Well, I've been playing for a few days now, and so far I must admit that MoO4... erm... *cough* Endless Space seems promising. I like a lot of what I see, like the ship designer, the star system maps, the diversity in planets, the races etc, but I think a lot of it may be because I was a fan on the Master of Orion series. Because, well, this does seem a lot more like Master of Orion 4 than a stand-alone game.

It does have promise, though, and with a few tweaks, this could be the game that beats MoO. Of course, what I call call minor tweaks you will probably call major changes...



First, before we get to the part where game-designers start gritting their teeth, I want to mention some of the positives. As mentioned earlier, I do like a lot of what I see.

• The tutorial is informative and leads you gently into the game. The tooltips are also good.
• Different playing styles require different foundations, so having lots of races to choose from is good.
• The UI is functional as well as pleasing to look at, and using it feels natural. Not like in That Other OS, where the looks of something is so much more important than the function.
• The ship designs are simply awesome. No, not awesome: they're magnificent!
• The star map is generally well laid out. You can easily see where you're going and how to get there.
• The system map lets you see a nice overview of the planets, and gives you a lot of information at a glance.
• The battle system is a fresh breath of air in an often-used setting, and the more I use it the more I like it, both the limited time to decide on auto vs. manual resolution and the use of the cards themselves.
• The research system is... Well, okay, it gives you an overview over technologies, and the descriptions of them are good.
  
  

Not too much, is it? Well, I do generally like the feel of the game, and even as it is I like playing it. And this is an alpha build! I have no doubt that this will be a good, playable game. I just don't know if it'll be a great game. Therefore, this post.



Okay, so the general feel of the game reminds me of Master of Orion, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Then again, after I-don't-really-want-to-think-about-how-many hours playing the MoO games, I, for one, would like something a bit different, so here's my main quibbles about the game, and suggestions on how to make this game great. For me. Not necessarily for you. Subjective review, and all that.

I’ll start off with the big three:



1. The game feels very simple. As in not complex, not not difficult...







1a. Developing a star system is mostly just glancing at bonuses and taking what feels right at the moment. It doesn't really feel like anything has great consequences, with the notable exception of the buildings that raise your approval.







1b. As hinted to, colonisation also falls under the simplicity banner. Do you have the technology and approval to colonise that arctic planet? Click click done.





Continues...

2. Travel time is, and I'm going to get so much flak for this, too short. At about turn 175 in one of my games, ships were zooming across the galaxy, even outside the space lanes (and boy was I surprised when the first invasion fleets zoomed past my carefully placed blockade!).







3. Talking about technology... Research time should be increased along with travel time and planet management complexity. As it is now it doesn't take that many turns to get an increase in tech level big enough to disastrously out-date your own fleet. As if that wasn't enough, in some tech branches *cough*military*cough* there isn't really that much of a difference in results other than a new name and more oomph.







As I said, those, for me, are the big three. Some of the others:

• The starmap UI should have a few more elements: a collapsible list of fleets with location and heading; a collapsible list of colonies with production and queue; another list of current research. I know that these are things that you easily can access through opening the relevant pages, but for some things it feels so much smoother if you can just find out at a glance.
• Notifications! Let me know when a hostile fleet enters my systems, when one of my planets aren’t producing anything, when my researchers have abandoned their labs and gone to the beach.
  
  “You still have units that can move. Are you sure you want to end your turn?”
• And let me change my leader portrait!

Reading through this I do get the feeling I may be asking for a lot. I may even be asking for a different game. As the game is now, though, it’s an adequate game at worst, an okay game at best. For me there are a lot of things missing to make it a great game, but considering that the game is only in alpha yet, and seeing actual devs paying attention to the forums, I do feel that this will be a good game by the time it is released. I can always hope it will be great, though…





[There'sablog...Cross-postedthere]

Solitas wrote:
Increase all travel times by at least a factor of ten.

I'd agree with you on this if it were optional. A little slider in the game options before you start a new session that penalizes or boosts ship speed would be just great.



Of course, the fact that each turn is a single Earth year (I think) kind of throws off the sense of time. At least, for me it does.

1. I do agree the choices are a bit shallow... So far I'm ok with that. The complexity and depth comes from choosing WHEN to upgrade. Do I upgrade food now, or build 3 ships to support the war? Can I afford to spend 10 turns upgrading science? etc etc.



1a. I feel it's already planet specific in a abstract sort of way.



1b. Making colonizing more complex would just add unnecessary micromanagement imo. It already takes a long time to get a system "functional" (colonizing it is just the start, it needs population and improvements to be useful).



Outputs and colonies aren't the same. Outputs can be attacked during a cold war, and traveled on without open borders during peace, while colonies can't.



2. There's an option to extend the length of travel lanes from 3 to 5 parsecs in game creation.



3. I'm fine with how the research functions. Once again, the depth in research is WHEN you get what upgrade. The timing is extremely important.

The starmap UI should have a few more elements: a collapsible list of fleets with location and heading; a collapsible list of colonies with production and queue; another list of current research. I know that these are things that you easily can access through opening the relevant pages, but for some things it feels so much smoother if you can just find out at a glance.

I don't want any collapsible menus. They'd just clutter up the UI imo.

Notifications! Let me know when a hostile fleet enters my systems, when one of my planets aren’t producing anything, when my researchers have abandoned their labs and gone to the beach.

“You still have units that can move. Are you sure you want to end your turn?”

Hrm. I actually agree with this. Having all the "enemies in your system!" notifications in one tab would be nice. The "idle planet" can be lumped into the "construction done" tab, and an idle research thing would be nice... Preferably warning me before I end my turn (only for idle research! If units are idle I probably did that on purpose).