Endless Legend - Two New Expansions

Two new expansions for the strategy game Endless Legend are out: Pact of the Seas and Tempest:

Hey everyone,

Our 1.5.0 free update, Pact of the Seas, is out!

You can thank our incredible team for their hard work, both on Pact of the Seas and the Tempest expansion that's coming out tonight. While the latter is our most ambitious expansion so far, the former will introduce new features that you guys have been requesting for quite some time, so we're super excited to finally reveal them!

I'm talking about a shared victory condition, the unique random faction selection (to avoid too many duplicated!), more diplomacy options, naval combat for embarked units and more!

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More information.

AND it didn't screw up the game I was in the middle of playing when it appeared.

It is actually only one expansion (Tempest). Pact of the Seas is just the update to the base game adding some of the mechanics that the expansion brings.

By the way the expansion looks great. I started a game with the new faction a couple of days ago and kept me playing all night. Great new content and a completely new way of playing with the new faction (as ussual).

It is amazing the diversity in this game. They have like 11 or 12 factions and they all play differently, (some of them completely differently) and yet they achive to keep a certain balance and make them all attractive. Great design, great atmosphere, great artistic style and AMAZING music.

Really a game from another time, quality and content wise.

I want to get excited about this and then I keep seeing Civ 6 inching closer and closer; I hear the lamentations of my woman that the game isn't out yet, and I wait.

(We played around 2000 hours of Civ 5 together so I have no doubt we'll love 6. Endless Legend I kept trying and trying to get into but I think I couldn't get past the combat, which I didn't enjoy as much as the Civ 5 style.)

Yes the endless games are certainly not about combat. I understand that they don't want to bogus the game with it, and I actually autoplay most of them. However just a bit more of control in important battles would have been a real plus (for me it is a bit chaotic).

I still love the game anyway.

these expansions are good news for an already brilliant 4X strategy

The crappy-looking combat has always kept me away from this game. Just picked it up in the current Steam sale, though. Hope to try it soon. Maybe I can live with auto-resolving every combat.

Yes 75% off on Steam right now. At that price it's more than worth it.

Originally Posted by Capt. Huggy Face
The crappy-looking combat has always kept me away from this game. Just picked it up in the current Steam sale, though. Hope to try it soon. Maybe I can live with auto-resolving every combat.

Why is combat crappy? In my experience combat takes time to learn and not everyone does so they bash it

Originally Posted by Caddy
Yes 75% off on Steam right now. At that price it's more than worth it.

Wow, thanks for the info. Been waiting on that one.

Originally Posted by Capt. Huggy Face
The crappy-looking combat has always kept me away from this game. Just picked it up in the current Steam sale, though. Hope to try it soon. Maybe I can live with auto-resolving every combat.

This is definitely worth giving some time to in order to appreciate it. I, too, hated the combat and couldn't seem to get into the game (because I like to micromanage combat). However, the game does so many other things so well that it's worth trying to adjust your approach and expectations around combat.

I do auto-resolve a lot now but have also found that there's just enough control in combat that it can be worthwhile to run it manually for certain battles (as you can control where you units go and who they attack).

If you are a 4x fan, this really is one of the better ones I've played in some years (not as good as Civ5 for me but still a great game).

EDIT: It is also worth noting that the auto-resolve seems pretty good and fair.

Originally Posted by SSIGuy
This is definitely worth giving some time to in order to appreciate it. I, too, hated the combat and couldn't seem to get into the game (because I like to micromanage combat). However, the game does so many other things so well that it's worth trying to adjust your approach and expectations around combat.

I do auto-resolve a lot now but have also found that there's just enough control in combat that it can be worthwhile to run it manually for certain battles (as you can control where you units go and who they attack).

If you are a 4x fan, this really is one of the better ones I've played in some years (not as good as Civ5 for me but still a great game).

EDIT: It is also worth noting that the auto-resolve seems pretty good and fair.

The combat can be micro managed pretty well, but it takes a while to learn how. The system is different that is for sure and that confuses people.

So they give up and call it bad instead of taking effort to learn it.

Originally Posted by Archangel
Why is combat crappy? In my experience combat takes time to learn and not everyone does so they bash it

Well, as I mentioned, I haven't actually played it, so I said it looked crappy. The reasons why it looks crappy: small battlefield and limited spell casting and special abilities. It looks to me to have a lot fewer options in combat than, say, Fallen Enchantress or AoW3. That small battlefield, in particular, though, looks most limiting.

But I guess I'll find out soon enough. Bought the whole shebang, even the new expansion. With the sale, I paid $27 USD. (The small discount on the latest expansion seems to be gone now.) Hope to get to it soon.

Originally Posted by Capt. Huggy Face
Well, as I mentioned, I haven't actually played it, so I said it looked crappy. The reasons why it looks crappy: small battlefield and limited spell casting and special abilities. It looks to me to have a lot fewer options in combat than, say, Fallen Enchantress or AoW3. That small battlefield, in particular, though, looks most limiting.

Perfectly valid points, and yes, the combat is somewhat limited compared to those two. Edlesss Legend is however IMO opinion the best 4x game of the last decade. The combat is still alot more fun than CIV (and I love CIV), and the factions play really differently. I can't stress this enough, because this has always been a tunroff for me in most other 4x games, including Civ.

The lore is solid, the exploration is rewarding, and the game is gorgeous. I reckon it might be a bit overwhelming if you start to play it now with all the expansions though, so take your time on an easier difficulty to learn the ropes. I promise you the game is worth it.

Originally Posted by Capt. Huggy Face
Well, as I mentioned, I haven't actually played it, so I said it looked crappy. The reasons why it looks crappy: small battlefield and limited spell casting and special abilities. It looks to me to have a lot fewer options in combat than, say, Fallen Enchantress or AoW3. That small battlefield, in particular, though, looks most limiting.

But I guess I'll find out soon enough. Bought the whole shebang, even the new expansion. With the sale, I paid $27 USD. (The small discount on the latest expansion seems to be gone now.) Hope to get to it soon.

I played FE and AoW3 and I prefer EL combat over FE but AoW3 has much better combat. FE has more options but most of those are useless or unbalanced. EL combat flows better and I prefer being able to customize units over a unique faction base unit like in EL over FE where everyone can make every unit through customization and unique faction abilities play a very small role.

But EL is made to be a fantasy version of Civ, not a MoM or HoMM "clone". It has way more Civ like 4x features than FE and especially more than AoW3 (AoW3 being a HoMM clone).

So it comes down to what you prefer out of your 4x or HoMM like games. I enjoyed EL and AoW3 both.

I am not buying this game even on sale, 3 units per faction? Customize them how much you want, they will still graphicaly look the same no matter if you equip them with 2 handed weapons or weapon+shield really small battlefields and minor factions? Most of them look like from sci-fi game not fantasy. Age of Wonders forever!

Originally Posted by alexej
I am not buying this game even on sale, 3 units per faction? Customize them how much you want, they will still graphicaly look the same no matter if you equip them with 2 handed weapons or weapon+shield really small battlefields and minor factions? Most of them look like from sci-fi game not fantasy. Age of Wonders forever!

Endless Legend is a mix of fantasy and sci fi, kind of like Numenera.

And as I already said, it is not meant to replace AoW type games, but be a fantasy Civ with better combat.

Originally Posted by Archangel
Endless Legend is a mix of fantasy and sci fi, kind of like Numenera.

And as I already said, it is not meant to replace AoW type games, but be a fantasy Civ with better combat.

I do understand but even civ 5 has many units with different looks (on top of that I do not play without R.E.D. modpack because I do hate when for example Russian spearman looks exactly same as French). If they ATLEAST make patch where unit graphics will be altered by equipment you choose for it, I will buy and play this game

Originally Posted by alexej
I do understand but even civ 5 has many units with different looks (on top of that I do not play without R.E.D. modpack because I do hate when for example Russian spearman looks exactly same as French). If they ATLEAST make patch where unit graphics will be altered by equipment you choose for it, I will buy and play this game

Well, I guess it depends in part what kind of game you're looking for but for me, I don't want to miss out on any great 4x game. AoW3 has great combat and unit variety but the building and research side is thin (I still love the game). EL is thin on the combat side but has great building and research mechanics (as well as some other cool mechanics). They're both great games and I think both deserve to be played. Not playing EL just because of the combat means missing a really good 4x game.

As for the RED modpack, I get that (and use it) but you do understand in EL each faction has its own complete set of unique units?

Guys you have to keep the perspective. Age of Wonders is a wargame and of course it has great battles. Endless Legend is a 4x game and cannot be judged in the battle area as if it was a wargame, as we cannot judge the simple town management of Age of Wonders in the same scale as in Endless Legend.

I am of those who don't love combat that much in Endless Legend and think that with a few changes they could keep the simple combat system but in which the player would have better control of what is happening. However I understand that they don't intend to go for a full fledged battle system.

4x games are terribly long, and if you go for a detailed battle system in which each battle can be 20 minutes (or much longer in the case of the latter game) then the pace woul slow down incredibly. They even have a 6 turn cap for battles for a reason.

About unit variety it is simply untrue that you are limited to just 3 units per faction. You will assimilate minor factions and can build their units too, or buy them in the market, and there are guardians, huge creatures that you may produce up to 1 of them per type in your empire (there are 4 of them if I'm not mistaken). And now with Tempest you can build naval units as well. I actually don't feel like there's need for any more creatures per faction.