Endless Space

[TheWickedGerman]

Got me this yesterday, and i am impressed. UI is very good, it´s very "fluid" and easy to use.

I was first confused how to switch production lines between planets in the same star system then I now realized, improvements and queue are per system, not per planet. Considering that I have already 4 star systems after 40 turns and they containg all 3 or more planets you can colonize (sooner or later, for some you need to research tech first), I think this is it a good thing to tone down micromanagement in late game.

Combat is ok, cards can have impact if you are evenly matched, but if you are hopeless out-gunned, they won´t do much. Question: Can you somehow try to withdraw from combat, or abort it before it started? (when you are on the screen where you choose manual or auto resolve. )

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Got me this yesterday, and i am impressed. UI is very good, it´s very "fluid" and easy to use.

I was first confused how to switch production lines between planets in the same star system then I now realized, improvements and queue are per system, not per planet. Considering that I have already 4 star systems after 40 turns and they containg all 3 or more planets you can colonize (sooner or later, for some you need to research tech first), I think this is it a good thing to tone down micromanagement in late game.

Combat is ok, cards can have impact if you are evenly matched, but if you are hopeless out-gunned, they won´t do much. Question: Can you somehow try to withdraw from combat, or abort it before it started? (when you are on the screen where you choose manual or auto resolve. )

[Misiok]

TWG - yeah, not yet but there's some discussion on their forums about adding a withdraw option.

[TheWickedGerman]

Just signed up on their homepage, where can I register my copy for the 500 g2g points? Can´t find it, either I am blind or had not enough sleep

Edit:

Found it, never mind.

[CommissarRezail]

Well i got a new problem going on with my game now. It appears pirates get more aggressive each game, first game i played pirate fleets was only 1 ship. Now i on my 10th game pirate fleets have 20 ships, attack systems, not to mention captures said system. Then after all of that spam ships from the system. Pirates actually killed a npc faction off from the whole game. Literally 20 pirate held systems. Anyone else came across this?

[TheWickedGerman]

I only have 1 game played, and I had pirates fleets up to 5 ships. First I met them, they only had one, and then they grew slowly stronger. Maybe it´s just a odd coincidence in your case, that you met them in their later stage during your latest games, and met them in earlier stages during your first games?

PS: Beta is Live, Multiplayer & missing 3 factions added, changelog:

This list is work in progress, as we are still working on the beta release.

0.42.0

CHANGES AND ADDITIONS

Added the multiplayer.
Added the French language.


GALAXY VIEW

Fixed several bugs concerning the galaxy generation.
When more than one other faction is stationed in a system (regardless of the fleets quantity), the player is now able to select which one he wants to attack.
Modified the star systems labels in the galaxy view. You can now see the current production, the hangar capacity and the link between resources and planets.
The user can now access a system hangar from the galaxy screen if there is no fleet in orbit.
Added a chat console. "Return" key is now used for chat in multiplayer. Numpad-Enter does still end turn though.
The player can open the Pause Menu by using ESC.


SYSTEM VIEW

When the user selects any action on a system in the empire management the system is highlighted.
Added some population feedback on planets in the system/planet view.


DIPLOMACY

Diplomacy should be smoother due to a fix on the trends now being capped.
The attitude value has a greater impact on the terms negotiation.
The player is able to offer resources along with peace.
Modified the cease fire term.
Cooperation agreement now takes 30 turns to become a full bonus.
- Turn 0: malus (-50% to trade routes)
- After 15 turns: no malus/bonus
- After 30 turns: bonus (+25% to trade routes)


PATHFINDING

Fixed several bugs concerning the pathfinding.
Fixed an issue where the moving fleet always tries to use up all the movement points.
The user can select a specific route for a fleet to take when moving:
- You can now queue movement orders by pressing and holding down SHIFT
- You can now force a fleet to move through empty space by holding down CTRL.
- If you wish to queue movement and travel through empty space press and hold CTRL+SHIFT.


VICTORY CONDITIONS

Modified the economic victory formula:
Economic victory points needed = 500000 + 5000 * (number of systems) - 40000 * (number of players)


FACTIONS

Added the Amoeba, Sower and Pilgrims factions.
Cloning trait has been boosted and now Horatios will have +1 food on all planets.
Deadly Weapons decreased for Hissho, increased for Cravers. Hissho still have the best bonus.
Changed Amoeba diplomacy bonus so they can't have war bonuses.
Modified the Cravers diplomacy tech tree.
Removed Cravers' Diplomacy2 and changed their Diplomacy1 (only ceasefire exchange choices)
Tuned down the science rate from the Sophons.


INVASION

Changed all invasion mods' values (increased) and some effects.
Now Ground defense is displayed as: "+X Defense per [pop] on System".
Ground defense is now defined by the system's position compared to player and opponent frontiers.
- Inside player or ally frontiers: 20 Def
- Neutral (isolated Outpost): 15 Def
- Outpost inside enemy frontiers: 12 Def
Greatly improved Defense bonuses on improvements (5 to 20 => 12 to 100).
Updated Ground Defense bonuses from Melee attribute (+2 => +5, +5%).


HEROES

The hero hiring cost now changes according to number of heroes already in service.
Changed the value of HeroAbilityAdministrator04 & 05 (Minister of Propaganda 1 & 2). We don't want players to be able to nullify overpopulation maluses too soon; on a Hero it could become available after 30/40 turns.


AI

AI personalities have been reinforced to better fit their faction.
The AI is aware of the neutral zones.
Less weapon and defense mod bonuses for the AI on Normal to Impossible difficulties.
Improved the military AI: colony ship protection behavior.
Changed negotiations method for the AI for treaties and exchanges.
The AI will now give a much greater attention to colonization techs if no system can be colonized by his colony ships.
The AI will more likely start by making planetary improvements first on a new system (and that building will be Food or Industry).


RESEARCH

Removed the bonus on all planets on System Improvement Food 1.
Switched Food 2 with Food 5.
Lowered dust bonus on Dust 5 improvement.
Merged the Diplomacy Bonuses 3 and 4.
Corrected the MP values of the second-to-last weapon mod of each type; corrected MP values of defense mods.
Added 4 technological unlocks into the exploration & expansion tech tree.


TRADE ROUTES

Trade route brings in more Science and less Dust.
Corporate Trade routes bonuses (% and Wit multiplier) decreased.


MISC. (GAMEPLAY)

Increased disapproval due to overcolonization.
Increased Dust malus for systems outside frontiers (depending on territory : player/ally/neutral/enemy).
Slight increase of overpopulation disapproval.
Added "overcolonization disapproval reduction" on Star System Approval buildings.
There were no maluses to Food and Science during blockade. Just added them: -25% food; no Science (x0).
Monopoly bonuses for the strategic resources have been temporarily removed.
Reverted to bonuses without overcolonization malus decrease; those effects have been moved to new tech unlocks.
No Overcolonization disapproval on Outposts. It will be added only when changing to colony.


MISC. (GUI)

Removed the achievement score on the end game screen.
Added ship level feedback on ship icons.
Improved the scroll bar system.
Modified the tutorial system.
Removed some useless scrollbars.
Modified the fleet/system selection panel when assigning a hero.

FIXES

IMPORTANT FIXES

Fixed an issue where upon reaching level 11, ships lose all their XP
Fixed an issue where the "Emergency Shelter" battle action causes a crash.
Fixed an issue where an assert message appears when the user attempts to transfer ships from the hangar.
Fixed an issue where a fleet can be invisible.
Fixed an issue where a null reference exception appears after an invasion.
Fixed several issues where sending gifts to the AI has no effect.
Fixed an issue where the user receives an assert message if they Right Click during the loading screen.
Fixed an issue where the empire management AI has an infinite loop of terraforming.
Fixed an issue where changing the quality level will cause an assert.
Fixed an issue where the game will not continue after ending the turn.
Fixed an issue where starting a manual ship battle will cause an assert.
Fixed an issue where conquering an empire home system causes an assert.
Fixed an issue where the user can increase science and dust income indefinitely.


OTHERS FIXES

Fixed an issue with the scrollbar of the selected modules panel in the ship design screen.
Fixed an issue where the player cannot scroll through the reject reasons in the diplomatic negotiations screen.
Fixed an issue where the user can close the resolution timer using the right click.
Fixed an issue where left-clicking on the slider button causes it to disappear
Fixed an issue where the treaty options can be displayed twice
Fixed an issue where the planetary improvements are not scrapped when there is not enough dust
Fixed an issue where the fleet icon remains after the budget scrap is performed
Fixed an issue where not enough empire slots are created by the galaxy generator (too many players/galaxy size).
Fixed an issue where the number of ships stationed in a hangar is not properly displayed on the system info tooltip
Fixed an issue where the galaxy scale slider overlaps with the fleet selection panel
Fixed an issue where AI trends per turn have no limits making the AIs seem very volatile.
Fixed an issue where ships remain stuck if the player/AI moves them in the same time when another player/AI attacks them
Fixed an issue where a 4-digits value overlaps the FIDS icon in the system view screen.
Fixed an issue where the end game screen text is incorrect after the player's elimination.
Fixed several issues where a cooperation agreement doesn't work as intended.
Fixed an issue where Dust donations lead to incorrect gains of attitude.
Fixed an issue where the empire management filters will reset after the player exits the empire management view.
Fixed an issue where the user can have diplomatic deals with other empires without being at peace.
Fixed an issue where the invasion button is not available.
Fixed several inconsistencies between battle card texts and hero ability descriptions (beam surge, gravity well, armor weak point, dust barrier).
Fixed an issue where the heroes' Melee attribute has no effects.
Fixed an issue where the nano-repair systems battle card has twice its effect.
Fixed an issue where after an empire has been eliminated the user can still offer diplomatic terms to that empire.
Fixed an issue where "Invulnerable Empire" is prioritized for the empire management AI.
Fixed an issue where the planetary colonization is not canceled if the planet is colonized via the colonization ship.
Fixed an issue where the defenders ship are warping-in at the start of the battle.
Fixed an issue where a defeated empire retains some ships in its hangars.
Fixed an issue where the AI moves out of the systems guarded by player fleets when loading a saved game.
Fixed an issue where the modules do not grey out in the ship design view.
Fixed an issue where the user can retrofit ships with Seed ship modules to rush expansion or increase population.
Fixed an issue where the user can assign heroes to fleets engaged in battle from the academy view.
Fixed an issue where the "Psychological Insulation" star system improvement does not grant an additional 1 population.
Fixed an issue where sometimes clicking on ships in the galaxy view does not produce any results.
Fixed an issue where sometimes diplomatic offers are neither accepted nor rejected by the AI.
Fixed an issue where no tooltip is displayed for Call and Inspect buttons on diplomatic status screen.
Fixed an issue where the first digit of the galaxy generation seed cannot be erased.
Fixed an issue where the confirmation message received after disabling tutorials in-game has no cancel button.
Fixed an issue where the in-game droplist from the options menu has the same color as the background.
Fixed an issue where the system view menu becomes unresponsive.
Fixed an issue where on the lowest resolution setting the user is unable to select pilgrims and amoeba on the last player slot in the lobby.
Fixed several text issues.

Anyone planning to go into multiplayer soon?

[CommissarRezail]

Yeah, later on tonight.

Does anyone else think sowers are a little over powered. I mean i had 10 system colonised by turn 45. Not to mention they can colonize any planet on turn 1.

[Misiok]

No, they aren't, and you must've been playing on easy difficulty because if you try to colonise every single planet in your first stary system on turn 1, you will suffer economically.

[CommissarRezail]

No i was playing it on normal, and no i didn't suffer economically. i just compensated by making 2 system generate dust per turn. Which pretty much pissed every npc person around me and they jump me all at once.

[TheWickedGerman]

I like how you have to adapt your ship designs. I created some fairly powerful small ships and had a fleet of 7 ships weeping pirates from my outer system, who had relative large fleets flying around there. The I entered the first hostile AI system, and started invasion. A 3 ships fleet with half my combat strenght (1200 vs. 600) engaged a few turns later. Easy job I tought, especially because I killed a few of their scout ships with a single combat ship before without troubles, until my fleet got wiped after the 2nd combat stage, with 1 enemy ship surviving on low hp.

First I was like "WTF just happend?" until I checked their ship design. Those buggers had only beam weapons, guess who hadn´t any shields on his fleet?

[Afoxi]

That's why first encounter fleets should typically have a balanced loadout of Shield/Flak/Deflectors, Projectiles/Beams/Missiles.

You check their efficiency after combat, and adjust accordingly.

[LoneWolf666]

I'm so tepted to try this out... What does this game emphasize? Research/planet development/ship design/warfare?

[Fenra]

Maybe I just suck at these kinda games, but does it feel like Normal AI is a step above normal? By the time I meet them they either outtech me, or outfleet me. Yet somehow I'm still 3rd overall? O.o

Also, does alignment of "Evil" mean anything in game? just wondering that tidbit. In any case the game is pretty for a Alpha, absolutely amazing, in an awesome way

[TheWickedGerman]

It´s beta since yesterday

Regarding alignment, I think it affects only diplomacy with other races.

[severijn]

Played around with the update a bit. It looks like MP is now available. I'll check out if it is functional yet.

The new races are pretty cool. I especially like the amoeba and sower race. The sower advantage is a little big too big imho. The 25% penalty is really low and what this mainly does is that you win the race for expansions. After you colonize you simply tech the respective tech required to negate the penalty. I'm not exactly a fan of all the sower designs though. I ended up naming them after shivan ships from freespace for implied ugliness.

All in all, I like the many improvements brought by the beta, though the AI is still weak. I hope they sort this out soon.

[CommissarRezail]

I said sower was a little op before, but it was dismissed as a mad man rantings. Which they are, consider you can colonize any planet and comphensate eco by making most of your planets into dust converters. Then making a few forge worlds to pump ships out like crazy.

[Misiok]

Well, good news everyone. The game releases on the 4th of July with tons of new content that can be seen here, more or less.

EDIT:

Also, some previews too!

[Jondu]

Lost i don't know how many hours on this game last night...played until early morning :P :s Haven't played anything like that for ages, and this game doesn't even have that much depth and complexity to explain this :P

I don't understand one thing about this game, and about many games of this kind. Its the factions/races. Why so boring? I mean, a random teenager can come up with more interesting alien faction names and stories. I can make my own, but i cant make AI's to be custom factions...

[FriendlyFire]

We probably haven't played the same game. The factions are probably one of the most original I've seen in a 4X. Seriously, have you just looked at the SOTS, SoaSE or Galactic Civilizations factions? Those are derivative as hell.

A faction consisting entirely of clones of a deranged trillionaire? I haven't seen that elsewhere.

[Arbit]

The race concepts do seem fairly interesting; the problem is you never see them past the race select screen. Well, I guess you see little shadowy images of them on the diplomacy screen. The interface is pretty slick but it would infuse the game with a lot more character if you could see your science or military officers giving reports.

Overall, the game is pretty decent but both ship-to-ship combat and planetary invasions need to fleshed out before it gets anywhere near being a successor to MoO2.

[Jondu]

I liked MoO3 take on alien races. More varied and interesting at least in appearance, and story was okay in most cases as well i think. The whole MoO setting was more acceptable and allowed more imagination from my part.

I wish i could destroy colonies.(if i can then i don't know yet how). I dont want to invade all of them, i want to nuke them to hell or something similar:P
I played a game on huge map, was fighting wars all over the place when suddenly i got "Diplomatic Victory".... lol. I guess it had something to do with the small amount of players still remaining and my diplomatic something with them...

[[Vertigo]]

I've played a few games of Endless Spess now. There is quiet a few things that are not covered in the tutorial that I wish were. Some of the victory conditions are hard to figure out. The combat is nice just to sit and watch the pew pew. Although the camera angles could use a little fixing. Sometimes I get and inside view of my ships.

[Logic_Bomb]

Played about 22 hours and it's got that sort of flawed masterpiece going on...
Pros: Slick, crisp, clear, easy to use UI. Expansion, colony management, and research side is surprisingly fun and addictive. The different races are pretty cool and unique for sci-fi games (for the most part). Nice ambient music. I like that it actually doesn't fully explain a lot of things but just gives you the basics in the tutorials and manual and let's you try and figure out the rest. The heros and their deployment and skills with fleets or systems works well and adds some flavour. The devs also seem very open to community feedback and making changes or additions as the game goes along.

Cons: Combat is horrible and tedious - at least vs. AI. I like the cards concept but the cutscene style is a bit boring. The horrible part vs. the AI is that it spams endless fleets at you - and even if you have superior ships it can still mean an hour of just watching battle cutscenes over and over. You're also only able to participate manually in one battle per turn so any others are auto-resolved, with the usual sub-optimal handling (I don't think the AI deploys cards in those cases). I also found the relative combat strength of the two forces before a battle really deceiving. There were battles where I had twice the combat points for my fleet and they still got decimated even with winning the card battle on top of it. It may have been a mismatch in the RPS of the ship design that cost me those battles, or the fact that the AI had more ships than I did, but this should be reflected in the overall display of the strength of the two fleets before engaging.
Besides combat, the only other con is that the different races really have no personality or presence once in the game - there is very little race specific immersion. There is no voicework in the game at all past the opening cutscene when you've selected your race.
Overall, I'd say pick it up if it's on sale at some point if you like 4X space games, or else wait 6 months or so and see what the devs have changed or added in at that point. I know they've received a lot of criticism on the combat and will probably make changes there first.

[[Vertigo]]

The AI cheats with resources so you will get endless fleet spam even if they only have a few star systems. The higher the difficulty the more cheat resources they get. Try to get the AIs to war against each other that way they can fleet spam each other or play with people. I agree that the combat is a bit boring, but its a 4x game not CoD! What were you expecting? Its got the pew pew and shit. I don't know about the card system just yet.

You also need to design ships with purpose in mind. Even with a higher combat rating than your opponent its still possible to get fucked over completely if they have the exact counter to your ship design. For example, in the early game everyone has ballistic weapons and defenses on all their ships; going for the laser side of the weapons tech tree gives you a weapon that isn't deflected by everyone's defenses and a better armor against ballistic weapons. A good choice if everyone is still pouring Science into ballistics. When you get notified about a combat your involved in you can see what kind of weapons and how much damage they can put out when you mouse over the portraits in the notification window. I managed to save a few on my specialized fleets when the AI showed up with something that was the exact counter to them after checking the fleet composition and rigging. Sometimes you have to hit retreat.

I agree with the race specific immersion not being that great. I've only played with two races so far: The Horatio, and The Empire. There really wasn't much difference in play style. But those were my first two games and I am still getting used to the UI and the mechanics. A pretty solid game at release that has plenty of potential. So far I am pleased with my purchase. Hardly any bugs worth noting so far!


Fuck Sots2!

[Logic_Bomb]

Yeah if my mini-review seemed overly negative, I should add that I don't regret buying it and will check back in and play a few games off and on for the next while I'm sure - I don't play a lot of TBS games but this and Shogun II are two I thought were beautifully done, but with flaws. Endless Space just seems less fleshed out and complete than Shogun II to me at this point. I know it's likely a lot to do with different size studios and budgets. ES does have a lot of different victory options to choose from though and as I find the combat and ship design part a bit janky I usually play Research or Wonder based victories.

[[Vertigo]]

It does need a few more features, I can agree with that. I didn't expect a AAA game for what I paid for it. Considering I spent 60+ USD for some games that still have problems to this day, I'm looking at you Battlefield 3, it stands up pretty good. Definitely want to see what the future hold for this game. It has a bit of charm to it that can become greatness with the right amount of polish.

Also I am playing my third game as Sowers and getting my ass handed to me. I thought these guys are supposed to be OP?!

[Cortlendt]

I did not get the expansion unhappiness. Why do some worlds get it and some dont?

[[Vertigo]]

I think it may have something to do with how far away some systems are from your starter system?

[FriendlyFire]

Pilgrims also have a racial bonus that counteracts expansion disapproval if I'm not mistaken.

[Arbit]

I assume it affects newly colonized systems the most, and those that are farthest away from your homeworld. After my first game where my entire empire was on strike because of world-specific happiness modifiers and expansion disapproval, I was very careful to get the "-X% expansion disapproval" techs from the expansion tree and the happiness buildings from the diplomacy tree. The morale boosting skills for leaders are pretty good too, despite being obsoleted by the endgame - you start to run out of useful skills to pick by the endgame, so might as well make use of it early on.

[[Vertigo]]

I usually take the happiness modifiers on the heroes early so I can keep a few systems afloat. Late game, happiness isn't an issue.

[Fenra]

Kinda sad there's no hotseat mode, I wouldn't really want to pay an additional 30$ to get my girlfriend to play it, not sure how the turns are truly "dynamic", they seem like everyone is taking the same turn all at once, I think Civ V had that... (I think?)

either way, I'm somewhat disappointed with no fighters/bombers Even as cards they would be really cool to have. I know I signed up late on the beta but I liked the game for what it was.

[Trizzdog]

After playing a few games, I have 2 burning questions:

Firstly, why do pirate ships in my game end up being godly for the first hundred turns? I play as a militaristic race with infinite pew pew and they still get bitch slapped by equivalent forces of the pirates. The pirates have more ships than the enemy has fleets FOR SOME RAISIN, so they might as well be their own faction. I think the raging barbarians from the civ games evolved into space pirates, but even they weren't this hardcore. Then again, they actually sacked things. These pirates just park their nigh invincible asses on my systems and go "fuck you player".

Secondly, why is Tolerant even a selectable trait? A boatload of creation points to be able to colonize any planet from the start, but with a resource penalty until you get the tech proper. Would be pretty nice if it weren't for the fact that you retain the horrendous approval penalty too. That's so fucking bad. I can't wrap my mind around how bad this trait is. You might get better results by shooting yourself in the nuts than wasting 20-40 points on this trait. I can't think of a situation where this trait is worth the point investment. Class I and II planets are really the only planets worth colonizing from the start, and the tech for them is a snap to get. Class III to V can be good with certain anomalies, but only with a bunch of tech to go with it for the special resources and approval boosters, and eventual terraforming. And this trait is designed to be a tech sidestepper for glorious expansion exploitations, yet... you need tech to take advantage of it. Derp. Maybe they could fix it by also reducing the approval penalty for colonizing Class II to V planets? Expansion disapproval is already enough to deal with...

[TheWickedGerman]

I ususally never had problems with pirates, what difficulty you play on? Also they only spwan in "empty systems", a scout ship in every empty system in your part of the galaxy will do the trick too.

Maybe your ship setup is not effective versus the pirate ship´s setup?

PS: Pirates do sack systems.

[[Vertigo]]

Firstly, why do pirate ships in my game end up being godly for the first hundred turns?

If you are still using the default ships at this point you should check their load out when every game starts. The "attack" frigate you start the game with isn't fully loaded with weapons and armor. If you are having problems with Pirates just load a Destroyer class hull with lasers. Depending on the race you play that's about 15-16 lasers which put out a retarded amount of damage early game. You should be cleaning the floor with the pirates with a small fleet of Laser DD's during the first phase of combat.

Secondly, why is Tolerant even a selectable trait?

I guess the Devs were afraid of those races getting too far ahead and had to put a draw back on it besides the huge cost of taking it. There really isn't a reason to colonize any planet other then Tundra or Arid within the first 50 turns. The penalty to approval is too harsh otherwise. Never mind Colonize Tundra and Arid are literally the first two techs in the southern tree.

[Trizzdog]

I think it's just my luck, but I'm playing on normal, and I had baller custom destroyers that were wiping the floor with the other factions. While I was doing that, these pirates went seriously off the hook. 20+ pirate ships in one system, 4-8 in others. The weird thing was they'd start invading and then fuck off for no reason with their super amazing 2 movespeed to another system just to go trololololol in hyperspace. Their ships were identical to mine in firepower except with twice the hitpoints. Seriously eyebrow raising stuff.

[[Vertigo]]

Pirates can get pretty boss. I recommend turning them off for your first few games. I did when Caeser, Jinks, and I played our first few. You need to have sensor coverage of a system to prevent pirates from spawning there. So, either park something cheap in orbit or try increasing the sensor range of your systems to cover near by systems you can't or don't want to colonize. Nothing like having "that" system with the one small fireball planet spawning 20+ pirates when your fleets are busy elsewhere.

[[Vertigo]]

I just found out the most bullshit thing to do to people trying to gang up on you with the AI. You can initiate a cease fire with their AI partners and drop them down to a cold war the same turn they declare war on you. Sorry, Caeser and Jinks!

[Jonny]

Endless Space is free to play on Steam this weekend and 50% off. I'm d/ling it now to give it a whirl.

[Misiok]

And even if you're not going to buy it, at least download and try it, as the more people that try the game the more free content the devs will give to the players

[Rotlung]

Gave it a spin. I quite like the game, though the AI is always out-colonising me, even on lower difficulty levels. Seems a little buggy in some places (names of systems not changing, planets appearing colonisable only to still require some tech you don't have when you try to colonise it, mainly for intra-system colonisation).

The combat seems horribly tedious. Isn't there a way to speed up the sequences, or to just have them done in a rapid sequential manner (choose card, see results, choose another card, see results, etc without all the bang, it does get quite boring after a while). Then again, I've been too spoilt by skipping combat to see the summary of results and sequences in GalCiv2.

It's definitely a very good impression of MoO2 though. But with me getting too bogged down by the sophistication of SotS1 (and it's quirky combat controls), I might actually get this some day. Hopefully they do something about speeding up combat.

[mlai]

After my great experience with SOTS1, I had been doing a lot of research on this game to see if I would add it to my fledgling 4X library. Read reviews... watched WTF Is Endless Space vid...
Unless the game had an expansion or two after Cynical Brit's video review, I have to say no. Even with the Steam sale.

I usually don't play 4X games, because the spreadsheet-ness makes it not feel like a game for me. SOTS1 was great because of 2 things:
(1) Actual tactical combat with actual customizable ships that actually function differently.
(2) Personality. Species are actually different, not just have different avatar pictures and some different stats. And they talk.

Endless Space, like other 4X, don't have either. It's too clinical, and none of the aliens have any personality beyond their little silent avatar and their static ship aesthetics. I would even be able to look past the non-combat if the diplomacy portion is in-depth and personality-filled. But no, it's just clicking on items for trading and adjusting the deal approval slider. What 4X games like these need is a little RPG with dialogue branches and "quest conditions", in their diplomacy sections. That would make inter-empire relations, and all the factions, feel alive. Even SOTS1 went a little further ahead in this aspect. Their diplomacy is also elementary, but at least the factions talk.

Let me know if the game drastically changes in expansions.

[aaron2]

I played it yesterday and didn't like it at all
It really disappointed me!

[Lautaro]

I downloaded it yesterday and according to Steam, I played it 14 hrs... so yeah, it's a buy for me, it's really addictive.

[LoneWolf666]

Just finished my first game. 11 hours according to Steam, sounds about right. I feel I already got my money's worth. It's a fun game, looking forward to seeing where it goes with expansions and these weird free content patches they have going.

[WhiteDeVile]

Some people need to realise that Endless Space, is basically Twilight Imperium (yes, the board game), remade into a PC game, and slightly casualised/dumbeddown.
Had lots of fun with it, can't wait for some new content.
The only thing that annoys me thou - considering the fact that games vs AI get boring easily, since the game is DESIGNED to be played against other people - are random dudes on the servers, who often resign at the very beginning, or slightly (10-20minutes) into the match.
So you'd better find some friends to play, hop on mumble/ventrilo/whatever and grab some snacks.
It's frickin TI online, just less "engaging".