Is there a tutorial?

[Saber Cherry]

Even if the tutorial's terrible, I still want to use it. I played ES1 and Endless Legend, but so far this game is pretty opaque. Can anyone tell me how to access the tutorial? From some posts, it seems like one might exist.

[Saber Cherry]

I can't even figure out basic stuff like how to colonize a planet. I can build a colony ship for 100 gears, or colonize a planet in my starting solar system for 320 gears. Obviously, I should build a colony ship and then colonize, since that's way cheaper... or is it? I have no idea. It's clearly stupid to make building an interstellar colonization craft 30% of the price of colonizing a local planet. So there has to be a catch, but it's not clear what it is.

[Mirror]

No clue if we have an in game tutorial BUT here is every tutorial you could ever want.
https://www.games2gether.com/endless-space-2/tutorials

[Saber Cherry]

I just built an improvement on my homeworld, but I don't see any way to determine what has been built on a planet, so I'm not entirely sure. Also, the 3 boxes at the bottom of the planetary management screen... none of them are labeled. Through trial and error I discovered that the left one is things you can build, the middle one is the construction queue, and the right one is ???. I guess it has something to do with fleets. It would be nice if there was some indication about what these boxes do and how to use them.

[Saber Cherry]

Thanks, Cinder, but actually I want a basic guide to how to play the game. Not how to optimize your FTSI or whatever. Just, an example of someone starting a game and doing normal things. I have been unable to find that. Googling gets me plenty of Youtubers who want to talk for a long time and do nothing, but I just want an example of how to play the game. Starting from turn 1, what do you do? What do you click on? How do you colonize a planet efficiently? How do you explore? This is a 4x game so those are the most basic questions. Sending a fleet to another star is straightforward, but then there are probes, heroes, engines, and so forth... so who knows if that's even a good strategy?

I hate watching other people play games. But, since this game has no tutorial, I will settle for watching someone play the game so I can follow that pattern, as this game is designed to be as unintuitive as possible, with no labels for any useful action.

[Mirror]

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:

I just built an improvement on my homeworld, but I don't see any way to determine what has been built on a planet, so I'm not entirely sure. Also, the 3 boxes at the bottom of the planetary management screen... none of them are labeled. Through trial and error I discovered that the left one is things you can build, the middle one is the construction queue, and the right one is ???. I guess it has something to do with fleets. It would be nice if there was some indication about what these boxes do and how to use them.

those 3 boxes each have a small symbol in the middle of them that if you put your arrow above it will tell you what they are for. Grayish column on the left side of each with a symbol in the middle, put your arrow above it.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1647409263

[Mirror]

Highlight New game at the start and you will see this
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1647410320
Click on beginner

[Saber Cherry]

Thanks! So there actually is a tutorial. I'm not sure why it's so hard to find. There should be a huge, blinking icon, "TUTORIAL", so people don't have to go to the forums to find out how to play the game.

...that said. There are still 3 unlabeled boxes in the planet screen.

"those 3 boxes each have a small symbol in the middle of them that if you put your arrow above it will tell you what they are for. Grayish column on the left side of each with a symbol in the middle, put your arrow above it."

Yep! That is correct. If you move your mouse around and hover over every single border icon, you will eventually discover something that says "This panel shows the construction queue of your colony".

...that is not good game design. I don't really care about this game anymore; I gave it a night and tried really hard, but it's just unplayable. ES1 was OK, and Endless Legend was pretty good. So I'll fall back to those and consider this a sunk cost. I wish this game was better. Having menus with names is actually useful. ES2 likes to have unnamed menus. I don't think any sane person would think that's a good idea, but I'm just a consumer, so what do I know?

[Groo the one]

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:

Googling gets me plenty of Youtubers who want to talk for a long time and do nothing, but I just want an example of how to play the game.

I would recommend game guides by GUD. It's entertaining. Keep in mind the different factions have different mechanics. Apart from your opinion I can't confirm game is unplayable - are you joking? In case hovering mouse over icons to read the tooltips is too uncomfortable or exhausting anyone can help you in 2019. It's one of the best UIs in my opinion. Not sure why you don't get used to it, as you pretend you tried very hard. If I read you did play Endless Legend and Endless Space 1 I can't believe you're having trouble playing Endless Space 2. But hey, we all are just consumers, perhaps it's simply not your cup of coffee. Your decision to miss this cool 4x game.

[Bozobub]

The only mechanism in ES2 I find particularly difficult is managing political parties, and their display is a bit confusing. Beyond that... Nah, I can't agree that the UI is bad at all. If you can't mouse over obvious labels and icons *shrug* enjoy your golden years, Grandpa .

[Saber Cherry]

To be fair, I am happy Cinder gave me advice. I just want to make it clear that while I appreciate Cinder's advice, I also feel that Endless Space 2 is basically unplayable for a newbie. I get that it's totally playable for developers. But for newbies like me, this is not a playable game. You have unlabeled interference boxes. These need to be fixed.

[Saber Cherry]

Originally posted by Groo the one:

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:

Googling gets me plenty of Youtubers who want to talk for a long time and do nothing, but I just want an example of how to play the game.

I would recommend game guides by GUD. It's entertaining. Keep in mind the different factions have different mechanics. Apart from your opinion I can't confirm game is unplayable - are you joking? In case hovering mouse over icons to read the tooltips is too uncomfortable or exhausting anyone can help you in 2019. It's one of the best UIs in my opinion. Not sure why you don't get used to it, as you pretend you tried very hard. If I read you did play Endless Legend and Endless Space 1 I can't believe you're having trouble playing Endless Space 2. But hey, we all are just consumers, perhaps it's simply not your cup of coffee. Your decision to miss this cool 4x game.

I played Endless Legend, and it was good. I played Endless Space 1, and it was fun, though a bit limited. You can malign me as much as you want; I don't really care, I just want an example of playing ES2, so I can actually play the game.

As for the UI, I mean -

You have 3 boxes at the bottom of your screen. I can't tell you what they are since they have no labels. But let's say, hypothetically, that they did have labels. Say, A, B, and EVIL.

Everyone knows what to pick. You pick A if you're not evil or C if you are evil. There does not seem to be a good choice. But, these are just random guesses.

[Bozobub]

Here's the thing: You are EXACTLY as much of a "n00b" as I was, when I 1st started playing ES2. And yet, I had no problems with the UI, nor *most* of the mechanisms (political parties still are difficult for me, in some ways). Nor am I some sort of prodigy or genius, or otherwise overly exceptional. I also am not a game developer of any sort ^^'.

Can ES2 use more tooltips and/or labels? Perhaps so; I agree that it's possible the devs sometimes take their GUI aesthetic a bit too far. But silly, obviously untrue hyperbole — no, the game is NOT "unplayable"; everyone starts as a noob, of course — won't advance your point one iota.

[Spacesuit Spiff]

They brought over many UI conventions from EL, including the construction queue/hanger setup. Reasoning based on that, anyone should be able to play the game to some extent.

To answer your earlier question, colonizer ships don't go to new planets in the same system, they have to go to new systems. This has changed since ES1.

All that said, yes this game could absolutely use more tooltips. The "system development upgrade" is an example of one that's super opaque. We're told it's not available, the way to make it available is in a relatively subtle part of the research tree, and we basically have to figure out how it works through trial and error. That's a problem the game has, and if it's such a dealbreaker then yeah this might not be a game you'll enjoy.

[Mirror]

Originally posted by Bozobub:

The only mechanism in ES2 I find particularly difficult is managing political parties, and their display is a bit confusing. Beyond that... Nah, I can't agree that the UI is bad at all. If you can't mouse over obvious labels and icons *shrug* enjoy your golden years, Grandpa .

This made me laugh.

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:

To be fair, I am happy Cinder gave me advice. I just want to make it clear that while I appreciate Cinder's advice, I also feel that Endless Space 2 is basically unplayable for a newbie. I get that it's totally playable for developers. But for newbies like me, this is not a playable game. You have unlabeled interference boxes. These need to be fixed.

If you really want someone to teach you what everything is, we can do a Discord call and I can explain what you dont know. Kind of a loss on you to hate something because it doesnt look like what YOU think it should look. I was never confused by the UI but I have played so many 4x games I just know what is what. I am confused by mechanics and some choices they have made with Space/Ground battles but that is a whole other story.

Let me know if you want me to coach you a bit so you can at least understand what is on your screen.

[Sloan]

https://cdn.mmohuts.com/wp-content/gallery/Endless-Space-2-Review-Early-Access-Gallery/EndlessSpace2-2016-10-13-01-55-03-36.jpg