I am a new Endless Space player, having picked it up when it went on sale a few days ago. I started a game on newbie, because although I am a 4x fan, I heard this game was difficult so I decided to test the waters with the easiest difficulty. Little did I know that I played Deity games on Civ 4 that were easier...



The AI absolutely steamrolled me in less than a hundred turns.



I pulled up some strategy guides, and began following them to the letter (expand early, turn off pirates, the usual)... I bought myself maybe thirty extra turns? It has got to the point where the game is unplayable due to this steep learning curve and cut throat AI. Now I ask of the modding community here to please help me. Is there a mod that makes the AI tolerable, and if not; is it possible for someone with intermediate programming knowledge like myself to edit the XML files to make one (if this is the case, what values would I need to edit)?

Easiest solution would be to make "Cheater" traits and then do your own custom race with them. There's a number of mods on here that will let you intentionally break the balance.



This would also help you ease in to harder and harder difficulties. Get used to the challenge, then get rid of an advantage or two, and keep going.

Personally, I have to play on endless... to me the AI is veeery easy.

AI programming thread has a really easy AI.. jk



Take a look inside '..\Steam\SteamApps\common\Endless Space\Public\Simulation\Registry.xml' or '..\Steam\SteamApps\common\Endless Space\Public_xp1\Simulation\Registry.xml' if your using Disharmony.

Theres a block called and has some interesting settings like TurnCooldown and IsNerfActivated. The ministry settings have some nice looking stuff too. No idea what those things do so post back if you figure it out.

I think, but haven't tested, that the TurnCooldown is a variable you can set in order to make the Very Easy-AI skip turns. I think it is default to one right now which means that it won't do a thing every other turn.

For Automatons, however, this would not be much of a problem because they don't lose any production if they don't queue a new item. ^^

Can someone explain to me why some people would have a problem with easy AI on this game? I see the original poster said he played Civ4 on deity which isn't an easy feat, so, why are people that are experienced having problem with easy AI? I have to play this on endless, or I don't have a fun filled game with battles against the AI. To me the AI is amazingly boring and easy..... Maybe it's to do with ship design?

GripHAHA wrote:
Personally, I have to play on endless... to me the AI is veeery easy.

GripHAHA wrote:
Can someone explain to me why some people would have a problem with easy AI on this game? I see the original poster said he played Civ4 on deity which isn't an easy feat, so, why are people that are experienced having problem with easy AI? I have to play this on endless, or I don't have a fun filled game with battles against the AI. To me the AI is amazingly boring and easy..... Maybe it's to do with ship design?

Well, let me start by saying: No need to be such a dick about it. He's having some difficulty. You're not contributing anything useful here. Either focus on the topic at hand or bugger off.



On topic, if you prefer playing a specific style (You like running away with research, or you like to smash the enemy the second you see them) your best/easiest bet is making a custom race from the selection menu. I like a slow, methodical military, so for me, trying to play with the default Cravers is a nightmare. Doing up a custom Hissho, however, is much more condusive to that. If you're having difficulty though, like I said, use one of the "Trait" mods kicking around here, almost all of them have a "Cheater" option to make yourself waaaaay better than the competition.

Thanks everyone, I added some cheat traits and I am now on equal footing with the AI.

GripHAHA wrote:
Can someone explain to me why some people would have a problem with easy AI on this game? I see the original poster said he played Civ4 on deity which isn't an easy feat, so, why are people that are experienced having problem with easy AI? I have to play this on endless, or I don't have a fun filled game with battles against the AI. To me the AI is amazingly boring and easy..... Maybe it's to do with ship design?

I never said I won the game xD, I usually get slaughtered by the medieval era on diety. I do however stay on the top 5 out of 12 civs up until then.

How am I being a dick? you nut... Sorry If have a hard time figuring on why people can't even beat the easiest of AI's on this game without cheats, while I have to play it on endless... no need to be a dick to me for asking, ♥♥♥♥wit.



Don't cheat, Freedomna, learn to play the game as is. Ship design is important... make all different types of ships with different strengths and weaknesses.. and mix them into a good working fleet. Then you can crush any fleet that comes at you with ease... also, it's best to have a hero with-in the fleet with fleet skills. If you don't have a hero with both fleet skills, use one with a production skill and fleet skill, then flip flop between system and fleet. Do not neglect your ship building.... you will loose ships.

All I can suggest is to just keep playing, you may need to lose a few times in order to develop a strategic thinking for this game and start winning. I remember the first time I won on Newbie AI, which was the second time I've played this game, the game was very long (260 turns) and it took me a couple of hours, starting up is all about spamming colony ships and colonizing the best systems around you, surviving is all about strategy and thinking ahead, the first time I won I actually started pretty bad, I had about 200 points when the AI all had around 400, I played with 3 random AIs, and it so happened that 2 of them were Cravers (can't make peace), luckily for me, one of them were Sowers. Once you make contact with the first aliens, your best bet is to stay away and mind your business, trying not to anger them too much, doing this, I stood neutral with the Cravers and eventually became friendly with the Sowers, once all the planets were taken, however, the relation between my empire and both of the Cravers factions slowly started going down. Thinking ahead, it was clear that a war was going to happen in a few turns, so, for the 50-ish turns I had, I put most of my planets to scientific research (through conversions and improvements) and developed my military tree. Then I made a cruiser and destroyer design (Being an United Empire race, I had 9 command points per fleet, 4 cruisers and 1 destroyer filled those points) and started mass producing these fleets. I also made an alliance with the Sowers, their points were about 850, mine about 1000, one of the Cravers' about 900 and the other ones' about 1500. I declared war on the 1500 point Cravers when they went into a war with the 900 points Cravers, seeing as it was an opportunity to take advantage of their weakness while they were fighting with another faction, my ship designs proved extremely efficient , and my allies were fighting them on the other side, I slowly dominated the whole faction, making me and my ally the 2 most powerful factions, the remaining Cravers faction was a piece of cake to take over after that. I then won by diplomacy after a few dozen turns.



That being said, I do not recommend you to use cheats, it may not be fun to lose a couple of times, but it's the only way you'll really get better at this game and it's inevitable that you start winning in a said amount of time. The fun and fulfillment then is worth it.