To be honest, I'd like to see some fixes which would make the game more fun for the player, in the sense of reducing tediousness / imbalance.



The things that are on the top of my head:

1. On the pre-battle screen, a button to choose 'retreat', where all actions taken by your ships will be retreat, and the battle will be auto-resolved accordingly (so you don't have to manually go into the battle yourself). This would save a lot of time.

2. A much better balanced map generator.

3. For MP games, the game will pick a new host if the current host leaves the match, rather than ending the game.

4. A option in the pre-game menus to completely remove expansion disapproval. Expanding to new systems creating unhappiness is the most ridiculous concept I can think of, and its one of the biggest limiters on playing larger maps (especially on higher difficulties since the AI doesn't seem to have any expansion disapproval at all while you can barely expand because of it).



Obviously, I'm looking forward to new features as well. But I think fixing the biggest issues with ES would be a bigger priority than adding new features

i realy like codename_veers' idea with the choosing of the battleground inside the systems



how about some more things in the system view? a few ships flying around. if a fleet is stationed in the system it could orbit one of the planets and if a system is under siege little fighters could fly around sometimes and shoot each other



i am already looking forward to the expansion

Expansion pack! Yay! Already excited about it - and while balance fixes and minor tweaks should be free (as they are), I don't mind paying for more and new features... so bring it on!



So regarding the list of possible improvements/additions:

-> improved battles - always welcome and many people already made many suggestions and the usual list (more battle actions, fighters/bombers/carriers, boarding parties is a good one)

-> new factions, more variety is always nice... though I'd rather see the existing factions fleshed out more.

-> Equippable artefacts: like it, as long as it fits into the UI neatly.

-> More weapons: Yes, especially hybrid weapons (and probably hybrid defences) sound good, as long as there's some unique twist to them (instead of just being two things at the same time).

-> Space stations: Yes, yes, yes. Not sure whether it'd work better as a in-combat ship or defence facility. I do hope they have same non-military effect as well.

-> Huge ships: Neat, if we figure out how to make dreadnaughts useful first...

-> Espionage & sabotage: Neat, would like that.



Something else I hope for: More/improved animation for ships. If there's a focus on battles, it should be more interesting to watch them. Currently, you run into looped, identical battles quite quickly. Having 3-4 new impact/explosion animations and slightly more randomised flight paths/manoeuvres would liven up the scenes quite a bit (also hoping for new beam animations to get away from the "all projectile" look.

The main thing about expansion packs is the stuff provided has to be optional. If you have two players online playing a game there should be no disadvantage provided to the one who doesnt have the expansion pack. So for me that means the stuff has to improve the single player parts of the game or be visual enhancements only or alternatively complete factions or ships etc that can be used or not used and they wont affect the game if one person uses them and one doesnt. Or its a stand alone expansion pack (which I dont personally like).



In Shogun 2 for example all the DLC are units, campaigns, visuals. In Paradox games the expansion packs tend to be more events and flavour to the single player game.



In this game the main options would be probably:

• Graphical/gameplay enhancements to invasions on the planetary screens and in the game - orbital stations, defences etc
• Graphical/gameplay enhancement to battles (visible to both people but only the one with the expansion pack would have access to the new weapons/tech/options for targetting etc - its a tricky one this because it could put the other player at a great disadvantage if things like targetting and screening ships etc are included)
• New player decisions/missions in the single player game to add in a bit of back story
• Pirates as faction/new faction
• New ship types/skins for all races
• New hero types/skins for all races
• New planetary types/anomaly types
• Galaxy designer/leader designer/hero designer
• Animated advisor cabinet and animated diplomatic engagements to add atmosphere and more back story into the game
• System politics and religion?
  
  

So I would suggest things like the following should be done outside of an expansion pack:

• Better AI in strategy part of the game - better use of fleets/better colony use/better defence strategies/
• Razing systems etc that have been voted on - the G2G stuff
• Better diplomacy (this is too big for a freeby but would add loads to the game and I would suggest is the most important change required soonest to the game to enhance its longevity) - possible Galactic Senate to protect smaller races with better alliance AI to encourage large end game wars/manufacturable casus belli system for starting wars?/reputation/more use of evil/good alignment of races/system fealties and (star)lords who run them (with allegiances that might vary)
• Espionage/spies/stealth (another biggy but again needs to be in there sooner rather than later for longevity of gameplay)
  
  

By far the most important of the above for me are AI, diplomacy and espionage and I would suggest none of these could really wait for an expansion pack, but the two larger of these could possibly be sold as DLC packs of their own in the shorter term - although I dont know how these could be designed so that the new mechanics are optional. Perhaps online players with these enhancements may only be able to play against other online players with the same release version that includes the diplomacy and espionage enhancements? - its been done before with Sword and Mount Warband etc.

i think the next expantion should over hall the combat to make to like sots what do poeple think.

nats wrote:
The main thing about expansion packs is the stuff provided has to be optional. If you have two players online playing a game there should be no disadvantage provided to the one who doesnt have the expansion pack.

That's not an expansion pack! That's how small/micro DLC should work. Classic expansion packs (especially before the rise of digital downloads) were always fleshing out neglected parts... and always required both players to have the expansion (see Civilization, Sins of a Solar Empire etc.).

Andy.roberts12 wrote:
i think the next expantion should over hall the combat to make to like sots what do poeple think.

I don't want real time battles or any overhauling done in an expansion pack. They could do this in a whole 'nother game.



What I'd like in an expansion pack, is new game mechanics. Tons of those.

Boarding a craver ship, fixing it so it flies and shoots a little, flying it into Hissho space and making them declare war on the cravers by blowing up a colony ship of theirs with a kamikaze attack of the craver ship, that's more my style and my liking.



I'd like MP downward-compatibility, so that the additional mechanics are only available in a match if everyone's got the expansion, but if everyone HAS got the expansion I'd also like to be able to play with the new stuff in MP.

Nosferatiel wrote:
I don't want real time battles or any overhauling done in an expansion pack. They could do this in a whole 'nother game.



What I'd like in an expansion pack, is new game mechanics. Tons of those.

Boarding a craver ship, fixing it so it flies and shoots a little, flying it into Hissho space and making them declare war on the cravers by blowing up a colony ship of theirs with a kamikaze attack of the craver ship, that's more my style and my liking.



I'd like MP downward-compatibility, so that the additional mechanics are only available in a match if everyone's got the expansion, but if everyone HAS got the expansion I'd also like to be able to play with the new stuff in MP.

Ditto to this sir.

Andy.roberts12 wrote:
i think the next expantion should over hall the combat to make to like sots what do poeple think.

Not happening, thats in the list of dead-horse suggestions:



/#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/11286-dead-horse-suggestions-stop-the-abuse



I dont want real-time anyways, I love the current system.

Andy.roberts12 wrote:
i think the next expantion should over hall the combat to make to like sots what do poeple think.

Personally I despise real time combat, if I wanted a real time combat in my 4x I would also take real time in my empire management. 4X games started with the idea the player was always in control of movement. The ones that tended to throw real time elements in are the ones trying to compensate for poor AI, poor ideas, or both.

My two pennies worth for whatever use it will be, does the expansion mean you need it to play multi player?



Like nats all I can see is a company busting a gut to get more money out of the punters, I already overpaid £4 or whatever it was for a new skin when I bought the game. Now that list you have posted appears to make the expansion cost over £20 going on the extra content I just paid for.



To me this all appears an untimely haste, notwithstanding at the start when I mentioned this to my son (18) when I bought the game he said from the off that this will cost Amplitude in the future if payable DLC was bought in purely because word will get round that the company draws you in then will expect more money from you, try making the game so good new people buy it before milking the rest of us till our teats bleed



Oh well Eve will still be there. But I do love this game so try not to screw it up please

I see a lot of these posts - and I'm a bit confused.



I paid $35 for Endless Space - which makes it about $65 cheaper than almost every other game I buy.



I'm anti-dlc and pro-expansion, I think a couple of large expansions for games as opposed to dozens of little DLC is a much better way of expanding the game and keeping people playing it.



And I think the game is polished amazingly well straight off the bat.



Have I missed something major that's happened?

Well release at least 1.4 version of the game and then we will talk about expansion pack.

Well lets talk about it for a while at least, so its done right at the right time.

I don't see any point. I will just get the game from a torrent otherwise.

CaptainPsilon thats a bit harsh

The thread doesnt make any sense to me:



Guys we want make an expansion pack there is a list of features.



Well. Great. Good for you. What do you want to hear? What to discuss about?





If they give us list of features which from you can choose:

1. This one goes to the exp. pack.

2. This goes in the patch.



I mean at least

Indeed, your saying you will pirate the expansion if we discuss it before the development for the base game is done?



That is more of a guarantee by this point then?

i say it is to early to discuss expansion pack. there is already features in it that supposed to be in original game. Cant you just see it? The developers think they are done with the original there will be no any major changes to the game. And i think that it is wrong. So i show my protest.



When you know have like a ton of a work in front of you (improve the original game) you dont think hmm... i have this unfinished work that will take like 4 months to be done.. lets discuss some more work.. for the next 6 months after those 4 months.

CaptainPsilon wrote:
i say it is to early to discuss expansion pack. there is already features in it that supposed to be in original game. Cant you just see it? The developers think they are done with the original there will be no any major changes to the game. And i think that it is wrong. So i show my protest.



When you know have like a ton of a work in front of you (improve the original game) you dont think hmm... i have this unfinished work that will take like 4 months to be done.. lets discuss some more work.. for the next 6 months after those 4 months.

How about you read the first page of this thread and notice your fears are unfounded.