New to the game, a few questions

[Jaiiba]

So, I just got the game a few days ago, and I am wondering if...

* Is there a way to spectate my friend's battles?
* Is there a way to start a co-op game with a friend? I mean, I would like to start as a team with them.
* How to increase the happiness of my population?

Thanks in advance.

[Жора]

Originally posted by Jaibamon:

* How to increase the happiness of my population?

I don't know about multiplayer as I mostly play 4x games only for singleplayer.
But the approval management in this game is simple. Unlike most other games in this genre, here you easily can have a huge galaxy with "green" happiness.
There are four main types of approval factors:
1. Expansion disapproval. Rises with every new System you own. The newly established world will be an "Outpost" for 20 turns (on normal speed). It will have a big Expansion disapproval penalty. If you include this outpost inside of your Influence area (colorful circles around your colonies) disapproval will be decreased in half. Or you need to wait for it to become Colony.
Can be decreased by technologies and luxury bonuses to 0.
2. Overpopulation disapproval. Rises with the growth of a System. An impact is small and it can be reduced even more with the special building.
3. Ownership disapproval. When you capture the system it will be at -100 approval, decreases to 0 within ~20-25 turns on normal speed.
4. Inhospitable planets/anomalies - research technologies, do terra-morphing, fix anomalies.

Plus, you can always reduce your tax rate as the last line of defence against pissy pop.

[MTB-Fritz]

Originally posted by Jaibamon:

So, I just got the game a few days ago, and I am wondering if...

* Is there a way to spectate my friend's battles?
* Is there a way to start a co-op game with a friend? I mean, I would like to start as a team with them.
* How to increase the happiness of my population?

Thanks in advance.

No spectator mode. The only thing you can do is your friend sending you a save game which represents a "snapshot" for you to peek at. Other then that there are third party softward on the net which allows you to synchronize your desktop with another person. He will then see everything you do on your screen (like a private twich stream)

There sadly is no ccop mode in the game. Every match is pure domination or last man standing (albeit you have more then the military route to achieve that). I did enough coop matches but its 2 competing players working together really. The game itself will consider you both competing factions and only one of you can win. Hopefully this will be adressed in ES2 (because it was one of the major points brought up by the community)

Approval can be increased by
- heroes
- green and (some) orange anomalies
- system improvements (must be unlocked via research first)
- wonders
- tax slider
- upgrading an outpost to colony

[Jaiiba]

Originally posted by MTB-Fritz:

Originally posted by Jaibamon:

So, I just got the game a few days ago, and I am wondering if...

* Is there a way to spectate my friend's battles?
* Is there a way to start a co-op game with a friend? I mean, I would like to start as a team with them.
* How to increase the happiness of my population?

Thanks in advance.

No spectator mode. The only thing you can do is your friend sending you a save game which represents a "snapshot" for you to peek at. Other then that there are third party softward on the net which allows you to synchronize your desktop with another person. He will then see everything you do on your screen (like a private twich stream)

There sadly is no ccop mode in the game. Every match is pure domination or last man standing (albeit you have more then the military route to achieve that). I did enough coop matches but its 2 competing players working together really. The game itself will consider you both competing factions and only one of you can win. Hopefully this will be adressed in ES2 (because it was one of the major points brought up by the community)

Approval can be increased by
- heroes
- green and (some) orange anomalies
- system improvements (must be unlocked via research first)
- wonders
- tax slider
- upgrading an outpost to colony

Thanks, do you know if Endless Space two have these limitations too?

[Graakrage]

How do you merge fleets? Under fleet screen I use ctrl to select two single-ship fleets but can't merge them.
Could it be because they're not located in the same system when I try?

And how about invasion power? All my fleets are at 0 with that. Can you even invade at 0?

[MTB-Fritz]

Merging fleets has 2 requirements.

Physical location. All fleet parts you want to merge must be stationed in the same hangar or orbit.

Every ship hull has a CP value (command pool) and your empire can maintain fleets of a certain size (again, represented by your empires CP). If selected ships you want to merge exceed your CP you wont be able to complete the action.

If you play Disharmony invasion has its own dedicated module you can find under the support tab. The first tier needs to be unlocked via research before its available. Other modules also add invasion power (bombers, fighters, troops).

If you play classic then regular MP fleets also work for invasions and all you need is time to flip a system.

[Graakrage]

Cool, thanks.
Did fleets have an upkeep cost too? Where can you see that?

And what's with the difficulty settings and AI getting crazy bonuses even before normal mode?

[MTB-Fritz]

Every ship has an upkeep cost depending on its IND value. The ships and the ship management screen dont show these costs ship by ship but the ship and fleet management tab at the top of your screen shows an overview and it will be reflected in your dust income per turn on your system management window (just mouse over the dust income)

Difficulty settings are exactly what they suppose to be. They make the gamemore challenging the higher you go in difficulty.

"Normal" is already roughly +20% to the AI so your entry difficulty should be newbie or very easy. Bonuses start at Easy+