Best Of
Set Items
Over in the discord there was some discussion about set items, I thought I'd bring it over here. Let me start by saying I'm neither for nor against set items as a concept, but rather more concerned about the implementation. I think most people get their idea of sets from Diablo 2, whether from that game specifically or games that used a near exact duplicate of the formula. For anyone who might be unfamiliar, it is various pieces of equipment that are part of a set that give additional bonus's based on the amount of pieces from the set that are equipped.
Now in isometric ARPG's where this is common I see few issues. The first is that complete sets are never attained in a single playthrough but rather involve multiple characters and playthroughs due to rarity, which requires either a new game + or a shared storage. The other is that sets, like all equipment, get out-leveled rather quickly, especially if they involve weapons. Lastly, the bonus's are usually stat increases, usually making themselves interesting only by either significant boosts or by using boosts that rarely appear on gear, like extra points in a skill. Outside of ARPGS's where stats are everything, this can be rather boring for something that's supposed to be special.
Attainability: I see 3 potential cures for this. The first is making sets drop from specific farmable enemies. The second is to make them craftable (depending on how crafting recipes are acquired, I'm assuming bought from merchants, but making them account-wide unlocks could add replayability). The third is already planned, the Ancients Rift which I take to be random generated "dungeons" of a sort, which can make a nice infinite endgame, and being infinite would hypothetically allow eventual collection of all drops, but this would mean sets being rare, too rare for the average gamer to ever possess (the kind that finishes the story, dabbles in the extra content, then moves on).
Relevancy: This is difficult to speculate on without knowing how the game's progression works. The first question is 'how high is the stat ceiling', by this I mean what is the difference in stats between starting gear and maxed out end-game gear? If it uses small stat increases this won't be much of an issue, if an end game ship is only 2-3 times more powerful than a starting ship. If the gap is wide, then it becomes a major issue of wasted work both for the players who can only viably use the set for a short while and the devs who created it. An option that might alleviate this would be a gear upgrade system that would allow equipment to be upgraded to the next tier, ideally requiring materials attained from content of that tier.
Keeping them interesting: As I said earlier, simple stat gains are a bit boring for something like a full set, especially if they are difficult to complete. To keep them interesting I would suggest non-stat bonus's for max completion, for example the ability to teleport a short distance in a chosen direction, or have the ship split into a group of ships for a short period, or an additional special weapon. You get the idea.
Anyways, these are just my personal opinions on the matter, figured I toss them out there. Sorry if I'm a bit verbose.
Now in isometric ARPG's where this is common I see few issues. The first is that complete sets are never attained in a single playthrough but rather involve multiple characters and playthroughs due to rarity, which requires either a new game + or a shared storage. The other is that sets, like all equipment, get out-leveled rather quickly, especially if they involve weapons. Lastly, the bonus's are usually stat increases, usually making themselves interesting only by either significant boosts or by using boosts that rarely appear on gear, like extra points in a skill. Outside of ARPGS's where stats are everything, this can be rather boring for something that's supposed to be special.
Attainability: I see 3 potential cures for this. The first is making sets drop from specific farmable enemies. The second is to make them craftable (depending on how crafting recipes are acquired, I'm assuming bought from merchants, but making them account-wide unlocks could add replayability). The third is already planned, the Ancients Rift which I take to be random generated "dungeons" of a sort, which can make a nice infinite endgame, and being infinite would hypothetically allow eventual collection of all drops, but this would mean sets being rare, too rare for the average gamer to ever possess (the kind that finishes the story, dabbles in the extra content, then moves on).
Relevancy: This is difficult to speculate on without knowing how the game's progression works. The first question is 'how high is the stat ceiling', by this I mean what is the difference in stats between starting gear and maxed out end-game gear? If it uses small stat increases this won't be much of an issue, if an end game ship is only 2-3 times more powerful than a starting ship. If the gap is wide, then it becomes a major issue of wasted work both for the players who can only viably use the set for a short while and the devs who created it. An option that might alleviate this would be a gear upgrade system that would allow equipment to be upgraded to the next tier, ideally requiring materials attained from content of that tier.
Keeping them interesting: As I said earlier, simple stat gains are a bit boring for something like a full set, especially if they are difficult to complete. To keep them interesting I would suggest non-stat bonus's for max completion, for example the ability to teleport a short distance in a chosen direction, or have the ship split into a group of ships for a short period, or an additional special weapon. You get the idea.
Anyways, these are just my personal opinions on the matter, figured I toss them out there. Sorry if I'm a bit verbose.
Expandable Home Base
English (German see below):
An expandable home base would fit well into the concept of the game (if not already planned).
For example with:
- unlockable and expandable slot for hangar places (the player only starts with one hangar place and thus one ship, more hangar places allow more ships)
- unlockable and expandable slot for energy supply (small energy supply allows only minimal expansion of the homebase, large energy supply allows maximum expansion of the homebase)
- unlockable and expandable slot for storage
- unlockable and expandable slot for the installation of ship modules (small slots only allow the installation of simple/small modules, large slots allow the installation of complex modules)
- unlockable and expandable slot for building ship items / ship modules (adequate for the installation of ship modules)
- unlockable and expandable slot for traders (up to a trader for legendary items)
- unlockable and expandable slot for a scrapping station (for resource extraction)
- unlockable and expandable Slot for a crew compartment for wingmen pilots with expandable training simulators to teach support pilots special skills or reset skills
- unlockable and expandable slot for an officer's room to send wingmen pilots on independent missions (e.g. to acquire resources)
- unlockable and expandable slot for a personal room which is equipped with a trophy wall and a visualization wall which shows your screenshots in a loop.
Just to name a few examples :-)
German:
Eine erweiterbare Basis würde gut in das Konzept des Spieles passen (sofern nicht schon geplant).
Beispielsweise mit:
- freischaltbaren und erweiterbareren Slot für Hangarplätze (der Spieler fängt erst mit einem Hangarplatz und somit einem Schiff an, mehr Hangarplätze bedeutet mehr Schiffe).
- freischaltbaren und erweiterbareren Slot für Energieversorgung (kleine Energieversorgung erlaubt nur minimalen Ausbau der Homebase, große Energieversorgung erlaubt maximalen Ausbau der Homebase).
- freischaltbaren und erweiterbareren Slot für den Lagerraum
- freischaltbaren und erweiterbareren Slot für den Verbau von Schiffsmodulen (kleine Slots erlauben nur den Verbau einfacher/kleiner Module, große Slots erlauben den Verbau komplexer Module)
- freischaltbaren und erweiterbareren Slot zum Bau von Schiffsgegenständen / Schiffsmodulen (adäquat zum Verbau von Schiffsmodulen)
- freischaltbaren und erweiterbareren Slot für Händler (bis hin zu einem Händler für legendäre Items)
- freischaltbaren und erweiterbareren Slot für eine Verschrottungsstation (zur Gewinnung von Ressourcen)
- freischaltbaren und erweiterbareren Slot für einen Mannschaftsraum für Begleitpiloten mit erweiterbaren Trainingssimulatoren um Begleitpiloten spezielle Fähigkeiten beizubringen oder Fähigkeiten zurückzusetzen
- freischaltbaren und erweiterbareren Slot für einen Offiziersraum um Piloten auf eigenständige Missionen schicken zu können (um bspw. Ressourcen zu beschaffen).
- freischaltbaren und erweiterbareren Slot für einen persönlichen Raum der mit einer Trophäenwand und einer Visualisierungswand versehen ist welche die eigenen Screenshots in Schleife zeigt.
Nur um ein paar Beispiele zu nennen :-)
An expandable home base would fit well into the concept of the game (if not already planned).
For example with:
- unlockable and expandable slot for hangar places (the player only starts with one hangar place and thus one ship, more hangar places allow more ships)
- unlockable and expandable slot for energy supply (small energy supply allows only minimal expansion of the homebase, large energy supply allows maximum expansion of the homebase)
- unlockable and expandable slot for storage
- unlockable and expandable slot for the installation of ship modules (small slots only allow the installation of simple/small modules, large slots allow the installation of complex modules)
- unlockable and expandable slot for building ship items / ship modules (adequate for the installation of ship modules)
- unlockable and expandable slot for traders (up to a trader for legendary items)
- unlockable and expandable slot for a scrapping station (for resource extraction)
- unlockable and expandable Slot for a crew compartment for wingmen pilots with expandable training simulators to teach support pilots special skills or reset skills
- unlockable and expandable slot for an officer's room to send wingmen pilots on independent missions (e.g. to acquire resources)
- unlockable and expandable slot for a personal room which is equipped with a trophy wall and a visualization wall which shows your screenshots in a loop.
Just to name a few examples :-)
German:
Eine erweiterbare Basis würde gut in das Konzept des Spieles passen (sofern nicht schon geplant).
Beispielsweise mit:
- freischaltbaren und erweiterbareren Slot für Hangarplätze (der Spieler fängt erst mit einem Hangarplatz und somit einem Schiff an, mehr Hangarplätze bedeutet mehr Schiffe).
- freischaltbaren und erweiterbareren Slot für Energieversorgung (kleine Energieversorgung erlaubt nur minimalen Ausbau der Homebase, große Energieversorgung erlaubt maximalen Ausbau der Homebase).
- freischaltbaren und erweiterbareren Slot für den Lagerraum
- freischaltbaren und erweiterbareren Slot für den Verbau von Schiffsmodulen (kleine Slots erlauben nur den Verbau einfacher/kleiner Module, große Slots erlauben den Verbau komplexer Module)
- freischaltbaren und erweiterbareren Slot zum Bau von Schiffsgegenständen / Schiffsmodulen (adäquat zum Verbau von Schiffsmodulen)
- freischaltbaren und erweiterbareren Slot für Händler (bis hin zu einem Händler für legendäre Items)
- freischaltbaren und erweiterbareren Slot für eine Verschrottungsstation (zur Gewinnung von Ressourcen)
- freischaltbaren und erweiterbareren Slot für einen Mannschaftsraum für Begleitpiloten mit erweiterbaren Trainingssimulatoren um Begleitpiloten spezielle Fähigkeiten beizubringen oder Fähigkeiten zurückzusetzen
- freischaltbaren und erweiterbareren Slot für einen Offiziersraum um Piloten auf eigenständige Missionen schicken zu können (um bspw. Ressourcen zu beschaffen).
- freischaltbaren und erweiterbareren Slot für einen persönlichen Raum der mit einer Trophäenwand und einer Visualisierungswand versehen ist welche die eigenen Screenshots in Schleife zeigt.
Nur um ein paar Beispiele zu nennen :-)

2
My thoughts, and what I want to see
So I really enjoyed Everspace 1, and one of my favourite games ever is still Freelancer. I want to give my thoughts on the game so far, what I'd like to see added etc.
Space
The game looks awesome, and the planets look really good. What I miss a bit are nebulas (even if they don't make sense, it looks awesome). When cruising it all really looks empty, gas clouds and asteroids all around would make it look a bit more alive.
To add to that, it also feels a bit dead, because there are so few NPCs flying around. Sometimes you get hostiles, but pretty much only in (semi) scripted encounters, not in random locations. I also wonder if you can ally with more factions in the full game, because that also feels a bit empty.
What made freelancer awesome for me was all those systems with their own pirates and police, and trading factions, some allied some not, and you could fix your reputation with all, and choose to be an outlaw rather than friendly with the miners and/or cops. But I guess they don't have the team for this scope?
Bases
The places you land on are really boring at this moment. Most look the same once landed, nothing happens, and only a few offer something unique like jobs, ships for sale or something for sale that is rare.
Would love to have some sort of news section, a few locals to talk to and get missions from rather than just a menu. Could be either 2d or 3d, that doesn't matter all that much.
I liked one base I happened to come across that had an old friend, and gave you a mission with some nice flair.
Some missions ask you to deliver stuff to another location, but give no clue as to where to find what you need to deliver. Feels weird when someone asks you to get some items to another base but also expects you to loot/buy it somewhere.
Travel
Travelling feels fine, though going into cruise mode is really jarring, getting a small loading screen, and suddenly getting less details in the world.
Same for exiting cruise, you can only exit it when you reach a location predetermined, where you autopilot too. I understand why this is done, because otherwise you'd end up in the middle of nowhere, with nothing of use in sight, but it feels off.
It's also weird how with autopiloting you, according to the distance marker, pretty much headbutt the location, but don't see anything untill the loading screen is gone and you are in normal mode again. Hope they can somehow make that more fluid.
Combat
Combat is great, the weapons each have their own benefits and negatives, glad you can switch them up in space according to the enemy you currently encounter. The devices are fun, it's nice that you can choose between different modes easily, and you get enough points to unlock a few fast enough.
The gravity device is fun, but the distance you can throw ships is quite short, so I often spam the button without anything happening and I can't really see properly when I can use it.
The enemies are quite strong in numbers, you really need to use cover, creating distances etc. or you will get blown up.
Story/Lore
You seem to get small tidbits of information on the lore while playing, and sometimes discovering stuff (I found a wreck with a journal for example). But overall, you just fly around in a system, with a miner faction and pirates, and you know it's a DMZ and that's it. No lore on the universe, the factions and the systems. I don't know how much is in the game right now, but I really hope they add a lot more story, because it really helps you emerge in the world.
Puzzles
The puzzles are fun little thing to do, sometimes you do need some thought, sometimes it's just looting energy here, dropping it there. I also found a race on the first planet you land on, and I managed to complete it in time after 3 tries, but I don't think I got any reward? No idea what was up with that.
I hear lot's of negativity about this all, but it's a fun little distraction for me, but I do hope there comes more variety.
All in all, I love the game, and really hope they deliver a great game on release.
Space
The game looks awesome, and the planets look really good. What I miss a bit are nebulas (even if they don't make sense, it looks awesome). When cruising it all really looks empty, gas clouds and asteroids all around would make it look a bit more alive.
To add to that, it also feels a bit dead, because there are so few NPCs flying around. Sometimes you get hostiles, but pretty much only in (semi) scripted encounters, not in random locations. I also wonder if you can ally with more factions in the full game, because that also feels a bit empty.
What made freelancer awesome for me was all those systems with their own pirates and police, and trading factions, some allied some not, and you could fix your reputation with all, and choose to be an outlaw rather than friendly with the miners and/or cops. But I guess they don't have the team for this scope?
Bases
The places you land on are really boring at this moment. Most look the same once landed, nothing happens, and only a few offer something unique like jobs, ships for sale or something for sale that is rare.
Would love to have some sort of news section, a few locals to talk to and get missions from rather than just a menu. Could be either 2d or 3d, that doesn't matter all that much.
I liked one base I happened to come across that had an old friend, and gave you a mission with some nice flair.
Some missions ask you to deliver stuff to another location, but give no clue as to where to find what you need to deliver. Feels weird when someone asks you to get some items to another base but also expects you to loot/buy it somewhere.
Travel
Travelling feels fine, though going into cruise mode is really jarring, getting a small loading screen, and suddenly getting less details in the world.
Same for exiting cruise, you can only exit it when you reach a location predetermined, where you autopilot too. I understand why this is done, because otherwise you'd end up in the middle of nowhere, with nothing of use in sight, but it feels off.
It's also weird how with autopiloting you, according to the distance marker, pretty much headbutt the location, but don't see anything untill the loading screen is gone and you are in normal mode again. Hope they can somehow make that more fluid.
Combat
Combat is great, the weapons each have their own benefits and negatives, glad you can switch them up in space according to the enemy you currently encounter. The devices are fun, it's nice that you can choose between different modes easily, and you get enough points to unlock a few fast enough.
The gravity device is fun, but the distance you can throw ships is quite short, so I often spam the button without anything happening and I can't really see properly when I can use it.
The enemies are quite strong in numbers, you really need to use cover, creating distances etc. or you will get blown up.
Story/Lore
You seem to get small tidbits of information on the lore while playing, and sometimes discovering stuff (I found a wreck with a journal for example). But overall, you just fly around in a system, with a miner faction and pirates, and you know it's a DMZ and that's it. No lore on the universe, the factions and the systems. I don't know how much is in the game right now, but I really hope they add a lot more story, because it really helps you emerge in the world.
Puzzles
The puzzles are fun little thing to do, sometimes you do need some thought, sometimes it's just looting energy here, dropping it there. I also found a race on the first planet you land on, and I managed to complete it in time after 3 tries, but I don't think I got any reward? No idea what was up with that.
I hear lot's of negativity about this all, but it's a fun little distraction for me, but I do hope there comes more variety.
All in all, I love the game, and really hope they deliver a great game on release.
Re: Opening up forums for PC and consoles
I disagree. The idea is alright, but circumstances make it non-applicable: currently, vast majority of users prefer to use steam forum for Everspace 2 discussions. Very few take the effort to find this forum, register here, and post here. It's just more convinient for most folks to use steam forums for all titles they are interested in. Very few folks, like myself, value independent title's forum boards, for quite uncommon (yet nonetheless solid) reasons. This makes it simply not worth the effort to administer and maintain two separate boards (PC and console). Sorry.
P.S. The above is my personal opinion and only that. Nothing more.
P.S. The above is my personal opinion and only that. Nothing more.

1
Multiplayer for ES2
Will there be a multiplayer mode or add-on?
That would significantly increase the fun!
Thanks.
That would significantly increase the fun!
Thanks.

1
Stadia controller - custom mappings
I’m playing the game on Stadia.
What I cannot do and couldn‘t find satisfying information on is how I can remap my Stadia controller.
When I‘m playing using my Chromecast, all I can do is choose between „Apply“, „Cancel“ and „Restore Defaults“ when in controller mappings.
And when I remap them using a keyboard / mouse combo on my computer they are reset to defaults the next time I start the game. Basically I cannot play the game anywhere else but on my computer which defeats the purpose of Stadia...
Am I doing something wrong or is that indeed a known issue?
What I cannot do and couldn‘t find satisfying information on is how I can remap my Stadia controller.
When I‘m playing using my Chromecast, all I can do is choose between „Apply“, „Cancel“ and „Restore Defaults“ when in controller mappings.
And when I remap them using a keyboard / mouse combo on my computer they are reset to defaults the next time I start the game. Basically I cannot play the game anywhere else but on my computer which defeats the purpose of Stadia...
Am I doing something wrong or is that indeed a known issue?
Re: Leave the ship?
You do leave the ship, but all of this will be off-screen, sorry ;-)