Endless Space

[Slack3r78]

You know, I think part of what could be going on is that the AI may have a rather fixed view of what it considers "its" territory, whether it's established itself in a given system or not. It seems to get fixated on particular stars and that might explain why sometimes it ignores you and other times it'll pick fights at the drop of a hat.

Sovereignty in general needs some serious balancing. 30 turns to turn an outpost into a colony is just wayyyy too long, IMO.

[Libuke]

Won my first game.

Won by having control of over 75% of the galaxy with at least 50% of it explored. (Weird number is you ask me).

Never ran into an military competition until like the last 10 turns but even then there was no way they would have been able to hold on for very long. But the game ended as I capture the first couple of their systems.

[Acidpoptart]

Originally Posted by Libuke

Won by having control of over 75% of the galaxy with at least 50% of it explored. (Weird number is you ask me).

What does it mean by 'explored'? I first thought it meant something like scouted and visited at some point. But how would you control 75% without having seen at least 75%?

Also: Invasions are pretty slow, or maybe I need to get better invasion tech... I just have been flying around blowing up enemy ships and blockading their planets instead of actually capturing anything.

[evilgoodwin]

I assume it's 75% of the controlled and known galaxy.

[Narradisall]

Won my first game, economic victory.

Even though I was building fleets and stuff all over the god damn galaxy, I was earning so much money I couldn't stop myself reaching an economic victory even if I tried.

I started a fresh game, and put the speed on fast, but damn the pacing is too slow. If I try rapid expansion it still takes 20-40 turns for things to get started.

I find myself skipping turns at 5-10 a god before reviewing my empire, whereas other games I'd be doing it nigh every turn.

My first game ran easil like 8 hours, on the smallest and easiest setting.

With the current pace I'll never play a large scale game, I'd be at it for weeks!

[Karak]

Originally Posted by Narradisall

Won my first game, economic victory.

Even though I was building fleets and stuff all over the god damn galaxy, I was earning so much money I couldn't stop myself reaching an economic victory even if I tried.

I started a fresh game, and put the speed on fast, but damn the pacing is too slow. If I try rapid expansion it still takes 20-40 turns for things to get started.

I find myself skipping turns at 5-10 a god before reviewing my empire, whereas other games I'd be doing it nigh every turn.

My first game ran easil like 8 hours, on the smallest and easiest setting.

With the current pace I'll never play a large scale game, I'd be at it for weeks!

I have to say. IMO nothing is as enjoyable as a EPIC scale game played over many many days. Something about it mimics a more realistic feel to me. I dig that kind of thing.

[Narradisall]

Originally Posted by Karak

I have to say. IMO nothing is as enjoyable as a EPIC scale game played over many many days. Something about it mimics a more realistic feel to me. I dig that kind of thing.

I do as well, and I've played long running SoaSE games.

That said, this just feels dragged out for the sake of it. When you can go 10 or so turns without really needing to do anything, and I'm disengaged from the game, something needs looking at.

I'm not managing anything 9/10 turns.

[Karak]

Originally Posted by Narradisall

I do as well, and I've played long running SoaSE games.

That said, this just feels dragged out for the sake of it. When you can go 10 or so turns without really needing to do anything, and I'm disengaged from the game, something needs looking at.

I'm not managing anything 9/10 turns.

Oh I see what you mean. Yes I agree with your summation. That seems to be a balance issue or something.

[PathMaster]

Hmm, so is this Sins of a Solar Empire with less emphasis on battles, but more micro-management?

It seems to vacillate as I read the thread. But I am curious, because SoaSE was awesome. Those games usually lasted me a few days, though I admit I am a slower player.

[Narradisall]

Yeah, it's turn base sins with more micromanagement. Which is good in its own right.

It's alpha though, so there are still bits and pieces here and there that need looking into, but it's been fun so far.

I'm likely going to drop it when D3 comes out, and will wait for the finished product before I give it another whirl.

[Xydarc]

How are the ship battles? A card-based system doesn't really sound that appealing.

[Narradisall]

Originally Posted by Xydarc

How are the ship battles? A card-based system doesn't really sound that appealing.

They're pretty much cutscenes with card draws.

So you draw an ability, and if it trumps the one they pulled, you get a bonus to combat round.

It's ok, but it's more of a pure "watch the fight unfold" type combat system. Which I must admit I enjoy, purely because it's a nice change of pace and in games like sins I never get to watch the fight just play out since I'm too busy using skills and assigning optimum targets.

Plus it's amusing when I build ships with massive rocket payloads and they fire everything, but get wiped out by plasma cannons, then I just watch as my dead fleets rockets wipe out the entire enemy fleet. Draw! Hah.

I can see that the system is not going to appeal to many though as it is very hands off. Tech etc can add more cards so you have a greater pool of abilities to use, and new weapons etc to pull from.

If you prefer hands on combat though, it will deffo not appeal.

[Libuke]

Originally Posted by Narradisall

They're pretty much cutscenes with card draws.

So you draw an ability, and if it trumps the one they pulled, you get a bonus to combat round.

It's ok, but it's more of a pure "watch the fight unfold" type combat system. Which I must admit I enjoy, purely because it's a nice change of pace and in games like sins I never get to watch the fight just play out since I'm too busy using skills and assigning optimum targets.

Plus it's amusing when I build ships with massive rocket payloads and they fire everything, but get wiped out by plasma cannons, then I just watch as my dead fleets rockets wipe out the entire enemy fleet. Draw! Hah.

I can see that the system is not going to appeal to many though as it is very hands off. Tech etc can add more cards so you have a greater pool of abilities to use, and new weapons etc to pull from.

If you prefer hands on combat though, it will deffo not appeal.

I like to think of the combat a lot more like Civ combat but with a longer play out. Not anything like SOTS or SINS I find them kinda fun and with the right tactic choice have won battles that I wouldn't if I autoed them. I have got destroyed in close fights due to the same thing however.

[Karak]

Originally Posted by Xydarc

How are the ship battles? A card-based system doesn't really sound that appealing.

It is somewhat like Galactic Civ in that you don't control them during battle.
But I just spent about 8 hours playing and I have to say that the amount of things you can do, the way you can balance between what cards to choose depending on your fleets, which also can have mixed ships and you have to decide which cards won't impact you largely negative yet will help you out. PLUS then you have the cards that counter other cards.
Add heroes to that as well, then add that you may have utilized planetary bonuses when making ships and you have a freakishly deep system. Somehow they have just made it look somewhat simple in ways.

The game clicked with me today finally. I fucking love it. I mean IN LOVE WITH IT. The deeper I went the more I began to understand the battle and the millions of freaking ways to utilize what looks like a shallow battle systems, to my advantage. Additionally they make the large ship battles look right. Somewhat out of Babylon 5 if a bit repetitive. All in all I fucking love it.

[Xydarc]

How do I move a fleet to a new star?

Nevermind, I figured it out. Now I need to figure how to actually build a ship.

[Karak]

Originally Posted by Xydarc

How do I move a fleet to a new star?

Nevermind, I figured it out. Now I need to figure how to actually build a ship.

Go to the ship area and either modify then refit or hit new and choose a hulltype.

[Xydarc]

I mean, how do I contruct a new colony vessel for example. I've used the ship editor.

[Narradisall]

ON planet building stuff, theres a ship tab, switch to that and it shows what ships and how long to build.

[CappinCanuck]

Originally Posted by Narradisall

ON planet building stuff, theres a ship tab, switch to that and it shows what ships and how long to build.

Exactly as ^^^ said. There's a ship tab, construct ships, and a planet tab, construct planetary improvements. Both still use the same queue but just the construction lists are separated.

[CappinCanuck]

Big patch a few days ago:

Moved the save directory from ‘Documents\Endless Space\Users\[Steam Alias]\Save\’ to ‘Documents\Endless Space\Save\’.
Added a new Fleet action: guard. The fleets with guard status will block fleet movements of all opponents in cold war or war.
Added a drag and drop function for the items of the construction queue.
Fixed an issue where AI fleets can initiate a fight during the “End turn” phase.
Fixed an issue where the battle actions “Beam Surge” and “Illusion” are not properly unlocked by the corresponding Adventurer hero abilities.
Fixed an issue preventing the apparition of heroes in the academy after 5 games without restarting the client.
Fixed an error preventing the victory conditions to be deactivated in the settings of a new game.
Added a warning message if you don’t have a research in queue when you click on end turn.
Added a warning message if your bank account become negative at the next turn. After validating the end turn, if next turn's Dust should still become negative, elements will be scrapped automatically (before next turn's dust calculation). The order used to scrap elements is :

if player's tax rate is lower than 50%, force it to 50%.
the oldest player's system (if that rule is not possible : the one with the less dust)
>>> scrap buildings 1 by 1 except those giving immediate dust (system improvement dust 1 to 6), starting each time with the building having the highest upkeep.
the oldest player's ship (if that rule is not possible : the one having the less MP)
Repeat (2) system by system and (3) ship by ship until there is no more ship and all targeted buildings have been scrapped from all systems
force player tax rate to 75%.
Expel heroes, starting with the one having less XP, until there is no hero left
Scrap all remaining buildings system by system (highest system improvement upkeep first)
force player tax rate to 100%.

Added the ‘Lock End Turn’ option in the game options panel. When this option is selected, you will not be able to end your turn until all critical warnings have been dismissed or resolved.
Modified the population growth formula.
Modified the hero upkeep formula.
Increased the upkeep value of the system improvements.
Modified the negative anomalies effects in order to increase the interest of “Anomaly Reduction”.
Modified the values of weapon mods. All accuracies have been changed.
Modified the values of defense mods. Weapon X against Defense X has still a chance to deal damage.
Fixed the values for the following kinetic modules: Hissho, 7 and 9.
Decreased the effects of the trade route bonuses.
Modified the effects of the tax rate.
Added 2 battle cards at game start.
Exchanges can no longer be made in cold war or war.
Now diplomacy victory can be achieved with all galaxy sizes and all number of factions, though the more cravers there will be, the harder it will become (it can also become impossible with more than 40% cravers)
Improved the AI which no longer tries to build system improvements that will never be of use depending on star system contents.
Added a colored symbol to most of the icons of the tech tree. Color indications are the following: industry (orange), food (light green), exploration/colonization (dark green), dust (yellow), military/command (red), hero/academy/experience (light blue), science (dark blue), approval (pink), diplomacy/influence (light grey), strategic resources (purple), FIDS (rainbow). Shape determines an empire unlock (star), a system building (triangle) or a ship module (square).
Added a confirmation message after a modification of resolution.
Fixed an issue preventing to change the resolution if the new height or width is the same as the previous selection.
Fixed an issue where AI fleets can overcome the command points limitation.
Added the locust points value in the system view.
Extended the size of the filename for the save files to 80 characters.
Added a Vsync option in the Game Options Panel.
Modified the end game screen.
The “+1 max pop on explored moon” bonus effect of ‘Psychological Insulation’ should work properly now.
Fixed an error occurring when an empire is eliminated and causing a crash.
Fixed an issue where the player can’t pass a turn (without an error message).
Modified the galaxy generation, including the following points:

shape topology is now appropriately implemented, resulting in:
colored regions in shapes correctly followed
better connections between regions/constellations
more logical associations of regions/stars in constellations
spawning was greatly improved, and will explicitly look for well-connected places
connectivity was greatly improved
"Star Connectivity" and "Constellation Connectivity" parameters are much better accounted for
No anomaly should be found on starting planets, except from faction traits.

Improved the 3D viewport in the Military and Ship Design screens: you can rotate the 3D ship with holding the left click.
Fixed an error where the user can retrofit ships for which he does not have the required strategic resources.
Fixed an issue where the pirate ship explosion is too small.
Added scroll bars in the random event panel.
Improved the skyboxes in the Galaxy and System screens.
Lava planets are rotated around a vertical axis.
Added background elements in the Battle view (asteroids, wrecks).
Added a zoom level slider in the Galaxy View (available in the game option panel).
Fixed an issue where the slider values in the audio options display the wrong information.
Added a slider for the GUI SFX in the audio options.
Modified the trade panel to display more than 6 trade routes.
Improved the faction selection in the new game screen.
Fixed an error where hovering over the command point number displays the wrong tool tip.
Fixed an error where disband a fleet or scrap a ship can be performed in the military view while the fleet is on a cosmic string.
Fixed an issue where the slider for Ambience, Master and Music volume disappears if the user presses left-click on it.
Fixed a display issue where Xeno-Pharmaceuticals, Artifact Analysis and Animalia exploitation unlocks are exiting the designated area.
Fixed a display issue where all artifacts resources are exiting the designated area when the user is in planet view.
Fixed an error where some module texts do not fit the designated space box in the ship design view.
Fixed an error where the trade panel in the system view has no scroll bar.
Fixed an error occurring after expelling all heroes from the academy.
Fixed an error preventing the loading of some game saves.
Fixed a text issue where the title of the battle cards panel in the galaxy view is wrong.
Fixed some display errors in the diplomatic negotiations view.
Fixed an improper tooltip when trying to assign a hero to a fleet engaged into a fight.
Fixed a resolution issue on the moon/temple large icons.
Fixed a text issue in the battle card successful tooltip if the AI hasn’t used a battle card.
Fixed a text issue in the title tooltip of the advanced galaxy settings panel.
Fixed text issues in the description of some heroes.
Fixed text issue in the tooltip of a lava planet colonization without having the required technology.
Fixed an issue on the left arrow used to change deal values in the diplomatic negotiations view.
Fixed a text issue in the attack fleet action tooltip.
Fixed text issues in the tutorials.
Fixed an error where the 7th tip is missing in the military view tutorial.
Fixed text issue in the opponent played battle action tooltip.
Edit: Fixed an issue where tonnage related empire improvements are not functional.
Edit: Fixed an issue where the food surplus is not converted into industry with 'Adaptive Industrial Systems'.



Known issues:

Pathfinding (when you want to pass through a wormhole with the warp drive technology).
Ghost fleets.
Invisible missiles.
Upon reaching level 11, ships lose all their XP.
Edit: Game difficulty (AI does not benefit from upkeep bonuses).

Modified the galaxy generation (wormholes are less frequent).
• Modified the pathfinding algorithm. You can override the algorithm by holding the left shift key and right-clicking on the system(s) you want. If you have the warp drive technology, ctrl + right-click on a system will force a free movement to the selected system. Warp/wormhole movement displays blue dots. Free movement displays green dots.
• Modified the tax rate formula.
• Modified the hire cost of the heroes (depending on the number of heroes you already have hired)
• Modified a AI ship design template.