Greetings,



I am someone who has played most of the available 4X games out there [SpaceEmpires1-5,SwordoftheStars1+2[sob], GalCiv 2, Distant Worlds, and even the "streamlined" ones like SoaSE] - I love the Genre. I quibbled over getting Endless Space for a few weeks because I am wary of the new trend of paying for Alphas. I caved in, however, after watching videos on YouTube [andgettingknockedunconciousbythelittlestrategyimpinmybrain] and so far have found the game to be pretty fun to play. The combat will take some getting used to, but I have no particular gripes with it [well,Iwouldlikeatargetprioritysystemandmaybea"Sqad"designationsystem].



That said I have wondered a few things/come up with some ideas:



1) Why is there a character limit on fleet names? Or, to be more specific, why is the character limit so small? I like naming my fleets something that details what I use them for [1stExploration,[SystemName] Defense, etc] and was a little bummed when it wouldn't let me [notahugedeal]

1a) Suggestion: Increase the character limit for fleet names - if it is a DB / Display issue then maybe cap it at ~32 characters? or 16?

1b) Suggestion: Allow for fleets to be renamed from the planetary fleet overview/at creation. I would love to be able to name fleets as I create them [Itendtocreatefleetswithrolesinmind], but failing that I would at least like to be able to rename them when I click on them in the galaxy map.



2) I like the research tree, it has a nice diversity of options and you can prioritize in many different ways. I do, however, sometimes get a little confused as to what exactly is being unlocked by a research node I finish. If you are very knowledgeable about the game the one line name of the tech/whatnot you unlock is sufficient - but for a newbie like me it can be confusing [IunlockedatechMagneticsomethingdrivesomething[sorry,Iforgetwhichitwas] and thought it was a ship drive upgrade - imagine my confusion when there were no upgrades in the ship design screen].

2a) Suggestion: Maybe add a small icon to the left [orright] of the name of what you unlock that depicts the "type" of unlock? Eg: A planet for system/planetary improvements, a leaf for colonization [thoughthosetechsarenamedsothatyoucan'tmisswhattheyare], a small ship for ship upgrades [or,alternatively,alittlemissile/beamiconforweaponupgrades;anarmoriconforarmorupgrades;etc]. I hope that made sense.



3) I would like a way to see what a ships queued orders are [andcancelthemifnecessary]. For example: I had just created a new fleet of 2 "Defender" ships, I assigned a Hero as admiral and wanted to send them to a system to interdict some pirates that killed my scout - I clicked on the fleet, right clicked on the destination and... nothing. The game showed the dotted line of the ships path but the ship didn't move [wouldlikesomefeedbackastowhyashipwon'tmovetoo,afewturnslatergivingthesameorderworked] - that wouldn't have been so bad except pirates attacked a scout in a system closer to where the fleet was so I tried to move them again, this time it added yet another dotted line from the first destination I had chosen to the new one. I assume this meant that something was holding the ships back from moving [thoughIcannotimaginewhat,nothingwasdisplayedshowingaproblem] and that the second movement order got added to a hidden queue or something.



4) A few more starter diplomacy options. I can understand needing to do some research for advanced treaties and the like, but since we have the ability to talk to other species without research I would think we would have the ability to say "Please don't fire on my ships [NonAgressionPact], or "Lets talk about technology [Research]", or "Here are some pretty baubles, gimme dust [Trade]". Diplomacy right now is probably the "clunkiest" feeling thing I have found in the game [thoughIadmitthat,beingAlpha,thiscoulddrasticallychangeby"Launch"].



4a) In the Diplomacy screen could we get a tooltip of the race name when hovering over them?

4b) A message telling the player a new race has been encountered would be nice too.



That is all I Can really think of right now, need to get back into the game. So far it has managed to suck away 4 hours of my day and I just bought it this morning [asignofagoodgame].





The Too Long Didn't Read version [sinceIdon'thaveagaugeonthisforumanddon'tknowiftheuserbaseactuallyreadspostsornot]:



Great game with great potential, some improvements could be made but the overall fun isn't horribly affected. Definitely something I will be playing and keeping an eye on.

Hi! A couple points from someone who's been playing the game



On your first point, yeah, this blows devs. I do the EXACT same thing as TC for fleet names and being limited like I was naming a party for Final Fantasy on Super Nintendo is a bit annoying. A bigger char limit would be appreciated.



On your second point, I am assuming you haven't realized the tech tree zooms way in? At maximum zoom levels the techs have icons next to them which represent the unlocks of the node. Hovering your mouse over them at this zoom level displays full mechanical effects for the improvement and a system of colors and shapes (blue = science, triangle = building, so blue triangle in corner of icon means a science building). I assume this i what you wanted



On your third part, this is a bug I think. Alpha 1 had my ships move just fine but Alpha 2, sometimes they just hang. They changed the path finding algorithim to get around a problem with ships being unable to find their way through wormholes. Try saving and reloading a couple times, or clicking and then waiting for the ships to process. It'll go eventually if you're patient. Clicking end turn before it processes will.. end your turn with no movement.



Incidentally you can Shift+Right Click on systems in turn to override the default path finding. When you have Warp drive to move off the string network, Ctrl+R Click tells the craft to warp directly to this system, ignoring all strings and wormholes. The default pathfinder is USUALLY just fine, however, aside from these annoying lockups in current build. But considering it's an Alpha, you know, some kinks are to be expected. This at least doesn't break the game if you're patient with the reloading and such.



On your fourth point, would be nice. The diplomacy in general is agreed to be a current weak point that needs tuning. Again, however, Alpha. I have faith in Amplitude after clocking almost a hundred hours this week.

UrsaClaire wrote:


On your second point, I am assuming you haven't realized the tech tree zooms way in? At maximum zoom levels the techs have icons next to them which represent the unlocks of the node. Hovering your mouse over them at this zoom level displays full mechanical effects for the improvement and a system of colors and shapes (blue = science, triangle = building, so blue triangle in corner of icon means a science building). I assume this i what you wanted

I actually meant the message that pops up when research is completed [Iprobablyshouldhaveelaboratedonthateh?]. When you open the research complete message it just shows the names of what was unlocked, I would like it if icons were displayed there showing what type of unlock it is [shipupgrade,etc].

UrsaClaire wrote:


Incidentally you can Shift+Right Click on systems in turn to override the default path finding. When you have Warp drive to move off the string network, Ctrl+R Click tells the craft to warp directly to this system, ignoring all strings and wormholes. The default pathfinder is USUALLY just fine, however, aside from these annoying lockups in current build. But considering it's an Alpha, you know, some kinks are to be expected. This at least doesn't break the game if you're patient with the reloading and such.

Ah, didn't know about the meta key influence for movement - I will have to experiment. I haven't gotten up to Warp drives yet but will keep this in mind when I do.

Ah, yeah, that would be nice.



The movement overrides were added with an update that hit Alpha 2 just after launch. Alpha 1's movement was generally fine but 2 had those wormhole issues. They issued a small fix that modified the algorithm (seemingly causing the current occasional hangups) and added the overrides keys I assume to head off any possible path finding shenanigans with the new system.



They are only mentioned in the Developer News thread of the forums at this moment. Make sure to always read these patch notes since they seem to be adding features in before necessarily adding the in-game indicators that they exist.