Endless Space preview

[Voigtkampf]

Endless Space: a 4X game that will revive and possibly redefine the entire genre.

Special thanks to Lady Frog for pointing out this remarkable game to me.

[naut]

Played 50ish hours of the alpha/beta. It's promising, and quite challenging, but currently very unbalanced.

[Voigtkampf]

Have you played since it went beta? What I experienced so far was very promising, but didn't get as far as to ascertain any major unbalances. Shame that a reviewer can't devote so many hours to a single game... Especially one this good.

[naut]

The racial boosts/penalties are not entirely balanced. Currently tonnage is king in warfare, which means Pilgrims are at a severe disadvantage. The Sophons are similarly very difficult to play due to their non-warfare focus. Horatio and United Empire tend to blitz my games.

[frogbeastegg]

Pleased to hear you liked the game.

I haven't played since it went beta (work, also days-long migraine) but I'm quite eager to see what has been added. The game is quite smooth an polished considering that it isn't finished yet. Comparing the Endless Space alpha build to Sword of the Stars II's retail build would be hilarious if only it weren't so heart-breaking. Even after 6 months of continuous patching, SOTSII is less polished.

Now that all(?) of the content is in, I expect they will begin to balance it. I'm holding my breath a little - it would be easy for them to accidentally make the factions feel less unique than they currently do. That's one of the main things I like about the Alpha version: each race feels unique in a stronger way than, for example, in the Civilisation series.

I'm not entirely sold on the exterior design of the combat system. I only play SP, so I don't like the timers. When I want to start a battle, I don't want to wait for a countdown to finish before it begins. Nor do I want to be rushed through checking circumstances by that same counter if the enemy attack me. I hope that they introduce a toggle for that timer. Not keen on having a limited period to select my tactics cards either. The time limit there is so brief I can't check what's available to me, and it's not always feasible to memorise the options outside of combat.

[naut]

I'm not entirely sold on the exterior design of the combat system. I only play SP, so I don't like the timers. When I want to start a battle, I don't want to wait for a countdown to finish before it begins. Nor do I want to be rushed through checking circumstances by that same counter if the enemy attack me. I hope that they introduce a toggle for that timer. Not keen on having a limited period to select my tactics cards either. The time limit there is so brief I can't check what's available to me, and it's not always feasible to memorise the options outside of combat.

A big plus one from me.

Additionally, as all ships move at the same speed small ships/kinetic weapons are useless once you have access to large, high HP, torpedo carrying ships. Tonnage+HP boosts+torpedoes/lasers = instant victory in combat as the AI will usually sink almost all its tonnage into lasers/kinetics.

IMO combat needs a big revamp to improve the game --- ships having their differing speeds come into play would make weapons other than torpedoes become useful and prevent tonnage being so important.

[Hooahguy]

See? I wasnt aware of that. The fact that each fleet has a cap of 12 is also very, very annoying.

Also that 12 isnt a simple number, because apparently heavier ships take up more than 1 slot.

[Hooahguy]

Well, I guess I just changed history.

[Hooahguy]

I won my first game! Felt pretty good. I want to try for a conquest victory next, though Im not sure whats the difference between a cruiser and a battleship. Though making the dust is still a challenge.