[Aselith]

This may have to do with your dislike of the written word.

Green arrow is my preferred research but sometimes I like to mix it up and add to my blue arrow.

I also research the shit out of blue person.

[Pylon_Trooper]

Yeah, it may take some getting used to. I just played half of one game and I said, 'Yes, this is what I wanted.' I'm patiently waiting for final release. I'll probably be gifting a few copies to family before Thursday.

You're, like, the best family member ever!

[Moobabe]

Those patch notes are way too complex - I barely understand the game as it is! I've loaded up a new one - playing as the... Horatio people I think. I'm getting it a little more this time - though my borders don't seem to expanding very much at all. I'm finally getting my head around the tech tree - though something like a ctrl + f function would be nice - I know I need the technology to be able to travel worm holes but I'll be damned if I can find it.

[Pylon_Trooper]

Those patch notes are way too complex - I barely understand the game as it is! I've loaded up a new one - playing as the... Horatio people I think. I'm getting it a little more this time - though my borders don't seem to expanding very much at all. I'm finally getting my head around the tech tree - though something like a ctrl + f function would be nice - I know I need the technology to be able to travel worm holes but I'll be damned if I can find it.

That tech, old friend, is the Applied Casimir Effect, which will grant you Total Hull Integrity and the ability to run along those wormholes. The tech is just south of Efficient Shielding (which nabs you the Cruiser).

[epmode]

I'm pretty sure a tech search option is already in the game. I saw someone run a search in a Let's Play shortly afer the game showed up on Steam.

[Pylon_Trooper]

Yeah, there is...it's a little text box in the bottom right corner - just type in a particular word and hit "locate".

[Pylon_Trooper]

Magnificence awaits, fellows. Freshly deployed from the devs! READ ON:

Hello everyone, First of all we wanted to all thank you for the amazing support you have given us these last months. For those who haven’t seen it, we posted a little video to show you our gratitude We’ve been working real hard to make the game better, implementing new features, debugging it as much as possible and implementing the features that will be included in the Beta version. Talking about that, we wanted to announce today that the BETA of the game will be available next Monday, end of the day on STEAM. For those who have not yet purchased the game, you have until Sunday to benefit from the 25% off on the full price of the game. These are the main new features that will be included in the Beta version of the game: - 8 playable factions >> you’ll finally be able to discover the Amoeba, the Sowers and the new and last faction we’ll announce tomorrow - Multiplayer enabled >> You’ll be able to plays against 7 other players online. - German and French languages. The Multiplayer and the Languages are first iterations so we hope you'll be able to help us to make them better. We’ll continue working Full Throttle® so that we deliver a final product as great as it can get. We aim to release the final game around July, the final date will depend on when we’ll be fully satisfied by the game. For us, the release is the just the beginning for Endless Space… definitely not the end!

So, we get the Amoebas and Sower factions, we'll get multiplayer AND the final faction will be unveiled.

Word on the street is that the final faction is a human offshoot called the Pilgrims. Highly peaceable, big on diplomacy etc. Here's hoping diplomacy is at least given a seeing to in the update.

Keen, keen, keen.

[Aselith]

No word on revising that tech tree, huh? :/ My only complaint with the game.

[Pylon_Trooper]

No word on revising that tech tree, huh? :/ My only complaint with the game.

You never know. I've grown fond of it, although I could do wish there were a few more faction-specific techs in there.

What would you like to see, Aselith?

[SteveWinwood]

More factions yay!

[gotee12]

We aim to release the final game around July, the final date will depend on when we’ll be fully satisfied by the game.

I wish more devs would adhere to this methodology. Release an alpha/beta to satiate the fans and help generate a little buzz (and revenue). Then give the fans some level of feedback in the development to help shape parts of the game for mass consumption. Finally hold off on a full release until the dev team is happy with the product they've created.

I know budgets and white collars prevent this from happening 99% of the time, but it's oh so nice when it does happen.

[IblisGinjo]

I wish more devs would adhere to this methodology. Release an alpha/beta to satiate the fans and help generate a little buzz (and revenue). Then give the fans some level of feedback in the development to help shape parts of the game for mass consumption. Finally hold off on a full release until the dev team is happy with the product they've created. I know budgets and white collars prevent this from happening 99% of the time, but it's oh so nice when it does happen.

I agree more of this.

[Aselith]

You never know. I've grown fond of it, although I could do wish there were a few more faction-specific techs in there. What would you like to see, Aselith?

I'd just like it to be a little clearer as to tech progression in some areas. Like I found it extremely hard to find some upgrades when I started playing especially stuff like fleet cap (which I'm still not sure all the techs related to that) seems to be a nightmare to find all the techs for upgrading that. I'm sure you get used to it eventually but for new players it's just really hard to find out what you're even teching up to or where you want to be researching for. Like just for example there is a tech that decreases the scientific victory tech by 30% but it's at the end of the tree on the left side and why are techs that increase fleet size not in the combat focused tree and why are ship logistics techs in the scientific/mining tree.

It just seems a little messy. I'd vastly prefer a branching but narrow tech tree like Civ games or flat progression tree like GalCiv.

Really what I'd prefer is a Combat > Scientific > Industrial 3 tree system which would seem pretty easy with their current techs.


Also that scientific victory research is pretty crazy. I got up there at like turn 130 or something and needed 450 turns of research. That seems a little excessive but maybe I'm not properly maximizing my research, I dunno. That was with the Sophons and me heavily investing in research planets.

[Pylon_Trooper]

I'd just like it to be a little clearer as to tech progression in some areas. Like I found it extremely hard to find some upgrades when I started playing especially stuff like fleet cap (which I'm still not sure all the techs related to that) seems to be a nightmare to find all the techs for upgrading that. I'm sure you get used to it eventually but for new players it's just really hard to find out what you're even teching up to or where you want to be researching for. Like just for example there is a tech that decreases the scientific victory tech by 30% but it's at the end of the tree on the left side and why are techs that increase fleet size in the combat focused tree and why are ship logistics techs in the scientific/mining tree. It just seems a little messy. I'd vastly prefer a branching but narrow tech tree like Civ games or flat progression tree like GalCiv. Really what I'd prefer is a Combat > Scientific > Industrial 3 tree system which would seem pretty easy with their current techs. Also that scientific victory research is pretty crazy. I got up there at like turn 130 or something and needed 450 turns of research. That seems a little excessive but maybe I'm not properly maximizing my research, I dunno. That was with the Sophons and me heavily investing in research planets.

Fair call on all accounts. There are some great scientific victory techniques on the forums I've read, just in terms of maximising research, but they're still tuning things...so it'll be interesting to see where we are in a month or so!

Speaking of which, anyone seen the G2G progress page of late? Gives you a great rundown of where the dev team are at. Fear not on the tweaking and tuning, they've still got ages to go...bodes well.

http://endless-space.amplitude-studios.com/Progress

[Pylon_Trooper]

The Pilgrim faction, complete with Judi Dench, have been officially unveiled!

http://www.amplitude-studios.com/Articles/PILGRIMS

[Blizzard]

The Pilgrim faction, complete with Judi Dench, have been officially unveiled! http://www.amplitude-studios.com/Articles/PILGRIMS

I really like the sound of that faction. Roaming engineers! :D

[Snapshot King]

For those of you playing the Alpha, how is it?

Way way way back in the day I got real, real deep into Ascendancy. I've never found a 4x game after that to really get me going (Sins would, save for real time). Hopin this one is the one.

[Pylon_Trooper]

Cannot wait to see how this multiplayer aspect goes.

In other news, for those wanting to know how to maximise their planets and effect the best possible outcomes with terraforming, this guide popped up on the ES forums. Thought it might be useful for folks:

For those of you playing the Alpha, how is it? Way way way back in the day I got real, real deep into Ascendancy. I've never found a 4x game after that to really get me going (Sins would, save for real time). Hopin this one is the one.

Hmmm...this *might* float your boat. Actually, have a gander at James Allen of Out of Eight's impressions over at Wargamer. The man is seriously one of the best reviewers in the medium, so his words hold much sway. Most importantly, I agree wholeheartedly with this opening broadside...

First off, let me say that the interface is the best I've seen in any strategy game. I'm not exaggerating.

The fellow knows his strategy games, so that's no mean feat to receive such an accolade.

If you liked MoO2, you'll love ES. If you liked Ascendancy, there's a real chance you'll like ES, too.

[dragonelite]

The Pilgrim faction, complete with Judi Dench, have been officially unveiled! http://www.amplitude-studios.com/Articles/PILGRIMS

Wow those ship designs :)

[Pylon_Trooper]

Wow those ship designs :)

They truly are the children of the Sophon and UE. Brilliant combination.

[fanboi]

So, how big is the playable gakaxy ibn this game? Is it on the same level as Civ4? Or somethingelse?

[HBroward]

Today is the last day of the 25% discount, anyone on the fence may want to jump in now with the beta releasing tomorrow.

And here is the last update they posted on the 1st:

Hi everyone, These past weeks, Amplitude has been working hard to reach the objective of the beta version. Our main effort has been spent on: • Achieving the first version of the multiplayer • Completing the last 3 playables factions (art, gameplay) • Improving the diplomatic system (better feedback, better attitude behavior) • Tweaking the game parameters and content to improve the gameplay flow and depth • Fixing many bugs • Including some of the improvements you requested. This is just a start obviously What will be delivered soon is still a beta and not the final game. There may be some remaining issues, especially as it is difficult to make a broad test of multiplayer without a beta. As usual, your feedback will be crucial. We will publish a full release note of changes a few hours before the release, so that you can track our progress. The list will be long Also we are doing our best on the localization to German and French, but our translators are slightly trailing behind (and we constantly add more text with new content!), so expect a few more days for these languages to be fully integrated.

[Mindlog]

It's a great deal and it supports an upstart studio putting out a classic strategy game with a slick modern 2012 interface. You don't get this chance very often people!

[Pylon_Trooper]

Bring on the update!

[Pylon_Trooper]

UPDATE (Beta not yet live...*manly tears*)

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. Fixed Cloning trait bonus that gave bonuses to all planets instead of planets up to Class II (Arid, Tundra). 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. 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.

[HBroward]

That's a mighty fine wall of text right there. Can't wait to get off work and hopefully play that.

Edit: A member of the dev team has confirmed the discount will drop to 10% this afternoon when the beta is released, last chance people to save a couple dollars people!

Edit2: Price changed to 10% now. And the beta is up, although I still can't play yet until I get off.

[Ziltoid]

Anyone got some multiplayer working? I tried to start a game with a friend of mine but we got errors (server not responding) when we try to invite each other.

I guess we can't expect a flawless experience just a few hours after beta release. Other than that I really like this game.

[gotee12]

Played around 80 turns of the new patch. I REALLY like being able to see what is queued and if there's anything in the hangars for each system via the galaxy view. That's an awesome improvement.

I am curious if I encountered a new bug though. I was the Pilgrims and was playing against two Amoeba factions and one Sophon faction. I saw the Sophons zipping around the outskirts of my galaxy but I NEVER saw any of the Amoebas. And yet, both Amoeba factions not only sent me peace offers, but eventually became friendly. I never saw them even once and even though I unlocked the casimir effect, I never left my starter galaxy. Possibly a bug or possibly I just missed each of the factions by blinking at the exact right moment (twice even).

[Karak]

Man tons of bugs. None of the new races will move and the game just allows you to click on any planet and it keeps drawing more and more waypoints but your ships never go anywhere. Sigh. Turning it off till they fix it. Also got a ton of negotiation stuff and it was only on the 3rd turn before even researching any tech.

[markot]

Unauthorized explorers, feisty academics, and craftsmen notorious for violating EULA's and warranties

hehe

[Pylon_Trooper]

Man tons of bugs. None of the new races will move and the game just allows you to click on any planet and it keeps drawing more and more waypoints but your ships never go anywhere. Sigh. Turning it off till they fix it. Also got a ton of negotiation stuff and it was only on the 3rd turn before even researching any tech.

The ship movement bug can sometimes be overcome by shift-clicking a destination. Otherwise, when I've run into the same issue, you can run another fleet through the system with the locked ships and sometimes that'll unstick them.

[dmann]

Played around 80 turns of the new patch. I REALLY like being able to see what is queued and if there's anything in the hangars for each system via the galaxy view. That's an awesome improvement. I am curious if I encountered a new bug though. I was the Pilgrims and was playing against two Amoeba factions and one Sophon faction. I saw the Sophons zipping around the outskirts of my galaxy but I NEVER saw any of the Amoebas. And yet, both Amoeba factions not only sent me peace offers, but eventually became friendly. I never saw them even once and even though I unlocked the casimir effect, I never left my starter galaxy. Possibly a bug or possibly I just missed each of the factions by blinking at the exact right moment (twice even).

Apparently the Amoeba race starts with the ability to have contact with all races at the start of the game. Start a game as the Amoeba's, you'll see the entire galaxy and have contact with all races.

[gotee12]

Apparently the Amoeba race starts with the ability to have contact with all races at the start of the game. Start a game as the Amoeba's, you'll see the entire galaxy and have contact with all races.

Well that makes sense. I take it they're a peaceful faction as well, since they were quite eager to get peace treaties/open borders going right out of the gate...

[markot]

I don't like how you seem to have to research every diplomatic option, its like... Trade, that's hunter gatherer tech...

[Ziltoid]

I don't like how you seem to have to research every diplomatic option, its like... Trade, that's hunter gatherer tech...

I would think us humans would have to do some kind of research (at least in xenolinguistics) if an alien race suddenly wanted to trade with us. It's kinda odd that the human factions have to research it to trade with each other though.

[HBroward]

New patch notes:

0.43.5 CHANGES AND ADDITIONS Added some optimizations on low configurations. Increased the range of the lobby. Display of the online games depends of the ES version. FIXES IMPORTANT FIXES Fixed several issues of MP synchronization. Fixed an issue where loading a saved game causes the heroes of the clients to be swapped with other heroes. OTHER FIXES Fixed an issue where the "Friends'Games" filter is not working properly on the online games screen. Fixed an issue where the private session is displayed on the online games screen. Fixed an issue where the default session is displayed on the online games screen. Fixed an issue where the user can click on the chat window in the lobby and type messages. Fixed several text issues.

[JoseJX]

Is anyone else having tons of crashes after the latest patch?

I play the game in Wine on Linux, so perhaps they've made a change that doesn't work well with Wine, but I've had nothing but crashes and game lock ups since the Beta. They usually seem to happen at the end of a turn, restoring the game lets me continue playing, but it'll crash again 10-15 turns later.

I was wondering if anyone else has had issues like this in Windows, or if I should just blame Wine? Thanks!

[greenjerk]

played yesterday for a couple of hours after the latest patch... no issues so far.

first time i played i felt soooo in over my head. i tried to absorb everything from the tuts but it felt like soo much info. got my ass whooped but had fun.

second go around felt much better and i felt like i had a better idea of what to do and what i wanted to do. i'm in first place after a slow start but my god i hate those pirates.

tech tree is awesome.

one thing that's been irking me is the battle summary. during the manual battle i kick ass and lose zero ships then the summary says i lost 1 or 2 or even 3. seems off and it didn't seem to be an issue before the big patch a few days ago.

either way loving it, thanks to Pylon for all the info and updates.
So glad i picked this up!

[mclaren777]

I'm bummed that this game isn't like Escape Velocity.

[Pylon_Trooper]

Is anyone else having tons of crashes after the latest patch? I play the game in Wine on Linux, so perhaps they've made a change that doesn't work well with Wine, but I've had nothing but crashes and game lock ups since the Beta. They usually seem to happen at the end of a turn, restoring the game lets me continue playing, but it'll crash again 10-15 turns later. I was wondering if anyone else has had issues like this in Windows, or if I should just blame Wine? Thanks!

Might be worth checking out the beta support forum and maybe letting them know, if you haven't already. Always tough for Linux players at the best of times, I can only imagine!

played yesterday for a couple of hours after the latest patch... no issues so far. first time i played i felt soooo in over my head. i tried to absorb everything from the tuts but it felt like soo much info. got my ass whooped but had fun. second go around felt much better and i felt like i had a better idea of what to do and what i wanted to do. i'm in first place after a slow start but my god i hate those pirates. tech tree is awesome. one thing that's been irking me is the battle summary. during the manual battle i kick ass and lose zero ships then the summary says i lost 1 or 2 or even 3. seems off and it didn't seem to be an issue before the big patch a few days ago. either way loving it, thanks to Pylon for all the info and updates. So glad i picked this up!

The battle system is still needing work, I've had a couple of battles like that. Rest assured, Amplitude know about it and are coding away.

---

I feel such shame, too. Here I was keen on checking out the Sowers...but I'm now so used to the affinities of the UE that I simply went back to them. What a coward! What a parochial space bigot! Narrow-minded.

No, I'll give the Sowers their dues in due course. Still yet to try multiplayer.

[maabus1999]

played yesterday for a couple of hours after the latest patch... no issues so far. first time i played i felt soooo in over my head. i tried to absorb everything from the tuts but it felt like soo much info. got my ass whooped but had fun. second go around felt much better and i felt like i had a better idea of what to do and what i wanted to do. i'm in first place after a slow start but my god i hate those pirates. tech tree is awesome. one thing that's been irking me is the battle summary. during the manual battle i kick ass and lose zero ships then the summary says i lost 1 or 2 or even 3. seems off and it didn't seem to be an issue before the big patch a few days ago. either way loving it, thanks to Pylon for all the info and updates. So glad i picked this up!

Missiles are the usuall culprit in late dying ships. 90% of the time (they also don't seem to show up graphically frequently). Sometimes though the damage from a shooting volley will not be calculated until the end of the phase (i.e., say you destroy the ship just as the third volley of the phase starts, it may still calculate the destroyed ship firing a third volley).

[maabus1999]

Just wanted to add that Endless space has probably the best value for the $$$ I have ever seen. If you like 4x games at all (civ, gal civ, etc...) you must buy this game! I think it even beats the value level of SINS / Galatic Civ when they were priced at launch of $40 or so.

[Pylon_Trooper]

Missiles are the usuall culprit in late dying ships. 90% of the time (they also don't seem to show up graphically frequently). Sometimes though the damage from a shooting volley will not be calculated until the end of the phase (i.e., say you destroy the ship just as the third volley of the phase starts, it may still calculate the destroyed ship firing a third volley).

That's a big complaint, especially when the battle turns out to be a draw as one or the last of your ships explodes at the end of the melee phase.

The devs are, down the track, putting in strike craft/fighters...really curious to see how they're implemented.

Just wanted to add that Endless space has probably the best value for the $$$ I have ever seen. If you like 4x games at all (civ, gal civ, etc...) you must buy this game! I think it even beats the value level of SINS / Galatic Civ when they were priced at launch of $40 or so.

Absolute truth, right here.

[DrFurbs]

Just got this and enjoying it somewhat - sunk in two hours so far and haven't really a clue what I'm doing.

Glad I followed this thread tho and supported the devs.

[Eternia]

Finally devoted some time into playing this and so far it's been enjoyable (about 60 turns). This is my first true 4x game so I'm learning some of the basics as I go. The tech tree is truly huge, I've barely put a dent into it. Interface was slick in the videos and is still very cool in person, awesome. I'm still getting use to left/right mouse clicks depending on where you are but no big deal.

Looking at what I assume is the game score, the first place race is at a decisive lead over me (doubled). I wonder how much longer I have until they eradicate me.

[DrFurbs]

The tech tree is somewhat ambiguous. Ive gave up after 200 turns since my empire was the smallest and I count generate enough Dust to keep building ships that could make any sort of dent against the Pilgrims.

But in the end I was just hitting random buttons on the tech tree :P Yes I know...silly of me.

[Pylon_Trooper]

Behold, a new patch!

0.45.2 CHANGES AND ADDITIONS Galaxy Generation : Blue sun has hotter stars, protostar has cooler stars. Other weights were slightly changed to better reflect their star type. Added new attitude modifiers (DiplomaticAttitudeModifierMilitaryPowerRespect, DiplomaticAttitudeModifierMilitaryPowerPity, DiplomaticAttitudeModifierMilitaryPowerWeaknessStr ess, DiplomaticAttitudeModifierMilitaryPowerTense) Information buildings' maluses are mostly diplomatic rather than economic. The Cravers' bonuses to FIDS lasts too long (it hasn't been changed since max number of turns in a game was changed from 500 to 300) UE : Dust bonus. The % bonus was too long to start and to give a Dust advantage to the UE. As Dust is their main trait, we want them to earn more Dust than the others, even at the beginning (+30% => +1 per pop on each planet) Pilgrim : Hero reduction cost. The hero XP bonus trait allows heroes to start at level 2 or level 3 (=> -4 upkeep on heroes) Modified the Pirates difficulty. Modified the missile display in battle mode. When listing the sessions in the Join Game screen, take into account locked AIs for the current players FIXES OTHER FIXES Fixed an issue where random events last all the game. Fixed an issue where blockade stops the local use of ressources. Fixed an issue where when joining a session as a client, the user does not receive any hero notification updates. Fixed an issue where neither do tutorials or star tooltips explain the benefits of different stars. Fixed an issue where loading a saved game causes the heroes of the clients to be swapped with other heroes. Fixed an issue where players receive no warning message when changing a MP session to a SP one. Fixed several text issues.

I wonder if that's the "mysteriously, my fleet blew up at the end of the melee phase" bug fixed. Either way, thank GOD they've give the UE Dust Affinity a kick up the arse. We're the goddamn Space East India Company, we need the revenue.

[dmann]

Played a couple of multiplayer games over the weekend. Multiplayer is rather slow to get through, but fun regardless (be prepare to spend 4+ hours a game depending on galaxy size). I think the developers should implement some sort of time limit for each turn. It was a chore to play at around turn 50+ especially with all the space battles going on. I think all battles should be auto resolve in multiplayer with perhaps a new option to auto resolve with cards (i.e. let the player pick his cards, and then let it auto resolve rather than watch 1 - 2 minutes of the space battle).

Also, I experienced some turn ending bugs, during late game (turn 50+) the game would sometime lock up. The host would then have to reload a previous saved state and have everyone rejoin the game. Not sure what the cause of the lock up to be just yet. It is rather a hassle to get everyone to rejoin since some players will just quit when they feel they are losing.

We should get a neogaf multi game going, add me (dmann921) on steam if anyone is interested.

[Eternia]

Finished my first game against 3 AI in victory. While fumbling around my resources, I ended up attacking the Amoeba race and slowly grabbed a couple of well upgraded production systems. I quickly tailored most of my significant systems in the same fashion and built up a fleet that pinned down all 3 AI players. I smashed the Sophon, took the majority of the Amoeba territory and then took the homeworld of the Horatio. This game really has its hooks in me.

I'll probably try things differently in my next game along with figuring out something that resembles a proper early build.

[Pylon_Trooper]

Which faction were you playing as, Eternia?