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uber_stoat posted:the official wiki lore dump describes Cravers as really nasty buggers and states that 2/3rds of them are basically nonsentient killing machines. their special trait enslaves and works to death any aliens unlucky enough to live on a Craver controlled planet. whenever an individual Craver is described as having interests beyond just feeding the Hive or killing poo poo, it's because it had its brain upgraded by Dust exposure. You're just misunderstanding their enlightened culture and fondness for aliens
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Oct 17, 2016 02:55
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Beamed posted:Aren't you the one who thought Stellaris was as bad as Beyond Earth on release? Most people maintain that those games were p bad at release so I'm not sure what your angle is here.
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Oct 17, 2016 03:55
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Eschatos posted:Id agree with that assessment. Beyond Earth wasn't great by any means but at least it wasn't completely tedious to play a game to completion. Do you also believe Paradox was intentionally hiding Stellaris as unfinished?  EDIT: This is a pointless derail, my point is to illustrate Endless games are cool and good, unlike other games which may or may not be cool and good. Beamed fucked around with this message at 04:03 on Oct 17, 2016 |
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Oct 17, 2016 03:58
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The most popular suggestion of the forums, last I checked, is that war takes influence to maintain, with increasing costs for longer wars, and Cravers get some sort of cost reduction from either their government or their racial traits.
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Oct 17, 2016 04:15
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Chomp8645 posted:Most people maintain that those games were p bad at release so I'm not sure what your angle is here. Beyond Earth was both way worse on release and remains that way in addition to being a much shallower game. I don't see how you can really even compare the two since BE was just trade route simulator on release and abusing that allowed you to win, whereas Stellaris at worst got buggy once you expanded beyond five planets and still had enough to keep you interested despite that. Clarste posted:The most popular suggestion of the forums, last I checked, is that war takes influence to maintain, with increasing costs for longer wars, and Cravers get some sort of cost reduction from either their government or their racial traits. So again, having not played ES2, what are the win conditions? Because having wars just end is a huge penalty to the human player on higher difficulties when a timing push is often the best way to win when another player is starting to get close to a non-combat victory. If an AI just gets hit with a dust penalty before I can totally cripple them stopping AI tech victories (that existed in ES1) is going to be reeeeeeeally tough.
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Oct 17, 2016 05:03
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Angrymantium posted:So again, having not played ES2, what are the win conditions? Because having wars just end is a huge penalty to the human player on higher difficulties when a timing push is often the best way to win when another player is starting to get close to a non-combat victory. If an AI just gets hit with a dust penalty before I can totally cripple them stopping AI tech victories (that existed in ES1) is going to be reeeeeeeally tough. There are only two victory conditions currently implemented (score and conquest), but from what I recall, the victory-progress screen showed that there will also be economic/dust, technological/science, industry/wonders, and quest victories. It's also quite possible that they'll add in diplomatic and territory victories like in previous games, or even new victories that align with the new game systems they've added.
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Oct 17, 2016 05:42
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Although territory victory isn't in I was doing a Sophon game in ES2 where I rushed all the Diplo techs. The third era has a tech that when you completely eclipse a system you gain control peacefully. My territory sphere and Diplo generation are absolutely ridiculous. I imagine I'll win by score before it swallows the whole galaxy.
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Oct 17, 2016 06:06
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So, I decided to check out EL again with all the DLCs I missed. What is the biggest the pearl nodes grow? When is a good time to start harvesting them?
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Oct 17, 2016 07:49
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Chomp8645 posted:Most people maintain that those games were p bad at release so I'm not sure what your angle is here. I'd say I pretty unequivocally had more fun with Stellaris at release than BE. That's mostly because BE was just civ V painted purple though. If it was a stand alone game, maybe they'd be about equal. Endless games are miles ahead of both in completeness of content and fun though.
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Oct 17, 2016 07:53
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Angrymantium posted:Beyond Earth was both way worse on release and remains that way in addition to being a much shallower game. I don't see how you can really even compare the two since BE was just trade route simulator on release and abusing that allowed you to win, whereas Stellaris at worst got buggy once you expanded beyond five planets and still had enough to keep you interested despite that. It didn't (doesn't) really have enough to keep your interest past the early game if you ask me. The problem with BE was, and still is to a lesser extent, that you could just break it over your knee because of poor balance. Stellaris' problem is mostly a lack of content that leaves you with nothing to do but go to war, and war in Stellaris is really boring. Also really unbalanced at launch, still unbalanced but not as badly. Stellaris also has really really tedious micromanagement, where you need a ton of clicks to upgrade every building when you get a new tech and generally has you constantly need to queue up more stuff across half a dozen planets. Unless you trust the sector AI (which didn't understand that robots don't eat food at launch). Heinlein and the expansion seem like they're going to help significantly, but I'd say Stellaris and BE are both about as bad currently.
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Oct 17, 2016 08:07
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EL was my introduction to the Endless series of games, and I played the poo poo out of it and loved it. So I got ES2's Alpha and I am completely lost at this game. I have no idea what to do or research or anything. It just feels so completely different from EL that I can't transfer that gameplay knowledge to this one. Here's hoping they have tutorials or something when the game gets fully released? Are there any youtube tutorials on ES2's alpha, or would ES1's tutorials give me a decent enough background on the basics?
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Oct 17, 2016 15:32
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Fhqwhgads posted:EL was my introduction to the Endless series of games, and I played the poo poo out of it and loved it. So I got ES2's Alpha and I am completely lost at this game. I have no idea what to do or research or anything. It just feels so completely different from EL that I can't transfer that gameplay knowledge to this one. Here's hoping they have tutorials or something when the game gets fully released? Are there any youtube tutorials on ES2's alpha, or would ES1's tutorials give me a decent enough background on the basics? There will be a tutorial when the game is released. The closest you will get to an actual tutorial for ES2 is buying ES1 and playing that to understand some of the gameplay aspects behind the game. But a whole lot has changed between ES1 and ES2. You won't find a tutorial on YouTube of how to play ES2 as it's in alpha, and many things are going to change.
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Oct 17, 2016 15:44
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Weirdest thing, I'm playing against the AI as the new water people and the cultists somehow have 2 cities. How does that work?
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Oct 17, 2016 16:39
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Jastiger posted:Weirdest thing, I'm playing against the AI as the new water people and the cultists somehow have 2 cities. How does that work? Shouldn't be possible. Only things I can think of... 1) City #2 is actually in the process of razing but hasn't finished (I forget if raze time is a thing in EL) 2) There are two AI cultists in the game and this is a derp moment.
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Oct 17, 2016 16:41
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Chomp8645 posted:Shouldn't be possible. Only things I can think of... I'm betting on 2. 1 wouldn't be possible. There's a 1 turn raze time when you do it voluntarily, and you can't raze a city until it finishes its rebellion, but Clans with mercs and Cult just make them go *poof*
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Oct 17, 2016 16:45
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Wouldn't be surprised about bugs since there seem to be a few of those floating around in the new version. There's a really bad one where certain army stacks will constantly get confused about what tile they are actually standing on, which causes them to run in the wrong direction and eat up movement points. Not sure what causes it to happen specifically, my Hero lead stack gets it almost every other turn but my assorted skyfins don't get it at all.
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Oct 17, 2016 16:50
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Gwyrgyn Blood posted:Wouldn't be surprised about bugs since there seem to be a few of those floating around in the new version. There's a longstanding bug (in MP anyway) where a minor desync will activate the AI for your empire even though you're still playing. This results in you still having control of your stuff but the AI will move armies and reset city governance when you're not looking.
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Oct 17, 2016 16:51
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On related note I can't help but lol that they had the Very Good and Smart idea to include a "don't allow random AIs to roll the same faction" option.... ... but the game considers Vaulters and Mezari different factions 
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Oct 17, 2016 17:14
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Chomp8645 posted:On related note I can't help but lol that they had the Very Good and Smart idea to include a "don't allow random AIs to roll the same faction" option.... If you want to make sure, choose your factions yourself.
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Oct 17, 2016 17:18
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Fhqwhgads posted:EL was my introduction to the Endless series of games, and I played the poo poo out of it and loved it. So I got ES2's Alpha and I am completely lost at this game. I have no idea what to do or research or anything. It just feels so completely different from EL that I can't transfer that gameplay knowledge to this one. Here's hoping they have tutorials or something when the game gets fully released? Are there any youtube tutorials on ES2's alpha, or would ES1's tutorials give me a decent enough background on the basics? At this point in Early Access, EL had no tutorials either (and was hopelessly confusing to me). So they're almost certainly going to be added. ES1's tutorials might work, depending on what you mean by "the basics". I think the most confusing part might be that Systems are the basic unit of production, equivalent to a city, and colonizing planets within the system is the equivalent to expanding your city's districts. You move pops between different planets instead of to specific FIDS. Incidentally, this makes X per pop upgrades far more valuable than they are in EL, since every single one of them applies to all your pops at the same time.
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Oct 17, 2016 17:21
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Clarste posted:At this point in Early Access, EL had no tutorials either (and was hopelessly confusing to me). So they're almost certainly going to be added. ES1's tutorials might work, depending on what you mean by "the basics". I think the most confusing part might be that Systems are the basic unit of production, equivalent to a city, and colonizing planets within the system is the equivalent to expanding your city's districts. You move pops between different planets instead of to specific FIDS. Incidentally, this makes X per pop upgrades far more valuable than they are in EL, since every single one of them applies to all your pops at the same time. mindblown.gif but yeah, stuff like this I had no idea about. I do have ES1 kicking around, maybe I should just load that up and play it for a bit. IAmTheRad posted:The absolute basics, like how to operate the game. Not "how to play effectively" but how to actually play the game. A little of column A, a little of column B (more column B though) 
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Oct 17, 2016 17:26
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The absolute basics, like how to operate the game. Not "how to play effectively" but how to actually play the game. A whole lot of things changed between ES1 and ES2, but ES1 will teach you the bare basics of the game, in order to be able to play it. You'll probably still be a little lost, but the game being in alpha doesn't explain a whole lot of things that are new for the different factions.
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Oct 17, 2016 17:26
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Rygar201 posted:I feel like they're going to have some work to do to square this with the Cravers. It's going to be fun watching this develop through EA. Hopefully the fan input doesn't lead to any really stupid poo poo Well ES2 is apparently playable and finishable in it current state, which already puts it ahead of SotS2 (which was only 'playable' by the loosest of definitions on release). God, Sword of the Stars had so much potential, it physically hurt to see that franchise go down the shitter.
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Oct 17, 2016 17:35
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WarLocke posted:Well ES2 is apparently playable and finishable in it current state, which already puts it ahead of SotS2 (which was only 'playable' by the loosest of definitions on release). Well, ES2 only has 3 tech eras so far, so it's basically half-finishable.
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Oct 17, 2016 17:41
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Chomp8645 posted:Shouldn't be possible. Only things I can think of... Definitely not a derp moment. Same color and I have unique factions on. Another AI actually took the city now and its no longer Cultist, so I'm thinking maybe it had captured the AI's city and it wasn't being razed? I'm not sure, because I thought the cities were insta-razed once the battle was won.
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Oct 17, 2016 17:44
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Also, what triggers that final quest with all the different beams of light? It seems to be random?
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Oct 17, 2016 17:55
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Jastiger posted:Also, what triggers that final quest with all the different beams of light? It seems to be random? That happens whenever anyone finishers their own personal faction-specific questline, the one that enables the Wonder victory. If you're quick enough on the ball you can trigger the final quest yourself.
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Oct 17, 2016 18:07
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Glidergun posted:That happens whenever anyone finishers their own personal faction-specific questline, the one that enables the Wonder victory. If you're quick enough on the ball you can trigger the final quest yourself. That doesnt' make any sense though. I've been first in all wonder quests and theirs triggered well before I got to my final piece. Is it just an arbitrary timer for the AI or is it just ridiculously good at finishing quest objectives?
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Oct 17, 2016 18:46
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As far as I've been able to tell, the AI doesn't actually do any of the faction quests, it just automatically completes them after a (difficulty-dependent?) set amount of time, with minor variability. Unless it's changed, I don't think the AI actually completes the last step though, so you don't have to panic.
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Oct 17, 2016 19:58
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Ugh, the thing that keeps getting me is goddamn Fomorian boats appearing out of nowhere to kill my fortresses. You really need to garrison every one of them or you run the risk of losing them.
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Oct 17, 2016 21:06
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Can the Cultists convert sea fortresses or are they SOL for oceans if they don't get a coastal province?
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Oct 18, 2016 07:09
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Speedball posted:Ugh, the thing that keeps getting me is goddamn Fomorian boats appearing out of nowhere to kill my fortresses. You really need to garrison every one of them or you run the risk of losing them. On Normal, at least, once you've taken all the fortresses in the province and thus claimed it as your own the Fomorians won't spawn and other factions can't attack them without declaring war. Before that it's a bit of a brawl.
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Oct 18, 2016 13:40
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SetPhazers2Funk posted:Is there a reason my Influence production seems to zero when I'm at war as the Morgwar? Clearly some negative buffs are being applied, but I can't figure out where they're coming from. It's happened when I'm fighting the Drakken and Cult, if that helps. There is a fortress which reduces influence gain by all factions. You need to get to the waves and capture it. If you hover the influence score it will say something like -10 for xx facility. It is a flat -10 plus a small % reduction to influence. It can mess you up early game.
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Oct 18, 2016 19:19
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So I'm mostly through my first campaign and there's only 2 of us left and we're allied and now I feel like I'm stuck in this game for another 120 turns to reach the scientific victory if I don't want to declare war. My faction quest requires me to take a territory from him and neither of us will ever capture of enough territories for that kind of victory. Are there any other options? Fighting the guy feels like it'd be a huge slog.
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Oct 18, 2016 19:52
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I usually find that military victories are the fastest route. Just make, like, a two, three stack army and bulldoze through his territory one city at a time. Or just quit and start a new game. You've already won, you just haven't gotten the victory screen.
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Oct 18, 2016 19:55
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Take the privateers tech and create a giant mercenary stack of death. Destroy his city without damaging your alliance.
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Oct 18, 2016 20:45
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The Morgawr are fun, but I'm skeptical about their multiplayer odds. It really feels like the only thing stopping adjacent players from just curb stomping me in the early game is AI stupidity. It strikes me that the faction of mind controlling assholes whose ground army sucks should have the force peace ability rather than the Drakken who actually have one of the strongest militaries. Speedball posted:Ugh, the thing that keeps getting me is goddamn Fomorian boats appearing out of nowhere to kill my fortresses. You really need to garrison every one of them or you run the risk of losing them. It's not that bad since you can reconquer them just as fast and don't have to rebuild them like minor villages. It is kind of weird that they have no built-in defenses at all though given that they're called fortresses and all. BitterAvatar posted:So I'm mostly through my first campaign and there's only 2 of us left and we're allied and now I feel like I'm stuck in this game for another 120 turns to reach the scientific victory if I don't want to declare war. My faction quest requires me to take a territory from him and neither of us will ever capture of enough territories for that kind of victory. Are there any other options? Fighting the guy feels like it'd be a huge slog. Megazver is right, I wouldn't even consider going for the science victory unless you're Vaulters or hate yourself. I just started playing again, but aren't there 2 military victories? One that's control X proportion of territories and one that's conquer all capitols? The second one is probably faster if you're trying to avoid a slog. The faction questline victory is also very slow since the last step requires you to build something MASSIVE. Avasculous fucked around with this message at 20:51 on Oct 18, 2016 |
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Oct 18, 2016 20:47
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Jastiger posted:Weirdest thing, I'm playing against the AI as the new water people and the cultists somehow have 2 cities. How does that work? In my cultist game I just finished I had three cities because the AI kept gifting them to me in exchange for peace. Could it be that?
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Oct 18, 2016 22:05
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they're supposed to auto-raze any extra cities they get, no matter how they get them, so something is broken if you end up with more than one.
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Oct 18, 2016 22:07
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Seems multiple cultist cities only has popped up since Tempest was released.
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Oct 18, 2016 22:14
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