Looking for Faction advice

[DaiconGrrl]

I have a little 4X experience. I love Civ, but have not found a space 4X that `felt' right to me. I played a little Endless Space last night and it seems to have that feel I am looking for. I need help picking/creating a faction, however. None of the default factions seem right, and I am at a bit of a loss on creating my own.

I am more of a 3X player. I love to Explore, Expand and Exploit, but I hate to Exterminate. In Civ, I typically aim for Cultural or Scientific victories. I love building choice infrastructure to make my empire as effecient as possible. I will defend my borders when necessary (obviously), but rarely press into another civilization's territory. I prefer to keep friendly and make them into trade partners, if the AI will let me.

In my experiment game, I tried the Amoeba. I did not like the way they start with everything explored, as it made it more of a 2X game :P I also had awful luck with my galaxy: almost every planet within 30 parsecs required tier two or three tech to colonise (mostly Arctic) >_<

[BoxOfPonies]

Hmmmmm. What would speak against the Sophons? Strong research, ships get slight boosts in terms of speed and scanning range, and their main disadvantage is in the military sector.

[DaiconGrrl]

I gave the Sophons a try, but my fleet was wiped out by Pirates on turn one. Their disadvantage seems a little too much after that.

[76561198077265477]

Pirates are pretty random. They can punch out any faction or not appear at all. (There is even a 'no pirates' option if you want to set that.) Definitely give it another try.

[Priestie]

I'm a big fan of the Sophons But the feeble warrior debuff makes it also require you to have a strong fleet at the ready. Ultimatly to really enjoy the game id say mess around with the Custom race option. And really take a look at some of the negatives. If they match your play style the negatives can actually be a boon. For example if your not an expantionist you may find deep roots X2 very attractive for holding your territory. Just my two cents :) Hope you continue to enjoy the game!

[xela.m]

have created my own faction . sophons resarch bonus is a key in this game . at the beginning resarch of weapons are very immprtent for the sophons , if you do not do that you will lose the game early - pirates , and when you expand rapidly then you will be att by the other faction . my created faction have the bonus of resarch and ship hold to carry more weapons and defense - onb the other side my heros cost more and healing of heros are much more expensive . good luck

[Dorok]

I'm playing Amoeba and I like quite a lot abuse diplomacy with them.

You could create a new race based on Amoeba and just remove the automatic reveal of a large part of the galaxy if you don't like this feature for this race.

[bills6693]

I seem to have had no actual military conflict, apart from my scouts getting killed when they stray into enemy territory. Everyone seems to leave me alone - I had a booming population, and next to no military might (4 of the starter fighting ships at the chokepoint to my territory)... yet they just let me get on with it.

I had pirates turned off tho :P

[Romeroberto]

I created my own race based on the SOWERS race affinity, and somewhat similar to them. Its awesome to just completely focus on production and get that as food. Usually my main planet has production 50 - 60 after 8 - 10 turns (with a administrator hero). Afterwards i can convert the production to system upgrades, money or research depending on what i need most. I usually keep pumping Colony-ships.

SOWERS can colonize ANY planet with 25% FIDS disadvantage! I just dont care what type of planet i find in the beginning. Most will serve. I use this to get Lava and Desert planets early on since they usually have great production values, which is also food for SOWERS. I like to play galaxies with "arms" since i can rapidly overtake my arm and it is then easy to defend it.

This way i won several games on "Normal" difficulty -> Expansion vitory

[Burusagi]

I second the Sowers. The ability to not have to "gimp" new systems by first working on Food production is amazing.

[Siaru]

It may not be the ideal way that you're looking for as you you prefer to do a non-combative victory, however basing a Custom Faction on the Sowers can be extremely beneficial. Personally, the colonizing any planet off the bat with -25% FIDS is extremely detrimental if you aren't careful. The Sowers base affinity allow for a lot of possibilities, so it's worth considering.

[Burusagi]

One thing to consider is that the Approval on any planet you colonize using the Sowers like that is going to be horrible.

It is not advisable to overuse it, if at all.

[Dorok]

The Amoeba have a base bonus for happiness and it seems grows as the game progress, was 8 and now I see a 14 faction bonus.

My current game is rather great from a peace point of view. But I got a setup quite good n that point of view. Also I wonder if it doesn't help but I did use a lot diplomacy with the idea to reinforce links with all other factions.

For pirates and first encounters with a faction, you can always just use the retreat card on all 3 phases (one for 1st phase is certainly enough) and never lost a ship because of that.

Hapiness is totally in center of my attention in current game I succeed have most planets of all factions but still many are outpost. Have that many planets require struggle against non hapinness and that faction bonus of 14 is far to be insignificant.

I see many people mention how fast colonize is perfect but I wonder if they quoted the huge influence on production that has happiness and the huge influence the expansion has on happiness.

For now slowest speed setup ie longuest game, that first play is a marvelous game play.

[judicater]

Using the SOWER's seemed to be the fastest faction i used to expand and conquer. Their approval is pretty horrible if you expand too quickly but on the upside the faction builds upgrades so fsst that it doesn't take very long before a colonized planet can convert production into dust which is HUGE for sowers since you have production buffs all over your tree. That also means your populations will max out quickly due to the production to food conversion. I've played every single with the same map size to turn 100 to see who cam eout further ahead by then. The SOWERS and the CRAVERS walked away but the SOPHONS were close and pulled away later in teh game with their ability to research much faster. I'm more of a build now, defend if i have to later kind of player but the CRAVERS surprised me. Their ability to fight off otehr fleets at such a low level sure helps alot though you won't be trading or making peace with anyone. I'm about to make a cutom race with SOWERS affinity, lower production with boost to science. we'll see how that goes.

[Dorok]

To come back to Amoaba, diplomacy win is perhaps a bit hard to try but use a lot diplomacy/trading/exchange can be very powerful. Here some examples of tricks, buy a research to an AI and sell it to all other. Or explore all possibilities around resources and take care AI behave very differently depending of the faction, you'll be surprise by all the possibilities and how it can be a tool to get monopoles (4 of the same resources giving empire bonus) or income, or that some AI don't care of some stuff that some other AI will want a lot, or if you offer to an AI the resources it wants to achieve a monopole then it will be ready to a lot in exchange, or when Dust come in larger amount in the game use trading to get large income, and many more.

That said even if Amoeba is supposed to be the diplomat faction I suppose all of that could be done by another faction.