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I just realised the custom faction is Kroot from the marvel movies. 
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Oct 6, 2016 19:29
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Riso posted:I just realised the custom faction is Kroot from the marvel movies. More it's every plant race from every science-fiction setting. I find the designs slightly meh, dunno why they just don't gel with me.
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Oct 6, 2016 19:45
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I've seen the intro movie for the Morgawr. It's not narrated by them, it's narrated by some guy in an old recording, talking about how he confined them to an undersea lab facility, and wondering how bad it would be for Auriga if they ever escaped. The animations show them, indeed, escaping. I like it. The quest dialogue for them is weird too. They seem to have even more of a hive mind than the Necrophages, but rather than seeing everything else as food, they just see everything else as something they hate.
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Oct 6, 2016 19:51
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Speedball posted:I've seen the intro movie for the Morgawr. It's not narrated by them, it's narrated by some guy in an old recording, talking about how he confined them to an undersea lab facility, and wondering how bad it would be for Auriga if they ever escaped. The animations show them, indeed, escaping. I like it. This sounds like it could be inspired by this story or something like it.
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Oct 6, 2016 20:17
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Speedball posted:The quest dialogue for them is weird too. They seem to have even more of a hive mind than the Necrophages, but rather than seeing everything else as food, they just see everything else as something they hate. Their whole questline is about removing anything that could imprison them again. They've been locked away for a very long time while those assholes on the surface got to roam free. Of course they're pissed.
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Oct 6, 2016 20:23
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Bought, trying to resist playing...
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Oct 6, 2016 20:43
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I'd really like to hear some impressions of the combat system, ship design, and how it ties into research and resources and such.
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Oct 6, 2016 21:02
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Just tried the turn 10 tier 2 plans trick. Had a settler down on turn 10. Cost me 150 dust to get all the buildings. 
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Oct 6, 2016 21:07
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I'm for sure going to buy ES2 on release but I feel like getting in to a 4x prematurely/with a turn limit just makes the big reveal more of a let down, so my plan is to not get EA. Is the game earnestly fun already, or is it just impressive/neat? Seeing how much Civ6 is stealing from Endless Legend I imagine it'll be a pretty good game, so I'm thinking I'll just let that/Tempest fill my 4x needs for now.
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Oct 6, 2016 23:18
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So my first impressions of ES2 are pretty positive. The AI will absolutely pile on you early if you let it and it really sucks to start next to either Cravers or Vodyani. Cravers because, well they're Cravers and they will absolutely run at you with a hundred ships on turn 20. Vodyani because their massive nomad ships have 300+ military power to your starting ships 20+ but at least they don't seem too keen on using them to attack your fleets, probably a balance thing. Sophons appear to have a branching storyline. I picked military focus because I figured 3 battles was easy, but then the next pair of missions was down that line too which is cool. The Craver story seems a lot more streamlined however. A few bugs, I found one with the Cravers on the mission after you blow up the ship in the story. The planet spawns 3 exploration anomalies and the each give you 20 hyperium which is kind of insane.
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Oct 7, 2016 00:21
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Gwyrgyn Blood posted:I'd really like to hear some impressions of the combat system, ship design, and how it ties into research and resources and such. Ship Design is very similar to Endless Legend. You have generic gun/laser/missile/armor/shields that automatically improve with each tech tier (you still have to refit your ships though, like in Endless Legend). However, you can also research "Titanium equipment" which will let you equip improved versions of all those things that use Titanium (or other resources, obviously). I think these also upgrade with tier, but honestly I wasn't researching all that many military techs. Each ship chassis has its own unique configuration of slots. Like, they might have 2 weapon slots and 2 armor slots, but in those weapon slots you can have 2 lasers or 2 guns or mix and match. However, it seems some ships have slots that can only be used for specific weapons. It just depends. There are also utility/support slots but I never actually researched any of those. Combat itself is incredibly straightforward, even simpler than the original ES. You just choose a tactic and watch it play out, except you only get 1 tactic for the entire battle instead of 3. I played a game as Lumeris and while I did end up utterly dominating the galaxy with infinite money and influence, I found it hard to actually be at peace with anyone. Even the Sophons hated my guts from the very beginning, and in fact declared war on me before it was even possible for me to research diplomacy. Which is sort of a more general thing I noticed: all the diplomacy techs seem way too advanced. By the time I'd even researched "peace treaty", I'd already gotten into a doom war and wiped out an empire. It also seems to be impossible to negotiate for peace: after a certain amount of time the game just declares that someone won and auto-allocates tributary payments from the loser. Also I found it impossible to advance in the story quest because I chose the option where they wanted me to get 80% pacifist in the Senate, but the act of building up enough warships to not die tipped my population to around 50% militarist and it never recovered. Clarste fucked around with this message at 00:53 on Oct 7, 2016 |
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Oct 7, 2016 00:45
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I read somewhere that the diplomatic AI is biased to be very warlike for all the factions in this version. presumably it will change at some point.
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Oct 7, 2016 00:55
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I haven't tried the titanium techs yet (I was swimming in hyperium) but the hyperium weapon is a close range laser that does horrible damage and has identical stats to a regular tier 2 laser. I also noticed that tier 2 still uses hyperium and titanium but I haven't gotten around to researching them yet, I imagine they just let you skip to the next tier again. The ship design system in ES2 is much better than what Endless Legend had because each ship has a very specific role and types of modules (for example exploration and support ships only have access to short range guns). There is still however a rather extreme jump in power levels between tiers and I imagine if the titanium tier 1 gun is an artillery gun you can really dominate in the first round of combat even early on.
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Oct 7, 2016 00:56
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You can also upgrade ship types with certain techs, so I'd imagine they can stick around into the late game in some fashion. Hmm, another thing of note is that it's rather hard to find planets you can actually colonize. By default you can only colonize planets that are exactly like your homeworld (which are much more specific than they used to be: Lumeris get Atoll (not Ocean) and Sophons get Svelte (not Terran)), and the colonizations techs don't end up being super-cheap like they did in ES (because of the scaling tech cost thing). I actually couldn't find any colonizable worlds for a huge fraction of the game, and ended up expanding by assimilating minor faction homeworlds instead. And, uh, conquering the Sophon homeworld. Although one of those minor factions were those robot guys and I guess they have some form of tolerance because they could colonize the other worlds in their system immediately. Which made that system such a powerhouse compared to all the other crappy systems everyone had at the time that it became my de facto capital and I steamrolled to victory. Demiurge4 posted:I haven't tried the titanium techs yet (I was swimming in hyperium) but the hyperium weapon is a close range laser that does horrible damage and has identical stats to a regular tier 2 laser. I also noticed that tier 2 still uses hyperium and titanium but I haven't gotten around to researching them yet, I imagine they just let you skip to the next tier again. The first resource tech I researched was Tier 3, and it had upgraded versions of each weapon and armor type. Clarste fucked around with this message at 01:14 on Oct 7, 2016 |
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Oct 7, 2016 01:11
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I think Ingris might be a little influential:
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Oct 7, 2016 02:44
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Vodyani feel really broken, from what I've observed in experimenting with them for several hours. Ark ships are incredibly overpowered in early combat and it's trivial to make them even stronger with hero assignments, which you do anyway because the ark ships are effectively star systems. This is offset by the fact that the faction's economy seems to be absolutely horrid, on account of their abysmal population growth and rate of expansion. If you're not lucky with a minor faction spawning nearby, it can take you an agonising amount of time to get the essence for your second ark ship -- and then the cost for the third doubles, which becomes much harder to accumulate because that's the stage of the game wherein pirates, minor factions, and the AI players will start tearing away at your leacher ships. Currently it seems optimal to try and make leachers in your starting system until you get your second ark ship (which you optimise manually with weapons and anti-ballistic armour [the AI doesn't seem to use anything besides ballistics for at least the first fifty turns], because for some reason not all of its slots are filled in the baseline design), at which point you send it with an entourage of leachers in the direction of an AI and conquer it. You can also just send your starting ark ship straight into the void from turn 1 and kill the first AI you meet even faster (though your starting ark won't be as strong as the second which you design), hopefully accumulating essence in the meantime with your leacher over a minor faction's system, and then also hopefully finding a decently-placed empty system with valid inhabitable planets for you to briefly settle at so you can pop out your second ark. If you don't take advantage of ark ship military cheese, it seems you're pretty much doomed to fall behind economically. Getting decent essence income relies heavily on pumping out combat-inferior leachers and favourable map conditions, and even then the number of systems you colonise and their populations will be inferior to that of the AI.
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Oct 7, 2016 02:53
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Clarste posted:Ship Design is very similar to Endless Legend. You have generic gun/laser/missile/armor/shields that automatically improve with each tech tier (you still have to refit your ships though, like in Endless Legend). However, you can also research "Titanium equipment" which will let you equip improved versions of all those things that use Titanium (or other resources, obviously). I think these also upgrade with tier, but honestly I wasn't researching all that many military techs. Each ship chassis has its own unique configuration of slots. Like, they might have 2 weapon slots and 2 armor slots, but in those weapon slots you can have 2 lasers or 2 guns or mix and match. However, it seems some ships have slots that can only be used for specific weapons. It just depends. There are also utility/support slots but I never actually researched any of those. That sounds pretty good. Stuff like resources -> weapon balance is one of those things you expect to take some wild reworking during beta testing of course.
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Oct 7, 2016 02:54
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Are Vodyani at all related to the Broken Lords, technology-wise? They seem to sustain themselves using Endless technology in a similar way. EDIT: So, looks like how Tempest works is pretty different to how Civ: Beyond Earth handled sea expansion. It's just several atolls per ocean zone, each of which may produce a several resources surrounding it as long as you control it. Not exactly cities, but definitely control points that make life easier for your land cities and such by providing resources. Speedball fucked around with this message at 06:25 on Oct 7, 2016 |
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Oct 7, 2016 04:23
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I'm stupid as poo poo and got the deluxe ES2 and now I can't figure out where the soundtrack is on my computer 
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Oct 7, 2016 06:45
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Speedball posted:Are Vodyani at all related to the Broken Lords, technology-wise? They seem to sustain themselves using Endless technology in a similar way. With all of that said, I wouldn't compare them to the Broken Lords much. They share thematic elements, but they've got their own thing going on; they're not dust-making machines. Definitely interesting though.
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Oct 7, 2016 06:55
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Anyone try a Vodyani leecher Ark? That is the first ark you build has all those essence harvesting modules and you beeline for a homeworld with it. Would be pretty hard to dislodge with it's insanely high base HP and big guns.
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Oct 7, 2016 08:26
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Messed around with Vodyani a bit. Interestingly, they exploit every planet in a system equally, colonization tech allowing (so, an Ark with 3 population in a system with 3 colonizable planets effectively has 9 pop, 3 each), which should make them monsters late game if they can snag 5 planet systems they can fully exploit. Less interestingly, their Arks can't engage anyone in combat if they're attached to a system (they can be attacked, and defend themselves, but no offense). That'd be fine, but enemies can just ignore the Ark and deploy ground troops, and if they wipe out the defending troops, the Ark dies instantly. Maybe they left a thermal exhaust port open on the Ark  Related, apparently there's no real way to stop an enemy from moving to your system and immediately launching a ground assault other than setting your ships one system out and setting them to Guard. Guarding a planet directly prevents the enemy fleet from bypassing the planet, but they can still initiate ground action. Lprsti99 fucked around with this message at 08:37 on Oct 7, 2016 |
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Oct 7, 2016 08:35
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Yeah, Vodyani feel like they're sort of a mix between broken lords and wild walkers. Their ark ships are really interesting, they probably want to slam down the colonization techs down and find 3 easily colonizable planets to just pump out tons of everything. Finding the nearby minor faction I think is going to be crucial as well. Getting one that's next door and and leeching them for 50 essence/turn means that you have a turn 5-6 2 pop Ark, and a second Ark by turn 15 specifically for leeching, so your units can go and scout around for ideal systems to move to.
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Oct 7, 2016 09:26
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This is probably just Alpha weirdness, but the Cravers feel sort of clunky right now. In that they're crippled by their food feeling unhappy about being unrepresented in the elections. Unhappiness penalties turn into huge amounts of negative food (probably to represent people emigrating: they don't "starve" anymore) which means that unhappy cattle kills off my Craver population too. Luckily colonies can suvive with 0 population, but then I just find myself wasting depletion points. Or maybe I just don't know how to play yet.
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Oct 7, 2016 10:18
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Tulip posted:I'm stupid as poo poo and got the deluxe ES2 and now I can't figure out where the soundtrack is on my computer Vodyani are cool, but I picked Cravers and just started eating motherfuckers.
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Oct 7, 2016 10:18
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Cravers rely heavily on happiness boosts once systems are depleted to keep them productive. In my game I kept up happiness with the law that gives approval for having a fleet in orbit.
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Oct 7, 2016 10:21
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Ah, excellent. I'm a month behind but glad to see someone did go and make a megathread for the Amplitude stuff.  I had a thread for Dungeons of the Endless, but it has since fallen into the archive. Might still have some useful information to anyone who wants to skim over it. So hows Endless Space 2? I've been reading good things.
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Oct 7, 2016 11:39
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Demiurge4 posted:Cravers rely heavily on happiness boosts once systems are depleted to keep them productive. In my game I kept up happiness with the law that gives approval for having a fleet in orbit. Er... yeah, +25 doesn't seem like it'd be anything more than a drop in the bucket. I get -35 just from voting Militarist in the dictatorship government, and than another -100 from over-colonization since I'm eating everything. I mean, I'm still winning just from having a huge fleet, but every single system has been in rebellion for the past 50 turns and I have negative population growth everywhere. Luckily I keep conquering more planets to slowly kill off.  The only reason I'm not broke too is the Spoils of War law. The biggest problem I have is that the game automatically ends wars so I need to wait out cease fires a lot.Edit: Almost got an elimination victory before the timer ran out, except they got their stupid cease fire on the last turn. Clarste fucked around with this message at 12:45 on Oct 7, 2016 |
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Oct 7, 2016 12:40
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That Guy Bob posted:Anyone try a Vodyani leecher Ark? That is the first ark you build has all those essence harvesting modules and you beeline for a homeworld with it. Would be pretty hard to dislodge with it's insanely high base HP and big guns. The four harvester modules you get on a leecher ark give it 50 essence harvest per turn, and while it's definitely hard to destroy, the +50 becomes a drop in the bucket once you reach a critical mass of modified protector(toisam)-class leecher ships. I've gotten a lot more value out of putting four +50% industry modules on the ark ship and plopping it down on the best system I find (preferably near an enemy empire) to spam out absurd numbers of leechers and combat fleets -- the limitation quickly becomes one of dust upkeep, at which point I customise the next ark for four +50% dust modules. Hiveminded fucked around with this message at 14:37 on Oct 7, 2016 |
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Oct 7, 2016 13:12
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Flipswitch posted:I don't think it's actually out yet and is coming with the full game? I didn't look though. ...why did I not think of that. Thyrork posted:Ah, excellent. I'm a month behind but glad to see someone did go and make a megathread for the Amplitude stuff. I'm enjoying it, the Cravers capture that feel of desperately needing to expand that I loved so much in ES1.
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Oct 7, 2016 13:36
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Anyone have any impressions on the ES2 digital deluxe edition? I think the two new heroes are only potentially meaningful change for me. Are they particularly differentiated from other heroes in terms of gameplay, or is it just a portrait?
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Oct 7, 2016 17:01
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They're just portraits.
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Oct 7, 2016 17:05
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i was gonna buy ES2 with a friend, but then we saw that multiplayer is listed as one of the things that's gonna be added later any word on how far off that is? i'm thinking of grabbing the game anyway since it's a discounted price right now, but it'd be nice to know about
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Oct 7, 2016 17:08
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Overminty posted:They're just portraits. You saved me £7 ($1), cheers.
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Oct 7, 2016 17:11
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Lprsti99 posted:Related, apparently there's no real way to stop an enemy from moving to your system and immediately launching a ground assault other than setting your ships one system out and setting them to Guard. Guarding a planet directly prevents the enemy fleet from bypassing the planet, but they can still initiate ground action. yeah, learned that the hard way when the sophon homeworld got eaten by cravers even though I had ships in orbit. really hope they change that.
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Oct 7, 2016 20:07
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drat this game is pretty. Could use a UI reference/tutorial but still, looks niiiiice.
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Oct 7, 2016 21:33
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I've been tinkering some more with the Vodyani and I really like their play style. They're slow to get going, but once you can find a good place to siphon Essence from they come into their own. It's not fun losing an ark to ground assault that somehow bypasses your fleet and the ark itself, but I'm hoping that will get fixed at some point. I actually have no idea how to do ground assaults/defenses well. Ships take forever to restock their manpower even in my own territory with the right laws in place. Also, do shields block everything or are they only useful against energy weapons?
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Oct 7, 2016 21:46
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Doe the ES2 AI cheat really, really hard? I'm Sophon and my home system has a population of six. The Lumeris next door have a home system with pop 9. The crappy first planet they colonised around the same time as I colonised mine has a pop of 6 after about 10 turns, while mines has a pop of 2. They seem to be expanding way faster than is possible for me.
Gammymajams fucked around with this message at 22:51 on Oct 7, 2016 |
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Oct 7, 2016 22:39
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How do I repair ships in ES2 aside from upgrading them to a new model?
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Oct 8, 2016 01:25
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There's a button to the right of the retrofit button (think it's second to last) that repairs.
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Oct 8, 2016 01:32
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