Is it me, or is the Research Victory technology too easy to acquire on Normal and lower difficulties? Perhaps I'm doing too good of a job acquiring and developing star systems, but by the endgame, it seems that all of the improvements conspire to give me a ridiculous amount of FIDS. I don't deny that a Sophon empire with maximum tech and two-dozen fully developed star systems shouldn't be extremely powerful, but I don't think I should have so many research points that I can get the ultimate tech in just a single turn. I've always thought that that sort of 'Tech Victory' should depend on more factors than simply researching a single technology - it should also mean having possession of some sort of artifacts, and possibly building one or more 'somethings' of extreme size, complexity, and significance. Maybe tie possession of enough Endless artifacts and construction of specific 'super-projects' into the Tech victory.



Also, I'd like to see a way for players to access the game lore from inside the game. The game lore that's been put out so far by the devs for the Endless is very promising, as well as the hints of the individual racial backgrounds on the main website and in the hero bios. I'd love for single-player games to give the player a repository for such story details. I'd love for there to be unlockable pieces of lore that could be acquired through diplomatic interactions with other races, defeating enemy fleets in battle, recruiting and leveling heroes, engaging pirates, discovering certain techs, and gathering and controlling (studying) Endless artifacts. The hero recruitment and advancement is a great immersive touch, and I think that a kind of expanding 'historical lore' system would be a great thing to include.

commander515 wrote:
Is it me, or is the Research Victory technology too easy to acquire on Normal and lower difficulties? Perhaps I'm doing too good of a job acquiring and developing star systems, but by the endgame, it seems that all of the improvements conspire to give me a ridiculous amount of FIDS. I don't deny that a Sophon empire with maximum tech and two-dozen fully developed star systems shouldn't be extremely powerful, but I don't think I should have so many research points that I can get the ultimate tech in just a single turn. I've always thought that that sort of 'Tech Victory' should depend on more factors than simply researching a single technology - it should also mean having possession of some sort of artifacts, and possibly building one or more 'somethings' of extreme size, complexity, and significance. Maybe tie possession of enough Endless artifacts and construction of specific 'super-projects' into the Tech victory.



Also, I'd like to see a way for players to access the game lore from inside the game. The game lore that's been put out so far by the devs for the Endless is very promising, as well as the hints of the individual racial backgrounds on the main website and in the hero bios. I'd love for single-player games to give the player a repository for such story details. I'd love for there to be unlockable pieces of lore that could be acquired through diplomatic interactions with other races, defeating enemy fleets in battle, recruiting and leveling heroes, engaging pirates, discovering certain techs, and gathering and controlling (studying) Endless artifacts. The hero recruitment and advancement is a great immersive touch, and I think that a kind of expanding 'historical lore' system would be a great thing to include.

I agree but i think it the Ai is balanced they will make it harder because she will atack you and dont let you fully develope two-dozen systems.Perhaps on easy.

But to search for artifacts and so one would be really nice,too.

commander515 wrote:
Is it me, or is the Research Victory technology too easy to acquire on Normal and lower difficulties? Perhaps I'm doing too good of a job acquiring and developing star systems, but by the endgame, it seems that all of the improvements conspire to give me a ridiculous amount of FIDS. I don't deny that a Sophon empire with maximum tech and two-dozen fully developed star systems shouldn't be extremely powerful, but I don't think I should have so many research points that I can get the ultimate tech in just a single turn. I've always thought that that sort of 'Tech Victory' should depend on more factors than simply researching a single technology - it should also mean having possession of some sort of artifacts, and possibly building one or more 'somethings' of extreme size, complexity, and significance. Maybe tie possession of enough Endless artifacts and construction of specific 'super-projects' into the Tech victory.

Well, I know from playing as the United Empire, even if I spec all my system to put out science, the techs at the end of the research trees all took about 80 turns for me. I dropped taxes to 0% and the turns were cut in about half, then, so, I haven't noticed that the victory tech is acquired too easily, and I play on normal.



Since the Sophons do get a pretty nice boost to science, maybe you just exploiting that without realizing that? Try upping the difficulty. Perhaps the AI is just being too passive in your games, letting you sit and get all this research.

Also, I'd like to see a way for players to access the game lore from inside the game. The game lore that's been put out so far by the devs for the Endless is very promising, as well as the hints of the individual racial backgrounds on the main website and in the hero bios. I'd love for single-player games to give the player a repository for such story details. I'd love for there to be unlockable pieces of lore that could be acquired through diplomatic interactions with other races, defeating enemy fleets in battle, recruiting and leveling heroes, engaging pirates, discovering certain techs, and gathering and controlling (studying) Endless artifacts. The hero recruitment and advancement is a great immersive touch, and I think that a kind of expanding 'historical lore' system would be a great thing to include.

I'd love to see some kind of Codex or Encyclopedia within the game. Where it is something that updates with lore as you discover it, such as bios of races or descriptions of tech (similar to Mass Effect's and Dragon Age's codices updating as you find things), or just an Encyclopedia, on the main menu, perhaps to allow reading up on all this.

You think the science victory is easy? Try the wonder victory. It only requires researching ONE tech tree to the end (Exploration) at a lower cost than the science victory tech, and then setting five planets to a given system improvement (which has infinite cost) and you win the following turn.

There's always economic victory, as well, in terms of easy wins (at least for me, playing the United Empire). I had to go and disable it, because I would keep getting it without even trying. And always right before I'm ready to unleash my massive Dreadnought invasion...

I still haven't managed more than half of an econ victory. Last night I finished the game owning 74% of the galaxy and building a wonder, and I still only amassed some 135000 dust, give or take.

Just curious, what turn were you on? I tend to play, at the start, with quick expansion, getting as many system as I reasonably can before making first contact. Once that happens I play slow and defensively, just building up my systems. I hit the economic victory almost always around turns 300-310, with taxes set even at 0% making me a couple grand of Dust a turn.

Oh I was on turn... 170 or so. My dust income was about 4500 (net) a turn and had over 25,000 in the bank, having nothing to spend it on (at one point I captured a system and insta-bought N-way fusion, planetary institute, two production exploits, and nonbaryonic shields...and still had leftovers).



Keep in mind every planet was exploited for production.

Ah, alright. I always enjoy being able to mass buy-out systems, and still have a hefty bank account staring at me. Makes me wish I was this good at collecting money in the real world. College debt, insta-gone, hehehe...



But, back on topic, the issue of the Science and Wonder techs being research too fast might even be solved once we get multiplayer. Depending on who you end up facing, you might not have time to spend going all the way through the left or bottom trees, but instead have to focus on getting better defenses from the top tree, for example. I'll memorize the names of all of these trees eventually.

Top: military

Bottom: exploration

Left: diplomacy*

Right: science and production



*in all forms, not just dealing with other empires, but also making deals and pacifying the populous.