When I host a multiplayer game I try to keep average number of systems per player around 10. So tiny is 2 player. small is 3 or 4 player. medium is 5 player, large is 6 or 7 player, huge is 8 player.

Nor was I suggesting that you were wrong



The way I see it, if it works when everyone is against the wall and desperately trying to just hold onto their home system then chances are it'll work when everyone has plenty of room to expand! However yes, the game needs more start-up options, no heroes or no tech trading at the very least.

I actually prefer the shorter games of the smaller galaxies personally.



I love the exploring early game with large galaxies, but by turn 100+ when you've got half the galaxy to manage and deal with I find it detracts from the enjoyment of the game rather than adding to it. Sometimes I'm in the mood for that, long drawn out games with lots of micromanagement but lately I prefer small quick games that play out in just a few hours. Although I'm now tempted to edit the xml as shown earlier for a truly huge game and set game speed to slow. should last a while

The_Doctor wrote:
I've chosen 'Huge' but to be honest, that's a lie - I modded my ES's XML to add 5 new levels of galaxy size (from 'Huger' to 'Over 9,000') and play with galaxies twice the size of the vanilla 'huge'.



Got to be honest, I find the games in-built 'huge' to be pretty small. I'd rate it 'medium'; the galaxy still feels small and pretty clustered up, and it doesn't seem to lend to a long-term, large-empire, high-technology, large-fleet style warfare galaxy, but to quicker, decisive games. The space on 'Huge' doesn't really feel very 'Endless' - not too much of a complaint since we can easily add much larger galaxies with a single line of XML, but not every casual player who picks up ES will know that this is possible and then how to do it.





Tldr: Voted 'huge' but I tend to use modded XML to play galaxies twice the size. 'Huge' feels rather small, games are short and decisive and waste the tech trees and scope and aren't very 'Endless'; ES could very much use some (much bigger) default size settings for players who don't/won't/can't edit the XML.

Adding in to what Loco asked, is there any way to bump up the turn limit for the Score Victory then? (I like to play to the last empire standing, but that usually happens around the 250-275 mark on the relatively small "Huge" size).





As for the original topic, Huge galaxy, random planet sizes, limited connectivity with lots of wormholes, and finally few resources. Bog everyone down, and make them struggle to advance an inch. Super fun to me.

I enjoy huge maps just for the chance to do more with.

Romeo wrote:
Adding in to what Loco asked, is there any way to bump up the turn limit for the Score Victory then? (I like to play to the last empire standing, but that usually happens around the 250-275 mark on the relatively small "Huge" size).

Hmm I believe I can help with that too. In Public\Simulation\Achievements.xml are the victory conditions. To change out score victory setup, you want to edit the following:



[code]



Value="300" PlayerDisplayTrigger="1" DisplayTrigger="250"/>

[/code]



The condition is "GameTurn", the value at 300 - score victory seems to be set to calculate and award at 300 turns, so this can simply be elevated to 500 turns, 832 turns, 1000 turns, over 9,000! turns etc. to delay when that kicks in for a larger galaxy size.





The only problem would be that this would affect the score victory setup of all games, regardless of the galaxy size. A way around this would be to make a proper mod folder with just this setting changed, then activate and de-activate the mod whenever you wanted to play either the extended or normal score victory, to save changing XML each time.

Agreed!



There should be at least one huger than huge size in a future patch, preferably 2 or 3.



And it would be nice to have more options:

A slider in the galaxy generation screen for average distance between systems. That way you can make the trips longer or shorter between systems, which influence strategic options. Of course there would still happen to have systems close together and far apart, but the popularity would change.

A slider for system lanes popularity. Less system lanes create more choke points, more system lanes makes for a more free-for-all where it is harder to make a wall and secure systems.

Medium.



I used to play Large, but, like someone else said, it gets tedious. And like two other people said, in smaller maps every FIDS , resource, and anamoly/wonder counts even more. Also, it was very fun discovering the massive slew of anomolies, resources, wonders, and planet types, but now that I've seen 99+% of them, exploration just isn't what it was.

/#/endless-space/forum/37-modding/thread/15915-released-biggalaxies



this does what you guys want with out editing the file - its a seperate mod, with massive supermassive and endless, respectively



and for op - i like endless. (160 stars )

Why choose only one endless galaxy when you could have two?



/#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/12707-linked-galaxies



(Sry OP, didn`t mean to highjack your thread but i thought this maybe could be of interest)

Waylander1982 wrote:
I'd be of the opposite opinion, a smaller game (whereby every faction has maybe 2-3 systems, that maintains some amount of balance well into the end game would be better than just throwing more systems into the mix to try and pump play-times up. Furthermore playing a smaller map means that, on average, there is less overall production which still means that most (if not all) of the tech tree is utilised but it doesn't come fully into its own right until the actual end game encounter between 2-3 large powers.



To each their own I guess.



EDIT: Something for you all to address in the XML that might make things more interesting is changing the minimum stars per constellation.

I'm not saying that everybody should play on large galaxies or the balance is how it should be, Waylander; just that those of us who enjoy some expansive shouldn't have to go mod the XML just to add some new larger galaxy presets - especially because many players just wouldn't know how or even that it could be done.



Took me 5 minutes (or less) to add the new options, just would be helpful for the community as a whole to have such options in the official game in addition to the current ones, because 'Huge' really... Isn't huge.

System sprawl past a point takes away from a game rather than adds to it in my opinion. When every empire has 20 systems FIDS goes through the roof and everything becomes a throwaway. The most fun I ever have in ES is in the first third of the game when FIDS is low and every planet/ship matters. I do like huge's default size in ES but only because managing 50 identical systems is just tedious, not fun.

Nothing bigger than large, because I only play multiplayer and games end due to bugs before you could ever finish a huge. (unless you have 8 friends who will reload the many times it would take to finish)

The_Doctor wrote:
Hmm I believe I can help with that too. In Public\Simulation\Achievements.xml are the victory conditions. To change out score victory setup, you want to edit the following:



[code]



Value="300" PlayerDisplayTrigger="1" DisplayTrigger="250"/>

[/code]



The condition is "GameTurn", the value at 300 - score victory seems to be set to calculate and award at 300 turns, so this can simply be elevated to 500 turns, 832 turns, 1000 turns, over 9,000! turns etc. to delay when that kicks in for a larger galaxy size.





The only problem would be that this would affect the score victory setup of all games, regardless of the galaxy size. A way around this would be to make a proper mod folder with just this setting changed, then activate and de-activate the mod whenever you wanted to play either the extended or normal score victory, to save changing XML each time.

You're the best! Will go and edit that tonight, thanks!

Doctor you have opened my eyes. I'm tweaking settings to make small, dense galaxies.

I like all sizes, but having available (without modding or editing files) 2 more bigger wider and better galaxies would be awesome.



Would also like more space anomalies, black holes, quasars, supernovas, etc. For example black holes (of different sizes) would dominate the central part of the galaxies, and you would need an advanced tech to colonize systems there and allow fleets to enter those systems. Suns can go supernova which wipes everything in a system (of course with a warning from when you discover the system that in X turns the supernova will happen) which will affect the system they are in converting planets to a lower grade planet (asteroid belt being equal to a destroyed planet).



Maybe inspire from Civ 5 regarding city states and make planets / systems inhabited by natives which you can ally with, be friends, or at war / invade them (but this perhaps in the expansion). I mean I feel like we need to improve / expand on every other aspect of the game apart from the military aspect to give it more depth, make the galaxy feel alive apart from the random events / exploration stuff



But yeah, generally larger galaxies are for the better (and more shapes if possible), it makes no sense to map half of galaxy by turn 50 on a huge galaxy

Huge. Always. Simple as that. Anything smaller seems pathetic, and huge seems to me like what a normal size galaxy should be. In short i want larger galaxies =P

If you modify this file, will it work for multiplayer?



IE, I create a "larger than huge" galaxy and create a game with this setting.

StriderV wrote:
If you modify this file, will it work for multiplayer?



IE, I create a "larger than huge" galaxy and create a game with this setting.

If you save it as a mod, then any multiplayer games will have to be done on the original (Unless they have a copy of the exact same mod).

Large/Huge, always 8 factions.

Medium, tight clusters.

Large, mainly because it is big... but not too big to find other races to begin with to make it interesting, i like to have interaction off the mark.

Tiny, Old, Low Density.



Because there is no war like total war.

Waylander1982 wrote:
Tiny, Old, Low Density.



Because there is no war like total war.

I see where you are going there; little resources and a fight to gain any sort of power or monopolies, even class 1 planets. Not a bad choice, not a bad choice at all.

Don't get me wrong, I indulge in making it high density from time to time. But I find that the game ultimately becomes repetitious if the galaxy is too large. In most cases you know whether or not you've won by around turn 50.



And yes, monopolies just aren't a thing, the one or two wonders that do show up are viciously fought over, pirates are a constant threat, you're rarely not engaged in a border dispute with another player. Its more fun.

I play only in huge galaxy`s, and i want bigger!

Huge Galaxy with 8 factions at once. My second choice is tiny with 8 factions.

Large, sometimes huge, with 8 factions just because once everyone is expanded it becomes a galaxy wide war between alliances, and it is epic.

Huge Galaxy with 8 factions.

Which do you prefer to play? Why?



Bound to be a topic of interest!

Waylander1982 wrote:
Which do you prefer to play? Why?



Bound to be a topic of interest!

I've chosen 'Huge' but to be honest, that's a lie - I modded my ES's XML to add 5 new levels of galaxy size (from 'Huger' to 'Over 9,000') and play with galaxies twice the size of the vanilla 'huge'.



Got to be honest, I find the games in-built 'huge' to be pretty small. I'd rate it 'medium'; the galaxy still feels small and pretty clustered up, and it doesn't seem to lend to a long-term, large-empire, high-technology, large-fleet style warfare galaxy, but to quicker, decisive games. The space on 'Huge' doesn't really feel very 'Endless' - not too much of a complaint since we can easily add much larger galaxies with a single line of XML, but not every casual player who picks up ES will know that this is possible and then how to do it.





Tldr: Voted 'huge' but I tend to use modded XML to play galaxies twice the size. 'Huge' feels rather small, games are short and decisive and waste the tech trees and scope and aren't very 'Endless'; ES could very much use some (much bigger) default size settings for players who don't/won't/can't edit the XML.

The_Doctor wrote:


Tldr: Voted 'huge' but I tend to use modded XML to play galaxies twice the size. 'Huge' feels rather small, games are short and decisive and waste the tech trees and scope and aren't very 'Endless'; ES could very much use some (much bigger) default size settings for players who don't/won't/can't edit the XML.

I agree, wondering, what would be the files needing edited for such a change ?

LocoMike wrote:
I agree, wondering, what would be the files needing edited for such a change ?

Plugins\Galaxy Generator\GalaxySettings.xml



In there, you'll want to navigate down to (having Notepad++ and collapsing helps, but what you're looking for is quite near the top at least):



[CODE]









...

















[/CODE]



As you can see, you can define the generation statistics simply by setting the galaxy diameter, number of stars and default resource amounts. So, you can just add new entries. I've added some rather sloppily added ones with entirely arbitrary numbers just to give me bigger galaxies:



[CODE]





[/CODE]





And the only other thing you need to do is to add localisation texts for the new entry (so the game knows what text to display for the new options in the GUI on the New Game screen) into Localization_Locales.xml, which for my example was the simple matter of adding:



[CODE]

Huger

Massive

Over 9,000

[/CODE]

The_Doctor wrote:
Plugins\Galaxy Generator\GalaxySettings.xml



In there, you'll want to navigate down to (having Notepad++ and collapsing helps, but what you're looking for is quite near the top at least):



[CODE]









...

















[/CODE]



As you can see, you can define the generation statistics simply by setting the galaxy diameter, number of stars and default resource amounts. So, you can just add new entries. I've added some rather sloppily added ones with entirely arbitrary numbers just to give me bigger galaxies:



[CODE]





[/CODE]





And the only other thing you need to do is to add localisation texts for the new entry (so the game knows what text to display for the new options in the GUI on the New Game screen) into Localization_Locales.xml, which for my example was the simple matter of adding:



[CODE]

Huger

Massive

Over 9,000

[/CODE]

good job - thank you . nice to see that you share with us.

Unfortunately I can't test until tomorrow .

You sir, have made a friend this day

Medium is optimal with one change.



in GalaxySettings.xml







45" Width="86" NominalPlayers="6" StrategicResourceNumberPerType="18" LuxuryResourceTypes="12"/>









I change this param from 48 on 45, and in galaxy like disc4 have 5 systems. 5*8 players + 5 netral = 45

LocoMike wrote:
You sir, have made a friend this day

+1 opulation:



If only my planet wasn't barren...

The_Doctor wrote:
ES could very much use some (much bigger) default size settings for players who don't/won't/can't edit the XML.

I'd be of the opposite opinion, a smaller game (whereby every faction has maybe 2-3 systems, that maintains some amount of balance well into the end game would be better than just throwing more systems into the mix to try and pump play-times up. Furthermore playing a smaller map means that, on average, there is less overall production which still means that most (if not all) of the tech tree is utilised but it doesn't come fully into its own right until the actual end game encounter between 2-3 large powers.



To each their own I guess.



EDIT: Something for you all to address in the XML that might make things more interesting is changing the minimum stars per constellation.