I can't help but feel that a game like endless space attracts a certain kind of crowd where something like a design discussion forum is going to be filled with people meticulously analyzing numbers and metagames and the like. We shouldn't forget though that the aesthetics of a game contribute to the overall experience, and that it too, should be the subject of discussion. The purpose of this thread (and maybe it will get sticked) is to get impressions from the community about what aesthetic aspects of the game they do and don't like.



I'll start:



Galaxy view - The galaxy is gorgeous, however, the information presented on various levels of zoom does not look good IMO. For those that haven't experimented with it, zooming out beyond a certain point triggers your empire to be presented in different ways. First zoom out, system queues and populations no longer visible attached, second zoom out, number of planets per system and resources no longer visible. third zoom out, planet names and territory no longer visible. Final zoom out, same thing. I feel the penultimate zoom out should show only territory so you can admire your territory. Also on the zoom outs that show only the planet names, the text should perhaps be made a bit smaller as to not look so incredibly cluttered.



Tech tree view - When I navigate the tech tree, everything feels way to spaced apart. I want to be able to see a lot of techs at the same time. The colour choices also feel a bit dull to me. I would prefer a greater degree of contrast to the grey background. I feel like there is way too much grey on grey since the colouring effects only apply to that small region of space between around the picture (when zoomed in all the way). Perhaps you could put a coloured outline on the whole tech or tint some of its greyness.



Empire View - I love this view. Present a lot of useful information in an efficient way and gives me filters!



Diplomacy view - It looks gorgeous, but I feel this presentation does hinder functionality a bit.



System View - The planets look great, but I think the queues end up a bit clustered. They building queue specifically runs into problems when you settle a new planet and can't see all the buildings you have access to simultaneously. I do like the little coloured tabs indicating what aspect of fids is being increased, however, I think pop buildings (endothermic structures, psychological insulation, etc) should be a different colour of green than the growth buildings (sustainable farms, epigenetic crop seeding, etc) They are related in the sense of increasing the pop. of your planets but they seem categorically different in the context of the game and maybe the colouring system should reflect that?



Also, this may be a bit of a bug, but often times when I clock on a planet in system view, it does not zoom in and let me select a planet improvement. I later figured out that the region to click to zoom in on a planet is not the same as the region of a planet where if you mouseover it, it gets that blue dotted sphere. This confused me when I started playing until I figured out that there is usually a small clickable region of space in the middle-right side of the planet usually.

Galaxy View- Agreed about the larger zoom outs, I know that often I've just wanted to zoom out into space and admire how far I've colonized, but either the system names are too big and clutter the view or the galaxy appears to be completely uninhabited.



Empire View- I often use this when my empire gets too large so I can be sure that all of my planets are producing something.



Diplomacy View- It feels great to actually see the opposing empire and know quickly what relationships they are in, but it kind of creates a roadblock when thats the limit to the information you see. I would like to see some sort of hovering summary or maybe just a diplomacy score before I click the investigate button.



System View- I think the building queue issue could be solved with an extra panel similar to the planetary view that would allow you to see everything at once, available ships as well. Planets are fantastic.



Tech Tree View- I saved this one for last because its the one I have the most issue with, while the techs in the tree all feel incredibly useful and diverse, its a problem when you can't see what each one does from a high enough zoom, and you are forced to click and drag close in. If you just added the property that makes the system view so useful, hovering over the tech increases its size so we can both read the text and know which one we were clicking on, the whole tree would feel far more dynamic. To make it worse the tree is very dull, compared to the exciting galaxy view that you came from. Maybe make it look like one of those hologram boards you see the Sophon heroes carrying around everywhere I don't know. Its the little things that bring out the life in any sim style game.

This is an entirely cosmetic difference so I guess it counts in this thread, but I wonder if we could see faction names vs race names. Right now whenever you meet a civ of the same race in a game they both have the same name, and it gets a bit confusing if you forget which colour was which. For example you could put the Ascencion Council as a faction of pilgrims, or the Enlighteners as a Sophon and so on. You wouldn't need that many as the player limit is quite low, but just enough that each faction is its own unique entity. It would also make it easier for players to create unique factions instead of entire races as well.