More 4x gaming: Endless Space

[undercovergeek]

jesus my bank card never saw May coming!!!!!

just so i get this right - its perfectly playable, its a game.... to buy, that everyone thinks is cool but not actually released yet?

and its good?

[Huw the Poo]

I'm holding out for an alternative to Steam, but sooner or later, I will buy this game.  Thanks for the impressions so far guys.

[Martok]

Ugh.  You f***ers are making it awfully hard to resist getting this.  Must...hold...on... 

You lost your virginity to Steam with Empire Total War.  Once it's been done, it can never be undone.  I don't think there is a concept of "just the tip" in regard to Steam.

We all have our comforting illusions, Bison. 

Besides, I was slipped a roofie, so ETW doesn't count as far as I'm concerned... 

[Gusington]

^Sorry about that but you had to at least try ETW!

My bank card was quite sore this morning as well.

[son_of_montfort]

You guys have some time. It is still an alpha, and I suspect the game will only improve in the coming months. My thoughts would be, if you don't like Steam, wait to see if another way to buy appears, and if it hasn't by the beginning of Beta, jump in on Steam.

[LongBlade]

i think i maybe first then - 23:26 thursday night here in Blighty and im waiting, although i read somewhere it will be 18:00 UK time tomorrow its released - just enough time to put undercover junior to bed, crack open the teapot and set sail on the high seas!

ill bash at it for 60 mins and come back here with some thoughts if thats ok

Sure!

My thought was I might be able to swing a review copy for you, that's all :)

[spelk]

I took the plunge last night. It's VERY polished for an alpha. Sort of puts Armada's UI to shame a bit.

Love the cards in battle idea.

[Fetrik]

Love the cards in battle idea.

I was somewhat tempted untill i saw the cards in battle...  :o

[Grim.Reaper]

Any updated feedback?  Getting close to making my normal impulse buy:)  I am not great at space games, especially when overly complex with a lot of management.  So if your able to respond, I would love to know how this game compares in those areas especially).  Lastly, does it seem like it will be plain fun or seem like work?

Thanks!

[Martok]

Love the cards in battle idea.

I was somewhat tempted untill i saw the cards in battle...  :o

I'll admit that aside from the Steam requirement, this is the one thing that's been putting me off as well. 

Not that a 4x title has to have a good battle system (or battles at all) to be fun -- Armada and GalCiv2 are both proof of that -- but if you're going to have a game that looks as nice as Endless Space, why not take advantage of it and allow full control of combat?  I don't care if it's turn-based, phased, or in real-time, but the whole "cards" system seems rather gimmicky to me. 

Of course, I obviously haven't played the game, so I can't criticize it too much, but I still have a feeling that ES's battle system may not appeal to me. 

[spelk]

It's funny but I rather like the idea of a very abstracted card based combat mode. The first battle or two I played reminded in some weird way of the DS game Infinite Space, where the battle plays out in stages, and you pick a decision in each phase. It might simplify the combat process somewhat, but if they can tie in the card effects to the ship building mechanic it might hit a sweet spot.

I enjoy RPG's that have tied in card battling mechanics, so that's probably the reason why I warm to this idea in ES.

[tgb]

Having put in a lot of hours over the last two days, there are two areas that still need a lot of work

Diplomacy doesn't appear to work at all. Right now I can't get any of the A.I. races to accept a cease fire, and dropping all kinds of free tech on them has no affect on their opinion of me. Plus, after attacking three of my outposts, I got a message that the Carvers don't trust me. WTF? Who attacked who here?

I'm still seeing ships attack and take damage at long and middle range even though they aren't equipped with beam or missile weapons. That has to be a bug.

I'm not pissed, since I realize the state of the game, but I am a bit disappointed that I've seen no response from the developers to any of the issues or questions being raised in the forums. Isn't that the point of letting an Alpha build out of it's cage early?

[Capn Darwin]

I like the combat system and the cards. I do not want to see an RTS click fest. That will grab an uninstall in a heartbeat. You are the Leader of your race, not captain Kirk. Let the ships fight.

As for ranges, I'm sure there will be more tweaking and also info as to what range has to do with combat. All of the weapons are capable of hitting at all ranges now. I have no problem with that as long the hit percentages and damage effects are adjusted for the range. Beams should have a high accuracy but lose punch over range. Guns should hit hard but lose accuracy over range. Missiles are slow, accurate, low ROF and high damage. I'd love to see more weapon types and hybrid effects of both weapons and defenses. They could use a boatload of equipment too. Combat computers, battle scanners, jammers, and fighters (needs to see some carrier action).

As for bugs, there are a few. Right side keyboard keys for alt, shift, ctrl do not work when trying to select techs or merge fleets.
Diplomacy is semi-functional, and you can raise game exceptions (but play through them).

All in all not a bad showing for an Alpha. I hope the Devs polish this up well. It has potential.

[son_of_montfort]

Having put in a lot of hours over the last two days, there are two areas that still need a lot of work

Diplomacy doesn't appear to work at all. Right now I can't get any of the A.I. races to accept a cease fire, and dropping all kinds of free tech on them has no affect on their opinion of me. Plus, after attacking three of my outposts, I got a message that the Carvers don't trust me. WTF? Who attacked who here?

I'm still seeing ships attack and take damage at long and middle range even though they aren't equipped with beam or missile weapons. That has to be a bug.

I'm not pissed, since I realize the state of the game, but I am a bit disappointed that I've seen no response from the developers to any of the issues or questions being raised in the forums. Isn't that the point of letting an Alpha build out of it's cage early?

If you are trying to chat up the Carvers, you are barking up the wrong tree. That race is limited to always being in perpetual war and cannot sign Cease Fires or other treaties.

I had a race to a Cease Fire with me. A race's disposition will fall depending upon your actions. If you over expand (in their estimation) the disposition falls, if you have too few ships (and look weak) it will fall. I've had a race's disposition fall, only to rise again when I built more ships and looked more secure.

As to weapons firing, IIRC weapons fire at ALL stages of combat but their damage is optimized for specific ranges. So you still see damage done by kinetics at long range, but not nearly as much as at short range. That is where the combat cards come in - if you have a ship with only kinetic weapons, you can do minor damage in the first two rounds but you want to make sure you minimize the damage done by missiles (optimized at long range) and beams (optimized at medium range), then really pour out your modifiers at melee.  (OOPS... just realized Capn Darwin covered this a bit).

[tgb]

It may be a matter of interpretation but the faction description says the Carvers can't be at peace with everybody.  I take that to mean that they can be peace, but not with everybody at once.

As to combat - yeah, I finally got that, and it changes my whole approach to how I use the cards.  Which is why it's so frustrating that the developers aren't answering these questions.