Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor BETA 2A

Return of the Yor

Beta 2A reintroduces the malevolent Yor.  The Yor are a race of cybernetic beings bent on wiping out all biological life that they consider a threat.

The Yor get a variety of unique technologies. They are strong on manufacturing but a bit weaker on research and colonizing.  One would think a race of machines would be good at research but their problem is that they lack imagination.

The Yor get a unique technology called Synthetic Ingenuity. It describes this situation:

One advantage that the biological organisms of the galaxy have over cybernetic is imagination. For whatever reason, organic based life that achieves sentience is able to make that "leap" that the machines cannot.

Synthetic Ingenuity is the answer to this deficiency. It works by introducing a random element into the calculations of pure research based computational systems. As a result, it simulates truly insightful thinking.

So the Yor end up with a few extra steps to get the technology they want.

The Yor also don't have markets and banks as we know them. As cybernetic creatures, they generate their economic output differently -- through efficiency optimization.  They have a series of efficiency technologies that lead them to being able to build an efficiency center on their planets.

Moreover, as one might expect, the Yor do not use farms.  It should be noted that the Yor can convert food into energy which is a byproduct of how they were originally designed by the Iconians. But they prefer a more efficient way of population growth -- charging stalks.  So rather than researching farming, the Yor research charging stalk technologies.  Charging stalks don't increase population as much as a traditional farm, but they have the benefit of increasing morale amongst the Yor.  Charging stalks give a 2 to 1 benefit.

The Yor also get a handful of unique weapon technologies. Most notably the Scatter Blaster, a space shot gun of shorts that is very cheap but uses a bit more space.  On the other hand, they also get the Seeker missile technology which doesn't do as much damage as say a Stinger missile but it costs less and uses a lot less space.

Better Graphics, Less Memory

Remember seeing before/after images when a next generation console comes out or some sequel.  When you see the screenshots below, consider the level of improvement in graphics quality even as they use less memory and it's not a sequel.

The Yor are the first race with the updated ship textures.  These textures use a new technique that don't just look better but use less memory. A lot less memory.  In a late game, we estimate that it may result in hundreds of megabytes less memory usage when enough ships get into play.  So far, our rough estimate is that a given ship uses about 1/8th as much memory as before even while looking a lot better.

Before & After on the same Yor hull

another example:

Before & After on the same Yor hull

Every Yor hull and many of the components for the Yor have been updated in this way.  The difference in quality is quite significant.  And you should notice an increase frame rate as well due to the way the textures work with the engine.

Charging stalks provide food and morale for the robotic Yor

Torian Love

Our semi-aquatic friends, the Torians, got an overhaul. They were only partially ready for Beta 2. In Beta 2A, they got some much needed attention with lots of new technologies, planetary improvements, and more.

The Torians are a tough civilization to design a technology tree. By tough, I really mean they require a lot of work to do correctly.

The Torians didn't go through an industrial revolution. Their planet was conquered by the malicious Drengin Empire 30,000 years ago in the pre-Hyperdrive era using a Stargate that had been towed out there by an unmanned probe.

When the Drengin left, the Torians inherited a technological legacy that they didn't fully understand but lack the cultural background for large scale research and engineering.  At their heart, the Torians are still a preindustrial society whose people still adhere to rituals of mysticism and folk lore.  As a result, the Torians have some significant challenges they have to overcome.

However, the Torians are not without their significant advantages. They breed very fast and they lack many of the preconceptions that other races have.  For example, the Torians have a philosophical branch to their tree that no other civilization has.

One technology, called "Exceptional Consciousness" puts it like thus:

When we first learned of the Precursor civilizations, we sought out the Iconians who were most familiar with them. According to the Iconians, the Precursors did not really consider them "truly sentient" which would, one assumes, apply to all of us. Over the course of this path of research, we have started to understand what the Precursors would have meant. The reality is, most life forms are only barely sentient -- they are barely aware of their conscious actions. Most of us still merely react to stimuli in the crudest reflexive ways. Exceptional Consciousness helps teach us how to raise our awareness to a level that is indescribable to others. We realize now that there are different levels of sentience and that that sentience carries with it abilities that could one day take us to a whole new level of existence.

The Torians, however, lack research labs. It is completely foreign to their culture. Instead, they have schools, universities, and outgrowths of academic achievement.  The idea of researching new things outside an academic setting is beyond their experience. Teachers teach. Students learn. What more is there? Their universities are not as effective as labs but combined with philosophical technologies, the Torians can still keep up.

However, the Torians are quite weak when it comes to hull design. Large scale engineering is beyond their capacity. They can do it, but they struggle. So if you love capital ships, the Torians aren't likely to be your bag.  However, the Torians are masters of logistics.  And they tend to be very rich thanks to large populations, high morale, which makes them incredibly wealthy compared to other civilizations.  In turn, the Torians tend to be quite good at logistics which results in large masses of ships.  Quantity has a quality of its own.

Lots of new planet surfaces

So in GalCiv II the planet surfaces may have been ugly but they at least used a ton of memory...but...but..they were randomly generated...which means that load times at the start of a new game were much longer too...But now in Twilight of the Arnor, the planet textures have been done by Stardock's art team as well as help from LogicSequence.

Planets look better and use less memory

Better planet surfaces, planet capitals improved

Designing your ships becomes even easier with the improved Extras interface.

Gameplay Tweaks

There have been a number of gameplay changes made in Beta 2A that will interest players.

First off, if a planetary improvement requires a technology that you don't have access to, then that improvement will be destroyed upon conquering a planet. So taking into account what planetary improvements might be missing is now a variable players will have to keep in mind when deciding who to attack. If their means of research or manufacturing is foreign to your civilization, you will have a lot of rebuilding to do.

Secondly, tourism has been modified. In beta 2, it was just over-powered. What we wanted to do is start players off with quite a bit of income via tourism to help get the game going without just throwing lots of money into players hands. This time, the tourism income is derived by looking at what % of the galaxy you control and giving you an amount equal to that plus a tiny bonus for what % of the galaxy's population lives in your areas of control.  So far, we're pleased with the results.

Thirdly, the Yor no longer are subject to plagues. They're robots.

Fourthly, the Dread Lords event is a bit tougher. No longer do the Dread Lords just pop up with an undefended planet. Now they have some defenses in there.

Fifthly, if a planetary improvement is specified as indestructible, it also means you can't upgrade it.

Sixth, some new race portraits were added.  And I for one welcome them and look forward to working in their underground sugar mines.

Seventh, we modified it so that when you focus on research or production that there's more wastage when switching from research units to industrial units or vice versa. Doesn't really make a lot of sense that the two were so fungible. We may do more in this area in the future.

Lastly, the AI hasn't been touched yet.  So as you play and see the AI using the new techs and the new improvements, that's one of the reasons we don't use scripted AI. When players start modding the game they don't have to worry that the AI won't be able to use their mods.  That said, a bunch of AI work will be done in December based on new strategies and ideas players have given us.

Stability-wise, the beta should be pretty rock solid.  Full list of changes can be found here.

There will be a beta 2B next week before Thanksgiving based on feedback from this beta.

Want the beta? Pre-order Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor.