Does anyone know if Endless Space 2 uses the same card-based combat as Endless Space? I suppose there’s a better place to ask that question…
-Tom
I sorta answered that question in the ES2 thread, but after a dozen combats, I’m now more certain that the answer is basically yes. As in ES1, you choose from one of three tactical-battle plans, and then the game resolves combat.
Worth $7.49 on Steam?
It’s worth twice as much, at least. If you like fantasy TBS in a game that isn’t just another MoM clone, you’ll love this. It was my personal GOTY for 2014.
What is the consensus about the DLC, any of them worth picking up on discount? What are the best ones? thanks.
I think all are worth getting, but the most “substantial” ones would be Shadows (espionage and a new faction), Shifters (winter temple and a new faction) and the upcoming Tempest (naval mechanics and a new faction).
How strong are the rpg elements?
Also, how much micromanagement?
If I want lots of the former and little of the latter, is this a good choice?
You have heroes and quests. Heroes have a skill tree, and you can equip them with weapons and armor. Quests are tied to storytelling usually, and they have a strong RPG “feel”, but it’s far more high level than most RPGs. It is a strategy game with some light RPG elements, but it remains firmly on the “strategy” side.
There is some micromanagement of cities and armies, but you’ll usually have few cities and few armies in most cases, so it tends to be a lot more manageable than Civ or similar games.
As for your last question… hard to say. Endless Legend does scratch my RPG itch really well, and its micromanagement doesn’t bother me at all, but YMMV.
Appreciate the input. I’ve mentioned this before (most recently in sorcerer king I think) that I like the idea of 4x games but tend to bounce off them, maybe finishing one play through then moving on. I like the exploration more than the later parts usually, feeling like later stages of games get way too bogged down.
What killed it for me with SK and had me skip the latest expansion was the feeling that it was far too many scripted little encounters so that when you ran into the identical quest your next play through, even if how the little encounters were placed on the map in a slightly different location, it just felt far too “been there, done that” to me.
Exploration is a big part of EL, and since the factions are so asymetrical and play so differently, exploration always feel fresh.
The different factions do look really unique. That’s for sure.
I think that it’s easy to feel this way. Endless Legend, a bit like Civ IV, lets you make a whole lot of choices. They are all good. But you do not have time to do them all. In Civ V, by contrast, you basically do everything every game - just the order differs. This has a very big effect on how the game feels.
I think if you want to reduce this a bit, try a game as the Broken Lords. This requires specialisation (you will want a lot of dust, and more dust, and some more wouldn’t hurt). You won’t have a ton of the food technologies and buildings clogging things up. So your options are narrowed and your path a bit more obvious.
Endless Legend is the one of the best 4X games I’ve found where your choices are plentiful and meaningful. In many games the answer to ‘which technology should I research?’ is just ‘all of them!’. You cannot and should not do this in EL. Every technology you choose needs to be meaningful and important, because not only does it have a cost, it has a huge opportunity cost of not researching another technology. There are a lot, and they are all useful. But some are more useful for you than others. You need a plan, and you need to make hard choices, and you need to plan it out 20+ turns in advance. It’s very, very rewarding at a strategic level.
I agree the combat sucks.
I’m looking forward to Tempest.
Once again I’m trying to really get into the game. Once again I’m irritated by the way this otherwise so beautiful game renders the borders of the territory and the city tiles. Is there anything that can be done about the floating borders (see picture)?
Never even noticed this, but I am almost never zoomed in that close, so that might be why. Not that it would bother me if I did notice it, it’s not like it makes it difficult in determining what is in your border or not.
You are right, it’s not negatively affecting gameplay or anything like that. As someone new to the game I just wanted to get - because of lore and atmosphere - a close look at these city buildings… but I can’t see a lot because of the floating borders. They are aesthetically not very pleasing. Why do they have to float? - that’s what I was wondering about. Admittedly not that a big deal.
The borders aren’t really ‘floating’ - they’re the height of the terrain tile.
If you want to not see them when you zoom in though, you can deselect the city.
btw: The Tempest-Expansion is already live (at least here in Europe).
@Fifth_Fret
Yes, thank you, just deselecting the city gives a nice view.
… and 25% off, no less! (all the other DLC is 75% off, or even more if you get one of the bundles)
So how is the Tempest expansion? Anyone playing yet?