Is the combat worth it in your opinion? I gave exmaples below

[Celestial Lexi]

how is it compared to Gothic Armada 1 and 2?

is it the best ship combat? how about compared to the new homeworld?

please let me know!!!!!!!!

[Selegun]

Not really comparable in my eyes. Endless Space is autoplayed after deployment while Gothic gives you direct control of your ships. Not played Homeworld so I could not offer a perspective there. That said I feel Endless gives far and away better control of modifications to your ships while Gothic provides a better game feel in that you can give direct orders to your ships.

[Fulano]

In ES2 you pick what components to put in slots on your ship, then in combat it displays both fleets and both players pick a tactic you want to use, then it auto-battles based on your picks.

I actually don't mind the system that much, I get a fair amount of tactical input, but I'm not going through long battles moving my dozen ships manually.

[Celestial Lexi]

thanks all it sounds like gratuitous space battle 2 might be better for fleet combat??

[Lywelyn]

as said above, , i'd detail that ships combat has 3 factors :

- fleet composition & deployment

basically what your fleet will engage with, it being either fregate, cruise, carrier regarding the composition, there is no real good composition since you have deployment, deployment is about the formation your ships will engage the ennemy during a combat, you have 3 lines and 3 depths,, each position will give a bonus or malus depending on which ships is in which position with which equipment.

- logistic and fleet value

your fleet will cost you each turn in money(dust) make sure you don't deploy more than you can spend, bankruptcy is not an option in the game! ( it is but the drawback are as worse as it get), as for value, each ship has value, for instance a frigate is 3 and a carrier 9, if when you start the game you have 0 technology unlocked in the military tree, you'll have ( again for instance) a maximum of 7 fleet value, that mean you can only have a max of 2 frigate and can't deploy a single carrier until you have unlocked more fleet value in the tech tree.

- ship compartment and combat

as said above the combat are automatic, what you interact with is the settings prior to the combat, regarding compartment, each ship have specific slots, destroyers have more weapons slot but less support / tactical slot meaning they can have more weapons to shoot but less possibilities regarding their movement on the map, whereas supprot ships have less weapons module but can support a whole fleet from behind their line with extra shields or repair. weapons have only 2 kinds, kinetics and energy, each with their own + and -

overall i would recommand to watch seeth's take on this, he'll explain way better than anyone here : https://youtu.be/VKEawmH-l9c?t=662

[Synopse]

Ship combat is more a strategic feature based on the tree factors mentioned by Lywelyn.
You aim for setting up fights correctly to win them. That's it.
It's more about having your fleets where they are needed.