End-game is a drag...

[Frogshackle]

I enjoy the bulk of the ES experience but that end game sure turns into a slog of micro-management that isn't very much fun.

I find that by about turn 140, I am spending 80% of my time cycling through all of my occupied systems and scanning populations to see if any should be moved to better systems (super time consuming), checking the current state of worlds to see what structures should be built to take advantage of their traits and digging into the current buildings to see if any need to be dismantled due to traits changing as a result of terraforming.

I usually find that stuff engaging and impactful during the early parts of the game but it snowballs into such a logistical pain in the ass by the late game that I often just say "screw it, at this point I am either going to win or lose based on the current state of things and tweaking a bunch of small variables won't make much of a difference..." - what is fun with a handful of worlds becomes quite tedious when dealing with several dozen.

Of course, the economy of the game is often so wonked by the end that even if I built every single possible structure available, I probably wouldn't put a noticable dent into my crazy income but that's not really a solution to the problem. (Maybe it's an intentional "design choice" to emulate the wasteful bureaucracy of a massive empire/government - ha!)

Anyway, once you toss in the current issue of lagging and slow-down around turn 150 that combo makes for an end game that is a lot less engaging than the rest of the campaign.

[Jones 27]

and this is why i tend to favor small maps. managing more then 8 systems can get tedious after a while.

[ninakoru]

Try to check those things not every turn but every 4-5 turns in endgame, not worth that kind of min-max most of the time.

[TheGodlike]

Stopped min-maxing my planets after my 3rd or 4th time entering the mid to end-game. No use in doing it - I'm usually swimming in everything. Most of the strategic and luxury resources are constantly at 999 and I now build every single building on every singe planet (including terraforming to the type of planets with the highest pop).

The only way to avoid the tidious endgame and make it more challenging is to reduce galaxy size, increase difficulty and number of empires even further. But that is for me an "artificial" measure - why even offer the bigger types of galaxies?

Some more stuff to do and spend resources on is needed - megastructures or other kind of superprojects that are huge resource sinks, anyone?

[JH]

Granting independence ought to be a thing. Systems could become very similar to an allied minor faction - most of this is already in the game. Otherwise, there's always the auto-governor..

Unfortunately, instead of giving a proper way to deal with an excess of colonies, the game just has harsh overcolonisation penalties to discourage you from getting too many in the first place.

[Star Paladin]

I had the same feelings, but thought using the AI governors would help greatly, but nope. Once any infinite building is researched, they make things worse. It's almost double the micro after that.

And ya, I have so much money & influence (and luxeries) that I feel like Oprah at a flee market.

[JH]

Originally posted by Star Paladin:

Once any infinite building is researched, they make things worse.

That sounds like something in need of a fix.

Another thing that would really help, and which ES1 had, was hotkeys to add to beginning or end of all queues. That allowed for leaving the auto-gov on and adding en masse when needed. Sometimes it's the little things.

[crizisrf]

After several Endless difficulty playthroughs i assure you everything you've described as micro isn't needed to win.

After initial colonization phase you're taking full populated worlds from others and moving population becomes unneeded. About buildings - just queue what you need (put production buildings at the start of the queue ofc.).

The "problem" you've described don't fixing. Micro is important at start, later on you'll squeeze few pennies from it, but it won't make or break your empire so if you don't want to bother - then don't do it.

[Star Paladin]

JH, I'm concerned that the Infinite Building (IB) problem may never be fixed, as they never did in 1. Once an IB is put in by an AI, it's never taken out, meaning you have to go back to every single system to take them out, every single time you research a new building. Then, of course, the AI puts them right back in again.

The AI needs to take them out when new techs are researched.

[gerzald]

Need a mod to tone down the crazy amount of wealth at the mid to end game.

[Frogshackle]

I have the opposite experience with Endless Legend -- where I have several expansions and buildings that I want to build but the expansion disapproval is much more brutal in that game and the choices seem to matter a lot more - even into the end game.

I realize that it isn't absolutely necessary to be so micro at the end but I feel that's the game dropping the ball, not me.

I guess that I object to the concept of my vast empire becoming a cluster-F of poor management and apathetic/greedy governers who let spending go wild. I suppose that it reminds me too much of the US. : )

[Frogshackle]

And that reminds me - it would be nice if (as in Stellaris) the pops of your planets were free to relocate themselves to nicer (or simply more suitable) worlds on their own. It seems wacky that anybody would willingly remain on some hellish lava planet when there's an Eden next door.

I could see this easily accomplished by having it be an ecological edict/law (so that a player could choose whether to allow free migration or not) but still allow for manual relocation as well (although those free-thinking pops might just move back if you send them someplace crappy).