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. Something usually ignored in 4x I feel.



I like the Total War nod as that series I felt had a good blend of the large-scale strategy/3d combat in a turn based environment. My favorite was probably Kingdoms which I played over and over and over...

I have a mix of my own questions, but most of them have been asked, can't wait for some answers.

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.



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? How quick will technologies be able to be researched? Is there a cap to research speed? Is it going to be possible to win a victory with technology alone? How much of an advantage would you consider "balanced" for something like combat technologies? (Apologies for the question dump, but I couldn't find a thread on the subject)

Very nice Screens what i saw till now. Will be nice to see how the game evolves and how you will handle the input from the community.

I will be here often i think :-)

I´m waiting for a nice 4x game worth the bucks and worth time playing for a long time now.

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?

Sure enough you mention ground troops but will they face resistance? will they die ? retreat ? get wiped out because the ground military of the defender turned out to be stronger?



Those are some questions that keep popping into my head whenever i see a 4X space game because they all seem to neglect that there is a whole population there to resist them be it military or civilians i doubt either would just hand over the planet even with a whole fleet hanging over their planet.

WOW. This game is like perfect. Almost everything I have dreamed for a space MMO-RTS. Definitely going to play it.

no worries mate, it is not a subscription based game

Well bravo the game looks amazing! But im getting worried please dont make this like WoW where u have to pay money each month unless its poor people affordable like $5 or $10 a month or make like a console game type where u buy the CD and dont have to pay for membership EVER again.

Heroes

Heroes are special characters who can join your Empire and give it great advantages. Heroes have different classes and can be used for two purposes: to lead fleet into battle or to govern and defend a Solar System. To accomplish these missions, the hero must be assigned either to a fleet or a Solar System. A hero never dies in battle, they simply needs to heal their wounds.

Every Empire starts with three possible Heroes to hire, and new heroes are proposed to you as you progress into the game. Each hero has a cost, both to hire and also as upkeep each turn.

The player can control a Hero's progress in skills over time, with a skill tree specific to their classes.

More details will be available in the Heroes thread.





Technology

When the game starts, all empires know only basic technologies, based on their Empire Traits and Empire Affinities. This means that an empire has only access to basic ships, System Improvements, and Planetary Improvements.

A technology tree interface allows you to select a new Technology to research. Once it is selected, research points generated from your Solar Systems are accumulated during the galactic turns to complete the research.

Each new technology grants the player several possible gains such as new ship types or modules, Planetary or System Improvements, exploitation of Resources, new game mechanics (such as spying or forms of travel), and of course access to further technologies to research.



More details will be available in the Technology Thread.







Diplomacy

You play the game with other empires, but these are not necessarily your enemies. Through a special Diplomacy screen, you can contact other empires, activate treaties with them (peace, war, open borders, alliances of different kinds), make deals of mutual interest, or force them to accept your conditions.

Allied empires can help you improve your economy, speed up research, fight alongside you, and allow your fleets to navigate through their territory. Enemy empires offer possibilities of expansion for your empire, especially as critical Resources may be under their control.

Based on your previous interactions with them, empires will have an attitude towards you, from hatred to adoration. This will condition how they respond to your proposals for treaties and deals, although the strength of your empire and its armies will also be a factor.

At the start of the game most races have a neutral attitude towards one another and are at peace, unless one of them chooses to declare war.

Fleets

The player takes over the galaxy through the management of fleets, which are groups of spaceships. Ships are produced in Solar Systems, and assembled to constitute Fleets. Ships can be easily transferred from fleet to fleet.

Fleets travel through space by two possible means: string induction engines, based on existing cosmic string traces, or warp drive which allows fleets to travel directly to anywhere on the map (provided the ship has the required range).

Individual fleets are limited in size by a system of command points, determining the maximum of ships it can manage. Each ship costs command points based on its class, and technology research, heroes, or Empire bonuses can increase the maximum command points for a fleet.



More details will be available in the Fleets&Ships thread.



Ships and design

The game allows you to produce a vast array of ship types and sizes. Some ships are designed to colonize, others are designed to fight, or only to scout.

You produce ships on a solar System basis, selecting a ship design in the system factory. New designs are unlocked by your progress in new technologies, and can be completely customized. Custom designs are created from the assembly of ship Modules of different types, selected by the player in a special interface. Of course, available Modules will depend on your technology progress.

The combination of the ship Modules will determine not only its basic attributes such as damage, speed, and hit points, but also its passive capacities or possible actions.

More details will be available in the Ships Design thread.







Space battle

When fleets from opposing Empires meet at a system, the acting player has the opportunity to start a space battle by selecting one of the fleets at the system where they have met. The defending player is then prompted to select a defending fleet.

Both players can chose between an automatic (instant resolution) or manual battle. The automatic battle computes the outcome from the ships statistics of the opposing fleets.

The manual battle is a special game mode. The opposing fleets are presented in a 3D view near the system center planet of the system. The battle is broken into battle phases where each player plays one or more actions (up to three) to attack the enemy, defend his fleet, or apply modifiers to the battle.

The battle ends when one of the fleets is destroyed or retreats, or if there is no conclusive winner at the end of the combat phases. If both fleets survive a space battle, the fight can resume at the next galactic turn.

More details will be available in the Space Battle thread.



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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.

Galaxy



The game takes place in a randomly generated galaxy, composed of star systems. Each star system is composed of a star of a random type with a number of planets in orbit. Star systems are connected by cosmic strings which allow fast travel in the galaxy.

The types of planets found in a system are generated from the type of star, and produce a maximum of 6 planets per system. Special elements can also occur in star systems, such as Asteroid belts, and will replace possible planet occurrences.



Planets are of different types, and have varying levels of efficiency for colonization or exploitation. Terran planets are the most useful for most races, while Gas Giants are impossible to colonize without the right technology. In addition to its type, each planet may hold one Anomaly, and it may also hold one Resource. Anomalies modify the planet's efficiency, whether for good or bad. The Resource must be exploited (which will require a technology) in order to benefit to your empire and speed up some constructions.

Finally, planets can hold moons, which can potentially contain great bonuses for the whole empire.

When a new game is started, the player selects some parameters that determine the size and content of the galaxy. Also, some specific star systems will be generated as "homeworlds" for each competing empire.

More details will be available in the Galaxy & Generation thread.







Empires

The game puts a number of empires into confrontation, either controlled by human players or AI players. Each empire is personified by a specific race, which gives it special attributes, advantages, or flaws.

An empire occupies the galaxy through the star systems it controls. Starting from an empire capital star system, other star systems can be colonized to increase the population of the empire as well as its outputs: Production of ships and system improvements, research, and money (Dust*).

Once colonized, a star system can be optimized through the selection of working activities assigned to its population (industry, food, finance, research), but also through the construction of System Improvements.

New planets in a system can be colonized after the first one (called the system center), to increase the population of the system and its outputs. Planets can also be optimized through the selection of Planetary Improvements which will generally increase the planet's output.



The empire territory is defined by the stars it controls, which generates a territory surface through cultural influence. Other empires will have to request open borders to navigate through the systems an empire controls.

Empire management interfaces allow the player to transfer goods or population between his systems or to other empires. Each improvement or ship also has an upkeep cost which must be supported by the empire via the Dust* accumulated by each planet. The sum of all Dust on an empire's systems is consolidated into the empire's treasury.

The empire is also heavily dependent on the approval of its population, measured for each star system individually, and averaged over the systems to determine the empire average Approval. Success in warfare, Improvements, and Resources will raise Approval. Overpopulation, a high Tax Rate, empire over-expansion or military defeats will lower Approval. Star systems affected by low Approval can rebel or secede if left unchecked.

An empire is also defined by its knowledge of the technologies it has discovered as well as the constructible Improvements each technology unlocks, the fleets it controls, or the heroes it has rallied to its cause.

The empire evolves, generates wealth, and produces elements following a turn system. At the beginning of each new galactic turn, the empire progresses one step further in new discoveries, improvements, or fleet control.



More details will be available in the following Posts

• Empire management

• Frontiers and Influence





Races & universe

This universe stages a fight for supremacy between a number of distinct playing factions. These factions start with equivalent advantages, but will provide the player with different strategies.

Each one is defined by cosmetic factors (name, appearance), but also gameplay factors such as Empire Affinity and Empire Traits. Empire Affinities define a specific philosophy for the faction, leading to unique improvements, technologies, and strategies. Traits offer secondary advantages (faster scientific research, better diplomatic skills) or drawbacks (weak fighting skill, higher upkeep cost).

The universe was once populated by ancient races who left traces of their technology as ancient artifacts or strange temples on moons. It is one of the goals of each empire to recover the knowledge of these long lost civilizations. The greatest of them is known as the Endless; who created and mastered the Dust. Use and understanding of Dust can provide your empire with advanced technologies and superior leaders.



More details will be available in the following Posts

• Universe

• Precursor races

• Alien Races





*Note: Dust is what remains of the ancient race that first populated the galaxy; they are known as the Endless. Dust is composed of uncountable quantities of nanomachines and nanocomputers; it has value both for Trade and as a material for use in research and construction.

Hello Everyone,



first of all thank you for joining us in order to make of Endless Space the best Space Strategy Game ever.



I already had discussions with quite a few of you about our vision about where do we want to stand compared to previous and future strategy game:



We definitely want to inherit the values of: Master of Orion, Civilization and to some extent Total War all of that with a strong focus on Multiplayer.



it is quite ambitious, and in order to make all of that work we had to make calls, that I hope will please you. But if you guys are here, is it obviously to discuss that calls and to make of Endless Space a better game when it is done.



As time goes we will update this forums with more details on other parts of the game.



let's start in this Thread by a very brief overview of the game.





Overview:



Galaxy

Empires

Race & Universe

Fleets

Ship and Design

Space Battle

System Invasion

Heroes

Technology

Diplomacy

SpaceTroll wrote:
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.

That's not really what i meant; I think the best example i can give is Star wars: empire at war where first you have to play a space battle and after that if you want to take over the planet, you then put some forces down to assault the most important base on the planet which lets you play out the ground battle. So what i really meant is if you can do the ground battles yourself and have some control over the ground battle aswell , as in playing out the three actions like with the space ones, rather then just waiting a few turns and then poof the planet/system is conquered.



EDIT: Possibly there also being a chance to have to retreat, get wiped out or get into a stalemate, just like the space battles.

Great shots of the game and game details, still can wait to get my hands on it!

Not sure how this could be factored into the gameplay, but it would be interesting to see NPC controlled regions where their technology and power is massively stronger than what could be achieved by any individual player in the game. This faction would be purely defensive and a goal could be to either team up (truce) with another player to take them out (they could habit specially productive/useful/strategic planet) (or they could ''hold'' unique advanced technologies that must be captured to be used.)



or



If an individual player was attempting to gain this technology, they would have to commit huge resources to invade the controlled systems and hold off this massively superiior force long enough to reach their ''central'' system or something which contains the plans for this advanced technology. They would then presumably have to make a quick getaway before their force, with the plans, is lost.



This could also link back to the endless and these NPC factions could be more recent civilisations that more recently found their technology is a much more usable state (like actual endless-themed ships and technologies)

To offset the huge advantages the technology would provide over other players, it ould have to be offset with a huge cost. (similar to superweapon units/structures/powers)



For example, the tech could be an extra-devestating weapon that can only be mounted on capital ships... or a super-fast warp that can only be used by a single battlegroup at a time, or an area-of-effect ''dilation'' field which slows down enemy warping.



just a thought.

i still don't understand... is combat will be tutn based?

looks all pretty well ;D cant wait for this game to be finished! I have waited a long time for good 4x games which are in the space... in the last years there rly was nothing new. Hope that you guys will be able to balance all the races well and even succeed with your ambition that every race has its own "feeling" while your playing it.



And i hope you will manage to get a nice Hiver race into this game ;D because i love to play as a hive organized organic race which is well structured like in sword of the stars II the Hiver race.

Ivan_33 wrote:
i still don't understand... is combat will be tutn based?

We don't know yet. Judging from the gameplay sections of the trailer we've seen, I'm guessing no, and that combat will be in real time. However, the ultimate, galaxy-wide sections will be turn based, as in most (all) 4X games.

the game looks really amazing.. and epic video to Game2Gether xD

The battle is broken into battle phases where each player plays one or more actions (up to three) to attack the enemy, defend his fleet, or apply modifiers to the battle.

The spacebattles are like Combatmission it seems.You set a plan and then it plays out in real time for a phase.