Hi,



I just heard about this game and wanted to know more, and after having been through 2 pages of google results, it turned out that some basic information about the game appear to be missing, or akwardly overlooked. I therefore registered here, in order to hopefully find this out:



1) Will this game support LAN multiplayer? (it appears to be so according to some topics in this forum, but the information is unclear and far from being exhaustive)

2) If there is some multiplayer modes, will there be teams, or just basic FFA? (by teams, I mean team objectives, some shared information etc)

3) If LAN multiplayer and teams are possible, will the turns be playable by all at the same time, or will each player have to play one after another?

4) Will this game be released as physical standalones (CDs) or only through Steam and/or some mandatory online registration?

5) What are the specs requirements?

6) What is the average duration of a game? Will there be a campaign with some story, or does the solo game just consists into a player vs AI game?



Thanking you for your attention,

Please find the answers to these and many other frequently asked questions in Raptor's FAQ, linked in my sig.

Well, I would like to thank you for your reply, but I am afraid that this reply provides little extra information. I have been through again the main FAQ pages, and most of my questions remain unanswered:



[X] LAN multiplayer? The answer appears to be yes, but the current "Yes, Endless Space can be played in singleplayer and multiplayer" statement can also mean that the game requires an actual internet connection and only be playable online.



[_] Multiplayer Team modes available, or just basic Free for all? No clear answer. The "Yes, Endless Space can be played in singleplayer and multiplayer" and "Diplomacy is a vital part of the game and has a big impact on your military strategy, economy and research" statements are not enough, sorry.



[_] How will the turn-based concept be played in multiplayer games? No information. Will all players have to wait for the current player, or will all of them be able to play their turns all together in the same time?



[_] Game available with physical copies or only through Steam? Only information is "Pre-orders are now available on Steam!", and is worrying.

[_] Installing and playing the game will require constant internet connection and online registration? No clear information. The steam thing may let people assume so.



[X] Specs requirements? All details supplied.



[_] Average duration of a game? No clear information. I have read somewhere games that lasted 6-7 hours.

[_] solo campaign with a story or just a player vs AI game? No specific solo campaign appears to be available.

There is no lan multiplayer, internet connection required to start/continue a MP game. Only SP can be played in offline mode.



There are no team modes, and no allied victory conditions. You can team up mid game, but only one person can win.



Simultaneous turns (it always operates this way, the ai does not wait like in most TBS.)



Right now I do not believe there are any physical copies, no idea on future plans.



Steamworks is the DRM, so you can play in offline mode, but you need steam installed and need to have an internet connection at some point.



Game duration can vary, and there are speed settings. 6-7 hours sounds about right for a larger map normal speed game.



player vs ai game, no campaign.



Hope that helped!

It did somehow yes. Thank you for this information.



No physical copies, no LAN multiplayer, no allied victory conditions, DRM, "Big Brother" Steam mandatory... This game has just lost a potential customer.



I can't understand why developers who may be so ambitious and so creative with the game concept actually end up being so awkward with the distribution and the user experience.

test_endsp wrote:
It did somehow yes. Thank you for this information.



No physical copies, no LAN multiplayer, no allied victory conditions, DRM, "Big Brother" Steam mandatory... This game has just lost a potential customer.



I can't understand why developers who may be so ambitious and so creative with the game concept actually end up being so awkward with the distribution and the user experience.

Good morning test_endsp, and welcome!

"So awkward with the distribution" seems a bit harsh to me. Is it so easy for an indie to deal with retailers globally? Many members of this forum actually questioned the need for physical distribution. I hear your point, though, and Amplitude has publicly announced that (through their distribution deal with Iceberg Interactive) boxes will be available from August 24th.

May I add that the moderators on this forum are incredibly helpful, and the tone on this forum usually very nice. I understand we all would like to have quick taylor-made answers to our multiple choice questionnaires, but Amplitude is (still) a very small team of outstanding professionals, with one great community manager dealing with 27,000 members, 6,000 threads, 64,000 posts. I am pretty sure you'll soon find members to help you with your requests.

I have studied game design and project management and I follow the video games news for nearly 20 years and I am aware of the difficult step for a new, small studio to deal with the publishers. The recent Bip Media vs Mindscape case in France may quickly come to mind. I understand the developers' point of view, but do the developers understand the gamers' point of view?



What is Steam?



Steam is a resources-draining, spying factory. It gathers plenty of information about me without my authorisation, and thanks to the so-called Patriot Act in the United States, the government can get extracts of this data anytime and file me like a mere criminal without any reason, authorisation, warning or judgement. Why should I let people I don't even known gather, record, manage and eventually make money with my private data?



The second point is about those so-called "dematerialised" licenses. As a private company, they can go bankrupt anytime and close all their servers and I can say goodbye to all my licences. Oh wait, they don't even need to go bankrupt, they actually just need to do some "maintenance" and that's it, all my licences are unavailable, anytime and for an undefined duration. Why should I pay for a licence that will be actually owned by somebody else?



I purchased Half-Life 2 when Steam started nearly a decade ago. The software turned out to use at least 10% of my workstation resources for no reason and to randomly crash with no error message, and there was rumors on the internet about some spyware issues. And someday I forgot my password. The password recovery function did not make much sense at this time and I could not get get it back or reset it. I then contacted the customer service who advised me to... format everything and reinstall the computer... And I am not even talking about alllll those "updates" that turn out to be untested, dysfunctional and make the whole thing crash, unable to connect to anything, for 2, 8 or 24 hours or sometimes even more. This can happen anytime they want, and they need to supply no reason and no apologises whatsoever about this. Why should I pay in order to then go to all these troubles?



Sorry but the moderators point is irrelevant. I am not here to experience the moderators skills. When you order a meal or bring back your car to the garage, the salesman's tie is most likely not your primary concern. I just heard about a game and I wanted to know more. Now I know that this game is not for me.



Don't get me wrong, being french myself and having been involved into the video game industry in the past, I am somehow proud that such project is made in France. This is creative and ambitious and an alternative to that Call Of Duty, Starcraft or Street Fighter cheese, but there are unfortunately a couple of features that let me to think that the whole point has been missed here :



A concept so much dedicated to multiplayer, without LAN and teams modes?



Steam is not the only business model for the developers who do not want to deal with the big publishers.



Piracy can be dealt with other means than DRM and mandatory online registration.



This said, I wish the best of luck for the team.

With your questions answered, I'll close this thread. Please stay on topic.