The lore and background story of the game remaining unchanged let's start with the GDD n°2 - Overview  

A summary of how the Early Access version of the game is in the different mentioned aspects  will be available at the end of the post.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to this galaxy, once the home to a starfaring race known as the Endless. Though the Endless are long gone, and their civilization burned out in a violent civil war, the legacy they left behind echoes into the future and the past. Now you arrive on the scene -- you, leader of a strong and eager nation that has only just discovered space travel. To the stars! The forbidding vacuum of space will not deter us from the glory of discovery! You wonder what mysteries you will find there -- strange alien races, powerful opposing nations, fantastic astronomical anomalies, vast riches, and perhaps even ruins of the fabled Endless.

As the emperor you have at your disposal a panoply of tools to aid your development. Powerful heroes to lead your fleets and govern your systems; a Senate who expresses the desires of your population and who will -- you hope -- pass laws that will support your vision; advanced sciences and technologies to permit you to build ever-greater cities and ever-deadlier ships... Well, what are you waiting for?! Onward! Upward! Your destiny awaits!

GAME DESIGN

THE POPULATION

Rationale

We want the population to be at the heart of empire management. The population of each faction will have its own unique character in terms of economic outlook, political preferences, and perception of the world. The player will need to pay attention to the composition of the population of their empire in order to make decisions that won’t anger their citizens.

Key points

The population

• provides FIDSI bonuses specific to their faction
• interacts with minor factions
• supports and oppose various government policies
• perceives the world their own way
• can be composed of a plurality of races and opinions
• is affected by a player’s decisions
  
  

THE SENATE

Rationale

The Senate represents the citizens of the empire, and is the tool the player will use to customize its empire throughout the game.

The Senate represents the voice of the population, forcing the player to adapt to and influence those opinions in order to achieve his or her goals. The player will be able to choose the type of government, which will affect the limits of the Senate’s influence.

Managing the Senate is mandatory if you want to grow and develop your empire! The player will have an additional level of challenge, as decisions might affect the population and, on a larger scale, the Senate.

Key points

The Senate

• can enact laws depending on the available policies and the public support they have
• is beholden to elections run every 20 turns
• elections can be influenced by the player
• and the population they represent are in constant flux
  
  

THE GALAXY

Rationale

The galaxy is filled with points of intersection, around which fleets can orbit. These "nodes" are connected to each other, forming a graph-like structure. Their connectivity influences the tactical aspect of the navigation. Exploration will be both more important and more challenging than in ES1.

To keep each game fresh, the galaxy is procedurally generated and customizable through numerous options -- from the shape and size to the composition of the galaxy itself. The galaxy is also full of randomly assigned elements that render every planet, system, and constellation unique to that game.

Key points

The galaxy

• features randomly generated planets
• is procedurally generated and fully customizable
• is full of surprises! Anomalies, resource-rich backwaters, incredible aliens, wondrous sights, …
• will support deeper exploration gameplay with a larger role than in ES1
• is constantly evolving over the course of the game (new elements, events, discoveries, quests…)
  
  

ECONOMY

Rationale

We want the economy to be easy to comprehend. Therefore, resources are generated based on colonized planets and then multiplied by the population living on it. We build the economy around five elementary resources: Dust (money), Food, Industry,Science, and Influence. The player can thus choose what they want to focus on by distributing their population over different planets or systems to gain the needed resources.

In addition, the player can harvest more specific resources called Strategic and Luxury resources, which will allow him/her to access powerful bonuses to the elementary resources, construction, fleets, etc.

Key points

The economy

• is predicated on the outpost and colony system as in ES1
• is limited by the empire’s area of influence, which determines limits of control and frontiers
• is influenced by the faction's unique aspects (traits, specialities, etc.)
• builds on planet types to create a simple economic system
• supports leveling systems through crafting blueprints! 

BATTLES

Rationale

We want the player to enjoy watching battles and avoid micromanagement. To that end, we focus gameplay on all the many decisions that are taken before the battle:

• Choice of the place where the battle occurs
• Composition of the fleet (numbers and types of ships and their modules and armament)
• The selection of a tactical plan that takes best advantage of the fleet construction strategy
  
  

For the cinematic aspect, we want to develop elements that allow a huge variety of situations in order to feel that each battle is unique and worth watching.

Key points

Battles

• support grand strategical thinking, building off fleet composition and tactics
• take place in a range of arenas, encompassing varied astronomical hazards
• are cinematic! Beautiful to watch, and each one unique!
  
  

HEROES

Rationale

Heroes are powerful tools that aid the player in shaping their empire; they can be assigned as an Admiral on a fleet or a Governor in a solar system. Executing missions help them progress and unlock new skills that make them even more powerful. Each hero has a specialty, though they are all a useful bonus in any situation (up to a certain point).

The heroes will also develop their own story over the course of the game and acquire titles based on their feats.

Key points

The Heroes

• progress through an RPG leveling system (skills, specialization)
• are acquired over time depending on the player’s choices (focusing on war will tend to create Admiral heroes, for instance)
  
  

SHIP DESIGN

Rationale

The goal is not to expand the time required for ship design, but to make it more interesting and allow for better choices and more personalization. A battle will not be won by ship design, but it will play an important role in the outcome when combined with the ‘play’ tactical system for pre-battle planning.

Key points

Ship Design

• is supported by a slot system
• is predicated on "one hull = one role"
• evolves with technology breakthroughs (new modules, unlock slots / links)
  
  

RESEARCH

Rationale

The technology tree is key to helping the empire progress through the game; it both enhances the available game mechanics and unlocks new ones.

We want to give freedom to the player so they can decide how to approach the available technologies. However, we will add a link system between some of the technologies in order to create a puzzle-type gameplay, reflecting the course of scientific endeavour.

Key points

Research

• controls the pace of the game (Era split)
• gives unique choices for each faction
• of certain technologies will require prior technologies to have been unlocked (logical science/science-fiction based reason)
• technologies will sometimes be unlocked through unique quests and events
  
  

DIPLOMACY

Rationale

Since Endless Legend, we’ve tried to make diplomacy more real in terms of relationship dynamics, including a resource to tie it closely to the economy and avoid hectic behaviours. We will continue on working this path for Endless Space 2.

There are three main areas of interaction: Diplomatic treaties, coordination, and trade.

Key points

Diplomacy

• allows coordination between empires
• needs to be thought on the long term
• is built on treaties, gifts, agreements and betrayal…
• reinforces the geopolitical aspect of the game
• is bound to the political systems
• allows impressive reversal  
  

TRADE

Rationale

We want the player to have an active gameplay that revolves around trade routes; the gameplay should be as challenging, interesting, and rewarding as military gameplay. Still, we want to avoid micromanagement.

For that, we’re going to place them as managers of vast trading companies which have to build their networks. By doing this, we encourage the player to focus on working on the big picture instead of doing micromanagement.

Key points

Trade

• like in EL will be supported by a Marketplace
• companies are developed by placing concrete elements (stations, offices, etc.) to create trade routes
• allows players to accumulate Dust, Science and other resources
• can be increased by building trade ships, and investing in the development of trade companies to increase their power

NARRATIVE EXPERIENCE

Rationale

We want the player to enjoy the whole journey and not only the end of the game. For that we’re going to use different tools to reinforce the narrative experience. These will include quests that reveal the background of the galaxy and the major and minor factions and After Action Reports that can be shared with friends. We want the player to feel that each game is a unique story with a unique outcome driven by their choices.

Key points

Narrative experience

• will be supported by faction quests and background stories of the galaxy
• will feature side quests and events!
• is strengthened by After Action Reports
• can be shared through G2G via game story albums 
  
  

WINNING THE GAME

In a sandbox game like ours, it is important to provide the tools and motivation that allows the player to play and win as they wish. War is only one way to succeed, because we will encourage players to show superiority in other important fields such as economics, science and diplomacy. In total we have at least eight possible victory conditions, all of which are totally different.

HOW'S THE EARLY ACCESS VERSION ON THIS ASPECT?

Population

• While you can still move your population between colonized planets within a system, in the Early Access, there is no feature to move populations across systems yet.

Research

• For the Early Access version, there will be no faction-specific technology except technologies obtained by completing steps of your Faction Quest. 
• As it is now, players can research technologies in any order without needing to research prior technologies. 

Diplomacy

• For the Early Access, most of the feature of coordination between empires through diplomacy, such as Alliances, treaties etc... aren't present in the game.

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