New 4x game on the horizon - Endless Space - not an advertisment thread :)

[stii]

Agree with other people it just doesn't have much depth. What to build in what order is kind of trivial and the game is way too easy. Even with absurd AI bonuses they still can't keep up with a human. Space battles are pretty but after a few I just auto battled everything, fleets end up so huge it would take forever.

However they are patches things and civ 5 was pretty easy on release too and they have fixed it over time.

 

[codepoet]

So with some more time with this game... here are my thoughts:

1. I like the UI and the graphics
2. I like the audio and music
3. I like how the solar systems are setup - star colors really do represent a rough estimate of the types of planets you'll find and the whole multiple planet thing with improvements spanning the whole solar system is nice.
4. The fleet battle card thing just doesn't work for me. I get what they were aiming for but it's too automated. Cards don't play a large enough role and/or I don't have much of a role in the outcome of a battle. I just watch a (in the end) repetitive battle sequence.
5. The game is designed in such a way that fleet spam is the way to go. It gets tedious and uninteresting. IN a space game I'm more into the design of ships and I want to have an obvious flagship design and have an upgrade system that really matters. The upgrade system works, but the sheer number of ships required to win in this game means why bother upgrading? Just build more of the new design instead. In fact one advantage you gain of doing it this way is your old ships become fodder to see what types of weapons and defenses your current opponent are using... this way you can change your new designs being churned out. And then because you change your designs so often, you cannot simply set an Industry planet to crank ship after ship; the ones in queue need to be cleared and the new version added instead (would be nice if the ships in queue updated along with an upgrade design you complete). So if you don't keep up with this, the AI will, and will overrun you. If you do all this, the AI is a pushover.

So this game gets a "C" Rating overall IMO. It's not bad and not good. It could be good if they:
- Overhauled the combat system so that the user can actually sway the battle
- Toned down the need to so many ship refits/new designs
- Toned down the total amount of ships in the game
- Add an experience and promotion system with ships so that experienced ships might be more effective than the one that just rolled off the factory line (this would allow for actually making a flagship fleet rather than mindless stack management)

That's my .02

 

[GASherbert]

Just as a note, ships do have experience, and they do get bonuses for being leveled. I'd have to find the exact numbers, but I think there is pretty hefty HP bonus, along with bonuses to attack and defense. Also you can update designs that are in the queue, either automatically with an option, or by hitting the 'update queues' button in the military screen (I think anyway - I just set the option so I'm not positive about that last part).

I've not had much problem dealing with the AI throwing lots of ships at my comparatively low number of fleets, but I only play on normal and usually have a pretty decent tech advantage. I agree that I've not seen the cards play that big of a role in battles.