One of the things that gave Blizzards warcraft series it's personality was the voice recordings when you gave unit's orders. In a more recent 4x, Warlock Master of the Arcane, the goblin archer always says "Best Archer in the World", when you select him. Because of the excellent work done by the voice actors, the phrasing and delivery of the wav files is the best part of that game.



For endless space, I would suggest giving the heroes a "voice" through short wave files when common orders were completed/executed. "The ships you requested have been built." "Infrastructure upgraded on planet X" "Moving to engage Horatio Fleet", "Wormhole Jump Engaged". To prevent this from being excessive, i would ONLY have the heroes issue these voice notifications. (And perhaps have them optional.) Admittedly, talking like a blob of water might be hard. :-) But, if a player's hero's were talking at them, and you could "restrict" your hero options to your race, I think the racial flavor would be enhanced. I suspect I would personally prefer a mixed set of heroes - because the tonal identifiers would be a cue to look at a different thing I was focusing on.



In Shogun 2 Total War, when you first were able to recruit a unit, there was a screen animation of that unit marching. For each faction, if you could put in a short video of the ship (from your excellent combat animations?) as part of the pop-up that tells you that you can build the bigger ships, you would help build the anticipation for seeing the ship in action. This would also help combat limited players like me identify what ships are which in my mixed fleet.



Along this line, using your excellent video animation/artist team to put together some short videos of the 20 turn events (Endless hulk discovered, etc.) would help with the "world flavor".

For SP, I would love the "exploration" feeling of discovering something unique. The existing events are usually global. But some event which is triggered on entering a system, and applies only to that system or fleet would be cool. I think Civ IV did this very well; there were enough random events and "goody huts" to make the exploration phase interesting. Please note for MP, there should be an option to completely switch off random events since many MP players feel this adds too much of a "luck" factor.

Sometimes just naming things can give them character.



1. I'd like to be able to customize my name when playing. Maybe this is already possible, and I've overlooked how to do it. But I'm stuck with my Steam login name.



2. I'd like to see different AI leader names within each faction. Maybe have each faction pull from a list of faction names. In my current game, I'm up against a green Sheredyn and a yellow-green Sheredyn. I'd rather be up against, "Bob" and "Charley". Bob and Charley could both be Sheredyn factions. But having them named would help me to differentiate them. It'd be even better if Bob and Charley pursued somewhat different agendas within the overall Sheredyn strategy.



3. Have different names for regions of the galaxy. For example, the first time I played Mass Effect, I had no idea what "Perseus Veil" or "Attican Traverse" were. But the names themselves made me want to find out.



4. Have the AI ship names pull from a list for each ship type and faction. "Warbird" sounds so much scarier than, "MediumShip123".

Also, this: /#/endless-space/forum/29-archives/thread/13913-victory-epilogue

Nosferatiel wrote:


They're basically brainstormings about how such a thing could work, even if it was originally thought out to occur during combat.

The problem there, though, is that the non human races present a sort of catch-22 in combat. Either you maintain alien chatter full of buzzes, whistles, and clicks or whatever, thereby making combat as anything but a human race sound like a weird nature-sounds/Dubstep mixtape, or you give the aliens the same English soundbites and it completely defeats any immersion it was originally intended to provide. Having a short list of one or two word responses (maybe a dozen per race) would give some immersion without overstimulating.

Spero42 wrote:
As silly and excessive as it sounds, having our fleet orders responded to with a voice representing the fleet can go a long way to granting some immersion. What do the Sowers sound like? What about the Cravers? Do the UE have Russian accents? Or maybe they speak some completely new language. Having a random assortment of "confirmed" soundbites which are unique to each race play whenever I issue a command would be simple, yet effective. I would, though, recommend that there be an option to disable it as it may annoy some players.

I really have to unearth these two threads for you: /#/endless-space/forum/27-general/thread/7530-battle-suggestion-com-chatter

and

/#/endless-space/forum/27-general/thread/7563-com-chatter-oneliner



They're basically brainstormings about how such a thing could work, even if it was originally thought out to occur during combat.

I gather that you're not looking for gameplay changes, but rather aesthetic changes which will help with immersion.



As silly and excessive as it sounds, having our fleet orders responded to with a voice representing the fleet can go a long way to granting some immersion. What do the Sowers sound like? What about the Cravers? Do the UE have Russian accents? Or maybe they speak some completely new language. Having a random assortment of "confirmed" soundbites which are unique to each race play whenever I issue a command would be simple, yet effective. I would, though, recommend that there be an option to disable it as it may annoy some players.



I don't know what sort of time/monetary investment it would take, but having little animation videos (like the race intros) for the various "milestone" notifications would be nice. For example, show a short clip of a science vessel experimenting with a wormhole for the Casimir Effect notification. Show a clip of a guy wearing a bulky suit and a face mask during a thick sand storm for the Tough Worlds notification. Maybe have a clip of a massive ship being released from a stardock for the Leviathan! notification. These would be like the little videos for building wonders in the Sid Meyer's games.



Another way to produce some immersion is a simple renaming of some buildings/techs depending on race. This was used to great effect in Birth of the Federation, where the Cardassians had labor farms and the Klingons had communal hunting grounds. The buildings were identical in function, but the differing names gave character to the individual races.



Hopefully these are helpful. I'll keep thinking on it and post any more that I get later...

My absolute favorite in this regard is the suggestion for an Endlesspedia, which could e.g. be included at first contact. If you encountered the Amoeba, you'd get a notification with a short summary of their diplomatic disposition, affinity and links to the Endlesspedia for further information including the game lore.

/#/endless-space/forum/27-general/thread/9092-discussion-personality

I would like to see more choice based random events that give us moral puzzles, also more sound is a great idea

- Loved the galaxy news from Orion 2 which announced lots of stuff going on in the galaxy, from space monsters to unusual events

- Space monsters that guard valueable systems or invade the galaxy

- More race fluff like animations and bigger images from heroes, leaders etc. (FFH2 had amazing images)

- Some kind of anomalies like in GalCiv2 that can occur from time to time

- A great evil / good super race like Antharens in Orion 2 or Shadows and Vorlons in Babylon 5, Infernals and Mercurians in FFH2, Dread lords in GalCiv2 etc.

- Cool discoveries or events on planets (Alien infestation, hidden resources, hidden NPC races/organisms)

- Maybe some kind of space guilds that give your race missions like the senate in Total War series

- Planet development instead or in addition to system development

- Stylish interfaces (MS Paint gray isn't really very fluffy), Kings Bounty or Disciples 3 for example have interfaces that are real 'Art'

- Research screen is chaotic and unfluffy

- Ground combat (In general more stuff to do on planets since it offers more diversity and fluff like just 'Black space with stars')

As said somewhere else, being able to renegociate diplomatic offers instead of just yes/no

Something a little bit more rewarding than just a popup announcing you've won (or lost, never try, I don't know as I never tried )

Anything that gives me a sense of purpose. The intro videos for each race are good, but like the random events, I'd love to seem some reinforcement of my progression throughout the game (with variety to keep it from getting boring). Videos that confirm certain diplomatic/military/economic/research milestones would be fun!

1)Make systems with race, eg. system is composed of 20% of Humans and 80% of Hissho, UE owns it and is at war with Hissho chances of this system to rebel will be high!

2)Bonuses related to race composition as well, more cosmopolitan empires will have lots of benefits, but will not be stable and can break into various factions

3)Creation of puppet state, through conquest. Like USSR conquered Poland from Nazis and created Communist Polish puppet state.

4)War exhaustion, EU3 stuff. If WE is high risk of government collapse or if enemy captures your capital/homeworld your government collapses

5)Events connected to colonization like in GA2 or finding new anomaly (some events that would be a surprise to a player)

6)Events connected to particular system eg. (unprotected system results pirate spawn) or (One of the planets is hit by meteorite and is destroyed)

7)Isolated clusters, with rich artifacts? Or maybe Endless remnants? Something like Jovian Empire in EVE.

8)Event connected to star lane which leads to black hole, thus your ships are destroyed.

My wishlist:

1. Ground combat similar to MOO2/MOO3/GC2/IG1-2 choose one as you wish and mix ideas. But no direct control of units please, limited options is good. May be you can develop something new, but the old ones are quite good.

2. Divide components and ship hulls construction. Produced components going into Empire Store, and you can equip existing ship hulls with them. Also you can trade theese modules with other factions.

3. Mosquito fleet(fighters, carriers).

4. Ship wrecks in battle. More visualisation to space maneuvers.

5. Ship model editor, accessible from main menu - similar to GC2, but you can't create models ingame.

6. Orbital structures, Moonbases, planetary defence.

7. Dynamic alignment bonuses and penalties. For example if you are conquerer you will gain military bonuses, but will lose some civil stats.

8. Governments, revolutions, AI uprising etc...

9. Space monsters.

10. Heavily guarded Endless system, accessible only through warp or by researching some tech.

11. Ancient enemy, who sometimes comes into galaxy.

12. Race population: xenophob, tolerant races, assimilation, migration.

Events connected to colonization like in GA2 or finding new anomaly (some events that would be a surprise to a player), also events connected to particular system eg. (System approval 20%, it rebels) or (One of the planets is hit by meteorite and is destroyed) or (unprotected system results pirate spawn) etc. Such events will give live to the galaxy and will certainly improve interest in gameplay in late games.



Also I find it a bit too much, as from the start of the game you can see all the anomalies and resources on the planets, possibly it could be better to have only 50% of features unveiled from the start. This should give a flavor of unknown



Perhaps implementing isolated clusters, with rich artifacts? Or maybe Endless remnants? Something like Jovian Empire in EVE.



Also event of star lane leads to black hole, thus your ships is sucked in Or even event related to discovery of new starlane/wormhole leading to rich systems cluster?



And I somehow do not feel well with starlanes...they make galaxy like labyrinth, i think it is good idea to make them very tiny and almost invisible?

Animated dialogues (and sound!) would liven the diplomacy screen up a bit, Hissho squawking a bit while making gestures suitable to the situation, such a rejecting gestures when you offer something they dont accept. or welcoming gestures when a "call" is initiated.

E.g. this collection of links out of the "A living universe"-collection: /#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/12217-a-living-universe

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.



3. To dream bigger, more independent factions - not just pirates. A privateer system where you could hire pirates. A free miner asteroid colony. A weird cult. A fringe anarchist settlement. A splinter sower group led by a rouge AI, and so on. Adds flavor, gameplay and sweet randomness. I think that I'm safe to say that I'm not the only one playing 4X games not for challenge, but for the emergent epic story they create like no other genere.





Also, I know that you guys are kinda opposed to the idea of unique tech trees, which is a pity, but maybe giving races one or two unique buildings couldn't hurt? Having "that planet with great amoeba breeding pools/amazing horatio palace complex/sower robot factories" in my opinion beats having "that production world" and could add a lot character to the races at the expense of drawing a dozen of icons and some code.



I'm not touching combat, as I understand the thread is not about it, but the sheer quantity, cheapness and short lifespan of most ships probably contribute to the disconnection feeling.

Ganpot wrote:
It would be nice if the OP further explained what he means by immersive factors. For me, gameplay provides most of the immersion. That being said, more lore/back-story on the races, more heroes, voiced diplomatic ambassadors from alien races, and voiced acknowledgement from fleets (when you move them) would be wonderful.



EDIT: Oh, and have the other factions actually send you messages (other than declarations of war :roll. They should warn you when they think you're expanding too quickly, or building too many ships. They should tell you (if friendly) when they are considering declaring a war on, or alliance with, another party (and maybe even ask for your opinion). In other words, they should legitimately talk to you, instead of raging silently in their little corner.

The gameplay suggestions can be found in the "design proposal" sub-forum: they are usually subject to debate and it is not the point of that thread.



Here, we would like to know what you guys would like in the form of a feedback/interaction in the game. The messages from other faction is a good example even though I personally found them irritating after a while in Civ 5 (especially the "you will pay for this" ). I quite liked this idea for instance: more sound, voice, and so on:

Spero42 wrote:
I gather that you're not looking for gameplay changes, but rather aesthetic changes which will help with immersion.



As silly and excessive as it sounds, having our fleet orders responded to with a voice representing the fleet can go a long way to granting some immersion. What do the Sowers sound like? What about the Cravers? Do the UE have Russian accents? Or maybe they speak some completely new language.

Keep them going!

principiis wrote:
...er, thanks? I'm not a big fan of being condescended to, though. (Not sure if you intended that, but that's how it came across, at least.)



When I first read through this thread before posting, it wasn't clear to me that gameplay elements which enhanced immersion (or suspension of disbelief, if you like) weren't what was being asked for. Going back, I do see skamaks' post, but I thought these might be considered relevant because they had some explanatory logic behind them, and seemed to be meant to further the logic of the ES universe in addition to improving gameplay. (Especially since no one specifically answered spero42's question as to whether or not the devs were looking only for things that were primarily aesthetic in nature.)



That said, though, if Steph'nie or a mod or other dev team member would like me to edit or delete my post so as not to derail the intended topic, I will of course do so.

They weren't asked for necessarily, but you could have always just linked where you took them from instead of the wall of text, as the Devs most likely read almost everything, but don't comment.



And i may be been condescending at the time of that post.