http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r93c6qN9XyY



The first 18 seconds is what id like to see when I destroy an opponent.

Ok my wish-list (some may be already mentioned )



-Unique planets that give special bonus, something like abandoned planets of the endless or planets with special condition like Salusa Secundus from Dune series making harder troops

-Small "cut-scenes" with opponent leaders in the diplomacy screen like Civ and when getting a tech with scientist perhaps or when steeling a tech with spy or capturing a tech like Master of Orion

-Specific number of weapon - defense - support hardpoints (and maybe special weapons in the near future) per ship so that joke of glass cannons finally ends

-Restrict the number of fleets per race on a reasonable cap that can increase by tech but not to ridiculous numbers (on a game enemy attacked me with 34 fleets all in one planet and he had even more)

-A bit more diplomacy-trade and why not espionage (Spy race in the future anyone???)

-Ground combat something like Master of Orion that was actually like the ES space battles without the battle cards (if implemented give battle cards for ground combat too)

-Carriers and fighters (if mechas like Gundam or Macross instead of fighter even better :cool and Titans. More ship designs per class would be nice but if i had to pick i would say Carriers and Titans

-More special abilitys on weapons like disabling enemy weapons or missile barrage for harder countering

-Big-Guns like planet devastators or massive rail guns thus the option to bombard a planet to weaken their defense

-Combat is really nice but right now is heavy multiplayer oriented. So i would like a bit more depth with more interaction and to last a bit longer for a more dramatic feeling(its funny to see big fleets and the combat ending in seconds without passing phase 1)



Cant think anything else right now so i ll stick to those Cheers!

1. Replace event's descriptions. Human references (this scientific human guy has nothing to do with my Sowers...) break the immersion with non-human races. Make global references that fit all races.

2. But make race specific events that deepen the lore. I want to feel my race is alive and I want to understand its way of thinking/operating so that I feel connected to it.

3. Passive events aren't fun. Involve players in allowing them to make strategic choices (research points/dust/approval/etc.). Each game should have its randomized set of interesting events and appropriate decisions. It will help making the world feel more "vibrant" and "surprising".

4. Temples should be more engaging and have more impact on the game. How you handle them should have consequences. Like the existing planet system, give us different kinds of "exploitations" to choose from (I think of different dust related bonus, I'd expand a bit on the mystical dimension of the lore here). Take the opportunity to provide more insight into Endless's history.

Another idea for more ingame fluff without heavy grafic design or reprogramming:



ES is a Space Opera, right? Than it would be nice to read some kind of a story or a campaign building around a special destination. So far, the game already has very nice texts for research and colonialization. Perhaps you build in some special Solarsystems (somewhere in the middle of the map) where you will automaticly trigger a event when discovering or colonializing.

Combined with some of the additional Anomalie-ideas that could bring some nice events.



Example:

1. Exploring system X [HastobeatleastYsystemsawayfromanystartingsystem].

2. System contains at least one of following anomalies: Dustlode, Ancient Ruins, Orbital Stations [fromsuggestionlist], .... / or more than 1 Garden Planet

3. Get message/eventtext: "This System seems to have been a home to the Endless. Several Planets show shadows of their presence. Perhaps you should send in a fleet to claim this system as yours. The first wave of colonist should be scientists." or at least one of two other textmessages, so the events are not allways the same.



1. Colonizing System X [theonementionedabove]

2. Geting message/eventtext: "Your scientists have found an old ruin, containing some kind of messanger AI:" [Playvideoorshowtext.Couldcontainanovel-likeflashbackofasinglefight,eventorhistoryoftheEndless,TheVirtualsorjustanyotherkindofAlienLifeForm.Suchtextscouldbewrittenbythecommunityandwevoteforthebest.IcouldevenwriteitforyouinenglishANDgerman.]



This way, we had some more fluff, perhaps without too much reprogramming?





Another idea could be to design some additional anomalies for moons. So this way, a moon could contain: nothing, a Temple, OR an anomalie. This way you could have 2 anomalies on a Planet with a moon with anomalie.

Moon anomalies could be some already ingame like: Dust Lode, Empty Cities, Mineralrich...or completely new ideas for moons only like "Big Moon" (The influence of the moon is very strong to tide and flood; -5 approval, - 1 Industry, +2 Science).

As a matter of fact, perhaps you could give some moons the texture of an iceplanet, jungle or ocean - making someting more out of moons and perhaps give the Planet the moon is orbiting +1 to +3 opulation: .

And of course some colorvariaty to the textures of the moon itself could help, too. Such as darker, browner moons, with red spashes or black holes...

personally I really like how some Civ scenario's have little miniquests , like ancient wreck spotted,

unstable orbit will drop into the sun in X turns. going there will unlock 1 free large hull regardless of tech progress.



The biggest break for immersion for me was the lack of attachment to my fleets. especially late in game when the AI has like 30 fleets per planet, so some tweaks there would be interesting. especially if you can have combat "cards" you discover that have a limited amount of uses..

Also a general tweak to make me love my fleets more. max number of fleets linked to command points (take away the 30+ fleets per planet issue)

or have a support building or hero influence this..



also a huge dissapointment is the lack of endgame. the unexpected you win or lose is a huge turnoff. some sort of buildup or like in MOO you have to be elected the boss after you reach the end sequence. so the player can still postpone the ending..



Also some communications with hero's . "hero's ship adrift after battle, rescue him in X turns" or capture enemy hero for ransom



and perhaps some communications from the populace.. do they love me,, are they afraid of invasion,, thatt'd be cool.. are certain colonies requisting certail buildngs for a bonus..



thats my 50 cents..

Splicer wrote:
Either stop letting players write fluff text or run the fluff text through a professional editor first. The horrible grammar and terrible writing in some of the (accepted!) fan submissions are painful.



Remove the portal reference hero. It's just tacky.



I like the G2G thing in concept, but fan-submitted fluff text is pretty much universally terrible, even when they aren't shoehorned memes.

Quoting to agree. I don't know about the writing (haven't seen much yet), but a clumsy Portal reference is an instant immersion-breaker.

If you want actual suggestions beside no more tired memes and grammar checking:



- Add more anomaly effects. (These are always nice)

- Link improvements to visible structures on planets and in orbit. Have giant solar power plants in orbit, stations processing resources, shipyards building your war machine (Starships probably shouldn't be built on the ground).

- Add more and more space traffic as the population grows(Even more then now. What we currently have doesn't give the feel of a massively populated planet) and maybe a few gateways where we see people traveling to other systems. Space trucks transporting goods, space buses transporting people, space luxury cruises, etc.

- Add a few different textures for each type of planet.

- Add color schemes for fleets.

- Change weapon effects and add a lot more variety to each type.

- Modify the ships' appearance depending on the loadout.



Much of these ideas are from seravid, a person much smarter then I.

I think its been said but i liked the little animations that popped up in MoO2 when you discovered something it gave a little break from management and explained what you had done all those turns ago. Also i think it would help immersion if you could have a similiar race specific spokesman give a brief introduction of discoveries. i believe it could help flesh out each race and encourage people to really get a feel for their chosen 'people'. perhaps if each race had a unique piece of background art that reflected their architecture and design asthetic. Even a little voice acting and animation ...i think the sophons would be quite jittery with a constant broken speech reflecting that they are always thinking about something else even as they're talking

Splicer wrote:
Either stop letting players write fluff text or run the fluff text through a professional editor first. The horrible grammar and terrible writing in some of the (accepted!) fan submissions are painful.



Remove the portal reference hero. It's just tacky.



I like the G2G thing in concept, but fan-submitted fluff text is pretty much universally terrible, even when they aren't shoehorned memes.

Quoting to agree with this as well. Shoehorned memes make me cringe.



Also, could we perhaps stop trying to turn this game into an exact clone of MOO2? I liked it as well but this is not it.

Immerse feedback eh? Personally I'm always frantically looking at enemy fleet stats with the bar counting down to figure out exactly what make up the enemy fleet is. Being able to access enemy fleet stats (could be simply last time you observed the fleet, which could easily be outdated) would be huge. There is a thread about Espionage but I'd settle for not having to suicide a scout every time I want to scout enemies to see if they've under gone a huge paragram shift in weapons/armor, or simply forgotten what the race had equipped last time I ran across them.

Oh i remembered! I havent noticed if it already exists in-game cause so far i only played with the 3 human races and once with Hissho but it would be nice if some races have a love for specific planets like amoeba working better when on Oceans and Hissho in jungles. Sowers ofcourse dont have a desire for specific planet just terraform.

I'd like to see different ending conditions for each race, it should be possible to do it in a balanced way.



For example the sowers should have a special terraform tech- once they've terraformed half the planets in the galaxy to that type the Endless return for them.

For the Hissho maybe they have to hold the system in the centre of the galaxy for certain number of turns - making the whole galaxy their enemies, the ending screen can be them surrounded by the corpses of their enemies!

Horatio's can have something to do with having half of the galaxies population? It could be called "Be fruitful and multiply"

Cravers can be conquer and raze half the inhabited systems (when that mechanic is put in obviously)

Sophons can probably stick with the current science victory

Amoeba's needs something to do with diplomacy- but that is probably impossible in multiplayer so maybe highlight a certain number of 'special ocean' planets throughout the galaxy they have to settle to win, it goes well with their faction trait.



I believe this would give them a real flavour of being different species with different goals rather than just funny looking humans. It doesn't necessarily have to be as big as I described, just renaming them and having different flavour text for each species would have an impact.

The topic is being nailed right in this thread. To the Devs - Thanks and completely awesome of you to come out and ask your community for a hand!



First of Exploration -

- The resources should be discovered both luxury and strategic, if you don't find anything perhaps sometimes there will be a mini event where your explorators find artifact/monster/booster/malus

- I don't see why there shouldn't be new systems/stars popping up over the course of say 100 or more turns? Keeps the eXplore aspect of the game relevant

- The Jovian idea posted before is brilliant, it gives players a challenge and that is quite the narrative in our heads

- Unique planets - Endless constructs (kind of like Titan, movie)

- The Harmony - I read about these guys, where are they!? =P They could be a funky addition where all they try to do is reach the centre of the galaxy.



Expansion -

- Expansion disapproval, it could have it's own little mini event to better explain it to players.

- The anomalies like deserted cities, they could have their own little touch like a mini event

- When borders touch there could be a mini event (ambassador style?)



Exploitation -

- Cravers with their planet-cracking deserve a mini event when their first planet depletes. Could even add a special planet type to show the aftermath of Craver exploitation and a scar across the galaxy as they rip through all life.

- There could be small touches like space refineries if a planet is production exploited or space laboratories etc etc. Each races would be interesting.



Extermination -

- Picking how you want to attack if you're the attacker - dynamic battles

- Wreckage is left in systems for a number of turns, differentiates hot spots from small skirmishes

- Could show patrolling/blockading fleets in system view

- There could be the addition of invasion fleets and defending fleets intercepting in system view but this is probably better added later with that feature



For the events I've posted a thread since Alpha - it has a basic concept.

/#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/12521-suggestion-escalating-events

Splicer wrote:
Either stop letting players write fluff text or run the fluff text through a professional editor first. The horrible grammar and terrible writing in some of the (accepted!) fan submissions are painful.



Remove the portal reference hero. It's just tacky.



I like the G2G thing in concept, but fan-submitted fluff text is pretty much universally terrible, even when they aren't shoehorned memes.

Quoting to agree. Nothing kills immersion like cliched writing and bad grammar.



As far as specific proposals, I think it would help to mix up the diplomatic writing a bit. This would be mainly to prevent the player from seeing the same "The price you find acceptable is not acceptable to us" response over and over again, which can get really grating. Ideally, this could go alongside having race responses reflect race characteristics (Sophons are cerebral and curious, Hissho are hot-blooded, Sowers sound cold and mechanical, etc), but each race should still have multiple ways of conveying the same response (so there's no generic Sophon refusal, no generic Hissho refusal, etc.). Little things like that can make a big difference.

Either stop letting players write fluff text or run the fluff text through a professional editor first. The horrible grammar and terrible writing in some of the (accepted!) fan submissions are painful.



Remove the portal reference hero. It's just tacky.



I like the G2G thing in concept, but fan-submitted fluff text is pretty much universally terrible, even when they aren't shoehorned memes.

I thought I had posted this here in this thread, but I guess not. Repeating it here.





==========================

System Invasion reports

==========================

Without changing how system conquest works, you could add a report much like science or hero



reports.

This would then open window with still frame report which could contain the following elements

-Estimated turns at current strength to completion

-Improvements in the system that impact the battle (bonuses to defense etc.)

- Names of any heroes involved on both sides and the bonuses they are giving.

- Any racial traits that impact the combat good or bad - like the enemy is fearless or we



detect the opportunity for rebellion etc.

- Introduce possible random events to aid one side or the other would be good as well for



immersion



For bonus it would be nice to have custom stills for each Faction to use.

Adding voice (not wierd alien noises) to give the reports would be very nice

Having any sort of animation even more so - like perhaps a cut seen of the two races battling -



could be generic even.





As reports they could be ignored by those who do not need or care to see them and be available



to those who do.



================================================== ===============



Discovery of resources and estimates of population or production

================================================== ===============



As mentioned elsewhere part of the immersion factor of the game is taken away by instantly



knowing where resources are after discovery even in systems you do not have colonized or within



an influence zone.



- Perhaps later change this so that scanners / sensors and their chain of improvements and



events that impact them are more useful - in that these are needed to update what is in systems



or if this would add too much complexity for record keeping then they are required for updated



information on a system not your own or within your influence.

Also to provide information on enemy systems (allied ones as well) you would need or benefit



from a scout ship or having them equiped in a fleet somewhere. This could give you information



on estimated population (or actual), special resources (with out them you do not find out until



you take the system or are allied.



================================================== ===============

Galactic News

================================================== =========

I add my vote to something like this at some point.

As mentioned perhaps only mention specifics about factions you have met.

News to include would be:

- Special events like Nova's or other stellar event.

- Battle results of the known race vs other races (if both are known then general results of



both. Not things like specifics of military points or Command points but just the outcome or



the use of a ship class you do not possess - such as Dreadnaught or something if you only have



Cruisers. Details can be voted on but just an update that a battle happened and which side one

(not how many battles but the system they occurred in if it involved more than a certain amount



of CP.)

Or when a system of their falls and to whom if known or ...unknown if not met yet.

- perhaps some cut scenes for certain events that reports the even and the systems impacted



etc.

================================================== =====================

Space battle reports

================================================== =====================

Perhaps an expancded after action report much like now but if you have say a ship equiped with



scanners in the battle you can potentially get more information such as estimated tech level of



the weapons (or at least if they are further advanced than your own technology) If the ships



had extra tonnage or if the race benefited from certain trait special such as snipers etc.

Again as reports so that they could be reviewed or not.

================================================== ================================



I should add I like the random events expanded to exploration events or involving wormhole



travel or direct system to system travel without warp lines or wormholes that could occur that



make this sort of thing of interest and worth pursuing.

Also the idea of relics or other specials that are unique and not always in a game.



================================================== ==================================

Along the lines of improving use of scanners or scout modules - perhaps the chance that without



them equipped a large enough or stealth equipped fleet could destroy a small fleet of a single



cruiser or equivelant CP value fleet, without a battle -and with a battle report saying only



that contact had been lost in this system.

I think this would have emersive value as well as help with min/maxing destroyer hulls /



fleets.

================================================== ======================================



This is probably enough or too much.

Generally a picture says more than a thousand bits, so miore pictures would be nice, especially when discovering new substances/ores/artifacts/doo daahs

I also agree with previous speakers that a throne-room would be nice

also visible trade routes are allways nice (a visual representation of my coffers filling with dust)

perhaps unique sounds for diferent worlds? Crashing waves and whale song for oceans, blistering sandstorms for desert, howling winds for arctic forlds, rumbeling volcanoes for volcanic worlds, chattering monkeys and birds for jungels and heavy masked breathing for barren?



Many people have suggested alien chatter, but I rather see that each specie maybe had a short soundtrack that could play when interacting with them, I got this Idea from an old game called Ascendancy that had just this feature. Whenever interacting diplomatically with another race, the music would fade over to their species music for a short while.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx-YGTqgWWk



Finally it would be nice to have some way of telling diferent ships apart, be it slightly altered colour scemes, markings or even slight variations in the models could really help in giving the battles a more diversed feel.

I'd like to see the galaxy remember some of the history as one plays through it. The simplest is an empire-wide history summary, like many other games. But I had another, intriguing idea:



Give every system or every planet a "History" pane which records the major events that occur there. Date each planet is colonized, dates of any blockades or huge conflicts, dates of population or FIDS milestones, dates of terraformations, did ships from this system participate in any major events (colonization, destroyed large numbers of ships, discovered a new system, first wormhole jump in the empire). If you want to go even further, perhaps discovering an Endless temple or Endless artifacts unlocks a lore-tidbit which reveals events from the distant past and adds them to the system history. You might even see players conquering planets just to read the other empire's history ("He's colonized these other worlds I need to find," "She's been at war five times with the Cravers, better find them fast").



On a separate note, you could also take some of the race suggestions that didn't make it in the faction competition and use their lore for appropriate planetary anomalies ("Infant Race: Makers") or unique planet-types.

My preference would be to further improve the lore already present in the game.



- Unique homeworld for races like i explained in this thread /#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/12185-unique-homeworld-for-each-race



-I'd like the introduction of random events or chain of events specific for every single race which develop further their lore. For example Pilgrim could get a random event where they found an important monument of the Endless



- Planetary random events which are unique to a single planet



-Endless pedia or something similar where all the lore can be read



-In diplomacy i also would like some sound/graphic specific for races



-Cravers conquered planet which have a ravaged look

space_beaver wrote:
Okay, to stay realistic.

1. Unique context-sensitive dialog for different races. Doesn't necessarily have to be animated, just text. Like when in GC2 evil Drengin promise to skin you if you're weaker and boast their collection of scalps if you're a fellow evil civ.



2. Random events with choosable options. An interesting thing might be making them context-sensitive - for example, if you have a system with remarkably high science production, a scientific conference event may fire, if your scout enters an uncharted system, an event about meeting free traders offering an endless relic for sale, riots and protests if you have low approval. A couple of race-specific ones. Maybe even something about social changes as you research orange techs or progress towards one of the victory types - that could really give a feeling that there's a busy peaceful life somewhere behind those numbers - crowded ports, bazaars where aliens sell strange goods, pilot bars, cops chasing smugglers, and so on. I'll bet you five quid that the main reason behind people asking for manual trade is not love for trade itself, but rather a desire to see their subjects going by their peaceful daily business. Events could be a technically undemanding way to satisfy this desire.

i love this idea

Armid wrote:
Alpha Centauri's videos for secret projects were pretty amazing, really. I think it would be nice to have more small vids in-game.

I always found the game events to be kind of shallow. Why not attach vids to them as well as making them more meaningful and clearer? (I really like the factions intro. The low-budget seem to have imposed a very nice style and I'd like to see more of them.)

Yes they were cool.



Alpha centaury had another cool thing, loro-wise. The quotes from various the factions on every discover. Every faction was shaped with those small quotes, so you understand they philosophy, like the spartan being heartless warrior, the Gaia's Stepdaughters being hippies etc. something like that would be cool, even without voice.



i would like to see more image when you are informed. instead of the box with "someone declare a war and you are involved" put a picture with the general of the faction ready to war, and write a message from them, something like "It's time for the Cravers to harvest your empire", or ships bombarding your colony when you are notified of an invasion.