Ever since Sins of a Solar Empire (RTS) and Gal Civ 2 (TBS) Ive been waiting for a good new space 4x game. While civ is great, it lacks the "possibilities" in a space game. And the amount that can be done!
On july 4th, Endless Space came out. Its a space 4x game. Turn based.
I have read a few reviews; the TLDR of it is this:
Amazing customization (ship design, etc) Each faction is EXTREMELY unique. VERY much a in-depth game, with tons of info and things to do A great UI, that explains things very well.
The tech tree is somewhat lackluster AI is lackluster Some UI changes/QoL changes are needed.
So maybe itll get better over a few patches? But for the most part, most reviews have been a 8 or 9.
First impressions are that it is similar to civilization but with a different war/combat system and much more expansive empire management. There is a pretty big learning curve to getting into the game, but it is getting more and more fun as I learn how to play. The user interface is complex, but it is modular so it should be pretty easy to improve - I find that once you get the hang of navigating it, its not bad at all. The game prompts you to do things, but does not direct your attention or nag you like civilization. I just got into my first war and the combat is engaging, you command your units with a command card system - certain cards perform tactics that counter the opponents, or vice versa, but since you don't know what card the enemy will play feels a bit random. The AI seems to like expanding rapidly and then picking fights with neighbors, but I have also had some friendly trading and an alliance as well. I am still getting the hang of ship design because even in the early game there are a ton of customization options. There are 4 tech trees, and each faction has unique technologies! I have to disagree with the tech tree being lackluster - it is very involved and there are penultimate technologies that provide some insane bonuses or lead to victory conditions. this game is grand in scope so it feels like one of those games that takes forever to master but is rewarding if you do.
Overall, if you like civilization and/or aren't afraid of an in-depth turn based strategy game, you will probably enjoy this game.
I have heard a lot about this game and am close to getting it. But since there are 2 games coming out that are similar right now (this and legend of pegasus) I dont know which game to get...!
I've played 40 something hours of this and I have to say I love it. A good hint is to place farms on every single planet when you colonize it, also build a heavy isotope plant on every system. Those two things together massively speed up the coloinization of a system.
Got the game but I somehow regret it. I think that Legend of Pegasus has more potential. Really don't like the combat in endless space, and it seems like legend of pegasus will have more customization options for ships/planets
I played it for a while, but I didn't "get" it really. I just started a game as Sowers, colonized a nearby star with my factory ship and another planet in my starting system.. and then there wasn't much to do. I couldn't build any more factory ships (I GUESS it was because I didn't have the population for it, but that's pretty broken since I found an AI empire with 5 or so stars colonized by the time I could finally start building a factory ship again, so I guess I'm to assume that he just rolled better food FIDS on his planets). Most turns, I simply clicked end turn because there was nothing to do, I was just building planet improvements which takes several turns or waiting for a research to complete.
On July 09 2012 17:08 Tobberoth wrote: I played it for a while, but I didn't "get" it really. I just started a game as Sowers, colonized a nearby star with my factory ship and another planet in my starting system.. and then there wasn't much to do. I couldn't build any more factory ships (I GUESS it was because I didn't have the population for it, but that's pretty broken since I found an AI empire with 5 or so stars colonized by the time I could finally start building a factory ship again, so I guess I'm to assume that he just rolled better food FIDS on his planets). Most turns, I simply clicked end turn because there was nothing to do, I was just building planet improvements which takes several turns or waiting for a research to complete.
I was going to say the exact same thing. It kind of gets me bored very quickly. Its slower than most 4x games I have played (played most of them). i think if they change that simple mechanic and make it a little bit easier to expand and grow your population. it would be very good.
well, its one of the few x4 games that dont have some kind of annoying tactical combat attached to it, so this alone made me buy it. But i havent got around to playing it, im still playing warlock, master of the arcane (which is a fun turnbased version of majesty 2)
On July 09 2012 18:09 LaNague wrote: well, its one of the few x4 games that dont have some kind of annoying tactical combat attached to it, so this alone made me buy it. But i havent got around to playing it, im still playing warlock, master of the arcane (which is a fun turnbased version of majesty 2)
how does it compare to galciv 2?
Its a lot more slower paces, its similar to galciv 2 but its like a mix between that and Sword of the stars.
This game is from the feeling the closest to Master of Orion 2 that any later game came. Mechanically it is quite different but the playstyle is closer.
What i don't like: 1. The whole Wormhole/Lane stuff. You can get free travel later but why even implement lanes in the first place? It's just an unneccessary restriction that doesn't add anything to the game.
2. The research tree is very crowded. Personally i liked the very linear trees of MoO2 that allowed exclusive choices.
3. Combat is really, really boring and bad. You spend 20s loading the battle, 10s picking the cards in the first phase and then 60s watching things explode. I ended up using auto-combat all the time because in the end against AI the combat is luck based anyways due to the card counter system and the unpredictable AI. Also there is no tactic involved at all, you can't position ships, you can't give them targets, etc., so they end up wasting the first wave of missiles on the old and weak targets and the big ship kills all of them in the next phase eventhough if they had killed it first, the others wouldn't have mattered.
4. No ground combat. You just place your ships in orbit and some rounds later it's your system. That is boring. Something so simple as in MoO2 where you just bring a few transporters to invade or otherwise have to destroy the colony would be more enjoyable. Ground combat wouldn't even have to be complex, something as stupidly simple as the MoO2 ground combat would be perfectly fine.
5. Small fleets. You can get a decent amount of ships in a single fleet later but unless you exclusively build small ships your fleets will always consist of at most a dozen ships.
What i like: 1. No 3D galaxy. I can't tell how annoying i find those 3D galaxies. Yeah, they might be more realistic but they just end up being confusing since it's impossible to see the distance of planets on the first look. It's great that Endless Space stayed true to the classics.
2. Customizing your race. I had fun playing as ultra-scientific, peaceful "Psilon" and then trying a bad science, high production, endless war race or the super-scientific warmongers "Xel'Naga", etc. I would have liked some more choices but in general it's fun to try different stuff especially with approaches to the game that you usually don't take.
3. Ship customization is well done. Not much to say about that.
4. AI. The AI adapts to your ships. I built ships using mass drivers, AI outfitted new ships with deflectors. I added shields against his mainly laser based fleets, he switched to missiles. I built lots of cheap swarmers that had a pure "shoot as many missiles as possible" loadout, AI added flak.
5. Weapons/Defenses. Like i mentioned in the previous point, there are 3 different weapon types and each has it's own kind of defense. This adds a nice interaction where a "take lots of the highest tech weapon"-approach might not be the best, you have to look at what your opponents have equipped.
On the fence: 1. "Happyness". It's annoying the heck out of me in Civ5, it's annoying me in ES, but it adds to the game. You can't just colonize everything, if you want to, you have to pick the traits in the race customization. It might need some adjustment though.
Summary: It's a good game and i can recommend it though I still hope they replace the combat system with something where you can actually use strategy to defeat your opponent and don't just win by sheer numbers or by card poker.
... Okay its a really small thing but could you at least get a picture with your race being all .. winning.. instead of 1 line of text
I think that the game is okay. It isn't great yet, but let's see how moddable it is and I think it can be fine. Still feels like its in late beta, in my opinion. (Or an Indie game that needs money at some point :D ) Also in Singeplayer there are some pretty weird bugs/mechanics in diplomacy , have not tried multiplayer yet, and it feels like its designed more like a multiplayer game, to me at least.
Is there any way to get some TL Multiplayer games going?
Got the game as well since I haven't played one of those in a while. I remember quite fondly playing a lot of Ascendancy when I was younger. I still recommend to check that game out, despite it's age. (Edit: I just found out in 2011 they rereleased an updated version of Ascendancy for iPhone/iPad, sadly I own neither)
It's a really complex game and hard to grasp at first, even with the tutorials. But when you start to understand how most things work it starts to get quite fun. Sadly though, as the game drags on, I start to lose focus and just skip a lot of turns if I just want to research or build something.
Also I haven't completed a single game yet. I just start a new one and see what I can do more efficiently in the beginning.
Not too fond of the combat. The card system is kind of random, so I usually just auto battle.
The research tree is very daunting at first. There's a lot of things that you can research, but in the end I don't even use half of it. I research a lot of things just to get from point A to B.
All in all, the game has a lot of potential and it seems the developers are still making tweaks and upgrades here and there.
no combat which i've noticed (which is a good thing, who wants to play a 4x game for the combat?)
after playing this more, I noticed if that you focus your research into one tree, that isn't military, you kinda die to the first invasion, unless you build like 10 defenders at each base, which is kinda silly.
I keep playing the Solons? and they always end up winning somehow, usually either expansion victory or income or something. They seems to be able to just expand rapidly and get a massive advantage. Whenever I amass an armada to go wipe them out, they always send ships to snipe me (frigen all kinetic ships that 1 shot u etc).
Ended up getting bored with it. Not a bad game though, just a waste of time single player.
i find the game AI relies too heavily on cheats and not enough on, well, intelligence. Which is disappointing because this game doesnt have the tactical difficulties other games have that play on a tile-system map. (and AI mostly is really bad at tactical conbat, not in their economy. They sometimes build stupid things, but a slight 10-20% bonus to production usually covers that).
i cant recommend this game to people who allready played similar games, you will get bored quickly and its comparatively too expensive for the amounjt of time you have fun with it.
ive discovered the 'difficulty slider' gives the AI a FIDS bonus in addition to expansion disapproval multiplier. in short, allows the AI to expand like fuck while you are severely limited in colonization. i may agree its a good handicap to try to fight against but in the end it becomes next to impossible to deal with AI production. not a very good way to use to adjust game difficulty.
On July 11 2012 16:03 a176 wrote: ive discovered the 'difficulty slider' gives the AI a FIDS bonus in addition to expansion disapproval multiplier. in short, allows the AI to expand like fuck while you are severely limited in colonization. i may agree its a good handicap to try to fight against but in the end it becomes next to impossible to deal with AI production. not a very good way to use to adjust game difficulty.
Huh? I can still deal with the AI on Endless unless its the cravers (fuck those guys, srsly). You can still expand really fast if you do it right.
I got the game yesterday and I've played about 6 hours. By and large I like the game but there are a couple of things I don't like:
1. The early game is too much of a land grab. In a game like civilisation, colonisation of new territory lasts well into the mid game, and even into the early late game. In ES, basically all the systems are filled up by the end of the early game. I don't like that, it makes the early game too much about constant production of colonisation ships. If you don't get a good food roll on your FIDS you can fall behind pretty seriously.
2. Not enough diplomacy to do. I like the whole idea of having Cold War as the basic diplomatic setting, but the problem is there's nothing to do with it! There's no espionage system, no way of sabotaging the opponent all it means is that you can have skirmishes without actual war. The addition of smaller city states like Civ V has would make the Cold War system a LOT more interesting, because then it might actually resemble a cold war.
3. The battle system is purely aesthetic, there's basically no reason to manually control the battle unless you want to see the prettiness (and it is quite pretty).
At the end of the day I think that what the game does do, it does well. The tech tree is good, the variation in playing styles seems like it will be balanced. However the early game is too one dimensional, and the diplomacy is lackluster due to not enough options. The AI doesn't seem too good either, although I was expecting that from an indie game, they just don't have the resources to build such a difficult system. Overall the game suffers from a lack of content which limits replayability. Perhaps expansions or DLC will fix it.