Nov 28, 2012
ENDLESS™ Space - Definitive Edition - Steph'nie
Nov 28, 2012
ENDLESS™ Space - Definitive Edition - Steph(✿◠‿◠)



Endless Space 1.0.38 - ECHOES OF THE ENDLESS

Release Notes

Oct 30, 2012
ENDLESS™ Space - Definitive Edition - Steph'nie
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Endless Space 1.0.30 - Added:

- New Automaton hero: M'gual Tan-Erbo
- New planet anomaly: Hellgourds
Oct 30, 2012
ENDLESS™ Space - Definitive Edition - Steph(✿◠‿◠)



Endless Space 1.0.30 - Added:

- New Automaton hero: M'gual Tan-Erbo
- New planet anomaly: Hellgourds
ENDLESS™ Space - Definitive Edition - Valve
1.0.29
CHANGES AND ADDITIONS
Changed the balancing of the AI difficulty:
-50% damage & -40% defense in newbie for the AI
-25% damage & -20% defense in easy for the AI
Added Optimistic 1 to Sowers
Allowed a deficit from the beginning to have a more flexible tax rate management for the AI players.
Added a waiting period for a change of diplomatic status:
+ Game speed: Normal
- Cold War: you will have to wait 10 turns to change this diplomatic status
- War: 15 turns
- Peace: 10 turns
- Alliance: 15 turns
+ Game speed: Slow
=> these durations x2
+ Game speed: Fast
=> these durations x0.5
Added Italian and Russian languages.
Repacked the data for the PC version.

FIXES
Fixed an issue where the game would hang when loading a game where the AI has no more ships and needs to balance its defense.
Fixed an issue where a desync could appear when unlocking technologies by a random event.
Fixed an issue where the game could crash after scraping a population improvement (via the bankruptcy process).
Fixed an issue where the Wonder Building is never built by the AI.
Fixed an issue with the Dust icon of the control banner.
Fixed an issue where the effects of “Intensive Cultivation Logistics” and “Careful Sweeping” were inaccurate.
Fixed several GUI issues.
Fixed several localization issues.
ENDLESS™ Space - Definitive Edition - Valve
1.0.27
CHANGES AND ADDITIONS
- Added a backward compatibility system for the pre 1.0.25 save files.

1.0.26
FIXES
- Fixed an issue where some save files created after 1.0.25 could not be loaded (the user being sent back to the menu).

All the version notes since the alpha version can be found at:
http://forums.amplitude-studios.com/showthread.php?446-Release-Notes
ENDLESS™ Space - Definitive Edition
Endless Space


The super-slick 4X space strategy, Endless Space, gained a new faction overnight. The Automaton were designed by Endless Space player and community contest winner, Panzer. His idea was voted on by fellow players using Amplitude's Game2Gether system. That lets players sign in to vote to decide on what the devs should work on adding next. The last vote offered a choice between random events, faction homeworlds and the ability to destroy entire star systems. Guess which one won (hint: the one with all the bombs).

The latest update implements a number of voted-on features, including a trade routes sum-up section and "custom faction affinity" which lets you choose any art for your custom faction. Pore over the full list of changes on Steam News, features with a note next to them have been voted for by the community.

Rich enjoyed Endless Space' sublime interface when he reviewed it for us saying that it "streamlines empire-building better than any other." Read the full verdict in our Endless Space review and find out more on the Endless Space site.
ENDLESS™ Space - Definitive Edition - Valve
RISE OF THE AUTOMATONS (1.0.25)

CHANGES AND ADDITIONS
- Separated the visual affinity from the gameplay affinity. [G2G vote]
- For instance, you can now customize your own faction with the gameplay of the Cravers and the art of the Amoeba.
- Added the "System Population Balancing" in the Galaxy's advanced options. Ranges from "Random" to "Perfect". For "Perfect", constellations with homeworlds now possess the same number of systems (with a maximum difference of 1 system).
- Added a panel for the Empire wide factors in the Empire view.
- Added a disclaimer when entering the Mods section for the first time.
- Changed the faction colors to differentiate the shades of green.
- Added Polish language.
- Added the possibility to load custom 3D models and textures for planet and ship modding.
- Changed the compatibility system of the save files.
- Added the soundtrack directory for Mac users in ~/Library/Application Support/Steam/ SteamApps/ common/Endless Space/

AUTOMATONS [G2G vote]
- Added the Automatons faction with a specific gameplay affinity and properties for specific buildings, according to Panzer, the winner of the faction contest.
- Automatons Affinity:
1. At the end of the turn, if there is an overproduction, it's stacked instead of being reported.
2. At the beginning of a turn, an interest is applied to the stacked industry, allowing it to increase a bit.
3. The stacked industry is capped at 5 * system's industry.
4. If the overproduction cannot be stacked, it's conserved for the next turn like the current mechanism.
5. When the automatons build improvements & ships, the industry is used in the following order:
a. system's industry
b. overproduction
c. stacked industry
6. When a system from the Automatons is invaded, the stacked industry is destroyed, reset to 0 even if the invader is an Automaton.
- Added Automatons unique tech icons.
- Added a gauge bar for the stacked industry of each system in the Empire view.
- Added the stacked industry value on tooltip of each system in the Galaxy view.
- Placed the Automatons' overproduction stack in the Development bar (in System view).
- Added the Automatons' portrait, diplomacy hologram and loading screen. Automatons will use Cravers' ships 3D models.

TRADE ROUTES [G2G vote]
- Added a trade routes summary panel in the Empire view.
- Added the possibility to directly click on a trade route's origin system in the trade routes panel, to enter this system's view.
- Added a trade routes panel link on the System view.
- Added several tooltips for the trade routes panel.

AI
- Added several AIPrerequisites from the community mod (by Ail, Grubsnik and Davea), globally improving AI when building star system improvements.
- Improved the tax rate management for the AI.
- Improved the formula that computes the response given by an AI to an alliance request.
- Changed the formula for trading a technology with the AI. Before, the price was related to the most wanted technology, now, it is related to the most expensive technology available.

HEROES & ACADEMY
- Added arrows to switch from a hero to another in the Inspection view.
- Added arrows to switch from a hero to another in the Academy.
- When recruiting a hero, he is now automatically selected in the active tab.
- Added an "Accept" button when assigning new abilities to a hero and the possibility to click on a selected ability to remove it before validating the final choice.
- Added empty slots to show how many heroes can still be recruited in the Academy.
- Added a tooltip to heroes' attributes to show what effect they have.
- Added a visual hero identifier in the Academy, to determine if a hero is in a system, a fleet or unassigned.

ALLIANCE & DIPLOMACY [G2G vote]
- Updated the alliance management system.
- When offering a treaty with someone outside of an alliance, a request is sent to allies. They can now either:
1. Accept the treaty
2. Decide to leave the alliance.
- Added a tendency panel for diplomatic negotiations. Shows how an ally AI will likely respond to a treaty you offer to someone outside the alliance. Human players will always respond "Undecided".

BALANCING
- Changed the upkeep formula (cost 1 per CP --> cost 0.4*CP max per CP).
- Reduced the deflectors' evolution in stats, they were too efficient in late game: (3,5,8,11,14,20,25,30,36,45 => 2,4,7,10,13,17,22,27,33,39)
- Increased the hulls' HP to increase the probability to reach the melee phase: (small:300, medium:600,large:1200 => small:450, medium:1200, large:3000)
- Increased the cost of tonnage and repair modules' industry cost as well as modules related to strategic resources (to reward abundance).
- Reduced the Hissho's Bushido (20% on FIDS => 15% on FID).
- Increased the length of the Bushido but without the reset after an invasion (15 turns WITH reset => 45 turns WITHOUT reset after an invasion).
- Changed the Revenge trait's condition of activation (activated whenever a lost system was re-invaded by the player => will only activate during invasion if the lost system was previously owned at 100%).
- Changed the length of the different Cooperation Agreement steps (0/15/30 => 0/10/15).
- Reduced the AI bonus on weapons, defense and buyout to balance the difficulty. AI has been heavily improved and therefore needs less powerful bonuses.
- Balanced armor and repair module regarding the new HP's of the ships.

FIXES
IMPORTANT FIXES
- Fixed an issue where trying to display the “end of auto explore” alert message after destroying the corresponding fleet provoked a NullReferenceException.
- Fixed an issue where displaying the trade routes panel without trade routes provoked a NullReferenceException.
- Fixed an issue where global random events were not synchronized for all players.
- Fixed an issue where the AI was using obsolete ship template designs.
- Fixed an issue where the AI didn't use tonnage modules, resulting in partially empty ships.
- Fixed an issue where the number of turns, before a peace treaty was made available, was not saved. The peace treaty was then automatically available after loading a game.
- Fixed an issue where the interception module still intercepted attacks even when the defense module had 0 in interception.
- Fixed an issue where the game would hang when loading a game without available ship designs.

OTHER FIXES
- Fixed an issue where Pilgrims' fleet errant wasn't concerned by faction traits that improve ships HP.
- Fixed an issue where the scroll bar would overlap with the resources in the diplomatic negotiations screen.
- Fixed application of approval bonus on improvement using percent.
- Fixed an issue where loading a saved game could remove contracts for many empires.
- Fixed an issue where creating an alliance did not spread the cease fire status across the allied factions.
- Fixed an issue where the beginning of a cease fire wasn't synchronized for all allies.
- Fixed an issue where infinite improvements in the queue could prevent using over production stacking.
- Fixed an issue where after invading a system with infinite improvement buildings, the modifier stayed active until the end of the game.
- Fixed an issue where diplomatic status resolution wasn't correctly done in an alliance vs alliance situation.
- Fixed an issue where the worst diplomatic status wasn't correctly spread when one of the 2 allies didn't know the third empire.
- Fixed an issue where the AI lost use of some of its fleets, leaving them unattended in a system.
- Fixed an issue with the AI parameters (for instance, the result of 3/2 was counted as 1,500 instead of 1.5).
- Fixed an issue related to the Sower's personnality.
- Fixed an issue which caused the AI building nothing in a system.
- Fixed an issue which forbade the AI to build food improvement when its food surplus was negative.
- Fixed several GUI issues.
- Fixed several localization issues.
- Fixed several text issues.

1.0.19
FIXES
- Fixed an issue where random events were missing.

1.0.18
FIXES
- Fixed an issue where the galaxy generation for a new game was significantly slower.
All the version notes since the alpha version can be found at:
http://forums.amplitude-studios.com/showthread.php?446-Release-Notes
Sep 8, 2012
ENDLESS™ Space - Definitive Edition
Endless Space review


This is a 4X strategy game – which sounds a bit like a punch-up fuelled by crappy beer. In fact, the four ‘X’s stand for the classic principles that underpin this particular offshoot of the genre: explore, exploit, expand, and everyone’s favourite – exterminate!

Endless Space focuses on macro-management rather than down-and-dirty detail-fiddling. It makes galactic control streamlined, helped enormously by the slickest interface this type of game has ever seen, a beautifully designed UI that keeps things only one or two clicks away.

It feels good just to fiddle with. The overall focus of your empire, from what direction the tech is moving to what each system is producing, is all present on the main galaxy view, so a quick glance at the beginning of each turn tells you where everything stands. It’s a great achievement, even though there are inevitably one or two things nested away in counter-intuitive places: unlocking ship designs, for example, only unlocks the hull, which you have to incorporate into a custom build before production.



The feel of the game flows from this uncluttered interface. Playing as one of eight races (or building your own by pick-and-mixing attributes), the choices are good old-fashioned warfare, an economic victory, a scientific victory, an expansion victory or the rather odd ‘Supremacy’ victory of taking over the other races’ homeworlds. Bit unappetising, that last one.

The mechanics are always the same: fly colonies to other star systems, exploit them, develop tech, and deal with other players. It’s the resources that make the difference: science for tech, food for population, industry for production, and the magical currency of Dust. Strategic resources are sprinkled around that you can’t detect without a bit of teching, and these are crucial to certain playstyles. Military types, for example, want Titanium-70 for construction of their battlefleets.

After a few games, you realise the most important thing is... everything. Tiny advantages can become the pivot on which the fate of empires turn, and wasted production cycles never come back. The AI varies: the military and expansion-focused races are by far the best singleplayer thopponents; races intended for diplomacy or teching victories don’t work so well, just asking for free resources and trying to form alliances willy-nilly.



Those more subtle wins aren’t unattainable, it’s just that the AI feels too clumsy to carry them off. In multiplayer it’s different, although there games take so long that many matches end up abandoned by all but the early leader.

The one thing I didn’t like is the combat: a rock-papers-scissors series of choices followed by a cutscene result. The unskippable videos are beautiful the first couple of times, but rapidly pall. Your only option in the late-game is to set battling to automatic rather than manual, or sit through 20 in a row.

Nevertheless, this has the foundations of a great game, and judging by the devs’ willingness to incorporate community suggestions, it will get even better. If you’re all about space battles, it doesn’t quite deliver. But anyone who’s a fan of backroom deals, the exploitation of natural resources, and the crushing of all who defy you, will find Endless Space is their kind of universe.
Aug 28, 2012
ENDLESS™ Space - Definitive Edition - Valve
1.0.17
CHANGES AND ADDITIONS
- Removed all references to System.Drawing.dll. Mac users no longer have to install Mono 2.11.3.

FIXES
- Fixed an issue where the path of the auto save files was incorrect on the Mac version.
All the version notes since the alpha version can be found at:
http://forums.amplitude-studios.com/showthread.php?446-Release-Notes
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