If you post a screenshot, I can probably translate for you. Every so often, the terminology used in the Amplitude games seems to leave a lot to be desired.
My concerns so far are mainly about bugs. I think there is a great game in here, and the AI appears vaguely capable even if it could use a bit of tuning (that’s not to say it’s good, but it’s functional), but the bugs (you can’t get a scientific victory!) are just killing my interest.
In my game, I saw that too. I freaked out, declared war sent everything i got at him. I Lost everything, he took a few system from me, but he didn’t win.
A few turn later, I got a message that I was going to win in 4 turns. It’s then I noticed that it was for a quest about producing the most food in 10 turn. There was another quest about producing the most industry that ended a few turn before.
Turns out, because of that quest I’m now in a bad position and will probably lose the game.
Bugs or not knowing how the game works? :)
There are civilian fleets that aren’t listed on the military screen because they’re civilian fleets. For instance, food shipments to new colonies. You can’t control them, but they show up because they can be intercepted. Is that perhaps what you’re seeing?
Let me guess: it was a hero’s flagship? When a hero’s flagship gets killed in a battle, if the fleet survives, it “rescues” the hero and keeps his ship alive with one hit point.
I can verify the AI is not a moron.
What makes you think military strength is part of that bar? I was under the impressions, I think just from the name of the bar, that it was entirely a comparison of relative influence.
That’s actually a lot of the appeal of Endless Legends and Conquest of Elysium! There was enough distinct gameplay in the different factions that it almost didn’t matter if the enemy AI was retarded.
As I mentioned, the first upgrade adds extra political sensitivity. It makes the faction more responsive to events. You can see that by the addition of an up arrow and the faction’s political sensitivity.
I suspect a lot of the “bugs” are people not knowing how the game works. And I’m pretty sure I’ve won a scientific victory in the past. I played a couple games on easy when I first got the game to figure stuff out and I’m almost sure one of them was a scientific victory for getting the four unique outer rim techs.
-Tom
Just a guess based on behaviour. It could just be influence.
A lot are. But some are not - the two that killed my two games were the scientific victory not triggering (I do indeed have all four unique outer rim ‘endless’ techs, and the victory screen informs me I have all four techs, as well as 4/6 victory techs, which is a big clue something is screwy) and the a unique Lumeris building refusing to build (it would just complete in the build queue, and then be ready to be built again from the buildings menu).
There are some other bugs - mostly text strings missing.
I really like the game, but there are a bunch of bugs.
Edit: Including a few oddities with the AI moving population about.
@tomchick -You’re right on the second point - it was a flagship. I suspected that might be the case, but didn’t see it in the manual. You may be right about the first as well - I have to go back and look.
As the Amplitude Whisperer, perhaps you can explain these maths:
I’m guessing the Collection Status bar only reflects the population that belong to your faction. Is that it? That would mean that the more you encourage minority population growth, the less room you have for your own people and the tougher it is to hit those milestones.
I guess that’s known as the Bannon Rule.
Looks right to me. You get additional Pacifistic support from having 10+ of your main faction. You haven’t hit the 20+ or 50+ milestones yet, but they will unlock additional bonuses.
The the “4 turns to Victory” screen is almost certainly victory in one of the collective quests. It’s a very poorly designed screen, and if you’re in the habit of clicking through them it would be easy to miss the fact it’s for a quest and not the whole game.
Does anyone know if there is a way to encourage the growth of a certain pop type? I am maxed on may main race, and it would be nice to get more of some other races for the bonuses
Different minor factions are randomly assigned a luxury resource that boosts their growth. You an use them from the population screen @tgb123 showed above - the column next to the populations under ‘empire populations’ double as buttons to spend resources.
How do you get to the population screen? I have seen it come up automatically, but I do not know how to bring it up manually.
I think you click on the senate/government screen, and then one of the buttons (bottom right quadrant?) has population breakdowns.
Incidentally, I think the politics mechanics are both great and innovative. Getting good results seem very dependent on planning the right laws, as they’re some of the most potent buffs you can grant your empire.
I got the 4 turns until victory for those quests for sure.
Is there a trick to figuring out ground combat? I’m losing badly even when I have troop numbers advantage. I suppose there might be defensive buildings or something, but I’m unclear on how I’d know what’s going on. Most times when I try to do the option that does extra population/building damage, it just gets countered with the protection tactic. Is there something I should be doing with my blockading fleet to help out the ground forces?
Just to be clear, I’m not denying there are bugs! It’s just that when people don’t understand something, their first inclination is often to cry “bug!” Not to pick on @tgb123, but he’s a hardcore strategy gamer and his first response to something seeming out of sorts was to assume it’s a bug. Now that’s largely a failing of Amplitude for not teaching their game better – I’ve spent a lot of time figuring Endless Space 2 out on my own, and it requires some effort – but I think it means reports of the game’s bugginess are greatly exaggerated. You even joked about how you were on a “crusade” to report as many bugs as possible, and I know you’re meaning to be helpful with this. I appreciate the sentiment, but let’s be accurate about what you’re calling out.
Is this true? Or is it just that the required techs aren’t indicated? It wouldn’t be the first time the game did a crappy job of explaining important information.
The text in the tooltip says it takes four techs, but the number that tracks victory clearly indicates you need six. Is this a bug or sloppy tooltips and documentation? I don’t know the answer, but Amplitude has changed a lot over the course of the game’s early access, and you can see vestiges of earlier iterations. My guess is that the tech victory used to require four, but now requires six techs, and two of them aren’t designated. Which sucks, but strikes me as more an interface issue and not an example of a non-working victory condition.
Let’s look at your other bug:
This is not correct. The “bug” – I honestly don’t know if it’s an undocumented aspect of the Lumeris unique building or an actual bug – is that the Worker’s Camp doesn’t disappear from the building list. But the first one you build is working exactly as intended! I just tested it. You’re making assumptions based on not understanding the numbers. Not to blame you, as it requires some effort to figure this stuff out. But the Workers Camp does what it says it does. Furthermore, the second and presumably third, fourth, and fifth ones you build also work. I just tested that as well.
So again, the bug is that you can stack up Workers’ Campuses. Is this intentional? Is the idea that the Lumeris can boost their productivity with multiple campuses? The tech is called “Pulvis Production” for other races and it only provides a 10% discount to buyouts, but otherwise provides the same income bonus. So maybe Amplitude intended to let you build multiple Workers Campus as part of making it a unique “Pulvis Production” for Lumeris? Is it a bug or sloppy documentation? I don’t know the answer, but I do know that you’re calling out something that isn’t the case (i.e. Workers Campus not working).
By the way, I don’t know of any other buildings that can be build multiple times, so I’m leaning towards bug on this one. :)
-Tom
I think a lot of the ground combat is decided on this screen:
There are tooltips during battles that can be helpful to seeing why things are unfolding the way they are, but unlike space combat, you can’t pause. :(
-Tom
I’m not sure yet, but I think some buildings can be built multiple times. I haven’t done it with the Unfallen yet, but they have a building that looks to be that way, I will try to build it a second time when I play later.
Just read Tom’s post and I guess this is the second building that can be built multiple times. Maybe every race has such a building.
Ha. It tried to have my fleet fight two different enemies at the same time and crashed loading two combat videos at once.
Yes, this was my experience with ES2. The art is beautiful. The planets and ship models and anomalies and character models are detailed and inventive. The music is great. The world building has neat ideas and the faction quest lines are clever. The race mechanics are nicely asymmetric and you want to try out each one. There are some interesting decisions on how to best maximize the little spread sheets that are your planets and your empire.
And yet…
It’s not clear that there is much of a competitive game there. It feels more like a sand box, or a majestically slow and gentle tower defense, or an interactive coffee table book. In the 60 hours I played the game I never really felt pressured by the AI. Right now I am playing at “Serious” level (e.g. normal + 2), and I made it through my last game without ever really dedicating resources to defense. Like, maybe 95% of my production goes to development and colonization, and about 5% of it goes to making warships. And even that 5% is really only at the very end of the game; when it is less about fighting a war and more about using your best world to make a packet of large numbers that you send to siege down one enemy planet after another. In some ways it reminds me of a dark time in Euro board game design, where they would release games where each player gets a place-mat, you would maximize your place mat without real interaction with the other players, and then after 2 hours the person who maximized their place mat the best is declared the winner. And as with most things in life it compares unfavorably to Imperialism 2, a game that if it ever sensed weakness would immediately curb stomp you. Imperialism 2 had a constant tension between economic and military development that ES2 lacks, and a sense of danger and quickness and drama that is missing from the modern game.
And yet…
It’s not clear that the thing is completely broken. I feel like with a few more months and a good designer and some AI work they could still make it a classic. Right now though it just sort of makes me question my choice of hobbies.
I’m really digging this now. My game as the Riftborn has been really fun. I just love their story arc.
The AI is certainly forcing me to pay attention to my military. First it competed for outposts, and now the Cravens and humans have been gathering ominous fleets on my borders. Plus, with pirates and quests and such, I feel constant pressure to improve my military. Every other thing I build on my home system is a military ship. I’m a peaceful type, so I’m itching to build all these interesting civilian buildings, but the fleet is a constant worry. Consequently, the Militarist faction has been gaining political power in my Riftborn empire, and the Militarists just won the latest election, scrapping one of my laws in the process. I thought that was cool!
As for bugs, I guess I’ve been lucky. I haven’t really seen any significant bugs yet. I’m impressed with how polished it is, actually. I do agree with Tom that I wish there were more in-game documentation. There’s a manual available; it has some useful info in it. I think Tom mentioned it earlier. I’m not sure if it’s entirely up to date, but it’s answered some of my basic questions. (Not all of them, alas.) http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/392110/manuals/User’s_Manual_-_Endless_Space_2.pdf
Okay, thanks Tom! I’ll go double check some of this behaviour.
