I like GalCiv and Stellaris too, but ES2 is my favorite space 4X. But I can’t quite explain why either! I suppose the main reason is that I love the factions in ES2, but I also like the UI and tech system. And yes, I think the AI has improved noticeably.
For me, it’s a matter of how much character it has. Personality. The guys at Amplitude love their asymmetry and they love to make it all thematic up in there! Those are two things – asymmetry and theming – that really appeal to me, because too few strategy games do them well. It’s a genre that’s too often dry and work-a-day and serious and safe and afraid to break whatever careful tuning or balance it’s attempting. Endless Space 2 reminds me of what I loved so much about that amazing Dune mod for Civ IV.
-Tom
I agree, Tom. Endless Legend and ES2 both have their shortcomings, but no one does character or flavor like Amplitude. I can even get past the anemic AI a bit (I’m glad it sounds like it’s better, I’ll give the game a spin today) because I can enjoy playing through a faction’s quest line while I tinker with their mechanics.
I don’t like how easy it is for the Militarist faction to gain strength in all my games. I find myself struggling to build less ships and pick anti militarist choices to try to stem the tide but inevitably my main faction is militarist. I feel like it’s unbalanced somehow.
I think this is a common complaint. It doesn’t take much for the population to swing toward militarism.
I can usually swing to another party with the election manipulation tools, but I hope the devs adjust how much and how easily military support appears.
If you want you can customize the side to turn military support into something else…
Wow, I just tried to start this game after never playing. It is… that’s a lot of stuff to digest in a cool but weird interface. The tutorial is terrible.
yeah, I even played Endless Legend which is similar and it really is baffling to start out with. Especially if you’re playing on a non-challenging difficulty level, for your first couple times through I’d suggest ignoring some of the game systems; politics is an easy one to not worry about other than occasionally passing a law, and I get very little use out of diplomacy in general.
Here’s the biggest thing I missed my first time through: when you build a ship, it shows up in the hangar in the solar system it was built in. It does not become active or show up in the list of ships you haven’t moved for the turn until you explicitly click on the hangar and create a fleet. So if you have a lot of things going on, you can easily miss that your ship was finished and not activate it.
Also I still don’t know how Manpower works. Sometimes it tells me that I’m running out, then a little while later I’m not, and it’s not clear what happens when you run out.
If there is a good tutorial that’s not hours long, or preferably a written one I’d absorb them.
Manpower is consumed by new colonies and new ships and otherwise regenerates naturally (based on population and food income, I think, plus any special things you’ve built that give bonuses). If you don’t have enough… I dunno. Everything appears to work normally. I would guess there is a hidden negative factor that applies to fleet efficiency, but it doesn’t seem to be explicit anywhere.
Saw this posted on the endless space subreddit, seems pretty good for intro level description of the game (9 10-20’ videos).
Thanks!
Is there somewhere that shows images the various ships by race? I’ve googled but can’t find it anywhere?
Quite tempted at $13.50 at Fanatical for this but the DLC puts me off a bit.
One DLC of a new faction puts you off? Why?
Manpower is used to defend planets from invasion, and man ship crews (and now, boarding actions against ships - which is hilariously overpowered). Ships without enough manpower have a penalty - I think it scales linearly to a 20% damage debuff with no crew at all. (Maybe it’s better to think of it as a 20% buff for having full manpower!). Ship manpower is also used to invade planets.
Manpower is created from food - by default, 10% of food production is converted to manpower. Some buildings can increase this ratio (Patriot Pills and another I forget). You can also get it from trade or treaties with minor races.
Don’t worry too much if you are running out. Just be aware that your planets will be vulnerable to ground invasions until their garrisons are stocked, and your ships won’t be at peak efficiency. Unless you’re going to war soon, you can ignore it.
I just picked it up, plus you get 10% off for their Winter10 sale. As for the DLC, don’t get it if it bothers you. But why care? The game is so cheap, the DLC should be irrelevant, or you can wait until it drops in price. (Shrug)
They’re a good company that tries to add value to their games. They’ve added a few things for free, so I wouldn’t feel they’re taking advantage of the DLC program.
I agree, @jpinard. There’s DLC that is exploitative of the consumer (especially among the big AAA publishers, although lootbox gouging seems to be the new hotness for them) and I understand why people might be a little hesitant about it. But in the case of Total War and others, it just represents additional work/content for an already great game. I have no qualms dropping money for the latter.
For what it is worth I went ahead and purchased the game.