While I think the races are quite ok I dislike the fact that they all like the same planets. Ok, perhaps most planets are uninhabitable to all of them, but the inhabitable planets shouldn't be the same for all. Perhaps a level 17 planet for Yor should be a level 11 for Humans becouse of the difference between the races (breathing atmosphere etc.).

What I'm saying is that the diversity between the races has little effect on the gameplay. You can play all races exactly the same although there are nominal differences between them.

Otherwise I love the game, the AI is getting better and better with each patch. Also I'm surprised Stardock is doing so many little things to the game that cummulatively make it a far better game from the one we started with. Perhaps my surprise wouldn't be as big if I played GC1...

I believe Ascendancy had the features you suggest.

I did notice the humanoid trend, but it didn't bug me too much as they were supposed to have been created/influenced by humanoid precursors.

I feel it has plenty of atmosphere. the only thing that would make it better is for the cutscenes not to be so horribly choppy.

As far as space games go, I thought GC2 had a ton more personality and told things on a more intimate level, also it's very possible to design and name your ships following a certain theme in order to create a bit of atmosphere for yourself.

Sometimes I try to bear in mind a basic mindset of the race I'm playing, and make that a factor in various decisions, I'm not that great at juggling the numbers anyway so choosing based on my idea of what my people would do is just as well and adds a lot of spice to the proceedings. Sometimes they'll be xenophobic and haughty, and take an aggressive stance to all other races; sometimes they'll be eager to form alliances and only maintain a meager military in times of peace. Some empires will build influence starbases to counter influence rushing, while others will go to war and make the interlopers pay dearly for their insolence.

My point is a lot of the atmosphere depends on you, the player, which lets you define that atmosphere however you wish, but of course that doesn't really do it for everyone. I think the expansion pack will add more flavor to the game, the only feature I've heard of so far in the expansion back is a text breakdown of what happened during the game, kind of an end-game narrative. Perhaps they'll do something to give you a more solid narrative during the game too -- the AI's pretty good at figuring out the situation and the balance of power and interpreting things (all those descriptive diplomacy messages we get), maybe they can offshoot from that a 'storyteller' AI that determines what's going on and figures out story or even game consequences as a result. Perhaps random events will be more common, but less random, effected by what's going on in the game?

Seems to me that the synthetic race(Yor) could live on any planet. The don't breathe. So having a higher quality planet for them would be a waste. The opposite would be true for the Torians.

My two cents.

Time to bounce.

Ascendency was great... except the AI could never build a decent ship. >.>

MOO II did well with different planets, and the way various races interacted with them. Those darn Sillicoids!

I have noticed that the AIs sometimes colonize a lower PQ planet right beside a higher one. Is there a reason for this?

I tend to agree with your points but it seems to happen more than would be indicated by them (except for the stupid one). The reason I bring this up is due to the disussion on different races should like different planets. It almost looks like it might do some form of that.

Some more thoughts:

You never see your picture after the creation process. I would like a more constant reminder of what I look like.
,
The planets feel very generic. I'm not asking for Civ-4 levels of graphic beauty, but something (still artwork?) to make it seem more exotic and wonderful.

Perhaps giving each of the races some sort of unique ability that goes against the rules in some way. Factories work as farms for the robot race... Kamakazi exploding ships for the evil race... Ability to build special elite ships for the noble race... I don't know. Something cool.

-- hintikka

Ascendancy - I own it and was never a big fan (probably AI). I do remember why I brought it though. I think PC Gamer gave it a 95 rating before it was ont the shelf. The writer praised it.

Than the game came out and Computer Gaming World and the rest gave it about a 60. Turns out the PC Gamer writer was writing the strategy book for the game. Swears he wasn't tooting his own horn.

I liked Reach for the Stars.

I think that one thing is that it just doesn't have much atmosphere.

That's because it's in space.

... what?

When everyone says there needs to be more diplomacy on GalCiv2, I think of dickering. I think there needs to be more going back and forth rather than, how about this deal and a yes or no. Maybe a if you won't do this, then how about... You also need the ability to say, stop doing that or else.

I agree with all people here.

Diplomacy need tweak.

The races need to be more different from the others and more unique. They should act really differently too. I like the idea of one race always trying to make deal and the other trying to keep peace, etc, etc.

I have to agree, the race abilities look pretty generic, there isn't any unique feel to the races. This is for balance reasons I expect, so all races can do exactly the same thing but differ only in efficency.

It would be nice to have some modal ability that is yes/no allowing some races to break the rules (not just bend it).

Such as the lithovore ability from Moo2 for instance, so they don't need food, or cybernatics where they consume 1/2 production 1/2 food. Or telepathy which enables them to convert enemy populations... Or maybe some sort of steathy ability to evade scanners..