Sebbers wrote:
Trying impossible right now. It's not going too bad actually, and tbh isn't that much of a leap from normal. Did some huge expansion early game and have generally stuck with a 0% tax rate.



It's turn 100 now and I'm still expanding and destroying everyone on the scientific front (Sophons ftw). Cravers still pose a challenge though.

Just wait, this happened to me, on normal. Then the cravers spawned about 100 ships out of nowhere and I nearly lost. AI is too bugged for me to play harder difficulties yet.

Oh, go flame someone who cares.



No one was whining, that boasting sounds so ridiculous, that's all.



Edit: Exactly. What Randeng said.

please continue talking about insane pirates... facing them in battle is another issue..

Serious ~ Sophons, 4 AI opponents, spire-4 type, no pirates [piratesarecurrentlybroken,mechanicswise,soIrefusetoplaywiththemon].



Easily trounced the AI, victory was basically assured by turn ~140ish.



Comments:



The AI gets massive +resource bonuses at this level & refuses to partake in diplomacy [note:thismightbesimplyduetoitbeingbrokenatthemoment]; I spent the entire game with the AI going from -50 > -200 influence / or war at the drop of a hat even by attempting to bribe them etc. I gave up and just fought them all.



The AI also cheats badly on tech levels: I was controlling 2/3 rds of the Universe, and was barely out-producing / out researching an opponent who was fighting a war on two fronts with only 6 stars... and it was still able to leap-frog into higher weapon techs than me.



Luckily, a wormhole bottle-neck is great to hold them off, and the AI is stupid: it will fight wars where each side has 200+ stacked units on the opposing sides, but leave it's flanks totally open. Guess what happens? Yep... strike force + invasion transports = quick gains.



There doesn't seem to be any meaningful resource penalties for the player even at serious: at no point did any of my colonies require +agriculture etc mods, and at no point did I have to specialise any of my colonies. It was simply a case of "use all upgrades as I aim for them". I imagine once I've worked out the tech tree to see the really useful techs, I'll simply ignore most of them.



Later game, all colonies were maxed out, able to build most things in 2-4 turns and... ZZZZzzzz. If the diplomacy actually worked so that I could have left any of the wars I was in I would have won a lot faster [e.g.IgotboredandturtledvrstheHssitethatcheatedsobadly,soeachturnwassimplyacaseoffightofftheswarmsofannoyingAI,keepingupresearch+Igota300,000economicvictory]



So, basic over-view:



AI balancing is badly done at the moment, and is simply "throw ++ bonuses at it". Notably, it can do this even with only 5-7 systems... which is a joke.



The AI (barring small forays) has real issues "thinking" about the lane / wormhole ignoring techs later on, and seems unable to use it's numerical advantage well [although,itcaneasilythroughstrikeforcesthroughblockades,duetobrokenmechanicsatthemoment].



Player hindrances (which is usually where the strategy / difficulty of 4x games lies) are non-existent, and laughable. At no point do you have to really think about what a system/colony is going to focus on, and most of the techs altering these levels are pointless. There's simply no point where building on that barren or opening up that lava planet will cause issues other than -popularity ~~ which is broken at the moment: there's no penalties for low morale, and planets will build items happily even when "striking". YAY!



Diplomacy is broken beyond belief at this time [andyouevenget%WhyTheEngineIsRefusingToDoThatDavetags~notthattheyappeartobeworkinganyhow]. Good luck getting an alliance or diplomatic victory going on >hard, the AI will move from +50 > -200 for... making a colony in territory that's within your sphere of influence "somewhat" near their territory. Yep, AI doesn't understand sphere of influence either, or rather, hasn't been set to ignore weighting within your own sphere of influence: which is a crappy job, coders! The less said about AI going to war because "your military is too large / too much of a threat"... then refusing a ceasefire x80 casualties later because my "%militarytooweak". Yeah. Might want to fix that catch-22 - I'm too puny to have a ceasefire with, even though you just lost 80+ units and went to war with me for being too big a military threat? Broken.



Cultural / Sphere of Influence is pointless atm ~ it does nothing, barring stopping movement if you're not at war or open borders. There's no such thing as a cultural take-over as you've seen in the Civ games.



Spying doesn't exist, despite being hinted at in the tool tips / skill trees.







Overall - meh, meh, meh. So far, Endless Space = not great.

4x_Fan wrote:
Serious ~ Sophons, 4 AI opponents, spire-4 type, no pirates [piratesarecurrentlybroken,mechanicswise,soIrefusetoplaywiththemon].



Easily trounced the AI, victory was basically assured by turn ~140ish.



Comments:



The AI gets massive +resource bonuses at this level & refuses to partake in diplomacy [note:thismightbesimplyduetoitbeingbrokenatthemoment]; I spent the entire game with the AI going from -50 > -200 influence / or war at the drop of a hat even by attempting to bribe them etc. I gave up and just fought them all.



The AI also cheats badly on tech levels: I was controlling 2/3 rds of the Universe, and was barely out-producing / out researching an opponent who was fighting a war on two fronts with only 6 stars... and it was still able to leap-frog into higher weapon techs than me.



Luckily, a wormhole bottle-neck is great to hold them off, and the AI is stupid: it will fight wars where each side has 200+ stacked units on the opposing sides, but leave it's flanks totally open. Guess what happens? Yep... strike force + invasion transports = quick gains.



There doesn't seem to be any meaningful resource penalties for the player even at serious: at no point did any of my colonies require +agriculture etc mods, and at no point did I have to specialise any of my colonies. It was simply a case of "use all upgrades as I aim for them". I imagine once I've worked out the tech tree to see the really useful techs, I'll simply ignore most of them.



Later game, all colonies were maxed out, able to build most things in 2-4 turns and... ZZZZzzzz. If the diplomacy actually worked so that I could have left any of the wars I was in I would have won a lot faster [e.g.IgotboredandturtledvrstheHssitethatcheatedsobadly,soeachturnwassimplyacaseoffightofftheswarmsofannoyingAI,keepingupresearch+Igota300,000economicvictory]



So, basic over-view:



AI balancing is badly done at the moment, and is simply "throw ++ bonuses at it". Notably, it can do this even with only 5-7 systems... which is a joke.



The AI (barring small forays) has real issues "thinking" about the lane / wormhole ignoring techs later on, and seems unable to use it's numerical advantage well [although,itcaneasilythroughstrikeforcesthroughblockades,duetobrokenmechanicsatthemoment].



Player hindrances (which is usually where the strategy / difficulty of 4x games lies) are non-existent, and laughable. At no point do you have to really think about what a system/colony is going to focus on, and most of the techs altering these levels are pointless. There's simply no point where building on that barren or opening up that lava planet will cause issues other than -popularity ~~ which is broken at the moment: there's no penalties for low morale, and planets will build items happily even when "striking". YAY!



Diplomacy is broken beyond belief at this time [andyouevenget%WhyTheEngineIsRefusingToDoThatDavetags~notthattheyappeartobeworkinganyhow]. Good luck getting an alliance or diplomatic victory going on >hard, the AI will move from +50 > -200 for... making a colony in territory that's within your sphere of influence "somewhat" near their territory. Yep, AI doesn't understand sphere of influence either, or rather, hasn't been set to ignore weighting within your own sphere of influence: which is a crappy job, coders! The less said about AI going to war because "your military is too large / too much of a threat"... then refusing a ceasefire x80 casualties later because my "%militarytooweak". Yeah. Might want to fix that catch-22 - I'm too puny to have a ceasefire with, even though you just lost 80+ units and went to war with me for being too big a military threat? Broken.



Cultural / Sphere of Influence is pointless atm ~ it does nothing, barring stopping movement if you're not at war or open borders. There's no such thing as a cultural take-over as you've seen in the Civ games.



Spying doesn't exist, despite being hinted at in the tool tips / skill trees.







Overall - meh, meh, meh. So far, Endless Space = not great.

I must say.. You are one serious party-pooper.

4x_Fan wrote:
Serious ~ Sophons, 4 AI opponents, spire-4 type, no pirates [piratesarecurrentlybroken,mechanicswise,soIrefusetoplaywiththemon].



Easily trounced the AI, victory was basically assured by turn ~140ish.



Comments:



The AI gets massive +resource bonuses at this level & refuses to partake in diplomacy [note:thismightbesimplyduetoitbeingbrokenatthemoment]; I spent the entire game with the AI going from -50 > -200 influence / or war at the drop of a hat even by attempting to bribe them etc. I gave up and just fought them all.



The AI also cheats badly on tech levels: I was controlling 2/3 rds of the Universe, and was barely out-producing / out researching an opponent who was fighting a war on two fronts with only 6 stars... and it was still able to leap-frog into higher weapon techs than me.



Luckily, a wormhole bottle-neck is great to hold them off, and the AI is stupid: it will fight wars where each side has 200+ stacked units on the opposing sides, but leave it's flanks totally open. Guess what happens? Yep... strike force + invasion transports = quick gains.



There doesn't seem to be any meaningful resource penalties for the player even at serious: at no point did any of my colonies require +agriculture etc mods, and at no point did I have to specialise any of my colonies. It was simply a case of "use all upgrades as I aim for them". I imagine once I've worked out the tech tree to see the really useful techs, I'll simply ignore most of them.



Later game, all colonies were maxed out, able to build most things in 2-4 turns and... ZZZZzzzz. If the diplomacy actually worked so that I could have left any of the wars I was in I would have won a lot faster [e.g.IgotboredandturtledvrstheHssitethatcheatedsobadly,soeachturnwassimplyacaseoffightofftheswarmsofannoyingAI,keepingupresearch+Igota300,000economicvictory]



So, basic over-view:



AI balancing is badly done at the moment, and is simply "throw ++ bonuses at it". Notably, it can do this even with only 5-7 systems... which is a joke.



The AI (barring small forays) has real issues "thinking" about the lane / wormhole ignoring techs later on, and seems unable to use it's numerical advantage well [although,itcaneasilythroughstrikeforcesthroughblockades,duetobrokenmechanicsatthemoment].



Player hindrances (which is usually where the strategy / difficulty of 4x games lies) are non-existent, and laughable. At no point do you have to really think about what a system/colony is going to focus on, and most of the techs altering these levels are pointless. There's simply no point where building on that barren or opening up that lava planet will cause issues other than -popularity ~~ which is broken at the moment: there's no penalties for low morale, and planets will build items happily even when "striking". YAY!



Diplomacy is broken beyond belief at this time [andyouevenget%WhyTheEngineIsRefusingToDoThatDavetags~notthattheyappeartobeworkinganyhow]. Good luck getting an alliance or diplomatic victory going on >hard, the AI will move from +50 > -200 for... making a colony in territory that's within your sphere of influence "somewhat" near their territory. Yep, AI doesn't understand sphere of influence either, or rather, hasn't been set to ignore weighting within your own sphere of influence: which is a crappy job, coders! The less said about AI going to war because "your military is too large / too much of a threat"... then refusing a ceasefire x80 casualties later because my "%militarytooweak". Yeah. Might want to fix that catch-22 - I'm too puny to have a ceasefire with, even though you just lost 80+ units and went to war with me for being too big a military threat? Broken.



Cultural / Sphere of Influence is pointless atm ~ it does nothing, barring stopping movement if you're not at war or open borders. There's no such thing as a cultural take-over as you've seen in the Civ games.



Spying doesn't exist, despite being hinted at in the tool tips / skill trees.







Overall - meh, meh, meh. So far, Endless Space = not great.

Did you know that all you've said as already been reported by many and many "smokers" (like you name us^^), and that the current version is an alpha version, and DEVs are working on it^^

Randeng wrote:
Did you know that all you've said as already been reported by many and many "smokers" (like you name us^^), and that the current version is an alpha version, and DEVs are working on it^^

No he probably doesn't know what a usual Alpha is like.

Only played against normal so far, seems to be fairly balanced, going to start a hard game shortly

Oh yay, 4xFan is still posting about balance and lack of a developed AI and fine tuning of game systems for the first build of an Alpha, oh yay.



sigh?

Normal, 8 enemies on random, huge universe, as the Sophons.

I'm going to try a harder difficulty soon!

sigh?

Indeed.. Sigh.



Try Impossible.. pretty fun if you got the guts for it

Gordon wrote:
Indeed.. Sigh.



Try Impossible.. pretty fun if you got the guts for it

Trying impossible right now. It's not going too bad actually, and tbh isn't that much of a leap from normal. Did some huge expansion early game and have generally stuck with a 0% tax rate.



It's turn 100 now and I'm still expanding and destroying everyone on the scientific front (Sophons ftw). Cravers still pose a challenge though.

amirfoox wrote:
Huh, I've beat it on emperor, god and emperor-god-uber-cheater-makes-you-cry-for-your-mommy difficulty settings, using only my nose and tongue to click the mouse, while the monitor was switched off and the 'it's a small world after all' song playing in endless loops the entire time.



Yeah, that's pretty much how you guys sound like.



Anyway, normal for me (haven't even finished it, but got close enough). Playing anything harder isn't fun. If I want a challenge, I have my studies or my work for that. Or just go and make the wife angry.

DuddBudda wrote:
then you need to play the game more instead of whining about people who can strategise

We aren't here to fight, just discussing about a very good gam... no wait, THE BETTER GAME of the century, so stay calm plz^^



I never tried above than normal mode, because I have exams next week, but i'll try the harder mode after that!

InFlamesWeTrust wrote:
Just wait, this happened to me, on normal. Then the cravers spawned about 100 ships out of nowhere and I nearly lost. AI is too bugged for me to play harder difficulties yet.

Hmmm yeees... I may have spoken a little too soon.



Sophons just declared war on me and Cravers have are expanding into my territory! EEK!

InFlamesWeTrust wrote:
Just wait, this happened to me, on normal. Then the cravers spawned about 100 ships out of nowhere and I nearly lost. AI is too bugged for me to play harder difficulties yet.

That is why normal is my max Cravers are overpowered!

The highest difficulty level of AI that i beat, is the one where the fleet pop bug happens, hahaha.

I'm still struggling with Easy....

jazzmiq wrote:
The highest difficulty level of AI that i beat, is the one where the fleet pop bug happens, hahaha.

Don't believe this bug is linked to difficulty. You were playing against Hissho right?

Sebbers wrote:
Don't believe this bug is linked to difficulty. You were playing against Hissho right?

Oh, God yes. The Hissho is fleet spamming. But no, does not look like the bug is linked to diffuculty. I have played on Easy, Normal, Hard and Impossible. Spam fleet bug is on all of those.

Yeah, fleet spamming is a big problem

No no it happens with any race.

In my last game played the Horatio were popping fleets like crazy.

Plus it generally comes with the bug where the number of max command point is not respected... so an explosive combination...

max command points is respected in battles, just not on the strategy map



all races will spam fleets in war time - that is a legit strategy - your task is to hit their main construction centres while guarding your own





have played three games as sophons - in all three the horatio and hissho never sucessfully expand and end up crushed by the cravers UE or both

Finally beat up my first game played on hard. Played on Hissho and as enemies had sophons and cravers. Wiped out the cravers early-midgame and kept defending against the sophons until they gave me a 3 turn window to give lethal blow to their systems. And so the Hissho spread.

Though agree to the fleet spamming. This time it just didn't continue forever : )

I only play impossible, huge, me & 7 Ai's, pirates at max

Normal is the best I could beat

Tried Hard and Serious once and those cheating bastards score multiply 3 fold each turn

One turn it was 4000+ and the next turn it became 14000+

wow, I play Sophons with a conservative approach to expansion and just steam roll in combat thanks to having twice the techs by turn 50 - rotate ind→dust converion around your systems while the others improve and you'll be churning out enough Science to grab techs every other turn



I play only large maps with one of each race

normal but I've played only 10/15 hours . Next game, the choice will be easy

Hard with the Sophons. Their research is insane.

I didn't try Serious or Impossible so far.

United Empire(me) Vs Hissho. Also Sophons were there too, but they didn't interfere untill I had beaten the Hissho.

I am virtually finished with a 125+ turn game with 4 hard opponents (one of each of the other races). By "virtually", I mean that I own half the galaxy with another quarter of it under seige by me. I've already annihilated the Sophons and the Hissho have only one more system left. I'm having the most problems with the Empire. The Empire on my game still has his command cap at 5 (WTF?), so he is sending single Dreadnaughts but in "groups" of 15-20...wich is frustrating since my maxed fleets can only attack once per turn. I'm running on the largest size spiral-8 galaxy with all win conditions turned off (I wanted to play a game to see if I could take the entire galaxy...hard to do if I, or someone else, would win with a "scientific/economic/etc victory" or something like that which would always happen around turn 100-120). I'm currently playing as the Cravers since their advantages, mostly expansion/military, were of use to this particular game and the only real "disadvantage" is that you can't be at peace with everyone...which I didn't plan on anyways . I also have the "Pirates" set to insane which makes for some fun/hair ripping frustration in the early game. I think I am gonna play again on the hardest setting (impossible?) on my next go but I may play as the Hissho next time. Awesome game!

Hey



Normal for me at the moment. Can't really decide really what race I would like to play if I decided to go hard. I think for me personally I would wait till they have tweaked the diplomacy a bit more.



Although as I have been playing for over 40 hours now I have only played 10 games I have had only one victory as the Empire and that was a Economic one but I did not select that in the menu screen it was the Supremacy which is to conquer the other races home systems. So that maybe have been a bug or glitch.



As I play with a large spiral-8 galaxy with medium wormholes which I think helps for my own expantion.



Voice

Normal with Hissho vr 5 others settings= Size: Huge, Shape: Disk 4, empires: 4, age: young. Plently of time to build up and expand.

Time to go beat an impossible AI 1v1. :]

I've beat Impossible 1v1v1. It isn't too hard, it is just long and tedious and I didn't enjoy it at all. It basically consisted of me creating 10 trillion destroyers to find their big ships resistance holes and trading them 1 for 1 or 2 for 1.

I could beat "Normal" only with Sophons vs. Sophons.

Delnoch wrote:
I only play impossible, huge, me & 7 Ai's, pirates at max

You are brave. Yes you are.

Delnoch wrote:
I only play impossible, huge, me & 7 Ai's, pirates at max

Seriously those pirates are insane. Turn 20, oh here's a 20 ship pirate fleet that has missiles and kinetic damage. Hurrah I beat that crazy pirate fleet. 7 more come out of a dead end system behind your territory.

ArrowLance wrote:
Seriously those pirates are insane. Turn 20, oh here's a 20 ship pirate fleet that has missiles and kinetic damage. Hurrah I beat that crazy pirate fleet. 7 more come out of a dead end system behind your territory.

Pirates are easy, i use them to farm xp on heroes and science on cravers. Their ships have almost no defenses, and they are tiny, u just have to research a lot of weaponry and be ahead of them with cruisers.

I beat it on impossible, and frankly there didn't seem to be any difference in game play. I was expecting to get flooded by overpowered enemy factories, but that didn't happen. I don't know what that switch is supposed to do, but it didn't make the game harder for me.

4 people beat Impossible? o.O

Antulamatsch wrote:
4 people beat Impossible? o.O

Chuck Norris can vote as much as he wants to.

Normal, although I haven't tried anything harder yet. Am beating normal consistently now though, so it might be time to try.

First time here I come! Might start with normal see how it goes, Wish me luck.

Huh, I've beat it on emperor, god and emperor-god-uber-cheater-makes-you-cry-for-your-mommy difficulty settings, using only my nose and tongue to click the mouse, while the monitor was switched off and the 'it's a small world after all' song playing in endless loops the entire time.



Yeah, that's pretty much how you guys sound like.



Anyway, normal for me (haven't even finished it, but got close enough). Playing anything harder isn't fun. If I want a challenge, I have my studies or my work for that. Or just go and make the wife angry.

then you need to play the game more instead of whining about people who can strategise