How do I win a game?

[McGeeZac]

I have played many many many endless space 2 games. All of them are on Endless-on-Everything difficulty. But I just can't manage to finish the game. I always stop playing before victory simply because It got boring. And then I will just start everything all over again with different race. Pretending its going to go better. Even though, I can just simply fly two of my best fleet to everyone's capital then annihilate everything and take over. I just can't seem to be able to do it. So I am wondering if someone can tell me how they did it?

[hiromi_teija]

Then simply just win the game the way you described, and then call it quits. You finally have a win under your belt and you can drop the game since it seems you're not actually having fun

[Tilen]

You win a game by reaching one of the predefined goals, sélected at the start of a game.

That said, if you choose a game mode with not set goal, it will be theoretically endless.

[Vzzdak]

By having fun playing, until you decide to do something else.

[McGeeZac]

Originally posted by Vzzdak:

By having fun playing, until you decide to do something else.

Yes. And that's how I got many many many endless space 2 games and never really win a game.

Originally posted by hiromi_teija:

Then simply just win the game the way you described, and then call it quits. You finally have a win under your belt and you can drop the game since it seems you're not actually having fun

It was fun, then it stopped being fun on the later part because my empire became the top dog. Not to mention AIs are terrible at space fight. Their strategies are very predictable and linear. (Put a pirate mark somewhere, sneak attack else where. Sometimes not even that.) I am not fully equipping my fleet with latest modules, but I still managed to win every single space engagement. I guess I will try to fly my fleet to alien homeworld and annihilate them. They are hopeless anyway.

[💖 Officer Hotpants 💖]

By... not quitting before it's done? If you're finding it too easy, bump the difficulty up.

[Vzzdak]

The Ai isn't going to challenge you.
Increasing difficulty magically spawns extra ships for the Ai, as needed.
So you're only ever going to do really well, or really poorly.

Off the top of my head, if Ai difficulty is going to be cheesed, then there's a smart way to do that.
But game's been out for years; not feeling inclined to sketch it out, since they're not going to implement.
Oh, fine, here's how you do it:

1. Spawn extra cheese as a ratio of remaining turns in game (i.e., constrain the Ai from zerging you in the early game).
2. Depending upon difficulty, building a ship produces X additional cheese ships (i.e., a constraint to prevent fleets from materializing without time constraints).
3. Designate a fleet loadout that an Ai is aiming for (chosen from a selection of templates).
So for smaller skirmishes, you can see enemy loadouts, and have a sense for how to counter large fleet engagements.

4. Like (2), the Ai tech level for ship modules needs to be cheesed according to how advanced the game is.
So early game, perhaps Ai is allowed to trail you by one pie level, but on-par for the mid-game, and lead you by the end-game.

As regards diplo, if the Ai cannot afford to maintain an agreement, then cheese the Ai resources to allow it. If the game's going to cheese Ai combat capability, then may as well cheese the diplo to give you a better negotation experience.

[Groo the one]

Originally posted by Vzzdak:

Increasing difficulty magically spawns extra ships for the Ai, as needed.

Not true. Each player can buy ships on market, if tech is researched (and place it in its systems). Same with buyout action, when it comes to queued ships in production slot - if you have the tech you need to do so. Don't tell AI cheats by "magically spawning" extra ships, reasoned by your lack of knowledge. Raising difficulty level offers boosts to AI (FIDSI), but AI still has to make use of the same mechanics as each of the human player. No cheating so far.

https://www.games2gether.com/amplitude-studios/endless-space-2/forums/68-game-help/threads/27428?page=1#post-245050

Edit: By the way, McGeeZac knows exactly how to trigger victory conditions (800+ hours in ES 2), he's just trolling from time to time.

[McGeeZac]

Originally posted by Groo the one:

Originally posted by Vzzdak:

Increasing difficulty magically spawns extra ships for the Ai, as needed.

Not true. Each player can buy ships on market, if tech is researched (and place it in its systems). Same with buyout action, when it comes to queued ships in production slot - if you have the tech you need to do so. Don't tell AI cheats by "magically spawning" extra ships, reasoned by your lack of knowledge. Raising difficulty level offers boosts to AI (FIDSI), but AI still has to make use of the same mechanics as each of the human player. No cheating so far.

https://www.games2gether.com/amplitude-studios/endless-space-2/forums/68-game-help/threads/27428?page=1#post-245050

Edit: By the way, McGeeZac knows exactly how to trigger victory conditions (800+ hours in ES 2), he's just trolling from time to time.

I am not sure I am trolling. This game makes me hard to go on winning. Its like I built an empire with so many hours on so many hours of playtime. But when you win the game, you win the game and its over. Not to mention at the late game, every turn pops a lot of options and it takes forever to go through them. You know space empire never really have an end, so after so many hours I am beginning to wonder how people win. I guess Doom fleet to homeworld is the right cure.

Originally posted by 💖 Officer Hotpants 💖:

By... not quitting before it's done? If you're finding too easy, bump the difficulty up.

That's impossible. I am already at the endless everything difficulty. Its unpossible.

[Vzzdak]

Originally posted by Groo the one:

Originally posted by Vzzdak:

Increasing difficulty magically spawns extra ships for the Ai, as needed.

Not true. Each player can buy ships on market, if tech is researched (and place it in its systems). Same with buyout action, when it comes to queued ships in production slot - if you have the tech you need to do so. Don't tell AI cheats by "magically spawning" extra ships, reasoned by your lack of knowledge. Raising difficulty level offers boosts to AI (FIDSI), but AI still has to make use of the same mechanics as each of the human player. No cheating so far.

Why did you post a link to difficulty levels?

Regardless, the cheese spawning of extra units at higher difficulty is a thing.

[Groo the one]

Originally posted by Vzzdak:

Why did you post a link to difficulty levels?

As long as you refer to chosen AI difficulty level, it's useful, not?

[Vzzdak]

Originally posted by Groo the one:

Originally posted by Vzzdak:

Why did you post a link to difficulty levels?

As long as you refer to chosen AI difficulty level, it's useful, not?

How is it useful?

[Groo the one]

Originally posted by Vzzdak:

How is it useful?

My hope was, the link to the listed "Difficulty Levels (On Players & AI)" in official forum, offered by community member and VIP CyRob, would make you realize your comment...

Originally posted by Vzzdak:

Increasing difficulty magically spawns extra ships for the Ai, as needed.

... is wrong.

No AI difficulty-level related "magically spawning extra ships for the AI as needed" are listed this place, nor did I personally ever experience this - in 3000+ hours of playing Endless Space 2. Perhaps you ran into a cloaked AI fleet, uncloaking for to attack you (as long as you make use of Penumbra DLC), or whatever (other possible examples for you believing something else to be found in my first post above).

[Freny]

Once the race to colonize 7 to 9 systems is over by turn 70 (normal speed), the only way to keep engaged is for the AI to be aggressive, so that one needs to keep having to defend colonies, building ships to replace lost ones, and building planetary defenses to protect systems from invasion.

The bad news is: the AI is not aggressive and the diplomatic system is dysfunctional.

a) One way of making the AIs more aggressive is to only play with Conquest and Supremacy as victory conditions (it is not sufficient by itself).

b) Another way is to play with more Cravers as opposing AIs (it works at the expense of races' flavor. Some races are simply not recommended because the AI plays them poorly, such as Unfallen and Vodyani).

c) A different way is to play on a large galaxy with 10 players (instead of the recommended 8).

My suggestion is to use all 3 alternatives combined to a degree of your liking.

[Vzzdak]

Originally posted by Groo the one:

Originally posted by Vzzdak:

How is it useful?

My hope was, the link to the listed "Difficulty Levels (On Players & AI)" in official forum, offered by community member and VIP CyRob, would make you realize your comment...

Originally posted by Vzzdak:

Increasing difficulty magically spawns extra ships for the Ai, as needed.

... is wrong.

No AI difficulty-level related "magically spawning extra ships for the AI as needed" are listed this place, nor did I personally ever experience this - in 3000+ hours of playing Endless Space 2. Perhaps you ran into a cloaked AI fleet, uncloaking for to attack you (as long as you make use of Penumbra DLC), or whatever (other possible examples for you believing something else to be found in my first post above).

So you included a link without supporting arguments, thinking it would distract people from the fact that you didn't have anything to contribute.

Or is there something that you can specifically cite on that page?

[Freny]

Originally posted by Vzzdak:

The Ai isn't going to challenge you.
Increasing difficulty magically spawns extra ships for the Ai, as needed.
So you're only ever going to do really well, or really poorly.

Off the top of my head, if Ai difficulty is going to be cheesed, then there's a smart way to do that.
But game's been out for years; not feeling inclined to sketch it out, since they're not going to implement.

You don't have to play on default/recommended settings. You can also play with more than one Craver race (or Riftborn).

After playing a few games it is easy to realize that the AI is only driven by one thing: expansion (systems). The devs didn't code the diplomatic system, they stopped at the diplomatic screen. Declare war on all AIs? No problem. Take a system from an AI with 3x more ships than you? No problem. Leech the crap out of an AI system with unprotected Leech ships? No problem.

When problem? Systems. Solution? Take systems away. How? By playing non-recommended number of players.

AI doesn't challenge you? Play on a Large galaxy with 9 or 10 players. Still easy? Play with more than 1 Craver race. Too much on your face? Try Galaxy Density +133% or 12 players on a Huge Galaxy. The cheese you mentioned, it's called settings. Find the settings you like. The diplomatic system is a pretense? Indeed. The AI ship design sucks donkey balls? Yes (BattleMod helps with that somewhat).