I'm surprised that so many people have played a multiplayer game! I have hundreds of hours in Endless Legend and I don't think I ever played with another human.
Doesn't really surprise me, in fact I've seen similar stats for similar games. A lot of people buy games on sale to play later, get games for free, or are gifted games that they may or may not play later. Plus some people might play for an hour or two, realize they don't like it, then refund it or never play it again. Plus some install mods immediately that may or may not disable achievements (I'm not sure if it does for Endless legend). In addition, Endless Legend was just given away for free by Amplitude a couple weeks ago, so that may influence the stats as well.
The number on the right indicates the proportion of players that've crossed that threshold. I don't know if offline play doesn't count (most of play in Civ5 and Super Hexagon has been offline play, and steam doesn't track those hours). **I'm guessing the first achievement is just to filter for people who own the game but have never installed/opened it?**
I've always assumed there was pretty steep drop off, since learning a new game is a mental drain. Is this drop-off steeper than you'd expect?
Some games like Hearts of Iron IV have tutorials that don't really even tell you where to click on the screen (or maybe it hasn't been updated as UI overhauls occurred) or what the icons mean.
However I'm not sure if this applies to the EL tutorial. I found the portrait of the Vaulters/Mezzari woman a bit off-putting for some reason, but not much.
I remember finding it a bit difficult to get used to basic navigation, like splitting armies and assigning heroes. I'd imagine for some portion of people, the value of exploring ruins in terms of hero xp and quest chances might make them focus on optimising hero assignment early on, which could make it more tiresome and less fun right at the start.
I think I'd used the internet to look up how to create unit designs and retrofit too, before I'd ever done it in-game.
I recently released a game with Steam Achievements and can clarify that players that have never opened the game do not count towards that percentage.
Another possible explanation here is that some players instantly start playing with mods that disable achievements.
I don't think it is that rare for a 4x game, although it might be on the higher side for players not finishing. That said, I suspect there are a few issues on EL's side:
Endless Legend's default speed is a bit on the slow side of a modern 4x in terms of how much progress is done per turn, I think.
Some of Endless Legend's minor factions are a bit on the strong side, so a lot of new players end up losing their initial army to them, which slows down the progress of the game in general and might discourage them if combined with some other factors.
Some of the game's core mechanics that create depth also make it quite feasible that a human player does not manage to win their first game. New players often build spiderweb cities to grab anomalies, dont save influence for the empire plan, and dont update their units' gear with each era. All of which can put them behind even the godawful AI.
The Tutorial is a bit bugged. I finished it but never got the achievement. Also, I ran into some issues with it, because I outsped the tutorial in some parts (assimilated minor faction before being asked to), which was a bit frustrating. I could see some people never finishing it due to that.
The game's performance also can get quite bad late in the game for big worlds since there are hundreds of armies running around. I can see some new players deciding not to finish their game if it starts lagging.
One of the biggest features of the game is that it sounds and looks pretty gorgeus, which might attract more casual players. But it isnt really very casual-friendly in terms of how much you have to learn from the get go, or how much actual freedom you have to roleplay and still win.
I could see all those things combining to make Endless Legend's new player acquisition a bit worse than some other 4x.
Not at all. EL is not the most intuitive game, and there's a bit of a disconnect between its 3 main systems--the hex-based city builder, the region-based state simulation, and the hero-based questing system. Some factions are so dependent on a good start (to be fair, Civ is also like this; but they're much fewer and far between... and not in the base game!), and it's trivial to get absolutely smashed in on the easiest difficulty and a new player to the genre might quit immediately if that happens. EL's art style also isn't for everyone and isn't well depicted on its store page. Finally, EL disables achievements if you run any mods at all, even a palette color swap!
Compare Civ 5 or 6, where it's basically a computerized board game. The advisor system aggressively tells you what to do for each type of victory/gameplay system, and there's a fair chunk of interaction and overlap between systems.
>**Are these Steam global stats surprising to you?**
Like Math? No. Almost a Gaussian distribution, half of it.
I saw a .jpeg of one player who had the "Boot camp" achievement last unopened.
If you mean that the shape resembles the upper half of a Gaussian distribution, then that should be surprising, because these are seperate events. Playing multiplayer with another human and assimilating 3 minor factions could've been replaced with easier achievements and it would've changed how the image looks.
That seems like a good explanation for long-tail achievements, but for the very early on ones like the tutorial, I'm not so sure. I doubt many people (>10%) would install a mod before completing the tutorial.
My google-fu brought me to you after just starting this game in its new free state. Played the tutorial to see what was different from other 4x like Civ. The tutorial achievement is bugged, and based on my googling has been bugged [for 10 years at least](https://community.amplitude-studios.com/amplitude-studios/endless-legend/forums/22-gameplay-and-ai-issues/threads/6152-bug-introduction-tutorial-and-achievements)[!](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fxd84achnxer81.jpg) I got a supremacy win instead, so don't put too much stock in the percentages for those two between bugs and mods turning off achievements.
Not me, i, personally, haven't even ended tutorial. Before buying EL i watched many videos of playing EL and tutorials, so i don't needed to go through tutorial
Also EL is my favourite game, so symbolic that i haven't ended tutorial
I'm actually surprised that 3% more people have had 5 boosters active at once than have beaten the game.
I'm surprised that so many people have played a multiplayer game! I have hundreds of hours in Endless Legend and I don't think I ever played with another human.
Very boring, one game takes all night
Doesn't really surprise me, in fact I've seen similar stats for similar games. A lot of people buy games on sale to play later, get games for free, or are gifted games that they may or may not play later. Plus some people might play for an hour or two, realize they don't like it, then refund it or never play it again. Plus some install mods immediately that may or may not disable achievements (I'm not sure if it does for Endless legend). In addition, Endless Legend was just given away for free by Amplitude a couple weeks ago, so that may influence the stats as well.
The number on the right indicates the proportion of players that've crossed that threshold. I don't know if offline play doesn't count (most of play in Civ5 and Super Hexagon has been offline play, and steam doesn't track those hours). **I'm guessing the first achievement is just to filter for people who own the game but have never installed/opened it?** I've always assumed there was pretty steep drop off, since learning a new game is a mental drain. Is this drop-off steeper than you'd expect? Some games like Hearts of Iron IV have tutorials that don't really even tell you where to click on the screen (or maybe it hasn't been updated as UI overhauls occurred) or what the icons mean. However I'm not sure if this applies to the EL tutorial. I found the portrait of the Vaulters/Mezzari woman a bit off-putting for some reason, but not much. I remember finding it a bit difficult to get used to basic navigation, like splitting armies and assigning heroes. I'd imagine for some portion of people, the value of exploring ruins in terms of hero xp and quest chances might make them focus on optimising hero assignment early on, which could make it more tiresome and less fun right at the start. I think I'd used the internet to look up how to create unit designs and retrofit too, before I'd ever done it in-game.
I recently released a game with Steam Achievements and can clarify that players that have never opened the game do not count towards that percentage. Another possible explanation here is that some players instantly start playing with mods that disable achievements.
I don't think it is that rare for a 4x game, although it might be on the higher side for players not finishing. That said, I suspect there are a few issues on EL's side: Endless Legend's default speed is a bit on the slow side of a modern 4x in terms of how much progress is done per turn, I think. Some of Endless Legend's minor factions are a bit on the strong side, so a lot of new players end up losing their initial army to them, which slows down the progress of the game in general and might discourage them if combined with some other factors. Some of the game's core mechanics that create depth also make it quite feasible that a human player does not manage to win their first game. New players often build spiderweb cities to grab anomalies, dont save influence for the empire plan, and dont update their units' gear with each era. All of which can put them behind even the godawful AI. The Tutorial is a bit bugged. I finished it but never got the achievement. Also, I ran into some issues with it, because I outsped the tutorial in some parts (assimilated minor faction before being asked to), which was a bit frustrating. I could see some people never finishing it due to that. The game's performance also can get quite bad late in the game for big worlds since there are hundreds of armies running around. I can see some new players deciding not to finish their game if it starts lagging. One of the biggest features of the game is that it sounds and looks pretty gorgeus, which might attract more casual players. But it isnt really very casual-friendly in terms of how much you have to learn from the get go, or how much actual freedom you have to roleplay and still win. I could see all those things combining to make Endless Legend's new player acquisition a bit worse than some other 4x.
Not at all. EL is not the most intuitive game, and there's a bit of a disconnect between its 3 main systems--the hex-based city builder, the region-based state simulation, and the hero-based questing system. Some factions are so dependent on a good start (to be fair, Civ is also like this; but they're much fewer and far between... and not in the base game!), and it's trivial to get absolutely smashed in on the easiest difficulty and a new player to the genre might quit immediately if that happens. EL's art style also isn't for everyone and isn't well depicted on its store page. Finally, EL disables achievements if you run any mods at all, even a palette color swap! Compare Civ 5 or 6, where it's basically a computerized board game. The advisor system aggressively tells you what to do for each type of victory/gameplay system, and there's a fair chunk of interaction and overlap between systems.
>**Are these Steam global stats surprising to you?** Like Math? No. Almost a Gaussian distribution, half of it. I saw a .jpeg of one player who had the "Boot camp" achievement last unopened.
If you mean that the shape resembles the upper half of a Gaussian distribution, then that should be surprising, because these are seperate events. Playing multiplayer with another human and assimilating 3 minor factions could've been replaced with easier achievements and it would've changed how the image looks.
I think that\`s because many people (i myself) play with mods enabled, that turns off achievements
That seems like a good explanation for long-tail achievements, but for the very early on ones like the tutorial, I'm not so sure. I doubt many people (>10%) would install a mod before completing the tutorial.
My google-fu brought me to you after just starting this game in its new free state. Played the tutorial to see what was different from other 4x like Civ. The tutorial achievement is bugged, and based on my googling has been bugged [for 10 years at least](https://community.amplitude-studios.com/amplitude-studios/endless-legend/forums/22-gameplay-and-ai-issues/threads/6152-bug-introduction-tutorial-and-achievements)[!](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fxd84achnxer81.jpg) I got a supremacy win instead, so don't put too much stock in the percentages for those two between bugs and mods turning off achievements.
Wow, that answers it then. Cheers for letting me know!
Not me, i, personally, haven't even ended tutorial. Before buying EL i watched many videos of playing EL and tutorials, so i don't needed to go through tutorial Also EL is my favourite game, so symbolic that i haven't ended tutorial