Master of Orion 3 (MoO 3), as failed as it is, still has two very realistic ideas over galciv, at least galciv 1. Galciv 1, and from what I've seen so far on bata of Galciv 2, allowed research of only one tech at a time and has every race fighting over the same planets. MoO 3, on the other hand, allowed the division of research into six schools, which "springed forth" different techs at the same time. Further, each race had different planetary preferences, which made certain planets more desirable for some races than for others. These two ideas are the reason that I, and many others, stopped playing galciv 1 and continue to play MoO 3.
MoO 3 has 6 research schools. Instead of researching one tech at a time, sliders allow you to determine which research schools to emphasize. Research on each of the planets is divided accordingly among these schools. When a certain school got enough research within it, it will produce a tech for the civilization. Of course some techs would still have prequisites, which meant some schools would just be collecting research until the prequisites were met from other schools. However, again, you could determine which schools to emphasize, and avoid this occurence. Further, sometimes researching within a school would not produce the tech you thought it would and instead would produce another tech within that school, sometimes better and sometimes worse, but that is what makes this research system feel so real.
MoO 3 also has several playable races, each has different planetary preferences. These preferences differ by gravity, temperature, and air pressure. Though these differences, each race takes on a different identity, some preferring Terran, Earth-like worlds, some preferring Venus-like inferno planets, and some preferring Gas Giants, among others. Because of eviromental conditions, each race has to have most of their planets within their preferences, at least until terraforming techs were reasearched. However, each races could have a few planets that were outside their race preferences, and would do so for other non-eviromental bonuses the planet might have or for stategic reasons. Thus, each race could fight over the same planets, but their proirities would be very different, something again that feels very realistic (as far as we know...)
These two ideas from MoO 3 make a space civilization game seem more realistic. No space empire (or country on Earth for that matter) directs all of their research towards one tech at a time. Instead, empires focus their scientists towards meeting certain objectives (like built me a better engine or make our people live longer). No two races, evolved on different planets from different genetic material, should prefer the same planetary conditions. They should like different planets but still be aware of a planets value when it does not match their preferences (we like cold planets but we could still use that inferno planet over there near our borders, it would make a great home for our enemy, perhaps we should get their first?).
In order to make a better galciv, I believe, and a few others like me, that these 2 ideas must be used to make a successful, fun, and realistic space civ game. I am not saying, however, that these ideas should be implemented like MoO 3 (no need for research overruns or planetary fertility ratings for example), just please incorporate these ideas into galciv 2. Galciv 1 did not have these ideas and I discovered that a heavily modded MoO 3 was quite superior solely because of these 2 ideas. I like where galciv 2 is going, and if these or something like them is incorporate into the game, I believe it could be the best space civ ever made.
Thanks for listening,
Emperor Daryl Rhoves of Neo Terra
P.S. I am not sure if planet quality is effected by Race, if so kudos on that!
