He looked confident, ready for anything and yet relaxed. He gazed at the document for an instant and added:

"And you know what? I've even made sure that, right at the end of the post, there is a small section summarizing the state of the Early Access version regarding the narration."

He scrolled down and and there it was, the elegant but still quite noticeably red icon marking the beginning of said section.

GOAL 

The Narration is of course a way to make you discover the Endless universe: major factions and minor ones, resources, galaxy lore, etc. However if you can discover the past, you should be able to change the future, or to choose what it is supposed to become. Narration should also bring moral choices and gameplay choices in order to make your game unique. The same part of the Narration could be shared by several players: sometimes they will need to cooperate, and sometimes they will be in competition. Besides, spending time to accomplish deeds deserves some advantages. Even if the easier objectives will correspond to classic rewards (resources, Dust, etc.), the hardest ones will be rewarded by unique technologies, super effects on systems, and maybe even a private node?

HOW 

What shape will the Narration take in ES2? We’ve decided to mix Endless Legend’s quests and Endless Space 1's events.

Event in ES2

Narrative elements, where the player could choose his/her own reaction. There is no specific achievement to do. Nonetheless, we can notice that the event could have some effects on the Galaxy (like winter in Endless Legend).

Example of an Event:

 The Effect/reward of an Event could be unknown

Quest in ES2: Narrative element where the player could have to choose between several objectives. The chosen objective then needs to be accomplished by the player. In consequence, the player could have access to a reward corresponding to their choice. Moreover, the next step or chapter of the Quest will be linked to the choice made by the player.

Some quests could have no choice, and a quick objective to meet.

Example of Quest:

In this Example, all players have the same chapter. They then need to choose between a Militarist resolution and an Economic one. For example, assign a Hero as Governor or as Admiral.

Then the player who chose the Economic choice and who has assigned a Hero as Governor sees only the version “Chapter 2 Economic”. Maybe it is a Civil War, contrary to the Chapter 2 Militarist option where a mutiny occurs.

In Chapter 2, the player can choose again between an Economic resolution or a Militarist one. Thanks to this choice all players can have access to Chapter 3 Economic, or Chapter 3 militarist. But this time, players are forced (decisive choice before?) to accomplish one objective corresponding to the Chapter version.

I hope you enjoyed our super-fancy graphs… Now, let’s talk about when these quests and events occur.

WHEN 

Narrative Elements (quests and events) have a lot of different ways to trigger.They are forced (major faction quest: each time the player finishes a chapter, the next one is triggered)

• They happen randomly (exploration quest: you were exploring a curiosity and suddenly an Endless appears)
• In reaction: the player is doing a specific action or something occurs as a consequence of their actions (lose population, discover a major empire, etc.)
  
  

The complexity of a quest, its tone, and the number of choices will depend on the trigger. If the quest is forced, the objectives will be longer and harder to accomplish, but the reward (access to the victory quest?) will be higher too.

QUEST TYPES 

Alright, we’ve talked about quests, events, explorations, major factions… So let’s talk a little bit about what kind of quests and events we’ll be able to find during the game!

The major faction quest

Specific to the original population played by the player:

It is very specific to the faction selected at the beginning of the game. It is composed of chapters (around 4). All these chapters ask the player to choose between several reactions. If some of them follow clearly the playstyle of the faction, some will allow the player to act very differently (The Sophons’ objectives could be “exterminate X factions”). After this choice, the player should accomplish this objective to have access to the next Chapter. The lore in this chapter will depend on the choice: if two players make different choices, they will not see the same story.

Exploration Quest

The exploration quest should be shorter and lighter than the major faction quests. Even if some exploration quests require choices, or have chapters, they should be the occasion to discover the galaxy’s secrets and receive helpful rewards.

Population

Similar to exploration quests, population quests should be short and light. They are the occasion to learn more about the relationship between factions, their customs, their favourite sports etc. Those quests could be triggered by immigration, cohabitation between enemy populations, low/high approval and such. Reward should be focused on population and economy.

However, you can also encounter multiplayer quests: 



Cooperative Quest

Cooperative quests could affect several or all the players. It could have one or two chapters and sometimes choices. This could turn the Cooperative quest into competitive quest with treachery and deceit… The reward system is a little bit specific: even if the reward should be helpful to all empires, only the best players will receive a special reward, depending on their contribution. This “podium” will be visible by all players involved in the Quest. 



Competitive Quest

Competitive quests involve all the players or several ones. The goal is to be the best, the first, the most productive to win the final reward – probably huge and helpful - There could be choices – in order to create a competitive quest: allowing teams – with your allies for example? The rewards could be different in function of the choices and objectives too.

EVENT TYPES 

Global Events

As for winter in Legend, global events should affect the whole galaxy or a large part of it. It could affect systems, production, Empires, war… It could require a choice, a decision. The result of the event could be only effects (penalties, bonus with a duration, etc.) or a quest.

Solo Events

Contrarily to global events, solo events affect only one empire or a small part of the Galaxy. The player can choose between options to decrease or increase the event’s effects. 

 HOW'S THE EARLY ACCESS VERSION ON THIS ASPECT?

• Cooperative Quests aren't in the Early Access version of the game (except for one that isn't in its definitive form)
• Competitive Quests aren't in the Early Access version of the game
• Global events aren't in the Early Access version of the game

adelahaye wrote:

"I've updated the GDD n°9 - Narration..." he said as he highlighted the ninth entry on his screen with the cursor of his mouse. 

Hi! I have some inter-connected questions-proposals about victory:

1) EL has an allied victory now. Will this feature be introduced in ES2? I like the idea a lot but I am a bit concerned with a possibility of situation like "we have 1 looser and 5 allied players who win due to efforts of 1 leader and his decisive role is not rewarded at all". It would be nice if the leader's role was gloriously defined in the victory screen. (possibly I should copy it to EL forum if EL devs dont drop in here)

2) Will there be victory/defeat cinematic outros? To my mind, having ones is much more important than intros because it is the best reward for winning the game or a way to emphasize a grief of defeat.

3) Moreover, it will be great if the defeat outro cinematics were defined by the situation at the end of the game. For example, if you lost but your dust output was the greatest in the galaxy and your faction was not the leader's adversary (i.e. in peace or alliance with the leader), it would be integrated into the future pan-galactic empire as a financial center. In addition, you could see such information about the future of all the factions In the score screen. If the potential winner wants seeing all the other factions bloodily eliminated in the long view, he may declare wars on the last turn (this may lead to failing certain win conditions though!).

I think these features would be very concordant with the central idea and moto of the game "Your vision. Their future". One of the funniest things in strategic board games is after-play reflection when you look at the map and discuss with friends how the things shall go on for every faction after the winner is defined. I wish I could have similar fascinating emotions when an ES2 playthrough is over.

And thanks for the great introduction into the diary :D.