Vicarious wrote:
I'd say the opposite: EL shows they are not ready for Endless Space 2. At this point it seems EL inherited all major ES's flaws:

• Weak AI. It is especially dumb when it comes to diplomatic interactions and trading, it hardly can defend its cities even if its military power is huge, it doesn't understand that capital is a priority target for other players and so on.
• Unbalanced starting positions. Sometimes you end up starting in a frozen s**thole surrounded by regions that are hardly decent, while your closest neighbour colonizes lush regions with spices (era I luxury providing 50% food on city?! Seriously, guys, powerful early game >>> anything else in 4X games.) one by one. Challenge? Sometimes yes, but most of the time extremely poor starting position is a gamebreaking factor.
• Obscure game mechanics and confusing tooltips. Why not to make something like Civilopedia, an in-game manual that explains basic mechanics such as expansion disapproval? An example from my own experience: I had been playing the game for about a month when I discovered that orders for a unit can be queued.
• Unbalanced factions (Vaulters are new Sophons, Broken Lords are new Sowers)
  
  

I still believe EL could become a great game, though.

I want a real manual for BOTH GAMES.

I would not mind seeing another DLC for the game.

I chose "no expansion", even though I love ES and would probably play it a lot.



Why? Because it would be of very little benefit to the company, not a lot of players would even notice and/or care about a new expansion and I would rather see Amplitude focused on improving their more recent releases or thinking about yet another fantastic game to create... not too soon though!

The engine is getting on, and some of the changes people want to see can't be done on the current es engine.



SO who knows, ES2 could be a huge leap forward, just like EL was.

I think the engine and maybe even general design wouldn't allow for the kind of change I'd really like to see, as in applying the improvements in Legend (more streamlined research etc) to this setting. I also don't think adding even more factions would make much sense at this point, except maybe as more of a minor faction concept (like pirates capturing a system), but that again would probably work better in a sequel.

I vote for ES2! I luv the tactical combat art style, but many felt put off by not controlling individual ship. It was empire controlling with tactics added on. They did a great job of knowledging their strength with endless legend and doing tactical combat integrated in. They didn't loose the real control of empire management as the focus. Also, they could bring in planet invasion interface. The two game changing concepts need full development and a full ES2 launch.



If they run short on funding, they should kick start the project. It would help them understand how much narrow but intense demand for 4x strategy games. Also, they could do a beyond earth better then a beyond earth... It would get firaxs off their A$$ and develop a real product. Vaulters land on a new planet already developing with new civilations... and world intelligence.

EL shows they are ready for Endless Space 2. Don't get me wrong, I am looking forward to the new free DLC. But, they are ready for a full new version of ES 2. EL's tactical combat and diplomacy need to be fully reworked in ES2 to bring out the game. Also, they need to make money to continue to put out great games and experiment (Dungeon of the Endless).

Tdoggs wrote:
EL shows they are ready for Endless Space 2. Don't get me wrong, I am looking forward to the new free DLC. But, they are ready for a full new version of ES 2. EL's tactical combat and diplomacy need to be fully reworked in ES2 to bring out the game. Also, they need to make money to continue to put out great games and experiment (Dungeon of the Endless).

I'd say the opposite: EL shows they are not ready for Endless Space 2. At this point it seems EL inherited all major ES's flaws:

• Weak AI. It is especially dumb when it comes to diplomatic interactions and trading, it hardly can defend its cities even if its military power is huge, it doesn't understand that capital is a priority target for other players and so on.
• Unbalanced starting positions. Sometimes you end up starting in a frozen s**thole surrounded by regions that are hardly decent, while your closest neighbour colonizes lush regions with spices (era I luxury providing 50% food on city?! Seriously, guys, powerful early game >>> anything else in 4X games.) one by one. Challenge? Sometimes yes, but most of the time extremely poor starting position is a gamebreaking factor.
• Obscure game mechanics and confusing tooltips. Why not to make something like Civilopedia, an in-game manual that explains basic mechanics such as expansion disapproval? An example from my own experience: I had been playing the game for about a month when I discovered that orders for a unit can be queued.
• Unbalanced factions (Vaulters are new Sophons, Broken Lords are new Sowers)
  
  

I still believe EL could become a great game, though.

Prestb wrote:
ES2 would be cool. So would an ES1 expansion; either would be cool in my opinion. I'd pay up to $20 for a new expansion, $50 for ES2.

I think Amplitude is in the enviable situation where their fans are WAITING PATIENTLY FOR STUFF THEY CAN BUY.

ES2 would be cool. So would an ES1 expansion; either would be cool in my opinion. I'd pay up to $20 for a new expansion, $50 for ES2.

I don't think there ever needs to be a Endless Space 2.

the games I've seen from Amplitude seem to all happen in the same universe under different circumstances.

and well, that's exciting and I like all of them.

The thing is, after seeing the games,

and hoping more work goes into all of them - the newer once more perhaps - I would rather see a new take on the same universe.



It could be any type of game really, I'd give it a look at least to see if it caught my interest,

a puzzle game, or a sim or a strategy ect. just, something to add another part of this universe I play in.

And okey, I'm feeling doubtful of any potential puzzle games I admit, and I like puzzle games....

but still. rather something new than a version 2.

Maybe they could do a sort of Endless Space prequal using the Endless themselves?

Expansion or sekuel?

Depends on what the dev team want to accomplish at the new development.



Choose expansion when they only add:

- new content

- new feature



Unless they want to :

- Do new engine

- graphic and gameplay major overhaul

- etc



ES1 == Expansion <<<<<< ES 2 is a must.

more expansions as they provides material that is an addition to the allready existing.



other than that. collect the "good ideas" and do a ES2

It would be nice if ES2 built on knowledge learnt from EL (especially Hero skill tree). It could be interesting if one could load fleets with Heros to command them but perhaps take some notes from Star Wars: Rebellion (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQwzf1e3jhE)

Especially in regards to the use of special operations forces (similar to a Hero) and how they can be assigned to go out and execute sabotage or other missions.

It'd also be interesting if you had the ability to grow your own hero's (i.e. like in EL where you start with one, not just being reliant on getting a mercenary off the bat)

Speaking of mercenaries, this would be an interesting aspect given as you tend to have a lot of ships that might stand idle (automating this as with exploration might be of interest).

One aspect that HOI4 seem to be toying with in regards to fleets is about spreading or concentrating ones fleet, in the same way one get reinforcements in EL, having a concentrated fleet would start with all ships deployed at once.

The benefit of having a fleet spreed out would probably be increased efficiency in patrolling/blockading or finding enemy ships in a system (so sending out a concentrated fleet of obsolescent ships to privateer an enemy system might actually work, even if they have better ships), this also makes it of great interest to install very good sensor system on your ships or in your system.



Further, when it comes to colonization, the moons ought to be most races first push if they have the benefit of a moon. And it would also make for an interesting start if you were to include a "pre-warp" start (e.g. like in MOO2 and 3?)



Some early technologies could thus be:

Space Exploration (Exploration & Expansion)

- Enables outpost on moon and any other planet (an outpost is not a colony per say, but offers some FIDS/Special resource bonus as well as essentially saying you claim the place)

- Enables civilian hull (e.g. colony ship)



Space Transport Network (Diplomacy & Trading)

- Freighters (build resource used for moving resources/population from one colony/outpost to another, as well as being targeted by enemies and pirates and possibly to channel troops from one system to another [ifyou'reconfidenttheywon'tbeattackeden-routeandthuskilled]



N-Way Accelerators (Applied Sciences)

- Ability to see Star lanes

- Ability to build ships with Stardrives (i.e. travel along star lanes)

- Ability to build ships with Scanners (i.e. the long range things on scouts)



Orbital Defences (Galactic Warfare)

- Enables Corvette hull (as well as several military sub-systems [Weapons/DefencesandSpecialsystems])

- Enables Transport hull (similar to civilian hull, but for troops. Or just enabling civilian hull to carry troops)

- Enables Basic Troop sub-system (Can invade planets or build outpost)

- Orbital Defence platform (Enables the building of stationary orbital platforms around a planet [], can mitigate planets with astroid impact, but also have sensor systems installed [toimproveruleoflaw,i.e.lesspirates]

- Orbital Shipyard (Enables building of larger craft than corvettes in star system, ability to build more than one corvette at a time)



This way, you can challenge yourself by starting of as a non-spacefaring race and take over the galaxy.



Also, it would also be interesting if one could "Parley" with minor races found on the planets (perhaps enabling an empire bonus of some sort if they were to be assimilated as in EL), another very interesting aspect would be to have some form of trading system similar to that in EL (mercs and strategic/luxury resources) as well as quests pushing you along (with greater story depth).



The anomaly resource tiles in EL are very nice too with their descriptions and artwork as well as animations on the map.

Artwork for technologies and buildings similar to what was found in EL would also be nice. (personally I'd prefer a more linear left to right tech tree.

I want Endless Space 2 already. I have several "controversial" ideas about it, such as changing the current lane based movement system (in which ships move across the map from one sistem to another through these lines) for a free movement system, like the one in Stardrive 2.



I would also suggest a new scenario, besides the basic one (which is the sandbox game with the random galaxy): a canon story-driven scenario of what happens a few centuries after the first Endless Space. The map would obviously not be randomly generated, and it would be fully settled by the other races, with some stronger than the others. Perhaps, there can be the United Empire on the brink of conquering the galaxy, while some factions from Endless Legend are only now achieving space flight, becoming playable factions.

HumanSpacer, seems you should check recent Galactic Civilizations III - it has both.

PvtHudson wrote:
HumanSpacer, seems you should check recent Galactic Civilizations III - it has both.

Actually, I have been playing Galactic Civilizations III since early access, and it's an excellent game. But I also love Endless Space's universe, and would want to see a sequel for it. Besides, there are a few things that Endless Space does better than GalCiv III (such as the visuals of the planets and my beloved United Empire), just as there are some things that GalCiv III does better than Endless Space.

steelstiletto wrote:
The link you provided didn't mention anything about another expansion, just a general release of the Vaulters. Is that what you meant?

He means updates, rather then payed DLC or Free add-ons.

I think there won't be anymore expansions, but I hope for another 1 or 2 big patches to fix a couple of things left over. It's a fantastic game by the way.