I'm posting this late (sorry) because I just found out about it myself. Endless Space is having a free weekend until tomorrow. Here's the relevant link: http://endless-space.amplitude-studios.com/Games2gether/G2G-Community-Rewards ES is a pretty good 4-X space game in the spirit of Master of Orion, and so on. The game started out pretty plain/vanilla, but the devs have been gradually adding new features, races, random events, and so on, largely influenced by community voting and feedback. If you haven't tried it, or at least, if you haven't tried it recently, this is a good time to do so. The only comment I will make is in regards to the only real negative aspect of the game -- a lot of people complain that the game lacks tactical combat, and that's a pretty valid complaint. That said, the rest of it has been shaping up fine. You can actually retreat from combat now. Others have complained that the game is too difficult even on the easiest difficulty. Well there's now a much easier difficulty mode for real beginners. There's probably too many changes since release for me to mention them all, so I'll just repeat, you should just check it out while it's free. Anyway, I thought I'd let you all know. I do still play the game. I can't say that I'm good at the game, but I have recently beaten it for the first time. And I've actually played it more frequently in the last month than when it first came out, as it has gotten to be a lot better than it was.
In regards to the fact that many complain of a lack of tactical combat: I don't see why every space-based 4x game needs it. Not all of them are MoO; not all of them should try being it. See the civ series and SMAC for 4x's where a lack of tactical combat isn't lamented. Granted, its card battle system could definitely use some more fleshing out, but don't let the lack of tactical combat put you off of trying the game. I just beat the game last night with a tech victory. I probably could have ramped up my military more and gone for a conquest victory, but I thought it'd take more than the 30ish turns to beeline to the victory techs.
You are correct, not every game needs tactical combat. I just feel that the card playing which is substituted for tactical combat is kind of flawed. So I use quick-combat whenever I can. That said, sometimes you are forced to use the slow combat to have a chance -- for example, there's no quick-retreat option. If you are vastly outmatched, you pretty much have a choice of suicide, or using slow combat to retreat. IT's tiresome because sometimes your fleet is stuck there turn after turn. IF they just added a quick retreat option, that works the same way as the slow combat, but is actually quick, that would be a simple fix. The other thing I don't like about it, is that when theres a dozen or so cards on the screen, my eyes can't focus to read them fast enough to see what they all do. I end up having to pick them at random a lot of the time.
Yeah, that's why I think it could be expanded more. Give tactical combat a pause (unless in multiplayer), add more cards and more, quicker turns in each battle, and I think it would improve a lot. The tactical combat retreat option would be welcome. You can take your time and read the cards out of combat. I think it's a button called something like "battle orders" in the fleet section fo the UI. Then it's a matter of remembering what the cards do by their visuals. I'd still want the pause options in battle, though.
Played my first game this weekend, and immediately got a very large empire and basically won (had the most points, had an alliance with the third highest, was steamrolling #4 and the second highest was still 25% below me in points). I decided to call that a win and will start a new game next time. It's fun, it has the 'just-one-more-turn' addiction and the community is great. For some reason it for me felt like an almost casual 4x. It's kinda deep, but not that much, and it's real easy to pick up on. Combat is pretty straightforward, adding to the feeling of just casually playing the empire map, but I don't dislike it actually. It fits the overall game I think.
There's one thing you have to watch out for though. You may have THOUGHT you would have won, but it's not assured. I've been in games that went a lot like how you describe, but then I'll get the 'game over, you lose' screen out of no where. The reason is that the AI has a tendency to go for a wonder victory, and they can get it without actually dominating the game. A lot of people recommend that you disable the wonder victory, but if you don't, then make sure that you NEVER give up either Siderite or Quadrinix, because if the aI is asking you for that, it may be because they don't have any and they need it to build their wonders. Also, at that point in the game, the AI may start asking you for certain key technologies in trade, and that can be a very strong clue. Then again, I've also gotten a victory out of no where for a diplomatic victory. I'm a bit confused about how that works. I was trying to get a wonder victory myself, when out of nowhere I got the 'game over, you win' screen. Anyway, my only point is that some of the victories can be very odd.
Yes, thanks. The Sheredeyn were constantly asking for resources, but I never gave any. I expected them to be pissed about that but they didn't change their attitude. Also the other empires seemed to have trouble getting any money, I could buy technologies for a flat 400 dust, while I was gaining 600 per turn. They sometimes were at 20 dust with a -53/turn 'income'. Needless to say, I only did that twice not to spoil my experience even more. Even when the game suddenly could have done a 180 on me in the form of wonders I had about half the systems for myself, and was basically just winning in my own feeling, and my own feeling (when playing a singleplayer game) is the only thing that matters. I just didn't feel like playing through 15 events per turn and making sound decisions while there was basically no way (except for a leftfield weird curveball like science victory) I could lose. I simply decided I had won I didn't disable any other victory, but I might next time, because I hope the AI will be more aggressive then (if conquest is the only possible win).
Talking about an agressive AI... One thing I've noticed is that if the Cravers are in the game, and especially if they are doing well, or if there is more than one Craver race in the game, then the non-Craver AI races seem to be very happy to team up to eliminate them (which does make some sense). But the cravers themselves can be oddly non-aggressive, except in a very opportunistic way (ie. they'll go after newly colonized border systems without actually declaring war, but that's about it). If you want to make the other races more aggressive, you can't go wrong by going after their scouts and ships and newly colonized planets on their borders. They are very willing to do that themselves, but they quiet down quickly, unless you return the favor repeatedly.
I noticed they had their third update today. Pretty neat. When I redownload it we should get a MP game going.
Damn, you had me all excited. I didn't see it on Steam, so after some research, it appears that the third update was only just announced. Unless you are signed up for beta updates... I'd be willing to give MP a try, even though that would totally reveal my big secret -- that I'm not a very good player But I'm totally willing to humiliate myself
My biggest complaint with ES is that it feels shallow. Everything that's there is solid, it's just that there's not much to it. I'd love to take part in a MP game though - ES never really clicked for me because I've yet to play it with others, maybe the appeal of the game will become apparent after trying it with less derpy human players.
So far, what I have heard suggest that this would be an enjoyable game to play for a day or two. Then to shelf and never think about again. The primary reason is that I am hearing agreement that the AI can cheat to win with "Wonders". Moreover I hear that there is little to compel a player to bother with replaying once they figured everything out. We can argue about Wonders being a cheat win or not all day long, but in the end it boils down to a beaten enemy doing some arbitrary thing that makes them the winner despite being surrounded on all sides, on fire, diseased, and down to negative resources and no ships or defenses of any sort. Sure sounds like a win to me.
I actually felt he exact same way about it in the beginning -- it was a fairly polished game, but not enough to it. The tech tree was a confusing mess (Still is), etc. All that was true. But the game has been continuously improving, they are still doing balancing (hopefully that wonder victory will be made a bit more challenging to get, for example, so that it is about as easy to get as any other kind of victory), an issue with pirates is being addressed The problem with the wonder victory isn't that you can achieve it while still losing -- it's that you can achieve it far more easily than any other type of victory, and the AI knows it. A military victory MIGHT be faster, but a few small setbacks can cascade into complete failure. And it's only easier if you can manage to piss off a single AI player at a time.
Okay, I reinstalled the game finally and I'm extremely impressed by what they've done since launch. A few things that stood out to me immediately: Exploration events, with different options for different outcomes. Adds a bit more random fun to the game. 3 new races since launch, which all seem pretty interesting. A review all fleets with no orders button and a finish movement orders button, both things I really wanted before. Wonders, which are new discoverable bonuses More interesting galaxy map, black holes etc They seem to have added a bunch of lore to the different empires (such as a starting cinematic) which I find pretty cool and making it seem more like a complete game. They've also added mod support which I haven't looked into yet but am looking forward to.
Regarding the exploration events -- a large percentage of those events are temporary system bonuses. The problem is that they last for anywhere from 5 to 20 turns STARTING from when you first explore that system. So BEST case scenario, you get one of those events on a planet right on your frontier, you send a colony ship there -- assuming you already have one ready to send, and on average it will take you from 5 to 10 turns to get there (depending on the relative distance from that colony ship to that specific planet). Any event which only lasts 5 turns will already be over. Honestly I have NEVER EVER EVER ONCE gotten a colony ship to one of those planets in time to take advantage. Not once. They make it sound like you got some nice bonus, but in actuality nothing happens. Note that this is only true for that kind of exploration event. Others are more meaningful.
That's easy to fix: explore with colonizers ^^ I find that strategy serves me well in a lot of these games. It might be a tad risky, but it can be a great boon too.
