Yikes at those Dark Matter reviews...

[Doomjazzer]

It's almost a year later, does the DLC still have that game-breaking bug? For some reason it's in my library, I must have impulsed bought it on sale.

I haven't played the game yet, and was researching DLC. Dark Matter looked like a nice one to enable for a first playthrough, but I guess not...

[ZumZoom]

I would recommend the base game for the first playthrough. You can enable Vaulters as it just adds a new faction, plus diplomacy with pirates. But enabling Awakening and Penumbra is a very bad idea for a newcomer. Supremacy is not too messy, but I would also leave it out for the first time.
As for DM I haven't tried it yet, maybe when I start using mods that fix it.
P.S. I think the rest of DLC is ok (new music and minor factions stuff), I just can't be bothered to go into browser and use vpn to see the store page. I have to do that to be able to see it, because Sega (or Amplitude) decided to join the Russia blockade.

[Doomjazzer]

Thanks for the info. I like playing vanilla for a while when trying a game for the first time, getting achievements, etc. But I'm aware of the popularity of the ESG mod, which apparently fixes both DM and Awakening. Just a shame DM has such severe bugs as it looked appealing for a first playthrough.

I'm playing Stellaris at the moment but every year they keep making fundamental changes, it's such a headache having to relearn the game. The two latest changes added a seemingly worthless espionage mechanic and completely changed planet building (not tied to pop growth anymore), and it's so bad I'm going to put the game aside for a long while.

ES2 looks aesthetically very nice at the very least, coherent menus, ship designer, nice soundtrack, etc.

[Elitewrecker PT]

Last time i played it i didn't see any issues from it.

[Groo the one]

At least the quest "Death without a corpse" coming along with Dark Matter DLC is still buged, as you can read about this place:
https://www.games2gether.com/amplitude-studios/endless-space-2/forums/114-bug-reports/threads/40299-can-t-colonise-a-system-and-the-game-won-t-tell-me-why

[Winter]

Dark Matter still has broken quests. It still takes perfectly good planets, sets quests for them, and forever renders them unable to be colonized. I love ES2, and can recommend most the DLC, but not DM.

[Velorace]

Originally posted by Doomjazzer:

It's almost a year later, does the DLC still have that game-breaking bug? For some reason it's in my library, I must have impulsed bought it on sale.

I haven't played the game yet, and was researching DLC. Dark Matter looked like a nice one to enable for a first playthrough, but I guess not...

I'd recommend you playing with ESG once you are ready or would like to start the game for real. Endless space is unbalanced on Vanilla if compared to the ESG mod who adresses ever needed balance changes to the game.

You might have a wrong impression of the game by playing vanilla, ESG is the only sought off mod to balance the game that exists.

[Red Star, Blood Moon]

Originally posted by ZumZoom:

I would recommend the base game for the first playthrough. You can enable Vaulters as it just adds a new faction, plus diplomacy with pirates. But enabling Awakening and Penumbra is a very bad idea for a newcomer. Supremacy is not too messy, but I would also leave it out for the first time.
As for DM I haven't tried it yet, maybe when I start using mods that fix it.
P.S. I think the rest of DLC is ok (new music and minor factions stuff), I just can't be bothered to go into browser and use vpn to see the store page. I have to do that to be able to see it, because Sega (or Amplitude) decided to join the Russia blockade.

I would also strongly recommend this, but as per Sseth's review oh man, do any of you remember the amount of butthurt those things created for Hissho DLC? I for one was so dismayed at Behemoths just nuking a system I flat out turned the DLC off because I didn't want to deal with that especially because using a literal star destroyer apparently caused approval problems than systemically pillaging and looting a planet or blowing one up. I've no idea why that oversight happened to give zero morale penalties to using one whereas it took ages just to move and deploy a planetkiller weapon that then caused an uproar.

I'd also suggest to just turn pirates off. Really I don't know why some people were so upset about asking for the option to turn off features or certain "features" of different DLCs, when reality is the main reason anybody buys faction DLCs is for the factions, not the rule changes or creating a new gimmick. Like I bought the last DLC without learning too much about it only to discover apparently Isyander is now like an overpowered pirate faction who can't be turned off.

Originally posted by Doomjazzer:

Thanks for the info. I like playing vanilla for a while when trying a game for the first time, getting achievements, etc. But I'm aware of the popularity of the ESG mod, which apparently fixes both DM and Awakening. Just a shame DM has such severe bugs as it looked appealing for a first playthrough.

I'm playing Stellaris at the moment but every year they keep making fundamental changes, it's such a headache having to relearn the game. The two latest changes added a seemingly worthless espionage mechanic and completely changed planet building (not tied to pop growth anymore), and it's so bad I'm going to put the game aside for a long while.

ES2 looks aesthetically very nice at the very least, coherent menus, ship designer, nice soundtrack, etc.

As someone that's a big fan of space 4x, Stellaris is the one game I shamelessly excluded from my libraries, possibly permanently. I'm just not giving Paradox my money. It's no surprise to me either that PDx mismanaged the VTMB2 project into the dirt and promptly tried kicking the ball to everyone from Hardsuit Labs to certain screeching idiots about muh wokeness to blaming anything else than typical Paradox greediness and managerial incompetence killing the project. Just imagine starting only with Ventrue and Toreador and then having to pay $15 for every single other bloodline + $5 per each questline +tip until you've shelled out an additional $300 to paradox just to play an RPG, half of which is basically paying them to get mandatory bugfixes and patching.

Clearly I'm not a fan of this company, and likely you've seen firsthand why. Like it blew my mind first time I tried demoing that game and realizing it both looked and played like some indie game made in a Russian fishing shack by a couple of guys, and even to this day Stellaris has fewer ship models than any base game, and they're not super detailed either. They're not even half as interesting to play as Endless Space, and really most of Stellaris' mechanics and racial traits come down to +2/-2 on a handful of different traits as opposed to radically changing the way you play at some fundamental level like Hissho or Cravers vs Riftborn or Vaulters.

The funniest thing is, I don't even begrudge Amplitude and I end up buying their DLCs anyway, even though it feels like ripping my fingernails out letting Pdx have an extra fivebux. I think partly that's because Amplitude puts so much work in usually, and it feels more like I'm buying additional seasonings and sides, whereas with PDx I feel like they're charging me for the sauce, and the bun, plus extra for every mandatory ingredient. I've been told repeatedly that everything from EU to CK games basically needs like $50+ worth of DLC mandatory just making it stable, playable, and enjoyable.

Sorry about the rant but

Originally posted by Doomjazzer:

It's almost a year later, does the DLC still have that game-breaking bug? For some reason it's in my library, I must have impulsed bought it on sale.

I haven't played the game yet, and was researching DLC. Dark Matter looked like a nice one to enable for a first playthrough, but I guess not...

tl;dr yes OP I think you should play the game once on vanilla with all DLC off and probably leave pirates off your first game or two also.

[Groo the one]

Originally posted by BlackSun:

I for one was so dismayed at Behemoths just nuking a system I flat out turned the DLC off because I didn't want to deal with that especially because using a literal star destroyer apparently caused approval problems than systemically pillaging and looting a planet or blowing one up.

...

Like I bought the last DLC without learning too much about it only to discover apparently Isyander is now like an overpowered pirate faction who can't be turned off.

You can choose to deactivate super weapon in new game setting, no need to deactivate the whole DLC, if you struggle to deal with super weapon.

...

You simply can lower academy difficulty in new game setting, if you can't deal with strong/aggressive academy faction

[Doomjazzer]

Originally posted by BlackSun:

I'd also suggest to just turn pirates off. Really I don't know why some people were so upset about asking for the option to turn off features or certain "features" of different DLCs, when reality is the main reason anybody buys faction DLCs is for the factions, not the rule changes or creating a new gimmick. Like I bought the last DLC without learning too much about it only to discover apparently Isyander is now like an overpowered pirate faction who can't be turned off.

As someone that's a big fan of space 4x, Stellaris is the one game I shamelessly excluded from my libraries, possibly permanently. I'm just not giving Paradox my money. It's no surprise to me either that PDx mismanaged the VTMB2 project into the dirt and promptly tried kicking the ball to everyone from Hardsuit Labs to certain screeching idiots about muh wokeness to blaming anything else than typical Paradox greediness and managerial incompetence killing the project. Just imagine starting only with Ventrue and Toreador and then having to pay $15 for every single other bloodline + $5 per each questline +tip until you've shelled out an additional $300 to paradox just to play an RPG, half of which is basically paying them to get mandatory bugfixes and patching.

tl;dr yes OP I think you should play the game once on vanilla with all DLC off and probably leave pirates off your first game or two also.

I feel like once I play ES2 (today!), Stellaris is going to be even worse than I already feel it is. I've spent the last week researching everything about ES2 (including reading the awesome free art book) and it's ticking off all the boxes for me.

My last game of Stellaris I got up to the year 2300, the 'mid game' and just gave up. It's so unbelievably boring and such a chore. The micro involved is ridiculous, and everything just feels counter-intuitive.

But here's the worse thing I can say about it: there is a distinct lack of vision behind Stellaris. This is evidenced by the fact that the devs keep reworking fundamental aspects of the game every year. How many strategy games do you know that have dramatically reworked the simple act of making buildings several times during the game's lifespan? The devs have no vision and clearly have no idea what they're doing with that game, and its compounded by the horrible UI.

ES2 looks like a breath of fresh air to me. I also can't wait to check out EL, I feel like I'm going to be a big fan of this franchise, I love the aesthetics, the simple menus, the different factions, etc.

I'm tempted to turn pirates off, but I just want to experience everything on default for my first vanilla game with the tutorial on, so I'll have a better context for what the ESG mod changes.

I don't usually play games with overhaul mods, but I've read that there's a way to actually enable achievements while using the ESG mod. Something I need to research more later. If it's true that'll please me greatly.

[Velorace]

Originally posted by Doomjazzer:

Originally posted by BlackSun:

I'd also suggest to just turn pirates off. Really I don't know why some people were so upset about asking for the option to turn off features or certain "features" of different DLCs, when reality is the main reason anybody buys faction DLCs is for the factions, not the rule changes or creating a new gimmick. Like I bought the last DLC without learning too much about it only to discover apparently Isyander is now like an overpowered pirate faction who can't be turned off.

As someone that's a big fan of space 4x, Stellaris is the one game I shamelessly excluded from my libraries, possibly permanently. I'm just not giving Paradox my money. It's no surprise to me either that PDx mismanaged the VTMB2 project into the dirt and promptly tried kicking the ball to everyone from Hardsuit Labs to certain screeching idiots about muh wokeness to blaming anything else than typical Paradox greediness and managerial incompetence killing the project. Just imagine starting only with Ventrue and Toreador and then having to pay $15 for every single other bloodline + $5 per each questline +tip until you've shelled out an additional $300 to paradox just to play an RPG, half of which is basically paying them to get mandatory bugfixes and patching.

tl;dr yes OP I think you should play the game once on vanilla with all DLC off and probably leave pirates off your first game or two also.

I feel like once I play ES2 (today!), Stellaris is going to be even worse than I already feel it is. I've spent the last week researching everything about ES2 (including reading the awesome free art book) and it's ticking off all the boxes for me.

My last game of Stellaris I got up to the year 2300, the 'mid game' and just gave up. It's so unbelievably boring and such a chore. The micro involved is ridiculous, and everything just feels counter-intuitive.

But here's the worse thing I can say about it: there is a distinct lack of vision behind Stellaris. This is evidenced by the fact that the devs keep reworking fundamental aspects of the game every year. How many strategy games do you know that have dramatically reworked the simple act of making buildings several times during the game's lifespan? The devs have no vision and clearly have no idea what they're doing with that game, and its compounded by the horrible UI.

ES2 looks like a breath of fresh air to me. I also can't wait to check out EL, I feel like I'm going to be a big fan of this franchise, I love the aesthetics, the simple menus, the different factions, etc.

I'm tempted to turn pirates off, but I just want to experience everything on default for my first vanilla game with the tutorial on, so I'll have a better context for what the ESG mod changes.

I don't usually play games with overhaul mods, but I've read that there's a way to actually enable achievements while using the ESG mod. Something I need to research more later. If it's true that'll please me greatly.

That's the the thing and why I like ES. Multiplayer is where it really shines... It is where you experience the game in all it's tatical dynamic-ness, if you can play it throguh...

Only a 1x1 battle with a good player, a tatical player can be a hell of a good game.

But a 6x6 1x1x1x1x1x1xx1x1x1x11x1x1xx12 players... Hell.

Could be a magnificent Glorious Space Opera...

Who would win that match, in a Free for All,?

That's a Glorious space Opera... my frined...

I'm t@elling you...

But that is,

If you can continue the game...

_Ah, that IS..._

Luckily I have a plan for that.

a Glorious Plan.

[Velorace]

:]