You've been reincarnated into the Endless Space 2 universe. Why playable faction would you like to be a part of?

>>2096185 (OP)
broken lords

Unfallen is just about the only society that wouldn't be shit, and that hinges on you enjoying living in an infinitely sprawling forest. There's also the implication that the heart of Koyasil may be subtly brainwashing you any time you're on an Unfallen controlled world.

Vaulters, Sophon, Lumeris, and maybe Nakalim are ok, but each carry risks or annoyances. Horatio society is evidently rife with paranoia and backstabbing, but would be extremely lavish outside of that. Umbral Choir would be extremely alien to any known human experience, but if you reincarnate as one of them it'd probably be quite a nice existence.

Pretty much every other faction would be hellish in one way or another. Cravers would obviously be the absolute worst outcome, although given your hypothetical includes reincarnation, being reincarnated as a craver would mean you might actually enjoy it.

>>2096312
>he doesn't immediately pledge his allegiance to the Empire and Emperor Zelevas

>>2096350
It's no guarantee of a good life. The majority of imperials are basically wageslaves and even if you end up breaking into the nobility or reach the position of holding your own system in the name of the emperor, any tiny perceived slight or a simple rumour campaign from an opportunistic rival will lead to the emperor having you disappeared. It's not a stable state of affairs to live in.

>>2096392
Mhm, mhm, I see. Face the wall, please.

>>2096185 (OP)
whatever faction has cute fuckable girls, and I don't see any in op, I guess vaulters could have them.

>>2096564
I have good news for you anon

>>2096185 (OP)
Vodyani, be effectively immortal from snorting dust. If the Vodyani empire is ran by a competent player then the dust could also probably be ethically sourced and i woulnd't have to suck off the poor for lifeforce. Besides that, a vodyani is probably the single inidvidually strongest race maybe besides cravers as evidenced by their pop bonuses. No sex forever is something i could maybe learn to live with, lets chalk that up as the singular downside

>>2096312
>reincarnated as a craver.

Welcome drone 5032E-893 to your new home at factory plant 67, where you will spend the remainder of your 30 year long lifespan, also you're emergency rations

>>2096751
>Vods
Problem is that if you mispeak a single line on the daily call to prayer, Isyara is going to turn off your hearing and pump the correct recitation of the verse you messed up directly into your brain for the next week. Constantly on eggshells with those jihadists + your faction leader is an Indian woman.

>>2096926
>Getting dommed by Isyara

This a downside anon?

Vodyani because their women are fucking hot.
I always imagined them to be kinda like slimegirls which are objectively the most sexo kind of monstergirl.

>>2097225
Man i fucking tell you i saw some porn clips for sale at EndlessHub and it's literally just a fully clothed Vod woman sucking the lifeforce out of some poor fucker with a fetish for five minuted, they don't even touch. Shits weird.

>>2097211
She is literally Indian

>>2096587
This is why OP said playable, otherwise everyone would pick the Sisters of Sexy.

Cravers are just gym bros
They crave gains

>>2096312
Wewuzkangz society is pretty bad, because most of their shit is something like 10k years old, keeps breaking down all the time, and requires perpetual repairs. It's be like the commieblock everybody-drills-their-walls-at-8-a.m.-on-Sunday experience, except constantly.

Whatever leads to death by snu-snu from fish-mommy.

Sophons would probably let you experience the fully automated luxury gay space communism

>>2097938
right up until they open a blackhole in the planet's core because one of the top scientists had a sudden whim
reminder they blew up their own moon by accident

>>2096185 (OP)
None of the above if possible, they all look like weirdos.

>>2097938
Sophons would also probably give you experimental nanites in your starbucks without telling you first

Why not Vaulters? They seem pretty comfy, able to live underground and keep to themselves while also enjoying advanced technology.

>>2098517
They're an ok option but they're frequently described as a "grim people" and essentially no fun allowed, mainly due to their bad luck with running into disasters - which is the main downside: they seem to have this weird mix of good and bad luck where they keep running into society destroying disasters, but just about cling on and survive.
I think it'd be a solid choice, especially if you happen to align with one of their golden ages, but they sound like they're all constantly depressed.

>>2096185 (OP)
Riftborn. No needs or wants except the complete eradication of all mortal life.

>>2097622
she was a fish alien thing and is now a bunch of dust inside a sexy suit

>>2098621
So basically space Poland

Hell, this universe is wasted on 4x games where you only ever look at the world on the scale of a whole civilization

>>2098900
the game doesn't even make sense really, every faction is an established polity but everybody starts the same way. I understand why it's like this, but it conflicts too much with the lore

>>2096185 (OP)
vodyanis are probably the best if you're an average guy. They're not dealing with overpopulation or a corrupt system and they believe to be above everyone so they have the racism going on for them.
If I can choose to be in the upper crust then lumeris. Seems like rich lumeris do whatever they want, but then again their society is super backstabby so maybe empire is the safest bet.
Rest are too weird/gay/unappealing and I wouldn't want to be one of them even though I like playing every single faction except sophons because they're cringe in addition to being gay.

This game can be cool sometimes

>>2099061
the art is better than the game

Nice thread. A bit different than the norm. I'd probably want to be a Craver or a Riftborn. As a Craver, I could enjoy a simple existence until I'm inevitably killed. But if I wanted something more complex, Riftborn might be interesting too, bending reality and whatnot to suit me.

>>2096587
>an entire faction of compassionate latina combat nuns
God I wanna meet the fucker(s) that came up with them and buy em a beer

>>2099061
I don't remember Lumeris being able to survive in space, which shows how little the makers actually care about their settings making sense
>>2099084
This, the (Endless) games are just a vehicle to platform the art guys' ideas and delusions. Actually playing them is an exercise in frustration to how long you can stomach seeing the wasted potential on display everywhere.

>>2099242
asperger detected

>>2099084
preach

>>2096185 (OP)
Unfallen VTube

I'm starting to believe that ES2 is Amplitude's magnum opus because EL2 is shaping up to be a Humankind remake.

This thread made me want to replay so I started an horatio game. I planned to read all the main faction quests and take my time but I have no idea where the second pirate fleet I had to kill went so I never progressed past the very first quest. Very cringe how story-spawned enemy fleet go explore the galaxy instead of trying to attack you.

ES2 has so many cool interactions for combat that would be fun to exploit against competent opponents but the AI sucks so much at waging war. I declared war on sophons and after they nuked some of my scout ships I never saw a single fleet that was bigger than 1 ship. Strolled right to their capital unopposed. Before dying they allied with the unfallen who got dragged into the war, I again strolled in their territory basically unopposed and sieged my way to their capital.
While I was doing this they sent 3 different fleets to one of my system, they arrived 1 turn after each other so after every battle I had time to repair my garrison fleet as well as quickbuying a couple of reinforcement ships just in case.
Cherry on top: They had a 25k strength military behemoth but it was sieging a pirate system far form their territory and close to mine, it had to slowly go back to their capital and then it went down in a single battle doing 0 damage because all my ships had a jammer weapon. I allied with zelevas to get a supremacy victory because the campaign was over anyway.
I wish the AI was smart enough to put you in a situation where you need to use special nodes to gain an advantage but you genuinely can win the game by spamming medium ships with slugs and nothing else. Granted this was only on hard (I had forgotten how easy this game is) but more income doesn't change how suicidal the AI is. Next time I feel like playing I'll disable pirates since they confuse the AI so much and see if I can win an higher difficulty game as cravers.

>>2100093
yeah the AI is a huge disappointment
I'm about to start a new game with the ESG mod, I've heard it improves AI but I'll believe it when I see it

>>2100148
ESG is mainly for pvp balance and is very good at that. It takes 40 minutes instead of four hours to get to midgame where everyone has builtup industrial bases and fleets.

>>2100093
I pray for the day when we get a strategy game with an AI that has hands. I remember that interviev with an ex-CA dev who worked on Rome 2 TW. They're told to keep the AI retarded so that players can have easy, satisfying wins against them and newbies don't get discouraged. I would not really be surprised if other companies had the same approach. We don't want players to refund the game because they lost a war in their first match.

>>2100212
that's just an easy excuse for devs to not bother making good AI and putting it behind a difficulty setting

>>2096185 (OP)
human slave assigned to be holder of fish mommy milkers

>>2096350
westoid paws typed this comment
>better life me me me me
you will toil for the good of your species or die a traitor

>>2100212
>I remember that interviev with an ex-CA dev who worked on Rome 2 TW. They're told to keep the AI retarded so that players can have easy, satisfying wins against them and newbies don't get discouraged.
That's an excuse, they could always keep the superintelligent AI relegated to the highest difficulty modifier.
It's more likely that the only way they can make the computer better is to give it perfect micro interactions like the AI villagers in AoEII dodging arrows perfectly but at the same time sending their melee units in a trickle against castles so they all die for nothing.

No matter how complex the decision-making code is it's still changing its mind every time it runs that function. Maybe it's correctly retreating away from a fleet it can't beat but it will never have the intelligence to understand that it has to pull back, reorganize its fleets and wait until it has more numbers before attacking, it'll just send its fleet somewhere else, possibly right back where it retreated from.
I hope that one day we'll see a 4x where the AI can stick to a long term plan, it doesn't even have to be smart about it, just anything other than mindlessly moving units around every turn.

>>2099168
Cravers are always hungry, it wouldn't be a fun existence. But then again they do seem capable of living alongside other races so maybe they can overcome their biological needs with the help of technology?

>>2100750
Forgot to crop the image

>>2100755
I've never seen this image before. Where'd you get it from? The gnashast is oddly cute.

>>2100834
From the artbook that's in your game files if you buy the deluxe edition on steam (copied and resized to fit the file limit)
There's some art that might not be in the game near the end

>>2096185 (OP)
Vodyani, duh. Why would I ever pick anything else?

>>2097243
...got a link...?

>>2100889
fair

>hehe this fleet is sure to destroy those damn cravers! Attack!!

>>2100961
And there it is, the utter cancer of trying to fight the vodyani at high difficulty. I haven't lost 1/10 of a ship in I don't know how many turns but the fuckers keep making arks and sending them to colonize random system.
Man raising the AI difficulty really is just a "how many flies you want to be swatting every turn" slider uh?

>>2100996
I was literally one turn away form finishing off the vodyani when an unfallen AI from across the map won an economic victory out of nowhere, dust production was twice that of everyone else and they were at war with 2 AIs, no idea how it managed to win that hard.
Genuinely a fuckup form my side: I tried rushing military technologies to make ground combat on the millions of arks faster but I should have just had a manpower deployment module spam fleet escorted by a couple of attackers and have those mop up the vodyani while my main fleets moved on to another faction, I try to focus on a single enemy at once if I can and that bit me in the ass because vodyani take so long to finish off. It's actually cool that the AI managed to beat me despite me winning every single battle with 0 casualties, there isn't any challenge in the individual engagements but there can be some challenge in choosing the correct strategic decisions.

Gonna play the vodyani tomorrow.

>>2099168
>Riftborn
Being a riftborn is pure suffering by virtue of existing in a reality utterly incompatible with you at least until you make it to one of their endings. They're my favourite faction but being one seems like a really bad idea.

>>2100755

so many things to think about, how is a Craver adapting to society? How is he tolerated? There are all these unique alien races just waiting on a metro station, waiting to go to work in some giant city. That Horatio on the left probably has a boring deks job, the tiny Sophon squeezing through probably has some important business, The Lumeris lady is probably looking something up on her spacephone. So many cool things to wonder about and all we get is this image.

Yet again, this universe is wasted on 4X games.

>>2100755
>implying a Craver can integrate in any society
aren't they 99% mindless drones and only their queens and the ruling caste are actually sentient?

>>2101313
robot sexo

>>2101141
>>2101313

Ah, commander Shepard. My existance is pain.

>>2101381
from some hero descriptions:
>Due to their advanced skills in leading large construction projects Libera was sent to install a major Craver military base in an asteroid belt
>The reputation of Solutus began as a simple soldier, when it gained the nickname Undying. Having fought and survived more battles than any other Craver, first as drone and then as bishop, Solutus voluntarily ingested lethal levels of Dust
So a craver can have expertise in something, free will and a reputation (which means cravers treat each others as individuals) but then there's this one:
>"Obedience is expected; loyalty must be induced." Unbound learned to obtain uncompromising control over their drones by creating and exuding more potent pheromones
Maybe cravers begin their life as basically mindless drones controlled by pheromones and then they either mature into sentient beings or some are elevated through consuming dust or other methods.
Or maybe some are simply born sentient and are meant to direct drones to accomplish complex tasks like building improvements but can use their superior intelligence for tasks like piloting spaceships, administrative duties or, if they choose to, being employed by other races as mercenaries or bodyguards.

>>2101313
>Yet again, this universe is wasted on 4X games.
Personally I love how ES2 can hint at the unseen complexities of its world with just art, it's meant to leave you speculating on stuff like that, it's part of the fun.
I'd also like to see more media set in this universe but I'd rather things only be hinted at than overexplained like how star wars has to explain every single minute detail from Han being named "Solo" because he wasn't with anyone else and the fact that Vader's helmet is shiny because is polished with "woodoo hide"

>Hey Kren, grab something from the fridge

>>2101442
>do we have any lumeris?
>no I'm on a humanitarian diet

>>2101016
>>2100996
>Tried vodyani on endless difficulty 6 players
>Once again 3 of the strongest AIs form an alliance against me and I can't kill them fast enough to stop them from getting an economic victory
>Decided to try out riftborn on endless, just 4 players so I can actually kill my enemies this time before they can get an economic victory
>I proceed to boom and press end turn until I win a science victory in total peace
Yeah I remembered why the riftborn were my favorite now: being able to colonize lava planets without getting growth or happyness penalties is so strong and you save so much industry, dust and science by not worrying about food, who cares about growing minor pops when your main pop is so strong and can can be built with all that industry you save? 0 drawbacks besides maybe some manpower issues.

Which faction is your favorite gameplay-wise?