So anyway, this game is 4x fantasy spin off of 4x scifi game Endless Space... I only heard about Endless Space while ago and got interested since I like Moo type games. I notice though that there seems to be a lot of negativity towards ES so whats that about?

http://g2g.amplitude-studios.com/Games/Endless-Legend

Thats link to official site. Its pre alpha game, but pretty stable for one. Still pretty clearly unfinished game and AI seems to be just a placeholder.

ES = all flash and things are ok except people took exception to the dull card based combat....basically if your looking for tactical depth in your space battles in 4X..ES doesnt have it unlike other games (which have their own shortcomings).

Isn't it more economy sim in space? I've been wanting to play something like that, but everything feels the need to shove in combat.

Endless Legend sounds okay, I guess, but I don't see what they're hoping to do different from AOW or Disciples. I wouldn't mind playing a game based around economy/diplomacy in a fantasy setting.

Certainly have an eye on this one. They're also making Dungeon of the Endless

I'll have to keep an eye out for when I get my computer back.

I really enjoy Endless Space. Many don't like it's combat but I find it a refreshing change in the 4X genre. It lets me focus on the main part of the game, is quick and visually exciting. I'm not much of a fan of many others' indepth combat that slows everything down and bores me.

From what I played of it, I actually like its version of combat <_< Mainly because I suck in strategy games and micromanaging fleets so its a relief that I only have to learn strategy part of game instead of learning strategy AND combat tactics.

Right, Endless Space is awesome, and that's by a large part because of the combat. See, what bothered me in most 4X games was the fact that my tactical skills were always better than computer's, and auto-resolve was almost never an option as it tents to give wildly different results. Not so in Endless Space. Endless Space only allows you to indirectly influence the combat sequences, which are bloody gorgeous by the way, via cards, formations and prioritization.

Basically, the first part of 'combat' is always ship design - you are trying to design your ships in such a way that it'll counter whatever enemy seems to be throwing at you, of course you also need to take into account his and your own technological advancement in warfare.

Second part is fleet window - here, you can set formations and priorities. Formations dictate in which order are your ships going to enter the battlefield, which ships should be shielded by other ships etc., and priorities mean what should your fleet's fire focus on - spread it out, focus on a couple of ships or focus on one ship at a time.

Aaand lastly the third part is combat itself, where tactical cards come into play - basically, every combat is divided into 5 stages. 1st is arrival, where no combat occurs, 2nd is long range, 3rd is mid-range, 4th is meele and 5th is departure, again no combat here. All of these stages are time-limited - so if the fleets don't destroy each other in time, battle ends in a tie (which you can, of course, keep in mind while battling and try to stall your opponents), and the more important bit, long range, mid range and meele stages allow you to play cards. Now cards are basically bonuses that will apply only to the stage in which they were played, like +40% kinetic damage, -20% shield deflection - so both you and your opponent play a card which suits your fleet the best (or a card which counters the opponent's card) and then just watch the combat resolve.

So basically, vast majority of the combat is directly based on your strategy as opposed to moment-to-moment tactics, and I love the game for that. The automatization and simplicity of the combat also means much more reliable autoresolve. There are races in the game which are designed to directly avoid combat, but you can't only go for economy to make that happen, you also need to play for diplomacy. Nonetheless, I have finished several maps without a sigle shot being fired (I didn't win because I suck at these games, but it was a nice change nonetheless. And the best thing - nobody fought. I just got the entire star cluster into one, big alliance)

As for Endless Legend, yeah, definitely keeping and eye on that. I'm just sad they have opted for the fantasy presentation - I'm a fan of sci-fi myself, and I would really like the ES lore to be elaborated upon further.

I bought Endless Space at launch, too bad I'm not too into it's combat, I want something like MOO2 where I can control every ship turn-by-turn. Will keep my eye on this but probably won't get it at launch. I have Age of Wonders 3 anyways.

I send a mail to Amplitude, contact@amplitude-studios.com to ask for DRM Free version, If we have 100 of us sending that, they will start considering GOG release :)

I got in touch with them, as well - unfortunately, Endless Legend is a Steamworks title and a DRM free release is not something they're considering.

I see, let's don't lost hope anyway. Enough demand they shall consider in a next stand alone expansion or sequel.
I am with you.

I played it for a bit, but not enough to form an opinion yet. It ceratinly looks like a delightfully complex 4x game. I like that the devs aren't just recreating a tried-and-true formula, but do things a bit differently, and add some original ideas. I also like that they aren't shy of using detailed, well-written, atmospheric textual descriptions, I found that very immersive. Graphics and sound are top-notch.

Combat is tactical, but semi-automatic, so it doesn't take too long.

Given the huge amount of gameplay components, the game will be difficult to balance, and it will be hard to write a decent AI. But it certainly looks interesting, and I'm curious how it will develop.

Okay, but ever since Smugglers V, I've been wary of games which promise non-combat gameplay depending on playstyle; in SV, you have to get into fights no matter what class you choose. Really annoying.

Hmm, yeah, I got interested in the community votes stuff also. Though I'm pretty disappointed in Amplitude's way of handling things. The way they set up the current major faction competition forum poll is just so.. Amateurish. They didn't check through entries whether they fit the rules or not(there is at least one person with two ideas in poll despite that being against rules) and they put all 99 entries into same poll. No insta run off voting or brackets or anything. Just one huge category where top three are chosen to go to g2g voting.

I actually had entry in that competition as writing practice, but I can't really use the poll to see whether my idea was good or bad since I can't tell whether I'm doing badly because I was unlucky to be in middle of 99 instead of beginning or end of the list or because people just don't like my idea or it was badly written =/ It did get decent amount of votes, but nowhere near the top ten of the poll.

The g2g poll does seem to be better handled, though if you look options in the past polls, you get feeling that it could be improved as well <_< Still I don't have any real complaints about g2g system.