Frogboy

Oh. You are right! The minimap shadow is gone! I hated that! Kudos to it disappearing!

Just a gloss effect on the "glass" parts of the old interface. That one in particular seemed to be a sore spot for users, so (assumably for that reason) it's gone.

Here are two more screenshots:

We've talked about how radical the new technology trees are but I don't think we've really emphasized this enough.  We went back and totally re-did the overall structure of the technology trees to be more logical and more balanced based on having the last two years of playing it.  Each civilization has their own take on the base technology tree PLUS they have a lot of unique technologies or derivative technologies.

A minor but I think important feature is that players will have a lot more player portraits to choose from. We've put in art resource sinto having more original alien race portraits including, of course, the all mighty Frog Lords.

From the 4th screenshot (Frog Lords). Race Tech is "a history of extremes". Hmmmm.

All HAL the all mighty Frog Lord.!!!..........

Now, I know I don't know as much about the lore of other people, and that this is more a question about the distribution method. I preordered Twilight of the Amor, and I wonder if I'll still be allowed to participate in the beta test (even when I preordered after the beta was first announced)

You know, it occurs to me that this new customizable race-specific tech tree stuff could be used in a rather more...epic way.

What am I talking about? Well, I think that with this new feature, it is now entirely possible to create a race with, in essence, multiple tech trees within its main tech tree...more specifically, a tech tree that is radically different depending on the race's ethical choice.

To illustrate this, let's consider a hypothetical race - I'll use my Confederacy of Man as an example (the Confederacy of Man being a hypothetical future in which the Confederacy won the U.S. Civil War and went on to dominate or unite the world under its rule). In this situation, the Confederates start out with a fairly basic neutral-evil sort of arrangement: slavery, lots of commerce, a certain amount of isolationism and xenophobia...

Now, imagine that this system came across a major ethical watershed which radically altered its moral compass (essentially, the Xeno Ethics research made to seem like it has culminated in a massive event of epic proportions, like a major conference or internal conflict or something.). Prior to this point, the Confederate tech tree would be essentially one tech tree, sort of like the Terran Alliance's but with some slavery-related added parts...AFTER this crucial point, however, the Confederate tech tree effectively is split into three, with two being partly or wholly inaccessible depending on the ethical alignment chosen.

So let's say the Confederacy of Man decides, in a fit of sudden whimsy or awakening, decides at this conference to go on a "Good" ethical course. In this way, slavery is abolished and the Confederacy shifts to a more egalitarian society - although this would still have some racial tension in it, and certain benefits and disadvantages would make themselves evident. A sampler of possible techs for this "Good" branch:

-Compensatory Institutions (helps to offset some of the economic mess that comes with a sudden switch from a slave system to a free labor system by compensating planters for lost "property" and former slaves for their suffering...improves the economy by a small amount, and offers a special Institute of Compensation or some such building that will raise a colony's morale at the detriment of economy...or some other cost/benefit ratio...)
-Robot-Assisted Labor (Due to their slave system, the Confederates are late in developing robotics and other laborsaving technologies, so they have to quickly scramble for a robotics program to help them compete industrially with other powers. While this does increase industrial output, it also can cause a slight morale drop due to the accident rates involved with the untried, often hastily-fashioned technology. A later tech may increase production more and remove the morale penalty.)
-Military Integration (Allows former slaves the opportunity to serve in military positions; this has a small military benefit, due to the influx of new manpower. However, this may also cause a slight (not so slight to be invisible but not so strong as to be punishing) drop in loyalty among "purer" members of the military.)

Now, suppose the Confederacy of Man decides, instead, not merely to protect their slave culture but to expand it as well, in the interests of power and control? Well, they may then decide to go down an "Evil" path, and come up with technologies such as these:

-Multicorporate Plantations (A large number of plantation owners and companies merge together to form massive "megaplantations" tended by hundreds of thousands of slaves - the resulting structure not only adds to farming, but also increases local industry - however, it also causes a slight drop in influence, due to the fact that most cultures don't practice slavery, especially not so brutally.)
-Suburban Servant Initiative (Makes slave owning a privilege for every citizen of the Confederacy regardless of class, politics, gender or religion. Due to propaganda extolling the virtues of slavery - as well as propaganda vilifying slaves as bloodthirsty, scheming, insane savages - causes a fair-sized morale boost civ-wide.)
-Flesh Reprocessing (The old and infirm of slaves are often seen as a drag on society by many of the more radical of the Confederacy - and so the Confederates borrow an idea of the Drengin and put their own unique spin on it, producing what in normal Terran cultures might be called "Soylent Green" - a nutritious concoction made exclusively of the corpses of slaves killed due to certain factors, then purged of impurities like disease and excreta. However, this is not for consumption by the normal people of the Confederacy - the concoction is only given to slaves as a means of improving their health without needing to divert food from the "megaplantations." Since the "food" does indeed improve slave health, it leads to a slight increase in industrial productivity, as well as a slight economic bonus due to the freeing of resources from slaves to be used for the good of the slave holders.)
-Forced Death March (Forces undesirable slaves to serve as living shields for combat troops during invasions - a rather powerful multi-bonus tech, which grants a small increase in soldiering and slightly reduces the cost of troop transport modules - slaves aren't paid wages to die protecting the combat troops, of course. Also increases morale since more soldiers may survive, and so are glad the government used "worthless" slaves to go and die in battle instead of the soldiers.)

And what if the Confederacy went for a middle route, seeking the "Neutral" path? Well, here things could get interesting, in a way...another new tech path would be open to them...and, the interesting thing is, some of the technologies in each path CAN be shared between paths - Good and Evil players can utilize some of the Neutral techs, and vice versa, although the techs a Neutral player can use from the Good and Evil trees are, understandably, somewhat small in comparison.

Now, I don't know if any of what I'm proposing is even possible in ToTA's new custom race tech tree editor, or even in the base XML files - but I'd like to hope that ToTA's custom race tech tree editor will be powerful enough to cope with such an unusual application. After all, I don't recall too many games like this offering different tech trees to a SINGLE race depending on moral choice. I think it'd add an interesting layer of depth to gameplay, and maybe give players some extra incentive to choose a certain alignment. Balance, of course, would become rather tricky, but it might be possible...though I think it'd probably be something modders would take on, or else a feature that gets put into GalCiv III...

Oh, and on a different note: StanleyTurrent, I'd like to tell you that Mr. Robot is VERY good, a neat combo of platformer, puzzler and RPG - it has very addictive gameplay, a very good story, a nice blend of features...and all for less than you'd expect to pay, too! I can certainly see why this was named "Indie Game of the Year" by one outlet - it certainly deserves it! GO BUY IT! NOW!!

But why wouldn't the other races make the breakthrough over thousands of years? To me, it is unrealistic. The only way I could understand is if the species had a severe religious or social taboo that prevented technological advancement in that way (kind of like a mild case of being amish). Perhaps maybe it was heresy to think that awesome fusion power could dare be miniturized....

Or, the only other explanation, is the Drengins and other races simply lacked the natural resources allowing miniturized fusion reactors...

Lets face it.... if an advanced civilization developed on a world without uranium, they may have never developed atomic bombs... even if they realized the mathematical and scientific possiblities of an atom bomb in the equivalent of their 1000 A.D., rather than like 1930 A.D. or so for us.

NOOOOO! HAVE MERCY ON US FROJESUS!!!

Wait a minute...that sounds like Jesus wearing a 'fro.

Uhm...

HAVE MERCY ON US LORD BRAD WARDELL!

Hmmm, better, but still sounds a bit forced, somehow...gonna need to fix that...

Stanley its a game and as such it doesnt have to make sense, it just is This entire game is the result of GC1 and even back then we asked the same questions about the Star Gates. As the brainchild of Brad it is down to him to decide why the other races did not develop a working Hyperdrive. Best just to come up with your own personal reason(s) for the other races not to have discovered it.

Just sit back and enjoy the game for what it is

doogles-
You don't have to get so negative. It will come when it comes be patient. They have a great game for us to play right now. Yes, I was disapointed that it didn't make it out on Thursday being I work retail and have to work for the next 5 days and I had off today but, I will wait. All good things come to those who wait. I'm sure they are trying everything to help us out.

Comment on post #39

If we get the ability to edit the tech tree that much, clearly the AIs can't possibly be expected to properly use custom tech trees. We're going to need an AI editor to design AIs, just for that.