Jul 18, 2014

ENDLESS™ Legend

Early Access reviews offer our preliminary verdicts on in-development games. We may follow up this unscored review with a final, scored review in the future.

Hexagons have never looked this good. Endless Legend paints a watercolor fantasy across its 4X strategy grid, and the pieces that fill those hexagons distinct warring factions, indigenous races, fire trees and magical orbs and mysterious ruins build a rich and deeply complex game world. Complexity is typically expected from 4X strategy games, but playing them before they're complete is not. And Endless Legend is definitely not complete.

I started playing Endless Legend after a beta update added multiplayer support, two factions (six of the final eight are now playable) and other improvements. It felt like the right time to jump in, and I was pleased by the stability of the private multiplayer a couple hours into the campaign. It was easy for my friend, who hosted our multiplayer match, to load a save file and get us back into a campaign. We didn't hit any desync or lag issues in our game. Instead, we ran into a different snag: we barely knew what to do.

Both of us played Endless Space, Amplitude Studios' last 4X game. Endless Legend carries over identical UI elements and mechanics: resources like food, dust (money), science (tech tree research), and industry (construction). I recognized the resources, but at the start had little indication where I should found my starting city, how to expand, or what to do as I slowly collected resources. It's not that I wanted the game to hold my hand through everything there was no way for me to acquire the information I needed. Legend doesn't have a single line of tutorial text in place yet, and without tutorials the tooltips are often frustratingly vague.

Quests add storylines to the sandbox landscape.

Endless Legend looks like a scaled-back Civilization 5, but it layers narrative atop its sandbox with RPG-esque sidequests and faction quests. Those quests did help guide me through the early turns, though again, vague tooltips sometimes made the quest conditions confusing. The sidequests are randomized, but I'm concerned that each faction's primary quest, which doesn't seem to vary game-to-game, will make repeated playthroughs with the same faction feel more same-y, less sandbox-y.

Amplitude also added equipment for its hero characters, who can lead armies into combat or govern cities to boost resource production. Buying and equipping gear can have a huge effect on a hero's efficacy in combat, but there are so many items (and so many underexplained symbols pertaining to combat) that I didn't know what to buy. I ended up ignoring the system until late in the game, when I was flush with resources.

The quest system and Endless Legend's beautiful world map make exploration fun, but the other Xs expansion, exploitation, and extermination left me bored for the first 10 hours of the game. I felt like I was doing everything wrong, early game, because it took so long to do anything. Every construction project took multiple turns. Troops plodded across the map. Resources came in at a trickle.

I eventually got the hang of expansion, remembering from Endless Space that I could allocate my population to specific tasks to speed up food production or research or construction. Expansion and troop movement got better, too, but mistakes early game can saddle you with damaging low approval ratings that slow production. My population was constantly angry at me for conquering new regions and growing my empire. And I didn't know there was a "right" way to expand cities: surrounding the central hub with districts, which levels them up and makes the population happy. I naturally snaked my cities outwards towards the most valuable resources, permanently damaging my approval ratings by having sprawling, low-level cities.

I spent most of my time in combat watching the AI make poor pathing decisions.

Most of my frustrations can be solved with tutorials and tooltips that explain how systems work. Legend's combat system is a bigger problem. It's about macro level decisions instead of unit micromanagement, which sounds fine. In practice, after telling my units which enemies to attack, I never knew where they were going to move. Melee units often took inefficient paths and took multiple turns to reach enemies, exposing them to more ranged attacks. Ranged units don't have clearly marked attack radiuses. Combat is automated to the point where I barely felt like I had control, and the control I did have was never interesting or tactical.

Around turn 70, Endless Legend began crashing on me every every turn. I tested the same save file on my home and work computers to figure out why. Both computers run AMD graphics cards. When I moved the save file to a computer with an Nvidia card, it didn't crash again, though I experienced a couple non-game breaking error messages and a sidequest that showed a string of code instead of text. For an alpha, those are minor issues, but the driver problems with AMD cards made the game unplayable for me on two computers. If you're on AMD, absolutely don't buy Endless Legend on Early Access.

Beta woes: this quest didn't load properly.

After a couple hundred turns, I was able to sweep two AI enemies off the map with three armies. I was allied with the final AI player, but my domination didn't trigger a military victory. Endless Legend's final two research trees aren't in place yet, so I couldn't win through science. I also couldn't find any sign of economic or political victories. I'm sure those will all be present in the final game. But in early access, my campaign ended with a shrug.
Verdict
I love Endless Legend's gorgeous art direction and RPG elements, but the complete lack of tutorials, sometimes-vague tooltips and shallow combat are all problems for a complex 4X game. I'd recommend waiting for the final release unless you love providing beta feedback on game balance.
Outlook
OK. When Amplitude releases the final version of Endless Legend, I expect tutorials and a completed endgame will solve most of the issues I experienced. If combat remains unchanged, it will be the weakest of the four Xs.
Details
Version reviewed: July 3, 2014 beta update
Reviewed on: 3.5 GHz Intel Core i7 X990, AMD R9 290X, 8GB RAM
Recommended: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.50Ghz, 4GB RAM, nVidia Geforce 460 1GB or ATI Radeon HD 6850 1GB
Price: $31.50/ 24.30
Publisher: Iceberg Interactive
Developer: Amplitude Studios
Multiplayer: 4 player online
Link: http://store.steampowered.com/app/289130

Jul 8, 2014

About Balance & Stability

ENDLESS™ Legend - Steph'nie

Hello everyone,

We wanted to thank you for the past few months of Alpha feedback and suggestion… As you can see on the main list where we track your feedback, there is a lot of things to follow, and quite a lot already addressed: [G2G] Endless Legend's List of Community Feedback.

Now that we have reached beta, we wanted to share with you how we see the final sprint to the finish line.

Remaining content
Here is the content we will deliver during the Beta that is missing for the final game:

Two last Eras
Two last major Factions
Two last minor factions
The tutorial
Custom factions

Content that may be available post release
The faction competition, although it ended in something quite unique and amazing, arrived a bit late in development, and we are not sure we’ll be able to release the Cultists (pictured above) the day of the actual release. If we can’t we release it a bit later.

We’ll keep you posted.

Next Update
We will do our best to release our next major update before the end of the month. If need be we’ll do a hotfix before.

Balancing the Game
While we are finishing these elements, we will focus mostly on balancing and stability issues, and as you know the game is huge so it will be quite a challenge! We need you guys, to report your balancing thoughts, and our game designer has started a thread there on this matter so check it out: Community Feedback on Balancing.

The more you will help us to tune the existing, rather than adding new stuff, the more we can reveal that jewel in the rough.

Shaping up the AI
As you know, another challenge with 4X games is the AI. We are quite a lot working on it, but the more we learn on how you play the game, the better we can teach the AI: how do you react against other players? Why? How do you win a military campaign? How do you explore? How do you choose expansion over development? What are your unit designs? Once again, it's only thanks to your feedback and even more tests on our side that we'll get closer to the result that we want.

Releasing the Game
You often ask us when do we plan to release the game. It's always tricky to reveal an exact date, but we discussed it lengthily with the team, and we came to the conclusion that we should do everything we can to release before the end of the summer. And we'll do our best to release the Mac version then as well..!

Why?
First we believe the game is shaping up nicely and with 2 months of work we can do wonders. Secondly, if we don’t, there will be a flow of huge games coming out that will totally bury us under a pile of AAA marketing assault, leaving no time for journalists and player to hear about us...

As you know, for us the release of the game is only the beginning of a new life, where we can expand in making of Endless Legend the most epic fantasy 4X game we have ever played!

We can’t wait to read your feedback for that last straight rush to the finish line, but thank you all in advance for your precious help.

~Amplitude Studios

Jul 8, 2014

About Balance & Stability

ENDLESS™ Legend - Steph(✿◠‿◠)

Two last Eras
Two last major Factions
Two last minor factions
The tutorial
Custom factions

Jul 2, 2014

Now In Beta

ENDLESS™ Legend - Steph'nie

Good news everyone,

You will be able to play the Beta version of Endless Legend tomorrow. Thanks to those who have dared to launch the "Beta Branch" on Steam in the previous weeks (which was pretty much a preview). Your feedback has been more than helpful and allowed us to improve the build for the public release tomorrow. We will be sharing the release notes then but here's what it will include:

Two new playable major factions: the Ardent Mages and the Roving Clans
Multiplayer mode with up to six players out of eight in the final game
Enhanced Battle system (Battle Pace / City Militia / Moral Boost / Upgraded Deployment)
Ships and Harbours: you can now go explore and colonize the world beyond the ocean!
Addition of Roads and Trade Routes
Improved Diplomacy: new Diplomatic Treaties, AI diplomatic behaviour, Counter Proposal option
Addition of Privateers: mercenaries bought in the marketplace who can attack anyone without revealing exactly whose side they are on…

The Ardent Mages

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3J7WznDqSQ

The arcane power of these sorcerers can only be obtained through pain and penance. Transcending their mortal bodies through acts of self-mortification, they are able to touch and manipulate the limitless powers of Dust.

The Roving Clans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94wxW6efKWA

Traders, explorers, and adventurers, the Roving Clans are nomadic and mercantile. Traversing Auriga on their great beasts of burden, the Clans bring commerce and hard-headed negotiation to the far corners of the world.

Artwork and Screenshots

Come back tomorrow for the release notes! :)
~Amplitude Studios

Jul 2, 2014

Now In Beta

ENDLESS™ Legend - Steph(✿◠‿◠)

Two new playable major factions: the Ardent Mages and the Roving Clans
Multiplayer mode with up to six players out of eight in the final game
Enhanced Battle system (Battle Pace / City Militia / Moral Boost / Upgraded Deployment)
Ships and Harbours: you can now go explore and colonize the world beyond the ocean!
Addition of Roads and Trade Routes
Improved Diplomacy: new Diplomatic Treaties, AI diplomatic behaviour, Counter Proposal option
Addition of Privateers: mercenaries bought in the marketplace who can attack anyone without revealing exactly whose side they are on…

Come back tomorrow for the release notes! :)
~Amplitude Studios

Jun 16, 2014

Are We There Yet?

ENDLESS™ Legend - Steph'nie

Hi everyone,

We're getting closer and closer to a public update for Endless Legend. Once again, if you have missed the explanation from Mathieu, our CEO, on the update delay, please check it out. We are working on so many different things that I'll try to keep you informed with short blog posts like these.

So what's on the menu for today? The transportation system! :)

SEA TRAVEL

In Endless Legend, for ocean travel to be available, the player will have to research the “Ocean travel” technology. Once that technology is discovered, armies will be able to embark/disembark, and ocean trade routes will be available.

Ports
Ports can be made only on exploited water tiles. They will be used to embark/disembark more easily, and to create ocean roads.
There can be only one port per region.

Embark / Disembark

With armies, you can click on the water to “embark” near any water tile without cliffs in between, then select a destination water tile (also without cliffs in between). It will move the army onto the water tile, transformed into a ship
Embark will deplete all the remaining water movement points of the army

With armies in ships you can click on the map to “disembark” near any land tile without cliffs in between, then select a destination land tile (without cliffs in between). It will move the army onto the land tile, transformed back into a normal army
Disembark will deplete all the remaining land movement points of the army

Please note that this is only a first version.

Ship properties
Ships can contain the same number of units than other armies

You can merge ships’ contents
You can split ships’ contents
Empty ships (or with hero only) will disappear, the same way armies do

Ships can move only between two water tiles. Their only new map action is “disembark”

Movement

Units use a different movement attribute on water. That new attribute will be affected by different bonuses than for land movement
- All units will start with the same sea movement value

SEA ROADS

The Ocean Travel technology will allow the creation of Port improvements. Ports can be made only on exploited water tiles.

Connecting ports

Ocean roads must go from one port to another.
There must be a valid path between the ports, passing through water tiles inside the 2 concerned regions and 1 ocean region max.

If such a road can be made, then trade routes can be made across the Cities of those two Ports. Unlike land roads, ocean roads will need the 2 ports to be created (no half-roads), and they will disappear immediately if one of the corresponding ports is destroyed.

SCREENSHOT

~Amplitude Studios