More 4x gaming: Endless Space

[Martok]

Question for anyone who's been playing:  How is the AI?  Any good, or is it a pushover right now? 

I've started 4 games so far and I always end up with at least 1, and sometimes 2, other empires right next to me? Their random setup doesn't seem to spread people out enough on the huge galaxy settings....

Hmm, that does sound troubling.  Even with all 8 races enabled, I'd expect everyone to be a little more spread out. 

[Barthheart]

So far the AI is pretty good. Not a push over. It builds good strong fleets and seems to expand well. The "evil" guys play evil and the "nice" guys will play nice if you do.

So far so good.

[Huw the Poo]

Question for anyone who's been playing:  How is the AI?  Any good, or is it a pushover right now? 

I haven't completed a game yet so I'm witholding judgement, however I can say that it does at least adapt.  I was slugging it out against one race and both of us were using kinetic weapons, so the victor was usually he who brought the most ships.  However I eventually started using beam weapons which severely kicked his arse.  A few turns later, he shows up with beams incorporated into his own designs.

Not so much great AI, but at the very least it's an area where the AI could easily have sucked and didn't. :)

Hmm, that does sound troubling.  Even with all 8 races enabled, I'd expect everyone to be a little more spread out. 

I haven't experimented with map sizes yet but I'm sure I've read somewhere that the maximum number of systems is disappointingly small.

[Nefaro]

I haven't experimented with map sizes yet but I'm sure I've read somewhere that the maximum number of systems is disappointingly small.

Yeah, that's probably why you start fairly close to other races so much.   You're not going to have hundreds of systems like a game of Distant Worlds.  But then again, you get to do more micromanagement of every planet within each system so I'm okay with the trade-off so far. 

It does seem like you always start a couple-three systems away from someone no matter how many AI players in the game .. in the spiral galaxy type anyway.  I suspect the spiral arm placement tends to do that.  I've not tried one of the other types yet.

[mikeck]

So does the release version have a moveable battle camera?
Edit: I see it does below!

[Nefaro]

Big update today = confirmed.

Downloading now.  8)

1.0.3
CHANGES AND ADDITIONS
- Changed the save file system. The previous files are not compatible.
- Added the custom faction screen.
- Added a free camera mode in the battle view.
+ Arrow keys: move the view
+ Mouse wheel: changes the camera field of view (angle)
+ Mouse right click + pan: rotates the camera view
+ Ctrl: sticks / unsticks the camera on your fleet
- You can continue to play after a victory condition is achieved.
- Added a state to the player, to know if he's in a battle or not.
- Added an animatic for each faction, which will be displayed for a new game.
- Added narrative & random events illustrations.
- Changed the illustration for the selection of "Random Faction".
- Changed the Pirates 3D fleet icon.
- Added several outgame scenes, which will be displayed randomly.
- All technologies have a dedicated icon.
- Added 5 new music.
- Added new GUI sounds.
- Added an ES soundtrack directory (in the Steam install directory of Endless Space on your computer).
- Added the ES credits.
- Texture, video, memory & AI optimization.
- Added one new difficulty mode - Endless.
- Food consumption by population will vary with game speed.
- Heroes will not be injured when retreating. Changed the 'Death before dishonor' faction trait.
- Ship levels increase HP, DamageMin, DamageMax, InterceptionAccuracy, DeflectionPerTurn and Absorption.
- Changed the ship leveling, which now requires more XP (6 to 45 -> 4 to 100)
- Decreased the defense mods' cost (3 to 75 -> 2 to 58).
- Decreased the defense mods' weight (7 to 20 -> 5 to 16).
- Antimissile and Shield mods are now more powerful than their Weapon counterpart.
- Deflectors bonuses were only slightly increased.
- Halved Defense MP (8 to 210 -> 4 to 125) but not their efficiency in general.
- Defense MP is less effective during invasions than weapons.
- Added an extra bonus on the armor mods (25 to 304 -> 25 to 220+12%).
- Modified the Bluecap mold monopoly bonus (Dust -> Approval).
- Reduced the difficulty of diplomatic victory ( 1000 + 10*(players)*(planets) -> 2000 + 15*(players)*(planets) ).
- Decreases the malus of the random event "SUPERNOVA DISRUPTS NAVIGATION MAPS" (-80% -> -30%)
- When playing sower, the player knows the actual FIDS of a planet before colonizing it.
- Decreased the Alliance bonus multiplier (Alliance : * 2 -> Alliance : * 1,6).

FIXES
IMPORTANT FIXES
- Fixed an issue where the leech hero ability will not stop upon conquering the star system.
- Fixed an issue where an assert is received when a system is conquered by the AI and the user is in System view on the same system.
- [MP] Fixed an issue where assert is received when joining an in-progress session.
- [MP] Fixed an issue where opening the war notification as host will cause an assert.
- Fixed an issue where pressing ESC after quitting a game will cause an assert.
- Fixed an issue where the game crashes 100% after loading a specific save game.
- Fixed an issue where loading a saved game from another Steam account causes an assert.

OTHER FIXES
- Fixed several text issues.
- Fixed several localized text issues.
- Fixed an issue where the browsing arrows become unresponsive in planet view in a 2 planet system.
- Fixed an issue where the moon orbiting a planet will not adjust size properly in planet view.
- Fixed an issue where the heal button is not functional on the Assign to system screen.
- Fixed an issue where a graphical corruption can be seen when entering the star system.
- Fixed an issue where the Permanent Perennials star system improvement is not working.
- Fixed an issue where the resolution will not change to 1600x900 when in windowed mode.
- Fixed an issue where the user will have the buyout option active for a ship that cannot be completed normally (strategic prerequisite or obsolete ship design).
- Fixed an issue where the amount of military power is displayed using decimals on the battle report.
- [MP] Fixed an issue where ships are displayed as being in hangar on other player`s system.
- Fixed an issue where the name of the empire is not replaced in the current deals with button.
- Fixed an issue where cease fire are not spread to allies.
- Fixed an issue where the initial starting population decreases right after the first turn at slow game speed.
- Fixed an issue where disband/create fleet does not refresh movement points.
- Fixed an issue where the race names are seen in the language of the other player.
- Fixed an issue where the Hissho Affinity tool tip is not updated.
- Fixed an issue where the United Empire Affinity tool tip is not updated.
- Fixed an issue where the "Industry to Science" conversion tool tip is not updated.
- Fixed an issue where the user is able to select guard action on an enemy`s fleet.
- Fixed an issue where technologies do not affect the deal approval.
- Fixed an issue where actual faction names were not updated in the Diplomatic Negotiations Screen when choosing random factions.

[Huw the Poo]

So does the release version have a moveable battle camera?

It does now.

My earlier dilemma about whether to restart was solved by the latest update which renders save games incompatible...which Steam promptly downloaded without asking first.  Another reason to dislike that bloody service.

(Yeah I know, you can turn it off - but it's per-game, and I like to rant about Steam  :P)

Thanks to the tips in this thread, my new game has been much better.  I'm being much more selective about which worlds I colonise, at least for the time being.  It still doesn't take long before I needed to start building Infinite Supermarkets all over the place, though.

Edit: I want to play 2v2 with locked teams, dammit!

[Barthheart]

This just screams for an MP game.... Anyone know how that works?

[Nefaro]

This just screams for an MP game.... Anyone know how that works?

While it's turn-based, it seems that lots of things run like a WEGO system.  I suppose that multiplayer is pretty much a full WEGO setup?

[tgb]

I started a new game as the Pilgrims, and I'm having a ball. I'm playing a medium 4-arm spiral galaxy with pirates turned off, and I had my initial cluster to myself, which gave me an opportunity for rapid expansion.  Now that I'm able to travel through wormholes, I've met the Amoeba and the United Empire.  It's too early to comment on the A.I., since the map is made up of small clusters of stars connected by wormholes with a lot of choke points. I did destroy an Amoeba exploration ship just to see the new camera controls, but it doesn't seem to have had any effect on diplomacy, which is a little worrisome. Still, I'm happy,but I was also happy with the state of the beta, so YMMV.

One thing - the battle camera seems to be off by default.  You have to click on the little box in the lower rt. hand corner to enable it.

[Nefaro]

Patch notes say the AI had some extra work done (amongst a lot of other things). 

Anyone know if the Pirates got nerfed lately?

[Gusington]

Just fired up my copy to take a look around and it still indicates that it's a beta. Anyone know what is going on with that?

[steve58]

Try closing down Steam and then re-starting.  It should then update (hopefully)...

[Gusington]

^Did that. Then before I started it again,  the game downloaded something that I thought was the file that would bring it up to release status...?

[steve58]

If I remember right, when ES was released on 7/4, the whole game got re-downloaded from Steam. 

If your game isn't showing ver 1.0.5, then you could try verifying the game cache (in your Steam library, right click on ES, select Properties, click on Local Files, select verify integrity of game cache).  If that doesn't clear it up, it might be best to delete ES, and then reload it...