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

[Synobun]

It is an okay game. The AI is a terrible cheat however, able to pull out 143 fleets from one system. Anything above the lowest difficulty and it cheats. I'm hoping they will resolve all that with updates eventually.

Yeah, I don't like the AI's fleet spam. Game is much more fun with humans to play.

 

[GoodGame]

The game is incredible. Combat is awesome. I love the tactic card system. They're adding a new faction and carriers soon, so that's nice.

Remember, this is an Indie game. It will be added to as more and more time goes by, just like Minecraft. I've already put in 28 hours. Still fun as hell to play.

The thing that turns me off from negative user reviews is that they usually agree that combat is strictly Rock-Paper-Scissors.

 

[Synobun]

The thing that turns me off from negative user reviews is that they usually agree that combat is strictly Rock-Paper-Scissors.

It isn't. Using the right tactic card can change the balance of the battle. If you auto, no tactic cards are used.

 

[GASherbert]

It isn't. Using the right tactic card can change the balance of the battle. If you auto, no tactic cards are used.

That's true in a fairly even battle. I haven't noticed any real difference if the battle is lopsided.

 

[Synobun]

That's true in a fairly even battle. I haven't noticed any real difference if the battle is lopsided.

I have.

 

[blasto]

Its pretty cool so far. It doesn't have the production values of CiV, but for everyone who finds CiV too easy, this might be the game for you.

I'm finding it to be crazy tough so far. It seems even on the easiest setting, there is no room for mistakes at all. Admittedly I'm not familiar with all the dynamics yet and only played two games. But on each of them (game 1- against 1 AI, small map, game 2, against 8 AI, huge map) as soon as I meet an AI, they already outclass me. They're "cities" will already have a larger zone of control and their units stronger.

 

[GoodGame]

I found a let's play of this game, and I'm not too interested now:


Link to video.



The battles are semi-cinematic, but battles seem to be as interactive as Galatic Civilizations 2?

Link to video.

 

[Maniacal]

18th century naval line battles in space look awful.

 

[SouthernKing]

18th century naval line battles in space look awful.

Not only that, they are horrendously unrealistic. If you had the accuracy and a powerful enough energy weapon (and there's no reason you wouldn't at that technology level) you could still destroy a target by firing from hundreds of miles away (the only factor stopping it being that the energy dissipates over distances, and consider that with current tech we've bounced lasers off the Moon - about 500,000 miles round-trip, and that includes passing them through a relatively thick atmosphere twice, so it's not really a problem even at thousands-mile ranges)

Personally, from watching LPs I'm not convinced either way on the battles - on one hand, I think that it's a nice break from pure turn-based strategy, but on the other, I feel that watching the cinematics does get repetitive and stale after a short time. I do feel that the simplistic design while at the same time having some interaction works nicely. It's more than Civ or Paradox games, in which we get sprites meleeing/firing salvos against each other in a way that really doesn't make much sense half the time.

Overall, I like what I'm seeing in the rest of the game. The UI looks excellent, I like the graphic design and style, and the tech tree seems complex in a positive way. Also consider that this is a small indie studio's first attempt at a game - I think Amplitude's done a fairly good job.

 

[spider1]

The battle scenes and the rock/paper/scissors approach isn't very good, I just use the auto button for battle anyway. The game itself is a very good turn based space 4x stratgey game though, but probably not for those who want to see any sparkle in the combat aspect of it.

 

[TLF]

Quote;

"I feel that watching the cinematics does get repetitive and stale after a short time"

I got tired of it half way through the video and stopped watching.

Either have battles or don't have battles.

Or do it the Paradox way where the battle goes on based on tech level, leaders and number of units and you can do other things during the battles or decide to break off engagement of send reinforcements.

Or SoaSE style where the AI runs the battles but you can come in and take control if you want.

 

[Patroklos]

Why the hell can't they just give Space Empires IV a face lift and be done with it.

Space Empires V suffered the same fate as MOO3, screwing with a good thing.

 

[Kozmos]

Apparently there is yet another 4x game, Legend of Pegasus out. Will report if I get my filthy East Euro hands on it.

 

[GoodGame]

Apparently there is yet another 4x game, Legend of Pegasus out. Will report if I get my filthy East Euro hands on it.

Arsenal Robert is reporting that it is very buggy currently.

Link to video.

It's kind of funny that Sword of the Stars 2 had the same general problem although it is being patched regularly.

Spending $10 on Sins- Trinity turned out to be a good deal for a 4x fix.

If you don't care about the 4X and just want space-ships, I'd recommend spending $5 on Star Trek Online.

 

[Maniacal]

Valve seriously needs to do more quality control, not less like I think they are planning.

 

[GoodGame]

Valve seriously needs to do more quality control, not less like I think they are planning.

They're actually sort of emulating the "Kickstarter" thing with the Community voting of games. Really this is just like the umpteenth time some Continental European company released something possibly worse than even an EA game (that was developed in-house, not by DICE or MAXIS).

Paradox Interactive is about the only Euro pc gaming maker that I mostly trust to release something of quality.

 

[Maniacal]

Only since CKII, their previous launches, while not nearly as bad, have never been terribly good either. However, there are quite a few games on Steam that are absolutely awful, buggy and generally unplayable and not all of them are new releases either.

 

[Serutan]

Looks like Steam is required to run Endless Space. Unfortunate, because it looks intriguing.

 

[TrailblazingScot]

I paid £22 for Endless Space. It is pretty and the interface is good, but I don't think it is immersive, which is a real shame as I desire a good 4x.

Hopefully my £22 helps the company go onto produce better games.

 

[Dreadnought]

I can't, for the life of me, get immersed into this game.

Pity.