Something new for the blog and twitch.tv channel today.
There’s a new TBS 4X space game out called Endless Space. It’s an ‘homage’ to the MOO2/other good space strategy games coming out of Indie developer Amplitude (based in Paris). I’ve had the game for a few weeks, checking out the alpha/beta builds, and they decided to release it recently. They’re using the Games2Gether style funding (preorder the game and you get to discuss balance and other changes while playing the builds early), so the game isn’t quite finished.
It’s been ‘mostly’ finished for a very long time with the beta build being very stable and playable for some time. But, as things usually go, there’s minor issues that need some more work – though they’re keeping track of it in a very public manner on their forums (nice touch).
Anyway, go check out My Twitch.tv stream today and watch me play. I’ve settled into using Xsplit now, so hopefully after some minor adjustments (and a jtv partnership) I can get that channel running smoothly and have it compliment the YouTube videos.
The temptation to say first now that you’ve linked this post on the stream is very tempting…
random question: how were the ads on the live stream? (and/or were there any?) I’ve no control over that quite yet, but I just wanted to know if they were there and/or popped up randomly.
Really can’t answer that unfortunately, I use AdBlock.
Hello, i just poped to say that i really liked the streaming video.Unfortunatly i couldnt make it in time ( France here ) but the quality was good and i am wondering how will your empire end up.
So thanks and please do it again.( I imagine that you must be pretty busy with everything, Civ etc… so good luck ! )
I’ll continue to stream that game, so you’ll be able to see what happens
Though, I’m thinking that setting it to a Huge map for the first stream game might not have been a good idea (on normal speed techs).
First things first: I really appreciate your videos and your style in commentating, thanks for many hours of insightful entertainment!
I have a question on Endless Space (by the way, really glad games like this get some of the spotlight, I’m a long time fan of Master of Orion 2 so anything done well in that genre is happy news to me): I also think they got the “feeling” and the style of the game right, but I’m somewhat worried by how the tech tree and the combat system interact.
What I’ve gathered from skimming the very first tutorial phases (and your stream) is that the weapons system seems to be a bit too much on the simplistic side: as in, gun, laser, missile, bigger gun, bigger laser, bigger missile, specific defenses, repeat until the end of the techs. Granted, I almost played nothing of the game yet, most of my opinion comes from 3rd parties, so I could very well be just a giant whiny baby, but as I obviously value your opinion on the matter, do you think the combat system could use more variety, or it ends up well enough with just the bigger numbers with the combat cards mixed in?
Anyway, I’ll happily watch the next episode for Endless Space!
Thanks and keep up the good work!
combat wise, yes they go for the rock-paper-scissors approach wrt the guns-beams-missiles (though I find missiles useless due to the ease flak defenses kill missiles and the fact that they only fire once/round).
The ‘flavour’ for combat seems to be in the heros/battle cards, though I find myself rarely using more than a few.
It’s not a bad start to a game, but it definitely needs some polish in certain areas.
You did say to put suggestions for the next episode of Endless Space in your blog, and this seemed an appropriate place to reply to! (Apologies for using the old post)
It would be interesting to see a “different” approach to a game this time, specifically another victory condition. be it economic, wonder or diplomatic. I doubt it’s possible to go for an entirely peaceful game (and that would be like watching the fight of Excel spreadsheets, so not very suitable for a stream), but a more defensive approach to war would be nice. Also, Sowers! (that’s why I didn’t suggest a scientific victory).
I was definitely planning on something a little less ‘war’ focused for the next one. I’ll probably drop a blog post sometime this week with the possible options.