Very pretty designed interfaces and overall visuals apparently only get me so far, well I guess they are enough to get me to buy a game without knowing it's in a genre I apparently can't get into. Even after the 20-30minutes it took to read all the 'hints' that were popping up every milisecond as the game 'progressed' I felt I was no where, and that nothing was actually happening. The game is SO dense that even when I was allowed to move a ship somewhere I felt I had no options (my fault for not having played 4x games before).

Tips? Are there any small things I should do to check my mindset before re-entering this game so I have a better time? Or is this just not a genre of game I'm going to realistically enjoy.

Have you played lots of Civilization type games or anything? I'm a big fan of that series and looking at maybe getting this. I'm a little worried about getting into it too though...

Hopefully they do a Quick Look so we can see what's really up.

@DJJoeJoe: Last time I played properly was Alpha and a lot has changed, however this guide let's you get an idea of how to get up and running safely as well as an idea which way you should be heading with research.

http://forums.amplitude-studios.com/showthread.php?2420-Tutorial-for-beginners.

Other than that, it's a lot of exploring and trying things. If something doesn't work and you lose, ah well, start again. I haven't won a game yet, and I've started playing on the easiest difficulty with all the win conditions turned off just to relax and learn the systems. That way I can find out research does etc. There's a Wiki too, but last time I was there it was really sparse. It may be better now:

http://endlessspace.wikia.com/wiki/Endless_Space_Wiki

4x games can be pretty overwhelming, there's a lot going on. It helps if you have a background with the genre, but if not the best way to go is take it easy. Or start on one of the very streamlined 4x games like Civ V.

Personally I've been dying for a good scifi 4X game since well...Alpha Centauri (which I'd'kill for a new one of by the way).

As 4x goes this game is incredibly simple. You might need to give it more than 30 whole minutes however if it's a genre you aren't familiar with. Give it a chance and you'll soon start learning from your mistakes.

Honestly I thought Endless Space was very easy to pick up, compared to other 4X games I have tried (and sometimes failed) to get into.

Do you guys recommend the game? I do enjoy the 4X genre. But my time is limited and I feared that this would just be another title on the to-do list

There are plenty of youtube lets plays.

There are a couple things that I didn't get from the tutorial that I figured out myself. For example systems can have improvements the same way cities can in Civ - planets can just have 1 exploitation going one at a time.

4x games can be pretty overwhelming, there's a lot going on. It helps if you have a background with the genre, but if not the best way to go is take it easy. Or start on one of the very streamlined 4x games like Civ V.

Personally I've been dying for a good scifi 4X game since well...Alpha Centauri (which I'd'kill for a new one of by the way).

@JackG100: How does this stand up to SotS 1? I have hope for Endless Space, but I worry that it just won't be good enough and I'll end up with a cheap imitation.

Games quite simple for a 4x Game.

• Move your ships to do battle, defend, or colonize.
• Upgrade solar systems, produce ships, or focus on a resources
• The real game is in the Tech Tree deciding what you want first, and reacting to what other players are doing, as well as designing your ships accordingly.
• Then during battles its a card game, trying to foresee your opponents moves.
• The political system is quite straight forward.

Other then that its quite a laid back 4x game. I like it, doesn't overwhelm you with decisions, the interface is super helpful/smooth, and its a nice change of scenery.

@Ruken said:

Have you played lots of Civilization type games or anything? I'm a big fan of that series and looking at maybe getting this. I'm a little worried about getting into it too though...

Hopefully they do a Quick Look so we can see what's really up.

When I saw Brad looking at it on I love Mondays this week I was hoping that they would do a quick look aswell.

I'm liking the game a lot.

My biggest problem with the sci-fi take on the genre is that the names of the research options and improvements are really unintuitive.

In Civ5 you can research "Steel plating", and that makes sense. But here it's some shit like "PROTOALIENXOR KINETISHIELDERBORG". So I have to be double checking what everything does, and that gets annoying.

Other than that, love the game!

If you want to just learn the interface and figure out how to set up an economy, best research paths, etc., I recommend setting up a game on a large map, no pirates and set the galaxy type to "spiral with X-arms" ... and then make sure the number of arms is more than the number of AI players you add to the map.

What you will probably have when you start the game is an entire arm of that galaxy to yourself. You will probably have a single choke-point exit from that arm, and that'll let you have relative peace for a long time. Diplomatically, be friends with everyone but don't let anyone have access to your space, this'll keep the other AI's from setting up camp in your back yard for a while.

A few other tips:

* pay attention to the planet types for the entire system when deciding what to upgrade your colony exploitation to. for example, if you have three lava worlds you should upgrade all of the planets in that system to the industrial option, which grants a bonus to industry on that planet but also an industry bonus to every lava planet in the system.

* pick up heroes that grant bonuses to industry and food production and then when they level up pick up the traits that give bonuses to satisfaction. then move these heroes around to systems as needed, especially when setting up a new system. this will speed up the colonization process immensely.

* when you have a few ship building systems set up, don't bother with "retrofitting" your smaller ships ... waste of cash. just scrap them and produce new ones, it takes one turn to produce one ( sometimes two or three, depending on your system ) of the destroyers .

I can't say as I'll keep playing this game much longer ... getting a bit bored of it, and I think it has it's fair share of little quirks and problems. But, it's pretty straight forward and looks nice. Card-based combat gets old, fast, though.

Didn't think this was like Civ.. Might check it out then, sounds good.

My biggest problem with this game is that you'll play for 150 turns, feel like you're doing okay, have balanced research, and then all the sudden there's an enemy fleet with a strength of 10k inside your capitol while your strongest fleet is like 4k, even with keeping up on retrofits, upgrades, etc, and then you lose in 1 turn. It shouldn't be possible to lose in 1/2 turns it's just weird. Maybe I'm just terrible, I don't know, but it gets frustrating when I get the lose screen and I'm just like "wat"

@Pinworm45 said:

My biggest problem with this game is that you'll play for 150 turns, feel like you're doing okay, have balanced research, and then all the sudden there's an enemy fleet with a strength of 10k inside your capitol while your strongest fleet is like 4k, even with keeping up on retrofits, upgrades, etc, and then you lose in 1 turn. It shouldn't be possible to lose in 1/2 turns it's just weird. Maybe I'm just terrible, I don't know, but it gets frustrating when I get the lose screen and I'm just like "wat"

Same here, Pirate ships appear that are overly strong and destroy me, especially since I was playing the peaceful races. Probably because I didn't research much into weapons and only had kinetic weapons. Looks like I need to build ships with all 3 weapon types much earlier.

@Addfwyn said:

4x games can be pretty overwhelming, there's a lot going on. It helps if you have a background with the genre, but if not the best way to go is take it easy. Or start on one of the very streamlined 4x games like Civ V.

Personally I've been dying for a good scifi 4X game since well...Alpha Centauri (which I'd'kill for a new one of by the way).

How similiar is it to Civs 5?

@senorfuzzeh said:

@Addfwyn said:

4x games can be pretty overwhelming, there's a lot going on. It helps if you have a background with the genre, but if not the best way to go is take it easy. Or start on one of the very streamlined 4x games like Civ V.

Personally I've been dying for a good scifi 4X game since well...Alpha Centauri (which I'd'kill for a new one of by the way).

How similiar is it to Civs 5?

Very similar, down to the UI in some cases. Youtube some Lets Plays for the game to get a better idea.

I've been trying for a couple days now to like this game and I just can't seem to do it.  I should be eating it up as I love Civ and Sins.