More 4x gaming: Endless Space

[Kushan]

Endless Space Emperor Edition is 66% off (10.19 USD) on Steam this weekend. ES EE+Disharmony is 17.49 USD. I'm still unsure on the card combat mechanic, but for that price I think I'm going to pull the trigger. Of course as soon as I do that the Steam summer sale is going to start and it will be on sale for 5$....

[Martok]

Of course as soon as I do that the Steam summer sale is going to start and it will be on sale for 5$....

That's what I'm waiting for...  ;D 

[steve58]

Wait no longer...

Gamestop has the new Endless Space Disharmony DLC on sale for $4.99.

p.s.  I was a bit ticked when I saw "This product is not yet available." in the email from Gamestop, but once I fired up the Gamestop app, I saw the Disharmony DLC in my game list and got the code which installed just fine...

[solops]

The stumbling block I cannot forgive is combat. The card system is clunky, but I'll give it a pass. The problem is the visual combat representation. It is nothing but the same boring video repeated endlessly for every combat. Repetitive, boring and unrewarding. I have gone back to MOO3, patched, with occasional lapses into SoTS2 and Distant Worlds.

[Kushan]

The stumbling block I cannot forgive is combat. The card system is clunky, but I'll give it a pass. The problem is the visual combat representation. It is nothing but the same boring video repeated endlessly for every combat. Repetitive, boring and unrewarding. I have gone back to MOO3, patched, with occasional lapses into SoTS2 and Distant Worlds.

I almost did it when it was one sale on Steam a few weekends ago but decided against it. The combat is what keeps me from pulling the trigger too. And for solo play, I don't know if I want  a "simpler" space 4x when I have Distant Worlds and a patched MOO3.

[mikeck]

Funny thing is now, I kind of like the combat...I just find it a bit shallow in terms of managing the economy, spying, etc.

[Huw the Poo]

Well, Geek and I just finished an epic game of this against three AIs.  Embarrassingly we had to admit defeat at the end.  We'd managed to rip apart two of the AI empires, but the Automatons had become unstoppable in the meantime.  Their ships were bristling with firepower and they had so many defensive modules that our best ships couldn't even scratch them.  By the time we quit the game, Geek was within a few turns of losing something like 13 of his systems.  Incredible.  I need to do some research to see how it was even possible for the Automatons to become that powerful.

Despite the loss, though, we had a fantastic time!  Thanks in part to the best UI I've seen in a game, Endless Space is an utter joy to play.  Managing your empire is incredibly easy and all the information you need is always right where you need it, when you need it.  While initially put off by the controversial combat mechanics, I grew to enjoy it.  While Solops may have a point about the visual representation, you don't actually lose anything here: each battle has its own report screen afterwards, where you can see how effective your weapons and defensive modules were.  You don't even need to watch the combat, since you can choose your cards and then click auto.  The battle report will even tell you how each card played out.

Excellent game.  We're going to take a detour via Sins of a Solar Empire next but I can see plenty of Endless Space in the future. 8)

[Rayfer]

Huw the Poo....I'm into Distant Worlds: Shadows, playing solo against the AI.  But when I read a post like yours (well done, by the way!) I get the itch to check out the summer sales for Endless Space. 

[Huw the Poo]

Thanks Rayfer!  The only thing that might bother you is the way combat works, so I recommend checking out some vids to try and get a feel for it.  Personally I think the whole game is just sublime, easily one of the best 4X I've played in a long time.  And yeah, it's bound to be in a sale this summer so you should definitely pick it up. :)

[PanzersEast]

I've reached the late stage of the game with the Sowers.... I roughly own more systems then they do and I 2 or 3 times the dust they do.  So far it has been grinding to take their systems one by one as they continue to offer a cease fire to no doubt regain their strength.  Not sure if I will press on as the end is inevitable, resistance is futile... they will be assimilated.


PE

[Greybriar]

For those interested in picking up Endless Space, Steam has it on sale for the next couple of days. Get Endless Space - Emperor Edition for $7.49 or Endless Space Gold for $8.74 U.S.

[PanzersEast]

New free Free Add-On -  The Search For Auriga was released today, along with the following release notes.

I'll have to try and get around to playing another game...... at some point.

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CHANGES AND ADDITIONS [Classic versions]
Modified Sheredyn Affinity: buyout bonus lowered from 50% to 33% (like in the Disharmony version)

CHANGES AND ADDITIONS [Both versions]
Wonder option added: Allows you to able / disable wonders
Capped buyoutbonus to -90% to avoid bugs when going over 100% buyout bonus
Default GameDifficulty and GameSpeed are now saved in Registry.xml

CHANGES AND ADDITIONS [Disharmony version]
Creation of a unique planet: AURIGA
New Wonder: Husk of knowledge
2 new Heroes
Added Rally Point (Keep Left CTRL to enter rally point mode: left click to select start system and left click to select destination's system)
Scrapping a ship gives you Dust
A repair button has been added
A Magnify button has been added, in some notification, it allows to focus the concerned system or fleet
New alert panel [in the negotiation screen] When an ally makes a diplomatic decision
Disable negotiations when an alliance request is waiting for its resolution
Wonders and unique planets are visible for the Amoeba players in the galaxy view
Entering or leaving an alliance refreshes the system influences
Improve the way defence stats are computed at the end of a battle
Unique planet Option added: Allows you to able / disable creation of unique planet in the galaxy
Add an option to keep the rally points always visible
Purified systems have a different background colour (grey) in the galaxy view
Improved contracts offering to avoid possible stability issues in MP
Added a reduction on damage for weapon which are not firing during their range speciality: -50% damage
Battle mood or faction mood are now displayed depending on the context
Divided damage done by bombers per 2
Increased long range accuracy and efficiency
Modified MP to reflect the used tonnage

AI MODIFICATIONS
When the AI send a war declaration, it must be followed immediately by a battle
Each time the AI made a diplomatic choice the player will be notified with a short explanation
AI invasion fleet must not come back to the assault if we crush his combat fleet
When the AI scouts are destroyed, the AI must not keep creating them again and again
Added variety in the AI attack targeting
The AI select the best formation & targeting; not anymore randomly one from 3
Lowered weight for Retreat and Offensive Retreat
Updated weight on formation & targeting for the AI to choose
Replaced one of the unique technologies of the Pilgrim which was not aesthetically positioned


HARMONY BALANCING
Rebalanced game difficulty progression for Harmony
Added a property HasTolerantTrait
Fixed a bug regarding tolerant trait and starting technology reported by the community
Lowered cost of Mineral Memory from 15 to 5
Disharmony now affects the planet only and not the system anymore: thus the player can more easily colonise planets with dust and earn some industry / resources from it. However, the science and food will decrease faster than before but only on the planet
Fixed an issue on several effects related to natural wonders
Added a new planetary infrastructure for Harmony which increases the local deposit of a strategic resource by 1
Modified PathPrerequisites for the new Strategic Resource Improvement in order to show it only when the player discovered the strategic resource
Removed penalty related to ownership for Harmony
Reduced cost of StarSystemImprovementUniqueHarmony from 500 to 300
Modified the tool tip of StarSystemImprovementDefense4Harmony, thus the bonus in Food and Science is added to the list of modifiers
Increase default repair rate
Improve damage and defence fleet depending of their total of command points to compensate the absence of heroes
Added a new planetary improvement for Harmony that gives +1 strategic resource deposit

FIXED
Fixed a desync due to locust points when joining a game.
Fixed a desync due to approval status when joining a game.
Fixed a desync due dust leech.
Fixed a desync due to the Sheredyn's battle stasis.
Fixed a desync due to affinity mapping after an encounter.
Fixed an issue on a diplomatic behaviour: reduces the probability of multiple wars
Fixed a bug regarding the Normal Difficulty reported on the forums
Fixed an issue where the trade routes incomes were displayed differently in the system screen and in the trade routes panel
Fixed an issue where typing a space character at the beginning of a "rename" text field caused an assert
Fixed an issue where the effects of infinite improvements did not refreshed the empire management screen
Fixed an issue where Growth were not properly loaded
Fixed an issue where Modules repair process property value was not saved
Fixed a bug reported by the community related to Tolerant
Fixed an issue on a diplomatic behaviour
Fixed an issue which allow the AI to transgress Waiting Period in case of war declaration
Fixed a bug regarding Normal Difficulty where Expansion Disapproval Difficulty was still 4x
Fixed issue on several effects related to natural wonders
Fixed: The resources needed for an advanced ship design are not marked as unavailable in the ship resource requirements tooltip
Fixed: The auto-upgrade button from the ship design menu does not fill up all the tonnage of the selected ship when clicked and weapons were not added
Fixed a bug on a AIPrerequisite for the Industry to Food Improvement
Fixed an issue about contract proposals
Fixed an assert about contracts
Fixed an issue where fleets could be modified by AI even when they were in a battle
Fixed an issue where the game remained stuck on end turn after the death of an empire
Fixed an issue where wonders could be put on Asteroids
Fixed an issue where a wonder and an anomaly could be present at the same time on a planet
Fixed an issue where fleets from different players could overlap when orbiting the same system
Fixed an issue where wonders were not put on uninhabited region first
Terraformation and anomaly reduction are now saved for razed systems
Fixed an issue where many fleet sorting options did not work in the military screen
Fixed an issue where the empire approval value was not properly refreshed after moving the tax rate slider
forums.amplitude-studios.com/showthread.php?19341-2-bugs-relating-to-the-Tolerant-trait-(Disharmony-1.1.17)

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PE

[undercovergeek]

wow - might have to rustle up some Huw and se if he wants another go at the AI