Didn't see a post about this on the front page yet, so I thought I'd add one.

http://www.yourvision-theirfuture.com/

By anecdote, I find Endless Space (the first one) to be the single most divisive 4X game ever made.  Many people seem to love it, many people seem to passionately hate it.  Ironically, Endless Legend, which is quite similar in many key ways, is almost universally acclaimed.  

I, personally, am damn excited.  To me 4X is not a genre that anybody ever gets completely right, and I have some pretty big and specific mechanics-related complaints about both the first Endless Space and Endless Legend.  Since I can say that about every 4X game I can think of, I don't mind also saying that I thought both of those games were damn good.  I'd say, and I think many would agree, that Endless Legend was one of the most unique and creative games of any strategy genre in recent years.  I can't wait to see what parts of it they incorporate into ES2.

My main hope right now is that they will GET RID OF THE DAMN STARLANES AND LET ME PUT SHIT IN DEEP SPACE OR FLY IN STRAIGHT LINES.  (That was my biggest complaint about ES1, granted some significant changes will have to accompany such a major modification of core game mechanics.)

I know a lot of people are pretty fixated on having a full blown tactical combat.  I personally find it to be too big of a digression and an annoyance more often than not, so I can do without it, and I think that even if it's included that it's absolutely necessary to have some satisfying way of abbreviating it, without sacrificing all tactical choice.  I don't really think anybody has gotten this right to date.  I will join the majority opinion and say that I didn't like the combat system in ES1, but I will also be very controversial and say that I think something similar could potentially work quite well.