I brought the game in the ‘thanks giving sale’ and loved it. I have not spent so much time on similar type of game for a long while, last one was Making History 2 while it was super buggy.



As a player of empire building / war games since DOS era, grown up playing the legendary KOEI's Historical Simulation series. I also have a hobby of writing sci fi story concepts. I believe Endless Space has tons of potential with continuous development .



What Endless Space would do is a semi scripted Co-Op possible Single Player campaign. It would greatly boost ES’s replay value.



This ‘Depth of the Abyss’ concept has borrowed ideas from Mass effect universe and KOEI’s long running game series:

First of all, the Abyss is to be the opposite of the Endless. They are like the Reaper in Mass effect, they are the Ultimate ‘bad guy’. This Abyss will appear in say 99th turn of the game and it will consume the galaxy with its overwhelming force unless player managed to stop them.



In a single player game, player would start out with at least two other AI controlled civilizations. Player can choose to use diplomatic relation to build an alliance with them or conquer them in preparation for the arrival of Abyss phrase of the game.



In the struggle against Abyss phrase of the game, player will have to use their reserved resources, researched new weapons, and command allied forces, make key story element choices: throw everything at the abyss to win.



There is to be a text narrated story in the course of the game. The existence of the Abyss is discovered by exploring the planets and moons with Endless relics. New technology is required to analyses the information to determine what the Abyss is so player can produce a plan to counter them.

In my current concept, what the Abyss is has more than two versions:



It maybe some rival race of the Endless defeated by them, exiled out of the galaxy and now returning for revenge.

It maybe some experiment gone wrong and all the Endless turned into Abyss, because of the galaxy at that current state was not habitable for them anymore, they left. Now they return again to claim what is rightfully theirs.

Then we can rip a page off masseffect, the Abyss is something created by Endless, sent out to reform other galaxies for the Endless to migrate to, but now they return to find Endless gone, with the master gone, they decided they are the master.



The fun here: player may not know which version of the Abyss is until they discover their origins during game-play. Each version of the Abyss would have a different tactic to counter.



To boost difficulty, Player may have to play a few times, until they encounter all three versions of the Abyss before they can unlock to choose which version of Abyss appears in a custom game.

Then each race would have certain advantages in the struggle against the Abyss, certain alliance with different races would produce different results.



By introducing random plot elements, it is possible for one of players Allied race turn against player, throw the players plans in ruins as a kind of plot twist. Heroes can show up and play a big part in form of the last Endless, some Endless AI left behind for the younger races, an Abyss defector, etc. Many elements can make a new game different to the last one played.



At the end, player can read a log of events, key entries of what the player done and the story revealed, making it a story of some sort for player to read.



I believe it can be done with some careful scripting and project management. It will have to be a paid add-on back but something well worth it consider the level of fun it can bring to the game.





What do fellow players think of the idea?





Thank you for reading



Happy gaming,



Regards



Jack

As much as a campaign might be nice, it's not why the vast majority play the game NOW and it wont increase future sales of the base game.



There's so much potential left in the game and so many things that would be nicer to have that I'd vastly prefer the actual gameplay to be enhanced rather than devs focusing on a campaign. In fact, that could potentially turn me off in the short to mid-term as it would mean the devs have completely the wrong priority compared to the desires of the community as a whole.

I haven't been around here that long (inspite of the join date...), so I'll take ETs word for what the community wants.



However...



If the modding tools, or some kind of scenario editor were available I'd be all for user created content of this ilk. I'd be all for dev created content as well, challenge scenarios, whatever. But if that's not the direction than it's not the direction, until it is the direction of course

I really like the idea. Maybe make it a game mode where it can be turned on and off, maybe a victory condition. Also I would want to be able to modify to some extent when they show up. And not all at once. Maybe start with a few small scout incursions, then it moves up to vangaurd fleets, and finally an invasion force.

I love this idea.



Let's make it so that where they appear first is pretty much screwed - Batarians (lol)

I can imagine the news of these guys would decrease happiness level. It's time for propaganda - We are holding them off just fine! (+20)

New Victory Conditions - Red, Blue, Green balloons - you know what I mean

As much as i would like to have a campaign, i agree that devs should focus on more important things atm.

JackAu wrote:




The fun here: player may not know which version of the Abyss is until they discover their origins during game-play. Each version of the Abyss would have a different tactic to counter.

_THIS_ I like. I'd like at least half a dozen different options, all with different required tactics, to reduce the chances of someone finding a common set of tactics which always work, but the multiple varients... I've never seen that. Ever. It's perfect.