The Endless Megathread - Congratulations Auriga, YOU"RE ADDICTED TO DUST!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > The Endless Megathread - Congratulations Auriga, YOU"RE ADDICTED TO DUST!

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Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

So I'm trying to expand my repertoire and play factions other than Necrophages. So far I've tried Forgotten, Allayi, and the Roving Clans, but haven't really clicked with any of them. I like the idea of Roving Clans but have no idea what the gently caress I am supposed to be doing.

Things are much easier when I can just eat everyone.

# ¿ Dec 18, 2016 01:39

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 21:13

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

Angry Diplomat posted:

The core of your strategy against most scary opponents should be some combination of "just drown them in lovely free converted guys until they stop being a problem" and "just throw Tinu the Chosen or whoever at them with a grotesquely top-notch equipment set and a badass elite honour guard and then watch the bodies hit the floor."

As a warning, don't do this against the Necrophage, and especially not against a Necrophage played by a Human; all that will do is feed them units and corpses until they have enormous, gently caress-off doomstacks of twenty or thirty units per army. At that point I'm not even sure anything could stop them.

# ¿ Feb 12, 2017 01:20

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

Aren't the Vodyani basically Broken Lords In Space?

# ¿ Mar 19, 2017 01:53

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

GreyjoyBastard posted:

From what? I wasn't aware they made a sequel.

We do not speak of it.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2017 06:43

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

Theswarms posted:

Mouse wheel actually does zoom out and in of galaxy/system view, it just "sticks" a bit to prevent you doing it by accident. Spin that wheel a bit more!

I'll say this for Stellaris vs ES2, at least stuff happens in Stellaris (unless you are playing at game speed 1, don't do that unless you are in a war. Even then I prefer to just pause and then go fast).

I'm playing my first ES2 game and nothing seems to happen. Occasionally empires threaten me for money, I tell them to bring it and then they don't. I've abandoned military building to just expand as fast as possible and still it feels like nothings happening and the AI isn't doing anything.

AI is definitely the weakest part of all the Endless games. They tend to be extremely bad, or at least timid.

# ¿ Dec 24, 2017 16:35

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

Maybe all that loving Dust obscures telescopes? :v:

# ¿ Dec 24, 2017 17:50

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

I'm hoping that it gets the EL treatment and Amplitude slowly hammer out all the dumb poo poo.

# ¿ Dec 25, 2017 18:17

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

AAAAA! Real Muenster posted:

I am giving Endless Legend a go. Currently doing the tutorial and I like what I see so far, though the battle system is...interesting. Any recommendations for a faction to try once I get started? Also do I remember seeing something about specific earlier in the thread about things to do to help deal with early roaming armies and absorbing villages or something?

Faction depends on what your preferred style I suppose? I played Necrophages for ages and never learned the diplo screen or how minor factions work beyond crushing them. :v:

# ¿ Dec 27, 2017 03:59

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

Or just fight the Necrophage way; choke them with chaff until one of your heroes gets the army upkeep discount, then hit your tier 2 army upkeep discount and have armies of 20+ Battleborn absolutely free! Upgrades? Nah. Unit limits? What's that?

# ¿ Dec 28, 2017 02:37

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

Slaan posted:

It doesn't work as well if the terrain or province borders are weird, and won't give you level 3 districts on the races that can do that

It will tho? It will form a layer like 12321 more or less.

# ¿ Dec 28, 2017 21:17

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

In addition, after the initial start, every new borough will cause a district to level up in the stick formation, where the triangle has lag time between level ups

# ¿ Dec 28, 2017 22:29

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

Speaking of Roving Clans, I like Lumeris in ES2 and I've always wanted to learn Roving Clans in EL as the sort of... counter-balance to my Necro play. But is it me or do they just... suck? Banning people from the market makes you a target and they can't compete with the Broken Lords for sheer dust production. How the hell am I supposed to play them?

# ¿ Dec 29, 2017 00:43

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

Serephina posted:

No idea mate! But relocating into better provinces seems nice. Probably abuse that when you find a place with 5 clustered anomalies.

That does sound nice. And you can rearrange all your districts too I think.

Tho I miss the days when you could stall a game by sailing your city off into the ocean, before navies were a thing. :v:

# ¿ Dec 29, 2017 01:13

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

Lichtenstein posted:

When moving a settler to a far away land (i.e. the second he leabes your borders), keep planting cities wherever at the end of the move and setseke immediately - that way, as you move you pick up a few apples and dust, while also keeping your little dude a bit safer.

Micro the gently caress out of your units! Hit and run tactics exploiting the charge bonus make your dudes move from poo poo to decent, while horse archers (that you should get asap) can outskirmish half the unit roster when used correctly. Just avoid proper tanks (like Sillics) early on and be very mindful of the terrain. We're talking Ardent Mages level of micro making a difference here.

Abuse your high speed to outsettle your opponents and scoop pearls. You have the best settler in the game and good units are meant to be built. It's especially important to grab prime real estate quickly, as it's tricky for you to conquer stuff without the ability to wardec.

Don't forget your early access to the market! It's easy to forget, but it lets you to start monument construction ages before the other races. Insider trading info is mostly useless most of the time, but if you're diligent about checking the market screen, it can warn you about an incoming military buildup or someone else also trying to buy into a monument.

Once you hit the Era III dust ramp, right of way the gently caress out of all those cities. And trade agreement everyone you can - it may require minor bribes for the AI, which is perfectly fine given your increased income. Also, it's a long con, but invest in your starting hero's factional (trade) skills. They're really bad pre-Era III (pre-trade), but the second you hit 4 levels and get the skill enabling trading with cold war/warring empires, just plop her in the capital and never stop laughing, as you begin lighting cigars with dust.

And yes, you will reach a point where you're swimming in money to the point where you drop a new city and insta-buy all the necessary infrastructure on the same turn.

Try to time market bans just before policy-setting turns - so that it's unfeasible to flush all that influence down the drain to counter your action. Peeps getting angry about the ban is not a bad thing - you either ban someone that's your major rival anyway or are glad for them declaring war for you.

Privateers kill cities, so they're nice for poo poo you want salted anyway. Also, given all their possible buffs, it's great (if costly) to just drop a squad of super saian haunts for the defensive meatgrinder when attacked.

Other that that, basically try to play them like Broken Lords that chose building pretty cities over a decent military. And don't be dismayed by somewhat substandard early game - once the trade and dust ramp kicks in properly, you'll have more dust and science than you'll know how to spend.

[edit] While Setseke, Ho! is 90% of the time used for relocating a new city once you spotted a waaay better location a turn earlier, it's also great if the defensive war is getting hopeless. If you're lucky, you can GTFO and settle some other place and if not - you'll have the opponent simply kill a settler, essentially destroying the city, rather than have any way of capturing it for his own purposes. Grow your own town, fuckers!

Roving Clan art of war is essentially a masterclass in passive aggression and scorched earth policy fits that perfectly.

Ooh, thank you very much. This should make for an interesting change of pace, tho naturally I'm balkin' a bit at the micro recommended after getting to just auto-resolve with Necros. I'll miss seeing four+ armies with over 20 units each just carving things to pieces.

Edit: also lol "You have the best settler in the game" well there's a sentence I didn't ever expect to read.

Rhjamiz fucked around with this message at 02:10 on Dec 29, 2017

# ¿ Dec 29, 2017 02:07

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

Yeah I'm almost certain I've had three in my start region before.

# ¿ Dec 30, 2017 19:25

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

So how important are Trade Companies to the Lumeris? I know Trade is their " thing" but I was under the impression that trade had been nerfed into the ground and that Dust inflation put a damper on their buyout power. I like the Lumeris and the United Empire a lot, it just feels like the UE's buyout gimmick is stronger on the whole.

Honestly, I wish the Lumeris could parlay with pirates. Pay protection money or bribe them to target other players.

# ¿ Jan 7, 2018 01:15

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

What is the general opinion of ES2's combat system? I tend to think it's a nice middle-ground between "if you don't micro your army gently caress you" of Endless Legend and "rock-paper-scissors cards" of Endless Space 1. I kind of hope they adapt it for land battles for EL2, and have little formations of dudes Total War style.

Edit: Also do we have a Discord for Endless multiplayer?

# ¿ Jan 13, 2018 17:32

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

Helion posted:

Looks like we got an hour long presentation coming up on Endless Day, the 18th. What are you hoping for?

I'd like a full sized expansion for Endless Space 2, and perhaps an announcement for Endless Legend 2: now with Terraforming!

I'm hoping it's a full expansion also, which would mean mechanics updates/changes. Hopefully not just "Here's a Vaulter hero and the 1.1.15 patch". When I looked on their forums I saw a dev mention it's too early to be looking at Endless Legend 2, so I think that's a year or so off right now, at the least.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2018 23:45

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

Tree Bucket posted:

it took me way too long to realise that the Argosy acts as a mobile portal. That would have really sped up my horrible two-front war.
Also, has anyone had any luck with boarding pods yet? Growing fleets with captured ships might be a fun way to keep a war rolling along.

Can anyone use boarding pods or just the Vaulters?

# ¿ Jan 19, 2018 23:45

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

I find you want to go for the Industrial tech that grants access to Titanium first for the industry boost, then Xenobiology for Private Public Partnerships. From there you basically play to your faction strength and research as the situation warrants. I like getting market access so I can sell useless luxuries and surplus strategics, but then as Lumeris I always have a use for more Dust.

PS gently caress dust inflation.

# ¿ Jan 20, 2018 21:41

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

Fhqwhgads posted:

What do people better than I am at this game think about their rate of expansion? It's a four turn cool down, then 10 turns before the colony is free. So effectively a new colony every 14 turns.

That's about how long it takes for me to develop an outpost as Lumeris. Usually about 10 turns after boosting it, less if I'm raiding a rival outpost.

Edit; the difference being my colonies are expensive as gently caress, whereas they can reuse their ship. Mm. Dunno. That feels like it's going to get absurd.

# ¿ Feb 1, 2018 17:48

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

Inexplicable Humblebrag posted:

also on a similar note, what's the deal with the AI demanding tribute, not sending a demand, receiving tribute anyway and then bitching next turn about not getting tribute?

is ES2 still in such a lovely situation even, after its first expansion, that diplomacy doesn't work?

They do that occasionally and apparently they will accept a gift as tribute but what the threshold is to count as "enough" I don't know.

But usually if the ai talks to you, they expect you to do something in response and will be mad if you don't.

Edit; I have the most trouble with tribute and military aid. Everything else seems to work, like suggesting alliances or deals.

# ¿ Feb 5, 2018 19:54

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

Fhqwhgads posted:

I feel like alliances and win conditions might need some tweaking. I just won a science game with the Vaulters while allied with the Sophons and Horatio by researching the four techs and just leaving the alliance. It felt cheesy, getting the alliance bonuses and then just peacing out to claim victory myself. If I just gifted the techs to them would we have just won as an alliance?

I did the same to my player alliance in a game as Lumeris. Colonized all the needed systems and jumped ship

# ¿ Feb 6, 2018 16:37

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

Yeah, they probably needed it for their ships but didn't need Antimatter so for them it was a 'steal'. I abuse this a lot as a form of bribe to get the AI to treaty with me.

# ¿ Mar 26, 2018 21:50

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

I'd be down for either. Only on sun/mon tho, as those are my days off.

# ¿ Mar 30, 2018 15:15

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

Flipswitch posted:

Any tips on The Forgotten? They're cool but I am dreadful with them.

Seconding this. I like sneaky mans but wow am I terrible at them.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2018 20:04

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

The Shortest Path posted:

Okay so I pushed myself into tier 3 tech on the merchant dudes on easy and suddenly am producing like 5k dust per turn. I am throwing up new cities as fast as I can and buying every single available building on the first turn and am at the army cap and still can't spend this poo poo fast enough, it fuckin owns. Obviously it wouldn't be anywhere near this easy to get to this point on a real difficulty but it's persuaded me to try playing a bit more, probably with one of the weird dlc factions.

I'm still getting the hang of them but can't seem to hit that ramp in Era 3 reliably. Never that big of a boost, anyway. They're still quite fun, shame they feel so weak comparatively.

# ¿ Apr 19, 2018 05:19

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

Zoe posted:

Hi I just got Endless Legend, there was a village of spider people next to me so I did what any rational person would, but now it's just an ugly burned out village really close to my main city. Is there a way to make it completely go away?

You can rebuild it so the spiders work for you, but that is probably my biggest gripe about EL; no way to demolish ruins or towns that are in the way without mods

# ¿ Apr 19, 2018 20:02

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

I napped too long.

# ¿ Jun 17, 2018 01:42

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

I'm hoping this is going to be their crack at revamping the combat system in EL as a sort of test for whatever they're working on for EL2.

A man can dream.

# ¿ Jul 16, 2018 01:48

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

The Human Crouton posted:

I think I like the Hissho and their keii ability from what I've read. I like how amplitude forces war in their games. ES2 needed another forced war faction because my games have been way too peaceful.

Yeah I am digging the Hissho right now. I'll probably oscillate between them and the Lumeris for my mains. It's crazy to me how much better ES2 is than ES1. The intros and the new art and music help bring a lot of character to what I initially considered to be rather boring races, save the Horatio who were crazy weird from the get-go.

# ¿ Jul 27, 2018 00:24

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

Hissho sound like my new main.

# ¿ Aug 2, 2018 20:35

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

Congrats on winning with the coolest and best faction. :v:

# ¿ Aug 13, 2018 01:22

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

Are we using discord for this?

# ¿ Aug 20, 2018 14:00

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

IAmTheRad posted:

They added a harmony hero with DLC (and more music) and also the Celestial Worlds added a new questline that uses the unique planets for something.

Because before they had no point besides just being unique.

They also did a balance patch that helped out a bit and tweaked several empires' mechanics. Biggest for me is giving the Lumeris a way to mitigate Dust Inflation, which has always baffled me as a mechanic because it punishes the Lumeris so harshly. I'm hoping they continue to get tweaks because they're still pretty subpar, as much as I enjoy playing them. Hopefully they'll benefit some from the Espionage system.

# ¿ Nov 19, 2018 04:37

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

Their bug squashing and balance in general has been hit or miss since release.

There's an animation error with Lumeris large slug turrets that's been in since release and I guess no one uses that combination ever so it's still there.

# ¿ Nov 20, 2018 19:39

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

Yep.

# ¿ Nov 21, 2018 21:36

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

Serephina posted:

It's been a while since I played, but iirc there's a few techs that let you leverage more manpower per fight, that plus the 'blitz' option can usually take a system in a few turns. The major holdups are if the AI ever builds defensive buildings, which it fortunately doesn't do everywhere. When you hit a speedbump, leave one ship there seiging, while the rest move on fast-capping the outer rim system elsewhere. Also tanks; by the time you're ready to start murdering you probably have tanks faster than they do (certainly well before airplanes), so going 100% tanks and push the tank upgrades really really makes things one-sided for a while.

Yeah there is basically no point to ever use infantry once you have Tanks. Only in the late late game are they even worth considering again.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2018 00:24

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

Pretty much agreed on all counts. EL and ES have extremely passive AI and I frequently have to play on Endless difficulty to get them to actually challenge me when I play as Necrophages.

I get wrecked as the Forgotten tho, I still can't play them properly.

# ¿ Jan 7, 2019 23:08

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 21:13

Rhjamiz: Oct 28, 2007

Amethyst posted:

Man the new faction sounds weird. They're completely invisible? Not sure how fun that will be to play against.

Hacking:

"In the new scan view, players can now initiate hacking operation from a system they own to a target system. While the hack progresses, the player and their target will be able to set up offensive and defensive programs to influence its progression. If the hack succeeds, the attacker will be able to choose among several potentially crippling outcomes..."

So it's a whole new layer to manage...

That sounds... bad. Maybe it will secretly be very good but I have doubts.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2019 02:57

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