Major bug, no core ships, practically unplayable

i think i had a similar problem right after an update but it disappeared after rebooting.

you should check if your OS is running on US english language settings.....I remember to had a problem with ships too by running my OS on german.....switching to US english solved it

you should check if your OS is running on US english language settings.....I remember to had a problem with ships too by running my OS on german.....switching to US english solved it

Thanks, this made me optimistic, but unfortunately didn\t solve the problem.
Changed the language settings to English US, and everything else, too, didn\t help.

At least I can quickly reproduce the problem by just researching Laser I, Stinger II, and Xeno Ind. As always, only Star Fury becomes available, missile boat and others don't

i'm in a similar position. have downloaded the galcivpedia (excellent piece of work) and ensured i have the corrct tech researched, but no additional core ships become available. i'm wondering if it's a problem overall with my copy, as i cannot get any updates downloaded as both this site and the stardock interface both refuse to recognise my original serial# and the new UK Collectors edition serial issued by this site. spoiling what is otherwise a superb game.

Check whether your ships are available in the .xml files, if they're not it shouldn't be a problem to post the core designs up for you to put into the xml folder. If they are there, and you definately have all the tech's, then post your specs, to see if the Dev's think it's machine related, because I don't have it.
And 8 hp/12hp fighters on a planet on tough are normal. I've hardly ever seen a fregate defending a planet, they're too valuable to waste sitting there when they could be attacking. I for one never defend my planets with anything larger than one or two cruisers and some fighters

Check whether your ships are available in the .xml files, if they're not it shouldn't be a problem to post the core designs up for you to put into the xml folder. If they are there, and you definately have all the tech's, then post your specs, to see if the Dev's think it's machine related, because I don't have it. And 8 hp/12hp fighters on a planet on tough are normal. I've hardly ever seen a fregate defending a planet, they're too valuable to waste sitting there when they could be attacking. I for one never defend my planets with anything larger than one or two cruisers and some fighters

Please give a more detailed path to this xml folder. Where should it be? Maybe I dont have one in the first place.. There isnt a specific folder CALLED xml anywhere below the program directory. Maybe that is the problem .
If it is, begs the question, why don't I have that dir after 2 downloads and a reinstallation.

As far as those fighters are concerned, we dont need to go that far into details, the thing is AI doesnt build any other ships than these small ships and I doubt it is normal I run over their planets on tough level on my 3rd (failed) game when they are even more advanced than I am and thus theoretically capable of building better ships SOMEWHERE

I have had a different problem...the AI doesn't seem to like building/researching bigger ships. I have won on influence/large/tough without seeing a ship above medium except for mine and the cargo ships. One would think the AI would take measures to reduce my spreading wave of Korx Cola and McAltaran Burgers...but they just seem to sit back and like it...granted, I seem to be friendly with everyone and their gerbils, but in a human game there would be panic about balance of power and an assault upon the top player long before influence swept the galaxy....sure, they'd have a hard time dealing with the nanorippers, but at least they should attack?

Doesen't the AI create it's own ships just like us? Why should it care about core ships then? Core ships are just for newbs who want to start playing the game without using the designer.

The ship-data is in \Data\English\GC2Ships.xml
The ships configs are in \Data\ShipCfg\ The missileboat is S0_SolarFox.shipcfg
But I doubt that that is where the problem lies.
Have you tried deleting the \Document and Settings\username\My Documents\My Games\GalCiv2 folder before reinstalling?
You may also want to check the debug.err file for errors that might be related to your problem.

I've also had cases where at the beginning I could simply walk all over the AI, but it quickly adapted and started researching and building bigger and badder ships.

The ship-data is in \Data\English\GC2Ships.xml The ships configs are in \Data\ShipCfg\ The missileboat is S0_SolarFox.shipcfg But I doubt that that is where the problem lies. Have you tried deleting the \Document and Settings\username\My Documents\My Games\GalCiv2 folder before reinstalling? You may also want to check the debug.err file for errors that might be related to your problem. I've also had cases where at the beginning I could simply walk all over the AI, but it quickly adapted and started researching and building bigger and badder ships.

Ship data file is just fine. Unless there should exist a FOLDER called xml, then everything seems to be in order. as far as these files are concerned.

Well, no I have not deleted any folders in 'My documents' folder. To be honest, I feel doing it, uninstalling the game, and REDOWNLOADING for the third time, and reinstalling, seems rather extreme considering I'm supposed to be the customer here.. I think the DEVS should take it from here unless someone comes up with quite a definitive solution

Erhm yes, I do have an xml folder in my main Galciv2 install dir.
It holds these files:
gc2_Movies.xml
gc2_Multimedia.xml
gc2_Tutorials.xml
gc2.xml

I think that these files are only used by Stardock to keep track of installed files and updates however.
I have noticed no difference in gameplay with this folder present or (temporarily) removed.

I do think there is a bug here somewhere. I almost get the feeling that you only get core designs for beam-based weapons. Not that that is a big problem since you probably want to design your own ships anyway.

As for your statement that the AI only builds weak ships; I have noticed this too, but they always come up with bigger and badder designs after I start wiping out their wimpy ships. Their focus seems to be more on 'more small ships' than 'fewer bigger ships' though.

No way near 'unplayable' though. AI ships do get bigger over (a lot of) time (they don't use core designs btw). So I suggest you just take your big ships and start wlaking all over their puny defenses until they come up with an appropiate response.
Or are you really achieving ridiculously easy Military Victories on Normal or above settings?

It seems to me that Missile Boats and Snipers are not available because you have not enough miniaturization. I tried to custom build those designs and wasn't able to fit the components they use in their hulls. And no, they aren't available for me either. I did get Cruisers once I researched Stinger IV, however.

I have the same problem, but I think there is something other than tech research level. I can select a tech that will enable certain types in the description box, and all of a sudden they disappear. I was going to try and uninstall and reinstall. I purchased online, not from a CD.

STARDOCK! Why are you not responding in this thread, even with a small reply that you are looking into it???
Several people seem to have related problems describred in this thread, and I see you respond to all kind of minor annoyance reports!!!

What do you want them to respond to?
From what I can figure you have two problems:
1 Some core designs do not show up
2 AI uses small ships

1 Designing your own is better
2 Yes it does.

So what exactly is gameplay-crippling issue? That it is too easy to win a game?
Will having the AI build fewer big ships in stead of more small ships fix that for you?

What do you want them to respond to? From what I can figure you have two problems: 1 Some core designs do not show up 2 AI uses small ships 1 Designing your own is better 2 Yes it does.

LOL.. First, Only the intial core ships and star fury come up. That is totally different than saying SOME core ships don\t come up.
Second, even if it was better to design your own ships, are you seriously claiming that I am REQUIRED to do my own designs!!
Third, as I said in the first post, I can start posting screenshots and other BS if the developers dont beleive my word. So why not at least require me to do that if they dont take my word.
Fourth, they can keep on responding to tiny issues for all I care, but when someone says his game is unplayable , Ignoring that is plain bad business..

PeletierH, I have reported this glitch and updated my original post in the Glitch thread (#28 & #212). I have also responded to a dev post in a seperate thread ( Link here ). Basically I do have the core ships in my files, and using the cheat to unlock all research made them all show up. I am still trying to figure out exactly why the core ships aren't showing up. My current guess is something like miniaturization or a broken tech tree, but haven't had time to check the slow way yet. Based on that post linked above though, they do know about this issue.

Second, even if it was better to design your own ships, are you seriously claiming that I am REQUIRED to do my own designs!!

If you want to effectively win at harder difficulties, ya.

and REDOWNLOADING for the third time

Question: Why aren't you Downloading & Archiving to save it on your Hard Drive (and then to CD/DVD)? Then you can use Stardock Central to restore from archive. Or, if you aren't using Stardock Central, just download the updated files and install from the local drive?

I can't get the game to let me build ships I have the tech for, but the other civs build them and thus cream me. Thus I have a similar problem.

M

how is CORE Ships not showing up a problem? core ships = predesigned ships with certain cool look.
just make your own custom ships, custom ships are better because you dont research the same techs as the designers of the core ships (so for example, you might have gotten miniturazation by the time you research a tech allowing a core ship that was designed without it, thus you could make a custom ship that is more powerful then that core ship)

upon rereading, i found out the AI isn't building large ships and it makes it useless. that is a problem

Second, even if it was better to design your own ships, are you seriously claiming that I am REQUIRED to do my own designs!!

Yes you are, there is no possible way to do it otherwise. There are very few core ships in this game. Just look at the tech tree, there are thousands of different paths you can take, and for almost every single advancement you could redesign a ship. The result is that there can be thousand different design possibilitys based on what path you take in the tech tree. You could possibly play the game for hours and hours and never unlock the correct combination to unlock a specific ship. I am really only recently beginning to realize the true scope of this, as on one game I built all custom ships and now playing the same race again I am not unlocking ships like I thought I would, all becuase I did something different.

I have to ask though, how long do you play before deciding there are no core ships? I have played this game got the defender within 30min, I have also played this game and not seen a defender after hours of playing. When I play I usually get the defender and star fury within a couple hours, then I will not see another ship for a very long time. When you cheat to get all tech and the core ships show up that tells me nothing is wrong and you are just not researching the correct tech. Keep in mind that the information you have telling you what tech you need to get certian ships may be incorrect. (I do not think minturization shows up as a requirement when it is)

As for the complaint about other civs only using lame ships. Yes I experienced this also (they always only had early lame ships) I played a few games on easier difficulty to get a feel for it. The AI never had a chance, I totally owned them from ships to tech to culture. Always ended up with culture/diplomatic victorys, heck even the Drengin were always kissing my A. Started a game on hard, I just fended off an assualt of over twelve fleets from drengin, these fleets had fighters\frigates\destroyers with different combos of shields and weapons. The only reason I survived was a couple of lucky rangers. When I last played the Yor had just declared on me and are on my door with fighters\frigate\destroyers and battleships, I cant build battleships yet! So crank up the difficulty and come back and tell me how weak they are.

You have to build your own ships, period. Not only that but if you play a second game with your pre-built ships you will still have to build more ships, unless of course you research the tech exactly the same way every time AND build the wonders and special buildings on your planets in exactly the same way.

STARDOCK! Why are you not responding in this thread, even with a small reply that you are looking into it???

If you haven't noticed, there a LOT of threads.  We are pretty swamped, and we're still trying to get a demo out, fix bugs, etc.  And yes, I am looking into this.

The AI designs ships. It doesn't use the pre-made ships.

I see Cari spotted this but I'm not quite sure what is preventing you from designing your own ships. You don't see components?

I'm not quite sure what is preventing you from designing your own ships. You don't see components?

I tell you what is preventing me.. LACK OF INTEREST AND TIME.
I didn't purchase a spaceship building game, I bought a space STRATEGY game.. This should include premade ships which look cool and have cool names.
I don't have the TIME to build nice LOOKING ships. Certaily I can "design" my own ships, which means I add the necessary components and click launch.. Will those ships look unique and nice? Certainly not. Actually, they all will look alike since all I will add are the necessary modules..

I congratulate you. You have built a very loyal customer base which shows in the forum.
I'm sure you could sell these guys a piece of black space, a unit and map editor, and call it Gal Civ 3. Well done!