History VideoGame / EndlessSpace

* ObviousBeta: The ''Disharmony'' expansion pack reportedly has a number of game-breaking bugs, and introduced changed mechanics which cripple the Sower and new Harmony factions.

** However unlike most Precursors that mysterious disappear with no trace the various factions know exactly what happened to them. A giant CivilWar is what destroyed all of them... Save for the occasional Remnant which you can get as a hero.

** Averted for gameplay. There is an interface tutorial, but little else. While a [[TheWikiRule fan-made Wikia]] exists, it is nowhere near complete, and Website/GameFAQs was dry until recently. Oh, and, of course, the game's still having features added.

* StrollingOnJupiter: Gas giants can be colonized after researching the appropriate technology. The changes to the gas giants' graphics when they're colonized make it clear that the colonies are on the surface of the gas giant and not orbiting habitats.

** They can also be terraformed with the right technologies, except for gas giants and asteroids.

* {{Terraform}}: The game features this deep in the colonization and exploration tech tree. However, terraforming a hostile world isn't easy, and there are multiple stages of planet types that must be successfully transformed in order to slowly turn a hostile world into a garden: barren and lava worlds can turn into arctic or desert worlds can turn into tundra or arid worlds which finally turn into terran, jungle, or ocean worlds. Terraforming sideways within tiers, or even down tiers, is also possible. Gas giants and asteroid belts, however, can't be improved at all. In a separate form of terraforming, negative and mixed planetary anomalies such as strong magnetic fields, seismic activity, and toxic environments can be alleviated through other technologies in the same tech tree - the first stage allows the remedy of minor anomalies (which are often a mix of good and bad, which the treatment removing the bad and sometimes even boosts the good), then later the ability to remove severe anomalies. Played with in that descriptions for remedied anomalies indicate that it's just as often the result of adapting the colony's systems to the environment.

* SpacePirates: Yeah, they exist in game and early on they can be a real pain in the ass. Random events will also spawn them at your home planet. Fortunately they seem more interested in rape and pillage: if they fry your fleet, instead of sticking around to do infrastructure damage they'll hare off after more things to fight. Although they can invade your star systems if they don't find anything more interesting nearby.

** Actually, Endless Space came '''first''' with their idea in Dust before ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'', as the material is currently used not just in [[StealthPun industrial]] purposes, but also in scientific and weaponized technology. [[ButWaitTheresMore Not to mention]] it can be used [[UptoEleven to turn average computers into god-like AI's by simply filling them with the same material]].

* AbusivePrecursors: The Endless, to some extent, for creating the Cravers, who now (and then) just eat everything. They were actually in the process of wiping them out when their civilization collapsed, so this may be NeglectfulPrecursors.
** Perhaps inverted into BenevolentPrecursors for having ever created Dust in the first place (which is apparently a boon to all civilizations, even granting some races sapience, such as the Automatons).
** It is mentioned that the Endless were divided into multiple factions, so they have a bit of all three tropes. The Harmony however fall directly into AbusivePrecursors, as their mission is to destroy all Dust, a valuable resource that every galactic power except them uses. It's stated that they don't care how many people they need to kill to do this.

** WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong if you have a race called Endless to so happened [[VideoGame/{{Halo}} to spread their ancient technology, more so inspiring others]], [[VideoGame/StarWolves across the universe]] via [[AdvancedAncientAcropolis Dark Ancient Cities]] and {{Wormhole}}s, and still look like [[HumanoidAliens humanoids]] for so many years.

** The Amoeba are Diplomats. One of their faction traits is even called ''Diplomats.'' They get a lot of bonuses to trade routes with allies and they also get an approval bonus for every faction that is either allied with them or at peace with them. They have a bonus to food production and get a small bonus to weapon damage when supporting allied fleets. They also start with the whole map visible, including the homeworlds of the opposing factions, which helps considerably during early expansion. Their main downside is their abilites require making a couple of allies before they can really come into play.
** The Automatons are Balanced and Industrial with strengths and weaknesses that touch on everything but research. They get the same bonus to population density as the Horatio and they also get a bonus to approval ratings and a twenty percent increase on ship hitpoints and a fifty percent increase to trade routes bonuses, along with the ability to stockpile industry and eventually use starships to boost construction. On the negative side, they have ten percent less dust per system, Hero abilites cost more to use, they have two less command points compared to other factions and their starting planet has an anomaly which lowers approval significantly.
** The Cravers are a mixture of Spammers and Brute Force with shades of Industrialists and Researchers. Their ships cost twenty percent less, they get a forty percent bonus to the current research for each destroyed enemy Command Point, they have two more command points then standard at the start of the game and several unqiue technologies to raise the CP limit further then other nations. They also have a bonus to population density, though not to the same degree as the Horatio and the Automatons. All this comes at the price of being locked into a permenant state of war with ''all'' of the other factions.

** The Pilgrims are a mixture of Diplomats, Loyalists and Researchers. They have a bonus to trade routes and their trade routes also work in Cold Wars and blockades will not break them. They gain a bonus to fleet weapon damage when supporting allies and a bonus to current research for every destoryed enemy command point. They also have an approval bonus per system and heroes recieve an xp bonus when hired and the Pilgrims have reduced upkeep costs for their heroes. They can also evacuate star systems and they have a bonus to ownership on each system they take from the United Empire. On the downside their ships suffer a twenty percent penalty on usuable mass, meaning you can't put as many weapons, armor, etc... on Pilgrim ships as you can ships of other factions.
** The Sophons are Researchers and Rangers. They gain a thirty percent increase in research and a bonus to research when taxes are low. Their ships are significantly faster than the other factions and have a larger dectection radius. The cost for their support modules is also halved. This comes at the price of a twenty-five percent penalty to defense, -8 defense per unit of population in each system, and a ten percent increase in the cost of improvements.

** The United Empire is a mixture of Economists and Brute Force with a little of Spammer thrown in. They get ten percent more Dust per system and +1 Dust per unit of of population. A tax rate above twenty-five percent also gives them a bonus to production. Their ships get a ten percent bonus to xp and a forty percent bonus to hitpoints. They also have a system defensive bonus per system. Their main downside is increased cost for Hero abilites. This faction tends to be very powerful in later stages of the game because once they get set up their strong economy allows them to crank out a seemingly endless supply of tough, durable, experienced warships.

* DescriptivelyNamedSpecies: The Amoeba. It doesn't take a whole lot of imigination to guess what they look like.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: One hero you can hire is a strange man wearing ornate, knightly power armor and never seems to take it off. This is in fact a surviving member of the Broken Lords, one of the factions from ''EndlessLegend''.

* {{Narcissist}}: Horatio the First. Presumably the other members of his empire follow suit since they follow his design aesthetics and cast out (or simply terminate) members of their faction that deviate too much from the original template.

* NegativeSpaceWedgie: How the vast majority of Random Events-including positive ones-occur: The guy explaining the effects to you even admits he has no idea of the {{Technobabble}} of one of your Colony Ships suddenly having a fully-functional temporal duplicate or anomalies on your planets appearing where they weren't there before.

* PhotoprotoneutronTorpedo: You can shoot missiles filled with some pretty weird stuff. This eventually peaks with shooting missiles that ''locally accelerate quantum entropy''.
* PointBuildSystem: Although used for building a race instead of a character, the game gives you a set amount of points to distribute as the player wishes, with positive and negative attributes. Problem is that you have less points then any of the standard races.
** Also used for building ships, but it's not as static since you can unlock new modules through research and some techs even reduce the weight of all modules.
* PointDefenseless: Averted by various ship modules and system improvements that shoot down fighters and bombers.
* PracticalCurrency: Dust is made up of ultra-high tech nanobots which formed the backbone of the ancient Endless civilization. The races that control the galaxy today don't (yet) have the technological know-how to make full use of it, but it can still be used to augment basic industrial processes.
* PraetorianGuard: The Sheredyn used to be this. However, by the time of the game they have evolved into [[StateSec something much larger and more powerful.]]

* [[ProudMerchantRaceGuy Proud Merchant Race]]: The Amoebas are a non-pessimistic deconstruction of the typical idea--any race with the patience to deal fairly and relatively honestly with all other race is naturally a race of {{Nice Guy}}s, rather than TheBarnum.
* [[ProudScholarRaceGuy Proud Scholar Race]]: The Sophons, described in-game as curious, analytical and inquisitive, a people who prize knowledge over all.
* [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Proud Warrior Race]]: The Hissho are a race of highly competitive tribal warriors.

** There's an Amoeban Hero named [[UsefulNotes/GlaDOS Galdos]] who has a thing for experiments.

* ZergRush: Mass corvettes.

Not to be confused with ''VideoGame/InfiniteSpace''.

* QuantumMechanicsCanDoAnything: Many late-game techs are based on the assumption that a good enough grasp of quantum mechanics can make regular physics go sit in the corner. This ranges from [[TimeStandStill stasis bubbles]] to materials that don't age. Quantum and regular physics usually agree until a very specific set of circumstances get involved.

Two SpinOff games have been announced and are available on Steam after going through Early Access. The first is ''VideoGame/DungeonOfTheEndless'', a RogueLike game which has you coordinating a team of crash-landed [[EnemyMine prisoners and/or prison guards]] trying to survive and escape from an underground network of Endless-built workshops and storerooms. The second is a fantasy 4X named ''VideoGame/EndlessLegend'', which is [[ScienceFantasy set in the same universe]] as ''Endless Space''. [[VideoGame/EndlessSpace2 A sequel]] was released in 2017.

Two SpinOff games have been announced and are available via STEAM after going through Early Access. The first is ''VideoGame/DungeonOfTheEndless'', a RogueLike game which has you coordinating a team of crash-landed [[EnemyMine prisoners and/or prison guards]] trying to survive and escape from an underground network of Endless-built workshops and storerooms. The second is a fantasy 4X named ''VideoGame/EndlessLegend'', which is [[ScienceFantasy set in the same universe]] as ''Endless Space''. [[VideoGame/EndlessSpace2 A sequel]] was released in 2017.

* FrickinLaserBeams: Of the PainfullySlowProjectile variety. Laser attacks take a full round to travel to their targets, in contrast to Kinetic attacks which hit the same round.

In addition to intricate and addicting gameplay (in typical FourX fashion), the game also runs at least partially on RuleOfFunny, giving it a very different tone than others of its genre. Additionally, the developers are allowing the players to actually vote on which features will be included in future updates of the game. Suggestions are also being taken sometimes, such as a new faction and several new achievements (which include the name of the player who suggested them).

** The United Empire, which grew out of Raia, a LostColony.
** The Pilgrims, who split from the United Empire and are close allies with the Sophons.
** Horatio, who is a living Mezari magnate that cloned himself many times and built a nation of himself.
** The Vaulters, who can trace their origins to a the Argosy, a Mezari [[TheArk arkship]] that originally crashed in Auriga before they restored it and used it to escape the dying world.
** The secretive Dust Collective, of which little is known.

** The Mezari are this to all the human factions. They were a galaxy wide power around the time of DungeonOfTheEndless, were on the wane by the time of EndlessLegend, and are totally gone by the time Endless Space begins. All that remains are the United Empire, which grew out of one of their ColonyShip, and the Vaulters, who can trace their origins to a Mezari penal colony on Auriga.

** The Ameobas so happens to be the Eees from the ''VideoGame/SpaceEmpires'' series. As gentle EnergyBeings, both Ameobas and Eees rely heavily on their "galactic info" and are old enough to know what secrets lie within the galaxy they play in.
** The United Empire is a hybrid of ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' Terran Dominion and Trade Emergency Coalition of ''VideoGame/SinsOfASolarEmpire''.
** The Sophons and Pilgrims are the better halves versions of the Advent from, still, Sins of a Solar Empire. Exiled as Cyborgs for the Pilgrims and has that EverythingIsAnIpodInTheFuture likeness for the Sophons, while both struggle for their unity as two races.

** Averted with The Harmony. They don't use money at all, since the Dust that acts are currency in the game is actually harmful to them.

* PettingZooPeople: The Hissho are bird-people. Subverted in that it really only shows in their feet and in the beak-like prow of their ships.