davea wrote:
OK, let's list the top five problems which the dev team could fix. Here's my list, and I don't even play MP.

1. One big lobby instead of many small regional ones

2. Out of sync is too frequent

3. Unbalanced maps leading to early ragequit

4. If host quits, game cannot be continued

5. Your opinion?



I am curious what is the "only one affinity that matters"? I have tried to implement some rebalancing in a mod, such as preventing Endless War and Blockade Breakers together, decreasing the science from trade by 4x (so amoeba doesn't get ahead on science), and decreasing Hissho bushido percentages. If there are other glaring balance problems, we can possibly fix them via modding also.

For me one more thing is crucial for mp:



time the turns take are much to long.Eliminating manual combat from most fights would help a lot:



1-Add retreat to auto option.

2-Create a "fast" manual option: no animations , just:



1-Panel showing repsective fleets state (hp) phase 1 , choose battle cards.

2-Phase 2 , show the state of fleets , choose battle cards.

3 Phase 3...



Without animations this should take like 5 seconds, maintiating the manual factor and control over the battle.

Speaking of Heroes,



I vote to just get rid of the damn things. They add nothing to the depth of the game AT ALL.



Don't fool yourself thinking they do, because the ONLY thing heroes are, are some extra numbers to micromanage on the planetary system side, and a Win Button on the combat side.



They suck. I hate them. Get rid of them.



OR



Allow us an option to disable heroes.



One of the two.



Because frankly they're a drag on the game, without a single redeeming quality.





EDIT:



Which of course is impossible since it would completely break Horatio...though seeing as Horatio are utterly broken if you don't get an admin hero anyway, I guess it's not that big of a deal in the long run.

I am still certain Synaptic has never actually played this game. Has anyone seen him go past turn 5?

Kyu wrote:
I am still certain Synaptic has never actually played this game. Has anyone seen him go past turn 5?

Nope i didnt.

Maybe thats why the sentiment, you dont need heroes on turn 2.

Oh...



Is this the part where the fanbois trot out their best retorts?



I'm kind of rusty at this. I haven't bothered with game forums forever since they're rarely worth the trouble.

I think what the majority of people in this thread are missing is:



games



are



played



for



fun



!



and the rest of the thread boils down to: waa!! waa!! people won't listen to me waaa!!

Kyu wrote:
I am still certain Synaptic has never actually played this game. Has anyone seen him go past turn 5?

He is right about heroes. They need to be optional, especially in MP. They are stupid joke that unbalances the game. In combat they are just too good. Actually ES suffers from poorly thought out % bonuses, from heroes, fleet xp, and resource monopolies.

Shivetya wrote:
He is right about heroes. They need to be optional, especially in MP. They are stupid joke that unbalances the game. In combat they are just too good. Actually ES suffers from poorly thought out % bonuses, from heroes, fleet xp, and resource monopolies.

Don't you just love when you've got a hero on the opposite side of the f'ing galaxy and you're getting attacked by a giant superior fleet on your opposite border and have no fleet that can defend anywhere near and it would take you 7+ turns to get enough ships to the area to defend, BUT WAIT, you can just magically F'ING TELEPORT your hero a gajillion f'ing lightyears away into a sh!tty little fleet near your attacked system IN THE SAME TURN and decimate their entire force because ES is genius like that and heroes are such a well thought out game mechanic?



Don't you just love when you have a system that's going to be captured on the next turn, and you can just f'ing teleport your uber-admin hero that was boosting production and defense right off that b!atch before you suffer an injury because heroes are such a well thought out game mechanic?



I love it.

Why don`t you just play another game? You make it sound that your always on the bad end of the features you want to be changed. Random effect means random and sometimes you are at the good, sometimes the bad end of things. If you don`t like that mechanic, got try playing chess instead.

Allendana wrote:
Why don`t you just play another game? You make it sound that your always on the bad end of the features you want to be changed. Random effect means random and sometimes you are at the good, sometimes the bad end of things. If you don`t like that mechanic, got try playing chess instead.

I know it sounds like I'm being unfair in my criticisms, but this is a games company that takes money from people in exchange for the ability to play online with others. I pirated this game to demo it in single player and I was impressed enough that I bought it to enjoy online.



Multiplayer is a totally separate beast from singleplayer though, and now that I've gotten to experience it in full, I find that the value I thought the game had is severely diminished due to game mechanics which are biased and/or broken. I feel the game can improve, but I'm not happy with the manner in which the votes have been managed and that none of the major concerns with the game with the exception of the Hissho imbalance have been addressed at all.



I'm frustrated that I'm in a very, very tiny minority of people who even play this game multiplayer, and this adds to my curt attitude as well since I feel we are the lowest priority for available development effort.



However, if my unhappiness with the condition of the game is expressed accurately, maybe it will offer an opportunity to rally others who play MP and get the attention we deserve to make the game we paid for not just "playable" but also enjoyable and as frustration free as possible as well.

You are frustrated because you are running out of excuses and can't conjure any plausible explanation why you keep getting your arse kicked over and over by the same people - good players who win consistently no matter how much their starting constellation sucks.



You are frustrated because you love victory and to boast but are unable to do so unless you get blessed with a godly start and your opponents cursed with crappy heroes.



You are frustrated because no one cares about your constant whining.

Balam wrote:
You are frustrated because you are running out of excuses and can't conjure any plausible explanation why you keep getting your arse kicked over and over by the same people - good players who win consistently no matter how much their starting constellation sucks.



You are frustrated because you love victory and to boast but are unable to do so unless you get blessed with a godly start and your opponents cursed with crappy heroes.



You are frustrated because no one cares about your constant whining.

Hark, the herald fanboi sings...

Let us all remain calm, please. It is likely that the next version of the game will have an improvement for balanced galaxy generation, as revealed in the 1.0.19 xml files:



/#/endless-space/forum/37-modding/thread/15817-xml-differences-between-releases

Dear Synaptic, I´m playing this game ONLY in MP and besides the broken Hissho mechanic you can outplay most of the points you adressed. But taht means you need to adapt your strategy.

Shivetya wrote:
He is right about heroes. They need to be optional, especially in MP. They are stupid joke that unbalances the game. In combat they are just too good. Actually ES suffers from poorly thought out % bonuses, from heroes, fleet xp, and resource monopolies.

Well imho this would detract from the game, they just need to be fairly distributed. And apart from the production hero, they arent really that powerfull.



Managing heroes is aanother aspect of the game that requires some skill.

Synaptic_AI wrote:
Don't you just love when you've got a hero on the opposite side of the f'ing galaxy and you're getting attacked by a giant superior fleet on your opposite border and have no fleet that can defend anywhere near and it would take you 7+ turns to get enough ships to the area to defend, BUT WAIT, you can just magically F'ING TELEPORT your hero a gajillion f'ing lightyears away into a sh!tty little fleet near your attacked system IN THE SAME TURN and decimate their entire force because ES is genius like that and heroes are such a well thought out game mechanic?



Don't you just love when you have a system that's going to be captured on the next turn, and you can just f'ing teleport your uber-admin hero that was boosting production and defense right off that b!atch before you suffer an injury because heroes are such a well thought out game mechanic?



I love it.

Even a 20 level pure combat hero isnt uber powerful.



He will tip the balance if you got same tech level and got right modules on both sides.



But if you got better tech/ better suited modules no hero will save your fleet.



And synaptic if you played past turn 5 you would experience it.

FireStorm wrote:
Even a 20 level pure combat hero isnt uber powerful.



He will tip the balance if you got same tech level and got right modules on both sides.



But if you got better tech/ better suited modules no hero will save your fleet.



And synaptic if you played past turn 5 you would experience it.

False. A lvl 20 will tip the balance no matter what if the opposition has no comparable hero.



False. I've seen fleets 2 tech levels down own the enemy because of an uber hero.



False. Wait...what? If you have *better* tech/modules...no hero can...Y'know, let's just move on. lrn2language.



False. There's no reason to play past turn 5.

Synaptic_AI wrote:
False. A lvl 20 will tip the balance no matter what if the opposition has no comparable hero.



False. I've seen fleets 2 tech levels down own the enemy because of an uber hero.



False. Wait...what? If you have *better* tech/modules...no hero can...Y'know, let's just move on. lrn2language.



False. There's no reason to play past turn 5.

Actually, a L20 maxxed combat hero is almost exactly equal in power to a 2 tech level advantage. So with a L20 hero and 2 tech levels difference, you now have an "even" playing field again module vs module, if your 2 level inferior fleet won with the L20 hero it was because of more optimal module choices in comparison to the higher tech fleet. This assumed being 2 tech levels down across the board for all weapon/defense/armor mods, and does not take into account the potential advantage of the higher tech fleet in support mods or tonnage mods.



And yes, his wording was a bit backwards, but the clear intention was "But if you got better tech/ better suited modules no hero will save THEIR fleet." Which is true if you have at least a 3 level tech advantage, or a definitively better module match (if you have matched defenses to their weapons, and your weapons match a hole in their defenses, the tech level can even be equal without their hero having a significant difference on a single combat - you may take 50% more damage, but their defenses are still 0 no matter how high level their hero is...because all of the bonuses are multiplicative, and anything multiplied by zero is still zero...



As for your last statement: then why do you start to play at all? There is no reason to play to turn 5 if there is no reason to play past it...

False. A lvl 20 will tip the balance no matter what if the opposition has no comparable hero.



False.



Maybe a 20 level hero will balance a 1 level tech differecne, a 2 tech levels difference wont, your hero will die.

raccoon_tof wrote:
Actually, a L20 maxxed combat hero is almost exactly equal in power to a 2 tech level advantage. So with a L20 hero and 2 tech levels difference, you now have an "even" playing field again module vs module, if your 2 level inferior fleet won with the L20 hero it was because of more optimal module choices in comparison to the higher tech fleet. This assumed being 2 tech levels down across the board for all weapon/defense/armor mods, and does not take into account the potential advantage of the higher tech fleet in support mods or tonnage mods.



And yes, his wording was a bit backwards, but the clear intention was "But if you got better tech/ better suited modules no hero will save THEIR fleet." Which is true if you have at least a 3 level tech advantage, or a definitively better module match (if you have matched defenses to their weapons, and your weapons match a hole in their defenses, the tech level can even be equal without their hero having a significant difference on a single combat - you may take 50% more damage, but their defenses are still 0 no matter how high level their hero is...because all of the bonuses are multiplicative, and anything multiplied by zero is still zero...



As for your last statement: then why do you start to play at all? There is no reason to play to turn 5 if there is no reason tbo play past it...

yeah tahts what i meant.



I may be wrong about very specific numbers, but from my experience 2 levels of techs is enough to negate any hero, i may be wrong , maybe its 3.