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Endless Legend (4X game by Amplitude) - Update: Out now

New patch: Notes

I'm really enjoying this game. The art and graphics are gorgeous. The music is great. The UI is slick and clean. Now, my experience with 4x games is fairly limited (Civilization V and Age of Wonders 3), but I feel this game is solid. So far, it's incredibly deep. Playing as the Drakken and not relying too much on my military is a lot of fun and challenging (never been too good at these types of games).

Nice. I also have little experience with 4X genre but I'm enjoying the game a lot.
 
Finally finished my first game. Took me 5 or so hours. The forest people beat me by having the largest score at the end of 300 turns. If they hadn't done that, they would have won with a scientific victory (they had 4 of the 5 sciences required to win). All in all, it was successful even though I lost. I had a great approval rating and ton of gold and influence.
 

Totakeke

Member
For such a gorgeous looking game, the reception of this game on Neogaf seems to have very lukewarm. Is it because people don't know this is out? Or is it because people who were interested have been playing since early access so the release didn't really mean much? So far the reviews seem decent and it's certainly no worse than Endless Space which I enjoyed.

I don't have time to play a 4X game right now but this looks a lot more interesting to play than Beyond Earth which is still feels more like a reskin of Civ5 with quests. I hope this game is doing well enough for Amplitude to keep making 4X games.
 

epmode

Member
PC exclusive 4X games that aren't called "Civilization" are typically not popular on GAF.

That said, I like what I've played of it! Amplitude does good work. I love their crazy race designs and their beautiful UIs.
 
So I'm having a problem with Endless Legend and Wasteland 2 where in fullscreen mode in sub-native res, the mouse cursor will switch from the game's custom mouse cursor to the default windows mouse cursor if I go outside a certain area of the screen. I think both games use Unity, so maybe it's a problem with Unity not changing the desktop res?

Here's a picture explaining (game is 1280x720 in both pics):

How windowed mode looks at 720p: http://i.imgur.com/U2zN4cs.jpg

In fullscreen, where the cursor switches between the game's custom one and window's cursor:
http://i.imgur.com/NjwMPSq.jpg

It's really annoying to me, I've never seen this bug before it seems really weird that two games would suddenly have this problem. Anyone know of a way for me to fix it or is it something they would have to patch? I've already posted on the EL and Wasteland 2 tech support forums but haven't received a reply yet (I just posted on the WL2 forum a few minutes ago). I've already updated to the latest ATI drivers, and I've tested a third Unity game (Assault Android Cactus) and that one has no problems with the mouse cursor at sub-native res.
 

okiemok

Member
Here's a picture explaining (game is 1280x720 in both pics):

How windowed mode looks at 720p: http://i.imgur.com/U2zN4cs.jpg

In fullscreen, where the cursor switches between the game's custom one and window's cursor:
http://i.imgur.com/NjwMPSq.jpg

It's really annoying to me...

Yeah, it is obvious either game only thinks you are in the windowed area, even on full screen. Do you run dual monitors or anything like that?

EDIT: You might try changing the windowed size in the game.
 
I'm enjoying this game quite a bit. The faction diversity is really well done (if really imbalanced, Broken Lords seem trashy and Vaulter's holy resource system seems OP), and all the systems in the game seem well put together after you get used to them. The aesthetics are top shelf and the UI is super polished. I haven't hit many bugs or had any crashes at all.

I would recommend playing at either Endless or the difficultly below that though, the AI is pretty weak if you don't. I would also suggest playing on Fast instead of normal speed as I don't think the turns are dense enough on Normal speed.

The combat is super weird at first and now that I've adapted to it I don't hate it as much. I know people didn't like Endless Space's lack of tactical combat and I know the expectation for fantasy 4X is that there is tactical combat but WEGO systems broken into simple turns and discrete actions/turn are a pain. I would have preferred an I go, You go sort of system but that is bollocks in multiplayer.

I think that this is a better game at release than Endless Space was (and that was a good game at release!) and I'm looking forward to the continued support Amplitude gives the game.
 

Aaron

Member
I've played most turn-based strategy games, and I think Endless Legend is the best one. The sheer variety in options you have available, and how you make your decisions makes Civ feel too basic, while it doesn't have that overwhelming nature of a Hearts of Iron. There's significant differences in the various civs that alters your entire experience playing them, though at the moment cultists seem impossible to win with. It's a bit buggy, and the diplomacy is the one area where the game plays too simplistic, but I think it's amazing experience. I'm honestly surprised not more people have given it a shot. Civ: Beyond Earth looks completely dull in comparison, but it's bound to sell much better.
 
though at the moment cultists seem impossible to win with.

Winning with Cultists isn't terribly rough. It comes down to living the thug life on your neighbors , relentlessly and keeping your minor faction conversions safe from AI destruction by smashing any city/faction/army that comes close to region with converted minor factions. The converted minor factions and the pillaging stockpiles are what make them "work", if you can't protect your minors and aren't sacking your opponent's cities, you're in trouble.
 
Yeah, it is obvious either game only thinks you are in the windowed area, even on full screen. Do you run dual monitors or anything like that?

EDIT: You might try changing the windowed size in the game.

Nope, single monitor though it's a 2560x1440 so the games might be having trouble supporting that native res? If I manually change the desktop resolution there's no problem though.

Neither game has separate resolutions for fullscreen, instead you pick the resolution and there's a checkbox for windowed/fullscreen mode. I tried playing around with it, but that wasn't able to solve it.

Thanks for the help though!
 
Glad there is a thread about this game. I was a big fan of endless space and was practically unbeaten online save for a few players.

Some things I like and dislike about the game.

Likes: The apparent balance that exists between all techs. In ES there was very much an early game tech route that more or less was necessary to develop well at the start. Aside from the importance of an early mill foundry, I very much find that the tech and building route you should highly dependant on your circumstances. The new combat approach is also neat and novel, though I doubt people will have the option to do it in real MP.

Dislikes: Some aspects of the UI. For one thing, it is completely unnecessary to tell me when a tile yields zero of something. This can make the screen look nauseating when playing as the drakken or you are simply under siege and there are a gigantic section of tiles that display their yields. It also seems to be hard to find a good zoom that lets you see all your units but also easily manage your cities.
 

Facism

Member
I bought this months ago because i'm a fan of the dev and Dungeon of the Endless is the dog's bollocks. Love it.

Is there any good starter guide on youtube for this before i actually delve into it? All I've done since I've bought it is spend an hour here or there looking at things :D
 
I bought this months ago because i'm a fan of the dev and Dungeon of the Endless is the dog's bollocks. Love it.

Is there any good starter guide on youtube for this before i actually delve into it? All I've done since I've bought it is spend an hour here or there looking at things :D

Some little tips that'll help you a fair bit. Firstly, Every eras tech tree contains a large portion of "upgraded" techs from the previous era, meaning there is rarely any reason to research tech in a lower era than the one you are currently in. The buildings that have flat bonuses (mill foundry, geomic labs, seed storage, empire mint, etc) tend to be the most common techs you will grab, however, sometimes there is another tech that provides a contextual FIDS bonus, like say +3 coins on river. Pretty much when it comes to increasing FIDS production you want to choose which of the two will suit you better.

Get a second hero early, and make sure you city has at least a hero assigned to it levelling up the right side of the skill tree with their flat FIDS bonuses. Cultist heroes are very good in this regard if you have a well growing city. You should have on hero leading an army that will rampage through your enemy's everything. Almost all other heroes should be providing bonuses to your cities.

When extracting resources, be very liberal with use of the bonuses. If using it can benefit you, then (usually) do so.

Get an influence increase building every era. Maintaining strong empire plan bonuses is essential. The bonuses in that tree are too large to pass up.
 
For such a gorgeous looking game, the reception of this game on Neogaf seems to have very lukewarm. Is it because people don't know this is out? Or is it because people who were interested have been playing since early access so the release didn't really mean much? So far the reviews seem decent and it's certainly no worse than Endless Space which I enjoyed.

I don't have time to play a 4X game right now but this looks a lot more interesting to play than Beyond Earth which is still feels more like a reskin of Civ5 with quests. I hope this game is doing well enough for Amplitude to keep making 4X games.

I guess it's because Amplitude isn't a well known studio, before EL they only released ES and DotE as an early access game, other aspect may be that it's a niche genre on PC and GAF seems to have a lot more of console only users.

Glad there is a thread about this game. I was a big fan of endless space and was practically unbeaten online save for a few players.

Some things I like and dislike about the game.

Likes: The apparent balance that exists between all techs. In ES there was very much an early game tech route that more or less was necessary to develop well at the start. Aside from the importance of an early mill foundry, I very much find that the tech and building route you should highly dependant on your circumstances. The new combat approach is also neat and novel, though I doubt people will have the option to do it in real MP.

Dislikes: Some aspects of the UI. For one thing, it is completely unnecessary to tell me when a tile yields zero of something. This can make the screen look nauseating when playing as the drakken or you are simply under siege and there are a gigantic section of tiles that display their yields. It also seems to be hard to find a good zoom that lets you see all your units but also easily manage your cities.

I agree with you about it.
 

Qvoth

Member
I bought this months ago because i'm a fan of the dev and Dungeon of the Endless is the dog's bollocks. Love it.

Is there any good starter guide on youtube for this before i actually delve into it? All I've done since I've bought it is spend an hour here or there looking at things :D

mess around with wild walkers 1st, they're the easiest i find
 

sobaka770

Banned
There should really be more hype around this game. It's a good 4X game. The graphics are appealing and probably best-in-genre, progression systems innovative and the races are unique and quite balanced.

My only issue is with readability of the map. With all the visual effects going on, the game doesn't do a good job highlighting the important cities or monsters on the map. Civilization and Fallen Enchantress have much more pronounced artistic style in that sense.
 

Vlodril

Member
I got it about a week ago and although i haven't played that much yet i still find it pretty good. The ui is extremely good looking and smooth , i like the add on of the quest system , great races and there is actual combat unlike the civ games.

I feel civ due to not having any real competition has kinda stagnated and they have been producing the same game more or less lately.

I hope this does well but it doesn't seem so. I liked endless space as well which is one of the reasons i decided to pick it up.

I also like that they managed to incorporate the "shipyard" feature (in endless space you could design your ships by adding what modules you wanted on a specific template) in the game by letting you add weapons, armor and accessories on your base units.
 

Maledict

Member
It does surprise me how good this is a bit, even though I loved Endless Space. It is *easily* the best fantasy turn based strategy game released in the last few years despite only just being released - it's definitely better than Elemental, Warlock 2 and Age of Wonders 3.
 

Munin

Member
Can someone tell me how this stacks up to Endless Space, a game with a beautiful presentation but which I felt was ultimately sterile, soulless, shallow and brought down by terrible combat?
 

Vlodril

Member
The combat is much better.think more heroes well a really simplistic version but no crappy time limits the space version had.

As far as soul I think the addition of race specific quests and lore definitely make the world feel more alive. The vaulters I have been doing is really nice si far
 

epmode

Member
Can someone tell me how this stacks up to Endless Space, a game with a beautiful presentation but which I felt was ultimately sterile, soulless, shallow and brought down by terrible combat?

I wouldn't call it soulless. The races in Endless Space and Endless Legend defy convention at most every turn.
 
Can someone tell me how this stacks up to Endless Space, a game with a beautiful presentation but which I felt was ultimately sterile, soulless, shallow and brought down by terrible combat?

Did you play ES after Disharmony came out and they added in a lot of content later on after its release? The hands-off combat is always going to be love-or-hate, but provided that you play at a appropriate level of difficultly ES nowadays is pretty spicy.

Anyone tried this game on a MS surface pro 2? How is it when controlled with touch?

The right click to move units is going to be a problem, but the game is more or less playable with zero keyboard interaction. There are like no hotkeys in the game right now.
 
So how long do the codes last on IGN Prime after going up? It seems like a great deal but I don't know that I want to wait a week on the off chance I can grab it.

I have this on my wishlist. Does it have a completely open campaign like CiV or is it story led like AoW3?

I haven't played EL, but both AoW3 and Civ have both open-ended game modes and scenarios with specific preconfigurations. Unlike Civ, AoW3 has a "campaign," similar to something like WarCraft 3, in that there is a continuous story throughout the campaign with hero units keeping their progress throughout.

The randomized, customizable, open-ended gameplay is a standard feature of 4Xes, so I would assume that Endless Legend features that.
 

Aselith

Member
So how long do the codes last on IGN Prime after going up? It seems like a great deal but I don't know that I want to wait a week on the off chance I can grab it.

Are keys still available?

Codes went up yesterday and they're gone now so not too long. They'll have two more releases though

"Codes will be released over the next four weeks on Wednesdays, with the first batch going up tomorrow morning, October 1st, at 10AM PDT. We will be staggering the release time each week by 6 hours (10/8 @ 4PM, 10/15 @ 10PM, 10/22 @ 4AM. *All times PDT)."
 

Bregor

Member
After playing this for a while, I'm going to have to agree with the guy on Three Moves Ahead who said that it is a beautiful and fun game, but he wasn't sure that it was a good strategy game. I do need to try more of the races though.

The game is still worth getting IMO, I've had fun with it. I'm just not sure how much staying power it will have. And I think that the better you are at 4x games, the faster it will begin to lose it's hold on you.
 
After playing this for a while, I'm going to have to agree with the guy on Three Moves Ahead who said that it is a beautiful and fun game, but he wasn't sure that it was a good strategy game. I do need to try more of the races though.

It's there, it just needs some (significant) tuning. Which will come in time. The core systems design is excellent, it's just a matter of adjusting the numbers on (quite a few) things.

The game is still worth getting IMO, I've had fun with it. I'm just not sure how much staying power it will have. And I think that the better you are at 4x games, the faster it will begin to lose it's hold on you.

I'm a Deity Civ player and lost interest after about 20 hours with the game until they work out some balance changes. Right now there's too much focus on infrastructure builds and wars/conquest are way too swingy.

But the game is real good. Much better than ES was at its release (and that was pretty good too, even then).
 

Brakke

Banned
Damn I really like this game. Finished a campaign as the Broken Lords this weekend and just started up one as the Cultists. I adore how wildly different the factions in this game are. Super cool concept, everything looks beautiful, clean interface. Damn. Just a really well-made game.

That said, I did my first campaign on Easy and I definitely regret that. Easy had the same kind of problem Civ often has for me which is I became so totally dominant that I reached a point where Victory was within reach in any one of four ways but I had so many active armies and cities that turns took forever. The last three or four hours of the campaign were me moving into position to steamroll the remaining factions and then SURPRISE THE TURN LIMIT IS UP CONGRATS YOU WIN. So anticlimactic.

I really enjoyed the main quest line threaded through the campaign. That's an effective way to encourage the kind of behaviors that your faction demands, but since my game just kind of ended I was frustrated that there was nothing even resembling resolution to that line. Has anyone seen the end of a faction quest? Is there an end? I cranked the difficulty for my second campaign, hoping to discover for myself.

I'm split at least seven ways over the summer/winter mechanic as well. Winters were so frustrating because the only impact they ever really had on me was making my armies take twice as long to advance. I'm hoping they cut both ways on the harder difficulty (ie hamper my opponents / save my own ass instead of just dragging shit out) but on Easy they were basically just instances of "now spend ten, twenty, thirty minutes being kind of bored". Winters were definitely longer duration in later turns, too. There's a beautiful concept there of the whole world going to shit over time but unfortunately it never really amounted to much more than an annoyance to me. Maybe if through quests or behaviors I could influence the length / frequency of winters? I dunno, but definitely exciting to play this game through a few more times. There's a lot here to dig in to.

we need a OT?

I had the exact same thought but since neither of us is capable of making this dream a reality I officially declare this the OT!
 

Brakke

Banned
Turns out I don't understand Cultists at all. There are so many pressures! You need money to support a military big enough to conquer minor factions and major capitals (which is tough because your Preachers suuuuuck). Then you need a TON of influence to convert minor factions just a TON. Then, I got to a point where my city was fully developed at my technology level and I couldn't monetarily support a bigger military so my capital was just doing NOTHING turn after turn. Plus food is a Big Damn Deal because the only way to raise any of these is to expand your one city.

They're tough, at any given time I basically had no idea what I should be focusing on. And given the one city, you don't have that many options for "focusing" at all.
 

Aaron

Member
Yeah, cultist seem like the worst race to play right now. I've tried them all, and while they have interesting ideas, it's just too hard to build up without other cities.
 

Momentary

Banned
Man I can't wait to dive into my copy of the game. I only played about 30 minutes of one faction and could already tell that I would get hooked.
 

flowsnake

Member
The next batch of IGN Prime keys went up.

Can't wait to play this later, from a quick startup of the game the UI is lovely, especially the larger version.
 
I managed to get an IGN Prime EL key thanks to the wonderful heads-up in this thread. (Thanks!)

Having played the tutorial, I must say I'm intruiged. The controls and UI take some getting used to, but the city-building and general structure of the game seem incredibly interesting. Combat will take some... getting used to. The presentation of the game is excellent - especially the way the fog of war is implemented. Unfortunately the readability of the map suffers a bit from the wonderful style the game has, unless I've just been missing something. (Hexes and individual yields in particular are very difficult to distinguish.)

EL has also made me realise that AMPLITUDE Studios is a very bold developer. They made their own franchise and their own games, and yet they're being directed and influenced by the very crowds that sustain them. It's admirable, and I only realized how unique it is recently.


And of course, on the day that Steam imploded from its freedom presentation, a new EL patch is released. It's a big one:
RELEASE NOTES [1.0.7]

CHANGES AND ADDITIONS

  • Added the Italian version of Endless Legend.
  • Reduced the arrival of roaming faction armies in Newbie and Easy difficulties.
  • Updated the strategic resources costs on city improvements.
  • Reduced Subterranean Gardens Food bonus in Winter from 15 to 10 (per exploitation tile).
  • Changed "Scientific Envoy" strategic cost from 20 Glassteel to 20 Titanium (since that improvement gives more science on trade routes and Science improvements require Titanium, not Glassteel like Dust improvements)
  • Changed "Army Manual" strategic cost from 5 Mithrite to 5 Hyperium (XP bonuses are linked to Hyperium)
  • Changed XP gains:
  • Doubled Hero XP gains for Search, Bribe, Conversion, Siege and when defending against a Siege.
  • Slightly increased Hero XP gain as governor when an element in the city construction queue is built/recruited.
  • Removed Hero XP gain when colonizing.
  • Rework the Broken Lord formula: now the cost increases way slower depending on the empire scale.
  • Lowered effect of regeneration: 5 /10 / 15 => 2 /4 / 6 per level
  • Removed additional +1 vision on city center gained in Roving Clans' "Tower defense" improvement
  • Tweaked the values and prerequisites of two Necrophages quest city improvements.
  • Tweaked prerequisite of side quests asking to reach 40 of science or industry during 10 turns.
  • Tweaked Conversion trait to make sure additional cities pay 5 times less than the main city per converted village within the empire.
  • Changed the whole formula for the military power AI evaluation: the AI makes a better evaluation before attacking an army.
  • Reduced the heuristic for weapon technologies: the more the AI has weapon/armor technologies, the less it wants more of them.
  • Allowed multiple attacks for AI empires.
  • Improved the opportunistic AI behavior when near a ruin.
  • Increased the diversity of units used by the AI empires.
  • Added a new influence trend rule: the influence points gained per turn from an alliance now increase in time.
  • Removed invalid term when a contract is counter proposed.

IMPORTANT FIXES

  • Added more information to the logs provided by the World Generator.
  • Changed the way the World Generator is compiled in order to fix issues with some configurations.
  • Fixed an issue where a NullReferenceException assert is displayed when teleport is used on sieged city with battle.
  • Fixed an issue where the Besieger tag on an army are not properly removed.
  • Fixed an issue where AI garrison does not keep more than one unit.
  • Fixed an issue where Auto battle takes place instead of Manual battle if there is an fleet nearby that could come as reinforcements.
  • Fixed an issue where Trade Routes cause a desync.

OTHER FIXES
  • Fixed an issue with the AI when the pacified village are too far.
  • Fixed an issue where AI conversion does not work when the village is pacified.
  • Fixed an issue where AI does not convert enemy villages.
  • Fixed an issue where AI does not complete quests.
  • Fixed an issue where a level up notification is displayed even if the unit has reached the max level.
  • Fixed an issue with side quests asking to build an "Only One Per Empire" city improvement in a specific city.
  • Fixed an issue with the prerequisite of the "Master of Luxury" quest.
  • Fixed an issue where the Ardent Mages Era 6 "Sacrificial amplifiers" technology is counted for Scientific Victory.
  • Fixed an issue with the Cultists Faction color.
  • Fixed an issue where building a settler for the Broken Lords cost 2 populations.
  • Fixed an issue where the "Food efficient" and "Agriculturally Challenged" traits can be added to the same custom faction.
  • Fixed an issue where Villages pacified by force do not grant vision when converted by the cultists major faction.
  • Fixed an issue where the bonus displayed for Necrophages "Roadside picnic" and "Iron constitution" skills was wrong.
  • Fixed an issue where a city is created without settler.
  • Fixed an issue where units cannot be transferred onto city tiles.
  • Fixed an issue where the army names are not properly displayed for some languages.
  • Fixed an issue where the retrofit cost does not take care of speed and empire bonuses.
  • Fixed an issue where shared vision treaties grant vision to allies from Privateer armies.
  • Fixed an issue where the Diplomatic relation state chaos now doesn't applied at the beginning of the game and at the first encounter.
  • Fixed an issue where it is not possible to change the technology selection state of a previously canceled technology after a save/load process.
  • Fixed an issue where the movement path changes color when drawn across hostile armies hidden in fog of war.
  • Fixed several localization issues with the Polish version.
 

Aureon

Please do not let me serve on a jury. I am actually a crazy person.
After playing this for a while, I'm going to have to agree with the guy on Three Moves Ahead who said that it is a beautiful and fun game, but he wasn't sure that it was a good strategy game. I do need to try more of the races though.

The game is still worth getting IMO, I've had fun with it. I'm just not sure how much staying power it will have. And I think that the better you are at 4x games, the faster it will begin to lose it's hold on you.

And then you discover multiplayer.
 
I've only got a few hours in so far, but so far I'm extremely impressed with what they did here. Endless Space only lasted about 100 hours for me before I got bored with it, and so far I like Legend much more. Basically hexes >>> nodes.

Beyond Earth looks more like a cash grab on an aging engine to me, so I'm hoping Legend has some staying power.
 
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