I don't know, I like Sheredyn as they are. They've got kind've a "young upstart" feel to them, which I like. And sure, we may have four human races, but they're all distinct from one another.



It should be mentioned Hissho play pretty distinct too. Wait until you have a strong fleet, then start killing to steadily boost your economy, in order to build more fleets and make them more powerful all the while.

I personally wouldn't count the Horatio as being human anymore....probably post human.

The Wikipedia for ES kinda hints at that too, so I think calling them distinct from humans is quite fair.

Romeo wrote:
The Wikipedia for ES kinda hints at that too, so I think calling them distinct from humans is quite fair.

I mean more design wise than lore wise we have 4 human races.

Design wise?



Surly that depends if the game is multiplayer or not?

I'm not being clear apologies,design art wise. Part of the fun of space games is seeing the weird aliens and what not etc.

I've been thinking lately that the factions really lack something that makes gameplay itself unique. Lore wise it's a bit better but in terms of playing a game I think there's room for improvement and that it would make a good discussion to have.



Personally I feel the Horatio and the Cravers especially so far do the best at it. The Horatio influence sphere allows for fantastic area denial and can really let you control planet's you want settle and the cloning ability (although I think it's a bit broken) really let's you pump out a fast hero. The Sowers was an attempt to change things up but the penalty of settling planets for techs you don't have yet is too large at the moment.



Now the Cravers are great to play it definitely feels different from playing any of the other races and the Locust points are the main reason it forces you to play out of the normal way and I was wondering if anyone else had any ideas to make the other races feel unique,Lore-wise or gameplay-wise.



I think that the possible expansion coming up has a lot of potential to shake things up with ground combat,space stations,and new music (maybe faction specific?) but that's just me.

Romeo wrote:
This isn't unique to ES though. Almost half of the codexes and lore in Warhammer 40K is about humans, and they have four dedicated human factions (Imperial Guard, Sisters of Battle, Space Marines, Chaos), to say nothing of all the little human sub factions. I would like to see more alien stuff from ES, sure, but I like the Sheredyn as they are. No need to trample lore.

What lore? Literally all we have is the little bit of vague text at the select screen it's not "trampling" anything cut out the hyperbole please.

I think they should devote more time and effort to each race before adding more.



We need a stronger identifier for each race, more animations in diplo screen, maybe add some short cinematics similar to opening sequences when you discover important techs - specific to your race etc.



We also need a better explanation of the pros / cons of each faction, for someone new to the genre or to the game, many things are not clear when picking certain factions - like cravers, hirosshi, pilgrims, sawers, automatons for example. People shouldn't have to come to forums to get details about specific factions but those should be provided in game, maybe make a tutorial specific for each faction to highlight the strong and weak points and possible / favorite strategies?



Or just make a codex of sorts available from option menu at any time in game (and even from main menu before you start a game) to detail some important aspects of the game, focus / go more in depth about races etc.

Well each race does have a preferred victory type.



And where is your sense of discovery Anelyn?

Igncom1 wrote:
And where is your sense of discovery Anelyn?

Exactly! Endless Discoveries.lol

Anelyn wrote:




Or just make a codex of sorts available from option menu at any time in game (and even from main menu before you start a game) to detail some important aspects of the game, focus / go more in depth about races etc.

Just like a glossary at the endless space main menu?





It's a good idea from my point of view.

In game browser to get to the endless space wiki?

I'm okay with the three human factions, though I agree we don't need any more. lol. I like the Sheredyn just because I always wondered if their name was an homage to Babylon 5. If it isn't, I like to pretend it is.

Id love to see a few other Hissho factions.

I'm working on a huge write-up for my custom faction. One thing that would be cool would be allowing people to suggest custom factions inclusion as full factions, then allowing people to vote on them. That'd help ensure continued diversity.

NobleIre wrote:
I'm working on a huge write-up for my custom faction. One thing that would be cool would be allowing people to suggest custom factions inclusion as full factions, then allowing people to vote on them. That'd help ensure continued diversity.

That's where the Automatons came from it was successful and people liked it enough

Igncom1 wrote:
Id love to see a few other Hissho factions.

The Hisso are like Mayan Bird Samurai things,wonder what the other Hissho faction would look like.

it is true, that most of the lore we have is on the endless..

KidKirbyUltra wrote:
The Hisso are like Mayan Bird Samurai things,wonder what the other Hissho faction would look like.

Hissho are actual more like pterodactyls then birds.....that's right their freaking dinosaurs!



The main Hissho faction is about Honor and Crusades, another once could be based on revenge and piracy (So a weaker Hissho faction, having to resort to piracy).

Igncom1 wrote:
Well each race does have a preferred victory type.



And where is your sense of discovery Anelyn?

Oh you misunderstood me Was not speaking from my point of view, I am - for my shame - one of the most avid persons at gathering information related to gaming, I often know more about a game before I even decide to buy it and play it (which does kill a portion of the fun, when you already know for example that X is better than Y because it been play tested etc you get what I mean).



I meant it in general, compared to other games of this genre, the amount of information available in the game / tutorial is no where enough for this kind of game. Look at Civ5 civpedia, everything is there. You can be a totally newbie to the genre and you find everything to get you started there. And is available all the time with a simple click. I highly doubt someone coming to ES first time can memorize all the info in tutorials (which cover all aspects of the game more or less) when they start out. Am not talking about the devs holding your hand: you should build a factory here first to increase production, and for that you need to research this tech first etc.



Regarding the preferred victory type, I had cravers on endless winning a cultural victory on turn 108, all this time they did not DoW anyone, and they were 3rd on the general score tab most of the time (normal, huge galaxy, twin elliptical, 8 players, all random events on).



The tech tree could use some visual polish / UI upgrades as well, is impossible from looking at the tree to see which techs directly affect diplo / trading / military tech / ship upgrades / industry / science etc. Maybe add some selectors like highlight economic related techs in all trees, highlight fleet improvements or academy etc. Of course not speaking for the players who clocked hundreds of hours into the game and can tell you exactly in which tree and what position a specific tech is located