I want to try this faction but there's something inherently attractive about dictatorial genius conehead clones that keeps me going back to the Horatio.
What's their splicing bonus anyway? I don't think they have one, since acquiring Vodyani population would mean conquering one of their systems. However, that wrecks the Ark and leaves the system empty.
I managed to get some in my last game, no idea how the vodyani got straded outside their ark but there were some floating around my systems so I pushed to get them integrated. I think they get a flat FIDS bonus or something. Really good. Not cravers good, but you don't need to worry about integrating any cravers. At least the horatio have access to gene tubes to get cravers out of the system.
@@WaervynsWorld Easier said than done, the only way to get Vodyani pops is through the "Exiles" random curiosity event since you can't capture the pops cause they die with ark.
I find voydyani the most difficult to play initially but also the most rewarding. Vodyani has probably, the hardest initial start with the race quest at turn 3. Vodyani also has the best music in my opinion. I have to modify my fleets on turn 1 just to break that quest and proceed at a decent pace. I never win with a score victory because vodyani can have a very different start from game to game. You want 3 planets at the beginning or it'll be really slow for you. Still...really fun to drain other civilizations of their soul and move on.
After my first game with the Unfallen, I decided to try my hand at the Vodyani, having only really skimmed through their descriptors and traits.... I was so lost. Thank you for making these!
If you want to play the Vodyani, i recommend the Multiple Arc Designs Mod. With this mod you can create and build more then one 1 Type of Arc. For example: you can build System- and Battle-Arcs.
So be prepared to lose the overall score because you won't have the population But EVERYTHING else will be a landslide for Vodyani. Small but efficient. The smaller the map, the better you are in early game. In a large map, keep your footprint small until you can unleash hell. Then fly 1 of your best Arks over to the middle of your stomping grounds and set up a Forward Operating Base of death.
The Virtuals! The Broken Lords and the Vodyani both unwittingly unlocked the secrets of the Virtual Endless to ascend as beings of pure Dust (The Broken Lords through a powerful "spell" and the Vodyani by cannibalizing Virtual wrecks on their homeworld).
I think one of their bigger strengths so far is tha fact that govenors are also bound to fleets. So I had my strongest hero (lvl 9) on my strongest fleet (that contained an ark) so that fleet/colony got bonus manpower from both the govenor And fleet skills
You know, if someone were to make a Mass Effect mod, these guys would basically be the quarians. Their nomadic lifestyle and glass masks already give off that vibe. Just need to make them less...vampiric.
ME lore says that planetary systems generally dislike Quarian fleets passing by because they start strip-mining asteroids and planets for resources. You can see how the mechanics can be easily adapted.
Dude, this video is awesome! -> you did a really good job explaining this more complex race! Thank you for that. I'm curious, do I hear a vast experience in tabletop games like wh40k in your voice? *G*
xpgx1 used to play a bit but switched to boardgames of which I have way too many! always kept being interested in the lore though! ^^ thanks for the kind words!
Hah! ;D Okay, makes sense. You just struck me as someone who is used to rather complex rule sets. I was terrible at 40k though. Now I NEED to check the Vamp... uuhm Vodyani out ;D (I'm very unexperiences ES2 player... so, everything looks impressive to me... *G*)
Things may have changed recently, I haven't been following the game before release but you can collect essence with what seems like any ship other than an ARK at this point. The essence module only improves the amount of essence you take in per turn as far as I can tell
nah this isn't correct; you need the harverster module or your ships are just like normal ships without the leeching option. I doubt it worked as you describe earlier in beta, either. I believe even the Ark can equip leeching modules so yes, you could send that behemoth to snatch bodies from opponents and they can do little to stop you...
After all your videos i have seen, one question for you Waervyn (with an a, b c ). What race do you find the most fun to play and why? a) which one do you find the most difficult, and why? b) What do you like the most about the game (visuals, algorithms, presentation.., other) c) What strategy you use the most with battles (space/ground) and why?.... Thank you for answering, if you do :D
a) Horatio I think. Not sure why, they seem to be a race that can go for any victory condition and I like their gene spicing mechanic. The Most difficult is Vodyani, I suck with them :). They're just so different. They're really strong but you have to know how to use them. B) Atmosphere, which I guess is a combination of lore, visual + music. I don't care about fancy graphics much, but the visual presentation here definitely adds to the game. C) Depends on my army, but I'd say turtle is pretty common, as well as power to shields. For ground when I have the majority I tend to use blitz, otherwise that other one...erm...what's the name..where your guys get more health :)
Thanks! I'll be making a video detailing the changes this race underwent from Beta to Release. Unfortunately I have to fly for a worktrip tomorrow, so it'll be in a week or so :)
the downside of the multi planet population is hapiness, when there are a lot of bad planets in a system, the fact that they autocolonize, happiness go low quick
This is probably also one reason why the religious set of government laws they are built around features a law that locks approval to content (or locks to 'happy', if you play as a custom Vodyani empire with Republic government). Adopt this law and no matter how awful the planets you colonize are or how much you go beyond the overexpansion limit, your populace will still remain content. This makes Vodyani adepts for Supremacy victory strategies. Another way to overcome the penalty from settling multiple bad planets at once in the early game is the tier 2 science tech that provides +5 approval per planet, extremely strong for Vodyani.
System Development thoroughly annihilates that issue later on. Each tier of development adds +1 Approval, per population, galaxy-wide. You'll end up with a +500 Approval on each Ark at around turn 100 or so.
Personally, I've had great success going for an economic victory with them, since they have large Dust production plus 'All must tithe'. That also works well with religous laws ('Racial Stability' is a winner). Also, because you will have a large Dust income, you can quickly build new Arks with 'Alms for Essence' when needed. Their awesome heroes also make great governors (+20% Dust in the second circle) and get their skills online very quickly. I got my starting hero to Level 17 in 50 turns today as a governor in my first Ark. EDIT: Ended that game with my starting hero at level 32. He therefore gave me a total of +400% Industry, +340% Dust, +320% all other resources, sharing +64% FIDSI with the rest of the empire. He had all the system/senate skills so I gave him all the commander skills as well just for fun. I have to add, that Science victory was also viable option for me. Had I taken all the victory techs in a row, I would have won 3 turns after my Science Victory.
i've got troubles reclaiming an lost ark (apparently arks dont fight when they are anchored XD). I sent a single exploration ship there and the button to reclaim ark is active but when i press it all that happens is that its zoomed in on the corresponding node (ship is still listed as "taskless"). Said exploration ship needed all movementpoints to get to the node. Does it have to do anything with that or what am i doing wrong? XD
You get it by reaching the third era in the right quadrant. You reach the second upgrade by reaching the fourth era and the third one is unlocked by reaching the fifth era. Once you unlock them, you navigate to the System Development menu (pile of coins next to the tech tree symbol, first tab there, same as trade routes). If you unlocked a tier of upgrades there, you can choose which luxury resources to use (click it). For example, Jadonyx grants an upgraded system +4 I/person. The system upgrade costs 1/2/3 turns in construction and some of the chosen resources (25 for tier one luxuries, do not know, if the other tier had their numbers tweaked in the release patch). The first tier uses one resource and takes one turn, the second two of both, the last one takes/uses three. This is what the game means by 'System Level'. No upgrade means level 1. Buying an upgrade removes the previous tier and they have to be bought in succession. So if you want to buy the second upgrade for a system, you have to give it the first upgrade first. Once you get the second, the effects of the first will vanish. You can only define each tier of upgrade once, so choose your resource(s) wisely.
One disgusting combination is to combine the biologists political law that lets you colonize every planet but with reduced FIDS with the arks. You can in effect colonize every non-gaseous planet in the system and get obscene colonization effects. That said for customization this is disgustingly OP.
What is this talk about the ark being a powerful capital ship? I don't know what I can be missing from this equation, but I played just the start of a normal campaign and it barely struggled to handle the weakest possible pirate fleet. I mean if you want to increase the CP to add it to a bigger fleet I'd put my marbles in actual ships rather than such a weak, expensive, high CP unit.
I'll save debate points and formal criticism to others' tactics because currently I am not playing more so I won't get too far ahead of my buddy who I'm playing this with. But.. every thing I know about theory crafting these things makes me suspicious of a lot of this common wisdom. Again, I'll reserve debate till I can play more for myself.
the arks were hevely nerfed in the firepower department due to the fact that they just break the game, there heroes also break the game with the FIDSI bonus / pop :(
Read stuff like (endless-space-2.wikia.com/wiki/The_Vodyani) and it seems pretty clear that they represent virtual existance. They got their technology from the "Virtual Endless", some civilization before them I'm guessing. It also says they're bound to their archs because they have essentially risen above physically living on a planet, calling it (biological beings/the state of a human for example) "weak and grotesque forms", before virtualization technology allowed them to transcend it. That's also why they can colonize all the planets - since they exist virtually and not physically, they don't have the limit of having a biologically limited ability to multi-task like most species would, and so they can exist as more than one form at a time/control more than one. As I read it, they're essentially humans (or similar, from the artwork shown in their intro screen) that ruined their planet, found some technology that another civilization invented (or conquered it, unclear), and uploaded their conciousness into machines. It's a route humans could go down one day, if we invent true AI for example, it could possibly figure out a way to transfer conciousness into a machine. It'd be preferrable to dying, for sure. "When you're harvesting Essence, you're partly killing off the population for their life-force, but through some of the actions depicted on minor-civ planets, it's implied that you're also converting them into Vodyani, copying their consciousnesses into Vodyani "Cloth" bodies."
basically, in terms of story...
NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPACE INQUISITION!
Teifan 667 kill the infidels!
th-cam.com/video/Nf_Y4MbUCLY/w-d-xo.html
I want to try this faction but there's something inherently attractive about dictatorial genius conehead clones that keeps me going back to the Horatio.
Just add some Vodyani into your genepool and you can kind of try them! Right? :D
What's their splicing bonus anyway? I don't think they have one, since acquiring Vodyani population would mean conquering one of their systems. However, that wrecks the Ark and leaves the system empty.
I managed to get some in my last game, no idea how the vodyani got straded outside their ark but there were some floating around my systems so I pushed to get them integrated. I think they get a flat FIDS bonus or something. Really good. Not cravers good, but you don't need to worry about integrating any cravers.
At least the horatio have access to gene tubes to get cravers out of the system.
@@WaervynsWorld Easier said than done, the only way to get Vodyani pops is through the "Exiles" random curiosity event since you can't capture the pops cause they die with ark.
When you research "Radioactive Essence" technology - THAT'S where the real fun starts. >:)
I find voydyani the most difficult to play initially but also the most rewarding. Vodyani has probably, the hardest initial start with the race quest at turn 3. Vodyani also has the best music in my opinion. I have to modify my fleets on turn 1 just to break that quest and proceed at a decent pace. I never win with a score victory because vodyani can have a very different start from game to game. You want 3 planets at the beginning or it'll be really slow for you. Still...really fun to drain other civilizations of their soul and move on.
Late game vodyani is a fucking powerhouse. I'll start converting the arks I don't need for systems into miltary oriented arks
After my first game with the Unfallen, I decided to try my hand at the Vodyani, having only really skimmed through their descriptors and traits.... I was so lost. Thank you for making these!
Glad it was useful! :)
definitely a broken lords vibe here
Chaoslord48 what I was thinking
Chaoslord48 Hmmm, they remind me more of the wraith from Stargate Atlantis than the broken lords from EL.
A year later, this guide is mostly obsolete, key points being changed (Manpower & the Ark being the 2 strongest points).
THE FUCKING MUSIC IN THIS GAME YES TAKE ME MY BODY IS READY
Music in both Endless Space and Endless Legend is great, reallya dds to the atmosphere! :)
If you want to play the Vodyani, i recommend the Multiple Arc Designs Mod. With this mod you can create and build more then one 1 Type of Arc. For example: you can build System- and Battle-Arcs.
Great video, you really explain things clearly!
Thanks! Glad it was helpful!
So be prepared to lose the overall score because you won't have the population
But EVERYTHING else will be a landslide for Vodyani.
Small but efficient. The smaller the map, the better you are in early game.
In a large map, keep your footprint small until you can unleash hell. Then fly 1 of your best Arks over to the middle of your stomping grounds and set up a Forward Operating Base of death.
Wait a minute, they're the Broken Lords from Endless Legends
Broken Lords combined with Roving Clans (moving cities)
Also that odd way of conquering other players' systems reminds me of the Cultists and their automatically razing things.
The Virtuals!
The Broken Lords and the Vodyani both unwittingly unlocked the secrets of the Virtual Endless to ascend as beings of pure Dust (The Broken Lords through a powerful "spell" and the Vodyani by cannibalizing Virtual wrecks on their homeworld).
Excellent video - detailed and clear description !
Played them yeasterday on a tiny map with only one other empire. yes the victory was quite quick :P
I think one of their bigger strengths so far is tha fact that govenors are also bound to fleets. So I had my strongest hero (lvl 9) on my strongest fleet (that contained an ark) so that fleet/colony got bonus manpower from both the govenor And fleet skills
I never thought of it that way! Good point!
they're lowkey more evil and destructive than the cravers, i love it
You know, if someone were to make a Mass Effect mod, these guys would basically be the quarians.
Their nomadic lifestyle and glass masks already give off that vibe. Just need to make them less...vampiric.
Never thought about that, they do have a lot in common (only played ME1 though)
ME lore says that planetary systems generally dislike Quarian fleets passing by because they start strip-mining asteroids and planets for resources.
You can see how the mechanics can be easily adapted.
Soooo. They are SG Atlantis Wraits? Time to dig my Shepard mask out)
more like the Oris, or religious Wraiths.
Dude, this video is awesome! -> you did a really good job explaining this more complex race! Thank you for that. I'm curious, do I hear a vast experience in tabletop games like wh40k in your voice? *G*
xpgx1 used to play a bit but switched to boardgames of which I have way too many! always kept being interested in the lore though! ^^ thanks for the kind words!
Hah! ;D Okay, makes sense. You just struck me as someone who is used to rather complex rule sets. I was terrible at 40k though. Now I NEED to check the Vamp... uuhm Vodyani out ;D (I'm very unexperiences ES2 player... so, everything looks impressive to me... *G*)
Things may have changed recently, I haven't been following the game before release but you can collect essence with what seems like any ship other than an ARK at this point. The essence module only improves the amount of essence you take in per turn as far as I can tell
nah this isn't correct; you need the harverster module or your ships are just like normal ships without the leeching option. I doubt it worked as you describe earlier in beta, either.
I believe even the Ark can equip leeching modules so yes, you could send that behemoth to snatch bodies from opponents and they can do little to stop you...
You can install harvester modules on the ark, just like on any other vodyani ship
Broken Lords in space but actually stealing life essence instead of dust
1 thing you forgot is at the beggining of the game -- Religious vodyani specific law.
After all your videos i have seen, one question for you Waervyn (with an a, b c ). What race do you find the most fun to play and why? a) which one do you find the most difficult, and why? b) What do you like the most about the game (visuals, algorithms, presentation.., other) c) What strategy you use the most with battles (space/ground) and why?.... Thank you for answering, if you do :D
a) Horatio I think. Not sure why, they seem to be a race that can go for any victory condition and I like their gene spicing mechanic. The Most difficult is Vodyani, I suck with them :). They're just so different. They're really strong but you have to know how to use them. B) Atmosphere, which I guess is a combination of lore, visual + music. I don't care about fancy graphics much, but the visual presentation here definitely adds to the game. C) Depends on my army, but I'd say turtle is pretty common, as well as power to shields. For ground when I have the majority I tend to use blitz, otherwise that other one...erm...what's the name..where your guys get more health :)
So if you destroy all Arks you destroy the Vodyani? And you dont have 2 invade them with ground troops 2 kill them? Just blow up all their ships?
well done on the video
Thanks! I'll be making a video detailing the changes this race underwent from Beta to Release. Unfortunately I have to fly for a worktrip tomorrow, so it'll be in a week or so :)
very cool video, thank you
Nice guide, keep it up.
I have a question : if your first arch is destroy , do you loose since you got other archs ?
Vodyani: Robot Space Vampires lol
the downside of the multi planet population is hapiness, when there are a lot of bad planets in a system, the fact that they autocolonize, happiness go low quick
Good point! Thanks for sharing!
You'd think that a group of zealots living on the giant space ship wouldn't be so pissy with the planets they get to exploit. :\
This is probably also one reason why the religious set of government laws they are built around features a law that locks approval to content (or locks to 'happy', if you play as a custom Vodyani empire with Republic government). Adopt this law and no matter how awful the planets you colonize are or how much you go beyond the overexpansion limit, your populace will still remain content. This makes Vodyani adepts for Supremacy victory strategies.
Another way to overcome the penalty from settling multiple bad planets at once in the early game is the tier 2 science tech that provides +5 approval per planet, extremely strong for Vodyani.
Brazouck religion
System Development thoroughly annihilates that issue later on. Each tier of development adds +1 Approval, per population, galaxy-wide. You'll end up with a +500 Approval on each Ark at around turn 100 or so.
@ Waervyn's World Does harvesting essence from minor or major factions effect your relations with them?
What type of victory is best or easiest to achieve with them?
I'd say conquest or supremacy, but I haven't really tried the others :)
Cool! Thank you for the reply!
Personally, I've had great success going for an economic victory with them, since they have large Dust production plus 'All must tithe'. That also works well with religous laws ('Racial Stability' is a winner). Also, because you will have a large Dust income, you can quickly build new Arks with 'Alms for Essence' when needed. Their awesome heroes also make great governors (+20% Dust in the second circle) and get their skills online very quickly. I got my starting hero to Level 17 in 50 turns today as a governor in my first Ark.
EDIT: Ended that game with my starting hero at level 32. He therefore gave me a total of +400% Industry, +340% Dust, +320% all other resources, sharing +64% FIDSI with the rest of the empire. He had all the system/senate skills so I gave him all the commander skills as well just for fun.
I have to add, that Science victory was also viable option for me. Had I taken all the victory techs in a row, I would have won 3 turns after my Science Victory.
Interesting! Thanks for sharing! :)
Joris Kühl I tried them for an economic victory and they were absolutely amazing! Thank you for the post and help! Really appreciate it!
Does the Vodyani get +CP for the Ark from the research that increase CP per hull type?
Good question, hadn't thought about that. I'll have to have a look about that.
That would potentially also apply to The Vaulters colonization ship?
i've got troubles reclaiming an lost ark (apparently arks dont fight when they are anchored XD).
I sent a single exploration ship there and the button to reclaim ark is active but when i press it all that happens is that its zoomed in on the corresponding node (ship is still listed as "taskless"). Said exploration ship needed all movementpoints to get to the node. Does it have to do anything with that or what am i doing wrong? XD
joe the sheep oef, I'll have to look into this. Not sure!
i'll also continue my vodyani-game and if i happen to find out what went wrong i will post it here. Thx man for the response!
Great video, earned a sub
Question: how do i get this "System Upgrade" you knw the one that alllows me to "use" more of my Population
I need it but i cant find it.
You get it by reaching the third era in the right quadrant. You reach the second upgrade by reaching the fourth era and the third one is unlocked by reaching the fifth era.
Once you unlock them, you navigate to the System Development menu (pile of coins next to the tech tree symbol, first tab there, same as trade routes). If you unlocked a tier of upgrades there, you can choose which luxury resources to use (click it). For example, Jadonyx grants an upgraded system +4 I/person. The system upgrade costs 1/2/3 turns in construction and some of the chosen resources (25 for tier one luxuries, do not know, if the other tier had their numbers tweaked in the release patch). The first tier uses one resource and takes one turn, the second two of both, the last one takes/uses three. This is what the game means by 'System Level'. No upgrade means level 1. Buying an upgrade removes the previous tier and they have to be bought in succession. So if you want to buy the second upgrade for a system, you have to give it the first upgrade first. Once you get the second, the effects of the first will vanish. You can only define each tier of upgrade once, so choose your resource(s) wisely.
Ah, ok, thanks!
One disgusting combination is to combine the biologists political law that lets you colonize every planet but with reduced FIDS with the arks. You can in effect colonize every non-gaseous planet in the system and get obscene colonization effects. That said for customization this is disgustingly OP.
What is this talk about the ark being a powerful capital ship? I don't know what I can be missing from this equation, but I played just the start of a normal campaign and it barely struggled to handle the weakest possible pirate fleet. I mean if you want to increase the CP to add it to a bigger fleet I'd put my marbles in actual ships rather than such a weak, expensive, high CP unit.
I'll save debate points and formal criticism to others' tactics because currently I am not playing more so I won't get too far ahead of my buddy who I'm playing this with. But.. every thing I know about theory crafting these things makes me suspicious of a lot of this common wisdom. Again, I'll reserve debate till I can play more for myself.
It might be that they're nerfed since the video (which was prerelease). I'll have to check
No no, I can't comment about that. Like I said I've only started playing this game.
the arks were hevely nerfed in the firepower department due to the fact that they just break the game, there heroes also break the game with the FIDSI bonus / pop :(
Yes it was helpful! Thanks!
The Vodyani have a very Tron aesthetic
looking at quality and work on this video, you need more subs. Let me be one ;)
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!
I love playing as superior master race. Just like in IR...
Too many robots in this game... I would like to see more living races...
Hadn't really thought about this! I guess Sophons, Vodyani, Riftborn and Cravers all have some mechy things about them.
After 10k years from now, you think humans won't have an iPhone implant, google interface, and mechanical joints?
I'm pretty sure the only completely "robotic" faction is the Riftborn. The Vodyani just wear spacy armor.
Read stuff like (endless-space-2.wikia.com/wiki/The_Vodyani) and it seems pretty clear that they represent virtual existance. They got their technology from the "Virtual Endless", some civilization before them I'm guessing. It also says they're bound to their archs because they have essentially risen above physically living on a planet, calling it (biological beings/the state of a human for example) "weak and grotesque forms", before virtualization technology allowed them to transcend it. That's also why they can colonize all the planets - since they exist virtually and not physically, they don't have the limit of having a biologically limited ability to multi-task like most species would, and so they can exist as more than one form at a time/control more than one.
As I read it, they're essentially humans (or similar, from the artwork shown in their intro screen) that ruined their planet, found some technology that another civilization invented (or conquered it, unclear), and uploaded their conciousness into machines. It's a route humans could go down one day, if we invent true AI for example, it could possibly figure out a way to transfer conciousness into a machine. It'd be preferrable to dying, for sure.
"When you're harvesting Essence, you're partly killing off the population for their life-force, but through some of the actions depicted on minor-civ planets, it's implied that you're also converting them into Vodyani, copying their consciousnesses into Vodyani "Cloth" bodies."
They look kinda weak. Similar to Pilgrims that was the weakest faction by far in Endless Space 1.
You'd be amazed at what you can do with them. Those Arks are absolutely amazing as warships once you've upgraded them.
its Vod Yani... not Vaginy
great video though, but stop saying their name... I cant handle it. lol
Vagina-e