The DLC you are thinking of is Awakening.

IMO, Isandyer was never a huge problem to deal with once you knew the swing of things. Top that off with the fairly massive update that lets you better control the how and why of what he will do. Quite a few balance changes are now baked into the patch so even the few complaints that did come from the DLC were ironed out in some way, shape or form.

Awakening adds the Academy that a lot of people didn't like, but it has been improved a lot in patches and can be turned off with the ESG mod. I've not bought that one yet, but it's on my wishlist now.

Penumbra adds the spying mechanics, aka "hacking" which I wouldn't say avoid, but it's good to wait to activate that one. The ESG mod can turn off PVP hacking. I'm usually not a fan of spying mechanics generally.

Actually, I'd wait to activate most of the main ones until playing a round or two to get to know the basics.

The rest I'm happy with.

Having the Academy in the game is actually pretty good

Originally posted by TheOrangeBox:

Having the Academy in the game is actually pretty good

yeah no i've watched Seth's video and they are trash.

Originally posted by TheOrangeBox:

Having the Academy in the game is actually pretty good

The Academy is a cool concept overall but mired with a huge flaw: the request fleet option is way too strong and trivializes combat or combat-related researches for most of the game. Even by putting the lowest strength of Academy fleets possible, if you play in Endless, the fleet they provide will always be much better than anything you could produce or buy on the marketplace at that point in the game. With a friend, we ended up disabling the Academy entirely and reverting it to the way it was before.

Originally posted by Bogan:

Originally posted by TheOrangeBox:

Having the Academy in the game is actually pretty good

yeah no i've watched Seth's video and they are trash.

That video was made before we made the ReAwakening patch, we remade that DLC last year.

Originally posted by Trolleur_Durden:

Originally posted by TheOrangeBox:

Having the Academy in the game is actually pretty good

The Academy is a cool concept overall but mired with a huge flaw: the request fleet option is way too strong and trivializes combat or combat-related researches for most of the game. Even by putting the lowest strength of Academy fleets possible, if you play in Endless, the fleet they provide will always be much better than anything you could produce or buy on the marketplace at that point in the game. With a friend, we ended up disabling the Academy entirely and reverting it to the way it was before.

Agreed, I'd like to nerf it in the future.

Originally posted by Bogan:

Originally posted by TheOrangeBox:

Having the Academy in the game is actually pretty good

:lunar2019laughingpig: yeah no i've watched Seth's video and they are trash.

Watchingisn'tplaying !

Originally posted by Trolleur_Durden:

Originally posted by TheOrangeBox:

Having the Academy in the game is actually pretty good

The Academy is a cool concept overall but mired with a huge flaw: the request fleet option is way too strong and trivializes combat or combat-related researches for most of the game. Even by putting the lowest strength of Academy fleets possible, if you play in Endless, the fleet they provide will always be much better than anything you could produce or buy on the marketplace at that point in the game. With a friend, we ended up disabling the Academy entirely and reverting it to the way it was before.

... wut?
the academy fleet is supposed to be powerful thats why its the best prise of the academy events. but a properly made fleet absolutely slaps most other fleets


also theres a weird thing where watching the fights GREATLY effects the outcome of space battles, generally speaking autoing the fleet will make it out with 50% hp. you watch the same fight and the enemy fleet will be dead

Originally posted by Sevrojin:

Originally posted by Trolleur_Durden:

The Academy is a cool concept overall but mired with a huge flaw: the request fleet option is way too strong and trivializes combat or combat-related researches for most of the game. Even by putting the lowest strength of Academy fleets possible, if you play in Endless, the fleet they provide will always be much better than anything you could produce or buy on the marketplace at that point in the game. With a friend, we ended up disabling the Academy entirely and reverting it to the way it was before.

... wut?
the academy fleet is supposed to be powerful thats why its the best prise of the academy events. but a properly made fleet absolutely slaps most other fleets


also theres a weird thing where watching the fights GREATLY effects the outcome of space battles, generally speaking autoing the fleet will make it out with 50% hp. you watch the same fight and the enemy fleet will be dead

My recurring experience is that the Academy fleets are very easy to obtain, you just have to research one early game technology and destroy some pirate lairs, which you can do with ease even on Endless if you know what you are doing. And even by putting the Academy fleet power at its weakest, the fleet they provide is always much stronger than what you can have AT THIS POINT IN THE GAME. Late-game fleets with relevant heroes leading them are indeed stronger, but my point is that getting Academy fleets while focusing your developement on other fields is always the best military option available, in every game and for every race, in all circumstances. It basically makes the entire arm's race part of the game irrelevant.

This will be changing soon

Originally posted by Captain Cobbs:

This will be changing soon

Endless Space 3 with real time strategy battles

Originally posted by TheOrangeBox:

Originally posted by Captain Cobbs:

This will be changing soon

Endless Space 3 with real time strategy battles

Or just finally releasing the beta patch. :)

Originally posted by Fulano:

Originally posted by TheOrangeBox:

Endless Space 3 with real time strategy battles

Or just finally releasing the beta patch. :)

The patch will be releasing soon

Originally posted by Captain Cobbs:

Originally posted by Fulano:

Or just finally releasing the beta patch. :)

Also planned soon

Would be partial to the Hex system in Legend to represent fleets shifting through space/system combat but I'd imagine that is a long away fantasy of mine. Jumping into system and being required to navigate space debris or planets while attempting to hold up preplanned formations would be very fun.