Endless Space 2 Fans...

Started by Ian C, July 12, 2018, 03:54:39 AM

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bboyer66

Playing at normal difficulty and I am doing pretty good. In second place overall currently.

Don't forget having the most manpower and number of systems doesn't necessarily mean you are winning. Just as in my game where the United Empire had a pretty substantial lead in both, but are now getting their asses handed to them by my technologically superior fleet. Having the Sophons and the Riftborn helping me doesn't hurt either.

Pro tip: Do not follow the advice your advisors give you on what tech to research. They will generally recommend techs that take just way too long to research. Study the tech tree, and don't jump too far ahead in the tech levels. You jump too far ahead and you will be spending 16 turns researching a tech. In that same time period you might have been able to research 4-5 other techs.




Gusington



слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

jamus34

Yeah I'm still on the fence on whether the AI cheats but if it is not it is hard to beat with the efficiencies that are in place. It's quite frustrating.
Insert witty comment here.

Barthheart

Quote from: bboyer66 on July 12, 2018, 12:37:42 PM
I'm guessing that the difficulty modifiers are similar to the first game.

http://endlessspace.wikia.com/wiki/Game_settings

I believe that Boyer66 is correct that the difficulty modifiers are similar to Endless Space 1.
So NORMAL is not EVEN. I think this was brought up when ES 1 came out. And the devs said that they wanted Normal to be challenging. So the lowest setting I think is an even playing field.

Jarhead0331

#34
Somehow, I managed to win a war against a statistically, much more powerful opponent. My goals were limited to taking a single star system...for now. It took dozens of turns and a lot of frustration with many failed planetary invasions, but I sensed I was getting close so I rejected two offers of truce from the enemy empire. To my surprise, I had managed to design two very powerful classes of ship that collectively were able to turn everything they sent against me into burning scraps of metal. Eventually, I realized I could upgrade my ground invasion forces and that turned the tide. When I sought peace, I was able to keep the conquered system and extrapolate another. I had a tremendous war pressure advantage. Those vessels of mine really kicked a lot of ass.

Still not sure what to make of the AI, but I am holding my own in this game, which is, in fact on the normal setting.
Grogheads Uber Alles
Semper Grog
"No beast is more alpha than JH." Gusington, 10/23/18


bboyer66

Just had the arrogant Horatio back-stab me. No worries though, my Nimitz class carriers, and Iowa class battleships are beating the hell out of them. Really enjoy how the different races act so differently from each other. Hell they all play very differently as well, it takes an "intro" game with a race just to figure out what their special abilities, strengths, and weaknesses are.   
Anyways, I just started building a BFM, Big F*ckin Monolith. Apparently if I complete it, I will win the game. Had to make a bunch of diplomatic deals in order to get all the resources together to build it.


Gusington

Hahaha great gif!! I hope that is the victory screen.


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

bboyer66

Well I wound up winning along with my two alliance members. It was an economic victory.

The monolith did not win the game for me which was unfortunate, however I did have a monolith to call my own.

The other empires tech in spacecraft caught up with mine, and the United Empire had carriers that could carry a lot more fighters and bombers. Not sure what tech they researched to get that advantage, might have been one of the techs specific to them alone.

Not exactly sure what the hell the victory conditions are for this game, might need to look that up.

There are so many things going on in this game, yet it is still playable even if you do not understand everything (like myself). Like how Political pressure works. A quick google search will show you that no one seems to have a very good grasp on what it does. Or how to stop or start peaceful conversion on planets with influence.  The game still has some bug issues where fleets in orbit just disappear. A quick save and reload however brings the fleet back. All in all though I enjoyed my play-through.  Would love to see some better explanations on how some things are supposed to work, as well as maybe some additions to the combat system for more variety. This game still has a lot of room for growth and polish.

Jarhead0331

Expansion inbound...

The Hisso are currently in game as a minor race. They are pretty badass...a race of space samurai, pretty much. They will be added as a major playable civilization, with new heroes, fleets and technology.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/806780/Endless_Space_2__Supremacy/

...other significant features are:

New minor faction
New Class of giant vessels
New specializations giving powerful abilities (i.e., destroy an entire star system, or annihilate an entire fleet)

Grogheads Uber Alles
Semper Grog
"No beast is more alpha than JH." Gusington, 10/23/18


Gusington

When I first scratched the surface of Endless Space 2 my first contact in the campaign were the Hisso and I remember thinking 'wow they are so bad ass, I wish they were playable' and VIOLA...here they are.


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

Jarhead0331

...part of what I really like about these games and the developers is that the racial differences are well thought out and meaningful. For instance, the Hisso will have a lot of tactical flexibility in combat and will keep opponents on their toes since their ships have modular component slots that apparently can shift in battle between support, offensive and defensive combat roles.

Very cool.
Grogheads Uber Alles
Semper Grog
"No beast is more alpha than JH." Gusington, 10/23/18


Gusington

I remember thinking similarly and saying to myself 'I would much rather play as this faction than against them.'


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

Ian C

Quote from: Jarhead0331 on July 27, 2018, 10:03:42 AM
...part of what I really like about these games and the developers is that the racial differences are well thought out and meaningful.

Which is one reason I really like this game. It feels like a living universe with real races. Immersion, I guess.

Ian C

The Patch is out with free features and the new DLC is out:


QUOTE:

The patch coming along the Hissho expansion packs quite a few changes.

Jhell, backstabber extraordinaire and Lead Game Designer on Endless Space 2, wrote the following:

"We wanted players to have more options after invasions, and how they went about their invasions. The manpower modules will now be much more effective, as they're going to also increase the deployment limit, and there are choices to be made about sieging a system or swarming it with numbers. You will also be prompted on what to do after a successful invasion: occupy the system, pillage the system, or simply raze it. This should allow huge empires to more relentlessly wage war, leaving only a trail of razed and pillaged systems in their wake. We don't want to spoil the surprise, but some empires have unique outcomes replacing regular pillage or raze actions.

The ground battles visual pacing has also been heavily tweaked; no more will you see two blobs of units against each other, now each ground battle tactic has its dedicated visual formation, unit types attack independently, and impacts are focused on units.

Another focus to wage war as comfortably as possible was to rework how diplomacy is handled during Isyander's "metaplot" quest. You will now be able to attack foes AND friends on Lodestone nodes, provided you are on different teams. Your allies will hopefully understand that it's "nothing personal, kid".

On a different note, to acknowledge that the galaxy is a violent place, we've added the "System Relics" feature. Significant events like huge space or ground battles taking place on star systems may now leave permanent traces, and some anomalies or new curiosities may even emerge... All of this visible in scan view.

Lastly, to make them on par with the military victory conditions, the non-military ones have been reworked to last longer so you can enjoy the late-game content longer regardless of the victory type you're pursuing.

Along with numerous fixes and the content of the expansion, you should now be able to utterly lay waste to the whole galaxy."


[HISSHO EXPANSION CONTENT]
New Major Faction: the Hissho
Main gameplay (Affinity, Traits, Population, Technologies) - see enemy pathfinding
New specific resource: Keii
New theme music
New unique planet: Uchi
Hissho main quest
Hissho Fleet
1 leader + 4 new Hissho heroes
New Hissho technologies   
New Hissho Empire & Star system improvements
New Minor Faction: the Illo
New Illo Hero
New Feature: Behemoths
New quest introducing Behemoths and unlocking specific technologies
New ship hull: Behemoth (Economic, Scientific, Military)
New ship hull: Obliterator (Can destroy a whole system)
New ship hull: Juggernaut
New Behemoth specific modules (Mining probes, Planet rejuvenation, ...)
New faction specific modules (1 per existing faction)
New Behemoth technologies   
New Behemoth Empire & Star system improvements


[FREE UPDATE CONTENT]

Reworked Ground battles
New setup and report screens
New features: Winning a ground battle now gives you the following options
Occupy
Raze
Pillage
Some factions have specific variants of these actions.   
Battle simulation changes
Implemented new damage computation (damage bonuses/maluses are now properly computed)
Implemented new bombardments (bombardment damage is shared between unit types)
Implemented new improvements/populations destruction (may destroy more than 1 of each - Blitz can now be quite destructive!)
Academy questline
Alliances no longer matter when orbiting Lodestones: you may now attack an alliance member who is part of the opposing faction without having to fear any diplomatic repercussions.
Improved feedback around lodestones and lodestone specific battles
Music
The Surround soundtrack was completely re-encoded in WMA. It is available in the following install folder:
..\Steam\steamapps\common\Endless Space 2\OST\Surround
Vodyani
Added Vodyani "anchored Ark protection" module: an Ark with this module equipped will not be attackable in space battle while attached to a System (it can still be attacked via Invasion)
Vodyanis can now use the pacific conversion feature: it will convert 1 population unit on the target system and grant 500 Essence


[IMPROVEMENTS]
Hissho Minor faction is now called Yuusho
Updated Core cracker quest restrictions
Rearranged technologies in the Technology tree to add the new content
Reworked Victory conditions:
Wonders:   
- Wonders can now only be built one at a time   
- Wonders can now only be built one at a time   
- Wonders base costs increase with each Wonder built   
- Wonders cost more to buy out
Economy   
- Increased required Dust from 450k to 700k (notifications have been updated accordingly)
Science   
- Technology cost reduction impact lowered by 50% on victory technologies   
- Moved Science Victory Technologies to an Era 6 placed between quadrants   
- You will now need to unlock techs from 2 different quadrants to unlock this Era 6

Academy Quest "Ghosts and Dust" is now deactivated if one of the living Empires uses the Hissho affinity (objective requires a Happiness contest)
Added a feedback when a fleet in guard mode intercepts an opponent's fleet (The fleet will also appear and cycle in the "idle" fleets)
Sleeping fleets no longer wake up when they notice an enemy they were already aware of
The stage unlock notification is now an auto pop-up

Reworked the Empire Information toggle in the empire introduction notification in order to make it more visible/appealing
Temporary effects listed on the side panel of the system management view now only shows icon if there is too many of them (more than 2 lines).
Added info on star system label when a home system is destroyed.
Added different backgrounds for the Victory window
Added technology hints to the fleet action buttons
Fully destroyed home systems no longer count towards required colonized home planets count
If all home systems are destroyed, the victory is no longer attainable, unless the planets are "repaired"
Creating a ship or ship design now takes slightly less time
Starting the game now takes less time and memory
A tutorial is triggered when researching the technology that unlocks Behemoth Hulls when using Advanced or Expert tutorials
Added some distance between flotilla in space battle to make space for the Juggernauts.
Updated Golden Age effect to be more readable
Added message explaining why a law isn't activatable when its upkeep would be too high for the player's stock + net influence
Added dynamic costs for research stages depending on whether DLCs are active or not


[BALANCE]
Custom Factions:
Made corsair and pirates slayer mutually exclusive
Diplomacy:
Increased cooldown of Cold War Attack contextual term from 1 to 3 turns
The contextual diplomatic term "remove tendrils" no longer removes tendrils that are completed, only the ones in progress
Heroes:
Modified Haroshem hero political alignment to fit his description
Factions:
Vodyani Arks: Base HP increased from 10000 to 14000
Ground Battle:
All manpower modules for ships now also increase manpower deployment limit   
Added manpower deployment bonus to all defensive improvements (to accompany modules)
Changed manpower upgrades resources so each unit has the same progression in terms of strategic tiers
Linked conscription to ownership: You can now only use it if you have more than 50% Ownership on the system.
The amount of Manpower you get also depends on your current Ownership (multiplication): for example, if you use Conscription on a System with 75% Ownership, you'll gain 175 * 0.75 additional Manpower on the System
Added a bonus to attacker manpower deployment limit in case they have remaining ownership on the system (currently 400 * ownership)- Added effect to "Para-raiders" tactic: it now has 90% health multiplier and 110% damage multiplier
Besieged systems no longer lose manpower the turns they have been invaded
Economy:
Reduced average and abundant strategic deposit value from 3 to 2 and from 5 to 3 respectively
Ship retrofit no longer refills the ship's probes/mining probes stock
Added a "+2 Vision to all systems" effect on the "Ultra-IR Astronomy" unlock
Outposts no longer leech growth from a parent system when they are full

[QUEST]
Due to Ground Battle changes, a large amount of quests have a new way to be failed: if one of their system is razed or captured (but not pillaged in case of invasion)
The third objective (Bullet) of "The Gunfather" quest is now unlockable if the player possesses non-custom Riftborn
The quest fleet for "Flight of Eyder" now roams in order to reach a special node
A large amount of Quests, system improvements, technologies, populations bonuses, ... have been updated to be used by Hissho
Quests will not grant net science bonus as reward anymore.
The Metaplot's planets cannot be destroyed anymore
Isyander's quest: players will not be able to colonize the loadstone, no matter the winning team
Added technology era 6
The second part of the endgame academy quest is now won when a team has secured more than half of the objectives, instead of when all objectives have been secured. Unsecured objectives will be transformed as if they had been secured by the winning team


[FIXES]
Fixed supremacy victory alerts being fired on turn 1 when only 2 players are in the game
Fixed a situation where the game failed to restart after failing to start once
Fixed rare error occuring when the game was quick-saved in the same frame a fleet action concluded
Fixed rare blocking error occuring when a fleet is destroyed while exploring a curiosity
Special nodes and quest nodes are not selected anymore for the "A Fly in the Ointment" quest
Fixed some saves failing to load because of Guardians not having spawned
Fixed military ship cost increase being a reduction
Fixed an issue where the hero ship upkeep costs were still displayed in the Hero Ship Design Screen
Deposits now remain when a planet is destroyed
Fixed an issue where the skip button hitbox in election window was not right
Fixed Minor factions being assimilable while a ground battle outcome was being picked
Fixed trying to remove populations not concerned by growth (like Riftborn) when having a negative growth on a colonized star system
Fixed memory issue when a battle was pending
Fixed Depletion not being shown on uncolonized planets, and not being counted for Hissho Mining probes
Fixed an issue where the tooltip from the Lodestone recovered/destroyed system displayed misleading information about its effect
Eternal improvements are not added twice when a system is captured anymore
Fixed an issue where war momentum in battle notification was not displayed if the value was 0
The second objective of the "To do, or not to do... (Part 2)" quest is now available
Fixed an issue where long technology names overlapped the buyout technology option in the empire banner
Fixed issues related to migration & Riftborn/Guardian populations
Fix the Vodyani base improvement not being built on the first turn
Fixed error when Vodyanis capture Riftborn system with Influence
Fixed an issue where the displayed tooltip effects of a colonizable planet made reference to the Approval mechanic when overcolonization limit had been reached
Fixed a cause of freeze when quitting the game
The technology helper no longer suggests incorrect faction-specific technologies anymore (for instance, Sophon technologies for the Unfallen)
Fixed Vaulters Leader Background visual issue
Fixed critical error on Riftborn outposts which caused the game to get stuck
Fixed critical error on ship repair cost AI synchronization
Fixed an issue where Pirates would not be Cordial with anyone when several players had maximum relation with them
Fixed overlapping module slots on the Leecher hull when using a custom Vaulters faction with the Ship Bound affinity
Fixed ships sold on ht Marketplace not being listed if the maximum number of stocked ships is reached
The "Founders Keepers" quest will not fail anymore if the quest planet was destroyed
Fixed an issue where the Horatio 50 pop collection bonus were incorrect
Fixed an issue where fleet lines would occasionally have bad alignment
Fixed the champion's pod that wouldn't appear on custom faction with the Vaulters visual affinity
Fixed tooltip of diplomatic term "technology exchange" displaying unlocks of the empire which proposes the exchange, instead of the empire which receives the technology.
Fixed Gnashast strategy pre-battle damage
Fixed an issue where the game did not remember the "Tactics" set if a card was swapped with a newly added card
Fixed errors in tech helper data
Custom factions using the Metafolding affinity will no longer have a duplicated technology in Empire & Development quadrant stage 4
Custom factions with United Empire visual affinity and Involuntary Nomad trait will no longer have access to a Colonizer hull
Fixed rip singularity not working properly in some cases.
The "Zelevas Incarnate" unique improvement will now properly display all of its effect in the star system management view
Fixed Trade Companies requiring 0 XP for their first 3 levels
Fixed "Coordinated Bunkers" not applying the siege damage reduction in all cases
Fixed ground battle being replayable only once instead of once per turn as long as the bubble is present
Fixed any empire being able to replay a space battle instead of the one who owns the singularity.
Fixed Vineships being scrapped in higher priority than colonizers
Planetary colonization industry cost inside a star system is now correctly linked to game speed
Fixed memory leak in planet rendering process.
Fixed Supremacy victory not working well with planet/system destructions 
Fixed an issue where a team's legend in the diplomacy screen during the metaplot was inaccurate
Fixed Lumeris ship design (small defender lacked an engine on base design)
Fixed an issue where the user was not informed if a Contextual Diplomacy exchange was occurring between other players when hovering over the End Turn button
Fixed bug colonizer affinity visual Vodyani & Lumeris (had attack slot but couldn't fill it)
Fixed salvo pooling being completely broken
Fixed an issue where hero ship upkeep cost were still displayed in the Hero Ship Design Screen
Fixed an issue where war momentum in battle notification were not displayed currently if value is 0
Fixed an issue where Long technology names overlapped the buyout technology option in the empire banner
Fixed the Vodyani's base improvement not being built on the first turn.
Fixed an issue where whispered messages were not received by players who joined ongoing sessions
The technology helper does not suggest incorrect faction-specific technologies anymore (for instance, Sophon technologies for the Unfallen)
Fixed infantry bonus damage on planes going over 100
Galaxy Age will now have an impact on galaxy generation
Removed Horatio specific tag from the "Neural Robotics" tech as the unlocks were similar to the regular one
[MULTIPLAYER FIXES]
Fixed desync happening when Unfallen factions vine a minor faction's system
Fixed an issue where whispered messages were not received by players who joined ongoing sessions
[SOUND FIX]
The Vaulters Leaders no longer plays her voice line when selecting her in the Faction Choice screen, even with sound deactivated
[AI]
Massive performance update.
AIs now understand more improvements and gains from previous content and are capable of using them in the right context. eg:

Multiple FIDS and FIDSI gains are now properly understood as such
Overcolonization is now considered as a usable / needed resource
Ground battle understanding has been reworked.
AIs now better understand their chances of winning
AIs are more inclined to invade winnable systems
AIs will chose their tactics in a more sensible way (e.g. based on incoming reinforcements)
AIs will now act properly on Metaplot nodes: they will attack the other team members and will not attack the same team members, regardless of their diplomatic status.
Vodyani AIs will now use Anchored Arks modules when possible.
Various improvements:
Better production of colonizers, war fleets and explorers
Diplomacy contract balancing offers more constant results
Avoid being stuck in a war state with an AI
Proper law activation and deactivation
AIs no better avoid empty modules in ship designs and can a wider variety of modules
Hero ship are now properly retrofitted
Fixed a bug when AI attacked a system
Fixed a bug when achieving elimination victory
Fixed a bug when AI could get stuck upon dealing with a new ground battle




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