an Ovid with 8 spiral arms in the outer reach.



Go to buttons for all events. This has been partially implemented but as it has not been fully so I guess it is too hard to do with the current version.



Make it so you can choose AI colours without having to do the annoying swapping thing with your own faction.



Animated solar systems where the planets orbit the star and the moon's orbit them in turn with asteroids in belts at varying distances. The current 2Dish view could be kept as a summery view.



Add in freight/trade ships which you can choose what to load up what to trade Food/resources/technology/dust and the profits of a particular kind can be increased through trade agreements. This will also cause these to need to be convoyed making the trading/blockade mechanic more actual and less abstract.



Add in a consular ship to make diplomacy more challenging and less abstract, this could also initiate covert actions such as dropping off agents, gathering intelligence, bribing systems for intelligence/specific trade.



Add in covert agents that can spy, sabotage, assassinate (or injure heroes) and ferment rebellion in marginal systems.



Make the game properly optimised for modding so each update doesn’t break mods needing them to be updated even when they have not produce any new content, ideally also integrated and easy to use modding tools.



Greater custom faction configuration that allows player to add custom portraits, create traits and assign the AI to these. This could potentially create a pool for game lore with the best ones being incorporated in later releases.



Add rebellion and culture so that if a systems approval is too low for a long time it will reverts to another faction which is based on its culture score allowing conquest by non-violent means. If there is no other culture then they can go either pirate or rebel. Rebellions could also occur where culture is weak curbing rapid expansion rather than the hard empire wide disapproval handicap.



Introduce manoeuvre to space battles. Currently ships sail the same direction in parallel lines at gradually narrowing ranges ending in a melee which is reminiscent of 16th century Anglo Dutch naval battles where the tactics were limited by primitive rigging and signalling. Later naval engagements were a bit more tactically complex which I think could be simply implemented without losing the current feel of the game.



I do enjoy the current battles but a sequel could add movement tactics to create a bit of variety for example increase distance maintain distance and close. How this would work is that if fleets are of the same speed then one could increase range to keep an engagement long range or prepare to flee or one could maintain distance while the other closed similar to the current battles, then you could have both fleets closing resulting in most of the battle being fought as a melee.



This could lead to certain tactic/ship combinations such as fast long range for standing off and pounding at a distance or fast close range for getting in among the enemy and tearing them apart at close quarters but both of these extreme would have inherent risks if the opponent’s ships are faster or they are ambushed (see below).



Fleet ambush: certain systems and/or warp-lanes have magnetic fields, nebula or the like allowing ships to hide and ambush passing vessels and choose the starting range, great for allowing slow close quarter ships to get at powerful long ranged opponents or long ranged ships to stand off a shorter ranged opponent (say shielded by an asteroid field preventing closing). This will also encourage scouting making the smaller ships still useful later in the game.



Add Strategic stealth ship which is slow and poorly armoured but armed with very short range very powerful weapons (torpedoes?) which can prey on trading ships and threaten unescorted capital ships. It is invisible to all but destroyer/corvettes which can hunt and kill it relatively easily with a specialist area effect weapon if it is detected (maybe it gets 1 round of grace if it is in the same system before detection).



Animated and broadly controllable tactical invasions similar to the space battles with possibly three attack cards Blitzkrieg, Hammer blows, Mobile assault and maybe three opposing defence cards Counter attack, Ambush, Flexible defence.



Invasions could also be planet by planet and allow systems to support fighters and bombers for siege and system defence with possible space station assaults as a prelude to system invasion.



Enable fleet engagement in open space rather than just in systems.



More heroes types with a wider range of skills such as diplomat, smuggler, and explorer to increase diversity.



I know there is a lot here, I hope it can stimulate further ideas and debate to make this game even better in the future.



Cheers,



Laz

I do see your point but when I was reading through the ‘ES where next thread’ it occurred to me that the elements which in my opinion are holding the game back from greatness don’t seem to be possible on the current build therefore lead on to the suggestion of a sequel. I would rather see a fully worked up sequel than another expansion if its scope is going to be unduly constrained by the current limitations of the game which I suspect is the case. I would be very happy to be wrong though! 





Cheers,





Laz3456

Hmm...i know that you guys are saying things to make the future ES2 better , but i think its a bit too earlly for that , don't you think ?, they didn't even finish the alpha of the 2 games they are making.

With the experiences they will made in EL i could imagine minor factions in a ES 2.

warhawk26 wrote:
I would much rather have another expansion as well. The game has come along way with Disharmony and I think it is really only an expansion away from being truely exceptional.

The t babble is fun to read, once. I hope the designer in ES 2 make it a toggle switch at game set up. One choice is the babble is on top, tool tipping required to see relevant data to playing game. Other choice: Put the t babble in the tool tip, and put the meaningful data on the base tech window. Also, here, do't keep switching the names around, if its a kinetic, say so, etc.

i'm suggesting revamping ship battle to allow unlimited number of ships to participate. a max of 12 vs 12(depending on number of command points a class ship takes up.) feel small.

I agree that an expansion would have been ideal but I suspect a lot of the elements that would elevate the game to true greatness are not implementable with the current version but maybe I am wrong?



For example whenever you go to the bomber view which I like to do very often, many times when they are carrying out an attack they fly ‘through’ the ship they are attacking, not so bad for small ships but I think this is one of the things that prevent a proper melee where fleet intermingle at point blank range which would be super cool to watch and very intense. The current melee phase is really a short range engagement.



I have also had a few other ideas that could provide additional scope to space battles other than distance. This is a selection of fleet tactics that affect the outcome of the battle such as Passing engagement where fleets engage on opposite courses, Cross the T where they are converging courses and one fleet crosses in front of the other and Break the line where fleets are on parallel courses but one tries to cut through the others line. This could work in the following way; Passing engagement counters crossing the T, crossing the T counters break the line and break the line counters passing engagement. Alternatively you could have a set of defensive cards such as Match course that counters Passing engagements, Battle turn that counters cross the T and Standoff that counters break the line. If there is a draw on card then battle play out as they currently do.



As suggested in the earlier post introduce torpedo like weapons that are very shot range and deliver lots of damage widely available to all ships to encourage melees when smaller ships meet larger ones. This would also encourage the use of corvette/destroyer screens to keep torpedo vessels at a distance from the larger ships.



Cheers,



Laz3456

I would much rather have another expansion as well. The game has come along way with Disharmony and I think it is really only an expansion away from being truely exceptional.