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Endless Space What is it? Endless Space is the first game of a new French Studio called Amplitude Games. It is a Space 4X turn based strategy game. So that means you build an empire, colonize new star systems, research new technology, design your own ships and then go find something and kill it. There is a definite Master of Orion II vibe to it. However, there are many ways to victory, including more peaceful ones. System Overview This is relevant to my interests. When is this going to be released? It is actually out: Preorders on Steam are open and give you access to the Techtree I've played Sword of the Stars/Distant Worlds/Armada2526/Master of Orion III, how does this play? 1) There are four basic resources: Food to feed people, Industry to build stuff, Knowledge to research new technologies and Dust. Lorewise, Dust are nanomachines left behind by the "Endless" (Endless Space, get it?). It works roughly similar to Gold in Civ Games. Most System Improvements cost Dust to maintain, and you can chose to spend it to speed up construction. 2) Instead of building up each planet individually, you chose one Exploitation to improve production of one basic resource, in effect turning a planet into an agricultural/industrial/scientific/trade colony. Star systems pool their production to build System Improvements and Ships. Various strategic resources give boni to production or are downright necessary to build certain ships or buildings. 3) Combat revolves around a basic paper/stone/scissors concept. It is a curious mix of real time and WEGO Turn based combat: Combat is divided into three phases: long range, mid range and melee range. You don't control your fleet directly during combat, instead you chose one of (initially) three battle actions for each phase, which either buff your fleet, debuff the enemy or cancel his battle actions. Right now the AI seems to cheat a little and select the right action to cancel yours a lot more often than not, but against a human opponent it will make for interesting play. 4) There are 5 factions out already, with another 3 planned. As always, they have their advantages and disadvantages. Faction breakdown courtesy to renown Scholar and Gentlegoon Chomp8645: quote:
5) You recruit and level up heroes. They come in two basic flavors: Admirals and Industrial Leaders. Especially the later can get very powerful in a built up system. The former get new battle abilities as they grow in skill. However, they cost Dust and their number is very limited (tech increases it), so one has to chose carefully. Planetary Info Wait, 'human opponent'? Will there be multiplayer? Yes. It is disabled in the alpha for now, but is definitely planned. What is this Games2Gether Stuff they are always touting? it is an attempt to get the community more involved in the decision making process. Certain design decisions are put to a vote. Every players has one vote, weighted by his contribution to the community, which is measured in G2G points. You get 500 for buying the preorder. If its a good idea or a terrible mistake remains to be seen. Media The Imperial Court of the United Empire United Empire Fleet in Action Craver Fleet on the run Trailer FAQ Q: My Fleets are too small. How can I grow my fleets in a few weeks? A: Left side of the tech tree, look for techs with stylized birds. Q: I can't collect more A: Left side of the tech tree, look for techs that increase Academy Cap. Q:My ships won't move when I order them/I can't click on things properly in the techtree A: Steam Overlay has a problem with this game. Press shift to exit the Queueing mode. Q: I can't move my ships to a certain system/out of a certain system. I pressed shift and it didn't work! What evil magic is this? A: Your ship has stumbled into the Zone of Influence of another Empire which you are not at war with and with which you don't have an open border agreement. Personally, I suggest a declaration of war to remedy this problem. Q: I had the enemy by the ropes when I lost due to Economic Victory. This is an outrage and I will not stand for it. Switch off Economic Victory when starting a new game. Right side of the game setup screen, look under advanced options. ArchangeI fucked around with this message at 23:13 on May 28, 2012 |
# ? May 3, 2012 13:39 |
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# ? Jun 18, 2024 06:02 |
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Looks quite a bit like Sins of a Solar Empire, which isn't a bad thing at all. Is there any gameplay footage out there (which isn't really shwon in the trailer) How is the fleet combat, upgrading planets/buildings etc? Looks very interesting.
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# ? May 3, 2012 13:58 |
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If you're remotely interested in this, I'd suggest checking it out. Even in an alpha state the game is far more compelling and full of character than any strategic space game that I've played lately. The overall presentation, from UI to the art style and ship/faction design is top notch. In my opinion a lot of strategy games ignore how much this aspect can pull a player in, but Endless Space has been fully absorbing. This game came out of nowhere. A really cool surprise.
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# ? May 3, 2012 14:04 |
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Everything Corin Tucker's Stalker said. Whoever calls this an alpha is funny. You could've put me in front of this and I'd probably not even notice. It has a level of polish and sense style in its current state that most games won't approach over their entire lifespan. I'm sure they've got more plans for it, but to be honest I can't even really tell what still needs to be done. I knew NOTHING about this game before I saw the trailer on Steam's bottom bar, and took the "leap" of $22, and I am VERY impressed and feel like it's worth more. Absolutely a welcome surprise. I'm hoping this game blows up on the usual channels, because it deserves every bit of praise it'll get. drunkill posted:Is there any gameplay footage out there (which isn't really shwon in the trailer) Combat itself isn't direct tactical control, and it's not totally automated, it's actually more like...hmm...well, here's how it works: Combat has three "action" phases: long range (where missiles do the heavy hitting), medium range (beam weapons) and melee range (where the cannons shine). At each of these phases, you get to play what I guess are "cards" (such as "sabotage," "kinetic warheads," cards that boost repair that round)that have different effects that, you hope, are counter-effects to what the enemy plays. In addition to giving a certain effect, each card also has a rock-paper-scissor result against the opponent's card choice that gives one side or another the advantage at that phase, causing more damage, taking less, etc. Clever card playing can give a single ship the ability to take out two or three otherwise-equally-matched ships. The fight plays out cinematically, with you picking the cards. It's a unique system that currently needs camera controls and speed options, but thats apparently in the works. This is after only three hours of tired gameplay, but hopefully someone else can explain it more. Squiggle fucked around with this message at 14:34 on May 3, 2012 |
# ? May 3, 2012 14:10 |
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It looks very compelling to me, even though I haven't been crazy about other recent 4X space strategy games. I think it is because the UI looks way more approachable and clean. The notion of design decisions being made via popular vote sounds somewhat troubling, though.
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# ? May 3, 2012 14:13 |
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kuddles posted:It looks very compelling to me, even though I haven't been crazy about other recent 4X space strategy games. I think it is because the UI looks way more approachable and clean. The notion of design decisions being made via popular vote sounds somewhat troubling, though. Right now its just designing new heroes and stuff, not basic design decisions, and the devs present the choices. So expect a Hero that is totally not Darth Vader in the near future.
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# ? May 3, 2012 14:19 |
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ALright, I'm going to take a chance on this game and buy it today, then. Although I'll probably wait until the official "release" to seriously play it.
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# ? May 3, 2012 14:20 |
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As with most strategy games a few screenshots of UIs are fine and all but are there any gameplay videos recorded for this game? I'm vaguely interested in this game but I'd like to see what it looks like in motion before I make the purchase.
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# ? May 3, 2012 14:23 |
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Squiggle posted:Everything Corin Tucker's Stalker said. Welp, as one of the journos who they got in touch with, I'm definitely doing my bit to support this, especially since, as noted, they call this an alpha. I'll ask the PR dudes if it's alright to make up some footage, and see what I can do there. In the meantime, I wrote a little preview article, and will quite happily natter about the races and my experiences thereof if anyone wants.
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# ? May 3, 2012 14:24 |
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kuddles posted:The notion of design decisions being made via popular vote sounds somewhat troubling, though. This is pretty much what happens whenever anyone listens to 'fan' opinion for the wider decisions; they've just formalized and weighted it, which is something interesting to see. Is it going to work out better than Hammer Legion's studious wagon-circling over Sword of the Stars I & II? We shall have to see. It certainly looks a lot better than SotS II *right now*, let alone at release. CloD suffered from a similar level of groupthink between the die hard 'fans' who've got into a circle jerk with the developers; forget that the multiplayer is fundamentally broken and they've re-written large parts of the game from the ground up, they really want to concentrate on the correct colors for 1940s ground vehicles...
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# ? May 3, 2012 14:38 |
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Al! posted:As with most strategy games a few screenshots of UIs are fine and all but are there any gameplay videos recorded for this game? I'm vaguely interested in this game but I'd like to see what it looks like in motion before I make the purchase. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tykMKgEV0bg Is the only thing I've found. Best not to listen too closely the commentary, though.
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# ? May 3, 2012 14:39 |
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Starting to collect media things: Here is a Worthplaying preview from yesterday, and here is a good writeup from Space Sector. And here's an interview with the devs. Squiggle fucked around with this message at 14:44 on May 3, 2012 |
# ? May 3, 2012 14:39 |
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I love 4X games but this:ArchangeI posted:2) Instead of building up each planet individually, you chose one Exploitation to improve production of one basic resource, in effect turning a planet into an agricultural/industrial/scientific/trade colony. Star systems pool their production to build System Improvements and Ships.
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# ? May 3, 2012 14:43 |
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Even though I'm never the best at them, I love 4x style games. Its rare that one hits the right buttons to suck me in. Sword of the stars was a bit too simplistic for me in the empire management and the art style didn't click with me. Galciv2 went too far in the micromanagement direction. No thanks, I don't want to visually design every ship. This game just feels right. There's interesting choices to make while expanding your empire. Everything looks amazing, and the UI is clean and sleek, there's helpful mouseover tooltips exactly where you're expecting them that tell you exactly what you need to know. The only thing I don't quite get yet is the combat. I'm not sure if its because the AI is cheating a bit or because I'm awful. It looks awesome, just hasn't clicked for me yet. The best thing I can say about this game is I've never even heard of "Endless Space" before yesterday, and today I don't feel like playing anything else. Pierson posted:Does this mean you basically make a single choice regarding planets and that's it? I loved GalCiv2 where you could do anything you wanted to your planet and it would have an actual effect where building times from planet to planet would be different, or they would have different spheres of influence, and you could reclaim and restore damaged planets. This seems a little basic in comparison, or am I misunderstanding how it works? Planet management is somewhere between galciv2 and sword of the stars. Its fairly simplistic there's interesting choices to make thanks to each star having multiple planets (this has always been a back of my head gripe with some of these space 4x games), special resources and other bonuses. old beast lunatic fucked around with this message at 14:52 on May 3, 2012 |
# ? May 3, 2012 14:47 |
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Pierson posted:I love 4X games but this: Each System can have as many improvements as you want, and there lots of them. The planetary improvements are specific to (obviously) each planet, and while you can only have one active on each planet you can change it at any time. Also, planets can have exploratory bonuses, like moons that can contain artifacts or anomalies. So you're not digging super deep on each individual planet, but you are getting a lot of choices and locations with meaningful distinctions.
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# ? May 3, 2012 14:51 |
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Pierson posted:I love 4X games but this: Let's use our Solar System as an example here. You'd start out with Earth Colonized, and maybe the ability to colonize the Gas Giant Planets as well, you do this in the creation screen, and it takes up turns that would go towards more Scouts/Ships. Once they are colonized, their production gets added to Earths, effectively boosting the creation/tech speed of that System. A fun thing you can do is tell a planet how to focus itself. You could make Earth completely drop all worker rights, and push production levels to the max, while Jupiter focuses on science laboratories. This takes something like 10 turns to complete for the switch, but you can get this lower as your empire expands, allowing you to customize systems to your liking, a home system can have 4 planets all set to increased production, so it'll be your main ship production area, with another mainly set to tech to get more research points, or another near the border to an enemy area with high trade set ups to get more Dust. It's extremely intuitive, and really allows you to customize your entire Empire on the fly. Honestly, this is the best 4x game I've ever played. The UI is fantastic, and you don't even really need the tutorial to understand it, because it's so well designed. Every screen tells you everything you need to know, and it allows you to quickly know exactly whats happening across the universe/your Empire. Tech/Production has been turned into something really fun to do, with the ability to make whatever kind of ships you want, and the ability to finetune your Empire exactly like you want it. And Battles are basically spacefighterporn, but in the best way, since you choose the cards you want to play before the fight, and then your ships go in and do the tasks you ordered them to do. Earlier today I got to see a 20 on 20 battle, and the closest thing I can describe it to is spaceshipporn. If you have even a base interest in 4x games, this game is worth $60. At $24/$26 this game is launching on sale, and is an amazing deal for what you are getting. Rookersh fucked around with this message at 14:34 on May 25, 2012 |
# ? May 3, 2012 14:52 |
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Pierson posted:I love 4X games but this: Slight misunderstanding. There are systems and planets - the real functional unit is the star system - ships, industrial upgrades, buildings, etc are all built at the SYSTEM level. However, each colonized planet within the system gets an additional "focus" to choose - better soil improvements on this planet so it grows more food, improved infrastructure for better manufacturing, etc. One "boost" as far as I can see for each resource. The star system has an aggregate Food/Industry/Research/Money score, made up of the planets scores in each area added together. So ships are built with the full industrial might of the system behind it. edit: Okay I'm going to stop trying to reply while I'm working. Others have this WELL in hand. Thanks dudes. Edit 2: One final statement, because it really can't be said enough, the UI for this game is the most intuitive UI I've ever seen for a 4x game. I was closing the tutorial windows that explain everything because it was easier to just look at the interface and intuitively know what everything does and how it all fits together. It's perfect. Squiggle fucked around with this message at 15:03 on May 3, 2012 |
# ? May 3, 2012 14:53 |
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I just bought it and 10 minutes into the game I can't imagine ever regretting this purchase. It scratches that 4x itch like no game since MoO2. edit: Considering this is an alpha and the amount of polish that's already in the game, with more to come and mod support, holy poo poo. The only thing I kind of miss is a custom race but even with the 5 available in the game right now you've got enough variety to suit every playstyle. Oenis fucked around with this message at 15:00 on May 3, 2012 |
# ? May 3, 2012 14:54 |
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I didn't realize how much I had that 4X itch, time to see if this game will scratch it!
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# ? May 3, 2012 14:56 |
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Downloading now. Looks awesome! Can't wait to take the
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# ? May 3, 2012 14:56 |
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Squiggle posted:Slight misunderstanding. There are systems and planets - the real functional unit is the star system - ships, industrial upgrades, buildings, etc are all built at the SYSTEM level. However, each colonized planet within the system gets an additional "focus" to choose - better soil improvements on this planet so it grows more food, improved infrastructure for better manufacturing.
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# ? May 3, 2012 14:59 |
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Loading this up to play for the first time now. Wish me luck!
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# ? May 3, 2012 15:09 |
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drunkill posted:Looks quite a bit like Sins of a Solar Empire, which isn't a bad thing at all. It's nothing like Sins, so I wouldn't go expecting that. Sins is more of a straight-up RTS, this is pure 4X. And it's so very, very good. I was up until 4 am playing it, though. . It definitely has that "One more turn... One more turn won't hurt" aspect to it. EDIT: VVVVV If you like MoO, you'll like this. There's a lot of the stuff that worked in MoO in Endless Stars. Ugly In The Morning fucked around with this message at 15:17 on May 3, 2012 |
# ? May 3, 2012 15:11 |
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I love the old school space games like star control, moo and homeworld. I also love Sins to death. The thing I worry about is that I have come to prefer the real time aspect of Sins as opposed to turn based. I think that is the only thing holding me back. There is also a slew of other space 4x games coming out. Legend of the pegasus, gemini wars and sins rebellion so I am on the fence.
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# ? May 3, 2012 15:13 |
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I'll probably wait on the reviews for this one but hopefully it fills in the 4x gap that SOTS II created.
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# ? May 3, 2012 15:38 |
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The game locks up in a black screen when I try to run it, and I've seen this happen before with other fullscreen games. Any way to run this in windowed mode? I need me some 4X action while waiting for Diablo 3!
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# ? May 3, 2012 15:40 |
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I blame Drunkill for saying "Kinda like Sins of a Solar Empire" because I've already bought this game and started poking around. It's definitely interesting and I've had a few good laughs already and I haven't even advanced the turn timer yet. The game's interface is so straightlaced that the little bits of humor, such as the description for Bluecap Mold jump out and slap you on the face. (Side effects: craving for pastries, rapid hair growth.)
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# ? May 3, 2012 15:41 |
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toasterwarrior posted:The game locks up in a black screen when I try to run it, and I've seen this happen before with other fullscreen games. Any way to run this in windowed mode? I need me some 4X action while waiting for Diablo 3! There is, I'm not sure WHICH Registry.xml to edit, but try the one in the Endless Space folder it creates in your Documents folder. Resolution and full screen controls are in there. There's another Registry.xml file in the game's install folder itself, but it didn't have the full graphics options in it that I could see, and I can't remember where it is at the moment anyway. If you're still having problems I'll look when I get home. Man, I took YESTERDAY off work, why couldn't I have found Endless Space before 10:30pm last night. WANNA PLAY
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# ? May 3, 2012 15:42 |
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How playable is the alpha? I'm really interested in getting this, but they've done that horrible 1$ = 1€ thing which puts me off quite a bit.
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# ? May 3, 2012 15:49 |
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FrickenMoron posted:How playable is the alpha? I'm really interested in getting this, but they've done that horrible 1$ = 1€ thing which puts me off quite a bit. Like I said earlier, if it showed up installed on my compuer one day in its current state, I wouldn't notice that it was in an incomplete state for probably hours. "Alpha" is either a joke or these are the most perfectionist people on the planet. With that said, the AI is (according to the devs) in a not-on-all-cylinders state, and multiplayer is currently disabled. As far as I can tell, and this IS PROBABLY WRONG, but it seems like a lot of what they hope to add is content.
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# ? May 3, 2012 15:54 |
As someone who hated how bland and spreadsheety GalCiv 2 was but loved MOO2 enough to do an LP of it, how much would I like this game? Specifically, are the choices in this game actually interesting? I'm not really expecting much out of planet/colony/whatever management, but take the tech tree. Are there actually interesting choices to be made? Do the technologies you're researching feel substantial/interesting or is it like GalCiv's woop de doo +5% bonus to Production? Another concern is just how much micromanagement does the game have? Sword of the Stars 1 had a bit too little, such that I never really cared about any particular planet. Late game Master of Orion had a bit too much, which would have been alleviated if you could have preset building queues instead of having to make each and every one. GalCiv's, again, felt like too much effort for too little reward, what with being able to set your tax rate as whole integer percentages, instead of abstracting it in a meaningful way. Lastly, is there a good tutorial/encyclopedia in the game? I want to think that there is life in the 4x space genre beyond Master of Orion 2, but as you can see, I've been burned before. Never again, Stardock, never again.
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# ? May 3, 2012 15:55 |
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FrickenMoron posted:How playable is the alpha? I'm really interested in getting this, but they've done that horrible 1$ = 1€ thing which puts me off quite a bit. Lets just say if this is an alpha then Sword of the Stars II Release was the first internal test build. There are still some minor UI things to fix (can't edit building queues, enemy fleets sometimes bypass your defending fleets without battle), but it is rock stable and a lot of fun already. quote:Specifically, are the choices in this game actually interesting? I'm not really expecting much out of planet/colony/whatever management, but take the tech tree. Are there actually interesting choices to be made? Do the technologies you're researching feel substantial/interesting or is it like GalCiv's woop de doo +5% bonus to Production? Define choices. You can research the entire tech tree - no tech cancels out others. As for tech boni, the weakest part right now is the combat tech tree, because a lot of it is just Laser+1. The infrastructure research almost always unlocks a new building or expansion option or unlock the exploitation of a new resource which you need to build more advanced stuff. ArchangeI fucked around with this message at 16:04 on May 3, 2012 |
# ? May 3, 2012 15:57 |
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After reading the Endless Space Intel thread on GAF, I thought "there has to be an endless space thread on SA. This is THE perfect game for SA". I was pretty surprised when I looked yesterday and saw no thread. Glad to see someone finally created it. I love how the GAME2GETHER thing works, and fully support a restrained crowd sourcing model for a game like this. I also hope that the gorgeous visuals draw in people that might not normally be 4X fans. If they manage to position this game as a 4X gateway drug, I think they could have a serious hit on their hands. I'm sure Steam is already exploding over this game.
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# ? May 3, 2012 16:00 |
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Dammit, the lock-up happens before the game creates a folder in My Documents. No-one on the official forums seem to be experiencing the same problem either.
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# ? May 3, 2012 16:02 |
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toasterwarrior posted:Dammit, the lock-up happens before the game creates a folder in My Documents. No-one on the official forums seem to be experiencing the same problem either. Give it an uninstall/reinstall, and give the official forums a post. The devs appear to be actively reading them, especially bug reports. thetrin posted:I love how the GAME2GETHER thing works, and fully support a restrained crowd sourcing model for a game like this. I also hope that the gorgeous visuals draw in people that might not normally be 4X fans. I so impressed, I will make this game a hit if I have to shove it into peoples figurative hands. I rarely jump so squarely on board with something, but when I do pick my favorites the support is fast and heavy. I've got the same love-out-the-gate for this that I had for Mount & Blade all those years ago. They've earned a disciple. Squiggle fucked around with this message at 16:16 on May 3, 2012 |
# ? May 3, 2012 16:06 |
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Yeah, I will mention one of the few, inmho, bad points of the game (only found after a fair bit of play)... If you're missing a strategic resource, especially if it's Titanium-70, you're hurtin' bad. Just realised how boned I was on my Horatio play when the player I'd been warring with turned up last turn with 8 cruisers. Then another 8 he'd been saving for a rainy day. Meanwhile, my laserboat destroyers were getting wrecked, and, due to lacking one resource... I couldn't make missiles, cruisers, or decent armour. Oh sod. Still, the races are great fun. Currently, I'm trying to get the hang of the Horatio, who colonise easily, but their ships are more expensive (which hurts in the long-term, especially against the AI, who is generally on the warpath)
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# ? May 3, 2012 16:19 |
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ArchangeI posted:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tykMKgEV0bg I cannot, in good conscience, watch something by "Furries Without Skill" Goons are always recording video of them playing games these days, maybe one of you could do a stream?
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# ? May 3, 2012 16:21 |
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GrandpaPants posted:Do the technologies you're researching feel substantial/interesting or is it like GalCiv's woop de doo +5% bonus to Production? As ArchangeI said, you can eventually grab everything, but you have so many options that you do need to focus on your order of progression. While most of the planetary and system tech that you research grants stat bonuses, it's usually framed in something that's conceptually interesting and feeds into the sort of planets and resources that are available to you. quote:Lastly, is there a good tutorial/encyclopedia in the game?
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# ? May 3, 2012 16:22 |
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JamieTheD posted:Yeah, I will mention one of the few, inmho, bad points of the game (only found after a fair bit of play)... If you're missing a strategic resource, especially if it's Titanium-70, you're hurtin' bad. Just realised how boned I was on my Horatio play when the player I'd been warring with turned up last turn with 8 cruisers. Then another 8 he'd been saving for a rainy day. Meanwhile, my laserboat destroyers were getting wrecked, and, due to lacking one resource... I couldn't make missiles, cruisers, or decent armour. Oh sod. Make a note about that on the forums as a balance concern, remember it is a (supposedly) Alpha.
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# ? May 3, 2012 16:26 |
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# ? Jun 18, 2024 06:02 |
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Can anyone change the in game resolution? Nothing I do seems to change, not the ingame menu or hand editing the registry file in the documents folder. What am I missing here?
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# ? May 3, 2012 16:30 |