Hey - sorry I haven't been keeping up with the OP.
I don't have Endless Space 2, so I wouldn't be sure what to write up, but if someone wants to, I'll edit it in
I tried to Start my own thread when ES2 came out, as this one was several pages deep at the time. Has little gameplay-related in the OP, but it's got a decent lore primer.
BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
Which EL expansions provide the most gameplay? I really enjoyed this game, especially the aesthetics, and I'd like to pick up something that makes it a deeper experience, but with a new kid my disposable income is on the ropes.
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
1) Shifters - Adds new faction with cool mechanic. Most importantly it buffs the weakest part of the game (winters).
2) Guardians - Not for the guardians but the legendary buildings (wonders) and quests.
3) Tempest - Adds all things ocean. Cool new faction, ocean stuff like resource nodes and monsters.
4) Shadows - Adds all things espionage. I don't own this one as I have yet to meet an espionage system I liked. The new faction, items, and quests are all related to espionage, so I didn't bother.
I'd start with Shifters, then wait for a steam sale to grab the others half off or more.
Origin ID\ Steam ID: Warder45
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BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
Oh, I'll be waiting for a Steam sale to buy any of them, but from what I've read they drop to 5ish dollars, and I can probably swing the three listed. Also, whats the difference with the "Empire" version?
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
Oh, I'll be waiting for a Steam sale to buy any of them, but from what I've read they drop to 5ish dollars, and I can probably swing the three listed. Also, whats the difference with the "Empire" version?
It's just a rename for the founders edition. It has a couple DLC things along with the soundtrack, but they are hardly necessary.
I've been playing some Endless Space 2 now. So far I'm not a fan, but I haven't played far enough to write it off yet. My only real frame of reference is Endless Legend since I never tried the first Endless Space, and so far ES2 seems quite unimpressive in comparison. City placement, tile management, map terrain, seasons, manual control over combat and wide unit variety are all gone, and so far I have found no real new sources of strategic depth to replace them. Hopefully there will be some nice guides or Let's Plays made soon that prove otherwise!
1) Shifters - Adds new faction with cool mechanic. Most importantly it buffs the weakest part of the game (winters).
2) Guardians - Not for the guardians but the legendary buildings (wonders) and quests.
3) Tempest - Adds all things ocean. Cool new faction, ocean stuff like resource nodes and monsters.
4) Shadows - Adds all things espionage. I don't own this one as I have yet to meet an espionage system I liked. The new faction, items, and quests are all related to espionage, so I didn't bother.
I'd start with Shifters, then wait for a steam sale to grab the others half off or more.
I liked the Shifters race but was not a fan of the pearl mechanic, or at least that it wasn't faction specific, but overall this is a decent list. Shadows is okay, I leave it on for the variety but it's nothing game changing.
Tempest was a great overall package and the faction is really neat.
The main reason I like Shifters was the winter changes. While pearl collection kind of sucked, the Altar of Auriga abilities really added depth, picking focuses. Looking at the new Civ 6 expansion it seems they are borrowing some of this for dark ages.
I've been playing some Endless Space 2 now. So far I'm not a fan, but I haven't played far enough to write it off yet. My only real frame of reference is Endless Legend since I never tried the first Endless Space, and so far ES2 seems quite unimpressive in comparison. City placement, tile management, map terrain, seasons, manual control over combat and wide unit variety are all gone, and so far I have found no real new sources of strategic depth to replace them. Hopefully there will be some nice guides or Let's Plays made soon that prove otherwise!
ES1 was pretty lean as well. Leaner in fact, since Influence, minor factions and resources you actually spent all came with EL.
I think AI being a bit passive at the moment really hurts the depth. There "are" strategies with things like politics and minor factions and securing the right luxury resources that have a meaningful payoff, as well as ship outfitting, but the AI being content to sit back while you work towards that Wonder or Economic victory really takes out any need to actually care about that beyond the abstract.
Also, which factions have you been playing? That can have a pretty big difference with how involved turn-by-turn empire management is, especially if you are comparing, say, Sophons, who are very turtle n' tech, with the Cravers, who have to constantly expand to keep afloat, or the Riftborn, with their time rifts giving them another strategic option.
Yeah the passive AI is a big issue. I'm also hopeful they add some more stuff to add strategic depth in an expansion. One thought I had for scenario options might be something like galaxy collision or expansion. Expansion would be something like winters in Endless Legend where after certain amount of turns everything gets a bit further way from each other. Collision would be random plants and stars slowly intermingling with your starting galaxy. Might be hard to do fairly though. Another one with the galaxy slowly dying could also work out like winters in EL.
So, Vaulters in ES2. Got a few crazy-awesome (or at least neat) things going for them:
-Instead of a colonized homeworld, Vaulters start with the Argosy (which I *think* was their Wonder Victory "building" in Legend? I also never did a complete EL run) orbiting the thing from the trailer, which is a node that give bonus ship hull regen once it's in your borders and repair per phase when you fight on it. The Argosy is a special reusable colony ship that replaces their normal colony ships. Whenever you colonize with it, that system goes straight to colony and gets a Golden Age where it gets +25 FIDS, Approval, and Manpower, plus +5 influence for up to 15 turns. Afterwards there is a 3 turn cooldown before it can colonize again. However, colonizing right away will cost a boatload of dust, Titanium and Hyperium and the new colony will have a shorter Golden Age. Waiting will reduce the cost (down to free) and increase the Golden Age duration, but the later grows slower depending on how many systems you have. It has a pretty massive sight range, starts with two utility slots and a defense/utility slot (all with engines at the start, giving it a base speed of 11) and there is a special tech that adds more slots to it ala Arks (though I haven't gotten far enough to unlock and see what they are yet)
-Similar to EL, Vaulters can use Strategic Resources like Luxury Resources to upgrade a system's Development. (though there is no Holy Resource-like mechanic that involves unique buildings or improved bonuses for modules that use said resource) The bonuses are pretty damn powerful, especially considering the map gen means you using them for development is almost always an option; Titanium is +40 to Food and Industry and Hyperion is +40 to Science and Dust (to put that in perspective, the single FIDS boosters are just +60 in one) and it just gets better from there.
-They start with the ability to go Privateer unlocked, and are simply better at it.
-Finally, the actual Faction Affinity (the others were traits), which lets you build a Portal that allows instantaneous travel between any other system that you or an ally owns that has a Portal. Starts with requiring full movement, like Wormholes. Oh, and you can also portal to Pirate-owned systems if you have a Non-Aggression pact with them using the new Pirate Diplomacy... and since all Pirate worlds are under the same faction, and every main faction gets a initial pirate system nearby, you ALWAYS want to be in a NAP with Pirates. Like early Argosy colonization, portals take titanium and hyperium, but Vaulters get a Empire-Unique building to get +1 Titanium and Hyperion, though it's something they have to tech for first (though it is a Tier 2 tech in a field they get a starting tech in. And their primary ideology is Science)
Vaulter ships have a bit of a hard-on for support slots, meeting or exceeding the amount of support modules nearly all other factions ships can fit. Most of the defensive slots share a space with the support slots, with every weapon slot I've seen so far only for weapons, so you'll pretty much always being weighing durability vs. more support bonuses. That being said, you will pretty much always get away with using a couple of slots after the engines for a self-repair or a Fleet movement speed or some other bonus. In fact, most default Vaulter loadouts start with a self-repair module already in them, and their default scout ship has 2 probe modules to start (meaning it recovers 1 probe/turn).
THE KAPAKU
Endless Legend: Inferno introduces a brand new Faction to the game: the Kapaku. Forced to leave their volcanic home planet, the Kapaku lands on Auriga with the firm intention to create a paradise of ash and fire…
Kapaku are native to volcanic terrain: they gain strong unit buffs while on volcanic tiles and have productions perks that reward them for settling on volcanic regions. Their gameplay focuses on leveraging these perks to field large armies with quality gear, or teching quickly into wonders and deeds. Although they rely heavily on this rare type of terrain, they wield the incredible power of “Lavaformation”, allowing them to change any terrain into Volcanic Tiles permanently. While they may be strangers to Auriga, the Kapaku always have the Home Turf advantage!
A crafty species of tinkers and inventors, the small Kapaku rely on their powerful Golems to do their heavy lifting. Hailing from a volcanic world ravaged by Sowers, they can exploit the new terrain much better than any other faction, although they require large amounts of strategic resources to use their abilities to their fullest. They possess unique knowledge of the Dust Eclipses, granted by the Endless themselves.
DUST ECLIPSES
As the skies darken and the atmosphere becomes thick with dust, dormant powers awaken in the denizens of Auriga, giving each faction new powers or improving their existing capacities to terrifying new levels. This same dust infusion creates short-lived “Dust Confluxes” all over the map, bestowing a temporary boon to whatever army reaches them first – as it triggers new weather patterns and stirs old unsettling sights from Auriga’s long-lost past!
NEW VOLCANIC TERRAIN
Lava Terrain is inhospitable, but what it lacks in food it more than makes up for in industry, science or dust. It is a rough starting position for most species, but if leveraged properly it can quickly turn middling cities into powerful production centers. Along with this new savage lands, we are also adding new “Volcanic Anomalies” providing even more incentives to venture into these barren hellscapes.
In addition to the new tiles and the “Volcanic” terrain type, volcanic biomes also contain active volcanoes that spew rivers of hot, hot lava! Although they don’t add any food, the free energy from these rivers adds to the industry output of the tiles.
How do you play Endless Space?
It seemed terrible.
The AI seemed to go immediately from 'braindead - gets eliminated by pirates' to 'cheats at everything' and I could not figure out how to compete at all.
The AI has always been one of the weakest parts of endless space 2. I know they've done improvements but then they did the pirates update that really screwed up the AI again. I haven't paid attention for over 6 months so maybe it's been patched to be a bit better. You're probably better off asking for help in reddit or on the official forum.
I'll probably jump back in with this new expansion to see how things have changed since launch. I like that they are revamping ground battles. They were really weak in the base game. Also the new faction looks good, space samurai bird's, what's not to like haha.
Endless legend is one of those games that everything about it seemed really good but I can never seem to get into it.
Probably will buy the dlc though. How is endless space 2?
If you don't like Endless Legend, you'll probably not like Endless Space 2. Some 4x games focus on grandness, some spreadsheet management of your empire (complexity over graphical/ux polish), some have a heavy focus on the tactics of military engagements, etc. Endless focuses on the story of your empire, it's almost like playing a RPG 4x. Endless Space 2 basically strips combat down even more than EL, which many people really dislike. But the UX is nice, the graphic's are great, and I enjoy the stories. There are a lot of fun systems that are improvement's over Endless Legend. I like the politics system for example.
Like a lot of 4x games, ES2 was pretty rough at the start. Some of the military weapons were basically pointless and some systems weren't explained in game well enough. But Amplitude has always been really good about continuing to support their games. I'm going to boot it up again next month to see how much it's changed since launch.
Endless Legend – Symbiosis brings forth new colossal beasts called Urkans as well as a brand-new faction: The Mykara.
The Mykara
Through evolution and assimilation, this ancient civilization rose from unicellular beings to full grown warriors. They serve only one purpose, bringing balance back to Auriga.
The Mykara originate from a unique stem city and overgrow points of interest to fuel their economy. While they cannot settle new land, they can turn conquered enemy cities into ghost towns from which they get bonus resources. After a few turns, their symbiosis with the conquered town allow them to gain bonus traits…
New Gigantic Units: The Urkans
Urkans are massive beasts that appear randomly around the map taking control of neutral land. To tame the creature, empires will have to bribe or defeat them in battle alongside their minions. Taming an Urkan unlocks a new set of unique abilities that is suited for both defensive and aggressive playstyles.
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The Escape Goatincorrigible ruminantthey/themRegistered Userregular
Endless legend is one of those games that everything about it seemed really good but I can never seem to get into it.
Probably will buy the dlc though. How is endless space 2?
If you don't like Endless Legend, you'll probably not like Endless Space 2. Some 4x games focus on grandness, some spreadsheet management of your empire (complexity over graphical/ux polish), some have a heavy focus on the tactics of military engagements, etc. Endless focuses on the story of your empire, it's almost like playing a RPG 4x. Endless Space 2 basically strips combat down even more than EL, which many people really dislike. But the UX is nice, the graphic's are great, and I enjoy the stories. There are a lot of fun systems that are improvement's over Endless Legend. I like the politics system for example.
Like a lot of 4x games, ES2 was pretty rough at the start. Some of the military weapons were basically pointless and some systems weren't explained in game well enough. But Amplitude has always been really good about continuing to support their games. I'm going to boot it up again next month to see how much it's changed since launch.
Hrm. I might have to check this out, despite just buying Stellaris because I'm a glutton for punishment. I did a run of ES1 out of curiousity because it was in my steam library and my biggest issue with it was that I took one look at the ship builder and military tech tree and checked out of that for the rest of the game, so simplified combat is right up my alley.
I also really, really liked how they did settlement and system building in ES1. A bit shallow but very satisfying since expansion has always been the most important X to me.
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cptruggedI think it has something to do with free will.Registered Userregular
Holy cow. I can't believe Endless Legend is still getting content. I should check it out again. The last time I fired it back up was when the winter focused race came out.
Holy cow. I can't believe Endless Legend is still getting content. I should check it out again. The last time I fired it back up was when the winter focused race came out.
The Morgawr (psychic fish race created through experimentation that were imprisoned underwater) are one of my favourite factions and have the rare distinction of being from a expansion that added naval combat but wasn't bad.
Yeah the Morgawr were great. The kraken has been was a PITA the last time I played. The Mykara look almost like the Endless Legend version of the Unfallen. Might be fun to boot it back up to play a bit.
Endless legend is one of those games that everything about it seemed really good but I can never seem to get into it.
Probably will buy the dlc though. How is endless space 2?
If you don't like Endless Legend, you'll probably not like Endless Space 2. Some 4x games focus on grandness, some spreadsheet management of your empire (complexity over graphical/ux polish), some have a heavy focus on the tactics of military engagements, etc. Endless focuses on the story of your empire, it's almost like playing a RPG 4x. Endless Space 2 basically strips combat down even more than EL, which many people really dislike. But the UX is nice, the graphic's are great, and I enjoy the stories. There are a lot of fun systems that are improvement's over Endless Legend. I like the politics system for example.
Like a lot of 4x games, ES2 was pretty rough at the start. Some of the military weapons were basically pointless and some systems weren't explained in game well enough. But Amplitude has always been really good about continuing to support their games. I'm going to boot it up again next month to see how much it's changed since launch.
Hrm. I might have to check this out, despite just buying Stellaris because I'm a glutton for punishment. I did a run of ES1 out of curiosity because it was in my steam library and my biggest issue with it was that I took one look at the ship builder and military tech tree and checked out of that for the rest of the game, so simplified combat is right up my alley.
I also really, really liked how they did settlement and system building in ES1. A bit shallow but very satisfying since expansion has always been the most important X to me.
Well it's simpler compared to Endless Legend but pretty close to Endless Space 1. Personally it's the weakest system they have. While research, ship building, and cards are all pretty easy to understand, combat itself is anything but. They don't mention hidden attributes on ships like inbuilt aggro and following the lanes can be tricky. It's not the end of the world and most is documents on reddit or other places though. Planetary combat was made a lot better with one of the recent patches.
Question, I enjoyed Endless Space 1 combat. Would I enjoy ES2?
I have Endless Legend, but have never played it (...Steam...!!).
Yeah, ES2 combat isn't super different from ES1, there's just no longer a card system that sometimes has hard counters. The cards now are formations for your fleets, which change into 1, 2 or 3 lanes based on the size of your fleet.
Yeah if you liked ES1, you'll love ES2. The added bonus is that they are treating it like Endless Legend and continuing to improve it over time, unlike ES1 which kind of just got dropped.
What they didn't say in advance is that you can basically claim any resource point on the map that you see by creating a fungal bloom effect on it, that gives you the resources from that tile and in the case of temple ruins makes a fast travel point. Sort of like Nydus Canals from Starcraft, but that you can put all over the map. This makes it much easier cross distances and collect resources while hampered by only being able to have one city.
At first I thought it was frustrating that the Urkan pop up all over the map but then realised they'll always spawn on Fungal Blooms, so reaching them becomes much easier.
Their faction quest/story is decent as well.
It's one of the neater expansion they've put out after, say, Tempest.
So this game always starts of with some neigbhoring, immortal, indestructible Barbarian Camp Pirate Colony that a giant squad of starter ships cannot successfully invade. Its great that it keeps pacifists honest, but how am I supposed to deal with pirates?
So this game always starts of with some neigbhoring, immortal, indestructible Barbarian Camp Pirate Colony that a giant squad of starter ships cannot successfully invade. Its great that it keeps pacifists honest, but how am I supposed to deal with pirates?
I never seem to have too many issues, but I usually mass a bunch of crap ships, clear them out, then scrap most of the ships.
Posts
Thanks, and done!
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
1) Shifters - Adds new faction with cool mechanic. Most importantly it buffs the weakest part of the game (winters).
2) Guardians - Not for the guardians but the legendary buildings (wonders) and quests.
3) Tempest - Adds all things ocean. Cool new faction, ocean stuff like resource nodes and monsters.
4) Shadows - Adds all things espionage. I don't own this one as I have yet to meet an espionage system I liked. The new faction, items, and quests are all related to espionage, so I didn't bother.
I'd start with Shifters, then wait for a steam sale to grab the others half off or more.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
SteamID: edgruberman GOG Galaxy: EdGruberman
It's just a rename for the founders edition. It has a couple DLC things along with the soundtrack, but they are hardly necessary.
I liked the Shifters race but was not a fan of the pearl mechanic, or at least that it wasn't faction specific, but overall this is a decent list. Shadows is okay, I leave it on for the variety but it's nothing game changing.
Tempest was a great overall package and the faction is really neat.
ES1 was pretty lean as well. Leaner in fact, since Influence, minor factions and resources you actually spent all came with EL.
I think AI being a bit passive at the moment really hurts the depth. There "are" strategies with things like politics and minor factions and securing the right luxury resources that have a meaningful payoff, as well as ship outfitting, but the AI being content to sit back while you work towards that Wonder or Economic victory really takes out any need to actually care about that beyond the abstract.
Also, which factions have you been playing? That can have a pretty big difference with how involved turn-by-turn empire management is, especially if you are comparing, say, Sophons, who are very turtle n' tech, with the Cravers, who have to constantly expand to keep afloat, or the Riftborn, with their time rifts giving them another strategic option.
Endless Space for CDN$14.99 on Fanatical for 24hrs
I still haven't really played a complete game of Endless Legend. Why do I have such a strong urge to buy this one?!
SteamID: edgruberman GOG Galaxy: EdGruberman
Because that's a deeper discount than has been offered on that game elsewhere?
I've only finished a game of Endless Legend once, as the Necrophage. These games are more about the journey than racking up W's.
-Instead of a colonized homeworld, Vaulters start with the Argosy (which I *think* was their Wonder Victory "building" in Legend? I also never did a complete EL run) orbiting the thing from the trailer, which is a node that give bonus ship hull regen once it's in your borders and repair per phase when you fight on it. The Argosy is a special reusable colony ship that replaces their normal colony ships. Whenever you colonize with it, that system goes straight to colony and gets a Golden Age where it gets +25 FIDS, Approval, and Manpower, plus +5 influence for up to 15 turns. Afterwards there is a 3 turn cooldown before it can colonize again. However, colonizing right away will cost a boatload of dust, Titanium and Hyperium and the new colony will have a shorter Golden Age. Waiting will reduce the cost (down to free) and increase the Golden Age duration, but the later grows slower depending on how many systems you have. It has a pretty massive sight range, starts with two utility slots and a defense/utility slot (all with engines at the start, giving it a base speed of 11) and there is a special tech that adds more slots to it ala Arks (though I haven't gotten far enough to unlock and see what they are yet)
-Similar to EL, Vaulters can use Strategic Resources like Luxury Resources to upgrade a system's Development. (though there is no Holy Resource-like mechanic that involves unique buildings or improved bonuses for modules that use said resource) The bonuses are pretty damn powerful, especially considering the map gen means you using them for development is almost always an option; Titanium is +40 to Food and Industry and Hyperion is +40 to Science and Dust (to put that in perspective, the single FIDS boosters are just +60 in one) and it just gets better from there.
-They start with the ability to go Privateer unlocked, and are simply better at it.
-Finally, the actual Faction Affinity (the others were traits), which lets you build a Portal that allows instantaneous travel between any other system that you or an ally owns that has a Portal. Starts with requiring full movement, like Wormholes. Oh, and you can also portal to Pirate-owned systems if you have a Non-Aggression pact with them using the new Pirate Diplomacy... and since all Pirate worlds are under the same faction, and every main faction gets a initial pirate system nearby, you ALWAYS want to be in a NAP with Pirates. Like early Argosy colonization, portals take titanium and hyperium, but Vaulters get a Empire-Unique building to get +1 Titanium and Hyperion, though it's something they have to tech for first (though it is a Tier 2 tech in a field they get a starting tech in. And their primary ideology is Science)
Vaulter ships have a bit of a hard-on for support slots, meeting or exceeding the amount of support modules nearly all other factions ships can fit. Most of the defensive slots share a space with the support slots, with every weapon slot I've seen so far only for weapons, so you'll pretty much always being weighing durability vs. more support bonuses. That being said, you will pretty much always get away with using a couple of slots after the engines for a self-repair or a Fleet movement speed or some other bonus. In fact, most default Vaulter loadouts start with a self-repair module already in them, and their default scout ship has 2 probe modules to start (meaning it recovers 1 probe/turn).
I had thought we'd seen the end of expansions for it so I'm super hype about this.
Probably will buy the dlc though. How is endless space 2?
How do you play Endless Space?
It seemed terrible.
The AI seemed to go immediately from 'braindead - gets eliminated by pirates' to 'cheats at everything' and I could not figure out how to compete at all.
Broken Lords are not bad if you want to ignore the population side of things.
He said Space.
Come to think of it, I have never completed a game of ES2.
I'll probably jump back in with this new expansion to see how things have changed since launch. I like that they are revamping ground battles. They were really weak in the base game. Also the new faction looks good, space samurai bird's, what's not to like haha.
If you don't like Endless Legend, you'll probably not like Endless Space 2. Some 4x games focus on grandness, some spreadsheet management of your empire (complexity over graphical/ux polish), some have a heavy focus on the tactics of military engagements, etc. Endless focuses on the story of your empire, it's almost like playing a RPG 4x. Endless Space 2 basically strips combat down even more than EL, which many people really dislike. But the UX is nice, the graphic's are great, and I enjoy the stories. There are a lot of fun systems that are improvement's over Endless Legend. I like the politics system for example.
Like a lot of 4x games, ES2 was pretty rough at the start. Some of the military weapons were basically pointless and some systems weren't explained in game well enough. But Amplitude has always been really good about continuing to support their games. I'm going to boot it up again next month to see how much it's changed since launch.
Hrm. I might have to check this out, despite just buying Stellaris because I'm a glutton for punishment. I did a run of ES1 out of curiousity because it was in my steam library and my biggest issue with it was that I took one look at the ship builder and military tech tree and checked out of that for the rest of the game, so simplified combat is right up my alley.
I also really, really liked how they did settlement and system building in ES1. A bit shallow but very satisfying since expansion has always been the most important X to me.
The Morgawr (psychic fish race created through experimentation that were imprisoned underwater) are one of my favourite factions and have the rare distinction of being from a expansion that added naval combat but wasn't bad.
Well it's simpler compared to Endless Legend but pretty close to Endless Space 1. Personally it's the weakest system they have. While research, ship building, and cards are all pretty easy to understand, combat itself is anything but. They don't mention hidden attributes on ships like inbuilt aggro and following the lanes can be tricky. It's not the end of the world and most is documents on reddit or other places though. Planetary combat was made a lot better with one of the recent patches.
For anyone interested in the expansion: https://www.games2gether.com/endless-space-2/blogs/655-penumbra-invisible-hacking-space-wraiths
Already got my pre-order in.
I have Endless Legend, but have never played it (...Steam...!!).
PSN: Bizazedo
CFN: Bizazedo (I don't think I suck, add me).
Yeah, ES2 combat isn't super different from ES1, there's just no longer a card system that sometimes has hard counters. The cards now are formations for your fleets, which change into 1, 2 or 3 lanes based on the size of your fleet.
What they didn't say in advance is that you can basically claim any resource point on the map that you see by creating a fungal bloom effect on it, that gives you the resources from that tile and in the case of temple ruins makes a fast travel point. Sort of like Nydus Canals from Starcraft, but that you can put all over the map. This makes it much easier cross distances and collect resources while hampered by only being able to have one city.
At first I thought it was frustrating that the Urkan pop up all over the map but then realised they'll always spawn on Fungal Blooms, so reaching them becomes much easier.
Their faction quest/story is decent as well.
It's one of the neater expansion they've put out after, say, Tempest.
I never seem to have too many issues, but I usually mass a bunch of crap ships, clear them out, then scrap most of the ships.