ENDLESS™ Legend 2 News

Hey everyone,

We're thrilled to bring you the news that we know many of you have been waiting for:
ENDLESS™ Legend 2 will enter Early Access here on Steam on August 7th. Check out the trailer below:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Lead one of five different factions in their struggle to dominate the ocean paradise of Saiadha as the mysterious Tidefalls irrevocably change the world around them and reveal ancient secrets. Develop your cities, explore and claim new lands, adapt to the changing worlds with new technologies, face your enemies on the battlefield, and experience the unique story of your faction. Be wary though, as the receding waters may reveal an ancient horror or a new enemy just as readily as boundless riches.


Key features during Early Access include:

• Five different factions, each with their own playstyle, mechanics, and unique narrative in the story of Saiadah. You can already learn more about the Kin of Sheredyn, the Aspects, and the Necrophage.
  
• Procedurally generated maps that change over time via world-shaping Tidefall events, revealing new riches and new dangers
  
• Deep tactical battles unfolding on the strategic map as armies clash and each side brings the unique abilities of their units to bear
  
• RPG-like mechanics as heroes lead armies and venture forth into the wider world – uncover hidden secrets, find powerful gear, and explore new lands to claim.
  

The game will be available in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Czech, Polish, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Turkish,  Russian, Brazilian Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.


https://store.steampowered.com/app/3407390/ENDLESS_Legend_2/

[p]Hey everyone,


Today we’re looking at familiar faces some of you may remember from Auriga: The Necrophage. The insatiable, warmongering bugs are back, but their time on Saiadha has changed them.

[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]

[/p][p]The Necrophage are a hive of semi-insectoid creatures that feed on corpses, driven by instinct to devour everything in their path.

Retreating from an ancient flood and the violent storms of Saiadha, they burrowed deep underground, where they adapted to life in the dark.

Now that the waters are receding, they have emerged from their hibernation to sate their unceasing hunger. But crawling to the surface they immediately encountered the Sheredyn, a threat to the hive and the queen that must be eliminated.


[/p][p]
As the Necrophage are a returning faction from Endless Legend 1, we wanted to maintain a strong visual legacy so that they would be instantly recognizable to our long-time fans. That means a reliance on organic materials for their structures, and an off-putting combination of vertebrate and insectoid features for their units.

However, we also wanted to clearly show that this is a different hive that has adapted to the conditions on Saiadha. After sheltering underground in near hibernation for a long time, the Saiadhan Necrophage rely even less on inorganic tools and weapons while their shells have paled to mostly white.

[/p][h3]Notable Elements[/h3][p]Buildings: Wasps nests, (funnel) spider webs
Units: Insectoid and arachnid carapaces



​
[/p][p]The Necrophage are one of the most aggressive factions in Endless Legend 2. Their entire economic power is concentrated in a single city, fueled by their armies devouring their enemies and the land itself. Swarms of units can be moved quickly through burrows or spawned right on the front lines. When dealing with the Necrophage, peace is never an option.

Here’s a word from our designers on the design intentions for the Necrophage:

[/p]

[p]
So necrophage evolved quite a bit during development: They are the big bad guys they had to be an agressive faction forcing you to create armies to stop them.

Making them a one city faction was a good way to pull out some of the macro management of a regular economy making them focus on what was important for the players of the warfare playstyle: explore, Swarm, Kill and focus on the next target. This does not mean there are a weak economy as they can full it with unique infrastructures and districts, those requiring some meat to be built so combat is still a must to make them grow.

The main issue is to make them feel fair while fighting them: the free unit is one way to compensate for the solo city economy but the endless swarm can feel unfair. Making their base unit the worst unit of the game was our solution. Your goal as a necrophage player should be to find them an easy place to eat the terrain freely or to feed them some meat and strategic resources to make them evolve into deadly monsters.

Your goal as the opponent of the necrophage should be to find those isolated larvas and kill them as fast as possible, not letting them becoming dangerous beast (and yes they'll be scattered across all land so watch out for those sneaky armies). Same thing for their burrows, those can be used as entry point for their invasion or to flee if you are chasing them => to sum it simply Watch out for the bugs or the bugs will eat you alive.

Finding the balance between the all in in military and the feeding of your capital will be the key to Necrophages success, Having the biggest and Badest hero will compliment it well with the tons of experience necrophage earn by their military Playstyle. To sum it up have one mission in mind => FEED THE SWARM[/p]

[p]

[/p][h2]Faction Affinity: Hive Society[/h2][p]The queen is vitally important to the Necrophage and their lifecycle, so their society and their hive are structured around her. Instead of placing camps and founding additional cities, the Necrophage have only their capital. They can still claim faraway lands through Burrows and Hives, which they can attach to their capital from anywhere on the map, adding more territories to their capital than other factions. These Burrows and Hives can also be used to move armies quickly between them, letting the Necrophage control and defend a large territory without establishing cities there.

The Necrophage also harvest Corpses from killing enemies and razing cities, a crucial resource for them. First and foremost, they need these corpses to evolve their larva into more powerful forms of Necrophage to create effective armies. Should they find themselves with a surplus of Corpses, they can also use them to create new population in their cities.

The swarm is insatiable, and the Necrophage will consume everything in their path to fuel their growth. Your armies have a special “Devour the Land” action they can use to strip tiles of all their resources and sending them to the hive, leaving the land barren in their wake.

[/p][h2]Traits[/h2]

• [p]Rapid Adaptation: Necrophage units can upgrade anywhere, instead of only in their own territory.
  [/p]
• [p] Ever Fighting: Necrophage cannot parley with or bribe minor factions. However, they can always declare justified wars for free and suffer less war weariness.
  [/p]
• [p] Insectoid Society: Only Necrophage population can live in Necrophage cities.
  [/p]
• [p] Queen’s City: The Necrophage city has additional population slots in each category.
  [/p]
• [p] Larva Creation: After every victorious battle, a larva spawns nearby.[/p]

[p]
[/p][p]Necrophage armies favor aggression over defense. Many of their unit abilities focus on dealing increasing damage or destroying isolated and wounded targets, though a few of their units might be tougher than you expect. Even if they take losses in battle, they can easily recover thanks to the newly spawned larvae and their ability to upgrade anywhere.


[/p][h2]Battle Affinity: Unceasing Hunger[/h2][p]Every time a Necrophage unit attacks, it reduces their target’s defense, making them more vulnerable to damage.

The most basic of Necrophage units, the Larva, is quite fragile in combat, as its primary purpose is to evolve into stronger units after spawning.

Necrodrones are the flying scouts of the hive, locating promising new territory or prey.
[/p]

• [p] Bloodseekers are even more mobile and can help other armies move faster.
  [/p]
• [p] Hornets focus more on combat, gaining extra damage from charging and shoving back their enemies.[/p]

[p]
The Spitter serves as the ranged unit of the Necrophage, gaining a damage boost against wounded targets once they evolve to Corruptors.
[/p]

• [p] Defilers support the roaming swarms by boosting the damage of nearby allies every time they attack.
  [/p]
• [p] Infestors bolster your ranks in battle, as every time they kill an enemy a Feeder that will die at the end of the battle spawns.[/p]

[p]
Feeders are the core melee troops of the hive, and they excel at taking out isolated targets.
[/p]

• [p] Evolving them into Slicers will make them even more dangerous against already wounded units, and even allow them to heal after they kill an enemy.
  [/p]

[p]

Soundtrack
Of course, Arnaud Roy has as always provided us with an amazing theme to accompany this faction. Give it a listen below or on one of Arnaud's streaming platforms.

[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][hr][/hr][p]
Will you join the swarm and consume Saiadha? Let us know what you think about the Necrophage.[/p]

​Hey everybody,


We know we promised you a look at the Necrophage last time, but they’re not easy beasts to tame. It’ll take us a little longer to wrangle the hive into presentable shape, so while we wait for the swarm to grow, we figure we have a moment to take a look at the world of Saiadha itself and some of the other dangers lurking there.




First of all, let’s address a question that’s been floating around since we announced the game: If Saiadha is an ocean planet, what about naval gameplay?

Short answer: There isn’t any.

You’d think that being stuck on an island would push the factions of Saiadha to invent sturdy ships and reliable navigation, but none of them dare venture far. The waters of Saiadha are incredibly dangerous. Violent storms frequently rage across the world, dashing any hopes of naval exploration against quite literal rocks. Even when the waters are still, they are far from peaceful. Powerful beasts and titanic predators lurk beneath the waves, ready to drag any poor unfortunate soul they can get their teeth or tentacles on down below the waves.






Saiadha has never really been a safe and peaceful world, but the Starfall has brought new risks and dangers. Ancient powers seem to wake as nature itself acts in new, strange, and unpredictable ways. Darkness blankets the land for long periods of time as howling winds and pouring rain drive your people back to shelter.

During these Monsoons, your armies can collect special curiosities that will only appear during this season, not only giving you a lot of Dust, but also restoring movement and health to your armies. It’s an excellent time to be aggressive and maybe start some trouble with your neighbors. Or perhaps it would be wiser to stay home and defend your cities, as minor factions become unusually aggressive during the Monsoon season and will attack you on sight. Not the best of times for your scouts to be out and about by themselves.






After every Monsoon, the sea level on Saiadha rapidly drops, revealing new land and connecting plateaus that once were islands. This will expand your diplomatic or military horizons as you meet other empires and vie for control of the new regions. The deeper these regions once lay below the ocean, the richer they will be in resources, but the greater the dangers lurking in them.






In any region that used to be underwater, you may discover a Fortress occupied by brigands and a powerful tyrant. As they pose a threat to any nearby settlements, you cannot claim the region until you face them in battle and drive them out of their hideout. However, once you have defeated them, their loot is yours to claim, and you may even establish an outpost for free.






Starting with the second Monsoon, the very ground itself is ravaged by the upheaval the Starfall brought to Saiadha. Deep Rifts open across the land, blocking your path and releasing menacing creatures from the depths of the planet. These Doomwraiths and their accompanying Horrors will settle in a region and corrupt its soil, threatening the peace and prosperity of your realm.

The fastest way to get rid of them is to send an army to take them out in open battle, but if your troops are occupied elsewhere, it might be more convenient to pay a hunter to deal with them or bait them away.




[hr][/hr]

Hello everyone,


Welcome back to our Dev Diaries.

Last time we told you about cities and how to manage your whole empire, but this week it is time to get our hands dirty and face our enemies on the field of battle. Let’s talk about combat in ENDLESS™ Legend 2, and how it has changed from our previous games.



In Endless Legend 2, you move your units across the map grouped into armies to explore and perform various actions like claiming territory. If you encounter an enemy army and come to blows with it, a small section of the map is marked as the battlefield. Any other of your armies in that area can join the battle as reinforcements, but only one of them. The units in these two armies are then placed individually within the deployment zones marked for each side of the battle.



Once the battle properly begins, players take turns commanding their armies. Starting with the attacker, each player acts with all of their units in any order before handing control over to the other player, and a battle can have up to 8 of these rounds before it ends, all contained within a single game turn.



Positioning your units carefully is often crucial in battle, as the terrain will affect them, such as forest providing cover and high ground improving your attacks. Once the enemy closes rank with you, however, repositioning can become quite dangerous, as moving away from enemies will trigger attacks of opportunity. Choose your engagements wisely!





Picking the right position and target for each unit becomes even more important when you take the various unit abilities into account.

Every Major Faction has a battle affinity that grants their units a special effect in combat. For example, the Kin of Sheredyn gain a shield that absorbs damage for standing in tight formation, whereas units in Aspect armies grant a damage bonus to their allies when they defend.



All units also have abilities that can affect them positively or negatively in combat. Some of these are granted by their unit type, such as infantry units gaining better defense in formation or ranged units taking a damage penalty when engaged in melee. Other abilities are specific to each unit, such as the Aspect Sentries being particularly deadly if they hold position whereas the Kin Archers are better at attacking enemies engaged in melee. Most units will also gain new abilities or improve their existing ones as you upgrade them.



Your heroes are perhaps the most deadly and versatile combatants on the field, as they can gain powerful active abilities by spending skill points or equipping certain gear. Whether they are attacks that hit multiple enemies or apply penalties to them, or skills that grant healing, shields, or other bonuses to their allies, these active abilities can have a massive impact on the battle in a single round.




Long time Amplitude fans will know that in Endless Legend 1 we tried a rather unusual system for our combat: After a section of the map was marked as the battlefield, you would give all your orders at once at the start of the turn, then your units would try to carry them out in initiative order, automatically picking new orders if the ones you had given were impossible.

This was meant to help maintain a balance between the time spent fighting battles and the time spent managing your empire. In practice, the system was difficult to understand and master, and often frustrating for our players when their units made bad decisions and got themselves killed. Many players did not find the system quick, either, as they took time to carefully consider how the AI-controlled units might act if their plans went wrong.

So, in Humankind we gave players direct control of their units. While some players missed aspects of the Endless Legend combat system, many others saw this as a move in the right direction. A lot of players really enjoyed the battles in Humankind, and for some it was even their favorite part of the game.



With Endless Legend 2’s combat, we want to evolve this system further and push it into a more fantasy-themed direction. Almost every unit has special abilities that define how you use it in combat, and your heroes can intervene much more actively in your battles than merely attacking with their weapon.


We hope you like the direction we are taking for the combat in Endless Legend 2. Let us know what you think in the comments, and stay tuned for a look at the Necrophages soon!


[hr][/hr][h3]📡 INSIDERS PROGRAM 📡 [/h3]

We are including more and more people from the community to get early feedback and improve the game based on your feedback. If it is something you're interested in, please sign up for the program (you will require an Amplifier's account + Steam Link).



[hr][/hr]

​Hey everybody,


We’ve already shown you two of the factions of Endless Legend 2 (the militaristic Kin of Sheredyn and the diplomatic Aspects), but right now it might be tricky to understand their abilities as we haven’t talked much about many of the core systems of the game. That changes today, starting with perhaps the backbone of the gameplay: Your economy.


Like in our previous 4X games (and many other 4X titles), the economic power of your empire revolves around your cities. These cities develop mostly in two ways: Population and Districts.

In many ways, Population in Endless Legend 2 is an evolution of the population systems in both Endless Legend and Endless Space 2.

Much like in Endless Legend 1, you can freely assign your population to work in different categories in your city, independent of the tile types the city is working. However, like planets in Endless Space 2, these categories offer a mix of yields and have a limited number of slots.

And much like in Endless Space 2, your population will hail from a specific faction with unique yield bonuses. As your population of a given faction grows, you may even unlock additional benefits like higher yield bonuses, unique improvements to build in your cities, or heroes of that faction.



But of course, your population needs to live and work somewhere, and that means construction: Like in Endless Legend, Humankind, and many other 4X games of the recent years, in Endless Legend 2 you develop your cities by building Districts and Improvements.

The first step in expanding your cities is to lay new Foundations. This is done by claiming a tile adjacent to your city by spending some influence. These Foundations will exploit the FIDSI of the tiles they are placed on (including anomalies) and serve as a place to construct new Districts.

These Districts specialize in a particular resource or purpose (like defense, trade, or housing), and often receive bonuses based on their position to encourage adapting your city to its surrounding terrain.

Districts also provide you with slots to build Improvements. These structures generally offer powerful city-wide bonuses but will require some investment of Strategic Resources to construct.

1) Foundations

2) Districts



​3) Improvements



This covers the basics of how you manage your empire in Endless Legend 2, though of course there are other aspects to it, like Luxury Resources or trade for example, that we will leave for you to discover when you play the game.


Given how crucial to the experience the economic gameplay is, we really wanted to work with our players to refine it. And their feedback has proven crucial, as the current system is in fact quite different than what we started out with.

[h2]Version 1 [/h2]
In the earliest versions of the game’s economy, there were several types of Foundation that would only exploit specific yields, for example Food and Industry on an Exploitation type Foundation. Districts could also hold several Improvements of the appropriate type each, but these improvements would only affect the District in which they were built, not the whole city. With this, we wanted to encourage a very terrain-based city development.

Sheredyn City - Concept Art



Early UI Mockup



However, based on the feedback our VIPs gave us, we realized that it quickly became very difficult to keep track of the Improvements you had built and your future development plans for your city. So, we decided to try a different approach:

[h2]Version 2 [/h2]
In the second iteration, we made the effects of Improvements global. This made them more appealing compared to building another new district, and also removed the need to plan the upgrade of a bunch of individual districts. At the same time, we reduced the number of Improvements per district to one, so you could not rely entirely on Improvements.

At this time, we also introduced an immediate influence cost for placing Foundations instead of slowly constructing them with Industry. This ties Influence to all forms of expansion, both globally and locally, and helps to curb the tendency of Industry to help itself grow.



[h2]Version 3 [/h2]

[Current version]
When we shared the second version with our alpha testers, we their feedback showed us we had another problem to address:

With multiple types of Foundations and half a dozen Districts unlocked from the start and Improvements beckoning in the research tree, it was difficult to take in and weigh your options when you started a new game. This also diluted faction asymmetry, as all factions had access to the same build options in the early game.

To give our players clearer, faction-specific starting options, we delayed access to Improvements and Districts a bit. The first Improvements can now be found as part of Era 2 technologies, while most Districts have to be researched in Era 1, which means all factions start the game with access to only one or two district types. We also unified the different Foundation types into a single Foundation type, so cities could automatically create foundations to exploit all resources on the tiles around the city center when they are founded to boost early yields.



Now that our Insiders have been picking the new version apart for a while, they have given us tons of feedback, and there are several key points we are looking to tackle:

• Rebalancing costs to improve overall pacing
  
• Rebalancing District bonuses to encourage more varied city building
  
• Adjusting the city UI for a more intuitive construction flow
  
• And more.
  

We will keep working with our VIPs and Insiders to get their feedback and adjust the city building gameplay of Endless Legend 2 accordingly, so we can provide you with a great experience once we launch in Early Access this summer.

Stay tuned for more sneak peeks at game features and factions, including some old friends (or maybe foes).

[hr][/hr][h3]📡 INSIDERS PROGRAM 📡 [/h3]

We are including more and more people from the community to get early feedback and improve the game based on your feedback. If it is something you're interested in, please sign up for the program (you will require an Amplifier's account + Steam Link).



[hr][/hr]