the alpha is actually qute good. just need those other factions......... also missles always 1 hit k/o my ships

i am actually trying to curb my enthusiasm since the wait for a worthy moo2-successor has been that tiresome...

rageinthedark wrote:
A Star System in a circle would have been better.

Well, a lot of things could look more realistic or be visually improved. Fact is this is a designer choice and the general design of the UI is meant to be simple and accessible. This approach choosen by the game designers has 2 main advantages : 1. It keeps the UI accessible and intuitive 2. A hell of less bugs, so improved efficiency which is probably the reason why the Alpha is so impressive (regardless of the graphics that are so cool too).

About space ways,did you plan to put something like black holes? It would allow the players to discover other parts of the map that could not be discovered before a certain level in sciences...I know this is a very common matter but it would be a nice possibility,or may be too common..I do not know..

Okami wrote:
Aerensiniac very nicely done. You cover a lot of the issues that many people have mentioned and put it in a nice easy to read format.

Thank you kindly

As an idea for your random events in your game, do you have one where a unknown powerful species will deploy a fleet of ships to go around acting like the Pirates do early on?

System Invasion

When an empire attempts to take over a space system, it can attempt to invade it with ground forces. This will preserve all System Improvements and the local population can be added to an empire.

Will it be a simple roll or is there more behind it ? Will there be way to render it harder (guerilla warfare fo rinstance) ? And what about the "burnt lands" tactic (you burn the land before the nemy gets there) ? Will it be possible to destroy buildings before they are captured ? WIll it be possible to try to create "on the fly" dormant agent that would let you create a rebellion some times later ?

Please refer to the link in my signature for an overview of (imho) current issues with the game.

here's a list of my suggestions for you take ideas from:



Space empires 4 (even the 5 but the 4 is the best one in my opinion)



Galactic civilizations 1 and 2



Sid meyer Alpha Centauri (it's WAY more indepth than it looks at first sight, you might want to check it troughtly)



Distant worlds (more a simulation of a living universe rather than a 4x in my opinion still worth to look to get a feel of it)



a very old and almost impossible to find game named MALKARI, I strongly suggest you look into that one expecially the "asteroid invasion" system and the infinite tecnology progression system (it truly never ends.), it's not exactly a 4x it all takes place in a single solar system but it has alot of absolutely brilliant points.



for the rest I absolutely love your game, it is well thought and the whole thing is managed WAY smartly. you are a bunch of geniuses guys!.

There is one thing for diplomacy and war alike that would be really important: If you can ally with another faction and ask it for help in a war, then you sould DEFINETLY be able to give a command where they should send their fleet. I don't mean you should get control of the ally's fleet! You just need the possibility to tell your friend, where you need him and the AI should act accordingly.

It would be good if the heroes you employ develop as personalities over time depending on the way they are used, not in terms of xp from battles but personality traits from winning a great victory or too meany defeats. something similar to the attributes used in Crusader Kings

For example: the hero governor of a planet could become restless/ bored with the planet they run, a negative trait that grows overtime unless you move them on. equally they could "go native" seeing the planet as their adopted home receiving bonus multipliers in running that planet but would be far less efficient if moved to another.



A hero Admiral who wins time after time could become "war weary" gradually becoming less effective unless you pull him back from the war and keep him out of action or "retire" him. if these guys are heroes they should effect the game greatly by their presence and it would be cool if that presence could change over time. You may hire a great pilot named Anakin Skywalker only to have him turn into a Darth Vader (or a Malcolm Reynolds )

Monarch wrote:
I think the back story for some of the heroes switching sides makes sense, but I would prefer if races mainly had their own race for heros. The Cravers wouldn't hire a Sophen. They would eat him.

Indeed when you first meet the cravers and they have human fleet admirals it killed my game immersion right on the sport.I would like the see the same.Factions have mainly their own racial types but with the odd alien included.

VieuxChat wrote:
Cravers assimilates other species. They use them as slaves more or less.

Ohh I didn't know that. Very cool.

In what way will the game be different if I compare it to galciv II? When the game was made it was outstanding in compare to other games of this genre, I expect this game to be at least at level galciv 3

I wanted to second the "wow." This is what I have been looking for in a space strategy game. I particularly like the introduction of heroes - especially ones you can level. The graphics look amazing as does the star map and planet detail. I also very much like the very detailed interesting planet view of the lava planet with the moon. Too often planets in other games are uninteresting, grey, green or brown blobs. Space should be exciting. Discovery of extra solar worlds should be an amazing event - each planet should be interesting and unique. That's one of the things that made MOO2 interesting - the discovery of toxic worlds, water worlds and the (for the time) very good visuals to reflect the interesting panoramas of the alien world. Looks like that spirit is being captured in Endless Space. Nice job!

Dylucke wrote:
Will you be able to have manual/auto ground battles as well or will you instantly win the system when their defending fleet is wiped out? Will you have any negatives from taking over a colony like dissent and resistance movements?

Battles are being resolved automatically as soon as you start them, and can take several turns to be resolved. They are being fought between your fleet and the defending system. the more populated or well defended a system is, the harder and the longer it will take to conquer it.

Randy4069 wrote:
I wanted to second the "wow."

I just wanted to say a big thank you for your kind words, as it is very encouraging for the team to read these kind of posts, and makes us want to do even more

Strobe wrote:
Hmmm, you definitely succeeded with the Master of Orion feel, that's for sure. However, I'm a little leery on the six planets per system thing. Will they all have six planets/asteroid fields/whatever, or is that just the maximum limit? I don't think I've seen a screenshot yet that had less than the maximum.

there can be a minimum of 1 planet... good point it is true that we never showed a screen with less...

Strobe wrote:
I'm also a little unclear on the tech tree in general. Can you only research one thing at a time? Are the little connectors the only prerequisites you need to research a given technology?

you can research 1 tech at a time, but queue as many as you want. all these connectors are indeed prerequisite (you need at least one)

maceman wrote:
no mention of Espionage? or is that part of Diplomacy somehow? This is most certainly a game rich in thought out details. You really have done well to tap into making they player 'care' about their race & heroes.

we wanted to do it, but we removed it as we were not satisfied with how it was turning out. I would love to focus on it later though.

Furfuris wrote:
What pops in to my head is, at least from the wording you used, is that the solar system will have one production rate as a whole, instead of planet by planet production. Or is that what you meant, that each planet in a solar system has its own production line?

Production line is System base, although you can specialize each planet differently.

Netwolf_ wrote:
looks awesome....

Thank you mate! Our artists will be pleased to hear that!

looks awesome....

Those are some beautiful shots.



Even more excited about this game.

Furfuris wrote:


Another stray idea was making sure planets (and the occasional moon) have disadvantageous aspects to them, as well as advantageous things. A moon that's a bit too close, causing large tidal shifts and storms and such, or a planet that's so old it no longer spins on its axes, making only one side habitable until some technology is researched (possibly halving the productive output of the world). Things like that.

He did say 'Anamolies' would be positive or negative in there somewhere

I'll lead by saying everything certainly looks like exactly what I'm looking for in a modern MOO/CIV hybrid. I hope that doesn't sound like a backhanded compliment; a successful iteration of that genre is a lofty goal, and from what I've seen, you folk are well on your way there.



One thing that comes to mind involves system management though. I second the question of whether all solar systems will come with six planets, but I get the feeling there's going to be alot of variably system to system. What pops in to my head is, at least from the wording you used, is that the solar system will have one production rate as a whole, instead of planet by planet production. Or is that what you meant, that each planet in a solar system has its own production line?



For things like solar system improvements, it would be cool to enable multiple planets to work a common goal, or have them producing six different things (provided six planets).



Another stray idea was making sure planets (and the occasional moon) have disadvantageous aspects to them, as well as advantageous things. A moon that's a bit too close, causing large tidal shifts and storms and such, or a planet that's so old it no longer spins on its axes, making only one side habitable until some technology is researched (possibly halving the productive output of the world). Things like that.



It's all the little minutiae and details like that, for myself at least, add flavor and personality to a game. If you can spend some time pooling genuinely interesting ideas with some (and I hate this f******g word) "pizzaz" to them, alot can be brought to a game through some simple random number generators in galaxy creation.