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Hryme posted:The last DLC of Endless Space II is really bad. Hacking is just a chore, and the Umbral Choir is not fun to have as an AI in a game or play. I've been having a lot of fun with the UC, mostly because of their really tall play-style.
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May 15, 2019 13:12
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Amethyst posted:Disagree. Hands off tactical battles are the best part of ES2. Stopping the whole complex strategic layer game for a minigame is boring and annoying. ES2 has a ship designer because its what people want. Its what was in Masters of Orion 2. But the combat isnt tactical at all... in MoO2 I could make a fast, short range, broadside ship that doesnt pay the extra cost/space for turrets, or I could make a slow, long range, ship with a bunch of turrets. I could then play out the tactical battle to ensure that my ships performed in combat for the role they were designed for. No one in the industry has replicated the ability to do this that I am aware of. In ES2 you just kinda pick cards at random and hope something good happens? I could be completely misunderstanding it but considering I could break the game over my knee on Endless on my 4th or 5th playthrough it just screams to me that your choices in ship design and combat just dont matter. For ES2 let me make interesting design choices then pick an actual clear tactical choice for my ship to perform in combat. I dont need to have control myself, just let me say "this is a missileboat; stay at range and launch large volleys of missiles" or "this is a torpedo boat; get close and launch precision torpedo volleys at vulnerable ships" or so on and so forth. But ships dont have roles, they just do whatever you configure them to do then do whatever tactic you chose in combat, and the combat tactics do not really seem to allow you to draw on the strengths or shield the weaknesses of your ships at all? edit: and I'm not trying to directly outright trash ES2 as its a problem with many games; I love ES2's aesthetic and the UI and the interesting take on empire and planetary management, but I'm a little tired of all of the half-measures taken in combat design in space 4x games these days. AAAAA! Real Muenster fucked around with this message at 14:25 on May 15, 2019 |
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May 15, 2019 14:15
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AAAAA! Real Muenster posted:edit: and I'm not trying to directly outright trash ES2 as its a problem with many games; I love ES2's aesthetic and the UI and the interesting take on empire and planetary management, but I'm a little tired of all of the half-measures taken in combat design in space 4x games these days. 
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May 15, 2019 16:27
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Seems like the devs are damned if they do, damned if they don't with the combat systems. On the same page we have people complaining how they hate the tactical combat in a combat game and always press 'skip', while another person wants to have deep tactics and hates the lack of interactivity. But EL's not good enough, because it's not in space or something? I liked EL's tactics system, and only skipped it for obvious stomps. I can understand people who skipped it, but then when I hear of people who also skip combat in stuff like AoW3, I think why are you even playing this game? There's just no winning for the devs. It's also very late and I think I'm rambling a bit.
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May 15, 2019 16:53
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I like EL's tactical combat too, I think tho that it's a bit untenable in MP for most people.
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May 15, 2019 17:07
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As to endless space’s combat, even if I watch it I find it too useless as a source of useful feedback on tactics or design.
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May 15, 2019 17:19
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Tactical combat in 4X games usually sucks and I don't believe MoO2 was any better. Amplitude making steps to get away from it is good and I agree they should go further.
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May 15, 2019 17:20
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You monster. Soon everything will be as bland as galciv and stellaris.
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May 15, 2019 17:23
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Better that than entire second games hidden inside the first game like a turd inside a Russian doll.
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May 15, 2019 17:27
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Serephina posted:Seems like the devs are damned if they do, damned if they don't with the combat systems. On the same page we have people complaining how they hate the tactical combat in a combat game and always press 'skip', while another person wants to have deep tactics and hates the lack of interactivity. But EL's not good enough, because it's not in space or something?
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May 15, 2019 18:15
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Tulip posted:Penumbra isn't a great DLC, but it's a much better one than Shadows.
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May 16, 2019 01:44
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Tree Bucket posted:I quit when I managed to assimilate a minor faction, only to have them instantly disappear from the map. I don't want to be a force for blandness in the galaxy. The umbral chior just suck man. They suck to play as and they super suck to play against. They operate on an entirely separate map, what's the point? They don't even make sense thematically. What exactly are they doing when they "hack" an entirely unpopulated system, anyway? E: I agree with the poster who thinks the ship designers shouldn't be there. it's a vestigial legacy feature from Alpha Centauri, and even the lead designer of AC said that it was a failed feature. When every faction can design their own units they lose flavor. Just design the ships for me please and let each faction have proper strengths and weaknesses. Amethyst fucked around with this message at 01:52 on May 16, 2019 |
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May 16, 2019 01:46
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The unit designer in EL made more sense anyway, you had a few weapon choices per unit and even then they had different versions that all boiled down to "the damage one", "the fast one" and "the one that doesn't use a strategic resource".
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May 16, 2019 02:06
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LordSloth posted:As to endless space’s combat, even if I watch it I find it too useless as a source of useful feedback on tactics or design. There is a switch you can hit on the post-battle screen that shows how many hits each fleet landed on the other, and how many missed or where deflected by shields, and so on. It's something, at least! Amethyst posted:The umbral chior just suck man. They suck to play as and they super suck to play against. They operate on an entirely separate map, what's the point? I think the Unfallen are my favourite race/opponent for the same reason. I like the little puzzle of working out which systems to Vine (or which Vine nodes to capture). Plus the Vines help get around the usual space 4x issue of the map feeling sort of, I don't know, insubstantial-- like in civ or whatever, your monkey brain is great at remembering "these are the fertile plains, this is the awful desert, this is the strategic mountain pass." Space games are going to struggle to replicate that hook.
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May 16, 2019 04:08
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Amethyst posted:I've only played base EL. What are considered the essential dlcs? None. The game is very complete in base form. If you feel a need to buy DLC, I say Echoes of Auriga.
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May 16, 2019 14:23
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Tulip posted:None. The game is very complete in base form. Turns out I actually own all of the dlcs except the last two majors, somehow. Buying every stupid bundle without a second of thought is cool
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May 18, 2019 01:56
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I would recommend Shifters as the one content one to grab. It gives you something to do in winter besides hit end turn
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May 18, 2019 02:52
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Amethyst posted:Turns out I actually own all of the dlcs except the last two majors, somehow. Buying every stupid bundle without a second of thought is cool Defiance Industries posted:I would recommend Shifters as the one content one to grab. It gives you something to do in winter besides hit end turn Shifters isn't bad tbh. Since you already have them I'm going to go a step further and say probably play at least a game (like, not necessarily to completion but like 30+ turns) with all or nearly all disabled. Tempest and Shadows in particular add a lot of mechanical complexity that should not be part of your assumed lexicon of "base game." Most Amplitude expansion/DLC stuff is "yes and" sort of DLC, so it can turn into an unstable tower of confusion pretty fast.
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May 19, 2019 02:09
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Kaustik posted:Turn off Pirates to have AI go up 2 difficulties without benefiting from their cheat codes. Weak AI lose a lot of momentum due to early pirate spawns. I'm going to try this out right now and report back. This time I'm going to make sure there are absolutely no Cravers around, the depletion mechanic is really annoying
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May 19, 2019 14:37
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Pirates are boring anyway. It's like ridding yourself of fleas.
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May 20, 2019 02:20
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I don't like pirates because they interfere with my ability to play with 0 investment in military.
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May 20, 2019 02:33
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The game UI isn't built around maintaining a billion tiny anti-pirate patrol fleets to play pirate whack a mole with. It's laborious busywork
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May 20, 2019 02:45
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It isn't built around maintining lovely scout fleets either. I wish scouting would be abstracted away and systems are auto-revealed over time. Might be a cool mod
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May 20, 2019 02:46
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So I played my Normal no-pirate unique-galaxy eight-competitor game yesterday. Most of the AI players were poo poo as usual, but there was a really strong Riftborn civ right next to me that culture-converted two of my systems before I gave up (their alliance was too strong to fight). I don't know if it was due to the settings, maybe Riftborn are always good. e: does anyone else have the bug (?) where the AI sends you a message telling you that it's declaring war on you, but then you're not actually at war? All the diplo spam is super loving annoying too, if I didn't want an alliance with you last turn I probably don't want one this turn, and if I did I would just ask myself. You don't have to send a proposal every single turn. It's bizarre considering how good the interface is for almost every other aspect, and it honestly saps my will to keep playing during the late game. The AI also loves to make insane demands of you as you're besieging their last planet and despite the war pressure being 100% in your favor. Is there a mod that fixes the diplomacy in this game? e2: I also avoid joining alliances since your 'allies' will randomly decide to end wars even when you were the one to start it. Why is the diplomacy so broken and nonsensical when almost everything else about the game is so good? Phlegmish fucked around with this message at 07:31 on May 20, 2019 |
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May 20, 2019 07:06
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Phlegmish posted:So I played my Normal no-pirate unique-galaxy eight-competitor game yesterday. Most of the AI players were poo poo as usual, but there was a really strong Riftborn civ right next to me that culture-converted two of my systems before I gave up (their alliance was too strong to fight). I don't know if it was due to the settings, maybe Riftborn are always good. The devs said something about the alliance war issue being impossible to fix due to how the ai processes turns, but it was an offhand comment on the game forums and I can't find it now. Anyway, it's really annoying. Diplomacy has just the right amount of inertia up until the first alliance forms, at which point everything goes out the window. I suspect they were aiming for a tradeoff- alliances give you strength at the cost of having control over your own diplomacy- but I feel sure there are better ways of implementing this core idea than what we ended up with. I'm also trying a Hissho no-pirates game at present, and two of the AI have very respectable scores. And I'm enjoying not having to siege down early-game pirate lairs that spawn in the middle of my trade routes..... Tree Bucket fucked around with this message at 00:51 on May 21, 2019 |
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May 21, 2019 00:47
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I join Alliances to stay out of wars (by constantly shutting down my ally's wars) and then when I've reached a victory condition I drop out of the Alliance and win on my own.
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May 21, 2019 00:52
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Aaggh, hacking really is the most garbage system. I decided to give it another try, and am now really really regretting it. (Behemoths, however, remain kickin rad.)
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May 24, 2019 12:54
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In my last game I boxed in the Unfallen in tiny corner during an early war, grabbing a chokepoint system with 5 large/huge habitable planets. Eventually I bribed them into liking me, made research and trade agreements, then allied with them. The friendly vine buffs are really good. I took all the really dope systems and left them the scraps.
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May 24, 2019 15:02
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I'm trying ES2 while it is free and I've gotta say its overwhelming even with tutorials. Can anyone recommend a newbie friendly resource like a let's play?
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May 25, 2019 05:03
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I gave ES2 a try over the free weekend and I must say I'm liking it a lot as an alternative to Stellaris. I can't seem to wrap my head around the population/ideology/voting system and my colonizing and improvements decisions boil down to "fund it" but playing space-prospector is surprisingly engaging and the hands-off combat hits a sweet spot for me. My biggest complaint, though? Dungeon of the Endless was my first game, and I can't find hair nor hide of Gork, everyone's favorite grammar-challenged sociopath. Heck, I'm getting close towards the end of my first game and I'm starting to doubt that I'll find hyper-intelligent pugs, as well.
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May 28, 2019 03:52
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Node posted:I'm trying ES2 while it is free and I've gotta say its overwhelming even with tutorials. Can anyone recommend a newbie friendly resource like a let's play? There are a bunch of tutorials on Amplitudes' site but I'm not sure how fun/friendly they'd be for a totally new player. The best advice I can think of is to avoid the crazier factions to start with- Hissho, Cravers, Vodyanoi, Riftborn, Unfallen. ChickenHeart posted:I gave ES2 a try over the free weekend and I must say I'm liking it a lot as an alternative to Stellaris. I can't seem to wrap my head around the population/ideology/voting system and my colonizing and improvements decisions boil down to "fund it" but playing space-prospector is surprisingly engaging and the hands-off combat hits a sweet spot for me. You won't find pugs or Gork in ES2, sorry. Plenty of wonderful dry humour, particularly with the Sophons and Horatio. Is there any specific population/politics stuff we can help with? I like that you can play it as an absolute min-max fest of matching populations perfectly with planets and governors... but there's enough give in the system that you can go the full RP route and beeline for a Pacifist or Ecologist Democracy and terraform your planets into tropical atolls, industry penalties be damned.
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May 28, 2019 13:38
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I have bad news about Gork.
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May 28, 2019 13:45
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Kinda surprised they didn't have a Horatio in Dungeon of the Endless after that comic, haha.
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May 28, 2019 19:50
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This is devastating news, as all my fond memories of piling on -speed gear and carrying the crystal at glacial speeds to victory have now been crushed by retroactive continuity. As for population stuff, how does the relationship work between manpower, food, and planet populations? While I was in a war I noticed that some of my systems were losing population from negative food production, even with food-related improvements, decent approval ratings, and a surplus of manpower. Is there a decent way to tell how my convoluted mess of an empire will react to political choices beyond the graphs in the Senate screen? Is "support" quantified in any way? Are there any drawbacks to swapping populations around in the same system? What about using the spaceport (aside from the travel time)? Does growth matter on a system with a maxed-out population? Should I be sending folks to fill slots in other systems? Does the hangar actually do anything? Also what's the best way to kill every Horatio I see in revengeance for murdered pugs
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May 31, 2019 13:45
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ChickenHeart posted:Are there any drawbacks to swapping populations around in the same system? What about using the spaceport (aside from the travel time)? Short answers: no, no, no, yes. Slightly longer answer: I'm assuming you're even asking because you want to take advantage of like +F on Sterile and such, in which case go hogwild. Cravers however are a real pain in the dick. For optimum income, you want 1 craver per planet and the rest filled with non-cravers, but this creates a shitload of unhappiness. You also want to move Cravers off planets when they are near-depleted. Cravers are a huge pain for micro.
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May 31, 2019 13:59
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ChickenHeart posted:As for population stuff, how does the relationship work between manpower, food, and planet populations? While I was in a war I noticed that some of my systems were losing population from negative food production, even with food-related improvements, decent approval ratings, and a surplus of manpower. ChickenHeart posted:Is there a decent way to tell how my convoluted mess of an empire will react to political choices beyond the graphs in the Senate screen? Is "support" quantified in any way? For what it's worth, despite being the big selling point of this game, the political stuff is neat but pretty inaccessible. There's no easy per-system breakdown of predicted votes, and the exact numbers of how the support shakes out is hidden. The game doesn't tell you how much events will swing opinions and support. That political overview screen? It shows little icons at relative sizes, instead of bars or even imaginary numbers that would give a good idea. If Amplitude revisit this mechanic again, they need to maybe drop some of the UI flair and just show us some numbers. There's a decent overview on population and support here, which is where I got my explaination from. quote:Are there any drawbacks to swapping populations around in the same system? What about using the spaceport (aside from the travel time)? quote:Does growth matter on a system with a maxed-out population? Should I be sending folks to fill slots in other systems? quote:Does the hangar actually do anything? quote:Also what's the best way to kill every Horatio I see in revengeance for murdered pugs
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May 31, 2019 14:21
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Tulip posted:Cravers are a huge pain
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May 31, 2019 14:21
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ChickenHeart posted:This is devastating news, as all my fond memories of piling on -speed gear and carrying the crystal at glacial speeds to victory have now been crushed by retroactive continuity. I think you can get a vague sense of how unhappy a given system will be if certain parties aren't elected by the politics bar in the lower left. If you try to glean anything from it let me know how it goes? There's a lot of hidden poo poo regarding support, just do your best. No drawback to swapping pops around in system at all. You can mess with it as much as you want if you're looking to min-max. A couple things to be aware of with spaceports. If you send pops to a system but the system is already full or it fills up before the transport reaches them the transport ship'll just sit there in orbit until slots open up. You can use this to your advantage if you want to increase your numbers of certain pops or keep certain pops (lookin' at you cravers) down. Just be sure to send them somewhere deep in your territory cos civilian ships are free money for anyone who attacks 'em. There's a tech in the last tier of the empire tree that converts unused food into industry on a 1:1 basis. Until then there's no benefit for that extra food. Mailing pops from full to unfull systems is probably a good practice. The hangar does nothing but remove your ships from the starmap. Which can be nice if you aren't using them and don't want them to be vulnerable. Admiral Funk fucked around with this message at 14:25 on May 31, 2019 |
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May 31, 2019 14:23
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it's a shame, I love them conceptually and they're my favorite video intro, and I loved the rhythm they had in es1, but in es2 it just grinds to a halt and I regret not playing UE.
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May 31, 2019 16:01
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ChickenHeart posted:As for population stuff, how does the relationship work between manpower, food, and planet populations? While I was in a war I noticed that some of my systems were losing population from negative food production, even with food-related improvements, decent approval ratings, and a surplus of manpower. A thing that caught me out for ages was Colonisation- your little outposts consume a decent pile of food from your systems while they grow. There should be a little arrow symbol at the top left of the outpost's screen that lets you change which system is sacraficing its food for the outpost. Tulip posted:it's a shame, I love them conceptually and they're my favorite video intro, and I loved the rhythm they had in es1, but in es2 it just grinds to a halt and I regret not playing UE. I just can't settle into the idea of depleting planets! It's a pity, because they're such an interesting faction, and a good reliable enemy in SP.
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May 31, 2019 23:52
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