A strategy guide for DLC shopping. We live in amazing times.
A strategy guide for DLC shopping. We live in amazing times.
Prioritization is gonna depend on your species pick, play style, and planet availability. Generally, I favor early industry buildings, then a little food, then specializing into either dust if I need more or research if I don't, but if you're playing Sophons you'll want more tech to capitalize on that, Lumeris needs more Dust, etc. One thing that beginners often mess up is overfocusing on buildings. Don't neglect to build up at least a respectable fleet.So I bought Endless Space 2 since it was on sale and all. It's my first space 4x game but I'm having fun with it and I think I'm getting the hang of it. Started a couple of games on sandbox difficulty with a bunch of races to get the hang of the systems.
Is there a beginner's guide of or something you guys could recommend? Some advice on what buildings and techs to prioritize would be nice too, since I'm
The timer for the first pirate lair is... turn 11 I think?
Some species have a good enough starting fleet to handle them (with the starting hero) if they catch them early, maybe with some minor tuning.
Some other species are absolutely helpless (the more pacifist ones) and require careful planning during these first 11 turns in order to get rid of the pirates early on.
Also, take some time to understand your species. Most are geared toward a specific gameplay, and require/ignore other parts. I still remember that time I spent a lot of turns pumping up food tech and buildings for my Riftborns, and then being puzzled their number remained constants...
Maybe it's just my play group (I do, or did, a lot of multi ES2) but I always made sure to have at least a few gun-heavy Scout hulls by turn 11. Even if the pirates weren't there, you're just too vulnerable to early aggression without them.Yeah one of the nice quirks of ES2 (and a little in EL) is that the races are more assymetric and have more distinct playing styles and behaviour as AI. But it also means that if you come from a more Civ style of 4x, that will catch you by surprise and make you commit some mistakes.
Pirates are BS in both ES. I dont know how they always make those mistakes. In easy difficulties and playing for the first time, the hardest thing is surviving the first pirate appearance without fucking long term your civ.
I haven't spent much time with the DLC content specifically, but the update that accompanied it is top shelf stuff.Hey...so what about that MegaCorp expansion from stellaris?
I saw people callint it half baked, but it seems to be oretty decent for me
As mentioned above, it could use some polish, but the actual improvements have been very welcome. The new planet management stuff is such a wonderful change--not only does it remove a huge amount of micromanagement, but it makes each planet feel even more unique than before. The trade and market stuff also make empire management a much more interesting affair, because maximising both can lead to some interesting set-ups (like the titular MegaCorps using their vast energy credit reserves to compensate for poor production in another area.) that takes a while to get used to.Hey...so what about that MegaCorp expansion from stellaris?
I saw people callint it half baked, but it seems to be oretty decent for me
IMO it is a pretty good expansion, the free content is probably the best but IMO the payd content is a lot of fun.Hey...so what about that MegaCorp expansion from stellaris?
I saw people callint it half baked, but it seems to be oretty decent for me
Prioritization is gonna depend on your species pick, play style, and planet availability. Generally, I favor early industry buildings, then a little food, then specializing into either dust if I need more or research if I don't, but if you're playing Sophons you'll want more tech to capitalize on that, Lumeris needs more Dust, etc. One thing that beginners often mess up is overfocusing on buildings. Don't neglect to build up at least a respectable fleet.
Yeah one of the nice quirks of ES2 (and a little in EL) is that the races are more assymetric and have more distinct playing styles and behaviour as AI. But it also means that if you come from a more Civ style of 4x, that will catch you by surprise and make you commit some mistakes.
Pirates are BS in both ES. I dont know how they always make those mistakes. In easy difficulties and playing for the first time, the hardest thing is surviving the first pirate appearance without fucking long term your civ.
The timer for the first pirate lair is... turn 11 I think?
Some species have a good enough starting fleet to handle them (with the starting hero) if they catch them early, maybe with some minor tuning.
Some other species are absolutely helpless (the more pacifist ones) and require careful planning during these first 11 turns in order to get rid of the pirates early on.
Also, take some time to understand your species. Most are geared toward a specific gameplay, and require/ignore other parts. I still remember that time I spent a lot of turns pumping up food tech and buildings for my Riftborns, and then being puzzled their number remained constants...
New EL expansion, by Amplitude. Cant say I expected it to happen. It looks interesting, but their core mechanic makes them look too much like the Cultists. However, Amplitude has always been able to make each race feel unique so I want to see how they do it.
New ES2 expansion. Looks cool and the Hacking mechanic and invisible faction will make for lots of interesting stuff. Will want to see how Hacking is in online mp, but if it works well enough... the new race could rock.
I understand your position, however, I think that hexes on space games are not able to accurately give the impression of how empty the universe is. Even games like Gal Civ, the map feels disconvovulated and pretty awkward for me. Yeah, there has to be better ways to make chokepoints, but I think as of now, space lanes are the best way to build up 4x in space.I just don't like Endless Space 2 quite as much as Endless Legend because I find that space travel mechanics, including the space lanes used in ES2 and Stellaris now, typically don't work quite as well as hex systems that model terrain better, even if hyper lanes make more sense thematically than a hex system for something that takes place in the vast distances of outer space. If space lanes were equal to or better than hexes at representing terrain, I wouldn't mind, but at best you get rather simple choke points, and no space-lane having game seems to capitalize much on even that, as opposed to Civ where mountains/rivers/etc. create choke points AND serve as strategic resources. Not to mention if you throw in weather or a similar dynamic system like the upcoming Civ 6 expansion will be doing.
I understand your position, however, I think that hexes on space games are not able to accurately give the impression of how empty the universe is. Even games like Gal Civ, the map feels disconvovulated and pretty awkward for me. Yeah, there has to be better ways to make chokepoints, but I think as of now, space lanes are the best way to build up 4x in space.
I respect GalCiv greatly for not going with the easy, and overused, solution of space lanes.
Re: 4x terrain, I feel like ES2 does a great job of making planets and systems feel unique enough that you're forced to famialize yourself with them in the same way that you would the terrain in Civ. Unquestionable best in class for space movement is Sword of the Stars, though. The various FTL systems are so diverse that you're almost forced to come to grips with all of them so you can understand what represents a choke point to who. The Liir go really fast in deep space but much slower near stars, Zuul having to bore their own hyperlanes, Hovers with their gate network... Sigh. Such a cool game.
OH man, it's so cool. The second was... Oveeambitious, and still super buggy. Probably never getting fixed at this point. But 1 is just a delight, albeit not exactly a visual stunner.Huh, I've heard of that game, but only in passing I think. Will have to give it a look.
OH man, it's so cool. The second was... Oveeambitious, and still super buggy. Probably never getting fixed at this point. But 1 is just a delight, albeit not exactly a visual stunner.
Speaking of space 4Xes, Stellaris got a patch (and a new beta patch) put out today. Meaty list of improvements in the beta one, in particular.
One cool touch is they're adding new emblems in part due to how rocky Megacorps' release has been, as thanks for players help in testing (I guess):
And y'know, Stellaris: Legion sounds like a good name for some kind of Species Pack. I've mentioned this in other threads, but I'm not giving up the dream of a Hive Mind-focused Species Pack. You can do it, Paradox!
It probably should've released in open beta over the holidays or something. I guess this way they kinda just threw people into it to test everything whether they wanted to or not lol. Even with the issues I still think it's a massively better game than before and probably my favorite strategy game out right now as someone who generally prefers peaceful empire building.
Looks like Steam has an Endless franchise free weekend, where all Endless base games are free-to-play for the next 3-ish days. So that's Endless Legend, Endless Space 1 + 2, and Dungeon of the Endless.
Pretty awesome.
Yeah, ES1 is just totally inferior to ES2 (and even more from EL) but it was a fresh of breath air at a time where 4x was down in the ground before the great boom. It was also a great first try for a new studio and I am still happy I bought it during the "beta".
ES1 had a great UI but was absolutely mediocre in most other respects, yeah. The combat in particular was just bad.
Honestly, I prefer something like Civ or ES2 to something like EL. Turn based combat with limited-roster unit customization just feels like this hugely unwieldy relic to me. Felt the same about Age of Wonder 3. SOTS did a good job of making the tactical map fun without dragging too much, though it had to do some fairly obvious mechanical hacks to do it (namely, very limited combat timer).Thankfully Endless Legend and Endless Space 2 have improved on this massively!
Though I still think the combat is a little bleh compared to other aspects. At the same time, if you make the combat too involved in a 4X or strategy/tactics game, it tends to be at the expense of other aspects so I'm not sure what the play is here. Especially in multiplayer if you can't automate or speed things up it's not good for anything beyond 2 players. Real time strategy is better about this than turn-based, but then there's a lot more pressure on mechanical speed and micro than careful tactics and larger plans.
The other thing about combat is that if it's involved in the beginning of the game, it's almost assuredly going to be unwieldy by the end if there's not automation going on for the vast majority of battles. Which is why I really like the early to mid game of these titles much better. I'm not sure if there's really a good way for games to feel like that throughout a match or what. Maybe minimize the time you spend at a complex macro stage by forcing you to cut back down eventually? Dunno.
Yeah Id like EL and ES2 a lot more if the combat wasnt god awful in every respectIn most of the multiplayer matches of EL I've played it was expected to just use the autoresolve button for every battle against a human. I kind of wish Amplitude had included the option to disable the tile-based combat upon map creation, in favor of the autoresolve.
EL combat looks fun, but when you actually attempt to manage it... the fact that you can't order individual units to move is a neccesary concession to time, but all units moving at once makes the combat impossible to control unless you just want to turtle, and battles still take forever. And yes, the unit customization is super, super clumsy and time-consuming.
I have something for you, A PARADOX GAME!!! (well kinda):I... hm. You could do a pretty cool single-world sci fi 4X with XCOM combat. Just have there be some rule in the setting about not fielding actual armies, so all combat has to take place at small scale skirmish sizes, then work your way out from there. I'd play it.
I have something for you, A PARADOX GAME!!! (well kinda):
You can also try Age of Wonders 3 which is also great but it is high fantasy, not Sci-fi. Same with Heroes of Might and Magic series.
Edit: I know you want more a "one unit per area" but that owuld be kinda weird due to scale issues.
Well, no, not with this idea - I was thinking that it might work to further flesh out the combat (which they seem to be doing in Planetfall, though not as much as I was thinking of here) and general SRPG stuff you get with XCOM. What you'd need to do is build out a justification for why your, as the faction leader, cares that much about individual agents/soldiers, but that would make sense if large-scale combat was impossible for whatever reason and these guys were more like super-elite operatives.
Man, you have NO IDEA how badly I've wanted a Stargate XCOM game. That'd be just the perfect franchise melding. SG-1 even had that same kind of progression curve XCOM does, it's wild.Vaulters spin-off game? With the vaults serving as the Xcom base kinda thing?
Or like a Stargate kinda Xcom :(
That would actually be a dream sort of game — a heavily narrative Xcom-style game set in the Stargate franchise (either Atlantis or SG-1 works, Universe was a bit more different). Or similar enough since the Stargate franchise has been mismanaged for years, and has never had a proper video game.
There was some MMO that was never gonna turn out well and was eventually canceled. And maybe some trashy mobile companion museum style of app released after the shows all ended (oddly enough). There might have been a cruddy shooter that actually released at some point, but I don't think it's buyable anywhere today. It might have only had a PC beta or something I dunno. I think someone on this site I know was an expert on the franchise and the failed game projects — there's some blog or something out there that has extensive research.
"Unfortunately, if you lack DLCs like Sword of Islam, Sons of Abraham, and Rajas of India you may accidentally run into several 'Game Over' states if you switch your character to a religion you're not allowed to play as. Check our review for more details. "
Insert [that is bait] gif"Unfortunately, if you lack DLCs like Sword of Islam, Sons of Abraham, and Rajas of India you may accidentally run into several 'Game Over' states if you switch your character to a religion you're not allowed to play as. Check our review for more details. "
lol