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Other Games => ... and all the other things floating around out there => Topic started by: Ninja_Khorin on May 04, 2012, 10:16:09 am

Title: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: Ninja_Khorin on May 04, 2012, 10:16:09 am
Endless Space is a 4X game by a new studio called Amplitude. And in my opinion it's shaping up to be really good. It's currently in its alpha, but if you prepurchase it on steam you get to play it.(I haven't bought it yet unfortunately, waiting for my money to arrive) Have a trailer:
http://youtu.be/_Wr19Ln9sO4


It's a game with a fairly revolutionizing concept. Let the players vote on what should be in the game. They call it G2G (GAMES2GETHER). On their website when you register you get points and those points can be spent on voting for what gets added to the game. Here's how that works:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SOexT0kDhNc

If you're looking at some gameplay, then here's a 30 minute introduction to it from Quill18:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM1AFpN6rh4&feature=youtu.be

In my opinion this looks so much like Master of Orion it's uncanny. And all the menus seem really intuitive and snazzy. The combat system seems great and overall it looks beautiful graphics-wise.

I'm not really one to write long posts(okay, that's a lie)so I can't be bothered to write much about it, but if you want to read about it then here's a summary of it:
http://forums.amplitude-studios.com/showthread.php?656-The-Goat-Quarterly-%28Review-Thoughts%29

It's on steam on sale at the moment for 22,49€ or 26,24€ depending on which version you buy.
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: Vibe on May 04, 2012, 10:45:47 am
Looks like a very decent game... but there is just no time!
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: Bjarky on May 07, 2012, 11:08:47 am
I bought it a few days ago, it reminds me a bit of MoO, but with a bit less micromanaging.
As of now the game is still an alpha so expect some weird things to happen from time to time, the graphic resolution settings are still a bit off, some res can't be used, so expect to try a couple out until you found the one u like, i use 1440/900 fx, also ingame diplomacy is still very sluggish and i read that some people got a bad game start position (to many and strong pirates or isolated star system etc.), so if this happens to you, just start another campaign to get an balanced start.
here is what u got with the alpha:
http://forums.amplitude-studios.com/showthread.php?446-Playable-Alpha-Release-Notes

Even though some things are missing etc. the alpha really plays like an beta and works great, i already played for hours and like it very much.
Time flies by very fast as u get sucked in instantly if u are into these kind of games, so if u liked the MoO series, this is definitely a game for you  :wink:
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: Ninja_Khorin on May 07, 2012, 05:06:23 pm
Yeah, you're the only one on my friends list who has this :P

In any case, I agree with everything you said. It's shaping up to be one of those games I'll play for years. I've played it for about 100 turns now. Been beating a ton of pirates while trying to avoid conflict with the other factions. I want to grab as much as I can before having to face my enemies. My fleet is not up to fighting another faction, at the moment.
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: Ninja_Khorin on May 09, 2012, 09:47:58 pm
So, I bought this game sunday evening and I've already played it for 22 hours. I can't stop playing. It's the "One more turn" - syndrome :/
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: Bjarky on May 10, 2012, 03:37:53 am
yup, its really good  :twisted:
also the devs have said they are ready with bringing an patch out soon, so expect it to become even better hurr hurr
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: Ninja_Khorin on May 12, 2012, 11:53:06 pm
Thought I'd share you a glimpse of my empire I'm running on Endless Space. I play humans and the general idea has been to kill all the heretics for the empire(the usual). It's a normal large campaign with 3 AI enemies; the Horatio, Sophons and Cravers. As it stand now only the Cravers remain. 30 turns ago or so I destroyed the last of the supposedly peaceloving Sophon(they declared war on me. I killed them.)
I destryoed the Horatio fairly early on. They got stuck between me and the Cravers. What you see is the last that remains of the Cravers. I've recently developed even more powerful ships (the Zeus Mk. 3 class Dreadnaughts armed with the most powerful weapons my empire can create) that are being created in my forgeworlds. I'll have fleets ready within a few turns to do the final invasion and claim my galaxy.

Here's what my empire looks like at the moment:
(click to show/hide)

Until recently I had problems getting ships to the front from my forgeworlds due to the travel times, however with recent discoveries in wormhole technology I've managed to overcome the problem and the travel time has now been reduced to one year (= turn). I've mentioned my forgeworlds a few times now, here's a glimpse of a few of them:

(click to show/hide)
(click to show/hide)

And the industrial capital of the empire, the Rasam system. Capable of churning out one Zeus Mk. 3 a year:

(click to show/hide)

They are harsh worlds to live on, but the people recognize their duty and are glad to fulfill their part in the unification of the galaxy.

And my homesystem. Birthplace of the Emperor and Empire. Iena Eternae:
(click to show/hide)

This game is awesome.
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: Ninja_Khorin on June 28, 2012, 12:59:56 am
Release date is 4th of July, to anyone who might care :)

Here's an article about it, I stumbled upon:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/06/14/a-better-beta-infinite-joy-in-endless-space/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rockpapershotgun%2Fsteam+%28Rock%2C+Paper%2C+Shotgun%3A+Steam+RSS%29
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: Taser on June 29, 2012, 03:37:58 am
Sounds like the setup of sins of a solar empire with turn based play. Is it similar? I loved playing sins of a solar empire so I might try this out.
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: Ninja_Khorin on July 04, 2012, 06:17:08 pm
It's not like sins, because it's not an RTS. It's like Total War in space with different combat.


It's being released today. Waiting :/
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: Leesin on July 04, 2012, 07:26:16 pm
Not sure if I want to play this or Legends of Pegasus, leaning towards LoP atm though, guess I can try Endless Space out rather than buy it to find out I don't like it.
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: Taser on July 04, 2012, 11:50:17 pm
Quote from: Ninja_Khorin on July 04, 2012, 06:17:08 pm
It's not like sins, because it's not an RTS. It's like Total War in space with different combat.


It's being released today. Waiting :/

Only thought of sins because of the way they connected stars and systems is similar to how they do it in sins plus its in space.

Anyway it looks like it'd be fun but still hesitant to get it.
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: Tot. on July 14, 2012, 10:40:26 pm
This game is so good and so much like Master of Orion.

Btw. Khorin,you're such a perfectionist in your system management, in my game I'm about in 100th turn, captured middle of the galaxy, I'm on the edge of bankrupcy all the time but I've three wars at once and I'm expanding in three directions. AI sometimes is really surpsrisingly reasonable (ie. offering alliance vs. common enemy) then again sometimes it's really silly (got a "peace if you deliver 14 titanium" offer from Pilgrims, who are 6th or 7th in ranking while I'm 1st and my fleets could crush their systems in a couple of turns....).   :lol:

Wondering if dreadnoughts are worth it, since the core of my fleet are battleships, mostly defensive geared...
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: Ninja_Khorin on July 16, 2012, 05:32:56 am
Heh. I like role-playing something when I play games like these. Currently I'm playing a craver campaign where I don't give a shit about any defensive stuff. I just spam fleets with tons of weapons and expans as much as possible. Great fun!

Dreadnaughts are useful and fun to watch during battle, but the difference between using cruiser, battleships or dreadnaughts is minimal. I think someone calculated that if you use cruisers you get the most military power per industry.

I really enjoy this game.  :wink:
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: Tot. on July 16, 2012, 08:01:09 pm
It certainly is good so far, though AI needs serious improvements. On my 3rd game I tried highest difficulty and still steamrolled it up to the point where by turn 80 it was obvious that the game is over. It just can't build ships properly, I don't think I lost more than 4 ships in total during the entire game simply because AI even despite having cheated FIDS boosts keeps producing same fleets which get hard-countered by any human player.

Anyways, multiplayer in here is PBEM-style or, hope not, do you have to actually sit and wait for the co-players to finish their turns?
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: Ninja_Khorin on July 16, 2012, 08:05:47 pm
It's worse.

The turns in multiplayer are simultaneous. When everyone has done their turn, the turn ends.
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: Tot. on July 16, 2012, 08:20:46 pm
That's retarded. I guess no multiplayer for me then, don't have a whole day (or the patience) to sit and wait in real time for random people to finish their turns. :)

They should've done it like it's in Frozen Synapse, where you make your turn whenever you have time to play, send it, wait up to couple of days for the oponent to make his etc.
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: Ninja_Khorin on November 30, 2012, 02:04:43 pm
Hello!

Endless Space has a free weekend on steam this weekend, so go try it out if you're interested.
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: Taser on December 04, 2012, 08:56:24 am
Quote from: Ninja_Khorin on November 30, 2012, 02:04:43 pm
Hello!

Endless Space has a free weekend on steam this weekend, so go try it out if you're interested.

Thanks for this. I had a free weekend that just disappeared with trying out Endless Space. Ended up buying it since it was worth it at the discounted price.

It is fun even with the turns and the fucking expansion hate that apparently people in an empire dislike. Makes no sense but w/e.
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: Ninja_Khorin on December 04, 2012, 09:21:08 am
Glad you liked it. It is quite an addictive little game. They still have one free DLC to release within a few weeks, iirc, and then an expansion set for release sometime mid next year, I believe. I always have my taxes as low as possible so I don't really notice expansion disapproval. I don't like taxes, because I usually play Sophons who get science benefits the lower your tax rate is. But you can reduce expansion disapproval with the exploration techs.

I guess my post did do some good after all. I have to say, I'm a huge fan of this studio. Their "Games2Gether" system is good fun and back in Alpha the community influenced quite a lot in the development. Nowadays it's mainly about achievements and the occasional new feature(latest free DLC pack added a bunch of ambience, a direct result of G2G votes). And if I was living in Paris I'd be at their office fairly often since they organize "Beer2Gether" evenings with their fans there, but they also organize them when they're travelling(one was in Vienna). Pretty cool dudes.

I can't wait to see what game they'll create after Endless Space since I'd assume they would have a little more funds available for development.
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: TheAppleSauceMan on December 04, 2012, 04:17:51 pm
Quote from: Ninja_Khorin on December 04, 2012, 09:21:08 am
Glad you liked it. It is quite an addictive little game. They still have one free DLC to release within a few weeks, iirc, and then an expansion set for release sometime mid next year, I believe. I always have my taxes as low as possible so I don't really notice expansion disapproval. I don't like taxes, because I usually play Sophons who get science benefits the lower your tax rate is. But you can reduce expansion disapproval with the exploration techs.

I guess my post did do some good after all. I have to say, I'm a huge fan of this studio. Their "Games2Gether" system is good fun and back in Alpha the community influenced quite a lot in the development. Nowadays it's mainly about achievements and the occasional new feature(latest free DLC pack added a bunch of ambience, a direct result of G2G votes). And if I was living in Paris I'd be at their office fairly often since they organize "Beer2Gether" evenings with their fans there, but they also organize them when they're travelling(one was in Vienna). Pretty cool dudes.

I can't wait to see what game they'll create after Endless Space since I'd assume they would have a little more funds available for development.

That "Beer2Gether" little thing sounds fucking rad.
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: Taser on December 04, 2012, 05:21:34 pm
Quote from: Ninja_Khorin on December 04, 2012, 09:21:08 am
Glad you liked it. It is quite an addictive little game. They still have one free DLC to release within a few weeks, iirc, and then an expansion set for release sometime mid next year, I believe. I always have my taxes as low as possible so I don't really notice expansion disapproval. I don't like taxes, because I usually play Sophons who get science benefits the lower your tax rate is. But you can reduce expansion disapproval with the exploration techs.

I guess my post did do some good after all. I have to say, I'm a huge fan of this studio. Their "Games2Gether" system is good fun and back in Alpha the community influenced quite a lot in the development. Nowadays it's mainly about achievements and the occasional new feature(latest free DLC pack added a bunch of ambience, a direct result of G2G votes). And if I was living in Paris I'd be at their office fairly often since they organize "Beer2Gether" evenings with their fans there, but they also organize them when they're travelling(one was in Vienna). Pretty cool dudes.

I can't wait to see what game they'll create after Endless Space since I'd assume they would have a little more funds available for development.

Yeah I know you can reduce it with tech but its annoying in the beginning since you can't expand too much without running into potential issues with happiness. However its still a really fun game and it seems more fun with more computers in the mix rather than only a couple since none of the computers really go to war for a while.

I did screw up last time I played and I modified the explorers and defenders for my faction then I had an issue with one of the nearby factions deciding they wanted one of my outposts 1 link away from theirs. So I clicked on the defenders 2 twice and sent them off once they were both finished. When they arrived I immediately attacked. At that point I realized that I had sent 2 explorers rather than 2 defenders. They did eventually win since I had added more defense and kinetics to them but that could have been a real stupid mistake. One of those d'oh moments.

And they seem like pretty cool guys if they're hosting parties for their fans to come by and drink with them.
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: Ninja_Khorin on March 10, 2013, 02:20:40 am
Just to let you guys know. In the past months they've added a bunch of new content, so if you played it last time at release or something, feel free to try it again. It's getting constant content updates, while they work on the expansion.
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: Ninja_Khorin on March 11, 2013, 06:05:24 pm
New patch being released tonight: http://forums.amplitude-studios.com/content.php?263-Virtual-Awakening-Release-Notes

And it's on 50% sale the entire week so ptx can finally buy it.
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: Tears of Destiny on March 15, 2013, 10:34:33 am
I think I shall get this game, it looks really fun and this thread has convinced me that I shall enjoy it ^^
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: Kafein on March 15, 2013, 01:18:06 pm
Anyone tried Sword of the Stars 1/2 ?
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: kinngrimm on March 15, 2013, 01:50:19 pm
i played it a while back, i heard they included more videos?

As for the last time i played it, i didn't found the atmosphere that good(perhaps because i just missed these little landing videos of my colonizers like in moo2). Research was a bit strange, you are more or less forced to take an even approach on all 4 trees to get several key techs as without them you would fall back too much.
The race creation could also get a bit more depths. I am still playing Moo2 from time to time with the community patches. Nothing goes above good UniTol/Tel

Overall i got bored after a couple of games.

Quote from: Kafein on March 15, 2013, 01:18:06 pm
Anyone tried Sword of the Stars 1/2 ?
I got both, friends of me still play the first till the second has its final stage reached.
I like to stick with the second now trying the new AI race  :mrgreen:
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: [ptx] on March 15, 2013, 01:52:54 pm
Quote from: Kafein on March 15, 2013, 01:18:06 pm
Anyone tried Sword of the Stars 1/2 ?
A different type of 4X game, and, imho, endlessly better. At least the first one. The 2nd part was released unfinished and broken, not sure if it has been patched to a playable state by now.

Endless Space i found boring, was bored after my first game, really. And i like 4X games, a lot.
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: Kafein on March 15, 2013, 01:57:49 pm
I played Orion 2 years back and quite liked it. I only discovered SOTS in my steam shelf like two days ago. Curse that Paradox package, having me look up games I already own to know what they are.
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: [ptx] on March 15, 2013, 01:59:54 pm
The first SotS is a somewhat fast paced 4X game, with very limited micromanagement (next to none) and focus on strategic decisions, whilst also having rather sweet space combat, that you can control in real time.
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: Kafein on March 15, 2013, 02:02:59 pm
Quote from: [ptx] on March 15, 2013, 01:59:54 pm
The first SotS is a somewhat fast paced 4X game, with very limited micromanagement (next to none) and focus on strategic decisions, whilst also having rather sweet space combat, that you can control in real time.

Nice. I see it has ship design (which I did not like that much in moo2 actually, I found it time consuming) and research looks neat.
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: kinngrimm on March 15, 2013, 02:50:31 pm
ship design is quite usefull in SotS, and scraping ships also ^^, there are if i remember correctly also techs which increase effency of scraping and i just love the repair ships.

you can play production mosnters spamming low lvl ships and still win in the long run or build strong armored high tech molechs who rip appart nearly anything.

You can focus fire on different ship systems, which may seem a bit mirco intense but it is just a double click. Depending on your ships speed and weapon layout you can skirmish and keep out of enemy weapon range. Cloaks actually work in the battle screen as also on the strategic map and be countered by radar techs you would need to research.
Pimping up your troop capacity, so you can have a couple of more ships in one fleet also has a huge impact.

And in Multiplayer i just love it in the public chat, when you try to communicate and haven't yet developed the language of the other players race, you see fish vocals or bird zirpzirp :)

Personally i like the Hivers most. You are very slow in the beginning, but if you set foot on the ground, it needs a really big effort of the enemy to get you out of a system again.
Friend of me has mastered the Zuul ... man is he a pain in the ars ^^
All races have so different playstyles it gives a huge impact on the atmosphere.

And then there are the Grand Menaces *shakeshead* i haven't seen all of them yet, but when they come either run and hide or just die in a mass exodus. Some can be handled in later game state , some start out rather inocent and get creepy powerfull over time *Puppetmaster*  :shock:

Then you can have the big time fail in research when you get too greedy in the AI research
(click to show/hide)

Multiplier matches also are greatly solved in the way that people can join in and out while AI takes over or new players take over those AI players when they later on join in (again').

Most amazing is still the tech tree, i rarely had a game where i fully researched nearly everything. really well balanced!
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: [ptx] on March 15, 2013, 02:54:28 pm
I've played SotS a fuckton (albeit only in singleplayer) since it is so addictive, but i still don't get it - how do you play as Zuul? They just seem so terribly underpowered?

Terrans are probably the easiest to start out with and have the fastest expansion early on.
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: kinngrimm on March 15, 2013, 04:04:11 pm
well the node system needs constant maintenance, but where you really need to get over is that you harvest ressources for good. So you deplete your worlds and only by getting new worlds you can keep the machine running. That then combined with tons of slaves if you make a lucky grab. You are mostly low tech zerg ... huge numbers win and with the ability to grab techs from your victories you maintain research balance. Also you need to safe up quite some gold for keeping moral high.
I would need to ask my friend for a more in depth discription but that is what i got out of his playstyle by observation.

He is able to hold back at least 2-3 mediocre to good players, then he but told me about some real addicts with 4k+ hours of ingame experience where him and others massed up on a single dude with all in all 4 to 5 players and the single addict is still able to win in 4 out of 5 games with whatever race he choses to play.

So depening how much time you really want to invest into the math behind this game and get better in all areas ressource management, fleet composition, ship design, core research for your race + overall core research what everyone should have to be prepared, when not to colonize a planet(there is a formula which tells you when it is just inefficent), mastering the available battle options ...
you can become quite a monster in this game and the multiplayer experience is the real challange here as in most of the games on the market.

ptx add me in steam(kinngrimm) and we can have a go and i introduce you to my friend who definetly knows more about this game then i do.
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: Kafein on March 15, 2013, 11:20:26 pm
There's something confusing me though. I own the "complete collection" and the "argos naval yard expansion", which one is the most "complete" ?
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: [ptx] on March 15, 2013, 11:21:36 pm
Complete should include Argos.
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: Kafein on March 15, 2013, 11:31:01 pm
I feel shame for my last post, seems I was struck by the "too lazy to search" syndrome.

And yes the complete collection includes argos, I have no idea why there was one copy of the stock game, one with argos and yet also the complete collection in the package. But honestly, I got 30 games including all M&B and paradox studio titles for 70 euros.
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: Ninja_Khorin on June 02, 2013, 09:39:10 pm
Expansion pack officially announced:
http://www.spacesector.com/blog/2012/08/endless-space-expansion-pack-announced/
http://www.spacesector.com/blog/2013/05/endless-space-expansion-pack-disharmony-this-summer/
http://www.amplitude-studios.com/Articles/EXPANSION-PACK



Looking pretty good.
Title: Re: Endless Space - For all you 4X lovers out there
Post by: Clockworkkiller on June 03, 2013, 05:28:07 am
Galatic civilzations 2, anyone? Ahhhhhh....good times, good, good times