Expansion pack - Endless Space

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DEVSpaceTroll

Creative Director

DEVSpaceTroll

Creative Director

12 years ago

Aug 22, 2012, 9:37:30 AM

Hello Everyone,

As we announced during our community event last Friday at Gamescom, we will soon start working on an expansion pack.

We know that we have definitely one focus for that Pack: Battles!

We want to add more strategic choices, more feedback, fighters / Bombers / interceptors, more weapons, defenses, modules, formations, aiming strategies, boarding parties etc...

There were a few other wishes that were mentioned during the event by the community members present. Here is a quick list of them, I hope I did not forget too many of them:

- New faction and traits (focusing on new battle techniques?)

- Finding artifacts on moons or planets could be equipped on ships or heroes

- More different weapons types, more hybrids and new types.

- Visual impact of weapons on ships (I doubt we can go there...)

- Space stations to defend systems

- Options to make planets more unique by building special unique buildings. special building appear on planets / system.

- Ground Battles to accelerate the sieging if the invasion is successful. It would then be visual, on the planet ground.

- Huge Ships

- Planet defenses that damages sieging fleets

- Razing planets / Systems

- Destroying entire star systems (will disappear after being destroyed)

- Espionage and sabotage (also resulting in sabotage during the fleet battles). be able to trick the enemy with fake informations.

- Heroes exploring artifacts unlock technologies on the tech tree

- Construction queue sorting options ( I guess this was meant more towards sorting possible constructions on the systems..)

- Boarding ships can capture enemy ships and keep them to use them for privateering under a fake flag (the flag of the original owner).

Of course there still are quite a lot of elements in our improve list to choose from, but please let us know what you want to see the most in the game expansion.

Cheers

ST

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trinest

Newcomer

trinest

Newcomer

12 years ago

Aug 22, 2012, 10:04:27 AM

All those things in the OP sound pretty cool. I wouldn't mind the UI cleaned up a bit, and maybe controller support for us a comfy couch players.

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Codename_Veers

Sentient Tweaker

I don't want to customize my signature.

Codename_Veers

Sentient Tweaker

12 years ago

Aug 22, 2012, 10:07:00 AM

A pitty I couldn't make it. Sounds very nice. But how can I help now?

Fighters/Bombers and Boardingparties sounds grate! The rest from the list is of course interesting as well. I had some suggestions how to improve fighting without changing the system too much, but I can't find it right now...

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Divine_Moments_of_Truth

Space

Divine_Moments_of_Truth

Space

12 years ago

Aug 22, 2012, 10:07:26 AM

Two words: grund battles.

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vaendryl

Forgotten Enthusiast

(╯°□°）╯︵ uoıʇdǝɔxǝ

vaendryl

Forgotten Enthusiast

12 years ago

Aug 22, 2012, 10:07:44 AM

I really like the ideas mentioned so far, especially space stations and the ability to raze systems (and/or mess with travel nodes;create wormholes)

the thing that bothers me the most at this point while playing however are limitations to the building queue of systems.

If I unlock a new building I want an easy way to select multiple systems and queue that building on ALL of them.
I want a button modifier, like shift, that will send my instruction to the top of the list, instead of the bottom
I'd like to see conversion to dust or science to be the default action on an empty queue, not something that can indefinitely block all items after it
I'd like the ability to hide improvements that I never build so they don't clog up my list making it hard to find the things I do like to build.

I don't trust the AI governer in the least, even now.... so I really really would like to see these things happen sooner rather than later.

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bwfcnut

Newcomer

bwfcnut

Newcomer

12 years ago

Aug 22, 2012, 10:09:57 AM

Pretty much addressed all of my concerns from alpha onwards. Love the game, but without a doubt the weak part of ES is the battles. It seems that most of those points I like so I hope you can include most, if not all of them, in this pack.

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newen

Old

newen

Old

12 years ago

Aug 22, 2012, 10:17:31 AM

Those could be useful :

- Finding artifacts on moons or planets could be equipped on ships or heroes : More heroes customization/RPG style !

- Space stations to defend systems : Create battle stations like a ship in system orbit so we can have battles with space stations.

- Options to make planets more unique by building special unique buildings. special building appear on planets / system. : Yay ! Endless-type pyramids !

- Planet defenses that damages sieging fleets : cf. space stations and use in space battles.

- Destroying entire star systems (will disappear after being destroyed) : Yes, but only with the doomsday weapon tech !

- Espionage and sabotage (also resulting in sabotage during the fleet battles). be able to trick the enemy with fake informations. : always a good idea.

- Construction queue sorting options ( I guess this was meant more towards sorting possible constructions on the systems..) : Construction queue needs some love anyway. We really need to save some premade queues, like the usual list of things for new planets.

- Boarding ships can capture enemy ships and keep them to use them for privateering under a fake flag (the flag of the original owner). : Or captured ships can be studied to copy their tech or gain science points.

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Belho

Prime Founder

Belho

Prime Founder

12 years ago

Aug 22, 2012, 10:17:46 AM

Wow ! Nice list is nice.

Currently, I feel like the game is seriously lacking of depth. All is ultra polished and fun, but some crucial aspects of a 4X game are simply not there, like espionnage or deep ship customization with plenty of weapon and module types to choose from.

So if I had to choose three points among this list that seem most important to me, I'd take :

"- Espionage and sabotage (also resulting in sabotage during the fleet battles). be able to trick the enemy with fake informations.

- Ground Battles to accelerate the sieging if the invasion is successful. It would then be visual, on the planet ground.

- More different weapons types, more hybrids and new types."

But I'm surprised that there is nothing related to the galaxy in the list. I mean, most of the criticisms on the game were about how the galaxy seems dead and empty. So I would suggest to work hard on that too, if it's not on your improve list already. For example, please consider to add :

- Random events, black holes, novas, relics on planets and moons (already in the list, so ok), derelict star ships/bases, minor races...

Ha, and trade needs some love too !

Keep up the good work guys, and your development process is trully amazing !

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Jabroni

Newcomer

Jabroni

Newcomer

12 years ago

Aug 22, 2012, 10:18:51 AM

... a feature in which both players in multiplayer can actually be in the same battle and not have it AI vs Player :C

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Ã¸rret

Newcomer

Ã¸rret

Newcomer

12 years ago

Aug 22, 2012, 10:22:05 AM

SpaceTroll wrote:
Hello Everyone,

As we announced during our community event last Friday at Gamescom, we will soon start working on an expansion pack.

No doubt this are great ideas!

However can anyone explain me what exactly "expansion pack" means?

Is this a free update of the game (as it should be because those topics are mainly fixes to really weak parts of the game)?

Or do we have to pay again for this?

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Anonymous

12 years ago

Aug 22, 2012, 10:30:28 AM

Ã¸rret wrote:
No doubt this are great ideas!

However can anyone explain me what exactly "expansion pack" means?

Is this a free update of the game (as it should be because those topics are mainly fixes to really weak parts of the game)?

Or do we have to pay again for this?

Considering the relatively low price of Endless Space, I wouldn't mind to pay for the expansion.

But I think the developers will say more later.

But back to the topic:

Besides the improvements for the current space battle, the planetary invasions should get an update.

As some have mentioned it, this could be achived by ground assautl/battle.

In order to make the invasion a bit more challenging you could use diffrent invasion tactics like

* Siege

* Offensive Attack with your ground troops

* biological Warfare

* or even by supporting a planetary rebellion.

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c-Row

Newcomer

c-Row

Newcomer

12 years ago

Aug 22, 2012, 10:32:12 AM

SpaceTroll wrote:

- Space stations to defend systems

- Options to make planets more unique by building special unique buildings. special building appear on planets / system.

- Planet defenses that damages sieging fleets

This, please.

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Philip2105

Timer

Philip2105

Timer

12 years ago

Aug 22, 2012, 10:38:41 AM

all of the ideas mentioned above would be a great addition, but some AI balancing is needed. I may just be really bad at endless space but any time i play on a difficulty above the easiest one the AI destroys me in score and expansion. anyway I love the game and would love expansions but would the be free updates or would you have to buy them?

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MODVieuxChat

Chameleon

Truth is a chameleon. Herbert

MODVieuxChat

Chameleon

12 years ago

Aug 22, 2012, 10:42:16 AM

A story. Or a way to create mods that are stories (that way I coul dcreate some kind of interactive tutorial).

The game lacks "narrative" things, me thinks.

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DEVSpaceTroll

Creative Director

DEVSpaceTroll

Creative Director

12 years ago

Aug 22, 2012, 10:44:52 AM

Jabroni wrote:
... a feature in which both players in multiplayer can actually be in the same battle and not have it AI vs Player :C

would you mind elaborating a bit more?

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VIPNasarog

Analyzer Officer

I know nothing. To learn more, come visit us @ eXplorminate.net

VIPNasarog

Analyzer Officer

12 years ago

Aug 22, 2012, 10:46:30 AM

Let me add my 0.02 cents and say yes. I hope that helped.

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nats

Enthusiast

"Its life Jim but not as we know it"

nats

Enthusiast

12 years ago

Aug 22, 2012, 10:47:19 AM

Not interested in paying for extras at this point (ie a few weeks after it has been released) and certainly not interested in paying for updates to the battles which is what this sounds like. IMO the battles are the bit of the game I dont want to see worked on before everything else - espionage, diplomacy, events, missions, decisions, etc.

I would like to know what you are doing to make the game better now regarding that list of community wishes. I dont mind paying for an expansion pack if it is several months after release of the game and its stuff that improves the gameplay of the game greatly, AND most importantly the game has been developing with extras well before then (or is so good it doesnt need extras added such as Shogun 2). This game isnt a complete game though - its the bare bones of a good game.

I certainly bought this game on the assumption it would continue to develop for free for a good time after its release. So no I wouldnt buy an expansion pack like this and TBH I am more than a little concerned that it has been mentioned so quickly after the games release and that you are going to be allocating resources on it instead of adding other stuff to the game as it stands - In fact that actually really bothers me.

Especially as I had to stop playing the game completely yesterday because of a game breaking bug!

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DEVSpaceTroll

Creative Director

DEVSpaceTroll

Creative Director

12 years ago

Aug 22, 2012, 10:54:40 AM

Philip2105 wrote:
All of the ideas mentioned above would be a great addition, but some AI balancing is needed. I may just be really bad at endless space but any time i play on a difficulty above the easiest one the AI destroys me in score and expansion. anyway I love the game and would love expansions but would the be free updates or would you have to buy them?

Please keep in mind that we are still supporting the game via updates. In the updates we keep adding balance, tweaks and addition decided by the G2G votes. The expansion pack is meant to add a big chunk to the game, that will bring in new game mechanics (Hence "expansion").

edit: also it is important to understand that we decided to start discussions early on the content before to start working on the expansion, to make sure that packs answers your wishes. we don't want to start working on it before that discussion.

It is an unusual way of doing things, announcing an add on even before we know what is in it, but this is how we always said we will be working. Therefore it also means that it will take some time before that expansion pack is out.

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MODNosferatiel

Informer

"God's in his heaven, all's right with the world." Nerv Motto, Neon Genesis Evangelion

MODNosferatiel

Informer

12 years ago

Aug 22, 2012, 11:07:04 AM

To add on the addon discussion: Friday the time scale specified was for the addon to be targeting a release end of this year, beginning of next year.

So no "just a few weeks after release"-hastily gathered halfhearted stuff, if I understood them correctly.

Edit: And please remember, that I'm always for funnily evil options, like feints, using captured ships to incite wars against your enemies, double agents and so on.

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Sealwhopper

Newcomer

Sealwhopper

Newcomer

12 years ago

Aug 22, 2012, 11:11:55 AM

- New faction and traits (focusing on new battle techniques?)

- More different weapons types, more hybrids and new types.

- Space stations to defend systems

- Huge Ships

- Planet defenses that damages sieging fleets

This is what I would like to see out of your list.

Real beam weapons would be nice

smiley: biggrin

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