I should have read the rules for suggestions. I'm really sorry. I divided my post into smaller bits. I would delete this if I could, but it seams, I can't.

Sorry again.





Hi there,



I bought Endless Space a few days ago, cause I really was excited about a space 4X game. Up until then I played Civ5 a lot, but the Sci-Fi scenario is just too tasty to let it pass.

Now I played the game for about 40 hours and now some of you might say, that that wouldn't be enough to judge the game, but that's not what I want to do. It's just that there are so many flaws (imho), which make the game dull for me and I just want to share a few thoughts about some stuff.



Disclaimer: Yes, I played lots of Civilization and yes I will mention some ideas from civ, but not because I want them implemented that way, I just mention them as an example, so you get the idea.







Where do I start? Oh yes:



Controls/Interface

• In starsystem view you should be able to insert a new improvement/ship at the top of the queue by, for example, shift-clicking it.
• In starsystem as well as combat view you should be able to expand the ship overview and the construction queue. It's anoying to only see 4 constructions and 5 ships, without needing to scroll.
• This ones probably a bug: You often can't switch/exchange ships between fleets when in fleet overview. On the Starmap it mostly works, but sometimes its vice versa.
• In planetary view you should be able to see what recources you need to restore an endless wonder, WITHOUT needing to colonize it.
• When you hover over options like to nullifie an anomaly on a planet and it shows you which technology you need to use this option, you should be able to, for example, shift-click the option/icon which then leads you to the science tree and highlight the necessary technologies. It's annoying that you need to keep the name in mind, then switch to the science tree and search for the technology by hand.
• It would be great if you could see what kind of planets are in a starsystem on the starmap, just like you can see if theres a wonder or recources on that specific planet. Maybe colored dots, or a letter above the dot. That way you have a better overview what planets are where. It would take some unnecessary hopping between starsystems at the beginning of the game.
• There are so many Luxury recources that it's hard to keep track of what each of them does, without checking it all the time (at least for newer players I guess). It would be great if the recource icons could at least have a color depending of what FIDS it primarily boosts.
• You should be able to see how much each approval level increase or decrease your FIDS income in percentage, so you get a clue of how good or bad each level is.
• On the starmap you should see what distance in parsec the routes between starsystems are! I don't want to guess such a thing!
  
  

Some ideas to make the galaxy a bit more "alive":



Living Galaxy



It would be great if there would be hidden exploration and event sites besides starsystems on the starmap. You could either stumble upon them during travel or activly search for such sites with appropriate modules on ships/starsystems.

• The sites then could trigger events or give a one time buff/debuff. They could therefore replace the random events. It would be less random and it would feel more like you actually found/explored/accomplished something yourself instead of a simple window popping up.
• The sites could of course be guarded by pirates or endless security systems.
• Some sites could actually be pirate hideouts which spawn pirate fleets and can be taken down for bounty/approval/etc.
  
  

Another idea would be something similar to the city states in Civ5. Single Starsystems which are governed by AIs. You could trade with them, invade them, etc.







Now to something completely different:



Spaceship Builder



The main thing which bothers me here is MISSING INFORMATION!

• Spare me stats like "hull weakness", etc. Don't make me alt-tab to look the stats up and then calculate my information myself. Just give me the damn numbers I need to know. So:
• Show me how good my defenses are. Meaning: show me how high my avarage chances are to reflect damage, etc.
• Show me how good my weapons are in EVERY BATTLE PHASE! If I specialize my beams on long range combat, then I still want to see how good or bad they do in medium and melee range! I don't want to guess!
• Bombers and Fighters should have MP values. They deal damage! A fleet of carriers is shown as near zero MP and therefore can't be targeted! Same with invasion fleets. (I will adress targeting fleets individually later on)
• More hulls. More diversity would be nice. 5 relevant ship hulls just aren't that many. Where are carriers? Where are troop transports? Where are Planet Bombers?
  
  

Now to something not so completely different:



Fleet targeting/intercepting/Starsystem Combat



One sentence: Let me choose what fleet to target myself.

If I want to attack the weakest fleet, or the one which merely survived last combat, I want to be able to. Because if I can't, then why am I able to attack the strongest fleet at all?

Especially if it comes to attack invasion fleets: Invasion fleets often have near zero MP. Therefore it's nearly impossible to attack them, without shooting down every other enemy fleet in the system! You can't stop invasions that way!!!



How interception works is stupid. You just tell a fleet to intercept everything and every single fleet in the whole starsystem magically can't leave anymore.

BUT: If I engage in combat and then "escape" I suddenly break through the blockade?

Why can't I try to break through the blockade manually? Of course, if I do so, I would have to fight one of the intercepting fleets (and IN THIS CASE it even makes sense that it's the strongest fleet you'll have to battle).



Here's another idea, which would be highly experimental and I just mention it so it has been mentioned:

Instead of just having your fleets in a starsystem you could have them orbiting specific planets within the system. That way you could choose where your fleets are in the system and where they want to attack (including planetary bombardement/invasion) or defend.







Apropos:



Invasion



I an seriously disappointed at how invasions work: they're just numbers on a sheet. That's...boring... Seriously...

PLUS: It's not logical.

Why can't planets have defence systems which actually can shoot down ships? Who cares if they are in outer space! Give them Railguns or Defence Sattelites or Spacemine Fields. There are enough possibilties!



And here's my big PLEASE DO THIS plea:

Make invading a starsystem an actuall battle.

It could work similar to space battles: You could have an outer space/bombardment phase and a ground phase.

Of course planets would need actuall ground and defense units which can be shot down (instead of improvements) and planets actually can fend for themselves a bit, instead of completely relying on external fleets to come to their rescue.

Invasion Fleets would need ground units, too. Infantry, tanks, etc. They could be "special slot" modules.







And now the topic which probably is the most controversal:



Combat



In one sentence: I want more control over the combat!

Yes, in Disharmony we got some additional options. Formations and especially targeting orders are great but dealing with cards, formations and targeting at once becomes hectic.

So here are my ideas on how I would love to see combat, even though I know that probably won't happen.

• Endless Space is a turn based game. Combat shouldn't be real time. At least give us the option to pause combat whenever we want OR interrupt the battle at the beginning of each battlephase (not round), so we can adjust our tactics.
• Instead of a targeting "List" you should be able to choose your targets individually. If you want everybody to shoot at the dreadnaught, you should be able to.
• Instead of formations sorting the targeting "List" they should rather give defensive/attack bonuses for being in the back or up front. You could order ships to "shield off" other ships. They then take some shots, etc.
• For the love of god, REMOVE THE CARDS...please? I understand the idea of the cards and I will give an appropriate solution but please understand the following: the mechanic can completely turn the tide of battle. ONE blocked card can mean defeat or victory. Especially because they even get stronger when they block. And the most stupid thing about this mechanic? IT'S FREEKIN' LUCK! I want to win through good ship builds and tactic and not by playing rock, paper, laserrifle!
  
  

As promised, here's my solution for removing the cards and still keep the idea of "special moves":

Special moves should be tide to support modules/special slots.

For example: If you put an EMP cannon on one of your ships, you can use an EMP in battle.

If you pimped your weapons you can use "overclocking", etc.

There could be modules like "shield bubble", which wraps the whole fleet in a shield or repair drones, which repear the whole fleet, etc.

Now a lot of you will say: "We allready have that stuff as cards!"

Well, you're right. But without cards there would be completely new ship builds. You could have ships which are solely for support for example. You would need to care about what "special abilities" you want on your fleet.

In order that things don't get out of hand you can only use one ability per battle phase, of course. Certain abilities might even have cooldowns or can only be used once per battle.



The most important point here still is, that there shouldn't be any "block" bonuses and no "rock, paper, massdriver" mechanic. Yes, you should be able to "sabotage" enemy abilities if you have appropriate modules on your fleet but this will only nullify that ability. That way there wouldn't be any "I trigger my offensive card which increases my damage by 40% and...cool I block the enemy card and now I even get aditional 10% damage and my enemy is as good as dead." situations anymore.

By blocking enemy abilities you just block them. Not suddenly power your entire fleet.



So overall:

Give us more direct control over the battle and our fleet. And trash the luck based mechanics which are way too powerful.







Thought that was it? Nope, here it comes:



Intelligence Service/Espionage



Simply put: There should be spies.

You should be able to use heroes as spies. Infiltrating enemy starsystems, giving you information about fleet movement, construction queues, stealing technologies, sabotaging constructions/research, etc.

Possibilities are near endless.

Of course there should be an appropriate hero class for that sake.







Are there alien da Vincies? No? Why?



Cultur



You're part of a whole species which colonizes space. There are billions of your kind and yet it seems that the only thing they do, is researching (which is appropriate), build stuff, eat, trade and earn money.

But what about art? Religion? Music? Folklore? Drama? Movies? etc.

Space is vast and there are many different races which should have different cultures which have an effect on other cultures in both good as well as in bad ways.

I will just mention Civ5 here, because they do have a culture system and to give an idea of how you COULD make one.

Culture should give you bonuses and penalties, depending on how you play. A peace loving culture will not approve sudden war declaration on your side. Religious zelots want to convert every other being in the galaxy to their one true faith, etc.

Your race should develop their culture over time, depending on your playstyle.

Bring it!







You're the president! Wait, what?



Politics



This time I will not mention Civ5's "social politics" 'cause I don't like that system.

Instead you should be able to choose your political direction out of a selection of different politics like autocrazy, democraty, sozialism, nationalism, etc.

While culture should develop over time, political direction is directly chosen by you, as president (yeah, that's not how politics work, but what the heck. You're freekin' president!).

Of course there should be (huge) penalties for changing your political direction for a fixed amount of time because of the sudden turnaround.

Depending on what culture your race has developed they might wish for a certain political direction. If they don't get it, approval might drop.



Overall you should be able to "govern" more. You can alter the tax rate, but that's about it.

Some politics might decrease the approval loss through high taxes, or increase approval for high industry, or while at war or while at peace or because you're race is so very smart.

Same with FIDS in general.

Again, possibilities are nearly endless.







So. That's finally it (I hope).

I know, it's a wall of text which critically hit this board, but I really just had to write this down.

I really want to like this game, because it really has potential but at the moment there are so many downsides which just leave me puzzled, frustrated or bored behind.

I really hope that there will be some changes. I will definitly have an eye on Endless Space.

Hope my ideas are worth something. If not...well I at least killed some time. ^^

So long!



PLiddl





PS: Please don't mind my spelling and grammar. It's late, I'm tired and english isn't my mother-tongue. ^^

Your ideas are good, maybe except for adding espionage. 4x games hardly get spies correct. They are mostly broken or irrelevant. Civ5 system is kinda ok, sure, but still a system that I don't really see much need of. If devs decide to add one of your ideas, I sure hope it's one of the others, or just more neverending balancing.



Another brutal truth is that this game is kinda cheap. I doubt they would add so much features (it's gonna take extreme amount of balancing, especially your idea to expand combat which will likely greatly favor players), but the interface changes would be much appreciated. And apart from bombers and fighters, other modules like armor should surely add MP.