Tino Didriksen » Reviews » ENDLESS™ Space 2
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28 people found this review helpful
1 person found this review funny
Not Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 12.9 hrs on record
Posted: Feb 27, 2018 @ 3:07am

Endless Space 2 is from what I can see an upgrade over Endless Space in every way they intended. Unfortunately not in the ways I wanted, though. Like ES1, ES2 uses the simultaneous turn system and lacks turn-based tactical combat.

Simultaneous turns is what really kills this game for me. I loathe that the AI gets to perform actions on my turn, and even worse gets to react to my actions. E.g. if you are blockading a system, a single misclick that you immediately rectify will still let all your enemies through as they react to your mistake. Or that AI actions will pop up during your turn, sometimes after you’ve moved other ships so now you can’t react to it. This forces you to wait each turn until the AI is probably done with their actions, then perform your own. With a real turn-based system, these and many other quirks wouldn’t happen.

The AI only respects fleet size. Even if you are objectively the most powerful empire, if you don’t have a sizable standing fleet the AI will attack you. Doesn’t matter that you can then just buy a huge fleet and utterly crush them the turn after - they don’t think that far ahead.

Speaking of attacking, the AI will bundle up on your planet, declare war, invade, and thanks to simul-turns you don’t get to react or prepare. This shouldn’t be possible.

And combat...is boring. You get to set overall plan, then just watch it auto-resolve. There’s no tactical combat.

A damn shame. Endless Space 2 is so close to being great, if only a few tweaks were made. Sadly, those issues ruin the game.
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7 Comments
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Tino Didriksen Mar 19, 2018 @ 12:44pm 
"I just got to the system and was about to click the attack button, but then the ai moved"
That right there, that's exactly what I don't want. I want strictly delimited turns. Nobody else should be able to do anything while it's my turn. No reactions, no actions.
As for putting more hours in to learn the turn system - I have 13 hours in ES2 and another 9 in ES1. I know how it works. I don't like it. ES2 feels better than ES1, but still doesn't feel as good as true turn-based games like MoO or Civ.
IchigoMait Mar 19, 2018 @ 8:54am 
No idea how they did it in pvp though. If it's simultaneous or turn based. Simultaneous would work there, but then it would be pretty nifty to time it and make your opponent miss the chance to attack you, like in pve, I just got to the system and was about to click the attack button, but then the ai moved, as it still was in the middle of the turn not the start of the turn.
IchigoMait Mar 19, 2018 @ 8:50am 
The AI doesn't really have it's own turn, so it doesn't matter in the end. It's just faster paced, as you don't have to wait for that long for the AI do it's stuff, if you do it, the ai does it after you, on the next turn you're up again, if you didn't move the next turn will do all the movements you had planned and then do the ai movement, if you did all your movements, then on the next turn click the ai doesn't move as it already moved on this turn.
IchigoMait Mar 19, 2018 @ 8:44am 
To simplify the turn based system only let's you see what would happen if you had movement choices that still need to be done, done early before the next turn, but on the next turn result will be exactly the same. Whatever you believe is wrong, go play the game some more to figure out how the turn based system works, aka it's just more convienent and more transparanent. If you know one turn before you need troops on the next turn you can now make them in 1 turn, not find out on the next turn that you need troops and have to waste another turn making the troop or reloading your autosave that saves after every turn.
IchigoMait Mar 19, 2018 @ 8:39am 
Dude you're forcing to make them move, after you've done your movement they move, the movements can happen before you choose next turn, if you don't move them, but you've set them to move to some place, the next turn will do it for you, but in the next turn you can still move them. The end result is the same. If you had moved your ships on turn 1 for a 3 turn distance it would've moved the 1 distance and the ai too, when you click next turn, no movement will be done by the ai, as you already forced the movement in turn 1, if you do it again in the 2nd turn the same result will be in 3rd turn. But if you just click the next turn on 2nd turn without forcing, the game will force it for you if there are any movements to be done, aka the 3rd turn will be exactly the same as you had forced them yourself. There is no difference, besides you seeing the enemy movement beforehand clicking next turn, so you can see if want to build more ships instead of a building incase they decide to attack.
Tino Didriksen Mar 19, 2018 @ 1:47am 
"they are taking a turn after you've done after your choices"
No, the AI takes their turn alongside you. The AI gets to instantly react to something you do, so even little misclicks means the AI immediately takes advantage. In true turn-based games, misclicks can be corrected before the AI gets to react.
Simultaneous turns also means in order for you to make the best informed decisions, you pretty much have to wait for the AI to be as done as it can be before you start doing things. It's just awful in every way.
IchigoMait Mar 18, 2018 @ 8:05am 
"Simultaneous turns ... With a real turn-based system, these and many other quirks wouldn’t happen.
"
This does not make any sense, they are taking a turn after you've done after your choices, aka with more slower paced turn based system it would still be the same result, but you wouldn't know about your fuck up until it was too late for it, now you can see right away what you managed to mess up.