So, I have been playing your game since buying the emperor pack on steam and decided to wait until I played 24h (30atm) of it before commenting and giving you and the community my thought and input on it.



I'm an avid 4x, rts, player and find your attempt to involve us (the community) in the developing process too be very interesting and something more people should do.



So, Endless space! I'm going to devise my point of view into two categories. 1-Aesthetic 2-Game itself



1-Aesthetic ---- why aesthetic? because I think regardless of game type, aesthetics are a MAJOR contribute to the immersion and love the player acquires for the game and therefore are a great contribute to the overall "fun" and "enjoyment" one gets from cet game . So:



-More Moons! (artwork)- why? because not all moons on the galaxy look just like our own!



-More planets- only 1 design for each planet only changing in size is too litle, althoug i enjoy the little things you did to make them more "alive" like the city lights, tiny ships going around or the clouds on planets that have an atmosphere, you should do more things like that!!!!



-The sountrack- i love it, but, i think two or three more tracks wouldn't hurt because i think it becomes a little bit repetitive after 2/3h of playing the game. But more important than that is an idea i had. Could you try to make it so that the soundtrack matches a bit more the feeling of what is going on? I know it's hard on a strategy game, I just wish i could have two different tunes on two very different situation i came across such as, colonizing the first planets (calm, quiet, simple) and fighting a HUGE war on two fronts of my territory vs 2 different players (a bit more active)



-Giant red giants- again, i know it wont be easy, but I attended classes on astronomy at my university and damn that size comparison between red giants and white dwarfs makes zero sense. Maybe make them a bit bigger? Like, until the edge of the circle where your fleets orbit? :S







2-The game itself- just my two cents about the gameplay and how it could be improved.



-More hotkeys- i think there should at least be the option to opt-in more hotkeys, simple things like space to pass turn or C to create fleet with what is selected, things like that, i know it's a bit small, but i just feel i do a bit too many clicks in the game.



-The importance of the home system-This is perhaps one of the things i think were worse about the game, the home system has little or no importance in the big picture, even with a not so expansionist race like the Horatio i would, 90% of the times, find a colony on a nearby system much more powerful in FIDS's terms than my home one. And should i be attacked, i would fight much harder to defend that one colony and leave my home system to rot. The home system should have a much bigger FIDSs output or there should be a debuff or or something (like Hissho's passive 15 turn buff) for empires that loose their home system, thus giving it more importance both strategically and economically.



-Scrolling up and down should be used to go up and down into planets or out of systems and into the galaxy, it would save some clicks, and should not be mandatory but optional



-Empire specific heroes- Imho human heroes should not server Cravers, Hissho's, etc, every empire should have their own heroes and although they might me all Equivalent between empires, it would make the game a bit more immersive and enlarge your connection to each empire and race. And military empires like cravers should have a bigger change at more military oriented heroes, and other empires more oriented at other stuff, should have a higher change at heroes oriented at that stuff.



-Pirate/Mercenary Hiring-would it be a bad idea for some empires like sophons, who are more oriented at science or diplomacy but suddenly become surrounded by cravers to be able to hire mercenaries or pirated to help fend off attackers, but ofcourse with a HUGE cost in dust, thus making them have to make higher taxes thus lowering Fids and soo on, i think it would make an interesting option, and allow for some new stratagies and new thought processes.







Well thats all for now. Although I feel every1 will thinks its already a lot and probably wont read this whole thing .

Keep up the good work! the game is looking AMAZING



Delnoch out



ps. I posted this on the endless forum devision, but i think it is better suited here. If some1 can plz go there and delete my other post i would be glad

I feel the same way, for the same reasons.

I'll add my 2 cents to your topic (now we have 6 cents!)



I totally agree with more variety in the art for planets/moons and the planet fluff (ships in clouds and lights on the surface) should increase with total population.



I'd also like to ask for difference ship models for the various classes as in be able to choose from 2-3 styles per class. If I set up a missle corvette, I'd like it to look different to my laser corvette.

In relation to the importance of the home system - Ultimately, the loss of a capital in a real war often spells out the end. There should be substantive benefits to your homeworld, or, let's make this even more fun, it, over time, creates 'claims' on other sectors, which generates the 'legitimacy' (the liklihood of your opponents accepting the 'fairness' of your expansion into new sectors.



Dear me, I think I went off track again. The point is, I guess, that the homeworld does not feel special enough.





POST EDIT - I also think that maybe 'mercenary' heroes can be of other races, but be available at a higher cost perhaps?

As to the importance of the homeworld... in case you haven't noticed, if you're in a 2 player game, if your homeworld gets captured, you lose by the Supremacy victory condition...



And as to the Sophons and hiring mercs: if I find myself surrounded by some annoying fleet (who has decided that since I don't appear to have a navy, they should declare war on me), I generally take the next few turns redirecting my economy to build a fleet of dreadnoughts that proceed to curb-stomp the entire invasion force on account of being several generations ahead in technology. So, not really a problem, just a nuisance.