Hello there!



I know you've been waiting impatiently for the next GDD, so have a good read





Rationale



We want the galaxy to impress the player at every game and make them feel like a space explorer. The galaxy generation and the exploration systems are going to work together to provide this feeling.

Discovering systems, sending probes into nowhere, gambling by sending a ship on a cosmic string that leads into the unknown... All of these actions need to involve the player emotionally and get him thrilled as there is no certainty of what to find in the end.





Galaxy Anatomy



The Constellations

A constellation is a group of star systems, which provides bonuses once it’s possessed by an empire. It can be compared to the continent in the board game Risk.

As with regions in Endless Legend, we’re going to display the name of the constellation when zooming out in the galaxy view.

The constellation’s name will be displayed once the player explored it in its entirety, and the first who revealed the whole galaxy is considered as the explorer of the constellation. The players name is going to be displayed below the constellation’s name and next to the date of the discovery of the last system.

 

The second step is when an empire owns all the systems in a constellation: it immediately provides a bonus to all the systems within the constellation. This bonus depends on the quantity of systems within the constellation, and is always displayed below the constellation’s name. Moreover, owning a constellation colors its name into the player’s color.



The Nodes

The nodes are a central part of the game, where interactions occur and where the fleets can stop and orbit in order to interact with each other.

In Endless Space we only have star systems as nodes, which were necessarily linked by cosmic strings or wormholes. But in Endless Space 2 we want to improve the diversity by having different types of nodes:

• With sub-node [“Systems”]: they contain colonizable elements even if there can be different types, listed below. The type is going to affect the content probability, but the node can be colonised and owned by someone. Moreover, systems can contain planets like in ES 1 but also some POI (Point of Interests).
• Without sub-node [Giantanomalies]: they bring some variety and can have a positive effect on the empire which has them within their territory but their main goal is to force empires to be scattered sometimes by having non colonisable links, and to be used by quests.
  
  

We don’t use the term Star System as some systems won’t have star. Here is the list of types we have planned:

• Star System: a classic star system.
• POI: the planets and other element orbits around an artefact or other elements that can hold .
• Black hole: sometimes with planets? (even if unrealistic). Fleets can orbit and might be used for teleporting.
• None: the content is in middle of nowhere.
  
  

Then we also want to work on the connectivity and the lack of connectivity; being connected thanks to a cosmic string (lane) or wormhole won’t be mandatory anymore, and the chance will depend on the type of nodes.



The Lanes

In Endless Space we had two types of lanes:

• Normal lane: they can be used by any ship since the beginning. In Endless Space, we showed the lane linking a node to its neighbor. However in Endless Space 2, you only see in which direction the lanes go but not where they lead (and by extension, not how far away it is).
• Wormhole: they require a specific technology / engine to be crossed. Before having the technology, wormholes won’t be visible. Then, as in Endless Space 1, crossing a wormhole will be instant but will consume all the movement points by default. We can however have improvements to lower the ratio of consumed movement points.
  
  

In addition to these types, we want to add new ones, such as the one below. Feel free to suggest more!

• Black lane: this lane is like a normal lane except that it becomes visible only when the player has visited both extremities. It thus forces the use of free movement before being able to travel faster from one system to another thanks to warp movements.
  
  

Planet Generation

We want to improve the variety of planets compared to Endless Space. to do that, we’re going to generate planets from different parameters. Thus, we’ll be able to affect the economy using these parameters instead of referring to a list of planet types. I.e. referring to “temperate” planets instead of listing “Rocky, Terran, Forest and Ocean”.



We proceed as following:

• Defining size.
• Defining composition.
• Defining temperature from those available regarding the chosen composition.
• Defining humidity.
  
  

Each parameter is defined, based on a random probability given by the game options, and the type of system in which the planet is generated.

These parameters define the identity of the planet: the gameplay elements can refer to these attributes. Then, in order to spice it up, a planet can receive from 0 to X anomalies. The constraint for the anomalies differs for gas and telluric planets, but there is a common rule:

• For a specific category of anomalies, there can only be one anomaly.
  
  

Anomalies & Temples

Anomalies

The anomalies are still here to modify the default parameters of a planet and make planets feel more unique! As we really want all the planets to feel different, a planet can have up to three anomalies! We want them to have visual consequences on the planet as much as possible.

In order to reinforce the feeling of exploration, we want the anomaly to be hidden at first. In order to be aware of their existence, the player needs either to colonize the planet or to search for the curiosity on the planets (as explained in the Curiosity section).



As in Endless Space 1, there are:

• Positive anomalies: only provide bonuses.
• Mixed anomalies: provide both bonuses and a penalty (the most common).
• Negative anomalies: only provide penalties.
  
  

The anomaly can be improved when the related technology is researched, in order to remove their penalties. Improving an anomaly is going to cost resources (production, luxury, strategic, etc.) and be materialized as an improvement.



Temple Collection

Temples are in a specific anomaly category and provide an additional bonus based on how many temples the Empire controls. Temples are split into families giving a specific bonus to a star system.

By completing a family, the bonus of the temples are then applied at the empire’s scale. In addition, when a Temple is discovered, it automatically reveals to the player the position of another temple of the same family.

With this system we thus create a treasure hunt through the galaxy and can influence people to negotiate specific star systems because they want to complete their temple’s family.



Home systems

As in Endless Space, the chosen affinity and the population you’re going to play with will override the home system parameters. In addition, some traits can complete the override and make it more specific.



Minor Factions

A GDD will be dedicated to them, but shortly, they will be spawned across the galaxy on different systems, in which the player will be able to interact with them.

When placed in a system, they will inhabit a specific planet at first, and develop their colony over the course of the game. In addition, they will act as the pirates and create an early challenge for the player.









Exploring the universe



Discovery of a new system

As we want the player to enjoy exploration, the discovery of a new node is going to be staged. There are three ways of discovering a new node:

• Thanks to a fleet: fleets always move towards a node. A fleet, upon reaching a node discovers it immediately, revealing other lanes leaving the system, but without knowing where they lead.
• Thanks to probes: probes travel freely through space. When the vision range of a probe overlaps a node it reveals it; depending on the probes quality, it will however either just be localized (you know there is a node here) or identified (you know what kind of node it is). But to know which lanes are connected to it, the player needs to send a fleet.
• Thanks to an event or quest: the state of the node will depend on the events; some will give full info and others just the localization.
  
  

Curiosity System



Once a node is discovered, the player enters another phase of exploration, through the curiosity system. The idea is to place several curiosities within the different nodes that can be discovered by fleet equipped with the required module to scan the curiosity.



A curiosity can be:

• Loot: anything from gaining Dust to gaining ships, and everything in-between.
• A quest / event: it can trigger a quest or an event either affecting the player’s empire, the system where it occurs, or the fleet which searched the curiosity.
• An anomaly: one of the hidden anomalies of the planet is unveiled.
  
  

The time required to search a curiosity is based on the fleet’s modules, the empire’s technology and the curiosity difficulty. Searching curiosities can thus take several turns and requires commitment. However, the player cannot know what will be revealed before the end of the search. Some curiosities are automatically revealed when colonizing like the planetary anomalies.



Renewing Exploration

As we want the player to keep exploring all over the course of the game, some nodes and lane are going to have visibility levels.

At the beginning of the game, the player can only see the elements with a visibility level equal to 1. Then, thanks to technologies, it will unlock higher visibility levels, revealing hidden lanes, nodes or even curiosities by increasing the detection level of the empire’s entity.



Moreover, some nodes can be undiscoverable and kept secret by the game as they can be attached to a specific quests or events, meaning that until the quest / events occurs, the node won’t be visible by anyone!

Maybe this system could be expanded to manage stealth units?



We hope you enjoyed this Galaxy and Exploration GDD and we look forward to hearing your thoughts on the subject!





VIP Feedback



Overall

• Questions about naming of things and naming conventions. And if they can rename things? Wish to have an impact on the world in terms of naming/exploration etc. We’ll try to give as much as possible.
• A lot of discussions about black holes and if planets can orbit them. And going through black holes, how realistic that is.
• People do see a lot of potential in teleportation through anomalies/black holes, as it could shake up early game and exploration. (Including Vaulter built warp-gate talk). Especially mentioned is teleporting to ‘unconnected systems’ – which people find interesting.
• Idea of having all stars visible from turn 1 (GalCiv3). It might be done for a specific faction / trait.
• Also wish to have Minor Factions as more than simply pirates/barbarians.
  
  

Constellations

• People like the idea of ‘being the first’ to discover them. Like the idea of having ‘regions’ – Though some misunderstandings of it ‘functioning’ like in EL: it’s closer to the idea of Risk’s continents.
• There were questions on bonuses given by constellations:
  
  
  • The player who discovers it can name it.
  • A player who owns it obtains a gameplay bonus.
  • Alliances allow to activate bonuses by combining owned systems.
    
    
  
  
  

Nodes / Lanes

• A lot of praise for all nodes not being ‘star systems’.
• An overall wish for just crazy different nodes.
• A wish for ‘different types of lanes’ with different rules.
  
  

Curiosity system

• Initial comments are very positive! Seems much appreciated. Specifically likes renewing exploration throughout the game.

Temples

• A slight fear of micromanagement. A wish for them to be gathered within 1 or few constellations to make ‘having all of them’ feasible.

Planet/Anomaly Generation

• Some questions/doubts/concerns regarding planet generation and how it would work and what the benefits are.
  
  
  • The planets are generated from two parameters: humidity and temperature. The value of these two parameters will define the FIDSI values of the planets. For now, we're thus focusing on the transparency behind the value. It might be a bit rigid but we want to explore where this leads first and make it evolve if it doesn't end being as interesting as we expect.
  • These parameters will affect exploitation of luxuries / strategic resources; meaning terraforming will have consequences beyond changing FIDSI gains.
  • In addition to gameplay benefits, this approach gives us a wider set of planet types. Combined with anomalies, we want to deliver a large variety of visual and make the discovery of new systems as unique as possible.
  • After the feedback, we decided to add more gas planets. Now gas is considered as an humidity level to allow the planet to fit with the default system.
    
    
• There are some ideas regarding moons: having several moons around planets and tying moons into the basic FIDSI output of planets. As we're going to consider moons as anomalies; both will be the case.
  
  

Share your impressions below!

Very informative DD! One quick question though. Does travel via lanes impart any benefit over non-lane travel? Faster travel or something like that? This isn't explicitly spelled out as far as I can tell. I'm all for not being limited to lane-only travel, but since you guys are keeping lanes in the game I would imagine they should have some extra benefits to encourage you to use them over just traveling wherever you want to.



Edit: Never mind. Re-reading suggest to me that we still need star lanes for early game fleet movement until we unlock free-range warp travel just like in ES1. The whole non-lanes travel concept is just for probes if I'm understanding correctly now.

Sounds cool. I'm just not sure about the purpose of probes if you need a fleet to investigate the nodes anyway, and if fleets can discover nodes. It would make more sense if you really needed to discover new nodes though quests or probes only before you can send your fleet.

All of this sounds fantastic! I particularly like the curiosity and visibility systems, as well as the constellation mechanic (similar to provinces in Rome 2 Total War). 4x games these days tend to neglect exploration imo, so I am glad that ES2 seems to take it seriously and want to make it an engaging experience across the entirety of a playthrough.

Frogsquadron wrote:


The second step is when an empire owns all the systems in a constellation: it immediately provides a bonus to all the systems within the constellation. This bonus depends on the quantity of systems within the constellation, and is always displayed below the constellation’s name. Moreover, owning a constellation colors its name into the player’s color.

Sounds really cool. I like the idea of "Risk" type continents. Would be great if the AI was extremely aggressive in consolidating their constellations, but less aggressive when expanding outwards.

The Lanes

• Wormhole: they require a specific technology / engine to be crossed. Before having the technology, wormholes won’t be visible. Then, as in Endless Space 1, crossing a wormhole will be instant but will consume all the movement points by default. We can however have improvements to lower the ratio of consumed movement points.
  
  

What is the reasoning behind hiding wormhole/warp lanes until you get the tech?

Temple Collection

Temples are in a specific anomaly category and provide an additional bonus based on how many temples the Empire controls. Temples are split into families giving a specific bonus to a star system.

By completing a family, the bonus of the temples are then applied at the empire’s scale. In addition, when a Temple is discovered, it automatically reveals to the player the position of another temple of the same family.

With this system we thus create a treasure hunt through the galaxy and can influence people to negotiate specific star systems because they want to complete their temple’s family.

Generally I try to maintain all of my attention and resources on survival and expansion. Unless this 'side-quest' is just seriously awesome, I kinda feel like the VIP's here. Any micro-management that isn't 100% in line with my main mission I will avoid (like sending ships to systems I wouldn't other wise go to, conquering systems I wouldn't otherwise conquer, doing random things for a "chance" at getting a reward).

Minor Factions

A GDD will be dedicated to them, but shortly, they will be spawned across the galaxy on different systems, in which the player will be able to interact with them.

When placed in a system, they will inhabit a specific planet at first, and develop their colony over the course of the game. In addition, they will act as the pirates and create an early challenge for the player.

I think this will add an entirely new element to the game. Should be great!

The time required to search a curiosity is based on the fleet’s modules, the empire’s technology and the curiosity difficulty. Searching curiosities can thus take several turns and requires commitment. However, the player cannot know what will be revealed before the end of the search. Some curiosities are automatically revealed when colonizing like the planetary anomalies.

I personally like instantaneous gratification. But this could add new layers of complexity. I will hold off judgment until I see how it is implemented.

Renewing Exploration

As we want the player to keep exploring all over the course of the game, some nodes and lane are going to have visibility levels.

At the beginning of the game, the player can only see the elements with a visibility level equal to 1. Then, thanks to technologies, it will unlock higher visibility levels, revealing hidden lanes, nodes or even curiosities by increasing the detection level of the empire’s entity.

As a single-player gamer only, im not a huge fan of this. I assume the AI is going to get huge resource boosts like normal to be competitive. This will mean I will be behind in research, and the AI will have "researched" hidden lanes before me. This would allow for phantom fleets from nowhere attacking my system- might not be fun.

•After the feedback, we decided to add more gas planets

I thought gas planets were the most wonky ones in ES. Especially being able to terraform them, and providing tons of resources. Hopefully they will be looked at again?

•There are some ideas regarding moons: having several moons around planets and tying moons into the basic FIDSI output of planets. As we're going to consider moons as anomalies; both will be the case.

EDIT:

An in-depth moon system would be AWESOME (instead of just considering them as an anomaly). Multiple moons. Colonizing moons around gas planets. I mean just look at our solar system.

Oh so very excited!

Things are sounding very, very appealing!



I'm personally hoping for in-depth Minor Faction interactions, especially if they're not inherently space-faring. Like being able to 'uplift' a minor faction, or conquer them! Invading a non-space-faring faction sounds like a heck of a lot of fun!



Anyways, everything's sounding awesome, I can't wait for the next GDD- Heck, I can't wait for the game!



Though, I do have one major wish: Please pay careful attention to the UI. Endless legend's UI (through the menus, not in-game) felt rather cluttered to me; especially the custom faction creation. Speaking of which, please, please, PLEASE, prevent the traits from re-arranging every time you select one of them. That was such a bother.

Sounds great. I like the further development of constellations and the way nodes worked, though I'd prefer to have more star systems, with different types of stars having more an effect on planets rather than having black holes/nothing. I also really like the idea of curiousities, it makes things like sensor modules much more useful; and half the sophon ships backstory make actual, in-game, sense. I also feel like anomalies should be more easily detectable so you won't colonize a planet with mineral poor, poor soil and geothermic activity just because you only saw geothermic activity. Maybe have a way to avoid most of some anomalbies negative effect by limitng population?

Also, if minor faction act like pirates, there should be extensive options around them when setting up a game, like disabling them spawning/attacking with units for the first X terms or disabling them spawning from exploration events(Or curiousities, though maybe properly equipped fleets wouldn't get major negative effects from them. Also, will there be an event where you find like those death machines from that event and if your fleets aren't properly equipped(Maybe siege modules for that? Maybe make having some space to planet weapons useufl with some curiosities), it gets some damage and that planet becomes óccupied by them and requires invasion troops to be colonized.), because very early/explorer event pirates are what turns many players(Including, since recently, me) off from having pirates on. I also really like the idea of sending probes randomly into deep space; we're doing it all the time, so why wouldn't the factions in the future do it as well?

Hello!



I love the way things are being shaped!

=)



I just hope terraforming will be impossible/really really expensive to avoid system with all the same terraformed planet like in ES1.



Some quick ideas on the go:



Planets:

Humid + Burning = venusian

Flooded + Burning = boiling (perfect for teatime!)

or Flooded + Burning = metallic ocean

Flooded cold = icebergs

flooded warm = algae heaven

burning gas = plasma





lanes:

One way lanes

unstable lanes (take damage - fixed or depending on lenght - crossing except with tech)

chaotic worm hole : a random destination in a defined radius unless harnessed with prpoer tech. then choose in the same radius.



cheers

Idea of having all stars visible from turn 1 (GalCiv3). It might be done for a specific faction / trait.

I think that was Amoeba's unique feature. They are not planned for ES2? Or will be heavily reworked?

Lynx_gnt wrote:
I think that was Amoeba's unique feature. They are not planned for ES2? Or will be heavily reworked?

The Amoeba could see the entire map in ES1. Perhaps what the devs mean is that they will only be able to see stars, seeing neither the planets orbiting those stars nor the lanes attached to those stars.

I have to say I'm not a big fan of the lane concept for space 4X games, and would prefer free movement as the primary travel mode, like Endless Legend. But since it's locked in now, I think the additional nodes that aren't just star systems will help.



On the other hand, I share Caotico09's concern about hidden lanes that unlock with tech upgrades. The usual way to play games like this is to establish a hardened front line of expansion, where you focus your military action and colonization, with the main production systems in the rear being less well-defended. While it might be fun to discover a hidden lane that jumps my fleet directly into an enemy's soft underbelly of systems in the rear, I wouldn't want that to happen to my own empire. To guard against it, until we get enough tech to see all the lanes, we'd have to just heavily garrison every star system whether it's on the front line of expansion or not. That doesn't sound like much fun. It might also encourage rushing the tech tree to open up hidden lanes at the expense of anything else. So I'm not sure about this idea.



I like the idea of constellation "ownership" adding some empire benefits. And I assume the reverse also, like disrupting an enemy's constellation benefits if you take over star systems through conquest? This could add something new to strategy, instead of just whittling down an enemy piecemeal, and also determine where you put your strongest defenses.



I'm not a fan of black holes surrounded by planets that can be colonized. I don't think games like this need to be completely realistic, but that's a pretty big stretch. I think black holes are better as dangerous anomalies. Maybe there is loot to collect from planet debris in the accretion disk, and your ships get a big damage hit to retrieve the object. Keep them scary and dangerous.

Zenicetus wrote:
To guard against it, until we get enough tech to see all the lanes, we'd have to just heavily garrison every star system whether it's on the front line of expansion or not. That doesn't sound like much fun. It might also encourage rushing the tech tree to open up hidden lanes at the expense of anything else. So I'm not sure about this idea.

I think that's a little dramatic to be honest. Considering the context of an actual game of Endless Space 2, unless you were seriously behind in science, you'd be progressing at a similar, if not identical rate to your competition, so you'd only really need to worry about it if you come close to researching the required tech. It would make you pay attention to your competition too, if we can scout out other Empires' systems or fleets and learn what sort of modules and improvements they have, we could gauge their level of technology and you can determine from that if you need to defend or not. (Or, if they implement a Stats screen like in Endless Legend, just look at that at the beginning of each round)



And you wouldn't really have to protect every system heavily - or even at all! In Endless Space 1, one of my friends in particular constantly used his 'Lance Tactic' - he gunned straight for 'Faster than White' (unfettered movement) and upgraded it, before sending fleets unhindered to snipe key systems, or even your Homeworld. All you have to do is keep a fleet or 2 stationed at key locations throughout your empire, places that they can easily assist nearby systems. Hardly a need for a heavy military presence among your entire Empire.



That being said, I understand your worry, it'd be unsettling knowing there could be an opening that you simply can't see due to lack of research... But you'd just have to prepare when appropriate. (You might have to do so anyway, if Minor Factions spawn pirates and such.)

Zenicetus wrote:
I'm not a fan of black holes surrounded by planets that can be colonized. I don't think games like this need to be completely realistic, but that's a pretty big stretch. I think black holes are better as dangerous anomalies. Maybe there is loot to collect from planet debris in the accretion disk, and your ships get a big damage hit to retrieve the object. Keep them scary and dangerous.

Here, I agree with you 100%. Planets are a bit much to be orbiting a black hole, unless they're unstable and house Satan himself at their core. Perhaps very occasionally, one might find an Endless Space Station (or something similar) orbiting the black hole?

As we really want all the planets to feel different, a planet can have up to three anomalies! We want them to have visual consequences on the planet as much as possible.

Fantastic!

Hiyouren wrote:


Here, I agree with you 100%. Planets are a bit much to be orbiting a black hole, unless they're unstable and house Satan himself at their core. Perhaps very occasionally, one might find an Endless Space Station (or something similar) orbiting the black hole?

Heh I got that reference. In all seriousness though, according to Panczasu at least there are planets that orbit black holes, something about the gravitational pull of a black hole being the same as the star it was spawned from.

I hope that planet temperature is tied at least partially to its distance from its star, unlike in ES1.

Hi,



That's what I think about:



Gas giants



I think that it has no sense speaking of humidity in gas giants. It was always about their composition that affects the game.

When I see the picture at the end of GDD I supposed that they're a category in humidity and temperature because it is important some way to explain to the computer how to generate systems, randomize planets and all this things, which for me is not a problem. But seeing Romain's interview on gamescon (here the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24ci5vQ0Snc) at minute 2:04 the description of a gas hidrogen appears on left bottom corner and says: "Frozen" and "Dry", which imo has no sense if you're speaking about planets that essentially hasn't any water (or not in an important percentage) in their composition.

A part from what you need when programming, It would be better to just show: "type: large gas" "composition: hydrogen" in the GUI description than speaking of humidity.



Also think taht same about humidity on description may be applied to lava and similar which probably had no water (liquid) or whatever on its surface.



Order and type of planets



In ES1 when I saw a system with the nearest planet to the star being arctic and the furthest being lava, it appeared very strange to me. I suspect it's not difficult for you to:

- Put the hotter planets near to the star and the colder farther once the planets are generated. It'll look better.

- Tune planets depending on star temperature. So, stars with low temp (Red dwarf) will have colder planets, and that with higher temp (blue giant) will have hotter planets.



Stars



I'll like to see a lot of star types, even the more unrealistic ones: black holes, neutron stars, pulsars, and all you can think about.

Also I'll like to see anomalies tied to star (and not the planets) that affects the entire system, like "Hawkin's radiation: all planets around a black hole are irradiated", "problems with relativity: due to space-time alterations near BH, time slows, and in practice all fleets will be stuck for 1 turn, unless they've the necessary tech." or "planets around young stars has greater tectonic activyty, so more resources near the crust, but greater difficult to colonize them".



An, yes, I like the black hole and the ability to travel through it to another BH, that's what puts fiction and not only science on galaxy generation!



Freak nodes



I've got two ideas about nodes that are not a normal system:

- Rogue planet (it's a planet without a star, just look the wikipaedia), it may have some special anomalies and very different FIDSI output. Also beiig very difficult to discover, it may give you a flat bonus when colonized. Not talking about being the last node in a constellation, that you can only get the tech to find around turn 250...

- Abandoned Dyson sphere (if you didn't know the link to the wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_sphere). Obviously colonizable with proper tech, and please if you like the idea, make it very freak!



Question on influence and unseen nodes



In the video of gamescon, I couldn't make an idea if there was the idea of influence like in ES1, that an uncolonised system within your borers is not colonizable by another player. Now with the new curiosity system, I want to ask to Amplitude if there will be something like influence, and if it affects only nodes that you can see or affects any node?

It'll be a very strange sensation when getting the necessary tech you fund a system inside your territory colonized by another faction...



Other questions about colonized planets



- When you colonize a planet, will automatically be able to see all anomalies?

- If not, will the effects of unseen anomalies be present?

- If they are present although you don't see the anomaly, the player may suspect that this is present. Will you do something to avoid it?

- If they're unseen and hasn't any effects until you can see them, are you encouraging players to avoid researching techs that potentially will uncover negative anomalies? What's your plan to avoid it? (suspect may be the tech to see positive and negative anomalies be teh same?)

A part from the other post, I've got some questions about resources. In GDD 2 I've seen that the GDD about economy will take a loot at this, so if some questions are explained there, just say it and 'll wait.

- In Gamescon video, on galaxy screen you can see a resource counter similar to strategic resources in EL. Will be the mechanics more similar to EL than to ES1?

- Will you need to spend strategic when building ships or improvements, instead of being able to build as many as you want with only one source?

- I've read in GDD2 that luxury resources may be tied to a planet class to avoid all-terraforming. The same for strategic?



Thanks!

Adventurer_Blitz wrote:
In all seriousness though, according to Panczasu at least there are planets that orbit black holes, something about the gravitational pull of a black hole being the same as the star it was spawned from.

Planets may still be there, but the original star is gone, and replaced by something a lot more hostile to colonization. Instead of the life-sustaining output of a normal main sequence star, it's either a "quiet" black hole and all your planets are in an interstellar deep freeze, or else you're being bathed in intense X-Rays from an accretion disk around the hole.



Maybe ES2 will include a race that likes lots of short wavelength radiation and extreme cold for their colonies... Niven "Outsiders" maybe? But if that's the case, then they wouldn't be very happy on the planets around stars the other races are colonizing. I think black holes are just better left as navigational hazards and risky locations for loot, not colonization. It's not a friendly environment.

Interesting, but you don't talk about size of the galaxy, in ES i find this too tiny and only for 8 players at the maximum for 12 factions in vanilla.

So, in ES2 the galaxy are bigger than ES or not?



Thx,

Can we get some features that happen only like once every 30 some games? Like anomalies that are only available by chance. Makes the game different for everyone upon their first game.